Our little angels

The infant area at daycare had a Lemonade social today from 4:30-5:30. I brought the boys with me since I usually pick them up by 4:30 anyway. They each had a chocolate chip cookie, half a browning and 1/4 of a molasses cookie (the last only because I am weak and caved to the whining). Shortly thereafter they started getting a little too rambunctious, so we headed home.

They were in rare form during dinner - I fed Lexi and then took her upstairs for a bath since she only had one nap at school today and she was yawning and rubbing her eyes during dinner. I reminded the boys what happened the other night when Nicolas continued to fool around after being warned in the hopes that they would eat nicely and not fool around too much while I was upstairs (fat chance of that happening).

They were really wound up by the time Lou got home from work and were just plain crazy acting during bath and pj time. While Lou was getting them some fresh water the boys lay on their floor, moving their arms and legs and telling me they were making snow angels. In July. In 80 degree heat (ok, so the AC is on, but still...). Where they get these things I'll never know.

In other news, Jackson is doing GREAT in his big boy underwear. One accident at school, but none at home today. And he stayed dry during his nap. And informed me multiple times when he had to go to the bathroom. And even peed at school in the school-age bathroom which has slightly bigger toilets than the toddler area. I am so proud of him and am thrilled at the prospect of a diaper-free (for him at least) future.

Officially a big boy

Today Jackson wore big-boy underwear at school. He had one accident on the way to the toilet (not bad) and another as I was loading the other kids into the car to go home from daycare. That was my fault - I should have asked him if he had to go to the bathroom before we left school. Lesson learned. The poor kid started crying while I was strapping Lexi into her carseat. I looked over to see him pointing to the sidewalk which I realized was wet...he had on shorts, so when he peed it just ran down his leg and puddled on the ground. I reassured him that it was ok to have accidents while learning to use the potty and ran back into daycare for some dry underwear and shorts for him.

The boys were doing a lot of fooling around at dinner tonight, so I gave them a couple of warnings to settle down. Nicolas decided that he was going to grab the yogurt container out of Jackson's hand, sending his spoon onto the floor making quite a mess. I told him that was it - no more food and to get down from the table. He proceeded to cry/scream/whine for the next 45 minutes (maybe even longer) that he wanted another yogurt. I refused since I had warned him a couple of times to stop fooling around or he wouldn't get anymore food. It really wasn't pleasant, but hopefully will help to avoid similar situations in the future.

A little bit of everything

Since the temp here at the beach didn't break 70 degrees, with rain expected in the afternoon, we decided that hanging out on the beach was probably not the best option. So while Lexi took her afternoon nap, Luis took the boys to the playground at the end of our street. They have been asking all week to play there, so we figured today was a perfect day for that.

After lunch, Lexi and Jackson took a nap and I took Nicolas to the outlets for me so I could pick up another bathing suit for Lexi. We're heading to Maine next month and I expect that she'll have outgrown one of the suits we are currently using by then. I should have picked it up when I was there on Tuesday, but was in a rush and didn't think of it. We also picked up a new pair of Stride Rite sneakers for Nicolas for when his current sneakers are too small.

Nicolas and CJ played out in the rain in the afternoon while the rest of us hung out in the house going slightly stir crazy.

We had to change our dinner plans since we had planned to go to a place with a large outdoor seating area, but a small indoor area. Since it was raining, we decided to try a different place - Westbrook Lobster. The food was good and it was nice to get out of the house.

We ushered the kids up to bed upon our return to the house since it was already almost 8pm and then the guys went out and got some ice cream for us ladies. Not a bad ending to a day if you ask me.

Thank god for outdoor seating

So, when people ask "how was your vacation", I'm torn between answering the short, easy answer which is "great, thanks for asking" and the real version which goes something like this:
"Great, if you ignore the fact that we had a 9 month old teething infant who, oh, by the way, seemed to have some crazy stomach bug which caused her to puke in the middle of the night for the first 3 nights of the vacation and then on day 5 came down with a fever of 102.2 and was incredibly cranky."

Although today started off overcast, it did eventually warm up and turned into a beautiful day. Unfortunately, Lexi was not feeling well and I spent the majority of the afternoon nursing, snuggling (inside) and attempting to put Lexi down in the pack and play for multiple naps. Throw in a few doses of Tylenol and Motrin to try to take down the fever and I missed out on a lot of fun out on the beach. At low tide, a HUGE sandbar appears and is close enough that the kids are able to walk out on to it. Today the kids caught snails and crabs (a big bucket full of them) and had a great time exploring the area. Lexi loved playing out there on Sunday, so I was sad that we missed out on all the excitement.

Most of us headed out to dinner at Bill's - a restaurant just down the street with outdoor seating. We sat down and I started feeding Lexi some jarred food. Not even a quarter of the way into the jar I glanced down to get another spoonful and as I looked up to try to feed it to her I realized that my foot was soaked and that she had vomited ALL OVER THE PLACE. I had nursed her before we left and that entire feeding plus the food I had just fed her came back out. EVERYWHERE. I felt so bad. We cleaned it up with napkins as best we could and then the waiter washed the deck off with a cup of water and a rag. I brought Lexi out to the car for a quick change of clothes (thank goodness I had grabbed an extra outfit on the way out) and we were able to finish dinner with no additional mishaps.

On the positive side, Lexi appeared to feel a LOT better after getting sick and was back to acting like her normal self (mostly).

Making the most of the rain

Unfortunately when we woke up this morning it was pouring rain. Monsoon-like rain. Which, would normally not be so terrible, except we are on vacation AT THE BEACH. Luckily, one town over has a really cool indoor play-park called Stay and Play. We decided to head over there with the kids since it seemed to be the best option for our kids and their ages. Some of the other families went to the movies, bowling or for a train ride.

The place was very nice. The boys had a blast running around, going down the slides, kicking the ball around with Luis and in general, running out some of their excess energy. There was even a special area specifically for children who are under 1 with toys, balls, rattles, slides and climbing mats made for children who are crawling or learning to walk. Perfect. On the way back home we stopped for lunch at McDonald's - another treat for the boys.

Once Jackson and Lexi were down for their afternoon naps, I headed out to the outlets and was able to score some pretty good deals. I left a couple of new toys - transformers - for each of the boys to help keep them occupied once Jackson woke up. Worked like a charm, too!

We are hoping for better weather tomorrow.

An unexpected bath

Another sunny day here at the beach. Not quite as warm as it was yesterday, and the water is decidedly cooler, but a decent day overall. I'm hoping that Lexi starts feeling better soon. Last night she vomited again and then fell back asleep in it. So around 2am when she woke up, Luis and I had to give her a bath in the kitchen sink since she was covered in puke. Nice. At least she seemed ok afterwards and acted fine throughout the day.


We all headed to Lenny & Joe's for dinner tonight. Lexi was tired, so we left a little early in the hopes that she would sleep on the way to the restaurant, which she did. Lou got out and ordered food for the kids while I stayed in the car with Lexi until she woke up. The rest of the gang arrived shortly after we did and Lexi woke up not long after that, so I was able to join the tail-end of dinner with everyone. Then we all picked out Lenny & Joe t-shirts for the kids for the group photo we are planning for later in the week and the kids went on the carousel.

A perfect day

The day dawned bright and sunny, so we spent as much time as we could on the beach today. Lexi had a great time playing in the little pool that the Lombardi's were kind enough to loan us. I also took her out to the sandbar and she had a BLAST sitting in the warm sand, grabbing it with her fists and splashing in the shallow water as it lapped across the sandbar. The boys had a lot of fun too. Jackson took a short boat ride around the area with Luis, Mike and CJ.

I don't think the weather could have been much more perfect and hope that the rest of the week is as beautiful as it was today. Hopefully Lexi will not puke in our bed again (which she did last night around midnight). I don't want to end up doing laundry every day that we are here - we are on vacation!!!

Vacation Kick-off

It's here! V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. We had a hectic day - finished packing up the cars, driving to Westbrook and then unpacking everything upon our arrival. We had to make up our bed, set up the pack and play for Lexi, blow up the two beds for the boys and get everything settled in. The house we are staying in is enormous. It is over 100 years old. Our room had 2 buzzers - one for the kitchen and one for the maid. It has servant's quarters, a dumbwaiter and two kitchen areas. Our bedroom has its own bathroom which is nice and the room is plenty big for all of us to share.

Dinner was pizza since we really didn't feel like cooking and we went to bed with hopes for a great sunny day ahead of us.

a DREADED noise

Have you ever heard a noise, and know exactly what it is but at the same time hope to god that you are wrong??

This morning Lou left for work and I was helping the boys in the guest bedroom put together some Geotrax. Lexi was playing nicely in the bonus room and all I had to do was lean backwards and peek through the doorway to see her. All of a sudden I heard horrible thumping sounds and just knew what it was. I jumped up and as I was running into the bonus room saw that the baby gate was open and that Lexi was no where to be seen. Unfortunately I was right - the noise that I heard was my sweet baby girl falling down the hardwood floor stairs to the landing. Luckily, she only fell down (that sounds so wrong to even write that) 5 stairs to the landing below. She of course, started crying. After checking her over and calming her down, I concluded that she was fine - probably scared herself to bits (as well as took 10 years off my life!), but I was unable to find any bumps, bruises, cuts, marks, etc. anywhere on her body (thank goodness). Obviously I hadn't realized that the gate was NOT locked (it was closed, but not locked) and I have since sworn to keep that sucker locked even if I am not in the room!

This afternoon was spent at Lou's work yearly summer picnic (Actuarial department only) at a public park in the town over from us. We skipped (I say "we" loosely - I believe that Luis went without me or the kids) the last 2 years so it was nice to go see some of the people I am friendly with. They had a bounce house, snow cones, a clown and a pinata for the kids. The boys took turns batting at the pinata and were thrilled to get some of the candy that eventually rained down on all the kids. But they spent most of the time in the bounce house (surprise surprise). I took Lexi for a nice leisurely walk so that she could catch some shut eye and not become the crankiest kid on the block.

It was a fun afternoon, topped off with the kids favorite treat - McDonald's. Which was a treat for me since it meant that I didn't have to cook dinner :-)

An afternoon by the pool

The kids had so much fun swimming at Carol & Marty's yesterday that we decided to set up our own pool in the backyard. Not quite big enough to swim in, it was nonetheless a big hit.

It was a perfect day to hang out at home, relax, stay cool by the pool and play on the playscape. Well, almost perfect:

Poopsie it is

Happy Independence Day!

This afternoon we headed over to the Shafman's to enjoy the nice weather (finally) by swimming in the pool and celebrating Ella's 3rd birthday. The boys were excited to go swimming again and show off "Poopsie". Who/what is Poopsie you ask?

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, the boys picked out an inflatable great white shark. Apparently, the shark has been named Poopsie. Yes, I know it is a very fitting name for a vicious great white shark and that it might be too scary for small children, but Poopsie it is.

The kids all had a BLAST playing in the pool and by the end of the day, Nicolas was brave enough to float around with only the vest on, without any pool floats, etc. Lexi LOVES swimming and Nicolas has asked multiple times if he can go back to swim lessons, so I think I'll try to sign him up in the Fall for those.

After swimming and dinner, we all sang Happy Birthday to Ella and the boys got busy playing with one of her new toys, a puzzle (surprise surprise). Then we headed home to bed - long before the fireworks started as we were all exhausted from a fun day of swimming and hanging out with friends.

Penguins and boats

Since we didn't have to work today, we decided to bring the kids to Mystic Aquarium. We went once before with my parents, brother and sister-in-law to celebrate my parent's 60th birthdays. Nicolas was not even 1 1/2 so he doesn't remember going at all. It is a good aquarium and luckily small enough that we didn't need strollers for the boys. First stop was naturally the bathroom and while Luis took Nicolas to pee, Jackson, Lexi and I watched some guys playing with the remote-controlled boats. Apparently these boats had a very lasting impression on Jackson since at the end of the day he said that was his favorite part of the visit!

The boys had a great time looking at all the different animals. According to Nicolas, the best part of the aquarium was the penguins (they were pretty cute). And both boys seemed to be less than impressed with the Sea Lion show which I thought was pretty cool.

No trip would be complete without the lap through the store and we let the boys pick out one item each. I was hoping they would stick with the "pinchers" that they picked up just outside the doorway (animal head on a stick and when you press on the lever, the mouth opens and shuts), but once inside they were bombarded with all kinds of really cool things. Nicolas settled on an inflatable water-squirting great white shark to bring to the pool tomorrow and Jackson decided on a floor puzzle (do we really need another one???)

We left for home around 2:00 and all 3 kids fell asleep almost immediately - and even slept through the crazy downpour that we hit on the way home. The shark got his first swim in the bathtub with the boys before bed.