My two sisters and Mother are currently visiting us in Cincinnati. When I heard they were visiting I was both excited and nervous. Excited because I love hanging out with them, especially because my sisters are growing up so fast (they are currently 15). Nervous because before we moved here we were scared of Cincinnati after hearing people call it “Cinci-nasty”. We thought it would be boring, lifeless and soulless. Interestingly enough, we really like it! We found a nice house that we love and we are little by little making friends and discovering things to do with the boys.
However, having two 15 year olds in the house makes it a bit more complicated because you can’t take them to the petting zoo and the current playground. They will be here two weeks….will they think Cinci is “The Nasty”? Or will they like it?? Stay tuned..
Day 1
They arrived at almost 1 am after their flight got delayed. I woke up Lucas to go pick them up (only two people fit in our car at one time given the car seats—-I wish I would’ve gotten that car with the three lines of sitting, but I digress). They were in good spirits and we didn’t get to bed until 2:30am because we were chatting and Lucas was in good spirits after receiving a “Cars” coloring book from “Abu”.
Day 2
Dennis and I woke up “late” (9 am) because my Mom got Lucas after he woke up (Can I get a Hallelujah??). After going to the grocery store to get food for 5 adults and 2 kids, we went out to eat at Rancho Grande (I love me some Mexican food) and then to do some “pre staking out” at the mall. “Pre staking out” is when you go to them mall to see what you want to try on before going to the mall to try things on.
Dennis said this was his favorite mall visit ever since it was fun seeing Lucas run around in the mall without having to chase him around. Even though he was hanging out with 4 women who were going into clothes stores, he happily stayed outside, people watched and happily sipped a Mocha Frappuccino (sigh).
This is why they say “it takes a village” to raise kids. When there are more than 2 people watching the kids, it becomes SOOOOO much easier. I felt the stress immediately evaporate. When Dennis and I go to the mall, we have a mental clock that is counting down to total toddler breakdown. I have exactly 5 minutes to find clothes, try them on and hurriedly pay for them. This is one of the reasons I love the US! I can buy something that seemed to look okay in the 2 seconds that I tried it on (with the baby in the stroller in the cramped dressing room with me), but if I get home and find out it looks hideous after trying it on , I can return it. This is mostly not allowed in Puerto Rico. If you don’t like it after you bought it, you’re pretty much stuck with it.
After getting back from the mall, my sisters and I went biking/rollerblading for an hour. It was a LOT of fun and we didn’t get back until 10pm. The fact that it was light until we got home gives me toasty happy feelings in my belly, I LOVE that nightfall is so late during the summer. When I got home, Lucas was in bed after Abu gave him a bath and read to him (can I get another Hallelujah?).
Day 3
Today we got up at 9:30am. I know that it might sound strange that I am so emphatic on the time that we got up, but it’s so rare that we sleep past 8am and ESPECIALLY that we can sleep until late TOGETHER! (Happy Sigh). Normally, if it’s my turn to “sleep in” (normally Saturdays), I still get up relatively early because I feel guilty that Dennis is up with both kids so it’s not the awesome sleep you get when you’re worry-free.
After my sisters preened forever, we left for “The Beach” waterpark. This is a pretty big waterpark near Mason, OH. My overall impression was that it was a B- or C+ level place but it was perfect for what we wanted. The kiddie pool was pretty big and my sisters spent a good amount of time in the larger slides.
This is the first time I have worn a bikini in a year and I was a little concerned but beyond the fact that I am very pale, not so bad for a Mother of two (or so I tell myself! Lol)
Day 4_monday
Today was a great day! I woke up early (since I was working from home) to get started before everyone was up. I got my meetings done, documents written and emails sent and could still have lunch with my family (Costco pizza, yum) and then go to the gym with my sisters and Dennis. We didn’t just go to the gym, we biked there. Well, three of us biked and one of us rollerbladed. One my sisters was stuck with rollerblading pretty much because she was the last one out of the house (and because they are both a bit scared about our road bikes). The other option is Dennis’ super old and rusty bike that is nice and comfortable. After 25 minutes to get to half way (it normally takes us 20 minutes to get all the way there), I decided to trade with my sister, who was rollerblading to see if we could get a move on. Bad idea. I’m hurting in places that I didn’t even know could hurt and I was about to fall on my butt the whole time. To boot, the sister that had to ride my road biked, complained about her butt hurting the whole way.
Finally we get to the gym. We are members of the Cincinnati Sports Club which is an AWESOME gym and I absolutely recommend it! Then my sisters stuck with me while I tried to show them how to lift weights during the same time they were scoping out the boys. This inevitably ended up with me repeating the instructions at least twice more, to each, until they paid enough attention to do the weights. My overall conclusion is that it’s not easy to look good and work out hard in the gym. Either you look good and stick to safe, non sweaty stuff or you don’t look great but you work hard. They had to constantly wipe their eyes to clean the running mascara that they had so carefully applied….Being a teenager is hard, man.
Finally we biked/rollerbladed back home, ate dinner together as a family and played two board games: “Loaded Questions” and “Fact or Crap”. My belly still hurts from laughing so darned hard while we were playing “Loaded Questions”. Dennis is freaking hilarious and the girls had some zingers too. My Mom, however, kept looking around dazedly, probably wondering how she raised such disturbed kids. Back to work tomorrow…boooo….
Day 5_tuesday
Today Lucas got to spend the time with my Mom and sisters. He was really excited to try out the inflatable pool that my Mom somehow managed to stick in her little carry on. The inflatable pool has a turtle head from where water pours out.
After work, I joined them in the gym for some more weight lifting. Well, they actually did the weights, I mostly rested since I went on a 6am bike ride with my neighbor. She’s a retired marketer and although she is 55, still kicked my ass on the bike. She told me that she didn’t mind going slow at all but once we were in the trail, I found myself going at 14 miles an hour when I normally average 10-11 mph on the same path. Although I was sore and couldn’t really lift any weights after work, I was happy that I: a) Woke up at 6am to exercise and b) I biked hard.
After coming back from weights, we went to see “Inception” starring Leonardo de Caprio, the girl from Juno and the guy from “500 days of summer“. The movie was really, really good. Definitely brainy and hard to follow at time but made me think and left us wondering. I will have to rent it and watch it with subtitles so I can understand the dialogue! .
Day 6_wednesday
Dennis and my Mom went to pick me up to have lunch and then my Mom went to see Lucas’ daycare. Lucas was all bummed because he thought that we were leaving him in the daycare. All his friends ran over and hugged him and they showed my Mom Lucas’ art and their pet “Bubbles“, the baby hedgehog. After having lunch in Panera they dropped me off and we met at the gym after work. So far this week I’ve exercised 4 times and it’s only Wednesday! Lol!!
Tomorrow, Dennis and I go out of town for some Dennis-Lisa time! we haven’t stayed out of town by ourselves in a LONG time! I’m so excited!
Too funny!