Is It Random Already?

Since the 4th, I have been completely discombobulated over what day it is.  I am working today, and I worked yesterday, so I needed to keep track.  I haven't been checking my smartphone for the date, and I should.  But the summer sun is so very hot, and having a holiday makes one feel as though it is the weekend, and then it just snowballs from there. 

Who are you, again?

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My parents are out of town, and I am looking out for their garden.  My job is to check on the cantaloupe.  My dad fancies himself a gardener and he always tries to grow stuff like veggies and fruits.  Most of the time he has been successful. My parents also bought iPhones, and have been quick to learn the fine art of text messaging.  So I have been getting messages throughout the day, and I have been responding.  I have no idea why my dad is so avid for alerts regarding his cantaloupes, but it appears that I will be sending him daily updates that will all look like this:

Dad:  How did cantaloupe look?

Me:  They looked like cantaloupe.

I should probably not be surprised that my dad prefers to text Larry instead of me.

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Source: someecards.com via Lacey on Pinterest

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Google has been especially annoying lately.  It's like I'm having to "log in" and "verify" who I am daily on the same computer.   I thought that Google and I had a good relationship.  I thought we had established a measure of trust, that we could be free with each other, and speak our minds.  I was wrong.  Sign up for a couple of email accounts, and it's as if they forget who you are. I wouldn't be so upset, except that Google never sent me flowers.  I'm a bit sad about that.

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We will be getting ready to head on our vacation soon.  We won't be going very far or be gone for very long, but just the idea of getting away has been fun.  This year, we are going to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas.  The boy loves him some dinosaurs, and he will love to see the foot prints of them, I am sure.  Except that now my husband wants to just stay in Glen Rose for a day, then head up to Grapevine for the rest of the time.  So now we are in negotiations.  We may plan another trip to the beach, but I think that we will wait until September.  There's a hotel we can stay at that is right on North Padre Island, right next to the beach.  It will still be warm enough for the beach, without all the tourists.  Well, except us. 

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My son cannot "go" without removing all of his clothing.  No matter where we are, everything has to come off.  I guess that is a young boy thing?  It certainly has made dining out interesting, and I am not sure I will ever allow him to go to the men's room on his own if he's going to do that.  I can just see the guy monitoring the cameras at Walmart, watching my son come out of the men's room, sans clothing, with me standing there hollering.  It would likely make the national news.  I am not sure that I want to spend my fifteen minutes of fame that way. 

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I'm visiting Stacy Uncorked and some gorgeous babes over at Impulsive Addict and Seriously Shawn because they are all excessively cheerful and scare all my bad moods away with their sunshiny ways. 

Mamakat: Remember Summer?

Mamakat's Prompt:   Remember Summer? The warm air, blue skies, and endless days in the water? Me either. Share a photo from last Summer that brings you back.

This is my husband and my son on the beach in Corpus Christi, Texas.  It was Zane's very first trip to the ocean, and it was my husband's idea to try to build a sandcastle with Zane.  Here, the two of them are discussing the viscosity of wet sand, in order to locate the best place to build.  Okay, I am joking.  Nobody thinks when they are building a sand castle; that's half the fun. 

Zane was more interested in the ocean than in the sand, so Larry ended up building the castle mostly solo.  My job was to keep Zane from being carried off by seagulls and the random rogue wave.  The sun was low in the sky, so we had no worries about sunburns.  We all got extremely sandy hanging out right there where the tide was rolling in, and we did not plan for wet clothing on a car seat.  But we all had a blast and watched the sun go down before we packed up and headed back to the hotel, where we showered about 40 tons of sand off(leaving the other 20 tons in the car) and went to sleep with the sound of the waves in our dreams.  

Special Needs Parents: Morgan's Wonderland is for You!

I am a little obsessive about things being accessible. I can't help it. It's my belief that there is no good reason that places can't be accessible to everyone so that they can independently participate in life to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, lots of fun places for kids are not easily accessible for ALL kids. Which ticks me off; just because a person is in a wheelchair doesn't mean that they don't want to independently play and have fun and just BE. I understand that it is expensive to make doors wider and put handlebars on everything. Businesses are all about the bottom line, and no matter how wrong it is, that's just the way it is.

Here in San Antonio, however, is Morgan's Wonderland. This is, as far as I know, the only truly inclusive amusement park in the country. Gordon Hartman, whom I have never met but seems to be an awesome person, built this park in honor of his daughter Morgan.



I got a chance to explore the park before it was open, and I was blown away. And not just about this awesome sculpture in the front. As I walked around Morgan's Wonderland, all I could think about is how great this place would be for families who have members with special needs.

There are so many things that people without handicaps take for granted. How many people who are wheelchair-bound get to ride a carousel, for instance? Wheelchairs are often bulky and difficult to maneuver for most people. Even if they have a desire to ride on the merry-go-round, there may not be a way for them to get ON the ride independently. This place has a carousel that is accessible to all. An entire family can ride this together.

Morgan's Wonderland has swings for all sorts of sizes and disabilities. They have a Sensory Village, and a lake where kids can shoot a water cannon. There's several playgrounds that are accessible to all; siblings can play together. There is a train that goes around the lake, which I know my son would absolutely love. I did not get to see everything, but what I did see I loved.

Why am I talking about this? How many families with children who have special needs get to go on vacations? How many of those vacations are limited by activities which are not accessible by the entire family? Usually someone has to stay with one child while the other child gets to ride the rides. Wouldn't it be nice to go somewhere that everyone could stay together for the entire day if they wanted?

This is a place that offers that opportunity. Come visit!

Now With More Sand!

The beach and I have generally had a love-hate relationship.

I love walking along the water line early in the morning.

I hate stepping on jellyfish and some sort of unidentifiable icky thing that gives me the dry heaves.

I love building sand castles.

I hate sand getting into everything I own, even stuff that I did not actually bring to the beach. (Physicists should be studying THAT phenomenon.)

I love listening to the waves roll in, and sometimes standing in the surf.

I hate not being able to see what is in those waves. Thank you, Stephen Spielberg!

After several attempts to work on our relationship, the beach and I parted ways amicably. I didn't even request joint custody of the sand.

We didn't travel when Zane was younger because we weren't sure how he would do sitting for lengthy periods in his car seat, or how he would deal with sleeping in a strange bed, or what he would eat if there were no chicken nuggets or waffles to be found. We decided this summer that it was time to try a "mini" vacation of a couple of days to see how the boy did. Our first little trip, to Grapevine, Texas(did not actually see any grapevines, but still a very nice town), was a rousing success. This encouraged my husband to suggest a second short trip, this time to Corpus Christi.

"That sounds great," I said, but I was thinking about the sand.

"Why is your eye twitching like that?" Larry asked me.

Once I got over the idea of all the sand, I got a little excited about our trip. It would be my son's very first trip to the beach! I was also very excited that it was my husband who suggested that we go, because he doesn't really like to be outside of his comfort zone.

We explained to Zane that we were going to the beach a few days early, to get him used to the idea. This was a mistake, since three-year-olds have not adapted to the concept of time, and most of them do not understand words like "tomorrow", "next week", or even "five minutes". It's funny how we as adults take those words for granted. But Zane was very excited about the trip, and he talked about the beach every day like we were going that day.

Then it was time to pack. I picked out some toys for Zane to take with him.

"No," my boy told me.

"No?"

"No." Zane repeated. "Shark will eat them."

"Shark?" I shrugged. "Okay."

We drove to Corpus Christi, which is the closest beach from where we live. The first day we were there, we went to the Texas State Aquarium(we had to see Dory and Nemo), the USS Lexington, and then we went to a beach that was actually in Corpus Christi. Zane loved it. He liked the waves and how the water seemed to chase him where ever he went.

Larry had had the idea that he and Zane could build sandcastles together; Zane liked the idea, but wasn't all that into actual construction.



No, my child was all about the waves and the water. We got tired of yelling at him not to go to far out, so I sat beside him. All around us, the sand was pulled inexorably into the ocean. This too was wondrous for Zane. We stayed at the beach in Corpus until the sun was almost out of the sky.




When we got back to the car, the sand had followed us. We attempted to dust off as much as we could, but it was a futile effort. We drove back to the hotel, and after showering and rinsing all of our clothes, we figured that we had removed at least a gallon of sand from the beach. That did not include the amount of sand that we left in the car.

And it was only our first day!

Vacation

Vacations are wonderful things, if you can get them. Time away from your world, adventuring or relaxing, is good for the spirit. Refreshes the soul, those vacations, and helps us get through the tough times. Even if you just get a couple of days to laze around in bed and sleep all you need.

When I actually get a vacation.

Mamas don't actually get to have vacations. We are never truly "off" the clock in motherhood. That's just the way it is. If my family and I decide to go somewhere, I am the one who is responsible for getting my son's suitcase packed in addition to my own. Sometimes I also get to pack my husband's suitcase as well. We probably wouldn't be going on the trip if I hadn't booked it, and I am the one responsible for remembering to put all the passports in my purse, as well as the plane tickets and hotel reservations. If we are driving, I am usually the one packing the car the night before, or putting what we need to take next to the door so it doesn't get left behind. Once we arrive, I am the one who usually keeps track of the itinerary, hurrying us along to make sure that we get to where we need to be at the correct time so we don't miss anything. At the end of the trip I am usually the one making sure we don't leave anything behind. Then I have to empty out all of the suitcases and do laundry.

Actually, I did all this before Zane came along--we haven't been able to go on any vacations with him yet. If you would like to know why, picture someone throwing one of those Superballs on the inside of a car, so that it pings and endlessly bounces all over. That would be my child after 30 minutes in the car. It is as if the Tasmanian Devil of Warner Brothers fame is sitting in the back seat. Maybe it will be different when he learns how to read, but right now it is not practical to try and drive long distances. Well, it's not practical for my sanity.

My idea of a vacation would be to get to where I want(I've always wanted to visit South Dakota) and then stay for a couple of weeks. No alarm clocks. No rushing about. No "have to". Big fluffy pillows to sleep on. Room service. Maid service. Spa service. Massage therapist on duty. Somebody else does all the work, in other words. Someone else does all the planning, organizing, packing, etc. I just show up, and unwind the coils of life from around my midsection, and relax.

That would truly be a vacation. What is YOUR idea of an ideal vacation?