Easter weekend

Our long weekend was really nice all in all. I had been fighting a cold all week so the quiet day at home was just what I needed on Friday. Phil and I got take out poke bowls for lunch rather than eating out. I took a long nap and finished ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ on Apple. I really liked it even though they took some liberties with the adaptation. 

I slept almost 10 hours on Friday night as Taco magically did not yell for me from his crib before I woke on my own around 7:20. I slept so hard that night - and had the craziest dreams so Phil had to put up with lots of sleep talk and such. I shouldn’t have needed 10 hours of sleep considering I napped the day before but I did. 

I am not sure why I am so very tired lately - maybe my iron levels are low (I have a history of anemia), maybe it’s my RA (I have a flare right now in my right hand so I know my RA isn’t under super great control), or maybe it’s the pace of life with hectic work days and regular work travel? Or having young kids when I am not in fact ‘a young parent’? It’s probably a combination of the above but wow I am wishing I was one of those people that had lower sleep needs. 

Saturday morning featured a library visit. Paul quietly read a book, Taco, um, was a bit more boisterous.

After a failed attempt at a nap for Taco, we went to my MIL’s for an early Easter celebration. Long term readers might recall that Oscar the cat now lives there pretty much full time as she’s not big on kids… She would never do anything to them but she is happiest in a quiet, peaceful environment. It was good to see her. 

The boys both got to do their own egg hunt in Nana’s basement. 

Taco of course got some Mickey toys!

There were some moments of quiet and peace…

But mostly it’s was very wild and loud so we left shortly after dinner. 

Sunday was a quieter day. The boys were happy with their Easter baskets but I failed to get any pictures of them digging through the goodies. Paul and I met another family on our block at church. There was an Easter egg hunt after church which Paul loved! Phil and Taco went on a long stroller walk while we were at church.

Taco took an extra long nap that afternoon (which I napped during), we FaceTimed with my parents and just kind of puttered around the house. It was very loud at times but such is life with a 3 and 6yo! I made ham, mashed potatoes, gravy and asparagus for dinner - the boys would only eat the ham but at least they ate something!

We ended the night by playing with the new game Paul got from the Easter Bunny - Gobblet Gobblers.

Paul has the best body language/expressions when playing a game!

Phil and I both have a busy week of work - and then we head to Destin, FL with my parents next Sunday! We are very excited for the getaway. I just need to get through this busy week… although I might have to take my laptop on the trip because the coworker I thought would be around to help my new hire in my absence is also going to be gone all week. She said she can log in to help him as needed. But I feel bad stranding the new guy as a lot of quart-end stuff needs to get done while I am gone. It’s not an ideal week for me to be gone but it seems like there are no ideal weeks so I will just hope all goes ok, and probably have my laptop along as an insurance plan.

How was your weekend? When you take a vacation, can you fully disconnect from work? I try to but it’s hard to disconnect when gone for a longer trip like this. 

4th of July Highlights

I’m back from our 4th of July adventure! We went to my parents Saturday through Tuesday. Phil couldn’t come with us as the first 4 business days of the month are his busiest days at work and the days following a quarter end are extra busy. So he basically cannot ever enjoy the 4th of July holiday. My dad’s family has a big gathering which we haven’t attended since 2019. But when I saw the boys didn’t have school on Monday and Tuesday, I knew we had to get out of town. 

- We had a great time at the big family party on Saturday! I made it to the semi-final round of the huge bean bag tourney we have every year and I was only able to play bags because of the help of my parents, SIL and niece who entertained the boys! 

With his favorite person, Papa. He asked for him when he was up in the middle of the night. 

My cheering section!!

- Paul went tubing with his cousins on Sunday morning. He has always been a tentative child but has really come out of his shell the last year or so! I went tubing with him on Monday, too! 

- Will is at a stage where he is so happy to play in the sand! 

- The family time in general was so great. 

Feeding the fish with aunt Julie!

Eating m&m’s with Nana

Watching fireworks with cousin Evelyn. Yes he’s wearing his iPad headphones. He would push them against his ears to dampen the noise from fireworks.

- Paul’s glasses arrived while we were gone so now we can work on getting him used to wearing them over the summer! I went with inexpensive ones from Zenni and will likely upgrade to more indestructible/more expensive ones when he’s on my insurance next year. And we will likely order some back up pairs of the inexpensive Zenni ones. 

Of course it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Sleep was a bit brutal as I shared a room with both boys. The first night was the worst but things improved from there. 

So. Many. Wake-ups. Time in bed is high since I went up around 8:30 to read. 

I was very glad to come home to Phil yesterday. Solo parenting is so very challenging!! I’d much rather have him by my side but the change in scenery and time around family was very good for all of us! 

How was your weekend? 

Easter Weekend Recap

I got back from LA on Thursday in time for dinner and bedtime. Overall the trip went really well. I was busy with meetings early in the morning followed by in-person meetings. But the meetings were more enjoyable than ones I’ve had recently since most were looking to take advantage of dislocations in the market. I get a break from work travel until mid-May now. Woo hoo! 

The boys’ school was closed on Friday so we had a 3-day family weekend. I was able to get out for a run with my neighbor on Friday morning. The ice has finally mostly melted off the sidewalks. Highlights from Friday were opening Easter gifts from my parents, dying eggs and going to the library. Our library had a new search and find and swapped out the seasonal toys. The boys enjoyed playing with the science-themed toys!

Very excited about a new Lego set!

Will got new Bombas socks. He will pretty much only wear Bombas. They are the best grippy socks so I get it. 

We went to my MIL’s on Saturday to celebrate Easter. I was very happy to just show up! 

Nana has so many fun activity books!

The boys’ enjoyed their egg hunts. 

When we got home, it was beautiful outside so we played out front with some bubbles! I (finally) took our Christmas planters apart. In my defense, it still looks like Christmas outside. But this snow should be gone soon!

Sunday was another nice, spring day. I went for my first t-shirt run in the morning as temps were around 45-50! After quiet time we went to the park so fit in lots of outdoor time! 

All in all, it was a really nice weekend. Being able to be outside so much made a big difference! 

Paul and I fly to Tucson this morning to visit my younger sister and her daughter. Temps will be in the 90s and we are HERE FOR IT! My sister is about 32 weeks pregnant with another baby girl. I can’t wait to get lots of time with her and my niece. We’ll miss my BIL as he’s traveling for work but I am glad our visit is coinciding with a week of solo parenting as I know my sister will especially appreciate having company and an extra hand to help with her 2yo. Daddy and Will are staying back. Next spring we will resume family spring break trips but decided not to this year as we feared Will wouldn’t do well on the plane. 

How was your weekend? If you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a wonderful holiday! 

Christmas 2022

We had a really nice Christmas with our little family. It was a bitterly, dangerously cold holiday weekend with windchills in the -30s. So we were cooped up for the weekend. We were all very happy to have somewhere to go on Christmas Eve! Paul and I went to mass at 4pm and Phil stayed back with Will - he’s so hard to contain that I knew we’d get more out of mass if he stayed back with daddy! After mass, we picked up daddy and Will and headed to Phil’s cousins for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. My MIL was supposed to come to our house on Saturday and spend the weekend with us but she had a bad cold and wasn’t feeling well enough to be out and about. :( Terrible timing to feel awful! 

We go to this gathering every year and have the best time! Phil’s mom is a widow with no living siblings so we are all she has - hence the reason we stay home at Christmas. But the children of Phil’s uncle (who also has passed - all of Phil's dad’s siblings have passed away sadly) always include us in their Christmas Eve celebration. Phil is quite a bit younger than his cousins - all the cousin’s kids are in college or older!! So our young kids are quite a novelty and get a TON of attention as a result - and lots of presents, too. I love the way this party is set up - the hosts have a bunch of snacky things and food in crockpots so people can just graze. And then they have a huge cookie decorating area, which we didn’t partake in this year since we were keeping an eye on the boys. We stayed until 8:15 which is pretty late for Will, but all the toys and attention kept them from getting tired!

The couple that hosts are going to be epic grandparents when their kids hit that stage of life. They are so completely obsessed with our kids. And we have an extra special bond with them as they are Will's Godparents. 

Will was up around 6:15 on Christmas Day and Paul slept until 6:45! Not bad all in all. The boys enjoyed donuts for breakfast. 

Then it was time to dig into their Santa presents. 

The Lego set was Paul’s favorite gift! 

That was the extent of presents since they got their nugget play couch from us in early December. Usually they would have 10+ gifts from my MIL to open. I was a little worried the gifts might seem sparse to Paul but he was thrilled! Lesson learned - kids, at least at this age, don’t have high expectations to meet. 

Putting one of the lego sets together later that day. I am loving the lego stage!!!

Phil made his signature dish for lunch - Spanish Tortilla which is a dish he ate a lot of when studying abroad in Spain. We had our big meal at dinner time - ham, mashed potatoes, gravy and asparagus (And yes, that means we have ham and potatoes for both meals!). The boys would only eat the ham, go figure. 

 

But us adults enjoyed a delicious meal. Few things make me feel more like an adult than making gravy! Ha! And yes, I enjoyed a generous amount of gravy since we only eat it a couple of times a year! 

We had the 26th off so had one more day at home together. My MIL was feeling better so Phil and Paul went out to see her and I stayed home with Will. The highlight of the day was taking him to Target. We walked down every aisle of the toy department and he had so much fun making dinosaur noises and pointing out trucks and balls and such!

Today Phil and I are both back in the office and the kids are back in daycare. We had a wonderful family weekend but I was admittedly very happy to return to a quiet workplace today! 

How was your weekend?

Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Monday. We are all very happy to be back at work and school today. We had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend but it was full of really fun things. But we were all very weary by Sunday night! Here's a photo-heavy recap of our weekend! 

Phil and I both had to work on Wednesday. Luckily it was a quiet day for me so I did the bulk of the childcare. Paul is easy because we let him have his iPad on days like that. He only has access to PBS kids games/videos and ABC Mouse so we feel fine about the excess screen time he occasionally gets. Will is the challenging one to manage, of course. He's in a tough stage of having VERY big feelings and an inability to tell us what he wants. Which = lots of screaming/tantrums. Being a toddler is HARD. Being a toddler parent is HARD. 

He insists on sitting on our laps for most breakfasts. This morning, he wanted a car. Which car? I don't know, which is why he has about 10 different toys next to him. 

"Helping" mommy work. 

The weather was really beautiful over the holiday weekend so many walks were taken with Will. 

Thursday started off with a 10k around the lake in our neighborhood. I ran it with my neighbor and we took it VERY easy. I've basically been sick for most of the last 6 weeks and she's had a busy schedule so we took walk breaks when we needed to. Neither of us cared about our time - we just wanted to start the day with some fitness! 

I got home got, showered, and got our food contributions together (a brussel sprout salad, veggie tray and dip) and we headed to my brother's in the west metro. We had a great day together. The boys enjoyed playing with their cousins and my mom got to hold Will quite a bit. He hasn't always let her hold him so she was thrilled to get so much time with him - especially since the boys will spend a week there in December! 

We ate at 1pm, which is when Will typically is sleeping. We thought we could put him down after dinner. Nope - he refused. But then fell asleep on my mom around 4 and woke up in THE WORST MOOD. He screamed for the whole 30 minute ride home and then for 45+ minutes when we got home - basically until he calmed down enough to go to bed. I share to keep it real around here. The holiday was wonderful, but holidays with young kids can be HARD. I remind myself it's only going to get easier as the kids get older!

Snuggles with nana, the baby whisperer

On Friday, I took Will for a long walk in the morning. You can see how excited he was for the walk at the start. But he perked up when we saw tons of ducks on the lake. 

That afternoon, my Chicago niece and nephew came over. I had planned to take them to a really cool local children's book store. I checked their website that morning to see what their mask policy was - and found out the store was closed on Friday! Doh! So we pivoted and went to Barnes and Noble instead. We got some treats at Starbucks and I bought a book for each kid. Will stayed home since he was napping at this time. After that, we headed back home and had pizza for dinner. 

On Saturday, we went to my MIL's after naptime. We took a picture for her Christmas card and ordered them for her. The boys had a great time playing with all her toys! 

And that brings us to Sunday. I hosted my college friends and their kids for our annual cookie decorating party. It was our first one since 2019! 

Paul helped me make the GF cookies in the morning and everyone came over around 4. My boys enjoyed participating and got lots of attention from the big kids. 

Will really enjoyed the sprinkles. I gave him a spoon so he could put some sprinkles on his cookie, but he took a big spoonful - and ate them! 

I served chicken wild rice soup to the adults and the kids had frozen pizza. 

And that was a wrap! We have a busy week ahead of us as I have book club Wednesday night, I have a wine work event on Thursday, Paul and I go to a light show at the local arboretum on Friday, and then it's Will's birthday on Saturday... So we just need to get used to being busier than usual for the next couple of weeks!

How was your weekend?