Random Notes From Vacation.

We've been on vacation this past week -- three nights out of town, and the rest just enjoying ourselves around here. Tomorrow our week of fun and family will wind down, and it will be back to the grind Monday morning. But boy, has it been fun. I'm too overwhelmed by the thought of recounting chronological details of our vacation, so I think I'll settle for some random notes.

• Traveling with two small children is easier than I thought it would be. The hotel stay wasn't bad at all. True, at 9:30 the first night, my daughter was still standing up in the hotel crib with the sheet wrapped around her head, a panda bear in one hand and a stuffed bird in the other, dancing to entertain my son. But by 10:00, soon after I decided to get in bed with my son and fake sleep, everyone was sound asleep. Naps and bedtime got much better after that first night. And okay, sure, the car trips weren't always easy, what with the wild screaming fit with intentional vomiting, and the fifteen minute whining fit about the itchy butt, but all in all, it was better than I expected.
• Today is our sixth anniversary. I can't say enough how much I love my husband. I have loved having him around during his vacation. I love it when he, the kids, and I can all goof around together all day. He is a fabulous father and a terrific husband. I am quite lucky. And I'm going to miss him terribly when he heads off to work Monday morning.
• Since we got home Thursday afternoon, I've dreaded setting foot in the kitchen. It's just terrible to go from eating delicious food that I don't have to prepare, to having to cook mediocre food. My husband understood this and said, "Why don't we ease back into this cooking thing bit by bit? For now, let's just get stuff for sandwiches, and we'll eat off paper plates." Whew. Did I mention I love my husband?
• We spent the very last of our vacation money at a yard sale across the street. We bought two cups of lemonade (hey, who can pass up a lemonade stand with adorable little salespeople?) and a toddler bed for our daughter. The bed, which we spied as we drove past, was our reason for going to the sale. It was a good deal, and although we hadn't planned on moving her to a toddler bed for a couple more months, today just turned out to be the day. We carried the bed home, and my son was so excited about it that my daughter became interested in it, too. And then at nap time, we just put her in the bed, and she went right to sleep. Can it really be this easy?!?!?! With my son, it was not. He was very excited about his bed -- so excited, in fact, that as he watched us put it together, he began to claw the skin from his face. His face was bleeding by the time we were done. And then he just wanted to get in and out of the bed over and over and over and over and over and over again. It took a couple days before he slept in it as well as our daughter is sleeping in her bed now. And it took weeks for his scratching tic to stop. Okay, actually, for the record, the pediatrician was hesitant to call it a tic. But whatever it is, it still comes back once in a great while in moments of great anxiety.
• My son is afraid of heights. I had suspected this for some time but knew without a doubt a few days ago when we got on a Ferris Wheel. He hated it. He was so afraid that I began to feel afraid, too, although I didn't let him know that. I sang to him and talked about all sorts of things to keep his mind off how high up we were. "Mommy," he said through tears, "does Dora the Explorer ride the Ferris Wheel?" "Yes, she rides it with Boots on one of your DVDs, doesn't she?" I replied. "Why?!" he asked. My son also dislikes the Tilt-a-Whirl. He screamed for his daddy the whole time we were on it. As he wiped his little tear-stained face after the ride was over, a woman asked him, "Did you have fun?" "Yeah," he said. A few seconds later, he said, "Mommy, what's 'fun'?"