It feels like summer hasn't really started yet, and yet it seems like it's almost over.

I've wasted two beautiful weeks puttering around the house and popping Advil, which sucks. I can get around slowly, but driving is no fun at all. I finally had to get in the car and go grocery shopping last night when M got home, and had zingy back twinges every time I step on the gas/brake. Not cool. I don't want to drive the kids around like this. :(
I really should have called the doctor days ago, but last time they told me to basically suck it up and wait, so what's the point? And now we've got family coming for the weekend, so too late. Complain, complain! Sorry. :)

Ok, children need breakfast...

Last night I put together a Martha-Stewart-for-Kmart console table (on clearance!) that works perfectly as a mini-desk for Owen's tiny room. It's only 15" deep, just enough for a flat-screen monitor, keyboard, mousepad, and not much else. Bonus - no room for clutter!
We also moved his bed to another wall, took out the play kitchen and other things he doesn't play with, and pretty soon he'll have a brand new 'big kid' room. The bedrooms here are so teeny. It's like a dormitory.

I have so many projects lined up; it's crazy. I have to finish painting the hallways a pearl grey (the downstairs hall is almost finished). I have to paint O's room a soft light blue. I have to paint the upstairs bath a sort of cafe au lait, and clean white trim throughout the house. Gotta paint that metallic vertical stripe in the living room. Gotta hang mirrors and bracketless shelves.

The problem with waiting until you can thrift accent pieces and artwork and frames and furniture is that you're never done. Still, I don't think I've bought anything for this house that didn't come dirt cheap from a garage sale or was on deep-discount clearance. Holla.

I've been stuck in bed all week with a janky back. The good news is that I got a TON of yardwork out of the way this weekend...the bad news? I'm OLD. I've had to rely on my mom and M to bring food and beverages, lift and feed children, etc. Sounds relaxing, right? Wrong! I basically spent the week watching wall-to-wall Michael Jackson death coverage while whimpering and spilling food on myself while trying to entertain a baby within a 3-ft radius. Blah. Not the 'break' one would hope for.

I did manage to accomplish one thing - I took some high-falutin' b&w shots of the many faces of Pikachu to frame as individual 8x10s on Owen's wall - shh; I'm making over his room for his birthday, and he's getting a computer and a desk and new paint and such. I'm even going to load the computer with his favorite bookmarks, wallpaper, etc. He's going to spend a day/night at his grandparents' so the whole thing will be like a Trading Spaces reveal! Ah, he's going to hate it and wonder why we couldn't just buy him a crappy Sonic video game instead. Ah, well.

This weekend was uncharacteristically busy.

On Friday we spent the afternoon at the racetrack with the family, and Larkin won $63 on a longshot (no, really - she looked at me and held up five fingers very deliberately, so I said 'hey, $2 on the 5 horse, why not?').

Yesterday we celebrated Yay America Day with some Indian brunch and ran out of propane for the grill, so dinner was fairly unpatriotic as well. Alas.

Today we ventured out early (for us) and wandered the East Avon Flea Market. No exciting finds, but Owen walked away with some Pokemon cards, a plastic Yoshi figure, and a Pac Man glass from 1980. He's got Pac Man fever.
Then we stopped at Chase Market for the last strawberries of the season, hence the photo. Strawberry Ice Cream!

Time to churn the butter!

So Kindergarten has ended, zomg. What now? I have to simultaneously entertain two very different wildabeests all day, every day now. I'm going to miss my quiet afternoons with The Bee; she's such a good little traveling companion. Today we went to the shoe store, just because we could. The Bee just smiles at everybody and giggles occasionally at things that amuse her, like a picture on the wall or a particularly interesting cardboard box.

As much as I adore Owen, I'm not really sure how we're going to get through this summer without arguing every day, since we're headlong into the 'I'm bored!' and 'Why should I?!' phase. We'll have to make it work somehow. And anyway, I'm sure first grade will be upon us before we know it. Yikes.

So, Father's Day. Happy Father's Day! We did lunch today with my family at a local Thai place, continuing the run of nontraditional celebratory fare (see: Mother's Day Indian brunch). Very delicious; very nice to see everyone.

Afterward we didn't want to go home (we're all dressed, fed, and in the car! Don't waste it!), so we headed over to the Strong Museum's Videotopia exhibit, or rather, a huge arcade right out of your pimply little adolescence. Hey, fun for dads and kids! And as much as I grump and grumble over the video game obsession in my house, I took a couple of tokens for the team and broke the machine kicked some Space Invaders arse, and challenged M to a Ms. Pac Man battle (which he won, but I came out swinging!). We reminisced over some Pitfall. Owen got bored and wanted to go home to the Xbox 360. Still, though. Funsies!

Between this, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and a parenting message board I frequent, I have too much going on in the social networking world. Why'd everybody spread out? Booooo!

Today was a good day overall. My mom wanted to get out of the house for a while and I wanted to take advantage of those last days of relative freedom (KINDERGARTEN IS ENDING, OMG). We went to a big ol' baby store where someone went nuts spoiling a baby grandchild - a new dress, an awesome bag of smiling toy produce, an organic knitted bear rattle, and an Eric Carle lion toy. Yeah, these kids don't suffer.

Can I just say that baby stuff has come a long, long way in just the five years between my kids? I spent a long time caressing the fancy Bugaboo prams and oooohing over the Plan dollhouse...Oh, man. Lucky damn kids.

Quick quiz - we went to this beach today. Where is it?

( Answer: )

Nose thief!

This one's for my sister. It's our friendly neighborhood llama checking out a tree. Plus, bonus yak*!


* may not actually be a yak, but it's the hairiest cow I've ever seen.

This year they moved the airshow to the beach, and I thought it was a terrible idea. No static displays of giant military aircaft? I totally expected it to be, like, a handful of hot dog stands and no parking. But it was fantastic! The beach here is...so nice! WTF? I've avoided it for years. There's a big old covered carousel, lots of places to watch boats pass, wooded parkland, covered picnic tables, restaurants, a wide swath of really sandy beach, little lapping waves...I mean, it's not the cleanest place to swim, but who cares? It was completely pleasant!
Of course, I was too busy balancing a garbage plate in one hand, Owen holding the other, so no more pics.
Just ( one more: )

This weekend we drove 9 hours to coastal NH/Maine. Yes, we're crazy! But there was fun to be had, and ( we squeezed a lot into the 2 full days we had to spend: )

Watching the new baby calf behind our house stand up for the first time, Owen remarked that it was probably lighter than its mom for protection (I suppose he got this from brightly-colored bird discussions.) 'But who would eat a cow?' he said, and laughed like it was the most preposterous idea.
Uh, yeah. Dunno, kid. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go prune the cheeseburger tree.

Owen's been going through some heavy stuff lately. I know some of it has been dealing with not being the only child any more, but there's more to it. The last couple of weeks or so have been gradually deteriorating, and it's hard to get through even the simplest daily routine now. It's as if I exist on a frequency he doesn't pick up. Even the simplest requests are either deliberately ignored or met with resistance.
'Time to get dressed for school'...'No, I'm snuggling with the cat.'
'We need to go to the library today to return books, ok?'....'I'm only going to the library if you buy me a toy!'
Today I told him he needed to turn off his DS because he'd played for a long time, and he refused. After a couple of ignored warnings, I had to take it out of his hand, and he flipped out and called me stupid, even as I scooped him up to bring him to his room for a time out. This morning when we excitedly told him we were going on a mini-vacation to the beach he FLIPPED OUT and told us he wanted us to stay home and buy him a toy instead. We give appropriate discipline and don't give in...I just don't get it; it's infuriating. No amount of extra love or punishment seems to make this better. I know he's going to try to push his boundaries, but this is so sudden and upsetting. I miss the Owen who didn't resent me.

Ok, so after spending a few hours perusing every beach town online from Maryland to Maine (thank you, you guys are fantastic!), then blowing all your wonderful recommendations and our careful research with an impulse trip to Priceline.com, we're now the proud owners of a sudden, cheap vacation to Portsmouth, NH.
$100 a night! Yay! Hotel kinda near the airport! Boooo. Oh well; there's a pool. We have a car. It'll be fine. Adventure!

I've been trying to find a place along the coast for a small beachy getaway this summer, but after hours of googling, I'm stuck.

Basically, the requirements are:

- Under 7 hour drive from Rochester, NY
- Nice seaside town with a nearby beach
- Walkable town area with restaurants that aren't TGIAppleChiliBees
- Hotels available, not just B&Bs (I'm finding most don't take small children and I don't want to be nervous about disturbing others).

So....where? We've done Ogunquit, ME before, which is really just the kind of thing we're looking for, only a different experience. Cape Cod is too far, I think. I'm only coming up with Mystic, CT and Salem, MA, and are they bordering on the hokey? I'm not in it for the pizza or the witches.
Ideas? Suggestions?

Edit: Whoa, you guys are good. Ok, looking up all this great stuff...

Some pictures of a baby.

(moar!)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas I know!

Today we met up with my parents and sister for Indian brunch, a diversion from the usual that we all agreed was a great idea. The place was absolutely slammed. I don't blame 'em, either - I'd take a plate of aloo gobi over $30 worth of scrambled eggs any day. Yum.

I also received this really amazing teapot and matching cups from my parents, along with a cast-iron warmer and coasters and all sorts of related goodies. So beautiful! I had previously seen it in the window of the tea shop and admired it.
M has been bending over backwards to make today easy, too. Picked up iced coffee and muffins for breakfast, let me sleep in, brought flowers, so nice. I am lucky. I have great kids and a great family.

The wind snapped off a good third of our lilac bush. It just bloomed a day ago! Nature, you suck. I had the perfect branch out my office window for watching birds alight onto the finch feeder, no more.

Today M and I had a chance to briefly leave the house together sans children, which doesn't happen that often. We squandered it on a lunch of wings and beer (I know, wtf?) and then I made M wander the new baby store and then the pet store, where I resisted the urge to fill my pockets with kittens. We are apparently not exciting date people. Maaawidge.

Owen started Little League and he's all grown up and stuff. He's just a big kid now, full of poop references and constant imaginary fight sequences. He's all about Daddy because Daddy's awesome and plays video games, and Mom serves him peas and makes him take his feet off the table. I get a lot of eye-rolling and big sighs now. I'm not exactly adjusting well to all of this.