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.

At Sea, Day One

This morning, we mostly woke up at the same time, around 7:30, which is early for Mal (actually, I was awake at 6:30 and James was up shortly after that, looking outside to catch the sunrise). We got dressed and Mal and I went to the Windjammer buffet for breakfast; James was trying out the main dining room (MDR) for a sit-down breakfast.

I picked out several things, but Mal liked the waffles the best. James ended up joining us for a bit as the MDR didn’t open until 8:30. He ended up accompanying Mal to the mini golf course while I finished up my breakfast, then we traded off. Mal and I went to spend some of his arcade credits, and then the store Mal wanted to visit was open.

He likes Pez dispensers, so I’ve chalked the expense up to this being a thing he collects on trips. They have Shimmer and Shine dispensers here, and he got both. While we were in the store, James found us. Mal said he was hungry again, so we went back to the Windjammer to get him second breakfast (more waffles.) 

Next, we went to check out the kids’ club. They had just been playing with toys but were putting them up for a structured activity when we got there. Mal wanted to play with the toys, so after taking off his shoes and washing his hands, he declined to stay. Instead, we all returned to the room together to change for the pool.

Mal was really upset when I took him to the kids’ pool area. He wanted a life jacket and to go into the main pool. He tried just walking off from us, and I ended up having to YELL at him to get him to stop. We’ve lost sight of him as he rounded a corner and then panicked because he didn’t know where we were already. Don’t want that happening at the pool, especially.

We went over to the main pool, got Mal jacketed, and then he felt like the pool was too cold. James jumped in to encourage him, but no. So we took the life jacket BACK off (after I yelled at him again because he just abandoned us to go back over to the other side of the pools) and went to where we’d started in the first place. He ended up having a great time playing in the splash pad area, and we stayed long enough that James and I got some light sunburns, although Mal didn’t. He did have on a rash guard, too, but so far he’s never burnt.

We stopped by for pizza from Sorrentos to bring back to the room. They had an amazing seafood salad, and some tomatoes and mozzarella. They were just putting out these prosciutto and goat cheese roll-ups and, man, they were incredible. After lunch in the room, we hung out for a while. Mal asked for more pizza, but the line was super long so I got him fries, mashed potatoes, a cupcake, and a slice of watermelon from the buffet. Then we went to the ice rink to see the skating show “Encore.”

Although Mal was initially concerned about attending the program (as he’s trepidatious about anything new), he enjoyed it a lot. He even yelled out “What the heck?!” at a quiet break in a song when the skaters had done a particularly difficult trick. The performers were extremely talented, and one couple in particular was amazing. The theme of the show was basically a look back through famous musical performances, from early opera to broadway to Vegas-era Elvis. 

One part that made me uncomfortable, however, was the kabuki section. The costumes felt… inappropriate? I don’t know; maybe I’m overly-sensitive. But I found myself looking around the room to see if there were any Japanese guests giving the side-eye. I mean, they had “geisha” costumes as part of it, but, of course, it was only the head-pieces and shoulders and make-up that gave it away, as they were wearing typical skating short skirts. It felt off. 

Still, overall the show was super enjoyable. It made me laugh out loud at the last bit, when the announcer reviewed the musical styles we’d visited, and how all music culminates in… Las Vegas and Elvis. Mmmkay. But it was certainly a crowd-pleaser.

James came back to the room to rest his ankles, which aren’t super happy about all of the walking. Mal and I went back to the pool, but sadly there wasn’t a lifeguard on duty at the splash pool area where he’d played this morning.

Mal was disappointed, but we just sat out by the pool in the shade, eating fruit snacks and playing silly games together. Then it was time to come back to the room to get ready for dinner. Of course, we picked up some pizza for Mal on the way. His hunger knows no time frames.

This evening was a semi-formal night, and so we all got a bit fancier than usual. Mal’s dinner surprise tonight was a rainbow spinner, which delighted people at other tables all around us. Mal had plain noodles and French fries, with a tiny bit of vanilla ice cream. James and I both had a seafood puff pastry appetizer, then he got the duck a l’orange and cheesecake whilst I opted for the seafood linguini and seafood cake. Just kidding. I got a peach shortcake.

After dinner, while it was still light, we finally managed to walk the promenade deck together. The wind was something fierce, and although Mal ended up walking out to the helipad, we ducked out pretty quickly because it was difficult for him even to walk out there!

It’s interesting: tonight’s headliner is the exact same person D and I saw on the Navigator of the Seas in 2010: Lance Ringnald. Mal was ready to stay in the room after our post-dinner outing, so we have laid low and I’m the only one awake, but not for long.

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!

Traveling to Galveston

This morning, Mal woke up super excited to leave on our awesome trip. He had eaten breakfast and was raring to go about the time James got up and around and was trying to organize and pack some last-minute stuff, and eat breakfast himself. Mal and I ended up going outside and hanging out in the car for 15 minutes or so because Mal just couldn’t contain himself inside the house any more.

We drove for a little over an hour, stopping first at Giddings for a Buc-ees restroom and cheap soda break.

After that, we went on to Tomball to the Kleb Woods Nature Preserve. I’d read a very interesting story in our electric co-op magazine about how Elmer Kleb loved his homestead and almost lost it due to unpaid back taxes, and how many people and entities came together to preserve this beautiful site he’d carefully crafted, agreeing to let him live there for the rest of his life, at which time it would become a nature preserve.

Mal was not interested in doing this. He wanted desperately to head on to “the hotel” (which I’d told him was an RV and he also did not like the idea; he wanted halls to run up and down). I wasn’t the most tactful in explaining that we were ALL on vacation and we’d end up doing things that we ALL wanted to, but this might be one thing he wasn’t too excited about but would have to do, anyway.

James helped even more by giving Mal a pretty brief piggy-back ride up the paved trail from the parking lot to the nature center. It was lovely. Mal did love the nature center. It had a kids’ room, with lots of interesting artifacts, such as bones of animals found on the property, lots of books, stuffed animals, a few live reptiles and amphibians, and just air conditioned space for him to move around.

The whole area is becoming housing tracts (nice ones, but cookie-cutter neighborhoods, nonetheless) so it’s really neat that such a pastoral place will live on right in the middle of it. If James and I had been alone, we could really have enjoyed the trails… well, I guess, if James’s legs weren’t shot. I might have enjoyed them alone, but there were lots of signs warning to beware of venomous snakes, so I likely would have preferred a partner.

Regardless, the stop was lovely, and a great break from the driving.

We were going to stop at a taco truck I’d read about, but learned as we drove up that it was closed down (this was after I accidentally drove on a toll road on which I am not authorized, as I don’t have a Harris County EZTag pass, but Google told me to!). This lead to our accidentally eating at Mannie’s Seafood on the southeast outskirts of Houston.

This was a happy Plan B! James had some salmon, and the texture was amazing. I liked it a lot, but I think they used a sweetish glaze, and I’m not sure it’s James’s favorite. I got a fried fish combo: two fish fillets and three jumbo shrimp. Mal ate my fries. The fish was perfectly flaky but not dry, and the shrimp were not too chewy. They were lightly breaded and not greasy. It was just a great meal we hadn’t intended on having.

When we arrived at the Galveston RV Park and Marina, Mal cried. He said he didn’t want to go into the RV. He did, though, and by the time I got the second set of bags out of the car, he told me he loved it and wanted to stay here the whole trip. (He has no idea how much he’s going to love the cruise ship.)

Mal wanted to play with Legos, and I wanted to go to the store while James heated up his knees. James is seeing “Avengers: Endgame” right now, and I wanted some sodas before he took off. Mal didn’t feel like going, so I drove down to the beach (I mean, we’re so close; I had to see it!) then grabbed our drinks and a couple of pieces of fruit for Mal. When I got back, he said, “Mommy, I should have gone with you. I’m sorry.”

It was just as well. We decided to let James drop us off at the seawall on his way to the movie.

Mal LOVED the beach. He found a kid a little younger than he, and they ran and ran. Mal ran so much, and chased seagulls, and finally worked up the courage to let the waves roll over his feet a few times. It was a perfectly sunny golden hour, and erased every bit of travel stress from driving so many hours earlier!

We were going to get a Lyft to bring us back to the park, but ended up walking to a McDonald’s to see if they had a play area; they didn’t, which I knew, but Mal needed to see it for himself. They DID, however, have an aquarium, and Mal enjoyed that a great deal.

We kept walking inland up 61st, past all of the cemeteries. There was the Serbian Cemetery first, then Orthodox Jewish, then Greek Orthodox, and then the “main” (biggest; like blocks long and wide) cemetery with the huge catacombs. It was haunting and beautiful. 

By then, we were almost back to the “resort.” We scoped out the nearby restaurants (alas, all chains) and walked through part of a residential area, looking at the stilt-built houses. We saw a cat, several dogs, and at least one feisty pygmy goat.

In all, Mal walked over a mile and a third, plus all of the running he did on the beach. I guess he needed to make up for sitting in the car, too.

I showed him the Nintendo Switch James bought for him, and while Mal was extremely pleased, he was also too nervous to play it, but wanted me to do all of the mini games for him. Sigh.

The internet doesn’t work on his computer, which is just as well that he gets used to that now, as it won’t work on the ship, either. And the channels here are just weird. It’s like all of the shows are from 1974. Literally, I switched over and saw a Joan Rivers talk show, a la Phil Donahue.

Instead, Mal had fun playing a game where he’d run in circles in the RV: through the bathroom into the bedroom, then up the tiny hall and back around into the bedroom. Then, after I made the dining area into a bed, he did flips and jumped onto and off of it repeatedly. So much better than a hotel room: we don’t have to worry about anyone being bothered by the jumping… err, landing.

By the time he went to sleep, Mal was a weepy mess. He was mad we didn’t have chocolate chips, and then crying that I was so sweet and he loved me so much. There are a universe of big feelings crammed into that tiny body.

Tomorrow, we’re going to try to eat at three restaurants I want to try (plus, I really want to walk over to Darlene’s Shrimp Shack, but we just don’t have enough time for all of the food!); go to The Strand, specifically LaKing’s Candy Shop; visit Seawolf Park; maybe swing by Moody Gardens. I think that’s it? There’s a Catholic Church I’d like to visit, too. 

Now Mal is asleep and I’m just waiting for James to get back to I can let him into the trailer and go to sleep!

Good travel day; can’t wait to be a tourist tomorrow!

Also, no pictures yet. The internet here sucks, so it'll be later before I can post anything. It'll be worth the wait, though! If you want a link to the photo album, let me know and I'll get it to you!

Crazy in the Night

Here's something I shared in my "online journal" (because "blog" wasn't a word in wide use at the time) on November 4, 2001: -- Oh, and please join me in remembering that this means D was a whopping 2 DAYS old at the time -- "There are probably all sorts of psychological ramifications of this, but Daphne slept in the bed with us for most of the night last night (she cried from 10:05 until 11:00 and I figured that was enough of that; we tried again at 2:00 and she cried until 2:30)... she does so well when she knows someone is close by."

To reiterate: I had been brainwashed to believe that sleeping in bed WITH DESIGNATED CARE-GIVERS was something that would negatively impact my TWO DAY OLD INFANT. Sigh. 

Anyhoo, suffice it to say that I am not a natural-born co-sleeper. If it wasn't "How will they ever individuate?!" then it was "I'm too light a sleeper; I'd wake up at every roll-over" ad infinitum.

However, Mal simply refused to sleep if someone (typically me) weren't touching him bodily for months and months. 

Four and a half years later, here we are. I'm still sleeping in the same room he's in.

Contrast this with when D was 9, and Ken and I were in full divorce swing but still living in the same house. I was sleeping on the pull-out sofa sleeper, and D wanted to sleep in the living room with me. I refused. I just thought it was "weird" for parents to sleep with their kids.

(And, yes, there are MANY things I'd change about my initial foray into parenting, as we've covered many times.)

There are so many times Mal wakes up in the night needs reassurance. I'm sure D did, too, but since there was no one in the room... we just didn't know. And, yeah, most kids get over it and go back to sleep. I remember being TERRIFIED some nights, when I was a child. Whether it was a storm or I was awakened because I needed to use the restroom or I had a scary thought I just couldn't shake, I'd be absolutely petrified, but would try to cover every inch of myself (blanket protection, you know) and close my eyes. I'd will myself to fall back to sleep and not pee the bed because there was no way I was going to risk running across the bedroom floor... who knows what might shoot out from under the bed?

I knew, logically, that I wasn't in actual danger. I also knew that calling for "help" was ridiculous because of that. But I am certain I could have experienced much less anxiety and a quicker return to sleep if I'd had a reassuring hand on my back for a few moments.

Last night, Mal woke up and said, "You have to save me!" I was right there, reaching for him and assuring him, "I got you. I'm right here." He said, "I'm in bed. You didn't have to save me! I thought I was up on the counter bar, really high." Then, "Can I touch your belly?" And he went back to sleep.

We tried to find a transitional object for Mal when he was about two years old and I was tired of nursing (joke's on me with that one, I suppose). He liked stuffed animal and blankets fine, but none of them were particularly comforting to him. What was? My belly. 

For some reason, if he can rub my belly for a minute or two, it helps him calm down. You know how Al Bundy on "Married with Children" would sit and watch TV with his hand in his waistband? That's what Mal does with me. It helps him maintain contact with my skin without having to bear his own hand's weight. That way he can fall asleep, and I can just place his hand on his bed when he's out.

Is this weird? Maybe. But it's weird AND sweet.

I AM a light sleeper, but I find that I don't actually wake up for every breath and every movement. I DO wake up quickly when he actually needs something.

Actually, I do that for D, too. I can go from REM to catching a spider on the bathroom ceiling in about 45 seconds.

Mal's awake now, and he remembers waking up thinking he needed "saving." He said he "glitched" from the cabinet bar and ended up back in bed. Cute stuff. 

Our day started, I leave you with this: One of my favorites from my own childhood.

Mal's been sick pretty much all week.

Laura said she blames the MMR shot she got him 3 weeks before it started, even though we both know the symptoms are all stomach flu. The anti-vaxxers have done their work well: it's tempting to blame the vaccine.

He seems to have gotten mostly over it, but he's still really wiped out. He was awake for 8 hours this morning/afternoon (I think that's the longest stretch since this started), then napped a couple.

I've worked from home the past couple of days, because the bathrooms at work have been broken.

It's been pretty intense work, since I'm behind schedule, and we have our cruise coming up in just a week.

I finally got a break for lunch around 2 this afternoon. Laura mentioned that she'd like to go out for a walk around the neighborhood. She'd suggested that Mal ride in his stroller, but that didn't appeal to him. So she asked whether I'd be okay with her leaving when I got to a stopping point.

(The fact that she feels like she needs to ask is something we both have to work on, but that's a different story for a different day).

Somewhere around 6:30 [yes, I was still working furiously], she dropped back by to warn me that daylight was burning, so she needed to leave soon.

Mal was sleeping *hard* at that point.

I told her to go ahead. We both figured he'd just stay asleep.

On her way out the door, Carol made a run for it. Laura blocked her, but she gashed open the back of Laura's leg. Laura grabbed a towel to rinse the cat gunk out of the wound. Then she tried to toss the towel in the laundry.

The washer was full of clean clothes. Laura switched gears to move them to the dryer, which was also still full.

She spends a lot of her life dealing with this sort of thing and got frustrated.

I told her to get out of here and promised to take care of it.

Mal woke up about 2 minutes after she left, crying for her.

She was supposed to take him with her. I offered to take him to try to find her.

He was down with that. Except that he didn't want to look at our neighborhood. He wanted to go to the lake instead.

I offered to take him to the lake.

He didn't want to leave.

I started to suggest something else, but he just wagged his finger at me and headed back to his room.

He got upset that I was following him.

I claimed that I was just getting some water to drink and then going to the bathroom.

He was OK with that and started talking before I had a chance to do either (I really was hoping to do both).

He collapsed on his floor and cried. I used some stuffed animals to try to break him out of the cycle. He took the first and threw it away from me. He gestured frantically to keep the second away. He told me to quit having ideas, because nothing could make it better.

Then I grabbed Skye and played her "Grandma loves you, Mal" recording, and that did the trick.

He laughed for about 3 seconds, which was long enough to break the loop.

He cried a little longer after that, but those tears were less "heart broken" and more "getting over it."

Pretty soon after that, he showed me a new Lego set they bought at Wal-Mart earlier. It includes a Powerpuff Girl, with some villain I don't recognize (not that I recognized the hero) and a merry-go-round and slide. And a bunch of other little random pieces that I couldn't figure out. (Laura explained all about them later: he missed all the best parts).

Oh, and there's some kind of music thing with wheels that spin. I figured it was a reel-to-reel boom box.Laura thinks the spinny things are a DJ's turntable.

I'm bowing to her wisdom on this one.

This is the Life

This has been a week, guys. Mal probably had the stomach flu, and it SUCKED.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about, for the most part.

It's this: Sometimes, I resent my husband.

It's true! I love him, but sometimes, when he sleeps until noon on the weekends; or when he disappears to heat up his knees after having been gone all day and just having dinner with us; or some other thing he does or gets to do that I think, "I could NEVER just..." whatever... You know, stinkin' thinkin' (tm) sets in, and I can go to a pretty ugly place.

Fortunately, those times are few and far between, often suspiciously aligned with specific points in my, let's say, lunar cycle. Also, I love my husband and I want him to be happy, so that tends to mess up my pouty martyrdom, anyway.

However, today, I was overwhelmed by the reality that the stuff I do on a daily basis is totally amazing, and I'm very fortunate that I am able to do it.

Back to Mal's illness: He was actively ill on Sunday, like 5 instances of his being sick enough to warrant a full load of laundry (five different times) in 7 hours. After that, though, he was just spent. He's known his body can't handle much food, which is cool in that it has suppressed any more symptomatic barfing, but it's also meant he has basically zero energy.

Between Sunday at 1 PM and Monday night, he ate a hashbrown (bye bye) and about 1/4 of an apple. And he had a fever for much of Monday. So he slept. A lot. Tuesday, his fever was gone, but, again, he couldn't think about food. He had a bag of Minion fruit snacks (except for the 3 that were either yellow or orange) and a few more apple slices. And he slept a lot more. Tuesday night, he did ask for a Sonic vanilla shake. He drank maybe 1/4 of it that night. Then yesterday, he was pretty up and at 'em, comparatively, while my parents were here. But he's still been super low-energy, especially for himself, and I've had it pretty darned easy.

Today's responsibilities have basically been making some lazy breakfast for James (deviled eggs and coffee); chatting with D at length about our pigeons; and then taking Mal to Walmart for one thing but finding a sale on Powerpuff Girls Legos, and putting those together at home. Now Mal is watching TV, James has gone to lunch at Quetzal (his office's restrooms are jacked up and as long as they're having to use porta-potties, James is working remotely... incidentally, there are 20+ mph wind gusts, which I can only imagine adds to the "fun" of using an outdoor temporary toilet), and D is asleep for the day.

I do work hard. I often do so many things in one day, it makes me tired to think about it. And I feel guilty for feeling like I don't have time to sit and hang out with Mal as much as I want to. And I feel bad that I'm often very exhausted and heading for bed about the time D is ready to chat. But even the tiring stuff that I do... it's all good stuff. It's all here at home, making it a comfortable place for my people to land.

I don't get to sleep until 11 ever, but I do not have to set an alarm and wake up to be on the road by a certain time 5 days a week (or fewer, if the facilities are messed up to the point that employees wishing to avoid pooping in a box elect to stay home). I have had a nice, albeit a little sad, break most of this week as Mal has rested and recovered; like, I've read the majority of a book. Accomplishment!

My job involves things like potential apples and birds who hold freaky mysteries and lots of flowers and photographs and the lake and watching construction and demolition and adventures to places of recreation. I get to see almost everything my kids do in real time. I am surrounded by ridiculous cats. I can do a bunch of stuff in one day to give myself some slack the next day, and no one complains. If I don't feel like doing something, I can just not do it. My job security is rock-solid.

So, yeah, some days I think it'd be nice to be able to go to sleep when I want (it happens sometimes!) and then wake up when I want (again, occasionally) and do whatever I wanted for a few hours (extremely rare), but for the most part, my life is a whole dream, and that includes the husband part.

Happy weekend, folks! <3

Random. R-r-r-rrrandom

I keep making plans to attend alt school open houses, then when they get close, find reasons not to go. I'm sure not the least of these reasons is that tuition even for a part-time unschool-y place would finance a REALLY NICE and a couple of plenty good vacations per year. So maybe we'll just keep homeschooling. I need to find a good source for friends for Mal, though. At this age, D already had a core group of kids we knew would be homeschooling, so when we started a co-op, we already knew a lot of families.

Then again, I'm NOT doing a co-op again, and so if I want Mal to have that same sort of social stability, I'm going to have to pay for it. There are unschooling meetups, but we went to several when he was smaller, specifically preschool groups, and it was obvious that some people had been meeting for a long time, and we'd often not talk to anyone else the whole time we were there.

Besides that... we took a one-off "art class" recently at Mess-Maker Studios. It's a great place, and the facilitator doesn't make the kids do anything; she "strews" and lets them do whatever moves them. Still, Mal flitted from the sensory stuff to three seconds of painting, to playing with toys, and announced it was time to go half an hour into a 1.5 hour session. He WAS the only kid who showed up (it was an afternoon class rather than a morning one, which was packed, but... mornings), and he DID end up finding stuff to do for another thirty minutes while I talked to the owner.

But I am not certain that even in a year and a half, we could commit to a 5-hour day, even in a really laid-back, choose-your-own-adventure kind of place.

In other news: Tonight, we took advantage of a $4.11 per serving cheese fondue at Melting Pot. Mal and I got there before James, who got hung up in traffic. As we sat in the lobby waiting, Mal was obsessed with the real actual oil candle on the table in front of the bench. He was waving his hand over it to see the flame flicker, and having one of his Sonic toys fly over it. After observing how the flame really wavered when he swung his hand pretty hard in the air above it, he thought for a minute and blew lightly. It blew the candle all the way out.

"We were supposed to bring our lighter so we could light a candle if it goes out!" Mal told me.

I said I didn't have a lighter, and they'd just have to light it again later.

Mal looked panicked, and said, "But I don't want to go to jail!"

As we were seated, I told the host that Mal had blown out their candle, but really didn't want to go to jail. She said, "It's a first offense, so we won't press charges."

Later, after we'd had our cheese course (Mal enjoyed playing but ate only some bread and green apples; he didn't even try the cheese), we ordered dessert. Mal told the server he'd like marshmallows, and when she brought the trays out, she had made a special (non-communal) one for Mal and pointed out the graham-cracker-covered marshmallow and the Oreo-covered marshmallow.

As she went on to say what everything else was, Mal interrupted loudly, "Excuse me! Sir! I'd like plain marshmallows, please." She brought him 4.

This weekend, I was thinking about a lot of the things that I'm sorry for in my life. Here are a few:
1) I'm sorry I ever believed the lie that parents have to win the battle of wills against their kids, especially when they're small, so it sets the precedence of who's boss.
2) I'm sorry I used to think that there were certain bodies that could "get away" with wearing certain articles of clothing, and others to which the clothes would be off-limits.
3) I am sorry I never really listened to my next-door neighbor's dad practice guitar because I thought he was going to hell for playing an instrument in church.
4) I'm sorry I was so ignorant that I didn't know the pain it would cause when I did the "Pointer Sisters" lip synch in our high school contest in 1987/88, when I was 15. And I'm very sorry that when a black girl, a neighbor of mine, complained, that the school didn't bring us all together to talk about it. It didn't matter that I LOVED the Pointer Sisters, or that I meant it as a tribute, or that I was just trying to be as realistic as possible, or that I didn't even know the history. I needed to learn. I needed for her to be able to look me in the face and say, "You hurt me. This is wrong." And I needed to be held accountable for finding out why.
5) I am sorry I ever intentionally lost weight.
6) I'm sorry I never offered to mow the yard or wash the cars or do jobs that weren't "mine" when I was in high school.
7) I'm kind of sorry I got an undergraduate degree; not only in theater, but at all. Not sure what else I might have done with my time (and parents' money), but it couldn't have been MORE wasted.
8) I'm sorry for all of the things I missed out on because I was "busy" trying to make some guy like me. I'm sorry I ever tried to date at all before I turned 30, although I'm glad I had D.
9) I'm sorry for any rumor I've ever listened to without speaking up. Same goes for racist or otherwise abusive jokes.
10) I'm sorry for any aggressive beliefs I've held that I believed were justified by the Bible but that did harm to other people and, ironically, the Gospel. I'm growing to hate the term "sincerely-held religious beliefs" because it sounds so innocuous, but I see how it's weaponized. It's heresy.
11) I am so sorry for people I hurt when I was hurting. There's a list, and I think about them often, and I am learning to sit in the sorrow and discomfort, because my "bent" is to try to fix things... even when there's no fix.

I've been thinking about things for which I'm sorry because of freaking Joe Biden, who might/might not be running for President in 2020. For posterity's sake (because sometimes I read decades-old blog posts and don't get the pop references), several women have accused him of approaching them physically in a way that made them uncomfortable. He's gone out of his way to "apologize" by saying social norms have changed, and that he will never apologize for his intentions, and that he always tried to build a human connection.

But, golly, Joe, all you need to do it take responsibility for your actions. Tell the truth: You never thought about how your physical advances might be taken by women because it's just not a thing you think about. It doesn't matter if "society" taught you not to worry about that kind of thing... The fact that it never occurred to you that someone might not like being hugged or kissed or having their shoulders rubbed shows, first and foremost, male privilege/assumption of space/rights to others' bodies, etc. Acknowledge that. Apologize for hurting people. Stop centering yourself by talking about intentions. That's not the point here. If someone accidentally steps on my toes in a crowded place, it's still appropriate for them to apologize. You're more culpable than that, so you owe it to these ladies.

If you asked me, and I rarely get political on here, but this kind of crap is a big reason I'm super over the old white guy President. We need someone with a different outlook on life. Not because old white guys necessarily are compromised or evil or anything like that; just the inability to conceive that your default way of thinking might be able to be improved upon is a liability, as far as I'm concerned. Let's try something different, can we please?

Taking another turn: We were supposed to get our new just-weaned pigeons yesterday, but the supplier caught a cold, so we're waiting one more week.

Mal's awake, so that's it for now. Enjoy your week, internets!

April is Upon Us

Hey, guys, what's up?

Today's been kind of a slow one for us. Mal had the MMR vaccination last week and it hit him hard yesterday afternoon and today.

Mal wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese yesterday, and he burst into tears right before we got there because he saw Dave and Buster's and decided he wanted to go there instead (alas, D&B didn't send me a coupon, and CEC did, so...). Mal ended up having fun, but abruptly announced, "I'm tired of playing games. I want to go home and watch TV and drink soda."

Exhausted kid.

Last night, he did get out and play at the park. But he was ready to go to sleep around 10 PM, which is about an hour earlier than usual. This morning, he woke up an hour earlier than usual, very chatty, then went back to sleep and woke up 45 minutes later. I made him cinnamon toast, which he was in the middle of eating when he just laid down on the floor and konked out.

When he awoke a couple of hours later, he was still pretty listless.

He hadn't eaten any breakfast, and later asked to go to Sonic to get a vanilla shake. He said, "We won't get out. Just bring it home." Because he didn't feel like getting dressed.

Waiting for the shake.

He came home and sat at the table for a few minutes, but didn't really eat the fries he'd requested.

He quickly went back to lie down and chill.

Basically, this has been our day. I thought this might happen, because D became extremely ill for two weeks after getting this particular immunization. Until yesterday, he showed no signs of sickness, which was a relief; D's was instant and lasted a week before a rash broke out torso-wide for the next painful and miserable week.

We were supposed to meet a new friend today, but will get together later in the week. I'm trusting he'll be 100% by tomorrow.

In other news, I am on pins and needles waiting for the tax appraisals to go out for this year. We had been paying extra on our mortgage, trying to knock it out earlier, but are stopping that because, honestly, we're not going to live here in 20 years. When the kids move out, we will sell; it's too much house and land. And it seems likely that extra we were paying will be necessary for tax stuff eventually, anyway. There are so many houses going up in this neighborhood, and they're all priced a lot higher than I would have believed; it's almost like Austin, but a few years ago.

We've had the pigeons now for six weeks... well, we've had two of them for six weeks. After we'd had them three weeks, I let a couple of them out to explore, and they did. Sigh. D's handled it extremely well, and we're getting to "squeakers" from the same gentleman who gave us the first four birds. The two that stayed here (I opened the flight deck for them all, but they weren't interested) are Riddick and Cinnamon. Here's hoping those dudes are friendly enough to the youngsters.

And then there were two.

The birds we're getting are so young that we won't know the sex until later. They just left the nest last week and should be weaned some time later this week. Squee! And no flying for them. I've learned a lot since the unfortunate incident, and have a better plan for letting our feathered friends soar... it's just going to take a while. Like maybe the better part of a year.


That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in! Chat again soon!