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!

 

Pics from M+R Wedding!

I was like a kid in a candy store when Margeaux sent over the link to her wedding pics. So many great ones! Here's a few featuring my crew

Cade, the camera is thata way!

Down the aisle, straight to Dad

Post ceremony, pre-baby bedtime

The Way Mondays Ought To Be

Mondays should always include the park, the pool and of course, martian glasses.  

He looks so grown up as a martian!