My cousin, Kristi posted this on Facebook last week and I cannot stop thinking about it.  I read it the first time and smiled and then seconds later burst into tears.  I don’t think I’ve ever read something that better articulates my dreams.  This is my new manifesto.

This past weekend, we had the great pleasure of a visit from our friend Rick and his daughter Felicia.  Rick is someone we met in Shanghai at the sailing club which is coincidentally the same place where he met his wife, Joyce.  Since the last time we saw them in Shanghai, Rick and Joyce were married, had a daughter who is now nearly two-years-old, moved to Taiwan and both changed jobs.  Rick left Nike and the garment industry for a stint as”Daddy Daycare” and Joyce is a Controller for a tech company in Taiwan.  So they’ve been busy.

In the most random turn of events, we were both staying at the same resort in Puerto Vallarta for one night last month.  On their first day and our last day of vacation, we were able to meet up for dinner at a fabulous Argentine restaurant near the hotel and even be serenaded with a Mariachi band playing our favorite Mariachi song, La Negra.

After Mexico and a bit of time in the Bay Area, Joyce had to go back to work in Taiwan, but Rick and Felicia carried on with a journey to explore the United States and spent time in both Madison, Wisconsin and Boise.  They are interested in potentially moving to the United States so they wanted to visit some of the ideal places to live (and just happened to have friends living in both places.)

We happily showed Rick Boise and then wanted to take it up a notch and expose him to one of our favorite places which as far as we are concerned is one of the most beautiful on earth, Redfish Lake nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains.

We opted to stay in a rustic cabin to give him the American West experience and besides nearly sweating Rick and Felicia out of the cabin loft due to the roaring fire in the wood stove on the ground floor, they enjoyed every minute of the experience.

To our surprise (because we have always camped at Redfish), the lodge has a delicious snackbar with plenty of healthy options. It also offers both appetizer and dinner cruises which we just had to try.  We didn’t give the organizers enough notice for a dinner cruise but they were very accommodating to throw together an appetizer pontoon boat cruise with only a couple of hours notice.

The experience was incredible with the only downside being a two-year-old who wanted to “swim.”  Luckily Rick had one of those child harness thingys so we could relax a bit with our child on a leash.  I cannot believe I just typed that. I never thought I would leash my child but she refused to wear a life jacket so the leash was the next best option.

Another treat that must be mentioned was a midnight trip outside to see the clear sky with bountiful stars. There are few things that beat seeing the stars on a clear night in the wilderness and I only wish I had a camera that could capture the beauty.

On our way back to Boise, we experienced a miracle of miracles: all three kids napped at the same time for almost the entire car ride and the three adults engaged in the lost art of conversation.

Our conversation covered many China-related topics and we learned that the pollution in Shanghai has become a lot worse since we were living there and as we suspected, Asian cities are not great places to raise kids (at least from a Western perspective.)

I also learned some good parenting tricks from Daddy Daycare including carrying scissors in the diaper bag to easily cut up food.  Apparently it is a common practice in Asia.

There are few people you can travel with and/or have as house guests that are 100% pleasure and absolutely no burden. Rick and Felicia were those rare guests and it was a joy to spend time with them.

Sunday morning our little family went for a hike in the foothills north of Boise.  I could tell you how much fun it was to be all together doing one of our favorite activities but it would be a TOTAL lie.

The weather was beautiful in Boise this weekend so us parents decided we needed to get out of the house and go enjoy what Boise has to offer.  Being huge fans of running on the numerous Boise foothill trails, we thought it would be nice to get the girls out on them as well.  We couldn’t have been more wrong!

The trails were great, the weather perfect but the girls seemed to dislike every moment of our hike.  From the moment we exited our truck and Eloise got sand in her Crocs (bad choice of shoes), she wanted to be carried (and was.)  Belén hiked for awhile during which she repeatedly asked how much further it was and then argued with Andy about if we were walking uphill or downhill.  When she wasn’t arguing, she was freaking out over little flying bugs or long grass touching her legs, whining or  complaining.  I can’t tell you the number of times I heard the words of my parents coming out of my mouth including, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Needless to say, the hike was not relaxing and less enjoyable than we were expecting.

Up until today, we thought we were on a path to raising little adventurers who we would continue to take with us on the many adventures we have planned.  Now, it appears we have whining, prissy girls on our hands (okay, so I’m mostly talking about Belén, Eloise is only two-years-old and has issues with sand in her shoes, so we’ll give her a break for now.)

Here’s to hoping this was either an anomaly, off day or a (very short) phase.

We were at home for less than a week before it was time to head back out again for our first camping trip of the year.

I have to admit, I was really wishing we were staying home, but we already had the campground reservation and the rest of the family was giddy to camp.

We drove to McCall and camped at the beautiful Ponderosa State Park.

Since we had to work Friday, we arrived a little bit later in the evening so the girls were up late exploring the area and, of course, eating s’mores before they went to sleep.

It was Eloise’s first time sleeping in the bottom bunk of the trailer instead of her pack-and-play and let’s just say it got better each night.

Upon conclusion of the trip, when asked her favorite part of the weekend away, Belén proclaimed it was the fishing.

She wasn’t exactly successful but she learned a lot and is a much better caster than when she started out. After trying it multiple times myself, I will admit even a seasoned fisher(wo)man might struggle casting a Barbie fishing pole.

And yet our friend Sailer didn’t have much trouble entertaining Eloise with a can and that very pole.

That is until we told her not to stick her tongue into the opening of a dirty LaCroix can.

Other notable activities included playing with friends, Belén riding her bike on her own (and me running next to her to help her as she encountered obstacles), an adventure hike, ring-around-the rosie

and trying out a slackline for the first time.

Funny thing about the slackline, it is very still when the kids walked on it but all of us adults caused it to shake uncontrollably.

Andy and I also were able to get away for a fantastic five-mile run in the forest and up to the point that overlooks Payette Lake. It was the best I have felt running in over a year and I am still smiling from it.

In the end, I was really glad we spent our weekend together as a family, with friends, camping. I truly can’t think of a better way to spend Memorial Day weekend.

My friend Sage who is a PA in a family practice told me she recommends to her patients to give up the pacifier at one-year of age, so we knew once Eloise turned one that she didn’t have much more time with hers. By that point, she LOVED her binky. Four months earlier she could have cared less but something about nine months of age made both of our children crave a piece of rubber in their mouth.

Our intent was to wean Eloise of her pacifier before her 18-month well child check-up but a ton of stuff was going on and we didn’t get around to it (I know, typical parenting excuse.) Finally over the Christmas break we made a weaning plan based on a recommendation I had heard somewhere to cut the top off the pacifier so it is no longer as appealing. I begrudgingly cut off the top of two of her beloved Soothie’s.

Andy and I watched the expression on Eloise’s face change from pleasure to confusion as she put the binky in her mouth and immediately noticed the modified experience. She tried to suck on it but it was not exactly suckable in its new state so she bit down on it holding onto it for dear life with her front teeth.

Things were going okay with this approach until Eloise became really upset about something, and being an occasional softie, I ended up giving her an unmodified binky. She suddenly knew there was something seriously wrong with the pacifiers with the tip cut off and no longer wanted anything to do with them. Her joy over having her real binky back in her mouth caused us to realize that it had been a bad idea to give her a legit Soothie and that we needed to wean her completely ASAP.

So on a day in late December, we removed the binky from our lives cold turkey. We gave her the option of a cut tip binky and she looked at us like it was complete b*llsh!t and then hucked it across the room. I took that as my cue to throw all of the cut binkies away and give up pacifiers all together. I had one good one stored in the far back of the cupboard for an absolute emergency but we never used it.

She was not happy but within 24 hours, heck maybe even 12 she was over it. Belén had weaned in a similar manner except she was a little older so we could negotiate with her better and make her feel like she had some part of the decision making process.

I bring this up now because we are weaning Eloise away from her favorite sippy cups. Eloise is particular about things and she has a very few things that are her absolute, I may die if I cannot have them right now, favorites. I’ve written extensively about her monkey jammies, which she is close to wearing holes in, but the other important item in her life is her Nuk Hello Kitty sippy cup. It is a really great cup (and comes with other characters on front) and we have used only them for the past year.

In short, I highly recommend them for a one-year-old but I think they seem pretty similar to a bottle so she is on a program to cut out the Nuk’s cold turkey and replace them with Belén’s (and our) favorite Nalgene bottles.

These suckers are workhorses and have a no spill plastic insert that you can order more of. They are super easy to clean and do not get the gross moldy stuff in them like almost every other sippy cup we’ve ever used (and we’ve tried a lot of them.) And no, I am not being paid by any of these companies to endorse their products.

So far, she is not a big fan. We convinced her to try her new purple Nalgene that we had made a really big deal about by putting some juice in it. Up until now we have not given our kids much juice due to the high sugar content. Day two in Mexico, Miss Eloise was visibly, uncomfortably constipated probably because she was totally ready to potty train before being thrust into an new world with no potty seats (I should have packed one!) The result was a gravitation towards milk, for comfort, and holding it all in. We felt horrible as we watched her try and work it out on a beach chair occasionally bursting into tears from the pain. We quickly introduced juice into her diet to help with the constipation and now both kids love it. Great…

I digress. Nothing like a complete tangent on constipation.

Anyway, so despite a totally bare, post-vacation refrigerator, we happened to have some unopened cranberry juice left over from one of my going away parties. We put the cranberry juice in the purple Nalgene bottle and suddenly she was motivated to drink from it. For three days, she refused to consume milk from the new bottle but we gave it time and she caved. We knew she can only live without her beloved milk for a limited amount of time.

Our intention was not to be cruel, but by now we are pretty convinced, cold turkey is the only way to wean those things our little ones love that are no longer good for them…otherwise, old habits will linger on for a very long time…

How did you wean your child from the binky and sippy cup?

Our return journey from Puerto Vallarta to Boise went quite well yesterday.  We checked out of our hotel in time, had a quick taxi ride to the airport, fed everyone before boarding the first plane and then the girls slept nearly the entire duration of the flight from Puerto Vallarta to Denver.  Our layover in Denver did not linger, I spent the flight to Boise working with Belén on word searches (which I was obsessed with when I was little so I hope she loves them too!) while Eloise and Andy watched Cinderella on the Kindle.  Before we knew it, we were home.  Yes, the travel Gods were good.

By the time we arrived home, it was 10pm, which even after a whole lot of flexibility with nap times and bedtimes while we were on vacation, was LATE for our girls.   Eloise surprisingly was calm but poor Belén had a meltdown the entire drive from the airport to our house.

“Mommy, I never want to leave Mexico.”

“I really want to stay with Nana and Bapa forever.”

When asked what her favorite part of the trip was, “All of it.”

“I want to play with Nana all of the time.”

“I never want to leave Mexico.”

“Why can’t we stay in Mexico for 15 weeks?”

“I never want to leave Mexico.”

All of this while whining and sobbing from the backseat.  It actually caused me to tear up a bit reminding me what a great trip we just had and helping me to realize what an impression the trip had on our oldest daughter.  Traveling with our kids is a hassle but it’s a lot of fun and is something we value immensely for our family.

We arrived home and Belén continued her sob story as I ushered her into jammies and through teeth brushing trying to get her to bed as fast as possible to put her out of her misery.  She eventually cried herself to sleep, poor thing.

Eloise on the other hand seemed quite happy to be home.  She was jazzed about all of the toys in our house and pulled them out one by one starting to play with them, like “Sweet, check this out” as if she had never seen them before.  It was nice that she was contently occupied while I helped B through her drama and Andy brought in all of our bags.

Our trip was fantastic and I still plan to share pictures and stories from our second week.  I need to get some photos from my mom first though as I more or less put down my camera since she was taking all of the same photos as I was anyway.

Photo by DreamArt Photography

I’ve already shared how great our resort was as well as how much we enjoy the Puerto Vallarta area but there was one huge takeaway from the trip that I wasn’t expecting: it was SO nice to share so much dedicated time together as a family.  I feel like I know my daughters much better today than I did two weeks ago.  I saw how they reacted to new situations of all sorts.  I saw them taking in the world with fresh eyes and open hearts.  I now know that Eloise loves shoulder rides when going to a new place and that none of Belén’s summer shoes are comfortable but she doesn’t care because they are pretty.  I know that the likelihood of Eloise doing something increases 60X if she can watch her sister do it first.   I know that Belén loves to dance on stage in front of people and Eloise likes to wrestle and she doesn’t play by nice rules.  I know that Belén is more scared of ants than dolphins, donkeys, monkeys, seal lions and tarantulas.  I know that Belén likes to sit in the front seat of the hotel shuttle and Eloise insists on the back and does not want to be held even on the bumps.  I know that both girls love pressing elevator buttons and walking down the hall to assist with getting coffee in the morning.

We were together as a family, including my parents for two straight weeks in a shared living environment and it was fabulous.  It kind of makes me wonder if we need to rethink how we do things in America and that there may be something to having more than two generations in one house.  I’ve already found a house for my parents to buy two blocks away.

I know that both Belén and Eloise loved experiencing a new country and culture as well as so many new experiences, but I think what they dug more than anything else was so much concentrated time with me, Andy, Nana and Bapa.  While dramatic, B’s sob story definitely has us thinking. Wouldn’t it be cool if living like this was more of the norm than the exception?  Perhaps it is time for us to revive our longer term goal of sailing the world together…

Photo by DreamArt Photography

After watching dolphins play alongside the boat, string rays jump out of the water to clean their flaps and whales meandering along, as well as catching a bunch of smaller fish, this guy put up quite a fight,

before my dad brought him into the boat!

This time there are photos to prove his fish stories.

What a day of fishing!

Happy Mother’s Day from México!  I hope all of you mothers out there have a special day that is exactly what you want whether that is hanging out with your kids and/or getting some well-deserved “me” time.

We are nearly a week into Mexican paradise and I’m probably stating the obvious that it has been fabuloso.  From an adult-perspective, we’ve been waking up without an alarm, hitting the incredible gym, drinking adult beverages, hanging out with our kids, reading, taking afternoon naps, basking in the sun/shade and eating delicious food.

The kids have been busy taking everything in, learning a bit of the Spanish language and the Mexican culture, swimming, playing in the sand, playing in the hotel room, pushing elevator buttons, riding on the back of oversized golf carts, walking on bridges, getting shoulder rides, sharing a bedroom and shaking up their daily routine and loving every minute of it.  Nap times have shifted from a steady 1pm to 2 and even 3pm.  We’ve made a new rule that they must get to bed before 2pm if we want them to get to sleep expediently.  Bedtimes are as late as 9:30 and while it takes them longer to fall asleep the girls are surprisingly resilient.

In the past week, Belén has grown up before our very eyes.  She can do everything “all by herself.”  She can do “whatever she wants to.” (Yes, that was a battle.)  She has gone from being scared of the wind at the beginning of the week to riding a dolphin, feeding a gigantic iguana, riding a pony and then swinging on a swing, pumping her legs all by herself.  She’s made great progress swimming as well.  One other new noteworthy behavior is her posing for each photo opp.

Eloise, aka “the honey badger,” is scared yet fierce with her strong opinions that she is very willing to share.  When witnessing something for the first time, she wants someone to “hold you” (hold me) and watches very intently until she is comfortable with the situation at which time she dives in with full honey badger gusto.

We’ve pretty much spent the week lounging between our luxurious room, the beach, the pool and one of many restaurants nearby.  The greatest part of a two-week vacation is that there is zero guilt with this approach.  During the second week, we do plan to embark on a few more excursions, but nothing too crazy…we’ve still got plenty of relaxing to do.

Last year we had a Purple Piñata Princess Party to celebrate Belén and Eloise’s birthdays.  In January when I started to plan this year’s party, I began asking Belén what kind of party she wanted to have.  There were a few different iterations but every one of them involved princesses.  It was close to being a Disco Princess party but Andy put the kibosh on me buying or renting a disco ball so it became a simple princess party, although simple is probably not the best way to describe it.

Food, Decorations and Costumes

The Princesses

Friends and Family

The Party

And what we are not quite prepared to talk about…

One last happy birthday to our favorite princesses!