Dear Mommy and Daddy....

Can you PLEASE stop leaving all of my jackets at daycare?????

And, a crown???? Really? A crown? Now, that's just cruel....



Love, Al

QT

This last weekend, both Avery and Alex got some quality time alone – Avery with mom and dad and Alex with Grammy and Grampy. Friday night, we were given tickets for the luxury box at the Pawsox game (New England’s minor league baseball team), so we decided to take Avery.

Which, in hindsight, may not have been the best plan, as Avery will now think that all baseball games are spent in a suite with free food. Kind of like the first time that I had to fly in coach – after flying for free in first class the majority of my life, I did NOT like being back with the common folk – I thought that I deserved much better than that. Anyway – she had a great time and was amused by the entire experience. And, Alex had a great time at the pool with Grammy and Grampy.

Saturday afternoon, I took Avery to a bday party and Alex went to stay with Grammy and Grampy. Josh was in Boston with friends and there was no way I was going to try to deal with both of them at a party - Alex is at that "crawl everywhere and get into everything that I shouldn't" stage and I just didn't think that I could deal with that on my own.

We were a bit late to the party, but made it just in time for “Happy Birthday” and for Avery to play with the water toys for a while.


She had a great time and LOVED the grab bag goodies, as she got two more silly bands – do you people know about these? They are the new in thing – bands that are basically jelly bracelets (remember those??), but that are the shape of whatever (animals, flowers, etc) when they are not on your wrist.

Avery received 2 dinosaurs, which she very creatively named “Dino” and “Saur.” And, as we were leaving the party, she asked me if I would like one of her silly bands. The conversation when something like this:

Avery - “Mommy, do you want one of my silly bands?”
Whitney –“Well, sure! Thank you.”
Avery – “What do you say when you want something, Mommy?”
Whitney – “May I please have a silly band, please.”
Avery – “Yes, but you will need to wait until we get to the car.”

My lord, we’re in trouble.

Sunday, we went to the beach (yes, I did this on my own until Josh got back, which actually wasn’t that bad, but did take a decent amount of mental preparation)

and then that afternoon, we went to a magician show! And, we even let Alex come along (were you beginning to think that we never let him participate in the fun??)!!It was a good show, although, his tricks were strange – 90% of them were pretty mediocre and then he busts out with a balloon that pops and out comes a dove and then a pot that he lights on fire and out comes a rabbit.



Very cool, but very “above” all of his other tricks, so it was kind of weird.

Avery enjoyed it, but was probably a year too young yet. And, Alex actually did pretty well – was active, but did well in our laps overall- although, the church floor was covered in cheerios and goldfish after about 5 minutes of us being there, which probably wasn’t great.

Don’t worry, I realize I’m not religious, but even I know that leaving cheerios all over the floor of a church is probably pretty disrespectful, so I did clean them up before I left. Ok, ok, I'll admit it - the clean up effort was partially for selfish reasons. I mean, let's be honest - surely somehow someone "up there" would have noticed this cheerio incident and as a result, the Holland kids would have been black listed from St. Phil's next fall, so being the good Catholic school mom that I am, the cheerios were gone by the time we left...

Who invented 2-day weekends, anyway?

Seriously – have you ever wondered why the weekends are only 2 days? I mean, who decided that? Why doesn’t everyone work 4 days and then have off for 3 every week? Or, why isn’t the week 8 days and then we can work 5 and then have off 3? Surely that one has to do with the moon, stars, etc. , but whatever…it bugs me.

One of the things that I like about living in RI is Victory Day. What’s that, you ask? First of all, it used to be called Victory over Japan Day, but as you can see, that wasn’t too PC, so someone decided to change it to Victory Day. Regardless, it is a holiday that only RI has off. I’m not sure why, but we do. And, I embrace it. So, not only did we have Monday off for Victory Day, but my boss decided that Friday would be a great time to take advantage of “flexible summer hours” and he told us all to leave at 12:30. So, I practically got a 4 day weekend out of it.

After this weekend, I’ve decided that I need every Friday afternoon off. I can’t believe how much stuff I got done. I got my car washed, got the tire fixed on the stroller (which cost me 8 $@%#@ing dollars for FIVE minutes of work), went to Petco and spent way too much money on bird seed and dog stuff, went grocery shopping, went to the liquor store and then came home and cleaned the entire house. Can you imagine what I could have done had I had the ENTIRE day off? My lord.

So, because I got all of this stuff done on Friday, the rest of the weekend was spent playing! Saturday, my friend Natalie came down from Franklin, MA with her son, Ethan and we all went to the beach, which was great.

The kids all had a great time. Then, miraculously, we got home and put all of the kids down for a nap at the same time. It was fabulous. Natalie and I were able to enjoy a nice glass of white wine on the deck and actually have an adult conversation. When the kids got up, they played in the yard for another couple of hours (which allowed for another nice glass of white wine) – it was great!


(nevermind the look of "why are you playing with MY toy?" on Alex's face in this one...



Oh – I had also made this fabulous homemade salsa recipe that I found, so we were able to enjoy that on the deck as well (I would highly recommend this).

Sunday, back to the beach and then over to Lindsey’s house for dinner where she made these fabulous ribs with this fabulous bbq sauce (which I would also highly recommend).

Monday was kind of a lazy day, as the weather wasn’t all that great, but we did venture out and get to Target in the afternoon as a family (which I believe is a first). While I enjoyed having my husband there, I will say that his idea of Target shopping (i.e., get in, get what you need, don’t look around, and leave) is not really as pleasant as mine (i.e., get in, wonder around, look at everything we don’t need, but I really really want and end up buying it anyway, then wondering around some more and then, an hour and $100 later, leave).

However, the most exciting part of the day!!!???? There is a Babies R’ Us going in right across the street from Target, so I will now have one that is 20 mins away vs. an hour and 20 mins away!!!! If THAT isn’t reason enough to have another, I don’t know what is!!!! :)

The Beach

I know that you have all been losing sleep wondering whether the Holland family has made it to the beach this summer, as I have yet to blog about it. Well, I’m here to put your mind at ease. We have actually made it to the beach quite a bit (although, it was a slow start with bdays, trips, etc) – I have just forgotten to take my camera every single time up until this last weekend.

As you can imagine, our beach experience varies from year to year based on the kids’ ages. It’s hard for me to believe that just 5 years ago, we could actually get there whenever we wanted, stay as late as we wanted and the best treat? Lay there and do NOTHING. It was fabulous. Things these days are a bit different.

The summer of 2007 was not a good beach summer, as it consisted of either a) me attempting to nurse Avery while trying to also keep every single little piece of her skin out of the sun or b) Josh or I walking Avery around in the stroller to try to get her to stay asleep. And, because I'm feeling nostalgic talking about her when she was itty bitty....Here is the little stinker at 3 weeks old during her first trip to the beach and no, I wasn't lying - I had actually just nursed her to sleep before this picture ...

Summer of 2008? Much better. Avery was very content to just play with buckets of water, chew on rocks (large ones of course – don’t worry) and eat her lunch – calmly, peacefully. It was very nice.

Summer of 2009? Back to the nursing and the stroller, except this time with Alex. Not so much fun. Here he is at probably only 1 week old at the beach - I remember I could barely even walk because I was still recovering from the c-section, but we made it to the beach! Not sure if that was a really sick move or a really healthy move on my part????

Summer of 2010? Pretty similar to the Summer of 2008 except we have a 13 month old boy vs. a 13 month old girl. Alex isn’t simply content just playing with water or chewing on rocks. Alex needs to immediately dump the water all over Mommy’s blanket that, up until that point, I attempted to keep free of all sand and water. He also insists on not eating his lunch calmly and peacefully, but rather grabbing the little cups that his food is in and dumping black beans all over the blanket (that is now full of sand and water).

He also insists on crawling everywhere and picking up random little things that he probably shouldn’t be chewing on, but does.



And, after a hard day at the beach, he's pooped....


Actually, this is what happened just prior to that picture, but as you can see, he was loving this game of "let's push Alex down in the seat."

I will say that Alex is much better about going in the water than Avery ever was. In fact, it wasn’t until this year that Avery actually got in the water and enjoyed it. Alex, on the other hand, loves playing in the water and gets in it any chance he can get. I can see it now – Alex will be lifeguarding on Warren’s Point, diving into the water and saving lives, as Avery is doing her best impression of me by laying her butt on the beach and not doing a single thing. That’s my girl!

5:20 AM and Spinning Days

Yes, folks – 5:20 is the time that my youngest has designated as his new wake up time! It’s awesome. Let me explain to you everything that is wrong with this situation (other than the obvious being that it is way to #$%&ing early for anyone to be getting up):

1. I typically get up at 5:30 during the week to take Deacon out. In the past? I’d get up, take him for a walk, get back, shower, put on makeup and THEN Alex would get up. Perfect timing, as I was 75% done getting myself ready. Now? I have to get up, make a bottle, get the baby and then leave him in our room with a husband who REALLY doesn’t want to have to wake up to watch him. I’m still not 100% certain Josh ever really wakes up, so just in case, I always do the “what could he possibly get and choke on in our room” search before leaving.

2. I need to find a way to occupy him for the hour and 20 mins before we have to leave the house for daycare. Try doing this while also trying to shower and get yourself ready in the morning- not fun.


3. Because he got up too early, he becomes VERY tired, cranky and needy right around 6 am, which is still a good 40 mins before we leave. So, NOW try to get yourself ready AND occupy a baby who is cranky and needy. Also not fun.

4. If Alex wakes up at 5:20? Chances are pretty good that Avery will also wake up at 5:20, as their rooms are right next to each other, so now we have not one, but TWO kids who are cranky, tired and needy. Awesome.

5. As it turns out, a 12 month old doesn’t know the difference between a workday and a weekend day and as a result, decides to join us at 5:20 AM on Saturday and Sunday as well. REALLY????

And, here is the little stinker himself practicing his new fun game of pulling himself up on things...

And, here he is just prior to pulling himself up on Avery's easel and sticking a paint brush in his mouth...



Now, onto my eldest. We experienced the most unique and bizarre meltdown to date the other morning. She wanted to wear a dress to preschool. But, not just any dress. Nope – it has to be one that spins. And of course, none of my suggestions spun to her satisfaction. So, she freaked. Bawled, laid on the ground and……kicked. And, that was the end of it. Because there is NOTHING that I hate more than temper tantrums like that. And, I let her know of this immediately when the kicking began. Don’t worry – I didn’t do anything drastic. I just explained to her (in a somewhat raised volume and tone) that those types of fits are not tolerated in our house. Apparently it worked, because she stopped immediately. Once she calmed down, I attempted to explain to her that some days are spinning days and some days are non-spinning days and that day happened to be a non-spinning day, at which point she looked at me and said, “Can’t TOMORROW be the non-spinning day??”



It’s a good thing these kids are cute, that's all I have to say....

Happy 1st Birthday, Alex (plus a 3 week recap)!

Wow – lots to catch up on – I’ll focus on the most important event and then go chronologically.
Alex turned 1 on July 2nd!!!! I can’t believe that it has been a year since I had him. I get nostalgic with every birthday, but the first is always even more sentimental just because it is so close to the time that I actually gave birth (not to mention, that I’m convinced that the first year is by far the hardest on a mother, but we won’t focus on that part). Anyway – we celebrated with Josh’s family and some friends the weekend before his birthday. In keeping with tradition, I made him a cake – I chose a monkey – not because it really meant anything, but more because it had a minimal amount of colors.

I did the balloon so that Alex would have his own piece of cake to devour. As you can see, that didn't quite work out. In fact, he hated it.



The week before Alex’s party, I was in NYC for a conference. The funny thing about the trip? There was no conference. Yep – that’s right – somehow I managed to get it in my head that the conference was on Thursday and Friday in NYC when really it was Tuesday and Wednesday. You can imagine my surprise (i.e., near panic attack) when I showed up and they didn’t have my nametag on the table. The good thing was that there was a different conference that Thursday that I did attend, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted and I was able to catch up with Christine and Colleen while I was there. We had a great time and it was nice catching up in the big city! Somehow, I yet again managed to drink too much each night I was there, so the mornings were a bit of a challenge (especially the one where I was on a train by 6 am), but it was worth it.

We flew out to WI on July 2nd, which was Alex’s actual birthday (I figure at this age, he wouldn’t know the difference, so I didn’t feel badly flying all day on his bday). We nearly didn’t make it, as daycare called literally one hour before I was supposed to pick the kids up saying that Avery had a fever of 102.8. Seriously????? I rushed her to the dr. and begged them to see her, which they did. They checked her ears and she didn’t have an infection and they took a urine sample ( I personally think that I should get mother of the year for getting a 3 year old to pee in a cup, not to mention for getting peed on during the process) and there was no infection there. It looked like it was just a virus, so we loaded her up with Tylenol and we were on our way. The flight there was rather uneventful other than the fact that my son is at the age where he does not want to sit still, which proves to be challenging on a flight where he is supposed to be sitting in your lap. Josh was kind enough to stand in the back most of the time and rock him to sleep, which was huge.

The trip was great – we had an awesome time. We arrived to this cute sign on the garage door when we got there, which was a nice little surprise - my mom's creative like that.






We celebrated both babies’ birthdays (Annabel’s and Alex’s) as well as William’s birthday on the 4th. And, yes – I made another cake – this time it was a fisherman (for Will) that just caught 2 fish (one for Alex and one for Annabel).



We celebrated by having a picnic lunch at the beach followed by swimming for all and then a nice dinner that night and some fireworks later on. Here are the babies yet again NOT enjoying the cake that I spent hours decorating. New rule - until they can prove to me that they will eat the cake, no more decorating. Who am I kidding? I'll eat the cake that they don't eat - I'm still decorating.



The rest of the trip was spent on the boat



in the lake




on the playground

in the kiddy pool





And, of course, wearing our sister's clothes because that's always a fun thing to do on vacation...


We also made it down to Milwaukee to visit with the girls and all of the kids. Wow – there were ELEVEN kids between all of us. It was great seeing them, but I’ll be honest – the next trip may need to exclude anyone under 30 and include a significant amount of wine. Thanks to Becky for hosting all of us at her house (which looked like this the majority of the day…)

Believe it or not, we were able to get a picture of all 11 kids together, which was pretty impressive...

Overall, it was a great trip. I am just now getting over my "return back to work" depression, but I'm thinking it still may take a couple of days (and a new job where I can have summers off) to fully get over it. :)

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have Movement!!!!

Sorry about the sideways view - not sure yet how to rotate these things on my camera. We also have a 3 year old who has slept in her bed without making a noise for 3 nights straight. Big changes in the Holland household. Big!