Let's Ro-De-O!

Yee Haw!!

It's Rodeo Time in Houston Y'all!

The trail riders made it in last weekend;  Tate and I missed it was we were winging our way to Canada.  We thoroughly enjoyed it last year.  I'm not going to any shows this year as noone quite tips my fancy.  Ok, so Keith Urban isn't coming.  BUT he is coming to Houston August 16th!  And uhhh, yeah, I'll be there!!!

So today after swim lessons we headed out to the Rodeo and Livestock showgrounds.  But first I must say Tate did great at swim lessons even after missing the last 2 weeks (due to his ER visit and then while we were in Canada!)

We arrived at Reliant Stadium, parked and had a festive ride on the tram to the entrance.  Once inside Tate and I were ready to see some cows, horses, chicks (birds!!! :) ) and cowboys (for me :) ).

As we walked through Reliant Arena so he could eat his lunch, I perused all the merchandise for sale.  From cowboy boots and hats to huge sterling silver jewelry, there is something for everyone.  As we were walking along we ran into my dear friend Julie!!  Yay!!  She's a volunteer this year, and today was one of her days to work.  I would love to volunteer, but it's a HUGE time commitment with lots of meetings throughout the year and you have to commit to work several days during the 3 weeks the rodeo is in town.  Not something I can really do at this time in my life.

She ran back to her 'station', Fun on the Farm while Tate and I made the first of many potty breaks.  We then headed outside.  First stop...

Pony Rides!!

  

And then a variety of carnival rides!!  We began with a....

TRAIN RIDE!!!

The engineer position of course! 

Such a careful driver!

Then onto the more mundane :) rides...

Look at that JOY!!

And he rode a CAMEL!!!

 He thought the camel ride was the absolute best!!  (because he went slow)  He said the horses were too fast.  I think this all stems back to his falling off the train at his birthday party last July;  he'll bring it up every now and then, sure to remind me that I stopped the train for him.  Sweet boy.  Goodness I love him.

We then went through 'Fun on the Farm' so we could see Aunt Julie...

Sweet little goat born about a week ago!!

We then meandered over to grab some lunch after Aunt Julie took a couple of pics of me and my sweet boy.

Once back inside the arena Tate got his second wind and was bouncing up and down because he wanted to see 'cows and chicks!!!'  So Mommy found him some cows and chicks!!  And a new baby goat named Darby, born this morning at 3am!  And we saw a cow in labor at the birthing center!

Now that's a cow! 

He was just thrilled to see the chicks.  I have no idea
where this love of baby chicks has come from!

As we were looking at the chickens on down the way there was a little girl who was about 1 looking at them as well.  My Tate bent over several times to explain to this little girl that she was looking at chickens and that she needed to be careful and keep her little fingers out of the wire fence because it was dirty and he didn't want the chickens to bite her fingers.  He must have spent 3-4 minutes pointing the chickens out and giving her a safety lesson.  I was so proud and overcome with emotion at the kindness of my son.

We grabbed some lunch for me and french fries for Tate.  This was the only time he cried the entire 3 1/2 hours we were there, and we missed his nap, AND he had woken up this morning at 5:18, so I was duly impressed.  I asked for unseasoned fries to ward off any pepper being on the fries (plus my 3 1/2 year old doesn't need salt).  Well there were black specks.  From the grill or oven, what have you.  Oh the whimpering and whining.  I tried to wipe them off.  And he continued to whine.  I told him the fries were not dirty and he at least needed to try them.  I insisted he try them as there were no other choices he would probably even like (I had already walked up and down the food aisle looking for 'clean' fries).  The sweet woman who made him the fries insisted I return them to her, and she took them back to try to wipe them off for me...above and beyond what I thought she should have done for my picky eater.  She was so very kind and worried about Tate.  I gave him the 'cleaner' fries and he still shook his head. She wanted to redo them, and I said no...he was going to have to deal. I thanked her profusely and took my whining child to get something for myself to eat from Pappasitos.  I got him some ketchup and said "Eat or don't eat.  I don't care.  Those are fine."

And he ate them.  With glee.  He gave me 5 or 6 and said they were just too dirty, but otherwise he chowed down happily once he realized the 'dirt' wasn't going to kill him.  I was quite excited as for Tate this is huge, eating something he really didn't want to, though we all know there was nothing wrong with the fries.

In any event, with full bellies we returned to the carnival area for once last walk through and to ride any rides we missed.

And of course we ended our Rodeo experience for 2013 with one last ride on the train...

I love the 'rodeo chickens' in the middle of train tracks!

We walked slowly back to the tram to make our way back to our car.  My little cowboy was quite tired and sat quietly in his stroller.  As it was almost 230 I definitely didn't want him falling asleep, which thankfully he didn't.  He was most excited about our return to the parking lot on the tram and cuddled up next to me in the seat.

Throughout the day, Tate would spontaneously want to give me hugs which just brings such joy to my heart.  Several times he just piped up "The rodeo is so much fun!"  After riding the train the second time, he looked up at me and said "Thanks for letting me ride the train!"  His boundless joy and energy just buoyed me up even in the midst of my exhaustion after a long day of travel yesterday and not a good night's sleep last night.  

And I was surprised by how very much fun I had with my son today.  As we were riding back to our car and he put his head on my shoulder and said "That was a fun day at the rodeo" I almost cried with the intensity of my emotions of how very much I love him and how very fun it was for me too.

This is what I dreamed my life as a mother would be.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas...In February

Blizzard like conditions! 

We leave tomorrow morning at 9:30am! 

Ack!

It has been snowing here all day long.  By 1:30 today it was snowing like crazy...sideways crazy.  It's not terribly cold, around 35 Fahrenheit, so definitely not cold.  But the snow pelting your face...not so pleasant.  Just ask Tate...he was not a fan.

Yesterday, Susan let her kids stay home from school and we loaded up the kiddos and headed to Parc Omega in Quebec, a little over an hour away.  It is a reserve of sorts for all types of beautiful animals in their natural habitat...bears, variety of species of foxes, deer, caribou, bison to name a few.  We loaded up with bags and bags of carrots and entered the reserve.  It was gorgeous.  The animals were amazingly beautiful, and it was so much fun to see them putting their whole faces into our car trying to get at the carrots.  Tate was none too enthused about feeding any animal though he was the first to yell out the window "Food!  Animals!! Food!"  Once they ventured near him he couldn't move far enough away from the window insisting "Mommy you feed them for me.  Thank you!"  Alex and Katherine had a blast as did Susan and I.  It was a fantastic experience.

Once home the kiddos played and watched tv...Thomas to be exact.  Alex and Katherine were beyond kind letting Tate watch as much Thomas as he wanted.  I believe that Tate will always want to go on vacation as I'm sure he'll think that means he gets to watch Thomas and Curious George!!! 

Only problem with yesterday is that Tate woke up at 5:18am.  Yep 5:18.  I could not convince him to go back to sleep, so we were downstairs by 6am.  Ugh.  He did fairly well most of the day, but by bedtime he was just exhausted and whined himself to sleep after arguing with me about the amount of toothpaste on his toothbrush.

He has been much more whiny this vacation.  I don't know if it's the cold weather, coming off being sick and still having a cough (minimal though), the food looking so very different (he's balked at the french fries when they were crinkle fries, seasoned fries, didn't want the hot dog as it's slightly different looking than ours, he's turned his nose up at cheese quesadillas which though the tortillas are whole wheat like he's used to...they do look different, and the cheese is different, so eating has been a challenge...he's subsisting on cheerios and milk pretty much), he's been really reticent to talk to Dan as well as Susan which is unlike him.  It takes him a bit to warm up to people, but he's usually good about 2 days in....he did much better in Germany where the people we stayed with didn't even speak his language.  I suppose though they are 'family' and he'd met them before albeit at the tender age of 5 months.  His whininess grates on my nerves, so I'm shorter than usual.  Oh and then there's the fight over getting dressed to go out of the house.  Coat, hat, gloves, boots...all of which he hates apparently.  And it takes forever to get him dressed to go out...sigh. But when we're alone, he's fine for the most part, save the toothpaste meltdowns. He's happy as a clam.

Hmmmm...will have to sort that out!


Anyway, today we hung out at home while Susan took the kids to school, and when she returned Tate and I ventured to The Museum of Science and Technology whereupon we saw some fantastic TRAINS! Tate and I of course spent 99% of our time in the locomotive hall. After 2 hours of looking at trains I was ready to go.

We headed out into the now pelting snow and returned home. It's been 15 years since I've lived in Chicago and driven in snow, much like snow approaching blizzard type blowing. It wasn't so much the amount of snow, but the way it was coming down so very hard for so very long.

Once home, we took a break to watch a Thomas episode, then headed out to pick the kids up from school. We made our way back home slowly and the kids, Susan and I went back outside for one last romp in the snow. I made my last snow angel for a while, and Tate busied himself walking in any and all snow that was pristine...his favorite snow pasttime!

So he's asleep now, and I'm about all packed. I'm crossing my fingers the snow slows down and we make our way back to the fabulous U.S. of A. in the morning!

Still Above (Way Above) The Mason Dixon Line

How was skiing one might ask?  I had a bit of fun, Aunt Susan had a bit of fun, Uncle Dan had a bit of fun, Alex and Katherine had a bit of fun!

Tate had hot chocolate and french fries.

Sigh.

We loaded up and drove to Edelweiss bright and early Sunday morning; about an hour from where we are in Ottawa.  I had signed Tate up for a private lesson and ordered a lesson for Susan and myself.  Tate had been going on and on about skiing like 'Curioous George' for a couple of weeks.  Apparently though Curious George skis with no shoes on.  Because the minute I got Tate's ski boots on he started bawling and crying and whining, he never stopped.

And for those of you who ski you know what an ordeal it is to get yourself suited up in ski boots, lugging your poles and skis (luckily the 3 of us were without poles) while in a room full of people all struggling to get dressed and said room is almost always 85 degrees seemingly, and you all have on 3 layers of clothes.  Gloves fall to the ground.  Hats get stepped on. Scarves get tangled up.  And then voila!  You're ready to ski.

If you're just getting yourself dressed.

Imagine doing all that with a 3 year old who is still crying, a 9 year old who wasn't enthused about the trip initially and a 7 year old who can't wait to hit the slopes. I was exhausted before I even tried walking in my boots.

Alex and Katherine happily scampered off with their dad to ski the blacks while Susan and I trudged over to the ski school meeting place.  Our instructor was actually fabulous, while Tate's not so much.  By the time we had made our way to the meeting place Tate had started crying again.  He was not at all impressed with the snow, the gorgeous views or the idea of putting two skinny sticks on his feet and hurling himself down a mountain.  He cried and cried and cried.  His instructor was a very young guy (late teenager it seemed) and French and he seemed totally out of his depth with a crying 3 1/2 year old.  We were going to be all be on the same bunny slope, so I walked with Tate over to the lesson area hoping that since he would be able to see me that he would come around.  No dice.  He continued crying, refusing to put on his skis.  Our instructor, Yves suggested to Tate's instructor, Julian that he just take Tate a bit to the side and throw snowballs with him or simply play with him.  This seemed a bit much for poor Julian.  Susan and Yves went on up the pulley for her to start 'our' lesson while I stayed down trying to convince Tate to stop whining.  I went up with Susan and Yves the second go round and had a fantastic 'run' down the bunny slope :).  Halfway down I heard Tate just a boo-hooing.

We decided to forgo his lesson and I took him on back inside, and I was not happy.  When I got him back inside I asked what on earth was wrong and his complaint?

His boots were too tight.

SKI BOOTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TIGHT!

I had told him this from the beginning. 

No amount of cajoling would convince him to try again, so I calmed down, he stopped crying and we hung out inside.  About 45 minutes later Susan came in, offering to take Tate upstairs for some hot cocoa and french fries and I could go finish out the last 30 minutes of our lesson.

It was glorious being on skis again even if for only 30 minutes and only being on the bunny slope.  I am amazingly afraid of heights, but for some reason as long as I don't have to be on a lift, and I don't look down I can do ok.  Yves was great and patient, but I still could not be convinced to go up the lift and try a regular green run.

I made my way back to Susan and Tate and found everyone finishing up some semblance of lunch.  I grabbed something for myself then while Dan and Katherine did another run, we returned our rental equipment.

We made the trip home uneventfully, the kids played here while we adults recuperated, mostly our ears from Tate's crying. :)

We ventured out to dinner which Tate usually does quite well with.  I made him a hot dog at home since I'm never sure of the offerings with his allergies.  I figured he would nosh on french fries as almost every kid-friendly restaurant has french fries.  This place was no different, but I forgot to ask for the french fries to be unseasoned and he was less than thrilled by the pepper on the fries.  A few tears commenced (and he had done so well while waiting, coloring away), and then the hot dog didn't look the same as the day before.  Ugh.  A few more tears.  The milk though was yummy as was the mini scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, so he was overall a happy little guy.

He was sound asleep by 740 and I joined him less than 2 hours later with sore calves and rosy cheeks.

I didn't hear from Tate until 638 on Monday morning!  I could not believe it.  The previous night had been the same...he slept from 735pm Saturday night until 650am Sunday morning!  He hadn't had a nap since we arrived, and we had no end of the evening meltdowns AND he made up the nap hour overnight!  Woot!

We made our way downstairs and he made a beeline for the tv to watch THOMAS!!  I'm pretty sure Tate's idea of a vacation is Mommy letting him watch 'Thomas' for an hour or more upon waking and then 'Curious George' for an hour or so after some playtime, then more 'Thomas' when we get back from wherever we've gone interspersed with some serious playing in the awesome basement with the amazing train tracks Alex and Katherine put together for him.  Then there's the playing in the snow!!  Fun! Fun!  Followed by more 'Thomas' or more 'George'!

The kids had to go to school Monday, and Susan and Dan had to go to work.  Dan graciously left me his car, so I opted to take Tate to The Museum of Science and Technology.  If you click on the link you'll see why we thought he'd enjoy going!  That train was spectacular in real life outside in the midst of several feet of snow, and Tate was in heaven as soon as he saw it from the car.  Which is how we saw the entire museum as it was closed!  :(  But Tate seemed content enough to drive by the train a couple of times.

We made our way to a small shopping area across the way which had a grocery store.  As we wandered around I ran into a small toy boutique.  We ventured in and VOILA! A huge train table was set up inside the store.  We were the only patrons, and Tate played for over 30 minutes while I had a lovely conversation with the shop owner about all things Canadian and all things American.  One shiny black train (ala The Polar Express per Tate) and we exited.  We had a nice lunch back home together, watched yet another 'Thomas' episode, Tate played with his new train and I rested my head.  We then bundled up and made our way to a local playground. 

This was quite the adventure!  The snow was pretty untouched on the playground, and Tate had a blast walking through it, falling down and figuring out how to get back up.  After about 20  minutes though he was tired of trying to keep his mittens on (they were a bit too big), and I was tired of arguing with him about why he had to keep putting them back on, so we trounced through the snow happily and made our way home.

The kids and Susan returned around 345, minutes after we did.  The kiddos did their kid thing while Susan and I chatted.  I got some dinner into Tate, then we headed upstairs to get ready for bed.  After bathtime and a much easier tooth brushing time than the previous night's screamfest because I wouldn't let him put an entire tube of toothpaste on his toothbrush, we started reading stories.  Well I should say Tate started reading stories.  He was scratching his legs and underarm a bit, and I noticed he had a couple of splotches in the areas with very small hives after removing his pjs.  I rubbed the areas lightly and redressed him.  He was fine for about five minutes then started scratching again;  I undressed him and inspected again.  The areas were red, but the welts still only about 3 mm in diameter and only about 3 or 4.  I opted to bypass the Benadryl to see if his little body could take care of itself.  This put him not going to sleep until 750pm.  A twenty minute difference from the past 2 nights pretty much, and he didn't fall asleep as easily.  But easily enough.

I ate my dinner, relaxed and climbed into bed by 930.  This is the best part of 'vacationing' with great, great friends.   With kids.  They understand that having no 'chores' and being able to be asleep before 10 is the best vacation for me.  The just being able to not have more responsibility than my child and cleaning up after ourselves is just so relaxing.  Not doing laundry every night, not sweeping up every night, not doing the one million little things I always find I just 'have' to do every night is just fabulous.

I have to vow to really allow myself the time to just be for just a little while each and every night I'm at home.  And that includes staying off the computer, which is one of the reasons for Lent this year I have decided that I will not get online after 9pm unless it's to update my blog, and even that I try to do before 9pm.  If I do update it, I don't read anyone else's new posts or even new comments on my previous posts.  I just journal about our lives.  It's been freeing, but now with that 'extra' time I need to spend time for me.  I can't wait.