Charleston, South Carolina 2010

On Saturday, February 20th, we packed the kids into the Outback and drove 11 hours to the Isle of Palms, South Cakalacky (as Steve affectionately calls it) for our annual trip with my high school friends and their families.  This year, Damian and his family (wife: Jenn, son: Leo - age 4) and Andy came, but Mike (and his wife: Olga) could not join us, unfortunately. 

Admittingly, 11 hours of driving is grueling.  11 hours of driving with toddlers is torture.  But we do it because the kids have a ball together and it gives us quality time with our friends.  After we get home, there is no doubt the trip was worth it.  During the drive, parents of young children hope for this:

 

Unfortunately, that is the only time they slept on the way down, and it was for no more than an hour.  That made the last half of the trip really rough.  They both fell asleep with 20 minutes to go before arriving at our destination.  Go figure.

When we arrived at the house, it was way past the lack-of-nappers bedtime so that was the first task at hand: inflate DJ's toddler air mattress (which he loves and on which he seems to sleep very well) and Elektra's tent.  DJ was pretty upset that we woke him up to bring him into the house, but he settled down pretty quickly.  Elektra was fine until we tried to put her in the tent, and then she screamed bloody murder.  Thinking it was the tent she didn't like, we opened her pack-n-play instead.  Well, it turns out she just hated being in a new place because she screamed bloody murder in the pack-n-play, too.  Finally, when she settled down, DJ fell asleep, too.

During that whole week, the kids woke up sometime betwen 6:30 and 7, and got us out of bed by no later than 7:30.  One morning, we heard... wooooooooosh... click.  wooooooooosh .... click.  DJ was opening and shutting the window to our room and the woosh sound was the ocean.  Another morning, DJ had strewn Steve's clothes all over the room.  Yesterday morning, Elektra was yodeling.  Also yesterday morning, the kids were up by 6:30, so Steve took DJ out to the sunroom to see the sunrise and all of the "cudors" (colors).  Another thing they did was play with the closet doors.  Elektra would stand on one side of the doors, and DJ would open and shut them.  When they would see each other, Elektra would squeal, "HI!" and DJ would reply, "Hi!", rinse and repeat.  We just never knew what would happen each morning!

The routine would continue in that we would get the kids dressed for the day, then give them breakfast, and then they'd run around the beach house, nearly destroying it until we were ready for our morning excursion.  

On Sunday morning, which was the best day weather-wise (nearly 70 degrees and no wind), we went to see the USS Yorktown.

 

The kids are usually exhausted after this excursion, and this was no exception.  DJ and Leo climbed all over stuff while Elektra walked and walked around the open decks.  We called Elektra the moving pink speed bump because she'd just toddle right into the path where someone was walking.  By lunchtime, it was clear the kids were getting tired, so we supported the ship further by visiting the gift shop.  

Then we got lunch and took the kids home for naps.  For the most part, DJ and Elektra napped fairly well all week, except when Elektra would power nap in the car on the way to the house or if she had a morning nap.  DJ napped every day except one day when I kept him out.  Those days, the kids were in bed super-early.  In fact, there were days when DJ would ask to go to bed early.  Though more typically, after naps, we'd make dinner, the kids would play for an hour or so thereafter, and then they'd go to bed.

On Monday, it rained REALLY hard, so the two families decided to go retail shopping.  We hit the Target and bought a few toys for DJ to play with, including Candyland and Chutes and Ladders board games.  Notice the "book" version of the board games!  They are more compact, and in more durable packaging than the traditional boxes.  We also picked up a Cars fishing set, which DJ is starting to figure out how to do, but it is a little advanced for him, and a Crayola Color Wonder set.  Unfortunately, the set was "old" because the color would take forever to "show".  Damian says that the places have high Crayola turnover have the fresh sets and there is a significantly shorter time elapse in when DJ applies the color to the paper and when the color appears.  So we will try another set soon.

On Tuesday, Elektra asked for a morning nap, so she and Steve stayed home and napped while I took DJ out with Damian, Jenn, Leo, and Andy to the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea farm in North America.  We had a 45 minute trolly ride around the planation, and then we had a 15 minute walking tour of the manufacturing plant itself.  It was fascinating!  DJ really enjoyed the trolly ride and seeing the processing machines (even though it's off season and they weren't on).  I asked why they don't have any decaf selections and the answer we were told is because the FDA doesn't allow them to use the typical tea decaffination process (uses Acetone somehow).  Their website gives the "we don't want to use chemicals" as their official answer, so who knows. 

After we went to the tea plantation, we stopped by the Angel Oak Tree.  It's outrageously old (~1500 years, they think), and ENORMOUS.  Check out the pictures...

On Wednesday, we went to the Isle of Palms Recreation Center which had an awesome playground!  Here are some pictures!

 

 A new kind of see-saw!

 

Slide: Step 1 - The Anticipation!

Slide: Step 2 - Going down!

Slide: Step 3 - That was fun!

Slide: Step 4 - That was hair raising fun!

 

DJ on the Suspension Bridge 

DJ climbing the ladder!

On Thursday, we went to the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry.  This place was the Maryland Science Center's kid section as the entire museum.  DJ and Elektra both LOVED the water display.  Despite the smocks, they were soaked!!  They had a really good time, and will be a destination for next year!

On Friday, we took the kids back to the playground for only an hour as it was a lot colder than Wednesday.  All of the kids were tired on Friday, and we think they were done with not having their normal routine.

Yesterday, we began the excruciating drive home at 8:45.  After lunch, we put on a video for them to watch (borrowing Damian's portable DVD player) and hoped for the best.  The DVD did help, but we had to stop for dinner, too (unlike the trip down where we only did drive-thru for dinner).  With half an hour left in our drive, DJ and Elektra were both d-o-n-e done with being in car seats and were letting us know it, despite anything we did.  

We got them home and into their pajamas.  Elektra went right to bed, but DJ melted down.  We don't know why, but he quieted down quickly.  He didn't sleep as soundly as usual, but he's got a cold, so this wasn't surprising.

We're still tired, but glad to be home, and the kids are glad to be home in their own beds and with their toys.  Though the novelty of being home is wearing off quickly as toy-pocalypse is upon us!!

Elektra words update

It is so strange to have a toddler who is an early talker.  With DJ not saying a word until 18 months, the fact that Elektra's communicating, and been communicating, with words is astounding to me.  Her newest words:

Yah = yes --> and she knows how to use it context!
Ta-ta = ni-tata --> goodnight in greek coloquialism
bob book = Fifteen Animals book by Sandra Boynton
1-2-3 = counting one-two-three
cup = cup
dat = hat
sish = goldfish --> the cracker
acoo = thank you --> in context!
cacom = welcome --> in context!
mow = meow
cacker = cracker

I think she's starting to say Yiayia as she was babbling ya ya ya ya in the car today, followed by Daddy, Papou, and Mama.  So I associated that babbling as trying to say Yiayia in the context of all the other names immediately following it. 

She also tries to comb her hair, can undo the velcro on her shoe and is starting to be able to climb up onto our couch (which is relatively tall)!

Snowpocalypse 2010 - Reprise

Because Momma Nature didn't have enough fun with the Baltimore-Washington area, over the weekend, she decided to drop down another 20+ inches of snow on us Tuesday and Wednesday.  We'd barely dug out of the 30 inches we'd gotten 4 days earlier, and we got hammered again.

This time the snow started late in the afternoon on Tuesday, snarled the afternoon rush home, and made already ugly roads even uglier.  By the time we went to bed Tuesday night, we had to dig 5 inches off of the deck/patio.

Wednesday morning, another 5 inches were on the ground.  Shoveling "a spot" for the dogs was a requirement.

 

Late Wednesday afternoon, it all stopped again, and the sun came out.  Halleluia!!

We spent Sunday morning re-digging out ourselves (only to be reburied by the plow, but that's ok!).

Snowpocalypse 2010 - Update

As predicted, we got hammered with nearly 30 inches of snow.  Sometime just after noon that day, apparently we got hammered with thunderstorms which made it snow up to 3" an hour.  Then, right around 3:30PM, the sun came out!!  Steve ran the snow blower, and cleaned the driveway and our front walk.  By the time the sun went down, we could drive to the bottom of our driveway, but that was it!

Sunday morning, the snow plow came barreling down the street.  As to be expected, he had no where to put it, so our driveway entrances got reburied.

 

The front of our driveway

 

A view of our street (with one of our neighbors shoveling)

DJ was crawling the walls and destroying the house, so it was clearly time to get him OUTSIDE!!!  So out we went!  He didn't like being outside during the storm; the wind was whipping and it was being pretty intimidating.   But with the sun out and no wind, DJ was much happier!

But first, we had to get over the mountain that blocked our driveway.

DJ standing in front of the pile burying the front of our driveway.  How's that for perspective??

Then DJ decided that climbing the pile would be fun!

 

King of the mountain!

Eventually we got over the driveway mountain, and DJ decided to try and bring down the snow wall himself!

 

Then went over to our neighbor's house while the snow plow came back through and honked his horn for DJ!  DJ watched the snow plow intently!

 

 

After the plow left, DJ continued bring down snow walls on our neighbor's driveway.  

He had such a good time!  He was covered in snow!  I had to strip him down when we got inside and toss everything into the laundry!

 

 

Snowpocalypse 2010

Well, Snowpocalypse 2010 has begun.

Just as predicted, the snow started falling in Baltimore City at noon (10 AM in Cow-roll County) on Friday.  I left work at 4:30PM and the roads were only wet in the city.  By the time I got to Eleanor's (Baltimore County), the snow was starting to stick.  I went to my parents' house to pick up steaks (YUM!!), and I slid right past the driveway as there was already an inch on the ground.  By the time I got home, there were 2 inches, and my car nearly became best friends with the bush at the end of our driveway.  I saw Steve laughing at me from the bay window in the living room.  At midnight, I went out to shovel the deck so there would be less to shovel in the morning for the dogs.  At the time, that was about 10 inches of snow.

Today, there was easily another 10 inches on the deck.  As I shoveled the deck, Steve used the snow blower on the patio to give the dogs a spot to go potty and a place for me to put the snow from the deck.

After breakfast, Steve went to snow blow the driveway, and there is as much snow on the driveway this morning as there was for all of Snowpocalypse 2009... and it's still snowing and supposed to continue snowing for another 12 hours!

Updates still to come!

Noreaster 2009 video

In honor of the current blizzard blanketing the Baltimore area, I decided to put together the video footage we have from the blizzard on December 19, 2009.  Definitely not my best work as it's a little disjointed, but oh well.  There's a reason I'm not a film editor!!!

Remember, if you're reading this blog through your email, you'll have to go to the blog's actual website to see the video. http://faststeak.blogspot.com/2010/02/noreaster-2009-video.html

DJ not-so-good night/day

Wednesday night, I put DJ to bed.  Everything went as usual until I turned out the light (then I went and sat in the chair in his room until he fell asleep - except he didn't fall asleep this time).  Then I heard squirm squirm squirm whine squirm whine squirm whine whine... you get the picture.  Finally, he started crying.  I asked him what was wrong, and he wouldn't answer me.  I asked him if his tummy hurt, if he wanted to hold my hand, if his head hurt... no answer.  Just wailing. 

So I picked him up, and held him for a few minutes.  I tried to get him to tell me what was wrong, but I got nowhere.  I tucked him back in bed, and left the room.  I expected a protest, but was proven wrong.... he seemed to go to sleep.

About 40 minutes later, he woke up and was wailing (and yawn mid-wail).  Again, I asked him what was wrong, what hurt, and he wouldn't tell me.  Daddy came in this time, we thought to try some Pepto to see if it was his tummy.  He wouldn't take it.  He wouldn't drink any water.  He just wailed.  The only time he would calm down was when he was being held by one of us (preferably Daddy, of course). 

Steve laid down in DJ's car bed with DJ until he fell asleep.  Steve wasn't in his room 10 minutes as DJ fell asleep quickly. 

Half an hour later, DJ woke up wailing again.  This time I went in and lay down in the car bed with him.  I'm amazed at how relatively cozy that thing is...!  Anyway, he squirmed and whined and squirmed and yawned and squirmed and whined and yawned.... until finally he got comfortable.  He was asleep in 3 minutes flat, and we didn't hear from him the rest of the night.

The next morning (yesterday), I went into his room to find DJ asleep in his bed, but clearly he'd been awake earlier as toys were in his closet, his humidifier was on, etc.  I woke him up to get him ready to go to Eleanor's, and he just wailed through all of it.

Once we got out to the car, he was better until we were about 3/4s of the way to Eleanor's.  Then he started whining that he wanted Daddy.  When I told him Daddy went to work and we're going to Miss Eleanor's, he started crying. 

At this point, it was clear to me that this behavior was because he was tired, but it didn't explain why he was  awake half of the night to cause him to be tired.  We got to Eleanor's, and he wailed for what was probably the first 10 minutes after our arrival.  This is highly unusual for DJ, who usually can't wait to get up the stairs and go into the kitchen to get his milk and breakfast.  I sat with him on the couch and held him for a little while until he calmed down. 

Thankfully, Grace's Dad had brought donuts as a treat so I used those to entice him to go into the kitchen for breakfast.  It's not like DJ knows what a donut is, but I figured the shapes would distract him which they did.  He pointed to the chocolate star-shaped donut as the one he wanted.  He got into his highchair without a fuss and once he discovered the chocolate frosting, he ate the entire top and licked his fingers clean!  Good stuff!!

Eleanor called me later that morning to tell me that DJ just melted down late morning.  So she had pulled out a little toddler "sleeping bag" (DJ wanted no parts of the crib), set it up on the couch downstairs, and he crawled in it on his own.  Eleanor stroked his hair and within 5 minutes, he was asleep.  He slept for about half an hour (and still took a 2 hour afternoon nap!)

Meanwhile, Grace was VERY concerned that DJ didn't feel well, and didn't know what to make of his sleeping on the couch.  Sonny says she was a little mother, constantly going over to check on him.  Elektra was also very concerned as she never sees DJ in that situation.  Sonny and Eleanor had to move some furniture to block the girls from DJ so that he could sleep in peace.  Kids are truly amazing.

I took DJ to see Dr. Papou after I picked up the kids from Eleanor and Sonny's just to see if DJ maybe had an ear infection that was bothering him.  Dr. Papou said he didn't see anything of concern in DJ's ears, to give him some Tylenol tonight, and if he doesn't sleep well, then take him to the pediatrician.  When I got home, both DJ and Elektra were running low grade fevers (99s), so we gave them both Tylenol before bed.  Both also ate excellent dinners (fresh salmon, fresh tuna, broccoli and because of such a good dinner, "cookies on a napkin" (mini vanilla wafers) which DJ shared with Elektra.  He'll pull her highchair over to him ("sit next to 'rektra") so that he can share his dessert with her, and this was no exception.

Thankfully, DJ felt better after his naps that day, and he slept really well last night.  He was in a good mood this morning, so no pediatrician for him!  He was happily downing a mini-blueberry muffin for breakfast when I left.

We're wondering now if maybe he was taking out his insecurity about my having been gone for 5 days (at the SCCA's National Convention) Wednesday night.  No way to know...  ::shrug::

DJ the Wine-O

Last night, the kids and I walked into a house that smelled delicious!  ("Delicious" was promptly repeated multiple times by a little boy...).  Daddy was making Chicken Marsala and was using a new bottle of Chardonnay in the sauce.

I can't tell you how it got to this point - I must've been getting changed out of my work clothes - but the next thing I know, Steve is giggling like a school girl.

He had pulled out a shot glass, and gave DJ a small sip of the Chardonnay to taste.  "Mmm!  That's good, Daddy!"  All fine and good with me - my parents used to do that with us when they decided to have wine with dinner.  Except that after Steve put the shot glass down on the counter and turned his back to stir the sauce he was making, our not-so-little counter surfer snatched the shot glass and chugged what was left of the wine.

Then he asked for more.

At this point, I poured a little more wine into the shot glass and gave a sip to Elektra.  She took a taste, seemed ok with it and opened up for more.  Her second taste was a little more substantial, and she scrunched up her face in dislike.  Then I went over to DJ, and gave him the rest.  "More, Mommy?"

"I think you've had enough, DJ."

Since that incident, though, I've become more keenly aware of how much DJ really is counter surfing for things on the counter.  Time to start being neater about what we leave on the counters!

Elektra's current favorite book

Elektra can already say the word "book".  And she asks for "book" when we sit down in her glider chair to read before bedtime.  It's all part of her bedtime routine.  And you know she wants to read the book when you pick one up and she lays back and relaxes on you, thumb in mouth, "Nunny" in hand.  If she doesn't want the book, she forcibly shuts it on you.

In particular, she loves Sandra Boynton books.  She gets a big kick out of "Hippos Go Berserk" but her favorite is "Fifteen Animals". 

I really like animals.
I like them a lot.
Fifteen animals is what I've got.
I've got fifteen animals.
They're friendly and tame, and
I've given each one a special name.

I've got a cat named Bob.
And a dog named Bob.
And two fish called Bob and Bob.
There's Bob my hamster.
And Bob my horse.
And my piglet known as Bob, of course.

....

You get the picture.
The 15th animal is his turtle, Simon James Alexander Ragsdale the Third.

She'll take the book from you when you're finished reading it, and page through it on her own, saying "Bob Bob" when she feels so inspired.  But that is her "Bob" book, and she asks for it by that name.  We spent a good 10 minutes paging through "Bob" tonight, and then she just wanted to hold on to it.  If I'd have let her, she would have wanted to take it to bed with her.

Elektra's teething progress

Elektra struggled with teething her 1 year molars.  She drooled like an open faucet and was fairly moody which is really unusual for her. 

Just when we thought she was finally done breaking those through (and boy they are monsters!), her teeth decided to not to give her a break.  Her bottom canines - both of them, are breaking through now.  Hopefully, they'll hurt her less overall....