Kindergarten: so far, so good. Henry doesn't complain about not wanting to go, he happily boards the school bus, loves sporting his blue backpack (Which was his second choice; first choice was an utterly flamboyant Tinkerbell backpack that had actual green, glittery wings protruding from the back. He's got a thing for the 'bell.), eats all of his lunch and most of his snack, comes home tired, plays for a while, refuses to eat dinner, plays some more, then goes to bed.

Dave and I have also been handling it pretty well. We haven't had any emotional meltdowns over our baby going to school, mostly because he seems so ready for it. We do have conversations over who gets to go pick him up at the bus stop and who gets to stay home while Holly naps. Very civil, "No, no, I insist, *you* go!" types of conversations; whoever wins gleefully heads out the door.

What I was most concerned about was being able to get our act together in the morning. We're not used to getting up at 6:30AM. Dave and I figured out what each of us should be doing in order to get to the bus on time: Dave gets the kids up and dressed while I get breakfast together and make Henry's lunch. Mostly it's been going well, although I will confess that after blearily boiling some oatmeal this morning, I spiked Henry's bowl with cumin instead of cinnamon. Nothing like the smell of armpit to snap you to attention. Henry's loving getting back to his bento box lunches. He doesn't really eat much of a variety of foods, so everyday he gets sandwiches cut into shapes, sliced apple, and milk. For snack I send him in with some kind of carb and a Babybel cheese wheel.

It's been nice getting to spend some uninterrupted time with Holly. It's reinforced what I've always suspected: she's a sweet little cutie-pie. I have a feeling that next week I'll be telling you that she's learned to walk. Dave put it best last night: for her walking isn't a question of ability, it's more a question of her deciding to go ahead and do it.

Posted by Jenn at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been inundated with fruit flies the last several days. I set out a small bowl of apple cider vinegar spiked with dash of dish soap to take care of the problem. It's working beautifully. It's also making my entire house smell like feet. It's not nice.

Today is Henry's birthday. His party was on Saturday. His Grandparents waited until yesterday to give him his presents. Today he's getting ours, plus a few from his Aunts and Uncle, as well as his Grammy and Grandpa's. He'll also be getting another cake. That's three days of continuous celebration. It's making me seriously reconsider how I go about celebrating my own birthday.

Thursday morning the young man will climb aboard a bus and head off into the oblivion that is the local school system where he'll be knocking around for the next 13 years. We've been so busy with traveling and celebrating birthdays that I haven't yet had a chance to work myself up into a proper froth over it. Henry had to fill out a questionnaire for his teacher, which we brought with us to his open house last week. She was inquiring after preferred nicknames, interests, anxieties, etc. One of the questions was "This year I'd like to learn _______." Henry's response was "how to play the drums". I had a sneaking suspicion that was not the answer she was necessarily looking for (or maybe it was, who am I to say?), but it was so gosh-darned sincere, I didn't bait him into falsehoods. I looked at the other kids' sheets and they all said "how to read". Dare to be different, kiddo.

Posted by Jenn at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dave's been hassling me about posting an entry but I haven't really been ready to. We've been getting back into the swing of things here on the home-front since coming back from Florida, the most pressing thing being prepping for Henry's birthday party, which mostly entails regaining control over our backyard which was taken over by pumpkin vines and cherry tomato plants while we were away. Naturally it's been raining a lot since we've come home, so we haven't been able to get as much done back there as we've wanted. It's been a blessing in disguise because I've been able to focus a lot of my energy on reading, knitting, and catching up on sleep. Henry's been laying low, too. Although he has made it very clear he would like to move to Orlando, he's a homebody like I am, so while he enjoys the spurts of craziness, he really likes the apres-crazy downtime as well.

My parents rolled into town early Friday afternoon. We kicked around the 'burg, then H², my Dad, and I went to the pool while Dave and my mom wrangled some food. The next morning they set off again, heading for Western MA to visit with my Grandma and Aunt. We were sad to see them go. Even though we were home for most of the week before they arrived, it still felt a bit like we were on vacation with their visit looming on the horizon. Their leaving sealed the lid on the proverbial coffin. Henry was a bit out of sorts all day, although he would never admit to missing anything other than Phineas and Ferb and his drumset.

Fortunately, the young man has set his sites a little further down the road to happier thoughts, such as his birthday, and then all too soon after that, his first day of kindergarten. I'm just going to sit here and continue stuffing my maw full of Smarties...

Posted by Jenn at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I made my annual trek to the obstetrician today. It was fun! Dave watched Henry and I took Holly with me so she could get a clear idea of what she has to look forward to. I dropped Henry off at the University so he could hang with his dad who had to hang at a poster session that was conveniently going on at the exact same time as my appointment. When Holly and I caught up with them, we found them sitting by the windows, Henry with a Sprite in his hand and a plate of chips in his lap. Dave also told me he had already eaten two cookies. On the walk back to the car, I said "So, you had two cookies, huh? Lucky!" to which he responded "I *really* wanted another one..." "Really? You wanted THREE cookies?!?!" "No! I wanted four, actually!"

Posted by Jenn at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tonight for dinner we're having corn on the cob and salad. The salad is especially awesome because it contains homegrown: lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, chives, and onions. I strongly dislike carrots, but I planted them anyway because I thought they'd be fun. Now I feel like I have some sort of responsibility to eat them. You know how everyone says they taste naturally sweet? They don't. They taste naturally like carrot. Blech, For dessert we have homemade peach ice cream. Probably we'll opt to nosh on peanut m&m's though, because that's how we roll. I always want to put a "g" in front of the word "nosh". Such an English major.

I asked Henry if he'd thought about what he'd like to get at Disney while we're there. He said there are three things he would like: a hat with mouse ears, a Disney t-shirt, and a Disney balloon. The end. Meanwhile, check out this video (if the sound is wonky, bump it up to HD). My Uncle's the one with the tuba. Henry's psyched about the tuba, because that's how he rolls.

Holly's looking forward to hitting the all-you-can-eat buffets.

Posted by Jenn at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is this a photograph of a time traveler?

Posted by Jenn at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday Holly and I headed out bright and early to drop the car off for a checkup. Dave and I talked briefly about what I should say and we agreed on: oil change, check the brakes because they chirp like a little birdie, general check-up to make sure everything's in good working condition. Nothing like giving a mechanic carte blanche to find something wrong with your car to make you nervous. We hadn't heard anything by 2PM, which we assumed was probably bad news. At 3, Dave called and told me it was ready to be picked up. They changed the oil, looked at the brakes, declared they're in excellent condition, and the rest of the car's not so bad either. So it cost us all of $40. We were expecting at least a $400 bill. I later asked Dave if he feels relieved that our car seems fine, or even more worried that they didn't find anything wrong. The answer: more worried. I totally get that.

Meanwhile, today was devoted to eyes, specifically mine and Henry's. I decided to go ahead and try contact lenses. I've been wanting to for many years, and that's about how long it takes me to get my act together to make something happen. This morning was my appointment to learn how to put them in. The right eye went great, the left eye was a bit tougher. Let me say, it was not a great day to wear mascara. Or eyeliner. It was very odd to be able to see clearly without the frames of my glasses delineating the start of the blur. In fact, when I got home and glanced in the mirror in my bedroom, I had a brief "THAT'S what I look like!" moment. I haven't seen myself clearly without glasses on from a distance greater than two feet in at least six years. It was a little weird. Meanwhile, Henry and I returned later in the afternoon so he could be fitted with reading glasses. His eye doctor said he has 20/20 vision, but his eyes have trouble shifting from far away to close-up. She had a feeling he'd outgrow it, but since he's going to school, it wouldn't be terrible for him to have some reading glasses to help ease the ocular transition. They're blue. With propellers. He's stunningly adorable in them. After all of that excitement, I got a call from Lenscrafters saying my new sunglasses had come in, so we headed to the mall to pick them up. They're great, mostly because unlike the pair that have miraculously lasted the last seven years, the coating isn't peeling off and I can actually see through them.

Next week I get to head back to the eye doctor to let them know if the contacts are a go. If this morning is any indication, I'll now need one hour and a half hours of primping time before I leave the house: half an hour to shower and get myself cute, one hour to put the contacts in.

How was that for a navel-gazing post?

Posted by Jenn at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This past Sunday, we realized we're officially two weeks away from heading for the wilds of Florida. I looked at our calendar to get a sense of what's going on during that seemingly long, yet all too short span of time and darned near had a panic attack over what I saw. Then I almost had a second panic attack when I realized some things hadn't even made it on to the calendar yet. I have three appointments with various doctors. THREE! They're all pretty innocuous, but they still require me to drop everything and actually show up. Since we're driving down, we have to have the car checked out from top to bottom, although if we break down on the highway near a Kia dealership, Dave probably wouldn't be too broken up over riding off into the Everglades in a new Sorento. Next week Henry's back to his final week of summer camp. Once we're back in town in August, we're going to be staring down the barrel of the gun commonly referred to as Kindergarten, which I'm equally excited about and in denial over, so that's the last I'm going to say about any of that for a few weeks.

This afternoon I had the first of my three doctors appointments. It was to have my stitches removed and naturally when Henry caught wind of the purpose, he was very enthusiastic about coming along with me. You know, for moral support. We're sitting in the exam room, reading books, when the doctor walks in. She comes over to Henry, puts her hands on her knees, and very sweetly says "So! I hear you're here to have some stitches removed!" Henry looked at her like she was nuts, and I sheepishly told her that actually, I was the proud owner of the stitches, although I could see how she would make that mistake. She thought that was pretty funny. When I told her how it happened, she said she'd never had an avocado before, and what do you do with them anyway? What don't you do with an avocado? Holly and I split one every day. Life without avocado in it is unimaginable.

Tomorrow we're going to drop the car off, then Thursday I'm off to the eye doctor. At least I think it's Thursday. I don't really want to know.

Posted by Jenn at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Last week I was surfing through the Netflix Instant Queue offerings on the Roku and through a series of highly choreographed and complicated maneuvers* ended up on a British comedy called "The IT Crowd". I have a soft spot for computer geeks, after all, I did marry one, so I figured I'd check it out. Last Friday, I watched the first episode, then immediately watched the next. I stopped there because I knew I needed to be watching them with Dave. Since then, we've blazed through all of Series 1 and 2, somehow managing to limit ourselves to two episodes a night.

The second episode of Series 1 is one of the funniest 23 minutes I've ever seen on TV. There's a bit that has a catchy little tune that stays in your head, and yesterday, in an effort to purge it from my mind, I found the clip on youtube. Unfortunately, Henry overheard the song and came running in, asking what I was watching. I showed him, and he then insisted on watching it over and over again. The result is I now have a completely useless string of numbers memorized and the jingle is permanently lodged in my cranium. It was the last thing I hummed last night and the first thing I sang this morning. Someone, please help.

If you think you can resist, go ahead and watch. I dare you.

*I can't believe that's how you spell maneuvers. Isn't there an "o" in there somewhere?

Posted by Jenn at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I went and had my stitches checked out this morning, per the ER doc's suggestion, just to make sure I was healing and not throwing a cocktail party for any infections. My doctor said it looked good, laughed when I told her how it happened, then laughed even more when I told her it was a serrated knife. She said because of the location and the resulting threat of the wound reopening (ewwwwwww) I get to continue to gross people out with my Sally impression for another week and a half. But! I got the okay to go ahead and get back to hanging out poolside, so all is not lost!

Meanwhile, Henry has caught himself a little summertime cold. Yesterday we went to the local amusement park to see these guys (the drummer's unbelievable), and by the time we left, Henry was a complete wreck. He shoved aside a little girl who was trying to help her baby brother into a boat ride. It was the last ride of the evening because we were fresh out of tickets, which really destroyed him when I hauled him off the ride before it even started and gave him quite the little talking too. The hardest lessons to get across to the four year old set are the ones that conflict with their general feeling that they are the center of the universe. His response to my talk with him, between gasping sobs, was "Why were they trying to get on the blue boat? That's the one *I* wanted to ride!" By the time we got home, his nose was running like a faucet and he was absolutely exhausted. On the walk from the car to the front door, Henry yelled "OH NO! *mumble mumble mumble* A BEE *mumble* ME!!!!" *SOB SOB SOB* Based on his reaction, I assumed he had been stung, and after some clarification, he hysterically informed us that a bee had bumped into him. I felt badly for him. Also? I was biting my lip, trying not to laugh. It was a rough evening for Henry. Today he's sick and grumpy and full of energy, yet needing to rest, which is always a frustrating combination. I'm counting the minutes until Dave gets home.

Posted by Jenn at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)