How many words does it take to relate the tale of a week in Disneyland?  3,584.  I always feel guilty if I write a post that breaks through 1,000 words, and Katie’s gone and tripled it.  She won’t let me watch any more television until I get the post up with the photos, and that leaves me with two options – I can either write a short one myself, or edit hers.  I’ll do both, I think…

So yes, Disneyland – that happened.  We’ve been excited for months to get ready.  We’ve used it as our incentive all year.  ”Come on, guys, let’s go on a walk to get ready for Disneyland!”  They’ve thrown that back at us more than once, “No, Daddy, I don’t want to be done with our bike ride, I want to get ready for Disneyland!”  But they wouldn’t be redheaded hellions if they weren’t making us work for it.  We had fond memories of our trip last year, as exhausting as it was, and tried to scale it up this year.  We initially bandied about options to work in more of Los Angeles, or Lego Land and the San Diego Zoo, but ended up deciding that a week to go at a leisurely pace at Disneyland would be the least stressful.  Best intentions, and all that…

We also talked Carter and Marilyn into coming along.  I was a little worried initially, knowing I’d already have to push the boys around in a stroller and being a little worried about having to push Carter around as well, but the Disneyland trip turned out to be good incentive for him to exercise as well.  We also found a great way to get the best of both worlds.  We stayed at a Best Western on the edge of the park, which was cheap but quiet and convenient and was pretty spacious; while Carter, Marilyn, and Uncle Too Tall stayed at the Disneyland Hotel.  That got them convenient access to the park via monorail, while we could come over to visit them, see the Lego store (can you believe that I’d actually forgotten it was there???) and visit the awesome pool.  The pool turned out to be a great incentive, as each time I checked the forecast the temperature kept rising.  We were expecting 80′s – and we got 96 on one day.  Figures.  At least packing for summer weather takes less space, and I swear we packed less than last year.

All told, it was an absolutely exhausting trip.  We melted in the heat, melted down in the mornings, and by Tuesday we were all threatening to go home.  But at the same time we had a fantastic time.  Autopia wasn’t quite as manic and crazy as it was a year ago, but the boys both lit up with pure joy while they drove.  Very sadly the Casey Junior Train was closed (funny – I never rode that before the boys, but now when we found out it was going to be closed a few weeks before our trip, I almost wanted to reschedule our trip), but there was still plenty to do.  We loved Dumbo, and the Jungle River Cruise, and the bumper cars at California Adventure.  The boys still loved running all over Tom Sawyer’s island.  We also caught the Golden Horseshoe show, with two robbers yelling, “Throw up your check books, Throw up your money, throw up your breakfasts!”  The boys have been yelling that all week.  They also loved the Buzz Lightyear ride, and have been blasting the evil emperor Zerg regularly.  Cars land was pretty awesome, as were the lines.  It’s amazing – Disneyland could be nearly empty, and the Radiator Racers would have a line all the way to LAX.

They were also still too scared to go any indoor rides.  We couldn’t talk them into Peter Pan, or Pooh.  Before the trip we watched videos of rides, trying to get them to be less scared.  It *almost* worked.  We got Dexter onto Pirates of the Caribbean!!!  His brother melted down in line, and to be honest Dex was asking to get out of line too, but I pleased inability to hear and abandoned parental responsibility for the “throw him in the deep end and watch him swim” approach – and it worked!  He loved it.  We learned from last year and bought collapsible ear muffs, which you’ll see in a bunch of the pictures.  It helped.  Nic rode Splash Mountain, though you can’t see it from the picture (he’s back between Marilyn and Katie, in case you don’t see a flash of boy-leg).  And it was kind of adorable to watch the boys debate who they’d ride the next ride with.  ”I’ll ride this time with Grandma.  Then you, Daddy.  We’ll ride twice.”

We also spent some time in the pool, though by Thursday some cooler weather had moved in.  Fortunately Katie forgot her swimming suite on Wednesday, so Ryan and I went in on the hot day, and she got stuck with Thursday (Ryan took pity on her and jumped in too).  Well, somebody had to take pictures, didn’t they?  The LEGO store was the sleeper hit of the vacation, in Downtown Disney.  I swear, Dexter could have spent his whole week there.  That kid has a problem.  I am so damned proud.  We didn’t bring any legos with us, so as not to lose small pieces.  By Monday morning Dexter was asking to go home, “because I know how much you love LEGOs and want to go home to play with them, Daddy.”

By Friday we were exhausted, and ready to be done.  Nic’s been saying he’s ready to go back in 6 weeks.  Katie and I were thinking more like 6 years.  I’m sure we’ll go back a little sooner than that, but not until the boys are old enough not need a siesta or stroller, until they can go to the bathroom by themselves, and aren’t afraid of Winnie the Pooh upside down in a pot of honey.  It was a little hard on Katie, going for so long without being able to ride many adult rides.  Might have been nice if we’d had an Au Pair along, I suppose.

Oops – now I’m at 1,076 words (thanks to Katie’s editing).  Guess that means I have to call it.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  I’ll work on Katie’s tome next, and publish it once I make it through to the end.  Happy Hurricane Day!

-Joel

Disney 2012

I have 151 pictures of our Disneyland trip ready.  I’ve written a too long post for you.  A novel of boring proportion.  All it needs is for Joel to edit and it will be up.  Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, I wish to share how horrible the boys have been to me since we’ve been back.  Kid stuff really.  Lots of tantrums.  Lots of “HEY” being said.  Some light hitting and kicking when angry and as I am carrying them to the time out bench.  Stuff they never pulled on the au pairs.  But, we are working through it.

My favorite phrase said so far was said by Nicholas and I have no idea where he got it.  ”You are ruining my life.”  When he said this, Joel shouted from the other room “Did he just say what I think he just said?”  Yep – didn’t expect that one until middle school.  ;)  He’s also said on a few occasions ”I guess I’ll just go to sleep forever then” which is like a knife to my heart.  I do still get lots of hugs, kisses and hair stroking from him too so all is not lost.

Tonight we watched a movie we got last year – Spooky Buddies.  This movie was way too scary for them.  We got out our guns and shot the bad guy over and over again.  Poor, sensitive Nicholas – you really do have a heart of gold.  He was very upset through most of the movie but wouldn’t let us stop because he had to see that all the dogs turned to stone come back to life in the end, and just like mommy said, good triumphs over evil in Hollywood movies.

Hi all,

Sorry for the radio silence treatment but we just got back from a week long trip to Disneyland.  The week before that, Joel and I were feverishly finishing prepping for the twin mom group bi-yearly super sale (the day before we left for D-land) and packing.  Needless to say, we needed every spare minute in order to accomplish both tasks and blogging fell to the wayside. We left on Sunday, 10/14 to a week of 90+ degree days and flew back home to the mid-40′s.  Talk about a huge difference in temperature.  And yes, Dexter did, once again, puke on the plane upon landing at the SeaTac airport.  Luckily, Joel had the barf bag ready and waiting, so no messy cleanup this time.  Three out of the four landing at SeaTac have ended in a stomach eruption.  He lands fine elsewhere though.

Anyway, tonight I might have enough time to select picture and stories to share with you all.  I’ve finished with the huge pile of laundry that vacationing left me with.  Our house is now stocked with food.  I’ve set up a “schedule” for the boys and we are on day two of implementation.  They are throwing tantrums left and right.  Dexter had a complete and utter meltdown at Bartell’s Drug Store before lunch which lasted a total of ~45 minutes.  I let him lie on the floor in the store crying for 5 minutes before picking him up and walking out with him.  Thank God Nicholas noticed that his brother had lost it and behaved exceptionally well during Dexter’s tantrum.  I then let Dex cry it out in the back of Kanga (our minivan) until I deemed he would not be able to get himself calmed down.  Nicky and I attempted to make him laugh which finally worked.  I sometimes wonder if kids can be bipolar the way Dexter bounces.

Oh, how do you help a kid on the edge?  I thought they were suppose to do this kind of thing when they were two or three, not four.  If anyone has any good ways to teach kids how to recognize being close to a meltdown and then cope and figure out how to self sooth, I’d love to hear them.  We had one or two of these at Disneyland too.  One morning, all 4 of us melted down.  Maybe Joel and I need to practice self soothing too.  Right now, I’m just giving the boys space and letting them entertain themselves with Legos.  It seems to be going well so far…… (I know – I’ve jinxed it and this is probably the calm before the storm.)   They are creating some nice stories so far.

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that all is well and I will get pictures on the blog soon.  Being a stay-at-home mom is a busy one. – Katie

(This was written on Monday but I had to wait until today for Joel to show me once again, how it insert pictures into a post.)

Day 2 on the job (and weekends don’t count because Joel is here) and I set the alarm in hopes of getting up and ready before the boys. Unfortunately, Joel believes they can hear my alarm going off from their room because inevitably, they call out after the alarm rings. Sigh – oh well. Best intentions. At least this time, Joel was ready and I was out of the shower and had my hair dry before they emerged from their bedroom.

This morning’s story concerns therapy – occupational therapy to be more specific. Dexter qualified for OT with the Everett School District on gross motor skills, so once a week, he has a half hour session with Mrs Hollie at the elementary school next to our house. Mrs. Hollie is super nice and lets Nicky participate too. Because my boys cannot draw a simple stick figure at age 4, one of the homework assignments she has given us is to assemble a person called Map Man and then draw a picture of him. At last week’s OT session, she asked the boys if they had done Map Man that week to which Nicky responded “no”. WRONG – well, technically right for Nic because he refused when I brought that exercise out but Dexter did do it. So, seeing that this week is my first week of meeting Mrs Hollie in person, I’m trying to redeem myself.

This morning, I set up Map Man and scissor time. I had them cut out three shapes – a circle, a square, and a piece of pizza – and write their names in each one. Then they had to put together Map Man. Having fun with the situation, I asked the boys if Map Man was going to eat a donut, a grilled cheese sandwich or a piece of pizza. They laughed and that was that until I saw Dexter’s Map Man. He had put all three shapes into Map Man’s stomach. Dexter turned to me and said, “He was really hungry, Mommy.” I also want you to note in the picture that the two Map Men are holding hands. That was Dexter’s doing too. I love how creative they can be.

One more thing to share with you about Monday.  We had enough time to run to Value Village to drop off donations and look for Halloween costumes.  We ended up picking up to police officer hats.  The boys absolutely love those hats.  That night, after dinner, Nicky puts on his police hat, turns to me with the biggest smile on his face and says “Mommy, can we be naked police officers?  Please????” or something to that affect.  There was no way I could turn him down.  ”Underwear stays on” was my only reply.  Off came the clothes and there was Nicky, proud in his almost nakedness and police officer hat.  Dexter got his pants off but then got distracted and his shirt stayed on.  I went back into the kitchen to pack lunches for the next day’s field trip to the pumpkin farm.  All of a sudden, the song “Gangnam Style” by Psi came on the radio.  I started to dance and Nicky joined me in jumping all around.  It kind of felt like I was at a bachelorette party.  Yes, I do have pictures.  NO, I am not going to share.  ;)

So, where do I begin? Truly this story began more than 4 years ago but let us fast forward to last night. It was 11pm and I wasn’t tired. The next day (now today) I was staying home with the boys. Sure, I’ve done that many times before – almost every Monday since birth. But this was different. Friday would begin my trial run as a stay at home mom. In hind-sight, I was putting way too much emphasis on the day which was probably why I felt I didn’t sleep a wink and when Dexter called out at 2am, I hopped up wide awake to find out what was up. A good case of the sniffles, that’s what and a glimpse of what was to come.

Lesson 1 – ALWAYS get up before the boys. NEVER ATTEMPT TO SLEEP IN ON YOUR FIRST DAY ON THE JOB! This doesn’t work and makes you feel like you are running behind the rest of the day. I know this lesson. Why did I think today would be any different?

Lesson 2 – get used to drinking cold tea. After microwaving my tea 3 times in a 2 hour block of time, I gave up and chugged it down cold.

Lesson 3 – don’t get overly ambitious. Last night, I laid in bed, thinking of tons of stuff to do with the boys this morning before preschool. Reality set in when they walked into my bedroom happy with runny noses and 5 minutes later Nicholas was crying in his bedroom and Dexter had a case of the “humpfs”. Morning grumpiness followed us downstairs with Nic but Dexter perked up with Lego building. I’m not over-exaggerating this, but in the course of the 30 – 40 minutes it took me to talk them into breakfast, Dexter had followed the directions and rebuilt the Lego Creator 3 in 1, 69 piece Firetruck/Helicopter/Jeep (age 6 – 12) to each of those specifications. The only help he needed from me was to get a few of the pieces back apart after he finished one of the creations. That kid may not know how to hold a pen and write his name from left to right, but he can follow Lego directions and build. Future Engineer??????

Everyone perked up with a little breakfast in their bellies and then it was a lazy morning of blowing noses and checking off our to do list (brush teeth, get dressed, play Legos, go to school, take vitamins, cut with scissors, read stories) in whatever order they so chose. For those of you who have read about Nicky’s toilet paper unicorn, Dexter mimicked this – by putting his hands behind his butt and saying to me “Look Mom – I’m a Unicorn”. I was beginning to think we needed to have a lesson in anatomy when he moved his hands to the top of his head and repeated the phrase. Phew.

A quick lunch followed, where they tried to make each other laugh and choke on food and then we were off to preschool and 2.5 hours of freedom in which to get stuff done. Boy oh boy, did I make use of that time. From the preschool, I went for a walk and found a cheap hair salon. Fifteen minutes later, my hair was cut and I was walking back to the preschool. Turn around, go back for my sun glasses and finally head back to the van. Jump in, head home, load up with stuff to return to Costco. Arrive to find no one in the return line – my lucky day. When I left, there must have been at least 7 people in line. Buy only one thing – the movie Cinderella and once again, find a line in which the people in front of me are only purchasing less than 10 items. Very nice. Head back to the van – can I say it is so strange to drive our minivan? Usually it is the au pair or Joel that drives her. Anyway, off to Eyes Rite Optical. The lens in my sun glasses had popped out two weeks ago and I hadn’t had a chance to get it fixed. I was the only customer there so once again, quick service ensued. Thirty minutes left before pick-up. Could I make it to Safeway to buy waxed paper? Yes – it was my longest wait of the day and I still made it back to the preschool with 5 minutes to spare. How cool was that? In 2.5 hours, I got errands completed that I’ve been wishing I could do for the past couple of weeks. Not too shabby.

Of course, by the time we got home, the boys were worn out and Nicholas couldn’t hold it together any longer. Joel came home, we searched for missing Legos, attempted to get everyone back on even keel but finally threw in the towel and watched Cinderella. This seemed to recharge their batteries (getting dinner in their bellies helped too) and all of a sudden, Joel and I had to play the role of the mean cat Lucifer while the boys fought over who would be Gus Gus and who would be the dog. More reading, more Legos and off to bed. It is now 8:22pm and I’m tired.

So, how would I rate today? Not the best but not the worst. After a good night’s sleep and the setting of the alarm for tomorrow, I hope we all have a good day. I did attempt to take a video and ask if they liked having me home. It is very un-inspired. Sorry. Future stories will hopefully be more entertaining. That’s all for now. Time to give the computer back to Joel.