Even while blogging during the cruise itself, I found it hard to capture in words what was the most amazing during our trip. I mean, it was amazing that my father did this for all of us; it's the kind of vacation we never would've experienced, otherwise. And it was wonderful to spend time with far-flung family, and watch all the kids play together, and have our dinner waiter both prance around the dining room every night with Gerber (by the third night or so, Gerber would happily lift his arms up to him for his ride) and remember that the other kids would each be needing a glass of milk....
I know I said yesterday that this cruise would be a lot more fun without the kids---and that's true in many ways---but the other truth is that it's not that it would be more FUN so much as it would be less COMPLEX. Having kids makes it more complicated. (Having a kid with some special needs makes it a lot more complicated, quite frankly, but whatever.) Kids are complicated, period. My own special snowflakes are both easier and harder than other kids, in various ways, and I'm not up for a rousing game of "whose kids are the very most baffling" right at the moment. The other truth is that if...
So yesterday was our adventure to "stingray city," and it was definitely unlike anything we've ever done before. I'm going to back up a minute here, though, and say something that probably makes me a lousy mother, and maybe even a lousy person, but I'm going to say it anyway because it's true: This cruise would be a lot more fun without the kids. Now, I'm perfectly happy to be here with the kids, and I'm actually pretty fond of the kids, but this is just the true fact of the matter, that we are a little bit captive to their needs even with extended family here. Chickadee is on steroids and...
Today we went back to Emory for the second time, to talk about Chickadee's mystery skin condition. (Pretend that I linked back to the previous relevant posts on this subject. That will also require pretending I am not typing this in the car on my teeny tiny piece of crap netbook, and also that I'm a lot more organized than I actually am. And also that I'm in a better mood, which I'm not, which is also sort of the point here.) You may recall---and we're pretending I linked to the post about---they'd put her on a new medication and I thought it was working right up until she busted out in a...
In the following picture, I am to be commended for my excellent parenting because: A) A storm is about to roll in and douse us all. B) I've thrown my children 40 feet out of the boat, attached to us only by a fraying rope. C) I'm sitting there watching them hold on for dear life and telling Boatguy "FASTER, THEY WANT TO GO FASTER!" D) I smiled and waved from my position of safety as both kids were eventually (through a series of zigzags through the boat's wake) hurled from the tube like ragdolls. E) All of the above. The children are now referring to him as "Uncle Boatguy." P.S. Boatguy is...
So we're just a few days into summer vacation, here, and so far it's been a whole barrel of fun. If by "a whole barrel of fun" you mean "multiple trips to the pharmacy." Remember last year when Otto got poison ivy and then it got really, really bad and then he got MRSA? That was fun. Except not really. And so when he mysteriously got poison ivy again last week he was all, "Huh. I think I have poison ivy again. I wonder where that came from? Well, I guess I'll use some of this cream I have left over from last time." Meanwhile I was throwing myself prostrate on the bathroom floor in front of...
Dear Child of Mine, I love you no matter what. No matter what you do, no matter what you say. No matter how obnoxious you are. No matter how many times you take out the injustices of the world on me because I am a handy scapegoat. I love you even though you treat me like something slimy you found on your shoe. I love you enough to spend the better part of a day on the phone with the school, because when my baby calls me in tears to report that all of her stuff was stolen (AGAIN) and the teacher said "Oh well," that's not gonna fly. I love you enough to continue sending emails and making...
Happy Mother's Day to all my pals out there who: 1) are moms 2) love moms or 3) have a mom. (I'm pretty sure that gets everyone.) I started off my day with breakfast in bed, because somehow I ended up admitting that I'd never had breakfast in bed before and Otto made it his mission to make sure that's what I got. So I did. It involved a lot of bacon. And this: See, the kids each made me cards with bonus stuff in 'em, and Otto got me a book about produce, because---despite my bacony breakfast---I actually wanted a book about Farmer's Markets, because I am just that sort of wild and crazy....
The university is in the process of doing an eligibility audit for their benefits, which means that Otto and I have had to prove (again) that we're married, and yesterday we received some paperwork demanding that we prove the children are actually eligible dependents on Otto's health insurance. (This is all part of the university's new plan to start paying its employees in wampum and Double Bubble, by the way.) We were talking about it at dinner, and Chickadee asked why it matters. Otto told her that without this paperwork, she can't have health insurance. "Fine by me," she said. "Great,...
