August 8, 2011

  • 8-8-11

    Last week we went on vacation to Portland and to Seaside, OR, with a side trip to Canon Beach.  We did lots of fun things, especially things that would be fun for our kids.  The quick summary is that we went to Multnomah Falls two times (the second time we walked up to the bridge and saw Smokey the Bear), the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Children’s Museum, the Beaverton LEGO store, the beach in Seaside and Canon Beach, Mo’s for lunch, the carousel and train ride in Seaside, Haystack Rock to see starfish, sea anemones, etc., two times to the pizza restaurant attached to the arcade (Grant loved air hockey), the Seaside Aquarium, the park in Arlington on the way home, where we saw the Weinermobile at the gas station…  what else?  We played a lot on the beach and got all muddy.  They have swings on the beach, and we used them several times.  There was a family that had spent several days digging a pit into the beach by our hotel, and we went there and they let our kids play in it.  Madeleine had a dirt slide down into the pit.  If you got into it and bent down so that your head was below the level of the rest of the beach, it got really quiet.  The sound of the waves just disappeared.  It was also a little bit warmer out of the wind.  In true Oregon Coast fashion it was pretty cold at times, with occasional drizzle out of the low clouds and fog.  But then if the low clouds would burn off it would heat up.  It was hard to dress the kids for all the changing conditions, especially since they were trying to play in the mud and get wet in the waves while also trying to stay warm and avoid sunburn.  It was tricky.  I packed about 3-4 outfits for each kid per day, and we went through just about all of them.  I tend to upload my photos to Facebook now, or to flickr, but maybe I’ll put a few here and describe them, for future memory’s sake.  Maybe.  I’m rather unmotivated in the blog category lately. 

    Let’s see… my kids have said a few fun things lately.  They’re just so fun now, and easier.  The trip was soooo much easier than previous trips.  We would just put on a DVD on our portable DVD player in the car, and the kids were happy for long periods of time.  Yay!

    Anyway, on the way to church yesterday, Grant saw a boat, so he enthusiastically yelled “boat!” He’s so enthusiastic about so many things, and especially about trucks and buses and other things that he sees on the road.  I asked him if he saw a car pulling a boat, and he loudly told me, “No car!  Truck!”  So we asked if it were a truck pulling the boat, (Brian was telling me that a car couldn’t do it, and I said some could, and we were almost arguing… but not quite), and then Grant butt in, “Yes, truck!”  Yes, it was a truck, pulling a boat.  He’s also saying longer words much better now, including “Madeleine” which is almost said perfectly now, with perhaps just a bit of a nasal sound around the “d”. 

    As for Madeleine, she’s understanding humor a bit more.  The other day Grant said, “Hungry!...  Pretzel!...” (telling me he wanted pretzels), and then Madeleine said, “I didn’t know pretzels were alive!”  (Using the logic that if a pretzel was hungry, it should be alive).  I had to double-check and make sure that’s what she meant, and indeed it was.  I think. 

    I’m pretty tired today and haven’t gotten much done in my time away from the kids.  They are at their grandparents’ house today, and I’ve just fiddled around with a whole lot of not much.  I suppose I’ll get into a more energetic mood again after being home a few more days.  Tomorrow we’ll go to my mom’s for some of the day, and Thursday too.  Then Friday we take Grant to the dentist to have his two top front teeth pulled out.  Poor kid.  I’m really worried about the six hours beforehand (starting at 2 a.m.), because he can’t eat or drink.  He’s a bad sleeper, and he drinks when going back to sleep.  There is probably going to be screaming and more screaming, and a whole lot of not sleeping.  Gah.  I suppose a lot of people would give me the advice to let him cry it out (just in general and just for dental appointments), but I really hate that approach.  The last time I let Grant cry is the time that he fell into the desk in his room trying to get my water glass, busting out his two front teeth and spilling water all over everything in the process.  The baby advice philosophy that I like the best says that if you are going to let a kid cry, at least be there with them while they are crying.  But dang it’s hard. 

    I forgot to mention that we took our kids to their first movie in the theater ever two weeks ago.  We went to see Cars 2.  I had read it wasn’t good for little kids, but Brian loved the first movie so much he really wanted to take them anyway.  We went and gave it a shot.  Grant was enthralled, but Madeleine was really really scared.  She kept asking to go to the bathroom so she could leave the movie, so I told Brian she probably needed to leave.  So we did.  It was just a really violent movie, not at all like the first.  Talk about a misstep by the Pixar people.  If you’re marketing to preschoolers, you should probably make a movie appropriate for them. 

    The kids will be home soon, so I’m going to go enjoy the last of my free time. 

    Toodles!