Life's a beach

Last week Jason was out of town, so Liza and I high-tailed it to the East Coast to visit family.  One of the highlights was a trip to Ocean City, Maryland, with my in-laws and two of Liza's cousins.  We hit one of the amusement ride places on the boardwalk, which Liza remembered from her visit last year.

Unfortunately, Liza and Chloe were too tall to ride most of the attractions that were open when we first arrived, so we had some time to kill on the (hot, sweaty) boardwalk before the "big kid" rides opened.

After obligatory stops at the baby rollercoaster, the girls decided to go on the "Freak Out," which is sort of a spinning pendulum thingee.  Liza has been dying to go on a similar ride at Cedar Point, but she's not tall enough, so she was thrilled to be big enough for this version.

Not sure if she'd be so thrilled once the ride was in progress ...

Looks like she survived with her spirit intact.

So intact, in fact, that the girls went on it four more times in a row.

Another favorite was the funhouse, which the girls ran through at top speed while the grownups sat in the shade.

I bought a few tickets so I could go on some of the better rides, but got suckered into using some of them to go through my first mirror maze.  Um, yay?

Liza liked the looping, corkscrewing, then-let's-do-it-again-backwards coaster so much that she rode it a second time (without me, in the front seat).  Can you tell she's just barely tall enough for the ride?

Later in the afternoon we stopped for pizza and sodas with curly straws, which were roundly enjoyed by all.

We made it back to my mother-in-law's house before dark, which was excellent for the photographer in the family.  The mosquitoes even gave me a few minutes' peace before they attacked with a vengeance ...

Meanwhile, the cousins and their matching pajamas found the supply of fancy hats and started making up an elaborate story involving maids and artists and a cartoon monkey.

The next day we headed for the beach, stopping along with every other tourist in the state to see the wild ponies on Chincoteague Island.

Despite really high surf and rip tide warnings (stupid hurricane), the girls managed to get in some "surfing."

Best part of the day?  Taking over the deluxe giant hole that some boys had dug in the beach earlier in the day.  It was the size of a hot tub, complete with seats built into the walls.

All in all, a good time was had by all, and we can't wait to do it again.  Maybe next time we can get the cousins to visit us at our beach and go to our amusement park ...

The photographer doesn't fall far from the tree

I let Liza use my camera during our last trip to the zoo.  Don't tell Jason, but I was kind of hoping she'd drop it so I can get a DSLR to play with ... no luck there, but we have proved that she's able to take decent pictures now that she's paying attention to what's in the viewfinder.

"Okay, now you go over there, Mom, and you'll have to crouch down because you're too tall and I don't want to cut anything off."  (You hear that, Grandma?)

"Smile!  No, I said 'Smile!' No, smile pretty!" 

"I'm taking your portrait, Penny!" 

"Okay, I'll take a picture of you while you take a picture of me.  Look, mom!  We're so meta!"  

"Those stupid meercats won't stand still for me, so I'll just take a picture of this."

Of course, they can't all be gems ...

Guess where we went last week

We went to the crystal clear, gently lapping waters of ... Lake Erie.

Laugh all you want, beach snobs.  It was warm, perfect for wading and paddling about, you could see what you were stepping on, and there was hardly any trash on the beach that day.  Take that, Jamaica, with your vast quantities of plastic spoons washing up on shore every day.

 You know, if you go when it's 97F outside, you pretty much have the place to yourself.

Like the chess masters, Liza takes her castling very seriously. 

Home base, or, as I call it, "The only reason I was willing to set foot on a beach when it's that hot outside."  Shade of a giant tree 30 feet from the shoreline? Brilliant idea, nature!

My baby, she's all famous and stuff!

If you can't see the embedded video, here's the old school link: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/momentsofmotherhood/kids-soak-up-sun-sand-and-surf-2511561/

Best part?  I got paid for a video I shot in 2007!

Meercat Manor? More like Chipmunk Chalet

"Doh dee doh dee doh, just sittin' here, nommin' on some fusty old acorns." 

"Hey, bro! Whatchoo got up der?"

"I got enough seeds to pave the driveway - this feeder's been full for months!"

"Not anymore!  Scootch over, chick - I'm movin' in!"

Another step toward making myself obsolete

My teaching process:

1. At age 5, attempt to show her how to do it; she ignores me completely.
2. Prior to kindergarten, borrow the book from a friend and help her work through it a couple of times; duck when she throws the book across the room and vows to never wear shoes again.
3. Buy her a pair of velcro sneakers because face it, her kindergarten teacher has better things to do than retie her shoes for her four times every day.
4. At age 6.25, when she's in a crafty mood anyway, haul the book out again and help her work through it a couple of times; duck when she throws the book at my head.
5. The same day, offer to show her a technique that's different from how the book teaches you ("around the tree" vs. "bunny ears"), and demonstrate it in slow motion several times.
6. Let her practice a few times by doing part of the motion while I do the rest.
7. Let her practice on her own, stepping in to straighten things out when they go wrong.
8. Let her practice on her own, with verbal help when things go wrong.
9. Let her practice on her own with no help.
10. Wander off and eat a sandwich or something while she ties All The Things into bows.

Next lesson: Make me some brownies and a milkshake!

If I start saving now ...

... how long would it take me to afford to go on Zero G?

Crud, I'll have to save up enough for two of us to go, since they allow kids as young as 8 on board.  Good thing Jason isn't interested, or it'd take even longer to get there.

This one's for you, Jen

(audio is NSFW, due to an extremely large concentration of cursing, especially in an illustrated children's book)

Also, this happened

She already swims better than I do (but I've got more stamina and spend less energy staying afloat, so I'd totally outlive her in a Drowning Situation, so there!). Yet another thing I've done right as a parent - check!

Now that's something you don't hear everyday

Neil Gaiman convincing Adam Savage to sing "I Will Survive" as Gollum. Whut?

Forty-eight inches

In case you've forgotten, my daughter is now 48" tall, which means she's tall enough to go on many of the roller coasters and spinning rides at Cedar Point.  This is a good thing, because if we'd had to hold her to the meager selection of rides available to the 46" tall kids for another year, someone's head would have exploded.

Liza has been in love with roller coasters pretty much since the first time she saw one, and generally she's not scared to climb right aboard and try anything she's tall enough to ride.  Makes sense, right?  She's always been the kid who wants to go higher, harder, faster, longer.  So this year we got season passes to the park and have gone about once a week since school let out.

Once a week.

I'll let you absorb that for a moment while you think about how many nausea-inducing rides I've had to endure in the past four weeks ...

I don't actually mind riding these with her - just not half a dozen times in a row - especially since we've been going to the park in the evenings during the week to take advantage of the smaller crowds.

I mean, seriously?  Fifteen minutes' wait to ride a coaster I've waited as much as 2.5 HOURS for in the past?  Sign me up!  Liza isn't tall enough to ride some of the most popular attractions, so we're doubly lucky and can frequently just walk right up and get onto our chosen ride.  Sometimes we even get walk-on front seats.

Waiting in line isn't always a bad thing, though.  Last time Liza and I were there by ourselves, we used the walking and wait times to concoct a story about her secret identity, The Pink Streak, fighter of crime and archenemy of the Iron Dragon.

Jason isn't that big of a Cedar Point fan, and he has to work during the week so that Liza and I have money for overpriced pizza and parking, so he's only come along once this year.  I'm glad he did, though, since it gave him the chance to see how gleeful Liza is at the park, and it gave me the chance to ride some of the attractions Liza's not qualified for (yet).  It's been killing me that I can look at maXair, and I can see there's no line, but I still can't ride it because there's no one with me to watch Liza.

Having him along as a photographer was pretty handy, too, especially once I told him how to prep the camera to get faster shots.

We're taking a girl-scout-camp-induced hiatus from the park for a week or two, but when we go back I'll have to bring the camera with me, even if it is a pain to lug around.  I've had plenty of time to scope out some nice shots, and now I just have to work on getting the lighting and framing just right ...

Wonder if I'd get in trouble for bringing in a tripod ... those sunset shots aren't going to focus themselves, you know.

Patio pics, part the first

Remember the patio room?  You know, the one that we started prepping for a year ago, poured the pad for last year, and started building a month ago?

It's (almost) done.  The contractors are finished, we've been able to use the semi-finished room for a couple of weeks, and the building permit is gone from the front window of my house.

But in order to save money, I'm doing some of the finishing work myself.  Why pay the contractors to install a floor and paneling when I can do it myself (and take 10 times longer, curse more, and have it look almost as good as if it was done by professionals)?

(primed, not painted, so don't worry, it will look better soon)

The humans haven't been using the room to its full potential yet - we haven't even ordered the carpet, and walking around on the DRIcore subfloor barefoot isn't the best idea - but that hasn't stopped other family members from taking full advantage of the three walls of glass surrounded by birds and squirrels (and even an occasional chipmunk).

 

I've got to get one final coat of trim paint on the paneling, wait for the carpet to be installed, and I'll be done.  And then it will be party time!

One quick photo before bed

My stage crew buddies from high school would have been so proud of me, standing on one leg and bracing the plywood with the other leg while cutting it with the circular saw.  Clamps?  Who needs clamps?  We have plenty of body parts for that!  And OF COURSE that lumber will fit in my semi-compact car ... it just takes me 15 minutes to figure out how to wedge it in so I don't lose the load (or the kid's head) if it shifts going around a corner.  All I needed was a Welch's soda and it could have been 20 years ago.

More pics to come soon - Liza's at Girl Scout camp this week, so I can actually get some work done in the house and on the computer.  It's a nice change from the past few weeks!

(and Liza gave me the manicure ... I was in favor of waiting until after the construction was done, but she HAD to do it NOW, so I got to rock the neon pink nails for several trips to Home Depot.)

Remember this week

This was the week I ...

- became the mother of a rising first-grader

- took a road trip with a good friend

- worked with my daughter to produce hundreds of yards of cord to "yarnbomb" my craft camp

- learned to make my own blocks for printing

- discovered the power of the flying purple olive of doom

- saw this, and felt something inside me unclench

- evicted silkworms from their cocoons and used them to make yarn 

- taught my daughter some of the skills I learned at Squam

- confirmed that my daughter is 48" tall, so I don't have to ride this thing over and over and over every time we go to Cedar Point

- was constantly impressed by the thoughtfulness, flexibility, humor, bravery, smarts, and maturity shown by my daughter.

It's been a good week, and I'm really hoping that this is what I remember about the summer, not whatever disagreements and grumpiness are sure to occur at some point over the next few months.  My heart is full, I am happy, and I can't wait to see how long we can keep this up.