Warning: This is going to be a monster, mammoth post with a ton of photos. I used to split up the Poconos posts into each individual day, but I’m already far enough behind where I’ll just stick it all together. Be prepared!
This was our eighth consecutive year traveling to the Poconos for a big family get-together. I’ve been going pretty regularly since I was a child, but once all of us kids got into our teen and college years, it was too difficult to coordinate schedules and we let it fall to the wayside for a while. But I’m so glad we’ve picked it back up again and have been making this a tradition—not only for ourselves, but for our children, too. Nora loves the Poconos and was REALLY looking forward to going this year. And boy, was she sad when we were leaving to come back home!
We drove down on a Wednesday night after work, stopped only for a quick bathroom break and to get our traditional frosties at Wendy’s, and got to the Poconos around 9:45 p.m. Unpacked the car, settled in a little bit, and tucked the kids into bed around 11:00. And then all of us adults were up until 1:00 a.m. talking and catching up. Yikes! And go figure, despite the late bedtime, our girls were up at 6:00 a.m. Ouch.
It was a beautiful day, though, so we took advantage and spent some time down at the pond (I guess it’s technically a tiny lake, according to my brother) in the late morning. Nora and Hunter were eager to head down there with their bathing suits and fishing poles.
After doing some fishing (with her new princess fishing pole, girly girls unite!), Michael took Nora out in the kayak. She LOVED that.
Trevor took Hunter out on the paddle board and they were all having a grand ol’ time.
Meanwhile, Kara and I relaxed in the gazebo with the babies…
Vivienne tried to eat Sadie again. You know, the usual.
I love this pic of Vivi. She is so sweet, but such a little terror, too. I’m pretty sure her toddlerhood is going to run us completely ragged. This girl is ON.THE.MOVE.
We relaxed on the deck/porch in the afternoon while thunderstorms rolled in. The big kids played with Play-Doh and the adults had a few beers and appetizers. We moved inside for dinner, then afterward, Tyler, Marie, and Bryce arrived. After all of the kids were in bed, we played Cards Against Humanity. Michael and I had never played before—such a fun game when you’re with the right group of people! :)
The next morning, we woke up to rain. Thankfully, the girls let us sleep in for a bit (probably mostly due to the gloomy weather). Everyone eventually got up, had a big breakfast, and then we made plans to go to the outlet mall. We were originally going to all go together—kids and all—but then my mom and Susan decided they were going to stay back… and offered to watch ALL FIVE KIDS for us!! Michael, Trevor, Kara, Tyler, Marie and I all BOLTED as soon as we heard that offer. We didn’t want them to have time to change their minds! We all packed into our car (minivan for the win!) and headed out for the afternoon.
It was the 4th of July, so first, we stopped at a fireworks store to buy $100 worth of fireworks to have our own personal show over the lake that night. Then we hit up a few stores at the outlet mall, then stopped off at a grocery store to replenish our beer supply—which took WAYYYYYY longer than expected (for all of you Pennsylvanians out there… man, you guys have some messed up liquor laws!). By this time, the weather had cleared up so we were anxious to get back to the house.
We had the ENTIRE group together for a very brief period of time, so we organized everyone out in front of the property to take our traditional group photo. It’s amazing how this photo has changed over time—I think I need to do a comparison post sometime where I compile all of these group pics together. It would be hilarious if I could gather the ones that my mom has from my childhood as well!
That afternoon/night, we played and talked outside, ate dinner outside, and then waited around for it to get dark enough for fireworks.
One of the stops we made at the outlet mall was at Gap. I’m sure you can’t tell, right? :) Such great deals on their hoodies, I couldn’t resist picking up one for all three of us!
This is the first year we’ve let Nora stay up late enough for fireworks. She had taken a good nap earlier in the day, so we knew she’d be able to handle it this year. Vivienne went to bed as usual and managed to sleep through them all.
When it was dark enough, we all went down and sat on the dock at the pond. My brother was in charge of the lighting the fireworks display and it turned out really well. It’s kind of impressive how good of a fireworks display $100 can buy you. Nora covered her ears for most of it, but she was smiling the whole time. About 30 seconds after it was over, she was asking when we could see fireworks again, so it’s safe to say that she loved it.
Afterward, we walked back up the hill and put Nora to bed, then played some more Cards Against Humanity.
On Saturday, we woke up to beautiful weather, which was good because Vinny had made a reservation for us to rent a pontoon boat for the afternoon. We relaxed around the house in the morning, played outside for a bit.
Vivienne looks really tough in this photo. I wouldn’t mess with her and her puzzle pieces, you guys. :)
Right around lunchtime, we packed everyone up and headed out to Lake Wallenpaupack. We got to the marina, got the kids fitted for life jackets, and loaded everyone on the boat. The lake was quite choppy, but it was still really nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air, water, and sunshine.
We brought lunch on the boat for the kids, and snacks and beer for ourselves. We cruised around the lake for quite a while, stopped at Vinny’s brother’s place (right on the lake!) to swim for a few minutes, then loaded back up to head back to the marina. The babies had reached their limit of tolerance for the life jackets (well, at least Vivienne had—Sadie is a little more laidback about the matter), and it was getting to be close to dinnertime.
By this time, Nora was running on empty, too. She actually fell asleep sitting up in Michael’s arms on the way back to the marina. This NEVER happens. Tired girl!
Once we were back at the house, it was more of the same—hanging out outside, dinner outside, kids to bed. We made a fire in the fire pit and talked for a while, but then everyone turned in to go to bed pretty early.
When we woke up the next morning, we all began the process of packing up all of our things and taking off for the drive back home. *sigh* Another year down! It’s always a little depressing when the Poconos trip is over for the year. Already looking forward to the next!
During our Poconos trip last weekend, our dear friend Susan set out lunch for us on Thursday afternoon—and it was a combo we had never considered. She had some fresh baby spinach; a bowl of plain, cold quinoa; and some simple chicken salad. Toss it all together on a plate and you have a surprisingly tasty (and pretty healthy!) meal.
While feasting on it, Michael and I were already talking about recreating it at home so we could take it for lunches at work. We’re always looking for easy, healthy, tasty lunch ideas—and I am SO OVER cold cuts at this point.
We decided this morning to whip up a batch of chicken salad and a pot of quinoa. We ate it for dinner tonight, which was great since it is hot and muggy today and it was nice to have something a little lighter. And I’m already looking forward to eating this again for lunches this week!
Now, this isn’t so much a recipe as it is an idea, because I have NO IDEA how much of each ingredient I put into our chicken salad. I simply sprinkled in a bunch of stuff, stirred, tasted, sprinkled in more, stirred, tasted. I mean, it was a really tough process, what with all that tasting… ;) I’ve never actually made chicken salad because I’m typically not a fan of it—I kind of hate mayo—but with this, we’re using just enough to moisten the chicken mixture. It’s not at all the globs of mayo you’ll find in chicken salads at a deli or restaurant. And with the spices added in, it doesn’t taste much like mayo at all. So if you’re like me and think you don’t like chicken salad? Give this one a try; you might be surprised.
Based on my (obviously very limited) experience making chicken salad, I think it’s kind of hard to screw it up. There are so many flavor combinations, too, so play around with what you have and what you like.
Chicken Salad with Spinach and Quinoa
Ingredients:
– 1-2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
– Mayonnaise
– Dried cranberries
– Sliced/shaved almonds
– Curry powder
– Cilantro (dried or fresh)
– Mustard seed
– Salt and pepper
– Quinoa
– Chicken broth (optional)
– Baby spinach
Directions:
1. To make the chicken salad, combine ingredients (chicken through salt and pepper) and stir well. Add more spices and mayonnaise to taste.
2. Cook quinoa according to package directions, using chicken broth or water.
3. Once quinoa is cooked through, you can assemble and serve the meal immediately, or refrigerate and serve it cold at a later time. To serve, layer baby spinach, quinoa, and chicken salad on your plate. Enjoy!
I’m resurfacing after enjoying a long, full weekend away with my family. We took our annual trip to the Poconos from Wednesday through Sunday (so celebrated the 4th there as well), and it was kind of a whirlwind. I’m still sorting through pics to share, so those will come later this week. In the meantime, I wanted to post another essential oils update since I have a few new oils in my stash this month—and have discovered new uses for others.
First, let’s talk about the new goodies that came in my June order.
doTERRA was offering a 10% off sale on TerraShield in June, so I took advantage—I was planning to order it anyway, so the timing was perfect! I don’t think it’s any secret that conventional bug sprays are poison, right? I mean, they SMELL like poison when you’re spraying them on. There’s a reason the bugs don’t like those sprays, you guys. The alternative, though, is to get eaten alive by mosquitoes, which is never pleasant. I was thrilled to find doTERRA has a safer, yet still effective solution—and honestly, as far as safe, natural bug repellents go? doTERRA’s TerraShield is actually pretty darn affordable. It contains citronella and cedarwood, as well as 11 other essential oils that ward off the creepy crawlies.
Now, bugs seem to affect people in different ways. Mosquitoes like me alright, but they don’t LOVE me. I’m not one to really get “eaten alive” unless the bugs are really out in full force. My mom, on the other hand, walks outside to mow her lawn and comes back with a hundred bites. The bugs find her very tasty for some reason! Just like the bugs react differently to different body chemistries, so do repellents. It might take a little experimenting with TerraShield “recipes” to find the ratio that works best for you (and your family). But before we went on our Poconos trip, I mixed up a TerraShield concoction in a 2 oz. glass spray bottle. I started with 50 drops of TerraShield (put only a small dent in my bottle, by the way), then filled the rest of the bottle with witch hazel. I’ve seen others use less TerraShield, more TerraShield, distilled water instead of witch hazel, etc. Or, others just use TerraShield neat (meaning undiluted), putting a few drops in the palms of their hands and then just rubbing it on. So again, it can take a little bit of experimentation to find what really works.
I will say, though, that I had pretty good luck with bugs in the Poconos. The best part was that I wasn’t worried at all about spraying this stuff ALL OVER me, Nora, and even Vivienne. On the 4th of July, I put it on Nora and myself before we went down to our friends’ small lake on their property to sit on the dock and watch fireworks. We were wearing sweatshirts and jeans, but I still sprayed our heads, faces, necks, hands, and feet liberally. No bites! Nora did somehow manage to wake up with a big bug bite welt on her thigh the next morning—but I think one must’ve gotten her while she slept, because like I said, she had been wearing jeans all day (we had a kind of chilly 4th in the mountains!) and night.
Anyway, I’m going to call this one a success for now. We’ll keep using it as needed and will report back with additional success and/or challenges.
It’s got “Bliss” in its name for good reason. If you are a fan of citrus scents, THIS IS A MUST. I once saw someone describe it as smelling like a creamsicle, and well, that’s pretty accurate. Citrus Bliss is a blend that contains wild orange, lemon, grapefruit, mandarin, bergamot, tangerine, and clementine—and a hint of vanilla! I mean, come on… how can that NOT smell amazing?
So far, I’ve been using this one in the diffuser for its pleasant aroma. My friend Chelsey has suggested that you can put a drop or two in the shower with you to let the steam “diffuse” it for you to give you a nice pick-me-up in the morning. I still need to try this! And I just discovered that doTERRA also carries Citrus Bliss hand lotion and bars of soap, so… that’s dangerous. I want to buy ALL OF THE CITRUS BLISS THINGS.
Is there anyone who couldn’t benefit from a “grounding blend”? I think not. Balance helps to calm you down, reduce stress, and relieve anxiety. I have a few friends now who are using Balance to help with their anxiety and they sing its praises! It has a really nice woodsy scent, too. Perfect for a diffuser, or just rubbing on the wrists, neck, bottoms of the feet, etc. in times of stress and anxiousness. I’ve had a few moments of insanity during which I’ve taken a moment just to stop and take a few good whiffs right out of the bottle—and I think it works. I need to keep a bottle of Balance at work! :)
Now, this isn’t new to me (I’ve had it for a few months), but I realized I never talked about it and I should. One of the most common questions people—including myself—have about essential oils is about how to properly dilute them. When is it needed, how much, and WITH WHAT? There are some great resources out there to give guidance on the first two parts of that question (and let me know if you want me to help with that!), but for the third? I decided to order doTERRA’s fractionated coconut oil (many times referred to as “FCO”). There are MANY things you can use as a carrier oil to dilute oils when necessary—which is mostly when using certain oils on children and babies, but can be helpful for adults, too. But I like FCO because it’s odorless. I’ve used olive oil and regular coconut oil to dilute before, but these all have a fragrance themselves, so it can be weird in combination with the essential oils you’re using. With the FCO, you aren’t disturbing the aroma of your oils, which I think is really nice. Thumbs up for FCO.
So that’s what I’ve got for new oils recently. As for additional uses for oils I’ve talked about previously?
Well, LEMON continues to knock my socks off. One night, I was cleaning the kitchen table after dinner and I saw that there were a few new marks on our white table that wouldn’t come off with our normal counter spray (which is also made with essential oils, vinegar, and water). I whipped out my bottle of lemon oil and dropped a drop on top of the marks. I scrubbed it, and I kid you not—it came right off. I moved over to the other side of the table, where there had been a mark for months—MONTHS!—and used a drop of oil there, too. GONE in seconds. A few weeks later, I was cleaning the playroom after the girls went up to take a bath and I saw that one of our little friends who had been over to visit us for Nora’s recital had marked up the playroom table (also white) with crayon and marker. I tried to wipe it up with a wet rag first (“washable” markers, you know), but since it had been there a few days, it faded but it wasn’t coming up completely. Lemon to the rescue. Two drops and the marks were gone.
I *heart* lemon. Seriously. I remember Chelsey telling me that she goes through a bottle of lemon every month. I was new to oils at the time and I was like, HOW?! Because I just could not imagine it. Now, I’m that person. I need to order lemon every month. I’m running low at the moment and it’s kind of a mini crisis.
I also cannot say enough good things about lavender for helping to soothe itching and other irritations. My mom (being the bug bite queen that she is) has sailed through her old bottle and has asked me to order her another one. I used lavender on Nora’s bug bite this weekend and she stopped complaining about it, too.
As always, please email me (heatherdriveblog at yahoo dot com) if you have any questions or are interested in essential oils. I could talk about them forever because it’s just so interesting to me how effective they are at helping with so many things! I’m also happy to help get you hooked up with a few oils to try. You can browse doTERRA’s products here: http://www.mydoterra.com/heatherdrive/
If you are interested in potentially enrolling with a wholesale account (as a wellness advocate), doTERRA is offering a great promotion this month. Those who enroll in July will receive 50 free product credits—which is essentially equivalent to $50 in free product. It’s really a fantastic deal and I would love to help people take advantage of this! I can also tell you all about the wholesale account and how it works, but for starters—there is no obligation to buy or sell, it’s just the best way to get the most bang for your buck with essential oils. You get 25% off retail prices (retail prices available here) on the oils, plus you earn free product, promotions, and even free shipping. Email me for more info. :)
It’s time to go enjoy some Citrus Bliss.
(For even more info, check out my other posts on essential oils.)
Dear Vivienne,
I’m definitely starting to get emotional. We’re closing in on your first birthday, and I’ve found myself clutching you a little closer, hugging you a little harder. You’re getting so big, and I kind of can’t understand how that happened so quickly.
The other day, I was hanging out with you for a few extra minutes, lying on the floor of your bedroom while you sat there playing. It was after bath—you were in your jammies, and I had just brushed your hair. You reached for the brush and grabbed it, running it over the side of your own head. You were trying to brush your own hair. You knew exactly what it was for. This is just one example of the things you do now that make me think, “Wow. She’s actually becoming a PERSON.” You’re getting familiar with the world around you and how it works. I’ve been through this incredible development once before (with Nora), but it isn’t any less amazing with you.
You’ve had your two bottom teeth for months now, but any others have been slow to follow. But guess what? We’re welcoming two top teeth now, finally. And they are apparently bothering you because you have been biting me while nursing. A LOT. It hurts like hell and I’ve made you cry a few times now with my startling gasps of “Ouch!! No!” I’m fighting through it, as I hope it will pass.
Overall, you seem less interested in nursing now. You eat quickly, and you don’t dilly-dally. The minute you’re done, you sit up, roll over, or wiggle away to move onto the next thing. With the exception of the morning feeding (when you’re starving), I could skip or forget about a nursing session and you probably wouldn’t even notice. You’re much more into real food these days. You’ll gobble purees, but now you are LOVING fresh fruit as well. You eat strawberries, blueberries, banana, watermelon, plums, nectarines. You’ll shovel it all in faster than we can cut it up for you, and then you yell for more. We’re working hard on teaching you the sign language for “more,” but you choose to be vocal about it instead. We’ll say “More?” and give you the sign. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” you’ll say loudly in return, waving your arms wildly or hitting your hands on your tray. OKAY THEN. It’s not sign language, but you’re definitely communicating.
You’ve tried vegetables, too. Sweet potatoes, peas, carrots. We’ve tried little bits of meat. You seemed to like egg. At this point, we’re giving you samples of pretty much anything that’s soft enough for you to eat. By next month, I’m sure we’ll have expanded your horizons even more. We have to try yogurt and more cheese! By this time, your sister was eating dairy regularly but we delayed it with you because you had such problems with it when your reflux was bad. Speaking of your reflux… you barely ever spit up anymore. It just seemed to fade away. Crazy to think about how we used to be cleaning spit up off of everything all the time and now we just… don’t have to. Just another sign of you growing up.
You love baths and the baby pool. You have learned how to SPLASH, and you do it well! You don’t care that it gets water all up in your face, eyes, mouth. You’ll take a quick break to blink or cough and then you’re back at it again, getting everything around you all wet.
You crawl on your hands and knees exclusively now—no more belly crawl. You’re pulling up on things, but again, just on your knees, or kneeling on one knee while the other foot is on the floor. If we stand you up and put you up against something you can hold on to, you will stand there for a bit if you’re in the mood. If you want to be picked up, you crawl over to me or Daddy and grab our legs and pull up. It’s terribly cute, and pretty nice to still feel needed by you sometimes.
Nora is good at watching over you. She’ll tell us if you’re getting into something you shouldn’t. She’ll grab things away from you if they’re too little for you to play with (even if “it’s too little for her” is just an excuse for her to take something away from you because she wants it!). But she’s pretty good about sharing with you, too. You think she’s SO FUNNY sometimes, and reward her efforts with the greatest belly laughs. I pulled your hair up into your first “ponytail” the other day, and as I was doing it, Nora said to me, “That’s going to be so cute!” She and I laughed really hard once it was up and we saw how different you looked. Then she couldn’t stop talking about how cute it looked on you. You and Nora are lucky to have each other, and I can’t wait to see how your relationship continues to blossom as you grow.
This month marked your first real illness—with antibiotics to boot. You got a double ear infection. You were pretty miserable for a few days with a high fever. You gave us a lot of problems getting the Amoxicillin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen into you at first, but you eventually got used to it and accepted it more readily. I tried to hold off on giving you meds until you really needed them. But you were just burning up so hot and acted so miserable that we had to turn to the medicine. All better now, though!
The next few weeks are going to be busy. We’ll be going on a couple of vacations, we’ll be enjoying summer, and… well, we’ll be planning a party. I’m certainly going to cherish these last days of your infancy.
You’re growing up. But I hope you don’t mind if you’re always my baby.
I love you so, so much.
Mommy
Is it possible for babies to be bullies? Because, uh… Vivienne sometimes acts like one when she’s around other babies. Or puppies.
In general, Vivienne is a very “vocal,” strong-willed baby. She’s always been the type to let us know when she wants or needs something. And as she’s grown, we’ve noticed that she doesn’t really take any crap from anybody—Nora included. She’ll wrestle herself into any situation. She pushes our hands away if we try to wipe her face, fix her hair, check out her teeth. If Nora takes a toy away from her, she’ll “fight” to get it back. She’s tough. She’s feisty. But none of these characteristics are bad. I think they’re quite normal, actually.
But there is something that Vivienne does that I’ve never seen another baby do. She attacks other babies.
I use “attack” loosely, because, well—she’s only 11 months old. I don’t think she’s legitimately attacking anyone. But it’s sort of the best way to describe what it is that she does. Our most frequent victim? My niece, Sadie, who is just 2.5 months younger than Viv. Even when they were smaller (back during the winter, for instance), I can remember Vivienne lunging at Sadie if they were close together. Vivienne grabs her head or the sides of her face and tries to mouth her—it looks like open-mouthed kisses, or even biting. It used to be cute, but now that Vivi actually DOES have teeth, I’m afraid that she might actually hurt her. And now, it’s accompanied by high-pitched screeching. Vivienne almost appears angry—or at least agitated—when she does all of this, and it’s one of those moments where I really wish I could read her mind! What is she thinking? What is she doing? we all wonder.
She does this to small animals, too. Tessa is sometimes the victim, although a lot of times, Vivienne is actually quite gentle with her. So much so that Tessa actually purposely lies down in front of Viv sometimes, simply because she likes the attention. But other times, Vivienne will grab at her skin/fur, and then “mouth” her, too. And again, sometimes she’s pretty vocal about it!
Vivienne and Sadie have been capable of hanging out together, peacefully. But there are definitely small stretches of time when Viv just can’t seem to leave Sadie alone. On Saturday, my mom was babysitting Sadie and brought her over for a bit. We had them on the floor, facing each other, and Vivienne started screeching and leaning over to grab Sadie, putting her mouth on the top of her head. We kept pulling her back and then she’d go for her again.
We wondered if she was jealous.
Territorial.
Curious. (Who is this/what is this thing in front of me, that is just my size??)
Playful.
Angry.
Or just a baby bully.
But seriously, she’s been doing this off and on since she was probably six months old. To me, that’s far too young for a baby to actually understand what she is doing—so it’s hard for me to believe that Vivienne would be purposely attacking her. I mean… right??
Has anyone ever seen a baby exhibit this sort of behavior before? I assume they grow out of it? I did some Googling and found some information/thoughts about this behavior simply being an extension of them learning about their surroundings. That we should reinforce “gentle” touch, and remove her from the situation if she doesn’t easily back down. Any other tips from fellow parents, child development folks, teachers, etc.?
Our trip to the Poconos is coming up, and Vivienne will have plenty of quality time to get used to Sadie. I hope she eventually learns that although Sadie appreciates the “love,” she may not always like to have her personal space invaded like that. I want them to grow up together, playing sweetly, sharing toys and laughs, and trading secrets.
In the meantime, I’ll be hoping my sweet Vivienne isn’t going to become that girl on the playground who knocks kids down and steals their lunch money.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
