Splitting up

What seems like a long, long time ago, I remember having a conversation with a friend (yes, you, MommieN) about how with a girl and a boy it seems like weekends would often be relegated to Mommy going with the little girl to do one thing and Daddy taking the little boy to do something else. I wasn't sure I bought into this idea and for the most part, we don't do that very often, but last weekend was an exception.

Mam had a birthday party to attend at a pumpkin patch on the coast. And because I really wanted to go, but knew there wasn't a chance, I talked Daddy into buying tickets for the last Giants game of the season and taking Smunch to see his idol, Tim Lincecum, pitch for the last time this year against the rival Dodgers. Something about Smunch's love of baseball has sort of rekindled my own love of the game. Let's just say I was jealous and leave it at that. I was thrilled that Smuch was getting to go.

Daddy and Smunch set off early, leaving Mam and me to run a few errands. Coincidentally, we even saw their train go by as we waited at the train tracks on our way to Costco. Cool.

Before we left for the party, Daddy sent us some photos of their vantage point in the stadium.And Smunch's opinion of said vantage point.A beautiful day at the ballpark. Jealous.

Shortly after lunch, Mam and I left for the coast. It was lovely here, but about halfway there, I could tell it was going to be socked in. I crossed my fingers, hoping that my propensity for being a slob and having a car full of crap would serve me well. My slovenly ways would keep us from freezing to death in a coastal pumpkin patch.

Naturally, I listened to the game on the radio. And when the traffic slowed to a crawl with at least 10 miles to go, I became a rabid Giants fan...the kind who screams in the car and hits the roof with her fist. I wanted so badly for Smunch to see his team win for a change. Doesn't seem like watching the Padres win should really count. And he really does love Lincecum. I wanted Lincecum to pitch well and have a chance at the Cy Young award that would really send Smunch over the moon. And I'm sure I had PMS because when the Giants finally scored the go-ahead run in the 8th inning...and we still hadn't reached the pumpkin patch...I was in tears.

Mam is doubtlessly scarred for life by this experience.

Fortunately, we finally made it to the birthday party, although we were half an hour late. We were still some of the first guests to arrive. Daddy forgot to take the new camera with him and the party included not only pumpkins, but pony rides, a bouncy house, train rides and run of the whole patch. So I took lots of cute photos. Although Mam had several friends there who she talked with and rode ponies with, she mostly did her own thing with Mommy.I admit to going back to the mommymobile for an extra sweater. I was cold. But I'll bashfully admit I also stuck the key in the ignition and turned on the radio just to make sure the Giants had won. So we had a fun day and met Smunch and Daddy for pizza on the way home.

Now that I think about it, we may have split up for the day. Mam was certainly into her party and I was definitely there with her, chatting and taking photos. But in the end, I'm not sure I wasn't there with the boys too...

Christmas 2007

Uh, yeah. It's 2008 already. I don't know how I managed to waste so much time before I got to blogging about our Christmas. Perhaps it's because it was a fairly stereotypical Christmas with two little kids. It was fun and exhausting all at once.

Our Christmas tradition (such as it is), is to have my parents over Christmas Eve. This year, as our formal Christmas Eve dinner, we opted for Take 'n' Bake Pizza. Yummy! When the kids are asleep, we open all the adult presents so the all the focus is on the kids and what they want to do in the morning. So, we did that. I garnered the nice flannel jammies I wanted, a sweater from Old Navy that I'd been coveting, and a piece of sparkly jewelry that was more than I'd expected. We also got a really nice card table and chairs from my parents. Cool.

Daddy got some gizmo that lets you record TV shows onto your computer. Kinda like TiVo, without the subscription. He can set it to record over the internet and using his iPhone. Nifty. He also got a box set of "The War" on DVD. I probably should have been more creative. He'd requested both of these.

In their traditional fashion, the kids slept in on Christmas morning. I have no idea why this happens, but my kids are all backwards. They have yet to get up early and insist we get up. In fact, Smuch got up at 6:30, stumbled down the hall to pee, woke Mam up in the process, and when she came out of her room, I heard him whisper, "Go back to bed, it's too early still." And they both went back to their rooms for the next half hour. Weird. Very weird. But I'm not objecting. Seven o'clock seems like a perfectly civilized time for them to get up and open presents.

Santa brought Smunch his "new red bike without training wheels". He was thrilled, but hardly shocked. I'd convinced him that he needed to learned to ride without training wheels on his old 12" bike before Santa would bring him a new one. So, he took off on this one like a pro. And no, our whole world didn't turn blue on Christmas Day. I just need to remember to change the settings on the camera when I go outside! Smunch also got a cool, shiny blue dragon and some very welcome additions to his Fischer Technik erector set...including a new motor. So, Daddy ended up spending much of the day doing construction in the back room.

Mam got the requested "pony set" from Santa. Apparently, this consisted of a four-plex of My Little Ponies. Gram and Grandpa gave her a chest of princess dress-up clothes. Those went over pretty well too, as did a mosaic kit for princess pictures.














In typical Mam fashion, her very favorite gift was a 12-inch shiny snake that I bought for $4 at the toy store when I was getting her this beautiful, soft little stuffed unicorn. The snake must be in bed with her every night...along with its compadre, the original Snakey. The unicorn, well, sure, it's nice.

Both kids got kiddie cameras for Christmas. Grandpa Ryder bought one for Mam and Gram and Grandpa got one for Smunch. That was unplanned, but worked out perfectly. They love taking photos, even if they're just weird. The biggest drawback is that now if I take my camera somewhere, they both want to take theirs too. In the end, this just results in me leaving my camera behind to avoid the hassle!


We finished off our morning with a giant, totally bad for you breakfast, including an almond pastry, fruit/custard pastry, a homemade cinnamon pull-apart, fruit salad, sausage, bacon and eggs. And then we all found a nice sunny rock to lie on... but no...then we had to keep the kids entertained by taking them to the playground. And then I realized that while I'd focused on making sure I had everything for breakfast, I hadn't really done a lot of shopping lately and I had nothing to eat for dinner. I mean, the choices included freezer enchiladas. I'm not even sure what we ate in the end, but it wasn't the enchiladas and whatever it was came with a side of leftover pizza... Hmmm... better luck next year!

At least the presents were a hit!