July 29th - August 5th. 35 Weeks
Dante, Rahav and I spent the week in Texas visiting my family. It was the first time my ENTIRE family had been under one roof in over 5 years. Tera & her six children flew in from Brunei, Lori and her 3 kids from Portland, Dante and I from NYC and the boys, local. Plus aunt Taunia, uncle Dennis and Grandpa came too. It was a FULL house. I had been looking forward to it for months, getting Dante under the same roof as Jared (ten days younger) and Megan (4 months younger) to see how the three of them played together.
Dante had been traveling non-stop already before we left for Texas. We spent our last weekend in Fire Island for the Summer and Rahav & Dante stayed out there an extra night to enjoy the perfect Summer weather. I was quite happy to have an extra night to catch up on sleep, do laundry and pack for Texas. Dante was psyched to see Grandma. He really likes her a lot and follows her around like a little duck. Mom met us at the airport with Jessica and Ryan. Jessica is 4 and a beautiful little girl who looks just like Lori did when he was that age. Ryan (6) is a cutie too and Dante liked him right away. From the moment we landed, Dante was glued to grammy - and didn't want to leave her side, even when I got my luggage. We piled into grammy's car and went to a local Grapevine ranch to meet up with everyone. The tour was just finishing up, and I was so happy to see Lori, Tera, Katie, and all the kids flocked to give us big hugs - ahhh - it was nice to be home. The kids started picking cotton from the fields and Dante jumped in right away, getting himself ankle deep in mud and running through the fields. He and Jared slowly warmed up to each other and I could see their dynamics right away.
Dante was a bit of a bully, wanting to play chase and pushing a bit. Jared and Jessica are screamers! if you even slightly touch them, they let our howls of dispair and find Lori. Of course, Dante wanted to be around grammy, which gave me a bit of time to chat with the "adults"
That Thursday night, July 30th, Mom threw me a baby shower at my favorite French bistro La Madeline. I love that place, cozy, rustic and compfy with a wood burning fire place and a wine cellar room, that we used for the shower. It was small and intimate, a far cry from the 50+ person boat party we had for Dante's shower. But then again, why try and top that - I'm at a different place now and much more willing
to go with the simple, traditional early dinner with close friends and family now. Plus it was lovely to spend time with my mom, aunt and sisters. Becky and Lynne came too - so I had my oldest girlfriends with me. I had my favorite plate the three salad sampler (caesar salad, tomato bisque soup and strawberries romanoff) with bread, water
and coffee. I've been going there since I was 21 and still order the same thing.
After dinner, I opened gifts, mostly baby clothes (that I asked for) and we shared yummy desserts. We were home by 9:30pm and I was in bed shortly thereafter. The heat IS really killing me down here! I would have love to see Becky and Lynne more, but not this trip. it was full of family events, kids and my energy level is just not there this time. Hopefully at Xmas I'll be back to myself.
Pretty much the days were spent chilling at home with the menagerie of kids either at Moms or Katies. Dante and Aspen like to play together too and she is such a cutie. But mostly, the days would be spent defending cars from each other and coveting the ones the other kid has. Funny how it doesn't change much from kids to adults. The kids would scream and yell over what cars they wanted. All I'd hear is "MINE" "MINE' "No NO" until a deal had been made. Then the kids would sit in silence, not playing with the cars they fought to possess but eying the cars the other kids still have that you don't and want ONLY because they are not in YOUR pile. I feel it's similar to having lots of nice things yourself but still coveting what you don't have, even if what you have is just as good. The whole idea of wanting more and never being satisfied with what you do have is played out over and over with kids. And some of them never outgrow it.
What is funny is that Lori said her kids aren't into cars and for the week leading up to my arrival, the cars had been left untouched. The minute Dante arrived, he made a beeline for the cars, which suddenly got Jared and Jessica interested in them too. It was pretty much a battle for cars the rest of the week. I was prepared for referring Dante and Jared, but not Jessica and Ryan. But especially Jessica - who is 5 going on
2. she was the worst! and would scream and throw and whine and act younger than the little boys. I was surprised at how spoiled she is and how unwilling to compromise and negotiate. Jared and Dante would pick at each other and eventually work it out but not Jessica. She'd get loud and whiny which would throw Dante off (all the loud noise he's not used to) and then he'd push which would send Jessica screaming like her arm just got cut off. I was exhausted from always intervening.
No matter what Dante did, Jessica would get mad at something and never liked the way he played yet always expected Dante to go along with her games. I was secretly hoping Jessica would find someone else to play with - but she seemed to have problems with most of the other kids. Even when I would introduce a new game, like making forts, she was not happy with how Dante played - it's my fort, she'd scream get out! Dante was so cute!!!! we recently read the "Three little Pigs" and he went up to the pillow fort and blew and blew on it and then knocked it down. Jessica got livid and screamed which only set Dante off more and he'd jump at the pillows and blow and blow like the big bad wolf - I loved it!!! Lori's got her hands full with Jessica. Dante and Jared for the most part got along, as long as there was an adult nearby to intervene, which was expected. They would play nicely for 15-20 minutes an then the grabbing, pushing and yelling would start, intervention, followed by peace for another 20 minutes.
Saturday was Greg's wedding. We all piled into mom's car and made the 2 hour drive into the country and brave the August Texas heat. Of course, when we arrived at 10am it was pushing 100 degrees and humid. My belly was not liking it and I was exhausted most of the day. Everyone fell in love with Rahav who was on his best behavior and charming everyone, especially my aunt, mom and the kids. He voluntarily brought his nice SLR camera and immediately stepped in as the "unofficial" photographer, getting picture perfect snapshots. Greg and Abby got a friend to take pix but she quickly faded into the background as Rahav stepped up to the plate and took over. Who could resist a professional chipping in - which made him feel more comfortable anyhow. He's not one to sit in the audience and do nothing when he can be buzzing around snapping photos and being in the thick of things. Which left me to deal with Dante and the heat. by the time the wedding started at 11am, it was brutal, Dante was exhausted and I
ended up fleeing to the car with Dante and Jared and missed the ceremony. I was totally fine with it - I sat there with the a/c on full blast and let the boys play with all the nobs and buttons. It was the most uncomfortable wedding I've ever attended. no water, no shade, no air, only heat, humidity and a gazeebo. But from the pix you'd never know how uncomfortable everyone felt. I kept telling myself, it's not about me, it's about Greg and Abby who are as poor as church mice and would rather brave the heat and get married in a garden then some sterile cultural hall.
The reception was much better and I quickly perked up and became more social. There was food, cake, drinks and a piano song and dance by Greg and Abby. Erik got adorable video of Megan cupping her hands over her ears during one of their numbers - which was not out of place as they were so not in tune - it was a YouTube moment! Dante frolicked around, munching on pickles, strawberries, cake and getting into mischief. I spied him sticking his pointer finger into each piece of cake and trying to put black olives on the tips of all his fingers :-)
Mostly, I sat down and chatted with Tera and Lori - keeping one eye on Dante and letting him just be a kid. Rahav was snapping away and was labeled the cool uncle! he let the kids take his camera and snap pix of their own. It delighted them and gave them such confidence that a real photographer would let them take fancy pix. then he'd give them positive feedback on the shots they took; "nice composition, great framing". It was cute to see all the kids piled around him fixated on the pix and feedback and eager to go out in the field and take more. Rahav was a hit :-)
We drove back to Grapevine, Dante slept the entire way, for the evening reception. I was super tired but somehow made it through the evening, which ended up being lovely and cool. Mom was freaking out because of the rain clouds and showers throughout the day. But by 6pm the sky cleared up and there was a nice breeze albeit lots of mosquitos. Dante loved running around, eating candy, cake and dancing to music.
By 9pm he was quite sugared up and exhausted and Rahav just barely missed a potential child hazard. Jessica was the gate keeper to the house, letting people know to go around the side and access the reception. Dante was trying to play, talk, engage her but she would have nothing to do with him. So he grabbed a fistful of rocks and was
seconds from throwing them at her head when Rahav jumped in and knocked him down so as not to unleash the rocks. Ohhh that was close. I scooped him up and swiftly put him to bed.
Most mornings Dante would wake up and immediately ask for Jared and Megan - he liked being around them. Megan is adorable and looks exactly like Tera and has the sweetest personality. She's quite independent, with 4 older siblings and will quietly play by herself and then sneakily grab a car or two or and pile them up until somehow she had gathered more than Dante or Jared. She's learned how to navigate kids and please herself in the end. I liked watching her and Dante play and wonder if baby 2 will be more resourceful and under the radar. She's potty trained and Dante enjoyed watching her go pee like an inquisitive scientist. What's that and what she doing - very
interesting! He loved being around "baby meggie" who hated being called that and kept saying "I'm not a baby!" but Dante kept at it...
We ended the trip with a fun filled night at the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate Dean's 39th birthday on August 3rd. We sang happy birthday, played games and indulged in yet another cake. the next day we hit the huge in-door water park. I pretty much babysat the little ones for my pregnant belly was banned from any of the rides. Oh well :-(
Jared and Dante played in the kitty pool for hours spraying water from the jet skiis and sliding down the kitty water slide over and over and over again hundred's of times. it was a lovely week that came and went way too quickly.
