end of beach time and back to the midwest

i must say the last week went quickly. and the end was both enjoyable and trying. the highlights definitely included more time with grandma sue and james as well as endless waterworks construction and rescuing animals.

on one of our daily jaunts about town, we spotted a black turtle that appeared to be contemplating crossing the road. so i requested that we return and show the kids a live wild turtle as we assist in crossing the street. ruskin parked the van and ran out in the nick of time to scoop up the critter which did not appreciate the manhandling. it hissed and squirmed, but was safely deposited across the street. our other animal interactions included a cicada and several frogs that required some assistance during the week. the frogs were quite curious and invited themselves into the house. both kids were quite thrilled with the rescues.

the day after R's bday, we went to the children's museum. it was a rainy day and there were many people there. ruskin and i find children's museums odd as they are definitely fun and playful but they are not often designed to actually teach anything to kids. it is usually too crowded and a little too dispersed to focus and parents do not always monitor the kids well. despite the crowding of a runny day, the kids enjoyed playing there -- K liked all of the live animals, including more turtles, bunnies, birds, and chinchillas. she also liked the puppets, ball activities, and the big bubbles. but much of it was clearly over her head. we were excited about the promise of the magic school bus exhibit as R is enthralled with the books (we have about 25 of them). the science part was hands on (circuits, magnets, etc.) but the magic school bus section was not very well done which was disappointing. luckily, parents are a lot more critical than kids. R enjoyed his encounter with ms frizzle and the gang. there were certainly fun sections that were interesting -- a soap bubble that you stand in and create by pulling a rope, a large medical exhibit, and building circuits (ok more fun for dad). we stayed a few hours and headed back home. it was fun but we definitely enjoyed the north carolina museum and planetarium more last year.

thursday and friday involved several trips to the beach. R pretended to be a dandelion that was rooted to mom as the waves tried to blow or pluck him away. he has quite an imagination. the waves were either lawn mowers or preschoolers who wanted to bring the dandelion home to their mommies. it was fun to jump in the surf with him. he is quite comfortable in the water and it seems a great place to help him with him large motor strength. k is warming up to the ocean too. she likes it as long it promises to stay out of her face. she does say "stop ocean stop." but alas the waves do not listen.

we took a drive on friday morning up to another part of the beach. we wanted to see the marshlands and beach rejuvenation project. the northern part of north myrtle beach -- cherry grove -- is getting quite built up and the shoreline seems less stable than the part near ruskin's mom. we read in the paper that there was beach rejuvenation happening starting on thursday. so, we decided to go and watch. it was utterly fascinating. out at sea was a barge that dredged up sand and pumped it through a huge pipe for perhaps a mile until it reached shore. the huge metal pipe was welded together and the sand piled up and was redistributed by bulldozers. it was fascinating.

thursday and friday brought increasing tantrums from R. on friday he had two that lasted about 45 minutes each. one was about having enough butter on his pancakes to cover them entirely so that there were no holes showing (there were no holes and the butter was cold and hard to spread). hard to know whether to laugh or cry about that one. the other one was post-nap. we had moved away from these tantrums to the point where he would not just flip out about every little thing. i hope being back here will change that. i think it is highly correlated with sleep. while we were able to maintain his sleep schedule with the desai's, the shifted beach schedule at grandma sue's with late dinners and late bedtimes seems to have led to the return of the tantrums. in the evening, it is hard to tear the kids and their dad away from the beach. we also wanted to make sure that sue and james got time with them as the kids don't have enough time with their grandmother. but this means that R did not fall asleep some nights til midnight (11 central). it will take a little time to readjust but i am glad that a good time was had by all.

everyone had a treat friday night -- grandma sue and james went to dinner with the kids and ruskin and i went to our favorite restaurant down in myrtle beach (collector's cafe -- the snapper in miso was amazing). though both kids had a difficult time at departure, they returned after we did and were quite happy. both had had pizza and zucchini fries for dinner followed by some live music at the park. R and James had a wonderfully silly time rolling on the ground telling each other secret passwords. R ate dinner redux around 10 pm. but he did finally eat a good meal, the only one of the day. Ruskin and his mom had some more computer and talking time. everyone went to bed around midnight tired.

Ruskin and i woke up at 6:30 and finished getting everything ready so we could be on the road around 8 or 8:30 for our 4 hour ride to charlotte. everything went smoothly. the kids played and slept. R loves his legos and is getting much better at the fine motor. i got nauseous on the ride sitting in the back of the van and was quite happy to reach the airport. it was hard to say good bye to grandma sue. it was a very good week for everyone. we all made it through security quickly and boarded our plane without a mishap. the kids were tired and had naps on the flight. we gathered our luggage and ruskin grabbed a taxi and went home. i took the kids to the light rail and we went for a train ride to the 38th street station. R was very excited that we go there before daddy. the kids enjoyed the ride and we got home around 5:30. a 12 hour day so far. then ruskin and i ordered some nice greens from rainbow the chinese restaurant (spinach, portabello and tofu with garlic, and gai lan with tofu). we all watched the first half of the women's marathon on the olympics while the kids got squirrelly. they were just difficult but tired. ruskin took k up to bed around 8 and i headed to the grocery store with R.

at whole foods, it was desi hour. half the customers seemed to be south asians. including our friend meena. R ate a spinach and feta pastry and vanilla merengue cookie among other samples. we came home and had bed time resistance. it is midnight our time and everyone is asleep (including ruskin on the couch). we watched more michael phelps and the incredible runner bolt who won the 100 meter race without even trying. he runs something like 30 mph. the french connection is on and i have many emails to go before i sleep...

it was a wonderful two weeks and we wish we could spend more time with family and that they were closer. we also are happy to be home in the twin cities. as much as we like other places, this is home. and a nice place to be.