Happy (Very Belated) Anniversary Babe!

During my hiatus, Hub and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary and had a very brief staycation with E. We enjoyed it, but it's never enough time is it? We are lucky though. Hub and I talk about how we've had so many adventures and done so many "cool things" as we so cleverly say it. In honor of that and in honor of our anniversary, I thought I'd post a memory list of those times here. Some of these you may know, some you'll only know if you are familiar, and some will probably be a me and Hub thing. Let me know if you recognize and have done any of these and how you liked them.

I may add more later. 

1. Our first fancy restaurant outing across the border in Maryland on that little island. The waiter was very snooty and rude. We tipped him exactly 15% to the penny because we didn't want to prove him "right" by under tipping, but he certainly didn't deserve more.

2. Taking pictures on the glass floor of the CN tower, and posing at the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

3. Toronto clubbing

4. Cruising on the "Three Rivers."

5. Exploring more of DC than we ever thought possible while trying to find the "real" Library of Congress.

6. Toronto Film Festival

7. Fireworks competition

8. New Year 2000 downtown

9. CNE

10. Seeing & meeting the Barenaked Ladies (Pittsburgh, Albany, Syracuse, Toronto)

11. Old Forge

12. The best (and cheapest!) cannolis ever - little bakery in Utica, NY.

13. Driving through cute ski towns on the border between NY and PA.

14. Bicycling along the river to a little pizza shop near our apartment for lunch - in the very leafy 'burbs! (oh how I miss this type of living!)

15. Licking ice cream and watching fireworks going on all around us in the Tonawanda park from July 1-4th.

16. Niagara-on-the-lake

17. Christmas celebration in Skaneateles.

18. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Hollywood

19. Blue Waters

20. Montreal - the food, the sights, not so much the people

21. Niagara Falls rendezvous

22. Riding elephants

23. Feeding rhinos & giraffes

24. Exploring Dallas

25. Up close and personal with gorillas

26. Seeing me on TV

27. The carriage ride on our wedding day

28. Driving 1200 miles to Florida. Thrice.

29. Moving me, you and us 7 times in our relationship & carrying it out over 6 different states & 7 different cities.

30. Watching Magic Kingdom fireworks while your parents enjoyed like kids again.

31. Me clutching your arm (and Alex's) while we rode Tower of Terror.

32. Denali National Park

33. When we stood together in a beautiful valley surrounded by towering mountains and beautiful purple wildflowers in awe of the silence and stillness.

34. Whales, sea otters, & sea lions in Seward.

35. Watching a wedding in an outdoor chapel in the Dominican Republic.

36. My family reunion on a beautiful mountain top. (Great food, company and surroundings)

37. Landing in a European country together for the first time for both of us and our chuckling disbelief at how easily we walked through customs.

38. A sunset walk through a charming, German hamlet that seemed to take us back in time. The smell of strawberries, the sound of birds and the feel of a cool German summer breeze.

39. Driving through Germany and the Netherlands and again being amazed when the change to a new country was simply marked by some flags and a small sign.

40. Learning how to use German public toilets.

41. A wedding in a beautiful Dutch castle with two dear friends.

42. The gorgeous juncture of the Rhine and the Mosel.

43. Touching some of the Berlin Wall.

44. Cruising for the first time... being in awe of the blue of the Western Caribbean waters (especially Cozumel.)

45. The beauty, fascination and wildlife of the ruins of Tulum.

46. Second City, fancy dining, the CN tower and a beautiful hotel for a long weekend.

47. Staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

48. Getting stuck on the tarmac in Puerto Rico because the iguanas wouldn't move.

49. Flying almost by ourselves on a 747.

50. North Beach at Fort Desoto

51. Merritt Island Birding

52. Cocoa Beach

53. South Beach in October - the dining, the beach, the nightlife - not so much the scary hotel with the hole in the wall.

54. The Everglades

55. Islamorada - Finding a Great Blue Heron white morph!

56. Driving down the keys and exploring them as we went.

57. Walking around Key West and seeing the beauty of Fort Zachary and Mallory Square.

58. Seven Mile Bridge

59. Seeing the Grand Canyon (the first time for me) from the window of an airplane.

60. Seeing Mt. Rainier the same way.

61. Holding hands as we exited the church on our wedding day.

62. Signing documents for our first house on our anniversary.

63. Eating at a very fancy restaurant at the top of the city.

64. Looking at each other over the table at a seafood place as we both (silently and nervously) considered that I may be pregnant.

65. Repeatedly staring at the 4 pink lines that confirmed my pregnancy.

66. Video recording E's crazy movements visible on the outside of my belly.

67. Staring at and crying over our beautiful new baby.

68. Taking E on his first plane trip together.

69. Staying on Disney property for the first time ever.

70. So many sunsets.

71. Experiencing E's every first together as a family.

I love you babe.

New Things I've Discovered

1. I got some Martha Stewart bathroom cleaner on clearance, and it's great! Low odor, great cleaning power, pretty bottle. I also bought some dishwasher detergent, but I haven't been able to try it yet.

2. Organic strawberries really are very consistently better than conventionally grown. They taste like the fake strawberry fragrance smells! They taste like real strawberries! I've gotten them numerous times now, and they are so much better without fail. They're even a prettier red and seem to last longer. Hopefully my home grown strawberries are as good.

3. Hulu Plus. It's awesome. Now if I could just justify the cost per month.

Things I Learned While Flying With a Toddler

• I borrowed Jen's Traveling Toddler. I will soon be buying one myself. It worked fine on a large suitcase, but I had to check that suitcase. So instead, I rigged the traveling toddler and car seat on top of our umbrella stroller. It worked surprisingly well.
• NOTE: I only put E in there when I was desperate and then held the car seat back while I pushed just to be sure it didn't go anywhere. It was far from an ideal set up and probably not the safest, but I had to do what I had to do. I don't think much about traveling alone with a toddler is safe to tell you the truth. 
• I was very proud of my ingenuity though. 
• I will now be buying a suitcase I can stow just to use it for these occasions. 
• I also learned that it is pretty much impossible to tighten the car seat down on the plane seat. (Jen may have mentioned this, but I don't remember.) The place where you pull the strap to tighten ends up inside the car seat, and there's no way to get it as tight as it's truly supposed to be. There's also nowhere to anchor the top strap for forward facing. 
• I spent some long, sweaty, frustrated moments with a fussy boy and an intimidating man staring at me before I gave up.
• As I've said before, traveling with E is a delight for me, though it is a lot of hard work. Having him sit on the window helps a lot so he can look out and play with the blind. It also means he doesn't have to sit next to a stranger. Another thing that helps is making him feel like he's in on the game. I have him "help" me by pointing out signs, holding things, exclaiming over something new etc. 
• Something else that helps SO much is my Kindle Fire. I can't say enough about it. We downloaded a couple of TV shows and new games for him, and it was a lifesaver in many a long line or drive. 
• And ACCEPT HELP! If someone wants to carry your car seat. Let them. Save your back and sanity.
• Finally, I had the sippy explosion phenomenon happen to me as well. I had totally forgotten about that. Luckily it wasn't very full so it only spit out about 2 feet in the air. 
• And in completely unrelated news, I am almost finished with my strawberry plant modifications. I will post that next. (I think.)

I Read 3 New Books!

I have to be honest and say that I still enjoy real books much more than Kindle versions. I also find it far easier and cheaper to either get books from the library or to buy them from Amazon. I gave in to that truth recently and ordered a bunch of books for delivery from our local library system. I just finished reading Two Kisses for Maddie by Matt Logelin, Bossypants by Tina Fey and Stories I Only Tell my Friends by Rob Lowe. I highly enjoyed all of them.

Two Kisses for Maddie is a beautiful, moving book that accomplishes what I think Matt Logelin wanted it to be - a memoir of the love and loss of his wife. It's obvious he's a newer writer, but the emotion and beauty in that writing make it so worth the read. It probably doesn't hurt for me that I had been following his story on his blog for some time before reading it.

Bossypants is hilarious. Tina Fey is so smart, sassy and fun that I found myself nodding my head and bursting out in giggles all throughout the book. People at work thought I was losing my mind. Among my favorite lines is... about people who barely know her who say that her scar is "beautiful.." "You might as well say, let me be amazing at you." She crystallizes what we all think so well. If you've read it or do read it, please let me know if you spit out your lunch like I did when you read the line where she describes how sad the YMCA Christmas is. You'll know the one. Also, if you read Here We Go Again, please tell me if this makes you think of Jen. Maybe it's just because I get to see her very sassy side. But she does write conversationally much like Jen. I think they would be great friends. 

Stories I Only Tell My Friends started out slow and disjointed for me. But by halfway through the book, I had gotten into it and ended up enjoying it a great deal. I was surprised when I saw Rob Lowe on various interviews for the book. I liked him in spite of myself. After reading it, I'm happy to say I think I still do. It's worth it if you have an interest in how Hollywood works without the glamour.

The best thing about all this reading is that it's nudged my writing back to life some. (well that and the fact that E has been a good sleeper lately.)

The Kindness

It's amazing. Every time I travel with E, so many people step up to help. And the interesting thing I've noticed is that it tends to be the others who have (or are having) difficulties themselves who help the most. For example, this time while I was waiting to pre-board in my home airport, a group of families with a total of about 6 children ranging in age from 3-9 offered to help me carry my load of toddler, car seat and bag onto the plane. Also in the mix offering to help was a very well dressed, lovely older woman of perhaps 70.

Then, when I landed at my destination, the rental car agent behind the counter actually left her post to help me carry my luggage etc the whole way down to the car pick up area. Then she even offered to help me to the car, but the people there beat her to the punch by pulling it up right in front of me. Simply amazing. (I still need to write a letter to the company about her.)

But what really touched me was my experience when flying back. I barely made it to the airport in time to check in for various reasons, but everyone there, from the rental car return agent to TSA security seemed to make it a point to make life easier for me and other passengers. When one security agent noticed E's distress at having to put his treasures through screening, he told him he'd make him an honorary officer and handed him a shiny gold badge sticker to put on his shirt. E was so proud of himself. He wore it the whole way home and then showed his Daddy. And I told the agent that I was going to make it a point to fly smaller airports in the future if I could. Wow. The most enduring help I got was from the man behind me in line at the ticket counter. He was on the same flight I was and was running just as late, but motioned me to go ahead of him for everything. The he lingered every time we needed to do something just to help me. He took my luggage to the security drop off. He carried the car seat the whole way through the airport even though I had rigged a way to carry it myself (more on that in the next post.) And he did all this even though he knew he'd be behind as well since they'd have to screen his prosthetic leg, and that took extra time.

I don't know how he lost his leg. I don't even know his name. But the military shirt he wore, and his gallantry made me imagine him as a hero who continues to serve others. It was amazing. He was humble and kind and continued to worry about our well being right up until we deplaned at home. I told him I'd buy him some coffee, and he tried to get out of it. I saw a Starbucks and wiggled my eyebrows. I knew I had him when I saw a glint of excitement in his eye. We were coming in on a late flight. Then, incredibly, he tried to buy his drink and get ME one when we got up there. That's when I brought out the Mommy growl and told him I was buying it and to shut up and drink it. He got a mocha frappucino. I think he liked it.

Traveling with E is always such a joy. We have fun, and we have the same attitude toward exciting new adventures as well as appreciating the little things. But it is made even more joyful by the renewed faith in human kind I find on each one of these trips.

All Kinds O' Stuff

• We recently returned from one of our big trips. (Just E and I) I would like to share with you two different posts from that experience. 1. The kindness of others and 2. Tips I learned from traveling alone with a toddler!
• We had LOADS of fun. The Outer Banks are still just as wonderful as I remember them from more than 10 years ago.
• But that will have to wait until after THIS post.
• The hanging tomato plant experiment is over. Someone or something ripped my plant off right at the base. I discovered it lying a few feet away from the bag. I think it might be a someONE since there seemed to be no damage to the actual plant. It was just cleanly snapped off at the base. Bummer. It was even getting flowers.
• My strawberry plants (normally growing) are still alive though! I have a cool new idea for them that I'm going to try tomorrow and hope to share.
• I started running again today! WITH THE HUB! Can you believe it? I had to start over at the beginning of my training, but that's what summer in Florida does to me.
• I got new reading glasses even though my vision is 20/20. They say I have strain. E is delighted. He loves glasses and now Daddy and I "match."
• E has started telling us, "You're the BEST!" It's awesome.
• I think we've decided on going to Big Sur, CA for our 10 year anniversary (always subject to change!) Please let me know if you have any tips for the area.

Read the End. I Want to Know What You Think.

• I've lost a total of 8 pounds since those aforementioned horrible bathing suit photos! It's been 6 pounds in the past month. So exciting!
• I haven't run since last month when we both (E in the stroller) about died from the humidity at 8am. I'll pick it back up in September probably.
• Remember how everyone says, "Don't read the books?" and you learn that they are geniuses for saying that? Well then you think you have it down... except that you get a stroke of, "Wonder if I'm doing it right?" and you read the book again. Don't.
• No, I'm serious. Not even the seemingly innocuous ones of the "What to Expect" variety. There are plenty of ways to make you feel inadequate.
• ...or that you are ruining your child forever and ever. 
• Thanks so much for all the car seat advice! And yes Jen, I want to borrow that strap. Could you send it to me?
• Has anyone noticed that the kid who picks up the family's trash at the curb in Toy Story 3 is wearing the same shirt as Sid Philips in Toy Story? Do you think it's supposed to be the same kid grown up? Discuss.
• E is super into Pixar right now. It's fun.