On our Way... Soon

I must admit... I have an awesome sense of adventure.. I love to travel.. I truly do.. I've been traveling since I was 2.5 years old myself.

We went to Florida for the first time in 1977... My grandparents (Dad's parents) had moved there sometime in 1976 and this would be our first and only visit as a family since the following Summer of '78 Nana and Papa came up to visit us and at the very beginning of that visit, Papa died (@ Logan)... Anyway.. my 1st plane trip was Florida in 1977. According to family stories, I looked out the window during takeoff, turned to my Daddy and said "Daddy Plane Go Up" and then promptly fell asleep for the entire flight. Apparently a stewardess attempted to serve me some Milk.. but she was warned that if the stewardesses woke me that I would be their problem (go Mom) and I continued to slumber all the way to Orlando. My next plane trip was to California in 1980 for my 6th birthday.. We left really early in the morning (it was still dark out when we left our house) and i think I slept on the flight again since I don't remember much about it except that there was a layover in Denver.. The trip home though I do remember since my brother Steve had snuck on a helmet full of CANDY and I got to sit next to him and we had a feast.. Also there are pictures of us gorgjng ourselves somewhere..

Over the years I have taken trips back to Florida to visit Nana and much later for a cruise, many trips to California to meet and visit Lee's family, Aruba, Pennsylvania to scrapbook with friends and another trip for a family wedding, Ohio to see relatives, Key West for a belated Honeymoon with Lee (ok our 6th anniversary) and a trip to Texas to visit my brother while I was in college and he was in Business School.

Until now I have never traveled with children... that changes this week.. I am up for the challenge though. I've consulted websites and friends to get tips for traveling with Toddlers, what to pack, what not to pack.. what to buy once there (diapers/training pants), what to bring under penalty of death by said Toddlers. If only the weather in California would stabilize i'd be a really happy mommy.. I've packed the girls at least twice so far.. once because we were told that the weather would probably be cool and a second time when we were told that Summer had finally arrived in California.. I'll do another look through the bag that I am packing for the girls after I do a final load of laundry for them tomorrow (or is that today) and make final selections and cuts. I do know that we have the option of doing laundry while there.. thank goodness for staying with family.

Hopefully the next time that I post to this blog I will have tons to tell about our adventure in California with Twin Toddlers and what they do and say on their first airplane trip.

So tired

I am tired... exhausted really... not in the I'm not getting enough sleep category but the I'm doing what feels like everything exhausted category..

Case in point.. we are taking the girls on a vacation soon to see their relatives in California.. I have been running around trying to get everything ready.. figuring out clothing for the girls..keeping track of the weather... trying to figure out transportation to and from the airport. How to do this trip logistically..getting all the fun new items for the girls to use while on the plane. I am exhausted from trying to figure this all out..

Also case in point... I took the girls over to my brother's house so that my SIL could cut the girls' hair for me.. and play... noone got a nap (and it was sorely needed)..thankfully the girls fell asleep on the way home moments after we left but they only got about 30 min max of sleep (not truly enough).. Then when we got home they both woke up and I would up giving them a nice warm bath to calm them down and then let them run around the apartment in their pull up training pants and watch OnDemand programs of The Wiggles. Lee helped me get the girls from the car to the apartment and helped with the bath but hasn't done the dishes that are in the sink like he promised he would when I left for my brother's house this morning.. which means that after the girls go to bed and before I go out to spend some time with my friends from HS at a local bar that I might have to do them myself... maybe I should go on strike and not do them.. unfortunately the girls' dishes and cups are in there and we really really need them to be clean.

I realize that Lee is making an effort.. the other day I almost posted on a board that I frequent that he wasn't pulling his weight and all I really wanted was some acknowledgement that I have been doing alot lately and some "Thank yous" for getting stuff done when I realized that i had been getting the acknowledgement that I was craving so I deleted the post before I even pressed Submit. I also realize that we both are doing better at not starting petty fights with each other since in the past we have done this when things start to get tense. A friend of mine recently posted a reminder of the 5.5.5.5.5 plan.. Before getting upset with your spouse ask yourself will what you are mad about matter in 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, 5 weeks or 5 months? Once you get a No then you can drop the issue. Pretty good advice.. and btw... my anger at Lee didn't get very far since I currently can hear him washing the dishes that are in the sink as I type...

I love Magic Loop ..... so far

I just started the second pair of socks... these ones are being made via the Magic Loop method.. so far so good. I'm enjoying the experience so far. My friend Aaron taught me how to knit using this method last week at the weekly knit gathering. I have to admit that I was mildly intimidated by the idea of doing this. Apparently I am in the gifted class when it comes to this method. I had already casted on the required number of stitches before arriving at knitting group and had already even pulled the cable connecting the needle ends so that the number of stitches on each end was the same so there really wasn't much for Aaron to show me. Instead he got me started on the actual knitting part and showed me how to move the stitches so that they are ready to be knitted once I emptied an end of the needle.

In the week since though I have already gotten the first 1.5 inches of ribbing done and moved on to the actual pattern. So far it looks great but it has been quite challenging already. As Aaron would say it already has a design element since I somehow had an extra stitch after doing one of the pattern rows and I decided to just wing it and hope for the best after counting the stitches that I should have had on the needles. I'm excited to show everyone my progress and get confirmation that I did one of the pattern rows correctly since it had an instruction that I didn't exactly understand. It looks correct but I'd rather check before I go too much further and bring it to California with us for a few days.

Oh yeah did I mention that we are going to California for a few days???? I didn't... well we had no clue that we were going till Saturday when Lee's brother called and made the plans for us to come out and visit with him and Lee's mother. It came up very suddenly via Lee's SIL wanting us to come out and visit with his mom and for the girls to finally meet their Grandma Ringen. We didn't expect the trip to come together so quickly. This will be Anna and Lily's first airplane trip going anywhere. I am nervous about it and have been working hard to get everything together that we will need for the trip. Thankfully my internet and in real life friends have been great about giving me advice and helping me relax about the trip itself so that I can enjoy the trip.

Evaluation time

Lily has been getting services through EI (Early Intervention) for the past few months.. Today was her evaluation day since it has been approx 6 months since they last came to evaluate and assess how she is doing. She passed on most areas.. She's still having trouble with expression but that might be because she lets Anna basically speak for her at times. She also showed that she is very stubborn and does things on her own schedule. They wanted her to find a hidden teddy bear figure (under a washcloth)... she wasn't doing that.. they tried using three washcloths and having her watch them hide it and then figure out which washcloth it was under.. They got hands on the hips for that one.

When the evaluation was over they told us that she no longer qualifies for EI services. She would have had to scored a 20m (since they are 28m now) in the different areas and the lowest that she got was a 21m . We'll still be able to bring her and Anna to EI Toddler playgroup as Community kids though. We are also going to be sending Anna by herself one day a week and Lily by herself one day a week in addition to the Toddler Group that they already attend together on Thursdays.

We also discussed her eyes and how we need to work on getting Lily to wear her glasses. We'll probably be bringing the glasses with us to Toddler group to see if the teachers there can help us get her to wear them consistently. Let's hope that they can help us get it done.

Sight Word or Just Word Recognition

Today was a Primary Day for voting in Massachusetts... so I had to go and vote.. I tried in vain to go byself... I wound up taking Anna, Lily and Lee with me.. We actually walked to and from the school that we vote at without too much drama. On the way there we saw two school buses... this made both girls very excited. On the way home we saw the same buses but this time Anna noticed the stop sign that folds in and very excitedly pointed it out to us... (remember that she loves to tell us her letters)

Anna: Mommy Bus..

Me: yes I see the bus sweetie

Anna: Stop... S -T- O -P... Stop

Me (proud and amazed): great job Anna... umm Lee did she really read that or was it just letter recognition gone wild????

I think that I'm going to be in trouble soon.. since my mom and I will spell PARK in front of them to determine if we should go there or not.. my little smarty is going to figure it out really really soon.

Here we go again

So I finished my socks... aren't they pretty???

I'm very proud of myself... so proud that I'm ready to make more..

This time I'm going to do them on Magic Loop which is a method of knitting socks and other objects on one circular needle. I have no clue how to do this and thankfully I have some good friends that will teach me. Also this time I am going to knit them in a pattern.. The pattern is rated as Easy so we'll see how well I do with it. There will be plenty of challenges though since they are Lace Socks.. that means plenty of knit together, purl together, slipped stitches and passing slipped stitch overs (PSSO) and yarn forwards.. I'm totally ready...

Of Baby Washcloths and Hooded Towels

I admit it... I have a hard time letting go. This goes for stuff and people... I could probably do a whole tangent post about the people part but for today I'll stick with the Stuff.

When I pregnant with the girls like most Mommies to be I went and registered for baby stuff. I actually even received quite a bit of the stuff that I requested. I especially liked having baby sized washcloths and hooded towels to dry the girls off and keep them warm while doing so. The girls always looked so cute in the towels. Over time though the towels have been used for more than just drying them off. The use that happens a majority of the time is to use them as capes for the girls alternate personalities.. Super Anna and Super Lily . I keep the towels in an area that the girls can get into easily so we get to see quite a bit of our caped crusaders. Because I am never absolutely sure which towels have been used for these adventures, I feel like I am forever refolding or washing the hooded towels so they are starting to get smaller as the girls grow bigger. I know that I need to give up using the hooded towels to towel off the girls after bath times but I just can't seem to do it.

It's the same with the washcloths.
I love to use them for the girls during bath.. they are the perfect size for them to wash themselves or for me to get into those little crevices that dirt loves to hide in. I admit it, Lee and I use them for ourselves every so often on really hot days or nights and we need a quick cool down and they've also come in handy for teething when the regular teething stuff wouldn't do.

But at what point do I finally move on and take the towels and the washcloths out of the rotation and move them on to bigger towels and washcloths made for bigger kids or even bathrobes? Do I save a couple for posterity of the baby days since we aren't going to be having any other kids? Or do I make a clean break and get rid of them all via donating or selling them?

I already know my mother's opinion on this subject since she removed all the baby washcloths and hooded towels and replaced them with adult sized washcloths and slightly bigger hooded towels that have a Monster face on the hood, hand mitt areas and a cute tail quite a few months ago (she got them at Target btw). But how long till she deems Anna and Lily to be really big girls that don't need even these Monster towels that they like quite a bit?

I'm not sure what the answers are to my questions (I'll take any advice out there) but I'm not looking forward to the day when I have to bite the bullet and just do it. I bet that I'll not be happy about doing it and I'll probably cry while I do it like I did when I had to go through their infant clothing and put it away to be sold or given to friends with kids that are younger than my girls. I have a bin that is FULL of outfits that I can't part with because they are too special to me and I have even saved one diaper each from when they wore Newborn size diapers. See I have a really hard time letting go. I admit it.

I can do this.... I think...

I am at the end of my second sock already... it seems like it went tons faster than the first sock did. I did the last rounds tonight after the girls went to bed and then prepared myself to do the grafting of the toes. I had my instructions from my friend that helped me with the 1st sock but I just couldn't figure out how to get it started... So I put it off to the side and figured that I can ask a knitting friend on Wednesday night. But I want to figure it out myself... I'm an adult I should be able to figure this stuff out. Then I remembered that I had help just a few keystrokes away.. so once Lee and I switched rooms I got busy looking for the solution (ok not right away since I really needed to check my email and FaceBook). I watched a video on knittinghelp.com (http://www.knittinghelp.com/) and then looked at some instructions that another friend sent me(http://www.cometosilver.com/socks/SockClass_Toes2.htm). I think I can do this... but I'll wait till the morning to actually do it. I'm too tired right this moment to try.. Hopefully I'll have a picture of the second sock to share very soon.