Simple Balance

The inferiority of being a WOHM is never more apparent than in the summer. Everyone else (seemingly) is out lounging by the pool, bouncing from vacation to play group to day camp and back to the pool, while my days continue to slog along at the office. “Why doesn’t mommy’s work ever stop?,” C asked her dad recently. Hmmm, well that’s a great question, and I’ll explain it one day when I figure it out myself.

At any rate, enter the SAHD, at least for the summer…being university faculty does have its advantages, and one of those is the celebrated “school schedule”. Brian has done a magnificent job this summer of taking C to and fro. At the beginning of the summer, I scouted out a whole bunch of possibilities and printed out a monthly calendar with opportunities on different days. Some things are scheduled, some are not…all the names and operating hours of our local (within an hour) Children’s museums, exhibits, special park events, etc. Within the past 2 weeks, they have been to a Cincinnati Reds game, swimming at Mimi’s, picnicking/bike riding at the Reservoir, weekly gymnastics, came to Dayton and had lunch with me one day…I mean, the child is clearly not suffering. But, in my haze of the waning days of this pregnancy, I just wasn’t sure I was doing enough. Had to do some more.

So this past Saturday, after having to go into work yet again (but only was there for about 15 minutes, max!), and having to take C with me and make her sit in the patient education room while I saw a patient, I attempted to make it up to her yet again. We went to The Greene afterwards, shopped for slippers for her, found the perfect pair (clearance at Stride Rite no less!), putzed around Books & Company, found a few new Easy Readers for her, ate delicious macaroni & cheese at the Noodle Company, and headed home in a driving rainstorm (which we desperately needed). We hit the library on the way home (MORE BOOKS!) and picked up a few CD’s and movies too. God bless the library system, though ours is about to go under…

On Saturday night, we went to our Saturday evening service so we could hear the start of a series by one of the associate pastors that we’ve been looking forward to. Saturday evening, Brian headed to a friend’s for card night, and C and I came home to paint toenails and have Movie Night.

Oh, but I couldn’t stop there. Nope, on Sunday morning, we headed to Dayton to the local dinner theater which was featuring their production of “Annie.” They have a Sunday brunch that I thought would be just perfect for C and I. She was extraordinarily patient but I definitely overestimated her attention span, interest, and overall tolerance for the activity. There was lots of waiting (wait to check in, wait to be seated, wait to get food, wait again to go through the buffet line, wait for the show to start) but when the show started, she seemed totally captivated. That lasted for two songs. Then she had to go potty – we almost missed “Tomorrow” when she said she had to go, and I said, “Let’s at least hear this song, then we’ll go.” At one point, she was so fidgety she actually fell off her chair and I had to carry her (stifling very loud crying) and kind of run out of the nearest exit. After intermission, she had more interest in drawing on a pad of paper than she did in the show. And, of course, the fascination with the bathroom. I think we visited six times total, make that seven if you count the trip right before we left.

By Sunday evening, she was in desperate need of a reset, but that unfortunately did not happen. I guess I thought she would sleep it off. Turns out, she did not, and she was receiving her first spanking about 6:56am this morning. Not a pretty picture. After a few more spankings, some breakfast, and some room time, she apparently made a full recovery and was an absolute peach for her dad all day. They spent somewhere in the neighborhood of THE ENTIRE DAY swimming at Mimi’s, without a break. She even played in the sprinkler after dinner.

After bath and jammies and a couple books, it still seemed as though she’d never close her eyes. She finally did, though and now sleeps peacefully. Here’s hoping for another dandy day tomorrow.

The last weekend of June, we traveled down to Wilmore for our 10-year college reunion. It was a short trip, but we had a great time. It was about 115 degrees in the shade, and all of our functions were outside! A kind-of not happy surprise, but I made it. We met up with friends in Lexington and headed down to Wilmore for our lunch at a pavilion out by the reservoir, which I had absolutely no memory of ever visiting during my four years there. The picnic lunch lasted several hours and by the time the photographer showed up, we were all melting. I did think it odd that they picked the class most likely to have the most young children & pregnant women to be at the location with NO CLOSE BATHROOMS. Maybe next time put the Class of ‘29 out there- they’re probably all in diapers, they wouldn’t care…

At any rate, we walked around campus and took in a lot of the improvements that have taken place since we were there. The “new” library is already 8 years old, but is a 1,000% improvement on what we had. The old library has been turned into a neat student center with coffee shop, gathering areas, game tables, lounge space. Things we’d have enjoyed…but then again, I’d probably have overdone it even more on the caffeine if I’d had access to a coffee shop in those days.

We finished the evening with a stop at Graeter’s and an overnight at the Kretzes, and headed home on Sunday morning. We stopped at IKEA for a few baby-room essentials and made it home mid-afternoon. I was tired, of course, but then again…when am I not tired??

In what will be undoubtedly one of the highlights of our summer (maybe to be topped only by arrival of Baby Sister), we journeyed to Hilton Head once again, to our very favorite place, Sea Crest, Unit #3403. Our days were filled with sleeping in (some more than others), eating big breakfasts, hitting the beach and/or pool, eating another huge meal, going to The Ice Cream Cone, and going to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat. X7 days. Good times.

C couldn’t decide if she liked the beach or pool more. On different days, she would seem more partial to one or the other. I myself was partial to the delicious breakfasts at Skillets and the nightly runs to the ice cream shop. Oh, and there was one night that I devoured 1 1/2 pounds of Dungeness crab legs. Katie flaked out with 1 body & about 6 legs to go…she was weak. I prevailed.

The famed “Kin-Juzzi” tub:

Dinner at Marley’s, a new find which we really liked!

Buried alive…

The Boogie Board, a new favorite this year:

Family picture – moderately complicated by the fact that the tripod was left in the coat closet at home, so we improvised with a beach chair and a stack of books. The results were decent, all things considered.

The End

Next up – The Memorial Tournament, at Muirfield Village. What is better when you’re 32 weeks pregnant, than to troop around a golf course on a hot, humid, sunny day in June? Absolutely nothing! It was a fun day, unfortunately I think I had a little too much sun and didn’t drink quite enough because I wasn’t in that great of shape by the time evening rolled around. An evening sitting at home cooling off seemed to do the trick, though, and I was feeling ok within a day or so.

C’s favorite perch:

Getting an autograph from Rocco Mediate, who was exceptionally nice – when C asked, “Will you sign my hat, please?”, his reply was, “Well, how can I say no to you, sweetheart?”.

Vijay! This dude is tall. That putter he’s leaning on is probably as tall as I am. He was nice, too, and autographed the very top of C’s hat.

Yes, I know – it’s a picture of golf bags. I just thought it was a neat picture. And I took it!

Here again, with Miss Serious (she doesn’t even look like she’s at the same function as we are – look how joyful we are about The Tournament! And she looks like she’s headed to a court date or something).

My favorite picture of the day – and the “real” C-bear:

The first weekend of June, we had a marathon of fun and frolic as B & C participated in the Cincinnati Reds Run for Home 5K. We have done this once before, going down to Cinci for the weekend with our friends to participate as families.
This little race snakes around the Cincinnati Riverfront and ends in the Reds stadium, running around the warning track and over the finish line. The second part is they have a Kids Fun Run which is basically just a run around half the warning track and over a finish line. Brian pushed C in the stroller for the bulk of the 5K, but we caught some shots of them blazing in after about 32 minutes of pure bliss.

It should be noted that a guy wearing a complete cow costume (fur, head, everything) beat them by at least 10 minutes. And this was not a cool day by any stretch of the imagination.

As they herded into the finish area…

After that, we headed to the Cincinnati Zoo, which was exceptionally nice, not over-crowded, accessible, fun, and filled with cool stuff! One thing they had which I hadn’t really seen a lot of before was various zoo staff throughout the park holding or exhibiting animals up close and personal (owls, snakes, birds, etc) and telling all about them. Much better than walking from glass house to glass house, looking at animals from 20 yards away.

C enjoyed most everything, here she is clearly delighted by an encounter with the famed spectacled bear:

She has this really amusing habit of suddenly taking on a VERY serious face during an otherwise festive occasion. We laugh frequently about it. Here, at Mimi’s birthday last year:

My SIL can impersonate her better than anyone, and it never fails to send me into hysterics. What can I say, I am easily entertained.

Our hiking around the Cincinnati Zoo was fun but tiring…but we couldn’t stop there!! We stayed in a hotel downtown and finished the night with a pool and pizza party that couldn’t be beat. C fell into bed about 10:30pm, thoroughly exhausted but happy.

The next morning, we headed home, and the trip home was completed by a stop at Brian’s favorite, The Original Pancake House. And I don’t mind telling you, they do make an amazingly delicious pecan waffle.

yes, I am really this big. Y o i k e s. 10 weeks to go!

What a great year! We are so thankful for Christian Edu-Care and all the great teachers C had and friends she made. She’ll be returning again next year 3 days per week. She is already asking about what her classroom name will be and who her teacher will be…

Today they finished off the year by having a picnic lunch. This was in the MAY parent newsletter, and it simply said, “picnic lunch, don’t need to bring anything, we’ll just be going outside for lunch.” No big deal. It turned out to be about the prettiest day of the year, 72 and sunny blue skies. After school I asked C, “What did you have for lunch? Did you have hamburgers?” (I’m thinking maybe cookout-kind-of-picnic?). She said, “It was from Old McDonald’s. It’s called a Happy Meal. It comes in a box.”

Whaaaaaaaa……? The only thing she has ever consumed from McDonald’s to my knowledge is milk and apple slices (sans caramel – she doesn’t even know that it comes with caramel). She was totally fascinated by this meal in a box. So I hope she’ll forget about it forever by tomorrow. Barf. But her description made us laugh, of course.

So tonight for supper, since I thought maybe we’ll try to fit in a coronary bypass before the age of 5, we took her to Sonic for dinner, per her request. She invited her Mimi to come along, and had a great time. More fast food! More fried objects! More sugar! What could be better?! At any rate, I am proud of my girl and her growing up and the sweet peach that she is about 96% of the time.

First day:

Last day:

Last night was our annual block party, a good time was had by all. Our street is teeming with young kids and fun families and all sorts of delightful people. C had been looking forward to this for a looong time. She remembers last year, and one of the things we had talked about was how late she had stayed up (we’re pretty serious about bedtime here). Last year she stayed up until 11 or so, terrifically late for her. Early in the event this year, she reminded me, “I’m staying up until 11:00 tonight, you know.” I said that was fine but insisted on a decent nap in order to shield us from a 7pm exhaustion meltdown. She did nap, so she partied on late into the darkness!

Some highlights:

C & Dad enjoy the sunshine and flowers before all the festivities:

C takes on SpongeBob!

C walks away, satisfied with the damage she has wrought to SpongeBob (he wouldn’t cave in until much later…a few whacks from some of the older kids and then one of the dads ended up just ripping off the bottom and flinging the candy everywhere. Whatever pinatas are made of, let’s make more stuff out of it. Nearly indestructible).

Just after the hands-free doughnut eating contest:

No, of course she didn’t win a sack race against a bunch of 6- and 8-year olds. We had somewhat of a false start, but she looks so dang cute, I had to snap a picture.

As promised, C came in at 11:00pm. After a bath and getting ready for bed, she drifted off about midnight. This morning, she woke up bright and early proclaiming how hungry she was. I sent her downstairs to get herself a banana (not thinking she would really attempt it), and an hour later, Brian came downstairs to find her crashed out on the couch. She never made it to the bananas…she made it to the couch and went right back to sleep.

Before lunch, she & I were sitting at the coffee table working on a puzzle (her new obsession!), and completely out of the blue, she says, “You know, the Lord calls us to rest on Sundays.” It was all we could do to stifle our laughter and confirm, that, indeed, He does call us to rest on Sundays. And I celebrate that!

This is the bike that C rode last year. It was passed down from a friend and I believe we are the third owners. I’m not sure how many miles have been logged on this thing but it keeps on truckin’. C seems to NEVER tire of up and down the sidewalk, the few driveways (she knows her boundaries), and back again…