Comparisons

I know that in a perfect world, we wouldn't compare our children to other children because everyone grows and develops at their own pace and, especially at this young age, there are bound to be variances. But Olivia is just so tall and verbal that people think she's at least three or older, so I can't help but wonder what other almost-two-year-olds are like and what is considered "normal".

Example: Addie and Olivia are just a month apart in age (Addie is older), but Olivia's two inches taller. That can be attributed, of course, to her genes. But what about their verbal skills? At lunch, Addie said, "I want Hot Dogs!" And Olivia repeated what she said (because one can't live without something the other has...sheesh!). And then I said, "I'm warming up the hot dogs, just a minute." Olivia said, "I want ketchup too, Mommy." Me: "Ok, ketchup too." Olivia: "It's in the refrigerator. The ketchup is in the refrigerator. OK Mommy?" She was strapped into her chair or she would probably have gone to get it herself. Olivia was not satisfied until I put the ketchup on the counter, at which point Addie shouted, "Ketchup! Want ketchup!"

And when we go outside, I always sit the girls down and remind them that they need to stay in the playset area or we are going to have to come back inside. I can't exactly run after one kid (Olivia) who's trying to sneak off to the front yard and leave the other one to fend for herself on the slide tower. So we must stay in the rock/playset area.

Now, every time I say we are going outside and sit them down for their lecture, I say, "Listen, girls..." and Olivia cuts in to say, "Stay in the area! Stay in the rocks!" I know they both understand what I'm saying, but Olivia remembers and can converse on a level I have never seen with most three-year-olds.

It makes communication with others in her age group rather frustrating. I have a hard time remembering when Olivia couldn't tell me exactly what she wanted or was thinking.

Now I'm going to get off of here before Olivia wakes up and catches me on the computer and starts demanding, "I want to play 'puters, Mommy!" until she wakes up Addie. It's best around here if the computer is OFF when the kids are up.

I'd call it dark coffee

When Olivia was born, I would have described her hair as black. Of course things change (it was also quite straight, which isn't the case anymore). Since my Goddaughter from Guatemala has shiny, straight and jet-black hair, I have something to compare it to. And I think Olivia's hair has developed into a rich coffee color...like the color of a cup of coffee untainted by cream and sugar. Or the color of French Roast whole coffee beans.

Her hair is now long enough that occasionally (if I manage to condition her hair and style it just right) a few long locks on top will dangle down onto her forehead. It gives me a glimpse of what her hair will be like when it really grows out. If only we can find the right haircare routine and keep it looking pretty, she should have a head full of beautiful, perfect corkscrew curls.

Someday, she'll probably hate her hair and wish for straight hair because that's what girls do...wish for the type of hair they don't have. I remember spending money on perms that never worked on my limp, fine locks. My curly-haired friends have, at times, spent money to have their hair chemically relaxed so it would lay straight. But I really do hope she'll enjoy her curls and take care of them. They are so beautiful.

Fall Festival time

It's that time of year...when there are fall festivals and picnics just about every weekend. My hometown had theirs this weekend. Olivia enjoyed some bluegrass music while she worked at breaking her new plastic bracelet.

Olivia's first parade. She enjoyed it until the clowns came by...and then the firetrucks started honking their loud horns and she was inconsolable. She hates loud noises.

Where's the candy? I was told there would be candy!

I remember...

It was a beautiful morning, and I resented the fact that I had to be in at work early. I already had an evening meeting scheduled, and now I had to be in early to attend some focus group or committee thing that was made up of representatives from various community agencies. My boss had asked me to represent our office, which meant that I had to be at these early meetings once a week for a couple of months. And they were BORING. I do believe I slept through this one with my eyes open.

As I left the meeting and walked the three blocks back to my office, I looked up at the beautiful blue skies and tried to figure out if I would have time to take a long lunch and get outside to enjoy the weather.

When I walked into the office, people were all scurrying around and fumbling through cabinets...looking for a radio, I later learned. They wanted updates. On what? I did not believe the story they told me until I turned on my computer and confirmed the news reports, which were still confused and vague at that early hour of the day. Three planes had crashed...or was it four? The White House was hit. WHAT? No, it was the Pentagon. Could this really be happening?

I know I stood out in the sweltering noon heat at a prayer vigil that day, although no one really knew what was going on yet. I remember looking at the skies in our downtown area and realizing that for the entire hour, there were no planes anywhere. That was eerily unusual.

At some point that day, I went home for a couple of hours to see what the news was reporting. No one was getting any work done anyway. I sat and watched as the towers tumbled...again and again and again. (Was that really necessary? It was burned in my brain forever after seeing it the first time.) Stories of people who escaped...and those who didn't. The unimaginable bravery of those who ran into collapsing buildings to try to save others, and that of the United Flight 93 passengers who overtook the terrorists to save more lives...though not their own. Images of panicked faces fleeing the scene, and images of rescue crews searching the wreckage.

There have been a handful of movies made about the tragedy that occurred on that day. I haven't seen any of them, and I don't intend to. I don't need more images of the horrors that took place. I saw enough images in the days and weeks following that day, eight years ago. I know what happened. I remember those images vividly...

...and I will not forget.

Randomness for your Thursday

Thoughts from my head, in no particular order...

1. We have new neighbors. They will move in this weekend. They live a sunny warm climate for seven months of the year, so they will be moving away in about a month. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Perhaps it is good that they won't witness our daughter throwing tantrums at not being allowed to spray herself with the hose in November. But we went so long with no neighbors behind us (the house was vacant or rented for three years), and now that we have neighbors on all sides, I kind of like it.

2. I've decided that meal/snack time is my second favorite time of the "work" day (second to naptime, of course). It's just so nice to have both children securely strapped into their boosters. I can get things done! Even if only for ten minutes. I'm really, really going to have to drag my feet on graduating anyone to sitting independent of the boosters and their buckles.

3. My husband is in the middle of a project that I've been praying for for years. He has talked about it, but only now has he found the motivation to pursue it with full force. I can't say more now, but I'm excited with what may come of this.

4. Olivia and I are heading "to town" after Addie leaves today. I'm not planning to make a habit of a mid-week evening trip, but we are going to get our errands out of the way now so we can enjoy the weekend. My hometown (the next town over) has their annual fall festival and parade on Saturday, and our parish has its annual festival on Sunday. I want to attend and participate without having to do any running this weekend.

5. We had "family dinner" last night for the first time since July. That's our gathering of our local family...my sister, a brother and his wife and son, and my parents. It was fun, and Olivia and Trey had a good time. They are great buddies. It's too bad that we are all too busy to do this more regularly.

That's all for now.

Book reviews

A road trip-style vacation is, at least, good for catching up on reading. It's a good way to pass all of those miles (if you aren't sensitive to road-reading, which I'm not).

So, here's what I read on vacation:

The Lost Quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini

LOVED this book. I couldn't put it down. There is a whole series of these books, but this is the first one I have read. It is a new book, and I usually just pick something off of the new releases at the library and take what I get. I got a gem with this one.

This book is about a woman who was born into slavery on a Southern tobacco plantation. Abused and impregnanted by her master, she escaped and fled to the North, where she was taken in by a family who helped her through her pregnancy and delivery. When her son was just an infant, she was captured and returned to slavery, leaving her baby behind to be raised by the family who sheltered her. The story follows her life as she endures a harsh life as a slave and dreams of escaping to her son in the North. She becomes a sought-after seamstress for her masters and sews her own quilt out of scraps from her work, sewing clues into it that would help her remember her route to freedom.

Vividly told, this story captivated me from the beginning. It's a good read!

The second book I read was Elie Wiesel's, A Mad Desire to Dance. This one was more difficult to get into, only because he spends two chapters delving into the character's supposed madness before giving details of the back story that caused him to be this way. But if you can get through it, it is well worth the effort. Wiesel is a master at capturing the complex psychology of one who has lived through one of humanity's most devastating eras. And it ends well, which I always like.

Both books were thought provoking and good choices for a trip where we spent obscene amounts of time inside a moving vehicle.

In a word...Vacation was LONG

Hello from America's Dairyland!

Vacation was way too long. Vacation is supposed to feel too short. Welcome to traveling with a toddler.

Overall, vacation was successful. We spent four nights in hotels for a grand total of $200 (yay, Priceline!). We got to see the various family members we intended to visit. We had very few car meltdowns. We even got to do some kid-fun things.

But overall, it was exhausting.

There was the first day, when we drove and drove to the halfway point, and Olivia protested loudly and often at her confinement to the carseat. She refused to nap more than 40 minutes all day. Then, when we finally DID get to the hotel, she ran around and opened all the drawers and climbed into the window and tested all the buttons on the TV until we were exhausted. We worked for more than an hour at trying to get her to settle down and go to sleep, and as a last resort we finally put her in the car and drove around for 20 minutes. Not a good start.

The second day was better. We spent the morning at a local zoo before departing for the second half of the trip.

That gave Olivia some play time and allowed for a good nap window once we finally did get going. She behaved passably well at dinner with Aunt Julia, and then she was rewarded with a swim in the hotel pool. This hotel was better suited for us because it had a pullout couch. We put the mattress on the floor and Voila! Instant bedroom. Olivia went to sleep without much trouble and slept all night. Score!

The third day was when we finally reached Grampa's house (Olivia's Great-Grampa). Because of our schedule, this day offered almost no nap time, but Olivia behaved fairly well. When she is nap-deprived, she is off-the-charts active. I don't know how that works, exactly, but it's true. Luckily, Grampa has a big backyard so she had a place to work out her energies.

Yep, I'm a farmgirl on Grampa's tractor!

Olivia and Grampa having a heart-to-heart.

We drove around that night until she fell asleep because we weren't about to play the exhausted-but-not-sleepy game again.

The fourth day had us driving and driving. We met a cousin for lunch. We drove some more. Olivia napped intermittently, as if she were bored and there was nothing else to do. We stayed in the same hotel as we did the second night, and Olivia slept as well.

The fifth day was a long day of driving, back toward home, where we'd spend the night at my brother's house. Their housing development has a park, and Olivia was more than happy to finally be allowed to play. By this time, my husband and I were exhausted from all the different hotels and schedules, but Olivia had finally settled into a routine of sitting. I guess she just figured that this was the new normal. So the playset was a welcome surprise for her.

The final day had us driving a short distance to a cousin's soccer game, and then another short distance to another cousin's birthday party. Olivia enjoyed this day the most, because there was a large amount of time for her to just play and be a kid. She really enjoyed the birthday party, and participated in the games with all the other kids.

Olivia is the third kid with the orange balloon.

After the party, we made the five-hour drive home.

I have never been so happy to see my own bed.

It was a good and necessary trip. I mentioned before that Grampa is in his 90s, and we want to visit him and let Olivia get to know him while he's still with us and well. But it's just hard. It's such a long drive that it's hard to do in one day, which explains the several days of driving and different hotels. But even if we had stayed in one place for several days, I doubt that it would have been very relaxing for us. Taking toddlers out of their routine is just hard. It has consequences. Even so, I'm glad we took the trip. And I'm glad it's over.