ramblings for my wingman

In 7 days I lose my little wingman to full day Kindergarten. It is going to be such a bittersweet moment for me. I've been looking forward to "me" time for 7 years now and even though I will be bumping up my work sched and have taken on the PTA pres role, I am forcing myself to make time for ME to do the things that make me feel good about myself - like exercise, and planning / making healthy choices and READING an entire book in a minimal amount of time (versus ten months...).

We have had a blast this Summer between traveling and play dating and beaching and fooling around - but to be honest, it was a short Summer vacation (only 8 weeks) and I am finally ready for them to go back, but I will miss Benversations and our dates with daddy while Em is in school.

You see, it is not that I love Ben more than Em, it is simply that I am a sucker for an Underdog. Em has such a strong personality. She is the teacher's pet. Everyone adores her and deservedly so - she is a great kid. I've had to work REALLY hard this Summer to not show favoritism because I know she feels it and that is why we often clash. I've made a conscious effort to remind her how amazing she is, how big her heart is, how much of a leader she is. (I read today that a girl's self esteem peeks at 9 years old then plummets from there - I've got two years to encourage, praise and recognize how amazing this girl is!)

Ben is so submissive when it comes to Em. She rules the roost and she knows it. We are trying to teach him how to stand up for himself without our stepping in, but it has been a tough road. She STILL speaks for him - we have to encourage her to zip it so Ben can get a word in. I know she loves him - I see snipets of it daily when they play, but I also see how much he worships her and cares for her through his actions and his words... "Mom, my sister fell off her scooter. She really needs you!"

Em had a sleepover tonight with her bestie and I was invited to a Tupperw*re party. As daddy was at the office, Ben came along with me and he was his usual awesome self. He is a literal guy and when we walked into the house, he looked around and asked, "Are there going to be any boys at this party?" (Nope! It didn't help the poor boy's cause that the party was being hosted by gay friends of mine so it really was all female!! hahahahaha)

7 days and counting. I am reminded of a poem that turned into a coffee table book that Maria Shriv*r wrote, "Just who will y*u be?" I bought it because I loved it so much... It may be time to pull it out and read it. To myself. To Emsadoodle. To Ben.

Just another Benversation. Not!

Remember the good old days when Ben and I used to have these in depth spiritual / philosophical / metaphysical conversations while he pooped? Well, those days are long gone. Now he wants "privacy" but still requests I wipe his butt when he is done - then we talk about what his poop looks like - because, hey, isn't that what all Moms do? (feel free to skip this post if it is TMI, I will not be offended.)

Today was a blast from the past. We were kidsitting a friend of Ben's from his preK class while his mama was getting Chemo (and, by the way, count your freakin' blessings that your body is a-okay - this was mostly meant for me to remember - not you dear reader...). This friend is a girl and immediately she wants to ignore Ben and play with Emma because a) Emma is a girl and b) Emma is older. So Ben is left in the dust once again and no matter what I did to encourage the three to play together - sometimes Emma can be a real turkey and... Em of the future, sometimes you were a real turkey. ANYWHOOO, at one point, Ben needed to poop. I sent him into the bathroom to take care of business but he came back requesting my company. Never one to miss out on a "Benversation," I dropped everything and sat down next to him and we chatted.

Unbeknownst to me, yesterday Ben and Daddy had a conversation about death in PA on Aunt Lisa's farm walking through the corn. Can't you just picture it? Father and son walking hand in hand discussing creation and Darwin and Jesus and the Big Bang Theory?

Well, it was nothing like that.

Ben on the toilet, "Mom, did you know Daddy had a brother who had blood pipes that got all tied up and he died?" Me: "Ummmmm, yes, I did." (He died from a brain aneurysm.) Ben: "Where did he go after he died?" Me: "He went to heaven to hang out with Cassidy." Ben: "But what if I die?" Me: "Then you get to go hang out with Uncle Otto and Cass!" Ben: "And when you die I'll see you again?" Me: "That's right, buddy!"

It could not have been sweeter. It could not have been more innocent. And I wanted to record it here before it was gone from my mind.

For the record, if I wasn't under the gun of kidsitting another family's kid, I would have let this conversation branch off into creation and Darwin and Jesus and the Big Bang Theory - but alas, today I will settle for a quick glimpse of my baby-boy-no-more-you-will-always-be-my-baby-boy's brain and secret thoughts while poopin'.

Summer wanings

Most of my pals are posting 1st day of school pics - while I am ready for school to begin, I am not ready to give up my lazy days of Summer with the bunch. We still have two weeks of fun to go and Mother Nature continues to bless us daily with sunshine and no humidity. This may go down on record as the MOST AMAZING Summer weather ever. I'm even grateful for the 13 INCHES OF RAIN we got in less than 8 hours last Wednesday, considering our old CA stomping grounds are suffering the severest drought on record in many many moons.

I discovered last week that our Maritime Explorium membership is still going strong so we spent the afternoon there last week.

I was writing her love notes and she was asking me what kind of cake she was going to get to eat at the birthday party that evening for her friend.

Gotta love this old boat filled with rice. Surely my Japanese friends would call this an abomination!

Row, row, row your boat, gently to China!

When we moved into the bungalow, we busted down the bunkbeds and put the top down in the basement. We left Ben the giant drawers to hold his LEGOS! Often times this is where I find him:

Surely that has got to hurt! I step on ONE and I am down for the count. He is SITTING on hundreds.

Daddy loves himself the SCIENCE. It is rubbing off on Em. We found an exoskeleton of a Cicada the other day. Daddy chopped it into pieces and they made observations with our microscope.

Dad, the science guy.

Years ago my mama got us a bread maker but there was never any room for it in the penthouse, so I kept it in the box and used it as a nightstand! Very handy... Well, I finally am thoroughly disgusted with all the preservatives in store bought bread and have been baking my own. The Pilgrims would be proud of me. (Well, you know what I mean...) It gets better and better with every loaf. My butt gets bigger and bigger, too!

But it is all natural, right?? I can eat the whole loaf??

Speaking of bread - Em loves clam chowder, she especially loves clam chowder in a bread bowl. Good thing our 2nd favorite restaurant serves it just so!

Fake smile - I just want to get back to my LUNCH!

Fake smile here, too. At least he is actually eating!

Good ole chicken tenders. SIGH.

The best part about this lunch date was the fact that we walked into "port" - all down hill and fun, but had to WALK BACK UP THE HILL (ginormous hill, by the way). I knew this and was expecting the whining. Good news! Ben powered up the hill like a stud! Not so good, Em exceeded my whining expectations and I almost removed her voice box and tear ducts with my house keys.

Someone needs to reread the Little Engine that Could!

Thank you, Amazon for your delivery of our new recycling bin and lid. The lid box was bigger than the bin box but they made for a great rainy day project.

When do I get to toss them in the recycling bin???

We went to PA this past weekend to hang out with the fam and celebrate Frank's birthday. Short and sweet but any thime we get to spend with the people we love is always worth the long drive.

AND we got to see a parade and catch CANDY!

My cousin, Steph from the opposite side of NY even made the trip. I am 3 weeks older than her and often give her advice with all my excessive time wisdom / life experience.

Love me this girl!

Remember four years ago when we discovered "New Park" and I couldn't sit and had to chase toddlers everywhere to make sure they don't get hurt? WE popped by new park today to play and I SAT DOWN the entire time. My how time flies and how adventurous these children have become.

Ma, I'M FINE!

I'm gonna JUMP!

Slow down Summer!

We have had the most amazing Summer this year. Maybe Mother Nature is apologetic for forcing me to turn on my heat on May 26th, so APOLOGY ACCEPTED! We have hardly used our AC, have had basically no humidity the entire Summer and still have 3 full weeks before our lives are forever changed and we moved into a new chapter of the Batter Bunch lives (i.e. both kids in school full time...)

We have been swimming daily (and by we, I mean the kids) splitting our time between the beaches and our friend's pools. Last Saturday evening we got together with five of our favorite families for a BBQ / pool party. This is what the pool looked like:

Ben is wearing the green and Em has on her blue snorkle - center of the photo.

We partied hard that night and it was VERY tough for me to crawl out of bed the next morning and set up shop in our village's Farmer's Market to sell Aunt Lisa's pure maple syrup from 9-2. But the sales were good and the people watching was top notch - I took a solid nap when I got home and we enjoyed a fun family evening together that night.

The good stuff.

This week was primo afternoon low tides at our favorite beach to explore marine life. We hit it up twice.

Monday - E&B are the center kiddos.

Tuesday found us invited to my PTA pals new home overlooking the Long Island Sound. It is a dream house complete with a salt water pool and hot tub over looking the beach. Em was so excited to swim there - and as a plus, their golden retriever swam with them the entire time. Both kids got a huge kick out of the fact that the dog loved swimming as much as they do!

You want us to move in? Sure!

We decided to cool off in the "water park" or spraying turtles our village has in the harbor on Wednesday. Again, another beautiful day and I cannot express how grateful I am / how blessed we have been with this amazing weather - I feel like we are back in CA minus the drought and 100 degree temps!

CHEESE!

Back to West Meadow for more low tide fun on Thursday!

Today we were headed back to West Meadow when we decided as we pulled out of our driveway to hit up West beach - the private one for residents five minutes from our house. So glad we did, four of the kids from Ben's preK class that will also be in his K class were there and they got to reconnect. And, Emma got to play on a paddle board again. Oh, Santa Claus!

More blue skies!

We haven't been lounging at the beach all week - we did pit stop by the Village Center Wed pm to watch this band from South Africa perform. It was supposed to be an outdoor concert, but It started pouring out of nowhere so they moved inside. Of course, as soon as they were set up indoors, the sun came back out and it was a beautiful evening!

Love me the LIVE music...

Ben complained the whole time and I broke down and let him play angry bir*s on my cell phone so he would shut the heck up and I could enjoy the music. Emma enjoyed herself until the AC kicked on and froze us out mid-set.

At least she didn't complain!

I hosted a mom party at our place Thurs night. Daddy was planning to take the kids to a movie, but there was nothing good playing and the kids were pretty incensed that I would have a party at the house and they weren't invited. As the bungalow hasn't looked this clean ever, I decided to finally take pics to show you all in internet land!

Our dining room - handy Daddy built the benches for the table, added the chair rail on the walls and painted. YAY, Daddy!

The party started at 8. I'm pretty sure both kids had about 8 brownies each taking advantage of the fact that Mommy was entertaining. I'll give them credit - they asked me EVERY TIME before taking one. :) Daddy came home from work in time to play kitchen servant (he loved it and all the accolades he received) which gave me more time to flit about the guests. By 10pm, Ben was exhausted but refused to go to bed. He decided to "relax for a few minutes" in his bed instead. He promptly fell asleep and woke up this morning very sad because he fell asleep and "missed the party!" Emma was a very overtired girl who finally passed out around 11 with puffy eyes. Most of the mommies left around 11, but a handful hung on until TWO AM. Yes, 2:00am. We had no idea it was so late! Just goes to show you how you can get sucked into good conversation and lose all track of time. (I'm pretty confident the last time I was awake at 2am was when Ben was a newborn nursing every three hours!)

The Bungalow living room before the guests arrived.

The reverse view. Daddy also built the book shelf under the TV and the table between he chairs.

CT day 2

We are home! I love a good quickie trip - recharges the mind and soul. Laundry is whirring away, kids are sleeping - let me journal it quick before life happens!

Ben fell asleep pretty quick after his head hit the pillow. He was right on the edge of the bed and at one point while Em was trying to get comfortable she reached out for him - I swear it looked like she was trying to push him off the bed - but she swears she was worried because he was too close to the edge and she was grabbing him to pull him back. Daddy swooped in and repositioned him, Em still took forever to fall asleep. Finally Daddy put on some mellow music and WHAM - outskees. Note to self, get a CD of mellow songs in Emma's player for future night owl nights.

He still made his way back to the edge...

At one point in the middle of the night Ben burst out laughing. I knew he talked in his sleep from past "sleepovers", but this time I was cracking up - I thought at first he was crying, but when I realized he was giggling and giggling and giggling, I got the giggles, too, and couldn't fall back to sleep! Then just as I was dozing off, Em woke up with itchy eyes and a stuffy nose. I got up and gave her an allergy pill and about 20 tissues which she filled (possibly due to us getting the "pet" room - not quite sure how well the room gets vacuumed after each furry guest).

They both woke up promptly at 7am asking to go swimming. Greeeeeeeeeeeat. It was cloudy and chilly but that did not deter these kids! They suited up (I did not) and jumped right in!

The before...

The after!

Needless to say, they braved the chill and swam the early morning away. At one point they were very excited to realize that "Hey, in water I can pick you up and you are not heavy!"

After the swim, we FORCED them to exit the pool to go sightseeing - they were not at all happy about this. I've realized at this age we could probably just check into the local hotel with a swimming pool once a month and these kids would think we were vacationing every 4 weeks! So fancy!

We checked out of the hotel and headed into downtown seaport Mystic. It was only 9:30am and most of the stores / shops don't open until 11am, so we wandered the streets in vain. Why in vain? Emma was OBSESSED with finding a "souvenir shop" as she needed a tangible memory of the trip. The only store open was - surprise! - a toy store with no "souvenir" type goods, just toys and crafts and goodies that I was determined NOT to buy them. They both pouted but Ben got over it pretty fast. Emma - not so much. She whined for HOURS that we did not buy her anything from that dang toy store. Argh.

Daddy holding onto her ponytail so she doesn't jump in her misery.

HOOOOOONNNNNNNK! Wait, what? The draw bridge is going up!! Sweet!! I'll forget about the toy for a few minutes and smile!

Their first drawbridge...

After the drawbridge returned to it's normal position we excitedly walked across it to see how it works.

Look, Mom, the wheel part!

How cute is downtown Mystic?

Super cute! This pic does not do it justice.

We headed out of Mystic and traveled East towards Rhode Island. We pitstopped in this adorable old village named Stonington, CT, to see this awesome bit of history.

 War of 1812 memorial.

Emma was still bawling over the toy store incident of 2014, so she stayed in the car 10 feet away while we enjoyed the memorial and the beach.

My handsome fellas.

Daddy likes to eat - no secret - and he enjoys a good foodie show. So when he realized we were only 45 minutes away from this Diners, Dives, and Drive*Ins recommended place, we hit the road- literally and drove into Rhode Island.

I'll call this a Dive.

We arrived at 11:30am and there was a wait list. This usually means it is going to be a pretty yummy place! Daddy got the gorgonzola burger and I got the salmon burger wrapped in phyllo dough.

Um, YUMMMMM. Definitely worth the drive and worth the wait (and the whining by Em).

After lunch we let the kids get a few wiggles out at a park next door:

Wiggle it, just a little bit.

...Before hopping back in the car and driving to New London, CT where we were catching a different ferry line back to Long Island. We had about three hours to explore before our ferry left so we started out at the waterfront and played around in this whale's tail fountain. Super cute!

Can we take our sandals off? NOOOOOO!

This Civil War memorial was next to the whale tail - so much history to explore in New England!

Take my picture, Mom!

We headed over to Fort Trumbull and were happily surprised to realize we could wander the grounds.

What's this place?

Fort Trumbull is known originally for protecting New London from attacking British. Ben was soooooo excited to see the cannons.

Daddy teaching the kids how they rolled to aim.

A little "scale" for you. Can you see the children?

Defending the fort from PIRATES!

After enjoying an important piece of history, we headed onto to our scheduled ferry only to be very surprised it was a teeny tiny one - unlike the beasts we usually take across the sound. Adventure!

Pick our minivan! (Center left)

Ben enjoyed doing the ferry kids book until he realized it was too much like "school" and promptly tossed it aside...

Back to school in 4 weeks?? WHAT?

We made it back to Lond Island Orient Point (about 90 min from home) around 6pm and stopped for dinner near the ferry. We had clam chowder (outstanding) and calamari (boring) and stuffed mushrooms (eh) for dinner. The trouble with having a chef for a husband is I don't enjoy restaurant anymore... The food isn't nearly as good as I get at home for 1/3 the price. Go figure. Ben ate nothing - but that shouldn't surprise you! Emma HOUSED her clam chowder - that's our adventurous taste bud girl.