I also took a week and went to visit my parents, which was an awesome and relaxing trip despite the almost 10 hour drive.  We had beautiful weather and the trip consisted mostly of park visits, making ice cream, bubbles, and other good stuff.  It is so amazing to me to watch these two distinct little personalities as they emerge and grow and leave impressions on people around them.

Bubbles at Grandma and Grandpa’s House

At the park…

I really miss the mountains.  And this is one of my favorite pictures of Emily Kate:

Her expression says so much about her personality, the raised eyebrow and half smirk indicating that she had a bigger plan for that water table…

My dad and I were laughing too hard to stop her.  I think that should be the goal this summer…to be laughing so hard that you can let the little things go.

Or maybe it isn’t adults in general, maybe it’s me.

I’ve never professed to be easy going.  I will freely admit that I have control freak tendencies.

Am I wound so tight that it just takes days for the thread to unspool?  Or am I out of my comfort zone and I can only truly relax once I know that I’m close to returning to the zone?  It’s always taken me a while to relax but as a mom, I’ve taken not relaxing to a whole new level.

This weekend we took a long weekend and went to the beach with some friends.  Before we even left, I stressed about getting there in traffic. 

I worried about Alex not sleeping and spent the first night on edge unable to drift off because I was waiting for him to wake up. 

I fretted over food and toys and weather and if I’d brought enough diapers.  And by the way, this was not a remote beach – it was an hour from our house and 10 minutes from a grocery store.

I took 800 things I didn’t need and very few things that I did including a strapless top and no strapless bra; 9 tank tops and no t-shirts or sweats; no pj’s and before you get any ideas about marital bliss there were 16 people in the house.

It was Sunday before I started to chill out.  I hate that about myself.  Where is the switch that would allow me to fully enjoy every minute?  I must be the most hypocritical yoga instructor ever.

Alex on the other hand, was happier this weekend than any time in distant memory, continuing to prove Brett’s theory that Alex likes to be the best behaved kid in any situation involving other kids.  He napped, he slept, he played happily, and stared wide eyed when other kids had meltdowns.

He smiled and flirted and took walks with us on the beach.  With each adorable toddler thing he did, I let go just a little more.

And when we got home, I downloaded these and I finally let go all the way.

Sunshine and tulips
Rides, music, games and springtime
Amusement park fun!

We happen to have one of the top rated theme parks in the country a mere 20 minutes away.  Which is nice because we can go at off-season times and keep our visits short and enjoyable, instead of miserable because we drove forever to get there and have to wring out every last second of FUN goddammit and then everyone is tired and pissed.

This was my first trip in years because I don’t do well on rides.  I also hate Southern summers.  After every roller coaster I have to sit down for a half hour because vertigo makes me walk sideways and crash into things, plus I despise being sweaty if I’m not working out.  Why tramp around a steaming theme park when I could be lounging by the pool with a frozen drink?  Why wait hours in lines of obnoxious teenagers and vacationers wearing ill fitting shorts for a ride that I won’t enjoy? 

I can manufacture panic attacks quite easily on my own TYVM, without having to hang upside down 100 ft in the air before plunging to the ground at 70 MPH. 

It’s time I admitted it:  I don’t like theme park rides.  I also don’t like to ski.  How very uncool of me.

No one told me that having a child changes how you view amusement parks.  Or that a lot of the kiddie rides require a parent. 

I learned yesterday that kiddie rides are MUCH more my speed.  All this time I’ve been wasting on the loopy rides, I could have been going on this:

And no one blames you!  You can’t very well take a toddler on a roller coaster now can you?  How cute!  And while your 18-month old cuddles up next to you as the ride goes around in a circle, or maybe it even goes WAHOOO UP AND DOWN, you can be totally secure in the knowledge that you are under no obligation to ride anything that requires you be over 36 inches tall.

Totally new perspective.

Anyway, here we are first thing in the morning. Excited although we aren’t sure why. Something in the air…

Hot air balloons…parents don’t ride in these because our fat asses would never get off the ground.

Tulips in bloom…

Aaaannnd, we’re spent.

The end.

I was inexcusably rude to my father-in-law early this morning (lucky for me he is pretty good natured) as a result of wine. So add bad temper to the list of things wine gives me.

As if he knows we’re on vacation, Alex has started waking up – just this week – between 0545 and 0600 (or just O’dark thirty for you non-military types). He normally flips around in his crib at home, but this crib doesn’t have a bumper so he keeps getting his feet and arms stuck and waking up all pissed off.

Granted I would too, but I like to think I would refrain the morning after my mommy stayed up with my aunt downing 2 plus bottles of wine. Which she never drinks and obviously can’t handle.

Anyway today turned into one of the best days so far, a highly unlikely probability given the moderate hangover. We went swimming in a swimming hole – this was such like a childhood throwback, except for the beer and the fact that we all had babies.

My sister-in-law, however can complain all she wants. Because she is officially overdue – due date: yesterday. We knew when we planned this trip that there was a chance (a good one apparently) that we would not get to take the planned photos of all the babies in matching outfits.

This morning I walked from my in-laws house down to Brittnee’s house to see the nursery and visit while Brett golfed. I used to always wonder why no one ever really walked down or up the hill to visit, when it’s RIGHT NEXT DOOR (lazy!) and now I know.

Walking down with Alex in the stroller was like running down a roller coaster track and walking up was like that scene in the 10 Commandments movie where they are building the pyramids pushing and dragging rocks. I had butt soreness the next day, and what with teaching cycle and all I should be in good enough shape to walk up a little hill in the country.

Upon return, I collapsed, heaving, before reaching up to turn the doorknob and let myself in for a cold drink only to discover that the door had locked behind me and I had no key. Back down the roller coaster. Brittnee saw me coming and kindly gave us a ride back up the hill because I don’t think I could have walked it twice.

She was remarkably cheerful even though Baby Roan still had not even stirred. Although that could have something to do with not being required to go to work in an office where the majority of people are old enough to be your parents, all of whom have advice on when/where/how their wives gave birth. I could have been cheerful, if impatient, with just myself and Brett. But putting on a happy face all day was just too much to ask and no naps were allowed. (Incidentally, although I knew my face wasn’t happy I didn’t think it was quite as fat as it photographed on my work badge, which I stupidly renewed exactly one week before giving birth and now must live with until 2009.)

Anyway photos…note both the pink and blue onesies that matched the blue ones that Alex and Kacen had. I have to admire people with the fortitude not to find out the sex of their baby. Particularly if you live far away from a Babies R Us, as they do.

Lucky they also live far away from me, because I have no patience and would have incessently bugged them to find out. Faced with something unknown like that on a daily basis, especially when you COULD know would have been too much for me.

Slideshow: Where is Baby Roan?

So besides snakes and baseball, we have Nanny and Pop Pop and aunts and uncles, cousin, cousin-to-be, and too many secondary relatives (not second class, second level in the family tree, geez) to count.

Pennsylvania is in the middle of a heat wave. I leave Virginia to get out of the damn heat and what do I get? Everyone who knows me knows how much I despise VA summers.

Happily, and unbeknownst to us, N&P have invested in a window AC. When we get there, the window AC is fighting a David and Goliath battle against the oven (turned to at least 1000 degrees judging by the temp of the potatoes in it) and the boiling pots of crab legs on the stove.

Baby Kacen is clothes-free except for a diaper. Alex is soon wearing less than when we got there. After a little play, we put Alex in the crib for a sleep, where he quickly figured out how to pull himself up to standing. Then he let go for a crash landing. But. IT WAS A FIRST! He’s standing in the crib! Look how cute! Wait – now he’s leaning forward and might pitch out of the crib! Help – we have to lower it!!

The heat and crab legs and standing leads me to the first of many mojitos this trip. Honestly I need to find a less time-consuming drink because these things take forever to make, and in order to keep them coming I really need someone to stand in the kitchen full time just making the next one as I drink.

Thankfully Brett has gotten really good at them, with my gentle guidance- ha, and is willing to mash the mint up and mix it for me. He figures I’m easier to handle with a few rum based drinks in me. Anyway, fun day. Good eats. Also in this slide show are photos of Alex doing what I affectionately call the “monkey face”. This involves sticking out the lower gums, showing off the bottom two teeth and making a rawr-arawr-rawr noise. I will get this on video, but for now some photos.

First stop – Washington, DC to visit our friends Dick, Jeanine and their son Jake. Jake is almost 6 and we still have people who remember Jeanine as the one who was pregnant at our wedding. At that time, we didn’t have many friends with kids – ahh so young.

So anyway, DJ&J are getting ready to move. When they got assigned to DC it felt like we had forever to do things together and we have spent the last 2 years not seeing each other as much as we could have because we had all the time in the world. Even though they were packing and moving out, they were gracious enough to open their home to us to help us break up our trip. Jeanine likes to be organized and I have to say the house didn’t look near as chaotic as mine would have. Then again, some rooms in our house look like we just moved in and we’ve been there for 3 years.

Jeanine has recently gotten certified to teach Pilates, and bought her own reformer machine. So after a great dinner, including dessert, she hooked my up to the reformer and tried to teach me how to breathe using my abs. It was predicted that I would be so sore the next day that I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed, which wasn’t the case so either I’m in better shape than I thought, or more likely, was doing it wrong.

Pilates is definitely hard, and intricate, and should not be attemped with an instructor who isn’t as good as Jeanine. Jeanine, I promise I want to learn more about it, but I won’t try to teach it. We took pictures the next day, to commemorate moving on, and to compare them to the ones we took 5 years ago, when Jeanine was the first (of many) military friends to desert me by moving away.