Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!

We spent the past weekend in Houston to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday and my Dad's 60th birthday. These landmark birthdays were extra special because Carly, my sister-in-law visited from California for them. Cade and I hadn't seen her since last January and Ross hadn't seen her since she and Kevin got married in May 2013.

Saturday we arrived in town and had a family dinner at my parents' house. After dinner Melissa joined us, only fitting since she is basically family. She just received a promotion at work so we had a bottle of bubbly to celebrate that too.

On Sunday we spent the morning playing and then after nap headed to the big 90th birthday party at my aunt and uncle's house. I think we had 12 adults and 3 kiddos so a pretty good crowd. Of the folks who could not join, the Alabama crew visits next weekend and hopefully Kevin will have a trip to Houston sometime after his deployment. Not sure when Alan makes it back to town but he's pretty good about visiting so I'm sure Grandma will see him soon.

For much of the weekend Cade practiced singing "Happy Birthday Great Grandma" which ended up sounding a lot more like "Happy Birthday Great Mama" and frankly, that is even cuter. In addition to singing at her party, he stood in his chair at the dinner table, in just his shorts, and showed everyone his muscles. "Grrr I big boy Cade" he said while flexing. As Robin said "I didn't know Grandma's party included a gun show." Ha!

Did I take any pictures? No. But thankfully my cousin Megan got this great one of the birthday Grandma looking her birthday best. Happy birthday Grandma!

The Greatest Show on Earth

Sunday evening, Ross, Nancy, Cade and I went to the circus! Cade loved it, especially the elephants and motorcycles. It isn't often that we all do something - Nana included. Often if Nana and Cade are hanging out, Ross and I are doing grown up things. So this big family outing was really nice.

He was too interested in the show for a selfie

Last year of elephants in the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus

Taking it all in with Nana

I go to fire station!

The first thing Cade said when he woke up from yesterday's nap was "I go to fire station!" and he was right! We went on an afternoon adventure to visit Ross at the fire station. It was hands down the most fun Cade has ever had there.

It melted my mommy heart to see my two boys playing together. And then it did a double melt later when Cade told "Dad is hero! He rescue anybody when he at work." Oh yes, little boy, your dad is a hero. He does rescue anybody who needs it when he is at work.

The Week That Was

This week, Cade wore a LOT of Thomas clothes and of course, really cool sunnies.

And on Monday, he had a very "spirited" morning complete with total ecstasy over his (terribly ugly but also awesome) Thomas outfit, a complete meltdown because his free cheese danish sample at Starbucks had cheese on it and finally, with having to literally be dragged on his belly into preschool crying and screaming. Oh how I wished my frappuccino had had liquor in it at that moment.



Thankfully from Monday, things got better (heck, they couldn't get much worse.) Last night he hung out with Rowan, which included trains, dolls and a Disney movie.



And tonight he was rewarded with a Gordon train (of Thomas & Friends fame) for having his first poopoo on the potty! Yay Big Boy Cade! He Facetimed both of his grandmothers to tell them about the event.



As a side note, during all these goings on, it was really, really, really frickin' hot. What you see below isn't even the worst from my car thermometer; just the worst I could safely capture while stopped.

Sunday Funday at the Thinkery

Yesterday was totally a Sunday Funday. It started with a duck pond walk with the neighbors. Then it was Mommy Morning Off during which I read at Starbucks for almost 2 hours, did a quick return at the outlet mall and then hit up yoga class.

For the afternoon, my favorite toddler and I went to the Thinkery (ie Austin's children's museum). He hadn't been in about 6 months and he's still young enough that in 6 months he's like a whole different kid. We had so much fun! It was our longest trip and our most engaging.

Probably his last time in the babyroom (0-30 months...he's 29 months).
We're officially in tat phase of not knowing how to smiley nicely and consistently

He was really into the tumbling space. That's not the official name but it is a room with mats of different sizes and shapes, hula hoops and the like. Basically the perfect place to run and crash which is his most favorite thing in the world. So naturally, very popular.

There were even some forward rolls down the stairs.

 

And even though he's dramatically different in so many ways, one exhibit continues to come out on top: the toy train table.

One and Done

At the beginning of our vacation, a post I wrote (over the course of almost 2 weeks and with about 6 rounds of revisions) posted on the Austin Moms Blog. In short summary...

The real reason, the bottom line for why we’re strongly leaning toward one-and-done is actually pretty simple and I would guess it applies to many other one-and-done couples. Our life with one child feels complete, happy, satisfied and balanced.

I was a little nervous about writing it. It is after all, a fairly personal topic, as family planning should be. But also I've heard several opinions that make it sound "wrong" to have an only child. Personally I think to call any conscious family planning decision "wrong" is just crazy. If anything conscious and purposeful family planning is responsible.

But I digress.

So anyways I wrote it, revised it (and revised it 5 more times) and then it published. And to date, it has 1484 Facebook likes! That, ladies and gentlemen, is a personal all time high.

If you would like to read One and Done, you can find it here.

Beach Vacation!

Hi, hi, hi!

We did it - we took our first family vacation! It was great! Both kiddos did overwhelmingly well and LOVED the beach. We built sandcastles, crashed in the waves, ran in the water and really just had a great time.

Since Cade is just a tiny guy still, we only did 2-2.5 hours each morning at the beach. Then he was just about beached out and it was creeping close to lunch and nap time. So back to the condo to eat and nap (except 1 day when he went on a nap strike). It was also nice to be out there in the early morning when it wasn't 1000 degrees out, before the beach was crowded and actually before the park rangers came by to take payment for the beach pass. $12 saved per day :)

Ross had the good idea to buy a dinosaur kite before the trip and he and Cade had a ton of fun flying it. Cade is still talking about it. We had sandcastle toys galore and by about the middle of the first day he'd figured out how to build them. Also of note is that Cade slept in a regular twin bed for three nights! He did really well. Two of the nights he slept the whole night; the other he woke up several times but didn't do anything dangerous. In fact he didn't really get out of bed. So I think our transition from crib to toddler bed may happen a little sooner.

Lexi chased crabs and even splashed in the water. For a dog who has always been anti-water in every form or fashion, the ocean sure fit her nicely.

For the Austin Moms Blog, I've written a post with our bloopers from the trip. (There were several.) So once that publishes I'll share a link to the post. Until then, enjoy the pictures.

First night, after dinner beach walk; Cade loved splashing in the tidal pools

Discovering sand

Trip to Texas State Aquarium

They are TWINS

We said smile but he chose roar