Long time...

Where do I begin? Besides reiterating the fact that my JOB is taking precedence over my BLOGGING these days which is a travesty, Maggie is growing by leaps and bounds every day. She is officially in the kid category, having left baby in the dust as a distant memory to all of us.

It's sad and exciting at the same time as the older she gets the more fun we have together and, let's face it, the cuter the clothes :) Yes, in a world of reduce, reuse, recycle, the best part for me about me having a little girl is being able to buy her clothes. Sorry Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jason. Does it count that Gramma and Pap just bought a Prius?

We are headed to the beach tomorrow and look forward to a week of family fun, making sand castles on the beach, laying by the pool and relaxing in the hot tub. But let's face it, traveling in the car for 5 hours with a toddler will go more like this -

- more? more? more? more? more? more? more? more? more? more? more?
- no, maggie, you can't have your 427th graham cracker
- more?
- ok, one more
- more?
- no, maggie, you can't have your 428th graham cracker
- more?
- ok, one more

And so it goes...

And then the picturesque scene of walking into the surf with her while we hold hands and sit down to play in the sand will probably end up more like her clinging to my sand-covered legs, which sticks to her whole SPF covered body, getting in her eyes while she rubs them crying "MAMA" and we spend more time getting ready to go to the beach then we actually spend at the beach. Then we will go back to our house to the glistening pool which she will not get near because, God forbid, she might get wet.

We were going through a stage where she hated baths and would only stand up while we basically hosed her down. Then she briefly liked them realizing that it is kind of cool to splash in the water, stick your hand under and - aha! - it's wet! But then she fell in love with wearing socks and taking them off has become a traumatic experience. I was getting her ready for a bath last week, which she was very excited about, looking at her toys like WHEN CAN I GET IN AND PLAY WITH YOU? Until I took off her socks. Never take off the socks. So we're back to hosing her down while she screams hysterically for her socks. Last night I let her bring the socks into the tub which seemed to have calmed her down a little. I really have to draw the line at letting her wear socks in the bath though, right?

Next week there should be a very interesting post-vacation wrap up. Will we all survive? Will "more" be permanently burned into our brains like a bad song that you can't get rid of? Will I hear the song "Go Daddy-O" more than 500 times? Will I take another vacation?

Stay tuned...