Free tiiiiime

This coming weekend is the first weekend since early May that I've not had to work, that T has been in town and we don't have anything scheduled in advance. I'm excited.

Of course, I wouldn't be fulfilling my Type A destiny if I didn't schedule some things that Ezra and Iris and I want to do and that T wants to accomplish.

Such as:

• Walking to the library. Ezra wants to ride his bike there and I love so much that we have a small neighborhood library just two blocks away.
• Maybe swimming? Although, it seems like it might be chilly. Because, of course, 95 and humid during the week and then 75 on the weekend is perfect for going to the pool. Argh.
• Doing the annual neighborhood garden tour. Our neighborhood is old and some owners have fabulous gardens, so it's fun to poke around and see what other landscaping looks like. Also, this is part of my master plan for retirement. We've established here that I'm going to gain a bit of weight to poof out wrinkles, wear Eileen Fisher flowy clothes, and also swear more--but gardening and wearing waterproof clogs is also part of the plan.
• T is going to put together Ezra's big boy bed. And if we end the weekend still married, then it will be a success. The plan is for T to get crackin' right away on Saturday morning cause it needs to be done by the time Ezra goes to bed that night.
• Get the kids haircuts
• Pick out a birthday gift for a birthday party we're going to on Sunday
• Workout (me)
• Go to dinner with friends (me again)

Until then:

What are you doing this weekend?

To the mattresses

So we went to Ohio this weekend and it was glorious. 

The drive down with the kids was easy and fun. A friend on Twitter recommended pipe cleaners as a way to have small people pass time and, son of a biscuit, the kids LOVED them. Score.

There was a lot of swimming and family time and cackling with laughter. It was also hot as balls. 

Ezra and Iris are kind of city kids, but they adored running around and playing "in the country." Fishing was discovered and adored. Iris tried to hug a ginormous catfish. Ezra tried to fly a kite. They both came home ex.hausted. Iris slept the entire drive home.

Sleeping in a hotel room is always...an adventure. I slept with Iris in one of the king beds and Ezra slept on his blow-up bed. Poor T slept on the pull-out couch and may or may not have Shitty Mattress Induced Scoliosis. 

Sharing a bed with Iris was okay, but she kept touching me and I am not a fan of all that. Also, she'd put her feet on me then pusssssshhh and ugh--not a fan of tiny toes pushing into my gut in the night while I sleep. I tried to scoot away from her, but she'd always find me. We might be soon ordering her own blow-up bed because seriously with all that.

How about some pictures.

Random useless tidbits

Re-entry back into our non-vacationing lives felt like a brutal slap. 

Damn, Spock.

Not only does my house not have a swim-up bar, but T has been gone most of this week and continuing into the weekend.

We're going to meet him in Ohio for a quickie trip where my family will be gathering and many hijinks will probably occur.

I'm excited.

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At Iris' feeding clinic follow-up appointment this week (we go for weekly outpatient therapy to get her mastering chewing but we also go for follow ups with the physician based on her longer stint a year ago), it appears that Iris has lost a bit of weight. Well, actually, her pounds are the same, but she's a lot taller so it dropped her weight percentile (from the 50th to the 5th for her age) and her BMI quite dramatically. Enough that we're trying to figure out why and now what to do about it.

It all had me a bit worried on Tuesday and Wednesday and talking through it with T helped me realize that we haven't had a bump in the road for so long that this one felt not good at all. In the bigger picture, though, of things to happen; it's so easily rectifiable that I need to instead focus on that. 

****

This week Iris also saw the pulmonologist for her annual appointment on lungs and breathing. 

Despite a few head colds and a virus that we busted out the nebulizer for late in April, her winter was uneventful. So uneventful and not requiring of maintenance medicines that the doctor discharged us. Like we don't ever have to go back.

She is more than willing to see Iris should the pediatrician think it's necessary or this next winter turn jenky with coughs, but the physician didn't really think that would happen. If Iris was going to need Flovent or Xopenex for the rest of her life, she'd be needing it now and she doesn't really. So yeah.

I was kind of dumbfounded and then totally broke down in the car in the parking garage with Iris in the backseat. Her lungs are healthy. They're no longer scarred. They healed themselves from all of the damage of her prematurity and time on the ventilator. I cried because I wish I could go back and tell the K of December 2009 that her little girl will actually live and be okay. I wish I could tell the K of October 2010, the one that worried about whether or not her daughter would ever get off home oxygen, that she'd be okay. And the K of February 2012 that a bad hospitalization and RSV that winter won't repeat itself the next winter. 

Anyway, it was all a bit too much to process at once and I kind of lost my cool in the car.

****

The new J. Crew catalog came in the mail and, holy crap, I just had to toss that thing in the recycling right away.

I find it ridiculous for reasons I can't really articulate and just...no. Pretentious and self-prepossessing and blergh.

I mean, I'll buy some J. Crew, but the catalog has got to go. Same with Athleta. Eff me those women are fit and tan and outside with their muscles and great natural skin and toothy, white smiles. I don't need to be privy to all that while I flip through it and eat cake in bed.

Re.cycle.

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I might eat tacos twice today. 

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I am coveting this bag like you wouldn't believe. Oh my goodness sakes I love it and regularly visit it on the Orla Kiely site.

Via

Mexico, lounging and a not pictured bird that was kind of a dick

Mexico was fabulous.

Exhibit A.

The day to get there was long as hell and when we arrived we were so, so manky. I'm not sure what it is about travel that makes me feel gross, but there we were. Also, Mexico in June? Hot as BALLS. And more humidity than I have ever experienced. Lotion did not absorb. Instantaneous sweat at 9:00am...in the shade. I freaking loved it.

We stayed about an hour south of Cancun, and I thought that the Gulf side of Mexico versus the Pacific side made a huge difference in the beach. The water was clear and the sand wasn't hot at all. Also, the water was ridiculously warm. We swam mostly in the ocean and I was forced to school T on why I never faced the shore while bobbing about in the water: Dude, don't turn your back on the ocean. That's a snagglepuss waiting to happen, if I ever I saw it.

Mostly our days looked like this:

9:00am: wake-up

10:00am: find good seats on the beach and eat breakfast at either one of the indoor or outdoor restaurants

11:00am-1:00pm: sit at the beach where T would nap and I would avoid eye contact with the topless women, swim, drink pina coladas and read OK! magazine (the British version which is a million times snarkier than US Weekly and frequently talks about the Made in Chelsea folks which I am obsessed with)

1:00pm: eat lunch

2:00pm-6:00pm: sit at the beach or the pool. T made friends at one of the pools and would play water volleyball with them and drink vodka tonics or dry martinis (oh my lord alive it was like drinking gasoline) from the swim-up bar. I usually read a book.

6:00pm: go back to the room and call the kids as it was 7:00pm our time. Then we'd get ready for dinner.

7:00pm-9:00pm: eat dinner. There were seven restaurants at the resort and three bars and they all were good. 

9:00pm: the sun always kind of cooked me and wore me out, so we were usually back in our room and in the sheets watching CSI: Miami (long live satellite television) and eating room service chocolate cake.

Lather, rinse, repeat Sunday through Friday.

It was lovely to be leisurely and talk to one another. To not feel compelled to tidy up a room or play superheroes or pet a stuffed kitty. To not unload the dishwasher or fold some laundry. To have zero responsibilities felt completely and utterly luxurious. 

Oh! So there was also this totally mean bird at the outdoor restaurant (see mimosa picture above). He was a dick. Being outside, I think he wanted to scam all of the accidentally dropped food for himself but being in the jungle and with other birds he totally had to run the full court press to keep it a solo operation.  One time he shrieked and got crazy-eyed and poofed his feathers all up at another bird that managed to score a french fry off the ground. Dick Bird needed to slow his roll, but I guess he was taking survival of the fittest (at a resort?) kind of seriously. Maybe he needed a pina colada.

Some annoying things and some not annoying things

So today I'm spending my day doing some working out and some personal grooming and some errands to get ready for vacation. Tomorrow is kind of the same. Sometimes when I have days like this I like to wonder if this is how it feels to be a lady of leisure. "Oh, today?" I might reply as Sparkles McLeisureton "Today I'll take the kids to school--the little scamps. And then, I don't know, maybe I'll go to the gym. Maybe get some lunch later. But then I have a 1:00pm appointment at the spa, but then I have to run and get a few new shirts for T for our vacation. I told you we're going on vacation, right?" 

I couldn't decide if you would think me telling you about Vacation Preparation would be annoying as I sometimes can't decide how annoyed I am by other people talking about vacations. Sure, I'm happy for people who get to go away. Especially if I know you. If I know you, then I perhaps already like you. And if I like you, then I definitely want you to be relaxed. 

So yeah. I am going to go to the gym and then to the spa to get my lady hairs ripped out and then also to buy some t-shirts for T at Old Navy. But I'm also going to clean out our garage and pick up our dry cleaning. Riveting stuff, really.

How about some other pictures, though?

Reading Ten Apples Up on Top. And looking
precious.

Explanation of the apples location.
(Hint: they're on top.)

The kids' daycare teamed up with the art
museum where each classroom picked a
piece of art from the collection which the
kids then replicated through their own eyes.

Iris mostly just wanted to glue things.
Homegirl can do crafts for hours.

Because I had some time before I needed to
be at work yesterday, I surprised Ezra with
a trip to Cracker Barrel. We played checkers
and ate our weight in tasty foods.

Guilty (coughEMBARRASSINGcough) pleasures

1. Creeping on Instagram accounts of famous ("famous"?) people like Kim Kardashian and Kristin Cavalarri.
2. Glitter (Not the movie. Have you all seen that? It is TURRRRRIBLE.)
3. Watching the old "Newlyweds" DVDs. Nick and Jessica, Y U BREAK UP?!
4. When someone is ridiculous and ragey in their car, I like to smile and wave at them. Sometimes even giving them a thumbs up.
5. Salami
6. Successfully throwing a frisbee
7. When I am able to remember to recycle something. Listen, this just doesn't come naturally, so when I remember I feel really, really happy.
8. They may be played out like an eight track, but animal GIFs. Always.