Friday, June 20, 2008

He's all grows up!

I just got finished chatting online with my oldest small human, the one that's in Europe right now? He seems so grown up in just a week! My big human said he "sounds taller"...hahahaha! Apparently the hotel they are staying in right now has a rooftop pool which is the big crowd pleaser with the 13 and 14 year olds. Tomorrow is his last day in Athens and then he's headed back home to us. I can't wait to see him! We are supposed to get him when they arrive back in town at their school but we may drive up to the airport to see them come out of customs. We just can't wait!

*the title of this post is a reference to the end of Swingers when Vince Vaughn's character does his rant about Jon Favreau's character growing up and not needing girl advice any longer. I need to watch that movie this weekend.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Your, Mine or Ours?

It's summer vacation from school. So that means we have our small humans for bigger chunks of time. Last week was our first week. It was busy busy filled with swim team practice, lacrosse clinic and packing the oldest small human up to leave the country for 10 days. Here's what I have noticed. When either my big human or I notice that one or more of the small humans are doing something they really shouldn't be doing, they become the other person's children solely. Example? Me to my big human: "YOUR daughters will not stop talking and go to sleep. You need to go do something about it." My big human to me: "YOUR son is launching toys off the top of the bunkbed. You need to handle that." But when they are behaving fabulously it becomes: "OUR kids did such a great job sitting through mass!"

Having one of our small humans ACROSS AN OCEAN is a bit nerve-wracking. I typed up mulitple lists, rolled clothes, meticulously packed so his things would all match, made sure he had the correct size of tolietries so he wouldn't get a body cavity search going through security and even packed neosporin and bandaids. But when Friday morning came and he picked up his backpack to head out the door, woo boy, I was a mess! I held it together until my big human called me about an hour later because the bus had left and he was officially gone and my big human was a blubbering mess. He got himself together though and then I called him an hour later bawling concerned that our small human wouldn't remember to take his asthma medicine that night on the plane. So we are comforting ourselves by fanatically checking his online bank account a gazillion times a day to make sure he has money and he is able to withdraw it properly. Oh and I stayed up Friday night until Lufthansa said that the first flight had landed in Frankfurt. Other than that, his teachers say "no news is good news" so we probably won't hear from him until he shows back up on this side of the ocean on Sunday.

Having one of my small humans do an international trip has given me a new appreciation for all the stress I must have caused my parents during high school and college with my travels. I remember many trips when I would never call my mom to even let her know that I arrived. She must have been a nervous wreck! So the moral of the story is even if it seems silly, if you go on a trip, especially out of the country, take a few minutes to call your grownups and let them know you are o.k.!

See what's next...

That's what my title means in case you were wondering...