photoblog

Labor Day weekend and then some

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
Aug. 25, 2013.  My boys have taken to napping anywhere but in their beds.  Theo’s weekend naps are pretty much always on the couch now. I’m fine with that – it takes both of them 10 times longer to fall asleep at naptime when they are both in their room.
Dexter woke up shortly after falling asleep and asked to sleep with me in my bed.  He went right back to sleep…and I woke him up 3+ hours later.

The light in our room was just right for sneaking some pics.  I can’t imagine ever getting tired of watching them sleep.  Even when they’re zit-faced metal-mouth teenagers.

Fast forward to Labor Day.  My sister and her family came from Tennessee for the weekend.  They arrived very late Friday night and we were up before the sun Saturday morning with our early risers.  We traveled 90 minutes east to visit relatives.

Just another trip to our uncle’s alpaca farm.
Checking out Uncle Joe’s cool Corvette Stingray.
Aunt Sandy introducing Penelope to one of her babies.
After a long day of playing and no napping, we made the mistake of setting up dinner plans. Long story short, it was one of the most embarrassing parenting moments I’ve had. Both boys throwing fits (understatement of the decade) in the restaurant. Ryan and I functioning on 4 hrs of sleep. No thank you – we kindly skipped out of the restaurant and drove home.  The boys slept all the way home and then went right back to sleep in their beds after dinner.
Sunday I woke up with an eye infection … awesome.  We had made plans to go to Ryan’s parent’s house to swim in the lake. I got up early and fixed cheesy potatoes and grape salad. Yum & Yum.  We got down there a little after 11am and made a day of it. I ended up not taking my camera down to the dock for obvious reasons but did squeeze in a mini sesh with beautiful 8 month old Penelope Quinn.

She wasn’t in much of a smiling mood, this was about as close as we got to a smile Sunday.

I just love chubby little baby hands and arms and thighs and feet and…you know. Baby chubbiness.  So cute.
Monday morning we lounged around the house before heading to the outlet mall to check out the Labor Day deals.  After that it was time for my sweet sis and her amazing family to hit the road.  Sad to see them go, realizing after spending such quality time together how much we are missing by living so far apart.
Isabella and Malachi – my first niece and my first nephew. Now I have two of each.  These are 2 good kids.  REALLY good kids.  Love them to pieces.
They all left a little after 5pm and I went home to spend a little extra time with my own little fam.  Back to work. Back to school. Back to the babysitter.  We’re all getting back into our post-holiday routine. To toss in a little excitement, we went to the ice cream shop last night and then the library, which is right across the street.  The boys love this library, and so do I.  We let them check out books for the first time.
How’s that for a photo & info overload?  Now that we’re almost into another weekend, I hope your Labor Day weekend was great and I hope this coming weekend is too!
xoxo,
~C~

these last two weekends

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

This past weekend, my mom visited for a few days. It was so, so nice to have her here and not really have anything planned to do. She read lots of “Cat in the Hat” and “Sam I Am” (like both books, every night… and she was here 4 nights) and made lots of no-bake cookies.  Yumm – best thing ever. We ate pizza and visited bookstores and chatted about finances and childcare and how this parenting business is harder than I expected on all kinds of levels.  Grown up business.  Oh, mama.  Then after those wonderful 4 days, she packed back up and went back to Tennessee.  The next time we see her will be in October when we all meet up in Florida for vacation.  Wee!!

The weekend before last, my best friend and her girlfriend came for a visit.  My best friend and I decided about a year ago that too much time was slipping by between our visits.  There’s nothing I’d love more than to have her living down the street.  I long for the kind of friendship here where my friend loves my kids (almost) as much as I do and I wouldn’t hesitate for one second to ask them to watch the boys.  Even better, if she lived here, I know she would ask me when she could watch the boys. Alas, she lives 4 hours away so we have to settle for occasional visits.  For the past year, we’ve set up quarterly visits and it’s working.  She comes here in Jan, Feb, or March.  I go there in April, May, or June.  And so on… so far, so good.  I love seeing my best friend but even more, I love seeing her with my boys and seeing how much they love her.

It was bittersweet watching them leave. Theo and I were outside playing in the sandbox and when they backed out, Theo watched them until their car disappeared down the road with a sad little frown on his face.  I asked him what was wrong and thought his eyes would well up with tears.  It was oddly sad to see how much he loves someone that is not family – but the beauty of it is that he doesn’t even realize that.  The strengths and weaknesses in relationships are magnified with the addition of children.  It’s true – kids change EVERY thing. Every single thing.  Some friendships I had before have all but gone away while others have blossomed.  Priorities change.  A real friend realizes that and accepts it for what it is.  Might not be late night 3 hour long phone calls anymore.  Might be a text at 6:30 am just to say hello.

My friends planned their visit – okay, I planned their visit – around an annual festival here called WAMMfest (Wine, Art, Microbrews, and Music).  My favorite thing is shopping all the local artisans’ booths for one-of-a-kind treasures.

We all got mugs from one of the local pottery artists, Fatty Frogs Pots (please support local businesses and check out her etsy page).
Emily, the bff, enlightened me that this year marks 20 years since we met. Doesn’t seem like either of us should be old enough to have had a friend for that long because one thing’s for sure, we weren’t in diapers when we met.  
We discovered that an abandoned wagon (the boys and Ryan went home for a nap) makes the perfect coffee table. 

20 years in the making and still going strong!

The day was gorgeous. Perfect. No other way to describe it. 

We ran into a friend of mine and her family and spent the last hour or so hanging out with them.  And you know, snapped this pic before I realized it looked like I was nursing my friend’s baby.  He was actually just passed out asleep…but yeah.  AWK-WARD.  P.S. The observant reader might notice that I changed clothes mid-festival.  Yes. That’s because I dumped a bucket of parmesan garlic butter down the front of that pink & blue striped dress, which, coincidentally belongs to the friend pictured here (holding Dexter).  Luckily Ryan came back with the boys – and a dress. 
All in all, our weekends have been pretty fantastic lately.
Now if I could just figure out a way to get my mom AND my bff a lil’ closer….
xo,
~C~

tuesday night friends

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest
The boys continue asking to see their former babysitter, her husband, and their son.  So, we happily oblige by inviting them over for a cookout / playdate once every few weeks.  I think all the boys (and us girls) enjoyed the company, the cool breeze, and some yummy burgers, pasta salad, and ice cream cones. 

The big kids enjoyed the ice cream too – despite the deer-in-headlights look you see here.


 There was a chill in the air that made it feel like October instead of August and reminded me that time is running out for this type of get-together.  At least for this year.  Soon it will be getting dark well before bedtime and we’ll be bundling up in jackets and hats.  Until then, we’re gonna squeeze every last drop out of summer.  

xo,
~C~