The perfect weekend.

The weather was absolutely beautiful this past weekend. Sunny, not hot with a nice breeze. Made you want to stay outside all day. Saturday we were slow to get moving, but by mid morning we were ready to go and play outside. Aiden rode his car all over the yard. Then he went with Seth to do some errands while I did some cleaning around the house. Put away the dishes, laundry, etc. While Aiden was napping we talked about what we wanted to do the rest of the day and I mentioned going to the park since we really haven’t done that much this year. Yes we have a swing set in the backyard but its different when you go to a park. There are other kids there. More things to climb on. Many slides to go down. It’s the whole atmosphere. I’ll admit that the reason we really haven’t gone is because of Rebecca’s nap schedule, but in the afternoon we can sacrifice her nap so that we can get out just a little bit and if we are doing something the she really doesn’t notice that she is missing a nap. It was just a great time overall. I even made a friend, a little girl carrying around a baby doll that started to follow me around because I was holding Rebecca. She wanted to be just like me. I was swinging. She sat down on the swing and put her “baby” in her lap. After a little bit I walked over to the baby swings where Aiden and Seth were and she followed me over, made sure that her “baby” was positioned just right on her hip as Rebecca was. It was soo cute. One day that will be Rebecca.

Sunday we got up, got ready and headed out to breakfast as we do every Sunday morning. Rebecca went in for a nap after we got home and Aiden came with me to the store to get a few things. Afterwards he played with his car while Seth mowed the lawn. He asked to go to the park again and I felt bad telling him that we couldn’t go since sister was still sleeping, but once he saw our neighbors Ashton and Braydon out he wanted to go over there to play so we did. Later that day we had planned to go to my great aunt and uncle’s 50th anniversary party, but all weekend Aiden had been coughing and she was raspy and had a runny nose so I thought he had a change of season cold. I was bummed that we were going to cancel last minute since it was with family that I don’t get to see often, but I didn’t want him to get anyone sick. This morning he still woke up raspy and had a cough, but the more I think about it the more it seems that he may actually have allergies. He has all the same symptoms that I have when I have an allergy attack, and when he blows his nose its all clear. I might have to go pick up some children’s allergy meds to see if that helps him out.

But that was our weekend and I hated to see it end. I hope next weekend is just as nice since are planning on going apple picking. This year we are going twice and I will freeze the apple slices so I can use them for pies and crisps through out the winter.

10 years ago

So like many people today I sit and think about what I was doing on this day ten years ago. A lot has happened in the past ten years. Seth and I solidifies our relationship. We moved in together. Got engaged. Got married. Bought a house and had two beautiful children. But when anyone brings up Sept 11th I think about the exact time that I woke to Seth calling me and telling me that there was no way I was getting on a plane later that day. This was even before the towers fell. The first plane had just hit and this was even before we knew it was an act of terrorism against our country.

That evening I had a flight back to GA to start my Second semester at SCAD. After seeing the footAge I didn't want to fly nor did I want to leave anyone close to me. Then they shut down all airports so there was no way I could fly even if I was crazy to want to. The day was frantic as Seth's sister was somewhere in the city and we couldn't get a hold of her. Things were better once we were able to speak with her to know that he was safe.

A couple days later I contacted school. They were jot so forgiving about the situation and told me that I had 2 days to get to Savannah or a failed for the semester. It was a trimester school and they only allowed 3 absences a semester. Umm ok. Did you not watch the news?! I live in an area that is still pretty much on lock down and my car is at school otherwise I would have driven back. So I withdrew for the semester. I was bummed but a school that doesn't see to care about what is going on isn't the school for me. My mom was mad at me but there were other factors up in the air as well including my housing arrangements that were not finalized still.

In the end it brought Seth and I closer. If I had gone back down GA would we still be together? Would we had called it quits because of the long distance? Who knows. I do know that my life would not be what it is today had this tragedy not occurred. I'm not saying that it was good that it happened, but that out of every tragedy there is always some good that happens. So on this day I thank all the troops that have sacrificed. I will think about all the people that lost their lives on the airplanes and in the towers. And I will forever be grateful that we were so fortunate to not have been personally affected by this as so many have.

The Working Mom

Now that I am back to work things have been a little crazy around the house. I get out of work at 5:00pm and I have close to a 45minute commute so as soon as I walk in the door I’m scrambling to get dinner ready. Rebecca has to eat by 5:30/5:45pm at the latest or she is screaming. Aiden is looking for a snack because he is hungry. I have relearned that I need to plan my meals in advance and I take out what I need from the freezer the night before. Last night I forgot to take out something so it turned into pizza night.

Either way it’s a lot of work. Seth has been going to bed a little later to get some paperwork done since he picks the kids up from daycare if he doesn’t have a late call. I have to prep lunches at night again. Get my clothes ready the night before. The alarm goes off at 5:10am and I snooze until 5:30. That gives me enough time to get ready before getting Aiden up at 6:15 so that he can get a Mickey fix otherwise all hell breaks loose and a meltdown ensues because he wants to watch a Mickey episode. 6:45am we’re all dressed and heading out the door so I can drop both off at daycare and then head to work by 8am. I wish it was 8:30am. That would make things so much easier on me as far as timing goes. I could leave at 7am instead and maybe spend a little more time in the drop off phase. This past week though I have come to really relish the time after work with the kids like I did at my old job. There is only so much time that is left in the day before they go to bed and now that they don’t home until close to 6pm instead of around 5pm I don’t want to miss anything. That means extra cuddles with Rebecca while she is calming down before being put in her crib around 6:45pm. Last night Aiden and I built a pillow fort on the love seat and the night before we played with is matchbox cars. He didn’t ask to watch a Mickey show and it was really nice to get that one on one time with him.

This past week I have also had time to think about my time at home with the kids. I really enjoyed being home with them. Don’t get me wrong there were times that I wanted to rip my hair out, but that is par for the course. It was easier in the end. I could help Seth out more with going to the bank, shipping packages, and mailing invoices. The house was a lot cleaner. I was able to do the laundry, dishes and any other cleaning that needed to be done during the day. I could go grocery shopping. Now I have to figure out if I want to spend 1.5 hours at the grocery store on the weekends instead of playing with the kids or do I go after they have gone to bed and then I sacrifice my workout for the night and any other house cleaning that I was trying to get done. Seth and I have talked about it and while we could make it work on just his salary it does make it a lot easier to have the 2 incomes. We would not be able to do as many things as we would like. Next year we both have a few bills that will be paid off so maybe then we will re-evaluate the situation. Until then I’m going to have to settle with being a working mom and hopefully Rebecca decides to wait to do some of her milestones at home instead of daycare.

The Birthday Post

I’ve been such a procrastinator on this blog post. The problem is that all the pictures are still on my camera and I haven’t taken the time to go through which ones I want to share. Anyway.

Aiden’s birthday was planned or August 28th. It was a Sunday and then earlier that week as we are watching the weather to see if we would be able to be outside like planned or if all 30or so people were going to be cooped up in the house we see that a lovely Hurricane Irene is on her way for a visit. Girl you were neither invited to the party nor do I accept your RSVP. So all week we struggled with “Do we still have to party inside?” “Do we just reschedule for a different week?” As we watched the weather it seemed evident that we would only be getting rain and a lot of wind and that the peak of the storm would not hit us until later in the evening. Ok. We can still do this. We moved the party to 11am from the original 3pm time. I called all the vendors to make the change. We were all set to go. Everyone was on board with the new time. Then the night before we find out that Irene put her jets on and we were going to be hit earlier in the day. That is when all the cancelations started. Now I’m not going to lie. I was pretty bummed that we were not going to be having Aiden’s party after all. I had spent the night before decorating the house and Aiden even saw all the decorations in the morning and he was excited for his birthday party. However, it was really windy out and a lot of our friends and some family lost power. In the end it was better that we rescheduled and we probably should have in the first place (that would have saved the cake). The ultimate goal was that everyone stayed safe during the storm. And Aiden was really good about not asking when the party was going to start. We were able to change the date on the food and the balloons however the cake had been made the night before so we still had to pick that up. It was a great looking cake and I probably should have frozen it in the freezer for the following weekend instead of cutting into it. Oh well. We just ordered a smaller cake from Shaw’s with an airbrush picture of Toodles on it instead of a Toodles shaped cake.

Fast forward to Sept 3rd. It was a beautiful day out. Not too hot. A little bit humid, but not too bad. We were able to be outside and the kids were able to run around and let off any built up energy. We set everything up while Aiden napped so he wouldn’t get too excited to sleep. A few friends could not make it in the end due to a prior engagement, but we will be planning a play date soon with them. Over all it was a great day. Aiden took turns giving his friends a ride in his new Powerwheels truck that he got from Seth and I. We decided to build it and give it to him on Friday knowing that the weekend was not going to be good weather and we wanted him to be able to ride it a little bit. He does really well at driving and steering.

So Aiden had a Mickey Mouse birthday. I had little activities set up based on Clubhouse episodes. We didn’t end up getting to 2 of them. One being Goofy’s Lost Hat AKA pin the hat on Goofy and we also did not do Pluto’s Bubble Bath, which was a bubble blowing sprinkler toy. You hook it up the hose and it shoots water and blows bubbles. It just wasn’t hot enough to do that. The kids loved Minnie’s Rainbow- colored ice cubes that made a rainbow in your drink. There was Daisy’s Flower Garden- Foam flower frames art project that you decorated with other flower stickers and bugs. There was Donald’s Ducks- a duck fishing game. And the last one we did was Mickey’s Big Surprise- a piñata with goodies inside. The kids loved hitting it and picking up all the candy that was inside. Yup! Sugar them all up before sending home. YWIA!!!

Minnie's Rainbow

Goofy's Lost hat

Daisy's Flower Garden

Donald's Ducks

Bouncing on the pool.

Toodles Cake

Mickey's Big Surprise.

The joys of daycare.

With the kids in daycare I knew that there were going to be certain things that we would encounter that would be par for the course. Some of those things would extra germs which equals colds, dirtied clothing and even some ruined clothing from art projects, and I expected extra bruises & bumps. I guess I even expected to occasionally receive the incident report of something happening to Aiden from another child. That being said we have now received our second incident report of another child biting Aiden in the past 3 weeks. The first time I noticed it in the bath tub he had a bite mark on his shoulder blade. When I asked him about it he told me who bit him. I did bring it up to the teacher the next day and she did concur that there was a tussle between the two of them but she didn't think the other child bit Aiden. Or rather she thought she broke it up before the other child could bite Aiden since this other child is known to bite. Today Seth picks up the kids from daycare and there was an incident report that he was bitten by another child. I immediately ask him what time was the report because this biter was in the room when I dropped of Aiden. Seth asks him who bit him today and he immediately tells Seth that said biter was the one that did it. Now I am kind of torn as to do I say anything to the director about it. The teacher does know that the child is a biter, but I'd kind of like to know what is being done and I wish I knew what the child's parents are doing to teach their child that it is not okay to bite.

Packing up the gear.

So this morning as I'm picking up a few things in the family room I realize that we not longer need the Bumbo seat since Rebecca can now sit up on her own and I also realize pretty soon she will be done with the swing as well. Right now she only uses the swing to nap and I am going to start working on getting her to nap in the crib. Especially since if we don't clip her in then when she wake up we usually find her sideways in the swing. Something that makes me nervous that one day she will topple out of it.

In addition to packing up the baby gear, another thought crosses my mind. When do I start to sell the stuff? Do I be one of those crazy moms and start making a list of items that I will keep for grand kids? Yes, I know that is a long way away and it will mostly be just toys, no gear. But I do know that I love watching Aiden play with Seth's old matchbox cars and when he is a little older I know that Seth will let him play with his old Transformers. I know that toys are not made the way they used to, but there are a few select toys that I know will stand the test of time and they will be fine ( barring any recalls) for the next generation. Honestly, the only gear that I can see us potentially keeping is the exersaucer and the play mat since you don't really need batteries to play with either. The bouncy seat could also be saved since it breaks down so small, but we will see.

The visit to the doctors

This past Thursday Aiden had his 3 year check up. He did really well. He's 28lbs. 35 1/8 inches tall. They also check his vision as well this year. It was pretty cool. They gave him a pair of glasses to put on and he had to tell the nurse which card had the lines on it. They mix up the cards a bunch of times changing locations. They kind of look like the 3D glasses that you get at the theaters. We also got his flu shot as well and this year we opted to get the nasal spray as opposed the booster shot. I will say that the part he did the best on was the lead test. The pricked his finger and then they had to take the blood sample into the little tube. He sat on Seth's lap and the nurse said that she had to feed the blood to her pet snake. It was kind of cute.

Next it was Rebecca's turn. Off to get our ears pierced. We moved rooms since we were seeing another doctor for her. He came in put some marks on her ears, asked us if the position looked good. The worst part was her being held down. As soon as the nurse took her she started to cry. They quickly did both ears and as soon as I was able to pick her up she was fine. She looks like she a little lady now that she has them pierced. So far its been a little tough trying to get in there to rotate them so the skin does not grow back on the studs, but she is such a squirmer and the studs are just soo small. we can change them out in 6 weeks, but I may just leave them in there for 8wks and change them out for the family holiday pictures.