And Now We Can Go Anywhere

This is literally what I said on Saturday when we were in the Fast, Park, & Relax van back to our car, "Well now we can go anywhere."
 
We flew from Raleigh Durham to Dallas-Fort Worth to Kahului in MAUI HAWAII! With Noah at 27 months. And then we sunned, beached, Luau-ed, snorkeled, parasailed (well just me), swam in the Pacific, and played in the Pirate Ship for 7 days before we flew from Kahului to Honolulu to Dallas-Fort Worth to Raleigh Durham.
 
We've been planning this trip for a good 10 months with full on discussions if we should even be going with a two year old. It's a partial work trip for the Editor (four 6-8 hour days of working away from us- not out of the hotel room) and we have been before. When you only have one child it's impossible to know what kind of 2 year old you'll have when your kid isn't even 18 months old yet. Plus the flights. Honestly, a lot of it was the flights. But in the end we just said, "We should go while we can go, you never know what the future brings." Before we left I emailed my mother-in-law that it would be the best vacation if 1- Noah doesn't pee on me on the plane and 2- Noah doesn't wake up at 2:30 in the mornings (it's a 5 hour time change!).

So excited to get on the plane.

Well I just want to brag and say Noah is a rock star on vacation. The Editor and I woke up at 5am and we got Noah up at 6 on the day we left for "the beach." Our flight to DFW was really pretty good; Noah & I were separated from the Editor on all our flights out. It was actually Noah's longest flight to date at around 3 hours and we landed around lunch time. And then proceeded to get delayed while a woman told me not once but twice that Noah "is quite active isn't he?" At this point Noah had not used the potty in 7 hours! The Editor and I took him to the potty at least 7 times in DFW before we had to get on the 8.5 hour flight to Maui and he did NOT go. So I put a pull up on him while he cried. I had extra clothes for both of us, but I do not want to get peed on like one of the Butler assistant coaches' wife was by her daughter on our flight. And you know what, Noah did pee in the airplane bathroom! Every single time. He kept the pull up dry. He also managed to "call the lady," as in press the flight attendant button every.single.time we were in the bathroom. The one thing Noah would not do in the pull up or airplane bathroom was #2. The only time we had any issues on the flight was for about 12 minutes when he HAD TO GO but didn't want to. There were some tears but once I gave him permission to go in his pull up we were good. Noah even clapped when we touched down in Maui around 5:15pm local time (10:15pm EST). To this point he had still never slept on a flight.
 
The best part of the flight was when I realized that you not only have to BUY/RENT the movies from Amazon but you have to download them, taking about an hour, while connected to the internet, before you can actually watch them. I researched movies and rented them and then never downloaded them so Noah had no movies for the flight! He watched a 4 minutes clip of Thomas the Tank Engine countless times and played lots of apps.
 

Once we got in the rental car (a sexy Ford Tarus thank you very much) and headed on our hour long drive to the hotel, Noah passed out quickly. Once we got to our hotel, got checked in, we parked and unloaded all our bags and then tried to find our room. The resort was huge and we got horribly lost. Noah was so out of it, it was after midnight EST. While we are running around and asking people where to go Noah's pull up exploded on the Editor. I felt so bad for Noah but I don't think he even noticed. He didn't say a word while we looked for our room, got in, gave him a super quick rinse in the two person jetted tub that only Noah got to use, and got him into the pack and play.
 
The weirdest part of this whole thing is as we step off the parking garage elevator absolutely exhausted and loaded down with bags and a half asleep toddler two people say to us, "Did you go to Carolina?" We thought they were being smart asses because we couldn't find our room. Turns out I went to college with them and the wife lived in the apartment below mine for two years. We ran into them and others from college all week long. Turns out they left their two kids at home.
 

We went to bed at 9pm local time, which is 2am EST and woke up at 7:30am local time tired but adjusted. Coming home... not so much!

Looking out our window our first morning. Happy to be at the beach!

How did we travel? I had a suitcase, handbag, Lands End Large Tote, and Noah in the Ergo. Noah had an adorable Skip Hop Elephant backpack, and the Editor had a suitcase, Pottery Barn Kids duffel bag, laptop bag, and insanely heavy carseat. We don't travel light!

18 hours into our travel day- landed in MAUI

Noah did sleep on the way back home and I did download a few movies for him too. The gate agents felt sorry for us this time too and we actually got to sit together on all three flights. We left Maui at 5:15 Friday night and arrived back in our driveway at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. But we cannot wait to go back and even though we've been jet lagged it was worth it- absolutely, definitely worth it!
 

Toby or Paci?

Noah uses a pacificer (paci) at bedtime and naptime. He always has and we succesfully limited to the bedroom only a long long time ago. Noah's dentist said the sooner we get rid of it the better off we'll be. So it's been on our minds for a few months, especially after he turned two.
 
After my brother and sister-in-law got pregnant I formulated the grand plan. When baby cousin was born, we'd gift the paci's to him in a grand ceremony and give Noah a little replacement gift since he was becoming a big boy.
 
Lucky for us, baby cousin arrived the day we returned from vacation. A long vacation with a 5 hour time difference. I am using the word lucky sarcastically.
 
We had been talking about this for a long time. Noah knew he was getting Toby from Thomas the Tank Engine. He has been lusting over Toby for a while. There was a whole day that I had to listen to "I need Toby right now!" I ordered Toby before we left for vacation since the baby was due while we were gone. Noah knew the plan, could tell you what was going to happen, why he was getting Toby, the whole deal. I was pretty sure we were all on the same page.

 

We drove to my brother's house when his baby was 3 days old to meet him and make the 'exchange.' I had wrapped a box up and we put tissue paper in. Noah stamped a card for his cousin. He kept saying, "Probably going to get Toby." Probably is his favorite word to interject into any sentence. So we made the gift exchange a big part of the day at the very beginning. I sneakily handed off Toby to my sister-in-law who nicely put it into a gift bag for Noah. Noah did great. He was excited - well mostly excited because he was getting Toby.

Visiting family is always a no nap day, which we felt like would help us. What is not helpful is having a two year old toddler with jet lag. He's been napping from 7pm-9pm and waking up. And staying up until 11pm or 1am. He's pretty much hysterical about being in his crib during these wake up hours. We've heard a lot of, "I's not laying down!" and "Turn the light ON!" Seems like a great time to make a bedtime routine change, right?
 
So our first test went well. It's about a 1 hour 45 minute drive back home and Noah fell asleep within 10-15 minutes and stayed asleep the whole car ride. We got home right before 8. Usually I just dump him in the crib and he rolls back to sleep. We'll not tonight. He was up for maybe an hour. Calmer than the nights before, and definitely clutching Toby in his grasp, but he never ever mentioned paci. Second test went pretty well. He slept until 8:15am.
 
Third test would be nap time. I was home alone (the Editor met a friend for lunch) and am jet lagged and tired too. As soon as Noah hit the crib at naptime he was crying and standing up asking about paci. I tried for about 15 minutes to get him down. Finally I caved. I said if he wanted paci then he couldn't play with Toby. He was cool with that. So I confiscated Toby and he fell asleep in about 5 minutes. The Editor was a little peeved that I strayed from the plan so easily to say the least. Parent fail.
 
Lucky for me (really lucky this time), I had bookclub so the Editor had to put Noah to bed. I was honestly happy to not be involved. When I got home around 9:15, Noah was sleeping... for only the last 10 minutes. The Editor said the minute he hit the crib, Noah threw Toby out and started a mantra of, "I need paci! I want paci!" So I asked the Editor the all-important question, "Does he have paci?" YUP! And again it was lights out the minute he got paci. I feel a bit vindicated that the Editor failed in the same manner as me, though he did stick it out for a lot longer than I did... an hour and 45 minutes longer!
 
Anyways, we'll revisit in a few weeks or so. I think the jet lag is a huge problem right now. Let's not add to the sleep issues right? Is the paci thing like potty training or solid foods? Just try again in a few weeks if they aren't ready now? My whole potty training plan worked out so well I thought this would be just as easy.
 
Now the question is, what am I going to do when Noah begs for Toby tomorrow?
 

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

I really struggled with what Noah should be for Halloween this year. In the past he was a cow, and Kermit the Frog. I was at a loss for cute toddler boy costumes. I wasn't hit with any warm and fuzzy feelings while scouring all the Halloween magazines that arrived at my door starting in August. Honestly, I'm tired of firetrucks and Thomas the Train already.
 
Pretty much the only idea we had was to dress Noah up as Tucker and Tucker up as Noah. Years ago, and I mean 2003 or 2004, we dressed Tucker up as a Carolina frat boy complete with a Carolina Blue doggie polo and croakies attached to kid sized sunnies. The only thing missing was doggie Rainbows. It was pretty funy. But I couldn't find any brown dog costumes that looked like Tucker for Noah to wear.
 
I went to my go-to, Pottery Barn Kids, and picked up a costume there. I didn't love it, but Noah still looked cute. And the Editor went to The University of Richmond so... Go Spiders.

Noah is generally agreeable about clothing and wore this costume to a Halloween Playgroup Party on Tuesday and for Halloween on Wednesday. We actually didn't even talk about it before Tuesday either, so that was lucky.

Noah's hungry caterpillar treat bag is also from PBK.

He was very proud of the pumpkin he painted.

We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood with four of Noah's girlfriends. We had two wagons, which meant that one child had to take a turn walking. Surprisingly, with a group of 5 two year olds, they were pretty agreeable about sharing the wagon spots; I don't remember any tears (and we treated from 6pm to around 7:30pm). Noah was quite the gentleman and pulled his lady friends around a bit too.

 

I made some Hot Apple Cider for the parents to carry around. Sadly I didn't have any alcohol that lended itself to a cider drink. But it was good and it actually got cold (you never know in NC) so I'm glad I made it.

 

Noah was super excited to trick-or-treat and ring the bell. With a neighborhood as big, and as laced with kids as ours is, he didn't have many opportunities to ring the bell because most people had a steady stream of kids, but he handled it all really well. Even the scary houses. He said "Trick-Or-Treat" and would take 1 piece of candy. Then we would tell us what color he got, "I got a red one!" He didn't eat a single piece, and I don't think he ever realized what he was getting was edible (last year for that I'm sure). He told anyone who asked that he was "a spider web."
 
 
Hot Apple Cider Recipe (adapted from HERE)

• 12 cups apple cider
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange cut into 4 slices

Combine all ingredients into a crock pot, cover and cook on low for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. (I only had two hours, so I finished heating it up in a saucepan on the stove to get it piping hot).
 
 

1 Pumpkin, 2 Pumpkin, 3 Pumpkin, 4

Did we really go to 4 pumpkin patches this year? Yes, we kind of did. Our area of NC has no shortage of pumpkin patches with corn mazes, corn pits, hay rides, train rides, pony rides, tunnels, and more. And we definitely have a few favorites.

Noah with his loot.

We ended up at the first patch a little by accident. Green Acres opens at 11am on Sundays and we were looking for something to do on a beautiful Sunday morning in late September. So we decided to check it out. Noah had a lot of fun here, but honestly I didn't like this farm. You don't get a pumpkin with admission, which was $10, and we had to pay more inside for all the activities Noah wanted to do like ride the ponies and ride the train. We were able to ride the hayride with our admission price, but the tractor driver was an hour late to the farm that day.

Green Acres is Noah's dream, though. He could not wait to ride that little train, the ponies, and sit in all the 'diggers.' Though we had read enough seasonal books for him to also beg to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch so he was a bit disappointed we left without one.

Our second pumpkin excursion was almost exactly a month later, at the Museum of Life & Science Pumpkin Express. This was a lot of fun and definitely worth the $12 admission price with our museum membership. We got to ride the train out to the pumpkin field, pick a pumpkin (finally!), decorate it, and sling shot a few pumpkins. Noah even got to sit in the engineers spot before we rode the train back to the station.

Posing around hay bales proves to be awkward for us.

We actually hit up our favorite pumpkin patch twice... in two days. We had plans to go to Gaynard Hills Farm with friends and the Editor's sister on the Sunday before Halloween, but then Hurricane Sandy threatened to rain out our plans. We only had one little tiny pumpkin, we were less than a week from Halloween and this was our favorite pumpkin patch last year. I really wanted Noah to be able to go even if we got rained out on Sunday so Friday afternoon after nap, I made a quick decision that Noah and I would go by ourselves. We were disappointed to leave the Editor at home working, but we needed pumpkins and I really wanted Noah to have the experience again. So off we went and we had a lot of fun!

Lucky for us, it didn't rain all weekend, even though the forecast was pretty dreary. We were able to keep our plans with friends and family to go back to Gaynard on Sunday, making it our fourth stop. Noah had just as much (if not more) fun the second time around.

More awkward posing & this is also when I decided my hair is way too blonde.

What did we do with our pumpkins? Noah painted one on Monday when Sandy actually came through NC.

And we carved 4 of them.

 

The hits just keep coming

I haven't updated Sandy Pages in a long, long time. Partially because we got hella busy in the Fall with all the fun fall activities (pumpkins, hayrides, Halloween, Homecoming, football games) but partly because I spilled coffee in my netbook computer's keyboard and it promptly died. The funniest part is later on the same day, I tried typing and was getting all sorts of gibberish. So I restarted the computer, and tried all sorts of other things. Later that night, I complained to the Editor about it. And only then, 12 hours later did I actually say out loud, "Oh well, I did spill coffee in the keyboard this morning." Um yeah, that would be me.

So I was without a computer for a few days, and then began the learning process on a new device. Of which I still haven't mastered by any stretch. I did join the Editor on the Apple bandwagon and our house is now PC free, though. Not sure how I feel about this yet.

But then we had some other happenings at the homestead. One involving the Editor being stuck on the couch for about 4 hours with a back injury. It involved frantic calls to doctors, chiropractors, friends who were doctors, and knocking on neighbors doors. Luckily it did not end with us calling 911 or an ambulance but we were almost there. Noah took most of it in stride as we tried to keep everything light and calm. Two of our neighbors pulled the Editor off the couch and helped him make a very slow walk to the car. The babysitter, who graciously dropped everything, was still a few minutes away. So our neighbors stayed with Noah for those few minutes. Now Noah knew them but they haven't spent a lot of time together, and certainly none alone. The Editor and I left with no tears from Noah. But apparently when the babysitter arrived and the neighbors went to leave, Noah started to cry. Not only did he cry, but he grabbed one of their legs and wouldn't let go. Of course, today we walked past their house and they were outside. I said to Noah, "Look there are your friends," and he could care less again. Kinda hilarious! The Editor is getting better every day, but definitely still in recovery mode.

And then today, I go to heat up something in the microwave and I keep adding time, and adding time. Before I realize it, I've been trying to heat up the same water for about 5-6 minutes. It's still ice cold. So yeah, now we need a new microwave? Add dishwasher to the list bc that POS hasn't worked correctly since we moved in.

So that's what's new in these parts. I will go back and detail our Fall fun because it was a lot of fun and Noah is just too cute to let all the fun Fall photo opts go unblogged.

 

Morning Tailgates

This year is my 10 year college graduation anniversary. For the past several years my friends and I have made a point to go to UNC's Homecoming game all together. It's a great chance to see everyone and re-connect. We actually start planning during the summer, though the date is noted as soon as the football schedule is released.

Now UNC is not really known for having an excellent football program, especially in light of all the drama surrounding the program in the last years- we don't even have Bowl eligibility this year. But usually our Homecoming game is a 3:30 game. This year, we didn't even find out the game time until 6 days before. Annoying! Adding to the annoyance was a 12:30pm game time.

At first the Editor and I were super bummed about this. But then I started thinking ... Mimosas! So this is how I put together a breakfast tailgate.

I had a few recipes up my sleeve and also used my pal Pinterest for some add ons. We started with bagels and cream cheese from Brueggar's and a Box of Joe from Dunkin Donuts. A little Bailey's and Kahlua made the perfect creamers for the coffee. The other store bought items were OJ and Champagne for Mimosa.

I made a double batch of Apple Cinnamon Scones a few days before and froze them until Saturday and just reheated them before we packed up. Somehow in my baking haze I accidentally left out the sugar! But they tasted perfect anyways. These scones are my go-to fall yumminess. Basically scones are my go-to all the time with different fruits.

Cinnamon Buns added some sweetness to the breakfast. I make Ina Garten's and really enjoy them once or twice a year. They are very sweet but as long as you don't have them all the time, it's okay. These were rolled out on Friday night.

From Pinterest I grabbed an Egg and Biscuit creation for a bit of protein. I used turkey sausage instead of bacon and they were delicious. These were actually the hit of the Tailgate. I was able to make them right before we left and keep them warm in separate tins.

And at the last minute I decided we needed a little bit of something somewhat healthy. So I found a Fall Fruit Salad on Pinterest and it was a great addition. This recipe calls for Flax Seed Oil but I omitted it because I didn't have any and it tasted great. I tossed it right before we left, though chopping fruit (or veggies for that matter) always takes much longer than I anticipate.

 

Friends brought blue Jell-) shots, a staple of our Homecoming Tailgates. We do toasts with our Jell-O shots. One of my favorite quotes of the day is a friend asking, "Tim's over 21 now, right?" Shoving a Jell-O shot towards my 17 year old brother. It will be a few more years before he's partaking in the Jell-O shots, but maybe he'll Tailgate with us as an alum one day.

We met at a free parking lot at 10:30am for our delicious breakfast and boarded a bus for the game around 12:15. We missed the first touchdowns by each team because we got to the game a little late, but we had the best time! UNC scored 50 points... and still lost the game (no defense anyone?)

Clearly I need a bigger table

 

I meant to take a few photos of my breakfast treats, but I forgot. We've got the fruit salad, scones, bagel guillotine, cinnamon buns, and some of our drinks and coffee 'creamers' in this one photo I took

So even though we could only tailgate for a short amount of time, I had fun, the food was yummy, and after the game we got to grab Noah from the babysitter and all eat dinner together at Nanataco!

A lot has changed since the early 00's and now that some of us have kids, some of us are pregnant with #2 (NOT ME!), we live in different states I look forward to Homecoming and it's always a must do Fall Activity because it brings us all together again (even though ALL of us don't end the fun at 2am anymore).