Memorial Day

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!  It was one of those weekends spent doing nothing in particular with a bunch of people we love -- it's those relaxing weekends that remind me just how great life is, and how wonderful the people in my life truly are.  How blessed of a Nation we are to have men and women willing to sacrifice their lives so that the rest of us back here at home can spend these kinds of holidays with our families, celebrating our freedom.  We should all take time to remind ourselves that freedom is not free.  God bless our men and women in uniform!


Our fun-filled weekend started off on Friday afternoon when Todd introduced Nick to watering the plants with the garden hose.  Nick found this incredibly entertaining and hilarious - and wound up soaked from head to toe. 

After we dried him off and changed his clothes, we headed out for the evening to have a little family dinner at Chili's - just the three of us - where I had their new sparkling pomegranate margarita.  Which was delicious.  And also $10.  Whoops.  Won't be partaking in that all too often.  But it was worth it ;).


Saturday morning was kicked off with my 90 minute massage at Massage Envy.  Heavenly.  Not to mention the whole thing was free due to a scheduling snafu on their part the weekend prior!  After my massage I met Todd and Nick in Fair Lakes, we grabbed a quick lunch, and then Todd headed off to get his haircut while Nick and I did a little grocery shopping so I could pull together a pasta salad for our evening BBQ at my parents house.  Late that afternoon we headed over to mom & dad's where we joined the DesRoches family for a BBQ and Nick's first official "play date" with Jackson.  My dad had bought and set up a 7 ft. baby pool and the little boys were so excited to "swim".  It was truly the cutest thing ever, and it's official that Nick is a little water bug. Nick and Jackson didn't do a whole lot of interacting with each other, as they're still at that stage where they don't play together, but more play next to each other.  But they both seemed to have a blast!  Not to mention they both ate enough guacamole to feed an army.  And yes, I ended up with half of Nick's guacamole on my white shirt.  Regardless, it was a wonderful evening, with wonderful food, and even more wonderful people!

Sunday was spent running errands - which Nick slept through half of because he was so exhausted from the evening before.  Later that afternoon, Todd blew up the little baby pool that we purchased for Nick at the end of last summer (on clearance! way to think ahead, Kalinosky fam!) and filled it up on our back patio.  Nick once again had a blast splashing in the pool, but was even more intrigued with watching Todd cut the grass in the backyard.  And of course no sooner had Todd cut the grass, than Whinnie went nuts running around and rolling in the fresh cut grass.  She wound up looking like we had dyed her hair green.  So as soon as Nick was finished playing in the pool, whinnie hopped in and got an outdoor bath.  Then Todd fired up the grill and we had a yummy dinner with fresh grilled corn (one of my summer faves!).  Nick went to bed a bit early because he was so worn out from all the pool time, and Todd and I ended the night watching our first RedBox rental - Mission Impossible.  A bit cheesy on the acting side and dumb one-liners, but all-in-all pretty decent.

Monday morning Mom scooped Nick and me up around 9am and we headed over to my grandparents house for a visit.  I had plans for us to stay there visiting them all day, but apparently they had a big Memorial Day picnic to attend, so around noon, we were "kicked out" ;).  So mom, Nick and I headed to Red Robin for lunch - where we had terrible service, and the food was all screwed up.  But the managers were extremely caring and took care of our whole bill, which was unexpected and very nice of them.  After that, we headed to the mall to find Nick some new summer PJ's, and some new shoes.  He ended up with a new pair of baby Saucony's (which are ADORABLE), and a pair of sandals he can wear in and around the pool when we head to the beach in July. 


When we got home from the mall, Todd was outside working in the yard.  He worked his butt off in the yard all day and our front yard looks fantastic!  I'm so grateful and very proud of him!  When he finished, we ate dinner, tucked Nick into bed a bit early again, I did my week 2 of couch to 5k, and we finished the evening by looking at all of the pictures off of Todd's camera from Nick's first birthday up until this weekend.  SO many amazing pictures -- particularly of our little guy -- that I can't wait to get copies of. 

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend and the perfect way to kick off summer.  I have so much to be thankful for in my life - especially my incredible husband, my sweet baby boy, my loving parents, and my kind and supportive best friend of a brother.  And watching Nick splashing in the pool and absolutely loving the water made me even more excited for our beach vacation with these exact people!  Countdown is on...only about 6 more weeks until we head back to Myrtle!  I'm looking forward to this years trip even more than last years...I know it's going to be even better!

Yum...Black Beans

The other night we had shrimp tacos, cilantro lime rice, and black beans for dinner.  Seeing as his baby sitter cooks a lot of traditional Dominican food, which includes a lot of beans, Nick was all like "sweet, food from my home country!" and couldn't get his little chubby paws on those beans fast enough.  Silly mommy didn't realize just how messy they would be to let him tackle all on his own...

We've been trying to encourage Nick to eat off of a plate, so that we can finally put an end to using those silly plastic table covers when we go out to eat in restaurants -- and also get him acclimated to human table manners.  But he's a caveman at heart, and mid-way through the meal objected to the silliness of using a plate...

And then this happened...and we totally didn't even try to stop him.  Instead, Todd jumped up from the table, grabbed his big-ass camera, and took a bunch of pics.  So there are semi-professional shots of this floating around out there.  I just work better off my iPhone.

He was as (as my dad would say) "happy as a pig in sh!t" rubbing that plate all over his face and hair.

Then Nick declared himself finished with dinner, and we immediately tossed him in the bathtub.

And if you were curious, yes, we have seen the beans again, several times.  In his diaper.  Little known fact, much like corn, you should never say goodbye to beans -- just "see ya later...in the exact same shape".

Decisions, Decisions

I have been desperate to get a canvas picture done for months now, and recently came across a groupon deal for CanvasPop.  I got a 16x20 deal for basically half price.  Now the big question is "what to put on the canvas?!"  I'm narrowing it down to a few ideas...

Possibly a newborn pic (I can't believe he used to be this tiny!)

Or maybe my all time favorite pic (my blog picture).



Or perhaps a nice family photo of the three of us (might be nice to include Daddy) ;)

Granted, we have about 7,000+ pictures on Todd's super nice camera, which would probably be the best place to choose a picture from.  So hopefully I'll be able to narrow it down soon.  Thank goodness the groupon doesn't expire until November, because this is a tough decision.  Any recommendations for me??

Mother's Day Recap

Just a couple of days late, but I have to share just how incredible my second Mother's Day was!  I was completely spoiled this year, by friends and family alike.  Below are some tidbits and photos of my extremely blessed day.

Mid-week I received these gorgeous flowers from a sweet friend thanking me for being so supportive of her in her first few months of being a new mommy.  It was completely unexpected and unnecessary -- she's an AMAZING mommy and doing such a fantastic job -- but how sweet of her to think of me when it's HER first mother's day!  I have a nice thank you in the works...but you know me, my thank yous take months (years?) so it will be a complete surprise to her when she receives it.  THANK YOU SUZI!!  xoxoxo

Following my surprise flowers, my hubby told me what he was gifting me with for Mother's Day this year -- a house cleaning service!  I can't even begin to describe the joy this brings me.  I HATE cleaning the house -- but I absolutely LOVE having it clean.  So this was the perfect gift for me!  They came mid-morning on Saturday, and even left the TP looking all fancy.  And if you were curious, yes, I'm making Todd use a spare roll under the cabinet so that the TP still looks like this...

On Sunday morning, my day started with a huge, delicious breakfast prepared just for me by my sweet hubby.  SO much food -- but I was too busy gorging myself to take a picture of any of it.  Eggs, bacon, hash browns, donuts, fresh avocado slices (for garnish, but I totally ate it), chocolate milk, a big cup of coffee...so yummy.  After breakfast I was too stuffed to move, so I cuddled on the couch with my two babies. (Nick LOVES to pet and kiss Whinnie - so sweet).

And I stared at these beauties -- gifted again by my hubby, and his miniature partner in crime (Nick).  My favorite -- tulips...and so gorgeous!  They are still going strong, too!

I also received this sweet hand-made card from my munchkin man...

Then we loaded up the kiddos in the car, along with a bunch of Todd's famous hamburgers (my favorite), and headed to my parents house to continue the mom's day festivities with my amazing family.

Upon arrival, we all immediately donned our Race For the Cure shirts for this year in honor of my Gramma "Ardith's Army" so that we could snap some family pictures.  But not before little man had a few crackers/snacks.

And after the pictures, he was still hungry, so he and his GAL (Great Aunt Lauri) enjoyed some more snacks together!

Little man also got to spend some quality time with one of his favorite people -- his Uncle Matt!  They had a great time swinging, and playing around on the swing set that my Dad built -- from scratch!  So talented!

I also received a sweet and delicious box of chocolate covered strawberries (like, GIANT strawberries) from my in-laws in GA.  SO yummy!

Some pics of Ardith's Army... Check out how amazing my Gramma looks!  47 year breast cancer survivor/fighter!

Our gift to my mom -- Nick's hand print on a plate. She loved it!

A big thank you to these two -- my sweet hubby who is my complete equal in this marriage and journey through parenting -- I would not be me without him.  And my precious Nicholas, who made me an official mommy -- he makes my job easy, fun, and by far the best one I've ever had!  Life is good.

And while this is not a recent picture (seeing as it's from my wedding in 2009, but she is always the one taking the pics, rarely posing for the camera), I have to give a special shout out to my beautiful mom.  The woman that taught me what it means to be a mom -- that love will conquer all in a family; patience is key; and that babies are only little once.  I continue to learn so much from her every day, and am so fortunate to have such an amazing role model in my life.  She truly is my very best friend -- and I thank God for her every day.  I love you, mom!

My little monkey

It's amazing how excited we, as parents, get with every new milestone our children accomplish.  Case in point: this past weekend we visited Todd's family in Newport News.  Todd's mom (Nanny Mo) found these adorable miniature bananas at the grocery store, and of course had to buy them for Nick.  Now, I think Nick is a genius because, well, he's my kid and I enjoy tooting our own horns around here...but homeboy has never had his own banana before.  Sure, he loves them, and eats them sliced, diced, mashed, and squished between his little fingers all the time.  But he's never been handed a banana, half peeled, and been told to "go at it" before.  So I was certain he wouldn't know what to do with these baby bananas.  And I was certainly wrong.

Blurry, yes.  But photographic evidence none-the-less:

Little dude toddled around Nanny's house with half peeled banana in hand, chomping away at his delicious snack like he was a freaking chimpanzee.  He knew exactly what to do.  And he only tried to eat the peel twice.  Common mistake.

I'm so proud.

15 Months!

Nick had his 15 month well baby check-up last night and it's safe to say he is growing like a weed!  The nurse even said "uhm, can I measure his height one more time just to make sure I did it right?" and I said "sure...why, does something seem off?" and she said "I just want to make sure he really did grow that much."  And grow he did...homeboy went from the 50th percentile for height & weight at his 12 month appointment, to now being in over the 80th percentile for everything!  He is 31.5 inches long and weighs 25lbs, 4oz.  Big boy!  No wonder I've felt like he's been growing overnight...he literally has!

Here are a few quick pics I snapped while he was patiently sitting on the exam table, completely unsuspecting of the shots to come....

He was apparently super thirsty. The boy loves drinking water.

We bought him this fantastic toddler Nalgene bottle at REI that won't break.  Only problem is, with water in it, the darn thing weighs like 4lbs.  Which is heavy for a little guy...and totally weighs down the already stuffed diaper bag.  But indestructibility trumps heft in this case.

We ended the visit with 3 vaccines -- one in his thigh, and one in each arm -- his first time getting shots in the arm.  And believe me when I tell you, he was NOT pleased.  But true to tough-guy form, he bounced back within seconds and all was well.

Nick,

It's hard to believe it's been 15 months since you entered our lives, and changed them forever - for the better.  You are so full of energy, spunk, and charm.  You are sweet, loving and caring.  Every day with you is exciting and it's so fun to get to experience things again for the first time through your eyes.  You love every person you come in contact with, regardless of age, race, size, or disability.  People can't help but feel loved in your presence as you indiscriminately blow kisses at strangers and wave hello to passersby.  I hope you are always as kind-hearted and non-judgemental as you are right now.  I hope your daddy and I can continue to teach you how much good there is in this world, and how you are a big contributing factor to that good.  And I hope you will always know that you can depend on us and feel safe and secure in our arms -- that our love for you is completely unwavering...stable...and far deeper than you will ever be able to comprehend.  You are our world, baby boy...  And we love you more than you know...

Love, Mommy & Daddy

You mean...Jesus?

So Nick got his first haircut last night.  If you're friends with me on Facebook, you've already seen this picture:

He looks fantastic, and I'm sure the weight off his shoulders (pun intended) will make for a much cooler summer, but I'm still mourning the loss of his curls.  My heart is literally aching at the thought of him no longer being a baby.  Sure, he's the same little guy -- still baby babbles, toddles around, and acts exactly the same as before -- only now, he looks like a mini-man.  It's making me tear up just thinking about how quickly he's growing up.

Anyway, the whole haircutting process went smoothly and I took a million pictures (hooray for remembering the memory card this time!).  I'll do a separate post recounting the details, but for now, I have to share this fabulous exchange that took place at the babysitter this morning.

Scene: walk into the sitter's house, Nick sporting his new short 'do.

Sitter: "Wow, Neeeck (she's from the DR and has a fantastic accent) - look at your hair!  Looks good!"

Me: "I'm sort of sad...I miss his curls...but I do think he looks good.  I'm not so sure he thinks so though...he's been REALLY cranky this morning."

Sitter: "Maybe he is missing his hair...like that guy who's long hair gave him strength" (all said in her accent)

Me: "Oh, Fabio?" (really, Melissa? Fabio?)

Sitter: "No, the guy in the Bible with the long hair"

Me: "Um, you mean Jesus?"

Apparently she was referring to Samson.  Also, apparently we both need to brush up on our Bible studies. 

Anyway, here's hoping Nick adjusts to the breeze on his neck today and is far less cranky this afternoon...because we have his 15 month check-up tonight, and Lord knows an already cranky toddler + the possibility of shots = a rough equation.  Wish us luck!