Planes trains, automobiles, bacteria and viruses

Well hubbers and I were up all night every 45 minutes dealing with poor, sad, crying, sick, eye gunk Jeanne. We went to the clinic this morning and got medicine apparently I need to remember to bring antibiotic wipes in addition to everything else. But hey that is a lot of new sources of bacteria and viruses to deal with. I have a sore throat, thankfully gargling with salt water fixes that.

Planes, trains and automobiles.

We four Bakers began a whole day journey from the East to West coasts yesterday. With child wrangling help from Granda in the morning, Hubbers and I packed the car and headed (on time!) to the airport. While we did have to figure out how to move all the luggage and car seats without leaving anyone behind, we get it done!

Both kids ran and played. So the first flight and that was a breeze. The layover was extremely short, and we had just enough time to grab a salad and hit the bathrooms. Once on the plane, it was clear to me that Loki was wide awake and Jeanne didn't feel well. She didn't want to eat anything and just snuggled daddy a lot.

We did experience a couple of screaming sessions, but they were short lived, thankfully. It still felt like the second leg was much longer than the first. All in all, both kids were great. 

Okay, now to get out of LAX with all of our stuff. We finally got to the rental car and hubbers started putting the car seats in.  I realized I hadn't had anything to drink in 4 hours, which is entirely unlike me.  We start driving on the infamous 405 and as I remark that there are no breakdown lanes in case there is an accident, Jeanne screams and begins to cry. I knew immediately that she was
Car sick, as I was starting to feel nauseous myself. 'Something is wrong with me"! She screams and then pukes. The only good thing about this is that she hadn't eaten lunch and has only juice and two pistachios in her belly. As hubbers dealt with traffic and Loki slept, I crawled in back and cleaned her up. Thank goodness I had a change of kid clothes in my bag up front.  


After all that, I was now battling my own nausea, so we stopped at a mall so the kids could
Walk around and eat dinner. Thankfully, Jeanne felt all better and was in good spirits. I, by this time was grabbing my mouth and trying not to breathe while the rest of the family ate. Holy smell sensitive batman!

We stayed a whole so the kids could walk a lot before another hour of sittin still. Then, finally Santa Barbara. Once I was finally NOT moving for 15 minutes straight, I was all better, then really hungry since I skipped dinner.  

The time change and extensive traveling made the kids exhausted but not wanti to go to sleep wince it wasn't their bed or crib. Jeanne finally fell asleep around 1030 home time and Loki after 11:00 pm, but not without much screaming first. 

Today, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast on the beach, then the kids and I napped a good long while while Daddy went to work.  


So far, so good.  

Cooking? Me? Using a stove?

Holy crap, I think I've been possessed. I'm cooking, and using all four burners at the same time.

Left top: quinoa, right: wild rice
Left bottom: veggies and garlic for BBQ quinoa, right: patty pan squash from our CSA.

Friends and a drawing

Jeanne refused to nap today, so we played with beads and pipe cleaners, then she wanted to draw with markers.  I set her up and left her be.  After 15 minutes,  I wandered over to see how her drawing was going.  She usually doesn't sit and draw too long, ends up drawing all over her body (thank you washable markers!), but today, for the first time, she was drawing a picture.  Her first, she told me, was of her musical balloons (yesterday I filled 6 balloons with different items to make noise, rice, bells, beads, etc)

Then she drew this:

This is her story:
(on the left) is the mother, she is very tall (she has eyes and a mouth, legs, feet, then all belly).  In her belly is all her food she ate, she likes food.  (the center character) is the daughter (she has eyes, a mouth, hair, arms, and lots of legs and arms), she ate lots of  things with holes and salt, she loves salt and she's so happy!  (the dots around them) are birds in the air and on the ground.

Also today, we watched a couple of friends while the Mom ran to a meeting.  I brought out two bins with colored rice, measuring cups, a funnel, and some safari animals.

Still engaged after 20 minutes      o_O

Lovely girl loved the animals the most, she had me name them all at least 6 times.  If any of them lost their way, she would gather them in a pile and ask me to name them again.  

Lovely girl corralling the animals in a bucket while Loki chills in his car.

They all played, used the sidewalk chalk and the sensory bin for over an hour.  Success!

I am trying to teach myself french braiding.  Someone recommended I cross the hair under, that it would keep the stray hair better.  I am still trying!

Absent

Yes, yes I know I haven't been updating a lot.  Kids, they keep changing, so do their schedules.  Currently, they are both still napping, but at different times, thus I am always feeding someone, and further thus, the sink is always full of dishes.  The same goes for the toys I pick up.  You get the picture.  Anyway, I feel like I' ve been a bit lazy with my activities with the kids lately since they on different wavelengths during the day.  Today however, an early trip to a bounce house left them both thoroughly exhausted and are both asleep.  I was able to set up two activities for them when they wake, musical balloons and the trains laid out.  Loki loves anything having to do with trains.

 I am also experimenting with using a smaller crock pot.  We took hiatus from the crock pot dinner as they were mostly meat filled, thus high cholesterol filled, not to mention pretty fatty.  If you haven't heard or remember, Hubbers has lost close to 25 pounds (I only lost 5, but I'm still happy with that!) and put on a bit of muscle since we've completely changed our diet (again).  Now that we are both working out regularly, and see food differently (again) I will go back to making dinners, but with a low to no meat factor and a low fat factor (less than 4 or 5 grams of fat per serving, we had previously been doing 3, which was *hard*, but effective, especially when combined with a vegan to mostly vegan diet).  So, I am experimenting with a small crock pot (2 quart) in hopes to travel with it and make lunch or dinner for the kids and I.  Food is expensive everywhere, but when your traveling and do not have access to a stove, every meal gets harder and more expensive.

Here's to a productive experiment!

Since I had snacks, water and an activity out, the 'after nap' blahs were averted.

A first date.

Jeanne asked asked a boy to sit and read with her today at Barnes and noble. Her first date, Alex. He is 9. Going for the older ones already. He was very kind to her. As Daddy said 'So it begins'.

A visit and the Farmers market

Laurie:

Sweet Aunt Laurie came South to visit, which was a really nice treat.  The trouble is, we were all having such a good time enjoying her company or parents time away, we never took pictures.  Sorry. We did have a wonderful time at the pool a couple of times and really enjoyed the Art Museum.  I know where I will be going for some beautiful morning walks come Fall, it's a bit hot and humid here by 9-10am.



Farmers Market:
We also are going into downtown Raleigh each Wednesday to go to the farmers market, and come home with bags full, heavy of fresh LOCAL produce.  Today we brought home the following:

That's 4+ pounds of potatoes, patty pan squash (which, if you have never had before, is amazing. It's much more sweet than a zucchini or summer squash and can be cooked the same way.  I used less than 1/2 table spoon for 2 patty pan and sautéed it for a few minutes, just until it began to be translucent.  AMAZING!), a small bag of peaches (ripening on my counter),  a large bag of super ripe peaches (which I boiled, peeled, cut, and packaged for freezing), 2 large containers of blueberries, 6 organic corn from our CSA, 2 containers of super sweet cherry tomatoes, 2 cucumbers and some fresh peppers. 


 I managed to husk the corn, prepare the peaches for freezing, a container of blueberries for freezing and did all the dishes while the kids napped.  By 3:45 I was feeling tired again, and since I have just over 7 hours left to my day, I made (another) coffee.


Now they are watching Sesame Street and napping on blueberries and pirate booty, waiting to go pick up Daddy.


Some random pictures:

My beautiful big girl.

Problem: Kids want to make a mess and you don't want to clean it up.

Solution: Give them washable markers, and let them draw all over the glass window.

Extra Credit: Have them do it on the outside so they can be LOUD too.

We also played with water beads.  Loki just loves to throw them, Jeanne loves to squish them.

Daddy time!

Big Sis 'changing her behavior' and being nice to her little brother.

This is how Jeanne sleeps every night.  tucked under Cthulhu.

Jeanne in the center of the Eye in the Triangle at the Museum of Art

Jeanne listens intently to her first Hellboy Comic