Cutting Back

Every 2-3 years, for like the past 10-15, I find that I haven taken on too many commitments. You think after all this time, I would learn. But no. I just get so darn excited about so many things, I sign up for them all.

The high school version: Join student council? Yes! Tutor elementary school students? Yes! Work part-time? Yes! Take AP classes? Yes! Try to have a social life? Yes! Sleep? ...oh I knew I was forgetting something.

The college version: Take a full course load? Yes! (Especially since it was costing a fortune either way). Join TriDelta? Yes! Work part-time? Yes! Host parties at your awesome apartment? Yes! Sleep? ....oh I knew I was forgetting something.

Traveling and wife-ing on our Fredericksburg trip

The mom version: Raise a child? Yes! Be a good wife? Yes! Work out regularly? Yes! Have a full-time job? Yes! Travel? Yes! Generally take care of myself by going to the dentist, doctor, etc? Yes! Blog? Yes! Volunteer? Yes! Watch trashy TV and drink wine? Yes! See friends? Yes! Visit family? Yes! Make Pinterest-worthy anything? Occasionally, yes! Sleep? ...oh right, that again.

So as I have had to continually do, it was time to cut back. And a handful of these aren't up for negotiation. My boys, for example, are (thankfully) here to stay. And though we all have days we'd rather not work, I never have days when I'd rather not have the income, and truth be told, I really do like my job. Cutting out the dentist and whatnot was tempting but ultimately not an adult decision.

This go-around, I cut back on blogging, specifically for the Austin Mom's Blog. I really did enjoy doing it but I found it was a solitary activity for me. Which is what I set out for initially but as I got involved I realized how social it could be with all the fun public and private blogger events that were held. Yet unfortunately, I never ever could fit any of those in. Literally the only other time I saw my fellow bloggers in person was at our group photoshoot last year and it was truly a three ring circus to get there during rush hour on a work day.

I was, of my own doing, having a half-assed blogger experience. Doing things half-assed isn't nearly as fun, meaningful or productive as doing things all in. I mean if you are going to raise a kid, RAISE that kid. If you are going to watch trashy TV and drink wine, well then damn it, make sure you chill the bottle and have some pajama pants ready.

I'll of course continue to be an enthusiastic reader. It really is the best place to find a list of 50 splashpads, events around town, kid-friendly day trips, hilarious stories in mothering and such. (For an example, check out my swan song, Mom and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.)

I'm hoping with my new found time, I can do the other things a wee bit better. I especially want to get more active in my new volunteer group, which being based in Round Rock, is relatively easy for me to participate in. Also, as part of my new year's resolutions, I'm hopeful I can work out a smidge more and maybe I'll do a few things, like decorating the guest room, with Pinterest-worthy flair.

Thanks AMB - it was fun!

That super kid I'm raising...
by turning him into a toddler yuppie at Starbucks before school

 

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.

 

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!

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

Summer of Fun

I am deeming this the Summer of Fun. Why you ask? Because it's only May 3 and it already looks like a ton of freakin' awesomesauce summer!

Just this weekend, several summer plans came together. Check out what our next few months looks like

• May 10: Mother's Day
• May 16-17: Ross' boys camping trip
• May 24: My parents visit
• June 5-8: Nashville with Deltas; Cade & Meg slumber party
• June 13: Toddler swim lessons begin
• June 21: Father's Day
• June 27-July 5: no pre-school!*
• July-28-31: Family beach vacation, staying at this awesome condo!
• August 1: Neighbor's birthday party with epic water slides they are already talking about
• August 29: Grandma's 90th birthday!

To get the party started, I took Cade to my company picnic today at Dell Diamond. His first baseball game! You tell me if you think he had fun...

He really loved clapping

A gal from my online Mom's group has a summer bucket list for her and her toddler. It's impressive. I think I'm going to steal the idea from her and work on a little bucket list for Cade and me too. Probably not as incredible as hers but at least something to make sure we check out pools and splashpads while the weather is right for it. And of course, storytimes and inside fun when the weather is too hot even for pools and splashpads.

So as you can see, between our calendar of fun and some bucket list fun, it's looking to be a Summer of Fun for sure. Yippee! I can't wait! New hashtag for sure #SummerofFun

*In fairness the no pre-school week will probably be fun and a little stressful as we will both still be working. But it's a short week with the holiday for me and I will probably take an additional half day off for some fun time. And we'll call in the babysitting team to help so I'm sure the end result will be a week that fits right into the Summer of Fun.

Springtime Fun

It's like Texas heard me when I said a couple weeks ago "no bluebonnets this year...". Apparently I was just a couple weeks early because this week they came out in full force, right in time for Easter!

Between bluebonnets and Easter, here's what we've been up to

We went to the Round Rock flashlight Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday. The highlight was meeting this giant chicken. Egg hunting was really just picking up one and running around the field like a wild man. But hey, he was happy.



On Friday Cade and I played in the cul-de-sac with Jenny, Jeremy and Holden. The boys went cruisin' with the top down.



Yesterday, also with our neighbors, Cade and I did bluebonnet pictures. Really it was pictures of him in the bluebonnets but I snuck in for a selfie.





My favorite though was this one Jeremy took with the two boys.



And this morning was our first Easter basket for Cade. Really an Easter beach bucket to help provide supplies for our summer beach trip.



The winning gift was the Curious George coloring book and crayons. Honorable mention to the vanilla wafers in an Easter egg. Other inclusions were tee balls, paint brushes and a toy car (to be honest, it was just plucked out of the toy box because we needed something else to fill an egg but trust me he had no clue).



Happy Springtime!

Choo-choo!

Yesterday morning we had a great family adventure on the Cedar Rock Railroad. It was a picture perfect morning. In the 70s, sunny and as a Sunday, not crowded at all.

Cade got to ride the train, not once, but twice! The second time I'm sure was the best because Jon, Rowan, Carys and Kiki (Jon's mom) surprised us there so the kids got to ride together. Yay friends!






In the spirit of transparency and honesty, while the morning was a beautiful train ride together, the afternoon was a little bit of a trainwreck. Short nap, exploding diaper and sassy toward the lovely babysitter we were interviewing. But hey - that's life with a toddler. Up, down and choo-choo all around.

Nana Camp

Cade went to Nana Camp!

What's Nana Camp you say? Two nights with Nana and Grandpa Jack while they are on spring break, preschool is on spring break but Mommy and Daddy are not on spring break.

Wednesday afternoon we had a "Cade exchange" on our way to our house closing. That's right - house closing! We sold our first house, the one in Pflugerville, and are now down to just one mortgage. Woohoo!

So between closing in the house and two days of closed preschool, we were going to need lots of help with the little guy. Enter Nana Camp.

Like I said, Wednesday the eagle landed in Nana's car and then it was off for two nights of fun. As you can see, he had a lot of fun.

throwing rocks in the creek

feeding the birds

park playdate with Nana's friends

As for us closing on the house was pretty fun. Probably the most fun you can have doing paperwork to be honest. But then it was to work on Thursday. That night was my first night home alone since Cade was born. It was nice to just head out the door to walk Lexi or go to the store when I wanted...but otherwise, meh. I thought I would relish in the alone time but it turns out I do the same things alone at home that I do with my whole family here: go for a walk, watch some trashy TV, wash my hair and vacuum.

Anyways, Nana Camp worked out great for everyone. Cade had extra time with his grandparents, they got extra Cade time but still had most of their spring break to themselves, we knocked out work days plus the house closing. Win!

Ele-pants Ea'ing

Sheesh! It's been weeks! We've been busy busy bees. Most notably Cade and I spent two nights in Houston and had QT with my parents, my grandma and Brenda. I also got QT with Melissa while he was hanging out with Grandma and "Pa-pa."

Afternoon playtime with Pa-pa and Great Grandma

 On our Houston trip he really showed off his every expanding vocabulary. He started calling my dad "Pa-pa" and throughout the drive there would tell me "Pa-pa 'ouse" yes, little boy, we were going to Grandpa's house. Very good! Once we arrived he also said "TV" for the first time (that I heard anyways) so that was new.

It was a quick trip, Thursday night to Saturday afternoon. It worked out really well though. We got to see everyone we wanted to visit and had a solid amount of weekend time at home, especially since Monday was a holiday for me.

On our way out of Houston Saturday we went to the zoo with my mom. He was very excited about the elephants and kept pointing and saying "ele'pant." As the post title implies, he saw them eating. For days afterward he would tell anyone who would listen "ooo ele'pant ea'ing" as in "At the zoo, the elephants were eating."

Ele-pants Ea'ing

Telling narratives and answering questions with more complex responses than "yes" and "no" is new this month and so so so so much fun. We love it!

Just monkey-ing around at the Zoo on Valentine's Day

Our Houston weekend kicked off 2 months of very very very busy times for our family. Tomorrow I'm working at my company's customer conference, Thursday Ross has his promotional ceremony and in just a couple short weeks the Cade-man turns two. I also have some exceptionally big projects going on at work in March including a conference in 2 weeks and a business trip to Dallas at the end of the month. We're selling our old house (had an offer today but ultimately turned it down for a long list of complicated reasons) and starting a health kick in March too. Because you know, a strict exercise and workout routine during major work craziness and a home sell is totally a good idea.

Then April hits with Easter, Ross' birthday, the end of my work craziness and finally, blessedly, four nights in Mexico. Some time in all that we'll also file our taxes, add steps to the back porch addition, get my eyes examined, take Cade to his 2 year pediatrician's appointment, meeting sweet baby Carys (Jon & Erin's soon-to-arrive-bundle) and a host of mundane every day things like shower and eat. Needless to say, by the time we board that flight to Cancun and hop down the coast to Tulum, we are going to be highly in need of some R&R.

And some cocktails.

New and Improved

New year, improved people. At least that's the idea right? Since I love checklists and goals, I kinda love new year's resolutions. In the past I've had a tendency to make too many and then not follow through. So for the past couple years I've tried to make just a couple really specific resolutions that actually matter. And this year I am forcing it upon suggesting it to my family as well.

Here's what we are trying to do

Cade - potty train! We've got a Thomas the train potty and a whole year ahead of us. It might come down to December 31 but we can do it!

Ross - finish the back porch. This really a winter goal since he wants to be done by the spring. Most likely this means 2 more chairs, an end table or two, another electrical outlet and some additional lighting.

Me - take my multi-vitamin most days (5 out of 7 seems reasonable) and read at least one book per month. In previous years it might have been take my multi-vitamin daily and read a book every week or two a month or something crazy. But hello, I've met me and I know my working mom schedule. Almost daily and one per month would both be a big improvement and might actually be achievable.

Ready, set, go!

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.

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!

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?

#AMBTakeoverTuesday

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

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!!!

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