Sunday, August 30, 2020

Quarantine Owen

 I tired really hard to enjoy each moment of the past 6 months because I knew our family bubble wouldn't last forever. As I prepare to send Owen to daycare on Monday (insert stream of tears) it feels like the time just flew by. Whoever said the days are long but the years are short nailed it. Having all of my kids home for 6 months is something that will likely never happen again so I cherish every crazy day. As we move into what Josh calls "phase 2 of quarantine" it feels like a maternity leave is ending. The kids are starting online school Monday but Owen is actually going back, which is not going to be easy but necessary for all of us. 

He has grown up so much over the past 6 months its crazy! I realize how much time he has spent with us when I listen to him talk like us. Ha! I just hope he doesn't get in trouble for saying bad words...  He is so full of personality he has definitely kept us entertained! A snap shot of Owen right now:

- He loves music still. We call him DJ O-DOG because he is always playing music on his iPad and just like Emmy and Josh he learns lyrics almost immediately. He favorite songs are Memories by Maroon 5, Adore me and Watermelon sugar, chlorine by 21 pilots and good as hell. None are very kid friendly... I probably should've bought the censored version because I catch him singing "Oh child time for some bullshit" and "weed is a chemical" around the house. Yikes

- He dropped something in the car yesterday and said "ah shit" and says "Jesus" under his breath. Wow - I am a bad influence. Whenever he is pissed he yells "DUDE" with his hands up in the air. Holy smokes is another fan favorite. 

- He absolutely loves his babies. He's got 4 now and they are cute baby, creepy baby (it has eye lashes), bath baby and just baby. Emmy recently asked him if he was his babies mommy or daddy and he responded. "Ha! I am just Owie"

- He continues to talk about baby Fernie all the time. He just loves her!

- He follows EVERYTHING Ryan does and has even started wearing high socks. He is also the only on e in the family who actually calls him Ryan and he pronunciates it in the cutest way 

- He loves to help bake. He can now crack an egg without getting any shells in the bowl!

- He loves taking a bath and "swims" around getting water everywhere. The other day he did a belling flop holding his baby. no joke

- Any time I try and take a picture he makes a funny face. And not just a squinty face but a legit  funny face that is different each time. He knows he's funny. 

- He's recently began playing with string? He ties it to things, pulls things with it, etc. Its super weird but has kept him entertained!

- He is often yelling "I am not a bad boy!". I am constantly telling the older two not to reprimand him but half the time I am confident they told him that, the other half I think he knows he's being a bad boy...

- I try and make a point frequently to tell each one of my kids they are special and the million reasons why. Owen and I have special eyes because they are both so dark and he has a special heart. His cardiologist is still monitoring him closely and last month he wore a heart monitor for some baseline testing. No surprise the kid was a trooper and walked out of there waving at everyone saying bye :)

- He is the friendliest kid ever! He is always waving at everyone and saying hi. We happen to know the UPS driver that delivers in our hood, his sone played baseball with Ryan. Every time he drives by Owen yells "Hi Tony!"

- He still loves to snuggle. He'll crawl up on me and say "I love you mama" and then rub his face all over mine and it melts my heart

Over the past few weeks I've tried so hard to spend every minute I can with him. We've gone on bike rides, a hike, baked, painted and just cruised around the hood looking for lizards. I will always cherish this time I've had with him and look forward to many more memories to come. 

He also has a new obsession with lizards. Not sure if he happen to catch 5 baby lizards or the same poor one 5 times but after they hadn't eaten for 5 days I convinced him to let Blazey go. 


This is "naked baby" who joins him in the bath every night


Always a funny face 


Matching shirts! Hahaha


Using his string (of course) we made a train for his babies 



And his babies share the same bday as nana - they had a party at 7:30am


He plays backgammon with us. It is amazing to watch how much he copies exactly what we do



Keeping himself entertained











Nothing slows this kid down!


Baking brownies :)














Thursday, August 20, 2020

Our first (and only) RV Adventure!

The last 6 months has been such a strange time. Not being able to see family and friends, no sports, work and school from home, lots of time stuck at home - a lot of mixed emotions and juggles everyday. I've tried really hard to embrace it all and enjoy every day we have together at home and use this as a time to build fun memories since we will never get this time back. That is why I've tried to plan lots of adventures, including an RV trip. We initially wanted to go somewhere for 10 days. You know drive up the coast and camp along the way. Once we started doing our research I quickly learned how far in advance you actually have to book camp sites, how complicated it is to plan such a trip and that if you actually want to hook your RV up to something for power and water, you can't exactly camp in the woods. We had already gotten the kids all excited so we settled on a lake in Temecula, which is only 45 minutes away and was recommended by one of Josh's co-workers.

A few months ago I booked it all and then sort of forgot about it. It wasn't until a few weeks prior that we realized that you couldn't actually swim in the lake. And that we were about to get the hottest heat wave of the summer so it was going to be 102 in Temecula! We also watched a 20 minute RV tutorial video and quickly learned how complicated working an RV is. Let the adventure begin...

Josh picked up the 35 foot RV Wednesday night. It was let's say less than pristine but it was better than sleeping in a tent. It took about 3 hours to pack the thing up and then we all hopped in and away we went!



We made it about 2 blocks before we had to stop a few times to check on some rattling. After about 20 minutes, we finally made it to the freeway. As Josh was white knuckling it, the kids were climbing around during the 2 hour drive (which normally takes about 1 hour) to the Vail Lake RV Resort in Temecula! We arrived, successfully backed the thing in and were lucky enough to get a spot that had a big tree and a huge grassy area. Score! It was a lot prettier than I had expected. Josh's friend gave us the heads up that there was mini golf and a dirt bike course so we came prepared. 











Look at the minion shade! Hahaha


Ryan was super excited to take his BMX bike on the course. "I am going to get some air on those jumps!". We were all pretty excited for him so walked over to watch. All geared up in swim trunks, a rash guard and helmet, he took off and made it about 6 seconds before he ate shit. We were proud to see him get back up and keep going until he made one more turn and flew over the handlebars. Let's just day dirt biking likely isn't in Ryan's future. 



Last minute I bought a 10 foot blow-up pool for us all to sit in - best money I've ever spent! After Josh hooked everything up, we blew up the pool and hopped in. Besides the bees that wouldn't leave us alone and the RV fridge that wouldn't heat up, things were going pretty smoothly. Josh cooked up carne asada tacos for dinner and we roasted marshmallows for dessert. It was so fun! It wasn't until our drive home that Josh admitted he prematurely sampled the meat while BBQing, which explains the food poisoning that kept him and me up all night. The poor guy crawled down from the bunk over the drivers seat and climbed out of the RV probably 15 times over the course of the night. And when he wasn't doing that, he was wedged in the RV "bathroom". Without going into great detail, Emmy is absolutely TERRIFIED of throwing up (which requires a whole other post) so needless to say, poor Josh was on his own, I had to take care of Emmy. 














I think I actually fell asleep for a few minutes because I woke up to the sun and Sadie puking on the couch she was sleeping on. So I stripped the sheet we had put down (thank God) and dragged her outside. She proceeded to have the runs the remainder of the trip but fortunately no more puking. Although puking animals don't seem to bother Emmy (insert - I have no idea emoji).

Now its 7:30am probably already 88 degrees and Josh dragged himself to the "master bedroom" to sleep. I wasn't sure if it was easier to pack up and head home or stay and let him sleep? Who wants to empty the shitter after a night like that, while you are still feeling awful.... So me and the kids headed to the "resort village" for a little mini putting. Honestly, it was really nice - nowhere to be, no one around. I love those times because they are very rare. We played golf, drank blue Gatorade and played frisbee golf with the one  disk that was available. Everyone was happy :)










This "resort" also had a pool. We agreed before we even left - NO POOL. Who swims in a RV resort pool during a global pandemic? You may as well swim in a COVID bath. Well, when you are actually staying at a RV park, when its 102 and your husband is recovering from food poisoning - the germy pool doesn't sound so bad. Plus, you could only sign up for 45 minute increments so how crowded could it be?

We walked about 2 miles in the heat to the pool and passed about 100 more RVs. This place was huge! We flashed our time slot pass and immediately walked to the lap pool because it was empty. Not surprising that no one was doing laps. We had our own little corner and were feeling great about our decision until a group of 30 rolled up with their 24 inch speaker and beer belts. They literally jumped in the pool on us and we were surrounded. Seriously?! So we got our and wondered to the other empty pool - the 1 foot kid wading pool and we sat for another 30 minutes until we were given the boot. I unfortunately, did not take pictures of the beer belt. 

There was a bit of confusion about when we were actually leaving which resulted in a few tears and "this is miserable, I want to go home comments" but we made it another night and honestly we had fun! Ryan and Emmy learned how to play backgammon, Owen made mud pies and Josh packed up the campsite in record time (after Ryan and I suggested we stay for the 3rd night we booked) and emptied the tank without getting any shit on him and after we got home we even got a few "that was fun" comments. So I consider that a success!


Thank God for AC - Despite the runs, Sadie was having the time of her life!