There and back

This past weekend, the kids and I took a trip to see my sister, her husband, and my youngest nephew at their home outside of Savannah.  It was a trip that I took with much hesitation.  I've driven to Laura's place and back several times, at least twice with kids.  It takes about 8 hours total if there's only a littel traffic in the major towns.  Sometimes I do it in two days and spend one night at my parent's house.  Once I flew from Nashville, with Emmeline when she was nine weeks old, but it's expensive and there's a layover and with three kids, it's that much more.  Plus, Laura and Reid don't have a vehicle big enough to hold all of us once there.  So if I was going, I was going to drive.  I planned the trip.  Then thought I wouldn't go.  Then thought I'd wait until we got closer to see how everyone's behavior was.  Then thought I'd just go for it.  I really wanted to see Laura and Reid and Maddox and let the kids do the fun things we'd get to do while there.  Laura had only seen Zola for a day or so before this trip, and Reid hadn't met her at all.  So I decided to go for it.

Within a few days of the trip, I talked with my mom, and then she with me, and she said she'd come with me so I had someone else in the car.  This turned out to be helpful in about a thousand ways.  She stayed at a hotel near Laura's house so that she could sleep comfortably, but it also meant that she could take a child with her.  So the older kids took turns going to the hotel with Grandma, riding the elevator, sleeping in the hotel room, and eating at the buffet breakfast.  It was great that they got to not only see their aunt, uncle, and cousin but also make some special memories with Grandma.  She got to hear the chatter one can only really enjoy when there's one kid at a time, and she even got to hear Emmeline's bedtime melodies, which I normally hear down the hall but was audience to in person when we stayed in Chicago.

The night before we were leaving on the trip, Emmeline sat at the dinner table and vomited everywhere.  I almost stopped packing the car at that moment, but she'd seemed so perfectly fine up to that moment I hoped it was just a random incident.  Wes said after the fact that she seemed like she chocked on some food and it hit her gag reflex.  Whatever it was, she wasn't sick for the trip.  Unfortunately, that wasn't true for all of us.

I'd decided beforehand to get up really early and drive to Atlanta before breakfast.  I thought the kids would sleep, and then we could meet some new friends at a park near my parents' house, have breakfast, and wait out downtown Atlanta traffic.  The plan worked pretty well, too.  Oliver and Emmeline were interested in the dark, but after a little while, they fell back asleep. I'd moved Emmeline to the back seat and turned her around for the ride there.  I wanted her to be able to sleep, and the carseat tips back better when installed rear-facing.  Unfortunately, Oliver is in a booster seat, and there was no getting comfortable for him.  He would fall asleep, and his head would bob around.  He was clear uncomfortable and got grouchy, and I felt so bad. I couldn't show him how to use the neck pillow or how to stack some pillows on his side to prop onto.  They all woke up just before getting to my mom's house in pretty good moods.

We met our new friends -- really a friend of a friend who I knew only online -- at a wonderful park near my parents' house.  Sheila brought breakfast, and I pulled out some of the food I'd included in the extensive packing I'd done for the trip, too.  The kids played beautifully together -- almost too well!  Somehow -- well, we knew it was happening... -- all four older kids ended up in the lake, soaking wet in their pajamas and clothes.  And Zola wound up with a scalp full of sand.  I managed to clean up Ollie and Emme and get them in regular clothes to leave around 9am, and with mom in tow, we headed back out.

I don't remember the rest of the trip being too bad.  Mom and I talked.  She helped Oliver try to get comfortable to nap some.  She gave Zola her pacifier and someone to talk to.  She handed out electronics to entertain and generally played games with the kids.  And I drove. And drove.  And drove.  We had lunch at Arby's and got to Pooler mid-afternoon.  I was so happy to just be there and know our driving was half done!

Over the next few days, we had a lot of fun.  I took the older kids to the pool several times.  Emmeline got to use her new shark bite float.  Oliver rode his two-wheeler around the very flat and safe neighborhood, and Emme even got out on her tricycle.  Zola got several baths to remove sand from her hair.  We crowded all eight people into our mini-van to drive various places, twice to the marina to go out on Reid's new boat (the highlight of the weekend).  We had dinner at the Crab Shack out on the water, which went pretty well considering we had four young children with us.  We did deal with an Emme accident at the table, but since our table was outside, we were able to more easily remedy the situation.  On Saturday, we all went out to the beach on the boat and met a bunch of Laura and Reid's friends there.  We had a great time.  The older kids loved the water and swam without too much supervision (but life jackets), and the babies were happy at the surf.  Zola would sit with me at the edge of the water and just laugh every time the water came up.  She was covered in sand, all up through her diaper, but just as happy as could be.  Unfortunately, a nasty storm cut our time out a little short and made for a harrowing boat ride back into the marina.  I'll be honest, I cried a little.  I had Emmeline on my lap, a towel over her head to protect her from the stinging rain, and while I knew my brother-in-law was perfectly capable, the scene was just too scary to bear without a few tears.  Maybe it's my fear of dying in the ocean.

Sunday was a lot quieter.  We went to church, and that was my first indication that all were not well.  I left Zola in child care, fully expecting her to cry when I left, but instead she just sat there.  When we went to get her, after a long church service, she dead asleep in the middle of the floor, where she had reportedly been since I dropped her off.  I fed her lunch, and she was ready to nap again.  A nap that went on and on into the afternoon.  When I got her up mid-afternoon, she had a 103 fever and was clearly lethargic.  I dosed her with meds to bring down the fever, and we just all took turns holding her. She was so sad!  That night, Laura did a movie night for the kids.  She had little cups of M&Ms, a popcorn box, and they watch most of Underdog.  Everyone slept well the whole trip, which made for a much more enjoyable visit.  I put Zola to sleep in a playpen downstairs, and one big kid to sleep in my bed, then transferred -- Oliver to the other side of the bed, Emmeline to a little bed on the floor for fear of her rolling off of the fairly high bed.

Yesterday morning Zola was unchanged. She still had a very high fever and just seemed unwell.  We made the decision to leave a day early so that I could take her to the doctor today if she wasn't better.    I did most, but not all, of the driving on the way back.  My mom drove through downtown Atlanta. We were ahead of go-home traffic, but it was still really busy, and I knew I still had 3+ more hours to go.  Once at their house, my mom kept Zola at home to sit and play while my dad and I took the big kids to a pool to work out some energy.  We were there 45 minutes, but it was enough to wear them out a little.  Zola slept almost the whole way home still, and the kids did pretty well.

I'm glad to be home, though the doctors don't really know what's wrong with Zola.  I wouldn't worry as much except she had some other kind of virus a week before we left.  They think this is different, so it's probably okay, but always scary when a kid is sick for so long.  But mostly I'm glad we went.  The kids keep talking about the beach, the boat ride, and the fun they had.  We don't get to see family all the time with the distance between us, but I love the memories they're making when we're able to get together!

2nd Annual Self Family Cabins Trip

Seven days, six nights, eight movies (including two on VHS), eleven hours of driving, several mil hiked and almost 20 biked, thousands of calories consumed, and another family vacation later, we are home.  Last Saturday, we left bright and early for our second family vacation in the mountains of Virginia.  We left this year after dawn instead of before, in the sun instead of in the pouring rain, in a bigger car, and one kid heavier.  We had a bit more rain, fortunately in the second half of the week after we’d gotten to do most of the important things – hike in Grayson Highlands, bike the Virginia Creeper, throw lots of rocks in the pond, and have ice cream cones on the porch.  We’d hoped to do a bit more, but rain precluded it.  Even when the skies cleared in the afternoon for a few hours, the trails would have been way too wet for little people to pass over them.

Like last year, we had to do some creative sleeping arrangements to get five people and one dog asleep in a rental mountain cabin.  The cabin we stayed at this summer – Cave School Cabin – had more actual beds but the same number of true bedrooms – just two.  Wes and I slept upstairs in the lofted bedroom the first two or three nights, but the bed was too firm and the room too bright – even at night, thanks to a full moon while we were there.  In the end, Oliver slept in one room, Emme in another but was then moved after deep in sleep to a toddler bed in Oliver’s room.  Zola slept in a playpen in the half bath/laundry room (this girl has slept in any number of strange places!) without much complaint.  And Wes and I, after our first few nights of poor sleep, moved to the king-sized bed where Emme would fall asleep.  (I’ve got to get at least two of these kids to learn to fall asleep in the same room!)  Zola fussed some with the change from her cool, dark, quiet basement bedroom at home, and Emme was up one night until well after 9PM rearranging everything in her room, but by and large everyone did okay.

We made the drive up on Saturday in eight or nine hours with lots of stops, including two to fix and then remove the old blue tarp we had covering the suitcases on our roof racks and one to adjust seats so the two older kids could watch a movie together on the iTouch (read: It may be time for an iPad).  We made it three hours before we stopped for breakfast at a Cracker Barrel, where we finished off five pancakes, four slices of French toast, eggs, a sausage, some bacon, and a berry and granola yogurt parfait, plus two glasses of orange juice, a mug of hot chocolate, and some coffee for Wes.  Oliver was still hungry when all the food was gone.  I drove the second leg up to Bristol, where we stopped at a McDonalds with a playland for more caffeine and smoothies for the kids (which they finished!).  Wes drove up the mountain to a Food City in Abingdon where we stocked up on food for the week.  It was Kids Day, and there was still an inflatable slide and bounce house outside that the kids took advantage of.  From there it was just shy of another hour before we got to the cabin itself.  It’s much bigger than the one we had last year, well off the road and surrounded by woods and some Christmas trees.  It’s far less shaded, which I miss, but much more set off to itself, which is nice both in terms of quiet and keeping Lucy off the main roads.  Saturday evening was spent unpacking, making a hasty dinner, and trying to figure out sleeping arrangements.

On Sunday we visited with my brother, Jon, and met his girlfriend, Tammi, and their new puppy, Faith.  The kids don’t really remember Jon as it’s been two years since they’ve seen him, but Oliver was happy to trot around the pond with him, and Zola was ultimately persuaded to let him hold her without her crying.  In the morning before Jon came, we played outside – exploring the woods, checking out the pond, and playing Ring-around-the-Rosie and Red Rover (yes, with four people). After they left, we took a walk up Massie Gap at Grayson Highlands, where we saw some wild ponies and climbed some big rocks.  Oliver surprised us by being a super walker, while Emme (who was exhausted) got carried the whole way.  On Monday I slept in late after the days of poor sleep (before and after getting to the cabin) caught up with me.  In the afternoon, we went back to Grayson Highlands for another hike, this time doing the Cabin Creek Trail, which turns around at a gorgeous waterfall.  Emme did more walking this time on the even parts of the terrain and did pretty well.  She’s still pretty small and unsteady, so she crashes a lot where there’s too much rocky terrain.  Zola was amicable on both hikes, thanks to being strapped into the carrier.  We did leave Lucy at the cabin – three kids with two in carriers are enough for the two of us to handle!

On Tuesday we braved the weather – which looked daunting – to bike the Virginia Creeper.  We checked the forecast beforehand at the new (six years old) Whitetop library.  They have a great early literacy area for young kids, and save Zola’s happy screams, the kids did okay while Wes was on the computer.  On the trail, Wes hauled one child (mostly Oliver, but briefly Emme towards the end) on his bike, and I pulled two plus the necessary baby items in a trailer, and somehow we made it through in about 2 ½ hours.  My butt didn’t hurt nearly as much this time, but my thighs were definitely burning.  I pedaled a lot more, and a lot harder, this time than last, especially towards the end with about 75 pounds of kid and trailer behind me.  Nonethless, it was beautiful, and the weather was gorgeous beginning to end.

Wednesday and Thursday turned out to be rain. Wes and I each took half a day to do some work at the library, read email, and have a few hours of quiet.  Wes slept late one day to do some catching up of his own. The kids were content to watch movies (something we mete out sparingly at home), play with a few new toys, and get outside when they could.  Everyone needed to nap more than they did, but we avoided too many full meltdowns.  We did lots of puzzles, including a 150-piece Disney puzzle.  While Zola was napping, the four of us played ABC Go Fish in pairs.  I even did Emme’s nails, which are now painted a color I imagine more on a 45-year-old recent divorcee heading out for cocktails than on a 2-year-old.  But hey, it was vacation.  While I was at the library Thursday afternoon, Wes and the kids

put up our six-man tent in the sunroom and pulled around some other furniture to make an extensive fort.  We took advantage of a little sun in the afternoon to go to an old playground in Green Cover.  We stop there on our bike ride, too, but drove over for a quick outing this time.  In the evening we had shish kabobs on wire hangers since I couldn’t find any actual skewers.  Wes kept the kids on the porch while I worked in the kitchen, and Oliver got Zola to laugh and laugh by banging the chairs to make the porch vibrate.  She’s developed this wonderful belly laugh that comes out when she’s really worked up, and it’s hilarious to hear.  The kids got much-needed baths and were in bed late but exhausted and so succumbed much more quickly to sleep.  Wes and I watched some of the NBA draft and then a little

television before bed.  We sat on the porch for a while after the kids were asleep, and the fireflies were unbelievable.  It was like a paparazzi of fireflies, with their flashes going off constantly all over the place.

Friday morning we woke up to more overcast skies, and Wes made the call to head back to Nashville a day early.  The kids seemed to be going a little stir-crazy with all the rain, and going home sooner would give us the whole weekend to settle back before work and school and daycare on Monday.  There was a lot to pack and clean up before we left, but we were on the road by noon.  All of the kids slept at least some, despite some torrential rain on parts of I-81.  Unfortunately, out luck ran out at the end of the trip, and Zola cried easily two or more hours, painful for both her and us.  I put her to bed the minute we got home and she slept soundly until morning.  I got the van emptied (and today did a super-duper vac job on it after having the dog in there all week) while Wes wound the kids down and got them some dinner.  Everyone slept soundly last night, despite the house being a little warm after a week with no air conditioning.

In the end, it was a wonderful trip, and it’s something I’m sure we’ll make an annual event.  Zola is only ten months, which means each year from here will only get easier – until, of course, someone gets bored with going.  Right now, though, it’s the highlight of the kids’ summer.  Oliver loves the anticipation of the trip, and all the kids enjoy the long stretch of time with Wes and his undivided attention.  Zola got to bang open the screen door and play with the cabinets for untold hours.  And Emme loves the freedom to just run and play for hours on end.  And we love it, too.  We’re making memories and, in my case, remembering old ones.  I told Wes that the smell and sensations of being out on the trails bring back memories of me and him, talking and walking and falling in love on the New River Trail.  I can imagine us coming here for vacations well after we have young children to tote along.

For now, it’s back to life on Stonewall.  The kids will be happy to see their friends at daycare and be back on their regular schedule.  I have house cleaning already waiting for me and am looking forward to being back in my office in a week when Zola starts daycare also.  We all need our own beds, and I think even Lucy – who perhaps loves it out here most of all – will be happy to be back with her bunnies in the backyard.  Until next year!

Girls' weekend

Last weekend, Emmeline and I had our very first girls' weekend in Chicago.  I was going to attend my friend's wedding and very excited to see some former teaching colleagues from YWLCS.  But then I found out it was kid friendly and decided to take Emmeline, too.  Oliver has done his first big trip to Chicago, and he loved it.  Emmeline is a little younger than Oliver when he went, but I thought she was old enough to enjoy it.  I figured she would be more excited about the trip itself than the "there-ness" of Chicago.  Plus, with Zola having been home a few months, I thought the time for just me and her would be nice.  We are so recently alone together.  I'm often home alone with Zola, or we take Oliver out to do errands because he's older and it's easier, so I wanted to give Emme so real one-on-one time.  The trip was all I'd hoped it would be.  She had fun.  I had fun.  I always love to be back in the city.  And more than anything, I love to see these life experiences through my kids' eyes.  Here is a recap of our 48-hour excursion.  

At BNA, having a snack before plane time

Her first big-girl plane ride

At our hotel

On the El into the city

Swinging next to Water Tower Place

Silly "Selfies" before bedtime at the hotel

BIG breakfast at Yolk

First cab ride

Mani/pedis at a mommy and me salon -- she really did have fun!

In our coordinating outfits at the wedding reception

Sunday morning swim in the rooftop pool

Dunkin Donuts for breakfast at the Circle Park near our second apartment

At Grant Park

Heading for Midway airport to go home!

Meeting her, family edition

Thirty hours to get home -- tears of joy!

Smiles for daddy

Oliver and Zola bonded right away.

First picture as a family of five

With Grandma Neiheisel

The men with the children

With the grandparents

Big brother helping

Matching jammies for the sisters!

A trip to Sapphire, North Carolina

Pooling

There is no doubt that my two kids love the water.  Their relationship with it is a little different though.  Ollie loves to be in the pool, and he is not hesitant at all about going underwater and can hold his breath for a long time.  He won't, however, let go of me if he's in water that he can't easily stand in.  I've gotten him to do so with a small float, but not with just arm floaties that require him to do a little work to keep himself above water.  He won't jump off a step in the pool or the side of the pool unless he can reach my hands.  And yet -- he'll go down water slides and two of my parents' houses -- one into deep water that requires an adult to grab him after he kicks away from the drop off.  It's not at all logical -- but then, he's not quite four.  He's done well in swim lessons, and I think that with continued time in the water, he'll eventually get the courage to let go and try to swim.  One pool in particular at my parents' house was really good for this.  It was maybe 1-2 feet deep, and it allowed Oliver to jump on his belly, kick and stroke a little, and then be able to put his feet down on his own.  He was in the water, underwater, and on his own most of the time when we were in the pool.

Emme, on the other hand, has no fear -- almost to her own detriment.  She'll walk around in shallow water, jump from ledges whether someone's ready to catch her or not (if she hears "jump," she goes).  She'll put herself or just her face underwater and then stand up if able (I always tried to let her do it herself before grabbing her).  She's learning to close her mouth, but not her eyes, or blow bubbles in the water.  But mostly -- she just wants in.  We were in the pool every day for the last four days, and she had swimming lessons the two days before that this past week.  For kids who don't have regular access to the water, that's a lot!  I think it landed her with a cold, but it didn't deter her from wanting to swim.  She'll go in the deep water with a float and be on it without anyone holding on.  She can kick her legs and even move her arms some to stroke.  She even went down the tiny water slide at one pool.  She's definitely a water bug. I'm hoping she doesn't lose her bravery as she gets older.

Parking

Georgia on my mind

The kids and I just got back from several days at my parents' house in Georgia.  We went to visit my parents, of course, but also to see my new nephew, Maddox, for the first time and spend time with my sister and brother-in-law.

Everyone had a very nice time.  We got there Wednesday afternoon, after a slow and relatively easy drive from Nashville.  We stopped for lunch at the Cracker Barrel and popped into Walmart for some cheap floats for the pool.  Each day had a nice rhythm to it.  The kids were up at 7am, and after breakfast, I took them to one of the many neighborhood playgrounds.  Emme was down for a nap (and Oliver for a "rest" with the iTouch that has Bob the Builder videos on it) around 10am.  Then lunch, then playtime, then a trip to the pool either before or after dinner.  The kids went down to bed between 7 and 7:30pm every night and slept soundly after a full day of play.  The weather was hot but bearable, and the kids always have fun with the different toys available at their grandparents' house, in addition to the bigger rooms and extra staircases to explore.

Maddox is a cutie, for sure, though he's still settling into his own daily rhythm.  And like my daughter, when she was an infant, he prefers to spend most of the day in someone's arms rather than on his own.  Fortunately there were lots of extra arms around to accommodate him and give his mom and dad some reprieve (though they are doing a magnificent job without any extra help).  We chose to sleep on a different floor than the baby so that no one would end up waking each other, but it sounds like he was quiet at night.

We came home yesterday evening so that we could reunite with Wes, who had spent most of our absence outside of Washington D.C. to attend a friend's wedding.  We are all happy to be back under one roof, but would have appreciated it if Emme (who is already down for a nap) had slept past 6:30am.  It was great to see my sister and her family, and I will be disappointed not to see Maddox more frequently than distance and school/work allows.  Thank goodness I got a lot of cuddle time in.

The new nephew, after his first bath

Singing and swinging