Virgin Islands

And we're back! It was great! I am so glad it happened. It was just what I needed to get a new spring in my step this spring.

Disclaimer: I wish D had come on vacation with us. But he didn't and I sure as heck wasn't going to waste it wishing he'd come, so I made the best of it. 

We didn't do much of anything. Beach, pool, pool, eat, beach, pool, pool, eat. Laugh and drink and have fun. Perfection.

Avery & Bear were so unbelievably cute together. Bear adores Avery. He'd imitate her and wanted to hold her hand when we'd walk places. Just so sweet. Her name is in vocabulary as is "Moo." Vic calls me Moo, so I'm Aunt Moo to Bear. It was so cute when he'd look at me and point and say "Moooo." I think it bonds us ... him having a name like Bear and me being Moo.

The weather was perfect for my taste. I was never cold and I was rarely uncomfortably hot. The only time I felt the heat was when I was standing in directly in it for a long time. Otherwise, it was perfect. I never needed to worry about a sweater at dinner (which I do in Hawaii). At the pool there were always sun shades and loungers available. The pool wasn't crazy with kids, but had enough that I didn't feel the need to shush Avery. Basically, the whole thing was a perfect balance for me.

The flights - 3 there, 3 back - went so smoothly, even with some extremely tight connections. I wasn't stressed in the least on travel days. Avery was, as usual, stellar. That girl knows how to shape up on travel days.

The best part of it all was seeing and hanging out with Vic and Mike. I can totally be myself. We laugh and joke and catch up. And it's always so casual. I don't have to worry about being too slovenly for them. They don't care! Perfect.

Anyway, back into the swing of things.

cancelled

nyc = cancelled (for Avery and me)
D is still heading to NYC for his business trip, but we decided to the family portion of the trip. There's another storm that might hit and strain the already strained infrastructure. I imagine getting around will be somewhat to quite difficult. With Avery in tow and with it being cold, it's a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately I was able to get a full refund on Lion King tickets. At least, I should. I'll know tomorrow, but the guy on the phone said it'll happen, it's just a longer process than usual and they are offering refunds for the show to which we bought tickets. A refund for those tickets was my biggest concern considering the crazy cost of them ($430 for three tickets! and it's not like I splurged on the best seats or anything like that.) I knew I'd be able to cancel our various dinner reservations without a snag.

And I just heard back from D. Due to the lack of flight options and excessive change fees and flight cost differences, as well as the fact we can't get a refund on the hotel, D is just going to stay for the whole weekend. I told him to book as many fancy restaurants as he can. No use in missing out on fine dining just because he's alone.

satisfaction
Things from which I get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction:

• easy accessibility of tv. I messed up a month or two ago and scheduled a recording of The Crimson Petal and the White (a BBC production airing on Encore; it's one of my favorite books) to TiVo on Mom's TiVo rather than mine (her's is still hooked to our account since it's one of our old TiVos, so I can still scheduled recordings onto it via the TiVo website). They are no reruns of it that I can find. It seems they aired the four-part series only once. It occurred to me the other day to check the xfinity on demand stuff. This is new to us because, while we were entitled to access it based on what we paid for, we couldn't do so because of our choice to use TiVo vs. their DVR. When we upgraded our TiVo in the living room, it gave us access to xfinity on demand. Anyway, all this is to say that I was able to watch, for free via xfinity, the entire miniseries. It's ridiculous how satisfying it felt to have the luxury of this so easily at my fingertips. 
• calendar updating. I actually love scheduling stuff on my calendar. And my main partner in crime, RHG, is faithfully committed to her calendaring. I don't know that she loves it or gets satisfaction from it, but she needs it and so is committed to it. I find that after I've sat down and finished all my scheduling and juggling when something has changed, I feel a ridiculous amount of satisfaction. 
• garage, recycling, compositing sorting. I was so happy to dig through the garbage after the party on Friday night. I love sorting things in general, but I also love when things don't go to waste. While no use is better than use, and reuse is better than recycling, I still feel satisfaction that I reduced our trash by such a large amount by putting forth that effort. I just have to put out of my mind that any environmental good I do with this stuff is so minimal compared to the choice I make to fly all over the place. Every little bit counts, right? 

avoidance

election avoidance
The next few days will be an exercise in avoiding all news sites and TV coverage of the election. I can't stand to see headlines where Obama's winning (don't want to get my hopes up) or where he's losing (don't want to deal with the pain if he loses until it happens). So I am just avoiding it all. None of it is as bad as it was last time around when I was so very emotionally invested in the outcome. Plus, there's no Sarah Palin in the race and that makes all the difference. I still loathe her to the core of my being.

I told D that Tuesday we'd not have the TV on for election coverage when I was in the room. That's when he reminded me that he'll be on a plane then. And then I remembered Avery and I leave to join him in NYC on Wednesday (D was originally scheduled to fly with us on Wednesday, but had to change his flight to leave a day earlier).

guy fawkes party
We hosted about 80 people for D's annual Guy Fawkes party. In reality this event has nothing to do with Guy Fawkes except that it's British holiday and D's British. The party went well, I think. I had a good time when I did interact. When the number of people overwhelmed me, I hid in my bedroom for a bit, then came back out. I did this a few times until hitting the sack at a respectable time (if you're 80). There was lots of laughter until the last people left around 1:30.

I just sorted through all the trash from the party so I could pull out recyclables and compostables. It left us with surprisingly little trash all things considered. We still have the tent set up on the back deck and tables and chairs from the rental company scattered on the deck, in the garage, and in the house, but overall the house is in a livable state. Rental stuff will be picked up tomorrow, so no big deal.

My hostess gift for the evening: two boxes of fruit rollups. Perfection. I suspect someone reads my blog.

nyc
Our trip is still on as long as we have a hotel room. We have a reservation, but given that the city's hotel rooms seem to be bursting at the seams, I'm wondering if they will bump us or something.

fawkes

guy fawkes
Tomorrow is our annual Guy Fawkes party for D's office. This will be the last year of hosting at our house since we're already going to be bursting at the seams, depending upon how many people come.

I scheduled the cleaners to come today so the house will be clean for tomorrow night. And RHG just canceled their date night, so I won't have to clean up after the kids tonight - woohoo! Avery will be at the G's house for an overnight tomorrow night during the party. I heart the Gs.

nyc
We're still scheduled to go to NYC. D and I wondered via email a few days ago whether we (Avery and I) should still go, but we haven't had time since them to discuss in person. I lean strongly towards going even if it's not quite as smooth as it would have been had Sandy not hit. I'm assuming, of course, that all power will have been restored by this weekend so things will be fairly on-track by the time we get there late next week.

avery & fits
She's been doing really, really well lately regarding fits. She has been able to get upset within what I'd consider an acceptable range and deal with whatever was upsetting her. Massive improvement. I'm so pleased. One of the moments she had particular trouble dealing with before was when I'd get angry with the way she was speaking to me. I never yelled at her, but even just looking at her with a stern face would make her start crying and moving toward fit mode. This morning, she was able to take a moment then say she was sorry and we moved on. Massive improvement.

halloween
Avery dressed as Merida (from Brave) for her school Halloween parade, but chose to go as Jessie (from Toy Story) for the evening trick-or-treating. I'm not sure why she made that choice. I wasn't really up for trick-or-treating that night, so I asked D to go with her. He went around with Lily & Grace and their parents for 45 minutes or so of trick-or-treating. Avery came home with a perfectly reasonable amount of candy. It's funny because I don't think she even knows that other kids might eat more than one piece of candy that night. She asked to eat one then she asked to go to bed and it was an evening like any other. I stashed away all that candy in the treat drawer and she gets to pick one a day for lunches.

While Avery was totally reasonable and balanced in her consumption of Halloween candy, I was less than stellar. I at least had the good sense to buy mostly Kit Kats as the type for us to give out. Since I can't eat Kit Kats, those are still in plentiful supply. I also bought York Peppermint Patties, which I will eat once in a while, but would never eat more than one and can easily avoid them for months. Unfortunately, I also bought a bag of miniature peanut butter cups. I took the whole bag upstairs before bed and ate about half of it. I left the other half sitting on my nightstand. The next morning, Avery found the peanut butter cups on my nightstand. She said, "Mommy, if you eat all these at once, you'll get a stomach ache. I'll take them downstairs." I said, "Oh, you're right, Avery. Thank you." She was so very grown up about it. Thankfully, not grown up enough to look in the trash can and see what I inhaled the night before. She has always believed us that she'll get a stomach ache if she eats too much candy. I wonder when she'll finally test this theory, or bug us to let her test it. Soon no doubt. (Oh and yes, I did eat the other half yesterday while she was in school.)

avery & sleeping
Since we've returned from England, Avery has been going to sleep early and amazingly fast. We've been laying with her in bed until she falls asleep because we did it the first few nights we were back and it is working great, so why not. She falls asleep within 5 minutes of us saying "time to go to sleep." She's also been asking to go up to bed earlier than we were going up before England. Clearly, I love my daughter's non-resistance of bedtime. More often than not, she's the one who says she's ready for bed.

She's also, for the past couple of months, been coming into our bed in the middle of the night about 50% of the time. I actually rather like it, so I don't feel compelled to do anything about it. She's quiet (usually) when she comes in. Typically brings her blanket so she doesn't get under our blanket and just snuggles in between us. D may have a different version of this story, but for me, it's nice.

refugee family sponsorship
Amber, Christie, Stacey and I are sponsoring a couple of refugee families for Christmas again this year. This year one family is Bhutanese and one is Somalian. All members of both families need winter coats. Several bikes were requested. Then there are various items requested within the household. The list provided is just a wish list and we are in no way obligated to get all things on the list, but I would love to get each item. We'll see what we can do.

mom's back
My mom is back from her visit to Colorado and Wyoming. It's nice to have her home. She came inside for just a bit after I picked her up for the airport (her car was parked here while she was away, and Barkley was here, too). While she was in the bathroom, Avery asked if she could share her Halloween candy with Nain. She gave Nain a Kit Kat (from her stash, not from the stuff we have left) and had a bag of Skittles for herself. It was so grown up the way she shared. Melted my (so non-sentimental) heart.

dipping

recap
I'm dipping my toes back in the blogging waters. Bullet points are the only way to resume blogging when so much as happened between posts.

• Our surprise visit to England for Dag's (D's dad) 70th BD party was a success! Dag was truly surprised and we had a great time. Avery and Olly were attached at the hip and couldn't wait to be around each other.
• D, Avery and I went to Barcelona, Spain for several days in the middle of our England trip. We had a good time. As always, I enjoyed seeing another country. More on that when I'm more able to concentrate on details. 
• Avery was a stellar traveler. She adjusted to the time change quite well and did very well behavior-wise until our last weekend in London. And I can't really blame her for that fit because she was running on a huge sleep deficit at that point. Something had to give. 
• Avery can carry all of her belongings through the airport: clothes, toys, everything. I guess this isn't that shocking, but I didn't picture getting back to easy travel so early. I figured I'd always be lugging a ton of stuff for her around. With her wheely bag and backpack, she's all set. (Sometimes she does ask for us to carry her pack back so she can run, but sometimes I ask D to carry stuff so I can do x,y, or z, so I figure that still counts as her being a self-sufficient traveler). 
• Avery will sing and dance in the middle of a crowded airport for hours it seems. We got stuck at several points in Heathrow on our way to Barcelona. Avery was just signing and dancing away. It could have been awful to be stuck in lines with a kid in tow, but Avery didn't make it any more difficult. 
• We've been back a week and things are starting to normalize for me. I did GREAT the first couple of days back. I worked out, I did all the laundry, got the house back in working order (food, tidy, laundry, etc), then I just hit a wall and crashed. Vacations, while wonderful, are hard on introverts. Spending so much time with people with little alone time is tough for me. I had a massive amount of alone time (relative for a parent) last week and I'm just now starting to feel like my head is above water. 
• We are heading to NYC in a couple of weeks. D has a business trip. Given I've only been to NYC once, I said let's extend the trip and make a long weekend of it. We've made reservations at some good restaurants and have tentative plans to see The Lion King (for Avery's sake, not mine).  I should buy tickets now ... done. Man, those shows are expensive! My dislike of the theater has saved us a bundle!
• Right now I'm doing my best to split out my single (massive) iPhoto library into years. I hate iPhoto for many reasons, but I've also gotten used to it, so I don't wish to switch. Especially since I have little interest in pictures except as keepsakes. Meaning, they're not a hobby. 

flu shot advice

Avery had her flu shot before Elise and Nolan got theirs. RHG sent this email to me a few days later:

I asked [Avery] to give advice for Elise and Nolan since they were getting flu shots tomorrow.  She asked what "advice" is, and I said tips or ideas to make it easier.  She said "yes aunt chele:
1 - sippy of milk
2 - have a stuffie
3 - hold mommy's hand and
4 - lots of hugs with mommy afterward"

She numbered them and held up her fingers in count as she rattled them off. Impressive.

puppy

It looks like the amount of time off I need from dogs is about 1.5 years. As a BD gift of sorts, I told D that we could get a GS puppy. I'm not sure if we'll get a pure bred one or just wait for one from the humane society. I saw a GS that I fell in love with when we were apple picking. I'm waiting for the woman who owned the dog to get back to me with the breeder information for it as it had a great temperament. 

I always said I would never get another GS and now it's all I want. Go figure. 

60

home sweet home after flight (Avery)60
Yesterday Avery took her 59th and 60th flights. How do I know the exact number you ask? Well, while in Mexico, I became obsessed with figuring out how many total trips to Mexico. That required I go back and document all those. I couldn't very well do that without documenting all the other travel we've done, so I did that too. Then I went and labeled all the blog posts during Mexico trips by their number. A useless exercise that only I care about, I know, but I'm still a bit obsessed with it. It's not easy being me.

We got home at 12:30 am last night (technically this morning). Despite a long layover in LAX (5 hours), it was a very easy travel day for me. The kids kept each other entertained wonderfully and when they got a little bored, Christie whipped out that iPad. iPads are god's gift to traveling parents.

Summary of our trip: pool, hot, beach, pool, hot, beach, pool, pool, beach, eat, hot. Done. Avery slept beautifully this trip. She's to the age where she always sleeps well, but her falling asleep times during this trip were unbelievable. I'd say "calm down" and she'd lie still and be asleep 15 seconds later. Amazing. It was the same tonight when we put her to bed.

iPhone stuff
So far, the thing I am most excited about for the iOS6 release for iPhone is the ability to set a Do Not Disturb time. I could always do this with my Blackberry where I had it shut itself off at 11 and wake up at 7. I like the way Blackberry did it better since it actually shut the phone off and therefore saved battery power during the night, but this will do. Plus, you can set it so that some callers can get through and can activate a feature that will let a call through when it comes from the same number two calls in a row within a few minutes of each other.

D new iPhone has shipped. We're going to get Mom set up to use D's old iPhone.

reentry day
It went pretty well today, especially because Avery had a playdate at Elise's after school. Avery made it to school on time and we didn't even rush to do that because I'd mentally decided she'd be late given our late flight. I had to run to the grocery store after drop-off to get stuff for her lunch, then take it back to her, but no biggie. I also managed to get stuff for dinner while at the grocery store. It's embarrassing how often I'll go to the grocery store in the morning to get a couple of things and talk myself out of getting something for dinner. Things I think: "maybe I'll come up with what to make for dinner later" and "another stop at the grocery store is no big deal. it'll probably even be easier" and "maybe we should just eat out?" That last thought is the one that has been winning out lately. But not today! Of course, we ate our standard meal of salmon, green beans, and (brown rice) pasta, but whatever, we still ate at home and I still cooked.

When I got home from dropping A at school and taking care of couple of minor errands, I took a nap. I slept until 2:30. I slept hard and solid. I needed that sleep. It was lovely and I'm so very, very grateful the scheduling gods (aka school and RHG) made it happen.

Mom came over to join us for dinner and to read to Avery. It was great to see her after being gone so long.

toys
Poll: how long does one have to pine after a toy before purchasing it for oneself? Like, if it's totally unnecessary, but you've wanted it for years, does that mean you're in the clear to buy it for yourself? There's a correct answer to this question and I'm fishing for it. One guess what I want the answer to be. In all seriousness, what is the threshold you use for allowing yourself to buy a somewhat expensive toy (under $500, but more than $200) for yourself that you absolutely do not NEED.

best pictures ever?
I'll let you decide. The last night in Mexico, we went exploring along the beach, then to dinner, then let the kids run the length (the FAR length) of the beach. Avery had complained earlier that her swim bottoms were hurting. We determined the cause was they are now too small for her. Since she couldn't very well walk around naked, I pulled them down slightly to make them more comfortable. She left them at this acceptable level for quite a while. When she and Henry took off running down the beach well ahead of Christie and me, I noticed a little white patch on Avery way in the distance. When we finally caught up to them (or rather got close enough to them to yell "stop!"), this is what we discovered the white patch to be.

Photo by Christie Glynn

Photo by Christie Glynn

Retrieval

Rock fetching
One thing that Avery struggled with during her last swimming class was retrieving an object at the bottom of the (shallow) pool. She wasn't scared, but she just couldn't figure out how to get her body down there. Today we worked on that at the pool. I am proud to say that she can now go fairly deep to retrieve a rock. It was slow going with the skill until I explained that what I do is dive down, then put my bottom in the air as high as I can. That was the key she needed to get her body in the right direction. From there she could kick and move her arms to get to the rock. We're played that game a lot.

We all ate lunch at the pool. Service was slow, but the food was decent. There was a family nearby celebrating a BD. They asked if Avery and Henry would like some cake, so those two got cake with their meals. Nice. I, in turn, had to order flan since I couldn't even try the cake. The flan had a raspberry sauce topping - which I've never seen served with flan. Delicious.

After lunch, we all headed out for a swim in the sea. We saw a pretty big crab and found lots of sea snails. The water in the sea is also like a bath tub. Almost hot versus warm. Henry and Christie decided to do more exploring in the sea and on the beach. Avery wanted to go back and fetch that rock at the hotel pool.

And thus ends our activities, other than dinner, for the day. Expect the same report tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.

Mexico(12)

Disneyland(2)*
This trip started off a little rocky for me. We landed in LA on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, we hit California Adventure Land (right across from Disneyland - you get access to both parks if you buy the parkhopper pass, which we did). It was hot. I drank a lot. I was vigilant about making sure I didn't get hungry. Nonetheless, about 3:00 I started to feel the signs of a headache coming on. By 4:00 I was back at the hotel napping. I thought that would take care of things. However, I woke up at 6:00 with my headache being very bad. D left for the airport about then. I decided that I needed to get Avery and me some food right away, so we hopped over to a restaurant near the hotel and ordered food to go. As I'm waiting for it, the headache is getting worse and worse. I'm getting nauseous and starting to feel hot. I take Avery with me in the bathroom and vomit (sidenote: it does not alarm Avery to hear me vomit). It took a while for our food to be done. During that period, my head went from really bad to even worse. It felt like my brain was swelling and pushing against my skull. We get back to the hotel room where  vomit some more. I text Christie and ask her to bring water and milk (the latter being for Avery) on her way back to the room. I figured if I got a lot of water into me, that would fix things. I suspected I was "just" dehydrated. Of course, drinking water only resulted in me throwing it up. This went on ALL night. It was awful. I finally fell asleep about 3 or 4 AM. I woke up and my headache was still there and my stomach was still iffy. Thank goodness for Christie. That woman took both children to Disneyland and had them on 20 different attractions/rides before I was finally able to join them at 4:30 that afternoon. Maybe if you haven't done Disneyland, 20 doesn't seem like an impressive number, but trust me, it's unreal to me. If our situation was reversed, I have no doubt that number would not have exceeded 5 in that time. Seriously. I have no idea where Christie gets her stamina, but I want me some of that.

The afternoon/evening after I joined them was great. The park was cooler, a bit less crowded (though still very busy), and I was doing my best to relax as we walked around. We did the roller coaster in Toonland (RHG - this is the one we did with Jay and your kids last time) twice, then headed over to CA Adventureland to go on Soarin' Over California. That ride was awesome. It was one of my two favorites. My other favorite was Radiator Springs Racers. I didn't think I'd like either as much as I did.

Mexico(12) ... Avery(9) Megan(12)
Airport checkin for our Mexico flight was a bit frustrating, but after that it was smooth sailing. Easy plane ride, fastest time yet through immigration, bags came out immediately, both Christie & I got green lights at customs (you press a button and it randomly gives you a red or a green; green you go on, red they search a bag). We immediately located the shuttle people. The guy said it was the same price if they left with us immediately as if we waited to see if there were others on our flight going to Loreto Bay, so off we went. It was, by far, the easiest trip to the casa yet.

The great room of the casa had the air conditioning turned on (thanks to our property manager Jenny who turns it on prior to our arrival), but the bedrooms were roasting hot. It is HOT here in September. And humid. But I like it that way.

The swimming pool is like a bathtub it's so warm. Again, I love it. There's not even a momentary chill when getting in. In fact, at one point I had to get out of the pool to cool off. Awesome. It wouldn't be awesome if we were using the pool for exercise, but we are using it for fun.

Avery is truly swimming. She still hasn't gotten side breathing down, but she can roll to her back and do a float to get air, then start swimming again. She can hold her breath for a long time. She loves to jump in the pool. She loves to thrown in the pool. She is able to do flips into the pool (going from a ledge already within the pool since that seems safter to me).

Avery and Henry are getting along superbly. There has been very little bickering at all. Mostly they run around and play with caterpillars or look at snails when we're at the casa. The swimming pool is all fun, all the time.

Yesterday afternoon, after our nap, Avery and I wandered out to the beach to join Henry and Christie. Unfortunately  Avery cut her foot on a sharp rock in the sea, so we had to turn back. Fortunately, it wasn't a deep cut and stopped bleeding quickly. I sanitized it, applied Neosporin, put on a bandage and she's just fine.

We've decided to make due with just buying stuff from the nearby little store rather than go into town at all. We do have the number for a cab driver should we wish to head into town, but I'm quite content to just hang out here.

* The headings - Megan(12) or Avery(9) - represent the number of trips. Since this is my blog, Mexico(12) means I've made 12 trips to Mexico (well, to Loreto. I've been to one other place in Mexico, but I'm not counting that one). Avery's been here 9 times. We've been to Disneyland twice. 

Vegas 2012

Vegas
We had a great time on our annual trip to Vegas with our friends, Vic and Mike. It was their first weekend away from Bear, who will turn 1 this coming weekend. Mike's dad did call them at 5 am one morning to tell them everything was going great, but other than that, it seemed like a much needed break for them. These weekends away are, for me, no longer about getting away from parenthood as much as they are about reconnecting with good friends and enjoying good food. We ate at several great restaurants: Joël Robuchon, Lotus of Siam, RM Seafood (Rick Moonen's restaurant) . I highly recommend all three restaurants should you find yourself in Vegas hungry and unsure where to go to satisfy this hunger.

Vic and D played poker. I read (Gang Leader for a Day). I toured the shark reef in Mandalay Bay. I played Scramble with Friends and Hanging with Friends obsessively, as I have been for the past month or two - sigh - such a time sucker. I ate a lot of frozen yogurt.

Avery, meanwhile, had a wonderful long weekend with Nain. They went to the zoo, went swimming, went shopping, went to the library, and I'm sure other things I'm forgetting. Each call we got Avery was very happy and didn't seem to miss us at all, yet she was thrilled when we got home. I love coming home to Avery. It was awesome when Mom left last night (she picked us up at the airport). I hugged Mom and Avery saw. Then she yells to D that he should hug Nain. He does so. Then she says we need a group hug! I should note she's commanding all these things from her throne, well, THE throne. After she finished and washed her hands, she came out and we had a big group hug. Avery loves a good group hug.

Chair
Good news! Ethan Allen agreed to make us the chair for our sectional that they've stopped selling. This is by far the easiest and cheapest solution to our first world dilemma.

First Day
And now it's time to pick Avery up from her first day of pre-k! I did take the obligatory first day picture, but I haven't downloaded it to the computer yet. In due time, people.

Summary

• Avery is taking a nap right now. Because she asked for one. She decided to curl up on the couch to do it. Last time she did this, she woke up with a fever. I think this time she was just bored, so a napped seemed as good a thing to do as anything else. 
• I'm making Mom some change of address cards right now. I do love anytime I can use my Silhouette. 
• I made a couple of towel bibs using just my serger. The first one I made was too fussy because it required buttons. The next one was a much better design, but alignment was wrong. The third one I made is better, but the tension was set wrong on my serger, so I'm worried the threads will snag and make the whole thing fall apart. Hopefully the fourth time is a charm. Yes, I could have made the towel bibs using just my sewing machine, but it's much faster to use the serger. Plus, I'm looking for / developing easy project to do so I can get familiar with my serger. 
• We leave for Vegas on Friday - woohoo! Avery will be staying with my mom since the Gs are in Hawaii. 
• I had a hair appointment scheduled for today at 12:15. I made the appointment online about a week ago, making sure it was next to another appointment I had to maximize time, then arranged for Avery to be at Nain's house. I got a call from the salon at 11:30 saying there was a "scheduling conflict" and that "no one would be there during that time." The girl on the VM was about as competent (or incompetent) as you'd expect a millennial who works at a hair salon making appointments to be. She didn't apologize. She just said they could have me come in tonight or tomorrow. I called back and said that I'd arranged my whole day around this appointment (true) and that no, I would not be rescheduling. Then I booked my highlighting and cut at a salon in Vegas. I simply can't abide spending my money at an establishment that treats customers with such disregard - I don't care if he does know how to cut hair really well! So now I'll have to find a new place in Portland.
• We moved our couch back a bit (closer to the kitchen) because we discovered we could hear the sound better from the overhead speakers. As a result, we have a weird gap of space between the end of the couch (the part under the window that faces the front of the house) and the entertainment center. We could put a table there, but it will just gather dust. There is absolutely no need, ever, for a table there. So the only thing to do is to buy an armless single seater to add to the sectional. We called Ethan Allen and they just discontinued our sectional. They increased the width or depth or something by 1", so the overall look is still sold, but the exact specifications are not available. This leaves three options if we want a chair there: 1. Get Ethan Allen corporate to agree to make us the one-off chair since it was so recently discontinued (this is the preferable and cheapest route). 2. Buy just the chair from the floor model, recover it in our fabric, refinish the wood on the bottom to match our current sectional (this option is the most expensive and is out in my mind). 3. Sell our sectional back to Ethan Allen at a discounted price & buy the new sectional with the additional chair (doable).
• We had to buy a new washing machine last week. While I know that it's probably the modern appliance I couldn't live without (imagine washing clothes by hand!), it's just a boring new item to have to buy. I'd so much rather buy fun gadgets with that money (who wouldn't?) I have yet to test out the new washer since I managed to get most loads done before the other one went completely kaput.  

Flying

Flying - time!
Since I last posted, some highlights:

• I finished up all of the wedding-related stuff I was doing for the teacher at Avery's school. She got married on Saturday. I couldn't attend because we were out of town for the weekend. I was up until 2:30 AM on Wednesday night doing to place cards for the tables, but it was worth it. I was very pleased with how those turned out.  And I'm now a total expert at using many types of pens with my Silhouette. You need place cards or the like, I'm your woman. During this process, I also discovered that it's cheaper and better to buy large sheets of high quality paper at Blick (or another art supply store) rather than using cardstock or scrapbooking paper. It takes the ink better and gives you more flexibility ... you know, in case you were wondering. 
• We had a visit with some of Avery's birthfamily! It went very well. Nikki (birthmother), Grandma J (maternal grandmother), Grandpa Paul (maternal grandstepfather), and Garrett (brother) were all there for the BBQ at Grandma J's house.
• We had another visit with the grandmother we hadn't yet met, Grammie Tina. She is Mike's mom. It was great to finally meet her. The visit was a good one. Avery took no time whatsoever to warm up to Grammie Tina. She commenced trying to impress her immediately. The two of them made bead bracelets together. 
• D and I attended his office's annual company trip. This year it was held on the coast at Salishan Lodge. I remembered to bring gluten-free graham "style" crackers for the beach party where s'mores were the dessert. While D went kayaking, I hit the spa to enjoy a scrub. 
• Mom and I painted ... and repainted. Fortunately, I actually enjoy painting for the most part. Mom wanted a smokey blue for her room. We picked out a blue, painted her whole bedroom (the largest room we were painting ourselves), then decided it wouldn't work. So we repainted it and it looks much better. She and I also painted her office and the guest room. The professionals came in and painted the dining room, living room, kitchen, and hallways, as well as all the ceilings. Mom and I will still need to paint the two bathrooms, but we can do that after she's settled in a bit. 
• MOM MOVED! She moved on Tuesday with the movers doing all the heavy lifting. I've been over to her place to help out everyday except yesterday. She's making great progress. The kitchen is unpacked, the living room is done, the office is nearing completion. Her couches fit perfectly in the living room, and they are much more attractive in this house than they were in her CO house. 

Flying - Avery's schedule
I've been flying* through Avery's fall scheduling, arranging and scheduling and registering for Avery's fall classes. So far, I think we can manage gymnastics**, dance***  and swimming****. Whether theater***** can be added into the mix remains to be seen. Swimming and theater conflict. When asked to choose between them, Avery chose swimming.

* Yes, I'm stretching the use of the "flying" theme here.

** Gymnastics, for us, is dependent upon two spots being open for Avery and Elise. We're out of district for THPRD. I suppose if we can't get into gymnastics there, I'll check if Avery wants to do gymnastics without Elise. If she still does, then I can look outside of the parks & rec program (probably go to the place where Teacher Jackie is teaching).

*** I was very happy to learn that the studio I found for Avery has both online registration and the ability for me to schedule particular days during a session. This means I don't have to pay for those days we'll miss due to vacations, etc.

**** Swimming is dependent upon being able to find an agreeable time that Henry can do semi-private lessons with Avery, as well as SWCC having a semi-private slot open during our requested time(s). So many dependencies.

***** I decided to just sign Avery up for theater on the off chance that things will work out exactly the way I need them to for this class to happen. If they do, great! If not, then I will lose my $25 deposit for that class.

Flying - travel 

I have been missing Mexico. I also realized this is my last school year where I can just do as I please with Avery's schedule. As such, I decided to see if Christie & Henry would be up for a trip down to Mexico in September. As I was proposing this idea, I realized that we have to connect through LA and what's near LA? Disneyland! After some back and forth with Christie regarding dates that would work, we scheduled a trip. We'll be hitting Disneyland for two full days and we'll be in Mexico for 5 full days (7 if you count travel days). I'm very much looking forward to this. And D will be able to join us for one full day in Disneyland.

Christie is opting not to tell Henry for fear that he'll ask everyday for a month if it's time to go yet. I did not take this route with Avery and told her almost immediately. Today we had the following conversation:
A: "Am I going to school today?"
M: "No, it's Sunday."
A: [pause] "Disneyland?"
M: "No."
A: "Mexico?"
M: "No."

At least she asked about school first?

Strep

Strep
The big news is that I got strep. At least it felt big at the time because man was I ever hurting. Now that I've taken three doses of my antibiotics, I feel much, much, much better. I don't remember strep being that bad when I was a kid. I couldn't get through the night without Tylenol + codeine. The only reason I have that on hand is because I hardly ever taken pain medications that are prescribed to me. This time, I dug through the medicine cabinet until I found something that would help with the pain and drugged myself up. Between my throat and my achy body, it was awful.

But today I'm doing great. Tomorrow I plan to resume my walking regime along with food logging. Tuesday I'll return to Crossfit.

Unfortunately, we think D now has it. He has an appointment tonight to see.

Travel
Our flights back from Mexico were easy. We managed to get on an earlier flight out of LA, so we got home at 9:30 pm rather than 11:50 pm. So much better.

The layover in LA also went fast because Vic & Mike & Bear (or "the Vics" as Avery calls them) had a long layover, too. We sat in a diner, ate, and played spades.

When we were waiting in line to order food at the diner in LAX, I noticed the guy in front of me was wearing a "Fighting Reds" t-shirt. I looked closer and realized I recognized some of the names. Then I realized he was from Eaton. I tapped him on the shoulder and we visited about small world, etc. I guess it's not that strange to bump into someone from the same small town as me, but I note it nonetheless.

Spy

Spy Games

We have some walkie talkies down here. I bought them to use while snowboarding and never used them, so bringing them down here seemed like a good idea. Avery asked to play spy with them, so I obliged. We spent 30 minutes or so running around the neighborhood playing spy. Avery's code name was Pinkalicious and I was Mickey Mouse (because I had MM on my hat). We'd take turns reporting things to each with urgency in spy/military terminology, like, "fall back! fall back!" and "Pinkalicious on point. Mickey Mouse stand down." Fast forward a bit to a trip to eat a meal at the pool bar. Avery gets the walkie talkies out and decides she's going to go walking about for a bit. She takes the walkie talkie with her and ventures off. When she reaches the part of the cement not covered in shade, she steps out carefully and then immediately talks into her walkie talkie to report, "TOO HOT! TOOOOO HOT!!!!" It was hilarious. Trust me.

It was during this game that Avery discovered the most fun person to have on the other end of the walkie talkie was Uncle Mike. That'll teach him to be funny.

Avery
As we were walking about from dinner the other night, Avery wanted us and the U's to have a race. She said, "Smiths go this way! Vics go that way!" As Vic said, she clearly knows who wears the pants in the U family.

Overall, Avery has done stellar down here. I can see how it's a bit rough for her when D and I get together with Vic and Mike. More so than with any other group of people, we're nearly constantly engaged in banter and catching up and just general talking. Avery gets left out of that much of the time. On top of that dynamic, we're down here with an 8mo whose naps are precious. Every time Bear goes down, we remind Avery to be quiet and not play in the courtyard, etc. There've been a couple of attitudes about being left out or about having to be quiet, but overall, I've got to say I'm absolutely proud of and thrilled with her behavior.

Along those behavior lines, she's also seemingly maturing quite a bit with the tantrums. The epic tantrums have been at bay for a few months now. The mini I-didn't-get-my-way tantrums are short lived and well within what I consider to be normal 4yo behavior. She's starting to respond better to logic and reason when we explain why she can't do something or why she can't eat something. She's also starting to negotiate better when she disagrees with our answers. While I never reverse a No when she's throwing a fit or when she just continues to whine about it, I will  compromise when she presents a logical and calm argument. It feels like she's made a leap (that I'm sure will backslide at times) to understanding a No can be changed with calmness and logic, but it can never be changed with a fit or whining.

Avery can swim! It's not pretty, but it's fun to watch. It's mostly a doggie paddle, but sometimes she throws her arms in there and gets some good strokes in. She has close to no fear in the pool, which is a bit disconcerting. She will reverse course and head for shallower parts when she starts to feel out of her depth, so that makes me feel better. Her confidence and ability in the pool made it much easier for us to sit on the side while she happily played in the pool. She wanted us to join her, of course. And we both joined her for extended periods of time (versus a quick dip) to play, but she also had to come up with games to play on her own. Some days were better than others. I must say watching her play fetch with a plastic cup all by herself was odd. She'd toss someone's old cup then swim to it. She could do this for a solid 20 minutes.

The last few days there have been more kids around the pool. Most of them have been Mexican, so they don't speak English. Avery clearly wanted to play with these kids, but just couldn't summon up the courage to say, "Hola!" So what she'd do is follow them around the pool like a dolphin following a boat. She'd then stick her head in the water and make really loud bubble blowing noises to get their attention. It was awkward to watch.

Me
I was sick all day today. Not with food problems - which both Mike and D suffered the day before - but with flu-like stuff. It hurts to swallow and my whole body aches. I spent from noon to 6 pm in bed, got up to drink a protein drink, then went back to bed until hunger finally woke me up at midnight. It's 1 AM now.

I utterly failed on my goal to walk everyday. The reasons for failure are numerous: laziness, hotness, boredom. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back on things when we get back to Portland.

My good(ish) eating habits also slowly disintegrated as we've been down here longer.  Who knew how good tortilla chips dipped in condensed milk and washed down by grape Fanta could be?

Good Friends & Good Life
The 24-hour technical blackout last 24-hours, but no more. We all did discover that when we're together in a group, it's better to just put the damn iPhone/iPad/Kindle down. Victoria has coined a phrase which I think should catch fire soon: iJacked. When you're having a lovely meal and then suddenly everyone is checking their devices, your meal has been iJacked. Same goes for a vacation.

Despite sitting here not feeling great, it's been a fabulous trip. I'm so grateful we have Vic and Mike to join us on some vacations. It's hard to find a couple friend where all parties have fun and click with each other. We also have the same general attitude about relaxing. Dinner plans are made a few hours beforehand and eating out is the preference. There's little scheduling or pre-planned structure. Everyone just wears whatever to dinner. There's no application of make-up or doing of hair. There's no wondering if this excessively casual approach is OK. It is.

Finally, I am ready to be home. I love it down here. I'm grateful we get to come as often as we do. I'm grateful Avery loves it so much. I'm grateful for the slow pace of life when we're down here. And I'm grateful that I look forward to returning to our daily routine in Portland. Life is good.

Treats

Mexico!
Yesterday we arrived at the casa around 2 or 3 pm. We settled in quickly, then hit the hotel pool*. Mike and Bear joined the three of us at the pool while Vic worked on paperwork for a house sale (Realtors never stop working it seems). Vic was able to join us for dinner. The six of us ate at the hotel pool bar.

For sleeping arrangements this trip, Vic & Mike & Bear are in the lower bedroom that has the two queen beds in it. Avery, Damian, and I are in the upstairs bedroom with the one king-sized bed in it. We brought down a memory foam mattress topper (thanks Mom!) to fold over and use on the floor for Avery's bed. It worked out even better than I'd hoped it would. Avery was more than happy to settle onto it for bed and stayed in it all night.  When I came up with this idea, I envisioned that we would simply put the mattress topper on the floor each night, then fold it up and move it out of the way during the day. When we got here, I realized that we're not the type of people to do this on a daily basis, especially on vacation. I also realized that I don't really use the nightstand. So I shoved the nightstand into the corner, folded the mattress topper in half, and wedged it between the bed and nightstand. It's perfect and just what Avery needs at this age. Eventually we might have a trundle bed somehow installed under our bed to accomodate Avery when we have guests with us when we're down here.

I slept great last night. Avery woke me up at 8 AM here (7 AM Pacific time). I'll take it!

Avery declined to go on a walk with me. I only managed to go for 45 minutes before I was too bored and hot to continue. I struggle with boredom on my hour-long walks in Portland, but it's better there since there are significant hills to break up the monotony. No hills here - at least not where I'm walking. Tomorrow perhaps I'll set a goal of walking earlier in the morning so I can venture further without worries of getting far out and then having to make my way back in the blazing sun. Anyway, my goal down here with regards to daily walks is just to go for as long as I can. If I walk slow (because Avery's with me or whatever) that's fine. I just want to stay in the habit of the hour-long mental dedication to some sort of physical activity. So far, so good.

When I got back from my walk, A wanted to go for a bike ride. So she biked and I walked down to the store for a treat.

Avery sitting down to enjoy her treat

Leading the way back to the casa post-treat consumption

* The community pool is being repaired, so it's out of commission for our entire time down here. We can use the hotel pool free of charge and that works just fine for me.

Mexico

Walking
My weight remains stubbornly high. However, I can tell shapes are a changin', things are shifting about, and my arm fat and belly fat are lessening, so I'm happy (enough). I seriously doubt I have any chance of hitting my goal of a 20 lb loss and giving myself that little reward I had in mind, but that's OK. I'm happy I'm being active and motivated to be healthy. I feel much better, so even if that number doesn't change as much as I'd like, I'm OK.

On today's walk, I ran portions of it and that felt good. I have no plans to eventually make my daily walk a daily run. I can see myself walking and tossing some running in there when I feel like it, but a successful walk will be just that: a walk. I think my pace, distance, the terrain combined are aggressive enough for me to consider it a good daily workout.

Packing and Mexico
I just finished most of my packing for Mexico since we leave tomorrow. Each time we leave, I'm convinced this will be the last visit of lugging down a bunch of stuff to leave at the casa, but that's yet to be true. At least this time we have packed in such a way that we'll be able to do carry-on only on the way back.

I incorrectly thought that the flight schedule was the same as the February one. I was wrong. It's the 6:55 am flight out of Portland. Then, on the way back, we have a 5 hours layover in LA. Ah well, one should not complain about bad connections when going on a vacation. Plus I'm just grateful I've figured out that it makes absolutely no difference whether I try to go to bed early or go to bed late the night before an early flight. It sucks royally either way, so I might as well just do whatever I feel like.

Mom's back!
I picked Mom up from the airport on Thursday night. Then I treated her to a lovely dinner at ... wait for it ... IKEA! Because that's the kind of stellar daughter I am. I think she had a lovely time in Colorado, but I guess she'll blog about it eventually. *Ahem!*

Barkley is happy she's back and I'm happy to no longer be walking Barkley. Which is funny because Barkley is WAY easier to walk than were Turtle and Eddie, at least when I walked the two of them together. One of the reasons Barkley is easy to walk is that he walks at a leisurely(ish) pace, so there's (usually) no pulling on the leash. The problem with this, for me, is that I then start to slow my pace and that's not as good of a workout for me. Barkley also likes to stop and smell the roses. I'm not a stop and smell the roses kind of person. I'm a run past those suckers and get back onto the couch where I belong kind of person. The fact that he likes to stop meant that I would break concentration when walking and then it was just harder for me mentally. Hmmm, this is all taking me back to my dog walk hey days where I'd do a big ass post about walking the dogs and think that was totally normal for this to be my entire world. I am one to document the small details of life.

It's also nice that Mom will be here while we're gone. It makes it easier knowing the house is in good hands. Not that it was difficult leaving the house before, but it's a level of comfort knowing she'll be here.

Taciturn

RWOTP: Taciturn

taciturn Adjective: (of a person) Reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little.

Yes, I should know what this word means, but it just doesn't stick. So here goes my attempt to make it stick. My little trick worked with sardonic, so let's keep the self-education going. 

Oregon - put a bird on it!

I'm making change of address cards for Mom to give out at the going away party Collin & Denise are throwing for Mom this weekend. Since she's moving to Portland, I had to put a bird on it ... even if not a lot of people get the joke. I spent the morning designing the card (note to all graphic designers out there: your jobs are safe from me. Creating is so not my strong suit. Once I have an idea, I can execute just fine, but damn those ideas are hard to come by for me.)

In any case, now I'm just creating them. It's a three step process: print, draw (using the Silhouette), and cut. 

Here's a picture, with the contact information blurred since this is the Internet and all. It's sort of a play on the Portland Oregon (formerly Made in Oregon) sign in downtown Portland - the one with the reindeer on it. I don't expect non-Portlanders will know it's a play on that sign. And I'm not quite sure Portlanders will get it, but I went forth with it anyway. Originally I was going to do a card cut out in the shape of Oregon with the contact information inside, but this was easier. 

You may notice a difference between the two cards (other than cardstock color). The line under my mom's name is drawn using the Silhouette, but I had to switch pens due to technical issues. When I switched pens, I had to switch line style. 

Colorado Trip #1 - Beaver Creek

Our trip to Colorado this past weekend went well. We stopped at Vic & Mike's house on Thursday night for an impromptu dinner. For a variety of reasons, we didn't think to do this until we were on the plane, so it was truly awesome that it all came together. I texted Vic when we landed. She said come on over and they had enough food going for all of us. The best part was that Vic didn't tell Mike we were coming, so when we knocked on the door, Mike was truly shocked to see us standing on his doorstep. We laughed so hard at that dinner that my cheeks hurt when we left. That's a great way to start the weekend. 

The purpose of the trip was for the GMs & their spouses to get to know each other better. I can be a bit taciturn when I am in a group of people I don't know very well. During the first dinner on Friday night, it took me a while to warm up. Fortunately, everyone was very friendly and casual, so it went well. The dinner on Saturday night was great. We ate at a restaurant called Zach's Cabin on the Bachelor Gulch mountainside. It is accessible only by skiing in or, wait for it, taking a sleigh!  Don't get too excited, though, because it's not a sleigh pulled by horses. It's pulled by a snow cat. But it was still pretty cool, especially the ride down at night. The ski was beautiful, the stars were shining, the snow was glistening, and it was all rather surreal. 

Friday I spent napping, reading and spa-ing while D was a meeting all day. It was lovely. Saturday D and I spent lazing about reading and napping and eating. It was lovely. Sunday was a pure travel day with no issues. Well, I did leave my sunglasses in the rental car, but I called the rental company. The sunglasses were located and are being Fed Ex'd to my house as I type this. 

We got to the G's to get Avery at exactly 3 pm on Sunday. I burst through the door expecting Avery to come running into my arms saying "Mooommmmyyyy!" That did not happen. She was sitting at their kitchen tables decorating cookies and it was clear to me that she was going to finish decorating those cookies, damn it! It was such a relief that she did so well being gone from us for those few days. Avery's clearly been away for us that long before, but since this was a weekend in the middle of a weird month and so many routine disruptions, I was worried. I shouldn't have been. RHG said Avery was very well behaved. Christie and Henry came to pick up Avery for a playdate and dinner on Saturday. Based on the pictures, it looks like everyone had a great time. Thanks so much to both the Gs and G&Gs for taking such good care of A this weekend!

Living Room Cabinetry

It's in! It's not done, but the meat of it is there.  The wood for the doors absorbed the paint differently than did the trim, so they're going to take the doors off and give them another coat of paint. Also, the hardware needs to go on, and the tile around the fireplace is being done today and tomorrow. We are able to watch TV, though, so that's what's important! The surround sound is much better than just using our TV volume. 

Overall, I love it. The TV is still a bit higher than is ideal, but the speakers (that black rectangular thing between the TV and the fireplace) really needed to be below the TV to provide the best sound. I had to force myself not to stock up the storage last night. I can't do that until all the finishing touches are put on. Must be patient!

Sardonic

RWOTP
I have noticed I'm getting dumber by the day. It seems like I can't learn a new word to save my life. For example, my favorite author of the moment, Sharon Kay Penman, often uses the word sardonic in her writing. I admittedly should know the definition of the word, but it eludes me every time I come upon it. I dutifully look up the definition on my Kindle (one of the best features of an eReader, tyvm), then I immediately forget it and have to look it up when I come upon it in the next chapter.

So, in the interest of not getting dumber, I present what very well may be a single installment here on CdT since you never know what I'm going to stick with and what I'm not ... the random word of the post!

"The word shall be defined, then forced awkwardly and inarticulately into the other topics," she said sardonically, revealing her true feelings about the content of her blog. (First attempt - what think ye?)

sardonic \sar-DON-ik\ , adjective: Scornful, mocking; disdainfully humorous.

Feel free to comment, on this post or other RWOTP posts that may happen in the future, if you think my use of the word is wrong. The last thing I want to do is hammer the wrong definition into my head. Onward! Oh, and bonus points to the any commenters who use my RWOTP in any comments going forward.

Last Day
Today's our last full day here. Since the departing flight is now so late in the afternoon, we'll be able to take care of packing everything tomorrow.

Avery and Henry and Christie have been playing with Legos for the past hour or two. I tried to play a bit, but Legos aren't my thing. Avery seems to like them, but I'm not sure she'd sit down and play with them by herself. It's highly unlikely that she would since there are very few activities she likes to do alone.

D and I have grand plans to look in all the stores along the paseo. Other than that, there are no plans for the day. Avery is still somewhat under the weather, though she's through the worst of it I think. She seems to really need a nap in the afternoons, so I expect that will be true today, too.

Turns out there's not a lot to say about it being our last day. "What did you think, Megan? That you'd miraculously come up with something interesting to say on the last day?" I'm thinking sardonically to myself.

It's now 9:45 pm. We had a fabulous day hunting "hermie" crabs (as Avery calls them). It was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again tomorrow. Mom, if you're reading this, you would LOVE walking in this area with Avery. It's awesome. And I think you'd love a visit here more this time of year than in May, which is the the time of year you came last time, I think.

It'll relieve everyone to know that not only do my sand socks rock when I walk in dry sand, but also when I get them completely soaking wet. The tide was out when we were walking back, so we walked in the water a bit. I just threw caution to the wind and walked with my sand socks on. I assumed that sand would make it's way into the socks since they were completely submerged. However, when I took them off when we got home, my feet were wet, but completely sand free! How awesome is that? Almost as awesome as hermie crab hunting with your 4yo (and I say that without a trace of sardonic speech).

Blending

Mexico, sweet Mexico
The days here blend into each other. I never quite know what day it is. It's a nice change of pace. Another stark difference between Portland life and Mexico life is the calendar. I have nothing scheduled, so there's no need to look at it when I'm down here. In Portland, I am constantly looking at my calendar. I don't mind being tethered to my calendar in Portland, but it's also a nice change to be free of it down here.

This morning D got up with A while I slept in a bit. When I woke up, they'd already left for a morning trip to the beach for sea shell hunting. I made myself some tea and breakfast, then started what is sure to be my last day reading my current book. It's the last of the trilogy I'm reading. I have about 20% left to read, so I am quite sure I'll get through that today. I find myself looking for things to do other than read because I so dislike the feeling of finishing a good book. And since this is the end of the trilogy, it's a double whammy. But, that means a blog update for all of you, so it's not all bad.

Felipe came for the last time last night. Of the four meals, this was the least impressive, but still very good overall. When we said we're coming back in May, he said they'll be on vacation. In Panama. We'll have to cook for ourselves?! I think, though, that their vacation might be in the beginning of May. Ours is in the end. I know that everyone's thoughts are with us as we try to brave this time at the thought of having to cook for ourselves.

This afternoon, we all walked down to the store to get a treat. Avery and Henry both wore their "Faster, Stronger, Awesomer" t-shirts and both got exceedingly messy eating their chocolate ice cream bars (Avery edged Henry in this competition). Following that, Christie & I did took a quick walk with the kids over to the Agua Viva section of the community. Avery rode her bike and Henry ran. That community is looked very nice in some spots. We had to turn around a bit earlier than I wanted since Avery said she was tired and wanted to take a nap. So, now she's upstairs taking a nap and I'm about to finish my book. Since I wrote this post out of order, this is my last sentence.

Living Room
Our GC sent a picture of our living room cabinetry in progress. When I first looked at the picture, I wondered if it was our house. D had the same reaction. Upon first glance, it completely transforms the space. After looking at it for a while, it seems less shocking. And I should note it was all good shocking. I love it. I am so looking forward to putting it to use. So much. So much. So excited!

Colorado #1 = Casual
In other wonderful news, the attire during Colorado trip #1 - which is a long weekend in Beaver Creek with D's peers at his company - is all casual. For all dinners and all events. AWESOME. I have never been a fan of dressing up, but it's getting worse as I get older. Why would anyone want to be less comfortable than absolutely possible? Again, I'm all about function over form.

Colorado #2 = Quickly Approaching
I have a week at home between my two Colorado trips. The only anxiety I'm feeling at the moment stems from concern for Avery. She didn't seem to have any problems being apart from me while I was in Mexico before her. But the #2 week comes after I've only been back a week after being gone for almost 4 days.

I know having the primary caregiver gone so much in such a short time period is expecting a lot of any kid. I fully expect that my return from Colorado #2 will have a bit of a price for me to pay. Hopefully I'll have patience with paying that price.

Here

Avery & Henry! They're here! They're here!
They made it! They made it! It seemed a bit touch and go for a while, but it only seemed that way. It was never that way.

We all watched as Damian, Avery and Henry got off the plane and onto the tarmac. Stacey and Amber left to go to their gate while Christie and I went to anxiously await DAV. They were among the first off the plane, so we were expecting them to be among the first through customs. We waited and waited. Then waited some more. Then more. Then a little more. Then realized there were very few people still waiting for passengers. Then the security personnel looked at Christie and me and said, "No more people!" And Christie and I were like, um, no our CHILDREN! We thought there was some issue with D getting Henry into the country, being that he's not his parent and it's a bit odd to enter a foreign country with someone else's kid. But that process went just fine. The notarized letter was all that was needed. What did delay his entry was his lack of a receipt for the locks he brought down for our house. I had him bring down four locks from Home Depot. They are about $130 a piece, so just over $500 total. Each person can bring in $300 worth of goods, so with the three of them, they could have $900 worth of goods. Since he didn't have a receipt, they insisted that they'd need to look up the price of the locks, but didn't do that everyone else had gone through the line (fair enough). So our lesson learned: always bring a receipt.

On the drive back to the casa it felt like Avery had aged years instead of just the four days I was away from her. She seemed so grown up. So did Henry. You might be wondering how the flights went for D and the two 4yos. Easy peasy! The kids kept each other entertained for the most part. Henry only has about 30 minutes worth of interest in a movie on the iPad. But fortunately, he managed to entertain himself for 1.5 hours on the flight from LA to Loreto. D used the avoid-all-eye-contact approach and it worked. Avery was, of course, glued to her movie on her iPad. D even got compliments from people on how well behaved the kids were, so that's good.

Cooler
It's a bit cool today, still. But it's only 8:15 AM. Avery and Henry have asked several times for the pool, not grasping that it has to be a bit warmer. Overall, though, they're being very patient.

Avery!

Avery's coming today! AAAAVVVVEEEEERRRYYY!
I'm so excited to see Avery! And Damian, of course. But anyone whose been a parent to a 4yo knows how awesome it is to see them after an absence of even a couple of hours. I can't wait to give her a big, gigantic hug and kiss, and to hear her stories about the past few days, the flights, etc.

We've been able to Face Time (like Skyping via our iPhones for those who don't know what that is) several times. At one point, Amber was FTing with Josie and her Avery while I was FTing D and A. Amber brought her phone in and we showed (my) Avery Amber's phone, which was Josie and (her) Avery. After Amber walked away, (my) Avery asked me, "Where is Cayden?" She is very acutely aware of who Cayden is. I'm not sure the crush is the right word, but considering she's spent very little time with Cayden, we spend an inordinate amount of time talking about him.

Felipe - meal #2
We had meal #2 cooked by Felipe last night. It was delicious, as was the first one. We had paella for the main course. For the first course, it was a dish with mozzarella, artichoke hearts, cucumber and tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I would never order if presented with a menu, but I really enjoyed it. The appetizer was sweet peppers stuffed with crab with some sort of sauce drizzled over it, as well as sauteed mushrooms with bacon/ham & maybe peppers? Whatever it was it was good. Dessert was a delicious fruit cup, which sounds a bit lame, but it was not lame in the least.

Meal #1 consisted of an entree of sea bass with grilled potatoes. The first course was zucchini, chayote and corn. It sounds bland, but it was delicious. The appetizer that night was a corn quesadilla with cheese & chorizo - ah.mah.zing. Dessert was a lemon sorbet with pinapple. I didn't have the pinapple since that was drizzled (cooked?) with alcohol, but the sorbet was delicious.

I've asked Felipe to come twice while D and the kids are here. That's a bit tougher because I'm not sure where D is with his elimination diet. Plus, I do find it difficult to say, "Please cook for us, but here's a massive list of ingredients we can't eat ..." And between D and I, that list is adding up. I think I'll feel better about it once the list stabilizes, but this is just going to be something I'll need to get comfortable with since our allergies/sensitivities are not going away.