Flowers for Grandpa

Eleven years ago this August Lincoln showed up for our first date with a handful of flowers. They weren't just any old flowers, they were ones he had made from telephone wire on his lunch hour. Believe it or not, I still have that bouquet in a vase in our bedroom.

Today is Grandpa Snow's birthday so the kids decided to make him wire flowers as a gift. Lincoln gave them a little lesson first thing this morning.

God bless single mothers (and fathers)

Yesterday was a rough day with Jake being sick. He started throwing up around 5:30 a.m. and by noon I had lost track of how many times he had gotten sick. Lincoln flew back from Virginia that morning and went straight to work so he didn't get home until almost 7 p.m. and I was on my own all day with a sick, feverish, miserable 5-year old. Jake and I did great all day but by the time Lincoln walked in the door I was ready to hand him off and go upstairs for a rest.

I don't know how single parents do it. I also don't know how people do it without family close by. We're lucky enough that Lincoln's parents live right around the corner from us and they could come pick up Hannah for me so that she could catch the bus without me having to bundle up Jake and take him out in the cold. Hannah gets on and off the bus at their house so it's not like she would just be at the bottom of the driveway and I could watch out the window. They also brought her home for me at the end of the day. Simple things like that - getting the healthy kid to the bus without disturbing the sick kid - would be so much harder without them living nearby.

Luckily Jake is feeling much better today. He slept fine last night and woke up asking for something to eat and drink this morning so we took him to Grandma and Grandpa's today. I never received a phone call that he had relapsed so hopefully we're all set with him. Now if we can just keep Hannah from getting sick.....

Lincoln's birthday dinner

Last night was Lincoln's birthday dinner up at Justin and Diane's house. We were also celebrating Gail's birthday which is on October 20th. Originally the dinner was scheduled to be at our house but Diane was pet-sitting a friend's 5 month old puppy so she asked if we could move it up there so that she wouldn't have to leave the puppy home alone in its crate. The kids of course absolutely loved the puppy. It was an adorable little King Charles Spaniel, I believe.

We were there pretty late last night and the puppy, and the kids, were winding down. Jake decided to stretch out on the couch and the puppy decided that looked like a good place to sleep as well. This picture was taken with Lincoln's cell phone so it's not the greatest quality but it was too adorable not to post.

Horrible wife? Or 1950's husband?

Lincoln's birthday is this Saturday. We actually have a thing to go to on Friday night and a block party down the street on Saturday afternoon. I asked him over the weekend if he would like to have his family over for dinner or if it would be too much to do over the weekend. He seemed rather non-committal so I figured we'd figure out something over the course of the week. Yesterday morning Lincoln dropped the kids off at his parents house and came home for this conversation.

Link: So my mom is cooking lasagna to bring over Saturday night.

Me: Oh, okay. So we're doing dinner?

Link: Yep.

Me: Cool.

On my drive to the office I figured I'd call his brother and sister-in-law that afternoon to invite them down for dinner. Before that could happen Lincoln and I had lunch together since he was working in Cambridge for the day.

Link: So Di is bringing the cake on Saturday.

Me: Huh? You called and invited them already?

Link: Yep, I just figured I'd do it.

Me: Oh. Okay. I was going to you know.

Link: And my Mom said she's bring a salad too.

Me: Oh, okay. I guess I'll make br...

Link: And she said while she's at the store she'll just get the garlic bread too.

Me: So, what am I providing for your birthday dinner?

Link: We'll be providing a clean house.

Seriously? Am I the worst wife or what? Notice he said "we'll" be providing the clean house. The funny thing is I'm glad that I don't have to cook or anything but still, I could have at least called his brother and sister-in-law or thrown a few loaves of garlic bread in the oven. Sometimes I feel like a 1950's husband. I just show up after work in the evening, kiss the kids and the hubby hello, and sit down to eat the wonderful dinner that my loving husband has prepared. Maybe for his birthday I'll buy him a nice set of pearls to wear while he's vacuuming.

Oh wait, vacuuming is one of the few household things I do! I guess I do have a purpose.

Jake's green thumb

Our son is turning into quite the little gardener. He loves it and he's actually really good at it. Awhile back Grandpa Snow gave Jake some string bean seeds and Jake dug a hole in the gravel/sand/dirt on the side of their driveway and the little buggers actually grew so big they transplanted them over to Grandpa's main garden. The other day when I stopped by to pick up the kids Jake was planting more of them along the driveway. I told him that maybe next year he could do his own veggie garden over at our house. Immediately he had plans for beans, corn, watermelon, and tomatoes. I hope he knows what he's doing because I've got a thumb so black that I can kill a plant just by owning it.

It's no wonder they need a rest

On Wednesday nights Jake always starts whining about the fact that he has to go to school on Thursday and Friday.

Jake: Why do I have to go to school tomorrow? Why can't I go to Grandma's?

Lincoln: Because they need a few days off each week.

Jake: Why?

Lincoln: Because they need a few days to recover. You can be exhausting.

(the next morning)

Jake: I don't want to go to school today.

Lincoln: You have to, it's a school day.

Jake: Grandma made fruit salad for lunch yesterday. She put it on a plate instead of in a bowl and we had a situation.

Me: And you wonder why they need time to recover from you.

Baby Lincoln!

Yesterday morning we had a nice little get together with Lincoln's parents and his aunt and uncle Russ and Elaine. Even though Lincoln's family is quite close geographically we don't actually get to see them very often so yesterday was a great day to sit and catch up. They also keep up on our day to day life by reading this blog so it's nice to know that even though they're not around our kids very often they can keep up on how they're growing and what they're doing.

The picture above is one that they sent me this morning of Lincoln when he was a little younger than Jake at a "Christmas in July" one year. Isn't he adorable?

The other thing that I have to mention about the get-together is that it's absolutely hilarious to watch Russ needle my father-in-law. I can just imagine what a pain-in-the-ass little brother he must have been for Bob when they were growing up but it's great to see that even in their 70's they still have such a close relationship.

The center of the storm

Pretty much nothing has gone right today and yet everything is managing to pull together. In the middle of the chaotic storm that is today I actually feel calm. God, I really hope it lasts.

Lincoln needed to get an early start down to a job in Connecticut this morning and I had to get into the office early as well. We managed to get the kids up and out the door by 7 a.m. and I took them to their respective daycare places. The kids were great and extremely helpful. Lincoln left a little earlier than I did and while I was packing everything up Hannah helped Jake finish his breakfast and brush his teeth. Lincoln bribed Jake with a "home lunch" instead of a school bought lunch so even Jake kept his usual "I hate school" whining to a minimum. Both of them are scheduled to be dropped off at 9 a.m. so showing up almost 2 hours early could have been a problem but both places were fantastic and I handed off the kids quickly and efficiently. I love great daycare.

My boss, who is on a plane all day today, sent me an email at 6:30 this morning that could have screwed up my entire day but luckily we've got such great employees here in the office (and due to our email addictions they were all answering emails at that time of day) I managed to get it taken care of before I even left with the kids at 7 a.m.

Traffic wasn't too terrible even though by the time I got on the road it was 7:30 a.m. which should be the peak of rush hour traffic. It's school vacation week so traffic is always substantially lighter during this week in February (likewise for April vacation). On my way in I spoke with my Receptionist and found out she'd be out today. She has been fighting off a terrible cold all week and finally lost the battle this morning. Once again this could have screwed up my entire day but luckily I was able to find coverage.

I got to the office and handled everything that was absolutely critical in a timely fashion so at least if something major came up I wouldn't be buried. We have a new mom working here (a longtime employee) who emailed me about a daycare issue this morning so I volunteered to babysit for an hour or two in my office but she ended up finding someone to watch her daughter. I was actually kind of bummed about that.

I also woke up with a completely random rash on my arms. Lincoln thinks it's hives from stress but I think it's the fact that I completely overdosed on fabric softener the other night when I washed my sweater. Yesterday when I wore it the smell of fabric softener was so strong it actually gave me a headache. Luckily my office is very isolated so no one called me out on the Fragrance Free Workplace rule. When I was in high school I used to break out in hives if Mom used scented dryer sheets so I'm really thinking that's all it is and it's even fading as the day goes on.

While I was dealing with an employee issue in my office I received a call from Hannah's babysitter that Hannah was fine but two other people in the house were throwing up. I didn't need to get Hannah but she thought I might want to. Luckily one quick call to Gail and that was all taken care of as well. I love having Lincoln's family close by.

In addition to all that I just have the usual last minute chaos having to do with two big work related events tonight and Saturday but even though some of the issues would normally send me through the roof I'm actually finding them easy to deal with today. I'm feeling very Zen right now.

Okay...lunch break is over....I hope this sense of calm continues.

Scary thought

Three days a week my in-laws watch Jake and Hannah. Hannah gets on and off the bus there and Jake, of course, is there all day. The kids absolutely love going over there. Jake told me he doesn't like going to school because there are rules and stuff. Obviously at Grandma's he gets away with a lot more mischief.

My in-laws live on a pretty busy road and Bob takes them outside to play quite a bit. They'll occasionally play in the backyard but more often then not they play out in the front and on the driveway. I've never really thought much about it because I know that Bob keeps a very close eye on them and never lets them get anywhere near the street so that has never really been an issue for me. But tonight I was talking to a woman that lives further down the street and she was asking me about the kids and what they were doing for vacation week. I told her that they were at Bob and Gail's as usual and she said "Oh, so that's your little boy that I always see outside with Bob." I have to say, that sort of freaked me out. Not only do they live on a fairly busy street but they are across from a T-intersection with another fairly well traveled road. I'm sure if people drive by there on a regular basis they probably see Jake out there with Bob all the time (Hannah too but she's there for much less time each week). Bob does a great job with the kids but he is 76 years old and broke his hip a number of years ago. He's not exactly spry if you know what I mean. Anyway, when this lady told me she notices Bob out there playing with Jake it occurred to me that anyone else who saw this 4-year old playing outside every day with this elderly man could very easily pull up, grab Jake (or Hannah), toss him in the car and take off. Bob wouldn't be able to do much about it except call 911.

Of course what he lacks in physical agility he more than makes up for in mental acuity. If someone did try to take one of the children he'd probably not only be able to describe everything about the person and their car he'd probably rig up some sort of MacGyver-like trap before the culprit got 100 yards down the road but like I said, it's still a scary thought.

Our mini-vacation

Last night we had a little mini-vacation at a local hotel. The Courtyard Marriott in Milford is running a deal called the Family Escape Plan during the schools' February break. For $109 we got a room at the hotel, movie and popcorn, a pizza, breakfast, and of course the swimming pool. Heck, breakfast alone at this hotel would have cost $41.00!

Anyway...the hotel is not far from both the place we ate lunch and Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond where we stopped to run some errands on the way. When we pulled into the parking lot we said "We're here!" and Jake was in awe.

Jake: How did we get here? Was that magic?

Obviously our usual trips are much longer than that. The last time the children flew was when we came home from Seattle this past August. We had to fly through Detroit and had a 3+ hour layover in the early morning hours. It was a LONG day but the kids did awesome. This really boggled Jakey's mind....how could we get somewhere so quickly? And how badly is this going to throw him in two weeks when we fly out to Las Vegas?

When we got into the room, Jake (who sees his Grandma and Grandpa Lentz in hotels more often then their own house) asked "Where are Grandma and Grandpa?" He was very sad to realize we wouldn't be seeing them for another couple of weeks.

Anyway, our little mini-vacation was great. The kids went swimming for a couple of hours last night and a few hours this morning. The pool was pretty empty and there were only a few other kids in there but both times we outlasted the other families. It was very nice and now tomorrow it's back to the grind. Hannah has the week off so she'll be hanging with Grandma and Grandpa Snow for a few days and then at Miss Lori's. It's nice having a week where we don't have to worry about homework.

It's a good thing we don't live in Wisconsin

Jake was sick over the weekend starting on Saturday evening through last night. When he gets sick to his stomach he gets put on the BRAT diet and taken off of chocolate milk. For those non-parents out there that is the Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast diet. Dairy is not good on a sick stomach and Grandma Snow must have had to repeat that to Jake a lot throughout the day today. Tonight Jake's obsession is what comes from the dairy.

Jake: What are we having for dinner tonight?

Link: Chicken.

Jake: Does that come from the dairy?

Link: Nope.

Jake: Then I can eat it.

Link: We can try it. I also put applesauce on your plate.

Jake: Is that from the dairy?

Link: Nope.

Jake: Can I have orange juice?

Link: No.

Jake: Why, is it from the dairy?

Link: No.

Jake: Everything that is not from the dairy is good for me.

Link: That's not necessarily true. Some things that are not from the dairy still aren't good for your tummy.

Jake: Do we have chocolate pudding?

Link: No. And you couldn't have it anyway.

Jake: Why?

Link: 'Cause it's from the dairy.

Jake: Aww man. (long pause) Are candy canes from the dairy?

Happy Birthday Bob!

Today is my father-in-law's birthday. I don't know how he does it but he still manages to keep up with my son. And let me tell you, with the mischief that Jake gets into, that's not easy.

Happy Birthday Bob!