why moms don't nap

Friday morning I played tennis and when I came home at noon, our sitter asked if Rollin could go play at her house for the afternoon. They live on a Christmas tree farm and I knew Rollin would enjoy playing over there, so off they went. Once they left I toyed with either running some errands or taking a nap. I was just dragging because Zig and I have been burning the midnight oil lately working on some stuff. Anyway, I went for the nap. I know, shocking that I chose a nap over taking Evan, the shrieker, grocery shopping :)

Unfortunately, Evan had his nice long nap while I was playing tennis so we went to he and Rollin's room and I just closed the door hoping he'd be content to play for 20 minutes. I got the blocks down and a few other toys and laid down on the bed. Evan was, not surprisingly, totally uninterested in the toys, but very interested in mauling me. Climbing on me, sitting on my head and trying to pry open my eyelids made my attempted nap quite the event for him. Finally he became focused on something on the floor and I started to drift off. Then I was jarred back to reality with a big thunk followed by screaming and tears. I think he got on the bed and fell off and hit the train table somehow. Just from the sound of the impact followed by the hurt cry I knew there would either be a huge bump or blood.

There was blood. There are only three pieces of furniture in the boys' room. A train table, a crib and a bed. No lamps, dressers, sharp edges, etc. This is for a reason. I picked Evan up and blood was coming out of his mouth, and lots of it. I could tell he cut his lip inside so I began nursing him which usually helps the bleeding stop. I couldn't tell how bad his cut was because his mouth was full of blood, however, when he stopped nursing and spit out a part of his lip, I became squeamish. And concerned. And mildly freaked out. I am horrible with this kind of stuff. Heaven forbid something really serious ever happens. We moved our party to the bathtub which I knew would calm him down and fortunately the bleeding quickly slowed down. I saw the gash inside his front lip and felt relief that it didn't need stitches and was already coming together. But it was big. Now he is sporting an Angelina Jolie lip, at least half of one. A not so subtle reminder of what a stellar mom I am.




I guess I get why people say "nap when the baby naps" rather than "nap when you have a crazy monkey on the loose." I'm thinking those playpens of yesteryear aren't such a bad idea. And I still need a nap.

pumpkin harvest

We won't need to visit the local pumpkin patch this year. Our pumpkins must have liked the odd weather we had this summer. Zig went to town on his pumpkin planting this year, thank goodness. I LOVE pumpkins. And I got my Cinderella pumpkins with the warts all over. I think those are my favorite. Here is a sampling of the pumpkins from the patch in the very front of our yard.

A perfect little seat for Evan.

roasted pepper and tomato soup

Just before we left for Hawaii, I had tons of tomatoes and not a lot of time to do anything with them so I made a roasted vegetable soup. So quick and so tasty. After tossing the veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasting, I just added broth, herbs and pureed. I also strained the soup at the end because it was quicker than taking the seeds out ahead of time. I added a bit of cream, but not much.

ready to go

Evan loves having the kids home so he can follow them around. He wants so badly to get on the bus with the girls in the morning and follow Rollin to preschool in the afternoon. Rollin waits for his carpool to preschool by the front door and Evan always thinks he is coming along. Rollin is at a wonderful age right now and I totally love having him around. He's funny, helpful, and he can entertain himself  for hours drawing and does most every day. He's kind and crazy and brave. And boy does he love his Mom and Dad. He promises me he will never leave home. We have an agreement :) I think most parents would agree that there are stages children go through that at times you are relieved to see end, and others (the majority) where you would be thrilled if time could stand still. If I could freeze Rollin at 4, I would! I love you, sweet boy!

 Surfer in a big wave (can you see the little green person with brown hair surfing?) This one drawing took him two days and several hours. He makes books all the time and binds them with blue painters tape.

Time for school.  There's a reason I bought Evan this shirt. It describes him to a "T" right now. Cute but a little devilish and very sneaky.

Wow, it never rains. Strange.

Don't worry, I'll raise heck while you're gone!

Eastside Final: Sela

I kept telling myself not to scream while making this video but I couldn't help it. So maybe turn down the volume.

Kauai

I'm very behind right now. On life. On updating this blog/journal. On so many things. But we just returned from a very nice trip to Kauai and I just can't pick up the pace. Island living suits me well. It's nice to escape from real life and demands for awhile. Wish we were there longer....10 days, even though the days were SO wonderfully long, was not enough. I don't like catch-up posts so I'm going to try to be brief. We rented our friends' home near the north shore and it was amazing. Like our own mini-resort. Private, quiet, and  breathtaking views.

When we got off the plane and noticed there were chickens all over, we knew this was the place for us! We went on hikes, there were chickens..the parking lot at the beach, chickens....Costco, chickens.....fancy restaurants, chickens.....side of the highway, chickens everywhere. So funny. There are no natural predators on the island so the feral chicken population is thriving, much to many of the locals dismay. We loved it though. There is so much abundance on Kauai. So many beautiful farms and gardens. There were so many almost empty pristine beaches. The people were so wonderful and the aloha spirit is really a way of life. We had 9 days of gorgeous sunny and mild weather. Lots of rain at night, and dry days.   

Farmer's Market

 We didn't do much on our list as far as activities because we were lucky to meet a couple local families whose kids were on break. We saw them in some way almost every day. They took us to the best beaches, on a hike to a rope swing where the latest pirates movie was filmed and we ended up looking at real estate a lot as well. For fun. I thought. We loved Hanalei Bay and Sela, Zig and I took surfing lessons. Sela did awesome and got up nearly every time. The waves were small and perfect for learning. It wasn't near as hard as I thought it would be and I didn't fall much either. But the waves were tiny and our boards were huge, so that helps tremendously. We tried stand up paddling which was also very fun.  

 Sela and her instructor, Moose.

We sought out the best fish tacos/burritos and on our second to last day, we found our very favorite. The Fish Market  is where it's at! I could live on fish tacos, and I pretty much did for the ten days we were there. Pat's taco stand was also a great little place we hit several times. We found the health food store and the Farmer's Market the first day we were there. And the shave ice. I almost overdosed on shave ice on our honeymoon. I love that stuff and I'm so glad we don't have it here. Someone needs to make all natural shave ice without all the dyes, but I figured our good eating the rest of the time canceled out our occasional treats. Zig was good, he did not partake.

Wild boar, there's a first time for everything. We stumbled upon this bbq place in someone's yard. It was incredible. We were nearly speechless. Best bbq I've ever had. And I'm from Texas!

There was a shave ice machine in this person's yard as well. Some little grandpa made these for the kids.

 Zig's mom joined us for part of the time which was very fun. She took hundreds of pictures, but I didn't take too many. Every time I took one, it didn't even remotely capture the scene so I stopped trying. Plus, I wanted to play in the water, since it was WARM. A beach is not a beach to me if the water is cold. I hate cold beaches. I love to swim, body surf, and be in the water. Not in a wetsuit.

 Zig's mom, Tina, and the gang.

 Rollin trying to make an extreme sport out of anything he could.

 This beach was a blast. The waves came in and then made this little boogie board area where kids of all ages had a blast.

 I saw this adorable little kid on the left and thought "I am home." My family will understand.

 A river flowed into the ocean here....so cool. I believe South Pacific was filmed at this beach.

We went to a small luau put on by one of the local families we met. Their girls had already babysat for us so Sela and Nina loved watching them dance at the luau. Zig was in charge of the camera when the kids were called on stage, so there are some issues with the pictures. This was my new point and shoot, easy camera. Sigh :) The blurs you see are Rollin, Sela, and Nina trying to dance. I was outside with shrieking Evan. We were like peanut butter and jelly this trip, inseparable. For better or worse :)

And here are me and my attachment. I took lots of pictures looking down at my leg because when not in my arms, Evan was permanently attached to my leg. Another little stage I suppose.

We celebrated our 11th anniversary, met up with my high school friends, Darron and Linda, and took it easy most of the time.



 11 (long) years! Just kidding! I love you, babe!

We have been home for a week. I got all the laundry done the night we got home, put away the suit cases and hit the ground running. Today is the first day I am finally taking a breath. We had a great week. Sela won the Eastside Final cross country meet, she began playing cello in orchestra, and I finally played a tennis match I could be proud of. Definitely the best tennis I've played since my big break from the sport (still a LONG way to go). I almost died of exhaustion in this marathon match I had on Friday. Afterward it felt so good to be utterly and completely worn out from doing something so fun. My opponent and I had ONE game that lasted 30 minutes. I thought my arm would fall off since I was the one serving that game.

Thankfully, we still have our weekends totally free (say no to soccer!!)  so we've all been home today taking it easy, working in the yard and in the house, and we made fish tacos for dinner.