Father's Day Fun

MacTroll wasn't feeling very well today. Our plan (mine and X-man's) was to let him sleep in as long as he wanted. I would run out and fetch some bagels for a light breakfast, and then we'd take MacTroll to Maize to order lunch. X-man doesn't like Mexican food (he always orders a hamburger off the kiddie menu) and most places only do vegetarian with a lot of cheese, which I can't eat.

So, MacTroll got his food, and we took it home.

Then he went upstairs and fell asleep for several hours. Around 4 p.m., he came downstairs and sat on the couch watching TV with X-man. Then we went out around the neighborhood for a walk with Lily. X-man whined and fussed about how he didn't want to take a walk. About how he rides his bike too much (he doesn't ride it enough in our opinion). But we gave him the, "This isn't an option" look. And he put on his shoes and went out in the garage for his helmet and bike. As it turns out, the heavy rain last night left a giant, long puddle on one of the new streets of the new sections of our development.

We wondered around looking at the progress on the houses, while X-man rode his bike through the puddle back and forth. He had dirt and water splashed up the back of his calves, his butt and up his back. And he was laughing and laughing. I watched him as he jumped up and down splashing in the puddle in his sandals. He declared there were two kinds of mud in that puddle. The kind that washes away, and regular mud that travels in clumps.

Lily, was very confused, by his behavior. She could tell he was happy, but she was a black dog on a hot, sticky day, and she wanted nothing to do with the dirty water. She waded in it to her ankles, just deep enough to get close to X-man, who was sitting on the curb with water up to his own ankles splashing in it and touching the mud, to see what he was doing. Then when he walked out of the puddle she tried to stay between him and the puddle like she was protecting him from getting gross.

Lily is a retriever mix. But she isn't to hot on water. Mostly because the only water she's ever been in (to our knowledge) is bath water. But she hates sprinklers when we walk around the neighborhood. She runs away from the hose when I water the flowers in the backyard. So, I get that she's not a fan. But to watch her try to herd him away from the water for just a few seconds, was pretty priceless.

We have three sleeping nights left in our house. We're spending Wednesday and Thursday at the iHotel, because I think it would be sad and lonely to stay in our house when it's empty. Then on Friday at 11 a.m., we close, and drive up north. My mom is watching our dog for a few days (until the week of July 4) and the cats are flying to California with us on Saturday morning.

I've been planning for this day since January 2012. It's hard to believe it's actually here.

Summer's End

Today is the last day of summer. X-man and I celebrated by going to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal after getting some errands done. We've taken X-man every year since he was 18 months. They've done a lot of exhibit shuffling and updating, and he always enjoys going.

He met a friend who was 4 there. They played for two hours before the little friend had to leave. But then we did okay on our own. :-) The place was EMPTY.

Boooyaaahhh!

Okay, I am not the greatest volleyball player in the world, but I love to play. I prefer sand over court because I like to dive, and I don't bruise as much on sand. Our team, the Blockheads, is now 5-1. We're tied for first place in the 8-team league. And we're beating six teams of lawyers (i.e. law students), so that makes me feel good, too. :-)

We played a tough three games tonight and came out with a big win. It is so much more fun when the games are evenly matched and challenging than when we just stand there watching service errors (that was Tuesday's match).

Anyway, I've had a ball. I hope when my foot is better, I can totally go back to it!

Success!

I got my six-month follow up blood work results back today. I have "normal" Vitamin D numbers and my Ferritin is holding steady. Sure, they're at the low-end of normal. But I'll totally take that.

I haven't heard back about my hip/back x-ray yet, so I'll call tomorrow and see if the nurse knows anything.

Today, X-man and I had a delightful trip to Miller Park with the neighbors. We played at the spray park from 10 until 11:45 and then we went over to the zoo for a little over an hour. X-man hadn't been there in two years because last year whenever I tried to plan something it was always 65 degrees outside... I got lots of good chat time with Super Shanna, and I got to watch my kid be particularly adorable.

Here's the thing about having a child with an anxiety issue. When he falls apart, I feel like people give me this look. This, "Thank God my child doesn't have that problem" or "There goes X-man freaking out again." People have opinions about everything regarding my parenting (he's spoiled) to what he eats (you shouldn't let him have processed foods). It feels then like his anxiety issue is what every conversation with other parents is about. I'm not gonna lie. When it's rough, it's rough. But hey, we're all doing the best we can. And he's six -- according to the book, "Your Six-Year-Old: Loving and Defiant" by Louise Bates Ames at the Gesell Institute of Human Development, my child is pretty much right on the money with where he's supposed to be emotionally. He just needs some things explained in a way he can understand them, some maturity and some practice in social situations to get through the brunt of his issue.

When we got to the water park today, the girls were getting changed into their suits, but X-man was ready to play. So he ran over to the playground, found the two biggest boys and said, "Hi! I'm X-man. Can I play with you guys?"

They put their heads down and didn't say anything.Then they started to walk away.

So he followed them up the rope ladder they were climbing and said. "Whatcha guys playing? Can I play, too -- please?"

The older boy looked at the younger one, who nodded, and then he asked, "Only if you know Marvel superheroes."

X-man smiled this great big smile. "Can I be Wolverine?" The big boy nodded approvingly. Then off they went. Go X-man!

Then, at lunch, X-man was taking his food from me and every thing he touched he looked at me and said, "Will this make E sick?" He loves our friend's daughter who has food allergies. X-man adores E. He treats her like she's his baby sister. And he's very concerned that something might have slipped into the cooler that might make her sick.

I explain that the only thing she can't eat is the bread on his sandwich. He immediately picked it up and moved it as far away from E as possible. Then he helped himself to some of her potato chips. Then he shared his Pirate Booty with the girls. I started listing the ingredients and he said, "And it's Gluten-Free."

I responded by saying, "I don't know if it's gluten free. I don't see any wheat." And then he tells me to turn the package over because it says it's gluten free right on the front. Bravo, X-man. Bravo.

Right before we left the zoo to come home, X-man asked for a drink and a snack. I bought him some water and then he looked at the vending machines. "E can eat Skittles. But I feel like fruit snacks." I said I couldn't tell if they had soy in them, but if we got them and he sat in the back of the car, he should be okay. We bought them, and he immediately turned them over looking for the word, "soy."

I swear, I was ever so proud of him today.

Our team won our volleyball game tonight, so we're 4-1. We have another game on Thursday that X-man wants to go to. KTDID is supposed to be there, too. So he's excited to see me play and see his aunt. "She hasn't been over in like two weeks! And that's like forever!"

Okay, so maybe he's still a bit melodramatic. But come on, he's my kid, after all. :-)

Sweetness

This is totally how a fun summer should be. I got up and made it to my 8 a.m. Deep Water class. Then I went to the coffee shop and had a fruit cup and did some research on Grants that might help the library and finished up the board meeting minutes from July.

Then MacTroll called to say that he volunteered to take the 2 p.m. flight, so he could have lunch with X-man and I. X-man was at the Little Gym for Lights, Camera, Action camp. He was very excited about it and jabbered about it during lunch. We at lunch at Mas Amigos for the first time, where we had Edna, who used to work at El Toro as our server. I'm sure she doesn't remember us, but when we ate out 4 times a week back in the day, we went to the old Toro quite a bit. She was also in some classes with KTDID when she got her master's I believe.

Afterward we dropped MacTroll off and went home. I got to mow the lawn and then a catalog came advertising fancy Halloween costumes. X-man was in love with the idea of us being a family of pirates or him getting the oxygen tank part of the astronaut uniform to go with his uniform downstairs.

I told him he could dress as a pirate for the Storybook parade if they had one, since we read Treasure Island this summer. He liked that idea.

Then we ran some errands, which ended in him getting a mini Strawberry CheeseQuake Blizzard at 5 p.m. So he ate dinner at 7:30 p.m. We call that backwards night.

It wasn't until we were reading books that we both remembered that we had FORGOTTEN t-ball practice. Whoops!

Oh well.

Tomorrow we're heading to Bloomington with the neighbors to go to the spray park. I didn't think X-man would remember going there two years ago with Lightning McColin, but then tonight he said, "I can't wait to play in the pirate ship! He did remember!

It was a pleasant day. I hope every day this week is this way -- and I'm really excited about flying to California as a family on Friday to show X-man around and have some fun in San Francisco and San José.

Summer Photos

Here are some photos from things going on this summer. Lily having a good time. Loosey warming up playing volleyball with her team the Blockheads. X-man warming up at t-ball with his team the Tigers. And our fourth of July sparkler fun. 

Family Ties

Every spring since moving from D.C. we try to get out to see MacTroll's oldest brother and his family. They're the people on that side of the family that we're closest to, and since my oldest nephew was the first to call me Aunt Dana, even though he was born when I was 19 years old... they've always made it very clear that I am family and I love them for it.

We moved away when my nephew was 7, my niece was 4, and the youngest wasn't even born. And we've made it back every year except for two... the year I gave birth (my SIL came and helped us out for a week) and last year when we saw them in July at the family reunion instead.

We drove up to Baltimore and let X-man run around the Children's Museum with MacTroll. I tried to go shopping on the inner harbor, but there was nothing I really wanted to buy. So I went to Barnes and Noble and looked at books. I ended up buying one for myself and one for MacTroll. Then I sat in a Starbuck's (because the one in B&N was full) and played the Sims. Seriously -- for like an hour and a half.

Afterwards, we could tell a rain was coming in, so we drove into the suburbs to the family's house. We got there 45 minutes earlier than expected, but it wasn't a problem, because the youngest two kids were home and my BIL works out of the basement a lot telecommuting. Plus, there was a tornado at the airport just a few miles away. It was lovely of them to let us in. :-)

And then X-man went crazy. He had three children to interact with. He got to share a room with the youngest. He got to play with the Nerf Gun that the oldest got at a party (which is forbidden at our house). He got to go sailing on his Uncle's boat for most of Saturday near Annapolis. (In this photo X has the GPS and niece has the radio -- that gets music channels).

BIL doesn't have a slip, so he takes the rigging down each time they sail. This takes about an hour, so I looked after the kids. In order to stay awake after a long sail in the breeze and sun, I needed some caffeine.

Then on Sunday, my SIL and niece went to the Balitmore Farmers' Market. It was quite crowded, and I know I shouldn't have been as overwhelmed as I was (I had, after all been in the Smithsonian in June just a few days prior), but it was crazy. I have a thing against waiting in line for food. I just -- don't believe in it. I'd rather eat with the blue haired people than wait in a line for food.

But after I got some breakfast in me, and we moved on to a quieter part of the market (away from the pickle guy, the pea line and the coffee line) I found Dirty Carrots a Vegan bakery and bought a wheat-free cupcake. The cake itself was pretty yummy, but the icing needed a little work. My SIL also found the West Virginia peach guy, who was cutting up samples that were amazingly sweet.

Then that afternoon, my niece wanted to go see Dark Shadows for her birthday. She has a thing for Johnny Depp, which I totally understand, because I had the same thing circa 1988. (Remember the Winona Forever tattoo? That was my era.) Anyway, we went to the movies while the boys went to Laser Tag. MacTroll won. (He was quite proud of himself.)

Me though. I was in a PG-13 movie with a newly minted 14 year old. And I had an I'm old moment when in the film (sorry if this is a spoiler), the witch takes off her red lace panties and puts them on Johnny Depp's face in his coffin (he's a vampire -- which isn't a secret). And here's my niece sitting next to me and her Mom and I'm like, "Really? Was that necessary? I have a kid here!" And then I remembered that they didn't have PG-13 when I was a kid. And that Ghostbusters had all kinds of foul language and violence and sexual what not (sleeping six feet above the covers!). And I just needed to get over it. For the most part I did, but for a lot of the sexual stuff, I was fidgety about it.

And I remember being the kid in that situation. I went to go see Pretty Woman with my dad. I have no idea why. That was a bad choice -- probably for both of us.

It was much easier to go see Lord of the Flies with him. Then the only embarrassing moment was in the first 10 seconds on the island when there's a bird call and my dad says, "That was a loon! There are no loons in the tropics!"

(If you don't know... my dad is a bird guy. He's not an ornithologist, but he was the past president of the American Birding Association. And yes, that's a real organization.)

I always told people who asked me why my dad vacationed so much in South America that he was a drug dealer. :-) But really, he was an attorney to pay for his birdwatching career. :-)

So, remind me when X is 13 and wants to go see a PG-13 movie with me -- the answer is no. We'll just stay in PG land forever -- together.

It was a great trip. And, as always, X-man has O'Hare airport down like the back of his hand. We can't wait to take him to California next month.

Sorta on top of things... Sorta not

I'm an organizer. I really am. I'm not neat or spotless, but I usually have my shit together. But every once in a while my brain totally reboots and I'm a bit lost in the woods. Over the last month, it's been happening more and more. I get dates confused, places confused, people confused. I started calling two of my students by the wrong name. It's a bit odd. This usually means I'm over busy... but it's the last push until summer, so it's not like I can give up now.

I've been planning out X-man's summer. The only thing that's not fitting in right now is swim lessons. He isn't a giant fan of his current instructor, and I can see why. But he doesn't want to go to group lessons. I'm also trying to figure out my own summer goals. They're big. And they will take every free moment that X-man is away at camp, and gym with available childcare when I need it, and probably not just a designated couple hours in the day.

On a good note, the four camps X-man wants to do, I've signed him up for. They're half day programs. He's also feeling like he's outgrowing the Little Gym, so I'm going to bank the rest of the classes and use them for parent night outs. Because he likes the free time, but not so much the classes. I think after being in school all day -- he's kind of had a full day of following directions, so when he gets home, he just wants to chill or play.

And I don't blame him. Same with summer. It shouldn't completely be planned. There should be free time. There should be time to be a kid... and then claim to be bored all day.

AFTER the heat wave...

Who wants to come hang out on my new patio? The new furniture came and is almost all put together. The fire pit has been tested and works... MacTroll got a new, better insulated top for the hot tub delivered today, so as soon as we get that set up, we can fill the tub (maybe with cold water since it's 110 stupid degrees out).

I know some folks are starting back to school, so it's count down time for the rest of us who aren't on a balanced schedule.

I'll supply the s'mores and some bannock with various jams. You bring your own drinks.

Grizzly Jack's

Tomorrow the family and I leave for Grizzly Jack's in Utica, IL for MacTroll's family reunion. There are no kids on my side of the family, so this is X-man's shot at playing with all of his cousins. We're particularly close to the cousins from Baltimore, and we missed our Memorial Day trip to see them this year. But we're also seeing cousins from Michigan and California that X-man has only met once or twice before. Reviews for the lodge have been very mixed on the adult side, but most of the kids we know who have been thought it was fine, and for four days, that's pretty much what's important. We have two rental house-like places for 18 of us to stay. There's an indoor amusement park and an indoor water park. Starved Rock State Park is across the street, so we're investigating some walks.

I've been on a mission to reel in the eating since Monday. It's working out okay, but most of my physical activity has been household labor like tree digging and mulching in crazy hot weather. But Utica isn't exactly filled with non-fast food places or with chains that have met the calorie printing provision, so I'm packing in my own food -- just to be safe. It helps that there are kitchens, so I can take along my little blender and my popcorn maker. I decided rather than look like an ass and cook my own dinners separately from the pizza and grill out that is bound to happen, that I'll just take my meals in the box from HMR.

I'm also taking walking shoes, so I can head out and about. The hardest part of all of this is going to be leaving Lily for four days. We have an overnight petsitter coming to the house, and Super Shanna is going to drop by twice on Tuesday and twice on Wednesday. But I still feel guilty. But since she doesn't get her second booster until the 15th, it's really safer for her to stay home than go with us into the land of nature.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. We roll out of town Monday in the afternoon and will return Thursday by 11 a.m. I've got Rotary at noon and then on Friday, we're taking X-man to Carrie Busey to eat in the cafeteria for breakfast at 8 a.m. as part of the free food for kids  summer program. Then at 10 a.m., MacTroll and I are taking everyone in the Black and White Mafia (and their newest canine member) to the vet for annual check ups. Just imagine us with three geriatric cats and a puppy... while X-man plays with KTDID.

Summer of Science

When X-man and I sat down in the spring to talk about our summer plans. I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to play t-ball, take swimming lessons (he can't go down the yellow slide at Sholem until he can swim the length of that part of the pool) and do science.

So each week I've been coming up with some science activities. We did the good old vinegar in a bottle, baking soda in a balloon, and then you put the balloon over the bottle and the gas inflates the balloon. We planted the garden together. We took a field trip to the Anita Purves Nature Center. We studied life cycles when Riley died.

We're also experimenting with new foods. Each week, X-man picks a new fruit or vegetable that he's never tried at the store. He's been kind of mellow about it. The first week he picked red bananas. The second week he had escarole. The third week he chose a pink lady apple. The trade off is that for trying it, he also gets to pick a snack of something we wouldn't normally buy... His favorite is to pick from the bulk bin. Week 1 was 12 gummi worms, week 2 was an ice cream treat, week 3 was yogurt covered pretzels. (I usually only buy those in airports. :-)

Today, we continued our lessons in nutrition -- and a little bit in food art. We made a watermelon cake. X-man got to practice a little fine motor skills by inserting the bamboo sticks into the watermelon like candles, and then he got to practice with a melon baller. He also used blueberries and strawberries.

Here's a sample of his effort. (Then we cut slices like a cake.)

Next time, he said he wants to make fancy pineapple shapes, even though he hates eating pineapple. :-) Maybe we can make them out of mango instead.

Good idea

Every summer, I host an event at my house for the parents I know called "The SWAP." It started out over at Libbygirl's house, but it got big and popular really quickly, so we moved it to my house, which still wasn't enough space. So it kind of takes over my house... :-)

It works like this: Parents bring over all the kid-related stuff that their munchkins have grown out of or don't play any more and I set it up like a giant garage sale in my garage. Except nothing is for sale. Everything is free. At the same time, we have a potluck. MacTroll and I buy some pizza and everyone else brings side dishes, desserts, drinks, etc., and we all hang out, eat, and fill up our cars. At the end the left over clothes are taken to Headstart in Urbana. And the left over toys are taken to Goodwill. The books are donated to the Tolono Library (or Libbygirl might take them to Prairie School in Urbana since Mr. Libby operates their book cart).

It's a lot of work to set up, but I totally love doing it. I also love having all the families at my house for a few hours. As the kids grow up, we see less and less of each other. They all go to different schools or are enrolled in different after-school activities. But they totally still remember each other and they like to get together. And the truth is, once upon a time, I used to see these parents two to three times a week. Now I'm lucky if I get to see them once a month. So it's totally nice to have them over and catch up.

And this year, we'll have our new patio, so I hope it doesn't rain!

We Have a Winner

Okay, thanks to Kingsley Pines, I am now a HUGE family camp fan. I loved it. I spent 4 hours away from my child a day... where he was off with children his own age for 3 hours (not consecutively) and one hour with all the big kids. And every other minute of the day we had choices to do together as a family OR we could just choose to do things together on our own.

Each day had 3 - 1 hour long sessions. The grown ups got to pick activities (there were usually 3 or 4 listed) while the kids had designated ones. Day 1 for X-man was space science camp. He spent the day using science to blow things up (think vinegar and baking soda, mentos and diet coke, etc.), including a paper rocket he made himself. As he's become quite the little Ms. Frizzle fan lately, he thought this was pretty much the best way to spend the day ever.

Until Day 2 came along... and he spent it playing water games, making sandcastles and jumping on the Blob (a water trampoline) in the middle of the lake. 4 kids... 2 counselors. I could hear him screaming, "Announcement! Cannonball!" As he leapt into the water.

Day 3 was pretty cool too. The kids made their own popsicles, maracas, went frog hunting and got to get suited up in their life preservers again -- this time to go on the super fast ski boat, where they each got to take turns pretending to be captain and telling the driver where to go.

Day 4 was, sadly, our last day. X-man was ready to go play some more water games, make ice cream (which is so a CARE meet up I'm going to have to do) and go down the slip and slide.

Each day for parents included activity choices like volleyball, rock climbing (on a wall), chipping and putting, basketball, tennis, water skiing/wake boarding, jewelry making, yoga, swing dancing, high ropes course, low ropes course, ceramics, archery, circus skill practice, art, mountain biking, tubing, rope swinging into the lake, hiking, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, water polo, etc.

I tried a couple things I'd never done before including water skiing and rock climbing. I loved the rock climbing, but didn't really appreciate getting dragged behind a boat. I finally stood up while on a "boom" (a metal bar that sticks out the side of the boat) that they use to help the kids get started, but after spending 3-5 minutes doing that, I decided, it really wasn't all that much fun. Tubing, however, was another story. The last time I went I was 14. I was on an old time tube that was doughnut shaped. I fell through and my lifejacket got caught. It was scary... but this time, it was like the lazy boy of tubes. All I had to do was hold onto the handles. I laughed and screamed and giggled through the whole thing. It was awesome. I also scheduled one session on Days 2, 3 and 4 for Loosey-only quiet time. Some days I napped for an hour. Other days, I just sat in my room reading or on Facebook.

I also played volleyball three mornings while I was there. I hadn't played really since high school. But it was fun. My team won 2/3 games each day. Day 2, we played 4 on 4, but on Day 3 and 4, Counselor David from Florida and I whooped ass as a 2 on 2 team. If you see me, I'm covered in bruises all up and down my legs and arms. I have two skinned knees and I'm pretty sure I pulled my right tricep, so I'm a little slow when putting my hair in a ponytail... But it felt great. Now I want to find a volleyball league. Too bad it's too late to find a sand one around here. :-) What was most amazing was that I had NO BACK PAIN through any of these activities. None. Not a bit. Other stuff hurt... but not my back. And it was the good kind of hurt.

The food was really pretty good, too. At breakfast you could pretty much guarantee that you'd have eggs of some kind with potatoes and some kind of breakfast meat each day. But you could also get custom eggs made for you in the kitchen (MacTroll is a sucker for omelet bars!), a yogurt parfait bar with four different kinds of yogurt, lots of fruit and some pretty good granola; a steel cuts oatmeal bar with lots of fixings; a row of different cereals to choose from and a bunch of variety of breads and bagels to toast with different jellies, butters, etc. to top them with. Sometimes there were cinnamon rolls or pastries, too. There were also at least five different kinds of non-soda beverages at each meal. X-man was particularly fond of following in the big kid footsteps and mixing the grape with the lemonade at every meal.

Lunch was usual lunch fair... hamburger and french fries day, make your own sandwich, hard or soft shell tacos and pizza days.

Dinner went all over the place. Usually there was a chicken and a fish option with some kind of roasted or grilled vegetables. There was always a salad bar that kicked ass. Seriously, there was all kinds of fresh veggies and fruits at every meal. Lots of vegetarian options, too. Tofu and soy milk were available for those with special needs. And he'd cook special side dishes for families with allergy issues.

The last night was a giant cookout with Maine Lobsters, steak, ratatouille, hot dogs and hamburgers. Lots of corn on the cob, rolls, etc.

Every day there was a snack at 3. It was usually frozen grapes or popsicles of some kind. Then every night there was a special dessert like strawberry cobbler or this cookie and chocolate bread thing that came off a bit like a brownie got loose in a Nilla wafer factory.

We didn't starve -- and I'm kind of sure that even though my pants fit, I'll have some work to do getting back to my goal weight area. :-)

Our cabin was in the "little girls'" camp. The youngest children who attend the camp during the kids-only part of the summer start at 8 years. So, they stay in groups of 10 with one or two counselors living with them. They have two toilets in their cabin, two sinks, a small shower and electricity. That means, X-man got to sleep in the top bunk of one of the five bunk beds in the room. It was handmade, so they had put 12" sides on it to prevent kids from falling out of the bed. MacTroll and I ended up pushing the two counselor beds together. :-)

But he had somewhere to charge his iPad. And we didn't have to make any mad dashes through the woods to get X-man to a bathroom in the middle of the night (which I really didn't want to do). And, unlike all the times we tried to camp in the backyard, X-man knew there was no other sleeping option, so the kid just dragged himself up into his bunk, put his head on his pillow and was out every night by 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. That's 7:30 at home. He was up every day at 8 a.m. excited and ready to go. But there were nights after dinner when I wondered if he was going to make it to the evening activity. He always managed to find a second wind.

The other nice part about the cabins were that they were strangely bug free. I didn't see a spider or a mosquito the whole time I was in there. They also came with two big box fans, so we could cool down, since the weather was unseasonably warm (91 and sunny each day and 75 at night).

Outside the cabin was a community fire pit, so on Wednesday night, we brought out our s'mores supplies and shared with the other families in our neighborhood. The other common area bathrooms were complete with automatic flush toilets (no lie), brand new sinks and faucets, plenty of soap and antibacterial gel dispensers and automatic paper towel dispensers. They also gave us a list of wireless passwords so you could get online, no matter where your cabin was. Sans blague.

And this brings us to the people -- the people, were mostly east coasters outside of the two families from Utah. Lots of folks from New York and New Jersey, a few from the D.C. area, a couple from Maine. Most of the Coughlan family that owns the camp comes in and uses the second week of family camp as a kind of informal family reunion at the camps the family patriarchs bought in 1984. Now various cousins share ownership of it. They were all very nice people.

On the last night of camp, the kids were running around from carnival attraction to carnival attraction. I couldn't STOP X-man from putting whipped cream pies in counselor Conor's face. I figured as long as counselor "Danimal" kept handing them to him, I'd let him go a while. Anyway, I stood in the field and looked up at the big trees and wondered how many groups of people they'd seen participate in the last night Carnival and how it might have changed since the 1960s.

The best thing about family camp is that you pay for everything up front. Once you step on the property, you don't pull out your wallet for anything. Unlike a Disney vacation, where you would pay for airfare and hotel and a meal package... and then pull it out for stuffed animals and toys and special excursions. Everything was covered in your payment. The price for the Sunday night through Friday a.m. was $695 per adult and $340 per child (over the age 4 and up). It included food and lodging.

On our way out, they gave us a list of the families with e-mail addresses, so we could stay in touch and send pictures. Plus, they gave us a pre-registration for next year. The only problem -- X-man's kindergarten start and my school start are the same week as the first week of their family camp. Another family there had pulled their child out of first grade for the week. Maybe for first grade, but definitely not for kindergarten, with us. And, well, if I'm at Eastern working on a second master's degree, I'm less likely to want to take off, too. I was disappointed, but I know if it ever works out in the future, we'll be back there in a flash. I wonder if some day X-man will want to return there just to go to summer camp for a couple weeks.

It also has me looking at other family camps in places closer to home like Wisconsin. I'm having some difficulty finding some that aren't basically family bible camps. That doesn't really jive with our family, but I did find a Y one outside of Milwaukee, which does have some possibilities. :-) If anyone's interested there's a 4-day weekend one Memorial Day and a 4-day weekend one Labor Day 2011.

House renovations

When MacTroll and I built our house there were  few things we wanted to do that we couldn't afford at the time, so we put them in a holding pattern. One was a backsplash in the kitchen. The other was having more wood floors than carpet (life with a child, pets and a spouse who cannot learn to take off his shoes).

Then we found out we needed to tile around our bathtub because if X-man bathes in it... water is EVERYWHERE. So, over the next few weeks we'll be doing updates here and there to accomplish theses tasks. I'll put up some before and after photos when we're all done.

But you know what I should be doing? Getting the last of the pile of mulch that's been in our drive for a month off of it and onto the gardens... oh wait, they need to be weeded first. Sigh. Love summer. Just when I get the outside kicked into shape, I go inside and all hell has broken loose in there!

And then it's time to go back to school...

Speaking of, X-man moves to the 4 year old room on Monday. He's visiting all day today in All Stars II. He says he's excited to be in a building with no babies only big kids. He also starts swimming from 3:30-4:15 every day next Monday.

Stories about summer the way it's supposed to be

1) Right now there are three children in the open lot behind my house playing with dirt and rocks. They're new to the neighborhood, and they're outside a lot during the day. They look around 10, 8 and 3 years of age. As I've done yard work this week, I've seen them out running in the sprinkler, catching lightning bugs and piling onto a large skateboard as they soar down the driveway. They were so cute walking across the lots. Big kid on either side of little brother, holding both of his hands so he didn't fall down in the weeds or dirt.

Their mother and father are never very far away. Right now, the mother has just joined her children to wrangle them back to the house. English is a second language, but I'm not sure what their first language is. It sounds Eastern European. Either way, I focus on them in a different way than I focus on X-man when we're outside. When we're outside, we're riding bikes, drawing with chalk or in the sandbox. It's usually just X-man and me and I'm engaged in the summer play, so I don't really get a chance to sit back and enjoy his contentment and love for being outdoors exploring and getting dirty. 

I remember running around the neighborhood with my pals when I was younger, and I'm loving the fact that sometime all too soon, X-man will be running around the neighborhood with a group of kids exploring and looking out for each other, just like these siblings are. 

2) We took X-man down to Tolono to the new Double Dip last night. It's all soft serve ice cream. X-man's child's-sized cup of vanilla was 50 cents, so we splurged had them add some M&Ms. MacTroll's small hot fudge sundae was $2. It was busy but not insane. But it felt nice to share a table with another family and eat some ice cream on a lovely summer evening. I think we'll be going back a few more times this summer. I'm assuming it'll be a seasonal business like Jarling's. 

3) Last night I was hanging out with SuperShanna, delivering a cucumber from our garden, and watching X-man and WonderGirl ride bikes and a woman pulled up. At first we got nervous, like she was there to sell us something (I hate door-to-door solicitations). But she introduced herself as new to Prairie Fields, and asked about some of the scrap cedar that SuperShawn had from building his fence. In a flash, Shawn was measuring out some pieces for her and putting them in her car so she could make them into garden boxes. We went over our names again, and now I'll have a new friend to wave at when I walk in the mornings. 

4) Wet Dogs. We had an incident in the neighborhood on Sunday. Apparently, the coyotes decided to make a swing through the empty lots while SuperShanna was walking her Lab, Cooper. Cooper was on a leash, or he would have taken off after the coyote. But the insane noises that came from Cooper seeing the coyote and the coyote seeing Cooper were pretty impressive. Anyway, yesterday, KTDID and I tried to take our dogs on the usual 3-mile walk (which has gone from a 60-minute work out to a 48-minute workout, as I've progressed in speed over the summer) but when we got to the empty lot two doors down from my house, her dog, Zoe put her nose in the air and immediately sat down. Two sniffs later and she was backtracking dragging KTDID with her. She was clearly spooked. We're going to guess it was the smell of coyote urine.

So, we tried to entice Z0e to go into Dana Colbert park on the other side of our house. No one was there, so when we got close to the lake, we let the dogs off leash for a little bit. And Riley immediately jumped in the lake after some fish and started swimming around. Zoe stood with her feet in the water (a southern California dog) bewildered at still water. Apparently, her off-leash dog park was on a beach, where the waves rolled in and dogs just ran up and down the surf. 

The two of them got a nice bunch sprints and jogs and sniffs, and we walked up and down the hill a bit, so they slept all afternoon yesterday. 

5) I finally planted lilies on the west side of my fence. I spent all afternoon yesterday weeding and digging and watering. It looks MUCH better. I still have to put down mulch and weed under where our bench is going to sit, but I'm progressing slowly. I couldn't find any peony bushes that I liked any more, so I'm going to order them with my fall bulbs and put them in this October. Then I should be done... yeah, right. :-)

Moving along...

Monday we went to Great America.

Thursday we're driving to Baltimore for a long weekend. 

The Sunday after we return we're headed out to California for 8 days. 

Then we'll be up in Rockford for Father's day.

Then my Mom will be down here for a long weekend.

Then it's July 4, and that's when I usually consider summer over. 

It's so short when you write about your whole summer in six sentences.

Out! Out! Outside!

This morning began with a simple breakfast, then a tree planting, some garden box building and then a massive impromptu neighborhood play date followed by lunch, some more garden box building, a trip to the grocery store, another impromptu neighborhood play date. Then a scheduled cookout with the neighbors. 

By the time X-man had a bath, read three stories and turned off the light he was so tired that he needed help into bed. I love the warm weather, even if my kid had to change his clothes three times today and we both got a little sunburn on our forearms. 

Thomas and the Wiggles

I'm scoping out some fun family field trips for us to take, and it looks like we're going to get a little bit of Thomas and the Wiggles in May and a little bit of both in August. 

My mother's day weekend is going to be spent in the Chicago Burbs with X-man, Quigs and Bubba seeing a Thomas show and doing some shopping. Then if the weather is good, MacTroll and I are going to head back up north to Gurnee to go to Great America (Six Flags) so X-man can see Wiggle World. We're calling it a warm up for his trip to Disneyland's California Adventure park in June.

In August, the Wiggles are going to be in Bloomington for a show, and Thomas will be up in Union for "A Day Out With Thomas." (We went last year and had a ball!) 

Summer is my time to get a lot of stuff done around the house, which is good because for the last several weeks, everything has been pretty much neglected due to an increase in homework at the end of the semester. So, I'm ready to spend my summer having a good time with X-man, which reminds me, I need to go pick up my pool pass so I can swim laps! 

"Summer lovin' had me a blast"

Summers are always so busy and full. The great part is that they're full of fun stuff. This week already we've played at Eisner, Victory and Prairie Fields Parks. We went to see Zydeco music. We went to a birthday party. We went for a walk in Busey Woods and played at the Nature Center. We swam in the pool in the backyard and put X-man in the hot tub for the first time (while running down the rules with him and having him repeat them back to us, which we'll be doing from now until he's 18, I'm sure.). 

Tomorrow is our first day all week we won't be meeting up with friends after pre-school. Instead, I think we're going to head down to the Tolono Library to finally turn in our summer reading card. We started on day one, but due to our busy social schedule haven't had time to run down and check out books to add to our list (the requirement for the TL is that the books he gets credit for have to be checked out from TL -- not any library -- just TL). 

X-man has also become a shrewd negotiator at bedtime. :-) The rule is that after we take a bath and brush our teeth we can watch a show in Mama and Dada's room. But the show has to be one that Mama and Dada want to watch (i.e. no Bob the Builder). 

On Tuesday, X-man pointed to my laptop and said, "Bob!" 

I said I didn't want to watch Bob. He quietly thought about his options for a few minutes and then said, "Doctor! Doctor Who!"

And, I lit up like a Christmas Tree. 

X-man, like his parents, seems to already share an interest in science fiction and fantasy. He loves Doctor Who, Harold and the Purple Crayon (the books and the TV series) and the book Mars Needs Moms. He was a fan of Wall-E instantly too. He thinks rockets are cool. I'm wondering if I started him on the early years of Star Trek: Next Generation if he'd turn instant Trekkie or hold out until the big exposure to Star Wars (or eeghads Buffy!).

Either way, that stuff will have to wait until the winter. As it is, we don't really have time for too much TV. We're too busy running around outside. 

It's supposed to be 91 degrees tomorrow. So after the couple of appointments I have, I'll be out with my paint can trying to finish the east side of the fence. Then I plan on mowing the weeds in the empty lot behind us and then trimming along the south side of the fence... just in time for scattered storms on Saturday. 

I should, however, have a killer tan (i.e. sunburn) if we reach 91 degrees and sunny tomorrow.

Tonight, I got to watch my son fall asleep in my arms. He likes to look out the window as he drifts off (another something special he shares with his Mom and with Harold). He sniffs his blanket and once or twice throws his arms out like he's doing the infant falling instinct. 

Today we visited Slumberland and purchased his mattress. We're waiting for one more piece to his full bed, and then he'll be in big boy land -- except for the potty training. That's a whole challenge for 2009. :-P 

Until then, we're going to keep having fun. 

Update: 11:15 p.m. Um, WTF, there's this HUGE wind at my house right now. Like storm wind, but there's nothing on the forecast -- but it is on the radar. But here comes the rain and what sounds like tiny pieces of hail. Maybe no painting tomorrow afterall!