The Vacation Rolls On

The kid and I are having a great time. We celebrated her birthday (10 days early) on Friday night. The Spongebob Squarepants decor and cake just added that certain je ne sais quois to the festivities. Our family is somewhat spread out across the country, so it was fun to be able to celebrate her birthday with everyone (grandparents, great-grandmother, cousins, and aunt). She got two Zhu-Zhu pets from my parents, a Belle doll with sparkling horse, a Spongebob coloring book, $10, a Spongebob purse, and, because my sister apparently hates me and has always hated me: some Moon Sand (the messiest toy of all time; I know moms who burst into tears if you utter "moon" and "sand" in the same sentence). A and my nephew keep asking to play with the Moon Sand, and I just keep pretending I didn't hear them.

On Saturday afternoon, we took the three kids to see "Oceans" at the movie theater. It was pretty good, but probably no more remarkable than the BBC Planet Earth series. I got a little nervous about some of the "big thing eats smaller thing" sequences, but they did a nice job of minimizing the carnage. My daughter did have a look of mild horror as she watched birds swooping down and plucking newly-hatched sea turtles from the sand as they attempted to make their ill-fated journey to the sea. I did what any mom would do: I handed her a bag of M&M's to distract her.

I left my kid with my sister Saturday night and headed out with an old friend. On these shorter visits it is challenging to try to catch up with everyone I knew over the course of 25 years (prior to moving out of state), but I always try to see a friend or two when I'm in town. We went out to dinner and then hit a local Irish pub for some adult beverages. While I was gone, my sister treated her niece to a "spa night" and pained her fingernails and toenails. My nephew is lamenting the fact that he didn't get his nails painted, but that is a story for another day.

My sister had to attend a funeral today, so I took her kids plus my kid to a high school production of Alice in Wonderland. Her kids made it through, mine did not. A just does not have that kind of attention span (over 2 1/2 hours). They didn't allow food or drinks in the theater, so I could not even ply her with M&M's. She and I sat in the lobby while my niece and nephew watched the rest of the performance.

In other news, A has injured herself every day since we left home. She's going through band-aids like water. Somehow, she tore her fingernail right down to the nail bed (blood was involved, much to her delight). She will gladly (yet innocently) show anyone who asks the question, "Which finger did you hurt?"