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.

Summer Vacation

We just returned from our first summer vacation. We left to go see family in Maryland the day after school got out. But first, MacTroll had some meetings he had to take care of in Virginia so we found ourselves in downtown DC for the first time in a long while.

In that time, I took X-man to the Smithsonian to Bluemont Junction Playground in Arlington and to the Melting Pot for his first fondue meal (where we met back up with Mactroll for dinner). We also tried a new-to-us place for breakfast in Foggy Bottom near my old apartment for breakfast called the Founding Farmers which was wonderful.

But mostly, it was nice to see how the old hoods have grown. Even if it meant that Generous George's pizza in Alexandria isn't there any more!

Being that it was last minute, and I had X with me, I didn't get to see any of our peeps except for Ian of the East and his lovely wife ML. One of these days, I'm going to go back with a healthy foot to run the Tidal Basin and by myself so I can see everyone.

I'll post the photos from our Maryland part of the trip tomorrow. :-)

Off We Go

Tomorrow we're on the 7 a.m. flight to DCA (Washington National to old timers, Reagan National Airport to newbies). We're staying at the Sheraton Four Points downtown. I'm excited because it means that we can walk to the National Mall from the hotel.

We'll be staying downtown for two nights and then we'll drive up to Baltimore to take X-man to the Children's Museum and then to his cousins on Friday night, where we'll stay until Monday morning.

We usually go to their house every Memorial Day, but decided that rather than rushing back so X-man could attend 75 minutes of school to get his report card... we'd just leave the day after school got out instead.

So, Lily is off at Doggies on the Farm. Fetch is caring for all four cats, and Super Shanna is in charge of the gardens if it doesn't rain on Thursday. :-)

Me? I'm hoping to take X-man to the Natural History Museum, The National Museum of American History and Arlington National Cemetery (he is the kid who likes to picnic in graveyards).

We're also taking him to his first fondue restaurant in Arlington on Thursday night.

When we get back, X-man starts his twice a week swim lessons with a new instructor at the YMCA. We've also scheduled a couple play dates with some friends from school and I have to finish calling folks to do estimates on some of the jobs I have around the house. I already have a fix it man and a plumber coming to look at my list. It would be nice if all the stuff I can't do myself was all done by July. But we'll see. I know I'll have Picasso and Sons back in January to do some touch ups in the basement and take care of some nail pops upstairs in the hallway and master bedroom.

I'll also need to call Dr. K and ask him to schedule an ultra sound on my ankle. Wearing the brace and taking a lot of anti-inflammatories isn't doing much but making my stomach upset and wanting to me to eat more to try to make it less yucky feeling. Funny how that's always been my drive. Maybe if I eat more, my stomach will feel better rather than -- don't eat anything. Oh well.

Today, X-man went with me to pick up the books from the book drops and take them to the library. They were full, so it was a big job, but as always, he helped me out. Then when we got to the library, he took his special library bag with his big boy library card looped to it on a D-Ring and went to the Easy Reader section. Some brilliant person had finally divided the easy readers up by levels. Not that the various publishers have done us the favor of making a level 1 meet the same criteria across the publishing field, but it X-man knew he fell between the K and the level 2s somewhere. He pulled out all the books he wanted to read himself (because that's required this year as a first grader in the reading program), then he pulled out picture books he wanted to read to me and then he got some graphic novels (one Spiderman and one Pokemon) that he wants me to read to him.

When it was time to check out I knew I had two books on hold for me. He said, "Mom, there are kids on this side. You go to the other side." So I did. And he waited for two bigger boys to check out and then he dutifully pulled every book out one by one and talked to the staff member about his last day of kindergarten, how he could read most of the books by himself, but that he might need Mom to help put them back in the bag. And how he was excited because he was finally big enough to take care of himself at the library.

And it was nice, to sit at the library and have nothing to do. No books to search for my class. No jealous X-man wondering why I spent so much time bringing my classroom books than him books (to be fair I checked out 70 books per unit for my 19 students... and he got 15 books a week just for one kid).

But it was nice to see that independence. Sometimes, I wonder where it went. Because when he was 3 if I even tried to do something for him, he got angry. But the last year has been a lot of whining about how he can't do things. So, today, was a nice change of pace.