i think i've been talked into it...

i'm 90% sure that the next vehicle we get will be a hybrid. we were looking at honda pilots, hoping to make a decision by xmas this year, however i really think the smart thing is to look at cars that get more than 20 m/g in town. i think that if i didn't get a hybrid car, i would feel guilty for consuming more gas than is necessary...the technology is there, it's like spitting on mother nature to ignore it. :(

it will be more expensive but rob has discussed trading in his acura for something either smaller or another hybrid. he's thinking a honda civic (either hybrid or normal). the kids rarely both ride with him so it's not like it has to be big. he's commuting a lot now but that will change by xmas, he'll be stationed about 15 miles from home instead of 50.

it frustrates both of us that hybrid technology is not available in more vehicles. i believe i saw that the GMC sierra now offers a hybrid. but that's still just a handful of models out of hundreds.

i had been looking for something big enough to accomodate 3 carseats if necessary (seems this navy wife has not been very good about planning her children...who knows when #3 will decide to make an appearance). hence the honda pilot interest. i was thinking that toyota makes a highlander hybrid?? rob is the one who's been doing the research on all of this. we have an xmas deadline, i meant it when i told rob that we're not doing another iowa road trip in our CRV. i love the CRV and i love hondas. :( wish they'd get with the ball a little...part of me wonders if they'll be coming out with something soon and i should just wait a bit longer to get what i want.

things i've learned today:
1. both kids are spectacular if you take them to the grocery store by 8am. they were happy and giggly and content the whole time we were there. we got home by 9:30...usually i'm not even out of my pjs by then.
2. if you turn the car's air vent on recirulate while you're following a diesel bus and then turn on the a/c a few days later, you get really stinky burnt-fuel smelling air in your car. at first i was worried that our car was making that smell but it disappeared within a minute or two.
3. i really don't like eating food that other people prepare. a neighbor brought over some unbaked oatmeal chocolate cookies and it bothers me not to know the conditions under which it was made. did they wipe off the table? wash their hands? make sure the pans were clean after they'd been sittingin the cupboard? of course, i'll eat at any fast food restaurant without a 2nd thought.

that's all i've learned today. :)

wake up already!

rob is still sleeping. it's almost 8 am and to me that's sleeping in! esp since cade woke up at 5:20ish and wouldn't go back to sleep. i'm lucky he slept that long though. yesterday he slept til 5:45 and had to be woken up for dinner. then bed time was at 8:15 last night so i'm lucky that he was tired enough to go to sleep.

so anyway, we've been bumping around and now i think i smell something stinky...called eau du cade. :/

i really feel like going out & doing something fun with the kids. like visiting gillette castle (it's only about 30 minutes from here) or visiting the beach (the kids have still never been...i'm just not a beach person...hate sand, sunburn easily, really don't want to drown :b). it's cool enough that we wouldn't swim, just play in the sand or walk along the water's edge. sounds picturesque, but reality with 2 young kids is very different sometimes.

or maybe even going back to niantic & bumming around. hm...rob will probably weener out. him & his 'reading' for school. (rolling eyes here.)

maybe i want out of the house so i can avoid housework. i just feel like i'm cooped up here and i want to get out and do some stuff before school starts.

going to go check out the diaper situation...

so i wanted to do something different...

i finally took the kids to the kids' museum. i had been thinking it was further away than it was...only about 15 miles/25 minutes. it's in niantic CT...it was easy to find, parking was available (whew...i hate parallel parking!). so based on those good signs i went ahead and got us a family membership. it was $45 and just today it would have been $15, $20 if rob had come. so i figure we might as well come often and get our $$'s worth. i'm sure they'll get tired of us by the time the year is up!

if the kids had been happier, we would have walked around a bit downtown. they have a touristy downtown area (if you've been there, think mystic, CT) and i admit i was more than interested in an ice cream shop we drove past :b however, by the time we left both kids were grumpy and reese threw a fit so we went straight home.

the museum itself was ok. looked a little used & abused...but that's just how everything in CT is, imo. one of the beanbags in the listening corner smelled like urine, so i guess i know what to avoid now.

reese's favorite was the fishing boat and the mexican restaurant (the kids could 'cook' and serve the plastic food). if i hadn't had cade, i could have interacted more with her. maybe i'll leave cade with rob next time. cade had some fun here & there but he was really shy, would hardly let me put him down. i think he enjoys a playground more.

we're back home now, trying to have some nap time. cade is complying, reese is not, and i'm about to go laydown and hide out somewhere. hm, the sofa downstairs or our bedroom?

good morning

what a nice morning! weather-wise i mean. if it was truly a nice morning, i would have been able to sleep in until at least 9am. the kids had me up by 6:35.

this morning i didn't mind getting up so early...after the normal morning fog had lifted that is. the weather is cool, in fact it's 63 degrees out right now and it's partly cloudy and there's a nice breeze...and best of all, it's dry and NOT HUMID. that's the best feeling after having such muggy days last weekend.

so we had breakfast (bananas, pb toast & applesauce for the kids) and cheerios & coffee for me. after feeding cade & reese i realized that i fed them 3/4 of the BRAT diet. oops. i do that so often. probably b/c they both love bananas & applesauce. so hopefully little man doesn't get all bound up.

cade is chasing a ball around the house, throwing it & he looks like he's trying to dribble it. or maybe he's just waving at it? it's a pretty slow morning around here. rob's at work and we're just digesting.

yesterday i was so excited. reese received a postcard in the mail from her teacher! just a little note about how the teacher was eager to see her on sept 2nd. reese will be attending a speech articulation preschool program this year. it's through the local public schools but only on friday afternoons. i don't even know how much she'll get out of it, the teacher has said that most of the work will be done at home with handouts for the parents. which is fine. reese has never been in a school setting (not even daycare) before so this might give her some good prep for preschool.

i've been checking out clothes in stores, looking at what might be appropriate for her to wear to school. she'll be there about 3 hours a week so i don't know i'm so worried about it. i just have to keep in mind clothes that are easy for her to pull up & down for the toilet and no dresses w/o biking shorts on underneath.

i did buy her her first pair of levi's yesterday. size 4s are a bit big in the waist (which is fixable with the button waist that's built into them--great idea!!) and about an inch too long. so i think they'll fit fine. cade also got a pair of levi's that are just huge on him. i have to roll them 2x and they're elastic-waisted so they don't bag off him but i think they'll slide down :/ they're 18month size. but i know if i get him a 12 month size he'll outgrow that within a month. i think he just has has my short legs.

anyway, i have hopes of going to the children's museum today. i think it would be fun, we've never been (eek! we live about 20 miles away, i consider myself a bad mother that we haven't checked it out before now.) but the timing is such a hassle. cade takes a 2 hour nap in the morning, he wakes up right before lunch, then naptime for reese is around 2 and cade needs at least an hour nap in the afternoon sometime. maybe i should plan an early lunch and head out after that. if we only spend about 90 minutes there and head home, maybe reese can catch a snooze on the way home.

and we're close enough that we could become members and go WHENEVER WE WANT TO. :b for some reason i always think that we have to do the whole thing in one visit. off to go check out the website...

welcome!

good morning :)

this is going to be a quick entry...naptime is imminent.

just wanted to post one for somewhere to start!

getting used to this

can you believe i've been thinking the last few minutes about all the stuff i want to talk about? i guess i think i have an audience here!

so anyway, cade is down for a nap. i can't believe how happy i am that he's sleeping through the night now. he's 13 months and until about 2 weeks ago, he'd only slept through the night about 3 or 4 times. and that was like 8pm til 4am...about 8-9 hours. now he'll sleep from 8am til 7ish. sometimes earlier, sometimes later.

however teething is a long process for him. i secretly think it's b/c he's male, that he's so fussy and grumpy from his teeth. he currently has 2 on the bottom and one on top. i think he's getting 1 or 2 more on the bottom and his other front top one. i remember reese got all 4 top ones at once but it didn't seem to bother her near this much. we're going on 8 days here with cade. arg.

rob is back at work. he's at the war college in newport, RI. only 3 months left there. :( i think this is harder on the wives, what with having to actually SEE our husbands and then when they go back to real work, having to adjust to navy life again. i know i got used to having my husbans home for 3 day weekends and by 4pm everyday. and the 2 months off for summer break was just unreal. we've realized that rob will NEVER have that again until he retires at around age 70. hope he made good use of it! rob has really enjoyed attending the college i think. the only bad part is that it's an hour away. with gas here in town about $2.65/gal (it went up 5 cents overnight), it's starting to concern us a bit. the part i miss is that all the wives are also an hour away so i'm really not getting to know any other women. but i'm not going to pack up, sell the house and relocate an hour away and then have to move back to this area in a year. (rob will return to the groton base this november, as an instructor for subschool.)

i imagine you'll find i'm pretty random when i type. since having kids, i've discovered i have a short attention span. i either get bored, get distracted, or get sleepy. i think i'm a night owl, trying to live with children who like to get up at 6am. i think this is a genetic trait from rob and i wonder why HE doesn't get up with them if he's so damn happy in the morning. at least he used to be. when we first started living together he was so happy in the am...now he's just your average grumpy person. :( makes me miss it, b/c i've always been grumpy and him being sunshiny in the morning made my mornings a little easier.

anyway, i better go shower while cade's sleeping. it's wonderful weather today, cool and partly cloudy...wonder what to do? the local park is closed (bastards)...it'd be neat to haul the kids to the zoo in RI. hmmm....wish i would have planned this better, then cade could have taken a nap in the car on the way there and rob could have met us afterward. :/ it's only an hour-ish away.

maybe i'll go research it...bye ;)