Lions and Tigers and Bears, OK just bears...

I have been meaning forever to touch base in virtual reality. Now guilt has taken on the better of me and here I am about to embark on a three month catch up tour of my life.

We travelled to Pittsburgh in May for my nephews engagement party. We stayed at his house. I was really impressed - 27 and single and he had all the fixings of a real adult house. I was expecting to bring my own sheets and silverware but turns out that wasn't necessary. So this was my first trip back to the burgh since having the kids. In my crazy mind I pictured taking Maria to Jacks at 8AM and having a liquid breakfast from a bar stool. The reality was a little different. We did get to walk from 26th to the Beehive and back. We saw the old rat house on 16th street, passed the Rex where I used to work. The amazing thing is how different life looks from the same view almost 15 years later. Jesus did I say almost 15 years post graduation. OK 14 to be exact but still that is so long. Life brings so much our way in that amount of time. Standing outside the Rex, walking over 10 blocks, the South side seemed so small. The houses so tiny, the bars, for as many as there were, just didn't seem so fun. OK truth be told I was there Sunday morning after the fun had ended and the streets were littered with the sins of the night before. But still it really put it into perspective. You can go back but you can never go back. I guess the lesson learned is to savor the moment because every minute is fleeting. How did I ever think college and college life was so difficult, ha..that old hindsight adage is ringing in my head now.
So I did get to meet up with my friend Timmer who is happily settled in Shadyside with his boyfriend.
I guess the good thing about 15 years post college is you get a little used to who you are and the skin you are in. So I don't struggle so much with a hair being out of place or the many pounds I have lost and gained and hope to lose again.

OK enough on the Pittsburgh trip.
We just came back from a week in Jamaica, which was just awesome. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Rose Hall, I highly recommend it there if you ever get the chance. The trip was fun, I had my second less than favorable ocean kayaking experience. The first one for those who might remember was before Kim's wedding when I had the great idea we had time to kayak around the entire island, only to get too tired to finish and too late to make the wedding on time so we ditched the kayaks for the wedding. This experience was a little different. We were out in the wide open sea and flipped the kayak. I panicked about sharks while my friend the smart one didn't flail and try to swim, she stayed with the boat, which drifted further out to sea (mind you my measurements are embellished in my mind, we weren't that far out but far enough that swimming in was a struggle, we did have life preservers on too) At some point the hotel guys realized we flipped and came out with their little speed boat to rescue us. Mike heard it all go down and didn't even bother to get up and look, he just figured it was us and we would be fine. I like his confidence in me. I think he overestimates me too much.

The kids are doing great - we took a bump on our flight and got some flight vouchers so I got the crazy idea we could take Maria and Nicholas to Disney again. I thought the potty bribe would work. So when we got home I promised Maria if she uses the potty she can go to Disney. She promptly acquiesced and declared I am ready to go to Disney. She doesn't understand the terms of the agreement mean to use the potty FOREVER!! And am I crazy going back to Disney, that which I hate more than anywhere else on earth. I guess I still can't believe it was so horrible, I need another dose to confirm.

OK gotta get to bed and stop boring everyone before they fall asleep.
Oh one more thing - the post title refers to the bear families that frequent our backyard - more on that later!

Happy Easter to all and to a good night

Oh wait that is the Santa saying.
Here we are at yet another American made holiday. Yet another ruined holiday for you traditionalists. Let's see.... we have effectively warped Christmas into a buying frenzy in the name of Santa, so let's just mess up Easter with another obscure story about a rabbit leaving eggs everywhere and a basket with candy or toys in it. Can you believe some kids actually have a list of what they want for Easter. Then there are the lines at the malls to sit on rabbits lap - which is probably a cast out
Catholic priest getting off on little kids sitting on his lap (sorry for the church dig there) but it is a little strange for an adult to dress like a child and have kids sit on his or her lap. What if the same adult dressed up on, let's say Memorial to do the same thing, they would be jailed!!!
As if a basket full of sugar isn't enough...parents willingly oblige to the demands for toys at Easter.
I am about fed up with the whole thing. There is no way to escape it either - even on our childless cul-de-sac tucked in the woods in Mountain Top, Easter is everywhere. Rabbits and bunnies and eggs and baskets.
So as an American parent I must oblige to my children for the next few days. Maria wants Barbie Pop Tarts in her basket and some binkies. Nicholas wants chocolate candy. I can threaten them with cancelling the rabbit service if they are bad or remind Maria that the Easter Bunny took Nicholas's binkies away. Then on Sunday morning when they wake up and dress all nice I can give them loads of chocolate to dribble down their faces and onto their nice cloths, if we are lucky one of the kids will eat so much junk they will get sick and then not want anymore candy. And we will all smile blissfully and post pictures on Monday. Ahhhhh, I love American holidays!! So Happy Easter Everyone.

Cleaning Carpets

So if Nicholas didn't push me to the edge with finger painting poop on the walls, then Maria has certainly pushed me to the edge by pooping on her bedroom floor. The worst part of it is; she cannot simply poop on the floor and walk away. She has to step in it then run around like a mad woman. Leaving foot tracks throughout the light beige carpet that covers our second floor (I know we should have gone with wood floors upstairs too). She was just a very lucky little girl that Friday I had a Dentist appointment. Lucky because I hate the dentist and was amply drugged up on some ativan to take the edge off the dentist. The additional side effects of Ativan is they also take the edge off poop stained carpets. I was pretty calm about the entire ordeal, got the steam cleaner out (which by the way if you don't have one they pay for themselves when you have kids) and steam cleaned the carpet.
Maria was pretty proud of her artwork and proudly told her daddy when he came too.
If I look back, most of Nicholas's potty and poop escapades were precursors to using the potty. Maybe this is part of the process and we are close to a breakthrough. I can only hope.

Hibernation

Guess I have taken a long long break from blogging. Facebook has taken over my online life lately, and I have gotten away from attempting to electronically archive our days.
So post Disney we spent some time ice skating. With Nicholas, Maria is too young. Nicholas has also started up swim lessons again.
Maria has been busy working on her song and dance routines. She wails out her ABC's, I laugh because she always ends them in W,X CRY and Z, and then takes a bow with one hand behind her in the air.
Today she learned the hokie pokie and was twisting around singing it. It took me a minute to figure out she was saying hokie pokie, it sounded more like hook and pook. Her new thing, not so new, is constantly correcting you, by saying "No that's not right" and then telling you how things should be. She also playing make believe a lot mostly with the Nemo characters, she never wants to be Dory but assigns the role to whoever she is playing. She likes to be Nemo or Daddy Nemo (aka Marlin).

We are still in an endless struggle of getting Nicholas to bed before 11PM. I have all but given up and just hope someday he can get into a normal sleep routine.

I am really looking forward to some relief from the cold weather, although I was able to get out skiing several times this year, I am ready to put the skis away and get outside without 100 layers of cloths on.

Well for lack of anything better to say. I guess I will close this entry. We need to get back into the habit of taking pictures of the kids more often and posting them.

And then there was Disney

Most of you already know we took a five day vacation to Disney World last week to escape the cold and give the kids a chance to see Mickey Mouse's house. Too bad the weather in Florida was freezing and Mickey Mouse's house more likely resembled the Wyoming Valley Sewer Authority with a little New York City at rush hour thrown in.
So despite the faux smiles in the pictures (and they are just that, faux smiles) the trip was less than memorable. Or maybe it was totally memorable because it will go down as the worst vacation we have had. EVER.
We took Nicholas there as a reward for potty training. Of course he has been potty trained for a while, and almost reverted while waiting in bathroom lines at Disney for 20 plus minutes. Then there was the broken rides, which seemingly popped up every time we decided to bear the 60 minute lines because it might be worth it. Oh wait lest I forget there was the Disney Desensitizing Ride/ reconditioning ride, meant to break you of any feelings of aversion you might have towards the mouse and crew. The ride - It's a Small World, and of course it broke down with us on it, so the music was a kin to the scene in Clockwork Orange where they make Malcolm McDowell watch things to help recondition him before releasing him from jail. Only in our version of Clockwork Orange we were placed on the never ending It's a Small World Ride where you were forced to listen to music over and over in hopes when the ride released you back into the not so magical kingdom, instead of being violent and full hatred towards the crowds and lines you would instead just sing, it's a small world..and smile.
It didn't work for me! I still had a meltdown on day 2 and actually cursed the train conductor.
I have even followed up with a trip to the Customer Relations Dept. and a letter both falling upon deaf ears because really what is our $1000 worth if every other family in the country doesn't believe us and needs to go to Disney to find out for their selves.
Anyhow, we are more than happy to be home in a really cold Northeast PA to celebrate winter. The kids did enjoy themselves although Nicholas will tell you the roller coasters broke etc. etc. He knows it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Catch up

I have been on a blogging hiatus..Christmas, New Year's, time off work, skiing, ice skating, and an unfortunate death in the family. Anyhow, tomorrow starts our new year...because really the new year is the day you go back to your normal routine after the crazy holiday season.
Nicholas and Maria both really enjoyed Christmas. He got a bike from Santa, and Maria got some Princess dolls. Of course our generous family doped them up on many more toys which are strewn throughout the house; leaving our now one year old house looking like a worn out daycare. The only solution to the toy issue is to put a moratorium on playing, at least for the next 14 years or so.

Our Uncle Eddy passed away on New Years Day. It was sad time for my father and his brothers as well as the rest of us. Although Eddy was in a nursing home for the past 12 years. His mobility only increased. Zooming around Montrose in his Jazzy until the battery went dead. He spent holidays with us or with my uncle Tom. He never gave up on wanting to walk again and was waiting for a cure for his Muscular Dystrophy. Sad to say his solace to the disease came in the form of death. He will be missed by us every holiday. And through his organ donation he will live on in those people who are in dire need of help. Nicholas and Maria were with us with the funeral, we did our best to explain to Nicholas what was going on without using the words pain and suffering and death. Because really at 4 that is too much to stomach. Anyhow we did explain heaven and Nicholas wanted to know if Heaven was on the way to Mountain Top. Hmmmm....I am not quite sure to the answer of that one. The abstract concept of it all is hard to explain without any first hand knowledge, and without getting any more philosophical than that - I will leave it with that.

So we are headed to Disney in two short weeks...correction one week...damn time flies..Besides that we are just drudging through the long winter with some skiing and ice skating and whatever else we can find to keep the kids active.

Some pictures from our Christmas attached

Prophetic Driver

Yes I am a prophetic driver, not pathetic driver but prophetic driver. In my short 15-20 minute commute I can solve almost any problem this planet faces. You name it, world hunger, I have the answer, the economy a breeze, global warming, no problem. So today on the drive home, my task was to come up with a solution as to why I, among so many others must drive a SUV. Now I don't drive a large SUV at this point I am in a smaller Acura RDX, but why..So when I answer this question or when I hear others answer the same question...it is always, well I need to be able to seat more than two and I need all wheel drive and sometimes I need to haul stuff...ok well most cars now have all wheel drive so that blows that explanation out the window. But the hauling stuff... well I have a solution that could put most most Americans in small economic (by that I mean fuel efficient economic because I don't think I can forgo my fancy options type of economic)cars.
We need to have neighborhood pick up trucks available. Like paying taxes to the township or having home owner's association fees. For a small added fee there should be community pick up trucks available for people to use for those "special occasions" like when they just had a baby shower and can't fit everything into the car. Or when they want to buy some trees to plant (keeping on that green theme). I am still working out the details of my plan but I think it deserves some merit. If I knew I was partial owner of a pick up truck and didn't have to worry about where to keep it (because in my world it will be kept in a central location with a garage, not somebody's house)well if I didn't have to worry about these things, I would drive a car again.
So I am going to work on solving this problem tomorrow during my commute. It's just really too bad none of my ideas ever come to fruition. Move over Obama - I have real change for this country! And please no negative comments that will stifle my creative juices on this issue.