No Sleep Till...OGLEBAY!!!

Today at noon begins my departmental retreat at Oglebay resort. This is the first time since I became pregnant with Budgie that I have been separated from him for a night. No overnights to Baba's house without me, no mini vacation getaway weekends with the husband and no kids. Nope, nothing. Every night Budgie falls asleep in his bed on his sheets and his pillow, with me curled up next to him humming his "sleepy song". Yeah, I know...it's good for him that I'm away. He needs the separation time to grow up. Mommy can't be there ALL the time... yadda, yadda, yadda. But Mommy is FREAKING OUT!!!!!

When Beanie was a toddler, I had a job that required me to travel a bit. A bit turned out to be approximately one month per year on the road, split up over several long weekends and one 11-day sojourn. I had to leave her for the 11-day trip (this time, to Orlando) when she was 18 months old. I missed her terribly. I called every morning and every night to talk, which she did (in typical toddler fashion), but I don't think she grasped the concept of Mommy being away and coming back.

I took a special side trip to Downtown Disney JUST to buy her a Mickey Mouse FROM DISNEY (yeah, I know, I'm weird). I carried that thing through the Orlando airport, on the plane, etc.. I had visions of her running to me in the luggage pickup area, screaming, "MOMMEEEEEE!!!" Well, needless to say, that did not happen. She saw me and screamed, "NO, I WANT BABA!!!" And left me standing (with Mickey Mouse in hand), in tears, in the middle of the luggage pickup. My kid HATED me!!! It took several hours and several more gifts dug from my luggage to finally win her back.

Maybe that's what I'm afraid of this time, only with Budgie. I know, it's only one night (and another night on Saturday for my Jersey trip), but the reaction Beanie had nearly 8 years ago has affected me deeply. Granted, he's much older, much more independent, but he is still so reliant on me to be there for him to sing him to sleep at night and tell him funny bedtime stories about Nosey (another story for another time).

I guess it's time to break away and let my baby Budgie fly ... if only for one night.

Movie Star For a Day

Yesterday, my friend Greg asked me if he could "borrow" Budgie for a video he's shooting. There is a Covey seminar at Cal U next week and the focus is on education. The video will focus on why to teach kids the 7 Habits early in life, so they grow up with them. Great. So Matt rearranged his work schedule so he could bring Budgie and Beanie down for the shoot.

Amazingly enough, eight four-year-old kids were picture-perfect during the entire shoot. Budgie listened to directions, paid attention and was hamming it up for the camera like nobody's business. He loved the attention!

After the main shoot, we took four of the boys (Budgie, Greg's son, co-worker Justin's son and Greg's neighbor's son) to the Emeriti Fountain on campus and let them run wild. They had an absolute BLAST!!! They ran through the fountain, splashing each other, sitting on the spray and "washing their butts" (boys will be boys...) and generally being hams for the camera. It was so much fun to watch them acting so crazy.

Seriously, it's times like these (when my kids get to do really cool things like videos and photo shoots) that I really LOVE what I do. Something neat for them to remember doing, that they can tell THEIR kids about. Beanie did a photo shoot for Idlewild when she was 4 and now Budgie will be in a video for Cal U when HE'S 4.

As Matt pulled the kids away from the fountain and towards the car, Budgie called out to me, "HEY MOM!!! YOU have the coolest work EVER!!!" His exclamation was met with laughter from the folks walking through the quad. I guess to him, my work is toys and video shoots and playing in the fountain on a hot summer day. 

Kennywood and other musings

Like many Pittsburgh-area families, the fam and I made our yearly pilgrimage to Kennywood last week. I'm glad to have gotten the discount tickets at Giant Eagle, securing an additional $33 in savings to spend on corn dogs and fudge.

We got there around noon and jumped on the first ride...the Kangaroo. Surprisingly, Budgie was tall enough to ride a majority of the "big people" rides and that was just fine with me. Less splitting up means less meeting up and fighting later.

As we walked past the Jack Rabbit, I noticed that the minimum height requirement was 36 inches. Budgie was tall enough to ride a "Big People's" roller coaster! He was so excited! We rode around some more and Budgie kept asking to go on the "rolley coaster". So we got in line. And waited. And waited. And waited. It was finally our turn!

Budgie, who decided that Mommy was his permanent riding partner for the day, plunked down next to me in the seat and was soooo excited. We hit the first hill. There was no sound from my child. Only a small, chubby fist found its way like a magnet to the front of my shirt and grabbed it. I told him to scream as we went down the hills, but he refused. Must. Be. Big. Boy.

Second hill. The fist wound its way tighter into my shirt and pulled me toward him. He did not yell, just winced. Up the incline, rounding the bend for the big rabbit hill. You know, the one where you go airborne? Yeah, that one.

We go up, up, up and Nev's hand squeezes tighter. He starts panting. I look at him and say, "HERE WE GO, BUDDY!!!"

Squeak.

Down the double hill we go...

**FLASH** Kennywood's opportunistic sales camera flashes and my son's face of a lifetime is forever immortalized on Kodak paper. And for the low, low price of $10, we are now the proud owners of a 5" X 7" of my son's first roller coaster ride. I handled that photo with kid gloves all day, placing it lovingly in a frame the moment we got home from the park. It's something I will treasure the rest of my life. It's an image of my family that is too perfect for words.

Anyone up for another ride?