Graphic discussion to follow... not for the faint of heart

... or those who do not want to read 400 words on poop. That's right, lately it feels like I've been up to my elbows in poop and I can't stay quiet about it any longer!

Where to begin... It's really hard to explain how much this bodily function has taken over. First, Annie has been potty training, and has been doing a pretty good job at it. With one small exception, she refuses to go #2 on the potty. Refuses. Sometimes she will go days without going #2 at all, just to avoid the potty confrontation. Why won't she go #2 on the potty, no idea. If I knew that, my life and Karen's life would be soo much easier. No amount of bribes, coercion, or threats work. She just refuses.

Usually what happens is Annie will wear underwear, except at night or naptime. At naptime she will wear a pull-up. She goes to the potty before naptime, puts on her pull-up, lays down, promptly poops, then gets cleaned up and takes her nap. We've been trying to play some chicken with her, and have tried leaving her in her underwear. Well that just means that she's going to poop in her underwear. And she does. And it's super gross to clean up. Usually it involves said underwear being cut off and thrown away. Which brings me to my next pooping problem, Nicholas.

This kid has got one heck of a digestive tract. I can't believe the amount of onesies we've burned through because of some huge blowout. Again, I'm talking some major amounts of #2. We've cut so many onesies off from him I should have bought stock in Carter's because we've been keeping the lights on at that place. Not only has he gone through a large quantity, but he's gone through a ton of Annie's old ones! There is even a special collection of plastic bags in their room for these occasions...

Again, I'm only privy to this mainly on the weekends... I can't begin to imagine what this is like for Karen on a daily basis... But I do know one thing, if I was Karen I might think about investing in a hazmat suit.

Snow telling when it's going to stop

We have been getting tons of snow this winter! So far we've reached the amount of snow that we usually get all winter, and there's more on the way this week. Luckily, being from upstate NY, I come from some hardy stock. A little snow doesn't bother me. But when you have kids that are trapped inside your perspective sure changes! And living in the city, we have to adjust certain things. Instead of going outside in the backyard and building a snowman, we built one on our deck!

Last weekend we wanted to take the kids sledding. So first thing Saturday morning I headed out with Annie to buy some sleds, what I thought would be a very simple errand. After visiting 5 stores, turns out it was not such a simple errand. Apparently you have to buy your sled in November, and all of the stores only get like 10 in stock and then never sell them again... Ridiculous.

Uncle Mike to the rescue! We call Karen's uncle in Marblehead, and success! Well, he doesn't have any sleds, but knows people with sleds. So we headed up to Marblehead and went sledding. Annie loved it, sort of. At first she was just crying the whole time. Crying getting out of the car. Crying getting on the sled. Crying being pulled up the hill. Then we went downhill and she had a blast! There were lots of other kids around sledding and it was a lot of fun. Next year I will definitely be on top of things and make sure I buy a sled earlier rather than later!

Nichol had a great time watching from the sidelines! Since it was pretty cold there was some concern that it might be too cold for him on the way down...

So this is Christmas - 2010

We spent Christmas in GP and were fortunate enough to spend a week there. Everyone had a great time- and the kids got to decorate two Christmas trees! We had put up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving, and Annie had a lot of fun decorating the tree. Then when we arrived at the Drummys, we had another tree waiting to be trimmed! Again, Annie had a blast listening to Christmas music and decorating the tree. Christmas at the Drummys has some traditions. Christmas Eve is fondue with Bearnaise sauce... Awesome. It's not cheese fondue but hot oil that you cook beef in. So good... you also have a baked potato and Bearnaise sauce... Fantastic. During dinner we watch an action movie, usually one of the Die Hard movies fits the bill. Also fun. Helps to get the adrenaline going to rip open presents the next morning!

Christmas day was so much fun. Annie was very excited and had been looking forward to it for some time! Even Nichol got in on the action and had tons of fun unwrapping presents and taking things from Annie... All in all it was a great week, and it was nice to have extra hands around to help with the kids!

"Table for 1, by the window please"

So far in 2011 we've made some pretty big changes, for us at least. We ushered in one of the most boring New Year's by spending our New Year's Eve at Ikea buying Annie a table & chairs, and new big girl bed. Then proceeded to spend our evening putting them together. Woo-ho! Crazy, I know!

The upside is that Annie sure does love her new stuff. We figured since Nichol has been a lot better about sleeping through the night, the time might finally be upon us that we can have the kids share a room. But before we can do that, we have to get Annie out of her crib. This is something that we have been hesitant to do since about the time she was born... I just felt the minute that she wasn't contained in her crib, she would be all over and never get any sleep. So we decided to just bite the bullet and make the change on a Friday night, so we had all weekend to deal with the aftermath and both of us would be home to focus on this effort. And I'm proud to report, it wasn't that bad.

We thought the biggest issue was going to be her getting out of her bed and playing in her room when she was supposed to be sleeping. This turned out to be less of an issue at night. Maybe because it was so dark that playing in the dark didn't hold much appeal, or maybe the stern talking to before bed actually worked. Either way, the toughest transition ended up being that she missed her crib and was trying to climb back into it to sleep. Aww... But the first night was the toughest, and even that was pretty easy. Naptime you have to give her a warning and check in on her pretty frequently, but even that hasn't been half as bad as we thought.

We've been wanting to get Annie a table and chairs for a while, so we figured we should just buy that too. She loves sitting at her table during meals, although most of the sitting is in short bursts. Her new eating regime consists of sitting to take a bite, then running around while she's chewing her food. Or if you have left the room, then she will be right behind you wondering where you are or what you are doing. Annie always likes to know where everyone is and what everyone is doing.

2010 in review

Almost Christmas! How in the world did this sneak up on us? It seems like it was just Halloween. I feel like the time in between Labor Day and New Year's is a blur. Every year once Labor Day hits it's like the year is on fast forward. We've had a great year, and have lots to be thankful for.

Nicholas was born this year. Can't imagine things without him around. Annie has become more self sufficient, which has been good and bad. Good that she can do more things on her own and bad that she can do more things on her own. I don't mind admitting that she's driven us to purchase several new parenting books, all with similar titles like "How to make your child mind" or "How to make your child take you seriously", etc. We're still working on that.

Karen also started taking care of both kids full time, which has been tremendous. Aside from all the obvious advantages, one of the best parts for me is not to have to rush out the door every morning making sure that everyone is all packed up, etc. I used to dread Sunday nights, knowing that Monday morning we would have to be out the door by 7:30 in order to drop Annie off, and make it to work on time. And I certainly don't miss all the times last winter when Annie was getting kicked out of daycare for a runny nose or some other lame excuse. I can't imagine how much more stressful this would be with two kids.

We've went on a lot of great trips. Ohio, Florida, Pointe Aux Barques, and who can forget... Paris. We tried selling our condo, to no avail. That was a bummer, but the upside was that we hadn't found a new place, so we never had to go through the disappointment of falling in love with a new house only to not be able to buy it. Or buy it, but not be able to sell your old place.

For 2.5 years we never had to go to the ER, until we had to go twice in two weeks. Let's hope that fills our quota for a while. First Annie fell at the park and put a pretty nice gash in her forehead, then two weeks later Nichol got hives...

It's definitely been an adjustment with two kids, but it feels good. It feels good to go to a restaurant and be a party of four. It feels good to always have a kid in your arms or holding your hand. It feels good in the morning when everyone crowds in your bed and inevitably someone gets a foot to the head. It feels good when you get a big wet kiss. And most of all it feels good when you come home and so many people are happy to see you.

As this year comes to a close, thanks for reading and checking in with us. See you in 2011!

Leftover lunch

Things sure have gotten busy around here. Or maybe it just seems that way when I haven't updated the blog in a while and it feels like I have a lot to catch up on. First things first... in the past few weeks we've made two visits to the ER. A few weeks ago we were all at the park, and Annie was playing, fell, and ended up putting a pretty serious dent in her forehead. So we went to MGH to get her checked out. One of the things I really like about living in the city is how close everything is. MGH is in Beacon Hill and a short drive from where we live. It's also the hospital both Annie and Nichol were born in. Of course, being in a big city can have some drawbacks. While we were waiting in the ER, a prisoner in full on shackles (hands and feet) was brought in with two guards. You see all sorts in an ER waiting room.

Annie ended up having two stitches, and hopefully the scar won't be too noticeable. She was a trooper throughout the whole thing too. After that saga, fast forward two weeks... It's a Friday night and as I'm getting Nichol ready for bed, I notice he has got these red bumps on his torso, I thought they could be hives? I gave him some benadryl, waited 45 minutes and checked him again. I thought the bumps looked better so I put him to bed. The next morning the hives/rash had spread all over his trunk, up his back, down his legs, and started to go up his head. So we headed to the ER, worried they might impair his airway if they continue to get worse. Back to MGH.

This time as we're getting checked in, the same lady who checked us in two weeks ago peeks over and says, "Weren't you just here?" Me: "Yes, but different kid." Her: "Well how many more do you have at home?" Haha... Everyone is a comedian! The doctors settled on a diagnosis that Nichol was allergic to mangoes, since he had just eaten them on Friday for the first time. However on Monday, our pediatrician didn't think it was a food allergy because the benadryl was not effective. He thought Nichol had a virus that he was allergic to and that was causing the reaction all over his body. Either way, Nichol will be avoiding mangoes for a while.

What else has been going on... We had a great Thanksgiving hosted by my sister and her husband. We got our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and have been enjoying it every day since! We were a little late on the Christmas card bus, so they might be pretty close to deadline! Annie's latest music class has ended so we're in between sessions until January. The weather has turned pretty crisp recently going from the 40-50s down to the 30s. Nichol has pretty much begun crawling, maybe you'd call it more of a slither. He's working up to the actual crawling on all fours, but I have a feeling that's going to be pretty soon. And that's about it, other then getting ready for Christmas!

The locals

I mentioned earlier how I had initially heard French people maybe weren't the friendliest sort. This turned out to not be true. To prove just how friendly they were, one night we happen to meet a local who invited us over for drinks. We were at a bar down the street from where we were staying, and Kyle started talking to this guy, Francois. He was a local artist who was at the bar and Kyle had this great idea that he should draw a sketch of us. After thinking it over he decided to, and the top pic is what he came up with. Not too bad for 10 minutes of work.

After that he hung out with us for the rest of the night, which may or may not have entailed trying to throw oranges from one side of the Seine to the other. I think after that he decided we were decent so he invited us over the next evening. The next evening we went over and had a great time. He was a very friendly host. It felt like we were back in college, cramming into someone's studio apartment, listening to music, and talking loudly.

All in all it made for a great experience to add to all the incredible things we saw in Paris. It's always fun to get to do something that's not on any guidebook!

Santé!

Santé means cheers in French. It took us all week to remember that... I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to why. I've written a lot so far about the city and things we saw. What I haven't written about so much is what a great time we had spending the week with our friends.

Everyday was so fun, because in the morning we'd get up, and usually most people had decided what they wanted to do for the day, and then we'd take off. Every morning Karen and I made an appearance at this cafe down the street for a café au lait and croissant (if we'd gotten there early enough). After we were finished we'd meet the rest of our party and we'd start touring. If the six of us had split up, we met somewhere around lunch time and found a place to eat. I'm 99% sure we ate every lunch and dinner together, which I think is pretty impressive.

You also really get to know someone traveling together in a foreign country. We got to know the Kessels very well a few years ago in Italy, especially after all of our bags were lost for a few days. Nothing brings you closer then when you are all stuck wearing the same clothes for three days. They are on our "will fly international with" list. And now so are the Nicholsons and Cranes.

Within every group you need certain roles filled. You need a planner, to help people who like to let someone else lead the way. You need someone to get people out of bed in the morning and keep people to a schedule (10 pts if you guess who this was... there were two). You need people who can speak the language and help the group out of any tricky situations. You need people who don't mind asking for directions. You need people who can go with the flow and easily adapt to changing environments. And most of all you need people you can tolerate for long hours at a time! We had all of these people, and the week went by so fast.

We had so much fun at every meal. Most of the time the six of us were crowded at some small table in the corner somewhere, eating elbow to elbow. Plates would be passed as everyone tried the other person's meal. Glasses clinked and the conversation never stopped. Things were never boring, even when we were doing something boring.

The afternoon that we decided to spend on the bus, things got a little boring. But only because we were stuck in traffic for so long. It was at this point that we were all sitting upstairs, and it was getting cold. So some of us moved down below, and then promptly fell asleep. One by one everyone woke up, and then went upstairs with everyone else. Eventually everyone was up there except for Bekah. John had just come up, and Kyle asked him where Bekah was, John's reply-- "She's downstairs. Probably getting picked clean apart as speak." Luckily she woke up shortly and then everyone was back upstairs.

Great friends make so much tolerable. And they make an incredible trip to Paris even better -- Santé!

Crushing it

The daunting thing about going to Paris is that there is so much to see and a limited amount of time to see it. It's just as daunting a little over a week later trying to write about it. I'll try using broad strokes...

Sunday. Everyone arrives. We head out of the apartment and go to Notre Dame since it is a short 5 min walk. Awesome. Unbelievable. To see something up close that took 200 years to build and it is still standing - awe inspiring. For much more detail than I could provide, check here.
Afterward we head to a cafe and have our first Parisian meal. Some had salads, onion soup became a staple, and I had my first roast chicken - which did not disappoint.

The cafes were funny. Funny in the sense that some of them were packed with all the tables full, and other times they were empty. Whenever we sat at empty cafe, within ten minutes the place was full.

Monday. We decided to take it a bit easy since we were all jet lagged. Karen had been doing some reading on this famous open air market, that apparently was close to some flea market type deal that also sounded interesting. We figured we'd go to the market, find some food for dinner, then walk around the flea market. We took the Metro to Les Halles, where it was supposed to be, and looked and looked around but couldn't find it.

After walking around and trying to ask people where it was, a closer inspection of the guide book revealed that it used to be where we were, but has since relocated... Newman! We were about 30 years too late. Off to the flea market. Which was pretty cool. Lots of small shops with tons of antiques and other unique items.

We headed back on the Metro to get closer to home and find a spot for lunch. Once we got underground, we realized we were in a bit seedier area of Paris. We started to buy some more tickets, when a couple of youths came up to us trying to sell us tickets. At first we just ignored them while we were trying to operate the machine, but then we were having issues with the machine, a line was queuing behind us... more and more people kept coming in... and we were about to lose it. Then, all of a sudden this other group of youths came down and about 10 people in row just jumped the gates heading into the system. The whole thing was a bit surreal, and then we finally figured out the machine, got our tickets, and headed into the tunnel... A bit touch and go there for a few minutes but we made it!

Tuesday was pretty low key. We walked around the city and checked out some more sights that we wouldn't cover on the bus tour. We went to the Place de la Concorde, which is at the foot of the Champs-Élysées and also where the guillotine was located and Marie Antoinette was decapitated. The Luxor Obelisk is also here.

Wednesday. In the morning we headed to the Centre Pompidou. The goal of the museum was "to create an original cultural institution in the heart of Paris completely focused on modern and contemporary creation, where the visual arts would rub shoulders with theatre, music, cinema, literature and the spoken word. Housed in the centre of Paris in a building designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, whose architecture symbolises the spirit of the 20th century, the Centre Pompidou first opened its doors to the public in 1977. After renovation work from 1997 to December 1999, it opened to the public again on 1 January 2000, with expanded museum space and enhanced reception areas. Since then it has once again become one of the most visited attractions in France. Some 6 million people pass through the Centre Pompidou's doors each year, a total of over 190 million visitors in its 30 years of existence." (website) This was a cool museum, but also home to some disturbing pieces of art... I already mentioned the main ones in my first Paris post, so I'll spare you any more graphic images.

After lunch we all met back up and we began the hop on/off tour, which was pretty solid. The bus turned out to be a great way to see the city, the major attractions, and pretty good mode of transportation.

Wednesday evening was also the night that Karen was selected to cook dinner. As most of you know, Karen is a phenomenal cook... She is continually coming up with new dishes and never disappoints. This will be a separate post that I'm hoping she will write...

Thusday afternoon and we were all dragging a bit, so we decided to take the entire tour... Which would have been a fine idea, except this was at about 3 pm. Two hiccups. One, there was some police action going on at the Palais Garnier, so we got diverted and stuck in traffic. Then we headed up the Champs-Élysées, which was completely clogged with traffic. At the top we reached the Arc de Triomphe, where we then proceeded to drive around the rotary, a la National Lampoon's European Vacation style only to then go down the other direction of the congested Champs-Elysees... I think it took more than an hour to do that... Which was painful.

Thursday evening. Woa. This was the night in Paris. And I have one word for it: Taillevent. I was going to include this within the post, but on second thought I'm making it a separate posting...

Friday. Our last day... Everyone did their own thing. We did some shopping, walked around some more, and then spent the afternoon sitting outside drinking wine, savoring our last afternoon in Paris.

Saturday. Airport... Home. I've got a few more Paris-related posts on deck to close out our trip, in the meantime, here are our Paris photos.

Apple Picking!

This post has become what some may call a "dump." It took me a while to get it going, and then we went on vacation, and now it just seems pretty out of date. Needless to say, we had a great time apple picking when we went. Annie loved picking apples, and ate about 20 of them. Although, I don't know if taking a few bites and then pitching the apple actually counts as eating them, but we did our best to restrain her... Nichol was along for the fun, and was very well behaved. He did not try and eat any apples, but his mom made some applesauce that is waiting for him when appropriate.

Oh yeah, they also had a bouncy house at the farm. The exact same bouncy house we got for Annie's second birthday. Only this time when Annie was in there, the fan/blower became unplugged and collapsed on all the kids inside... A bit hairy for a little while, but luckily Annie was by a window and so we were able to hold up the structure before she was fully engulfed. I guess that's what happens when these things are run by 12 year olds... She also rode a horse for the first time, and liked it!

More Paris posts to come...