Friday, March 2, 2012

Disappointing

If you are checking here in the hopes of some second-hand stories of terrible travel with toddlers, complete with screaming fits and meltdowns and the censorious stares of strangers judging my parenting skills, well . . . sorry.  That Cubby of mine has once again let me down in that way.  I have no stories like that.  He made it through a 4 a.m wake-up, two-hour drive to the airport, six-hour flight to Las Vegas, and an hour flight to Tucson with nary a tear.  There were nothing but indulgent smiles and fulsome praise from our fellow travelers.

God, I love that kid.

He even slept 12 hours the first night we were here, not waking up until 6:15 in the morning.  I, of course,  woke up at 3 a.m. anticipating he would be up and raring to go at any minute, but no.  He took a two and a half hour nap yesterday, went to bed at 7 p.m. and is still sleeping now at 5 a.m.

My parents are beginning to suspect that I drug him.  Since I know otherwise, I'm beginning to suspect he's a robot.

Robot or not, however, that kid gets a whole SHEET of gold stars for behavior.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Here I Go Again On My Own

Well, not entirely on my own.  The last time I took a trip on my own, it was REALLY on my own.  No husband, no son, nothing but me and my roller bag.  This time it's nothing but me, my roller bag, a thousand other pieces of overloaded luggage, and Cubby.

Note the conspicuous absence of A. from this scenario.  And then pray for me as I transport myself and Cubby cross-country on two different airplanes to get to Arizona.

This odyssey will be happening tomorrow.  Since A. really couldn't take a lot of time off from work around the time of my sister's wedding, I knew that unless I wanted to take a paltry four-day trip as a family--which is pretty ridiculous, considering the time, hassle, and expense of traveling that far--Cubby and I would be at least traveling out there alone.  And then I figured that if I was going to all the trouble of flying by myself with a toddler (while pregnant, and still kind of hobbly from back pain that will probably not be helped by those comfy airplane seats), then dammit, I was going to make it count.  So Cubby and I are going out a week and a half before the wedding, in order to get settled before the wedding festivities begin.  And, you know, play outside in a place that has no mud or clouds or any other of the unpleasantness that is upstate New York in late winter.

A. will be joining us the day before the wedding, and we'll all be flying home together the Monday following the wedding.  Which means I just have to get out there by myself.  With Cubby.  And Precious Cargo.  And lest you think I will have forgotten all about you in the post-traumatic stress induced by such a journey (me?  overdramatic?  whatever do you mean?), let me assure you that I will certainly be checking in with you in the next week or so, if only to let you in on the nature of Precious Cargo's precious bits.

Yes, we found out the sex yesterday.  But I'm not going to tell you yet (MEAN), because this is the one time I will have the pleasure of getting to tell my family some momentous news face-to-face.  This doesn't happen much when there's a three-thousand-mile distance between family members, so you're just going to have to wait until they know.  But soon we will end the suspense.  Will we add a precious Blackrock princess to the human menagerie, or will Cubby be granted a little brother to torment until the end of days?

Tune in to find out!  And send some positive vibes my way tomorrow, okay?  I'll probably need them.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Blow the Men Down

Hey, remember those sea shanties Cubby and I used to listen to all the time?  It just occurred to me we haven't listened to those in a really long time.  I should get that CD out.  I think he's old enough to learn the lyrics to "The Fireship" now, don't you?

ANYWAY.

This has nothing to do with what I was going to talk about, which was ALLELUIA, the goddamn wind has stopped.  The wind was blowing hard and constantly for about two days, and it was driving us all crazy.  The wind was joined by snow yesterday morning, meaning it was really, really unreasonable to go outside.  This, in conjunction with a 4:45 a.m. wake-up and no more than a 45 minute nap, meant that by the time we got to the late afternoon when the snow had stopped but the wind hadn't, Cubby was going outside come hell, high water, or gale force winds.

A. and I took him into the gully near our house.  We walked up the creek until we were away from the wind, although it was still lashing the trees above us in a most disconcerting manner.  After an hour of fun that consisted of keeping Cubby from throwing himself headlong in the freezing creek and giving himself hypothermia, we battled the wind home again.

The wretched wind stopped last night.  The sun is out and it promises to be a bright, calm day, if a little cold.  We'll take it.