Wrap It Up

My last day of spring break was the warm break that I longed for.  We had temps in the 70s and the sun finally came out for more than an hour.  The day was screaming ZOO! 

Kage was very excited and actually wanted to see all of the exhibits.  Last year, she wanted to see one or two and that was the extent of it.  Granted, she only wanted to see each animal for about 2 minutes before moving on...but it's progress.

We spent the majority of the day there and the weather just got better as the day went on.  It was a good day. 

When we got home, we spent time outside.  I decided to look through some of our boxes in the garage.  We never fully unpacked when we moved into this house.  It's still too temporary for me.  But it was a little bit like Christmas to see some of our stuff that I haven't seen in six or so months.  Kin rode her bike, her car, her other bike...the child has an abundance of outside toys.  You'd think we spent more time out than we do.  But no, she's just an only child and hasn't a need in this world.

Our weekend wrapped up with a nice grilled steak dinner and "marsh-pillows" on our backyard fire pit.  So relaxing!

Just before it was time to put Kage to bed, I decided to just buck up and get the running shoes on.  Despite being totally freaked out by our neighborhood, I ran.  I didn't make it too far....but I feel that I broke through that first time.  And maybe the second time won't be so hard.  And the third....

Happy Monday to you!  I will be blessed to corral 26 5th graders on the first day back from Spring Break!  Good times!

We Are Still New At This

We always said that we love living in Chicago-land for the availability of things to do and things to see.  But honestly, we rarely take advantage.  Yesterday we wanted to do something special with Kinley but really weren't sure what.  On a whim, I suggested that we take her on a train ride.  So we kind of just went with it.

The Metra goes through our town several times a day going to and from the city.  It makes several stops along the way in the different suburbs.  We decided that we would take a short ride to a neighboring community, get ice cream and ride back.  She was stoked!

Because our plans were really on a whim and not planned out with a schedule in front of us, we were hustlin!  I was at Michael's during her nap and texted to see if she was up yet.  Richie said that she was, so I decided to rush home to get ready for our trip.  He informed me that the next train came through in like a half hour.  Shouldn't be a big deal, I thought, we live just minutes from the train station.

I picked them up and off we went.  Well, wouldn't you know that when we're in a hurry, there is a competition bike race going through town and every street that we need to go down is closed.  We fly into the station parking lot only to hear the train track gates dinging and coming down.  RUN!!  I was laughing hysterically and the sight we must have been....but we jumped on the train with only seconds to spare.

Finally on the train, our girl was in heaven!  She just loves train rides and insists that she's on Thomas, every time.  This is when the hustlin' was worth it.  Seeing her little face light up while watching the world go by.

After a short ride, we got off to go for ice cream, with plans to catch it on its way back through in like a half hour.  So we walked down to the Dairy Queen and then found a shady, grassy spot to hang out.  We were feeling pretty good about ourselves at this point!  (and Kinley was obviously enjoying herself!)

We had about 15 minutes left before our train was due, so we started walking back towards the pick up area.  On our way, we found some fountains for her to play in.  She succeeded in getting completely soaked but was having too much fun to tell her no.

We got back to the train platform with only minutes to spare and were ready to board the train.  Only seconds before it got to us, we realized that we were waiting on the wrong track.  Those of  you familiar with the Metra system, know what I'm talking about.  We were on the north track and we needed to be on the south track.  So, not being able to hop the tracks (for fear of safety) we had no choice but to stand there and watch our train go by.

And wait two hours for the next one.

Kinley was hysterical!  "My choo-choo left me!"  My heart broke for her.  We were standing close enough to touch it--and even asked the train worker to open our side of the door.  He just threw his hands up (and I wanted to throw him the bird). At first, Richie and I were furious...at the train, at each other, at ourselves.  How dumb could we be!?  Of course it wouldn't be on the North track!  Grrrr.  So now what?!  We're "stranded" for two hours!

Then we realized, this wasn't really the crisis that we were making it out to be.

We knew that our first order of business as stranded travelers was to find the toddler a potty.  So we walked back to the downtown area and found several little restaurants with tables set up outside.  Let's do dinner!  Eating outside is the ideal situation with a two-year-old.  She can make noise and move around and no one really notices.  On our walk to the Mexican restaurant, we saw a kids shoe store that had a cat inside....like a store pet.  That seems to be really common up here.  Kinley loves cats.  She was glued to this storefront for a long while.  And it was nice to not be in a hurry.

We ate a nice dinner, she went potty, we visited the cat again and then walked around to enjoy their downtown.  And what a beautiful downtown it was!  Dare I say that I liked it more than our downtown?  So many ice cream shops (should have visited one of those to start instead of the DQ!) and stores.  We played at the fountains again and just really enjoyed our family time.

It turns out that our crisis of being "stranded" turned into such a great evening!  I honestly wish we would have planned the longer stay to begin with.

Twenty minutes before our train was due, we started back towards the platform--again.  And this time, we went to the south track.

We sure felt the wind knocked out of our sails when we had to stand and watch our train go by without us on it.  We felt dumb and lost and just hopeless.  How would we get home?  What are we going to do?  How could we be so stupid?  And all that it took was looking at it from another angle, with a better attitude, to know that we really weren't so bad off after all, we actually had an ideal family evening handed to us, on a silver platter.  Which is just what we needed.

Makes me realize that a lot of things in life are really based on how you are looking at them and with what attitude you're using when dealing with a situation.

So, we missed a train, big deal.  We're new at this!  We've not done this before....but you can bet that on our next ice cream escapade, we'll be much wiser!

Run, Run, Run

I woke up this morning feeling like I had the worst hangover, ever.  And I'm probably do.  But not from alcohol.  Just from the weekend.  We were so busy, all weekend long.  But it was a good busy.  For the most part.  And my house and kitchen are trashed because of it.

A few weeks ago at our local zoo, we signed up for a vacation presentation=timeshare harassment.  After going to Vegas before we were married, we became familiar with these shenanigans and decided that the free stuff far outweigh the 90 minutes of badgering that you have to endure.  Having been through this before in Vegas, we knew what to expect and went in just buying time till they were finished.  We survived and came out with two vacations for free.

We will be taking Kage to the Wisconsin Dells for free (minus the gas to get there) and then Richie and I will be going to Orlando for two nights/three days (sans Kinley).  Yeah, that second one scares the bejeezes out of me.  I've never left her for more than one night and I'm not so sure that I am ready.  But hey, what better way to find out?  It's only 2 nights away.

Yesterday, we celebrated our town's annual festival and went to the two hour long parade and then to the rides after.  It was so stinkin' hot!  And we walked from our apartment, since it's only a ten minute walk.  OMG.  I thought I would have a heat stroke.  Kinley was without nap and just over it by the time we left.  She cried the whole way back and the only way to calm her was to hold her.  Yeah, so in 94 degree heat, I had to carry a 2 1/2 year old home.  Thank God she's a lightweight!

All weekend she has just been a real bear, and we have no clue why.  She is being mean, hateful, sassy....the works.  She isn't sleeping well, she hasn't napped well.  We have been at a loss.  The dentist confirmed that she is done with teeth for a long while, so we know that we can't blame that anymore.  But something is up.  It's my goal this week to get a handle on whatever it is because we all aren't going to survive this unless I do. Her behavior is driving a wedge between my husband and I because when we are struggling to get her in line, we argue at each other about parenting styles.  It's not the prettiest of situations.

It's not like we are "fighting" because once you take her behavior out of the situation, we are fine, it's just so super stressful.

If any of you have advice for me, on suddenly changing behaviors with a two-year-old, please share.  She went from our normal, happy-go-lucky , {sometimes crazy crabby} girl to an OMG she's hitting me and screaming for no reason, girl.  Lord help me.