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girl time!

Hooray! It's time for another Girl Weekend! This weekend, I will be laying low with the rest of my girfriends at the lake. No kids and no husbands allowed.

Last time, I felt a lot of guilt about going. Part of that was likely because I missed The Babe's homecoming from her first day of school, but most of it was because I didn't want to leave The Kiddos. I felt bad about going. Well.. not so much this time.

A lot has changed since last time. First of all, I have left them a few times this year, and maybe I am just getting used to it. Secondly, now that my husband has a day job, I am solely in charge of The Kiddos for pretty much always. I need a break. I know we just had vacay in Disney, and that was terriffic, but it was not a relaxing kind of trip. There was no break. It was the anti-break, the absolute opposite of "break".

Now, what happens on the lake, stays on the lake, LOL, so don't expect a full recap when I get back... but here are the kinds of things I expect to be doing: eating yummy food that is not necessarily good for me, perhaps drinking some kind of alcoholic beverage (in moderation, dammit, my tolerance is so weak!), playing cards, gossip, beach time, boating, more eating, more drinking, more cards, more gossip, maybe a walk around the lake, oh, and perhaps we'll sleep.

I am dropping The Kiddos off at their Gramma and Grampa J's house on my way to the lake. Do you know how excited The Kiddos are? The Babe and The Boy have asked me several times, just to be sure, that I am just dropping them off - - I am not staying. They giggle with pure glee at the thought of a weekend without Mommy... Perhaps we all need a break, eh?

*swoon*

Tonight as I was finishing up the bed time routine with The Boy, I gave him a goodnight kiss as I always do, and stood up to leave. I got about halfway to the door when he sat up, smiled, and held his arms out; so I walked back over to him and sat on the bed. He gave me a *huge* hug, he squeezed really tight, and then he held my face in both his hands and pulled me in and gave me a kiss. He smiled at me, laid back down, settled in with his babies, and looked so content - sucking his thumb and drifting off to dreamland. *sigh* What a nice little way to say goodnight....

there's no stopping her now....

The Babe learned to ride her bike with no training wheels today. Phew! Can I just say a few things about this? (answer: yes Erika, it's your blog... say whatever you like). Thank you.

#1 - This has been a long time coming. The Babe is 5 and a half years old. She has been asking to learn all this season. We tried in the spring, but she got easily frustrated and discouraged. She went about a month without getting on her bike at all.

#2 - Kids are mean. It's been a few weeks now that some of the kids on the block have been making comments about the fact that The Babe still had her training wheels. Granted, two little girls on the block who are younger than The Babe no longer needed their trainers, but those girls also have older siblings; and we all know how much more quickly the subsequent kids pick up on things. But, I think that distinction was lost on The Babe, and she had really been feeling low, talking about how so-and-so had hurt her feelings, etc. Nothing like a little peer pressure, eh?

#3 - The Babe has been DYING to learn since we got back from Disney. In fact, she was talking about it on the plane ride home so much that we stopped at the bike store on the way home from the airport to buy the pole attachment for Daddy to help her balance.

#4 - Mommy simply would not do. Even though Daddy had a busy work schedule all week, The Babe insisted that it was he that helped her with this. I offered several times, especially during the week as the other kids kept up with their comments, but The Babe preferred to wait all week because she wanted it to be Daddy who helped. She was very patient.

#5 - Today was the perfect day. Not only was the weather great for it, not too hot, not too cold... but the mean kids weren't out. One family went away for the weekend, and the other family had visiting relatives and were otherwise occupied. We had the whole cul-de-sac to ourselves with no one else out looking over our shoulders, making comments, or making The Babe self-conscious.

#6 - Daddy is a very good daddy. They had set today aside for the event, and she has learned. She's a pro.

#7 - The Babe is braver than I thought. After she had learned, pretty much without incident, and was riding on her own, she had two crashes. The first crash happened because our 2 year old neighbor wandered into the street and she had to swerve suddenly to avoid him. I was proud of her, and told her if there ever was a good reason to fall, avoiding a child was up there on the list. The second time I think she just wiped out for no reason, and she got pretty scraped up. She cried a lot, but I was so proud that she got back on the bike and kept on trying.

That's my girl! I am so proud of her. She kept at it, through the frustration, and she was mostly smiles about it all day. She did really well, and she earned a new bike that she can use for a few seasons. The toddler bike has been put away... The Babe is so big... *sigh*