Archive for June, 2009

Monkeying Around!

Monday, June 29th, 2009

This weekend we went to the new Monkey Joe’s.  It was pretty nice but a little deja vu of any other indoor play place.  Bounce houses, slides, parents who don’t supervise their kids, you know – the norm.  I was a little taken aback that they wanted $5 for Kate (or any kid under 1 for that matter) who can’t really enjoy the facilities as nothing is age appropriate but whatever.  So we went and Noah had a blast (of course) and he played hard!

Here Kate is waiting to leave.  This is what Walter and the kids do while they wait for me to get it all together.

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At Monkey Joe’s Kate got an ID bracelet so they knew who she belonged to.  She was fascinated!  Please excuse the bad hair day!

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I know the face says “special” but she was beyond excited!

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And Noah loved climbing and sliding!

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Do you remember the last time you felt joy like this!?

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Afterwards we went to visit our friends, Katie, Bill and Liam, in Coral Springs.  It’s been about ten months since we’ve been able to meet up and I think Liam was Kate’s size back then.  Now he’s a walking, talking fool who is still just as heartbreakingly adorable.  When we were headed in Noah asked if Liam had turned into a boy (awwww…) and indeed he did.  It was a lot of fun catching up and both of our kids were passed out before we left the neighborhood.  I guess a good time was had by all!

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This is Liam the last time we saw him -

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And now -

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Airplane!

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Stubborn…                                                                                and sweet…

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Ok, so for those of you who love physical comedy (me), this is priceless.  Katie was sending Liam down the slide and Bill was catching him.  He hasn’t gotten the whole slide thing down pat yet.  Well Bill was playing with Kate and Katie launched Liam.  Walter is too polite to photograph how it turned out but from the second photo I’m pretty sure you can figure it out.  He was still going full speed ahead at that point…

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But as boys do, he brushed off, and moved on.

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And Daddy was on slide duty for the balance of park time.  Thank you for everything Bill and Katie, and for giving me a laugh at your son’s expense.  I know, I’m horrible.

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Then on Sunday we went to the waterpark with Rachel, Robby and Ayla and had a blast!  We didn’t get any photos unfortunately, besides, I’m not sure you would consider me swimsuit model material anyway.  But the kids loved it and Kate was crazy in love with splashing.  She couldn’t even sit still on the lazy river, she wanted in!  And to top it off Rachel and I went down one of the big slides.  We were the required 42″s tall but I was still a little apprehensive.  It was a big slide with several flights of stairs to get to and some high walls to coast back and forth on.  Once we were up we felt a little better about reliving our teens since we weren’t the only non-kids at the top… until the lifeguard turned to me and said “You can go now, M’am”.  I guess this thirty year old is fooling NO ONE! 

Happy Monday all!

Happy Father’s Day!

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

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Happy Father’s Day out there to all the fathers and dads!  Walter and I are so fortunate to have great relationships with our fathers.  Today we honor them and of course the kids and I will be celebrating Walter as well.  We don’t have any big plans.  The only thing on the agenda is to spend the day together and at some point make it over to my parents’ for dinner and a dip in the pool.  Walter’s family is, and has been, working really hard on building a new home for his brother and unfortunately weekends are the only time they can invest at the moment so we won’t be seeing them.  Hopefully Ian is going to have everyone over to make up for all the missed Sunday dinners when the kids play and we all get to visit (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Anyway, I wanted to blog and brag about Walter on Father’s Day.  Anyone who knows him, knows that Walter has always been a big kid.  He’s the guy that the little girls and puppies flock to.  He’s so much fun and he is genuinely interested and playful and full of useless knowledge about things kids love (like cartoons, planes, and action figures).  I never had any doubt in my mind that Walter would be an amazing dad, and he is.  And although he always finds himself a bit helpless during the newborn stage, he is the man with the infants and toddlers!  Always on the floor with them, making crazy faces, playing fun games, turning a temper tantrum into giggles – he’s a blast for the short people. 

It wasn’t until the past year or so though that I realized what an amazing man and father he is.  When things are great, so are people.  When things are hard, relationships can get sticky.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best of company when the going gets tough and the stress creeps in.  During these hard economic times and patches of uncertainty and frustration, though, Walter has been amazing.  He takes all the worry onto his shoulders and still walks around with a smile on his face.  He is an amazing provider (if only I weren’t such a great spender), a true friend, a hard worker, a pillow fight, a bath time giver, a bed time book reader, a master of imagination, and an awesome housekeeper (again, if it weren’t for my bad habits).  Our family has never felt the stress and pressure.  We’ve never worried, although there is much to worry for.  I don’t know how things would be if it weren’t for him, nor do I wish to even entertain those thoughts.  Today is a day to celebrate the man he is and the amazing father he has become.

I love you huney and I am so grateful for everything you do!  Thank you so very much for being the father of my children and for caring and taking care of your family so effortlessly and happily.  I can’t imagine life without you and I wouldn’t want to ride this crazy roller coaster with anyone but you!

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My amazing family…

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

I love my family.  I love how crazy and quirky they are.  I love how different we are.  I love how we stick together through tough times and sticky situations.  I love that they would do absolutely anything for me.  I love that when my cell phone rings at 8am and 5pm every day I know exactly who it is (it’s always Lindy).  I love that my sister spent way too much money to chat with me during her trip to Japan.  I love how much they all love my kids.  I love how they love to remind me of every embarrassing thing I ever did in public. 

My mom recently had surgery (nothing serious, nothing related to her long gone breast cancer) and strangely it’s been very uniting.  I laid in bed with her, Kate, and my niece Julia today and we all chatted, laughed, and entertained Kate.  It’s one of those moments that just sticks to your memory.  Thursday my sister, Nikki, and I plan to invade her bed for some quality time and I’m sure that will be just as fun.  I hold those moments close like the times when my mom stayed with us after having Kate.  They are just so awesome!

So along the lines of them doing anything for me I suckered Nikki and Julia into a photo shoot.  My new online site (details soon) offers hair accessories but I didn’t have any good photos of the products.  They loaded up all their pretty dresses and dragged over for a shoot during the horrible rain storms and a surprise ant problem.  They were such troopers!  They even stayed afterwards to babysit so Walter and I could go out!  Anyway, I got some photos for my site but I got two others that I am in love with.  Two that I want to hang up all over my house.  The last time Nikki and Julia took photos together Julia was tiny.  Like preschool tiny.  I love having an updated photo but why, oh why, does she have to look more like Nikki’s sister than her daughter?!?  12 going on 25!  What’s with these kids growing up so fast!?  I’ve had the first photo hanging in my house since the day I took it.  I’m not sure I can take it down, maybe I just need a bigger frame.

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And here’s one of Julia that I love (that’s one of the hair accessories by the way).  She says she looks “fat” and “ugly” in this picture.  Mark my words young lady, you’re going to wish you were this “fat” and “ugly” in 25 years.  What I wouldn’t give…

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*And it did occur to me that when I said “my family” you may have been expecting a story about Walter, Noah, and Kate.  They’re pretty amazing too!

And we’re back – kind of…

Monday, June 8th, 2009

We’re STILL waiting for Comcast to fix our internet.  It is so frustrating!  In the meantime we signed up for DSL which isn’t as good but it’s something.  I’m so over our connection issues!

I wanted to share some sweet pictures with you.  We went to my mom’s for Memorial Day and Kate got all dressed up for the party.  She even wore her Cole Haan shoes!  Keep in mind I don’t have anything from this designer but I couldn’t resist these hot pink patent leather penny loafers.  She seems to be pretty fond of them too.

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We also took the opportunity for Noah to get an updated photo with his Grammy.  We wanted to do this at his birthday party but she wasn’t feeling well.  A few days late but well worth the wait.  The last time we did this (on his first birthday) she was bald as a baby from chemo.  Now she’s the picture of health and we’re so fortunate for this very happy ending!

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Poor Grammy, Noah hates photos.  I wonder why!

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