Friday, July 6, 2018

7 Quick Takes about Observant Children, Things They Should Really Cover in Parenting Manuals, and Swimsuit Shopping in Bizarro World

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?


Okay, I know I said it last week but now we are really, truly, and fully home. 

Two days after Phillip and I returned from our anniversary trip to Québec, we left on a family trip with the kids and Phillip's parents. We visited some sites of historical importance to our church in New York and then hit Niagara Falls on the way back.

We had fun and spent a lot of quality family time together. In fact, the 10-year-old claimed to have realized for the first time ever that I have two different-colored eyes. The way he stopped abruptly in mid-sentence to stare at me in shock when he noticed was quite hilarious.


Our first night in the hotel, one of our kids peed on the bed. We stripped off the sheets and balled them up in a corner in the morning, but I was worried about the housekeeping staff just picking them back up and unknowingly making the bed with dried pee sheets. So I put a note on top of the pile requesting fresh bedding.

(If this sounds familiar, it's because it is. The same thing happened a few years ago on our family vacation to Washington, D.C. except with vomit, which was super-fun.)

Anyway, since this situation keeps coming up and writing formal memos on hotel letterhead to inform the maid every time my kids pee their pants is a little awkward, I need your help: what exactly is the protocol for this?

I'm actually kind of irritated there's not a chapter on these things in What To Expect: The Toddler Years.


More details from our trip will be forthcoming (I'll try to not make them all about urine,) but I do want to share this picture I took in a rest stop on the way home.

This was the sticker affixed to the front of one of those awful claw machines, the arcade-style game where you try to grab a stuffed animal. Yes, they are a total rip-off, but I approve of this message:

Kids, I want you to meet Life. Life's not fair.


The timing couldn't have worked out any other way, but after doing a couple's getaway to Québec and a family trip to New York within a few days of each other, I can't say I recommend planning back-to-back trips.

Besides our two trips, everything that required even a modicum of thought or planning went entirely out the window. My brain was simply full and could not process a single additional piece of information.

The laundry situation when we got home was out of control. I was going to take a picture of the pile of dirty clothes to wash upon returning but it was too depressing.

The kids are also extremely tired. They've had a lot of late nights, from their carefree week of eating ice cream and staying up late with grandma to their carefree week of vacationing in New York with their parents and quite possibly being peed on at night by their bedmates.

Passed out in the hotel crib.

During our trip, the 2-year-old woke up in the mornings and literally pulled the blanket over his head so he could go back to sleep. It was like having a teenager.


Considering how tired they already were, we debated the merits of letting the kids stay up for fireworks on the 4th of July. 

We ended up letting the older ones see the show but the younger ones stayed home and went to bed early, a decision that was solidified when our youngest daughter had a complete meltdown over NOTHING in the car at the very beginning of our 5 and a half hour drive home from New York the day before.

"Can you imagine taking that girl to fireworks?" Phillip shouted over her wailing. "They would probably stop the show and announce, 'That girl is ruining the independence of our country. Let's re-subjugate ourselves to Britain! Let the queen deal with her.'"

He was probably right. I think we made a good call.


So the little kids didn't get to see fireworks this year, but they did see Phillip and two of their siblings run in a 4th of July race.

Phillip and the 14-year-old participated in the 5-mile race, and the 10-year-old ran the 1-mile. Everyone worked hard and did their best in the scorching heat and I was proud of them. We also learned that saying "I got third in my age bracket!" sounds better if you don't announce there were a total of three people in your age bracket to begin with.

After the race, we went across the street and looked at some antique cars that were lined up for judging at a town auto show, and my 4-year-old somehow finagled permission from the owner of a 1934 Model T to sit in the front seat grinning like a Cheshire cat. 

Looks like someone has been borrowing my copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People.


I've had my current bathing suit for several years now. I love it but it's getting very worn-out, to the point where on vacation I feared it was going to disintegrate in the hotel pool and create a very embarrassing situation for everyone in the room.

My kids and I wanted to hit the beach yesterday but I wasn't sure my suit was up for the job, and then I remembered that sitting on the counter was a swimsuit I ordered for my oldest daughter several weeks ago. It didn't fit right but Amazon wouldn't let me return it, so it's been sitting there ever since.

Since I'm at this incredibly bizarre point in my life where my daughter is borrowing my clothes and shopping in the women's department (seriously, how did that happen??) I decided there was no harm in trying it on.

It more or less fit, and since I couldn't return it anyway, I cut off the tags and wore my daughter's swimsuit to the lake. Life is too weird.

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Andrea said...

You were in my neck of the woods on your NY vacation so I cannot wait to hear about it! I also spent my 4 years of college in Niagara Falls so I love to see people doing touristy things like boat rides and museums since I pretty much went to class, worked at a dump of a mall, and ate pizza at a super cheap place that is long gone....

Kelly M. said...

Yeah, we had two parties back to back and I'm sick as a dog. I can't imagine what would happen if we did two TRIPS back to back. My laundry is getting back on track only because my MIL is visiting and doing laundry is like, her spirit animal or something.

Kimberly Condie said...

Half my wardrobe is clothes my daughter outgrew or grew tired of. Life isn’t just bizarre, it’s pitiful.

Jenny Evans said...

I fully expect to reach that point one day. Especially since their clothes are cuter than mine.

Jenny Evans said...

Funny when you live in a touristy spot how different it is!

Kathleen said...

Two trips back to back! So intense! And I love that you put a note on the pee sheets! I am stressed thinking that hotel staff would take sheets off the ground and remake the bed... aaaahhhhh!