Category: Danielle

I’ve fallen out of the blogging groove. I need to get back with it. What has happened in the last two weeks? I’ve been strangely busy.

Tori turned two:

Two year olds should not be given cymbals under any circumstances…

Giving a two year old Elmo Live, however, is quite hilarious…

Then there was Thanksgiving. Other than the turkey taking about two hours longer than it was supposed to, we had much to be thankful for, Danielle and Victoria at the top of the list of course.

I’ll try to get back in the blogging groove…

We just got back from two weeks in Cape Cod. It was in a house right on Skaket Beach in Orleans, MA. For the record, our vacation house was here.

Part of the reason the vacation was great was that we did two weeks. I have so rarely taken a two week vacation, it’s really way better. But the main reason was location, location, location.

Our backyard was literally the beach. We had our own private beach right next to the public beach. We could have breakfast and walk out to the beach. The place we rented was a bit bigger than we needed. So we took the opportunity to invite people to join us. We arrived on Sunday. On Monday, my wife’s sister Abby, her husband Jim, sons Michael and Matthew and Michael’s girlfriend Sandy showed up. Michael will be a junior in college and Matthew is a sophomore in high school. So the “kids” were really pretty old which made the overall grown-up to kid ratio quite favorable. That made things easy.

One night we went bowling, only it turned out to be Candlepin bowling. I had never heard of it before, but it was quite fun and very good for Danielle because the balls are much smaller (Victoria was asleep).

They all had to leave on Thursday to get Michael and Sandy back to college. On Friday a friend of my wife’s came and stayed until Monday. Those were the quietest days. Then on Tuesday some friends of ours came with their 3 year old twins (boy and girl). Plus they brought up Danielle’s best friend. Suddenly the grown-up to kid ratio dropped below 1. Zone defense time. But it was big fun. The kids played together well.

And the star attraction was the beach. There are tons of beaches in Cape Cod, but we never went to another one. Why would we? Skaket Beach is on the bay side which makes it warm. It is very shallow with lots of sand bars. This is ideal for kids. It has huge variation from the tides. And you get a great sunset every night.

I might as well start posting pictures. That’s where this blog was headed from the start. This is the first morning we were there. Danielle is still in her PJs. That’s our deck and that’s our beach before anyone shows up.

This one is a bit later that same morning. I’ve just finished a run on the beach and Danielle and Victoria are digging. Tori is still in her PJs.

These pictures try to capture the effect of the tides. The first picture is at low tide. You can see the bands of sand bars and how shallow it is. You can walk about a mile straight out.

But a couple of hours later the tide starts in. Here it is at about the halfway point.

And here is the tide nearly full. If you want to really swim, you need to wait for high tide.

But low tide is great for catching minnows and hermit crabs. You see all the kids out there with their nets. Here is Danielle and her friend Kenzie holding some tiny hermit crabs (you can really only see the shells). We probably caught about 100 tiny crabs and 100 tiny minnows over the vacation.

And any time is good for playing in the sand. There was plenty of digging (Victoria was generally a hazard with the shovel).

There was plenty of burying:

Our place had WiFi so you could take a break on the deck and play some games online.

We did get out a few times. There was a “Zooquarium” nearby that was good for the kids. It included pony rides:

 

And one day we went to Provincetown, which is a cool and amusing town on the tip of Cape Cod. After a nice dinner

we took a walk and found a street musician (if you haven’t been to P-town, as it is known, it is very artsy) and Victoria had to dance.

The funny thing is that I know I blogged the last time we went to Cape Cod and P-town about two years ago and there’s a very similar picture of Danielle.

And of course, there were sunsets. Lots of sunsets. In general I don’t like sunset pictures because they never look as good on film (unless you’re a pro). You usually end up saying, “but it was even more beautiful”. So with that caveat, here are the pictures, ending with my favorite one (OK, it isn’t the sunset that I think is beautiful).

So there you have it. A simply fantastic family vacation…

I haven’t blogged for a while, partly because our house has been a medical disaster area.

Warning, icky medical details following.

It all started Sunday night. Everything was fine. Everyone was asleep. About 2 in the morning I wake up with the “uh oh” realization that I need to run to the bathroom. Big fun. The Immodium AD moment. It was bad. So I deal with it and go back to bed.

Around 5 in the morning I get the stomach gurgle. And then that tell tale sign that vomit is coming. I get up and walk to the bathroom, saying to myself “this just isn’t fair”. Sure enough, I puke up whatever didn’t come out the other end. Really nice.

I was supposed to fly to Chicago the next day. Yeah, right. So I deal with a day in bed eating basically two pieces of toast. No more puke, but my stomach wasn’t ready for anything. The next day is better, but I stay home because I’m still a bit weak. But OK, it’s over.

Or not. Victoria is clearly sick. Monday night she was a disaster sleeping. My wife stayed with her and Danielle came and slept with me because Tori was crying too much (they share a bedroom). Our nanny says she’s ok on Tuesday, but when I’m with her Tuesday night she’s totally rubbing her ears. So I’m thinking ear infection, take her to the doctor tomorrow.

So Tuesday night Victoria is cranky again. I’m feeling better so to give my wife a break (since she slept like crap with Tori the night before), I stay with Tori and Danielle sleeps with my wife.

About two in the morning, my wife knocks on the door. “I need your help”. Danielle has puked all over the bed. And since she has long beautiful hair, it’s all in her hair. “Can you bath her and I’ll change the sheets?” my wife asks.

So I’m washing puke out of my daughter’s hair while my wife is dealing with pukey sheets. We get Danielle cleaned up and she is shivering and feeling lousy. Let’s face it, puking feels horrible for a grown up, for a kid it’s horrible and scary. So my wife asks her if she wants to come back to bed with her and Danielle replies, “I just want to lie on the couch with Papi” (Papi is me, if you aren’t familiar with the Hispanic nickname for Daddy).

So we curl up on the couch. I’m exhausted, still recovering from my own illness. It’s 2:30 in the morning. Our apartment smells like puke. I’m lying on the couch that is too small for both of us, holding my daughter in the most uncomfortable position possible as she falls asleep in my arms.

I’m strangely happy.

This is parenting. It’s full of icky bodily fluids and lack of sleep. Yet there’s something about that moment when your child just wants you and no one else and you hold them in your arms that makes it wonderful.

Our niece graduated from Yale this weekend (smart girl, got a full scholarship), so we didn’t have any big plans. On Saturday we all went up to see her. That was partly because the actual graduation was early on Monday morning and there was no way we were going to make a 1 and 5 year old sit through a Yale graduation (strangely, Tony Blair speaking holds no interest for them).

So on Monday my wife took the train up to New Haven (it’s her niece, I’m the in-law) and I had the girls. The day couldn’t have been more beautiful. Cool morning, high around 78, nothing but sun.

So we spent the day in the park. Of course for city folks, “park” means “playground”. There’s something about city parks. I don’t know if this is true across the country, but around here when I drive in the suburbs I see these gorgeous park/playgrounds with wonderful brand new equipment. The only problem is that no one is actually there.

I didn’t grow up in New York, so city parks are a relatively new thing to me. I love them. Sometimes we have pizza delivered right to the park so the kids don’t have to stop playing. And of course the ice cream truck drives right up.

So that was our day. Wake up. Park. Lunch. Different park. Home. Though actually, since it’s Memorial Day weekend most people have left the city. So the parks were actually very quiet. The city is kind of peaceful on holiday weekends.

Before hitting the park I picked up water balloons. Danielle had a field day. (all pictures via phone, my wife had our camera at graduation)

Stocking up.

Getting ready to throw (at me).

If you aren’t a city person, the blue thing behind Danielle is one of the sprinklers. There are four around that blue circle on the ground. When the weather is hot, they will spray throughout that blue circle.

Tori wasn’t exactly sure what to do with a water balloon. She got one with a tiny hole in it and thought it was the best.

Tori wanted to try the big girl swings

And Danielle had fun taking her down the slide

Sidewalk chalk is always fun at the park. Tori is eating cantaloupe and drawing (thankfully not eating the chalk)

 

I have no idea what Danielle is making…

Of course there was ice cream and Italian ices. Danielle rode her scooter all day and everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. Since my wife wasn’t back yet and we don’t have a grill, Memorial Day dinner was Chinese food. Not exactly traditional, but yummy all the same. And both were asleep by 7:30. A very nice day.

We had a good Easter at my wife’s sister’s place. Danielle and Victoria had matching dresses. Here are the girls ready to go to church:

Of course there was an Easter Egg hunt. Danielle found most of them:

Victoria helped a bit: