Beach trip

With all my need to tell the story of getting the baby locked in the car, I forgot to mention we still went to beach and had a grand old time. I want a beach house now. How awesome would that be? Now to just have an extra $500,000 laying around. Maybe next year, right?

Another new crush

Oh Craigslist, how I love you so. Seriously. I love this free service. So I wanted a toddler bed for Meg. I went on Craigslist, did some trolling and found a cute one nearby for $20. Sold. Then when it was clear we needed a second mattress to go with it, I went back on Craigslist, did some sorting by neighborhood and found one less than a mile away for $30. Done. Sure, they're both used, but both are in good condition and perfect for my needs. It's so easy! Why didn't I do this earlier.

Now I'm looking around the house during some spring clearning and holding a virtual garage sale. I've been hawking some of the bigger kids' toys that they never play with anymore. Today I sold an awkward piece of kids' furniture for $40. I know! I got $40 and the guy came and carried in away. Next weekend I think I'm going to sell the weight bench no one has touched in two years.

As for the big girl bed, Meg slept in it one night last week. She did fine going to sleep (it helped that it was late because Bjorn was gone and I tried to do too much so she was exhausted). The problem was when she woke up screaming at 6 a.m., which is before my wake up time. I did manage to coerce her into my bed where we snuggled for another hour, sleeping off and on. It was marginally better than trying to sleep on an airplane, what with the poking and kicking, but I did really love it.

Mark your calendars

I got gas yesterday evening and didn't lock anyone in the car. Go me! I even remembered roll down a window and not hand her the keys with which she could lock herself in. How long do you give me before I do it again?

Child locks self in car; child fine, mother traumatized

A neighbor kindly invited us on Friday to her beach house on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It's about an hour and 15 minutes away, not convenient, but she thought her kids and mine would have a great day frolicking on the private beach. We decided to caravan since they'd be spending the night. The first hour was great -- no traffic, beautiful warm weather. We stopped in Dunkirk, Maryland, so I could fill up with gas. Andy wanted to get out to help. In my minivan, the gas thing is on the right so I can't have Meg's side door open while I pump gas. She wanted to get out too, so I offered her my keys to appease her while I got the gas. I thought twice about giving her my keys and then left the driver's side door open, just in case. You see where this is going, right? Naturally the wind blew my door shut and when I turned around, Meg had locked the doors and promptly thrown the keys on the floor of the car.

Fortunately, my friend was with me so we put Andy in her car with her girls to watch a DVD while we tried to figure out how we could coax Meg into opening the door. Of course, she was still in her car seat and couldn't get out. A man at the pump next to us said to call the police and they'd come help. Sure enough, I dialed 911 and the local sheriff came with tools. Within minutes of the call, a sheriff was wedging the door opening to try to open a door lock, press the unlock button and/or slide the door lock up. I was so calm at first. It was all going to be okay! Sure, I'm an idiot, but help is here! It's going to be fine! But then it was 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 30 minutes and nothing seemed to get it open. Meg was doing fine those. She could reach Andy's pretzel sticks and was snacking away. She was loving the attention, but she was growing weary, too. At about the 35-40 minute mark, her cheeks started to get rosy and I tried not to panic that she was going to suffocate (she wasn't). Then she started to cry and then cry harder.

I asked the officer what to do, call a locksmith? No, they'd do what he was doing and charge $100 bucks. Call Honda? Not one in Calvert County. Call my husband? He's too far away and would have go home to get the keys -- would she be calm for another 1 1/2 hours? Call a neighbor? It's still another hour. By the time Meg started crying in earnest, I asked the officer about breaking the window. He was kind and said he didn't want to scare her, besides, he'd only had one before he wasn't able to unlock. She was starting to get worked up so I was ready. I called Bjorn for the reassurance it was the right thing. The officer broke the passenger window sending tiny glass pellets everywhere. That really scared her, Meg bawled harder but I was so close! I was able to go in and grab her and console her while my friend and the officer triaged the glass. I think it took Meg about three minutes to calm down. I, however, was on edge about it the rest of the weekend.

Epilogue: Bjorn got a new window for me on Saturday, $259 with tax. Worth it.

Latest celebrity crush

Despite my obviously charmed marriage, I have lots of crushes, usually on random celebrity types, i.e. people I will never, ever meet so therefore totally safe. Most are quite typical -- think Pacey Witter from Dawson's Creek, Andy Botwin from Weeds  or Josh from Sports Night (yes, I do watch too much television). Others make my coworkers shiver, like Benjamin Linus from Lost (what? Sure he's not handsome, but he's devious and snarky) or Stephen Collins (think Jumpin' Jack Flash Stephen Collins, not 7th Heaven Stephen Collins. Yeah, I know....)

I'm now at a bizarro phase in my life where I have a crush on a children's book author. Worse, it's not at all because he's cute, but because his books are so darn awesome. There are billions of children's books out there, and most of them are total crap (I'm looking at you Dora). But Mo Willems? No, his books are awesome? I don't love the Elephant and Piggy series so much, but Knuffle Buffle and the Pigeon? Seriously great. Any kids' book that can make me laugh while keeping my kids interested in just great.

Awesome

Tina Fey = Awesome.

Edited to say damn NBC went and yanked this off YouTube. Try this instead.

Family of action

Lots of exciting things going on around here. A list seems appropriate.
1) Mark got a job. And there was great rejoicing.

2) Jennifer is actively looking for apartments, starting around June 1. Happy birthday to me! (We will really miss her, but I think we're all ready.)
3) Meg is potty training. I'm not ready, but she is. She pulls down her trousers in public places annoucing, "poo poo" which is universal for number 1 or 2. About 2/3 of the time, she actually goes. Amazing.
4) This potty training is tough because I can't keep her in clothes in general. She's constantly trying to take off everything so I have worked to find clothes she can't take off, making it that much harder when she announces her need to use the "flush."
5) I am going to have to rethink my strategy.
6) I've been getting my garden beds ready for planting vegetables.
7) I was bummed to realize I'm not supposed to plant my garden or annuals until Mother's Day. Boooring.
8) The tooth fairy came for Andy. He got $1. Just a plain dollar bill, too, although his name was written on it. A two dollar bill or a gold dollar would have been cooler, but my friends' advice to go for something easy to replicate made sense.
9) Shocking to me is how many of my friends give out $10 and $20 for a lost tooth. Seriously? I think Mark would start pulling out his teeth for casholinis like that.
10) Bjorn and I have been working our way through the Star Wars prequels. And you know what? They're really kind of bad. Natalie Portman's hair was pretty awesome, Hayden Christiansen's hair was remarkably bad and Yoda is downright awesome.

Lost tooth!

Andy lost his first tooth this morning, naturally right after I left for work. He woke up and talked to Bjorn for a minute, announced his tooth was really loose and then out it came. Thankfully Bjorn took lots of pictures with his phone (see above, awesome quality, eh Blackberry?) They then took the tooth to school in a plastic bad where his adorable teacher announced and early circle time so he could show it off. How cool is that? Now I have to figure out what the going rate is for the tooth fairy.

Easter pictures

Meg loves this slide that was donated "freecycle" from a neighbor a couple of years ago when her girls outgrew it. She and Andy were bouncing on it when we had friends over on Saturday as captured below.

Good friends. I normally would say "old" friends, but present company would have assaulted me for saying so.

We had an Easter egg hunt first thing this morning. I, er, the Easter bunny put out the eggs last night. Turns out that was a mistake as they were covered in ants this morning. Fortunately for Mark and Jennifer, they didn't want anything to do with the lottery tickets. We won $3 on a $10 investment.  Andy and I met some friends for church. It was a Presbyterian church that we've been to a couple of times. Cool thing though, they handed out bells and everyone rang them whenever they say "Christ is Risen." I liked it. Andy looked dapper in his blue blazer, but it was a little warm for it. At Bjorn's mom's house for Easter dinner, we had a second egg hunt. We had a great time hunting and playing ball in the yard in addition to a fabulous dinner. Luckily, the weather cooperated. It was 70 and mostly sunny all weekend. Just gorgeous.

The Easter Bunny

Tomorrow is Easter. We have plastic eggs to stuff with candy and a few lottery tickets for the big kids. We even left out some strawberries on the back patio for the Easter bunny. I'm a little at a loss about the whole ruse though. Is the Easter bunny just like Santa? I mean, is it a big surprise that he comes and does all this stuff? And does he bring presents other than the eggs and candy? I ask partly because due to the sheer awesomeness of Facebook, I see all these pictures and posts from friends who appear to go to great lengths with their Easter bunny surprises for their kids. Does everyone do that? We're just planning to hide some eggs and search for them.

Granted, I'm quicky admitting I'm not as awesome as my mom who must have dyed two billion hard-boiled eggs with us growing up. Last year I bought the kit and we never ever opened it. I was actually just fine with that, thanks. Maybe next year. Or the year after.

Andy's tooth is still working it's way out. It's pretty loose now, but I have no experience except my own vague ones from probably 25 years ago to know how loose is really loose, so loose I need to go ahead and yank it before he accidentally swallows it. Next question, what's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy these days?