Inaugural Camping Trip

A few weeks ago, we bought a camper.  It is a tiny little thing - a used 13' Scamp - but it has a 2 burner stove, a sink, a heater, and beds.  If we find that we LOVE camping, we can always upgrade to something bigger in a few years.  But for now, our little Scamp will work just fine.

We spent a couple of weekends cleaning it up and making some minor repairs.  We have been visiting yard sales and have been trying to get it stocked up.  And we were waiting for warmer weather.

This past weekend (Memorial Day 2013), we headed out for our first overnight camping trip.  Although it was a holiday weekend, we planned to only stay one night - we felt like we needed to work out the kinks of what we packed that we didn't need and what else we needed to pack.  This was a good idea because there were a few things that we need to add to our stock and a few other things we need to remember to pack the next time (books for Carder for bedtime).  I am sure we will learn a few more tricks as the summer progresses and we camp some more.

We headed to nearby Eastport MI and camped at Barnes Park.  The next day they had a Petosky Stone Festival at the park as well.  Carder did pretty well - although he wanted nothing to do with sleeping in his "bunk bed" or in his sleeping bag from Grandad and Granmama.  He also wanted to pet EVERY. DOG. AT. THE. CAMPGROUND.

But he was cute as he ate S'mores for the first time (and then settled on just the chocolate or bites of marshmallows).  He did pretty well with the fire and kept his distance.  The hardest thing was trying to keep him entertained while we cleaned up the dishes and we have a plan for the next time.

Also, next time I need to take more pictures.  :)

Hey Mommy!  Are you eating my donut?

2+ Years Later

When we moved to Michigan 2+ years ago (has it really been that long ago???), I was very excited about moving here and starting over.  I was also a bit nervous – the largest move in my previous history was my move to college in 1995.  But two years later, here we are – fully settled into our new city and lifestyle.  Sort of.

Lots of things have changed in our lives – we have a new home, we have a child, we have new jobs, we make a lot less money, we spend a lot less money…

So does the reality measure up to the imagined?

Well, I don’t know.

Home Wise:  I love the location we are in and the house we have.  Would there be a few tweaks I would make?  Sure.  But I am so glad we aren’t living in a drafty old house that needs remodeling (Been there, done that, wouldn’t want to attempt it with a toddler unless you paid me a million dollars and I could live in a hotel while the construction crew worked.)

Job Wise:   I absolutely LOVE my job – more than any other job I have had in the past.  The company is great, the hours couldn’t be better, the pay is wonderful (especially since I am just part time).  I don’t think I would change anything about my employment situation – not right now.  And if I did make a change, it would be in the number of hours I work and some of what I do (because a lot of it is data entry and I get bored).  But I wouldn't change the place I work.  Derek, on the other hand, isn’t exactly as happy as I am.  He took a BIG pay cut (and also a big cut in title/respect) for the ability to move to the location we wanted to live in.  While he still appreciates the value in living where we chose to live, the pay cut sucks.  And so does the loss of feeling important.  This is especially hard on him when he sees emails from his former co-workers who are moving up the corporate ladder.  There are very few rungs left for him on the ladder he is on.

Financially:  When we moved here, we didn’t know what my employment was going to be.  We planned our expenses around what Derek was going to be making.  My wages are going special projects (like the pergola and fireplace in the backyard), repairs/replacements (the new washing machine and mattress), the little extras in life (like dining out and entertainment), and into savings.  We have made some bank this last year, which is nice.  Do we still have the conversations about “what if” we still made our old salaries and lived on our current budget?  Well, yeah.  And that is freaking depressing.  But we are doing OK.

Friend Wise:  This one has been tough on me.  We have several people whom we call “friends”  in our new location and these relationships are growing.  I still consider my “BFF” in Georgia to be my bestie, even if we don’t talk as much as we used to and don’t’ get to have our lunches together 2-3 times per week.  Now, I pick up lunch and eat it at my desk.  As far as couple outings, we probably go out and do things with other couples more now than we did when we lived in Georgia (because we don’t spend every free moment remodeling a house).  But there are times I am seriously lonely.  It isn’t as if I want to trade my BFF in for another one, but I most of the time I feel like I am nothing more than an “acqaintence” to these friends I have made.  I get offers for play dates and couple dates and act on them and reciprocate the offers.  There are some relationships that show promise, but I often find myself feeling like I am walking the line between being friendly and stalker.  This is further complicated by my southern “manners”.  Where I grew up, you offered to do things like bring food after surgery or help out with the kids for a friend when she had a Dr. appt and her husband is out of town.  There have been a few times I have made offers like this and the result has been the sound of crickets – as in my offer isn’t even acknowledged…I almost feel as if I am in middle school and I am chasing after some high school boy that doesn’t even know my name.  So sad, really.  I do have a friend that I have done a few things with that shows promise, so that is nice.

Lifestyle Wise:  (Please note – I am in NO WAY saying that I wish we didn’t have a child, so anything said here that makes me seem any less than grateful for our child is not intended).  This one has been a tough one on both of us.  We wanted to move here for all it had to offer – awesome downtown and eateries, festivals, wineries and microbreweries, the bike trail, skiing, snowshoeing, the beaches…  But we planned our move here based on the life we knew – one without a child.  It was easy to imagine how much fun our lives here when a childless existence was all we had known.  But as they say, having a child changes everything.  Perhaps we are bad at parenting (because Carder isn’t a “difficult” child), but we can’t quite seem to figure out how to do everything we would like to do.  As he has gotten older, doing the things we wanted to do has gotten easier – but it takes planning and foresight and you have to be home to get him to bed at a reasonable time – it’s just so much more complicated and difficult than I ever imagined it would be.   This spring has shown me that perhaps this summer will be the one where the reality starts to live up to our expectations a bit more.

Plus, we need to find babysitter for those non-child friendly activities.  We do have my in-laws who live 2.5 hours away who will gladly come babysit at any time (and for that we are very appreciative and we love the fact that Carder gets to spend time with his grandparents).  On the downside, it requires an overnight stay on their part (which makes romantic date night out of the question in my book).   The 2.5 hour trip means you also have to have advance planning (there is no deciding to go to the movies and to dinner early in the day because that is totally unfair to them).

The bottom line - Is our city still KICK ASS?  Absolutely.  Just maybe in a different way than we originally thought it would be.  And perhaps even more so this summer.  I sure hope so.

Week in Review

We have had a stretch of nice weather here in Michigan over the last week.  (Thank GOD because we had snow falling just a couple of weeks ago and I am SO over winter!) 

Although there have been a couple of cooler days mixed in, we have been taking advantage of the warmth.  We have spent a good bit of time in the yard both on days home and also in the evenings after work.  We have been regulars at the local parks and have been biking the last 2 Sunday afternoons.

We put in our "redneck sprinkler system" where we zip-tie garden hoses to our chain link fence and even added a timer this year so that we don't have to turn them on and off!  Spring maintenance was done on the yard and Derek gave the yard our first mowing of the season.  Carder saw the mower and had to run inside to get his mower so that he could help Daddy mow the grass.  He actually got upset this weekend when Derek started the mower while he was getting ready to go down for a nap because he wanted to go outside and help.

 

This was just a regular weeknight getting ready for bathtime, but I loved the way Carder was looking up at his Daddy.

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went out shopping after Church and bought Carder's birthday gift from us.  He will get plenty of gifts for his birthday and is too young to know the difference right now, but we wanted him to have an outdoor basketball goal.  His indoor one (the one we bought him at Christmas thinking it would last a while) is as tall as it will go and he he keeps asking for it to be higher.  We ended up buying a youth goal that will raise up to about 6 1/2 feet.  Right now it is at 4' 9".  He isn't making a ton of shots, but he hits the rim on a regular basis.  And he is loving it.  We have had a few meltdowns because he isn't scoring as often as he would like, but that will get better with time.  And he seems pretty determined because he keeps trying.  We have had to literally tear him away from his "outside basketball goal".  Here he is shooting some hoops as we were outside on Monday afternoon.  I think his form is pretty good for not even being 2 yet.



 

 

 

 

We also bought him a couple of big balls.  Yesterday he spent a good 10 minutes running around and jumping on the ball and then flipping over onto the grass.  He had such a blast doing this.



 

 

 

 

 

 

In the last few days, we have discovered that bugs actually exist outside the pages of the books we read.  Yesterday we spent quite a bit of time looking for and looking at bugs.  I taught him to stay away from the flying bugs with yellow and black stripes.  He was facinated with a large ant that I let crawl on my hand - although he had no interest in letting it crawl on him.  And we spent at least 15 minutes watching these tiny little ants in the crack of our sidewalk...he was facinated.

 

23 Months

Dear Carder,

You are growing up so fast.  You are almost 36” tall now (taller than the kitchen counter!!!).  You might be a tiny bit heavier (about 26.5 Pounds), but you are still one skinny little boy!  Your Daddy and I regularly compare you to a Spider Monkey when you are running around in only your diaper or naked because you really are all arms and legs.  You are all over the board in the size of clothes you are wearing – pants are a 2T and have been for a while due to the length – but if they aren’t an adjustable waist I have to add one in or they will literally fall off of you.  In shorts, you are still in the 18 month ones from last summer – and some of those are still too big in the waist.  Shirts you are wearing either a 2T or a 3T as both seem to fit you, but I have a feeling that come fall you will be in all 3T shirts because the sleeves on a 2T are often a bit short for you.  You still have a couple 2T pajamas that fit you, but you are also wearing some 3T pajamas as well.  And anything with footies that was 2T was put away weeks ago.  I can’t believe that my sweet little preemie baby isn’t even 2 yet and is already outgrowing some 2T clothing!  Your shoe size seems to be around a 7 ½ right now.

And although I just wrote a whole paragraph about your size, I am more amazed at your developmental growth lately.  Every day you surprise me with the things you say and do. 

Your vocabulary is getting so big and you are saying words I had no idea you knew.  You are identifying some of your letters (E and R), you know quite a few colors (red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, purple, brown, white), and you are learning to count and your numbers (you have 1 & 2 down pat and are working towards the others).  You know your first and last name.  You also know both Daddy and my first and last names.  You know the names of our neighbors and their animals.  You know you will be 2 on your birthday.

You speak in broken sentences – sometimes up to 6 or 7 words strung together – and most of the time there are a subject and a verb.  You are identifying things and describing them by the number of them, what they are doing, what their function is, and the color they are.  We have whole conversations about what you see around you.  This week I have heard “Trash Truck Alley Up Carder Dirty Diapers” multiple times as you were telling me that the trash truck had been in the alley picking up your dirty diapers.  In addition, you are no longer content with a response of “uh huh” when you point something out to us – we have to repeat what you said so that you know we understood you.  This can be frustrating if we don’t know what you are trying to say – but you will often find an association to help us figure out what you are trying to say (“crying” was “wa wa wa” and “slide” was “wheeee!”).  

If you think I am not paying close enough attention to you, you will place your hands on both sides of my face to make sure I am looking directly at you. 

Your favorite songs right now include “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”.

You still love to read, but your favorite book changes from week to week.  Some recent favorites were “LMNO Peas”, “I Love Trucks”, and “Go Dogs. Go”.

Your favorite toy in the world is a ball and you LOVE to “shoot hoops”.  You cheer for yourself when you make it (and often say “Yay Carder, 2 points” or “score”) and you will say “almost” and “so close” when you miss.   Other favorite toys right now include trucks/tractors, your blocks, puzzles, and your farm.  And roughhousing.  And anything that involves being outside.

At swimming lessons this past month, you started requesting to swim by yourself with your puddle jumper and you kick your legs so hard to get from one place to another.

Technology comes second nature to you and you are whiz at the iPad.  You can open it up and find your games by scrolling through the screens.  You also know how to open your games and get them started on your own.  You will also hand me the iPad and request to talk to one set of your grandparents or the other on FaceTime.  And you know how to end the call as well.

Your favorite food is still any type of fruit (blackberries and melons this week).  You still love still things like hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato fries, waffles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and cereal.  You are beginning to get more adventurous in your food choices and have begun requesting to taste things on our plates and then eating more.  A recent discovery is that you love tomatoes with fresh mozzarella drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  And chips dipped in salsa.  You have also started calling your drinks "coffee" because that is what mommy and daddy drink.

Sleep still isn’t stellar, but you have 4 teeth breaking through and swelling indicating that your 2 year molars are trying to come in as well.  We have made progress in this department though as you now lie in your crib each night to go to sleep.  I am still in the room but we are making progress and the bedtime routine is getting shorter so I think it is a win.

I love you, my little man.

Mommy

Mother's Day 2013

When I picked Carder up from daycare on Thursday, there was a sweet butterfly made from his footprints waiting for me. 

 

Then on Friday, Derek came in with a card and some flowers from Carder for Mother's Day.  I had requested a "nice picture of Carder and I together where I don't look fat" as a gift.  Derek took this with his iPhone when he brought the flowers in.  Although it is a cute picture, it wasn't quite what I had in mind.

 

Unfortunately, it will have to do.  By Saturday, Derek was sick.  He did his best to try to stay upbeat and available as a parent so that I didn't spend the entire weekend catering to both he and Carder.  But the picture I requested never made it into existence.

 

Mother's Day itself was low key.  We got what we needed to done and just hung around the house and spent time together.  It was a nice day.  And I am so thankful that my little munchkin made me a Mom!

 

 

 

Also, Carder sent cards to his Grandma's.  I really liked the fact that this card had a place for him to color so that they would have some of his artwork to go with the card.  I let him color in the mornings while I fixed his breakfast.  I was totally shocked to find a picture where rather than scribbles that randomly covered the page, there were attempts to color individual items.   My little boy is growing up so fast!

A Really S#!++% Night

Tonight, we were grilling out hamburgers for dinner.  While Derek grilled, Carder and I played in the backyard with his trucks, rocks, and bubbles.  When dinner was ready, the normal temper tantrum occurred when it was time to go inside.

I wrangled the crying and writhing toddler into the door and got him washed up for dinner.  After dinner, we moved on to bath time.  When I was bathing him, Derek noticed that I had dog poop on the bottom of my shoe.  OF COURSE I DID - and I didn't check my shoes before I walked in the door (due to the tantrum).  So, Derek took my shoes and then began the process of cleaning the floors from where I had tracked poop all over the house. 

Since Derek was busy cleaning the mess I made, I decided to use the restroom while Carder played in the tub since Derek wouldn't be available to let me go right before Carder's bedtime ritual.  (Note:  The tub is right next to the toilet so there is no danger of drowning...)

I noticed Carder lean a bit to the left and I knew what was happening.  CODE BROWN.  So while Derek cleaned the crap off the floors, I rinsed Carder off with fresh water, wiped his little bum, and wrapped him in a towel while I dealt with the crap floating in the bathtub.

Derek came into the bathroom while I was cleaning up, shook his head, and walked back out the door for the bleach...

Good Times.  Good Stuff.  Thankfully we have a pretty good sense of humor...

And I wouldn't trade it for the world.