Beach-ready pastels

Sandy A La Mode is a blog I read regularly. She has a beautifully-designed blog, is a beautiful lil' lady, and has a cute boy named Austin. She recently introduced a style-finder site called Fashionspace. At first, it looks like ShopStyle, except through Fashionspace, clicks from a post equal commissions. Anyways, she teamed up with another blogger for ModCloth giveaway, for which she'd pick a winner with her favorite "Pastels" board.

Finding family-friendly accommodations

Happy Friday, everyone! Summer's coming up, isn't it? How fast it is approaching! If everything goes as planned, we will spend a week in Rehoboth Beach (RHB) (any recommendation for activities are appreciated!). When planning for this trip, the biggest task was finding a place to stay. We had two choices -- hotel or rental condo/home.

Grandma's visit

At the end of March, my mom visited us, which is so nice because then we don't have to pack up all of our 20-mo's (J) and dogs' things. Originally, we were going to take her to see the cherry blossoms, but with the warm weather, they bloomed early. And then a few days before she arrived, rain hit the region. That's ok since the real reason she visits is to see her 20-mo grandson (our son, J) ;). Plus, she thought seeing cherry blossoms was the same as cherry picking, so I guess she woulda been disappointed anyways ;).

Fun at Madame Tussauds

Washington D.C. location - Taken with Samsung Intensity

Am I fierce?

 J, save me!

 Madonna doesn't care either

 

Now, this is how you get around town!

The terrible fours

*WARNING* Some portions of this post may be a little gross…proceed with caution.

No, J has not suddenly turned 4…

But this past weekend was certainly a group of terrible fours.

We left for Philly around 9:30 am on Saturday. I heard about a huge motorcycle ride happening in Virginia on Friday, but didn't think it'd impact us on Saturday - I was WRONG!

The annual ride, sponsored by America's 911 Foundation, honors each victim of 9/11. 1800+ bikers ride from Somerset, PA, down to the Pentagon and then back up to New York. They visit each site and honor the victims of the tragic events of 9/11.

I commend the dedicated the riders and their remembrance of that day.

But we spent about 4.5 hrs on the road with a less than happy 13-month-old, a vomiting 2-year-old Bichon, and a 11-week-old fidgety Bichon puppy. That's four terribles, right? It was NOT a good start to the weekend. I even "joked" with my husband that we should just turn around and go home.

J eventually recovered from the ride. He only napped an hour in the car but slept well that night...until 7 am on Sunday (yay!).

Poor Coco started vomiting Friday night, 3 am to be exact. We woke up on Saturday morning to find 5 dark spots on our bedroom carpet. GREAT. (The drawing below was inspired by one of the funniest parenting blogs.)

We are sleeping soundly until we are awaken by Coco vomiting all over our bedroom. Jasper is in his crate, whining, as usual. I thought sleep deprivation was over once J started sleeping through the night.

And the vomiting continued for the rest of Saturday. So we had our hands pretty full this past weekend.

J didn't want to leave my side the whole weekend. Why he suddenly so attached? I maybe got a half-hour nap on the sofa.

 J: Walk me around...everywhere!

Poor Coco (and the floor) needed to be cleaned up every hour or so - I'm so grateful my in-laws were so understanding.

We also had to keep an eye on Jasper so that he didn't (1) pee/poo in the house and (2) eat what Coco was leaving on the floor everywhere...ew.

It was like having 3 kids! I can't even imagine what it'd be like with 3 actual kids!

Anyways, our trip back to Maryland was a bit better - only 3 hours (as opposed to the GPS-reported 2.5).

Lessons: Pay attention to the news before a trip back to Philly in order to avoid a traffic jam. Don't travel with a sick dog. 

Oh, and to add to a previous post (traveling with small kids), remember to bring our E-ZPass. 

If you don't have one, get one (or similar product for your state of residence). 

It's so great NOT to have to (1) wait in long lines and (2) wake the baby by waiting in line and rolling down your window to pay like half a dozen tolls from here to PA - argh.

Some tips for traveling with kids

 

Taken Memorial Day Weekend

Highlighted from Babble.com

1. Don't expect to relax - good thing I've learned this lesson early 
2. Ship supplies ahead of time - if you're traveling long-term within the U.S., I love this tip to order from Amazon or Diapers.com for supplies. 
3. Don't fly - It's cheaper but takes longer. We can't wait to try a long-distance auto-train trip on Amtrak (between DC and Florida)! 
4. Do spring for a suite - Great advice. When we all stay in the same room at night, J is awakened every time we move. Thus, we don't move and sleep like mummies. It's bad enough traveling is tiring, now add poor quality sleep to the equation and no one is having fun. 
5. Do locate the pharmacy before you need it - And the local hospital.

From me

If you're going through airport security with a car seat, consider these "dollies". I was also in the market for a lightweight or umbrella stroller when we were planning to travel with J. And I am in love with these ull-along animal suitcases that also double as ride-alongs for kids.

July 4th weekend

Spent the July 4th weekend at SIL & her hubby's in NJ. Unfortunately, J's recent crankiness had us on edge the whole weekend. We suspected teething, but it could have been anything. (Lo and behold, we felt a top tooth coming through on Wednesday.) He didn't want to sit still for meals, he didn't want to nap at his usual times, and he didn't want to fall asleep right away at night. But maybe also he was too excited and didn't want to miss any of the action.

Lesson learned: I have to roll with the punches. I have to let go of control of the environment and accept that maybe J isn't himself, and he doesn't want to sleep or nap. It's ok. Things will get back to "normal" - whatever that is.

Thanks to the SIL & her hubby for preparing some high-class BBQ fare. My other SIL also prepared some yummy kabobs. Drool over the pictures below!

Did someone say steak? I think everyone was only able to eat half of one.

Check out the steam rising from that corn!

Someone loves pate...and the Yankees.
"How shall I attack this piece of meat?"
 

That was some tender brisket. 

Kabobs and yummy salads - corn, plum tomatoes & avocado - blueberries, strawberries, and mango

J in his red, white & blue

Only one missing dog this weekend

  

Yeehaw

Recently I visited Austin, TX for a conference on indoor air research. You may have wondered about this tweet - it was made in response to a speech given at the conference and was directed to the speaker. She was never asked the question by the moderator :(.

I stayed a few blocks from the Austin Convention Center, which was nice because I got to see a teeny-tiny bit of Austin. It was not so nice because there was a heat wave. As soon as the sun came up, I was melting.

Anyways, I only have one picture from the conference, and it was at the BBQ and it was with a longhorn. He doesn't even look real here!

Took this at sunset on the Congress St. Bridge that connected my hotel to downtown.

Did you know that Austin houses the largest urban bat colony under the Congress St. Bridge?

Around dusk, the bats leave the bridge, fly (what appears to be) upstream to eat. The event draws a lot of tourists and locals.

A swarm emerges and they just follow each other.

Amazing

Build your own animated gif here

Memorial Day weekend

This post is a few weeks late, but it's been hectic these days. We made a 4-hr trip down to VA beach to visit my sister-in-law (SIL). We left around J's nap time, and he slept for 2 hours of the trip (yay!). But that left us newbies with 2 more hours to entertain a baby that'd rather not be confined to a car seat. We whipped out the toys & books, sang songs, and played peek-a-boo. The last 1/2 hr seemed the longest of the car ride, and we decided that 4 hrs was probably the farthest we'd ever want to drive again without stopping.

My in-laws and other SIL also drove down. It was a packed house with 7 adults, 3 dogs, and 1 baby. There was never a dull moment, to say the least. My VA-SIL was a great host - she grilled steak one night and chicken the other, she ordered blue crabs, and we went to the beach. Below are pictures of J having fun in the sand and really enjoying a small bucket of water. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the family (shame on me!). I really should have a list of "shots" that I want to take in my mind. When did I become so list-oriented?

This was one time when J didn't mind wearing the hat. It was really sunny!

The water was a bit chilly

 Oooo, water!

 And here is J with Grandpa and Coco. What's so interesting up there?

I just thought this picture was funny - that's Yoshi giving SIL a shiatsu massage.

 

Over the weekend

This past weekend, A and I drove up to Boston for some seafood, sight-seeing, and Russell Peters :). Actually, we weren't planning to see Russell Peters until last Tuesday. We didn't want to sit in the nosebleed section at a Boston Red Sox game (I know, I would have been a trader!), so we researched other things to do. As I was browsing shows & concerts in Boston, I couldn't believe Russell Peters was doing his Green Card Tour in Boston and there were tickets still available! Below is me standing under the sign at Wilbur Theatre.

We sat in the front row on the first balcony level, so no head obstructions (yay!). Russell was hilarious! I wish he would have done more Asian jokes, but the one A guy in the front row near the stage didn't give him good material. Plus, most of the audience was Indian. Anyways, Alan & I would totally see him again!

Apparently Russell is celebrating 20 years on the comedy scene!

In other yummy news, we had an amazing seafood dinner at Atlantic Fish. Food and service was great. The tables were spaced very closely together though, and A politely asked if we could sit in a booth so I wouldn't be uncomfortable during dinner with my expanding belly (aw!!).

Do you see how A's dish pales in comparison to mine...hehe ;)

Road trip

Really excited to go visit H2 this weekend. I like road trips...but probably because I don't do most of the driving. I am going to go out on a limb and say I probably won't do any driving this trip...Anyways, excited to go somewhere (while it's still convenient)!