Day Four - Jersey Shore

Tuesday pretty much saved the whole trip for me.  Up until that point it had been full of things that didn't work out right and frustrating moments with Jacob.  I decided Tuesday had to be a BIG day for us because the weather was looking sketchy for Wednesday and I wanted to fit in as much of the good outside stuff as we possibly could.  Our first order of business was checking out of the hotel and getting on the road to the shore.  It was about an hour or so there, and it was a relatively easy trip.  I booked a room in Atlantic City, which wasn't really my first choice.  I really wanted to stay in Ocean City, where I had stayed nine years ago with my two best friends.  It's a lovely little town, very family friendly and perfectly pleasant.  However, hotel rates there are ridiculous.  It made more sense to stay in Atlantic City for over $100 cheaper and make the half hour drive to Ocean City when we wanted to visit.  I managed to get a hotel less than a block from the beach.  It was just a Days Inn and it paled in comparison to all of the casinos on the boardwalk, but it got the job done.  We even had a bigger room with a couch.  It wasn't fancy, but it had free internet, free breakfast, and a good location.  Just like in Philly, we parked in the lot for free and went off to kill time until check-in. 

We grabbed our sand toys and walked to the beach.  The heat was once again pretty awful, but the beach access was free (unlike Ocean City where it's $5/person) so we splurged on an umbrella rental to make the time more tolerable.  We had a very nice time there, mostly just playing in the sand.  I dipped my feet in the ocean a few times, and once got as deep as the top of my legs, but it was a bit chilly.  I did get Jacob to walk in a little on a run to fill our buckets with water, but I think he was a little thrown off by the waves. 

As usual, even sand play had a bit of a Jacob slant to it.  We used our turret-like sand molds to create "bowling pins", then used a lacrosse ball to bowl them down...

It took a while, but we eventually got Jacob to change into his bathing suit, and he even convinced us to stay on the beach a little longer.  He did get to play a little beach lacrosse, too.  But mostly it was digging and molding and pouring water.

 After we tired of the beach, we tried to figure out lunch.  Jacob conked out in his stroller before he could eat his corndog, but he got in a good nap while we waited to check in, and woke up unhappy once we got in the room.  However, once he calmed down he inhaled his food and we got ready to head out to Ocean City.

It was an amazing drive out there, as the GPS took us on a route through all the seaside towns and past some of the most gorgeous beach houses ever.  A-MAZING.  We're talking millions of dollars.  Once we got there and parked, Ocean City was as lovely as I remembered it.  The boardwalk was pleasant and full of great food, little shops, and fun amusements. 

We wandered up and down the boardwalk and stopped at Gillian's Wonderland Pier to let Jacob have his first ever ride.  He picked out a car ride that was a crack-the-whip type ride.  I rode with him just in case it freaked him out. 

He ended up loving it!  After the first whip, I looked at him to make sure he was okay, and all I saw was a big smile!  Craig got video but I'm not sure if I will be able to upload it.  Maybe later :)  Still, he did great!  There's hope for roller coaster riding yet!

After we grabbed a sweaty but delicious dinner at one of my favorite spots, Mack and Manco's Pizza, we carefully selected a site for a long-awaited game of mini golf.  There were a ton to choose from, but we picked one with a cool nautical theme.  There was a big boat (there were holes on the boat) and a giant shark!  The best part about it was that most holes had a potential hole-in-one option, making it the perfect course for Jacob.  He had a blast!

Once again, he beat us on a hole or two, and even got a couple holes-in-one in a row (never fear, at one point I had three!).  Here he is after one of them...

Notice the soccer ball golf ball!

Craig pulled out the win after I choked on the last couple holes, but the best part was on the 19th hole (yes, 19th), where you had to putt the ball on a 3 or 4 inch wide straightaway.  If it went in the hole at the end, a giant shark rose up out of the water in a cage.  Craig did it!  Very cool.

Our last stop in Ocean City was Shiver's, a candy shop that specializes in salt water taffy.  They have so many flavors and you can see right where they make it in the back of the shop.  On the way in, Jacob got his picture with Mr. Taffy...

After we bought a small assortment of taffy, we headed back to Atlantic City.  Since we'd had such trouble getting Jacob to sleep, we decided to go for a late-night walk on the boardwalk.  I figured that the stroller ride motion might do him in, and we'd get the benefit of seeing the boardwalk before the rain came in the next day.  We walked up and down the main section of the boardwalk, from Boardwalk Hall down to somewhere around the Resorts Hotel...maybe a mile at most?  It was a nice night and there was plenty to see.  Let's just say that both the boardwalk contents and the clientele in Atlantic City aren't nearly as idyllic as Ocean City.  While Ocean City has its share of cheesy stores, Atlantic City specializes in them and adds numerous massage parlors to the mix.  Yuck.  Ocean City is full of mid-to-upper class families, and Atlantic City has a little of everything.  But it was still fun to walk and see the casino lights.  And miracle of all miracles, Jacob fell asleep and stayed asleep when we transferred him into his bed.  Heavenly.

I went to bed that night feeling content that we'd seen all we needed to see before the rain would come in.  Anything the next day would be a bonus...

Day Three - Philadelphia

Monday we woke up, ate some granola bars (yes, there's a reason I usually get hotels with free breakfast--there was nothing around ours!), and got ready for a day at the zoo...once again in miserable heat.  We actually ended up heading first to Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, to check out their store.  Craig grew up liking the Eagles (and the Bills, of course), and enjoyed browsing their store.  The stadium was impressive, even if we only got to see a tiny fraction of it. 

The zoo is the first zoo in the U.S., and it definitely had some older elements that made it charming, in much the same way as at the Buffalo Zoo--stone structures, etc.  One of the first things we saw was a bat that climbed up the side of the cage--creepy but fascinating.

Elsewhere in the same building were some interesting monkeys I had never seen before--Douc Langur monkeys.  They're sort of cool and unique-looking. 

Little did we know that we'd get to meet a talking one later.  The zoo did a collaboration with the Jim Henson folks to create a bunch of puppets based on extinct or endangered animals that were featured in a short movie and puppet performances at stations around the zoo.  They were really cute, and one of them was "The Douc" (pronounced like "Duke"), whose show we happened to catch.  Jacob sat on the floor with all of the other kids, and we couldn't help but giggle as he gave in to peer pressure and raised his hands as The Douc and the zoo worker asked questions like, "Who has a cell phone?" and "Who recycles?"  So cute.  Jacob loved him and Craig could do a pretty good version of his voice, which made Jacob laugh all week.

Here's a cute shot from outside the reptile building.  Shortly before this shot, a peacock jumped up on a wall just a few feet from Jacob.  They freely roamed the zoo and we happened to see a bunch of them after that.   

And here's Jacob showing some love to the giant stuffed gorilla in one of the shops...

Shortly after that, we saw some real gorillas.  They had a bunch of them, and one was in a perfect spot for a great picture...

The highlight of Jacob's day may have been playing in this little fountain near the polar bears.  He really got into it and had a wet shirt and shorts for the rest of the day...which probably wasn't such a bad thing since it was so stinkin' hot. 

We saw a ton of great animals--giraffes, rhinos, zebras, hippos (underwater), tons of monkeys, strange reptiles (ever seen an alligator snapping turtle?  Freakish.), penguins and more.  We also saw a bizarre series of violent bronze animal sculptures and some lovely fountains.  It wasn't a bad day, but the heat was starting to get to us. 

Jacob fell asleep on a lengthy drive through the city back to the hotel.  We wanted to go back into the city for dinner and sightseeing, but things just didn't work out.  There just wasn't a solid plan that would work out--and on this trip, if we didn't have a plan, it got messed up--so we ended up just going to a restaurant in the baseball stadium for dinner.  We were going to walk there, but second-guessed it when we walked back out of the hotel into a stiff wind and dark clouds.  The thunder and lightning sealed the deal, and we managed to drive there and park the car just in time to make it into the restaurant and watch a hardcore thunderstorm blow in.  Wind, crazy lightning, hard rain...all with Lincoln Financial Field as the backdrop.  We also happened upon some sort of Temple University booster party, which was sort of funny to see and scared us a bit thinking the whole restaurant would be closed to outside business.  Thank goodness it wasn't.  Jacob was a bit difficult at this dinner, as well, but other than a scrape on his arm from falling face-first out of his chair right in the front of the waitress, we made it through unscathed.  Oh, and we managed a dry day all day as well, other than a bit of an accident on the way home from the zoo when he fell asleep.  But while he was awake, he was dry.  On the way back to the car we tried to get a picture of Jacob with one of the cool statues outside the stadium, but I rushed it a bit because there was still lightning in the area.  Because everything was backlit, that picture didn't turn out great, but I do like this one...

Here's a view of the post-storm aftermath from our room.  That's the baseball stadium in the distance.

I was disappointed that we didn't get to go into the city, but things just didn't work out.  We tried to get Jacob to sleep extra early that night, turning off the lights before 9pm and hoping we could turn them back on after he fell asleep.  But he fought it for two hours and the lights never came back on.  So, for the third night in a row, he went to bed late and I didn't get the good post-bedtime laptop time I had been craving--hence the lack of blogs during our trip.  Ugh.  Instead I was always the one up early and getting computer time then--but even then it was merely catching up on email, blog reading, and Facebook

We Interrupt this Vacation...

...to remember a wonderful woman.  My Grandma Ellman passed away this morning after a long downward descent.  From a short term perspective, it's a blessing.  She was in pain and had lost her quality of life, so the thought of her in heaven, reunited with my grandpa (who passed away over 30 years ago), and healed of all her earthly suffering, is a great one.  She lived a long, full life with four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

The only sadness I can feel at this point is that her descent from an active social life to sleeping her days away was a sad period...and the worst of it was all in the last year or so.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that she was active and sharp.  She went from the queen of senior bus trips to a series of injuries and illnesses that kept her mostly homebound.  Those years were difficult for all involved, for many reasons.  And it was all downhill from there, culminating in her move to a senior apartment last year and then a series of visits to rehab.  The worst and most recent illness was shingles.  She needed increasing care as time went on, and the last couple times we went to visit her, it was apparent that her time was limited.  Or at least, it left us hoping her time was limited, as that was no way to live.  She had more or less turned into one of those people that we used to pity when we went Christmas caroling at the nursing home.  It was a sad end for a strong woman and had to be a huge shot to her pride--to go from a proud, active woman to someone who could do so little for herself. 

To me my grandma was always a strong woman that lost her husband far too young.  She spent so many years solo.  She had family and lots of friends, obviously, but to not have a spouse for all those years had to be at least a little lonely sometimes.  On the other hand, she certainly embraced that single life.  Perhaps she spent so many years as a wife and mother that she was ready to embark on some adventures on her own.  She went on numerous cruises and exotic trips, and countless senior bus trips.  She enjoyed dinners out and loved shopping...as her large Beanie Baby collection and abundant knicknacks will attest.  Going through the things in her house has been quite the process for my mom and her siblings, and there have been a handful of things that I've been honored to bring to my house--namely the high wooden chair Jacob uses at our kitchen table and a few toys that were the most memorable for me from the many hours I spent playing there. 

I also remember meals at Perkins, Burger King, and even Ponderosa, which now as an adult boggles my mind a little bit considering how particular Grandma could be about her food.  We didn't always go out, though, as she made some delicious food herself.  I remember some great dinners that she made, and she was always a great food contributor to family picnics.  I also recall many a New Year's Day ham at her house and nearly every Christmas evening in her living room.  When I was younger she always made sure to bring back a souvenir from her trips, and once in a while she'd even spoil us a bit with a small something at the toy store when we were out at the mall. 

I have fond memories of her old house, the house my mom grew up in.  The family spent many weekends in her backyard swimming in the pool, and spending time there on my own (probably on golf days) was probably a key factor in teaching me to be gentle around nice things.  Probably around 20 years ago she moved across the street from us to a small ranch.  It was a perfect house for her, ideal for providing her help, and the site of many memories as well.  One time my parents were on vacation and I was staying there.  The Sabres were on the verge of winning their first playoff series in 10 years.  My grandma went to bed and the game went to overtime.  The Sabres won, and I was so excited that I quietly ran through her house (it was one big circle) trying to work off my excited energy so I wouldn't scream.  I accidentally woke her up anyway.  Oops...but she was cool about it. 

She wasn't really a get-on-the-floor-and-play-with-you sort of grandma, but that never really bothered me.  I knew she loved me and she probably did a great job of pretending to be interested in whatever I was doing.  She appreciated quiet and neatness, so as long as the grandchild toy mess was cleaned up in the end, she was fine.  She was a no-nonsense sort of woman, and I knew it even when I was young.  It actually became a bit of a sticking point in recent years as she had major issues with my cousin's gay lifestyle.  She was certainly entitled to her opinion, but it was unfortunate that the family was a bit fractured in the last years of her life...if only because everyone missed out on time all together.

These last few years certainly weren't representative of the grandmother I knew for so many years, but I feel so lucky to have had her as long as we did.  And really, mentally she was pretty darn good up until recently.  Knowing it was that recent makes this a bit of a tough pill to swallow, but knowing how much her quality of life had deteriorated, I'm so happy that she didn't have to live like that any longer than she did.  My heart breaks for my mom, aunt and uncles, and this whole process has given me a bit of insight into what lies ahead with my own parents (and in-laws, for that matter).  I can't even go there right now, but needless to say, there's no good way for this stuff to happen...ever.  Too sudden and it's shockingly painful for those left behind, but if it's too drawn out, it's hard to watch and even harder for the one suffering. 

But for now I simply need to do two things...appreciate what I have now and look back fondly on the good times.  And so, I will leave you with this...

Jacob and his great-grandma on his first birthday (sadly, the only picture I seem to have of them together)

Rest in peace, Grandma, and may you regain in heaven all you lost on earth.  Thank you for all you've done and all your love over the years.  You will be missed.

Day Two - Philadelphia

The good news was that Jacob slept in on Sunday. The bad news is that it meant he wasn't in the mood to take a nap on the way to Philly. It was only an hour drive, so once we were up and out, we headed to Burger King for breakfast.  Jacob loved his first Burger King crown...

The ride to Philly was busy but we made it to our hotel just fine.  It was located just a block or so from the stadium and we were able to park there for free and walk to the game.  It was insanely hot and just getting into the stadium left us sweaty!  We posed for a couple fan photos on our way in, then started wandering around to check out food options and see how we'd be spending our afternoon once the heat made our seats unbearable.  Along the way we made a detour for this:

And then we had another detour off to a shady corner to hydrate...

We finally got to our seats, and what a view...notice the city in the background...

After about an inning or so, we retreated to the concourse.  We did some shopping and snapped a picture with this guy...

The Philly Phanatic...a statue of him, anyway.

We had to walk a ways back to our seats, during which Jacob conked out.  It was so hot, so who could blame him?  Craig and I got some lunch and headed back to the seats to wait for Jacob to wake up. 

Out like a light...we each took a turn holding him, which left us even sweatier.  Luckily, by then we were half covered by shade.

Once Jacob woke up, he got some lunch and we eventually wandered off to do more shopping (Jacob picked a small stuffed Phanatic and a shiny red baseball) and grab a cold snack.  We spent the last couple innings in a shady courtyard letting Jacob throw and catch and bat.  We left before the 10th inning to head back to the hotel and get checked in.  We were all pretty wiped out, so imagine our annoyance when we walked into our room and there was no pull-out couch.  As you might recall, I booked this room with a king size bed and a pull-out couch.  Although apparently all the king rooms have that feature, ours did not.  So we got switched to a room with two queens, which was just fine with us. 

Although we had planned on potentially venturing out to the city, we were pretty beat.  And by the time we looked into our dinner options, we ended up just going down the road to a place Craig had been before, Chickie & Pete's, which specializes in "crabfries", skinny crinkle cut fries with a creamy crab dip.  Dinner was a challenge as usual, and we couldn't get back to the hotel fast enough.  We had another long night trying to get Jacob down.  I snuggled with him for quite a while before he went down.  Good thing we finally got some sleep, because we had a busy day coming up at the zoo...

We're back...

It's been a crazy week, but we're home.  I was really hoping to blog while we were gone, but Jacob's bedtime routine wasn't conducive to evening computer time.  A lot of Jacob's preferences weren't quite in line with ours on this trip, but I'll get into that more later. 

Our plan was to get on the road by about 10 or 11 on Saturday.  I packed like a maniac Friday night, and felt pretty confident by bedtime that we'd be in good shape for the morning.  As usual, there were a few cranky little things that took longer than would be ideal.  We also decided to grab lunch before we left and we needed to get gas.  It felt like it was going to take forever to actually get going, but we finally did--a little behind schedule, but within an acceptable timeframe.  The drive down was actually pretty simple.  We decided to take my car (equipped with four new tires), so I drove.  The weather was perfect, the roads were a little busy but tolerable, and I fell in love with our GPS, which directed us nicely. 

We stopped after three hours, to visit my oldest friend, Heather, and her husband Peter, in Binghamton.  It was a good stopping point, and we had a fun couple hours there.  Jacob played in the huge dollhouse that Heather and I spent so many hours playing in (her dad built it!), and then we walked down to the park and Jacob decided he'd rather play on the baseball field than on the playground (shocking!).  We discovered on the way down that the baseball game we were planning on going to that night was earlier than we thought, so we had to cut the visit a bit short.  Unfortunately Jacob did not want to leave, so it was probably the first of many battles we had over the course of the trip.  Still, it was a fun visit while it lasted!

We drove two more hours down to Allentown and were fortunate to get general admission tickets to the sold out game between the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Buffalo Bisons.  I guess if we go there again we'll know to order ahead.  Those tickets got us into the park, which was most important, and fortunately it was a great stadium for standing room--there was plenty to do and great places to stand and watch.  We ate some dinner then visited the Kids' Zone, where Jacob got to throw and hit balls.  He also got to putt at a separate attraction, and try his hand at a speed pitch (he threw a perfect strike but didn't register on the radar gun).  We met both mascots, and eventually settled in to watch the game from a spot in the middle of the outfield.  The park was absolutely beautiful, and once the insane heat subsided, it was a beautiful night.  Here's some of the highlights: 

Big baseball bat outside the box office...Jacob spent the rest of the night trying to convince us to buy him yet another mini bat.

View from the third baseline toward the scoreboard

 '

The first of many of these sorts of photo ops on the trip...and probably the most successful.

A scoreboard shot of the "Pork Race".  There are hot dog races, sausage races, pierogies, and dead presidents, but the IronPigs use pork--a hot dog, a slab of bacon, and a piece of bone-in ham.  The shot above is just before the hot dog tripped the ham, causing the ham to fall flat on its face and allowing the bacon to win.

 

Jacob and me with FeFe the mascot (get it?  Fe is the symbol for iron on the periodic table)

All of us with Ferrous the mascot.  They did this awesome thing and announced when the mascots were available in the autograph booth.  And they took pictures for free :)

Looking over the field at the end of the night.  See those streaks in the sky?  It really looked like that and I have no idea why.

It ended up being a long game and a late night.  It took a bit to get to our hotel, and Jacob fell asleep on the way.  By the time we got there he had peed through his pull-up (the first of many potty incidents on this trip), and it took a bit to get him back down.  Craig had to cuddle up with him, and even then he probably didn't go down for good until 11:30 or so.  Good thing we weren't in a huge rush the next morning! 

Getting there...

Well, I finally booked the rest of our hotel rooms for our trip, so I guess we're in decent shape.  We haven't done a long vacation in a long time (since our Florida trip before Jacob was born), and that was such a cheap-o vacation considering we had free accomodations courtesy of a prize from a golf tournament.  We still had to fly there, rent a card, and buy Disney tickets and food, but all things considered, it was cheap for such a pleasant (and well-timed) vacation.  This time around, the hotel costs for five nights away are a bit of a bummer.  But I did them as cost-effectively as I could, and I think they'll be good.  I did take a slight chance and book one room with a king bed and a pullout couch, hoping that the pullout couch would be about equal in comfort to Jacob's crib mattress.  It's our Philly room, and it was the least scary hotel I could find in our price range that is convenient to anything we're doing.  It's near the baseball stadium, which means we can park there for free (big savings, I'd assume) and walk to the game.  While I'm normally the one who books any sort of free hotel breakfast I can, we'll only have one at our Atlantic City hotel.  Our first night will be spent in Allentown, and I decided that good reviews and a super comfy bed (Sleep Number!) trumped free breakfast over a similarly priced hotel with free breakfast and some iffy cleanliness reviews.  We'll see how it all pans out.  If nothing else, we can introduce Jacob to fast free breakfasts...yum.  I do think all three have free internet, so that's helpful for killing evenings after Jacob's asleep...assuming that ever happens.  We're definitely going to have to get creative on that one, since activity is a detriment to sleep.  That was a huge issue last year in Pittsburgh, so I'm not sure what the plan is this time.  Well-placed car rides?  Perhaps I'll just assume we'll have issues, plan to go to bed early with him, and be pleasantly surprised if we get to stay up late.  If nothing else, maybe that means we'll get a lot of sleep and yet won't need to waste the day sleeping in!

The plan is to go to a minor league baseball game in Allentown on Saturday, go to the Phillies game on Sunday afternoon, explore the city a bit in the evening, do the zoo Monday morning, more exploring later in the day, leave for Atlantic City Tuesday morning, spend Tuesday and Wednesday at one shore locale or another--Atlantic City one day, Ocean City another.  There might be an aquarium visit in there somewhere, along with a good dose of beach and boardwalk time. Thursday morning we'll visit our friends (Jacob's buddy Colin and his NEW baby sister--ahhh, baby fix!) before heading home for the long drive.  The big bummer is that the Baseball Hall of Fame was originally in our plans but had to be scrapped because it's a full two hours of extra travel and just seemed to make for an untolerably extra long trip.  We'll make it there eventually for sure, but just not this trip.  It'll make for a full week, but I think the beach time is key to having a low-key trip.  I hope.

While I'm concerned about the long drives, my biggest fear is that Jacob will find ways to spoil everything.  We had that problem last year in Pittsburgh, too, and while I see so many differences in Jacob in recent months, his behavior is unfortunately that much different than last year.  In some ways I suppose it's better (in between tantrums) and in some ways it's worse (the tantrums are ridiculous).  I hate to put in all this effort only to have him not want to participate and end up complaining about how he just wants to come home and play baseball or lacrosse.  He's three, so I know that's a possibility, but I still  hope that he'll be so wowed by some of the stuff we're doing that he won't even think that much about sports while we're gone.  It will always be there, of course, but it won't be the only thing.  I can hope.  

I'm excited, but I still have so much to do.  I need to do laundry tomorrow night (primarily to have enough socks and underwear to get Jacob through the week), and I haven't packed a single thing for myself.  I printed off all of our hotel stuff tonight, as well as my travel checklist (which needs many additions for a trip like this), and I bought some snacks and drinks to bring with us.  It's a start.  And tomorrow is Jacob's daycare carnival, so it's going to be yet another busy night.  Yikes!  Oh, the things we do just to "relax"...

Things I've Been Wondering About

- Why I have been so hesitant and crazy about booking things for our vacation - It starts this weekend and yet I only booked one room and bought our baseball tickets last night.  We still don't have a hotel for the first part of the trip.  Not sure if I'm just scared of spending money, or worried something will go wrong, or what.  Nothing has quite worked out exactly like we'd hoped in this planning process, so maybe that makes me leery of diving right in. 
- How Jacob will do on the long drive - We haven't done a long drive with him since he was an infant.  He's used to the 1-2 hour trips we've taken to Buffalo and Syracuse, but our 3-4 hour Pittsburgh trips haven't been my favorite experiences.  5+ hours hasn't been tackled since he was a couple months old.  The DVD player will work wonders, I'm sure, and we're going to do our darndest to break up the drive.  Hopefully we'll get a decent nap or two, too.  I keep reading about how buying little dollar store "prizes" can keep things interesting, but the only things Jacob tends to want at the dollar store aren't exactly car-friendly.  To be honest, I'm not even sure how I'll do on the long drive, since this is the longest trip I've taken in a long time and I'm already paranoid about how this trip is going to go...let alone having 5+ hours to think about it.

- When we will consider Jacob pottytrained - He's getting there, but it appears we still have a long road to go.  He made it through all of last week without an accident at daycare, then had one yesterday.  He had another mini-one last night, made worse by the fact that he wasn't, ummm, pointing down when he sat on the potty to get rid of the rest of it.  If we stay on top of things, he has much better success, but the point is really for HIM to stay on top of things, not us.  He does tell us a lot that he has to go, though, and most of the time he catches himself before an accident becomes epic.  I don't anticipate him being nap or night trained for a long time, since he's rarely anything resembling dry when he gets up.  I'm not worried about that, but at the same time--at what point is he trained enough to deserve his potty prize, a lacrosse net?

- Where my happy little on-time cycle went - TMI Alert - Looks like we have a redo of last time around, where I'm just sitting here waiting for my cycle to get on track enough to even begin tracking days or strategizing.  Pre-birth control my cycle was pretty close to 28 days, maybe off by a day or two at any given time.  I guess it got out of practice after all these years of being regulated.  Of course, as a result, now I'm getting into the crazies, where I'm 99% sure I couldn't be pregnant (side note: We are not trying yet), but every little body oddity makes me want to pull out one of those dollar store pregnancy tests and double check.  Of course, eventually I gave up on that last time around because it got rather demoralizing...and then I spent two weeks wondering why I felt like crap until a last-ditch check before calling the doctor confirmed that I had the best reason to feel like crap.  So, I don't trust my body one bit because you just never know.  Unfortunately, it means that I'll probably be tortured by my cycle one way or another for our vacation.  Ugh.  Even worse, I don't know if I'll get any warning, since I've had very little experience with unregulated cycles in the last, oh, decade or so.  Will I still get crazy cramps?  Or will I just stand up from my chair and find an embarrassing situation on the back of my pants?  Awesome.  In a related development, I've never been hoping for a bout of cramps so much in my life.

- Why Jacob feels the need to make noise every waking moment - Did you see the study a few weeks back that showed that whining children was the most annoying noise ever?  I tend to believe it, because Jacob's whining grates on my nerves like little else.  When he's not whining, he's yelling, singing or talking incessantly.  Seriously, the kid rambles on and on about Lord-knows-what, all the time.  Sometimes he's pulling from experience, sometimes from his imagination, and yes, most of the time it has something to do with sports.  We do get tidbits from daycare and random things about poop and food, but sports is usually the topic.  But a lot of it isn't really clear or doesn't make sense.  It's amazing to watch his mind work, but I can tell that the incessant noise is making me a little nuts.  He also won't sit still, and the combination of the two is brutal.  But no matter how we try, he still has  a very hard time listening long enough to sit still or be quiet.  I gained a little hope the other day when a blogger I read wrote that she and her son went to an event two years in a row, and as a three year old he ran her ragged, but this year he seemed to be better about sitting down, having a drink, and relaxing.  So maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Why Jacob constantly puts clothing on backwards, no matter how many times we show him the correct way - I'm not sure if he's just screwing with us or what, but seriously...every single night when Jacob is putting on his pajamas, he puts on the pants backwards.  No matter how many times we explain that the tag goes in the back (on the floor, etc.), to lay them out, to pay attention to which leg is going where, he constantly gets them on backwards, or sticks his legs in the wrong holes, or both in the same hole.  Same problem goes for shoes, too.  They're always on the wrong feet.  You'd think he'd notice and fix them, but no.

I'm sure the wondering will continue the rest of the week as we get ready for our vacation.  I have a million things running through my head--from the lunch I need to pack for Jacob's field trip tomorrow, to the obscene amount of work I need to do (and should get in early for), how I haven't really packed anything and need to make a list of things that I need to wash before we go, all of the random things I need to remember like turning off our water (the hot water heater is making me nervous), upping and holding the thermostat, packing beach toys, buying a baby gift for friends we hope to visit, etc.  It's all very exciting, of course, but a full, crazy workweek is making it extra complicated.  Stay tuned...