Plans Change, We Adapt

Sunday was one of those days where nothing really worked the way it had been planned. But it all turned out fine anyway. We originally had thought we'd get together with one of William's friends from school. She's recovering from heart surgery (ack!) and has been home for a few weeks. We were going to meet her for a movie, and since I wasn't sure when, we left things open-ended. Then on Saturday, we realized that Ed's sister and BIL and their boys are in town. (D'oh! How'd I miss that one?) They have not seen the new house, so we invited them over to dinner. But it turned out the only time William's friend could meet for a movie was later afternoon, which didn't work with us.

So boo for not getting together with his friend. But y'ay--we'd get to see the cousins! Since we still had the whole day to kill, I was thinking we'd go to the pool. But the kids didn't want to do that. They were playing at home and didn't really want to leave. That was fine, since I had a lot of cleaning to do anyway. (As much as I would love to spend any extra time at the pool, I have to respect the fact that sometimes, the boys just want to stay home. This is one of those things that makes working outside the home hard. You have to balance the activities with time at home to CHILL!) William spent the whole morning playing with Ed's old Voltron toy that his mother never threw out. We've been watching old episodes of Voltron on Netflix and William loves it. It's so cute to see him being so careful with the toy, and great to see how much he enjoys it. Note to self--save the really special toys for the grandkids!

Anyway, after the boys played all morning, William decided he'd like to go ice skating. The rink near us had open skating from 1:15 to 3:15, so that's what we did. It was really fun and the boys did pretty well. It was expensive, so not something I see us doing a lot. But fun all the same. Then the family came over, we ate, the boys' fatigue started shining through, yada yada yada, and now it's 9:45 and I'm beat.

So not the day I thought I was going to have, but a pretty good day all the same. And I even got some cleaning done! Although I didn't blog much about it, or take many pictures, July was a pretty good month. As we head into August, I'm starting to get nervous about William starting school. Thank goodness he's not nervous! This week we're going to drop off his papers and documentation. The week before school starts, there's a "Meet the Teacher" session. And then school starts. Just like that.

But there's a whole month between then and now. So for now, I'll just focus on the now! Still trying to work in more pool time, some kayaking, bowling, and maybe even more chillin' at home.

Happy Summer Weekend

We had another awesome summer weekend, made better by a visit from Baba (my mom). Since returning from our vacation in June, our weekends have settled into a bit of a pattern. We spend Saturday running all kinds of errands and doing chores around the house, and then we have Sundays to relax and hit the pool. So far it has worked out well. William has taekwondo on Saturday mornings, so I’ve been trying to hit the grocery store while Ed takes William to his class. (Sometimes Seth goes with me, sometimes with Ed.) This past weekend, we mostly followed the pattern, but there are a few things that stand out. The first involved the grocery store, the second involved grownup time, and the third involved sleep!

On Saturday, William was scheduled to get his purple stripe belt, so Mom and I went to his class and then we took the boys to our new local library (which is awesome, btw—crazy helpful librarians!), and then to the grocery store. At the grocery store, the boys discovered a Kool-Aid display and decided they wanted to try it. Having grown up on Kool-Aid, I couldn’t resist. What’s summer as a kid without Kool-Aid? I let them pick out their flavors. William chose cherry and Seth chose tropical punch. We made the cherry flavor as soon as we got home. They said they liked it, but they haven’t exactly torn through the pitcher. Ed and I had some and wondered how the heck we could have liked it so much when we were little. Gross! I guess tastes really do change with time. LOL.

Another highlight was that William had Ninja Night Out on Saturday night, so Seth stayed home with Ed, and Mom and I got to have a night on the town, just the two of us! We checked out a little antique store close to our house, went to the garden center to look for ferns and begonias, hit the craft store so I could start planning my DIY headboard, and then we went out to eat at Applebee’s. All of it SANS kids. Awesome!

On Sunday we went to the pool and the boys were excited that Baba came with us. I spent all morning packing up the snacks/lunch/drinks. (I can’t figure out why it takes so long to get us ready for the pool. I feel like I start getting us ready at 9:00 a.m. for the 11:00 a.m pool opening!) Anyway, the heat wave was still upon us, but it had definitely relented somewhat. In fact, there was a breeze blowing at the pool that made it quite comfortable sitting in the shade. We spent about three hours there, until Seth was close to a nuclear meltdown from lack of nap. When we got home, the boys zoned out in front of videos and then went outside to ride bikes and scooters. We ate an early dinner and as we were cleaning up from dinner, William hit Seth (Seth probably deserved it, but still), so Ed sent William up to his room. Not long after, I took Seth up to start the boys’ bath and called for William, only to realize that William had fallen fast asleep. I had Seth in his bed with lights out by 7:10 p.m. and didn’t hear a peep from him for the rest of the night. Earliest bedtime ever! William woke up around 9-something having wet the bet. But I quietly cleaned him up and changed him and put clean sheets on the bed and he went right back to sleep and slept until 6:30 a.m. Seth woke up at 5:30 a.m., but still—that’s ten hours for him! That’s a crazy lot of sleep for the Hahn household!

This summer is definitely living up to all expectations. I guess keeping expectations low helps, but I haven’t felt stressed or disappointed. There are still some things I want to do—bowling, kayaking, making ice cream—and I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to, and I haven’t started exercising, and I haven’t taken nearly enough pictures. But there’s still time. And we have done enough to call it a happy, fun summer. That’s all that really matters!

Heat Wave

Apparently we're under some kind of heat dome which has been moving from the mid-West to here, and it's brutal. Heat index of 110 or so today. On top of the heat wave, I've been sick all week. I'm not sure if it's a cold or something more because I've had fever, chills, and body aches. But I haven't let it slow me down! Work every day. (I'm sure my co-workers are thrilled by my work ethic--NOT!) Swim lessons yesterday. Feeding/bathing/entertaining kids. Seth got the cold first last weekend, and now William has a stuffy nose. It doesn't seem to have hit them as hard, but it's not over yet. Of course, today and tomorrow are big budget meetings for the daycare. Not the kind of stuff I can miss.

My mom is coming to visit this weekend. (Hopefully she still wants to come! I will sanitize the house--I swear!) Maybe we'll get a few things done around the house. Maybe not. I'd be content to just sit around all day and watch the boys play. Maybe go out to eat (three times a day) a few times. This week has taught me that I'm definitely not a wimp!

There's lots more I should probably talk about, but I'll end with a comment about swim lessons for the boys. Why didn't I do private lessons for William years ago? Definitely the way to go. They've only had two lessons but he's already much more confident in the water. He's putting his whole face in the water (not his whole head--just his face, but it's a start), and he's willing to push his zone of comfort a little more. I love seeing the progress. Seth, meanwhile, is fearless and loves every part of the lessons. What I love the most, though, is that William is really impressed with Seth's fearlessness but doesn't seem to harbor an ounce of jealousy and he doesn't seem to feel bad about his own limitations, either. He cheerfully comments about what a good swimmer Seth is and he seems to enjoy watching Seth and he even encourages Seth. It's so sweet. I worried that William might get down on himself if Seth could do things better than him. But so far, that hasn't happened. I know that there is still plenty of time for that, but so far, it's been a pleasant surprise. I love how different the boys are, and and how your heart can completely swell and almost burst for each one, for completely different reasons.

Educational Apps for Kids

Swimming was canceled tonight because of a thunderstorm. So we came home after work, watched TV (the boys watched TV while I made dinner), ate Tacos, and then the boys took baths and went to bed. With time stretched before me, I decided to search for some new apps for my iPhone. I hate to admit that I haven't been very good about working on reading with the boys. William is a little bit interested in reading, and he can get through a few of the BOB books, but I realized tonight that he really doesn't know very many sight words, and I've never really worked on that with him. (I don't even know how to work on that with him, not to mention the fact that he dislikes taking instruction from me.) So I did what any good mom of our generation does--I turned to the iPhone! I downloaded the following apps:

Alphabet Tracing (which is mostly for Seth to begin writing letters)
Sight Words (there are a lot of sight word apps, and I had no idea which one is the best)
Licking Letters (hopefully both boys will enjoy this)

I need to add some math apps, too. But I'm tired and it's late, and I can't believe how frickin' long it took me just to select and download those three measly apps. But please send me your suggestions in the comments! Clearly, I need all the help I can get.

Moving Right Along (Right Along, Right Along Right Along)

I looked at my summer to-do list today and was pleased with our progress so far.

1. Go to the pool as much as possible! (Working on this one, with plans for the pool again on Sunday!)
2. The boys learn to swim (Lessons start tomorrow after work.)
3. Make pudding pops and homemade popsicles
4. Join library summer reading program
5. Go to the farmer's market as many Saturdays as possible (Been once. This one is tough to fit into our schedule since William has Taekwondo on Saturday mornings, but we're still working on it!)
6. Explore the parks in our area (We've explored two parks nearby so far. More on our list.)
7. Explore the W&OD trail (maybe go bike riding) (We went on the trail for a short bit and definitely want to explore more, but the trail is crowded!)
8. Take the boys bowling
9. Go to the beach
10. Go to Great Wolf Lodge (Reservations made for end of August)
11. Go to a minor league baseball game (Going to see the Potomac Nationals on Friday night!)
12. Stay out late one Friday night to hear the Army band on the U.S. Capitol Lawn, or attend local concert in the park on Thursday night (Attending concert at local park on Thursday night. Invited some neighbors to come, too.)
13. Go canoeing
14. Plant some vegetables
15. Try making different flavors of homemade ice cream

Still working on the library, planting veggies (may be too late for summer tomatoes and zuchhini, but it probably can't hurt to try!), making homemade ice cream, and going bowling. Looking at the calendar, it's crazy to realize how few weekends are left this summer. So I'm definitely going to try to make the most of the time we have. Without overscheduling us and making us crazy, of course.

And now that I've blabbered on quite a bit, here are some more pictures from vacation and girls' weekend.

Seth with Katie and Aunt Rose



Katie and William



Summer Like It Should Be

Yesterday I took the boys to our favorite pool and we stayed for five hours. It was awesome! We had nothing else to do all day, and I decided to put no time limit on our visit. I loaded up on lunch, drinks, and snacks, and we got there when it opened. This pool has a "baby" pool, with fountains that shoot up and a slide. It has a big pool with slides and water pouring out of a huge bucket and a shallow area that's less than 3 feet, so both boys could walk around. And it has a huge sand area with a water table in the middle. In the past, William has always gravitated to the sand area, so I was surprised that he wanted to spend as much time as he did in the pool. But I certainly wasn't disappointed.

I was especially happy to see how confident the boys are getting in the water. They both went down the slides over and over. William finally started crawling around like an alligator. (A big step for him!) Seth would run and then throw himself into the water and then come up for more. Seth has no fear putting his face in the water now, and he's finally figuring out how not to inhale the water. I'm playing phone tag with a swim instructor to set up lessons for the boys, so I'm hoping to get something set up ASAP.

They played in the sand for quite a while, too, which gave me a chance to relax. Not even a poop accident on Seth's part put a damper in our day. Seth didn't quite make it to the toilet, but I didn't realize that until  we were in the bathroom stall. (He did make it to the bathroom, so there wasn't any pool mess to worry about!) Wow--was that ugly. But luckily, there are showers in the bathroom and I had some wipes with me and don't worry--when we left the stall, it was as clean as it was when we started. :-)

Based on yesterday's experience, I'm making the pool a priority for the rest of our summer! The only bad thing about the pool is that Ed does not like being there very much. So our time there ends up being me, solo, or with other friends. Which isn't necessarily bad. Ed gets time to do things at home and run errands. But I'm determined to get him to the pool at least once before summer ends. Actually, our August vacation will be at Great Wolf Lodge, so I imagine that will be pool time enough for him!

As for the rest of our lives, we're still loving our  neighborhood. And we're making a little progress on home decorating. Ed painted the screened-in porch floor and the steps while we were gone, but I'll save those details for my design blog. (If I ever manage to take a picture during daylight hours!) I also have more pictures from vacation, girls' weekend, and even a few from the pool yesterday--all on my camera. I'll try to download those tonight. And I need to write a few more posts to cover our vacation. But all in good time!

Girls' Weekend 2011

I have a lot of posts to catch up on (including my meet-up with Karen in South Carolina!) but I'm trying to go in order. So I should start with my girls' weekend! This was our 10th annual weekend and it's pretty much a guarantee that we're going to have a great time together. Each year is a little different as we're all in different stages of our lives. This year was different because we got to hang out with each other and our kids both before and after girls' weekend. It was similar to all the other girls' weekends, though, in the shared laughter, advice, great food, inspiration, and moral support. What would I do without our girls' weekends? Hopefully I'll never have to find out. (And here are links to GW '10, GW '09, GW '08)

This year we decided to add some physical activity to  our weekend adventure. As the other three girls know, I'm a bit notorious for avoiding exercise. So I decided to get off my arse and join the girls for some bike riding and ocean kayaking. We rode bikes about 3 or so miles to a club that rents kayaks and then went kayaking for about an hour or so. Then we had some drinks at the club and rode our bikes back. It was awesome. Nothing beats riding bikes on the beach (even when it's crazy hot!), and paddling in the ocean (especially when it's nice and calm) was so much fun. It was well worth the effort, and I can't wait to do it again next year! We took a bunch of pictures of our fun that day with a disposable camera. My friend Morgan has the rest of the pictures from the weekend, so for now, these will do.



L-R: Morgan, Me, Tina, Mistie



Getting ready to kayak



We're ready now! (Morgan and I shared a kayak while Mistie and Tina went solo.)



Morgan and I were awesome kayak partners! Look how in sync we were.



Show me the Mommy!



Chillaxin!



Picture time!

Looking at these pictures makes me wish we were back at the beach. Thanks girls for being such awesome, amazing, inspiring, and supportive friends. You are definitely my Wooties!

Home at Last

We are back from what seemed like the endless vacation. Endless in a good way, of course! We are all glad to be home, despite the fact that we had an awesome time in Florida and North Carolina. The best part of the trip was seeing the boys have so much fun with all of their cousins. They LOVE their cousins and they were all so good to the boys.

I'll spare you all a play-by-play of our vacation, but I'll note some highlights:

• Flying to Florida (the looks on the boys faces when we were taking off was PRICELESS!)
• Swimming at the Yacht Club with Katie, Melanie, Aunt Rose, and Uncle Dave
• Following around Playing with Melanie and Katie
• Visiting the Catty Shack and seeing tigers, lions, panthers, and jaguars UP CLOSE and watching them get fed
• THE BEACH ('nuff said)
• GIRLS' WEEKEND
• Birthday dinner at Japanese Steak House
• THE BEACH! (Oh yeah--already said that)
• Discovery Place childrens' museum in Charlotte
• Playing with cousins Zack, Jacob, and Tyler

There were a few downers on our vacation. I got in a fight with the Delta ticket counter associate at BWI airport. William started coughing the day before we left and coughed all during vacation. I had to get our doctor's office to call in a prescription for Albuterol in Florida because I didn't bring enough. He hung in there, though, and things never got severe. Speaking of William, he and I had more than a few tussles throughout our trip. He learned how to push all my buttons and I DIDN'T learn how to deactivate any of them. I wish I could say that I didn't let that stuff get to me, but I can't. Lessons learned! I think our biggest disappointment, though, was that it rained in the evening on the 4th of July, so we didn't get to enjoy fireworks with the boys' cousins. Last year, William had so much fun with all of the fireworks that the neighbors set off in the cul-de-sac. And he was so disappointed when we had to leave. There's nothing worse than seeing that crushed look on your kid's face. But we couldn't stay there all night, especially when we wanted to leave bright and early this morning to get back to DC. In the end, it was fine. And William hasn't mentioned it since. But it definitely made our trip end on a low note.

Despite the lows, we really had a great trip, and the boys were really good, considering. They were great for my sister while I was away on my girls' weekend, and they did really well on both long car trips. I think this trip pretty much guarantees that the beach and visiting cousins will be part of many many future summers.