Laura

Went to Easter dinner at Uncle John & Aunt Julia's. I'm on call for work, as a back-up, but they have good wifi and aren't too far away, so I figured no big deal. I was right - especially since I didn't get called at all. Yay for not being needed right then! :)

It was a lovely meal, and the fruit and dip I brought got positive comments. (Mostly the dip: it was basic, but I served it in hollowed-out pineapples. I found that on the internet, which is why I had to bring fruit and dip, because seriously that's awesome.) There was a bunny race (of little pull-back-and-they-run bunny cars) and the boys got to run around and play (MOSTLY in approved ways, Ian had a couple moments where he was a bit too wild and got picked up by a parent to calm down).

The food was lovely, the company was more-so, and the weather was glorious - cloudy but bright, dry, and cool but not cold. After we finished dinner and the games and were about to clean up, the clouds grew more ominous, so the deck was cleared first. 15 minutes later it was raining and shortly after it was storming, with pouring rain.

So, a lovely Easter; the forecast weather held off until it was a welcome glory to watch, rather than something to be overcome.

Oh man I am stuffed. Happily. The kids mostly ate the rice (Drew) and olives/pineapple (Ian), but both tried the chicken, and Ian at least said 'yum' and liked the spicing. Scott and I loved it.

( Recipe, in case anyone wants it )

And enough leftovers for me to have a couple lunches this week from it (one wrap in a tortilla - yes, I'm weird - and one salad with a side of the dish cold), plus probably another meal's worth of rice (for Drew) and meat/sauce/whatever (for Scott and I, with olives for the boys).

...yes, really, it went that fast. Inhale-worthy. Though if I weren't cooking for the boys, I'd be really tempted to omit the black olives. They don't hurt the flavor, but they're not adding much ... except for making the small ones even try the meal. Which is a lot. (And no one even noticed the onion in the end result, which is IMO the way onion should be - adding to the whole and keeping quiet about it. :)

The boys are now registered for swim lessons next session - going in person as soon as registration opened worked nicely, I got exactly the slots I most wanted so that my schedule won't be insanity. :) And they had fun at swim lessons and open swim.

My new prescription swim goggles are in and I'm very pleased with them - they do what I'd hoped for and they do it well. And the frames we wanted to try for my new glasses came in, I tried them on, and I love them. Lenses are now ordered, so I wait again, for those as well as a backup pair I ordered at one of the cheap online sites. I think the latter will be acceptable for a backup pair, but I distinctly went cheap on the options and they wouldn't be my first choice for anything else. That's not the point for them. :)

Laundry, kitchen cleaning, dishes, care for the vegetables - all done. I picked all the carrots; they aren't doing well in these containers, and the other things in with them will do better with them out.

Yesterday was Fun in the Park also, and we did have fun. Drew got a balloon sword, Ian got a balloon cat, both got cotton candy. Ian tried chicken teriyaki and liked it, which was kind of neat. I would have preferred to spend more time on things I instead went right by, but in all honesty, not much time all the same.

Today, the boys went with Scott to the zoo while I got stuff done around the house (at my request!). Then we went to the library, where they turned in their summer reading program and got to pick free books and science experiment kits, and got (rather nice, really) packets of coupons/freebies. Being small and indulged is apparently good for your ability to snag treats.

And I almost finished reading a book! _Cast In Flame_. I will finish it tonight, I swear I will. :) And then I will sulk because the sequel isn't out yet, if history is any judge.

I picked the boys up at day care tonight. On the way home tonight:

Drew grabbed the green toy car and announced, "I have the cool car!"
He was taunting Ian. Ian grabbed the silver car and replied happily, "I have the cool car!"
Drew, sounding aggravated: "I do!"
Ian, sounding happy: "I do!"
Repeat a couple times as Drew gets more frustrated before I tell them both to drop it.

Later, Ian, aggravated tone: "Mommy, Drew is LOOKING out my WINDOW!"

...

And still later they argued whether the man in the construction site was Bob the Builder, a discussion that has happened _every time_ Ian has seen people in the construction site since they started. Made much more hilarious tonight because the dude probably shouldn't have been in there, didn't have a hat on, and was walking his small dog. (It was after-hours and no one was working, but.)

Today's lunch, for example, was brought by the letters Q, M, and W (Qdoba, McDonald's, and Wendy's). Why? Because we didn't have anything planned and were up against Lunchtime, and if I'm going to buy crap for the boys, I will at least buy crap they will eat excitedly. That's McDonald's. On the other hand, Scott gets really tired of McDonald's and really likes Qdoba. Normally I'd have gone with one of those two, but Wendy's had a new pretzel burger I really wanted to try.

And so it goes. Sadly, the pretzel burger is really good. Sadly because it is not the greatest choice calorie-wise. Heh.

On the other hand, as the title says, garden! Ian has this ridiculously enormous tomato plant. (It is from a seed started because he chose tomatoes, therefore, it's in his planter, therefore it's "his" tomato plant.) The thing, if it were not in a planted, would be about as tall as he is or a bit more I think. In the planter it's definitely taller.

I took 6-foot trellises and set them up adjacent to support the tomato because the tomato support has been more or less absorbed and the tomato was merrily going sideways and down from out of the overwhelmed thing. Hilarious. Now if only some of those flowers actually, yannow, become tomatoes. (No, it's not a six-foot tomato. But I had standard flimsy tomato cages, and 6-foot trellises. So.)

I was re-reading early 2002 (January-April) tracking down when we started the move into our first house (April, we got the keys on the 23rd).

I used to post A LOT back then. And I'm wistful for some of the exchanges and fun then.

I have two kids now, and I don't have as much time to post, but I am going to try not to be radio silent for weeks or months at a go. *nods*

Yesterday, we had our "regular" Thursday night gaming session. I put regular in quotes because we now only have one of those a month starting this month - the other three moved to Fridays!

That's awesome because Drew is five and starts kindergarten in the fall, Ian is two and will move up to preschool sometime in the next year (probably in about six months when he turns three, I'm guessing, but he's VERY verbal, so maybe sooner), and the "Friday morning meltdown after a late Thursday" symptom, which hits about 25% of the time, bites. So reducing it to once a month instead of four times a month for a potential trigger? HUGE.

Anyway, last night we were playing the Pathfinder Kingmaker game Scott runs (the one that is staying on Thursdays) and I posted a couple Facebook statuses that I think my friends here will also be amused by:

( And now I cut because some of you are both places, and it's probably not so funny you want to read it twice. )

And a random bit of silly from Tuesday, involving picking on a 5-year-old a bit.

( ALSO already posted on FB. )

How quickly they learn, and how capable they are. I keep thinking of them as less-able than is actually the truth, often especially true with Drew (sometimes, I remember when Ian hits the same milestone, what I learned from Drew). Drew can sign his name. He can read, a bit. I should start teaching him basic kitchen skills (other than unlocking the water dispenser and soaking my floor and carpet, which is more of an annoy Mommy skill).

Ian is incredibly verbal. He can string concepts together usefully. And he's up and down the stairs and opening the gate and getting into the ca--

--binet where the VCR is, which I have just removed him from. Again.

How much they damage/disassemble the house is a close runner up, even given I expected it.

More topics welcome, if you want.

When Drew was around two or a bit younger, we tried baby swim lessons at a semi-local pool. It...did not go well. He had fun, until the first time he had to go on his back. All kids, all the same, all the time. It ended when I stopped taking him after a few lessons because I thought they were doing more harm than good. I wanted him to enjoy the water and swim - I was a "water baby" as a kid, and I wanted to pass that on - and instead it was teaching a horror that actually made *baths* hard for a while. No. Thank. You.

But I do want him to know how to swim, for safety reasons. So...Children of the Sea. It is a local, decidedly not cheap, place that specializes in teaching kids to swim, with a good student/teacher ratio and a heated pool. 92 degrees. And, yes, a heated room around it, so you don't freeze the second you get out.

This morning was his first lesson, and for the last month he has wavered between saying that he wants to take the swim lessons and that he doesn't. Luckily, he wanted to this morning and was so excited that putting his hair back in a ponytail (required because of how long it was) was totally ignored. He normally hates having his hair back.

First lesson, and they had him blowing bubbles with his face partly in the water, and accepting being guided across on his back with his head supported with a modified swim noodle. Well, then. The lesson was a half hour, and as we left he was pitching a fit because he didn't want it to stop.

So we went back tonight for open swim, which I wanted to do anyway to get Ian in the pool. (All the lessons for his age range at times we could make it to were closed when sign-ups opened to the public. I'll have a better chance next session, since we'll sign up when member families do.)

One hour in the pool and the boys had a BLAST. Drew gave us quite a start early on, though. Ian and I went ahead to the pool while Scott and Drew got ready - and Scott couldn't find where I'd set his swimsuit. So he came in to ask, of course with Drew with him. Drew was already in his suit, and he saw the slide into the water, dashed to it, and went down it with us yelling 'no'. Neither of us were in the deep area to catch him, and I was by Ian, who was sitting on the steps - I couldn't just dart over. Scott managed to grab him and another mother helped him out, and he was fine and even happy with himself.

While I was watching both boys - on the steps - while Scott got his suit, Ian jumped off the steps unexpectedly and ducked under and I go to fish HIM up - so they both took unexpected dives, but Ian's was a lot less nerve-wracking, IMO. And both were quite happy to stay in the water for the remainder of the hour.

Drew put on flippers and floaties and swam back and forth between the walls, with one of us next to him but not touching, and was SO pleased with himself. LOL. Ian mostly sat on the upper step and played with a couple of pool toys, but he was happy. He did insist on going down the slide - about six or seven times! Unlike Drew, he did it with me waiting at the bottom to catch him. Once or twice I caught him without his head going under, but mostly he got ducked briefly, and he was game to go right back. Drew didn't try the slide again, even when offered - but I don't *think* it was fear. He was mostly game until we told him he had to take off the flippers and floaties for it. He loves those things now.

I do wish open swim were earlier. It's from 6:45-7:45, and Drew resents the idea of getting home and going straight to bed. Our normal bedtime is 8 pm, but we're flexing it tonight. (To be fair, he took an inadvertent 2-hour nap in the car earlier, and he usually doesn't nap. So, that's part of it too.) We may have to flex it whenever we do open swim. I hope he doesn't expect it every week. It's not cheap. It is fun, but it's not cheap.

I gave Scott a See's candy (and had one myself). The boys did not see the exchange. Seconds later, Ian showed up and saw Scott holding the empty See's wrapper and was VERY SAD at Scott. VERY SAD. Empty wrapper SO SAD.

Scott looked at the wrapper, picked up one of Ian's binks, and folded the wrapper around it. Handed it to Ian. Who unwrapped it and danced around gleefully stamping his feet. NO MORE SAD. SEE'S BINK, ALL GOOD.

I loved Conflikt. It was hard at times, because the boys - especially Drew - had a hard time with it. Drew wanted to be at the concerts! Except he didn't want to be quiet or sit still. I was trying to balance letting him hear with not disrupting for others, and I hope I managed to keep him from disrupting for others. Compounded by the fact that if he hadn't been disruptive to others before, he sure was when I removed him from the room. Kid can howl.

But the con itself was wonderful. I got to see people! And say hi to and hug friends I get to see far too rarely. Some of them I saw only briefly in passing, and some I ran into repeatedly all weekend, and both were good, though of course a weekend in which we all magically get all the music *and* all the time we want with all our various friends (and they with theirs and so on) would be lovely...sadly, still short on the magic wand for that.

Loving the new hotel. NOT liking the prices - the restaurant there is to be avoided vigorously. I am pretty sure it would be cheaper to walk to the airport and eat in a sit-down restaurant at airport prices. The hotel rooms aren't cheap either. They're nice. They're just not cheap. Very happy with the space we had, the comfort level, etc. (Not thrilled with the view of the pool, but that's because it was out of order as they waited on a part and Drew kept seeing it and wanting to swim. Which reminds me: I owe him a trip to a pool here in the next couple weekends, since I told him we'd do that instead.)

The convention space is glorious, especially as it's not near hotel rooms at all and not subject to the "keep it down, darnit!" rules that apply there. The rooms seem to be really well soundproofed overall, and they were *all together on one floor*. Yay! And comfy.

Small niceties: I never tried to get water at any point without *getting water*. I so dislike when water services run dry, and if these ever did, it wasn't when I was there.

Okay, this is where my friends who have been in filk longer get reminded that I haven't, since I am clueless so often. That's okay, I have new music.

Had not heard Heather Dale perform. Or Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff. Or in fact pretty much anyone who was the "main act" - although certainly many of those performing with them I had heard previously, at other Conflikts mostly. Let me put it this way: shiny shiny SHINY concerts.

I was lucky. I had backlogged "treat money" (work bonuses), so I pretty much bought whatever struck my fancy, music-wise. This probably made several performers I hadn't previously heard quite happy; it certainly made ME quite happy as now I have lots of lovely music.

I deeply wish Scott had not been back in the room with the boys for the Bohnhoff's concert in particular, as I believe he would have LOVED it. But I can't wish we had traded places, because I also loved it. I just wish Drew had been in a concert mood! (Ian was asleep, but he could probably have slept even through that concert. Ian can sleep through just about anything if he must. Except being set down when he wants to be held. Baby who can sleep through loud noises or parental dancing nonetheless wakes as soon as gravity shifts as though one is leaning to set him down. I swear it's a superpower.)

Bid on various things in the Interfilk auction, but idly. Got outbid, as you might expect, for idle-interest bids. Would not have been sad to win any of them. Was not sad to not-win them either. WAS sad I forgot to bring anything to donate to the auction, but the idea I had this year will still be nifty next year, so.

I really miss the streaming for members that was done last year, and hope it will be possible again in the future. (One or the other of us watched so many concerts from the room last year. It made a huge difference in how doable the con was with kids in tow!)

Pre-registered for next year. Home. Mostly unpacked. Laundry partially done. Routine house stuff I'd normally do on the weekend mostly done. Grocery shopping done.

And I should now stop writing this and go get more laundry done. :P I *swear* there was something else I meant to talk about in this post, but it's eluding me now like an elusive thing.