vonRoeschlaub Family News

Back from vacation. Here are the highlights:

The trip up was long and boring, and the kids watched all but three of the videos. We ate at Macdonald’s, breaking the rule my mother had set for the kids not six hours into the trip. Victoria was beyond incredible, even though she was awake almost the whole trip she hardly cried at all despite being confined to her car seat. We had lobster in Portland, Maine and stayed at a motel for the night. The kids went to the pool and I tried to get some work done.

The next day was to the Children’s Museum in Portland, then on to Tom’s summer house. The property was much bigger than I expected from the descriptions. I could only see one other house, and that only from the fourth floor catwalk. The ocean view was amazing, and the kids loved it. It was good seeing Rachel again, and Claire wanted to spend all her time with Rachel and Tenzin. Actually got some work done at the house, and also got to see the Rockefeller gardens (by invitation only) and a little relaxation. Karaoke late into the night, Tom’s a pretty decent singer.

Back down to Portland to see the worlds largest free-standing globe (it’s huge) and then on to the Sauter’s. Despite being a tight spot for nine people, it was a lot of fun. For one thing, there were plenty of adults to keep track of the kids, for another there was plenty to do. The kids spent the morning at the game farm, and the afternoon boating in the lake. The night we arrived we went out to see the loons.

After the Sauter’s it was Storyland, a fairy-tale themed park. Very clever, no royalties. It was surprisingly elaborate, and the highlight was the mad science lab where thousands of foam balls were vacuumed up and shot out of cannons or dropped from baskets in the ceiling. After an hour the kids had to be dragged out with a promise of shaved ice. Despite that, Avery remembers the five seconds spent on the log flume the most. He also liked the flying shoe (Winken, Blinken and Nod).

From Storyland we pressed on and arrived at Mont Tremblant around Midnight. My parents own a condo in Ste. Jovite. Sadly, it pretty much rained continuously while we were there, but Diana and I did get some alone time for shopping, and we traded off babysitting with my parents for a quite dinner at a wonderful place my father always goes to when he’s up there. There is an indoor pool, but the number of non-outside activities up there is pretty small, combined with the spreading coughing plague pushed us into heading home two days early.

The trip home was pretty dull. The only big stop was at the border. I tried to explain to Claire and Avery what a Duty Free shop was, but Claire seemed uninterested and Avery seemed confused. At least I had Victoria’s full attention, Unfortunately, she chose being in the shop for her first and only crying jag during the trip. I kept expecting a customs agent to show up and demand to see her papers. We did have her birth certificate and our marriage license, but that doesn’t make you feel any better when crossing the border.

Avery spent the night at my mother’s house and, during dinner, she slipped a bit of cube-steak on his plate. Avery asked what it was, but Noni knew if she told him he would refuse to eat it, so she just said it was a surprise and he didn’t have to eat it. Avery ate a piece. As short while later, he ate another. Before long the plate was empty and he was asking for more.

“Noni,” he explained, “I’m a big boy now. I like yucky food!”

Yesterday my parents played hooky.  In order to be sure to get home before Monday, they left Canada on Saturday and got home Saturday night (it could have taken longer).  Since they couldn’t get caught at the house on Sunday, they snuck out to the beach and we went along.

It was fun to see how things had developed since the last time we were at the beach, August of last year.  Claire was willing to get her feet wet, but Avery was afraid to even touch the water.  He did have a good time burying himself in the sand, though.  Before we left Claire had even gone with Noni out past the breakers and done a little wave jumping.  As she was returning to the beach a breaker rolled right over her and she panicked a bit, but she still felt good about the ocean once she was back on shore, so I guess she’s feeling more confident.  She is definately a better swimmer than last year.

Avery enjoyed playing in the sand, but by the time we were going back to the car the sand had heated up and he had to run to Diana and get his shoes.  I toughed it out, but only because my feet are currently rather calloused anyway.

Victoria spent most of her time under the umbrella avoiding the sun, but Diana took her out for a brief touch of the ocean with her feet, which she did not like, and letting some sand get between her toes, which she did like.

Everyone got a bath once we were home, even Victoria.

Diana came home today. I picked her up at ten from the hospital, there were no issues. Everything went smoothly and before we knew it we were home. She slept soundly in the playpen, and my father dropped by for a while (we picked up Claire at the bus stop). Grandpa, Noni and Duke came for dinner, I cooked up the ribs and some hot dogs and hamburgers. All in all, a very nice introduction to the family for Tori.

The kids and I went to Noni and Grandpa’s to assemble the new Jungle gym Avery got for his birthday.  As Noni and I assembled, the kids turned on the hose and made a “pond”.  After it was done, and the kids had played for a while, we went inside and cleaned up.  I called Diana and told her we were coming home, then hunted for the kids, finding Claire upstairs watching TV.

As we were talking, Avery walked in and announced “I am naked.”

“Yes,” I said, “why are you naked?”

Avery contemplated this looking down to make sure.  “Um, because I have no clothes on.”

Last night we went to the PRC gala. Last year Diana won a number of baskets, this year, for considerably less money, we won three. My mother also won a basket, which she is going to divvy up among her friends with us getting the biggest piece for Avery’s birthday.

Two of the baskets are for a baby boy. This isn’t as big a deal as you would think, since the only real hint they are for a boy is a dominance of blue, and no difference for the toys.

We brought the kids over to Noni’s house for dinner with Judy, and I told them about a time Edd’s father tried to get him to take a trip to Israel.  When Edd asked why his father suggested it was part of the Jewish experience.  Edd responded “Being shot at by Arabs?  Yeah, I guess that is the Jewish experience.”

Everybody laughed at the story, but a few days later Claire remembered it while riding in the car with Ava.

“Did you know people with experience shoot Jews with arrows?”

I think I’m going to have to be more careful about the jokes I tell around the kids (or at least take the time to explain them).

Avery spent last night with my mother. When he came home this morning, Claire immediately left with her to New York to see a Mermaid play of some sort. Avery sat down to watch TV, and then suddenly noticed Claire wasn’t there. So I took him to the window and pointed to Claire getting in the car. “Say ‘Goodbye, Claire'” I suggested. He refused.

As she got in the car Avery suddenly started calling out “Hi! Hi, Claire!”

I puzzled over that a bit and suddenly realized. “Are you saying ‘Hi’ so that Claire will stay home?”

“Uh huh. Why it not working?”

I’m in California today, and talked to Diana on the phone. She’s not feeling so hot today, but sounded much more chipper than yesterday. I also talked to Claire a bit, she was coloring with her right hand to see if she could do it while talking on the phone. Avery wasn’t so interested in talking since Avi was over for a visit.

I told my parents about the trip to China. They were pretty excited. My mother insisted I would save a fortune buying Christmas presents there. That’s my mom.