so much happening

Have had very little time to blog. Liam spent the morning throwing up. Dilemma as to if we should continue on with our planned family outing or let Liam relax at home. We also were confused as to whether or not to go to our block party, which I had been looking forward to. There were some families in the neighborhood that I wanted to meet.

But then Ssn invited us to World's End for a hike and then a potluck at her house. She is a public health nurse and a progressive that I wanted to get to know better, and I knew Mk would be there, too, with his family. Plus, we've been trying to do a family outing at least once/week-end and think it's good to get out of dodge to break up the stress a tad.

I decided to hang out with the kids in the morning since I was missing them, but then Chris took the kids out for a few hours while I organized myself and my notebooks, etc. It took almost 3 hours.

Liam was feeling better, so we risked him barfing up all over the car and threw the kids into the car (I use that phrase a lot...hmm....) and headed down to Hingham. We were cruising along the highway when the highway split to the left for the carpool lane and the right for everyone else. We were going so fast that I didn't think to go to the left. Immediately afterwards, traffic came to a standstill. It continued for about a half hour. Even before the clock really started to tick, I felt such incredible road rage - not really at other people but at myself. I kept beating myself up for not taking the other route. I can have such a aterrible temper. Chris' way of dealing with me when I get like that is to get quiet. I understand why he does that - because he doesn't want to say the "wrong" thing to set me off, but of course, I get frustrated when he doesn't respond and get even more angry. He just can't win.

Finally, an accident cleared up and we got off at the wrong exit. It was too confusing to get back on the highway, so I decided to just head out there on city streets. Of course, this made me ever the more frustrated. I think what was going on was that I was just under so much stress about my classes and feeling so unsettled that any little thing was setting me off. In the end, of course, it worked out better in some ways to do what we had done because we got to see the coast and the kids ended up with a longer nap.

World's End was beautiful - some type of nonprofit preserve on an outlet - not sure the name - the opposite of an inlet - but we were supposed to meet everyone on the main path- I had assumed it was a large meadown with a path around it, but it was very woodsy. Chris tried to call Ssn on her cell phone. It seemed necessary but very bizarre to use this technology at such a bucolic place. We just couldn't connect with her, and I had forgot to pack food for the kids in the ergo. Liam was riding his running bike, which turned out to be so much fun for him to off-road. C was getting frustrated, which was understandable given he was doing the talking, but we finally connected with the group. A nice size cohort - including the British diplomat and the Turkish dude who is so much fun. We took a long walk back and then headed to Ssn's for a potluck. It was so great to be at a house in the country with a huge backyard that the kids could just run free in, and there were lots of outdoor activities for the kids.

A bunch of us were all sitting around the table when the subject of age differences in all of our kids came up. People kept one-upping each other with stories of friends that had kids closer and closer apart - the winner was 11 months. Someone mentioned the concept of breastfeeding being a measure of birth control. I countered that statement, but then "wife" said something derisive to Third world women in terms of the myth around that and needing better birth control. Rather than saying something political, I launched into the anatomical specifics of what happens and why - everyone shut up after that, and I felt silly.