Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Puzzles






We are back from our fall weekend Up North.

The air at camp was crisp, clean and clear while the leaves were falling in the most striking and vibrant colors of crimson, butternut and pumpkin. The Michigan fall season is caramel apples, fresh donuts, apple cider and college football. I love it--especially Up North.

Our road trip was pretty typical (Floyd freaking, music blaring and Cracker Barrel stopping) except that Frankie kind of sucked. She whined and cried for most of the trip. It was distressing and nerve wracking--and honestly, quite annoying. We went through the "Do you think it's..." and "It could be..." while stopping briefly on "I wonder if she has..." and "It's definitely not..." My best one (as far as I'm concerned) was when I concluded that she might have been experiencing some growing pains because that same morning I went through three freakin' pairs of pants before I found some that weren't fitting like Michael Jackson's "Beat It" floods. (Remember those?)

Several hours of crying and one speeding ticket later, we finally arrived at camp where we spent the weekend hanging out, reading books and magazines, watching bad movies, taking walks, eating spears at G's (you camp people know what I'm talking about) and shopping in Traverse City.

Frankie had a great time wherever she was, no matter what she was doing...except in the car. UGH. Such a pain because there aren't too many destinations that are super close to camp. Part of what makes the weekend trips to camp so great is driving to surrounding cities like Kalkaska, Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Petosky or Traverse City and seeing all the beautiful fall foliage. The only thing that can ruin that is hmmm....I don't know, oh wait--yes, I do! How about a Frankie freak-out in the back seat complete with whining and crying for absolutely NO APPARENT REASON!!

All was certainly not lost over the weekend. Not by a long shot. We had a great time in spite of the brutal car rides and I learned a few things that I packed up and took home with me: I learned that size 3 diapers can no longer hold Frankie's "overnight pee," I learned that there is nothing better than strawberry milk from Shetland's Dairy Farm (if I had larger veins and didn't hate needles, I would mainline the stuff) and I learned that playing with Frankie's toys makes me feel really smart. There was this one puzzle that she was into all weekend. I rocked at it. I have no trouble putting the tree in the "tree opening" of the puzzle, and I also did it with the apple, the bee and the flower. Frankie tried to put all four in the same opening. Nope. Try again, sister. Don't think I didn't shoot her the "I'm a smartie" look more than a few times when we were playing. Don't think she cared.

It's still a mystery to us what was up with Frankie and her car aversion all weekend. It was a puzzle I couldn't (and likely never will) figure out. We tried everything. We took her coat off thinking it would make her more comfortable, we fed her endless snacks, we sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" 1500 times...We did all the stuff good parents do but nothing seemed to help, at least not for an extended period of time. I felt like we were trying to put the tree, the apple, the bee and the flower all in the same opening. Her backseat bawling was an enigma and if she wasn't totally fine every single time we pulled her out of the car, I probably would have been really worried.

I had such anxiety on Saturday night about the trip home on Sunday. Three hours of crying to look forward to. Awesome. Rockin' ride home. Fun for the whole family. My anguish however, turned out to be all for nought. Frankie was a perfect angel on the way home. She was babbling and laughing in perfect Frankie fashion. I don't get it and at this point, I have resolved that I never will. I guess there are some puzzles that just can't be put together and sometimes you just have to walk away letting go because soon enough there will be another one to figure out.