A Tale of Two Trips

On Sunday we returned from our second family camping trip. 
In one word...
AWESOME! 
My children are amazing campers.
However...(you knew there would be a however)...camping hasn't always been that great for our little foursome. 

A little over a year ago we decided to go on the maiden voyage camping trip of my in-laws new travel trailer.  We went over a long weekend to the beautiful North Georgia Mountains.  Here are the names of the poor souls who were involved:
Tim, Brittney, Graham, Lilly, Jan, Lee and Grandma Holland (Gigi)

The trip started off just fine.  It was beautiful, cool mountain weather.  The trailer set-up perfectly...and all was well.
That is...until the sun went down.
The kids went to bed just fine while the grown ups went outside to enjoy the night air.  Shortly after they went to sleep a mountain monsoon hit.  Since there was nothing we could do outside in the rain, and since the kids were asleep inside, we had to just go to bed. 
We were all spread out on different beds throughout the camper.  Graham slept beside me in the pack-n-play, Lilly was on the bottom bunk, Tim on the top bunk, in-laws in their snug little room, and Gigi on the table-bed. 
Suddenly the trailer was awakened by the sound of a blood curdling 8 month old screaming.  I leaped out of bed only to realize I was drenched from head to toe!  The camper was leaking right above mine and Graham's bed!  And sure enough...Graham was as wet as I was...AND ANGRY ABOUT IT! 
After drying us all off my selfless father-in-law said he would sleep in the wet bed and I could take the big bed with Jan. 
Here's the problem...
Graham is now wide awake!!  So I put him in bed with me and tried to get him to go to sleep, but that just meant play-time with Mommy! 
After about 45 minutes of this we heard a loud THUD by the bunk bed.
LILLY FELL OUT ONTO HER FACE!!!  She was lying in a limp little pile of sheets not moving or saying a word. 
Being the super-hero that he is, Tim threw his legs over the top bunk to rescue his little adventurous sleeping beauty.  However (there's that word again!) as his legs were flying through the air they hit the unsuspecting thermostat on the wall and broke it clean off. 

Commence the bunny hop!!

Since he was too busy screaming in his mouth, while holding his broken toe, and bunny hopping as quietly as possible...I had to rescue the still limp sleeping princess. 
I threw the hyper wet baby at Grandma and dashed across the trailer, lifted the STILL sleeping babe and placed her back in the bunk.

And she never woke up.

At this point I thought the night would never end.
We couldn't find a clock anywhere! 

Finally Graham fell asleep in my arms.  I was able to get him to stay asleep in the pack-n-play and then crawled back into the bed.

All the while Gigi never woke up!  We found out later she took a sleeping pill before bed...smart woman!


As you can see I was a little hesitant to agree to another camping trip.  I was assured the leak had been fixed, that a rail would go on the bunk for Lilly, and Tim would be nowhere near the thermostat in the middle of the night.
So trip number two began, and I quickly saw how much a difference a year makes.
Graham loved every second of camping.
The swimming in the lake (as long as that mean old life jacket stayed far away from him), the eating outside (as long as he didn't have to sit in that insulting booster seat), the sleeping in a tent (as long as Daddy was in there with him and a window air conditioner unit was in place)...he loved it.

Moral of the story (for the Holland's at least) it's great to be able to laugh at the hard trips...because it makes the great ones even greater.

Happy 18 Months!

Dear Grambo,

I cannot begin to tell you what a wonderful little boy you are becoming!  

Of course you have always been fabulous...but who am I kidding...you've been a handful for about the past 10 months.   
The 15 months of sleepless nights.
The evening anger...or colic...who knows!
The holding your breath until you pass out because your sister had your bike...you get the picture.


But now...I don't know...it's like you have started growing up a little.
Now you sleep through the night!!!!!  
Now you know that mommy can't hold you while I'm cooking dinner...and you're ok with it!!!!
Now you only turn a slight shade of blue while holding your breath!!!!  (glad to have learned the trick of spritzing him with water to snap him out of it)


And through all of these learning stages you have become more and more snugly and lovable!   


I love the way you look at me.  No one in the world...not even your Daddy...looks at me the way you do.  
I love the way you are so proud of me when I play a softball game.  You are my biggest fan!
I love the way you say my name 22 times in the car so I will look at you in the mirror...and then you give me the biggest cheesy grin!
I love the way you have started smiling at the camera...instead of being insulted by it.
I love the way you think Lilly is the most amazing person to walk the earth and that anything she does deserves to be copied.
I love the way you dance in the middle of the store to whatever song is on...Justin Beiber or not.
I love the way you love your "Deef" (Chief) and your "Bop-Bop" (Pop-Pop)
I love the way food excites you...and always gets a happy dance.
I love the way you tell me it's time to listen to music by waving your hands in the air.
I love the way you are insulted by a high chair or booster seat.
I love that you are still not on the percentile chart at the doctor for height or weight...and they are cool with that!
I love that you love to slide backwards, and that we have to all swing together on the swingset...because we are a family!!
I love the way you run to your "Da-Da" when he comes through the door.


And I could go on forever...


So happy 18 months my son.  You are amazing.

A Blogger's Vow

Lately I have noticed that my blogging entries are few and far between...about one a month...
That is not enough!!!!
My daily life is full of bizarre moments.  It is full of jaw dropping gasps.  It is full of precious freeze-frame incidents.
Yet, when those action packed days come to a close I am doing good to keep my eyes open long enough to look at my husband.
I am going to try and do better.
I know that all of those precious moments pass so quickly and this blog has been the best way for me to keep a record of everything.
So here is my kick-in-the-pants speech.  Here is my do-it-for-the-little-guys vow.
I WILL GET IT TOGETHER BETTER!!!
...and I'll start tomorrow.

Vacations are...different

We, the Holland family, just completed our very first family of four vacation! 
And boy was it a doooooozy!!!

The four of us headed to Myrtle Beach South Cack-a-lak (as Tim calls it) last Thursday. 
We were blessed to have a free stay at an oceanfront hotel courtesy of Tim's job. 
We were all super excited about what the vacation would be like...but Mommy anxiety took over a little bit for me because I had no idea how my little lover-of-routine baby would handle things.

It started off fine.  We woke the kids up at 5am and took off!  They didn't say anything to each other when we very sleepily put them in their car seats...but they managed an adorable wave to each other...priceless!

A six hour trip only took us eight hours...which I thought was pretty good.

So far so good...

The hotel was amazing.  Right on the beach, and a water park to add to the fun! 

The first night was rough.
We decided against bringing the pak-n-play for Graham because it just takes up too much room!  I don't know why I felt sand toys and an Elmo boom box were more important than my sons sleeping quarters...but I did.  However my reasoning behind it was the hotel would have a crib that we could use...so there!
I didn't know that this "crib" would be more like a metal cage for a small chihuahua!  When we put Graham in it and said goodnight he looked at me and said "yea right" in 17-month old talk. 
So a new adventure of sleeping in a big bed commenced.
We put Lilly and Graham in the same bed that night and had our fingers crossed that it would work.  I was too nervous to sleep in the other room so I slept in the same room with them. 
And thank goodness I did!
Who knew that Graham was an acrobatic sleeper! 
I would hear him stir and I would sit up from my dead sleep to see what was going on.  Then I would see him stand up in his sleep and lunge forward.  Then he would sleep in that position for a while and do it all over again. 
(Now it all makes sense!  When I hear that loud thud at night at home it is probably my son banging his head on the side of his crib practicing his sleep aerobics!)
Twice I caught him diving off the side of the bed.  Thankfully we made it through the night.

The next day was better.  Once Graham learned that the sand was not all bad and the water slides were not out to get him...he had a blast!  It was great watching my babies have fun.
Chalk this one up for a good day!
That night was another adventure.
Tim got food poisoning!  He spent the evening puking in our hotel room.
So night number two was spent in the kid room again.  This time with Graham sleeping on the floor.

Day number three was even better.  The sand monster never came out and Graham even took a nap on the beach!  That night I had my fingers crossed that just maybe I would get to spend the evening with my husband.
Thankfully we did have about half an hour on the balcony before we both passed out from sheer exhaustion from the trip.  I decided I might as well sleep in my usual spot because Graham kept waking up scared since he was in a new place.
All-in-all it was a trip worth blogging about.  We kept laughing at how our life is so different now and how much we love it.  We kept talking about how we will look back at this vacation and remember how hard it was, but how great it was.  We kept saying that this season in our life will pass so quickly, and how much we will miss it when it is gone.
And we kept saying that next time we are bringing the Grandparents!!!

Great Expectations

Today I worked with Lilly on the scientific method.
I am NO scientist, but I remember a little bit about experiments.
We were conducting an experiment on the temperature of the windows.
I would ask her to touch one window and then another one and then we would compare.
I even worked on teaching her about a hypothesis.
At the end of the experiment I had her draw out her conclusion.
I was pretty proud of my teaching method...and even more proud of the way Lilly grasped it all.
However, my pat on the back didn't last long...
when we were all done I said, "wow Lilly you would make an awesome Scientist when you grow up."
To which she replied, "oh mommy, I cannot be a scientist when I grow up.  I'm going to be way to busy being on the show Wipeout!"
Oh well...I can still have high hopes.  =)

A Day Worth Noting

Even though we are still in the middle of unpacking almost 9 years worth of "stuff"...my kiddos can still lighten the mood with something funny...
Here's how today unfolded...

I was getting the kids dressed to go outside and I was talking to Lilly about how she is not responsible for disciplining Graham.  (She has become quite the little mommy)  I said, "Lilly it's Mommy and Daddy's job to discipline Graham...not you."  To which she responded, "no, I think he can listen to me too and obey me."  I sweetly smiled and said, "well do you remember what the Bible says about that?"  And before she could answer me Graham proudly stood up and yelled, "ROARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!"   Because right now all animals say roar to him...even caterpillars...and he understands almost all of what we say. 
So I guess the Bible is an animal to him!

...Later in the day...

Lilly has become too busy to use the bathroom these days.  She is always in the middle of an elaborate plan, or telling me a detailed event.  And if the "urge" hits her she doesn't want to stop for a quick break.
On our way home from dinner tonight she yelled out, "quick I have to go tinkle!" 
We were about three miles from home and told her to hold it. 
She was very quiet.
After about two minutes she said, "wouldn't it be cool if there was a potty with a button on it and when you pushed it the potty would shrink down so it would be small enough to fit in your pants and then you could go tinkle in it and never stop what you are doing!  It would be called the Shrinky Potty!" 
Needless to say we were quite amazed at her imagination.

And those are just two of the sweet things my children said today that made my upside down life seem normal again.

I want...therefore I scream!

Graham is precious...let me just start by saying that...

But lately he has entered a "not-so-precious" phase.
He is now a screamer...
and not just any normal 15 month old scream...
it's blood-curdling...
it's nails-on-a-chalkboard...
it's grab-my-hair-with-two hands!!!
It would be different if he screamed because he was tired or hungry.
Now it's a scream for the fact that his sister is sitting in the exact spot that he wants on the WD-40 cart at Home Depot! 
It's a scream because I chose the wrong side dish on his plate of food!  He wanted the lima beans not the carrots right next to it.
It's a scream because I'm loving on his sister and not on him at that exact moment...
and so on
and so on
IT'S EXHAUSTING!
I'm having a hard time not giving into his every whim just to appease him.  I think it's because I'm so tired right now I'd rather give him what he wants than teach him.
(I will snap out of that in about .5seconds...I promise.)
After he has screamed at me for a few seconds and flung himself on the dryer, or dish washer, or whatever appliance happens to be near by, he then turns around and realizes no one cares (even Lilly just shrugs her shoulders and walks away)...and then he proceeds to snap out of it and turns back into my sweet baby boy.
I keep telling myself..."this too shall pass"
And eventually I will look on this and laugh...just not right now  =)