30-Months-Old

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 4 Comments

Dear Noah,

Two weeks ago you turned 30-months-old.  We were lucky to be in St. Maarten for this joyous occasion.  I cannot believe how fast the time goes and at the rate which you are growing up.  It really does go so fast.

Whose pants are falling down?

You have been in school for nearly 2 months now and are just now starting to become a little boy.  You are starting to stand-up for yourself and are  hitting the kids at school who take toys away from you.  This hasn’t been a problem yet and the teacher has only said something to me on one occasion.  When asked if you hit someone at school, you happily replied–“Woah hit everybody.  Everybody cry.”  I am not sure how this is going to go. We talk about the rules of “no hitting” and “no pushing” but you still manage to both hit and push your sister reminding me that those are the rules for school.  I try to convince you that those rules also apply to home, but so far you aren’t really buying that. 

Now don’t get me wrong you are by no means hitting or pushing your sister often or even in an agressive way.  You are often just playing and forget that you are close to twice her size and that she cannot stand up on her own yet.  You’ll get it and you are pretty great at apologizing. 

Our fridge is covered by the masterpieces of toddler art work and I promise to save them and pull them out to show your first high school girlfriend (or boyfriend–whichever).  We have butterflies, bats, some paper with sequins and feather glued on and one with an assortment of beans too.  I know that our days of childhood artwork are just beginning and it is really cute when you see what you made hanging on the side of the fridge.  I am sorry to say that at some point, I may only keep the good stuff.  If that scars you too much, I promise to allow you to use some of your college fund for therapy. 

I can't believe you posted this photo of me!

This summer you fell in love with the beach.  You hardly complained about getting sand on your hands (just in case I haven’t said this 100 times yet–you absolutely hate having anything on your hands that shouldn’t be there. It is quite funny).  You were in love with the ocean and couldn’t get enough of wave jumping and the pretzel water in your mouth.  Pretzel water you ask?  Well, you were quite taken aback by your first mouthful of salt water. I told you it was like eating a pretzel without the pretzel part.  You laughed and every time you got a mouthful of salt water your smiled and said “like eating pretzel mommy.”  I smiled and we continued to have fun.  It could have gone either way and I have to say that I am happy it went the way it did or our island vacation could have easily been a disaster. 

You wore you “mermaid” suit with pride.  I know that this trip brought about many exaggerations on your mother’s part but I did what I had to do.  The look on your face when you saw your body glove wet suit with the styrfoam chest and back piecs said “there is absolutely no way I am wearing that suit.”  I preyed on your recent infatuation with Diego and the Mermaind Manatee Rescue episode and told you it was a mermaid suit.  You hardly took the suit off the entire trip.  You looked quite a bit like Hans and Frans from classic SNL.  These moments really are priceless and I am happy to have a written memory of them.

You are growing and are now repeating nearly everything that is said in front of you.  If someone says “hello sweetie,” you reciprocate with your own “hello sweetie.”  And it really is cute.  You are now saying “I love you mommy/daddy” without prompting and are quite anxious to have me sit next to you while you watch Wonder Pets, Wow, Wow Wubbzy or Diego.  I of course would rather be poked with a sharp stick than watch either of those shows, but I can’t say no to you when you want to hang with me.  There will soon be a time when you are telling me “Go away Mom.”  So, I will continue to hang out with you when invited and cherish every moment. 

Keep growing…

Love you,

Mommy

PS.  I wanted to add that you attended your second carnival and actually had a blast.  You rode the rides–over and over again.  You won prizes and gave your dad and I a glimpse at the fun we will have as you and your sister grow older. 

Please Forgive Me

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 4 Comments

I have been a totally bad blogger lately.  I am having a hard time finding time for everything and sadly this blog has suffered.  I just don’t know where all the time goes.  Okay, that isn’t entirely true.  I know where it goes, I just wish it didn’t go so fast. 

I am trying to get a little better at time management.  Today I had a chunk of time set aside to write the kids’ monthly newsletters, but ended up on the phone with Adobe for over an hour trying to resolve an issue with some software.  Everything is fixed, but now I don’t have time to write the posts I want to.  UGH!!!

I am still hear and am working on getting back to my  normal–at least 5 posts a week–frequency.  Back soon.

What I Learned On Vacation

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 8 Comments

I just want to preface this by saying that I am extremely grateful for my mother’s generosity and fully appreciate the time my kids got to have with their uncles and my mom.  That being said…

Taking two small children on a 9 day adventure is not my idea of a vacation.  Not in any uncertain terms was it a vacation.  I think part of my problem as well as my husbands was that we had really high expectations for this trip.  We were really excited.  Neither of us fully appreciated what it is to travel with two small children.  I have to say that Noah and Zoë did awesome.  They were perfect on the plane flights all 9 hours of flying on 3 different planes.  But it was exhausting.  Zoë is a spark plug and wanted to be played with the entire time we were on the plane.  She is a busy little girl and loves to play. 

But being away from home is hard.  Especially for little ones who thrive on routines.  Neither napped much on the trip–as we had to drive every where we went.  
I have learned that 5 days is the absolute longest my children can happily be away from home. 
I also learned that it isn’t worth it to lug a pack-n-play for them to sleep is as they will both sleep with us.  unde
I learned that family won’t always step up to help you out.
I learned that neither of my brothers are parent material.
I learned that my son loves the ocean.
I learned that I don’t need to pack so much.
I now understand that there really is no vacation from being a parent.
I learned that staying in a resort is the way we will travel from now on.
I understand that I have to make sure the places we vacation are actually kid friendly (St. Maarten–not kid friendly)
I understand that a vacation with kids really isn’t a vacation. 
I learned that you can’t let someone else plan your vacation if you want it to work for you.
I learned that kids shouldn’t board an airplane after 7pm for a flight.
I learned that I love my husband and that he is amazing. 

There are so many other things that this trip taught me.  I am still tired–as I didn’t really get a chance to relax.  I am happy to be home and our new bathroom is amazing.  It still needs a little work–we have drywall to mud and sand, then prime and paint, but everything else is done and it is fricking amazing.  I’ll post pics of that when we are done. 

Ready For Home

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

After 8 nights away from house and home, I am ready to get on a plane with my two children (who have reached their vacation limit) and get home.  We leave today around 4pm and have to spend the night in Chicago before we actually get to arrive home tomorrow morning.  I am ready.  It has been an awesome trip–but not really a vacation w/two kids under age 3 who really can’t take advantage of all this island has to offer. 

Noah did get to go on his first pony ride and he loved it.  Zoë on the other hand hasn’t gotten to do much except some swimming, playing in the sand and getting eaten by mosquitos.  She is also ready to go home.