Great Moments in Parenting

In the car ride back from our outing this afternoon in the East Bay, C starting screaming out of the blue. I turned my head around in time to catch him projectile vomiting all over the back of the seat, himself and everything else within a 6" radius.
He narrowly missed his disgusted sister: "Ew, buddy, you stink!" Poor little guy. Who knew?

Naturally we were stuck in bridge traffic on the 80 so it wasn't like we could pull over. I had to laugh.

Poor C, he has had a rough time of it lately. He's been clinging to me like a barnacle for the past 3 days and has not let me out of his sight...gets upset if I so much as take a bathroom break. This morning he begged me for scrambled eggs. When I delivered them, he cried and screamed and threw them on the floor. For the first time in my parental life, I turned him over my knee and swatted him several times on his well-padded bottom. (yes, I spanked him--shudder, shudder) I was mad and frustrated. I'm convinced that it did not actually hurt him, just startled him. No, I'm not proud of my actions. Had I known he was actually sick and not just being impossibly difficult, perhaps I'd have had more sympathy for his situation.

Renewal

First of all, I apologize for not keeping up with this blog. When the changeover occured to google, I admit that I choked.
It has been far too long, but I'm happy to say that I'm back.

So, here's the latest at The Beehive:

We're officially "reviewing our options". That is to say, if you check out my blog posting from December of '06 "Can We Afford to Stay Here" I lament about The City and how expensive it has gotten to maintain our lifestyle with 2 kids. Right around the time of that posting, my stroller was stollen, our garage was broken into, my car was broken into and my backpack w/ cell phone and favorite knit hat stollen (plus a lot of children's music CD's and 5 or 6 Pullups-not that anyone would care) The good news is that my wallet was tucked away safely in my jacket pocket at the time which I was wearing.

Phew.

I've been thinking about the idea that I'd like to have a little less stress in my life. A few more trees and a few less bums would be nice. I'm tired of living next to the freeway and hearing police cars at 2 am. I'm tired of worrying about our chances of getting our kids into some of the better public elementary schools only to have to go through this process all over again in a few years for Middle school and then again for H.S. I'd like to stay put and I'd like things to be easier. I'd like to see our kids ride bikes up and down our block. I'd like to be able to access the city (and Berkeley!) without living in the thick of it and dealing with the problems it has.
I've lived here for 18 years but maybe I'd like to spend my forties (yes, forties!) an possibly fifties (shudder, gasp!) somewhere else. I'm ready for change--excited, in fact.

Well, this morning we checked out some houses for sale in Albany. We have a real estate agent interested in sending us listings and we saw some sweet houses on tree-lined blocks....so it begins again.

Next visit we check out Berkeley and visit some schools.