I couldn't make this up if I tried

Last weekend, el husbando and I abandoned the girls left them in the competent care of their aunt and grandmother while we romped off for an adults-only weekend with friends in the panhandle of our lovely state.

While away, A did not shave his face so, when we returned home late Monday afternoon, he was sporting a good bit of scruff on his face. We arrived home with dinner for the family so they could eat before hitting the road back to their house.

When Juliana saw her daddy, she exclaimed, "Daddy--you have hair on your face!"

"I sure do," he replied.

Then she turned to me, stared hard at me for a few minutes, realizing that I did not have hair on my face so what could she say about me; and instead said, "Mommy--you have hair on your 'gina!"

Cue crickets in the room.

Hot fun

Sorry for the radio silence. We just got back from a whirlwind four-day weekend in the Florida panhandle where, I'm convinced, everyone from Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana were on vacation. Oh, and let's not forget Tennessee too. Thankfully, that meant most were heading home northbound, while we were one of very few heading southbound, making for lighter than usual traffic--as did the roughly $4 per gallon gas prices I'm sure.

Things here are cruising along into the dog days of summer in these parts. In the past two weeks, we had 9 days of 90+ degree temps. Factor in the humidity and well, it's been a little unbearable. And just think--summer doesn't officially start until a little more than three weeks from now.

With summer coming, J started taking private swimming lessons back in February. That kid was a water lover before and she's a fish now. Alas, in the midst of the lessons, however, she has come down with a series of ear infections. I'm talking back-to-back. Finish a course of antibiotics, get the all-clear at the doctor and then, bam, a week later, another ear infection.

Needless to say, her swimming lessons are temporarily on hold while we get her ears on the road to recovery, so to speak. Sadly, no more of this chlorine-y goodness for some time to come:



With three or four ear infections so far this year (I've lost count honestly), fluid has remained in her middle ear, leading to some conductive hearing loss (the good news being that it's reversible once the fluid is gone). I'd noticed she had been having some trouble hearing and her preschool teacher mentioned it as well. A visit to the ped last week resulted in a spectacularly failed tympanogram, so we go back for a follow-up next week, after another 10-day course of antibiotics.

At this point, I'm tempted to just ask the ped to forego any more antibiotics and go with PE tubes. We've got some good friends who had them put in for both of their kids and their ear infections stopped completely and haven't come back since--despite the fact that the tubes have since fallen out of both kids' ears. It is a procedure that takes only a few minutes and needs no IV, etc., just a few whiffs of gas and voila! done! Anyone with any experience with PE tubes in your child's ears--good? bad? indifferent?

Calling all travelers, help

For those of you who've traveled internationally, i.e., from the U.S. to a foreign destination, with small children, here is a question I'm hoping you can help me out with:

What did you do about car seats at your destination?

We are journeying down to see family in South America this October (it's been 9 years since A and I last traveled there--thanks to civil strife and general danger--hey, can you guess which country we're traveling to?!), and we are wondering if we should bring our car seats for the girls.

We have purchased each girl their own seat on the plane and they're each large enough to sit in them without a car seat. Alas, we're not exactly sure about bringing the car seats for in-country driving after our arrival. Add to that the fact that the country we're going to may not have any companies that provide rental car seats should we opt to go with a rental car--hell, it's been hard even finding a rental car company, so we may just go with taxis for local transportation and...we've come full circle on the car seat issue.

Add to the mix the fact that the country we'll be in may not have the most rigid safety laws regarding things like seat belts and whatnot for either adults or children...(did you know that, yes, it is indeed physically possible to load a family of four or five on a moped or scooter? witnessed personally by yours truly--on numerous occasions at our South American destination).

We've always taken our car seats when we've traveled domestically by plane and rental car upon arrival, but this is our first international trip with las ninas. We're still trying to figure out the logistics and I am stumped, can you tell?

We've got a full travel roster this year so I'm planning planning planning early. Outside of this trip, we've got: A and I (sans kiddos) taking a 4-day weekend to see friends in Pensacola later this month--whoohoo, let's hear it for a 10-hour car drive (good thing we really love these friends!), followed by 5 days in Sanibel with the girls in June, a 3-day weekend in Chicago in July (Buffett! Cubbies!), our annual 4-day adults-only trip to Key West in August, then 8 days of family fun in South America in October, and ending with a 4-day jaunt to the world of D!sney in December. I can't wait for our vacation 'season' to kick off. Mommy needs a break...as I'm sure you all do too :-)

Advice on the international travel car seat question will be greatly appreciated, as will any general snarkiness or 'geez, Dee, get a grip...it's five months away'-type responses. Why yes, I am anal, thanks for noticing.

The view...

is just one of the many reasons why I love where I live. All of this, a mere 20 minutes from my door. Yes, it really is this color IRL.



This picture was taken less than an hour ago. Today is one of those perfectly beautiful blue sky days. We get a lot of those around these parts :-) Alas, the water is not always this calm. Being on the Atlantic side, the waves pick up when it's windy...and, as you can tell, today is not windy in the least. It is hot, muggy, still-aired...and summer doesn't even officially begin until next month! Looks like the dog days are already upon those of us not too far from the Tropic of Cancer. Summer is my absolute favorite season, as if you couldn't tell.

Dropping like flies

This week both kiddos are ailing. J has a ripping ear infection and D was diagnosed with a sinus infection this past Monday. Today was her 15-month well check appointment and that brought a new diagnosis: ear infection. Other than that, however, she was declared well within the normal range with height, weight, and head circumference all coming in around the 50th percentile. She's got a four-word vocabulary presently (mama, dada, baba, and doggie--essentially, all of the vital things in her current world) and a mouthful of teeth, way more than J ever did at this age, with her 12th tooth currently coming in.

My weight is also dropping...hooray! I'm now down almost 18 pounds in a month. I feel so much better and, big newsflash, I self-weaned off the P'zac. Figured I was feeling like myself again (have been for some time now) and that if I started to feel 'dark' again, I'd end my little experiment and start popping that little pill again. So far so good though. I've had a little more irritation with things the kids do (and the things that A doesn't do) here and there but I think that's pretty normal as a parent.

Let's see...other big news? The main water supply pipe to our house cracked last week, flooding part of the garage and the floor to J's room which butts up to the garage. Fast forward: a huge plumbing repair bill along with a couple hundred extra dollars to replace drywall and the pergo floor in J's room. A nightmare that is still ongoing. The flooring was a special order so it won't be here until next week. J, in the meantime, is camping out in our spare bedroom/office on her princess blow up bed.

In happier news, last week I paid a small fortune (and three hours of my life) to have my hair permanently straightened via thermal reconditioning (aka Japanese hair straightening) and, OMG, I love it! For the first time in my previously curly-haired life, I absolutely love my hair!! It is like someone else's hair now resides on my head. It looks so polished and neat that, at times, I still can't believe it belongs to me.

Now I feel like I look nicely put together on daily basis. Haha, good thing the appearance is far better than the reality--because, really, we all know that behind the scenes, with small children in the household, there really is no such thing as 'put together.' It's all about hanging on by the cusps of your fingernails and making the best of every day, with many moments of love/fear/joy along the way.

Here is just one such moment recently (complete with shiny straight 'new' hair, mine not hers, LOL):