Adios 2014!

You were a good year and I trust you'll successfully pass the baton to 2015.

Cade Train

The train set my parents gave Cade for Christmas has "cars" that spell his name! The Cade train!

Christmas Eve!

Wowzas - we've been so busy with the holidays I haven't even shared anything from our big Christmas Eve!

Let me hit the highlights for you.

We woke up and did stockings "just us." They mostly contained the typical loot - socks, shaving cream, floss, gum. Cade's had an art theme so he got watercolors, a painting smock, and some color bath stuff. Since pile under the tree was so large, we added two of his tree presents to stocking time, including a set of three balls. They were VERY popular and provided lots of pre-party entertainment.



My parents arrived at lunch, said a quick hello and then took me out to lunch while Ross put Cade down for his nap.

At 3p or so, the party started! Appetizers and tree presents. There was a MOUNTAIN of presents by the time everyone brought all of theirs inside. Eventually Cade had to open two to everyone else's one.

We planned to save his big present for last but with so many gifts, we realized it would be dark before we finished. So a few minutes before 5, we took an outside break. Here's a video of what happened next


As you can see, his reaction full of "wow" and "yay" was absolutely perfect! He's been loving his slide castle ever since and I am SO glad we got it for him.

Back to Christmas Eve, we finished presents - highlights include earrings and boots for me, weekend on Lake Travis for Mom & Dad, coo-coo clocks for us and the Vancils from Nancy & Jack, a train set for Cade, a Chicago Bears jersey for Ross, a carseat for Jack & Nancy, FitBit for Nancy, very very good whiskey for Jack and much much more. We all had a delicious dinner of brisket, mashed potatoes and zucchini. Brownies and coffee for dessert and I'd say the whole she-bang was complete around 8p.

All and all - a great Christmas! And thankfully, several vacation days afterward to for recovery rest and relaxation.

Christmas Eve Eve

This year our family is celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve to accommodate Ross' work schedule.And since Ross grew up celebrating on Christmas Eve, it isn't really a stretch. (Does this mean he never got to watch a relevant Santa radar on the news? I must ask; that would be sad.)

Cade started his Christmas Eve Eve with his "Christmas calendar" and today received a box of raisins, a delicious addition to his breakfast. Then it was off to preschool while Mommy and Daddy worked, built his big Christmas present and did the grocery shopping.

Let's visit the building part though. It included dropping temps, rain, a 20-page instruction book and lots of parts. But in the end, we got the job done (we may have gotten pneumonia from being out in the cold wet weather but damn it, Cade has his playscape-thingy).



The name of the game this evening was "keep Cade out of the backyard" so we closed all the blinds, went on a walk around the neighborhood and watched cartoons.

After bathtime we enjoyed one of the best Christmas Eve (Eve) traditions of all - cookies for Santa! Now I'll be honest, I didn't remember this until about 3:30p today so it wasn't quite June Cleaver fresh baked Toll House cookies. But since Cade isn't quite two yet, I think that's OK. Instead Santa got some strawberry newton cookies on a Santa plate (so he would know the cookies were for him, duh).



As you can see, Cade was very excited to put them out on the coffee table for Santa. (Since we don't have a fireplace, we just place them convenient to the Christmas tree. How Santa gets in without a chimney is a conversation for next year...or never if I can make that happen.)



And with that the little boy in reindeer jammies was off to bed, with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.

Austin Moms Blog Kid-tastic Christmas

I'm pretty proud of this recent Austin Mom's Blog post. Reprinted here for your enjoyment! But do a blogger a favor, go read it/like it over there too.

I love Christmas but I am not a domestic diva.

Like not a domestic diva at all. My husband cooks (and well, I might add) and one of my new year’s resolutions is to spring for a monthly house cleaning. But like I said, I love Christmas and all the fun celebrating that comes with it.

So for you other non-domestic divas, or for the domestic diva who just needs a night off, here are 12 kid-tastic Christmas ideas that do not involve you becoming June Cleaver.

1. Christmas cookiesCookie cutter cookies: Pre-packaged sugar cookies have a direction variation for going cookie cutter style. I think it still only required three ingredients or less. And HEB sells some Texas shaped cookie cutters for the $1-2 range. Go crazy.
2. Christmas light drive: Whether around the block or through the Trail of Lights, this is a classic.
3. Storytime: Local libraries, Barnes and Noble stores and BookPeople all offer holiday storytime for the small human in your life.
4. Seasonal volunteering or donating: Many organizations like the Salvation Army offer unique seasonal giving-back opportunities. Pick one near and dear to your heart to show the kids what the giving season really means.
5. Fire department drop-off: Fire departments run 24/7/365. Swing by your local station to drop off goodies. Homemade meals or simply bottled water and Gatorade are all appreciated.
6. Red & green meals: Take inspiration from Green Eggs & Ham and turn any meal a little more festive with the addition of food coloring.
7. Christmas crafts: You can paper mache a life-size Christmas tree if you want (but then you will qualify as a domestic diva). Or you can make simple construction paper chains or buy a Christmas coloring book. I recommend the Christmas Puppies coloring book because who doesn’t love Christmas and puppies.
8. Movie night: Kid or parent selected, snuggle in for a Christmas classic like Miracle on 34th Street or modern classics like Elf. Personally, I love Prancer of the 1980s fame.
9. Sing-a-long: Turn the daily commute or the over the hill and through the woods trip to Grandma’s into the jingle bell rock. Sing your hearts out y’all.
10. Holiday bathtime: Much like holiday meals, add some red and green to bathtime to make it festive. The Crayola bath crayons or drops can lead the way. Or fill the tub with the foam letters to spell words like “Santa” and “tree.”
11. It’s a small world: Choose a country, maybe the one your family hails from, and dedicate an evening to their Christmas traditions. You can include a special dinner dish (I’m sure World Market or Whole Foods can help), read a book or sing a song.
12. Bible readings: Before Santa and the elves, there were Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Help your kids understand the origins of Christmas and the beliefs of your family.

Ba-da-bing ba-da-bum Christmas! No paper mache, aprons or Pinterest required.

Happy Holidays!

Adventures in Saturday-land

Ross is on vacation this week! Meaning a whole weekend with the whole family home! Woohoo!

Today we started with a delicious surprise egg breakfast, then Cade and I went on a walk through the neighborhood and then home for some Saturday morning cartoons. Then the whole family loaded up into my car to run a couple errands, including swinging by the fire station in Georgetown and ending at a park in Round Rock that includes dog park and kid park.

After nap Cade and I had a sidewalk chalk happy hour in the back porch. It feels SO much bigger now since our old table and chair set is gone. We colored all over the place - porch, fence and in Cade's case, on his face.



This evening Ross is out to dinner with friends while I hold down the fort (last night I went to a Christmas party while he held down the fort so this is a quality trade).

And finally, as you can see, I am getting way too into these picture collages...

An Evening Stroll

A little mother-son walk yesterday evening while daddy cooked dinner. The cutest part - when he wasn't running ahead of me or pointing to "big cars," all he wanted to do was hold my hand!

Big D Birthday

Well it has been many moons since I blogged here but we have been busy! On Black Friday we decorated and then Nikki and Brittany came over for a slumber party. The next Friday we had another slumber party - in Dallas for Nikki's 30th birthday! This slumber party though started with champagne, included dinner at one of the fanciest schmanciest places in Dallas and ended at a bar & lounge, also on the fancy Dallas list.





In between slumber parties we've had work, a double ear-infection (Cade), a dentist appointment (me) and all kinds of other normal every day things. So really, with those few sentences, you are totally up to speed!

But because I know you love baby pictures, I'll leave you with this one of the little boy playing on his water table (a very summertime activity) despite that it is the holidays and as you can see our Christmas tree is up and decorated.

A Most Special Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We took a one-night trip to Seabrook to see the Lowe family. It was a quick trip but we had one mission in mind: to bring together all four great grandbabies with their Great Grandma for a holiday dinner.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

All 5 kiddos, their "Lowe" parent and Great Grandma

Woohoo! We had 23 people spanning for generations at our crazy Thanksgiving dinner. Ages 9 months to 89 years. It was an extra special holiday for sure.

Our Thanksgiving adventure we realized upon arriving, was also our first family vacation together. Since Cade was born he and I have taken trips but Ross' schedule hasn't worked for him to join before. This was the first time we all (Lexi included) headed out of town together.

So from our little traveling family to yours - Happy Thanksgiving!

A coastal holiday for the Black family

War Path

Don't let his cute smiles and sweet little "hi" fool you. When Cade Daniel wants to be destructive, he is, as his Grandpa says, on Team Destructo.

Today my cute little 20 month old was on the warpath. He climbed on two tables - dining room and the bar-height game room table. Pour at least 3 bowls of food on the floor. Played the drums with a salt shaker and had no less than three meltdowns. The third, at bedtime, was so severe, Ross came running to my aid worried I might follow with my own meltdown.

Sweet boy, I love your energy but tomorrow can we put it toward something more productive?

Christmas Picture

Hehe, Cade was SO SO wiggley at Christmas pictures. When I tell you this is the only shot in which he isn't a blur of motion or making a super strange cross-eyed, tongue-out, talking face, trust me. I mean it. The ONLY one.

#AMBTakeoverTuesday

Yesterday I took over the Austin Mom's Blog Instagram account for the day. In Instgrams, here was our day

I Got My Shoes On

Cade really loves putting on his shoes. Still working on doing it by himself but as you can see, we're practicing.

 

He also brings us our shoes, both randomly and when we are going somewhere. He was a little bummed today when we were going on a walk and I didn't want to wear the shoes he brought me. Because they were 3 inch peep-toe pumps. But he let me wear my flip flops when he realized that meant we got to go to his favorite place ever: OUTSIDE!!

New Hat

$0.97 spent at Wal-mart, well worth it. Look at that smile! (Plus his little baby head will stay warm this winter.)

 

Happy Halloween from the Littlest Trick or Treater

Cade went trick-or-treating! Like real actual trick-or-treating to multiple houses with both parents and for part of it, his favorite pup.

Yesterday we got decked out as NFL stars and knocked on four neighbors' doors. All were very nice and Cade made out like a toddler candy bandit. Which really means we made out like candy bandits since he is not allowed to eat it yet.

 

After our formal trick-or-treating, Cade and I went on a stroller adventure to Margeaux and Ryan's. Mostly because I wanted some exercise but it was fun to show off his costume, see Ryan's big bird costume (feather boas and dyed long-johns included) and enjoy a candy corn punch cocktail with Margeaux.

Glamping Anniversary

This weekend Ross and I celebrated the big oh-five anniversary. IT WAS PERFECT.

Saturday (our actual anniversary) was full of family fun. Starbucks and the park with Cade in the morning and then a full family outing to a family fall fest thing-a-ma-jigger. Mom and Dad arrived at our house just before dinnertime. We had a delicious steak dinner courtesy of the family chef/my stellar hubby and enjoyed a champagne toast. Cade stayed up all the way until 7:45p playing with his grandparents.

Yesterday was our big celebration day. And let me say again IT WAS PERFECT. We left around 9:30a, ran some errands and then met our friends at The Park for brunch and football. I thought we would have about 8 people but we ended up with 11, the surprise of the morning being Jon and Erin joining. We hadn't had all those people together in months. And we had a great table on the patio, could see all three games that we collectively cared about and the mimosas were just $1. Win, win, win.

After the noon game, Ross and I headed out to Wimberly for our glamping getaway. It was so cool!

The place is called Sinya on Lone Man Creek and the owner has done a great job thinking of everything. She showed us around when we first got there and then it was just time to kick back. We had drinks on the porch, ate our picnic dinner of salami, cheese, bread, olives and mushrooms. Then out to the back porch for star gazing from the hot tub. We stayed out there so long we got good and pruney. Then into sweatshirts and a couple hours around the campfire just chatting. We played a game of cards and called it a night around midnight.

We woke up around 7:30a to the first bit of light and then sat on the front porch and watched the sunrise over the hill country. Really. Yes, it was absolutely perfect. Then our hostess brought us a fruit, muffin and yogurt breakfast, complete with fresh squeezed OJ.

I don't think either of us knew how much we would enjoy a day and night like that. It was so so so fun to see our friends. Sinya was beautiful. It was so relaxing to be out away from everything and enjoy the quiet. And most of all, it was wonderful to have so much quality time with my sweet husband. Even though we see each other almost every day and talk all the time, we talked nearly the whole time we were together. Meaningful stuff, not meaningful stuff, everything.

I'd repeat this weekend any time.

Glamping selfie before hitting the road this morning

Reach for the Stars

Cade likes to un-do his diaper as I am doing it. To combat this, I've recently started telling him to put his hands above his head while I'm changing him. I grab his little hands, put them over his head and say "handsaboveyourhead" really fast and silly like.

Tonight it dawned on me the other people who say that - cops. To crooks.

Maybe not the kinda phrase I want to seem common place to my son.

So we course corrected to "reach for the stars!"

First I told him to "reach for the stars!" while I was putting on his diaper. Success!

Then I sat him up and told him to "reach for the stars!" so I could put on his PJ shirt. He laid back down and put his hands up by his head. HAHAHA! Apparently "reach for the stars!" means "put your hands up by your head while you are laying down."

So we kept practicing and I kept getting a lot of this.



We moved out to the gameroom. Where eventually I got this.




Such a quick learner! And thankfully now we can say something that rings of ambition, not a life of crime.

Animal (School) House

It was a zoo at school! Really - a petting zoo! Here are a few pictures Cade's teachers took when the petting zoo turned school into an animal house.

Austin Moms Blog!

Since I'm not busy enough, back in August I connected with the editor of the Austin Moms Blog and last month signed up as a regular contributor. Woohoo! I'm actually really excited to have an "official" blog with lots of readers that is more lifestyle and consumer than tech and B2B.

So far I've contributed a guest post, an intro post and as of today my first regular post!

You can read it here: http://citymomsblog.com/austin/2014/10/15/is-working-from-home-for-you-6-questions-to-ask-yourself/

Me Monday

I'm not totally sure why, but my company gives us Columbus Day off. It's a very New England holiday to have and we don't have any New England offices. But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. So I didn't question it; I just enjoyed it with a me day.

I took Cade to preschool, worked out and then got a 90 minute massage. Ahhhh. It was heavenly. I'm not sure when the last time I splurged on a whole 90 minutes was but it was fantastic.

Then home for a quick lunch and out to do my favorite thing: outlet mall shopping.

Though the day started out very rainy by lunch it was beautiful. Sunny and seventies. Perfect for outlet shopping. And shop I did.

I got lucky and had one of those days where everything fits and everything is on sale. I did my part to support the Texas economy by making purchases at no less than eight stores. I got two sweaters, a work blouse, a wedding anniversary top and necklace, a comfy long-sleeved tee, cute striped 3/4 sleeve top, PJs for the little boy (Xmas gift!), fleece for the little boy, t-shirt for the little boy and a Christmas gift for the hubs. Let it be known that I was not purposefully Christmas shopping but it is getting pretty close and I figure anything I buy from here on out can be wrapped and put under the tree.

Normally I would happily give you the breakdown of spent v saved. But I've been a bad shopping blogger today and hung everything up without doing the math or taking pics. I can tell you though that one of the sweaters is from Ann Taylor and was purchased for $11 when it was originally $79. That was by far the steal of the day. Other notable wins were the Gap long sleeved tee for $12, NY & Co sweater for $17ish and baby PJs at 2 for $13.

Ahhh, I love an afternoon of shopping. And as if that wasn't enough, tomorrow is back to work but as a work from home day! Woohoo!

Rainy Day Adventure to the Thinkery

It was gross and rainy in Austin today. Even though it cleared up around lunchtime, everything was muddy. Not a play outside day.

But I have a toddler and for a split second our house is clean. I really didn't want to screw that up with mud and I didn't want him to tear the walls down going stir crazy (ditto about me). So we hit the town toddler style - a field trip to the Thinkery!

The Thinkery is the relatively new (and renamed) children's museum. It's about 25 minutes from us and this was our first time to check it out.

We started in the baby/toddler space, then moved on to the farmers market area, then the room of water tables, then snack time, then the innovation space, then glass wall painting and finally the train set. Cade loved the baby/toddler space, water tables and painting. Though really there didn't seem to be anything he didn't like. It was a win all around!

Doodlebug!

So I'm a little behind in blogging (among other things) and baby boy's graduation to toddler class went completely un-blogged about. Mommy blogger fail.



But here it is! Cade walking into his first full day as a Doodlebug last week! His class is 1.5-3 years old and is the class where they will focus on one of the most important life skills: potty training. Can I get a HECK YEAH.

I'm really pleased with the way his school does transitions. He literally spent a whole week easing into it. First with just an hour or so in the new class, then a half day and so on. Last Friday, October 3 was his first full day in the new class. The first time we did drop off there and he stayed all day long.

By all accounts he is doing well. We managed to sneak some pacifier weaning into the mix too. Pacis just are simply not part of naptime in his new class. Woohoo! We're still working on it at home but I definitely take this as a step in the right direction.

I'm noticing goodbyes are less dramatic in the morning too. I think that's because there is so much going on in his class, so much moving and activity that he's just ready to get into it too. (Or maybe we're just having a good week; who knows.) He's taking longer naps at school too which I think definitely speaks to the increased level of activity. And as we've been seeing so much this fall, his vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. I'm sure being around a group of bigger and chattier kids is only going to keep encouraging that.

Development milestones aside, he's also just one cute cute cute little Doodlebug.

The Black Family Barber Shop

With all the amenities of home, including cartoons and a post hair cut shower, The Black Family Barber Shop is a hit among the residents.

Who says we don't have seasons in Texas?

Just ask my seasonal home decorating compulsion, we have seasons. They just have more candles and Pier 1 purchases than naturally changing leaves.

Also as you can see from my recent posts, I have a new photo toy. It's called canva, it's free and it is SO MUCH fun (in a I'm-more-a-blogger-than-a-scrapbooker kinda way).

Patio Project

Since we started building this house in 2012 we've been saying we were going to cover the patio. Then we spent money on something else, and then another thing, then we had a newborn, then I went the less secure self-employment route, then we bought my new car, then we had a landscaper fall through. But then, THEN, FINALLY, it happened.

After changing plans several times, we finally had our patio extended, put up sunsails and added an outdoor bar. Woohoo! Our yard is now 100% more enjoyable and liveable.

Of course like any home renovation project, we run the very high risk of this just being the start. We're already discussing replacing the table and chairs, adding a step down and may even flagstone-ing over the cement part.

But first thing's first - a party!

Beantown Vacay

Whew! We went to Beantown, we saw family and friends and we made it home again!

Cade and I spent four nights in New England and had a GREAT time. On Thursday we went to Jane's house and had a quiet evening with her and AJ. On Friday we played at home in the morning including a walk around the lake by Jane's house.

Lake!

After nap, we went on a vineyard happy hour. Cade, ever the sophisticated toddler, knows vineyards well as we also went to one on our Cali trip back in January. Needless, to say, he did great (that is did great in between small meltdowns because mommy went in inside for a refill and he had to play with his delta aunties...still getting to know them after all). Friday post vineyard a few more deltas came to visit and we all hung out in the backyard.

My most fav pic: roomies and baby at the vineyard. Love, love, love.

Saturday we migrated to Framingham to see family. We had a lazy afternoon and then a big family dinner.

Family pic before dinner

Crazy Cade took two naps which I thought were just because he hadn't slept super well since traveling and was getting molars but as we discovered upon our return home, was probably in part due to having hand foot mouth disease. (Calling it a disease makes it sound so unnecessarily serious.) I wish I could tell you that Cade was a champ and stayed up for all of dinner and sat at the table eating salmon with utensils like a little adult. But really, he had a meltdown right before dinner and crashed. So the adults ate dinner together and talked and enjoyed wine and had a lovely time while the wee boy slept.

Before his dinnertime bedtime, Cade LOVED playing with Uncle Winslow

The only bummer of the weekend was Saturday and Sunday nights. My small child was teething and sick and as a result neither of us slept very much at all. However those molars would have come if we had been on vacation or not so at least we got to see family and friends, come hell or molars.

Sunday was a quiet day with family. Walks around the block, a visit to Lexington & Concord and a very civilized dinner together at the table. He ate the heck outta Aunt Linda's mashed potatoes!

Monday we lazed around in the early morning and then hung out with Auntie Linda in the late morning. After nap AJ and Taygan picked us up for the airport. The boys were so cute in the dual car seats! I wish they had been able to spend more time together but there's always next time. We hope to visit Boston often during Cade's childhood. Just the first of many!

Sharing pretzels on the way to the airport

And finally, from an airplane perspective, he was a total champ. In all the travels, he only had 5 minutes of crying. And like I said, there was some sickness and molars involved. Five minutes of crying would be exceptional for a healthy babe, but for a sick teething babe is blue ribbon caliber. Also, three adults (me, Nana and Grandpa Jack) to one toddler is absolutely the right travel ratio. They were so much help!!!

Cade's First Shop Class

On Saturday Cade and I went to Hobby Lobby and among other things bought him a little stepstool. It was unfinished wood so I asked Ross if he would paint it.

Monday when I got home, here's what my hubby and kids painted in at-home shop class.

   

 Best little stepstool I ever did see.

18 months old!

I feel at this point I'm not a mom who can tell you exactly how old her kid is. "17 months, 3 weeks and 2 days" is not answer you'll get from me. Cade's been "about a year and a half" for at least two months now.

But yesterday he became legitimately a year and a half. And when you can still count your years on one hand, half birthdays matter. I mean heck, 6 months is a full third of his life! That's like me only celebrating my birthday every 10 years (well...almost...I have another 222 days and 2 hours before I'm 30 but whose counting).

So...

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY CADEMAN!

To celebrate Cade's half birthday we...did more or less the same thing we do every weekend. But with gusto! A walk around the block, errands that had an added playtime at Barnes & Noble, cartoons while Mommy got dressed, Starbucks and the park, cheering on the Texans. It was a big, busy weekend!

And using a nifty new photo tool I've just discovered (Canva) here's a look at it.

We are never, ever getting back together

We are never ever ever getting back together,
We are never ever ever getting back together,
You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me
But we are never ever ever ever getting back together

Like, ever...

Ah Taylor Swift, I think you were talking about a boy (the Kennedy boy maybe?) but I am talking about American Airlines.

Supposedly I was going to DC today for my first working mom biz trip. Margeaux was taking Cade to preschool so I could catch my early flight; Nancy was on tap to pick him up and have a slumber party; Ross was scheduled for all-day daddy duty when he got home from shift tomorrow.

Well, I only made it as far as DFW. And then I hung out there FOREVER.

I caught my 8:35a flight from AUS to DFW (Thanks Margeaux!). Quick change of terminals and stop in ladies' room and I was ready for my 10:25a flight to DC. Or 11a flight. Whatevs. But when I got on my slightly delayed flight we were told that some external thing-a-majigger that starts the plane wasn't working so we were getting a new one. 15 minute delay. NBD.

Turns out that thing-a-majigger was not the broken thing-a-majigger. It was a valve actually on the plane. Let's see if one is nearby for quick replacement. Psych! Not so much. De-plane everyone because to do the fix it's gonna be an hour with no AC and it's Dallas so it is 95 out. Try again at noon.

So I went to town on the free DFW wifi and scored some Starbucks. Life could be worse.

When the delay was pushed to 1p, I decided I was skipping out on the company dinner tonight. I wasn't capable of putting my best foot forward or wining and dining anyone. Instead I was gonna sulk with Anna and Ben. But seeing them was a silver lining so I could forgive AA for the delays. It meant Delta time!

Then the delay was 1:20. And because this plane had to be taken full on outta commission, then it was 1:40. Then 2p. OK 2p take off still meant 6p arrival. Plenty of time to grab dinner with my favorite Virginians.

At 2:20p I'm watching the safety video for the third time that day when the pilot says "Some days are just unbelievable..." As in "this is your second airplane of the day but guess what - it doesn't work either!"

Literally 2 minutes after that announcement, before I figured out what the hell I was gonna do, my VP texts me "If you want to go back to Austin that is fine." Sweeter words were never texted.

I rang that flight attendant bell before I even responded. (Thank you boss and boss' boss for being reasonable, compassionate people. Really, it means a lot to me. This is why I was eager to work for you.)

At 2:40p I de-planed my third plane of the day. I asked American if I could get a flight home or if I should rent a car (it's only 3 hours after all). (My VP suggested hitch hiking as the most cost effective route...j/k of course.)  The nice agent told me she could get me on a 4:10p to Austin because duh, it's Sept 11 and nobody but me is flying today. (Shot of confidence!) Ugh well 4:10 wasn't bad if it was on time which American was not doing awesome with lately. Nothing earlier?

There's a 3:10 but they'll close the gate at 2:55p for that and it is already 2:43p. LADY I have all my luggage, I'm wearing flats and I am MOTIVATED. "Well I don't want them to slam the door in your face" and then do what - book me on the 4:10p?! Give me a damn chance! I'll make that sprint.

And sprint I did. Across the entire A terminal, into the sky-tram-whatever-they-call-it, past old ladies (sorry if I knocked you down), through ALL of terminal C with a laptop bag banging my left hip and large purse thudding my right ribs. I had leg cramps and couldn't breathe, by dammit, I made it to C39 at 2:53p. I boarded the plane sweating and panting and barely knowing my name.

We took off by 3:15p. Of course I was in the back of the plane (don't give a sh*t) which meant we had the most slope at take-off...and my iphone rolled out of my overstuffed purse. Awesome. So as soon as the seatbelt sign was off, I was down on all fours in my pencil skirt in the aisle looking under chairs for my phone. Bless the lady two rows back with a big purse that stopped the phone sliding. About that time the pilot tells us we've been redirected toward Abilene because of weather that we need to go around and it will DOUBLE our flight time.

Then I ordered wine.

Thankfully as I poured my wine we got clearance to take a shorter route that only put us 10 minutes behind schedule. Things were finally looking up.

I landed at 4:15p, darted out of the airport, back to my car and sped up 130 to preschool to grab my little boy. After re-installing his carseat (which Margeaux had left there for Nancy), I went into his classroom and found him not there. WTF. Thankfully I was informed that he was just enjoying third recess with the toddler class he's graduating to this month. Cool beans. Except when I got to the playground he wanted nothing to do with me. Couldn't I see he was playing with new friends on a new playground?? Besides I promised him a slumber party with Nana and I was NOT Nana. After three attempts and bribery of a movie and junk food, he obliged and came home with me.

Finally back home we ended our (my) crazy day blissfully with Brittany and Kenneth. The kids ate real food for dinner and the moms had wine and guacamole. Then we all watched "An American Tail" movie featuring Fievel. We ended with this sweet scene of the boys reading together on the couch.

Ah being home with them makes it all worth it. Look how sweet!

PS My American Airlines voucher from Boston travel plan changes has been sold to a sorority sister. Because American Airlines, we are never, ever getting back together.

Weekend Fun

Ah, we had a nice normal weekend these past two days. Very important since over the next three weeks we have: handyman projects (Ross helping his mom), a biz trip, 4-5 days of work training, a vacation, visiting grandparents and 2 birthday parties. Plus of course full time work and preschool. So a fun, relaxing weekend was definitely needed to kick off the September insanity.

In pictures, here's what it looked like

New backpack for Boston vacation - LOVED it

Playing at Rowan's for Jon's birthday

Nana's water table lives at our house now! Fun!

Not pictured: football games, Curious George movie, pedicure, brunch, Nik visit, washer's tournament, new patio and 2 park trips

Away

"Away" is a new word/concept in Cade's world. Every night after bath, he loves to run around naked in his room while I get his bedtime diaper and jammies sorted out. One of the fav activities during this time is to take his sock basket off the shelf and dump it all over the floor.

Thankfully, the second part of this activity is to put them "away." He throws all his socks back into the basket and then tries to put the basket back on the shelf. Until yesterday though he couldn't reach the shelf so the socks would all fall out again as he tried to put them away.

But yesterday my big boy was able to put his sock basket away. We were both so proud!