The New Mommy

All of a sudden Kingston has stopped calling me Mama and has started calling me Mommy! I've always referred to myself as Mama so I'm not really sure where he has come up with Mommy! It is really cute when he says it, of course. He could probably call me Moose or MooCow and I would think it was cute, but anyway!

Sunday was a day of rest around these parts. We pretty much hung around the house and I took a few short naps-which is really unusual for me. I just felt really tired but chalked it up to being out late the night before with some girlfriends. I knew, however, at 2 in the morning when I woke up to use the bathroom that something wasn't right. I felt a little feverish and had the chills. I went back to bed with the hopes of feeling better by morning. Notsomuch.

Yesterday I spent most of the day on the couch with fever and chills and an uneasy stomach. Kingston was such a good boy all day. He played with his toys and watched movies and let me nap a bit. Nigel was a big help around the house and Nana came through with dinner and playtime outside with Kingston. I'm a lucky mom to have such wonderful people around to support me. I would have been even more miserable all by myself.

I'm just gonna say that it is no fun to be the primary caregiver AND be sick. Not a good combination. Today, I am staying home from work and Kingston went to Ms. Cindy's. I thought I was totally better but after dropping Kingston off I ran to Walmart to get things to make a cheesecake for Nigel's birthday (Happy Birthday Nige!) and I started sweating for no apparent reason. I'm back on the couch for a few then I'm up to bake a cheesecake. Then back down again, I'm sure.

Hopefully we can kick this sickness and move on. Fall is here and we are ready to play outside!

A Surreal Trip to the Park

So here we were, at our usual Thursday afternoon playgroup at the park. Kingston pretty much heads straight for the swings. He wants to swing in the swing on the far right of the set. No problem! We did some swinging for about 10 minutes. Then Kingston gives me the hand wave meaning "all done" and so out he goes. As I should have suspected, he walks over to the swing immediately to the left and says, "Up, please." Or "Help, please." Or "Uh, pees." I'm still not certain which.

So he's swinging along and a little boy comes running up to his mom who is a few swings down and says that he has to go to the potty. I think I hear Kingston say, "pee-pee" but I can't be sure. I ask him to repeat what he said and the mom who has put her son in the swing that we recently vacated say, "I think he said 'pee-pee'!" So we start talking about whether or not we are going to start potty training our kids, who happen to be less than a month apart in age and we both laugh and say we aren't in a big hurry since we would rather wait until it is the right time than force it and get really frustrated. We are having a great conversation when I look up at Kingston, only to find him vomiting profusely all over himself.

Sweeeeeet.

I pretty much freeze, not knowing what to do. I lean him forward in his swing and let him finish what he started on the ground instead of in his lap. Gross. Moms all around start to offer tissues, helping hands, sympathy. They all think he has swung too much. I mention that nearly every kid in his day care has thrown up at some point in the past 2 weeks and I notice a few moms back up. Can't say I blame them. My potty training friend encourages me to just strip Kingston down right there and I'm so glad she suggests it. I am trying to think how I am going to get him to the car without coating myself in green beans and fish sticks. Eew. (Sorry. Not necessary, I know. Luckily Ms. Cindy said he didn't eat much for lunch. Or any snack. Whew!) I strip him down and begin to fret about how I can clean the park swing out. I use Kingston's soiled clothes to do the best I can but I still feel guilty about leaving it. Contaminated.

I apologize repeatedly to my new friends and skedaddle. I take Kingston home and he is thrilled to get to lay on our bed and watch "Finding Nemo". Or "Mo-mo" as he likes to call it. After about 45 minutes of laying around, Kingston starts to say "eat, eat" so I give him some toast, goldfish and 1/2 of a bagel. He is hungry and eats a ton. Everything stays down.

He is now sleeping soundly. Hopefully for the duration. I'm hoping it was just a one-time thing that has come and gone. Luckily I have the day off tomorrow just in case things go south from here. Wish us luck! We have a busy weekend coming up. We can't afford to be sick!

That was definitely a playgroup like no other.

Montauk, NY

Immediately following our family trip to Charleston, Nigel had sales meetings in New York. He left on Tuesday and his meetings ran through Thursday. Nigel's boss asked if he wanted to fly me in on Thursday night and spend the weekend with he and his wife in Montauk. After doing some schedule finagling, begging and asking for a lot of favors in regards to childcare, we worked it out!

My mom drove me to the airport after work on Thursday and away I went to Long Island, New York for the first time. Wendi flew in just a few minutes before I did so Ron and Nigel picked us up at the airport and took us back to the house where the boys had stayed all week. We spent most of Friday tooling around West Hampton and then headed to our little pad in Montauk.

Our place was the cutest little cottage on the sound. Or the bay. Or some calm body of water. I still don't quite have my Long Island geography down. Regardless, the view was amazing. If it hadn't been rainy and wet all weekend we probably would have spent a little more time in the back yard.

We actually spent very little time in the house at all because we stayed on the go pretty much the whole time. We checked out a few state parks and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

We found some cool places to eat like the Ditch Witch-right on the beach

and the Clam Bar.

I had a great weekend with Nigel. Ron and Wendi were great friends to travel with. We hope to do more travelling with them in the future. We traded kid stories all weekend and enjoyed our time away from our sweet little ones.

This weekend I was Lori. Nigel's wife.

Because my mom was busy being Kingston's Nana! Thanks Mom and Dad and Skip and Brandi. We appreciate the time away. It was much needed. But I'm still trying to catch up! I'm looking forward to being home for the next few weekends.

Happy Fall!

Finally-Chucktown '09

Oh, there is just not enough time in the day to do all the blogging that all of you wonderful blog followers deserve. I have gotten the hints and I know you are waiting patiently to see some pictures. There are just so darn many of them. This will have to do. It is border-line cheating but I just can't help it. I'm a fairly busy girl.

Five families. Seven and a half kids-all under the age of 3. It was loud at times. It was chaotic at times. It was a ton of fun pretty much the whole time. Love those friends and their families. We had a great time.

If I'm being totally honest, though, I will admit that it will probably be a lot more fun in a few more years when the kids are a little more self-sufficient and Kingston's temper tantrums have slowed down a bit. We actually thought ahead about 12 years to the time when the kids will be sneaking out trying to sneak out of the house and take "walks" on the beach by themselves at night. But always sleeping in gender separated bed rooms when they come back in, thankyouverymuch! We could have our hands full in a few years!

Montauk update at a later date. You're welcome.

Slackin'

Sorry for slackin'. I've been out of town for nearly 2 whole weeks with very little time between trips to get my act together. As I attempt to 1-clean my house, 2-prepare for my work week, and C-get unpacked and semi-organized, please bear with me. I have tons of great photos to share of my two fun trips.

Charleston.

Montauk.

More later. Thanks for your patience!