back and such

[mamajoan]

We are back from our trip to Vermont. Actually, we've been back for a day and a half, but I didn't have time to post.

I missed posting Happy Birthday to sandykidd yesterday, on account of, uh, not posting all day. So, happy birthday!

For everyone's entertainment I present this video of a cat attacking paper as it comes out of a printer. LOL.

The capsule summary: the reunion itself was a lot of fun but the driving part sucked, just as I expected. Isaac mostly did fine but Ruthie hated being in the car for so long (can't blame her) and we encountered ridiculous traffic. Vermont was gorgeous though; the cousins who hosted the party have an absolutely lovely home (and invited us back to visit any time) and we greatly enjoyed Montpelier, whose claim to fame is being the smallest US Capital.

It was good to see all the relatives, although a little weird since I remember a lot of my cousins (second cousins really) as little kids, and now they are all late teens and early 20s. We have a lot of LARGE men in the family! The aunt whose 90th birthday was the occasion for this gathering has three sons, and between them they have five sons ranging in age from 17 to 35, and to a man they are all enormous. metafrantic at 6'2" fits right in, and now I have high hopes for Isaac ;)

Speaking of Isaac, he really hit it off with his third cousin Izzy (Isabella) who lives in California, alas, with her parents. Izzy is 2 and according to her mom she usually doesn't like older kids, but she LOVED Isaac and they played together a lot. It was great. Isaac really does well with other kids -- younger, older, same age, he doesn't care. :) I thought it was funny that some day Isaac might be nicknamed Izzy (hard for me to envision but possible) and then they would be Izzy and Izzy. Meanwhile another relative commented that since they are third cousins, they can legally marry in the US. *roll eyes* They're two and four! yeesh. ;)

Ruthie mostly did fine with all the people too. She had "issues" with not napping and thus being tired most of the time, but she did okay. She and Isaac both LOVED the whole hotel experience. :) I took some video of them bouncing around like crazy on the hotel beds and playing peek-a-boo with the comforters.

Bastian on the other hand was in bad shape -- he's got some molars coming in and also had some kind of virus (one of those things where you get a high fever followed a few days later by a rash -- the rash popped up Friday night) and was totally miserable the whole time. He's usually such a happy baby, it was really sad to see him so down. So he and sandykidd spent much of the time in their hotel room trying to rest and recuperate, and they all left earlyish. Too bad. :(

Vermont is really gorgeous. It's funny, in some ways it looks a lot like Massachusetts (the rural bits at least), but the mountainousness of it gives it a whole different feel. You just get these amazing dramatic vistas with mountains and valleys and all. We went to a couple of swimming holes that were really fantastic -- albeit I didn't get a lot of opportunity to enjoy them. Ruthie has developed an astounding knack for falling asleep ten minutes before we arrive at our destination (and this trip involved a lot of fifteen-minute drives, sigh) so I spent a certain portion of the time sitting around near the car, letting her nap in the carseat where she had fallen asleep.

I must say I was grateful to be amongst family members who understand what life with little kids is about. You hear so many horror stories about family reunions where the elderly and middle-aged relatives are all, "why can't you keep those kids quiet??" and give you dirty looks if the kids are running around, and so forth. Fortunately our family isn't like that. Many folks offered to take turns chasing the kids, held Ruthie when she was tired, supervised her carseat naps so I could swim, and so forth. On Saturday night we had a big do -- a catered dinner followed by a lot of speeches and songs in tribute to the aforementioned aunt -- and naturally the kids were antsy and spent a lot of time running in and out and around, whining to play, talking loudly about the food, etc., etc., but no one minded. The next day, the birthday aunt told me that the kid noise had added just the right touch and made the whole thing seem more "real" to her. :) She was also highly amused that Isaac knew how old she was. She happened to be there right when he told Izzy at top volume, "Izzy, did you know that Aunt Rae is ninety?" LOL.

And then we came home, Sunday night, and yesterday I took Isaac to preschool and Ruthie to my mom's for a bit, and I went range shopping. Did I mention that I've decided to buy a new range (stove/oven)? Well, I have. I looked at a zillion ranges in Best Buy and Sears, and came away pretty confused ;) but I'll figure it out. heh.

And today, back at work. Whee.

Oh, in book news, I finished The Crossword Obsession, which was disappointing, and started on Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell, who may be my new god.

Comments

[lapenn.livejournal.com]

omg. Sarah Vowell is the best. I LOVE that book. She's totally fabulous. She's also a contributor to This American Life.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw her on the Daily Show ages ago (back when I had time to watch the Daily Show, lol) and she was great. She so doesn't seem to fit the profile, which I really love.

[techn0goddess.livejournal.com]

That book is crazy awesome. As for stoves, I can't remember if you have gas or electric. We got a smoothtop electric a couple of years ago and we love it. They're pretty easy to keep clean, and the glass holds up well as long as you don't drop anything heavy on it.