Teething x 2

Let me tell you about the fun times at my house recently. The previous posts are basically distractions from the main event. If the title didn't cue you in already, yes--Nora cut her first tooth last week. I noticed it on the way to Boston but she's such a good-natured baby that I didn't really realize that was going on. But it did explain why she was waking up in the middle of the night when she had been sleeping through the night since she was about 6 weeks old. The times 2 is referring to my other girl, Corinne. Corinne is finally getting her canines. Corinne is one of those children who shows her emotions to the extreme. When she is happy she is bursting with excitement, jumps up and down and gives everyone hugs and kisses. On the flip side, when she is upset she cries at the top of her lungs and screams like a banshee. Maybe you think I'm over-exaggerating. You obviously weren't there at the doctor's office with me last week. The problem started with having to wake the kids up from naps to get to the office the required 15 minutes prior to the actual appointment time. They all were a little cranky, but cooperative in getting there. As I was checking in, Corinne asked for some fruit snacks. I told her she needed to wait a few minutes for me to finish and then I would give her some. The meltdown started. She began whining for it and crying for it. I quickly finished checking in and pushed the stroller (I make sure to bring the double stroller to keep Corinne strapped down and in place so I won't lose her). I promptly give her the fruit snacks after we settle in the waiting room to appease her and hopefully end the tantrum. Still crying, she picks up the fruit snacks and throws them on the floor. Since it appears she doesn't really want them I pick them up and put them away. The crying and screaming continues, "I want my noot nacks!" Also note that of my three children, Corinne's voice has the highest decible reading by far. For some reason the lobby happened to be full at this time with several parents staring at me as though I'm the worst mother in the world. As I feel their eyes boring into my skull I decide to try giving her a fruit snack. Again it is thrown on the floor so again I pick it up and put it away. Nora begins to fuss so I pick her up while attempting to ignore Corinne's tantrum in the hopes that it will end or that she will be distracted by the cartoons on the television. Ten minutes past my appointment time and I'm still waiting in the waiting room with a screaming child. A nurse comes down the hall and approaches me and asks me what the problem with my child is because other parents are asking her questions. I tell her that Corinne is tired and throwing a tantrum. I am asked why I can't pick her up and comfort her? Seriously? I have a baby on my lap currently and even if I did pick Corinne up, she is at that point where she doesn't want to be on my lap and would hit me and try to squirm away and would still be crying. I mention that a change in scenery would help since my appointment time was scheduled for 10 minutes ago! She didn't have a response to that and promptly walked away. Has no one ever witnessed a two-year old tantrum before? It obviously is never enjoyable, but the kid is obviously irrational and there's no reasoning with her. At home I can just put her in her bed and she calms down almost immediately. Unfortunately, there is no bed in public. If this episode was not a lesson in patience, I don't know what is. Patience not only with my child (which I can handle) but patience with strangers who judge me based on a one time incidence. I've been to that doctor's office numerous other times with never a problem with all 3 kids in tow. I know I shouldn't let it bother me but it has shaken up my confidence in my parenting ability. I would have liked to seen anyone else handle the same situation without yelling at the child (which is usually what I see happen in that doctor's office). Maybe that's the approved method with the military, but it is not something I do. Just another fun episode in the life of a mother! I can't wait to have all the teeth in on all of my children!

Gillette Castle

For Memorial Day we chose to celebrate the memory of the actor, William Gillette, most known for his part portraying Sherlock Holmes in the early 1900s. Okay, so we had no idea who he was until we heard about some cool castle about 45 minutes away from our house. It's a 24 room castle that took 20 men 5 years to build and it is made from local stone. It was amazing how much stonework went into not only the castle, but adorning nearby trails, ponds, and pretty much everywhere.

The view from outside the castle was amazing looking out over the Connecticut River. We just bought this baby backpack for $20 at a local garage sale on Saturday so we were giving it a test run today. Corinne is a little much for my shoulders so I traded her for Nora while we walked the surrounding trails.

The trails around the castle are beautiful and have been kept in nice condition. We had a great time except for Corinne throwing up just as we were pulling into the parking lot and once again on the ride home. You'd think we would have learned by now to give our kids Dramamine before going anywhere especially on the long windy roads off the freeways. Chewable Dramamine is definitely on my shopping list now!

Splash Park

During the fall we watched with anticipation as this splash park was being completed. Unfortunately, by the time it was finished it was too cold to play in it. Finally it opened on Friday and we took advantage of it eventhough it was still a bit cooler than we would have liked.

Matthew loved it! Corinne enjoyed watching Matthew have fun but refused to participate in the fun herself. This picture is deceptive since it looks as though she is having fun in the water. She stayed completely dry except for maybe a few fingertips and her feet when I put her in the water.

This is how she spent the last half of the time we were there while Matthew enjoyed the water. Maybe she'll warm up to it as the weather warms up some more. We're looking forward to more fun here!

Boston

Jeremy had a day off yesterday so we decided the night before to take a day trip to Boston. Who knows when we'd have another chance at a day when most kids are in school and the weather was gorgeous. I wish we would have had more time to research all of the places on the Freedom Trail a little bit more before we went, but it was still worth it. The kids were happy, the sky was sunny and bright, and we had fun as a family.
The Freedom Trail marks several significant sights in Boston from the time of the Revolutionary War and is marked by a red line of bricks and paint. If we didn't have the kids we would have spent more time at each spot looking around, but it was still interesting.

This is the Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud from the balcony. This building was occupied by the British during the Revolution.

There was a small little park named the Paul Revere Park with his statue and a nice little fountain where we let the kids run around for a bit before we continued on the trail.

The steeple in the background belongs to the Old North Church which is the oldest church in Boston with the tallest steeple in Boston. This is the famous steeple in which was signaled by lantern "one if by land, two if by sea."

Here we are at the Charlestown Naval Yard that houses the USS Constitution which is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.

I thought this picture was funny just because it is typical of our kids--Corinne upset because she doesn't want to do something and Matthew quietly getting into something he's not supposed to.

The last spot on the trail is this obelisk which marks the site of the Battle of Bunker Hill--the first major battle of the American Revolution. We decided to stop under the shade of a tree and I fed Nora some baby food while Jeremy took the older two and wandered off. After I finished Nora I played with her for awhile waiting for the others to return. When it took longer than I expected, I started to look for them and saw them coming out of the bottom of the obelisk. Jeremy said that Matthew climbed all 294 steps to the top by himself while Jeremy carried up Corinne. They looked out of the top and saw me down on the grass. They then walked down all the stairs by themselves. I was proud of my two little hikers! (Notice the red line painted on the street and sidewalk to mark the Freedom Trail).

After Boston we headed south to Plymouth to see the famous rock. It's not as big as I expected. And notice also the date--it wasn't the first settlement in the U.S.--Jamestown was settled in 1607.

Here is the closest thing we have to a family picture right now. Thanks nice stranger for taking our picture!

Here we are in front of the Mayflower II. Too bad we came after hours.

We then found a restaurant across the street where we ate and promised the kids ice cream if they behaved. I think it was their first ice cream cones ever. I was glad they were eating them outside because they made a big mess. Corinne was a spazz by this time because she barely had a nap for maybe 20 minutes in the car and was getting all sugared up. She was yelling "nummy ice cream!" to everyone she passed, including dogs and jumping up and down resulting in one scoop on the sidewalk. Jeremy promptly picked it up and put it back on the cone (5 second rule!) and she finished it off. She even got up in a dog's face and let it lick some of the ice cream off of her face. Even though she loved it, I don't know if I'm brave enough to let her have another one anytime soon. You can also notice the progression of her hair falling out throughout the day. I'm pretty sure she has some ice cream in it by this point. By the time we left it was their bedtime and we still had to drive 2 hours back home. Matthew and Nora zonked out first and Corinne waited about an hour (unusual for Corinne who is the first to fall asleep at home and in the car). I think she was waiting to purge the contents of her stomach all over herself and her carseat before she could sleep because that's what happened. Yeah for carsick kids! What a happy day!

Braids

This is to prove that I really do Corinne's hair first thing in the morning. This cute double french braid lasted about 20 minutes before she started pulling out the front and side and twisting it into knots. It's part of what she does to comfort herself or when she's just bored. So, I really need ideas for hairdos that will stay in and keep her from twisting knots into her hair. I thought about just cutting bangs but Jeremy is very anti-bangs, plus I'm really trying to grow her hair out. I also need something that doesn't require a lot of toddler cooperation because I can't get much of that either. I have to do it while she is occupied eating breakfast or else it turns into a battle with her screaming and crying. Any suggestions?

Hiking

There was a break in the rain on Friday so we decided to explore a trail we heard about called Devil's Hopyard. It has a gorgeous waterfall at the trail head and a trail that takes you to the base of it. The kids loved being next to the water and throwing all kinds of sticks and rocks into.

I remember that when I was growing up, anytime there was a holiday from school and work we would pack up a picnic lunch and go for a hike somwhere in the nearby desert. I have fond memories of just being in nature with my family and I'm hoping to provide the same kinds of experiences for my kids.

We also found a nice easy little trail even closer to home called The Copp Family Park with lots of little trails branching off the main one where everyone takes their dogs. Luckily, we only saw a few people on the side trail that we took. We thought it was so cute that Matthew grabbed Corinne's hand to lead her through the woods. She never holds my hand or Jeremy's hand so sometimes it just works best if we can get her to hold Matthew's hand and have him lead her where she's supposed to go (or not go).

We even found a cute frog hopping across the trail that Matthew became attached to and wanted to take with him, but eventually let it back into the wild.

The only downfall of hiking around here is that we live within 20 miles of Lyme--the city that notoriously shares the same name as Lyme disease. Anyways, as we were finishing eating dinner Matthew looked at his pants and said that there was a spider crawling on his pants. Jeremy looked and indeed there was something crawling on his pants. As I looked closer I realized that it was not a spider but a tick and quickly removed it and proceeded to do a tick inspection on all the kids and us. This incident won't keep us from hiking--just keep us on the lookout for ticks.

Siblings

Sometimes they fight like cats and dogs and there are days where it seems like I'm just breaking up fights and refereeing arguments left and right. So when there are cute moments of love and affection and quickly grab the camera to prove that coexistence is possible. I caught them sharing Matthew's treasured duckie blanket while watching some PBS.

We were enjoying some brief sunshine one afternoon to let the kids burn off some stored energy so they wouldn't tear the house to shreds. They all were swinging on the swings together.

And when I didn't want to push anymore, Matthew was kind enough to push Corinne.

The both jumped in the airplane bouncy ride and were loving playing with each other. They really are each other's best friends and eventhough I have days when I want to send them back, these are the days when I'm glad I had them so close together.

I looked over on Sunday morning to see this. Corinne really loves her baby sister and Nora sure puts up with a lot of affection, even rough affection. Hopefully they'll be as good of friends as Matthew and Corinne have been.

More kitchen progress

Our granite was put in on Saturday. They messed up the cutout for the sink so they have to redo that but we are getting excited with the way it is all starting to come together. There is still a lot of work to do.

A closer look at the granite color and pattern.

S.N.O.B.

May 1st came and went without Jeremy re-enlisting. We had considered it for awhile since the limited-time offer of $90,000 bonus was being waved in front of us like bait. Jeremy had even filled out all of the paperwork and the officer brought it to the ceremony in case Jeremy changed his mind and wanted to re-enlist after all. However, we've decided that having a life is worth more than the $90,000, and we're not really hurting for money.

As a result of Jeremy not re-enlisting, he is now the S.N.O.B. of the boat or the Shortest Nuke On Board which means he has the least amount of time left in the navy out of all the nukes (guys that work with the nuclear reactor) on the boat. This is Irby passing it off to Jeremy with Bobby in the background trying to grab the coveted belt buckle since he would have received it had he not re-enlisted a few months ago.

The $90,000 bonus enticed all four of these guys to re-enlist when they otherwise would have gladly served their original time and gotten out of the navy. It's amazing what money will buy...

So now the plan is for Jeremy to work at the nuclear power plant in AZ so we can live in our new house! Just one more year to go!

A Glimpse of Summer

On Sunday the temperature neared 80 degrees outside-unusually warm for Connecticut at this time of year. We decided to take advantage of it and went for a walk to a nearby playground and enjoyed dipping our feet into the stream. Well, that wasn't our original intention, but after Corinne just walked off a stone and into the water only to fall down face first into the water, it kind of ended up in all of us getting our feet wet. It is a good thing that the water wasn't freezing and that it was warm outside.

Matthew found a nice big boulder to climb. Corinne tried but just couldn't find the right way up! After enjoying this beautiful day we're really wishing for summer now that it's back in the 50s!