Wordless Wednesday

Vacation Pics

Hi everyone! We had a fantastic second day on our little mini vacation. I am far too busy relaxing to put together a real post for you all, but I am never too busy to share a few photos... Here is The Boy when we finally went down to the beach last night after we got here. It was a little late in the evening (hence the heavy clothes), but The Boy was thrilled nonetheless to finally run some sand through his hands...
Peanut wasn't sure what to make of this whole thing we called "the beach." She had been to the beach before (in Hawaii when she was only 9 months old), but this was the first time she had been to the beach since she was old enough to comprehend what it was. As you can see...she was just taking it all in...
Then today we had a relaxing morning and then headed out to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We have been many times before, but it is always a hit. Those of you who have been before will recognize this picture, but to those who haven't...this is a little tunnel type room made of glass where a "fake wave" comes over you every 30 seconds or so. The Boy has always loved it, but he also gets a little freaked each time the wave comes...as you can see from his face. :) (But trust me...he loves not only this exhibit, but the entire experience at the aquarium...)
Again, if you have visited the aquarium, you are aware of the obligatory clam shell picture...
Once back from the aquarium we headed back down to the beach for a little sand-play time...
The Boy was making sand angels...
And as you can see...once back from the beach, the kids had nice warm baths and had some dinner. I went and picked up some yummy Mexican take out and we hung out in the room tonight and we all enjoyed the relaxation. Especially Peanut...
Tomorrow we are going to hit the Boardwalk and do a little pool time. Then tomorrow night my mom and step dad (who will be driving down to join us tomorrow morning) are going out to a nice dinner. I might treat myself to a little room service, and perhaps even a glass of wine. And then sadly, on Saturday morning we have to check out and head back to reality. Such a wonderful time, I can't even tell you all. I needed this. No seriously. I really needed this. :)

PS--to my very astute commenter who wondered if we were staying at The Sand and Sea Inn... You were SO close. We are next door. We are here. :)

We're Here!!!

This is what we are looking at from our balcony right now...

Here are the kids checking out the view...
And here is the other direction (toward the Boardwalk, but hard to see in this pic) off our balcony.

For some reason I can't move the pictures around right now. But hey...I am on vacation, with FREE internet so that I can give you all updates along the way. We are about to head out to check things out and find something for dinner. And despite super crappy weather reports, right now it is clear and nice. I wouldn't call it "warm," but it is certainly much better than I expected. Oh and the aforementioned fabulous friend who got us the rooms had a basket in each room specific for each one of my kids. The Boy had a basket filled with bugs and spiderman stuff, and The Girl had a purse with stickers and butterflies. They comped our parking rate, brought us up two extra refrigerators, and generally are treating us like royalty. So freaking stoked right now!!!

Did I mention we are on vacation!?!?! :)

With A Little Help From My Friends

I have the best friends in the world. Seriously.

Things have been a little rough lately in our household. First the stomach flu...now we are all fighting colds...the finances...I have been in a slump. I've been trying to shake it off but I've been a bit down in the dumps.

For the year 2011 there are no vacations on tap for my little family. Usually we do one big trip and perhaps a couple of little ones to family cabins or weekends away. This year...not so much. Just not in the finances. And honestly, I am cool with that. My son is going to go to an amazing school and the peace of mind that gives me is a whole lot better than any vacation I could plan. So it wasn't a big deal. Plus I'm going to head up to the family cabin in the mountains sometime this summer.

I have a good friend who is a big-wig at a hospitality company and he essentially oversees and manages about 9 (fantastic!) boutique hotels within a couple hour radius of where we live. He is awesome and does so much for me and my little family that I seriously NEVER ask him if he can hook me up with a room...or get me a deal. Lots of people take advantage of his generosity, but I try not to. But a couple of months ago (well actually we were talking about this for my birthday, which is in September, so I guess it was a while ago...) he was saying that for my birthday he would like to get me and the kids a room at one of his hotels. There is a certain hotel, which is right on the beach that just recently had a HUGE renovation, so we talked about that.

Long story short, we booked three nights (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday) at this fabulous hotel next week for a little vacation. We have two adjoining rooms and my mom was going to come with me and the kids and her hubby was going to drive up at the end of the week and join us. Knowing this is my only "vacation" for the year, I have been super stoked and excited about it. Yes, it was only three days, but still...a hotel! I don't have laundry! I don't have to cook! Super stoked.

But with all the financial drama of late, even the super-fabulous rate that he had gotten me was a bit more extravagant than what I should be spending right now. Two rooms, plus three nights...even at a great rate, it can add up. Plus (of course) the weather might be crappy, so after much whining, my mom and I decided to just do two nights instead of three and still enjoy a couple nights away, and also hopefully save a few bucks. I cancelled the Friday night (hoping to allow his other guests the more popular night given the fact that I knew I was getting the room at a reduced rate) and let my friend (and of course the hotel) know. I was super embarrassed to have to tell him given that he had done me this huge favor and now I wasn't even going to take advantage of all he had offered...and of course he was lovely about it. So we have been going about packing and planning for our little two-night get-a-way later on this week.

Tonight I got a text from him. It said, "Hey...So I'll comp your first night for both rooms if you guys still want to stay three nights...? Because that's how I roll. :)"

How fabulous is he? And how fabulous to have friends like him. Friends that help you out, even MORE than they had originally helped you out (which was HUGE to begin with), and do it with a smile on their face. So now we have a great THREE night little stay planned. And I am so excited!!!

(I just re-read this and hope it doesn't come off as snotty...the only reason I am posting it at all is for ME to remember, when I'm feeling a little bit down, that I am a damn lucky woman who has the most amazing people in her life.)

Like Night and Day

We have a weekend with two different birthday parties for The Boy this weekend. I got both the invitations about a month ago and the first party is held at a kind of sport center complex at a Country Club. The second one is at one of those big places that is filled with trampolines and everything bounces and the kids can play dodge ball etc...

Six months ago this would have sent me to my shrink for an extra session. See...The Boy has never been into all of the physical things like other boys. Obviously that is because of his OT issues, but still...it makes attending a party like that a bit rough. For both of us. Of course you go, because thank god your son is actually getting invited to those parties, and if you never bothered to show up people would get the hint and stop inviting. So we go...but while all the other kids are running off to go jump, bounce and play, The Boy stands right next to me and smiles and says very politely, "No thank you." He was always very social and he wanted to go watch the other kids, but he wasn't interested in participating. The other parents would come up and ask him if he wanted to go and play with his friends..., "No thank you." His friends would run up and ask him to come and play..., "No thank you." It was really hard.

A few years back, when I took him out of OT the first time I signed him up for one of those little kid gym classes thinking that might help take the place of the missing OT. It would have been great...if he participated in anything. He loves to run, so he would run around and do some jumps, but when it came time to balance, hang, tuck, roll...anything..., "No thank you." So it probably wasn't the best use of my money.

So that has been our past.

But you guys? You know that really freaking expensive OT I am paying for now? Wow. It's like a different kid. He wanted to have his birthday party at a place like that. About a month ago he went to the super-big bouncy house party place and he freaking ROCKED it. I was SO proud of him. He jumped, he climbed, he went down slides and over obstacle courses...and I literally kept having to look away because it was making me cry. And that's kinda hard to explain to the other parents... :) So last month he conquered all of the things I mentioned above and the only thing he didn't do was the super high slide. I don't think he trusted the very steep blow up stairs leading to the top. But still. Whole day? Major win.

So today was the first of his two parties. I had The Ex take him because The Girl was in swim lessons (and plus, I have another party tomorrow, so she needed to handle one of them) and it was during their time together. About a half an hour into the party time I got a text. It was a picture of the really tall slide thing that he wouldn't do last time. There was a blur at the top of it, but with the text-quality cell phone picture I couldn't tell what it was. I wrote back super fast, "Did he go down that thing?!?!" No answer. About another half an hour goes by and I get another texted picture of him on what looked like an indoor soccer field throwing some big red ball. She followed this one with "He is playing dodge ball and he climbed up that big slide using a rope! And went down like 5 times!!! He is having a great time."

You guys...I can't even tell you how huge that is. My son, my son, held onto a rope and climbed up the back of a huge slide, went down it...and then DID IT AGAIN. Like 5 times. I can't even put into words how huge that is. And not only that, he was playing dodge ball with his friends. This is the kid that at the end of soccer last summer (where he regularly layed down in the middle of the field because he saw some sort of random flower or bug that he wanted to check out), when asked if he wanted to do it again and if he liked soccer responded, "Well. I really like the water breaks. But I'm not so sure about that whole kicking thing. It takes a lot of work." This kid just played dodge ball. After doing that monster slide things 5 times in a row.

So it is absolutely true that between his therapies and his new school, I am more financially strapped right now than I have possibly ever been in my adult life. But you guys. It is worth every cent. Every. Freaking. Cent.

Mystery of the Disappearing Post...

I know for a fact that I put a post on here with pictures of Mother's Day. In fact, I even believe that I got a couple of comments on it...

And now it's gone. And unless someone overtook my body for a while...I'm pretty sure I didn't take it down.

What the hell?

So strange...

Has this ever happened to anyone else before?

Mother's Day Pics

Let's step outside my neurosis and talk about the nice part of Mother's Day...

Here I am with Peanut right after she woke up from her nap...

...and here I am bonding with my Boy later on in the evening...
...and here is our Boy being smooched on by BOTH his Mom's on Mother's Day (I have said before that The Ex and I both worked really hard during our break up to make sure that things remained good between us for our boy. To this day he has never had to have 2 birthday parties, or 2 Christmas's or two Mother's Day Celebrations. We do it together for our son...)
And here is my mom and HER mom...all teary-eyed after a particularly emotional gift...
And finally...here is a pic of myself, my brother and my mom on Mother's Day...
I look pretty horrible in these pictures given that I was barely able to shower the barf out of my hair, much less actually have time to blow dry and flat iron it...so it became a "bun" hair day. :)

Update on The Boy: It sure takes him a while to bounce back from things. Fortunately he only vomited the one time, but today is the first day he is back at school. I think because he is so little and skinny he has absolutely NO reserves in his body. So when something like this happens, it flattens him. He has had absolutely NO energy or appetite for the past three days and we have tried to force him to eat bits of food here and there, but he just has nothing in him. And therefore he has no energy. So he has been SUPER tired and napping a lot etc... But today he is back at school and I told them to call me if he was so tired that it was interfering with anything and (knock on wood) there have been no phone calls yet. So hopefully we are on the upswing!