Roatan, in Full

We woke up early enough to watch the ship approach, round, and dock at Roatan. There have been obvious changes since I visited in January 2010, namely that they’re expanding the port to accommodate a second ship. Well, anyway, that was the most visible change at the moment. Later, we passed an entire second port that CAN hold two ships. So, as opposed to nine years ago when the island could only hold one ship at a time, it can now hold three. And it did. There were two Carnival ships at the newer port, in addition to our Liberty of the Seas.

We had breakfast delivered, and then got ready to go meet our tour guide.

Another big change since last time is that they’ve built white kiosks for the guides to find people to hire them. Before, once you got out of the port’s gates, you were just bodily swarmed by people wanting to give you a ride. This time, there was still the yelling and trying to get attention, but it was a lot more comfortable not to be physically approached!

We found our guide, and walked up the road a bit to where her car was parked. On the way, we stopped in a storefront to purchase a water and Sprite, as they’d told us we couldn’t bring food or drinks off of the ship. Turns out we could have; no one checked. But it’s good to put as much money into the local economy, so I’m glad we had the opportunity.

Our tour guide was Nola, who grew up on Roatan. She is probably a bit older than James and me, not much, with sons who are 29 and 21. She described a childhood on an island that had no development, no electricity, and, she said, they were “wild,” sleeping with chickens. Then at some point, a head honcho of Century 21 visited and started developing the land. She said that now, they rely on tourism as, in the past, they could live off of what they farmed. Now, because so much of the island is privately-owned, there’s no room to farm and they need people to visit.

The wild Roatan sounded idyllic, so I asked her if she was sad that that way of life was gone. She deftly dodged the question, saying that when she was younger, “We didn’t know anything about how life was. We had no television, no internets. We didn’t know about what was going on anywhere else.”

Our first stop was a small animal “park.” It was really just a few habitats in someone’s back yard, and it was jammed packed with people. We were excited about seeing and holding a sloth, but the line was clearly more than half an hour. We went to see the capuchin monkeys first, instead.

The monkeys were high-spirited and very interactive. People were emptying their water bottles or letting the monkeys drink out of them because those monkeys were either really thirsty (one was licking the spilled water off of a 2x4 path) or just curious… sticking their hands down in the wider-mouthed bottles to see if there was any treasure hiding inside.

The monkeys jumped onto and off of Mal’s head, and onto James’s shoulder. One climbed onto my back. They have good grips, but not claws, so even when they’d jump off, it wasn’t painful. One girl complained that they “pulled” her hair, but the monkey had actually wrapped his tail around her ponytail and used it to swing a bit. The habitat was full of hanging braids of rope, so it made sense.

At one point, a monkey was on my back for some time, then someone said it was getting into my backpack. Momentarily, he hopped away, climbing to the top of the habitat, well out of reach, with his treasure: a pink floral drawstring pouch.

Everyone laughed and the keeper asked, “What is that?” I said, “Well, actually, it’s a menstrual cup.” He said, “He’ll drop it eventually.” I assured him, “That’s okay; I don’t need it at the moment.”

He gave it the college try to open the bag and spill out the contents, but I have it knotted. Eventually, after he’d dragged it through the water, he got bored and dropped it. But we laughed so much. I made sure my zippers were zipped AND tucked after that.

I got a few pictures and videos of the monkeys, up close and personal. When they’d see the camera lens pointed at them, they’d reach out for it. I have a wind muffler on the top of the mic, and they tried to eat that, and tried to open the pop-up flash to see if there was anything interesting in there. They’re pretty clever. We could have stayed in there all day, but other people were waiting.

We tried to get into the sloth line again, this time much shorter. But just as it was about to be our turn, Mal started getting weepy and ready to leave. I walked him over to the macaws, and we got right in. But while the keeper was explaining what was going to happen, Malcom just almost lost it so we had to go. 

Still, James was right that the monkey interaction was worth the price of admission.

Our next stop was at the boat dock for a mangrove tour. This was the best way to see the way the people on the water actually live. I mean, yeah, there were plenty of makeshift bars and rich people homes, but also actual homes, churches, and even public schools right over the water.

The water taxi took us through a couple of bays and into the mangroves, trails hollowed out by pirates looking for a place to hide. Some of the island towns of Roatan are reachable only by boat, and those children have to take personal boats or water taxis to get to school.

May 1 is actually their Labor Day holiday, so we got to see many children out riding bikes, swimming, playing, and accompanying parents on errands. Whenever I saw kids swimming, I almost never saw adults with them. This is one of the things I always find wistful about visiting places like this. I’d love for our neighborhood to be the kind of place where all the kids could go down to the lake together unsupervised. The one grown-up I did see had a baby on her hip and was wading a bit into the sea, carelessly trailing her sarong into the water as she waited for a boat to beach.

Roatan is about 36 miles long, but only 3 miles wide, so, our tour guide explained, you can’t get lost. There is one main road that runs the length of the island, and it is politically split in two, governed by two mayors. It seems like the mayors are very wealthy (we passed the home of one), so I guess that’s just a global thing.

Nola also showed us a bus stop along the main road, and said that the bus comes by every three hours, because gas is expensive and they want it to be full when it runs. It doesn’t have a schedule, though. On our drive back to the port, I saw a woman wearing her baby, laid out relaxing, waiting. That’s one way to raise patient kids!I haven’t done that very well. 

Because Mal was telling Nola that after he turned 5, he wasn’t going to have any more birthdays, we got into a conversation about adult children. I told her that I think Mal’s not wanting to get older was due to the fact that D is about ready to move out, and Mal doesn’t ever want to. Nola said he should move to Roatan, where everyone lives with their parents. She said it’s too hard to have so many single households, so you just stay with your parents, then if you get married, you live with whichever set of parents has more room.

I was grateful to her for sharing things about her home life and family. She said that electricity here is a dollar per kilowatt hour, so they have to reserve it. For this reason, at night, they turn off everything but fans. This includes the refrigerator. After it’s dark and not so hot, they unplug the fridge until morning.

I’m guessing all of the foreigners, Americans and Canadians, and there’s even a big Czech village with a second one on the way, do not live that way.

I asked her if the influx of foreigners drives up prices for everyone else, and she said that everything’s always been expensive because it has to come on barges from the mainland. She said that they have to go over to Honduras if they need major medical procedures, even if they’d rather not. She said it’s very unsafe over there, while Roatan is peaceful. She said if we ever hear of any murders on Roatan, we can rest assured that it was someone who had wronged someone on the mainland, then tried to escape to Roatan, and had been followed and found.

Nola pointed out that since Roatan’s an island, it’s difficult to get away with crime. The only way to get away is by boat, and so people are easily apprehended. She took great pride in showing us the uncomfortable conditions of their island jail, which has cells purposefully tiny and without windows, where prisoners sleep on the floor, and if there is more than one person in the cell, they have to take turns lying down. She also said that they’re not given food, but that prisoners rely on family to bring them meals. She said if they’re lucky, people with no family can talk cellmates into sharing. Nola said that this discourages crime and recidivism.

We returned to the ship without going to West End. I’ve seen it, but it was deserted as our guide took us before the ship tours got there. Nola assured us that the beach would be packed, but that she would be more than happy to take us over there if we wanted. Since it’s basically a resort, we declined. James and I would happily have eaten at a local restaurant, but I didn’t figure they’d have anything for Mal (D would have loved the adventure) so we got back on board and had lunch in the Windjammer.

After lunch, we had a nice relaxing afternoon in the room. We wound down, watched the last people run the dock at 4:35, and found the unmooring process fascinating. Then it was time for dinner. James got there a little late as he was having some tech issues he needed to finish up, and Mal and I left a little early as they did the fun staff recognition/performance… but it was loud. And loud means Mal is OUT.

James had the tomato and goat cheese pastry, vegetable korma, and creme brulee. I had coconut shrimp, korma, and then James brought my pavlova to the room since I missed the dessert course. Mal’s dinner surprise was a Slinky.

Mal had been thinking about playing in the splash pad, but it seemed to be closed after about 6 PM. Instead, we played in the room and went to sleep very early. James and I were probably asleep by 8 PM, and Mal was ready to turn off the television and go to sleep by 9, which is early for him! All of this sun and fun is wearing us all out. I could have slept another two hours or more this morning.

Fortunately, we’re at a port we weren’t planning to visit, so we’ve had a lazy day on board, but more on that next post…

Roatan, Briefly

I am tired! I’ll try to go into more detail about our day later, but for now, know this: A capuchin monkey got into my backpack and stole my menstrual cup... in front of quite a crowd. James said it was worth the price of admission and Mal could not stop laughing. Good day.

Second Day at Sea!

Today was easily the most laid-back, simple day we’ve had on vacation so far. I don’t think Mal cried about anything, and James and I both got a few minutes to ourselves. And we saw a couple of albatrosses escorting our ship for more than an hour, as well as a larger bird that was likely a juvenile brown pelican. That thing was HUGE. I took a picture zoomed in and showed James. He said, “That doesn’t look real!” I told him, “You were standing RIGHT HERE when I took it.” He said, “I think it’s Photoshopped.” It WAS pretty cool.

This morning, we took our time. Mal wasn’t in a hurry to get out, so I ran and got him some doughnuts, then James went out to breakfast. We slowly got ready, then decided around 10 to go to the arcade. We left James a note and walked over. About half an hour later, James joined us.

We walked through the “library,” which, on this ship, is just a couple of rows of old paperbacks and some magazines in one of the between-elevator-bay sitting areas on deck 10. It’s its own room on other ships I’ve been on; guess it wasn’t a hugely popular option for this particular class?

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but Mal and I DID go to the game room, so today we took James in and showed him, as he’d not been there yet. James set up checkers and chess to show Mal, who wants to play chess, not checkers, but doesn’t want there to be rules about where the parts go or how they move.

At this point, Mal asked for French fries, and we headed to the Windjammer buffet. On the way, he changed his mind and said he wanted waffles, but I told him that since it was 11:30, it was probably too late for waffles. But we hit the jackpot because they were still serving breakfast when we got there, then they opened up the lunch section a few minutes later. Mal got waffles AND fries! And I had some yummy sweet corn and onion soup, and a ginger chicken noodle bowl. James got a cheeseburger, and we also had the added benefit of seeing the tip of Mexico 9 nautical miles off of the starboard side as we cruised by.

Mal was ready to swim, so we went to the pool while James took a shower and rested a little. After we’d been there about an hour, James joined us. Then we tagged me out to come shower and get ready for dinner.

When James and Mal got back, we had some down time before going to the MDR for our supper. That’s when we saw the birds putting on a show outside. There were smaller white birds, too, but every time I reached for my camera, they disappeared. It was a fascinating bird show, for sure.

At dinner, Mal opened up a mini Etch-a-Sketch, which really kept him occupied for most of the hour. He actually ate all of the chicken he got, even after having had two slices of pizza an hour earlier. He did spend 2 hours in the sun and water, and in addition to being ravenous also has his first pink cheeks from sun. His arms just turned chestnut, and because of the rashguard, he now has a nice farmer’s tan.

James got the poblano soup, which he told me I’d hate but he loved. I had the seafood cake. Then for our main dishes, he got lasagna and I had an exquisite mushroom risotto. Dessert was warm dark chocolate cooke with ice cream for him and a lemon panna cotta for me (I know, who am I?). 

As we were finishing up our main dish, the photographer came by to snap a picture of James and me. Unfortunately, when James scooted his extra-heavy fancy chair over to be closer, he came down on my sandaled little toe. So instead of saying “cheese,” I cried a lot, and the dinner staff brought me an ice pack. The photographer came back, and if I’d thought of it, I’d have tried to talk my way into a free print, but hindsight…

It’s a little before 9 but I. AM. BEAT. 

Tomorrow’s Roatan! Can’t wait.

All Aboard!

Correction: James went and got us doughnuts. After Mal’s crying so much yesterday about wanting to go home this morning, he woke up very sad that we were leaving the RV. We just spent the last hour playing with him, eating doughnuts, and trying not to talk about our plans for the day.

Once we actually got out the door, everything was great. Mal was a little trepidatious about the “ship” thing, but never got too panicked about it. He DID note that most of the check-in procedure, looked a lot like the airport. He asked more than once if I was sure we weren’t getting onto an airplane. His motto right now is, “No more airplanes and no more doctors.” He’ll get a rude awakening in the future, but not today.

We had purchased “The Key,” which is Royal Caribbean’s… well, it’s a package of benefits, basically, including internet and priority boarding and stuff. The check-in process almost made the whole thing worth it, honestly. We never stopped moving. Security, check in, and then up to the terminal to wait. We had gotten to our parking lot around 10:05 AM and were up in the terminal waiting by 10:45, including a rather long bathroom break because there are only two commodes in the ladies’ room when you enter the port security area!

We were on board by 11:30, Mal having met a king and pirate who were traveling from a Renaissance festival. The king gave Malcolm a heavy metal coin, and Mal had fun chatting with them to kill time while we waited. Oh, and Chee-tos. He bought a snack from the vending machine.

They boarded those needing assistance, pinnacle and diamond, emerald, and platinum status cruisers first. Then The Key got to go! You have to purchase for everyone in the room over the age of 6, so I probably wouldn’t do it when Mal’s older, but it worked so well for us today!

Once on board, we dropped our carry-on bag in the theater for stateroom delivery, another benefit of The Key. Then we explored. We ended up at the pool, where Mal waded and James and I cooled our feet. Then it was time for our welcome-aboard lunch at Chop’s Grille… yup, another bennie of The Key. 

At first, I was a little sad about missing out on the first-cruise-day buffet, but when we rounded the corner and saw the line extending out of the venue and into the hall, around to the elevators, I suddenly was much less wistful.

Dang, lunch was good. James and I both got mushroom soup and filet mignon. We’d gotten macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes as family sides, but Mal decided he wasn’t super hungry and instead ate his Chee-tos and played with the Sonic toys while we ate. He was getting antsy and our room was ready, so we left James to bring our desserts up to the room, and Mal and I went to check out the kids’ club, Adventure Ocean. Mal is in Aquanauts. He liked the play area, and we got him signed up. We’ll see if he wants to hang out there later in the week.

We made our way to our room and chilled and unpacked while we waited for the muster drill. Mal decided he wanted to explore, but this was just about the time the cruise director started announcing the drill. Mal was very angry this guy was speaking so loudly over the public address system, and we came back to the room for earphones. 

Then we watched TV until the drill started. By the time we found our muster station, Mal was done. After the drill, we came back to the room and he was not wanting to take off his earphones. He was scared and ready to get off the ship!

But we went out to get some fresh air while James heated up his knees, and ended up having a great time. We found the mini-golf course, which Mal loved. It was getting very close to time to leave, and I knew the ship’s horn would freak him out, so I suggested we head inside. The arcade was having a “free play” hour and a half, and I got to enjoy a super-speed Ms. PacMan (my fave!).

By the time we’d explored there a bit, I could see out the window that we were moving. I took Mal out to show him, and he couldn’t believe it. He wanted to go back to the mini-golf, where a 7-ish-year-old girl told me that she’d been on deck when they sounded the horn and “it scared the crap out of me.” Glad we missed it!

We played for a bit, then came back to the room to get James for dinner. We spent half an hour or so on the balcony, watching the ships as we passed them. We also had a seagull flying beside us for a good five minutes. Mal thought it was hysterical.

Then it was time for dinner. We have gotten Mal a surprise for every night of the trip, in hopes that a new play thing will keep him at least somewhat occupied during supper. Tonight it was a wooden robot with lots of elastic-connected parts you can pose. Mostly, he kept wanting us to return it to the cube shape as it was in the bag.

Mal’s dinner was a fruit salad, pizza and fries, and vanilla ice cream. James got escargot, a steak (the second of the day!), and apple pie. I had a chicken Waldorf salad, baked polenta with amazing roasted vegetables, and a fruit platter. 

After dinner, James took Mal to the pool while I unpacked our checked bags, which had been delivered right as we were leaving for dinner. It was too cool for Mal, and “too deep,” because James wasn’t swimming with him. I told him I’d swim with him tomorrow. I got a shower and feel like a new person now.

I did take Mal out after that, intending to walk around the promenade deck. The darkness and the sound of the waves freaked him out, and since the helipad was closed due to winds, we went back inside. We gave a cursory glance to the art gallery, which has some really neat stuff. We also got some snacks for the room from the Promenade Cafe. Oh, my, the pistachio eclair is amazing.

Now we’re all pretty beat, and it’s looking like time for bed. 10 PM. We’re party animals. Night!

A Day in Galveston

Saturday morning (I’m writing this Sunday very early), I woke up about an hour earlier than everyone else, but because the accordion blinds in this RV let in a lot of light (which is GREAT during the day when it would be very hot to leave them open, but you don’t want to feel like you’re in a cave), Mal woke up pretty soon thereafter, about an hour earlier than he wakes up at home where he has wood blinds + a blanket tacked up over the sun-facing window. This kid takes his wake-up cues from the sunrise, definitely, if that’s an option.

James and I did have time to chat about the movie before Mal got up, then we all went to Miller’s Seawall Grill for breakfast. They had a wait time of 35-40 minutes, so we went across the street to the beach, where Mal had been very eager to take James. As I’ve said, I can’t upload pictures from my cameras yet, but here’s a shot from the nearly-deserted beach (if you can’t see it, that means I forgot to attach it after moving this post from a word processor to the internets):

When it was time to go back across the street to wait in earnest for our table, Mal declared that he was done and ready to go back to “the hotel.” We had about ten minutes of his crying and my being very frustrated that he might be a pill during the entire meal (which is bad enough when he does it at home, but I wouldn’t subject strangers — or anyone else, actually — to it).

He got distracted by some pictures of guys holding up their fishing catches in the vestibule, then I stated handing him sugar packets once we sat down, so he ended up being fine. He said he wasn’t hungry, but then by the time our meals arrived, he was ready for hash browns. Unfortunately, he’s used to McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A hash browns, so the real did did not impress him. I was appreciative that he tried, as he was initially hesitant.

Still, he was pleasant and our breakfast was great. We got shrimp and gouda grits, and lump crab Benedict, agreeing to share both. They were incredible. I tried the crab dish first and thought, “OMG, I’d better eat my portion of the shrimp grits first because there’s no way it can compete with this!” But the grits (which had a TON of mushrooms that had absorbed the shrimp-y flavor) were actually EVEN BETTER. Oh, man, what a satisfying meal.

We had things that we wanted to do, but James wisely suggested that since we’d done something we wanted to do, we then do something Mal wanted to do. So we came back to the RV. I dropped James and Mal off, then went across the way to Whataburger to get Malcolm French fries and a shake.

When I got back, he was playing happily with some Legos, and ate a giant order of potatoes. James heated up his knees and caught a bit more sleep while Mal and I played with his Leap Frog and just hung out. 

After a couple of hours’ down time, Mal was ready to go again. It probably helped that our destination was LaKing’s Confectionary. We saw the Carnival Freedom in port, and parked near the railroad museum, so got to see some trains as we walked to the candy store. We had timed it so we could see the taffy-making demonstration (it was raspberry, but tasted very much of strong vanilla, which was fabulous). I got some assorted taffy, Mal got a couple of pressed pennies and blue cotton candy, and James got rocky road ice cream.

The chocolate all looked amazing, of course, but I was still full from breakfast, and it was in the low 80s outside, so I couldn’t really eat anything at the moment, nor could I save chocolate. Oh, they were also roasting pecans in a cinnamon slurry, and though I don’t love pecans, that smelled incredible.

After that stop, we drove out to Pelican Island to visit Seawolf Park. It has the Galveston Naval Museum, plus a lot of fishing spots and a playground. It’s a very neat place; well worth the $6 to get in. James went on the tour of the destroyer and submarine, and I took Mal to play at the park. He got to burn off a lot of steam, and got very brave in the climbing area after a while. We also walked over to the fishing pier to get a better look at an old half-sunk (purposefully) concrete ship. There were about a half dozen manufactured during a steel shortage, and they were fine except when this one got damaged, no one knew how to fix it. After having tried to sell it or do something with it for several years, they just dug a trench for it and sunk it out in the bay. I’ll bet it makes for great snorkeling.

Oh, we read yesterday that Galveston Bay is only 6-12 feet deep and 30 miles across.

We came back to the RV for an hour then went to dinner at Gaido’s. We had a very warm and friendly server, Uncle Bill, who paid extra attention to Mal. Mal got some buttered noodles; I ordered the “Jazz Martini”: cocktail shrimp and crab meat tossed with avocados and hearts of palm; and James got crawfish asiago, which was a fettuccini dish. Mine was technically an appetizer, but it was plenty of fabulous food, and I wanted dessert! For that course, Mal thoroughly enjoyed a scoop of vanilla ice cream (thankfully it was plain; the kitchen had sprinkled parm on the noodles, and I had to turn them upside down before Mal would eat any). James got a “pecan roll,” which was vanilla ice cream rolled in pecans and covered with chocolate sauce. And I got Cassatta con cioccolato bianco: layers of angel food cake and sweet ricotta white chocolate cream with house-made raspberry sauce. Oh my.

Mal was ready to stay at “the hotel” the rest of the night. We played a lot. He’d bought a squishy oyster shell where a mermaid pops out when you squeeze it. We threw that around, he played the game where the shower is either a jail or his headquarters. We played hide and seek. And running games. James and I were both tired, and we realized that without internet, we’d never have any down time! So if it’s bad to use screens as babysitters, then call me the worst parent ever because my son has a TON of energy and no siblings, so it’s all us, baby.

Oh, it got really nice as the sun set, so we opened the windows and doors, and Mal had fun playing on the steps outside, hanging off of the handle grip. I figured if it can hold the weight of an entire adult, it should be fine. He wanted to play a game where he said a letter and we thought of as many words as we could think of that started with that sound. Also rhyming games. He’s pretty good at rhymes, but I realize that on some shorter words, he can’t “hear” that the middle sound is the same, but the end sound isn’t. Still, the fact that he thinks up these games and thinks they’re fun is cute to me. That’s DEFINITELY something he’d eventually encounter in curriculum if we were into that sort of thing, and it’s funny to me that it doesn’t have to be forced.

By a bit after 8:30, Mal broke down. He was weepy and saying he wanted to go home RIGHT NOW, and he loved our house and hated vacation. Cue sleep time. I laid down with him and he probably would have gone right to sleep, but the a/c kept running. I mean, like it’d blow (hard and loud; if you’ve never been in an RV, the air itself is just blown so hard into the unit that it can’t blend in with the ambient noises like a house a/c does) for three minutes, then click off. About 25 seconds later, it would click back on. Mal slept with it fine the night before, but last night wanted me to cover his ears. I’d do that for long enough that I’d (mistakenly) think he’d gone to sleep, and I’d roll over, but the next time (almost immediately) the air came back on, he’d complain.

Then I started being annoyed by how ridiculous it was. Like, just STAY ON. Why click off for under a minute? JUST RUN. In the end, we just turned it off and hoped for a mild evening. I actually opened the windows, and it was definitely cooler outside than in, though much more humid. There was a nice breeze, too, and we all fell asleep pretty quickly. 

I was awakened a couple of times by sea birds, but that’s not a bad thing. I woke up “for good” at 5. I got up to see what time it was, because there’s a lot of security lighting in the RV park and it’s hard to tell like I do at home by the light level outside. It’ll be nice to get on a ship where it will be DARK out when it’s dark out.

Mal doesn’t want to go on a ship. He will probably fight us a bit this morning, but I know once he gets on board, he’ll be SOLD. He didn’t want to come into our RV when we got here, either, and as of yesterday afternoon, he said he wanted to live here. Bless him. I need to get better at anchoring him instead of being irritated by his fluctuations into absolute despair and demands. I’m not too worried about boarding, though. I’m ready, and I’m confident that he’ll love it once he gets over the unknown.

I’m going to get dressed and go get us some doughnuts for breakfast. Later!

Lying Low and Being Weird

Yesterday was kind of... different.

It's starting to feel normal that James isn't working. He is constantly busy, between phone screens, job-specific "homework," and live interviews; and the class he's taking through Christmas. Incidentally, he's been told by a recruiter that the class is super on-point right now, that everyone wants people with this experience.

And without James's "office job" to tell us what day it is, everything sort of bleeds together. It's a strange "new normal" monotony. James and I take turns keeping Mal occupied, but with our both being here, he actually seems *more* needy than usual. If I'm busy, he just goes to find his dad. I try, then, to keep him doing stuff while James is working on stuff, and often, we get out and about just to be able to spread out a bit.

Thursday, James actually drove into town for an interview, and Mal didn't feel like going to storytime at the library. His buddy Alexei came over for about half an hour after storytime was finished, and when they left, Mal was ready to go somewhere.

We decided on Walmart because Mal wanted to look at toys and I needed to get the oil changed. When I dropped off the car, the man in the auto area told me "that door's closed, so you can either go wait in our waiting area, or if you want to go into the store, go around front."

That rang a little bell with me, because when I tried to put in a grocery pickup order earlier this week, it wasn't available here. I made it with the next closest store, then promptly forgot out of habit, and the lady had to tell me I was at the wrong store as their grocery pickup was closed "because of the burning." I was curious but didn't think too much about it.

As Mal and I walked around to the garden center, the associate in there told me, "You can't come in here." So we went to the front door and about 3/4 of the store is cordoned off with floor-to-ceiling tarp. The pharmacy, baby products, and grocery is open and that's it.

Why? Because apparently someone set two fires in the store early in the morning the day before Thanksgiving.

It made the part of the parking lot that was closed off make more sense, too. I had thought maybe it was for the portable storage they often have leading up to the holiday sales (and, gosh, this must really be hurting that they can't sell toys right now!), but that didn't explain the row of porta-potties. Disaster clean-up does.

That's a big clean-up team!

So we couldn't look at toys while they changed our oil, which had been the original plan. Instead, we walked around gawking at the store, and then visited an area about which I've always been curious.

There's this seemingly-random bank of picnic tables slightly below street level in what might be a drainage area. So we hung out there for a few minutes, decided to walk over to McDonald's to kill time, realized the road was too busy to cross without going up to the light, and blehh. So we went back and our car was already ready. I guess that's one benefit of the store being mostly closed. Thanks, arsonist!

(That was a joke. When we got home, Mal told his dad that someone set a fire and "they are a jerk!")

Mal wanted to go to somewhere with a swing, so we went to an area of Brushy Creek Lake I'd never visited before. Mal got to swing, and it was really pretty!

Then he wanted McDonald's, so we went by there on the way home. Whenever there's a BOGO Happy Meal coupon on the app, I get one meal with nuggets, apple juice, and yogurt (with a "boy" toy) and one with either more nuggets or (if I'm eating) a cheeseburger minus pickle and the chocolate milk (for D) and apple slices. So we spend around $3 and have a little something for most of us.

And then today was also kind of discombobulating-feeling. Mal has been unwell, coughing and having even more trouble sleeping than usual. He's also been needier and fussier than usual, and if you know us, you realize that's saying A LOT.

For instance, if James and I are chatting, he'll interrupt and demand, "Daddy, talk to me!" And every day he wants to go somewhere.

In the midst of all of this, I'm super over nursing and, frankly, losing faith in the idea that one day, Mal will simply wean himself, and most especially at night does this seem an impossibility. I've been talking with him about stopping, about how big he is, and about how we have to find other ways for him to fall asleep. One thing I assured him is that I can always hold him "like a baby." On Wednesday, he took me up on that offer almost all day, asking me to chauffer him around for hours.

Anyway, last night James didn't get a whole lot of sleep as he was up much of the night chatting with D. So he was pretty much as exhausted today as I was, and much less accustomed to it. Mal was being demanding and restless, asking to leave for our 4 o'clock movie at 11 o'clock this morning.

Finally, at about noon, I decided to get him out and about to kill time and because I felt like James was getting stressed out. We went to the Texas Museum of Science and Technology, which we have passed numerous times when it wasn't appropriate to stop. But at the Christmas parade a few weeks ago, a lady was handing out $2 off coupons, so we used that today (Mal is free).

At first, Mal was overwhelmed by the size. It's a big open building that looks like it used to be a soccer practice arena. However, we went to play in the kids' toy area first, and he got used to the size. The one exhibit we spent the most time on was Da Vinci's machines.

They've recreated many (maybe 2 dozen?) of Da Vinci's designs using material that would have been available 500 years ago. And you're encouraged to use them! Carefully, of course, because cogs and fingers and such. But I kept finding myself saying, "Brilliant!" Then, "Well, duh, of course; he was a genius!"

Mal patently refused to pose in front of the wall with Da Vinci's famous drawing of man, but he did enjoy turning things and being able to interact with the displays.

They also had some replicas of dinosaur fossil, with which Mal was simultaneously enthralled and of which he was leery.

I asked him if he'd stand in front of me so I could get his picture with this one, and he said, "No! He's going to eat me!" I mean, if he did, retrieval looks simple enough, right??

There is also a little planetarium, bur Mal was ready to go before the first show started. I'll time our next visit to start with that. There's also an exhibit about drugs and our culture, but we were warned that it might be too mature for Mal, so we didn't even go back there.

Next, Mal wanted to go to Chick-fil-A, where I needed to get, anyway, because I had a free order of fries waiting on my app. (I have a lot of apps, yeah, but free food is worth it!)

There were a couple of kids there he could play with, but after a while, I just went into the slide area and we played hide and seek for a while. That kid barely grasps the concept of hiding, man. But he likes the game!

Next, we walked over to the Dollar Tree. Apparently, Mal was pretty convinced that we were going to get a car here. Here's the thing: I'd spent money today, so another dollar wasn't going to break our budget.  But I need to get him out of the idea that EVERY trip out gets a toy, because he's asking CONSTANTLY and he has about 4.3 million toys, already.

He found one he wanted and I told him we weren't getting a toy today. He found a nicer-looking older lady and told her, "My mom says I'm not getting a toy today." She thought it was precious. Still, he carried the toy up to the front and was cutting in front of people to give it to the cashier. I reminded him we weren't buying anything, and he lost it. I carried him back so we could put the toy away, and he just wailed.

He said, "I want to go home!" I reminded him about the movie at 4, and he said, "I don't want to see the movie! I want to go home!"

Over the 10 minutes it took us to walk to the car, strap in, and drive across the shopping center to the theater, I asked him about 8 times, "Are you SURE you don't want to go see the movie?" By that point, he'd calmed down and he happily assured me that he did NOT want to go to the movie. I said I'd get refunds for our tickets (which I had to do at the theater, because on the app, it just cancels the whole purchase, and D and James were still going) and we'd take the other two tickets home to the rest of the fam.

Yes. Okay. This is a good plan, he agrees.

We got home, and Mal came in, happily asking his dad if he'd gotten a toy today. I guess maybe he thought the only way I would not get him a toy was if his dad already got him one? So we hashed that out while James ate a bite of lunch/dinner and he and D got ready to leave. Mal said he wanted to watch Cars 2 (he watches at least some of it every day), so I turned his Kindle on.

Then James and D started walking out the door, and suddenly Mal DID want to go to the movies. He wanted to go very much. I had to lie him on our bed and hug him tight and reassure him and all that stuff just to make sure he didn't follow them out the door. He had already gotten his shoes and was heading that way.

Finally, after much nursing (aye yi yi) and cooing, I got him calmed down. He spoke once again of watching Cars 2.

Then he said, "I want to go to church! Let's go!"

Sigh.

Facepalm.

Flerp.

I told him it wasn't open, and we weren't going anywhere, anyway, and it started over.

Fortunately, it didn't last as long this time. He ended up watching a video in his room, and after about half an hour said, "I want to get those cars." He has about 80% of the Cars from Cars 2 already, but apparently thinks he needs ALL of them. He turned off the computer and was ready to go. More reminding him that we weren't going anywhere tonight, more crying, then more "deedees"... and he fell asleep. At 4:30. So almost 2 hours ago.

We're either going to have a late night when he wakes up from this nap, or an early morning when he wakes up from this REALLY early bedtime.

But here's a picture I took of him earlier today to remind us all why we do this stuff even when we're pretty much already dead.

Now, a couple of other things:

I think one contributing factor to my feeling "off," besides James's not working, is that I haven't slept more than 3-4 hours a stretch in more than three years. James watched a video recently about cementing new neural pathways and it talked about how important sleep is and how unhealthy poor sleep is. So dang.

Also, we've been sleeping on this futon mattress in Mal's room for almost a year. When I tried to take the cover off to wash it once, I realized that the cover is all that's holding the fluff inside together. And that stuff is just getting more and more broken down every day, so that's likely not helping.

As soon as James starts working again, I think I'm going to get 2 twin mattresses for us to stack during the day. And a bit later, we'll get a daybed with a trundle. But that part isn't my priority right now. My priority is saving for a vacation. We haven't traveled in just over a year, and it's going to be some time before we can swing it again, but I want to be ready!

Additionally, Mal has been ill, coughing, falling asleep at weird times, waking up more often than usual, etc. So, poor baby, he can't really heal, either, if he's not getting rest. Again, I know they're allegedly supposed to start sleeping better eventually, but I just can't see any light at the end of that tunnel, either.

Finally, yesterday morning, I really got my feelings hurt by an interaction on Facebook and that hung over me much of the day. In the end, I deleted the app and will be taking a break, at least through the end of the year. I need to use what energy I have on being present for my family. So if you need to get in touch with me, comment here or send me a FB message because I *do* still have Messenger. Anything you see posted by me on FB will be automatic cross-posting, and I won't see any comments over there until 2018 or so.

Facebook apparently discontinued their Groups app in August, so I have no way to access the groups I'm in, but maybe that's a good thing, too. I find myself getting tired of the same questions, the same kind of posts, etc.

However, as mildly off-kilter as things feel right now, we're actually having a good time. James is trying to enjoy any free time he has right now, and is definitely taking up a bunch of slack, ushering me out or taking Mal places when he can tell I'm getting overwhelmed.

And if you look at our November photo album, you can see that things are pretty amazing, weirdness and all!

A Super Tuesday

Our apartments are being upgraded, meaning we're getting new granite countertops in the kitchen, new flooring in all of the "wet" rooms, a new light fixture in the kitchen, new backsplash, and they're trimming out the mirrors in our bathrooms. Because having a mirror with trim is vastly superior to having a trimless mirror?

I think the assumption is that these "non-invasive" upgrades will be done in an empty apartment. They set things to right when they leave, but there are those of us who are home. All day. So I've seriously had anxiety about this since I heard about it a month or so after we moved in. I was grateful to hear that they'll wait to paint until we leave!

We were told that the work would be done between 9 and 6, so by 8:15 yesterday morning, I was ready. I had all of the stuff off of the counters, and James had moved his "liquor store" from under the sink into his office.

Mal and I had been up since 5, so by 9:02, I started to feel like they were late. We were told we'd be first on the list because I mentioned to the property manager that it's taken us more than a year to get on a relative nap schedule.

We spent quite a bit of time on the patio as yesterday was extremely warm. I heard the call of the Mexican Scrub Jay for the first time in a while. Looked around, and there it was, taking in the scenery.

When I realized I was getting stir crazy waiting for the workmen to come start tearing up our kitchen, I looked up polling places and realized we could walk "next door" to vote at a community center.

Mal and I went downstairs, got his tricycle, and headed out. He walked part of the way, then rode up the hill, across the grass, and through the parking area of an office building to get to the community center. We went inside and there were five booths with only one in use and no lines! I realized that I had to have photo ID (why even issue voter registration cards, then, really?) and while I was getting that, Mal decided to run back outside because the fun automatic doors take so long to close (it *is* a senior center, too, so...).

I pulled him in and realized he had a giant half-dried boogey on his cheek, so I ran him toward the bathroom to get a tissue, and on the way out from that, I slammed my elbow into a metal partition and cracked it open. *sigh* But I had my ID, my reasonably clean kid, and now there were four people waiting to check in.

Fortunately, the process didn't take long, but because I was choosing to participate in the Republican primary (as an anti-Drumpf), this guy pulls out a stamp and marks my voter registration card "Republican." DUDE! There's a reason I don't put an affiliation on there! I don't want one! But I changed it when I got home, anyway. Blacked out his dumb red label and wrote "Libertarian."

Oh, while I was getting stuff together to check in, this guy, of whom I did not take a picture, but who resembled this --

-- Except younger and with an afro, walked out of the building yelling "Trump it!" as he exited. He went outside to smoke a cigarette, then went somewhere, and came back to vote carrying... a baguette. This is barely Austin, but that was a sort of Austin mountain folk thing to have happened.

I only voted for Presidential nominee and three Texas propositions. I don't know or care enough about the other positions. So we were finished quickly and headed outside. Mal had fun playing with the bike racks, then hopping around on the stones between the sidewalk and the mailbox.

He got kind of snacky, so we sat on the bench and he ate a bag of dried apples.

He likes them. They're just really crunchy.

After we'd been there about half an hour, eating, jumping, trying not to mess with the "vote here" sign, even though we *really* wanted to, greeting all of the people coming to vote (90% elderly), we decided to head back because the suspense was killing me about the kitchen demo.

As we left, we passed the "no electioneering" border sign and I realized we'd violated voting day rules! We'd loitered within the boundaries for a good half hour, maybe more. Oops. We didn't encourage anyone to vote or not vote in any way, though, so hopefully they'll grant us leniency if it ever comes up.

When we passed the office, Mal wanted to go in. He looked around and I was trying to shoo him out the back door, but he wanted to go where the bottled water has been when we've had tenant events. They didn't have any in the fridge, but they had some snacks out, so we got Cheez-Its and a Cutie, walked down the hill, and found a nice bike rack in the shade. Mal played, I sat on the sidewalk, and eventually he asked me to peel the orange, which he ate.

It was such a gorgeous day, and I love love love that I get to spend so much time with my kids. (Even though one of them is on an opposite sleep schedule from me; at least that one *has* a sleep schedule!) The other day, I told James that it's actually a good sign that sometimes I get bored out of my skull with the mundane tasks of being a stay-home mom. It means that I'm around enough to take it for granted. I never feel like I just haven't had enough time before I have to move on to the next thing. I'm really grateful for that.

We got back around 11, just as the workers were getting here. By the time we got upstairs, they'd already pulled the tile half-backsplash off and were removing the countertops. They were very respectful of our space, so the demo was pretty anticlimactic. No sledgehammers. No loud noises. But it was over in under ten minutes.

The rest of the stuff took until 6 o'clock, but that's with giant gaps as they're renovating three apartments on this end of the building at the same time.

Mal wanted to watch some of it, and we also spent a lot of time outside. We got to see a roadrunner nosing around (do they have noses?) in the back yard. I've never seen one this far back in the complex, so that was a treat.

Did you know that roadrunners have an exposed swath of skin behind their eyes? It's blue-to-red. I didn't know that until I took the pictures and wondered, "What the heck?"

Interesting, right? At one point, the roadrunner called out, and I tried to get it on video but couldn't. He did it a second time, then disappeared into the bushes, and called out a third time. So now I know what a roadrunner sounds like!

Mal took a bath around 2:30 and ended up going to sleep around 3. We spent a lot of time in my room, playing on the bed and just trying to stay out of the way of the kitchen crew. Sadly, when Mal was getting out of the tub, he slipped and hit what I thought was his forehead on the side of the tub.

Yikes! Today it's pinkish purple, but the swelling is gone. Sweet little kid.

He slept for three hours, and I made him get up at 6. Now that he's napping better (yesterday, he slept two hours before he woke up for a nurse and back to sleep; today, he woke up after just a little under an hour but is back to sleep), usually 2.5 - 3 hours per day, he's sleeping less at night. He becomes inconsolable at night, so we're having to put him to bed around 8:30, even though I wouldn't care if he stayed up much later. But, no. Instead, he's waking up around 5. Last night, I ended up just going to sleep with him so I could get my 8 hours (interrupted) as I'd only had 6ish hours of sleep the two nights before that. I need like 10. It's amazing what the body can do when it has no choice.

As much as I was dreading the apartment upgrades, yesterday was actually a great day. It was made even better by the fact that James had a meeting downtown and got to come home about 2.5 hours earlier than usual! We got Dominos because it was on sale and I wasn't able to get into the kitchen in any meaningful way until 6.

So, regardless of the election outcomes, Mal and I had a Super Tuesday. I hope you did, too.