Happy Hour

With as beautiful as this mid-March weather has been lately, we've been taking every advantage of sitting on our deck before the summer sun and heat roll in and scorch us.  It's nice to be able to utilize the deck, considering when it's usually warm enough to sit out there, it's also usually summertime and already 90 degrees in the sun...and sitting on our deck, with zero tree coverage or shade other than our giant umbrella (which still hardly covers enough ground) in the summertime is painful, sweaty, and will cause you a sunburn in 60 seconds flat.

That being said, having an early spring AND having already had daylight savings time, we've been trying to spend some extra time outdoors in the evenings.  It puts us all in a good mood, and (dare I say it) even seems to help Nick sleep better at night.  So the other night, Nick and I decided to have a little mommy-son happy hour.

I posted on Facebook that Nick was the best Happy Hour date I'd ever had...which Todd pretended to take offense to.  In all honesty, I think Todd was just jealous that he didn't get to take part (he was busy doing some heavy lifting and moving things around in the basement post Shandy Cup.)

But then my "date" started working on something big.  As in, he pooped his pants.  And it was getting close to bedtime anyway, so we packed up and called it a day.

He was quite proud! ;)

Shandy Cup Weekend -- and The Playground

This past weekend was Shandy Cup -- which if you have known my husband for any amount of time, you know means the weekend where he and his buddies hole up in someones basement with a keg, a 6 foot sub, a giant tub of cheese puffs, 5 TV's, countless Irish car bombs, minimal amounts of personal hygiene, and watch four straight days of basketball.  We volunteered to host this year, under the stipulation that Thursday and Friday nights were to be kept to a minimum as far as their loudness was concerned, and nobody was allowed upstairs past the main level of our house.  We even went so far as to invite all the wives and children over for a brunch on Saturday morning, that was quite successful ifIdosaysomyself.

The gorgeous tulips Barbara & Andy brought over for the Shandy Brunch!

I'm proud to report that nobody went upstairs except for a few times to use the bathroom (which was WAY embarrassing for me because I hadn't cleaned the upstairs - nor the upstairs bathroom -- so I'm sure any visitors to the third floor gagged at my dust, dirt, and lack of vacuuming).  And aside from a short stint of my brother talking in a loud Russian accent on Thursday night (which was hilarious, mind you), everyone kept the volume to a minimum, and Nick slept like a rock, even with a basement full of buddies.

That being said, Nick and I still thought it would be a good idea to retreat to my parents house on Saturday night, and give the guys a little freedom to spend their St. Patrick's Day evening in a beautiful cloud of beer drinking, yelling, and farting glory.  And judging by the fact that Todd didn't answer any of my texts until Sunday morning at 9:00am, I'd say they did just that.  Or else they all passed out around 8pm.  I guess I'll never truly know...

Anywho -- in escaping to mom & dad's house, we were spoiled with lots of snacks, snuggling, a delicious dinner at Outback, the ability to sleep in until 10:00am (for me!) and an evening of fun at the playground!  It just so happened that mid-Outback dinner, Nick decided he was finished and proceeded to tell not just our table, but the entire restaurant, that he was displeased with being in the high chair, and squealed until our ears bled.  So Boss picked him up, and took him outside for a little fresh air.  Which is when they happened upon a huge, awesome playground, right in the middle of Fairfax!  I'd say judging by the pictures, Nick was pleased with the outcome of his mid-dinner scream-fest.

We had so much fun - and I got so much sleep! - that we're thinking about spending every weekend at Gramma & Boss' house.  I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind.  And so long as Todd got to re-live Shandy Cup each weekend, I don't think he'd mind too much either!  

Lately...

What has been going on in our Nick's world lately? 

Well...we've learned the art of individual play time...

Which thrills mommy & daddy.  Now instead of having to always sit on the floor with Nick while he plays, we can actually go into the other room and wash dishes, put away laundry, or cook dinner while he entertains himself.  And the sweetest part of his individual play time, is that completely unprompted by us, he will crawl or toddle over to his wagon full of stuffed animals, and plant a kiss on each one of them individually.  So adorable!

We've been enjoying all kinds of different foods...

Which has been fantastic so long as they are finger foods (he loves to feed himself) and we're all sitting at the table with him (he doesn't like to eat alone).  This has been thrilling as we are now all eating dinner at the same time, at the table, as a family, and we're not having to cook something separate for Nick.  Sunday night we all had steak, baked potatoes, and green beans.  And Nick wiped his plate clean.  Such a boy!

And we've been taking time out to stop...

And smell the flowers!

After all, mother nature is confused -- the trees and flowers are starting to bud and bloom, and temperatures are going to be in the mid to high 70's all week.

Welcome, Spring!

As days go by...I can feel 'em flying...like a hand out the window in the wind...

Tomorrow, Nick will be 13 months old.  The days, weeks, and obviously now year(s), are just flying by.  It's completely bittersweet.  Especially when someone asks "how's your baby doing?!" and I respond with "great!  He just turned a year old!"  And then I realize, he's no longer a baby, but creeping towards toddler-hood, and his second birthday, and suddenly I'm a little less anxious for him to start walking all on his own.

This morning I had a nice long conversation with my neighbor, who's oldest son is 11.  She said he dropped a bomb on her the other day when they were driving down 395, and she had to pull over on the side of the highway.  Apparently he had drawn a frowny face on his school agenda on February 14th - Valentine's Day.  When she asked "why the sad face?" he said "what's there to be happy about?  It's not like I have a girlfriend."  She dropped the subject until they were on the highway a few days later, and she said "so you mentioned the other day that you didn't have a girlfriend.  Is that something you would like to have?" To which he, without missing a beat, replied "I think it's time you give me permission to date."  She was floored and tried to keep herself from cracking up, and doubling over in pain as her heart split in two. 

As she and I talked about the full on discussion she had with her 11 year old son about dating, sex-education, and STD's (oh yes, he told her he knew all about syphilis, gonorrhea, etc.), I could see in her eyes and hear in her voice that she was incredibly proud of her son for "asking permission" to date, but that she was also sad and shocked at how quickly they got to this place.  For her, it was just yesterday that they were bringing him home from the hospital...teaching him how to walk and run...watching him throw a baseball for the first time.  And now?  Dating girls??

So naturally I walked back into the house with my own heavy heart.  Nick is only 13 months old.  But those 13 months have been a fast blur...a flash of lightening.  I can still remember the day we brought Nick home from the hospital -- and I'm confident that I will never forget it.  It is etched onto my heart.  But that doesn't change the reality that it WASN'T just yesterday.  With each passing day, we get further and further from those sweet baby days.  Days I can't go back and re-do or re-live.  I often find myself looking at my parents and wondering "do they feel like the days just went way too fast?"  I see my grandparents who formed these beautiful legacies of family - their pride beaming forth anytime we're all together - yet those years have passed all to quickly.  And a lump forms in the back of my throat. 

Yesterday I was enjoying a quiet (a relative term when you have a very vocal pre-toddler on your hands) dinner with my little guy.  Todd was working late, and I had made a new recipe in the crock pot, so Nick and I sat down to enjoy chicken, potatoes, and broccoli together.  He gleefully shoved chicken in his mouth while slamming his sippy cup on the high chair tray.  As he was on his third chorus of squeals, my phone rang and it was my boss.  I answered, as I always do, and shushed Nick as my boss spoke to me on the other end of the line.  And as I hung up the phone, I hung my head in shame.  I had shushed my child -- and for what?  To be able to hear my boss, on an after hours phone call, while I was working my most important job of the day as mommy?

I immediately squished Nick's little cheeks between my hands and told him I was sorry for shushing him.  I told him to squeal all he wanted to -- and that I was proud of him for doing so at his own will.  I felt like a horrible mommy.  I hadn't shushed him because he was being inconsiderate, or obnoxious, or rude.  I shushed him for being a 13 month old child.  In that moment I vowed that I would shut off the volume on my phone for the rest of the evening.  As I was rocking my sweet baby to sleep, my phone buzzed and I ignored it.  And you know what?  Life went on.  It wasn't an emergency.  Because the only thing that mattered at that moment was that my son knew he was the center of my world - that he was loved - that he was cared for.

The days are flying by faster than I can control.  One day I find myself wishing it were already summertime, so we could be headed on vacation.  I have to remind myself that it's only a few short months away - but by the time vacation rolls around, Nick will once again be an entirely different little person.  He'll most likely be walking (hell, running!), talking some, and all around acting more like a child than a baby.  And time is fleeting.  I can't wish away these days and sweet moments we have right now.  Because before I know it, we'll be driving to his middle school, and he'll be asking me permission to date girls.  And I am SERIOUSLY unprepared for that conversation.

Somebody's in trouble...

"Oh, hey mom.  Good morning!  Nope, not doing anything bad in here...just hangin' out, lookin' over the side of the crib...I've had this pacifier in my mouth all night and morning.  I promise, I'm a good boy!"

"You mean these teeth marks on the crib?  They must be from the dog...I would never chew on the crib...not me...no way!"

"But seriously...you couldn't possibly be mad at me with this face, could you?  Nah, I didn't think so."

Holiday PJs

Yep...we wear our Christmas jammies year round...so what?

Giddy up!

Yesterday it was a beautiful and balmy 70 degrees in our 'hood.  I couldn't wait to take Nick outside to play, and had grand plans to wheel him around the neighborhood in his wagon.  But the idea was quickly shot down when I realized 1) It's sort of a complicated process for me to haul the wagon outside, then load it with snacks/drinks/toys/etc, then grab Nick, all while fending off Whinnie and trying to explain to her that she can't come with us, 2) Todd wasn't home to help with this complicated process, and 3) the wagon is currently sitting in the living room FILLED with the 9,000+ stuffed animals people have given Nick (mostly for his birthday...hello, he has 3 pillow pets already...and those suckers are not small), so we decided to go for a much easier option. 

I pulled his "First Years" push car outside (the one my grandparents bought him for Christmas, that took my sweet hubby 3 hours of his Christmas day to assemble), plopped him in, and started pushing him with the long handle.  But homeboy is all about doing things himself these days, not to mention his little legs are getting too long to be pushed without having them drag and scrape on the sidewalk, so all Nick wanted to do was walk and push the car himself.  I obliged and we walked up and down the sidewalk in front of our house for about 15 minutes. 

When we both got tired of that activity, I thought it would be fun to find the swings in the next neighborhood over.  So we set off on a little walk around the neighborhood, but I couldn't find the cut through in the woods that one of our neighbors told us about, so we never found the playground with the swings.  Instead we opted to visit our little playground, which is practically in our backyard.  No swings, but three slides, two little rocking animals, and a ton of things to climb on.  I put Nick on one of the little horses and he was a mixture of excited and not sure what to think:

After riding the horse for a few minutes, I thought it would be fun to take him down the slide on my lap.  I put my phone down with my keys, so naturally I forgot to take any pictures of the sliding.  Nick belly laughed every time we went down the slide.  Seeing as the slide was maybe 5 feet tall (at most) I thought it would be fun for me to set him on the slide on his own, and guide him down (with my hands around his waist).  He LOVED this.  He started giggling and cracking up.  In fact, he laughed so hard that he got the hiccups, hiccup-burped and vomited on the slide.  Awesome.  It was just a teeny bit of vomit (more like a throw-up burp), so we yanked off that cute fleece vest he was wearing, and wiped it up.  And then we continued to slide.

Finally it was dinner time, and we were both sweaty and exhausted, so we happily trekked home.  And Nick was passed out by 6:30pm AND slept like a log.  Looks like we will definitely be spending many a day/afternoon/evening at the playground this spring and summer...and possibly going on a hunt for a little slide for our own backyard!  Thank goodness for warm winter days!