Month: August 2005

Just wanted to check in so you’d know I’m still alive. I’m alive! Lots of fun. Best house on the planet, my friends. I don’t think we could have picked a better one.

Don’t fight with each other while I’m gone. Today’s plans: siteseeing this morning while my sister’s family hits the beach for a walk and then a bikeride. We didn’t bring bikes (I don’t have one) so we’re just having family day.

High tide is 2:40 or something like that, so we’ll all be back for the beach then. Where we are is a large sand bar thingy (I’m up on my beach lingo) and at low tide you can walk out almost a mile, literally. I had my pedometer the first time we walked out and round trip we did almost 1.75 miles. Of course, we dawdle because there are so many different kinds of crabs and little fishies to watch and catch. Yesterday we lingered a little too long when the tide started coming back in and all the sand bars disappeared and we had to wade through thigh-deep water in areas. And high tide practically comes up to the steps you take down from the house.

So ya, we’re having a really sucky time, can you tell?

Out of the mouths of babes. You can tell this kid spends more time going to tourist destinations than being out in the great outdoors. I could have tried to mess with his head and tell him the doors open at 9, but I was a good girl, and said they are open 24 hours a day.

Almost ready to go. I plan to post if my cell phone has coverage. I’m sure there’s coverage somewhere on the Cape. Failing that, I’ll send smoke signals. Keep your eyes on the clouds.

Side Note: Made my third (4th?) trip to the Leominster Target. Dropped $200. I forbid myself from going back for at least a week. But hey, all the summer stuff was on clearance! I got a Coleman Queen Size air mattress for twenty bucks. This replaces “old reliable”, the one that I destroyed by closing the trunk on it, causing the latch to give puncture wounds. Got Junior a sleeping bag for $20, too. His old one, a trendy Blues Clues number, holds about half of him. Plus, he’s a second grader now, he can’t be seen in a Blues Clues sleeping bag. What kind of monsters are you people?

Today is Junior’s last day of camp (he isn’t going on tomorrow’s trip – he’s going to spend the day with his cousins instead). Yesterday they handed out the camp awards. I expected some sort of crazy award – the last time he got one (at the end of the school year) it was like the “flying feet” award for his crazy dancing.

So he makes me stand there while he presents me with his certificate…and I immediately get all verklempt (how do you spell that?). I had to give him a HUGE hug while I composed myself.

You see, ever since he’s been a toddler, I’ve used the phrase “are you being a good listener?” I don’t know why I use that, I just sort of made it up one day, but “you’re not being a good listener” was the replacement phrase for “Bad boy” or whatever. (Additionally, when he was really little and not listening, I’d say “do you want happy mommy or angry mommy?” to let him know that how he was behaving would have the consequences of putting me in the right or wrong kind of mood.)

I would always tell him he needed to be a good listener at daycare, preschool, school, etc. Meaning, you’d better mind your manners and pay attention to the grownups in charge. A good listener is not a troublemaker. A good listener, well, listens. If the daycare lady says you can’t play near the street, well by gum, you don’t play near the street. Etc. Etc. At our house, being a good listener means you are behaving as you should.

His camp award?

Best Listener.

It may sound stupid to anyone outside of our house, but I have never been prouder. To me, it means my mom stuff is sticking. I am raising a great kid.

I’m not a failure as a parent.

He’s a good listener.

Good gravy, they put a lot of mayo on the sandwiches here. So in case you’re keeping track, that’s no olives but extra mayo. I would trade 2/3 of the mayo for some olives, let me tell you.

Longtime readers remember the adventures of the little boy who wouldn’t eat anything. He has expanded out SO much in the past 6 months, I’ll give him that. Last week, he discovered he liked pickles. Now I know he and I had talked about pickles. Around the time he started his salad with Italian dressing addiction, I remember telling him that he’d like pickles because they are crunchy and they have that Italian dressing-like vinegar vibe. But no, I couldn’t get him to eat one.

Well Friday, on our way up to St. Albans, we stopped at the Vermont Country Store. And he and I bought one of those big pickles you buy right out of the barrel. A big pickle and some cheddar cheese. It was one of the greatest days of my life, I tell you! All kidding aside, I ADORE that place. We ended up spending a HUGE amount of time in there, and even though it meant us getting into St. Albans later, I didn’t care, because I love the VCS just that much.

If you live in New England and you haven’t been, well, let me just insist, okay? Get in your Ford Escort and get moving. It’s exit 6 off Route 91N (route 103) in Rockingham VT. And then after you go there, keep driving until you get to Chester VT. If you don’t think Raspberry and Thyme restaurant (right on the main drag, in “downtown” Chester) doesn’t have the most amazing sandwiches on the planet, I will personally come to where you are and put you out of your misery. Seriously.

I knew it was bound to happen. This morning I suddenly realized I was going the wrong way to work. That’s such a GREAT feeling, knowing that you have to backtrack. Puts a smile on your face and a kick in your step, it does. Obviously, I needed way more sleep than I got.

The drive home from VT was much more annoying than the drive up, because it insisted on raining 95% of the way. We took a lot of stops on the way up, which was good because we were in vacation mode, but on the way back we probably shouldn’t have stopped as often as we did. We didn’t get home until about 7pm, at which point there was a thunder storm going on, and we passed a house that had lost half a tree from a lightening strike (the fire department et. al. were there). Thank GOD IN HEAVEN that it didn’t happen as I was driving by or I’d be in a straightjacket right now, instead of typing to you. I hate hate hate lightening.

Anyhoo, back to the grind for a WHOLE WEEK and then a week’s vacation. Woo!