This is our third year on Kiawah Island and it’s the best one yet. There are more friends, more food, an endless supply of cocktails, a pool at the perfect temperature and a beach that feels like it’s all for us. Apologies for nothing but pictures for the next week.
There was a ton of stuff going on in our area over the weekend: members weekend at the Aquarium, the International Food Festival in Mystic, the annual Butterfly Pavilion in Norwich AND it was Connecticut Open House weekend.
Unfortunately, it was also one of those weekends where none of us really felt like getting off the couch. I swear our day in Brooklyn last Sunday threw the kids off all week, and there were a ton of couch naps that led to super early wake-ups that meant even more couch naps and we were all a little sleep-deprived and short-tempered. E had duty Friday which meant he didn’t get home until lunch on Saturday, so that day was mostly a wash. I tried to fit ALL THE THINGS in on Sunday and ended up with two very unhappy kids in a butterfly pavilion, begging to go home. So we did. I like family activities, I don’t like torturing my children. Even to get more photos. Clearly I got enough photos.
They refused to consider any of the food besides The Bleu Squid for grilled cheese and cupcakes.
Black Forest cupcake
Lobster roll. Lobster & a little mayo with lemon on top. As it should be.
Caroline was really, really excited to get her face painted and tried hard to sit still. Of course, she’s 2. I’m 31 and I can hardly sit still to have my make-up done at the Clinique counter at the mall (I don’t like people touching my eyes) (NO ONE likes people touching their eyes!). The patient make-up artist managed to get it done though – including a layer of glitter over the whole thing – and Caroline became Kitty Caroline. She ran all over the Oldey Mistickey Villagey meowing and stopping people in their tracks to go “Awwwwwwwww! Look at her face! She’s a kitty! Bob, Bob come look at this kitty! Isn’t she adorable?!” At this point I feel like taking my child out in public is like hanging out with one of the minor Kardashians. Krispy? Krumbly? Whatever they’re called. I should start spelling it Karoline.
It’s like E is wearing THREE hats!
Caroline met Ariel & got her autograph. She was pretty impressed. And a little skeptical.
The Butterfly Pavilion was cool, but kind of crowded. They encouraged you to let the butterflies crawl/land on you and even had sugar water to dab on your fingers. Caroline liked it. Evan was D O N E, so we didn’t stay long.
The kids and I trekked down to Brooklyn on Sunday for the A Child Grows in Brooklyn Baby Expo and had a really great time. I was invited as a blogger, which meant I got a cool “Press” badge and a chance to hang out in the media lounge while the kids made crafts and Caroline got a sparkle tattoo. The gingers did GREAT for a couple of preschoolers in a very hot, very crowded, slightly boring-for-kids event. Well, besides all the times Caroline disappeared. At least the place was totally full of moms and moms-to-be who were happy to point her back in my direction.
Since I was visiting from out of town, not everything at the Expo applied to me (Although it did make me super jealous of how much stuff is in/close to Brooklyn – why aren’t there any rock & roll toddler party locations in Connecticut?!) but I still got to check out some super cool brands, learn some new stuff and came home with a sweet swag bag. Caroline ate more than her share of Ella’s Kitchen pouches and Sabra hummus and cried because she only got two samples of Happy Baby crisps. In case you couldn’t tell, the food was her favorite part.
Thanks so much to Melissa for inviting me and the ladies at A Child Grows in Brooklyn for putting such a fantastic day together! If you’re a parent in the NYC area I’d recommend signing up for their newsletter so you don’t miss next year’s event – besides the great information, I saw probably a hundred people leave with awesome strollers, playpens, bikes, high chairs and more. Seriously, the raffles and giveaways were bananas.
The expo was in the International School of Brooklyn. I’m suffering from a severe case of school envy.
Food by Fairway. Another thing I wish we had in Connecticut.
Sparkle tattoo courtesy of Dazzle Divaz, who were so sweet with her.
Caroline’s new friend is from Yellow Sneaker Productions. Like I’ve said, she’s not afraid of anything, from the balloon-animal making clowns to hand puppets.
I spy with my little eye…a book I already love!
The guy from Dapple Baby really knew his stuff, and I’m excited to start washing Evan’s disgusting milk cups in their Baby Bottle & Dish Liquid.
How adorable are these personalized prints from StrangeBirdy Studios?? The cutest.
Kidville had a great child play area with sitters available so I could attend the photography seminar without any little people climbing on me.
Sensory tubs: not for the faint of heart. THE MESS, MY GOD, THE MESS.
After the expo we met up with my friend Sara, who showed us around. We walked doooown Park Slope to a very busy playground, found some Italian Ice and then walked back uuuuup Park Slope. The gingers walked the whole thing (besides a few short piggy back rides) and slept in the car the whole way home. They both went to be at 6 pm on Monday too. Good job Brooklyn!
Disclosure: I was given free passes & the media swag bag as a thank you for attending, but wasn’t required to post/share anything. I just had a really great time!
Norwich Parade:
Mystic Parade:
Patio Fun:
Being a stay at home mom is hard. It’s thankless. It’s monotonous. There’s no such thing as sick days. It involves way, way too much poop.
Right now, being a mom seems like CAKE compared to my husband’s job. Especially since the kids are at a sleep-through-the-night, put-on-their-own-shoes, can-be-entertained-with-television-if-I-need-a-break stage and E’s job has none of that. He never gets to sleep through the night, no one at work seems to be able to tie their own shoes without asking for help and even when he’s home in front of the TV he’s thinking about all the stuff he has to do tomorrow (or in 20 minutes, if work calls him in AGAIN). He probably won’t get to go on vacation with us at all this summer and he probably won’t get any real time off until 2014. He doesn’t get lunch dates and trips to the playground and lazy days at home when he’s so tired he can’t keep his eyes open. So even though he gets paid in actual dollars and people (in theory) value his work and give him awards and tell him “great job”, I wouldn’t trade places with him for a second. Well, maybe for a second, but only because he really deserves a break. Although putting me in charge of a nuclear reactor for even a second would be a terrible, terrible mistake.
There have been plenty of times in the past 5 years where the scales went the other way and I was practically homicidal with rage over how I did ALL THE WORK and ALL THE CHILDCARE and ALL THE CLEANING and he was “busy” spending 8 hours rearranging office furniture with a 2 hour lunch thrown in the middle. He’s wasn’t slacking off, he just wasn’t at a very demanding command. But this job he does now? Makes up for every second of relaxation he ever had. If he worked for a civilian company they’d be paying him bazillions of dollars in overtime (or perhaps they’d be in jail for inhumane work conditions) but since it’s the military they can demand all of his time and give him nothing but a terrible headache and a family that missed him.
You know it’s bad when I consider a letter writing campaign to President Obama asking if maybe he can issue a presidential order giving E just ONE weekend off to visit us on vacation. And then I realized even if I was that crazy, E probably wouldn’t take the weekend off, since he’d be screwing over whoever had to fill in for him and might miss something important. He’s a good guy.
Anyways, here’s some photos of the kids and I doing fun stuff over the weekend. The plan is to keep them so busy they don’t notice Mommy is tired and Daddy is gone. Fire trucks are really good for that. So are surprise fairs at the high school with free bounce houses and balloon animals and rubber duckies. It was pretty awesome. Fun fact! It was in the parking lot for my OB’s office and right outside the building where both kids were born.
Tiny speck on the left is Caroline, running to check out the helicopter on her own. I figured a Safety Fair was probably a safe place to let her run around.
She LOVES people in costume.
I hope this is the very last time he is ever in an ambulance.
Learning about ice rescue techniques. Evan said “It’s like a pool noodle!” and the guy was like “Well…yeah. Basically. But we probably paid more.”
Apparently she also loves animatronic cars with voices.
Bonjour! No I'm not French, it just sounded fancy. Sorry for the confusion. I'm Suzanne, a 30-year-old Navy wife, blogger, baker, and amateur at pretty much everything else. The stars of the show are Evan, born 4/5/09 and Caroline, born 12/19/2010. I love hearing from you so if you have questions, stories or ideas to share, email me at bebehblog at gmail dot com.
