How I spent my Spring vacation

A few random observations from Spring break:

My mother-in-law knew that she was in a house with kids when all of the following happened within a one hour time span:  the dog, understanding that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, when called from one side of the kitchen table to the other, leaped on the table and walked across it (thereby avoiding having to weave through chair legs); my daughter, after having caught the milk once, managed to spill it on her second try; and my son, trying to get his shoes out of the car, triggered the horn alarm on the remote control key.  When I finally caught up with him, I found a very shaken 8-year old sitting in the car.  His words, and I quote:  “I had no idea what was happening.  That scared the Hell out of me!”

If you never horseback ride, it’s amazing how sore just an hour and a half on a horse can make you.

I think my husband must have been very resistant to bedtime as a kid.  I get the kids to bed effortlessly especially when, as tonight, they are very, very tired.  It’s my husband who prolongs bedtime, talking to them endlessly while they try to fall asleep.

I hate the ER in Santa Barbara — and that’s despite the fact that the people who work there are really nice and competent.  Two years ago at this time, my son went into the ER where he was diagnosed with pneumonia, triggering a three day hospital stay.  Yesterday, we were at the ER again, since it looked as if my daughter had broken her arm skateboarding.  They sent us home, because the x-ray didn’t show a break.  Nevertheless, they still warned us that, if the pain doesn’t ease up, she may have a break in her elbow, where the x-ray doesn’t show the problem until the “fat pad” swells up a bit more.  This was not news to me, since I fell down the stairs when I was 9 years old, and sprained my wrist so badly no one paid attention to my elbow.  Three days later, I was in a cast, when enough time passed to reveal the elbow break.  Sigh….

My husband doesn’t read the paper, especially the obscure bits, as much as I do.  He refused to believe I was telling the truth when I told the kids about the Romanian girl who was kept as a slave in a small Italian circus and made to swim with the piranhas.

I need a vacation from my vacation.