Surfacing

I feel like I've been away for months!

Dad and Cathy are here and we are having a marvelous time. Not a glamorous time, no. Just fun and food. And some wine. Lots of sitting on the deck after the kids are in bed, watching the cool thunderstorms roll through. We got Colin's bike put together (by "we" I mean Dad and Cathy, of course) and he had his first lesson today, without the training wheels because they do not fit on the new, cool, bright yellow, decal spattered, hand braking, more than one gear, bike. Dad ran along next to him as he had done with my sister, Gail, and me, encouraging and teaching. ("NO, don't look down! Let your feet do the pedalling, look ahead so you can see where you are going!") Good thing Dad does yoga.

Until they got here, it had been lovely. 70s-80s, no humidity. As soon as they got here, it has been in the 90s and horribly humid. We figured that would happen months ago. I think it is the grand Midwest conspiracy to keep everyone else from moving here. As soon as anyone sets foot off a plane, the weather turns horrid. Eh, what can you do?

What else? Oh! Charles and I ushered in another Sara milestone, yesterday, out of desperation.

You see, she has been in a crib all this time. Yes, yes, she is 2+1/2. Colin was in his red race car bed at 18 months. And your point is? Friday night was yet another night of her waking, sobbing, at 1am and being lugged to bed with us, resulting, of course, in her kicking Charles repeatedly in the head (Yes, she is placed with her head between our heads to start with. I have no idea how she spins like that. Have you seen The Exorcist? That may explain some of it.) which leads him to abandoning the bed around 2am for the couch. She then turned her attention to me. That culminated in my going to use the loo at 5am and coming back to bed to find her spread horizontally with her toes pointed to the site formally occupied by Charles's head and her arms stretched out to usurp what were my sleeping inches. Damn but she is long!

So I grabbed my book and retreated to the couch in the loft (the living room couch being occupied by her bruised dad). After coffee and breakfast, when were were once again coherent, Charles and I looked at each other and decided that a trip to Madison was not to be put off another day.

We left our offspring with their grandparents and we headed north, stopping only to vacuum the car out. (Don't ever vacuum your car before picking up a load of sandbox sand. You are just inviting the inevitable.) As an aside, while marvelous Charles was vengefully vacuuming the back of the trusty minivan, I noticed a dispenser of fragrance for your car. After staring at it through the window, I did what any normal person with a blog would do: I got out and took a closer look. There were 3 fragrances offered, $.75 each. "Just put the hose down on the carpet under the rear seat and press the button" read the instructions. Any guesses as to what the fragrances were? Go ahead. Make a guess. Let me know in the comments. No prizes. I thought about offering a free pap smear or prostate exam to anyone who guessed it, but figured that wouldn't be much of an inducement and I am much too lazy (no, really!) to go and get you chocolate or something that anyone would actually want and box it and send it. So this is just a goodness-of-your-own-heart thing. Or we could say it is for the bragging rights.

Anyway, we fled to the furniture store that we have already spent unutterable sums in for furniture for our house last year (and, no, it is not an expensive place, we just needed a lot of crap.) and bought a mattress, box spring, and bookcase headboard. The headboard will be there in a few days, so another trip, but she now has her OWN bed, so when she wakes we (I) can slug in there and flop down next to her, get her to drift off to sleep again, and then high-tail it back to my own comfortable, toddler-free bed. And, you know what? It worked just like that last night. Well, even better, actually, as Charles was already up at 1am, having a bit of insomnia, due to the crashing of thunder and all, and he flopped next to her and then dragged himself back to the couch afterward, leaving me in peaceful slumber. Best money ever spent.

So, that's what we've been up to. We have hopes to get to the zoo tomorrow but will have to see what the storms have to say about that. We are from Portland, so scoff at a bit of rain, but getting hit by lightning or washed away in a flash flood would be quite the inconvenience. I will let you know, as I am sure you are all so very interested in all the doings here. (Actually, if you are reading this at work or when you are supposed to be studying the plumbing of hamsters or what ever horrid things your instructors have assigned, dahling, you might just find this gripping reading material.) And remember: Fragrances Three. For the car. Dispensed for your olfactory pleasure from the machine at the car wash. Any guesses?