The Fish Pond

Run of the Mill, But Boy are we A'Multiplyin'

This weekend was a full one:

Cousin B got married Friday night, to a wonderful man who has a child, and she has a child already, too, so in 15 minutes (yes, it was that short a wedding - and it started on time) she doubled the size of her immediate family.  The wedding was tiny, only about 20 people came, if that, and our family accounted for about 15 of them, so there was lots and lots of food left over.  We are still eating the Olive Garden leftovers my aunt sent us home with.  If I were to ever get married again, I would have a quick little wedding like that.  The only bad thing was that it was outside and the bugs ate up my feet since the only shoes that fit me right now are sandals.  Ah, well.  Itchy, but memorable.

Cousin C, sister of Cousin B, is due with her first child next month and her baby shower was this weekend.  I took Trout with me while BigDaddyFish took Little Man and Sunny to my in-laws' farm for the day.  It was great to have some alone time with Trout and we got a lot of talking done, since it was about an hour away.  BDF really enjoyed his time with his parents and the other two kids, too.  It was a lot of fun, and Cousin C got pretty much all she needs, so now the baby can come any time.  Trout and I got home early, so we went out and got matching haircuts.  We are both quite the cuties, if I do say so myself.

BigDaddyFish has a cousin who is also pregnant right now.  I have a couple of friends who may as well be my sisters, and one of them just gave birth to my godson a couple of weeks ago.  Her sister and sister-in-law are both pregnant right now, and I am due in November.  Gonna be lots of new names and birthdays to keep track of come 2007.

The joys of a big family.....

Went to the pool today with my sister-in-law, her two kids, two of her neighbor kids, and the four of us.  We had a great, relaxing time during which Sunny only tried to drown herself 3 times, and Little Man got a funny sunburn because the older cousin who put on his sunscreen was afraid of getting it too close to his eyes, so it missed his cheekbones and under his eyes - he looks like a red-eyed racoon boy.  And Trout, well, she learned how to jump off the diving board, and how to swim without her floaties.  I am so proud of her.  More importantly, she's proud of herself.  Can't ask for more than that for a Monday in August.

Wash of a Weekend

This past weekend we took the kids to my friend's cabin in Pennsylvania.  Our van is acting funny (I still maintain it is possessed by a demon), so we decided to take BigDaddyFish's commuting car, a Subaru Outback.

Three kids.  Side-by-side.  In the back seat.

Can I just say NEVER AGAIN?!?

Screaming was the order of the day - them screaming because someone touched them, or looked at them, or had an idea about them, or something, or just boisterous screaming while they were playing with each other and don't understand the meaning of "inside voices," or else BDF and me screaming at the kids to be quiet because we couldn't even talk to each other because the kids were so loud, or else the baby screaming because she was "so sad" for various reasons over the course of the weekend.  Just a veritable screamfest.  Of epic proportions.

When we arrived home last night, BigDaddyFish asked me if we did ANYTHING right this weekend.  We did - here are some highlights:

• Rainbow Trout and BDF went up for a helicopter ride in the dinkiest helicopter I've ever seen.  I managed to make it through without a panic attack, mostly because Sunny flipped out when the helicopter took off and started to bank around to the left.  Sunny saw that and said "Oh, they're coming back" and I explained that no, they weren't right now, they would be back in a few minutes.  She flipped and exclaimed "I want my Daddy to come back" so I was distracted from my own anxiety by trying to console her.  They made it safely - they just flew over the lake and park where we were staying.  Trout sat in the front and made her dad sit in the back.  When we asked her how it was, she said "It was so cool I couldn't even talk."  What greater reward for me for letting her go in spite of my own fears?
• Little Man fell in love with a waitress in a restaurant where we had dinner, so he wouldn't talk to her but kept whispering in BDF's ear when he wanted something.  It was too cute.  Plus, he got a lego set.  And I let him take pictures after we came down off the water tower.
• Yes, water tower.  Here in sue-city, no one would EVER let anyone climb up on a water tower due to liability reasons.  Up there, in the relative boondocks, they have a water tower and you can climb steps up to the top and look out over the lake and countryside.  Beautiful.
• We went to Horseshoe Curve, where trains go completely around you.  BDF and I had been years ago, before we had kids, but this was the first time we'd taken the kids.  They have a little meadow and the kids just ran around and played and picked wildflowers and watched trains.  It was quite relaxing.
• Due to my girth and general grumpiness and discomfort, I have a big problem sleeping, so I got a full bed to myself while BigDaddyFish and Sunny slept on the futon in a different room.  They slept well, Sunny was delighted to be sleeping with Daddy, and I slept as well as I could for six months pregnant.

It wasn't all bad, and those were just a few of the high points, but we chalk it up to a learning experience, thank our friends profusely for the use of their cabin in hopes that they might let us go back someday to right our wrongs, and are simply glad to be home, and grateful for our health, BDF's job, and all our other blessings.

Including the minivan I swore I would never get and couldn't live without.

The Diaper Dilemma

The littlest guppy won't keep her diaper on.  She just recently turned 2, and has decided that her diapers are an abomination.  I don't so much mind when she takes them off when she pees, but she takes them off when she poops, too, and then there is the disaster of poop everywhere, since it either falls out of the diaper, or it is wet and sticky and sticks to her, and well, everything.  I've tried putting the diaper on backwards and using onesies to tie her up a bit, and it doesn't even slow her down, she is skinny so she just climbs out the top.  I am at my wit's end.  She isn't ever dry, it seems, so I really don't think she's ready to train, though sometimes she just wants to sit on the potty so I let her, but she hardly ever goes when she does.  Since we're having a new baby in the fall, and I figure she'll regress anyway, I haven't wanted to push things.  If I have any readers at all, can you please post any suggestions?

For the record, my first two were only 22 months apart, so it wasn't an issue with them, I just had 2 in diapers, and the Boy was 2 1/2 and not even remotely interested when Sunny came along, so this is something I've never encountered.  So much for experience.