Author Archives: Heather

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About Heather

I adore my family, writing, books, cats, lazy mornings in bed, and chocolate. I'll never say no to breakfast for dinner, long talks with friends and lazy summer days at the pool with family. My life is often crazy, always awesome and one I'm so happy to be living! My side hustle is editing and proofing work. Find out more at https://heathercaryn.com/
Oct1

Bean-isms

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Oh this child of mine.  She’s the light of my life and the cause of every gray hair on my head.

> The Bean has recently discovered the song/book “The Farmer in the Dell” only she’s convinced it’s called “The Farmer and the Hen” and there is no convincing her else wise.
> She had gymnastics after school today- unfortunately she seemed

to have lost her ability to listen at school.  She was a complete and total stinker all class long.  At one point, the kids were lining up to get on the big balance beam. When they line up, they have to sit/stand on their rubber dot so they always know where their space is.  Bean decided waiting in lines was for suckers, so she walked over to the big mat that they jump on.  The teacher was busy with other kids, so I told her to go back on her dot pronto. So she went over, picked up her dot, picked it up and carried it back to the mat and sat on it there. Then she looked at me and said “There, now I’m sitting on my dot.”

> When we got home, Bean decided to play school.  She pretends to call out her classmates names and said “Landon, Sammy, Owen- whatever your name is. I’m too tired to remember. Come over here anyhow.”  Bwhahahahahaha- I really hope she didn’t pick that from her teacher.

Good lord, I love that kid.

Sep30

Exhaustion, Thy Name is Heather

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There were a string of summers about 10 or so years ago where we had a wedding to attend every single weekend.  It wasn’t unheard of to have 8 or 9 weddings a summer- it was fun, crazy and expensive. Now that 95% of our friends are married, those summers are a thing of the past and we only have 1-3 weddings a year. This year we had 3 weddings to go to and, as luck would have it, 2 out of the 3 were this weekend. We had one wedding Friday night 2.5 hours northwest of here and 1 wedding an hour south of us on Saturday.  So, thanks to my mother-in-law and her extraordinary babysitting skill, the Hubs and I were able to party like it was 2002 for 2 days.  Some random thoughts:

1) We are too old and tired to party like it’s 2002 for 2 nights. 1 night, yes. 2 nights, no. We all showered today, but no one got out of their PJs all day.
2) Weddings make me cry- even weddings where I don’t know the bride or groom well like the beautiful wedding we attended Friday night.
3) I love, love, love getting dressed up but I hate wearing heels.  I whimpered when I had to put back on my (gorgeous) heels on Saturday.
4) A day spent with some of my oldest friends is time wonderfully well spent.  It boggles my mind that I have know such wonderful women since I was in 3rd grade.
5) Having friends who date/marry equally great guys makes going to wedding so much more fun since I don’t have to twist the Hubs arms.  He has just as much fun as I do!
6) Some people should not make speeches at weddings. Period.
7) Always eat before you go to a wedding reception- because you may not get fed dinner until hours after the reception starts (see #6 above)

T-minus 29 days until wedding #3 of 2012. I’m going to sleep straight through until then. *yawn*

Sep23

Not a Good Sign

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After last school year, the one things I wished for this year more then anything was health. Last year, the Bean got her butt kicked by colds, strep throat, 3 stomach bugs and everything else in between. Thankfully nothing she had last year was serious- but it was constant from September though March.  I was hoping and praying this year would be different- that after one year of school under her belt she built up enough immunities to stay healthy.

Turns out I was concentrating on the wrong kid.

Scorch started coughing about 10 days ago and he complained a few times that his throat hurt. I didn’t think much of it- figured the hurt was from the cough- until I heard there were two kids in a his class with strep.  Friday I took him to the doctor to find out he doesn’t have strep (good!), but he does have pneumonia.

Excuse me?

Thankfully it’s a very mild case of it and presents itself now only as a cough. We have the poor kid on medicine and we’re forcing clear liquids on him like it’s our job- but this was not the start to the school year I was hoping for.   Fingers crossed that Scorch is better soon and that this is the worst of it for the rest of the year.

Sep19

Death By Arm Farts

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The kids went to an awesome summer camp program this year at their school.  Any kids from the school from PreK through 6th grade were able to go and it was a God send for us since no other camp in the area took kids the Bean’s age for a full day.  The kids absolutely loved it and were known to cry when I showed up to get them at the end of every day.  Part of the reason they loved camp was the mix of ages. The older kids were amazing with the little kids and it made my heart happy daily to see them all playing.

But, being around older kids had a few drawbacks.  Like the addition of the word “wiener” into our daily vocabulary. I could have lived without that one.  But the one thing that kills me is that the older kids taught Scorch how to make fart noises using his arm pits.  So, naturally, he does it all. the. time.  We had to have an honest-to God, sit-down-on-the-couch-and-look-at-me discussion about where and when it was appropriate to make those noises.  Church, the library, the dinner table, Grandparents house- no. Outside, during camp if allowed- ok.   I can’t tell you how many shirts the boy has stretched out fine tuning his craft.

But we hit a new low this week as the Bean also mastered this trick.  To hear Scorch try to teach her the proper technique and cheer her on when she finally nailed it you would have thought he was training her for an Olympic event. “You can do it! Good try, baby girl! Try moving your hand a little bit that way and try it. Good- now bring your arm down harder.”

I’m giving you all fair warning now, if I die in the next few weeks it’s going to be the arm farts that did me in.

Sep18

Pod People

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A few weeks ago I got so disgusted at the state of our living room/dining room/kitchen (all essentially one big room) that I started a 5 minute clean up period before the kids went to sleep. I set the timer on the oven and we work our butts off to clean up what we can in 5 minutes. This means picking up all the toys, cleaning the table, and making sure backpacks are emptied every night before they go to sleep.  I expected a lot of resistance on this on when we started and really thought it would be like pulling teeth.

Nope. If anything, the kids love 5 Minute Clean Up too much.  We weren’t home last night and we weren’t home much of tonight either, so when it was time for bed there wasn’t a need to clean up- things were still tidy from Sunday.  Both kids cried. Flat out cried when I told them there was no need to pick up tonight.

I have no idea when my kids were taken over by Pod People, but I’m not complaining!

Sep12

Week 1

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We’re a week into school and (knock wood), so far, so good. I admit to being a little nervous at the start of the year. The jump from Kindergarten to 1st grade at the kid’s school is a big one for the little kids and I didn’t know how Scorch was going to react.  At the end of last year, he started exhibiting some anxious behaviors around school (and a few other things), so I was worried they were going to flare up again once we got started this fall. So far I’ve been worried for nothing- the kids slipped right back into school like it was no big thing, thanks goodness.

As for the Bean, she’s doing just fine! Not a single tear out of her yet! My biggest concern so far isn’t for her, it’s for another little girl in her class. This girl has decided that she and the Bean are going to be best friends and she wants to play with Beaner all the time. It’s adorable and the girl is a sweetheart, but Beaner in a tough nut to crack. She’s slow to warm up to people and so far all this little girl’s overtures aren’t being met with much enthusiasm. When we left today, the little girl stood there with her arms open for a hug while the Bean clung to my arm just staring at her.

*~*~*~*~

Completely random topic switch, but this is where the Bean has decided to sleep every night for the past week:

Despite having a very comfortable bed and pillow, the child insists on sleep half in her room and half out- laying on the wood floors using a very small decorative pillow. I don’t understand. But because she sleeps that way, I don’t fight her on it either. Odd, odd, odd.

Sep10

Run- Cops!

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Saturday night we got a sitter and went to friends for an adults-only bonfire. There were six of us outside- eating, drink and laughing probably louder then we should have at 10 at night. We were having a great time- not really worrying too much about bothering anyone because it was chilly out and most people had their windows closed.  About 5 minutes after we moved our party outside,we noticed a light bobbing its way towards us. We had no idea what it was- car backing into a drive way? Someone walking their dog? We didn’t pay it too much attention until we heard, “Excuse me folks, I’m Trooper Smith” and saw a State Trooper standing at the edge of the fire.

Afterwards we talked, and we realized that all our first reactions were to run.  Run like we were in high school, getting busted at an underage drinking party- just scatter because he can’t bust us all, right?! There is one of him and 6 of us- 5 of us were going to make it.  Never mind that we ranged in ages 33 through 36 and the Hubs is a cop- we all had to fight the urge to take off like bats out of hell.

Obviously we didn’t run and the trooper wasn’t there about us- he was checking on a neighbor who was in a car accident earlier in the day.  But we all had a long laugh after he left- I guess some instincts are just ingrained no matter how old you are.  That lead to a conversation about how old we feel. Like, when I think about myself, I don’t picture myself as 34- I picture who I was at 17.  Sometimes it still blows my mind that no one has taken our kids away because the Hubs and I aren’t old/mature enough to raise children.

The next day when we looked at the calendar, the Hubs noticed that we just passed our 10 year anniversary of moving back to NY from the DC area. The 17 year old in me was shocked at this- simply shocked. The 34 year old in me was too busy recovering from the bottle of wine and late bedtime from the night before to care.

Sep6

How To Make Your Daddy Freak

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The Bean started school today and she’s in class with most of the boys from her class last year. This wasn’t by accident. Beaner was originally placed in another class, but for various reasons we requested she be put in this class. The fact that she spent most of her time last year playing with the boys and she was beyond upset not to be with them again did play a (small) part in our request.

Tonight after school the Hubs was asking the Bean about her first day. Did she cry? Was she excited? Did she have fun? What did she learn?

“Well, I learned I don’t want to marry Landon anymore. Or Lucas. I’ve decided to marry Connor when I get older.”

Ok then.

The Hubs is now seriously reconsidering asking the Bean be switched back to the other class now.

 

Sep5

I Guess They Like Each Other

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Today Scorch started back at school, but the Bean didn’t.  At our school the Pre-K and Kindergarten kids start a day after the big kids and *sob* Scorch is a big kid now. When I was planning for this back- to -school week, I concentrated on what fun things we could do and what stuff we had to get done before the craziness really started. I didn’t give a single thought to how my kids would react to spending a day apart for the first time since last June.

Neither kid mentioned a thing about being apart this morning, but it was crystal clear how much they missed each other after we picked Scorch up from his (very successful!!) first day. When we got home, there was no mention at all from either kid about watching TV or playing the DS- they just wanted to play. They were loud, boisterous, and hysterical as they ran around the house. I was trying out a new recipe tonight, so I wasn’t playing much attention to what they were doing (lord knows my kids will tattle if anything goes wrong).  I knew they were playing Star Wars and I knew they were using their “light sabers.” What I didn’t know is that they raided to the laundry to make their own masks.

Well- at least they picked the clean laundry to raid!!
PS- please note the Bean’s toes- I took her for her first pedicure this morning. Her nail polish of choice? Right foot with pink polish and white stripes, left food with yellow polish and white polka dots. Love it!

Aug30

One Last Hurrah

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With summer quickly coming to a close (*sob*), we decided to take one last trip before we said goodbye to my favorite season. After kicking around a few ideas, we finally settled on a long weekend in Boston.  Like every other vacation we’ve ever gone on, we didn’t get on the road quite as early as we’d like on Friday, but we still managed to get up to Boston by mid-afternoon. After quickly checking into our hotel*, dropping off our gear and hoping on the T, we made it to the New England Aquarium by 4.

Now, I’m not a huge lover of aquariums in general, but I could have spent a good hour watching the rays go by and petting them.  Luckily the Bean felt the same way!

After the Aquarium and a few meltdowns on our way out through the Gift Shop (really bad move on our part), we were able to walk to Quincy Market and have an amazing dinner. If you love food and have never been to Quincy Market, you have to fix that ASAP.

Saturday we took our time moving in the morning and then headed up to Gloucester for a whale watching trip.  Now, I had heard from friends how sea sick they and their kids got on the boat, so I was not taking any chances. I had Dramamine, Sea Bands, ginger gum and some drops you could put behind your ears. Are you supposed to use them all together? I have no idea- nor did I care. We were not puking. Period.

This trip was awesome in the truest sense of the world. There is nothing more amazing then to be floating in the ocean and have a whale- this giant creature you had no idea was right under you- surface 5 feet from your boat.  I admit, I got all teary eyed on a couple of occasions while we were out there.  We had a gorgeous, calm day and a wonderful guide who talked us through everything we saw. At the end of the afternoon we saw 7 humpback whales and 2 minke whales.

If you have never gone on a whale watching trip, you really need to add it to your life list. You won’t be disappointed.

5 hours on a boat was a bit much for the kids, but we brought coloring books, the DS and lots and lots of snacks, so they managed just fine.

Sunday we met up with some family in the area to see some of the more historical sights, like the Bunker Hill Monument. Which we decided to climb. In flip flops. There were 294 steps- my legs have just stopped hurting.  From there we walked down to see some of the war ships in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Scorch was thrilled with this outing- the Bean, not so much. So I didn’t soak up as much history as I would have liked- but I did get a good workout between the stair climbing and the kid chasing.

All in all, it was an amazing trip! It was so much fun for the 4 of us to get away and play tourist for a while. I wish I could say it made giving up on summer easier, but that would be a lie. I’m going to fight the changing seasons for a while longer, I think.