Easter in Utah (Part 1)

Berkeley and I flew to Utah for an Easter visit with the family.  It was a quick visit of 4.5 days split between my mom and dad's family, so sadly I didn't get to see many friends. 

I tried to split the time between my mom and dad's family evenly so we can see everyone; as fun and wonderful as it was to see everyone, it was also pretty exhausting.

 

We had a wonderful time with my Mom and Dad and this crew.  I have 3 adorable nieces and 2 handsome nephews.  It was so fun to meet my newest niece Oaklee and see how big and grown up everyone else was. Berkeley loved playing with his cousins so much.  It was so precious to see how well he clicks with them all and loves them so much.  He and Tristen became best buddies and loved doing everything together.  Those boys are only two weeks apart, and while they are very different in personality, they loved each other so much.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Utah so badly was to get to spend time with both of my Grandmas.  It was wonderful to see them and spend some quality time with them. 

 

My mom planned an amazing Easter Egg breakfast and Egg Hunt on Saturday.  She spoiled her grandkids something fierce with Easter Baskets filled with goodies and 40-60 eggs per child.  She knows how to throw a fun party!

 

Four Generations

Great Grandma Lucile, Grandma Karen, Mommy Laci and Berkey Boo



Boy cousins are the best!

I loved getting to snuggle with cute little Oaklee.  

Berke and I had a great time going to the Tracey Aviery with the family, decorating cookies, playing at Jungle Jims and having sleepovers with cousins.  Berke asked if we could stay in Utah forever; he didn't mind all the love and attention he was getting that is for sure.  I am forever grateful we could  make the trip to Utah this Easter and spend time with my family.  Sometimes I just miss them so much.  While the time was short, it was worth every second.



Maple Madness

We drove to Mason, New Hampshire to visit Parker's Maple Barn.  It's Maple Tapping Season here and New England and that means we have reason to leave the house while there is still snow on the ground.  Berke was excited to have a "science day" and to get to hang out with his buddies Q and Hunter.

 We indulged with some amazingly delicious maple donuts; folks, I'm pretty sure these are 10x better than apple cider donuts.  They are so stinkin' awesome!  Even my son ate one, and he usually wont eat anything but a chocolate donut, so that alone tells you these donuts were no joke.

 We enjoyed our tour of the Maple Making Barn.  We learned about how they tap the maple trees, what the ideal weather is to get the most sap, how they evaporate the water to get all the sugar from the sap, and about how they grade the syrup.  It was quite informative, and while we have done this tour before,  this was the first year Berke would hold still so that I could actually hear what they were saying.

 Parkers is still kickin' it old school, not quite up to date facilities if you will, but I think that is why everyone loves going there so much.  

 Once the maple trees are tapped they catch the sap in buckets like these.

 Our friend Wendy just moved here from Seattle, so we brought her along to see why the East Coast is SO much better than the West Coast.  

The delicious breakfast full of maple syrup, a Maple Frappe, and Maple Walnut Pancakes did not disappoint.

Thoughts

Thought #1 on Kid movies

It is harder to entertained a small child in the winter than the summer.  Due to this unfortunate circumstance we have sadly watched a whole lot more movies than I would like to admit to pass the time away.  Here are my thoughts on the recent kid shows we have watched:

Wreck it Ralph: This is Berke's all time favorite show at the moment.  It is all things a boy could hope for, video games, good guys, bad guys, race cars, candy, etc.  This is a really show with a good message (although I think they could have brought it home even better).  I will say that it does have a few scary parts about big scary flying bugs.  Overall I think this is a very cute show and Berke watched in 5 days in a row, so it is clearly a winner in his book.

TIN TIN: This is an adorable and well animated film.  I loved this more than Berkeley, but he still enjoyed it.  It follows a mystery writer on a journey that involves a pirate ship and hidden treasure.  TinTin also has an adorable side kick dog, so I was instantly in love. I would highly recommend this film.  I would say it could be scary to overly sensitive children as there are some scary bad guys.

Escape From Planet Earth: I took Berke to see this in the theater as a little date, it was funny and cute, but not something I would ever need to see again.  I give this a C rating.  I felt like it was too difficult for Berke to follow the plot line, so may be for a little older crowd.

HOP: This is a classic favorite from last year, but it is an Easter movie, so I thought I would throw it out there.  This may be the STUPIDEST movie ever made, but my kid LOVES it.  While I give it a D rating, Berke would give it an A, and has watched it numerous times.  If your kid likes bunnies that can drum, are silly and poop jelly beans, this is the show for them!

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: We introduced Berke to this show recently (the old version, as it is the best) and he LOVED it!  Berke is in such an imaginative state right now that I think the movie was a perfect fit for him.  Every time something happened to one of the children he called it an "emergency" and was very concerned about what happened to all those kids in the end. Other than that he couldn't stop talking about the movie for days.

Thought #2 on living space

Most of the time I love living in the city.  I really live in the coolest place ever, you wont be able to talk me out of that.  The East Coast is something special and has captured my heart the last 5 1/2 years.  But  sometimes I just want more space!
It is upsetting to me at times that we pay the same (if not more) amount in rent for our 2 bedroom apartment that many of my friends/family pay for their mortgage for their big house.  I get overwhelmed that we are paying so much for so little and very a very old run down apartment at that.  I get frustrated that our closets are so small that the closet that holds my clothes is in Berkeley's room.  I also hate that there are huge heating radiators take up a ridiculous amount of space in each room, making it terribly difficult to arrange the furniture in more ways than one.  I hate that our office is our dining room!  I mostly hate this because the office is Christian's work space and there are papers, scores, books, post its, messes EVERY WHERE!  It can be annoying that because the paint is so old in most of the rooms that no matter how hard I scrub the walls they still look dirty.  It irks me that our kitchen is so small that when we sit down to eat my chair blocks the fridge, so if we need to get something out I have to move out of my seat to get it.
But, no matter how much this place bothers me, I ABSOLUTELY love our old, expensive less than ideal apartment. I love the neighborhood we are in and all the neighbors that have become like family to us.  I adore this home as it is where Berkeley was made and brought home to; he has lived all his years here and there are so many memories of him in this space. I enjoy being close to so many parks, so many dear friends and within walking distance to the T (subway).  I'm attached because this has been our home for over five years.
I often think to myself, is it better to live in a small apartment but in a really amazing place?  Or is it better to have space so you don't go crazy, but a less cool place?  What are your thoughts on this?
I really want to have my cake and eat it too, I would love to be in a three bedroom apartment, just to get this office out of my "zen" space, but the rent is $2500 average for such a place and there is no way we can afford that!  At times I think, "It doesn't pay to be middle class." In many was I know this to be true, but in others, it is pretty cozy in the middle class and really, why should I complain when others have so little?
You see how I am rambling?  That is because these are my thoughts; you see how my brain works?

Thought #3 on friends far away

I feel quite lucky to have such an amazing group of people in my life that I call friends.  I really have some amazing friends close by, I'm not sure what I would do without so many amazing people to help me out in so many ways.  Even though I have such wonderful people near by, I often miss all the friends that I have moved away from or that have moved away from me.

Whenever there is a move there are always promises made, but rarely kept about how visiting will happen.  Visiting out of state/country becomes too difficult with vacation time and money, then throw in the need to visit family and it just doesn't often happen.  

There are days I wish I could drop everything and fly to Seattle, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Utah and just hang out with all my friends.  That's all.  I miss certain people that I used to see regularly, I miss having them be a regular part of my life. I love picking up the phone after a few months and picking up where you left off.  I love that good friends are always by your side even when they are not. I love all the amazing people who have influenced my life for the better, near or far.  I especially miss those far away today.

These are the things on my mind as of late.  What is on your mind?

Winter Getaway

Boston advertises itself as a city with all four seasons, but I have to disagree.  Spring here often feels like a blink in time.  Today is the last day of winter and it snowed, not only is that depressing but the news of more snow in the forecast is enough to make me go a little coo coo.  I'm not a fan of winter and muster my way through each year trying not to get depressed and anxious for warmer weather.  I often use my vacation time in the summer, as I want to use it to be outside soaking up the sun.  That is not a great thing when winter hits and there is just more and more awful snow and cold temperatures, with no  breaks for sanity to return. 

Last year we did a weekend getaway to New Hampshire to a fun and quaint hotel; during the offseason they have good deals on the rooms which include breakfast and dinner each day as well as a pool, ping pong, billiards and karaoke. We decided to go there again this year; Berke remembered the hotel and had been asking to go back all year, so we did. 

It is so good for me to get away.  I actually relaxed this weekend, which is something very hard for me to do.  I worked a 1/2 day on Friday so we could drive up in the day light and miss the traffic.  Berkeley loves hotel rooms because they have cable TV!!!  

We had a wonderful time together as a family, we spent a lot of time in the pool, which we mostly had to ourselves.  It was lovely to have the outlet shops down the street; nothing is better for my soul than a little retail therapy.  Christian let me use his piano student money for the week to buy me some new clothes; I love that man!

The sneaky leprechaun tracked us down to our hotel room this year on St. Patrick's Day.  

He left Berke with some golden treasure and a cute shirt.

We also did some driving around the lakes in the area.  This place is a serious summer town, but it is kinda fun to see the town totally shut down for the winter.  It is still beautiful.

We found an amazing restaurant on our adventures called Tavern 27 in Laconia, it serves tapas that were so enjoyable.  My favorite was a cheese and garlic flatbread pizza with a honey glaze on top, it was DE-LISH!  I love a fine dining experience. 

A trip away was just what my soul needed.  I loved spending so much quality time with my family swimming, eating, playing ping pong, "teaching" B how to play pool, telling each other stories, listening to a book on CD and watching the Disney Chanel and ESPN.

While the snow continues to fall here in the Spring, I will continue to dream of flowers and walks outside without a coat and gloves. I know it is coming soon, it just has to!

Ice Skating //week 4//

Berkeley had his 4th lesson this weekend.  It is more than impressive to see the progress this little man has made in 4 short lessons.  

If you remember, his first lesson was spent laying on the ice, kicking and screaming hysterically to 

"Get  me off the ice!"

Each week since then, B has been ever so brave and tried his hardest at this sport called ice skating.  This week he was actually skating on his own!!  It is not a gracious glide just yet; he is able to skate on his own and even go around some cones.  He was able to skate from one side of the rink to the other all by himself.  

 Be had the most adorable teacher this week.  His regular teacher hurt her foot this week, so B got a new teacher who was amazing with him!    I'm so proud of my little guy.  

B has one more lesson left and then he will be done.  

Christian and I have now decided we need to learn so we can take him, as we don't want him to lose his abilities after all that hard work.  Looks like we are gonna try (try being the key word here) to be a little skating family.  

For date night this weekend Christian and I are going to try to skate and see how big of fools we can make of ourselves.  Hopefully it doesn't go too bad.  

 Auntie G came to B's lesson this week to cheer him on.  She clearly left very impressed with this cute ice skater.  B loved having his Auntie there to show off for.

 We are so proud of our little boy.

Adventures with B Man

We are somehow surviving winter this year; it is most likely due to my four year olds imagination and desire to be constantly entertained.  I think I am finally understanding why people have kids so close together; so that on days when you just need a few minutes you have someone else for them to play with!  Brilliant!

Four is a new and exciting age; it has come with its challenges of constant attitude, screaming when in trouble and defiance of time outs, it has also brought out a lot of personality.  I want to record some or my recent favorite things about Berkeley before they leave my mind forever.

Berke now hates bed time, it finally happened, I knew it would.  The other night this was our conversation:

Me: It's time for bed

B: No Mom!  You're ruining our family!

Me: Ok....how am I doing that?

B: You are ruining my life by putting me to bed!

Just tonight he told me that I lost my privilege to go to bed (can you see what parenting technique we use a lot at our house?), that we would have to stay awake all night.  (see what I mean by attitude?)

******

Berke loves the weekends because it is family time.  Every morning he wakes up he is told if it is a daddy day, a mommy day a preschool day or a family day.  He loves family days!  We have a new Saturday tradition that when he wakes up he gets to come snuggle with mom and dad in our bed and watch Netflix on the IPad.  This my friends, is the new Saturday morning cartoon.  This situation equals Berkeley paradise.  I love when he says, "Is this family time?" When I say yes, he giggles and smiles and gives me a big hug.  

Just this morning I got Berke his breakfast, as I sat down his cheerios he said, "Thanks for being a nice mom."  This stuff just melts my heart.

*******

Berkeley and his imaginary friends, yes there is more than one now, are non stop fun.  So far we have John, which I previously blogged about.  Then there is Jail and Tom who are his skateboarding friends;   keep in mind that Tom lives in prison (I credit his knowledge for jail and prison to Auntie G who works in a woman's prison, thus B hears these words).  Then there is Hawkeye, no brainer here, he is an Avenger and plays with B on a regular basis.  This week we got a new friend named Bingo.  Berkeley not only has these guys as friends, but at times he also turns into them.  Our conversations often go like this:

Me: Berke

B: Berkeley went to work with his skateboarding friends

Me: so who are you?

B: call me Bingo

Me : Ok Bingo, so what does Berkeley do for work?

B: He works with his skateboarding friends

Me: I know, but what does he do.

B: Pause.....finger to chin......"I don't know!"

Berke also uses his friends as excuses to do things he shouldn't be doing or as people who tell him to do the opposite thing his parents tell him to do.  

B: Can I watch Transformers?

Me: No, its for big kids

B: John says I can watch Transformers

Me: Please tell John that I'm in charge

B: Yeah, but John likes Transformers and he says they are really good guys!

Me: That's nice, but you still cannot watch that show.

B: John, my mom said no.

Yes, this does provide endless amount of fun at our house.

*********

Berkeley is not what I like to call "naturally brave." He gets nervous or afraid of things very easily.  He also struggles with some sensory problems, which doesn't help him in many situations.  Lately, he has really overcome some serious fears and become what we call SUPER HERO BRAVE, like Hawkeye! The first area is ice skating; Berke always gives up if something is too hard.  B had his third ice skating lesson last weekend; it had been 3 weeks since the last lesson due to weather and the holiday.  I was nervous he would be back at square one, but he got on the ice, no tears, and was even able to stand on his own, touch his knees and skate a foot or two on his own.  A lady came up to me and asked if he was my son, I replied that he was.  She said, "He was the boy who was on his back crying the entire first day?"  I replied, "Yes, that is him." She said, "Wow, good for him."  

I really am so ridiculously proud of him.  There are kids his age doing far better with the lessons than he is, but the fact that he is doing something that terrified him in the first place makes me the proudest mom!

Secondly, my son HATES getting his hair cut.  It is a traumatic event every time it happens.  This past weekend, we talked about it, I really worked to mentally prepare him for it and we went to the barber.  We talked about being super hero brave and I didn't even offer a bribe this time.  He got in the chair, was brave and didn't cry at all.  It was a first and it was awesome!!!

He really is coming leaps and bounds in the courage department.  Such a big four year old I have.

*******

Berkeley has been more interested in helping me in the kitchen lately.  The last few weeks we made pizza, Valentine's chocolate suckers and brownies together.  He loves to stir and help in ways that he can keeps his hands clean.  It is fun to finally have him help out with some of the food he eats.

*******

Berkeley is currently OBSESSED with story telling.  He likes to tell stories, but he LOVES for us to tell him stories.  Any time he watches a movie with either Christian or I, the next meal the parent has to recap the entire story of the movie.  The amount of joy this brings to my boy is sort of ridiculous, but he loves it so we do it.  Cause if we don't we have a melt down, seriously, mass hysteria, you would think there was a major injury or something.  If there is no new movie or show to talk about one parent has to make up stories.  This usually falls on Christian, because he is a much funnier and entertaining story teller.  We have found this as a very useful tool in getting Berkeley to eat; Christian will start a story, pause, and not continue until Berke takes a bite  of his food.  This works like a charm, genius really!  There is nothing this kid wants more than to hear the story, so it speeds up the eating process greatly. We are full of stories around here, and at times, I have to admit, it is a bit exhausting to always be telling or hearing stories.  I find myself racking my head for silly ideas.  As soon as I finish one story he is begging for another.  I know there are worse things that constantly being begged to tell non stop stories, so I will try to enjoy the endless storytelling we are doing around here.

*******

Berke's imagination is fierce! As you can tell he loves his imaginary friends, stories and playing games with his mom and his dad.  Some recent favorites are house, where I play a "real" mom, he is the dad and Christian is the kid.  Basically he enacts what Christian and I do and has Christian being babysat by the Autobots.  He also loves to "sight see Boston." We have a book about Boston and we pretend to be tourists and go around seeing the different sights; we use his book as our map. 

I am really enjoying playing with him in this very imaginative stage; he is constantly making me giggle and roll my eyes with the things he comes up with and says.

*******

Berke is also quite thoughtful and sweet at this age.  He is always asking for kisses and hugs.  He has gotten quite good at saying Thank you if anyone does something for him or gives him something, even if its a stranger.  The other day B had 3 dum dums which are his favorite thing right now.  He grabbed all three out of his treat bowl and gave one to me and one to his dad and kept one for himself, it was adorable!  He is constantly asking to snuggle on the couch and always wants to be with us.  He still loves to hold our hands (most of the time) and is just a sweet, sensitive love bug (he takes after his father). 

Four years old is a whole new fun world; it is the toughest stage thus far, but it is also the most entertaining and rewarding.

Boston Blizzard 2013

We have had a pretty mild winter, we had a little storm just before the New Year, but the rest of the snow storms we have had this year have been but mere dustings.  It was shaping up to be another mild winter on the East Coast and I was not complaining.  I knew my family out west was not as lucky and I was grateful for just cold days.  Clearly Mother Nature was just laughing at me; she had something very special planned for Boston, something very special indeed.  

This is the view across the street from our house on Thursday; as you can see there is barely any snow and some blueish grey skies.  

Friday, most people got a snow day.  I had to work a half day but was home at Noon as to respect the Governors request to be off the roads by noon. The lines to the groceries stores was INSANE!!  Some friends posted pictures on Facebook of empty shelves.  No milk or water could be found.  The Governor  then made a driving ban, stating anyone on the roads after 4 p.m. that was not an emergency vehicle would be fined and put into jail.  

My small family snuggled indoors and braced for the storm.  We made chili in the crock pot; Berke assisted me in making chocolate chip banana bread and we had food to last us a week, possibly more.  

The snow started sticking around 7 p.m. on Friday night and the wind started.  When we went to bed at midnight the cars were covered and the wind was howling.  We heard 300,000 customers throughout the state were without power, but we were lucky enough to still have ours.

When we woke up, this is what we found at 6:30 p.m.  Two feet of snow had fallen in twelve hours, and it was still windy and snowing.

We tried to open our front door, to find that this was as much as it would open.  McDuff could not get out to go potty, so he chose to do his business on our welcome mat, poor doggie.

 Our neighbors upstairs shoveled us out from the basement door and as you can see, this was why would couldn't use our front door.

 We all bundled up to play in the snow.  The little man had never seen anything like this!  He had a lot of fun before, "My arm got freezing!"

 The whole scene is pretty overwhelming.  As you walk out this is what you find.  How do you even start to know what to do with all of this snow.

 Can you see how deep this stuff is.  The bottom is heavy wet snow and the top is white fluffy stuff.

 I found the perfect spot for a snow angel.  I don't usually love the snow, but how often do you a storm like this?  You have no choice but to play in it?  See our care behind me?  No idea how to even get to it!!  Two feet of snow all the way too it and around it.  The Acura is in front of it and may be stuck for a few days.

 Snow Angel!

 All the cars are parked on this side of the road, so the plows can put the snow on the other side of the road.  There are no garages in the city, so this creates its own crazy now mess.   Since there is a driving ban, we got to play in the middle of the street.  McDuff and Berke got to run up and down the street having lots of fun!

 We busted out the boogy board B got for Christmas and used it as a sled.  Christian pulled him down this street which was pretty adorable.  We tried to train McDuff to be a sled dog, but he was having no part of it.  

We had our fun in the snow, now we plan to stay in doors and stay warm today.  Tomorrow we will try to figure out how to get the car out.

For our friends and family, we are fine, we have power, we are warm, we are stuck.  

My oh my, what a difference a day can make.