Monday, October 24, 2011
one more vacation note
I can't believe I forgot to mention this! I really need to start jotting notes down so I can be sure not to miss anything when I post. I mentioned in my vacation prep post that I planned to bring Nathan's Neat-Oh dinosaur box, loaded up with toys. Well, I can't tell you what a hit that was! Inside the box we had some play dinosaurs, some felt dinosaurs,and just a few other random things. That box was out every single day and kept him occupied for hours. It was nice because he could play and make a big mess, and then we would just rezip the mat into a box, dump the toys in, and it was nice and organized. If you plan to travel, I would say this is a must-have. They have a bunch of different themes and a few sizes (I think ours is a medium).
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Vacation post-mortem
We're back from our trip and I'm happy to report that it was a great time with minimal confusion/tantrums/blowouts. We ended up leaving around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, stopping off at Jekyll Island for the sea turtle center, a playground, and a gorgeous driftwood beach. If you haven't ever been to Jekyll, you should go. It's awesome. After Jekyll, we drove as far as Florence, SC where we stopped for the night. Jason took Nathan swimming in the hotel pool, so he now associates hotels with pools. He thought it was super awesome that he got his own big bed and he marveled at the "giant room." We were a little nervous about him peeing out of his diaper at night but we just reminded him over and over not to pee in his sleep.
On day two, we drove north to Greensboro, NC where we visited a fun (though a little pricey) children's museum. When I first walked in I was underwhelmed, but then I realized that we were just looking at a small corner of the space. They were also having a visiting Curious George exhibit, so that made for even more fun stuff. Nathan LOVED it. After that, we drove around Greensboro for a bit and then headed to our hotel.
Day three we headed back south a bit to the NCZoo, which was HUGE (I believe it's 5 miles of walking). It covers just two continents, North America and Africa, but is incredibly comprehensive with good animals and impressive habitats. The polar bear exhibit was closed because the zoo is building a 13 million dollar habitat upgrade, so that should give you an idea of the caliber. A lot of the habitats have multi-level viewing where you can look from above and then also go down to eye-level and view the animals through a window that's either half or fully under the water. They have a giant beehive, a sort of desert solarium, and they're opening a new kid zone in 2013 that looks pretty expansive. I also liked that in North America all of the animal loops were off the main path so that you could skip any of them without having to weave in and out. Africa was not as sequential.
When we first arrived, we asked to purchase the combo passes that included a carousel ride and a ticket to feed the giraffes, but they told us that the giraffes weren't out due to the rain earlier in the morning. Nathan loves to see giraffes and that was pretty much all he talked about, so we hoped they'd put the giraffes back out if it stayed sunny. The giraffes were the farthest animal in the entire park, and we didn't want a tantrum, so we just nodded and said "uh-huh" whenever giraffes were mentioned. We stopped at the halfway point and rode a pretty cool animal carousel (Nathan rode an alligator, shocking I know). We saw grizzly bears, alligators, a whole room full of reptiles and amphibians, seals, and much more.
Unfortunately, when we finally made it to the giraffes (and Nathan was fighting sleep just to stay awake until giraffe time), they were still in their barn. Apparently they are at high risk for falls when it's slippery. Jason told him the giraffes were sleeping, so Nathan tried to yell at them to wake up. We felt so bad. Jason explained the situation and he sadly said that he understood. Then, he went to sleep. At this point, we had to walk the whole way back to the car, so we were glad that it was with a passed out boy and not a screaming upset one. What bad luck for us, we ran into a rainstorm about halfway back to the car and got totally soaked.
From there, we drove up to Virginia to my brother's house in Roanoke. We stayed there for a few days (Jason's brother, his wife, and their baby also came to Jesse's) until we completely wore my brother out :) We sightsaw (sightseed? are either of those real words?) in downtown Roanoke and went to a beautiful state park that had a brand new ranger building with nice bathrooms (you may think it's weird that I mention this, but it was REALLY nice, and when was the last time you ever were in a nice state park bathroom?).
We left Roanoke Sunday morning and made the requisite stop at Trader Joe's (first time ever for Noah!) before stopping in Columbia for the night, where Nathan once again got to go in the pool. The next day was a long driving day, primarily because it felt like we were stopping constantly for someone to eat, go to the bathroom, etc. and also because we made a poor decision to explore Savannah, not realizing it was 20 minutes off of the highway.
Surprises/Lessons Learned
One thing I didn't expect was for Nathan to get homesick. The first night in Virginia, he was laying in his bed, and his eyes were shiny with tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he sadly said "I want to go to my house and sleep in my bed." :(
I also didn't expect returning home to be so tough. While we were gone, there was no "school" time, schedules were way off, with him staying awake as late as 11 p.m. some nights. He's had trouble focusing, though after almost a week home I would say he's about back to normal.
As far as what worked for diversions and what worked logistically, breaking up the drive with interim destinations was definitely helpful. The "superprize" bag was popular, and the item he played with most during the whole trip was probably his Wheels on the Bus book, followed by stickers + a blank composition book.
My packing system worked out pretty well, I always knew where diaper change or overnight essentials were, and they were always packed together in their bin. Thankfully, we were able to do laundry at my brother's house- I don't know that we could do a vacation with no laundry access.
Pics are up on my picasa page!
On day two, we drove north to Greensboro, NC where we visited a fun (though a little pricey) children's museum. When I first walked in I was underwhelmed, but then I realized that we were just looking at a small corner of the space. They were also having a visiting Curious George exhibit, so that made for even more fun stuff. Nathan LOVED it. After that, we drove around Greensboro for a bit and then headed to our hotel.
Day three we headed back south a bit to the NCZoo, which was HUGE (I believe it's 5 miles of walking). It covers just two continents, North America and Africa, but is incredibly comprehensive with good animals and impressive habitats. The polar bear exhibit was closed because the zoo is building a 13 million dollar habitat upgrade, so that should give you an idea of the caliber. A lot of the habitats have multi-level viewing where you can look from above and then also go down to eye-level and view the animals through a window that's either half or fully under the water. They have a giant beehive, a sort of desert solarium, and they're opening a new kid zone in 2013 that looks pretty expansive. I also liked that in North America all of the animal loops were off the main path so that you could skip any of them without having to weave in and out. Africa was not as sequential.
When we first arrived, we asked to purchase the combo passes that included a carousel ride and a ticket to feed the giraffes, but they told us that the giraffes weren't out due to the rain earlier in the morning. Nathan loves to see giraffes and that was pretty much all he talked about, so we hoped they'd put the giraffes back out if it stayed sunny. The giraffes were the farthest animal in the entire park, and we didn't want a tantrum, so we just nodded and said "uh-huh" whenever giraffes were mentioned. We stopped at the halfway point and rode a pretty cool animal carousel (Nathan rode an alligator, shocking I know). We saw grizzly bears, alligators, a whole room full of reptiles and amphibians, seals, and much more.
Unfortunately, when we finally made it to the giraffes (and Nathan was fighting sleep just to stay awake until giraffe time), they were still in their barn. Apparently they are at high risk for falls when it's slippery. Jason told him the giraffes were sleeping, so Nathan tried to yell at them to wake up. We felt so bad. Jason explained the situation and he sadly said that he understood. Then, he went to sleep. At this point, we had to walk the whole way back to the car, so we were glad that it was with a passed out boy and not a screaming upset one. What bad luck for us, we ran into a rainstorm about halfway back to the car and got totally soaked.
From there, we drove up to Virginia to my brother's house in Roanoke. We stayed there for a few days (Jason's brother, his wife, and their baby also came to Jesse's) until we completely wore my brother out :) We sightsaw (sightseed? are either of those real words?) in downtown Roanoke and went to a beautiful state park that had a brand new ranger building with nice bathrooms (you may think it's weird that I mention this, but it was REALLY nice, and when was the last time you ever were in a nice state park bathroom?).
We left Roanoke Sunday morning and made the requisite stop at Trader Joe's (first time ever for Noah!) before stopping in Columbia for the night, where Nathan once again got to go in the pool. The next day was a long driving day, primarily because it felt like we were stopping constantly for someone to eat, go to the bathroom, etc. and also because we made a poor decision to explore Savannah, not realizing it was 20 minutes off of the highway.
Surprises/Lessons Learned
One thing I didn't expect was for Nathan to get homesick. The first night in Virginia, he was laying in his bed, and his eyes were shiny with tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he sadly said "I want to go to my house and sleep in my bed." :(
I also didn't expect returning home to be so tough. While we were gone, there was no "school" time, schedules were way off, with him staying awake as late as 11 p.m. some nights. He's had trouble focusing, though after almost a week home I would say he's about back to normal.
As far as what worked for diversions and what worked logistically, breaking up the drive with interim destinations was definitely helpful. The "superprize" bag was popular, and the item he played with most during the whole trip was probably his Wheels on the Bus book, followed by stickers + a blank composition book.
My packing system worked out pretty well, I always knew where diaper change or overnight essentials were, and they were always packed together in their bin. Thankfully, we were able to do laundry at my brother's house- I don't know that we could do a vacation with no laundry access.
Pics are up on my picasa page!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Noah's 8 week appointment (at 9 weeks)
Today was Noah's 8 week appointment, but he was really 9 weeks because our doctor's office goes by birth days when calculating checkup dates, so they wouldn't let me bring him when he was actually 8 weeks. And the scheduler didn't want me to put it off until after we got back from vacation, so we ended up with a doctor that I don't particularly care for (we have two that we really like, but neither works on Mondays). Plus, I made it for a Monday afternoon thinking Jason would be off, but because of the upcoming vacation days he had to work today, meaning that I'd have to take both boys on my own. And last but not least, the only available appointment was 2 p.m., which is when Nathan should be settling down for a nap.
The good news is that he checked out just fine, weighing in at 12 lbs. 3 oz. (slightly less than Nathan weighed at this age) but measuring at a whopping 24.5 inches long, which is 90th percentile. Developmentally everything is on track- I have to keep reminding myself that there is a wide range of normal, as I often find myself paging through Nathan's baby blog to see when he achieved various milestones. One milestone that was really bugging me was smiling- he hardly smiles! But over the past few days, he's finally starting to give them up more easily, especially in the morning and during middle of the night diaper changes (which make them far more tolerable). Other than a little evening cranky time, he is still very mellow and easily settled. He's the most efficient eater I've seen; it only takes 8-10 minutes for him to eat. He is not sleeping through the night yet, but most of the time he'll stay asleep until sometime between 3 and 5 and then is up every 2 hours or so after that.
I haven't nailed down his napping schedule, but the pattern seems to be doze on and off, then stay awake for a big long stretch. It really makes no difference to me, as he is pretty independent and likes to just play with his toys rather than be held every second he's awake.
Oh, and the best (or maybe worst) part? He doesn't poop every other minute like Nathan did! In fact, I'm pretty sure he hasn't gone since Friday. I just know he'll let it all out as soon as we pass the last rest stop for the next 60 miles on I 95...
Link to weekly Noah pictures!
The good news is that he checked out just fine, weighing in at 12 lbs. 3 oz. (slightly less than Nathan weighed at this age) but measuring at a whopping 24.5 inches long, which is 90th percentile. Developmentally everything is on track- I have to keep reminding myself that there is a wide range of normal, as I often find myself paging through Nathan's baby blog to see when he achieved various milestones. One milestone that was really bugging me was smiling- he hardly smiles! But over the past few days, he's finally starting to give them up more easily, especially in the morning and during middle of the night diaper changes (which make them far more tolerable). Other than a little evening cranky time, he is still very mellow and easily settled. He's the most efficient eater I've seen; it only takes 8-10 minutes for him to eat. He is not sleeping through the night yet, but most of the time he'll stay asleep until sometime between 3 and 5 and then is up every 2 hours or so after that.
I haven't nailed down his napping schedule, but the pattern seems to be doze on and off, then stay awake for a big long stretch. It really makes no difference to me, as he is pretty independent and likes to just play with his toys rather than be held every second he's awake.
Oh, and the best (or maybe worst) part? He doesn't poop every other minute like Nathan did! In fact, I'm pretty sure he hasn't gone since Friday. I just know he'll let it all out as soon as we pass the last rest stop for the next 60 miles on I 95...
Link to weekly Noah pictures!
Redmeans!
OK, this one is pretty funny. The other day we were driving to my in-laws' house and Nathan says "wait a second, redmeans!!!!" We asked him to say it again because we weren't sure and sometimes he gets really upset when he's not understood. "Redmeans, redmeans, mommy!" "RED! MEANS! STOP!"
We were pulling up to a light and he thought I was going to run it :) I always tell him red means stop, so I guess he thought a traffic light was called a redmeans. Jason tried to explain to him that it was called a traffic light, to which Nathan replied "no, daddy, you're saying it wrong."
Less funny was the other day, when we arrived home from the park to find that we'd accidentally left our dog outside in the heat. I explained to Nathan what happened and then he told me "mommy, you left me at the park, and it was hot!" I can't believe he made up a story like that!!! I tried to explain that he can't make up stories like that, and Jada was left outside, not him. Sigh.
We were pulling up to a light and he thought I was going to run it :) I always tell him red means stop, so I guess he thought a traffic light was called a redmeans. Jason tried to explain to him that it was called a traffic light, to which Nathan replied "no, daddy, you're saying it wrong."
Less funny was the other day, when we arrived home from the park to find that we'd accidentally left our dog outside in the heat. I explained to Nathan what happened and then he told me "mommy, you left me at the park, and it was hot!" I can't believe he made up a story like that!!! I tried to explain that he can't make up stories like that, and Jada was left outside, not him. Sigh.
Vacation (the "plan")
About 6 weeks before I had Noah, Jason calculated his PTO and realized that he had a bunch that needed to be burned before November. He wanted to go up to the mountains and rent a cabin, but I vetoed that firstly because a road trip with a newborn sounded awful and secondly because what exactly can you DO with a newborn in the mountains? (ok, fine, and thirdly because I would be neurotic about being up on a secluded mountaintop with no nearby hospital). We decided to see how the baby's temperament was and then develop a flexible vacation based on that information. We also were waiting to see if a job in VA came through for my brother (it did). We decided to make a road trip up there, then briefly changed our minds and decided to do a midweek shorter trip to Jekyll Island. Then we changed our minds again and I sent Jason a plan that had us stopping off at sights and entertaining spots every few hours. Jason countered that with a plan to basically just drive straight through. Sigh. For a short while we were at an impasse, but ultimately came up with a plan that we agreed upon: drive to Jekyll Island, play there for a while, drive towards Greensboro NC and then spend two-ish days there at the zoo and science museum. Then we would head up to Roanoke and stay with my brother for a few days before heading back via Charlotte. So, that is our current plan.
I have utilized my extra organizational capacity that is usually used for work to prepare for this trip. I'm in charge of packing logistics and entertainment for Nathan. Jason will drive. He always does. :)
We were thrown a little bit of a curveball this morning- usually when we road trip we take out the middle row of our minivan and put Nathan in the back row, with all of our stuff in the middle. Our middle row only seats two, and the back row three, so we'd planned to put both boys in the back and I could sit in the middle. When we removed the middle row and flipped up the back row (I usually just keep the whole back row down), we discovered that the back row only had one LATCH system, and it took up two seats! WTF?! This meant that both boys and me could not be in the back. Ultimately, I put both seats back in the middle row and folded down the back. I won't be able to sit next to either of them. So annoyed.
What I have planned for Nathan (besides for the destinations):
This is a "scrapbook" for him to use on our trip. I have different colors of cardstock and each day we'll do a page chronicling what we did and maybe including some kind of related item (i.e. we can glue on leaves, postcards, brochures). I also precut some pieces of lined paper so he can dictate to me what his favorite thing that day was. There's sheet protectors for each page, and then it's all in a 1/2 inch binder. When we get home, I'll probably let him have at some of my scrap stuff to decorate his pages more and add pictures that we took while away.
This is an idea that I stole from someone's blog- a kind of hide and seek game. You are supposed to use an empty peanut butter jar, but I didn't have one so I used a dollar store jar instead. Fill it most of the way with rice and other items like foam letters. I used "warm fuzzies" (pom-poms), and glitter foam stickers with flowers and butterflies. I'll see if I can find a few more small items to hide in there. Then GLUE the lid on so there's no rice explosion. The game is to find various things ("find a blue dragonfly," etc.).
I used a bunch of $1 sterilite shoebox sized containers to organize essentials. Then I made tags that are labeled and have distinct shapes and colors, so that Nathan and Jason (mostly Jason) will be able to find things easily. I can't count how many times he's brought a bag (that I described in DETAIL) to a hotel room only to have me say "no, the OTHER duffel bag!" The photo you see below has overnight things for the kids- washcloths, soap, medicines, toothbrush, changing pads (we're using disposable ones on this trip). I also have a diaper bin that contains both sizes of diapers, changing pad, diaper bags, hand sanitizer, and wipes. Then there is an "overstock" bin that has refills of everything- this will be stored in the basement of the van.
This is possibly the coolest toy Nathan owns, from his great aunt Rosy. It's called a Neat-Oh bin, and I believe she got it at BJ's, although they sell them on Amazon too. It's a bin that has zippers on the corners so it can fold out into a play mat. It velcroes closed and has a handle. All of Nathan and Noah's toys for the hotel room/house are in here.
Books, coloring books, and crayons have their own labeled bag.
Other items not pictured:
- Potette Plus
We were originally going to bring Nathan's frog potty but it's pretty big. Nathan has refused to poop on the potty, which pretty much guarantees that he's going to decide somewhere along I-95 that he wants to poop on the potty NOW. I researched portable potties and found this one that I liked best for several reasons. It is one piece (pretty small) that has legs that fold down so a kid can sit on it, or fold outward so it can be placed on a normal size (i.e. public) potty. It doesn't have a "bowl," instead it has disposable scented liners. The whole thing fits in a little plastic drawstring bag.
- Lap desk
This will allow him to play with cars, color, etc.
- Superprize bag
I bought a bunch of stuff from the dollar store and "recycled" some things Nathan hasn't played with in a while. Whenever he gets bored or antsy, we can pick something out of here. I have things like a Cars stamper set, toy cars, dinosaur finger puppets, a Kindermusik egg shaker, dinosaur flash cards, mini animal books from Target dollar spot, and lots of stickers. By the way, the reason it's called a superprize bag it because Nathan confuses surprise and prize and calls anything he gets a superprize. I kind of likes it, so it stuck.
- Travel beds
Nathan has a blowup Cars bed that can go on the floor. For Noah, we are deciding between a pack n play or a little peapod type bed that I borrowed from my SIL.
- Touchpad
Jason has preloaded our touchpad with games and movies. I also have our virtual fish tanks of course.
I also have packed my pump and accessories, just in case, a beach bag for Jekyll Island, and then everyone's clothes. For Noah's clothes and Nathan's socks, they are organized into ziploc bags so I can just grab the bag I want without messing up the order of things. Of course, I also have a diaper box full of snacks, and we plan to take a small cooler as well. The entire pile of stuff that needs to be packed doesn't look that big to me, but I could be mistaken. I'm going to try hard to be one of those awesome bloggers who takes pictures of everything as it's used, for the post-trip-post.
I have utilized my extra organizational capacity that is usually used for work to prepare for this trip. I'm in charge of packing logistics and entertainment for Nathan. Jason will drive. He always does. :)
We were thrown a little bit of a curveball this morning- usually when we road trip we take out the middle row of our minivan and put Nathan in the back row, with all of our stuff in the middle. Our middle row only seats two, and the back row three, so we'd planned to put both boys in the back and I could sit in the middle. When we removed the middle row and flipped up the back row (I usually just keep the whole back row down), we discovered that the back row only had one LATCH system, and it took up two seats! WTF?! This meant that both boys and me could not be in the back. Ultimately, I put both seats back in the middle row and folded down the back. I won't be able to sit next to either of them. So annoyed.
What I have planned for Nathan (besides for the destinations):
This is a "scrapbook" for him to use on our trip. I have different colors of cardstock and each day we'll do a page chronicling what we did and maybe including some kind of related item (i.e. we can glue on leaves, postcards, brochures). I also precut some pieces of lined paper so he can dictate to me what his favorite thing that day was. There's sheet protectors for each page, and then it's all in a 1/2 inch binder. When we get home, I'll probably let him have at some of my scrap stuff to decorate his pages more and add pictures that we took while away.
This is an idea that I stole from someone's blog- a kind of hide and seek game. You are supposed to use an empty peanut butter jar, but I didn't have one so I used a dollar store jar instead. Fill it most of the way with rice and other items like foam letters. I used "warm fuzzies" (pom-poms), and glitter foam stickers with flowers and butterflies. I'll see if I can find a few more small items to hide in there. Then GLUE the lid on so there's no rice explosion. The game is to find various things ("find a blue dragonfly," etc.).
I used a bunch of $1 sterilite shoebox sized containers to organize essentials. Then I made tags that are labeled and have distinct shapes and colors, so that Nathan and Jason (mostly Jason) will be able to find things easily. I can't count how many times he's brought a bag (that I described in DETAIL) to a hotel room only to have me say "no, the OTHER duffel bag!" The photo you see below has overnight things for the kids- washcloths, soap, medicines, toothbrush, changing pads (we're using disposable ones on this trip). I also have a diaper bin that contains both sizes of diapers, changing pad, diaper bags, hand sanitizer, and wipes. Then there is an "overstock" bin that has refills of everything- this will be stored in the basement of the van.
This is possibly the coolest toy Nathan owns, from his great aunt Rosy. It's called a Neat-Oh bin, and I believe she got it at BJ's, although they sell them on Amazon too. It's a bin that has zippers on the corners so it can fold out into a play mat. It velcroes closed and has a handle. All of Nathan and Noah's toys for the hotel room/house are in here.
Books, coloring books, and crayons have their own labeled bag.
Other items not pictured:
- Potette Plus
We were originally going to bring Nathan's frog potty but it's pretty big. Nathan has refused to poop on the potty, which pretty much guarantees that he's going to decide somewhere along I-95 that he wants to poop on the potty NOW. I researched portable potties and found this one that I liked best for several reasons. It is one piece (pretty small) that has legs that fold down so a kid can sit on it, or fold outward so it can be placed on a normal size (i.e. public) potty. It doesn't have a "bowl," instead it has disposable scented liners. The whole thing fits in a little plastic drawstring bag.
- Lap desk
This will allow him to play with cars, color, etc.
- Superprize bag
I bought a bunch of stuff from the dollar store and "recycled" some things Nathan hasn't played with in a while. Whenever he gets bored or antsy, we can pick something out of here. I have things like a Cars stamper set, toy cars, dinosaur finger puppets, a Kindermusik egg shaker, dinosaur flash cards, mini animal books from Target dollar spot, and lots of stickers. By the way, the reason it's called a superprize bag it because Nathan confuses surprise and prize and calls anything he gets a superprize. I kind of likes it, so it stuck.
- Travel beds
Nathan has a blowup Cars bed that can go on the floor. For Noah, we are deciding between a pack n play or a little peapod type bed that I borrowed from my SIL.
- Touchpad
Jason has preloaded our touchpad with games and movies. I also have our virtual fish tanks of course.
I also have packed my pump and accessories, just in case, a beach bag for Jekyll Island, and then everyone's clothes. For Noah's clothes and Nathan's socks, they are organized into ziploc bags so I can just grab the bag I want without messing up the order of things. Of course, I also have a diaper box full of snacks, and we plan to take a small cooler as well. The entire pile of stuff that needs to be packed doesn't look that big to me, but I could be mistaken. I'm going to try hard to be one of those awesome bloggers who takes pictures of everything as it's used, for the post-trip-post.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Admonished
A few weeks ago, I was at the park with the boys when an older man who was there with his grandson approached me to tell me I "shouldn't let the baby lay like that." He had his head cocked to one side, since one side is stronger than the other. We've been doing exercises to even him out, but really it's not that big of a deal. I brushed the guy off even as he proceeded to engage me in conversation, telling me all about how he watches his grandson but won't watch the other grandkid because he's still in diapers. Then, he stood off to the side and yelled at the kid repeatedly- "Daniel, NO!" "Don't do that!" "What are you doing?!?" So on and so forth.
Well, today, at a DIFFERENT park, unbelievably, the same guy was there with his grandson. He of course had more sage advice for me.
GOTY (grandfather of the year): You shouldn't stand there with the carriage, you should come over here (points to bench/concrete pad where he is)
Me: No thanks, we're fine (I was standing in the pine needles/sand as close to the raised playground bed as I could get to Nathan. The guy was sitting further away without a full view of the play area).
GOTY: There's ants there, you really shouldn't stand there with the baby.
Me (probably sounding really bitchy): Thanks, we're fine here.
I'm sure he thought ants were going to engulf Noah and me at any minute. Poor, stupid, mother doesn't know anything about how to safely raise a child. After yelling at his boy for a few more minutes, he then walked away to the other side of the park, completely leaving his grandson, who was maybe 3 1/2 at the most! Keep in mind that this park isn't fence, there's a lake right there, and it's right on SR 50 so it attracts a lot of people who are just hanging out in the pavilion shade. I would NEVER walk away from my child at a park, or anywhere else for that matter! Oh, and the kicker? He was parked next to me and as I pulled out I noticed that he had no car seat in his truck!
Well, today, at a DIFFERENT park, unbelievably, the same guy was there with his grandson. He of course had more sage advice for me.
GOTY (grandfather of the year): You shouldn't stand there with the carriage, you should come over here (points to bench/concrete pad where he is)
Me: No thanks, we're fine (I was standing in the pine needles/sand as close to the raised playground bed as I could get to Nathan. The guy was sitting further away without a full view of the play area).
GOTY: There's ants there, you really shouldn't stand there with the baby.
Me (probably sounding really bitchy): Thanks, we're fine here.
I'm sure he thought ants were going to engulf Noah and me at any minute. Poor, stupid, mother doesn't know anything about how to safely raise a child. After yelling at his boy for a few more minutes, he then walked away to the other side of the park, completely leaving his grandson, who was maybe 3 1/2 at the most! Keep in mind that this park isn't fence, there's a lake right there, and it's right on SR 50 so it attracts a lot of people who are just hanging out in the pavilion shade. I would NEVER walk away from my child at a park, or anywhere else for that matter! Oh, and the kicker? He was parked next to me and as I pulled out I noticed that he had no car seat in his truck!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Games we play
Some of you may have seen my post on FB referencing Nathan's virtual fishtank (well, now there are actually THREE tanks). This was a free app that I downloaded thinking it would be a fun diversion for Nathan. Every day he asks to see his fishtanks, and he gets to feed them, love them, and clean their tanks. We also buy and sell them to make more money and unlock more fish. Right now he really wants to make level eight so he can buy an orca whale :)
I used to laugh at the people who played Farmville or had the fishtanks on FB, I thought they were so ridiculous. But I have to admit, I'm a little bit addicted. Do you remember when you were little and played Tetris on the Nintendo till the wee hours of the morning, only to go to sleep and play in your dreams? Well, I play Tap Fish in my dreams. I'm also getting wrapped up in the strategy of the game. The premise is this: you start off with a nominal amount of coins and "Fish Bucks" which are the currencies you use to buy fish eggs, decorations, etc. You start by buying a few cheap eggs and then can earn coins and experience points by reselling them or breeding them and selling the offspring. Here's where it gets complicated. There are several thousand permutations of bred offspring, some of which pay off far more than others. Also, the fish resell at different premiums, and mature over different periods of time. So a low cost fish might yield only five coins ROI, but in a four hour time period, while a higher cost fish yields 50 coins, but takes three days to mature. See where I'm going with this? I have literally had to fight the urge to create an Excel spreadsheet to figure out the smartest moves. Not only would this be a huge waste of time, but Nathan could care less about fish ROI. He buys fish because they're a color he likes, or because it's a scary shark. Then, he won't let me sell some of them (i.e. our bunnyfish) because he's attached to them! Yes, I know, I need to let go.
Speaking of letting go, one of the major adjustments I've had to make is learning to NOT be in a rush. Because my time with the boys is not at a premium like it was before (not to say it's not important, there's just more of it). It used to be if we were still in the house at 10 a.m. I could hear the clock ticking and time wasting away. Now, since we're not in a rush to accomplish the next task, I am learning to relax and take things slower. I'm definitely learning to enjoy the process, not just the end result. I'm very thankful for both being able to do this and for the fact that this adjustment has been positive and not negative.
I used to laugh at the people who played Farmville or had the fishtanks on FB, I thought they were so ridiculous. But I have to admit, I'm a little bit addicted. Do you remember when you were little and played Tetris on the Nintendo till the wee hours of the morning, only to go to sleep and play in your dreams? Well, I play Tap Fish in my dreams. I'm also getting wrapped up in the strategy of the game. The premise is this: you start off with a nominal amount of coins and "Fish Bucks" which are the currencies you use to buy fish eggs, decorations, etc. You start by buying a few cheap eggs and then can earn coins and experience points by reselling them or breeding them and selling the offspring. Here's where it gets complicated. There are several thousand permutations of bred offspring, some of which pay off far more than others. Also, the fish resell at different premiums, and mature over different periods of time. So a low cost fish might yield only five coins ROI, but in a four hour time period, while a higher cost fish yields 50 coins, but takes three days to mature. See where I'm going with this? I have literally had to fight the urge to create an Excel spreadsheet to figure out the smartest moves. Not only would this be a huge waste of time, but Nathan could care less about fish ROI. He buys fish because they're a color he likes, or because it's a scary shark. Then, he won't let me sell some of them (i.e. our bunnyfish) because he's attached to them! Yes, I know, I need to let go.
Speaking of letting go, one of the major adjustments I've had to make is learning to NOT be in a rush. Because my time with the boys is not at a premium like it was before (not to say it's not important, there's just more of it). It used to be if we were still in the house at 10 a.m. I could hear the clock ticking and time wasting away. Now, since we're not in a rush to accomplish the next task, I am learning to relax and take things slower. I'm definitely learning to enjoy the process, not just the end result. I'm very thankful for both being able to do this and for the fact that this adjustment has been positive and not negative.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)