Monthly Archives: May 2009

Our Trip to New York City

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I Really Meant to Blog About It
A five day trip to New York City deserves a daily blog post, but I was so busy walking up and down the streets of New York giving myself blisters, riding the subway for the first time with every nationality imaginable and walking down Wall Street next to the men in black Armani suits that I just didn’t have time. I was too busy crying at Ground Zero as I listened to the loved ones of those lost and heroes from that fateful day tell their story while we looked upon that massive hole in the ground, the sky and our hearts. I was too busy shopping literally shoulder to shoulder with millions of other people at Times Square in the world’s most amazing Toys R Us trying to find a gift for my boys that was Under $10.00. Too busy walking around not even a quarter of Central Park and it’s amazing beauty while buildings of spectacular history and architecture loomed just over the tops of the trees. I really meant to blog right after I fulfilled my life long dream of seeing the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I meant to post on Memorial day when I visited the cemetery of Trinity church where Revolutionary War heroes were buried and George Washington prayed. I really wanted to blog it as I saw it. But there just wasn’t time. We filled every day to overflowing and as I think about all I saw I am still in awe of how little I really did see of this amazing city teeming with life and beauty. One minute you are looking at a massive pillared and ancient edifice and the next you are walking under a grove of the most beautiful trees and the next you are screaming along under the ground on the subway squished closer to humanity than you ever thought possible. It was a fantastic trip and I loved every minute. To see pictures of our trip you can go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kamadawn/sets/72157618845327007/

The two things I took away from this trip:
1. ALWAYS carry hand sanitizer when in New York because none of the bathrooms ever have any.
2. Every American needs to see Ground Zero with their own eyes so that they will never forget nor let our government forget what happened on 9/11.

But We Had to Come Back
The break from kids and every day life was wonderful while it lasted. Little did I know how quickly we would be hurled back into parenthood. We arrived home late Monday night physically and emotionally exhausted. Today is Wednesday and we have since returning home had two sleepless nights thanks to a fussy toddler, two trips to the Dr.’s office with the same two children for pink eye and one case of weird bruise-like red, blistery splotches. Not one Dr. out of 3 could clearly identify it and as his skin started to blister and ooze I started to worry about things like flesh eating disease. Rock was in charge of the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby and took Go Go who was just barely over the 24 hour no longer contagious stage, and I went to the t-ball game with Mr. Pres and watched from the car so as to quarantine the pink eyed toddler. I finished off my welcome back to motherhood with a mad dash to the pharmacy before it closed to get the 4th prescription in two days. I wanted to reassure the people staring at Blue Jeans while we waited in line, “Don’t worry, he’s not really rubbing his green goopy eyes and then touching the cart handle that someone else will touch within moments!!!!” Ahahahggha! How can people let their children DO THAT! But yet, there I was, doing just that. It is now 9:15 PM and 2 children are finally in bed but not asleep and the third is still helping put away the Pinewood derby track. He is in heaven as he knows it, though, so what’s a 10:00 bedtime? The house is a disaster and there is so much laundry in the laundry room we can barely open the door. Welcome home, Mom.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

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Ok, so my Perfect Kite Day a few weeks ago probably made me a little cocky-I’ll admit it. I thought, Hey, I can handle taking all 3 boys to the Tulip Festival by myself. No problem. We’ll have another wondeful day. I imagined them running gaily through the tulips and sitting together smiling sweetly for the camera. Then we would ride the horse drawn hay ride through the tulips with the sun shinning and top it off with an ice cream treat. Everyone would remember this day and look back on it with fond emotions. Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you’re probably beginning to see that my wonderful plans for my children usually do not go the way I want.

This day was sadly no different.

My first mistake was talking up the Tulips to little boys and convincing them that it was going to be “Fun.” From the moment we got there the older boys did nothing but whine. “When are we going to do the “FUN” stuff?” “Can we stop taking pictures now?” “I want to go do something “FUN.” Apparently, FUN, as defined by a little boy does not involve walking around looking at beautiful tulips while your mother makes you stand still and smile into the bright sunlight. Blue Jeans was not willing to cooperate either. He would not even stay near the tulips long enough for me to get a good shot because across the pathway from the tulips were…horses. Right now ANY furry/feathery creature emits loud grunting and pointing from Blue Jeans. The earth stands still whenever he sees an animal and we have to stand and point (and grunt) for 5 minutes. He stands at the window half the day grunting at the birds, squirrels and occasional raccoons in our backyard. There was never a chance for the tulips with horses around.

After cajoling for a while and eventually forcing them on pain of death to stand still for some pictures I gave up in utter frustration. Blue Jeans was completely covered in dirt and the older boys were complaining so loudly that people were starting to stare. After being there a total of 15 minutes after having driven 60 to get there I was already DONE. I told them they could forget about the ice cream treat. In a last ditch effort to save the expedition, I forked over the money to ride the trolley. We did manage to have a rather peaceful non complaining ride and the boys enjoyed being up so high above the tulips. As a perfect ending to this not so perfect trip, I managed to back the van over our stroller and broke it in my rush to end the misery.

Now, a few days later I can look back and see that expecting the boys to be interested in a bunch of flowers for longer than about 2 minutes was not really fair. My expecations, as usual, were too high. Someday, hopefully before my children are all raised and gone, I’ll be able to bring my expectations, both of my children’s abilities and my own plans of grandeur down to an earthly level. The tulips, at least, cooperated with me and were just as beautiful as ever.