The Broken Pipe, The Beach & The Bay - not much more to say!

One last post about our Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore on Long Beach Island.  Like I said, we loved it! 

What I hadn't mentioned before was that within the first 24 hrs of getting to our friend's beach house, we had a bit of a water issue - not the beach or the bay kind of water issue- a plumbing issue.  Turns out that our buddies had just had a front patio put in at their place and somehow during that installation, the main water line to the house was literally pulverized... (seriously see the picture below)

The good news is that they had an outdoor shower!

The even better news. when you are at a beach house with 5 kids, you mainly hang out at the beach or the bay and not in the house...

They managed to get it fixed by the end of the day on Sunday, but it was quite the excitement.

Meanwhile, the kids spent lots and lots of time at the bay and the beach.  My kids loved the bay.  Jonah could run around and "swim" by himself in the bay as it is a roped off area, it is not deep at all and perfectly calm.  He loved it.  Vera also enjoyed hanging out in the water at the bay.  But I must mention, she is quite the sunny bunny!  She sequestered one of the beach chairs as her own and loved snuggling up on the chair and sun bathing - whether we were at the beach or the bay!  And she looked great doing so!

My buddy's kids loved the beach.  They are bigger and could go wave hopping.  My kids liked it ok, but were not able to spend as much time in the water-although they fully enjoyed the sand!  Digging in it, rolling around in it, eating it, just becoming one with it... that's cool with me.

It was great to see my kids literally soaking up the sand, the sea and the sun. I am a total beach person so this makes me very very happy!

We kinda missed out on last summer - I feel like it is a black hole or something - between the cancer/new baby craziness it just passed us by.  This past Memorial Day weekend was the perfect way to kick off this summer -2012!  This summer we are ready and raring to go!  Hope it is ready for us!  We are going to summer like we've never summered before and we are taking no prisoners and telling no lies - so get ready, get set and go!  We are not going to stop till it is Labor Day!

Broken pipes beware-you can't hijack this crew - we know how to have fun with or without you!

ANOTHER BIG THANK YOU to our buddies for hosting us!  We truly had an amazing time!  LONG LIVE LBI!

The missing pipe under the patio...

Jonah said, "Wow!"

Jonah running on the beach!

Vera and her chair on the beach

digging for treasure

we are going to find it!

Time for some sun!

at the bay!

still sunning up at the bay!

after sunset at the bay!

playing games in the sand

Me & You Monday!

Jonah's third birthday is a week from today (6/11).  We've got lots of Jonah stuff to do, see and be!  We are very into birthdays around here.  We are also into keeping ourselves up to date so to speak.  Plus, this month, in mid June Jonah is going to start summer camp!  So we've got lots going on. 

Jonah had been in full time daycare from May 2011 until December 2011 when I was sick and recovering.  Then I took him out of daycare and he started a preschool coop right near our old place.  We had lots of drama around our move, and then we moved in March, so I had pulled him out in February.  Since then he has been home with Vera and me.  We have been having a great time, but it is time for him to move on a bit (it is only 3 days a week for 3 hours a day) but it will be good for all of us.

Before camp starts he needs his annual doctor appointment and a dental checkup.  We've got those scheduled. 

We've also planned a family birthday gathering this weekend and a buddy birthday party at the end of the month. 

He is also going to get his haircut for the first time ever (trauma for mommy) this weekend to coincide with his third birthday - it is a Jewish thing (called upsherin)... (see my previous post on it, Jonah and his hair here )

And today, we went to the ENT doctor for his tonsil/adenoid checkup.  The kid desperately needs them removed.  The doctors have been telling me this since he was born... so we are going to do it this summer - hopefully in August after camp.  Jonah was awesome at the doctor today.  He got a lollipop and a sticker.  We loved the doctor.  So we are all set I just need to schedule the exact date.

Jocelyn and I went with Jonah this morning to the ENT doctor without Vera (she stayed home with the babysitter).  So we when got back, the babysitter was going to stay for a while and Jonah had been such a good guy - I asked him if he wanted to go on a "Me & You" adventure.  Jonah made up that phrase.  He uses it when Vera takes a nap and we do things together.  Usually we are home and we play things that we don't like to play with Vera, like Lincoln Logs.  Or we do stuff that Vera can't do like cook something special or do a complicated art project.  So when I suggested an adventure his eyes lit up - we haven't done that since I don't know when.

I grabbed my kaleidoscope because I hadn't really planned anything.  Turns out I bought this little "deck of cards" this weekend (no, not at Ikea but the local children's store while shopping for a baby gift).  It is called 50 City Walks with Kids - Washington DC and it was in my purse.  So I whipped that baby out and picked one that was in our neighborhood - we didn't have all day.

Jonah loved the card.  And he was excited about the walk.  We did walk Number 43-Politics & Prose and Fort Reno Park.

We followed the card pretty closely and we had a total adventure in a not so adventurous sort of way - and it was great.  We started a few blocks from our house at Marvelous Market (5035 Conn Ave) for snacks.  We both needed it.  Then we went to the awesome independent bookstore that I used to hang out in all the time - back in 1998 - when I lived in the Van Ness neighborhood - called Politics & Prose, it is in the same shopping center as Marvelous Market.  We hung out in the children's section for a bit.  Jonah had never been before and he had fun exploring.  There is a little "nook" or rabbit hole for kids to go through a door and sit on comfy pillows and read.  There are a ton of really great diverse and interesting children's books.  There is a little table and chairs and a big reading chair to sit and read.  We did just that.  It was really fun. Jonah picked all these very different books and we read them together.  Then we made our way out the back and we were surprised by the wall mural.  Jonah stopped me, "mom, look it's paint on the wall!" and then he found Corduroy and the monkeys from Caps for Sale!  He thought it was super cool and so did I. 

Next stop: Fort Reno Park.  I had never been and the description was basically that it is a big hill - well, the highest point in Washington, DC to be exact (see info on it here and here).  It is also the spot where there was a battle in the Civil War.  It is located between Chesapeake and Fessenden Streets at 38th street and Nevada.  Very close to the strip of stores that includes Marvelous Market and Politics & Prose.  We set off.  Jonah was walking but then jumped into the stroller.  It is an uphill walk to the park on Fessenden from Conn Ave.  But then Jonah announced, there it is mom - the mountain.  It was a pretty steep "mountain" - so we crossed over and went exploring.  There is a cool stone tower which Jonah insisted was where Mike the Knight lived but it was behind this big gate.  We ran up and down the hill chasing butterflies and the sun was shining but it wasn't hot.  It was pretty fantastic.  Jonah was laughing and smiling.  We tried to find a way into the stone tower to find Mike the Knight but we couldn't - Jonah was quite upset by that (I had gummy bears to distract him).  Then we walked toward another path and actually found the Fort Reno sign. 

The park is big and is between Deal Middle School and the Wilson High School.  These will be Jonah's schools if we still live here when it is time for him to go to them.  We've been talking a lot about going to school and camp these days - trying to get ready for this summer and next year.  Jonah is getting used to the the idea of going to school again.  When we were running up and down the hill, all the middle school kids were out playing and he WANTED to go!  He was all excited that one day that would be his school.  This made me smile - extra big! 

We were both getting tired and hungry again - it was quite a walk.  We walked around the park to the other side and up Nevada to Conn Ave and we were back where we started!  It was lunchtime so we grabbed a sub sandwich from Besta Pizza and walked over to the BP gas station on the corner.  There is a picnic table there - Jonah's dream - he got to eat lunch at the gas station and watch the cars, trucks, police cars, mixer trucks. motorcycles and fire trucks pass us by on Connecticut Ave! 

Me & You time today was pretty good!

Looking forward to working our way through all 50 cards in our deck!

chocolate milk and a muffin for snack

in the rabbit hole

books mom!  read more books please!

wow!

Corduroy

the Caps for Sale! monkeys

We found the signs on the way out...

Fun on the "mountain"

When do I get to go to that school mom?

Mike the Knight definitely lives there!

but we can not get in...

lunch watching the traffic go by

at the gas station - pretty awesome!

An Ikea Idea...

ABSOLUTE FAIL!!!!

Sometimes it just isn't going to happen.  I usually cut my losses and call it quits - immediately. Except that is when I am in IKEA and I can't figure out how to get out of the huge building without walking down the "path" to the check out registers...

Jocelyn & I decided we'd go to Ikea today for a little family activity and so that we could check out the bookcases in person.  (remember we don't have enough real furniture in our house).  I am not a huge fan of going to the actual store because it is a bit overwhelming.  I am a huge fan of many of the products, the prices and the food (frozen yogurt, Swedish fish and chocolate!!!).  Yes, it was an amazingly gorgeous day today, but we thought this might be fun.  We could go have an adventure and some lunch/snacks. We'd come home and then Jocelyn could go to the office, Vera could nap and I would do something fun with Jonah - probably outside... 

WHATEVER!!!!

For whatever reason, this was one of the worst shopping experiences I have ever had with both kids.  We had a bit of an off morning after a "not so stellar" evening, but I brushed it off.  (Jonah got up a few times last night, Vera did too.  Everyone slept till 8am which is weird.  And Vera only took at 15 minute morning nap...)  When we got to IKEA at 11:45am I figured everything could be solved with $1 frozen yogurt!!!  I thought wrong.

At least I got to eat the yogurt.  And Vera's, she didn't want it.  Jonah enjoyed his.

Then we started on the IKEA shopping path.  We had the stroller for Vera and the shopping cart for stuff (or Jonah).  Basically, from the first steps in, one kid, the other kid or both kids were crying, screaming, yelling, whining, or screeching their heads off.  Maybe they were feeling as overwhelmed as I often feel in that store... or maybe they were just tired (I think that might have been it).  I would figure out something to quiet them (a binky, a toy,  a tape measure, moving seats...) and they would get quiet for like 4 minutes and then it would start again.  We basically were like "ABORT MISSION, ABORT MISSION" but it was super crowded and like I said, you sorta need to follow the path out of the store...

We walked by the bookcases so at least we got to look at them and get an idea if we wanted to buy them -- and take the super helpful measurement paper home.  I also managed to throw a bunch of stuff into our cart that I am sure we don't need but at the time I felt like I must have - including Swedish fish and chocolate.

Just in case you wanted actual examples of the performances of my children I will give you some.  At one point, Jonah, managed to crawl out of the shopping cart, smack his sister in the face (she was sitting in the stroller) and run under a dining table with chairs for eight.  All this while crying and screaming his head off.  Of course Vera was screaming too - because he smacked her.  I gave Jocelyn the stroller with screaming Vera and tried to get Jonah - which led to this really embarrassing display of parent and child antics.  I would have just walked away - and I sort of did that, but there were a ton of onlookers and a ton of people in the crowded store - as such that tactic was just not going to work.  We were at it for more than 5 but less than 10 minutes.  It felt like 10 days!

Once we recovered from that, Vera was just done and seriously would not stop crying huge wet tears until we got out of the store.  I mean the hysterical crying, open mouth, screaming kind of crying.  So that when people walked by us, they would audibly say," oh poor baby what is wrong with her?"  To which I wanted to scream, I have no F'ing clue because if I did I would try to fix it idiot???  But I didn't do that, I just threw another $1 hot pink flower ice cube mold (see here) into the cart without stopping...

We approached the exit with hopeful eyes - Jocelyn pushing the cart with the crap we don't need, me pushing the stroller with a crying Vera, and Jonah on my shoulders... don't even ask.  At least, there were no lines at the check out.  The place is like Disney World.  They move you through pretty fast, so we bought the stuff in our cart even though we were ready to ditch it at the exit. 

As soon as we got outside, the kids quieted down?  Jonah sat on a bench eating the Swedish fish and I changed Vera's wet diaper.  She just looked at me with tearful eyes and pouted.  They were exhausted from their 70 minute displays of parental torture... so were we.  We packed into the car.  Yep, 15 minutes into the ride home - both were asleep.

We got them home and into their beds - still sleeping.  Minor victory.

Jocelyn rested for a bit and went to work.  I figured I better take a nap too, I figured it was going to be a long night.

We all slept for 3 hours.

We woke up and everyone was in much better moods!  We played, made dinner and ate dinner together (spaghetti and Trader Joe's meatless meatballs).  Jonah and Vera had a bath together.  We played some more.  Vera went to bed right on time.  Jonah had a little more trouble going to sleep, but he finally got there.

The day started like hell and ended with a sigh.  That is just how it goes some days.  But the thing is - there is always tomorrow... we get to try it all again tomorrow!  And tonight I get to eat my Swedish chocolate bar in peace... and I have those great ice cube molds (fish, stars, flowers, sticks, etc.) for a future summer project!

we were so excited!  They knew we were coming!

Jonah was excited too- Look mommy and mama, a picture of Vera's stroller!

she didn't want the frozen yogurt-I should have known something was wrong...

a moment in time...

Outside and they are regrouping (debriefing) amongst themselves over previous public displays of parental torture... (PPDOPT)

Licking a Lazy Saturday Snack

We made smooshed strawberry smoothie ice pops yesterday (see our post here). (recipe: smushed freshly picked strawberries, vanilla yogurt and a little strawberry jam blended together and poured into ice pop molds...)

Today at snack they were ready to eat!

YUMMMMMYYYYYY

Guess it is ok to smoosh your freshly picked strawberries, as long as you are going to mush them into an ice pop!

YEAAAHHHH

it is an ice pop and a space ship... cool!

yep I screamed so loud, mommy gave me hers too!

strawberry smooshie spaceship!  pow!