From which tree did that apple fall?

Here is how a typical scenario plays out.  “Connor, don’t do that.”  “Daddy, please.”  “Connor children play with toys not with tools.”  Enter Josie stage left.  “Josie play with tools too.”  “No Josie, put that down, Connor put that down!”  “Connor you are being a bad influence.” Insert burp noise and giggle.  “Daddy please don’t say no.”  And then he pushes a hand truck (dolly) down the driveway while I take a screwdriver away from Josie.

Yes of course they have two sets of fisher price and little tikes tools. Complete with power drills, a jig saw, and a circular saw.  There are hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, levels, squares, nuts, bolts, a hack saw, a vice, and even a caliper.  But are these interesting to Connor?  Occasionally, but he asks me almost every day if he can play with a daddy tool.

It’s not just tools, today he made a bridge with a leaf from our dining table that he found.  Later he was doing some things with other daddy stuff.  The good news is he no longer plays with the car buttons (kind of), and he doesn’t touch the electronics (Iphones and Ipads notwithstanding).  As I was expressing my frustration around some of this stuff, Nita attempted to set me straight.  “Marco, that kid is smart.  He knows the difference between a toy and the real thing and he wants to be just like you.  He wants to help you and pretend he is doing the things you do.”  Well that was a bit below the belt.  Here I was going in to talk about re-upping our discipline strategy and she pulls the ole’ “he loves you this much” bit on me. 

So what do you do?  Thank goodness for Josie.  Now she is fine and dandy playing with toys and dolls.  Nita says Connor is all “boy” and Josie is all “girl.”  And you can see it by looking at them.  Connor has about 2 bruises and 10 scrapes and cuts at any given time. Josie is spotless.  She doesn’t even like getting that muddy unless Connor is muddy and then it’s on!  Although I think it is only because she loves baths so much.  She knows dirty equals bathtime.

Her new thing is shoes. (Why do I have a feeling this is going to cost me huge in the coming years).  She loves to wear different shoes.  Mine, Nita’s, Connors, and her own, it doesn’t matter.  And she doesn’t want any help, even it if takes her 15 minutes, she’s going to try to put them on herself.  And if you put them on for her, she pulls them off and starts over.  Then she’ll walk around the house in her new shoes and model them…until she falls.  She is little Miss independent task, but she loves an audience.  And she is learning so much so fast.  I remember when Connor was in this sponge stage, it was really exciting.  Josie has a monstrous vocabulary and has quite a repertoire of songs and phrases.  She also has a cute little sense of humor and quite a little mischievous side to her as well.  I think one of these days they are going to be dangerous.

Occasionally I hear them talking to each other and it’s pretty adorable.  Plus I was just informed that in their summer school whenever Connor walks by her classroom he peeks in and waves to Josie much to her delight.  I also heard that today they were doing a little sing and dance program and Josie was hugging Connor so tight that he couldn’t do his dance.  But he didn’t push her away or get annoyed.  He’s such a good kid.  Josie does get in his space too often, but he seems to be pretty cool about it most of the time.  However, my fear is once they realize it’s them against us, or worse yet they conspire to divide and conquer, I think we’re in for some trouble.  Now I don’t anticipate that two kids whose combined ages are under 6 are going to get the better of us, but man they are SMART.  Some of the things they figure out and some of the logical connections they make are pretty impressive. So I’ll still feel like a moron if/when they do it, but I’ll also have a little bit of pride going.

I had a couple of business trips over the last couple of weeks and Josie is still talking about Tappa, and now bah-ti-moe.  I also made the mistake of bringing a present each time.  I remember my dad would bring me little things when he went, but that was maybe once a year, twice tops.  Now the kids are giving me requests.  I told them that I have two more trips coming this summer and Connor is giving me his wish list for things that I might find at those destinations.  I think next he’s going to inspect my suitcase to make sure I have room for whatever he asked for.

Last weekend was pretty hot.  Okay, so summer in Texas is kind of like winter in Minnesota.  It is what it is, so you look for fun indoor activities.  Nita found a nifty little exotic pet store that even had a sloth.  That was our indoor zoo trip.  Well, the lady at the store fell in love with Connor and the next thing you know he’s holding a black scorpion and a tarantula.  Daddy was freaking out.  We all know how much I love stinging bugs.

It all stems from an incident when I was about 7 and I was trying to lure some yellow jackets off of my grandmother’s porch overhang.  My plan was to lure them towards me and once they flew at me to use my cat like reflexes to kill them with a tennis racquet.  I baited them with a stick and they didn’t move.  I went to retrieve my stick and all at once they came at me.  I wasn’t ready for the coordinated attack and took about six stings to my chin and cheek. This did not please me.  I remember some ice, some tough love from dad, and some swelling. I remember shooting them with my BB gun when they’d fly to our little kiddie pool (for the animals we had).  I also got stung there while “picking up my trophies.”  Dad had to dig out a bee stinger from my thumb that time.  I’ve never really been the same around bees, wasps and yellow jackets since.  Yes I do realize that I instigated those things, it doesn’t matter.

Anyhoo, so far Connor the butterfly whisperer is still fearless.  We think he’s going to be the next crocodile hunter (hopefully with a much longer running show and a completely different outcome).  Josie is all girl.  This weekend at her cousin’s birthday party she got some clip on earrings and a ring.  She paraded around in her jewelry for the next two days.  It was pretty cute.  I am still stunned at her vocabulary and retention.  She is really smart and can remember events from several months ago.  She’ll be 21 months on Aug 10, so that’s way ahead of Connor at this time.  An example is we were driving down MoPac and Connor was calling out names of the “machines” he saw (tractors, front loaders, cranes, etc.) when Josie said, “Maybe we’ll see a train.”  Now it had been several weeks since we’ve seen a train on MoPac and here she goes just calling it out of the blue.  Then she said she wanted to go to the mall to ride the train.  Way to go Josie.  Oh and speaking of indoor, Nita’s mom’s group set up a “make your own pizza” party down the street at a local pizza joint.  Good times.

Finally, the kids are very aware of what is going on.  They ask me about going to work and if I’m coming back (business trips).  When I go to play golf they ask if I’m playing in a tournament (like that is the only justifiable reason to leave them).  It’s getting tougher as they get smarter and more aware.  I sure cannot wait until they have the ability to ride around and play with daddy for a full 18.

Earth called says “Don’t worry, I got it.”

Austin has seen about 11 inches of rain in July.  Not bad considering we only had about 18 inches all of last year and every single day in July was over 100 degrees in 2011.  And by “not bad,” I mean this has been an AWESOME July so far.  What makes it better is that Connor and Josie love to play in the water, pool, puddles, they don’t care.  And it’s a little cooler outside for them to be able to enjoy the days.  It cracks me up how people use weather cycles to further different agendas as though we are significant enough to change these cycles.  Don’t get me started.

Josie has quite a little memory on her.  First of all she knows all the different animal hosts and puppets in the different Baby Einstein dvds we have.  Her favorite is Baby Noah and she loves the flamingos.  So when I went to Tampa for a business trip last week, I picked up a little beanie baby flamingo.  Josie LOVES it.  She sleeps with it now and carries it all around the house.  And before I left for my trip, Josie was nice enough to help me with my luggage.  When the baby sitter came by on Saturday night Josie was explaining that daddy got her the flamingo and brought it on the airplane.  The flamingo has “Florida” on it and I told the sitter about that.  Josie immediately corrected me and said I got it from Tampa!  Nice work sweetie.

Also, Sunday night was supposed to be Nita and her girlfriends and the kids for a trip to see theater in the park. The play was “The Sound of Music” at Zilker.  While they were doing that I took Josie out on a daddy daughter date.  We had a great time and then the rain came down in buckets again.  By the way, if you haven’t done it, you might consider a UPS back up.  It’s an Uninterruptable Power Supply that can run several devices for a couple of hours with a power surge or electrical outing.  It was designed for computer systems, but I figured why not protect your TV, DVD, Surround sound, Blue ray, etc.?  AND, it keeps the little ones from freaking out if the lights flicker because the movie keeps playing.  So there’s that.  Technically if your electricity went out for an extended amount of time you could plug a couple of fans (or heaters) into it.  I don’t sell them, I’m just saying.

Anyway, Josie and I went to Jims for dinner and then came back home while the flood waters were rising.  But during dinner she was such little chatterbox.  Her vocabulary is blowing up!  And one of her funny mannerisms is that she will not excuse a lack of understanding.  I’m not saying she doesn’t tolerate fools, I mean when she says something you must repeat it back to her to confirm the message was received loud and clear.  When repeat it back to her and then answer the question or comment on the statement, she smiles.  When you don’t understand she’ll repeat it, over and over and over and over and over and over again.  She will not let you just say, “Oh, yes sweetheart, that’s great.”  Bullshit, you better say it back and annunciate when you do it.  So in the restaurant we identified all the art, the koala bears, butterflies, cows, etc.  She was an absolute hoot.  I really enjoyed our little date, we even had peach cobbler ala mode and she led the mealtime prayer.  And Josie was calling it a date all day, it was pretty cute.  The nice man at the register offered to walk out with us with an umbrella.  No thanks, my kids like getting wet.  No one is worried about melting at the Martinez house.

Back to the storm.  It was actually kind of scary at a couple of water crossings near the golf course.  In fact our signature water hole was so full and having so much water funnel into it that it was overflowing the overflow channel. It looked like the bottom of a waterfall with really violent foam and some pretty choppy rapids.  It was beautiful to watch but the sounds easily let us know that it wasn’t a good idea to stick around.  I snapped a quick picture with my phone, but should have taken a quick video to capture the sound.  Any idiot who might have tried to cross the cart path from tee to green there would have easily gotten swept down the chute.  I’m glad none of our members are that stupid (or didn’t think about it).  So after the picture we got home and watched a show.  I wanted to watch the girl with the dragon tattoo, Josie wanted a Baby Einstein.  Guess what we watched?

Connor came home a bit, well let’s say moist.  That boy had more costume changes this weekend than a Milan runway model.  Connor has been jumping in puddles and getting hosed off in the back yard(s) almost every day for the last week.  Sunday when we went to the grocery store he asked if he could go to Abuelita’s house instead.  So we dropped him off with a change of clothes and went shopping.  When we went to go pick him up he was dripping from head to toe, completely naked, and was reenacting the Chris Farley maniac scene from Tommy boy.  When Nita brought him home (by the way of course the play was rained out) he’d been playing outside in the storm at her friend’s house.  At least he had pants on. Wait, did he have pants on?  I’m not so sure he did.  In any case, the kids had a wet fun weekend and I sure did miss them while I was out.  But everything heals…even the Earth.  Yep, call me crazy but I have a feeling that the cycles will continue with or without higher taxes, cow farts, and aerosol deodorant.  This year, well I guess we’ve got some puddles to jump in.

An interesting trigger

This weekend I took Nita out on a date at the Alamo Drafthouse.  We went to go see the new Movie Ted.  So I don’t ruin anything, I’ll stick to preview and trailer material, but the basic premise is a little unpopular boy makes a wish that his Teddy bear comes to life and it does.  It isn’t imaginary; it actually grows up with him into adulthood.  And he’s not the best influence, by the way. If you aren’t easily offended, this is a must see.

So early one morning, Josie is losing her mind because she can’t find her pink elephant.  This is her lovie for sleep and comfort.  Now I’m thinking what would it be like to really have a stuffed animal come to life?  Would I be cool with it?  Would I freak out and decapitate it? Shoot it? Have it blessed at the church?  I’m not sure to be honest.

At Josie’s last wellness check our Doctor asked if Josie could speak 30 words.  Nita and I laughed; Josie can rattle off 10 word sentences right now.  In fact, Saturday before we left she said, “Mommy and daddy going on date night, we’re having pizza.”  Okay, so it might have been two sentences and not a run on, but you get the point.  At her preschool she was praised for her ability to tell the staff what’s what.  For example, she doesn’t like the changing table they have.  I suggested that maybe Nita do a change on it to show that it’s no big deal.  They tried it and asked her if it was all better.  Josie replied, “I still don’t like it.”

Earlier that afternoon I was flipping channels while the kids napped. I momentarily stopped on the X-games.  What the F*$# are these kids/adults doing?  Then it hit me, all the memories of building skateboard and bicycle ramps.  The time we tried to jump over a small tree at our house in Manchaca (yes my mother was furious and made us take apart the ramp).  The time I tried to see how fast I could take a turn on my ten-speed and nonchalantly walked passed my mom and her friends with blood coming out of my palms and knees.  She jumped up and said, “What happened?”  I told her I had to go pick some gravel out of my legs, but I’d be back to explain after I’d cleaned up.

I remember riding on handlebars, hitting a bump, falling off, and getting run over.  I remember climbing up a tree in South Austin at around age six and proudly shouting to my mother that I could see K-mart from the tallest branch. I remember falling off a min-bike the first time I tried to ride it.  I made a joke post on FB hoping that Connor would never be interested in anything x-games related, but know deep down to just expect to have minor emergency pre-programed into the navigation system. He is my boy after all, and I guess the apple…

As for Josie, you know how Connor loves bugs and spiders and anything he can touch right?  Well Josie was watching a baby Einstein video and I saw her raise her leg.  I walked over and she was moving out of the way as a spider headed toward her.  I laughed because Connor would have been eye level to the spider trying to get it to crawl into his hands.  In fact, while playing outside prior to our date Josie was swinging in the playscape.  I noticed a Cicada hanging on to one of the beams. Connor had to see it and wanted to hold it.  He climbed up and stared at it for a few minutes and then ever so gently tried to grab it. As it flew away he said, “Please come back cicada, I won’t hurt you, I just want to see your beautiful wings.”  Then he scaled the rock wall backwards.  Josie just giggled and ate her crackers.

Speaking of Josie’s development, she’s a bit ahead of schedule.  You see a year ago I think I wrote about Connor taking off a poopy diaper by himself.  Well, Josie did the same thing yesterday afternoon about four months ahead of schedule.  Way to go sister. J  Also we have discovered that she has a rather unconventional way of eating crackers.  She basically eats them with what we’ll call the “oreo technique.”  By that I mean she’ll take a cheese or peanut butter cracker and open it, lick the filling and then discard the cracker.  It’s fine-ish outside but not so cool inside.

Finally, we got a pretty neat compliment yesterday.  We are looking at adding to the family and had a trainer bring a dog over to the house to give us a little in-home interview.  She was amazed that Connor didn’t come running up to the dog as most kids his age do.  Instead he took very deliberate steps and offered a closed fist for her (the dog) to smell.  He then started to gently pet the head.  She was kind of blown away.  I told her that he is pretty amazing with animals and she acknowledged that he was pretty special in his calm demeanor around the new dog.  Josie feeds off of that and was also very gentle, although she does like to hug and wanted to hug (and potentially ride) this new dog.  She may or may not work out (the dog I mean, we’re pretty bullish on Josie) so we’ll keep looking.  We’re also re-thinking our puppy approach as opposed to a 1-2 year old rescue.  We’ll see, you never know what will make you pull the trigger.

Learning the lessons we teach

I’m glad I waited one more day to write this because last night led to a pretty funny event.  For the past few weeks Connor has been either napping or sleeping over at Abuelita’s house.  It started out as just napping after pre-school which wasn’t really that hard.  He plays so hard that he comes home pretty exhausted.  Then one evening after a dinner at mom’s house and some pretty hardy play in the park behind her house, he asked if he could sleep over.  We got him all PJed up and just as we were walking out the door he reneged. By the way, for those of you keeping score at home, Abuelita is my mother and Nita’s mother is Grandmother.  Not Gramma, Grammy, meemaw, it is GRAND Mother, and one must annunciate the “D” and the “R.” 

Back to the story.  So recently we’ve started a Wednesday evening swim class at the Spicewood club.  Connor goes at 5 and Josie at 5:30.  To help us, mom offered to cook dinner for us since the logistics would push back meal times, bath and bed times.  She is also less than a mile from the pool, so it makes perfect sense.  Not to mention she is a great cook.  As a quick aside (more later), we had a few folks over this weekend and when I mentioned that my mother made a dish one friend said, “If Marco’s mom made it, I’m eating it.”

So Connor has been asking to sleep over and we were more than happy to accommodate.   Josie is not as excited about this.  She just wants to get fed, get home, PJ up, and her little pink elephant (of course it’s an elephant) is in her arms.  As soon as mommy or daddy starts singing her night night song, it’s all rainbows and unicorns for the next 10 hours.  Connor however knows that we don’t let him have sweets after dinner because if you remember from a few months back when he gets too much sugar he turns into a homeless guy on bath salts.  (Seriously? Too soon?)  Anyway, he doesn’t eat anyone’s face off, but he does get pretty silly and is harder to get to sleep on time. 

Abuelita has special rules.  You see, I have been asking abuelita to please honor our wishes around discipline and treats.  Most of the time she is great, but she has also invoked what she calls “Abuelita’s privilege.”  I think it is just south of covering up a gun running operation by the Whitehouse, but I digress.  Abuelita’s privilege as I understand it is that when mommies or daddies are watching, we follow those rules, but when they aren’t looking anything goes.  She said that she can give treats because she is his grandmother and if they grow up only remembering that she always gave them treats that she could live with that.  It’s kind of hard to argue, but we’ll see how this turns out.

Last night was swim class and Connor was really proud of his five second underwater training.  He’s not quite ready for SEAL training, but give him a break, he’s 3.  Anyway, we got to Abuelita’s house and ate and he’d asked if he could spend the night.  We said yes.  Of course we were prepared for this and brought all his gear. Now last time he spent the night he insisted on sleeping with Abuelita in the bed.  He even woke her up at one point and said, “Abuelita, STOP making that noise.”  So this time mom was prepared.  She’d made up her spare room to be everything a toddler could want, including a little water sippy on the night stand.  He had his lovie, PJs, and even had some new videos mom had bought. 

Here’s where it gets funny.  Connor requested that he sleep with Abuelita.  Abuelita said “no.”  She was insistant that he sleep in his own bed.  He refused.  She urged, he defied.  She reiterated, he held fast.  You see she had trained him that when mommy and daddy are gone, whatever that sweet little red head wanted was edict.  There would be no argument.  So let it be written, so let it be done. 

Well after a Mexican stand-off (pun intended) we got the call to come pick Connor up.  Nita and I LAUGHED and Connor was happy to be home.  I was kind of happy too that I got to give him one more hug and kiss before bed.  Oh the lessons we teach sure do sink in.

I should end it there but I do want to give a quick shout out to my wife and Buddies (and their wives and kids) for a pretty awesome father’s day weekend.  We had a little cookout at the house, our kids played; we watched the U.S. Open and a good time was had by all.  There is a neighbor of ours that has a custom cookie business.  Nita ordered each of the dads a dozen of a new creation called the “big Daddy.”  The big daddy has pretzels, toffee, macadamia nuts, and bacon.  Yes BACON!  See if I’d have started at bacon you would have quit reading. 

I’m sure Connor will eventually sleep in the spare room at Abuelita’s house, but I sure am curious to see how next week will turn out.  I wonder who will cave first.  Any gamblers out there?

Big steps with little feet

It’s been a pretty exciting couple of weeks around the house.  Connor and Josie have both started swimming lessons.  They have loved going to the pool for a while but until recently had been pretty content with the baby pool.  Occasionally Connor would want to play on the steps of the big pool, but would quickly return to the smaller pool where he can jump, stand, sit, kneel, etc.  Josie just loves playing in the baby pool where she can reach for things in the bottom and stand up.  So we started the classes and Josie’s class is hands on with the parent while Connor’s is instructor only.  Connor sees it more like a Montessori type class and well it isn’t.  So he’s getting better but he’s wasn’t exactly sure why people were giving him so many tasks when all he wanted to do was just play at the pool.  Josie on the other hand is following directions from mommy and daddy pretty well, but occasionally just wants to hold on and be in the water, we call it the “koala grip.”  All in all it’s going well, the kids are learning how to be more comfortable in the pool and how to safely enjoy the water…which is good because Connor made a milestone move.

Friday for lunch we took Connor to the club to play in the pool.  Josie was a little under the weather so it was just us and Connor.  Plus I was finally able to walk with a shoe on and wanted to see if I could hit a golf ball (more on that later). It was at this time while playing with his new pool toys that Connor made his big discovery.  He can touch the bottom at the shallow end.  Previously he would venture to the last step and go no further, this time he found that he could do the tip toe hop in the shallow end and keep his entire chin above the water line.  He may never go back.  This is bad because…okay so it’s not bad, but it has created more work.  Previously we could manage to watch both of them in the baby pool and it was a one man job.  Now it has become a two person job again.  Unless we bring Josie into the big pool, we’ve temporarily lost those moments of taking breaks while the “other” one watches the kids. 

This weekend was our MGA championship golf weekend.  Speaking of feet, I started the week with a gout attack, my first (hopefully last) ever.  If you’ve ever had it you know, if you haven’t, well imagine trying to decide whether or not it’d be easier and less painful if you went ahead and did a home amputation of your big toe.  And you weren’t sold on the “you need it to balance” argument initially.  In any case, yes it hurts that bad.  So after a couple of doctor visits, some medication, and lots of prayer, it relented and I was able to play.  It must have been providence because one of my playing partners for both days was a podiatrist who really made things a lot better for me.  Good clean living I guess.  Anyway on the last day as I was about to tee off on number 13 Nita, her mother, and the kids came driving by the tee box.  As we all teed off, I went over to greet them and Connor really wanted to join us.  He said, “Daddy, can I play in the tournament with you?”  How sweet.  So I pulled him out of the car seat and of course I always carry his little 7 iron with me now, so he got to hit a few shots from the tee box.  I then took him back to the car and he was as happy as he could be.

They had just come back from a butterfly farm where Connor and Josie had played with, held, and observed some butterflies and caterpillars.  Connor was even given a snail to take home.  It was pretty big and we let him/her go on a tree outside.  The snail seemed pretty excited to be out of the cup and back in nature.  The butterfly whisperer strikes again.

Oh, and Josie is starting to show her little mischievous side.  As I mentioned earlier she caught a little bug (virus) and was a little fussy earlier in the week.  As she started to get better we still didn’t want her to pass it on to Connor.  So we were very cognizant of keeping food and beverage containers separate.  So imagine my surprise when I told Josie not to drink from Connor’s cup and she looked at me and gave me a wry little smile and a devious giggle and raised it and chugged.  Dude!! Really?!  Already?!  She is also really expanding her little vocabulary and using it properly.  I used to think she just used words she knew regardless of the context, but now she’s actually using sentences and using them correctly including verb tense.  My big girl.  And she’s discovered another speed.  She used to waddle around the house in an attempt to “chase” Connor but now she can flat out run.  Now it isn’t a long stride sprinter’s run, but it’s definitely faster than a walk.  And she’s walking down the sunken living room steps with no hands.  She used to sit down and ease her way down, not any more.  No time, we got shows to watch, toys to play with!  Come on daddy, keep up!

And she’s no longer content with just watching whatever Connor is interested in watching.  She’s got favorites and knows what she wants to watch.  Now we have to balance what we view.  We’ve started letting each one choose first in alternating turns.  It’s worked all times but once.  Now as some of you know, I have some pretty obnoxiously sized T.Vs.  So when we couldn’t get the kids to agree on one show and it really wasn’t worth dropping the hammer and saying that they’d watch nothing (it was 100 degrees outside and close to nap time).  Anyway, it ended up with Josie in the family room watching a Baby Einstein, Connor in mancave watching Fantasia, and me in my office watching the Rangers get slaughtered.  I can’t wait until the kids are excited about watching baseball with me. 

Last night after dinner, we went for a little nature tour.  Connor had to bring his little “western ranger” rifle with sound effects.  So we went driving around the spicewood golf course and of course we saw some deer.  Connor with a little prompting started shooting the deer (it is a toy gun with sound effects, no projectiles).  So on our way back there was a little fawn probably just months old.  Just a cute little spotted white tail.  Connor didn’t shoot it, he looked at us and said, “Look at the baby, I hope he finds his mommy.”  Good boy.

It’s funny how it has reminded me of how far we’ve come.  Connor can work the iphone and ipad and routinely asks if he can watch something on my computer.  What did we do before all this technology?  I have a Wii, but I haven’t broken it out for the kids yet.  I’m kind of waiting on that one.  The kids still very much love outside play and I don’t really want to give another reason to choose otherwise.  I do have a big buck hunter game with the light guns, but…maaaaaaybe not quite yet.  In any case, I’m just amazed at how quickly these kids are leaping through the milestones.  It is just happening so quickly.  I can’t believe that next November the kids will be 4 and 2.  Time is screaming by. 

A very memorable Memorial day

We had a week-long vacation and then a three day weekend on top of that, what an adventure.  Last year we took the grandmothers, a nanny, and the kids to Port A to a friend’s beach house for a week.  We had so much fun we decided to do it again.  However, this year we changed two things, our nanny has since moved on and we went with a former nanny; and instead of two cars we rented an RV.  Most of you who know me know my propensity for going a little over the top on things.  So this can surely not be a surprise.  What really worked out for us this year was we had a base of operations.  The RV was a small 24 foot Winnebago and it was perfect.  Last year we got down to the coast and all our luggage and baby safety gear took up every square inch of space we weren’t occupying.  This year, we had a couch, kitchenette, fridge, and a bathroom on the bus with plenty of storage space.  It was great because even though it was only a four hour trip, everyone could stretch their legs a little, stand up, grab a coke, etc.  For those of you in law enforcement of course the kids were constantly in five point restraint car seats. J

Another great thing about this was the food.  We were able to both take our own food at 1/3 the price of the island groceries, and also bring back what we didn’t finish.  Last year as soon as we got there I had to turn around and go to the store for all the stuff we’d need. Then at the end of the trip we threw everything away.  This year, mom even premade some carne guisada, and all we had to do was warm up the tortillas.  Also, if a child pooped or, got too hot, or if one of the grandmothers overheated, it was time for the whole family to pack up and go.  This year, we’d just mosey over to the air conditioned bus and have a seat, snack, or use the potty.  Amazingly no one got sick of each other this year even on the bus. 

The beach.  Connor and Josephine had some pretty fun experiences this year.  First Nita bet me 100 bucks that Connor would spend more time playing in the sand and even thought the only way he’d go to the water was if we dragged him out there (like we had to do last year).  My theory was that a year’s worth of size and playing in puddles and mud surely would have changed his attitude.  I took and won the bet before I had the tent set up.  Connor got off the bus, took off his shoes and ran straight to the surf.  We had a ton of fun just splashing out in the waves and watching the occasional mullet hop over a wave.  Josie even liked being out there.  Connor loved it so much that when we were leaving the beach on the first day to go back to the beach house he was literally praying to God that we come back to the beach.  “Dear God, please let us come back to the beach. Please.” It was pretty cute.

The next day was the Texas state aquarium.  Another big hit.  Connor is called “the butterfly whisperer” at his little school because he’s always willing to pick up any bug and wants to pet everything.  The first show we saw was the bird show.  There was a nice little hawk that was flying from a perch to her trainer’s arm and at one point Connor stuck out his arm to see if the hawk would land on it.  He was not concerned about the heavy leather glove she was wearing.  After a tour of the grounds and a dolphin show it was time to hit the splash park.  Connor went nuts at this place and so did Josie.  They both just played and laughed and got soaked.  They slept the sleep of the innocent on the way home.  Again, we had the generator running on the RV so we all walked in to a nice comfortable bus for the ride home.  No legs sticking to hot seats.

Another funny thing about the aquarium was at one point Connor and Josie were looking at one tank together and Connor was making up names of fish to explain them to Josie.  Josie would point at another fish and Connor would make up another name.  It was pretty darn cute.

The next two days were the beach again.  The nanny we brought turned out to be a huge mistake, but that is another story.  Let’s just say that she wasn’t on the last day’s beach trip.  So it was Nita and I juggling the kids back and forth, and it was wonderful.  Connor discovered the little bivalve mollusks (little butterfly looking clam things). When the surf is rolling out, they are exposed and they feed for a few seconds and then use a little foot to push themselves over and then bury themselves before the next wave crashes on them.  It was kind of fascinating to watch.  And Connor was really getting into it.  He’d lie down with face right up against the sand and move at just the last second when the wave rolled in.  Of course his little shadow had to do it as well.  She doesn’t have quite the speed of Connor in ducking the waves and got a couple of big splashes she didn’t quite expect.  But she was a trooper and kept on doing it because big brother was doing it.

And of course we fed the seagulls the left over pancakes and biscuits from breakfast.  Connor loved this as much as last year and Josie did too….for about five minutes.  The problem is Josie has this little thing where she likes to carry food in each hand.  She’ll take her time to eat it, but she just likes to have it.  She also likes to eat peanut butter crackers like some folks eat oreos.  She’ll break them open and lick off the peanut butter and then eat the crackers…sometimes.  In any case once seagulls are all stirred up, they won’t leave until ALL the food is gone.  So the clashing of these two tendencies led to the inevitable.  A seagull got brave and dove in for the cracker.  Josie moved to save her cracker and the seagull got a little bit of knuckle and the cracker.  Josie HOWLED and took quite a while to settle down.  I’m not sure if it was the missing skin or the cracker probably a bit of both.  She even said, “bird take cracker away” about 20 times in a row (pretty good for 18 months btw).  Daddy kissed her hand and gave her another cracker.  Poor thing, but it was kind of funny too.  Within a few minutes she was bounding down the beach and lying in the surf with brother.

The last night we all went to dinner and we stopped at a little souvenir shop beforehand.  The big tourist trap item is hermit crabs with painted shells.  The first place we went, they wouldn’t allow us to hold one (we’re about to find out why). The second place had a nice little girl who said she’d be happy to let Connor hold one.  So Connor picked one out and held it.  Remember he wants to hold and pet everything.  So he picks another one to hold.  Meanwhile Nita is asking if we should get one and goes so far as to call a friend back in Austin who actually has one.  As she’s getting the care and feeding lowdown, Connor wants to hold just one more.  This time the crab clamps down on the little girl’s palm, for what felt like 10 minutes to us.  It seriously must have been about 20 seconds and the girl was in tears.  That little hermit crab was not letting go.  The shop owner said, “Go put it under the water, he’ll let go, I’d hate to cut the leg off.”  I never really thought these options were on the table.  Needless to say, that was the end of our hermit crab shopping.

We did one last stop at the beach after dinner and dragged some more sand in the bus.  The company we used to rent was American Adventure RV rentals.  They were wonderful with us and any and every issue I had they gave 24/7 service.  It was my first time in an RV and frankly there were just a few things I’d forgotten in the orientation that they patiently walked me through remotely.  They were very helpful.  The drive back was relatively uneventful since all the traffic was going the other way.

All in all it was a very successful trip.  Being the only male over three years old meant that I loaded and unloaded the bus each time.  I even lost a couple of pounds on the trip.  But it was all worth it and was such a great time. I even had a dream the night we got home about loading the bus.  Seriously, I did.

We got back on the Friday before Memorial day.  So we had plenty of time to unwind and still have some fun.  Of course we had our big golf tournament at the club so I went to play with a buddy on Sunday.  He then suggested we bring the whole family over for some fajitas and pool time.  We did and it was a fantastic day.  And then on Memorial day we took the kids to our club pool where Connor and Josie played for hours.  They got so tired that Josie slept on my shoulder on the ride home (in my golf cart).  Finally, after naps we hoped back in the golf cart and headed over to my mom’s for dinner.  The kids went out back and played in the park again for another hour and a half.  So there was a lot of playing, running around, swimming, and sleeping.  What a fantastic week.  Connor and Josie start swimming lessons on Wed, so the new adventure begins.  They are both quite the little water bugs, man that was an easy 100.

The simple things

As I’ve mentioned before, Nita and I have a little different style of parenting.  Nita is all about exposing the kids to new and exciting stimulus and I’m about safety.  There are times when we clearly and obviously clash.  I’ve been trying to do a better job of letting go, but for those who know me, I kind of like being in control of the situation.  Anyway, Nita has been letting Connor help with cooking and meal preparation.  Additionally a couple of our nannies have introduced fun cooking activities into snack time.  So I finally relented and bought Connor some little chef tools, his own apron and his own chef’s hat.  He has made eggs, pancakes, and has mixed veggies for us.  He absolutely loves helping us in the kitchen and the other day he RAN into the house from outside to help me egg and flour some pork chops.  And there was a mud puddle he could have jumped in.  I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up and he said a chef.  Mr. Lagasse, you have been served.

This weekend was mother’s day and Nita decided she wanted to take the kids to the Flying Monsters (dinosaurs) IMAX exhibit…in 3D.  Then we’d hop over to central market for dinner.  Nita’s brother and the grandmothers were invited as well.  This was to be Connor and Josephine’s first 3D experience.  Okay, technically the polar express 3D at home was the first but Connor was barely Josie’s age and he destroyed all the glasses.  Anyway, Connor loved it and Josie was more interested in the popcorn and rice crispy treat than the show.  Connor jumped a few times and once when a dinosaur flew by his head and appeared to go behind us he turned around and shouted (loud enough for most of the theater to hear), “Hey you, come back here, this instant!”  There were more than a few chuckles.  He was very good through the whole thing and said he liked it.  Josie just liked walking up and down the stairs.

Then we went to central market where the kids mostly picked at the food but were dying to get to the playscapes.  Connor had his attention diverted by the dogs and a new little duck swimming with his momma.  We brought his unfinished hamburger bun and fed the ducks and a turtle by the edge of the pond.  It took quite a bit of effort keeping Connor out of the pond.  Josie just hooted and quacked, because well, that’s what ducks do.

The day before we played outside on our playscape and for snack time, I brought the kids some pudding snack packs.  Nita and I reminisced about seeing the can in our lunches as kids.  We couldn’t wait to open it (ourselves) and we’d lick the metal lid.  And no one ever cut their tongues.  Of course then we’d hop in the front seat with our parents and drove home unseat-belted.  Anyway, I brought out the pudding and the kids smiles were as big as I remember mine being.  It made me think that one of the best parts of being a parent is sometimes reliving some of your own favorite moments as a child.  I hope I don’t take it for granted.  It’s especially fun and I know it flies by.  A buddy who lost a bet to me was supposed to meet up for a couple of beers yesterday and had to cancel at the absolute last second because one of his kids had an issue.  In fact he said, “Don’t be surprised if you read about a homicide, because, well, you’ll see when yours are teenagers.”

Finally after dinner we just started playing around in the living area.  Josie picked up a xylophone, Connor picked up a toy electric guitar, and Nita just walked over to the piano.  The next thing you know we were having a little sing along. Stay tuned for the new album of Duets, coming to a record store near you.  I guess aside from the IMAX, most of our fun was pretty simple.  Cooking, feeding ducks, pudding cups, and singing around the piano after dinner.  Good Lord we’re the Cleaver family.  Ward did like a little scotch after work didn’t he?