Warm Summer Breeze

I'm feeling nostalgic.  I try not to think about what is around the corner: cold, fall air.  August has been very generous to us here in NH.  The weekends have been beautiful.  Warm.  Sunny.  Breezy.  Perfect.  We've had so many days like this I feel like I need to hold my breath in fear things will change very quickly.  In New England, weather is very unpredictable.  Yes, I keep mittens and an ice scraper in my car year round.  You just never know (It has snowed in May).

The past few weeks have been heavenly.  I ride in my car with the sunroof open, windows down, and my hair flipping in the breeze.  It seems everyone has the same feeling as I watch convertibles cruise down the highway with their tops down and hair flying around.  As I near my home there are fields on hay being bound and made into bales.  They sit and wait for the local farmers to pick up and (I'm assuming) store for the winter months.  I have grown fond of these images it has made me feel summer is truely here.  The hay bales are starting to be picked up and it reminds me summer won't last for long.


credit- picsdigger

I wish I could capture the moment we've been having lately and seal it tightly inside a glass bottle.  I'd like to be able to view a perfect sunny day whenever I'm feeling blue.  The sun really perks up my soul.  How could it not?

I love the way my skin smells after being in the sun.  I wear my flip flops so much they're starting to develop holes but I refuse to buy another pair.  I have been using the same navy blue flip flops for, maybe, 10 years.  I kid you not.  I love them.  I love giving myself pedicures, although I haven't used nail polish in over a year.  I have come to enjoy the nakedness of my toe nails. 

Summer should never end.  Although as much fun spring, fall, and winter can be, my true favorite is summertime in August.  Dry heat, and although there is some pollen in the air, it doesn't affect me.  However, my poor kid struggles with it and I hope he will develop an immune system to it like me.

Summer in NH won't last forever.  If you blink you may not see the change in the seasons and fall will be here.  We are already seeing Pumpkin head Ale in the grocery stores.  (I was shocked!)  I'll be left wondering where my sunny breezy days are, but I'm sure I'll be posting how beautiful fall can be.

Helmets

It's summer time and my 20 month old son has a new bike.  It has fancy streamers, red handle bars, bright blue seat, and a yellow bucket in the back for toys, rocks, sticks, dirt... you name it. 

He can't quite maneuver the peddles so he finds pushes makes the bike move faster.

He likes hopping on and off the bike, and playing with a bell we added later.  The bell was something his smaller bike had and he enjoys making the 'ding-ding' sound.

He's pretending to make the 'ding-ding' sound.

We haven't spent too much time with the bike.  Usually he plays with it in the house and rides in the kitchen or living room.  So we never really had any issues or thoughts about using a helmet.  But he is fully aware of what a helmet is.

My son loves hats.  He wears one every day, just because it's what we do.  When he was a baby I would have him wear a hat so he wouldn't get a burn on his scalp.  The hat has become a staple when we leave the house.  He has choose to pick from and he's always excited to put a hat on himself.

Recently he's noticed motorcycles and bicycles on the roads and even sees they wear a hat.  I mention their called helmets and that's what people wear when they ride a bike.  He now calls them hehmets and is insisting he needs a hehmet for his new bike.

'Soon' is all I can tell him.  His birthday is in a few months and it would make a fun gift for him.  But a helmet for a 2 year old?  I've never shopped for a kids size helmet.  Where do I even start?  I found a link on the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute and there is more information that I had imagined about helmets.  Who knew there was so much talk about helmets!

But my silly-putty loves hats and what better addition to our collection but to have a hat that is hard... a helmet! 

I'll have to do a bit more research on which helmet to find.  Do you have any tips or suggestions on how to buy a helmet for a toddler?  Is it something I'll need to size his little noggin before purchasing?  I've debating about using a hand-me-down but I've also read the pads in the helmets aren't as supportive after so much usage in hand-me-downs.

Windows: open or closed?

I love sleeping with the windows open, no matter how cool it may get at night during the summer months.  I love the summer air and prefer to leave the windows in our home open all day long.  Even if it's raining, I like them open.  I love the smell of the warm rainy air.

I managed to marry a guy who is the opposite of me.  He prefers to keep the windows closed, all day, all night.  At the first sign of a rain drop, he's running around the house shutting the windows.  The house warms up so quickly and the air feels too stuffy. 

We have an A/C unit in the kitchen wall.  I do not like to use this unless the weather is extremely unbearable.  I love the summer heat that much.  Sometimes I'll agree to turn it on, but only for a few hours which is just long enough to get the humidity out of the house.  It's actually nice not to have my bare feet stick to my tile floors.

There is one concern my husband and I have, and it has to do with the windows in our 20 month old sons room.  He sleeps upstairs from us, and on the other side of the house.  The sun sets on the other side of the house, directly in my sons bedroom.  So when he goes to sleep, the room is shining with light and is quite warm.  If his windows are open, there is a nice breeze.  However, by the time I or my husband go to bed, we are scrambling upstairs to close the windows.  Here in our neighborhood, the temperature can get really cool this time of the year.  I refuse to dress my son in warm pj's at night, so instead he has a little onsie on and I do notice by the time I'm off to bed, his little thighs are chilly.  I try to add an extra blanket since he's usually laying on the one I originally gave him.  That extra layer usually wakes him up.  So instead I lay the blanket next to him and close his window. 

I have constant battles in my head, as well as with my husband.  I fear he'll be too hot, like his Mommy, and wake up in the middle of the night.  Or do I risk the potential drop in temperature and keep his windows open, only to fear he catches a cold while only wearing his onsie?  We can only hope that it doesn't rain, most times the rain comes at an angle and right through his windows.  Lucky him, his room is blessed with experiencing all sorts of weather.

I feel we're really neurotic about our windows.  Do other parents debate over whether to leave the windows open?  Or is the A/C on all summer? 

The lake

We spent 4 nights and 5 days at the lake.  The cottage is set in a cove so there isn't much boat traffic near us, but we see a lot of kayaks and canoe's.  So it was a perfect spot to let him run around.  He hasn't developed the idea he's invisible so he didn't care to go in too deep.  He prefered to go up to his ankles or knees. 

He loved the water, the sand, the fish.  Splashing the water with his hands or swimming on his belly along the sandy beach, he was in his glory.

By 8:30am we were in the water.  We couldn't help it.  The water was staring at us and the sun was so bright.  We had to change from our pj's straight into our bathing suits.  He'd run to the water as if something was meeting him there.  I suppose there was, the water. 

That's the lake, we'd tell him and he was try to repeat us.  However, he's still 20 months old so he babbles a lot and it takes either myself or my husband to interpret what he's saying. 

The lake has so much to offer, from swimming to boating, to digging in the sand, to calling the fishies.  The lake was surely missed the day we left to go home but I know he'll remember some stories for next time.  We'll make sure of it.

Tent

4 nights and 5 days were spent outdoors.  Swimming in a lake, riding on a boat, and sleeping in a tent.  And do I dare mention the mischief a 20 month old can get into?  Nah... I'll save those stories. 

My silly putty loved the tent and would giggle and squirm with excitment when it was time for bed or a nap.  Our tent is rather large and is advertised to hold 8-9 people.  But of course there are only three of us, a queen size air mattress, a pack n' play, and all of our gear.  He thought it was a play room but I quickly had to remind him that this was a place where we sleep.  He seemed fine with that answer and went about his day, but always got excited for bed.

One particular morning, while it was still quite chilly, he chose to stay in bed a little longer and read.  It was a moment I couldn't help but capture and add to his scrapbook of memories.

It wasn't until the day we were packing up to head home, that I was able to capture a few more moments of him enjoying our tent. 

Looking for Dada

Trying to clean up

He'll let Mama take a turn but quickly wants to sweep again.

I'm positive he'll love to go camping again but he may need to wait until next year.  Some of these nights are getting really cool, and into the low 40's. 

Just waking up from his nap and not so ready to go home.

Summer construction gone wild

Almost two weeks ago I got a flat tire.  I shouldn't call it a flat because it's not your typical flat tire.  I was on the highway driving home from visiting with family and my 19 month old son was sleeping in the back seat.  He was very lucky in many ways, and missed the whole thing.

Like most roads in the summer time, there's construction being done, especially at night.  Road work is everywhere and we constantly see the orange signs, cones, barrels, and flashing yellow lights that remind us to use CAUTION. 

But what happens when caution isn't being used by the construction crew? 

This tire was in fact ON my car while driving down the highway.  This picture shows the tire on the back of my car just before getting it replaced.

It was quite a scary moment when I realized what happened that night.  As I was driving by the construction, there was a few men on the road using a jack hammer.  One of them actually jumped into the oncoming traffic (aka: ME) and it appeared he had lost control of the jack hammer.  I couldn't believe how close they were to the traffic while using this machine. 

Needless to say, I passed the construction site with caution and I noticed how loud the jack hammer had been.  I didn't think much about it until a few miles down the road my car sounded very loud.  Very loud.  So much it was like being in an airplane about to take off.  My first thought was my engine was about to explode.  I never thought I had a flat tire.  I quickly decided I needed to pull off the highway and even cut off an 18 wheeler in the meantime.  Something was wrong.

After safely stopping the car (and my son sleeping through this mess), I open my door and see my rear tire has smoke coming out of it.  I had been riding on my rim for a few miles.  Luckily my husband was a few miles ahead of me in his own car but he wouldn't reach me for another 20 minutes. 

So there I sat on the side of the highway just as the sun was setting.  It wasn't completely dark when I stopped, but the stars were out by the time my rescue came.

We decided we had to transfer our son to my husbands car, all while the highway traffic was wizzing by us.  It was quite the scene, I'm sure.  Ironically, J didn't seem to mind the move.  He stirred a little but was fast asleep by the time I buckled him back into his car seat.

I love the summer, but I don't have the same warm and fuzzy feelings about the construction.

Vacation

Our family vacation ended yesterday.  I'm really sad to be back at work today.  So many things happened during my week off, it will take some time to share here.  But in a nutshell, here's what happened:

We had a successful yard sale!
J got real sick with the hand, foot, mouth disease.
We went on a train ride, a really BIG train.
We went to Story Land :)
I go the hand, foot, mouth disease :(
We went to the Zoo!
We went to the beach.
We spent three long days at home and the weather was beautiful!

There is also drama with J's school, and issues with the state regulations and the daycare owners lies.  It's a terrible mess.  Someday, maybe I'll share it all here.  But for now, it's still such a heated mess, my stomach is in knots and it's hard to talk about.  For now, I'll just mention he has a new school but cannot start until October.  I just wish I didn't have to deal with all of this WHILE on vacation.  It's also hard when my husband can't talk about it because it's such a mess.  So I'm left to deal with it all myself.  I'll definitely need to write a post about that soon.

But I'm greatful for the time I had with my family. 

Oh, Canada...

It was Memorial Day yesterday.  I woke up, opened the shades, opened the sliding glass door to the porch.  Something smelled like burning brush.  Was somebody having a fire at 7:30 in the morning? 

There were fireworks in the neighborhood the night before.  Maybe one is stuck in a tree and it caught on fire? 

Or god forbid, a house? 

Nope.  It was nothing like that.

It was Quebec.  On fire. 

Oh, Canada.... I live about 8 hours south, yet the smoke and burning smell have reach our neighborhood.  Actually, it has reached our whole region.  This mornings news mentioned Vermont was receiving the roaring blaze but thankfully the winds shifted.

Some NH firefighters were sent north to aid relief in the fires.  (And who am I to complain about my cubie-desk job??)  These men and women are our neighbors and our heros.

Luckily my family doesn't have asthma, but I can imagine what this air quality would do to someone. 

I wish for everyone who is affected by this fire to be safe.  Seeing the smoke in my neighborhood and being able to smell the burning brush made me realize not to take anything for granted.

Sunscreen--how safe is it??

The EWG recently updated their sunscreen database for 2010.  I thought I had safe sunscreen.  Wow, was I wrong!  This list has identified potential ingredients that may be harmful.  Unfortunately the stores are completely stocked with the items that are potentially harmful.  It's like they're saying... HEY, use me!  Use me!  You know you should use something, it's better than nothing...

But is it really?  Is using bad sunscreen better than no sunscreen?

I was never a active user of sunscreen (maybe SPF 4).  In fact, when I was a teenager and totally knew more than anyone else, I would lather baby oil on my skin and sit in my back yard.  I would sit, literally, for hours.  I'd read books, have a snack, or nap.  My summers were consumed on my lawn chair. 

Almost 20 years later, I can see the results of torturing my skin.  That's what it was, torture.  My skin had no chance of survival with all the baby oil I had used.  My skin, right now, is not as bad as you think.  I do have freckles.  I have dark freckles and light freckles.  Then I do have freckles from the sun.  Freckles sound so much better than sun spots.  But they're there and a piece of me feels burned, demolished.  These sunspots seem to appear darker when I've been in the sun.  I feel like I'm being tricked and my skin looks tanned, but really, they're just my sunspots getting darker.  UGH!

So I have issues trying to turn back time.  I'm beyond help at this point and I can only try and stop what is already happening.  I've been using sunscreen that costs four times the amount of the common sunscreens you see on every shelf.  I've been spending so much more money on sunscreen that (I hope) is safer. 

Even more important, I can stop these crazy sunspots from attacking my kids body.  It's only fair to his future to keep him safe and healthy.  Because you know, the summer should be fun.  We should be able to play in the sun, the water, the sand.  We should be able to do that without wearing a full body suit.  We should feel safe and protected with a sunscreen that will do what it has promised to do.  Protect our skin.