Last weekend was gorgeous in Bethany Beach, DE… I hear it was also a nice one here in Chester County. We had so much fun we’re returning this weekend to enjoy the miles of sand they had pumped onto the beaches, now making them seem more like Santa Monica than the Delmarva shore.

I know there was a recent top ten list of beaches, but I have to plug my personal favorite here and say that Bethany is really a great place for families. OK, so having a relative with a house there doesn't hurt; but the miles of tide pools the new sand project has created are ideal for young children, and the fenced playground right in town makes even cloudy days fun.

And this is the first year I can actually sit in a beach chair and sort of relax while my kids play. Last year they ran away a lot and the year before my daughter was so offended by stray sand that she instead on wearing shoes to the beach! Three is a good age, tantrums and testing aside, the imaginations blossom and everything becomes more enjoyable.

A few tricks for the beach goers with children – baby powder is great for getting sand off of skin quickly, a good shovel is worth ten more intricate sand toys, and always bring plenty of drinks and snacks!

I worked at Mayfest this morning selling tickets... and had a wonderful time. I think the best part was doing a job that has immediate satisfaction and for which people thank you repeatedly (unlike being a mommy).

I am taking the kids to the beach (Bethany) for half of the weekend while DH installs our new tankless water heater. Hopefully I will have great things to say about it in posts to come. The weekend doesn't look too promising as far as weather, but we have family to visit with, and friends to see, so I'm just looking at it like the kick start to a more active season.

25th Annual May Festival

Presented by

May 15-18, 2008

Goshen Fairgrounds

1320 Park Avenue, West Chester

Thursday, May 15: 5 pm - 10 pm

Amusements and Select Food Booths

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Friday, May 16: 5 pm - 11 pm

5 - 11 pm
Amusements and Select Food Booths

May Festival Friday Night Gala

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Saturday, May 17: 9 am - 11 pm

Free Ride Period - Sponsored by Daily Local News: 9 am - 10 am

Appearance by Kathy O'Connell of WXPN's Kid's Corner

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Sunday, May 18: 9 am - 7 pm

Free Ride Period - Sponsored by Daily Local News: 9 am - 10 am

Dash for Diabetes

Chester County Challenge for Cancer

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Other Festival activities and features include:
Pony Ride Hours: Sat. 11-7 and Sun. 10-5
Great Carnival Food Selection
Plant Booth - stock up for the summer!
Community Wellness Area
Free Blood Pressure Screenings

Call the events hotline for information at 610.430.2906.

I have vague memories of actually enjoying trips to the dentist as a kid. Before fillings, back before it was intrusive enough to be painful… when sitting in the big chair made me feel special and being told to spit somehow felt like a thrill.
Today my son had his first dentist appointment. We saw Dr. Melini at Chester County Dentistry for Children in Lionville, and (in case you were wondering) everyone there was wonderful. On a rare trip away from his twin, we ventured out for his check up. In the waiting room, he played alone, watched the other kids but didn’t mingle. When we went in to meet our dentist, my three year old shook his hand, he sat up in the chair, and opened up his mouth, he enthusiastically selected bubble gum flavored tooth paste even though I am certain he has never had bubble gum before and when he received a red Pooh Bear toothbrush he exclaimed that it was “beautiful!”.
My heart was in my throat when the hygienist scraped his tiny half grown in teeth with her instruments and he sat so still and compliant, even offering her a swallowed “yes” when she asked if he was OK, while her hand was still in his mouth. And when he had to sit, biting a piece of gauze after having fluoride applied, I knew he didn’t like it, I could see his discomfort, but he still told her he was ‘great’ after she had cleaned his mouth of spit and praised him for being so good.
Granted I took him alone. I envisioned a double visit with one running wildly around the office flinging picks and floss while their sibling wailed, strapped down in a chair. But the reality was so much better, it made me feel like we are getting somewhere on our journey to somewhat (I mean they are mine after all) civilized beings. In two days I take my daughter. Hopefully, she also finds the whole experience more fascinating than foreboding.

I finally ordered prints of kid photos that have been collecting in my hard drive since last fall. It amazes me that I seem to have less time now that my kids are three than I did when they were infants. The talk and the questions are hugely entertaining, and yet draining in a different way than simple feeding and care of babies can be. I do think it gets better and better though.

My daughter has a pair of plastic high heels she loves to wear, click-clacking around our home; she defies everything I thought about in the nineties when I really believed high heels would vanish from fashion forever.

My son, on the other hand, is at this very moment wearing a superman cape my Mom made for my brother in the seventies. He wears it for at least an hour a day. And I am pretty certain he has never seen a superhero cartoon, so it astonished me the first time he put it on and pretended to fly. Is it possible that cellular memory really does collect data from generation to generation?