Girlie Getaway

Last Friday I hit the road for a girlie getaway to Dallas. Nik is probably my girliest friend so it is only natural that she planned the perfect girlie getaway. I ended up going to Dallas Friday morning and working the afternoon from her apartment (reverse of original plan). What a great remote office! City view, big windows, pumpkin scented candles. Totally perfect.

When both of our work days were done, we went out to a fancy girlie wine bar for drinks and appetizers. Then meandered down the block to rooftop patio and ended the night at a place close to her apartment famous for infused vodka/liquor drinks. Delicious! Super girlie, super different than a normal night out in Round Rock.

Because we're adults (read: lame) we were happily home by 11:30p. She actually stayed with her boyfriend which you might think was weird for me to be at her apartment alone. But no. We've been friends for 15 years. I have no problem making myself at home in her home. She has a cozy apartment, perfect for one person but a little snug for two. So being there by myself meant I could watch TV as long (or not) as I wanted, putter around uninterrupted and without interrupting anyone and just enjoy alone time. It was like being in the best stocked hotel suite in town. I LOVED it.

Saturday morning we went to another cute neighborhood in town (who knew Dallas had so many cute areas!) for breakfast and then went to yoga in the park. Yup, outside yoga in a downtown park. Can you think of anything more me!? It was awesome!



Love love love. Hands down my best Dallas trip ever. Cannot wait to do it again!

Oh Those Terrible Twos

Not to dwell on it because that's no fun but this past weekend, Cade was a hellion. Let me share one story to give you a glimpse of it.

Saturday night in the bath he splashed excessively despite me telling him to stop. So I pulled him out of the bath and angry about it, he hit me. Then I put his naked wet wiggly body down and he ran into the tent in his bedroom. I said "Cade, you come out of that tent to get your jammies on right now or you are going to time out."

He ran out of his tent, went behind the rocking chair (ie away from me) and then marched into the middle of his room and said "I pee." Then naked and defiant, he started to pee.

I ran toward him, put a towel between him and the floor and said "Why? Why are you peeing on the floor?" And do you know what that little naked butt stinker said to me?

"I pee because time out."

Needless to say, that necessitated immediate bedtime. "You are done in this town!" I told him and he was jammied and in bed wailing by 6:15 p.m.

I poured a glass of wine and left Ross to have any further conversations with him. Despite that sassy awful behavior, I am pleased to report that Ross had a man-to-boy conversation with him and Cade did apologize to me for hitting me and peeing on the floor.

So...yup, that was our weekend. Monday morning started with more of the same. I'm not sure what they did to him at school that day but thankfully the right kid, the sweet happy one I've been busy raising, was waiting for me at the end of the school day. Thank God.

Day Out with Thomas

Yesterday Cade had a magical experience: he rode Thomas the Train. "A Day Out with Thomas" came to Burnet (about an hour from us) and Nancy got tickets for the whole family. So after naptime (though no nap) we headed out to Burnet to see Thomas and take a ride.

 

We tried to explain to Cade on the dive that he was going to see Thomas, like for real. Not on the TV, in-person. He didn't really get it but when we got there and he saw Thomas, he was really excited. And he was psyched to go for a ride.

 

He's coming home!

We just received word today - my brother will be flown off his air craft carrier on October 1! After all the necessary travel, he should be stateside October 2 and then will have a couple weeks on base (paperwork I think). And then, THEN, his Naval enlistment is officially OVER!

In late October, Kev is coming to Texas for a long weekend. We're going to celebrate with a Houston Texans game! A "homecoming game" if you will. We are all SO excited!

Adventures in Potty Training

On Monday, Labor Day, we dove head first into potty training. Over the weekend we did little practices sessions, 30 minutes, an hour, two hours. But Monday it was go big, all waking hours in underwear.

"I get stickers, I get Toby train." Bribery was our chosen tactic.

There was SO SO much pee. Like gallons of pee. How does one little toddler boy body hold so much pee?

Ross and I took shifts but with all that pee, even with parenting breaks, we ended the day by ordering pizza and not saying much for fear of saying something not nice. Margeaux and Ryan stopped by in the evening and Cade proudly told them "I pee on the potty and on the floor and on the couch!" equally proud of all three locations.

Then at bedtime Monday night...well let's just say we had a miscommunication about potty training bedtime attire. I'll let you fill in the blanks about what resulted in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Tuesday at school Cade went through every single change of clothes I packed. All five of them. Again I tell you - so much pee! But I gotta say, I am so so thankful for preschool. One day under house arrest with the peeing boy nearly broke our family. Without preschool, who knows where we would be.

Yesterday he went through four changes of clothes but two of them were like half accidents. He sat on the potty, said he was done, got his shorts on and then oopsies - went a little more. So school changed him (as they should) but it wasn't a full on pee all over everything.

Then today. Oh today. Little Cade Daniel woke up on the WRONG side of the crib. He was a sassy pants. He yelled at Ross, fought getting dressed and had to go to time out, all before 7:45 a.m.

He did OK during breakfast but then screamed, cried and yelled "I wanna go back home!" the whole drive to school. I had to carry him kicking and screaming. Let me tell you, carrying a kid who is melting down into school is not fun. Carrying a kid who isn't potty trained but is wearing underwear, well, that's stressful too. Combine the two and I broke a sweat going into preschool today. Thankfully a classmate was wearing a football shirt (just like he was) and discovering that was enough of a distraction for a successful hand off to his teacher and a Mommy escape. Then I went to Starbucks for a big drink. Too early for booze so caffeine and sugar would have to do.

Ross picked him up and when I got home, Ross says to me "no accidents!" That's right ladies and gentlemen, our boy had ZERO potty accidents at school today. ZERO! He came home in the same clothes we sent him in. HOLLA!

He'd gone to HEB with Ross so was in a Pull-up after school but when he told us during dinner that he needed to go, we made the pleasant discovery that the Pull-up was dry too. CHAMP.

We ultimately had one little (messy) accident today. But he was so close! We were playing outside and he told me he had to go. But we couldn't run into the house, get around Lexi (who decided the bathroom doorway was the only place in the whole 2700+ square foot house she wanted to stand) and to the potty in time. But he knew he had to go and he told us. I still take it as a win.

When we started this adventure, we said "Monday-Friday, then we'll see." If it wasn't taking, I wasn't going to drive us all to the looney bin to get it done. He isn't even 2.5 until Sunday after all. No pressure. But we're making definite, significant progress. So potty training continues - to infinity and beyond!

Proud boy at the end of his best potty training day

Friday Date Day

I took a vacation day today for a very important activity: date day with the hubs.

Our second date was FABULOUS. Like set us on the road to marriage wonderful. We recreated it once a few years ago and today we did it again, with very minor tweaks.

We had lunch at Maudie's on South Lamar and like that original first date, both ordered prickley pear margaritas. When we had them on our second date, they were the drink of the month or day or something and in addition to being bright pink were garnished with an umbrella and a flower. Ross had never looked so macho. But dang it, if those fruity pink girly drinks aren't delicious.

I had the same entree (shrimp stuffed avocado salad) partly because it makes me all nostalgic but also because it has become my favorite dish at Maudie's and we maybe make it to one of their locations once a year. I gotta get it when I can!

On the original second date, we walked around Zilker Park and had sno-cones after lunch. On our recreations, we go swim at Barton Springs because, well, it's just too hot to walk around the park in the middle of the afternoon and we know better now. So we hopped over to Barton Springs and went for a quick dip in the icy icy water. We haven't been down there since the first date re-run so it was a nice Austin-y outing before summer ends.

Sounds like an awesome day right? It was and even better than everything I just told you is that Ross surprised me with a huge bouquet of flowers this morning and chocolate Blue Bell ice cream. I'm telling you, this guy is a keeper.

Book-tastic Summer

I have been a reading FIEND this summer. Though I wish I could say its because I'm expanding my horizons and bettering myself through reading, in truth, it is because of the dismal summer TV lineup.

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to read a book per month. I'm not sure if I'll keep up that pace in the fall with the return of trashy TV, my eye surgery and the holidays but the net-net of this year is easily 12 books.

And though I once aspired to write book reviews here regularly (like a million  years ago, BC even [Before Cade]), I now have much more realistic goals. A quick run-down of the books I've inhaled recently and a simple yay or nay on if they are worth a read.

Summer Sisters -  Yay. Judy Blume, yeah like Judy Blume of the tween books fame. Who knew!? The prologue scene had me skeptical because it just sounded too much like every fluff girl book I've read about some rich girl who lives in NYC and works at a PR firm. But I was determined to read at least a quarter of the book before giving up and I'm glad I did because it got better. It reminded me of a Kristin Hannah book in that it centered around the story of a lifelong female friendship with between two really different girls who have lots of ups and downs. It ended much differently than I expected and in a less fluffy way.

The Boston Girl - Yay. The life story of a Jewish woman who goes against the grain and works in an era when few women worked; who vacations with her single girlfriends and marries for love and only love.

Leaving Time - Yay. A story of a teenage daughter looking for her long-lost mother with the help of a washed up psychic and equally washed up detective. But I gotta tell you, this one ends very surprisingly. Like if you are super mushy about motherhood, maybe don't read this one. I literally had to go into Cade's room while he was sleeping to look at him I felt so mushy when this book ended.

Big Little Lies - Double yay. First the author and characters are all Australian and THAT is always fun. It's one of those books with multiple plot lines that all intersect at the end. Much of the book is fun and light hearted but the story that is ultimately told is deep and serious. I liked the combination.

Yellow Rose Beauty Shop - Nay. Truth be told, I couldn't finish it. Maybe I read a quarter? It's set in Texas and the accents and folksy sayings are just way way way too over the top. It made me gag.

The Rumor - Yay. This one was delicious. The author, Elin Hilderbrand, is one of those author's who has found her genre and sticks to it. Not quite a series but she did have a small reference to characters from another of her books because they all take place on Martha's Vineyard and, as the books rely on, it's a small island where everyone knows everyone. Anyways, this was a fun look at how rumors start ("she leased an apartment - did you know she's leaving her husband?") and how sometimes the actual truth is way different and even juicier than the rumor.

The Deep End - Yay. Total fluff. Rich lady is swimming at the country club and swims right up to a dead body floating in the pool. The body of her husband's mistress. I mean, c'mon. FLUFF.  But fun.

Room - Yay. A young woman is abducted and held in captivity (the "room") for years during which time she gives birth (a product of the rapes). A totally creepy premise almost made creepier in the sense that it is told from the perspective of her son who for the first third of the book or so doesn't know that their situation is a bad one. The book has to distinct halves: before their escape and after (which is written on the summary so not a spoiler alert). Very intense but I liked it.

At the Water's Edge - Meh. It wasn't awful but it did not captivate me. It starts with a scene that does not make sense relative to the rest of the book for a really long time. Instead of being intriguing, I found that distracting.

Curious George Chases Waves - Ok ok not my summer reading list but in addition to the above, we've read a LOT of Curious George and Thomas the Train books this summer. Given the frequency, I would have to say Cade gives them all a "yay."