We're back!

I feel like we have been gone from our house for a full month. Maybe that is what 18 hours in the car with your two young children does to you.

We've gone 280 miles South to the wonderful Outer Banks, where I think I used the phrase, "when we used to live in North Carolina" once every 15 minutes. (I didn't know that I missed it that much until I went back!)

Then we drove 280 miles North to the Jersey Shore. We got to ride a ferry that served beer...but it didn't make the trip less than 8 hours.

And then we came home.

But seriously...all that driving was worth every minute of it. Good weather, good friends. MANY good drinks, and great memories. I've attached a slideshow that only touches on what we did this week.

I'd do it all over again...but you're not getting me in the car for a long time any time soon!

I've been duped

Today my budding genius of a 3...going on 4...year old boy told me that after nap he wanted to go to the Space Museum. That would be the Air and Space Museum right near our house. Just like Renee Zellweger in Jerry McGuire, he had me at museum.

No worries that this was the first sunny day in 10. No worries that I had barely showered (it was interrupted by the preschool calling saying that I forgot to pick up my son...nooo...I simply didn't know there wasn't lunch bunch!) No worries that the little girl was cranky, hungry, and in no mood to go look at rockets, airplanes, and space shuttles...he had me at museum.

But what I thought was an intellectual journey to learn about the history of flight (in preparation for our trip to the Outer Banks next week) really turned out to be a journey to learn about the manipulation of Mommy. And Mommy was the one to learn, a lot.

As soon as we got into the car, talk from the back seat was all about a space grabber. I didn't exactly remember which exhibit he was talking about, but I was happy to encourage him. But soon enough, I realized that this exhibit was nothing more than a display in the gift shop. And the "space grabber" was nothing more than a very long, and rather expensive set of plastic tongs.

Still feeling the guilt from leaving him at school...I indulged him. Yes, you parenting critics out there. I bought him the darn thing. For one, I felt guilty, but also because I appreciated his forethought, his strategy, his outright manipulation. The score today: Little Boy: 1, Mommy: 0

And, I have to say, it was SO worth it. There must have been 100 thank yous, 100 I love yous, and 100 "if you do (fill in the blank) I'm going to take the space grabbers away" Never have we had a better trip to the museum.

Good thing the little girl can't talk because I am sure she would disagree.

This is why we have Mother's Day

Seriously...we celebrate Mother's Day because only a father would let his daughter put nearly half her body through the banister (and left her there while he got the camera to document the incident). Has he not read ANYTHING on the internet late at night when he couldn't sleep? Oh, that's right....he's never up late at night sleepless...that is why we celebrate the mother.

I'm not even going to mention the outfit he put her in!

Amen.