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.