Memorable Moments

The other night, as I was helping M put his pajamas on, he reached down to pull up the zipper, pushed my hand away, and said "I do it by myself!"

All I could think was, it is starting already??!!

He recites our blessing that we say before meals and sings The Lord's Prayer at bedtime.  It is adorable!

As we were rocking and saying prayers before bedtime, I asked him who we were going to pray for that night, and he said "Grammie D" (twice) "Granddad" and his cousins.  =)  So Grammie D, you can rest easy because you have double prayers headed your way!

Lest you think it is all cuteness and smooth sailing 24/7/365, know that we seem to have reverted, sleeping wise - at naptime he is crying and asking for everything (another book, water, apple juice, chocolate milk, basically going through the whole roster of things) until I give in and come back in and rock him more.  I try to be tough but he can really turn on the tears, and D and I just say "oh he won't be little forever," and totally cave.  So today, he is napping in my bed.  Any tips for getting back through this again?

Work It Out

Since I'm going to do the Scenic Half Marathon in September, I thought I'd start sharing my workouts for the past week.  Hopefully this will help me to stick to the training plan!

Here's what went down last week:

M) 20 min stroller run + 15 min walk.  I was feeling exhausted, so this run turned into a walk!
T) 1 hour strength class
W) 25 min easy run + 25 min walking.  Exhausted again, that strength class really took it out of me, plus we were all sleeping poorly.
Th) 45 min bike ride with the trailer
F) Rest day!
Sat) 10 mile family bike ride
Sun) 6 mile run (Training plan called for 8, but I ran out of time.)  Followed up with a 2 mile hike later in the morning.

Quick Takes: Scenes from Our Week

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 About as close as he wanted to get to the moose and "biiiiig beah!!!" (as he called it).

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My friend loaned me this.  With more travels coming up, we won't be starting this too soon, but I thought it better to be prepared!

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My aunt brought this to the beach house, and I was thrilled to find it at Target!  Yum!

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Ironman is this weekend!  I am so impressed by all of the athletes.  We checked out the village on Thursday and played at City Park.  Good luck to all of the competitors!

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USA v. Germany was on the big screen at the Ironman Village!

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M looks a little dazed and confused after our 45 minute bike ride (cross training!).  This is what happens when he refuses to nap in his bed - he passed out in the bike trailer!

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We had an epic spill of olive oil in our pantry (M likes to hide in there now?!) so I cleaned and 'reorganized' it.  Really, I just moved most of the stuff higher, which I guess I will keep doing as he keeps getting taller!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Beach

Well, we are back home from a wonderful trip home to Florida.  We were lucky enough to spend a week at St. Augustine Beach, and a few extra days with my parents.

It was a wonderful trip: mornings playing in the sand, surfing, boogie boarding and breaking up fights over the little toy boat. =)

M took wonderful, long naps, so I got to read The Fault in Our Stars and The Bell Jar.  I enjoyed them both, but was really glad to have finally read The Bell Jar.  I thought it was a fascinating, and sad, book.  Have you read it?  I would love to hear what anybody else thought of it.

Our running trail in my hometown.

I got 5 runs in total: stroller runs in the state park, a solo run on AIA, and a couple runs on the beach.  There is nothing better than an early morning run on the beach!

M with his partner in crime.

The best part was getting to see M enjoy playing with his cousins - he really enjoyed himself, and it made me so thankful for the gifts of this special time together.  As soon as he woke up, he was basically asking to wake up the cousins so he could play with them.

What beach trip is complete without mini-golf?

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a wonderful beach vacation!

Our Comical Anniversary

We recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.  We probably should have just stayed home.

We were just planning on having a simple dinner out and leaving M home with a sitter.  The evening started out with D walking around zombie-like, amped up on DayQuil because he caught a nasty cold.  He insisted that we should still go out, so we went to Tony's on the lake, where we were disappointed by the calamari which must have had a full shaker's worth of salt poured onto it.  We had to stop eating it, but our kind waiter took it off of our bill.  

Towards the end of our meal, I see that the sitter has texted us, because she is putting M down to sleep and he is asking for Buddy, which is his giraffe lovey, and do we know where Buddy is so she can give him to M?

Fact: Buddy is the second most important member of our family (obviously, M is first!).

Why yes, yes we do know where Buddy is.

Buddy is at Tony's, with us, in D's pocket.  

You can just barely see Buddy, peeking out of D's right pocket, below his hand.

Needless to say, we packed up our leftovers and hightailed it home.  Thankfully, M forgave us for taking Buddy out to dinner without him!

Happy Anniversary to my absent-minded husband!

Headed to our reception - nothing says hot like tulle crinoline in FL in June!

 Question: I am thinking about donating my wedding dress.  Should I keep hanging on to it?

Special Moments From Our Beach Week

10 year old nephew handing me a piece of paper in church on which he had drawn a picture for m that said "I love M"

Surfing!!

2 and 3 yo cousins swinging in the hammock together, singing their abc's at the top of their lungs

A beach run with my iron-sister

4 grandsons watching TV in Grammie D and Granddad's bed in the morning

A family walk to the ice cream shop, after which M, on a sugar high, smeared rocks and dirt all over his face with glee

Eating some delicious fish, caught by my 10 year old nephew on his first deep-sea fishing trip

Our National Running Day in the Air

Did you get some miles in yesterday for National Running Day?

We did a very short stroller run before heading off to the airport for another great adventure. 

My little man and I are in Florida! 

We had two successful, long, turbulent flights.  All the adults on board wanted to throw up while all the kids were squealing like they were on Space Mountain.  M did a good job and didn't scream *too much.*  And I didn't even have to bust out the Ipad!  Items that saved the day for 6 hours in the air:

• the car seat: I made him sit in it and was especially grateful during all of those bumps in/out of Denver - worth the hassle of hauling it through the airport and wacking everyone who had already boarded as we walked down the aisle.
• the etch-a-sketch: M loved playing with it!
• those Color Wonder markers that only color on the special paper - no mess and M was totally intrigued as to why his attempts to color all over the aircraft window wasn't working
• the new book Toy Boat: do you have this book yet?  It is adorable and M loves it.  We just got it a week ago and he practically has it memorized.  I highly recommend it for all toddlers - we read it over and over.
• a packed lunch: first time I tried doing this and it seemed to work well. Balanced out with a lot of onboard snacks.

We are looking forward to spending time with family and soaking up the sun.  Have a great rest of the week!

What helps you (and your family) get through long flights?

One Day in Seattle (Is Just Not Enough!)

Hello and Happy June!

We drove to Seattle over the weekend to meet up with an old, dear college friend who was vacationing from Philly.  The trip was too short but we had a wonderful time.

The drive across Washington is beautiful -- there is not much commercial development but the terrain changes from high desert to beautiful green, striking mountains as we approached the Cascades.

The Columbia River in central Washington

We stayed at the Westin downtown (Priceline'd it!) which is just a short walk from the Pike Place Market, the Seattle Center and lots of shopping.

We met our friends for breakfast on Saturday at Bacco Cafe.  Then we walked around the Market, saw the fish-throwing guys and the most beautiful peonies I have ever seen in my life!  They were so big and full and gorgeous.  I'm still mad at myself for not buying any.

Pike Place Market

We took the monorail over to the Seattle Center to visit the Children's Museum.  Our friends have a daughter who is 2 weeks younger than M, so they were hilarious/adorable to watch.  M loved all the water features and completely soaked himself.  He also enjoyed driving a pretend taxi and playing with balls.  The Children's Museum was really nice and not terribly crowded for a Saturday.  It's a nice place to visit if you need to be inside and let the kids out of the stroller.

My happy little taxi driver

After lunch, we walked back to our hotels to get the cars and drive out to Carkeek Park.  It was packed!!  Whew.  The kids played on the playground and threw rocks into the water.  It was pretty neat to see all of the cruise ships going north to Alaska.  And the park had a bridge which goes over a train track, so the kids loved watching the trains pass by and waving to the conductor.

Toes in the Puget Sound

We had an awesome dinner at the Bick's Broadway Grill, close to the park, which is set in an old house and had a really nice atmosphere.  From there we had to say goodbye to our friends so they could catch their red-eye back to the East Coast. =(

On our drive home, we stopped by Kerry Park for some sunset photos of downtown.  The park has some epic views, and Saturday was perfect because the sky was nearly cloudless.  Plus, it was prom night (!) and the park was filled with highschoolers taking prom pictures - you know I love seeing some prom fashion! 

Seattle skyline from Kerry Park

We didn't do much on Sunday before hitting the road - we had breakfast at the Pike Place Grill and went to Ikea.  At breakfast, M looked over at me with a big smile on his face and said "Mommy big nose."  Well, gee thanks, lovey! =)  Haha.

5 Stars for the Pike Place Grill because they gave M a balloon, which we are still playing with today!

D kept remarking "wow, this really is a big city!" which made me laugh.  There was a lot of traffic and the houses seem to all be practically right on top of one another, but it is a beautiful area, and we really only saw a little bit of the downtown area.  I hope we'll have more trips to the area in our future because there's a lot over there that I want to explore!

The Cascades on our drive home

Thanks Seattle and thanks to the Q family for a wonderful weekend!

The picturesque Puget Sound