bits and pieces (and a tooth!)

Sam has been saving the donation portion of his allowance (he gets 4 quarters and decides how to apportion them) for a school event for "people with broken hearts" (jump-rope-a-thon) It took me a little while to figure out that this meant people with heart defects necessitating surgeries etc. But since none of the paperwork we get from school ever specified the date, I never figured out when this was, so we missed it. Oops (bad mama!). Sam can't jump rope anyway, so I guess we'll just focus on next year.

The four of us drove an hour north to Portsmouth NH last Friday afternoon for a quick overnight-- we desperately needed a little break, but there weren't any free weekends with J. in town until the very end of June. We did a bit of outlet shopping in Kittery (Maine) and did a bit of hiking at a state park (more wandering than hiking, but it was a beautiful day, and we saw a garter snake and lots of interesting bugs, explored some tidepools, saw a lighthouse and a big ship being tugged into the port, and checked out a nice science center). We found two great little funky restaurants in Portsmouth, one for dinner and the other for lunch. In a less-relaxing turn, Beanie screamed for most of the ride home. She quieted as soon as we took her out of the carseat, but then started again the instant we eased her back in. Yikes. She's been protesting the carseat loudly ever since we got back, though she'd been fine with it for weeks before. Aaand: today I felt the unmistakable ridge of a tooth that's finally broken through-- her first! So presumably it was bugging her just enough that any other annoyance pushed her over the edge. We decided not to bring the camera, so there are no pics of the trip, and then we *did* bring it to a wedding the next day and forgot it there. But! it's just been found, so there will be pics of other stuff soon, including Frida's new favorite trick of pushing/pulling up to standing and then letting go and balancing with her arms out surfer-style for a second or two before plopping down and starting over.

J. left again on Tuesday for a short-ish trip (back tomorrow). In his absence, the kids have been collaborating with each other on middle-of-the-night antics: two nights ago Frida woke to nurse at 2-- not unusual, and she and I both usually go back to sleep in a couple of minutes. But Sam woke up at the same time, called to me from his room and proceeded to tell me in detail about his bad dream, and Frida hearing his voice woke fully (because he is still the Most Exciting Thing in the World) and then they were both awake for the next hour. This morning Sam woke and came into our bed at 6:30 (also not unusual) but again Frida heard him and was WIDE AWAKE and though this might be a normal wake-up time for a lot of people it's a full hour earlier than we usually get up. I got her back to sleep shortly before the alarm went off. Yaaaahhhh. Clearly I need to get to bed earlier.

On Saturday, we're throwing a baby shower for J's bro and SIL; Grandma and Grandpa are in town for the occasion. Sam was *very* excited to see them and barely ate dinner, telling them breathlessly about everything going on in his life. The party should be fun-- we're decorating onesies and having lots of good food.

J's gone again most of next week, then Omi is coming to visit for a few days (with promises to rescue our garden from its sorry neglected state); then Aunt Liz is coming to visit, then J goes again for three days. Whew! Lots of excitement. And then Sam is done with school for the year, and nobody is traveling anywhere for a little while, and we can start having that lazy summer that people talk about.