A big shoe no-no

I tried so hard to be hip and fashionable.  Jeff's company holiday party was the Friday night after we returned home from FL.  The invite called for cocktail attire and since I had nothing to wear, I went shopping online and found myself some very pretty dresses.  Of course, I needed The Girl's help in deciding which dress was The One or not. I got lucky and was able to show 3 of The Girls the dress choices, all in the same evening, a few weeks before the party.  The Girls were pretty unanimous in their enthusiasm for this one particular black, satin dress and even suggested some cool looking shoes I should wear with it.  I loved their suggestion and spent my final days in town looking for the red patent leather heels they spoke of. 


Ha!  Have you tried to go shoe shopping for red patent leather heels lately?  Let me tell you, they are out there and there are plenty to chose from.  However, they are all 4 inches or higher in heel height.  I couldn't find a smaller heel height anywhere and believe me I looked!  I ended up going with a pair that seemed to meet all my needs - they were the right style, the right size and not such a bad price.  I tried them on quickly (I had Sam with me) and decided to go for it.

The night of the party came and I was excited by my outfit.  I felt totally put together.  Upon walking in the room of where the party was located, I saw lots of women wearing a black dress and red heels.  Too cool! I've never been one to have this much "of the moment" style going on.  Heck, it could've been the style for a few years now and I am just catching on.  Either way, I felt stylish!  Jeff commented that he has never seen me at this height before.  Ha!  I've never seen me at this height either.

There was one small glitch.  Or in my opinion, a major problem.  I couldn't walk.  Literally, I couldn't take a step and look normal doing it.  My feet were so ridiculously uncomfortable that I was in big trouble!  I was hoping at some point my foot would just go numb and then I could resume normal activities.  But no, this was such not the case.  I started looking at other women's feet and had shoe envy for those wearing comfortable looking flats.  Why, oh why did I do this to myself?  What in the world was I thinking that I could pull this off?

Jeff could tell something was up and asked why it looked like I didn't know how to walk anymore.  Then he asked if I even tried them on in the store, why would I get them if they hurt so much?  Hello?  Have you ever tried going shoe shopping with a 2 year old?  You find shoes in your size, you try them on as quickly as possible and you get them.  I thought for sure after 30 minutes or so, they would be broken in and feel more comfortable.

I don't know how women wear heels so high.  I am making a pledge right now that I will never go down this path again.  It is so not worth the pain.

Travelling with the Toppall's: Wrap-up

I feel like I've only focused on the few bad things that occurred (me with no bed and Sam getting everyone sick), I guess that is because the great times were so plentiful and it is even hard to summarize how wonderful our trip was.

On Monday, 11/22, my sister Lori, her husband Ben, Jeff and I went kayaking in the morning.  It was a really cool adventure and getting to kayak right near a dolphin coming up out of the water was awesome and a visual that will be with me for a long time.  Meanwhile, Dad & Rita took Ian & Sam to the zoo and they had a spectacular time. 

All of our dinners were prepared by Ben.  Lori and Ben came up with a fabulous kid-friendly, gluten-free-friendly menu for the whole week.  Ben is an amazing cook and I can totally see why my sister is in love with him.  We love Ben!  In addition, Ben took on making our Thanksgiving dinner and I loved every bite.  He completely outdid himself.  Lori and Ben pretty much moved their whole kitchen into one of the condos and went to town making a gourmet Thanksgiving meal worthy for Royalty.  Yum-O!

We had visitors too during our time in FL.  My friend Amanda (I've known since I was 5), has a little girl named Samantha too (3 months younger than my Sam) and we were able to see her on two different occasions.  This was a treat that I don't usually get.

My mom and Jim made the drive to Cocoa Beach on two occasions (Tuesday and again for Thanksgiving) and it was wonderful getting to spend time with them.

On Friday, after checking out of the resort, we met up with good friends of ours from Gaithersburg, MD.  They had just flown in and were taking a Disney cruise the next day.  We spent a few hours at Downtown Disney and the kids had a fun time hanging out at T-Rex Cafe for lunch.

Getting to celebrate Hanukkah with my family is something that rarely occurs.  Since Hanukkah came so early this year, we were able to do a family celebration the night before the holiday officially started.  It is definitely more fun opening presents in front of everyone rather than hearing about it over the phone.

SOME OBSERVATIONS:


Ian and Nana dancing to the music waiting for lunch.

 *No matter how much time it has been since my dad and stepmom has seen the kids in person, they can pick up like no time has been lost.  It was really wonderful to see Ian and Sam instantly latch on to their Nana and Papa.  Of course, this makes me want to live closer to them year-round.  I can only imagine how close they'd be if we saw them regularly.

*It is never too early in the day to start drinking fruity alcoholic drinks when you are staying at an all-inclusive and not responsible for watching kids.

*We stayed at nice hotel in Cancun. I was really impressed with the housekeeping staff each morning combing the beach and removing any seaweed that washed upon the sand overnight.

*Sam never seemed to fully grasp my sister's name (Aunt Lori) and resorted to calling her either "Mom" or "Uncle Ben".  When Sam stayed with my sister and Ben for the weekend, and she was calling Lori "Mom", Sam then referred to me as "Real Mom".

*A wii and cable tv is not necessary to entertain the kids and show them a good time.  When the kids stayed with my mom and Jim for a few days, they didn't even miss it.  Good old fashioned parenting was in prime action.

My final thoughts -- it was a wonderful trip and I thank my Dad and Rita very much for bringing us all together.  I love my family and treasure all the time I get to spend with them, even if it is from the sofa bed.  :)  And you know Ian had a good time when we are boarding the plane to come home and he said to me, "Can we do this again next year?"

Travelling with the Toppall's continues

While I rated our trip a 9 (on a scale from 1 to 10), I think the Florida crew would rate it a 9 too.  I am deducting the 1 point for the effect Sam had on the family.  She is now known as "Typhoid Sam".  At some point during the trip, Sam developed a cold/cough and one by one, took out a huge portion of the  family.  It wasn't until we were all back together for one last night (a pre-Hanukkah party at my Dad's house), that everyone saw they weren't the only one not feeling well. 

Meanwhile, Sam managed to get sick, get over the cold and be healthy again by the time we flew home.  In her wake, the number of sore throats, colds and coughs grew exponentially.  Ah, good times.  This will be a visit no one will soon forget.

Jeff and I timed this perfectly.  Just as Sam was getting sick, we took off for Mexico. We had planned to take advantage of the opportunity being in FL and left the kids in the excellent care of my family.   Jeff and I spent 3 nights at an all-inclusive resort.  It was wonderful. And if it is possible to do less-than-nothing, than that was us excelling at it.  Getting 10 hours of sleep a night and laying on the beach/pool during the day was a recipe for a very well-relaxed, much needed break.  

Stay tuned for Travelling with the Toppall's: Wrap-up.

Travelling with the Toppall Team

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give our 12 days away a solid 9.  I will go into reasons below why it never made it to a 10.  Overall, I am really proud of how well Ian and Sam behaved.  They slept in 4 different places over the course of 11 nights and had 3 different sets of relatives look after them for extended amounts of time.  They were rockstars and really went with the flow. 

One of my biggest fears was flying with Sam again after our previous horrific experiences we had with her up in the air.  Maturing to the ripe old age of 2.5 years old did wonders for her and us.  She embraced the sticker books and the iTouch.  The 2 hour flight flew by (pun intended!) and Jeff & I were even able to read our books.  Who knew that flying with kids could be enjoyable again?  The one hiccup we had was our descent on the arriving flight.  The last 5 minutes really played havoc with her ears and we couldn't calm her down enough to understand she needed to drink something, suck her lollipop or chew something.  We figured out a new strategy for the flight home, but the Gods were smiling on us and she slept the whole flight home, including the landing. 

So why did the trip not score a 10?

If I had the choice to pick any family, I'd still pick mine. I am not talking about my husband or the kids, I am referring to the family I grew up with.  The ones that are stuck with you no matter what.  I love my family so much.  I love how they make me laugh, how they drive me crazy, how they've got my back in any situation, and how much fun we have when we are together. 

The first part of our trip was spent at a Resort in Cocoa Beach.  Usually for my dad's annual family trip, it is a long weekend; Thursday to Sunday type of thing.  However, this year we spent one full week together.  We were fortunate to have (2) two bedroom oceanfront condos next door to each other.  Each condo slept 8 people.  There were 9 of us total (Dad, Rita, Lori, Ben, Meghan, and my Toppall team).  You would think that with these numbers the odds were in my favor to have a proper bed.  Ha!  This was not the case.  In fact, I didn't even get a bedroom.  I am the oldest of the three girls, the only one to have produced grandchildren so far and I got the sofa bed in the living room.  Lovely.  Of course, I was seen as the bad guy because I was insistent that my kids really need to be split up.  They can not sleep in the same room together.  Sam is way to light of a sleeper and only Jeff could be in the same room as her.  Ian got to share a room with Meghan (that is when she didn't have her friend spend the night) and therefore, I was left out in the cold...or the equivalent, the sofa bed.  Something just doesn't seem right about this.  But, as I mentioned earlier, I love my family dearly and this was a small price to pay to be around everyone.  Each night I would go to sleep thinking about all the configurations on how the sleeping arrangements should've been set-up differently.  And each morning, I was still waking up on the sofa bed.  :) 

HOWEVER, I've made it known loud and clear, that a bedroom will be available for me next year. Sure, the family was laughing at me thinking it was all one big joke, but just wait when until it is one of them on the sofa bed.

Stay tuned for more of "Travelling with the Toppall Team"

December's New Year's Resolution Experiment

So I seem to have gotten ahead of myself and one of my earlier written blog entries posted automatically on 12/4.  I wrote this before we left for vacation and timed it to post on Saturday after getting back to town.  I was sure I would've already blogged about the vacation by now and since we were going away again for the weekend (Jeff's family Hanukkah party in Pennsylvania), I was counting on it picking up the slack for me being out of town.  Ah, best laid plans.

Anyway, without further ado, let's get the show back on the road.  It is December 6th and I haven't even told you what I plan to do to finish the year with my New Year's Resolution Experiment.

Recap of November:  To take more video of the kids.  Mission completed!  November was full of video moments, many very worthy of capturing.  We had Ian's last soccer game of the season, my family coming together for the first time in 13 months and spending a week together at the beach, and Sam's big leap into a big-girl bed (No more crib!!).  It was the perfect month to focus on getting more video.  Next up is Jeff editing it all and burning DVDs for us to have.

Now announcing my final month in the 12 months of New Year's Resolution Experiments..... I am in the midst of doing at least one random act of kindness a day.  This idea stemmed from something that happened on our trip.  It was Thanksgiving day and a gorgeous color of sunny at the resort we were all staying at.  It was a our last full day together and I had big plans to spend it on the beach.  The resort had a guy whose job it was to set up beach chairs and umbrellas for the guests.  He was there all day long and pretty isolated from any food/drink/conveniences of home.  Everybody in the family started the morning on the beach with me and one by one, they all had enough and wanted inside.  I think the kids were pretty much beach and pooled out by now.  Before I knew it, 30 minutes had gone by and it was just me and my dad. We continued hanging out until it was time to go in for lunch.  I had plans to return to my spot after lunch and upon walking by the guy, I said, "I'll be back in a little while."  He said, "Going in for lunch?"  and I said yes.  I told him I would bring him back something.  Of course, all through lunch, my ENTIRE family made fun of me for saying I'd bring this guy lunch.  There were jokes of flirting with him, asking him out, wanting him, etc.  And yes, Jeff was an active part of this ribbing too.  I made a sandwich, my sister Lori put it in a bag with an apple and some chips.  I went back to the beach and gave it to him. 

I had a delightful 4 hours by myself on the beach until it was time to go back inside for a very yummy Thanksgiving dinner, made my sister's husband Ben.  Upon my departure from the beach one last time, the guy (whose name was Ryan) said to me, "Thanks for bringing me lunch.  I appreciated it very much." 

I felt great! It was worth being made fun of by my family.  And decided what could be better than to end the year doing a random act of kindness each and every day in December.  I generally try to be a kind person, (like letting the guy behind me in the grocery line go in front of me if he only has a handful of items), but I will try to take it up a notch this month.

Stay tuned for the Toppall Traveling Adventures. I am breaking up the trip into a few parts as to not completely overwhelm you (or me!) with too much info.  Hopefully you'll be entertained or just a little bit interested to get my view on it.

The playdate dilemma

For the past 5 years, I've gotten very comfortable knowing all the moms and kids we hang out with.  They are a great bunch and I have no problems or concerns dropping either Ian or Sam off at their house and coming back a few hours later to pick them up. 

With Ian in kindergarten, we've entered new territory that doesn't seem to come with a rule book.  Playdates with Ian's new classmates.  Clearly, the mom arranging the playdate isn't asking me (and my 2 year old companion) to stay, but she also doesn't know me and I don't know her.  It's a fine line on what is the right, safe thing to do.  So far, I've made sure that I am the one to drop Ian off at the friend's house and can take a quick peek at the house and the mom.  But is this enough?  Do I need to take this a few steps further and find out if guns are kept in the house?  Should I be taking a tour of the house and make certain that it doesn't look too weird or that inappropriate items (cigarettes, drugs, adult magazines, etc) are within Ian and his friend's reach?  Should I be asking this mom how closely she'll be supervising my child and will actually be in the house?  And don't get me started on older kids being around Ian and his friend and getting them do unsavory things (especially if a parent is not readily close by).

I never thought I would be one of those over-protective mothers, but I want to make sure Ian is safe.  Heck, who am I kidding?  I am definitely one of those over-protective mothers.  It's a scary world out there and my baby is only 5 years old.  I want to keep him sweet, innocent and drug/alcohol free for as long as possible.

But how far do I go?  And at what point do I come off as a complete freak?  The playdate we had when Ian's friend came over, I invited the mom to come in and stay.  I could tell she had no plans to, as her car was still turned on when she walked her little boy to our door.  So, when it was time to reciprocate and Ian was invited over to their house, I wasn't sure what to do.  We ended up getting to the little boy's house before he managed to come off the bus.  I told Ian we would go find his mom and help meet the bus.  I got very lucky and discovered a good mommy friend also waiting for her son to come off the bus.  It just so happens that my friend lives across the street from Ian's new kindergarten friend.  We chatted briefly and in a roundabout way, I got a reference on this family, where Ian was having a playdate.

In a perfect world, I'll have all of Ian's friends over to the house first and can start siezing up the mom.  Then when it comes time for Ian to go their house, magically, they'll also have a 2 year old and will invite us all in for one big playdate.  This will happen a couple times and then I will feel completely comfortable dropping Ian off for future playdates.

Since this is a long shot of ever happening, I have to rely on my mommy instincts and hope that Ian has some sense and good judgement.  Look, I know I am a bit neurotic.  First I was worried that Ian wouldn't make friends and now that he seems to be Mr. Popular, I've moved on to a new concern, wanting to know these new friends.  It's like being between a rock and a hard place.

My little boy is growing up and I am not sure I am ready to let go.

Survived. And then some.

We're back!  It has been a whirlwind of activity since the plane landed yesterday afternoon and I am feeling incredibly overwhelmed.  I want to give a recap of our trip (it was great!), some observations I made along the way, and to fill you in on my December New Years Resolution Experiment.  However, I am going to need a few more days to get my bearings before I can dive back in to writing this blog every other day.

My to-do list is a mile long and I am tackling the most important stuff first.  Unfortunately in needing to prioritize, Mommy Meltdowns will be on vacation through the rest of the week.

To those who celebrate, Happy Hanukkah!  I hope the candles on the menorah shine bright and the latkes never run out.