Watching my truck get washed so I'll spend this time updating a little.

Anna's big girl bed is doing great. In fact it's super comfy and the ability to snuggle up beside her for bedtime books and songs was a completely unexpected bonus! On the weekends she calls me in to snuggle in the mornings too. :) This morning she said "I like for you to snuggle first thing in the morning." ahhhhhhh.... Doesn't happen weekdays though. Too darned busy.

This was the 3rd weekend in a row at home I think. Or second. Anyway that's it for awhile. Next weekend we're going to my mom's while Paul attends a class in Austin, then the next 2 weekends or something will be our Colorado trip. Wait I have my calendar in my head mixed up: I know we'll be home the weekend or August 15 bc we're taking her and a little friend to Storytime Live. That's WonderPets, Dora, etc all on stage at the Hobby Center (this isn't the gabba gabba one though).

Boot camp has been on a 2 week break and starts back up Aug 2. I can't believe the progress I made past go round. Stronger! Teaching starts back up Aug 23; Monday nights again. I have mixed feelings about it only bc of the obvious: the schedule. For the last 2 weeks I've gone to bed by 8:45pm and was sleeping at 9. No lie. I'm still running mornings with the neighbors but there's usually one day out of the 3 I don't make it or it's cancelled. Also we haven't been running beyond our short 2.8 mile route so my ednurance is tanking. I can tell. And the heat and humidity makes it wayyyyy less fun. But look, come October I'll have been running with them for 1 year. Crazy! Thank goodness for them bc I would probably not have touched my running shoes since the halfarathon last Jan until September as usual.

Anna is a crack up and she's sweet and smart too. It's
So funny bc this time last year it was a car seat scream fest daily and battles and Time Out over the stupid stuff. Crazy how fast a year goes by. Now I look forward to our car rides home in the evenings bc we talk about stuff instead of me defaulting to the ear plugs to prepare for the audible assault on my ear drums...and ego.

Paul's clinic is going great! It's growing. He's enjoying it and geeze the past 2 weeks he's usually home by 6 or 6:30. And still I can see the good effects of me having left Paul and Anna together without me for the 2 weeks I was gone. It's no longer just about MOMMY! It appears to have equalled out, thankfully!

That's right, wax that beautiful blue Lexus! Don't forget the extra crumbs around the car seat.

Conversation

On the drive to school...

Anna: Is that a BIG KID school?
Me: Yes, that's for big kids
Anna: But I'M a big girl!
Me: Yes but you have to be tall like mommy for that school. You have to take more naps and grow taller taller.
Anna: But I'm taller, see my long legs?
Me: Yes, but...
Anna: Am I an Older Class?
Me: What?
Anna: Am I an Older Class?
I'm starting to get more straight up with her because she seems to accept it these days, and frankly it's easier than getting 3-yr-old creative:
Me: You're an Older Class relative to the Younger Class, and you're a Younger Class relative to the Older Class.
Anna: OOOH! Ice Cream Truck!


***************************

Anna: Spray Tiger with bug spray too!
Me: Tiger doesn't need it, baby
Anna: Yes, the mosquitos will bite him!
Me: No, they won't bite Tiger
Anna: Why?
Again, here the truth is just easier:
Me: Tiger has no blood. Mosquitos bite you because they like to drink your blood. Tiger doesn't have blood.
Anna: Giggles.

******************************
Anna: I want to watch Potty Train
Me: Watch what?
Anna: Potty Train
Me: You mean Potty Power?
Anna: No, POTTY TRAIN!
Me: Baby, I don't know what movie that is.
Anna: Am I Potty Train?
Me: OH! Yes, yes you are. Like a big girl.
Anna: Are you potty train?
Me: Yes
Anna: Is Daddy Potty Train? And KC?
Me: Yes.

The next day it dawned on me to explain what potty train meant. It took me that long to realize I hadn't probably given her the answer she was looking for. This is getting challenging.

Also, honestly, I am having to make a conscious effort to stop the knee jerk reactions to her immediate requests. This is how children become spoiled and immediate requests turn into demands. The child knows patience, and she can wait without pitching a fit. Thankfully. I should capitalize on that. I've seen it and occasionally when I get my head on straight to actually THINK ABOUT THAT, she can wait patiently for her request till I'm done doing whatever it is I'm doing. Yes at this age ofcourse they're capable of it; they do it at school all the time. It actually is really interesting to me that I have to make a conscious effort ON MY PART to think about finishing the task at my own hand before running to her rescue or request. She is actually really good at waiting till I'm done with my own quick breakfast when she asks "Mommy can you get me some more orange juice?" She can also bring her own dishes to the sink or bring her own glass for me to refill. But in my mind I've been doing it so long I actually have to make a conscious effort to switch gears into Big Girl reinforcement of these sort of habits. I was so careful when she was a baby to "start as you intend to go on" but it applies here as well if I want to avoid raising a spoiled booger head. She's growing up and I need to keep that mindset too. Given my own work ethic I'd expect it of my own daughter so I'm surprised it's something I have to make a conscious effort to teach. Interesting.

Good Lord: It's the Big Girl Bed

I have mixed feelings about this.

BEFORE

AFTER (Last night, her first night)

Maybe it's the obvious: that her bed is taller than ours??? The step stool requirement? I mean, really, for a crib/toddler bed convertible, this bed is very Princess-and-the-Pea-like tall. I doubt will it do much for helping to encourage midnight potty runs. She's still never been one to get out of her bed at night without us or even upon wake up in the morning even though she certainly could.

I know, it needs a bed skirt. Cut me some slack.

The whole room covers the floor where she learned to walk, and where she liked to run naked back and forth between me and Paul. Where we've had to chase her down to cooperate into her PJ's. It covers her escape path to the chair when she tries to hide for bath time. It covers the real estate Paul uses for pre-bedtime horsey rides before dumping her into the big chair. Which is also gone.

It intrudes like she's 13 or something. It's BIG and she's so little. (OK yeah she's tall though).

But she likes her new bedroom. She is very content and passed out quickly.

But the biggest drawback came as a harsh reminder every two hours last night: Mommmmeeee, mommmmmeeeee. In the additional bed estate that she has acquired, the paci is lost in a sea of polk-a-dot sheets. I went up expecting to find it on the floor, out of her obvious reach, but no. It was right by her pillow both times.

Part of me thinks I should give her time to adjust to the expanded bedding and she'll get used to feeling around for the paci like she did in the other bed. The other part of me thinks It's either time to buy glow in the dark paint for the paci (considered) or have a talk about how I am not coming up to help her find her paci in that new big bed. What, don't you think part of me knows it's time to just yank that paci for good (the obvious!)? But it's such an end-of-the-day comfort for her, it's hard for me to push. Still. My targeted end-in-sight for the paci for real: Christmas. Hand it over to Santa, baby. When the downtime at work will make the potential sleepless nights more tolerable by day.

Anyway, we made the big move yesterday since her toes were nearly touching the toddler day bed. But I didn't think it'd be so high off the ground. Is this typical or is our mattress set just unusually high? It's in sane.

It does give her room a whole new feel. It's definitely cozy but I was really surprised at my feelings about the conversion. For 3 years we've had the same routine in the same configuration. Same bedtime stories in that chair and songs/stories by her bed. Wow, I hadn't thought about it Saturday night as that was the last time we'd have that.

The view on the monitor is obviously different too. Over the years we've adjusted it a little as she's grown. In the beginning, it was zoomed right in on her tiny body so close we could see her chest rise and fall. Now we have it angled where we can capture parts of the floor too: we need a bigger picture of what's going on up there.

I'm tired already.

Simulated Flatulence: A father-daughter story

Anna, 4th of July

Ours is the short one

We had a really fun time at my Dad's for the 4th of July weekend. They always get down and dirty with the fireworks, right there in the streets, so Anna got her fill up close. She kept proclaiming she was "SO EXCITING!" at the pretty colors. The child stayed up from 7:30am to 11:00PM with NO NAP. That's right, we kept expecting her to pass out on the couch somewhere around 3:30 when watching Jungle Book 2, but no, not this one. She is NOT a sucker! Despite the rigorous schedule, she was so well behaved. She'll ask us now: "Do I have to take a nap?" and we'll say "if you're good, you don't have to take a nap." She'll put her hands up in defense, shake her head, smile, and say "I'm Good!" and it works for now. Frankly I don't care if she naps or not, as long as she's not a booger. At my Dad's house she got to go swimming, eat whatever she wanted, and sleep late. Wait, that goes for me too.

At one point I removed a snail from her foot, put it on the ground, and told her the snail had just been on her foot. She LOST HER SHIT over a snail being ON HER FOOT and I laughed my ass off while trying to remind her that snails don't bite. She didn't care. It was a scream of bloody murder,like she'd been hurt and sees blood. She wanted the snail thrown into the grass, far away from her. She's getting that way about bugs now even though we never have pushed her to be afraid of them. I guess it's just time. The next day she was standing in the same spot and started screaming as she looked at the back of her leg: a GUMMY BEAR was stuck to the back of her leg and she screamed the SNAIL SCREAM and once again LOST HER SHIT. We found it very entertaining. As we explained it was only a gummy bear I wondered what was going through her mind as she stared at it, still apprehensive but more understanding and calm. A little older and she'd have said "OH!" with a silly grin.

The 7 hour car ride there and back gave us a glimpse into what this year's Colorado road trip might be like. Thankfully our little girl likes to pee in the grass so gas stations are not a requirement for potty stops. But she does get tired of the "long long ride". So I guess we'll see.

Anna stuff

Anna calls Avacados “Colorados”.

She calls flavored snowballs (the kind you eat in summer) “Raindrops”.

She knows that the reason it rains is because clouds are full. I taught her that one. I think I’m at least partially right. Well, suitable for a 3-year old, anyway.

She tells Paul to “go make money!” as he heads out the door every morning. The girl knows her priorities.

When she whines the night before about not wanting to go to school tomorrow, I say “let’s talk about that tomorrow morning” and she says “OK.” In fact she does that a lot lately: planning ahead of what she doesn’t want to do so she can get an early start in expressing her feelings about it. I, however, think that talking about this while she has a mouthful of toothpaste constitutes a delay in the discussion and surprisingly she is good with that.

Her hip was hurting her for a while so out of due diligence I jumped the gun and brought her to the doctor yesterday, where, before we even walked into the doors, she was instantly cured (don’t you know you have to pay the $25 co-pay to tell the teachers “yes she is complaining but the DOCTOR said it’s nothing”). But at least while there we learned she weighs 34.75 pounds and is 39” tall. She’s almost up to my belly button. She’s fabulously tall and pretty darned cute, especially when she smiles. Her bad attitude has calmed again (that’s her way: 2 weeks of brattitude, followed by several of right-on awesome Anna) and we’re almost back into a routine. She doesn’t fight bedtime like she had when we were all over the place in June, though she isn’t thrilled about going to school. Why would anyone want to go to school when the alternative could be a visit by Nana or trip to Kemah or an Astros baseball game (Paul took her with O and M and TJ and friends when I was out of town) or a trip to Paw-Paw’s house (My dad, or as Anna calls him “your daddy” where we just went for July 4^th). Summer is about the fun, not the school. But while she’s there she does great. She even naps, which she wouldn’t DO in her previous classroom. Go figure. These things are weird.

She’s such a little person. I swear I’ve said that before but seriously she just gets older and older. The stuff she asks me “do you ever get sad?” freaks me out and I love it. She loves to do puzzles and I like to do them with her. I can hang with puzzles. She doesn’t have enough puzzles though. She also likes the flavored chapsticks and now the little clip on earrings that came with her princess dress up outfits. The other night I stopped to ask myself “what the hell am I doing??” while holding the flashlight and searching under my seat of my car as I spent too much time (and Paul did too) searching for her princess clip on earrings. I found one. I gave her a different clip on to satisfy her but it forced Paul and I to sound like parents: “you need to take better care of your things so you don’t lose them.”

After 2 years at LEAST of singing Wheels on the Bus every night for bedtime, she’s now asking for me to sing something else. What that is could vary. Sometimes she doesn’t even know what she wants me to sing so I go through a list of “No, no, no…um, I don’t know”. I kind of miss Wheels on the Bus because I could sing it while partially asleep. Now she’s requiring a little more brain power.

She’s obsessed with stinky feet and tooting on you. Still. She took her shoes off on the car ride back from New Orleans this weekend and I had to roll down a window. She gets it from her dad. On the car ride home from New Orleans she and Paul exchanged tooting sounds: Paul on the iPod FART app and Anna with her Flarp (silly putty that sounds like toots). The giggles were contagious. The IPod was plugged into my stereo speakers. Fortunately, the flatulence was simulated.

The sandals got a wash last night. Because she still refuses to wear an array of pretty shoes (they’re TOO TIGHT!!!) she wore them cold and a little wet this morning. My mom bought her a bunch of new clothes lately for summer, to which she hated all of them, and now they sit unused till I pass them on to someone else. Here’s a tip if you haven’t figured it out now: she’s picky about the clothes. Don’t bother. Everything itches or is too tight. It takes a certification to dress her.

She still has the paci at night and it looks like it’s about to break. By now she’s old enough to respond “you can go buy another one at the store” when I ask what she’ll do when that stinking paci breaks. No, mommy is going to will that paci to break on a weekend so the sleep loss won’t feel so profound when it’s gone cold turkey.

A recent Anna picture to come….

Anna: is that a school?

 
Me: no it's a community center. 

Anna: A comedian center?

Me: A what?

Anna: A comedian center?

Me: Thats what I thought you said.

Twitter for iPhone • 7/8/10 5:32 AM

Oh no, I think I'm over it

Crap.
I was sitting in my regular Monday morning 8am astronaut meeting when something they said triggered the thought I never ever thought I'd think:

I think I'm over this astronaut thing.

Oh rats. Oh no. I've become one of those wanna-be-has-beens-burn-outs. All my life I have wanted to be an astronaut. Now...meh...

Don't get me wrong, if they ever take astronaut applications again, I'll certainly apply (could be fun) but it appears it's no longer the #1 thing on my radar. If I never fly in space, I'm already over it.

Not sure what caused it. Could be that priorities have shifted, leading me to realize there are bigger things in life to be concerned over at this point. Maybe it's the little booger's fault somehow. Could be that I am pretty fulfilled in my current career that it's easy enough to be over the astronaut thing just at this time. Could be that I have sat through enough inside astronaut meetings and presentations over the last few months that I've learned a thing or two about the corps and frankly...I'm just disillusioned. Without going into too many details on my blog, I think I'm OK with never getting to space.

I'd hate for people to think I've "given up". It's certainly not that, but I think it's more like more decisions I'm making in life have less to do with possibly being an astronaut one day. Part of me hates that I'm less passionate about it because I've known a few in my time to have tried and tried and "given up". Or appeared to have given up, in my mind. When maybe they hadn't given up. Maybe something just clicked for them and they too said, "meh. It'd be nice but it ain't everything anymore."

Well, yay me. Or boo on me. Either way, that's where I am today. Thank goodness, too. Because it's a little more freeing.

Until the next astronaut application period is announced again (years from now I imagine). Watch me get all crazy again. Blah.

In honor of hurricane season...

A neat link. Found it during Ike.

http://www.tropicwx.com/

I'm home!

Got home on Friday in time to pick up Anna from school. She was very surprised to see me and I got great hugs! She took some time to show me some of the stuff she made at school that day and kinda talked about what she'd been up to. I think it was her way of "catching up". :) She declared she missed me, yay!

And all that wonderful sweetness lasted about an hour...then we got home and for some reason she started asking for her paci. Out of nowhere. In fact, wait, it started before we got into the car. Apparently one of her classmates still uses a paci, and Anna wanted one too! Anna still uses her paci for bed. That's the rule and she's been fine with that. Now suddenly this other kid has one all the time I guess and she wants one too. Hardeeharhar, No.

We got over THAT discussion (if-you-want-your-paci-then-go-to-bed) and moved on to the "I want to sleep in YOUR bed" request. Or should I say DEMAND. So now I get the clue as to where she's been sleeping some of the time I've been gone. Sorry kid, that's MY bed. I love you and I love sharing a bed with you on travel, but let's not get into any nasty habits. Your room is cozy and comfy, and warm (even though I get that it's all the way upstairs by yourself and I won't think about that as long as you won't). Your room is yours, and mine is mine and so no, you can't sleep in my bed. You can sleep in my bed only when mommy's not home. She asks: "Are you staying home?" She missed me an hour ago but now she'd like me to get lost again.

My "No" prompted a tantrum and this was only 6:00pm. She had flashed forward to sleeping arrangements and we were barely through dinner. By the time it was all over I don't even know what she was tantruming over. But I think the welcome home period was over soon enough and she was pushing me with her recently-acquired oppositional behavior that Paul had told me was going on. By the time Paul got home that night, I was exhausted, my body thought it was 3am, and I let him deal with the bedtime madness (by all rights, they created together while I was gone). I was in bed by 8pm.

Anyway, the perfectly sweet and agreeable Anna disappeared somewhere between Minnesota and Germany in the midst of routine shake-ups galore. Birthday parties, skipping school for baseball games, a visit to the swamp camp, going to friends' houses in the evenings. All recipes for a great summer and a 3yr old who realizes that skipping school and staying up late can be fun.

And so the battle with getting her to school. This weekend she asked each time she woke up if she had to go to school. (Isn't she a little too young to start THIS fight?). No, it's a weekend. This morning, though I wasn't home bc of boot camp and a meeting, Paul said she put on a good tantrum about not wanting to go. He finally coaxed her into the car. Before Minnesota, she loved going to school. It doesn't help that the new classroom is just not her old classroom and her favorite teachers and friends aren't there either. The new ones are great and fun but just different. And even in the classroom there's been teacher turn over due to illness and vacation. It's just summer. Period.

Tomorrow starts my standard task of getting her to school in the morning again. We'll see if she gives me the same crap she's been dishing Paul (I expect so) and if so I will have to revert back to the days when she was 2 and fighting everything then. We had epic battles, just she and I, and although she is bigger and louder now, and gets much more pissed off, we'll just have to battle it out. I'll leave ample time in my morning schedule for the battles.

Boarding the final flight home!

Leaving Amsterdam airport now, hoping to land in time for me to pick up Anna-Marie from school :)

What a trip! Now, just an 11 hour flight ahead. Here we go!

Germany

Well I broke almost every nail dragging the big-ass red suitcase all over Italy, Switzerland, and Germany yesterday. I guess that's why people backpack across Europe instead of "big-ass red suitcase" across Europe. After I got off the 12 hour train ride I had the urge to sing "It's a small world afterall."

Right now I'm at an authentic beer tavern. The German equivalent of BJ's. They brought me their house brewed beer (let's face it, I don't know what beer to order at home much less Germany's house of beers). She asked if I'd prefer cloudy or clear. Hmmmm, what do YOU like? Well cloudy it is! And in fact, it is darned good. I thought most beer is bitter but this one is not. Eiher it's cause it's Germany or it's cause I just don't know beer. I also have in front of me a big plate of pretzel-crusted meatloaf with potatoes and sauerkraut. Yeeeaaaahhhh baby. It's darned good but I can't keep up with Germany's portion size. Woe is me. And by the way what's he fuss about sauerkraut? It's my first time trying it and it's awesome! Must be the American hotdog stands' sauerkraut sucks.

And my hotel...holy cow! Staying at the Kameha Grand and Lordy! It was just built in Novemeber right on the Rhine river. So my floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the river. The entire room has different lights controlled by a swichboard b the door. The floor in the bathroom is heated. The blinds are controlled by buttons. The bathroom is all glass but for the WC (toilet room). The sink is some weird flat contraption whose drain I haven't found yet. The bed is heavenly and there's a black screen as my headboard and at night you can turn on the "moon lamp" and a full moon appears on my headboard! Perfect for the space geek like me! He entire hotel looks like a glass spaceship. It's ultra-modern and the hallways are all RED. Floors, doors, walls,ceilings. The breakfast buffet is amazing and the staff there is insanely helpful. Little details...like tonight when I got in from work they brought my bag upstairs to my room and told a cab driver to bring me to
this restaurant. Then they proceeded to order me a lighter blanket since I was just a little hot last night. Also apparently they have every pillow available so just ask. Also as part of nightly turn down service they put out a little mat by my bed with slippers! My room overlooks the Rhine but also one of only 4 UN buildings in the world. This morning my 4 mile run was along the Rhine river where I watched boat cruises, kids playing on the banks, and people cycling. The temp must have only been in the 60's and everythig is so green! Bonn is a neat little city, reminds me of a German Ft Collins :)

Today I went to the German Space Agency (DLR) in Koln (Cologne). The meetings were fascinating discussions of a materials science experiment on ISS that uses microgravity to better understand the solidification process of alloys. In a nutshell, it could lead to the improvement of metal alloy production on Earth. Really much was over my head but I hung in there!

Well my battery on the iPhone is getting dangerously low so I'd better put this away and order my fried apples and ice cream!
:)

My job kicks ass. Tell your kids to go to college. Or at least do what they love.

One last mad dash for trains

Ok Imade it to the train to Bonn! This is the final train, over 5hrs ride. I only had 11 minutes to get to this one but I figured out how to look up platform info while I was on the last train so I knew Exactly where to hustle to! Gotta love 3G!!!
The last ride was straight through the Swiss Alps in Switzerland. And OMG it was beautiful! Huge mountains, tiny Swiss villages in the valleys, blue clear streams you can see straight to the bottom even from the train. Towering rocks and waterfalls and rolling greenery and Swiss churches and Swiss clock towers. Just like every Disney movie you've seen :)

Totally glad I did the train instead of the plane. Wow!!

Big ass luggage

Note to self: replace that big ass red suitcase with a big ass suit
case with wheels that has multidirectional wheels. Sometimes you need
to go sideways.

Milan to Zurich

Holy crap I just ran my ass of from train 1 to train 2, taking out
many Europeans who weren't paying attention to where they were
walking. Well they kinda deserved it. Or maybe I'm just being
American. Or worse, Texan. Yeehaw!

I think my suit case must be 60lbs now.

On the train I asked the steward where the WC is. He didn't know what
I was saying. Me: restroom? Him: Ah you speak English (pity) do you
speak French? Me: Ah yes! La toilette? Oui!!!

Strange but dang I fel more at he than I have alll week! I can do
French. On to Zurich.