The Red Room

Those of you who have been to our house know about our red room. For the first few months, I think it was completely normal to have a vacant room - you know, just waiting to buy furniture, trying to figure out what to put in there, etc. But the longer and longer we got from June 2008 (when we moved into our house), the stranger it was to have an empty room, particularly when that empty room was the first thing you saw when you entered our front door. But when you're next in line for a full dining room set, complete with china and silver, there isn't a huge incentive to go out and buy your own. Don't get me wrong - the red room had plenty of alternate uses in the meantime. In December of 2008, the red room became the tree room.

Then Santa brought the boys a snazzy car rug and a trunkload of Matchbox cars, so the tree room became the car room. All the while, the red/tree/car room was also known as the "watch your head" room, due to the dangerously low hanging and gi-normous chandelier that anyone and everyone would bonk his head on while finding Christmas presents/playing with cars. Well finally, at age 35 and after more than 2.5 years of home ownership, the red room has finally become my very own grown-up dining room. A few weeks ago, my parents showed up with a U-Haul full of dining room accouterments and within an afternoon, the car room had been transformed. You may wonder if the boys are missing their extra playspace, but surprisingly, no. In fact, they were very excited to christen the new dining room when we celebrated Grandpa turning 6111 the weekend before last.

We did cake in the kitchen. The boys were so well-behaved while eating in the new dining room, but we didn't want to push our luck.

Inheriting my grandma's furniture is so much better than going out and buying our own. When I walk into our new dining room, it already feels warm, broken-in, well-loved, and full of stories. I open the hutch doors and the smell inside brings forth memories of dinners and gatherings at Grandma's house as a child. I had such fun stocking the hutch with her china, and some of my great-aunt Viki's, who also recently passed away. With some of my own stuff thrown in, it feels like a wonderful blend of my tastes with a homage to all the great women who set their tables and welcomed guests before me. The funny thing is that my grandma was far from a domestic goddess; in fact, she was quite the opposite - a progressive woman who almost completely gave up cooking after my grandpa died. Still, my childhood memories are filled with dinners at her house, and I very much feel her presence among her things. The dining room even has a spot for our old rug. I never loved this rug (sorry Ben), but I have many warm memories of playing with my babies on it, so it's kind of nice to see it again.

The rug completes the room just perfectly - I'm so glad Ben didn't let me throw it away when I wanted to years ago. Now onto dinner party planning!

Ya Mon, Part III: The Final Installment

I saved the very best for last...the beach! Our little beach bums take after their dad and especially their mom in their love of all things sand and surf. Give them a bucket (real, or fashioned from a bar cup), some sort of scooping device, and something else that can become a motor vehicle, and they are good for the day (or at least the morning).

But before you go jumping to any conclusions that involve us parents sitting back and reading a book while these two play, it ain't quite that rosy of a picture yet. Because unless there are two of each of the above-described tools, and unless they are exactly the same in every respect, there is a fair bit of fighting over who gets what. And then there's one child who loves to fill said bucket with sand and dump it into the other child's hair, face, or both. That same child also enjoys tasting a bit of the grainy stuff himself, just to see what exactly he has just bestowed upon his brother.

Then, of course, there are constant demands for snacks, drinks, etc. You get the idea...maybe in a few years we will actually get to read a few pages of our books on the beach instead of holding a sudoku puzzle book upside down and pretending.

So we abandon all pretenses of quiet relaxation and jump in on the fun. Who wants to read anyway, when there are treasures to be found,

waves to be jumped over,

boats to be sailed/paddled/pedaled,

and sandcastles (or turtles) to be built

The sandcastle's "vegetable garden"

As you can see, we brought in the reserves for part of our trip to share in all this fun. Noni and Papi joined us for the middle four days of our vacation, and we were so grateful. Having an extra set of hands to keep energetic boys busy, give Mom and Dad a few minutes of peace, and cater to constant appetites (I know, I know, it's not like we had to cook, but taking umpteen trips to the buffet gets a little tiring!) made the trip that much more enjoyable. Watching my kids bond with and fawn over their grandparents (and vice versa) added lovely lasting memories to the many created during our Jamaican adventure.

Little Snapshots

Pictures are great because they allow you to freeze time for just a moment as your kids travel the path of growing up, which at times seems like it's happening at warp speed. Videos can be even better because they capture the voices, higher than they are just months later, more cryptic, with funny little anomalies of language. But as kids get older and life gets busier, the cameras get dragged out less frequently, reserved only for special occasions - holidays, vacations, performances, etc. - and the precious moments of daily life get lost in the shuffle, and thus forgotten. And this is why I write. So many times a day, something funny happens, or one of the boys cracks me up with one of their nuggets of early language, and I think to myself, "I've got to write that down!". But then the day goes by and I forget and the moment is lost. So I am going to resolve to be better about recording these little moments, to capture these little snapshots of life.

One thing I have been meaning to record is Ethan's bedtime ritual of late. I'm not sure when this started, but every night, at some point after we've tucked him in (could be 5 minutes on a good night or much longer on a rough night), he calls down to us and says "Mommy, good night, I'm going to sleep now!". He says it in such a sweet little voice, and since he still has some trouble with his "l"s, it's more like "I'm going to sweep now!", which is even sweeter. Then I call back "Good night sweetie, I love you!", and he says "I love you too!" (or "I wuv you too!"). And he promptly falls asleep. It sounds silly, but it is such a sweet little interchange, and no matter what kind of day we've had - what buttons he's pushed, how much we've bumped heads - this nightly ritual smooths everything over and puts a smiley face on our day. In that moment, Ethan still seems so young and innocent, so sweet and pure, and I just want to freeze time and hold that moment in my heart forever.

Adam has his own bedtime ritual, albeit a bit wackier. As we are tucking him in, Adam will say "I want to sit and hug for a minute". I have no idea where this came from, but he likes to be propped up, sitting on the side of his crib, and snuggle for a moment. Then he says "kiss" and we obey. Then we tumble him into his crib upside down, to which he responds with a big guffaw as if it is the first time we've ever played this game. Then some "I love you"s (as an aside, Adam has just started saying impromptu "I love you"s, which is such a lovely development; he has been returning these words for awhile, but now he'll just walk up and tell us he loves us at random times) and some more giggles and it's off to bed for our little monkey.

I treasure these tiny morsels of Ethan-ness and Adam-ness and want to remember them forever, to be able to tell my boys what they were like at 4 and 2 when they're all grown up. And this is why I write.

Ya Mon, Part II: Food and Fun

As I mentioned in my previous post, the resort we stayed at in Jamaica was very family-friendly. Besides the obvious (beach, pool, not having to wear umpteen layers to venture outside), I think the boys' two most favorite aspects of the trip were 1.) the unending supply of food, and 2.) the kids club. All-inclusive resorts are particularly nice for picky toddlers, because you can try a whole bunch of "healthier" options before finally resorting to the grilled cheese, without spending any extra dough. And the constant availability of food is also a plus with growing boys - ours enjoyed feasting themselves silly five or six times a day.

Daily post-nap snack on the patio: popcorn for the boys and lattes for Mom and Dad

I think Ethan's favorite part of the all-inclusive situation was being able to serve himself whatever he liked at the vast buffets, and Adam's was clearly the abundance of watermelon. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that this kid ate the equivalent of one of those little soccer-ball-sized watermelons every day. Unfortunately, I did not consider the mess made by a two-year old eating watermelon at every meal when packing, so it was tough to keep up. Somehow we didn't catch a picture of the watermelon-eating monster, but we did snap a shot of the boys and their ham rolls.

The resort had several a la carte restaurants in addition to the buffets, and they had a universal "kids menu" with all the usual favorites offered for the main course. The only appetizer offered, however, was a supremely healthy cream cheese wrapped in fried ham. Despite our revulsion, for the boys, it was love at first bite and they had ham rolls at every dinner thereafter. The kids menu also featured only one dessert, which we made the mistake of ordering just once. I assumed that a kids dessert would be a small scoop of ice cream, or a brownie, or something reasonably sized for the audience. But no...the dessert placed in front of Ethan and Adam was a chocolate dipped cone the size of Ethan's head, with, as if that wasn't enough in itself, a brownie inside. The thing was ENORMOUS.

The aftermath

To work off all those calories (and blow off all that chocolate-induced energy), we spent a lot of time at the kids club. Complete with jungle gym, climbing structures, sandbox, pool, legos, crafts, wii, and more, this place kept our boys very happy.

"Let me show you how this is done."

"Yup, got it."

Even though there were two of these things, I can't tell you how many fights I had to break up over who got the whale.

But of course, when no one is looking the frog is just fine.

Home just four days, the boys are already missing the kids club. Our snow-covered swingset and garaged sandbox aren't really doing the job just yet. Thank god for warmer temps this past week - if it weren't for the foot of snow in our backyard I would think spring might just be on its way.

Ya Mon, Part I

I am going to pirate my friend Katie's idea and give you an account of our Jamaican vacation serial-style. After some (okay a lot of) pre-trip apprehension, I can now say that my fears were (mostly) unwarranted and that we had a fantastic trip. The boys did much better than I expected, both with the plane trip itself and with getting into a routine once we arrived, and clearly enjoyed their time in the sun. The first day we arrived, Ethan said "this air feels so good on my skin!", echoing my thoughts exactly - after the winter we've had, it was a welcome change to trade snowsuits and boots for bathing suits and flip flops. The resort was beautiful, full of activities, and family-friendly - we're already planning our return next year!

Mommy and boys on the plane ride down. Note pasty white skin. Also note toddler frantically kicking tray table. Thankfully, whoever assigned our seats saw our boys coming and put no one in the rows in front of or behind us.

Pool fun. Someone gave us this raft as they were leaving the resort, and it was a huge hit with the boys.

Although neither boy would wear his hat when I wanted him to, both boys enjoyed wearing multiple hats when I wasn't looking. Go figure.

One little monkey made himself very well known at Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton. By about mid-week, everywhere we went staff were saying "Hi Adam!". Let's just say it wasn't always his charm or his blue eyes that got him noticed...

On our patio (Room One) before dinner. We upgraded our room mid-trip to a larger suite with a fantastic view:

Beautiful sunsets

More to come!