Packed weekend yet again (vegtivals, trees, music, friends and meltdowns)

Saturday, we went to a festival in my neighborhood, with live music and popcorn and slushies and hula hoops and tons of kids. One little girl recognized C & D from school. She's in the 3s class, and came right up to them, saying, "I know you! You go to my school!!" Cary and Dean looked puzzled and a little bit nervous, but the girl was delightfully cute. Turns out I'd met her mother more than a year ago at Mother Goose on the Loose at our local library. We'd even exchanged phone numbers back then, but never called one another. Isn't that funny? I told her we definitely should link up.

The boys loved the Fall Festival! They still keep asking me about going back to the "vegtival."

 After the festival, we went to a park and climbed a tree.

I still remember when we came to this park when the boys were newish walkers, and they had trouble navigating the ground because of all the roots and sticks strewn about. And now they are attempting to climb the biggest tree at the park!  Wow. This blows my mind.

This was August 2011 at the same park. They could barely walk! I remember being nervous that they were going to trip and kill themselves.

On Sunday, we went to their first music class, and saw a couple with twin girls, Abby and Maya, who we met the day before at the vegtival!!  What a coincidence! Turns out their girls are a month younger than C & D, and they live just a few streets over. So perhaps we'll link up.

(That's two couples I'd like to get to know better. Will I ever link up with them? I don't know. We shall see. Making friends at this age is so...bizarrely hard. It just seems weird to call up people we don't know and say 'Hey! Let's be friends!' But I do want to know more people in my neighborhood. So I'm going to try to get over my reticence. I'll let you know how it goes.)


We also went out to lunch before going to visit my friend Stephanie. This was one of those lunches that goes down in the annals of "Worst Outings Ever."

It started off wonderfully. It was a beautiful day; we sat outside. We ordered food we thought we could eat the bulk of, but keep the boys happy with, too. Turns out, Cary and Dean don't really like fancy grilled cheese sandwiches with apple slices cooked in. Or fancy chicken salad sandwiches with golden raisins. Or butternut squash soup with crabmeat and shrimp. Turns out, they get really mad when it's lunchtime and there's really nothing for them to eat. So that started the shift in the day's happy mood toward Grumpville.

Then, I gave Clair a piece of bread to suck on. She loved, loved LOVED it!

When it was getting close to time to go, I took the soggy chunk of grossness from her to clean her up. She LOST HER EVER-LOVING MIND. We're talking bucking, kicking, screaming, crocodile tears streaming. And it was LOUD. I was shocked!

Then I went to pay for the food at the counter and saw that, as it was a day before Rosh Hashanah, they had samples of kugel. I brought one back to the table for Cary and one for Dean. As we packed up our things, Cary asked for more "macaroni." We told him there was no more and it was time to go. He LOST HIS EVER-LOVING MIND! We're talking screaming, kicking, falling on the ground, crocodile tears streaming. And it was LOUD. I was shocked!

People were giving us the serious stink eye so we tried to hustle on out of there, with Clair in her stroller screaming and Cary in Lester's arms, kicking and screaming. To keep Dean from joining in the meltdown ('cause believe me, he was looking a little left out), I asked him to help me push the stroller. Zealot that he is, Hercules Davis rammed the stroller into the table in front of us. I actually started laughing, because it was just like, "Are you kidding me?"

The people trying to eat at the table were. not. amused. We could not get out of there fast enough.

In other news, Clair has decided that she can't sleep without her pacifier. She wakes up three to four times a night for it. I am exhausted.

And we decided to get a cat. I cannot deal with the mice in Baltimore. And nothing else has worked.

Neither one of us really wants the responsibility of a cat. And I have a bit of an allergy. But I seriously can NOT deal with the mice anymore. Have I said that already? I CANNOT deal.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Another full weekend!

As the weather gets warmer, and my maternity leave days dwindle, I seem to be cramming more and more into the weekends. This weekend was no different.

Friday morning, I met up with my friend Jen and her two sweeties Molly and Keegan (Keegan's just a few weeks younger than Clair) and had a playground playdate. The boys and Clair had a ball!

Friday night, Lester and I had Date Night!! (Thanks to Michelle, who donated her babysitting time just because she is super sweet like that. We really LOVE Michelle.)

Lester gave me flowers when he got home from work (awww!), and then we went to a Turkish restaurant for dinner, where the food was amazing. We ate and drank and talked and, because we had a window seat, we people-watched and talked some more. It was really lovely.

 As good as the Turkish are with delicious meats and rice dishes, they are not so hot in the dessert department. So when we left there, we went to Morton's for their LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!! I honestly could not, in a million years, tell you how much I love Morton's LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE! I love it so much that I have to say it in ALL CAPS every single time I say it, or else you will not properly understand how much I love, love, love Morton's LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!

It takes 30 minutes to make it, so while we waited, I ordered colossal shrimp cocktail and Lester had a Glenfidditch 12 year, neat. Then we both devoured the LEGENDARY HOT CHOCOLATE CAKE!!! and nearly collapsed from being so stuffed and happy and also a little bit drunk.

When we got home, all the children were asleep, and they stayed that way until ...wait for it.... 8 o'clock the next morning!!! Seriously, I think I can still hear angels singing from that marvelous occurrence.

We hustled and got ready so we could meet our friends Mark and Kelly (and their little girl Naomi) at the Touch-a-Truck festival in their neighborhood. We imagined our boys would lose their minds over all the trucks, buses, cars, etc. they'd be able to see, touch and climb in. And lose their minds they did, but not in the way we saw it in our heads.

Cary loved riding on the little train they had set up.

Someday I'll tell you how my child got out in public and acted as if he had no idea what "wait your turn" means. #Iswearmychildhashometraining

  And Dean loved honking the horn in the school bus.

What? This IS my happy face.

But other than that, Touch-a-Truck was a major FAIL. There were tears upon tears upon tears upon tears galore. "No like it!!!" Cary wailed. "Up! Up!" Dean demanded.

It was really noisy and incredibly loud what with all the sirens blaring and horns honking, and the trucks and buses must've seemed frighteningly bigger to them up close. No amount of balloon-buying, bounce-house-attempting (also a major FAIL) or faux excitement on our part could stop the melting down. At a certain point, both boys had to be held or else they would completely lose it. 

Cary, being held by Kelly, refused to even look at the camera. Dean was fine as long as he was in Lester's arms.

So, we said reluctant good-byes to our friends and boogied out of there. This is one way we know that we have gotten better at parenting. Early on in their lives, we would have 1) felt like we had done something wrong because our children were so unhappy 2) tried over and over to get them to see how much fun Touch-a-Truck day was 3) sniped and stressed because of the heat, the crying, the noise and the fact that we got up early and hustled down the highway to get to Touch-a-Truck and these darn kids don't appreciate it! And we would really like to talk to our friends, dangit! And it's so frikkin' hot!! And you LOVE trucks, boys! We have to read "My Big Truck Book" and "My Truck is Stuck" 8,000 times a day! What is the PROBLEM?!

But nearly 2 years into this thing, we know to just cut our losses, pack up the crying kiddos, laugh at the insanity, kiss our friends, arrange a time to see them without crying kiddos (and with cocktails instead) and keep on with the rest of the day. No problemo.

So that's what we did.

We first went to see my sister at her house so we could give the boys' cousins Aminah and Kwahli their birthday presents. Aminah turned 7 on Friday and Kwahli turned 4 on Saturday. I have pictures from that popsicle-filled visit as well, but my sister Kadija would kill me for posting them, because she hates photos of herself. So I will respect her wishes and not post them.

From there, we went to my Mom's and spent the entire day there. My mother bought the boys a bubble lawnmower that was supposed to be for their birthday, but she couldn't wait to give it to them. I don't have to tell you that they thought this was the BEST. THING. EVER.

What? This IS my happy face!

Clair enjoyed napping with her cousin Matthew, both on the floor and in my arms.

Zebra-print throw = napping New-Jersey-style

 

Mom and Matthew, me and Clair

And because it was Cinco de Mayo, we made soft tacos for the kids and strawberry margaritas for the adults. (Tahira has the best strawberry margarita recipe, with real blended strawberries. Yummmm!) 

All the Davises were exhausted by the end of the night, so we put on an Elmo Sings the Hits DVD in the car on the way home, keeping Cary and Dean singing happily -- and not crying even a little bit, despite the fact that they barely napped all day and it was 2 hours past their bedtime! The no-crying also made Mom and Dad happy, which is why I totally thumb my nose at the "your children will DIE if you let them ever watch television before they turn 2" madness.

At home, we put the kids in a warm, soapy tub to wash off all the popsicles, birthday cake, grass, Touch-a-Truck tears, taco sauce, bubble mixture and strawberries, got all three crankies in the bed, had another Cinco de Mayo toast and conked out ourselves. Clair slept until 6:30 a.m. (in her own crib!) drank a bottle and went back to sleep until 10. Her brothers didn't make a peep until 9:30 a.m.

Sunday morning, I made French toast, put the kids down for a nap, met two friends for lunch, came home, played with the boys, cooked dinner, drove BACK to my Mom's because we accidentally left Lester's car keys there, listened to two awesome "This American Life" episodes all the way through without interruption on the way up and back (that app is the best thing ever), got home in time to crawl into bed and watch Mad Men with Lester, while all three children slept (in their own cribs!) until the morning.

(NOTE: Notice how I am purposely NOT saying the words "sl*** thr*** the n****" where Clair is concerned, because I know that as soon as I do, it'll never happen again.)

Now it's Monday again and I only have TWO WEEKS left of maternity leave (pardon me while I go cry my eyes out). And I can't decide if I should rest up from the weekend or cram some more stuff in! Like organizing my bathroom closet? Also, the boys turn 2 on Friday and I still have no plan for their big day, so I really need to get crackin' on that.

Hmmm.

I think I'll take nap and organize and plan later. :-)

P.S. SERIOUSLY, WHERE IS AUNT FLO???