Mid-Summer Update

I know, I know. It's more like a late-summer update. Sorry about that. It's been a crazy couple of months. Isabel started standing, which quickly led to walking. She took her first steps on 7/9/08 (at 11 months and 1 week).



Now she's flying around at warp speeds and I'm just trying to keep up. She's so adorable, and so tough. She falls, bumps her head, and gets right back up. The only things that make this girl cry are hunger and taking away her toys (ahem, my car keys in particular.) She's so happy, so curious, and so beautiful I want to squeeze her til she pops.



So we just celebrated her 1st birthday on Saturday, which was great. It was SO SO hot here, but the kids played in the back yard on our slip-n-slide and had a great time. I'm including a few pictures for everyone to see. The highlight of the party was Isabel devouring her birthday cake. Literally, devouring. Remember the T-Rex from Jurassic Park? That dude has NOTHING on Isabel when it comes to swiping food in a hurry.



Take care, everyone. More updates soon.



Squeezes and smacks,

LaSon

Smiling Isabel around 9am on her 1st birthday!

Isabel playing on the slip-n-slide

Isabel dancing (Ok, so she wasn't really dancing. It looks like it though, right??)

That cake was finger lickin' good!

And you thought I was kidding when I said she devoured it. That cake was gone in under 5 minutes. That's MY GIRL!

You Have to STAND for Something...

...or you'll fall for anything. Or so the song goes. Apparently Isabel has heard the song, because she has taken a stand. Custer's Last Stand has nothing on this girl. She just sits on the floor, decides to stand up, and magically does it - no assistance needed! She's even graceful when she decides to *plop* down on the floor to crawl somewhere. (Much more graceful than her klutz of a mom, that's for sure.)
Now if I could just get her into that other country song... "These boots are made for walking..."

Isabel - just chillin' (that's baby slang for standing in our house.)

This is Isabel in the middle of *plopping* down. Doesn't she look so graceful?

Down with the WP

Do you know what that means? "Down with the WP"? Well, for starters, WP stands for Water Park. I am down with it, meaning all for it, cool with it, big fan. We be WP people. (Ouch, bad slang, horrible grammar. It hurts to *be* cool.)

So now that I've made you equally cool just by reading this and knowing what WP means, let me tell you why this magical place has become such an important part of our summer lives during the past 2 summers.

Cold Clean Water. Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Some people may say, "Hey, crazy lady! You live 3 miles from the ATLANTIC OCEAN! Why on earth would you pay to swim in water and get a tan when you have that for free??" Well I'm here to tell you that the ocean isn't all it's cracked up to be. Carrying chairs, coolers, umbrellas, beach toys, and 2 kids to the beach IS WORK. You usually can't park anywhere near the actual sand, so you have to haul all of that a few hundred yards until you find a small space of beach to claim as your own for the day. And speaking of sand, that stuff gets EVERYwhere. In your hair, toes, bag, chairs, coolers, umbrellas, beach toys, and 2 kids. Not to mention the unmentionable places of every attendee. Then there is the ocean itself. Beautiful in pictures. Even more beautiful in person - watching the waves crash, hearing the earth's power at work before your very eyes. But did you know that stuff LIVES in there??? All kinds of crazy stuff like fish, sharks, jelly fish, stingrays, seaweed (ok, maybe that's not alive, but the way it attacks your thighs and won't let go will make you THINK that something live has gotten you.) Then there's the safety factor for the young kids. Isabel could swallow small shells and choke. Nicholas could wander off and get lost or, worse, wade into the ocean over his head and be unseen below the greenish-brown ocean water. Um, no thank you...

So, as I said, we be WP people. Nice clean clear water, where you can see every single thing in the water, no matter how deep the water is (hello, 6 ft. deep wave pool.) Free lounge chairs and sporadically placed super-huge umbrellas all around the park. Food court just a short walk away. Loads of fun slides and entertainment for the kids. Lifeguards galore (although yes, some of those 15 year old brats care more about flirting with other lifeguards than watching our children...) Plus, there's exercise to be had at the water park. Climb the stairs to just one slide one time and you'll burn off the calories from that slice of pizza you'll have for lunch. Do it multiple times, and you'll have an excuse to stop at McDonalds for a hot fudge sundae on the way home (calories = energy, or so says my Slim-Fast can every morning...) And did I mention they have this thing called the L-A-Z-Y River?? You get in a tube with the kids and force them to sit still for at least 5 mintues (30 minutes + if you're either very lucky or very talented/tricky/powerful and plan the lazy river trip for right after lunch.)

This place is a slice of heaven here on earth (in Myrtle Beach) for 3 months every year. We go nearly every Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer. The doors open at 10, but we're usually the first ones in line outside at 9:30. As season pass holders, we can fly through the gates, flash the pass, grab a wrist-band, and then call "dibs" on *our* chairs. Yes, I'm calling them ours. 90% of the time we are at the water park, we occupy the exact same chairs. They are under one of those super umbrellas, right next to the large kiddie pool with all of the great slides for youngsters. We're right next to a life guard and at a central location to all of our favorite things (like the Snack bar I mentioned earlier that serves some yummy shoestring french fries.) We save a couple of extra chairs for the kids to chill out on when they need a break. We also usually pack a lunch or heavy hor d'oeuvres (haha, I just called kiddie food hor d'oeuvres...) to have in the picnic area. Once or twice a month we'll break down and let the kids have a full meal from the snack bar (hello, double dog meal with fries!)

It really is one of my favorite multiple-occasion memories from Nicholas' childhood thus far. I absolutely cannot wait to get Isabel in on the tradition this year. Just thinking of Nicholas' drastic tan lines and blonde hair gets me so excited, because opening day is only TWO WEEKS away! My favorite part of living in Myrtle Beach is right around the corner, and I am READY!

Enjoy these pictures of fun from the past two summers.

Squeezes & Smacks,

LaSon

Nicholas going down the "tree slide" with his swimmies on. This was summer 2006, when he was 2.

Nicholas playing in the water, summer of 2006 again

Nicholas at the very beginning of summer 2007. You can see some of the cool floating animals and waterfall mushroom in one of the kiddie pools behind him. We love to get on the gator or snake and ride them like horsies, bouncing in the water! (Did I say "we"? I meant the kids, not me...)

Nicholas and his water park princesses (read: not girlfriends. These are older women) Left to right: Shayla, Nicholas, Coral, & Gabby. You can see my prego back in the top left corner. See how we put the kids on a chair behind us in the shade? Cool, huh??

The most handsome 3 year old to ever hit Wild Water, modeling his super-cool goggles. This picture is taken from *our* chairs, which are poolside near the tree slide, shell slide, pirate ship slide, cave, etc.

Nicholas swimming in the kiddie pool. Look at that fish go!

Nosey People Annoy Me

So here's the thing. I'm not an overly private person, at least most of the time. I talk a lot, many times about myself or my family or my life. I enjoy sharing stories with my friends. But I am currently in a sit-u that is burning me up beyond belief.

Many of you know that just over 2 months ago, Carlos and I made the decision to pull our children out of public daycare. While there wasn't any one thing that happened to "set us off", we felt it was the best decision for our family. Nicholas was having difficulty with the lack of individualized attention he was receiving. Both kids had been sick continuously for the first 2 months of the year, passing colds back and forth with the kids in their respective classes.

It all came to a head when Nicholas was hospitalized for pneumonia. Coincidentally, one of our favorite teachers at the daycare (we'll call her Kelly) had been "released from employment" around the same time. Without getting into the nitty gritty on all that - Kelly made an anonymous suggestion to the owner that all employees should be treated fairly in order to improve morale. Needless to say, the owner didn't like that, figured out that Kelly had made the suggestion, and fired her during a staff meeting.


So, in one of the hardest weeks in my life, my child has pneumonia and ends up hospitalized, and I find out Kelly is "no longer working with" the daycare. I contacted Kelly and asked her to consider keeping my children at her home, and we struck a deal. I notified the daycare that the children would cease attendance and let them know the kids were moving to a home daycare environment.


Now for the past 2 months, the owner of the daycare has continued discussing my family, particularly my children, with her staff. She has said on multiple occasions that she knows Kelly "stole" my children from her, and has threatened to call DSS (Department of Social Services) to report her. FOR THE RECORD, the DSS website clearly states that the arrangement I have with Kelly is legal. She is not required to be licensed, or register as a home daycare. This is because the only children who she is paid to care for on a regular basis are mine. Of course Kelly and I already knew this, because she contacted them before agreeing to keep my children.


So the hothead protective mother in me wants to march into that daycare and give the owner a piece of my mind. How dare she threaten to call DSS in regards to my children? And for what?? She apparently does NOT know the law, or she wouldn't make these accusations and threats in the first place. The rational side of me knows there are better ways to handle the situation, and so I've been seeking advice from those closest to me. I am planning to send a certified letter to the owner requesting that she cease discussing me and/or my children with her staff, and instructing her to direct any questions or comments relative to my children TO ME.


I doubt I'll hear anything. But I'll keep you posted.

To quote the My Space page of a friend of mine:

"Junior High called. They want their drama back."

Squeezes & Smacks,

LaSon

Lemonade Meme

A fellow mommy-blogger and good long-distance friend of mine, Spunky Mommy, contacted me last week and tagged me to participate in a project known as Lemonade Meme. You can check out the link to see what it's all about, but basically you tell a story about a time in life when you made lemonade from those dreaded lemons. She posed the challenge (below) and passed on the following perspective from her friend (who had passed it on to her): "I believe sometimes the worst in life can become the best in life."
Rules:
* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
* Link back to person who tagged you.
* Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing.
* Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
* Let each person you tagged know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
* And if you want some extra good karma - link back to her original Lemonade Meme post too.

So here we go. I had to put a lot of thought into this - I've had several times when I've felt life was dealing me lemons, but I haven't always made the best lemonade from them. Just over 7 years ago, I had reached one of the low points in my life emotionally. Essentially, I'd left a bad roomate situation and was struggling to make it on my own renting out a friend's 1 bedroom apartment. I had lost most of my close friends who lived in my area due to a struggle over what they felt was too "obnoxious" about my personality. (They did everything BUT plan an intervention to tell me I was too loud, too outspoken, and couldn't control my tongue.) I was working in an entry level job, which I enjoyed, but for which I had under-priced myself during the interview (read: no money). I was actually eating Ramen noodles or canned soup with crackers for dinner every night. (Thanks to my mother, who always sent me home with crackers, soup, and other miscellaneous items which she had "accidentally" purchased too much of at the store.) I had just split AGAIN from my 4-time ex-boyfriend.

So you get the picture now - life pretty much sucked. Yes, there are people with much worse situations out there, but this was a low point for me. A good friend came to town and took me out to dinner one night at an Italian restaurant where I'd worked several years earlier. She let me vent, whine, and cry about how I was not living the life I dreamed of. As we were leaving, I talked to the restaurant manager and discussed whether or not they'd be hiring for the summer, and he told me to call back in 2 weeks. (Hello, exciting - working meant more money!)

So I called back, got the job, started right away, and began working 'round the clock so I'd have enough money to do more than "make ends meet". But I was still miserable emotionally, because money was only one small part of my frustrations. I had no social life, no close friends who lived anywhere nearby. I still remember crying myself to sleep every night, wondering how long I could live like that.

Then one day I walked into work and a new kid was making pizzas. He immediately caught my eye, and I was drawn like a moth to a flame. I spent spare moments learning more about him, and everything he told me made me like him more. For several weeks we talked about our families and childhoods. I was sure this guy was interested in me, but he would not ask me out. So on 5/5/01 (Cinco de Mayo), I asked him out.

(Side bar here: I was asking him out for a multitude of reasons, but you should know that my "former" friends had asked me to meet them at a local Mexican restaurant for the Cinco de Mayo party. They wanted to give me another chance, to not be so "embarassing"... I knew I hadn't changed, and I knew it would take them all of 5 minutes to realize that and a feud begin. So I wanted someone to keep me company for the rest of the party after they ditched me.)

So I asked him out, he said yes, blah blah blah. Funny thing happened - the friends ditched me after 5 minutes, but it wasn't because of anything I said. They were simply not impressed by my guest and chose not to be in our company for the evening. One of my friends actually asked me, "What do you SEE in him??"

Well, I didn't have an answer for that at the time. But after 7 years of making lemonade, a life, and 2 kids with Carlos - I've realized something. I could have let my friends' opinons affect my decision, and ditched him at that party. He and I saw something in eachother. Even though we couldn't explain it, we had (and still have) a connection that is undeniable. There is nothing in life I can't tell him. He brings out the best in me, and accepts my "worst". I would love to run into those former friends today so I could show them the wonderful life I have with my darling husband - the man who pulled me from the emotional slump I was in.

I don't know if this counts as making lemonade. It's the best example I have of a time when life was sour and I stumbled upon a way to make sweet lemonade.

Thanks, Sarah, for giving me the opportunity.

I don't really have a lot of friends who blog, but I'll be copying this blog to a bulletin on My Space. I'll be pasting messages for some of my friends on My Space, and they could do this via a bulletin as well.

Attack of 'The Really Bad Day'

So I had a bad day. Yes, I realize I'm not setting any world records here. I'm not the first person ever to have a bad day. I'm not having the 'Worst Day Ever'. I'm not having the longest bad day ever (don't know if that's even possible, except in the movie Groundhog Day.)
That doesn't change the fact that this just was not my 'Best Day Ever'.

Here's how my day was supposed to go:

• Take kids to sitter
• Go to work
• Have meeting
• Work on project 1
• Go to lunch
• Meet with boss
• Work on project 2
• Go to gym
• Pick up kids from sitter
• Go home and make dinner

Lots of blah, blah, blah after that.

Here's how it really went:

• Take kids to sitter
• Go to work
• Have meeting
• Work on project 1 (for 2 minutes)
• Learn of big crisis on project D
  

What is project D you ask? "D" stands for "Done" - as in I thought I was done with this project. It's in the bag, ready to go, no more flowing of the creative juices, being technicall saavy, or pulling out my hair in frustration. It's party time, because this baby is D-O-N-E.

Nah, that would make life WAY too easy. Screw easy, that can't be fun. Let's throw a wrench in and make life interesting!! I was dangerously near tears several times today. I don't know why, but I am beyond the adjective "frustrated" at this project. I just want to be finished with it and get the program started! It's time to be proud of the fruits of my labors, already!

So here I am, ready to work on projects 1 & 2, and I'm stuck spending most of my day on project D. (In D's defense, I spent almost 3 hours in that meeting first thing in the morning, so D is not really to blame for the chunk of my morning that went missing.)

I wish I was one of those people who could go to the gym and burn off frustration. Instead, I'm the person who wants to go home, climb into bed, and lay in the fetal position for hours on end. I still went to the gym, and I tried to vent my anger on the elliptical. But seriously? How does that work when you don't even have an actual human to be angry at? So I finished my workout and left, still angry, yet physically drained.

So now I am home with my two monkeys. They're being pretty cute tonight, so I can't complain about that.

Please, everyone pray for me - I am really hoping tomorrow is a better day. Thanks for listening. Here's a cute picture of Nicholas to put us all back in our happy place.

I love this kid... sometimes he looks and acts just like me.

Squeezes & Smacks

The New Evil Knievel

Well, it's official. We have an 8 month old daredevil on our hands. As I mentioned in the not-so-distant past, Isabel is crawling at warp speeds. Turn your head for a moment, and she's in another room.

Yesterday she began her training for professional rock climing. What, don't believe me? While I may be known for occasional over-dramatization to improve a story, this is no exaggeration. The child cannot even walk yet. She can't stand without the aid of sturdy objects or a helping hand. But she's climbing into chairs and on top of boxes. Still don't believe me?? See for yourself.


Oooh, look at me trying to climb on Mommy's Avon box...





Did I say TRYING? What I meant to say was, "Look at me while I AM climbing on Mommy's Avon box."




Oh, you thought that's the only trick I had, huh? How about climbing on my bouncy seat?




I'm practicing my balancing skills for surfing. Santa's bringing me a board this year. Like, TOTALLY, duuuude!



So there you have it. Daredevil Isabel. Nicholas never climbed like this. Of course I kept him penned up until he was around 2... maybe it's time to pull out that old baby gate again!

Squeezes & Smacks!
(Hugs & Kisses)

Return of the Mack (Mama Monkey)

Well, blog-land can't get rid of me that easily! For those of you who have followed along, you know that I started this blog several weeks ago then was shut-down, locked out, evicted (whatever you want to call it) by the blog bots. They called me dirty names like sp@m. Vicious animals!

Well I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Now didn't you all miss me??

So what's new?

Isabel is a competitive crawler (we've been timing her laps and are considering putting her on the pro circuit.)

Nicholas is 4. Apparently the age of four comes with a serious dose of hearing loss. I swear I can repeat myself 4 or 5 times without any acknowledgement. Do they make ear drops for this???

Carlos still works ALL OF THE TIME and we rarely see him. The up side to that is that he "brings home the bacon" - plenty of it. Down side is that Nicholas is now 4 (see above) and realizes he's not seeing much of Daddy. And guess who gets to hear him whine/yell/complain about that? Your favorite caped crusader - MAMA MONKEY!

Other than that, all is pretty much "normal".

I would like to ask that everyone say a prayer for a family friend from the great state of PA named Doris. She just had pretty serious surgery and is in ICU. Doctors say she's looking good, but please pray for her. She is one of the craziest (read: wild) women I've ever known. But she also has a good heart. She and her husband Roy were 2 of the most generous people I knew growing up.

So I'll dedicate this blog to Doris & her well being. God bless, you huzzy. Hugs & kisses.

Easter Rhymes with Keester

Knocked flat on my keester (that's my hiney, for anyone who's grandfather never used the word keester.) I don't eve know if I'm spelling it correctly. Can't say I recall ever seeing it in print.



Whoa, sidetrack much? To say that I am tired today would be the understatement of the year. I had a rotten night's sleep and I'm quite grumpy this morning. Fortunately, Princess Isabel woke me up fairly nicely. Simple quiet crying was all I heard over the monitors. Definitely not full-on screaming "Get in here and change my poopy diaper, you crazy lady" that the diaper situation I found called for. Let's just say that when my sweet precious angel doesn't have a bowel movement for 24 hours, you DO NOT want to be on diaper duty when things start moving. It took 30 minutes for me to build up an appetite for breakfast afterwards.

Enough about poop. 3 days until Nicholas' birthday. Apparently backwards counting is really not his thing. I finally had him ready to admit that yesterday was 4 days until his birthday. I asked, "How many days will be left until your birthday tomorrow?" To which he promptly answered, "Five!"



He's still asleep, by the way. After all his excitement to search for Easter eggs, the kid is still in the bed. His sister and I tried to wake him up earlier. He cracked one eye open and promptly covered his head and rolled over. Maybe he had a late night partying while he's still 3 (for 3 more days, for those of you who aren't following...) Maybe I'll try to stuff & hide the eggs while he's still asleep.

Here's my question for the day: Does anyone out there actually hide hard-boiled eggs instead of (or along with) plastic eggs for Easter?

Ciao for now!

Blogging Rhymes with Jogging

Once upon a time in a faraway place, there was a Mama of two monkeys. She spent her days at her Marketing job and her nights as a zookeeper at the Esparza Family Zoo. An old friend invited her to check out her blog on Blogspot, and... well, here we are. Ok, so once upon a time wasn't too far into the distant past. Good marketing is sometimes misleading. What are you gonna do?

So here I am, wondering if this will be a project I start and then never return to. Sounds cool now, but turns into a lot of work for a woman without much free time on her hands. I guess we'll just have to wait it out and see if my life is actually interesting enough for my friends to check in and read about it. (That will also be a test of whether or not my friends' lives are interesting enough to keep them too busy to have time to ready about my (possibly) interesting life.)

Still with me? Yes answers are a good sign...

So today is Saturday. Nicholas turns 4 in 4 days. Try explaining this to an (almost) 4 year old. Yesterday it was 5 days, so naturally my (almost) 4 year old spent the morning arguing with me that his birthday is in 5 days, not 4. Of course this is the same child who will tell you that his sister was in my tummy 2 weeks (ahem, 7 months) ago. If I had his sense of time, my boss would have fired me 2 weeks (uh, 2 years) ago.

Isabel is growing like a weed. I hear that's a common symptom of most infants. To be so small, the kid can put away some food. And I'm starting to realize we pay as much for her food as we do for our own. Quite disproportionate, really.

Easter is tomorrow. We have no significant plans made. My mother is not doing her traditional Easter dinner, so the kids and I are just hanging around the house. Carlos has to work, but that's no surprise. I bought a small pack of plastic eggs to fill with coins and hide around the back yard. I think Melissa might come over to watch him find them. Maybe I can convince her to go out for a late lunch/early dinner with us.

Ok, here's my question for the day - in your family, is it custom to fill the eggs with candy, money, or both?

Ta-ta for now!