Welcome to Paradise

It's Monday and I'm back to work after spending a week in paradise, or at least that's what it seemed like to me. The reality of going to work every day can be depressing, especially after the beautiful week I just had.


First, I have to tell you, I was no less than completely impressed with Cancun. All the travel advisories, I'm sure weren't for nothing, but I saw nothing that would make me concerned. I felt completely safe and totally welcomed by every single person I encountered. I mean everyone.




The week started a little rough, and I suppose had the potential of creating a terrible situation, but it didn't last long. After getting off the plane and going through customs in Cancun, Jon and I waited for our luggage. Jon's suitcase was the first to arrive. I sat at the conveyer belt for a half hour watching and waiting for my suitcase to show up. After all the bags but one were picked up by passengers anxious to start their vacation, I realized my bag was not coming off that plane. I filed my lost baggage claim and we took our transport to the resort. I was crying, Jon was upset and the taxi driver was all about karma. We shared the cab with a man who also lost his luggage and his girlfriend. Apparently they were supposed to meet in Atlanta, but her flight was delayed and he had to board the plane without her.

The taxi driver, in his best English, spent the 20 minute ride telling us our luggage would be returned and we could be miserable and then we'll have a miserable time, or we can be happy and have a good time because the worst thing that could happen is that we'd have to buy new clothes.

The guy we shared the cab with, Frank, was on board with what the driver was talking about; I, on the other hand, only got more upset with every word that came from his mouth. I had been packed for this trip for a full week. I had a suitcase full of clean, warm-weather clothes, while the clothes on my back were too heavy for the weather and, as every girl can attest to, the thought of having to go swimsuit shopping while on vacation, seemed daunting at best.

At the hotel, we were greeted by a man handing us each a glass of Champaign. It was delicious and exactly what I needed, but, above all, I'm a girl, and once a girl starts crying, sometimes it takes more than a glass of Champaign to stop the tears from flowing and that grabs the attention of every hotel employee, who came up to me and made sure I was OK. Everyone assured me my luggage would arrive tomorrow. We checked in, went to our room and I took a hot shower, put my dirty clothes back on and we went to dinner.




One bottle of wine later, I was feeling better.

After the second bottle of wine, I was also sure my luggage would show up at the hotel in the morning. I fell asleep sure things would get better. But I woke up 2 hours later and stayed awake worrying about my luggage until 5:30. At 6:30 Jon woke up and we got dressed and went to the front desk to see if my luggage arrived overnight. As we were standing at the desk, a man rolled my bag in the front doors and I gave the delivery man a hug and knew the rest of the week would be just fine.

And it was.

As was Frank's luggage and girlfriend, who arrived at the hotel at about 1 a.m.

Mexico is beautiful inside and out. I can't tell you about underbelly of the country, but what is on the surface is nothing short of spectacular. Seriously, I've never in my life seen such natural beauty. The water is crystal clear and the most amazing shades of blue you have ever seen. People are friendly and so happy when you just try to speak Spanish, even if you fail miserably, they are thrilled if you try.




Jon and I took three snorkeling trips to three different reefs. Our first trip was to a reef in a lagoon. We, well, Jon, drove a speed boat to the area. A man assigned us a boat, gave us some simple directions and we and three other couples followed him for about 20 minutes until we reached our snorkeling spot. The water was a little chilly, but what we saw made up for the chilly water. Floating along the top of the water, looking at fish through perfectly clear water is something I will never forget. The screaming 8 year old girl who was terrified of being in the water is something I will try very hard to forget. That aside, we swam for about a half an hour looking a fish and the reef and just spent the time being completely amazed. After the swim, we got back into the boat, which I thought it would be a good idea if I tried to drive it (it was not). Five minutes into our trip back, I stalled the boat and Jon and I were left drifting in the water, waiting for someone to come and rescue us, which they did. But that was as long as I got to drive the speedboat.

The next day I made up for it during a 30 minute wave runner ride on the open ocean. I am not very good at driving watercraft, I accept that, but I did it and I'm proud of myself for doing so. I'm even more proud of the fact that during that 30 minute ride, we were actually going to our third (Yes, I skipped over the second. I'll get to it) snorkeling spot. We were heading to a reef area where there was a 30 foot hole in which we could swim. We jumped off the wave runners and swam in the open ocean with no life jacket and tried to get up the nerve to swim into the hole.

Back onto the wave runner, it was Jon's turn to drive, and in less than one minute Jon threw us off the machine and right back into the water.





The second snorkeling trip, which happened right before the third one, I'm talking a matter of minutes here, was totally amazing. We took a bus to Playa Del Carman, then got on a catamaran to a protected reef in the middle of the ocean. We were between Playa Del Carman and Cuba. We were in open water and the tour guides made sure we understood if we touch any coral and we get cut, it would attract sharks. This time, the guides brought fish food.

Before jumping in the water, everyone was given a life jacket. Sitting on the catamaran, I noticed Jon's was torn practically in half.




"Go get yourself a new jacket," I told him. So he went to the nearest guide and showed him the jacked.

"Can you swim," the guide asked.

"Yeah," Jon said.

"This is Mexico. No problemo," the guide said.

Jon shrugged his shoulders and laughed and came back.

"I guess I'll be fine," Jon said.

He was. It was no problemo at all.

Once in the water, thousands of fish swarm our group searching for food. We could touch the fish, just not the reef. Swimming in the ocean is hard. The water isn't still and you have to fight a current, but it's not impossible and the guides were vigilant about keeping us all together.

Again, I'm sure you're tired of hearing this by now, the water was so clear. You can see straight through to the bottom. There's no odor, but it's extremely salty.

After the trip, we went back to the hotel and indulged in a couples massage. It was so relaxing and extremely professional. Honestly, this was the very first time I had a real massage and it was great. Fifty minutes went by in a flash.

Thursday morning, my birthday, Jon and I checked out of the resort and I boarded a transport headed to Cancun airport and he took a taxi to his next hotel. It was sad. Having spent 5 glorious days in paradise, leaving alone is, well, very lonely.

All in all, this trip was spectacular. We will be going back. The kids didn't come with us and, despite my initial concerns about leaving them, it was great that they weren't there. This trip gave Jon and I much-needed adult time. Everything we needed or wanted was handed to us with a smile. Anything and everything we wanted to do, we did. It was like a second honeymoon and I wouldn't have changed a single thing.

Playing catch up

How long can you go in between posts and still call yourself a blogger? I think I'm going to find out.

I've noticed during the last couple of weeks that the less I blog the better I feel about my parenting skills. Maybe it's because I'm not analyzing every move I make, or maybe it's because when my kids are bad, I forget about it instead of writing about it.

Yeah, that's the ticket. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Having said all that, so much has gone on that I'm not even sure where to start, so I'll start on the toilet. Quite literally, Sophia has decided she wants to use the potty. She still isn't telling us when she has to go, but she's using the potty when we ask her if she has to go. To be fair, she did tell us one time on Saturday that she had to use the potty, but it hasn't happened since.

Regardless, I am thrilled at her enthusiasm for the potty and I'm feeding into it as best I can, so much so that Ryan has decided he should sit on the potty whenever Sophia does. It's actually very cute, he just plops his little butt down on her little potty after she's done and claps. Maybe, if I'm lucky, Ryan will be potty trained by the time Sophia is and I'll have both kids out of diapers by the summer.

Good luck, right.

The other major thing happening at home is Sophia (again) has decided she can't stay in her bed. Bedtime stretches for hours (if both parents are home, of course). Supernanny would be appalled at how long it takes us to put Sophia to bed. We've tried everything, from Supernanny techniques to sleeping on the floor next to her bed. Nothing works … except ignoring her. I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but what has been working is when she gets out of bed after we tuck her in, we go upstairs and put her back into bed without saying a word to her. She's an attention grabber, so she doesn’t enjoy this one bit. Some days she screams louder, other days she goes back to sleep.

It's a crap shoot, really. One day she'll go to sleep.

Sigh

When she does go to sleep, we've noticed at about 11 p.m. every night, Sophia wakes up screaming. I think she's having a nightmare, but I can't confirm that since she doesn't really understand what a dream is. I've resorted to comforting her and giving her whatever she wants to calm her and get her to go back to bed.

My kids aren't spoiled one bit, are they?

Enough about the kids, you want to know about me too, right? Yes, I know, I'm used to playing second fiddle when my kids are around, but, damn it, you're going to hear about me too. This weekend beautiful weather crept in and we took advantage of the 60 degree weather to go for our first bike ride of 2009. It felt so great to get back on the bike and out of the gym, it better have, because this year we have quite a few miles to train for and I'm so nervous and looking forward to it at the same time.

This year, in addition to the MS 150 City to Shore ride we did last year, Jon and I are going to do the Dutch Country ride in July, which is two 100 mile days (ugh!) and we are hoping to do the Livestrong Challenge ride when it comes to the area, which is another 150 miles. All together that's 500 miles for 2009.

I hope my legs make it.

In exactly three weeks, my husband and I will be boarding a plane and flying to Cancun. I am so excited about this trip because 1) it's a warm vacation spot in the middle of crappy weather season, and 2) THE KIDS ARE NOT COMING! I love my kids to death, but is it really a vacation if the kids go? Hmmm, you can decide that for yourself.

Beach blanket bingo

It’s been quiet here at The Mommy Diaries because we’ve been on vacation. Actually, we are still technically on vacation, but right now at least we’re home. For the past couple of days we were at my sister’s house in Delaware, and a stone’s throw from Rehoboth beach. My sister invited us over for some fun in the sun and I’m so glad we made it.

We don’t get down there too often because it’s about a three hour car ride and any one who’s been reading this blog for a while knows that Sophia isn’t exactly a joy to travel with. For this trip, we brought in reinforcements. My brother came with us and helped keep Sophia busy. Apparently she and my little brother share the same taste in music because she spent most of the ride listening to his iPod with him. She told him that she loves Radiohead.

Yeah, we went to the beach, we swam in the pool and Sophia had a great time playing with her 2-year-old cousin, but the best part of the whole trip was hanging out with my brother and sister. It’s been a long time since the three of us just hung out and it was a lot of fun. The way you talk with friends is so different from the way you talk with family. I don’t know if it’s because you have so much history with each other or what, but it was great. There’s no real drama happening in any of our lives right now and we’re all pretty happy, so just sitting around and having a couple of drinks was the perfect way to spend some time away.










Update on Ryan: OK, so on Tuesday, right after we arrived in Delaware, the rash all over Ryan’s belly spread all over his body. The poor little guy looked awful. The roseola rash doesn’t look like chicken pox or hives; it’s more like giant red patches all over his skin. It was awful and we were getting worried about him. I know this might seem anti-productive, but we took him off the antibiotic for his ear infection for 24 hours. We did it because it’s penicillin-based and I’m allergic to it, so our thinking was that because the rash was getting worse maybe he was allergic to the medicine. Also, one of the side effects of the medicine is diarrhea, and he was indeed suffering the side effects. Frankly, I didn’t think he needed to deal with diarrhea at the same time.

Tuesday night, Ryan woke up screaming. He was, of all things, constipated. In the morning, the rash was practically gone. By the end of the day Wednesday, Ryan was 100% better. He was eating, laughing and playing, and far less clingy than he had been. This morning he woke up smiling for the first time in a week. We gave him a dose of the antibiotic this morning and we’re watching to see if the rash now comes back. Hopefully, it won’t.

I hate it when the kids get sick.

Time for serious training

Day one of our vacation has been pretty eventful. I finally got my new bike on Saturday, but I still needed to be fit to it. We did that today. I also got new cleats, which are really cool, but really hard to figure out. I’ve never been physically attached to my bike while riding and this is something to get used to. I fell the first time I tried to get on the bike. In fact, I fell twice. I’m going to have a bruise on my hip and a sore wrist to show for it, but it was worth it because it was so much fun riding. It was way better than riding the old crappy mountain bike, so training should be a lot easier.

Here’s my new bike! It’s a Cannondale R500.

In other news, Sophia tried on one of princess outfits she got for her birthday. She was being a little camera shy, but I was able to get this picture of my little princess.

Our first year ends with one great vacation

It's that time of year when families get ready to go on their long-awaited vacations. We almost never take a vacation. Sure, we take off from work, but we never go any place of note. Last year, however, we decided to go on what my stepson would call a "real" vacation. We planned to drive to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and stay at a family resort right on the beach.

Oh, yeah.

I was excited about this trip. When I say excited, I mean jumping up and down and singing excited. This was our first real family vacation. Imagine, a vacation where we didn't work on the house. There would be no cooking, cleaning, laundry or any other daily chores. The only thing I needed to do was relax.

It couldn't have happened at a better time. I was 30 weeks pregnant and miserably huge. We planned the vacation during the week of the Fourth of July. This is an all-American holiday filled with fireworks, beer and lots of food, but it was also the same week my daughter turned 1. Her birthday is July 3. This meant fireworks on the beach for Sophia's first birthday (and for her Mommy and Daddy for surviving her first year).

Once we finally got to our destination, the first thing we did was head to the beach. I was so excited about showing Sophia the ocean and letting her play in the sand for the very first time. We slathered on the sunscreen, put a swimmy diaper and her brand new, first-ever bikini and headed to the beach.

First thing we learned was that Sophia loves the sand. Actually, she loves to eat it. OK, fine, let's try the ocean. Not a chance. The best she would allow was for us sit with her at the water's edge, and I mean the very edge, where she could indulge in the finest wet sand South Caroline could offer a finiky 1-year-old.

At the end of the day, she was covered head to toe in sand, with a majority of it taking up residency in her diaper. It probably added five pounds to her skinny little frame. No lie.

By the end of the week, though, she was running around the water's edge, still a little put off by the waves, but being as brave as she could while still eating as much sand as her tiny little hands could get in her mouth.

The whole week was so much fun. I think even my then 13-year-old stepson had a good time. But vacations are a lot like childhood, it went by way too quickly.

This summer, we aren't planning any vacation, but I still have wonderful memories of our last one. Looking back, no matter how much sand was consumed, it was a great time.

This was part the Parent Bloggers Network blog blast sponsored by Huggies Little Swimmers. They are giving way “Summer Fun Essentials Package” - a beach bag filled with summertime must-haves such as beach towels, pool toys, a sand castle building kit, and a cooler. Plus, products from the Huggies Little Swimmers line. There's still time to enter. Click here for all the details.

Thank goodness I got him a good gift

I started the weekend thinking I had the best anniversary gift ever. Those pictures I gave my husband, I thought, were better than a hundred diamond rings. The truth, though, was that my husband was working on a gift that was just perfect … and much needed: A weekend get-away without the kids.

For months, Jon had been calling my friends, setting up babysitters and making reservations for us to go away for a long weekend for our anniversary. He surprised me with the news Thursday night that we would be leaving Friday afternoon. He took care of every detail.

The thing is that almost every person I see on a daily basis – and some on a not-so daily basis – new about this trip and no one slipped. I really had no idea.

This was the first time I have ever really been surprised by anything. When I had my baby shower or my bridal shower, I kind of knew they were going to happen. They were a surprise, but I knew they would happen so the surprise was not huge. This was really, truly a surprise.
Friday morning, our aunt came over to help watch the kids while we packed our bags. After nap time, we got the kids in the car and dropped them off at their weekend babysitter. By 3 p.m., we were on our way to our weekend get-away.

One of the things that is really endearing about my husband is that he loves cheesy, romantic things like giving flowers, writing poems … and booking vacations at couples-only resorts. Never in a million years would I suggest we go to "the land of love," but I'm glad he did because it was so much fun.

All through the resort there were couples walking hand-in-hand. The activities were geared to couples. Every day the resort had karaoke, dinner, dancing, a comedian and bands. They had couples games, like the newlywed game and couples trivia. Jon and I stayed away from that stuff, but we did archery, went horseback riding and ice skating. We went hiking, got dressed up for dinner, sat by the fireplace and went swimming. We did all this stuff together and had a great time doing it. Basically, we acted like goofy kids the entire weekend and it was a blast.

We didn't have cell phone reception and we didn't bring our laptop, so we were basically cut off from everyone. (Of course, the babysitter had the number of the resort in case of an emergency.) At first this was a little concerning, and by Sunday I was really ready to go home to see my babies, but in between we were able to relax and not worry about anything.

It was a much-needed get-away for my husband and I. He did a great job at making the plans and my friends did a great job of hiding all of this from me.

** See, I told you I would post pictures.

No need to be nervous

I began this weekend in a complete frenzy. I was anxious and nervous and a little angry. My husband was leaving at 3 a.m. Friday morning for a four day, three night trip to Cancun with couple of guys from work ... during Spring Break.

Before I go any further, I didn't realize it was Spring Break until he got down there and told me and I'm not, and never was worried about his fidelity, I only mention Spring Break because during that time in Cancun I can imagine there isn't going to be a boring second of the day.

His company rewards it's employees for their hard work by giving a few deserving an all expenses paid trip to a fancy resort in Cancun, Mexico, where they can kick back and relax. Unfortunately, they don't pay for the entire family to go so that meant I was looking at four days and three nights home, alone, with two very needy and very clingy children under the age of 2.

The longest I've been left alone with them is about 8 hours and that's about as long as I can keep it together before I need my husband to get home and help me take back control of the house. I'm their mother, I know I can take care of them, but it doesn't mean that I wasn't completely nervous.

Friday started out OK, I brought Sophia to daycare and Ryan and I stayed home and cleaned the entire house, top to bottom. I was trying to keep myself as busy as possible so that at the end of the day I would be exhausted and, therefore, not have any trouble sleeping alone in the house with the kids. Of course Sophia and Ryan both got up two times and as tired as I was managed about 4 hours total of sleep. It was a terrible start to the weekend and I was dreading the rest.

Saturday was a blessing. My former neighbor offered to watch both kids overnight so I could go out and get some much needed rest. If it wasn't for her I'm sure I would have lost my mind this weekend. At 2 p.m. on Saturday, I dropped off the kids. I went to dinner with some friends and came home and slept for 9 hours straight through. I think it's been years since I slept that long. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for what was left of the weekend.

My aunt called me Sunday morning and offered to come over and hang out with the kids while I did some shopping. I took her up on the offer and she stayed with the kids for about two hours in the middle of the day.

It's now Sunday night and I feel like all the nervous energy I had about this weekend was silly. I spent a lot of time alone with the kids but not as much as I thought I would. I have a clean house, all the laundry and all the dishes are done and so far the kids are still asleep.

I'm not sure how the weekend would have been if I didn't have friends and family help me get through it, but I'm confident I would have managed and I'm thankful for that feeling. It means that tomorrow night when my husband comes home around 10 I can be happy to see him and glad he had a good time rather than being upset that he was out partying for an extended weekend.

It's amazing what one really good night of sleep can do for your self confidence.