Memorial Day Monster

He is SO my dad sometimes it's scary.

I've been meaning to write about this since Monday, but maybe my subconscious was blocking the memory.  Or maybe it was the killer end of the month.  Either way, on Monday, I certainly had a Memorial Day Monster.

Cookie monster to be exact.  And daddy is to thank for this little monster.  He's been taking Hardin to the local grocery on Wednesdays to get lunch.  Subs, fried chicken, veggie plate for H, whatever they please.  Well, evidently right when they walk in the store near the deli, Jason lets him pick out a HUGE fresh baked cookie and they eat it while they wait for their lunch.

I had no idea of this little tradition, and as soon as we pulled into that grocery store parking lot Hardin started saying cookie.  He calls anything crunchy that, so I didn't think twice.  When we walked in he got much louder with his cookie demands.  So much so I gave him the you've got to be kidding me and you better cut it out look.  That look does nothing for a 19 month old.

Once we rounded the deli corner he was in a full fledged screaming fit for a cookie.  COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE.  Arms flailing.  And some screams in there too.  I was mortified.  And I caved.  I was that mom.  The overweight one walking around the grocery store feeding her child a big ole' cookie.  Ugh.  My head is still hung in shame.   

Our only other big event was Gigi's neighborhood pool opening.  I hadn't even taken Hardin's shoes off before he bolted in the pool as soon as his floatie snapped.  He is frighteningly fearless when it comes to the pool.  We've been taking him to the indoor one at the Y for about a month now, on Wednesdays and weekends, so we knew he was going to like it.  Her pool has a beach like walk in entrance and he loved it.  He just ran and jumped and ran and jumped and ran and jumped.

Daddy day care headed back there yesterday and I'm quite sure J has a few new gray hairs to show for it.  I don't think he realized how much more freedom H has there with the jumping than he did at the Y.  Hopefully it didn't scare him away, because Hardin surely loves it! 

Long Wide

Yesterday morning I kept telling Hardin to get ready for a long ride.  Today, he keeps pulling my shirt asking me to go for a long wide.  I think it's safe to say H thoroughly enjoyed his first Pig Roast.  He also slept until 8:40 this morning, which makes it a total success in my book. 

The Pig Roast is hosted by our friend Amanda's wonderful family at their farm every Memorial Day weekend. I think this may be the 9th year I've attended, and look I forward to it every year.  It's such a nice time to catch up and not have nine million other distractions.  In addition to the great company, it's just plain gorgeous there!

Overall, Jason and I were both very pleased with how well H did in a new place with a ton of new people.  He was clingy for a little bit, but then did great playing with Livvy and a few of the adults he suckered into playing ball.  I've got to get a picture of him laughing soon.  Folks kept commenting on how he puts his hands over his mouth and bends over.  It is pretty funny. 

I had a great time visiting with my friends I don't see nearly enough these days!

Terrible picture of me, but the only family one from the day.

He was so hot and sweaty all day.  LOVE. IT.

He leveled O with one of his bear hugs later on.

 

Finally, a story that hopefully B will not take the wrong way.  Scott was already living in Hawaii at the time my family hosted a baby shower.  He sent up a gift for me to open there and of course I cried.  It was an authentic Hawaiian outfit that is too cute, but a size 2T.  For almost two years now, he's been asking me if H wore the outfit.  I don't think baby clothes sizes jive too well in the head of a then 27 year old single guy.  Every time I'd cringe and say, no, he's not quite big enough yet.  I hated disappointing him after all the sweet thought that went into the gift.  Well, he finally IS big enough, and had the perfect outfit for the luau theme this year.  The shirt was a bit too hot, but he wore the shorts all day.   

In his full garb, before he took off the shirt.  So cute!

Yackitty Yack- Me and him.

My boy has become quite the conversationalist, so I thought I'd talk about that.  Mostly for me to remember all of this.  The days of waiting months for the next mile stone (roll, sit, crawl, walk) are long gone.  Things are different every single day around here!

Hardin starts talking the second he opens his eyes, and talks a lot throughout the day.  I'd say 70%  is still jiberish conversations with himself, but that leaves 30% real life conversations with us, which is just plain crazy.  Baby what?

He's also become more opinionated in his wardrobe, mostly accessories.  He likes to choose his shoes.  He wears this nack-nase at some point every day, and he loves to have hat on head.  

He can also count to ten and counts just about everything, but starts with two, two...  The teens are hit or miss.  He picks up his foam numbers in the tub and recognizes them out of order. 

He knows most of his colors by name, and will pick all of them out if you ask.  Pull-pull is my favorite to hear him say.

He's a stickler for manners, but has no idea.  I'm pretty sure he thinks pwees means RIGHT NOW.  And tank uu is used properly about a quarter of the time.

His favorite noises are still animal sounds.  He's mastered every animal I can think of a sound to associate with it. 

The rest of our conversations revolve around food, play, books and household items.  He likes to take my hand when I get home and walk me all around the house and point to things he knows now.  He'll stand still for a second and think to try and remember anything new, then he hurriedly pulls me to show me.  It cracks me up when mom's taught him a cleaning term!

Burst my bubble (but not my Appendix!)

My stomach started bugging me mid week, and Friday night the pain kicked into high gear and kept me up all night.  It continued to get worse over the weekend so Sunday around 5 I showered and drove down to Gwinnett Med.  My appendix was out by 1am, and Jason and mom came to pick me and my car up around 8.  I am very sore but a 1000 times better. Glad that's over!

In other news, Hardin wore his last bubble yesterday.  I've only purchased one for this summer, and it's a good thing because daddy is no longer a fan.  To be honest, as cute as they are, I think H is a little to old for them too.  We did have to stop by the park on the way to the grocery store to snap a few zillion pictures of my baby looking like a baby in his last bubble. 

Hardin has started to rub his fingers with his right hand, I have done that with my left hand my entire life.

 

5 Years Later

Five years ago today, I married my best friend.  The one that makes me laugh the hardest and love the most.

Not to mention, that particular day he had stood by me through the worst three years ever.  We got married one week after I finished school.  Looking back I shake my head at how I acted, and am amazed he didn't run while he could.  Lucky for me, he didn't.  And lucky for him, I snapped back to my normal self and we've shared an amazing 5 years together since.

I am incredibly proud of both of us for the promise we made and how well we've lived up to the vows we took so far.

I am equally proud that on the same day, I kept the most important promise my dad ever asked me to make him.  The only one really.  That I finish school before getting married.

He never pushed me to do anything, and didn't even know about law school until I told my him I applied.  It wasn't about him wanting me to be successful, it was about giving me the time I needed to figure out things for myself.  I'll forever be thankful for that time my sweet daddy insisted on.

Jason and I dated for as long as we've been married, so we really weren't expecting that much of a change.  Turns out, there were many, but my favorite has been watching our family grow and develop.  Family has gone from yours and mine, to ours.  

For me it really started to happen with Cawley, and Hardin's birth solidified the feeling.  Knowing my son has as much Becky, Jerry and Justin blood as he does mom, dad, Scott and Lara, makes them seem like much more than in-laws.  They are just plain family.

As far as gifts go, we agreed nothing else other than a night out with each other.  We just booked our flights to Hawaii this week, and that was damage enough to the check book.   I'm still processing being away from my boy for 6 days.  Denial would be the best word for it. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our wedding day.  It was a Saturday afternoon, exactly like today, with perfect Georgia weather.  As much as we wanted to elope, I'm very happy my parents insisted on a wedding with about 60 of our family and friends.  I wouldn't trade these pictures for anything! 

These just crack me up because both Justin and my brother stick their tongue out when they are concentrating.  So do Cawley and Hardin. 

Max baptized my brother and me as well!

 

Faith is on the phone from London!

 

Funniest best man toast ever!

Mama's Day

This weekend the always unpredictable Georgia weather gave me an excuse to wallow around all weekend with my boys AND put Hardin in this outfit today.  In this mama's eyes, that's just about as good as it gets.  Here I thought we'd missed the opportunity for a corduroy shortall in the quick winter to summer swap.

Literally, Hardin and I spent the entire day laying in the floor yesterday playing.  I dropped him off around 5:30 for dinner with my mom and sis, then headed to get the longest pedicure ever.  I swung by the house to pick up Jason, and we headed to a Luau with some great friends.

For Mother's Day, the boys took me up to Athens for a sushi dinner at one of our all time favorite places.  So fun to think about the old life that landed us there almost every single Friday night for years.  I wouldn't trade those nights for anything in this world.  It cracks me up to think about all of the conversations Jason and I shared over sushi and saki.  Careers.  Marriage.  Parenting.  As expected, we have  just as much to laugh at as we have to respect in those early thoughts.

I'm not going to lie though, living everything we talked about is so much better.  The career, the marriage, and especially the parenting.  After dinner we let H run around a bit.  It was funny to see his approach to our favorite city.  He loved his chop sticks, and drummed them all over our old stomping ground. 

As wonderful as this day was for me, I'd me remiss if I didn't acknowledge something that fills my heart and prayers many days, but especially mothers day.  All those wonderful women, my sister, cousin, and dear friends; who are still hoping, praying and waiting for their turn to be mothers.  As much as I'm a believer in God's plan, this one thing I struggle with more than most.  These wonderful women are already mothers, they just need their babies to find them.

Yummy summer afternoons.

The weather has been perfect the past two days.  70s, breezy, beautiful. 

Perfect to soak up the sun, water the flowers (and baby), and eat popsicles on the front porch. 

He now refers to diapers as "stinkers" too!

 

One story from this morning that I will never do justice.  It was so cute, but hard to explain.  I asked H if he wanted a waffle or cereal on the way down the stairs.  He excitedly said cee-ee-al.  He's recently become a big fan of my Special K Fruit-N-Yogurt.  I think mostly because he gets to eat something new with a spoon all by himself. 

Mom was already here, and I started jabbing away with her.  H was still on my hip, and leaned way in between us, looked up at me and said "CEE-EE-AL... PWEEEES???"  He had the cutest grin and little question look on his face.  Mom and I just died laughing.  Little buddy was worried I forgot about his breakfast!

Sometimes I get it right. Really right.

I've jumped back into my drowning office, and that's made me more thankful for our super fast trip to see Mimi.  

I've been all kinds of emotional lately.  So much so that I'm not sure Jason is believing me when I swear little last is not on his or her way yet.  Trust me.  Not yet.

I think it's a myriad of stress, love, less sleep, and more love.  It's all a bit overwhelming at times. 

We've never been big vacation planers, Jason and I.  I get it natural, Jason gets it by default in hating planning.  Normally we pick a place, set a budget will will surely exceed, and go.  We haven't even picked our dates or flights for Hawaii in July.  It just hit me yesterday that my mom, her sister and niece went on an impromptu trip to the beach the weekend before last.  It's not just her love of crafting flowing through my veins.   

Back to our trip.  I should first say how thankful I am for my husband who tolerates my slightly psychotic work schedule, followed by a 48 hour whirlwind beach trip.  Flying standby.  With an 18 month old.  Did I mention I came home to all the laundry done today?  I mean it when I say thankful. 

Second, I should talk about how awesome it was to feel the sand under our feet and smell the salty Florida air, if only for a couple of days.  From the flight down I pretended I was on a real vacation.  And any day that contains a plain, bus, train and car is a vacation for the H man.

But most importantly, I should say how WONDERFUL it was to see Becky.  Just plain awesome.  Every trip we've ever taken there has been contemplated and planned.  Not that we don't love those trips, but this spur of the moment visit with Becky was laced with a little extra special.  Maybe because we didn't have all kinds of holiday plans?  We just sat around and visited for the most part.

As far as the itinerary, we landed Friday night and H made a perfect transition from sleeping in my arms on the flight, to sleeping in the stroller, to sleeping in the car, to sleeping in the pack-n-play.  God love that super sleeper of ours.  We sat up too late talking, and all slept in a bit Saturday.  A little before 9 Becky got a text that Zoom Tan had $5 spray tans for Cinco De Mayo.  We decided that was a perfect outing for when Hardin napped.  From the picture below... you can see I got my 5 bucks worth.  How cool is it that I have a mother-in-law who thinks a trip to the spray tan booth is a perfect nap time activity? 

We walked across the street for lunch at the golf club.  Hardin ran around the putting green stealing the flags for a bit.  That night we went to Blue Coyote, a neat little super club on the river, for an early dinner.  Hardin hated the food and loved the boats.  We went on a walk down to the river before we put H to bed. 

Sunday we headed to Captiva when H was ready for his morning nap.  He slept the whole way there, and then we played in the water for a few minutes.  We had lunch outside at the Mucky Duck, and then headed to Mimi's for showers and nap for the babe.

On the flight home Sunday night we were separated, and needless to say I took H and the window seat.   As I sat their holding my boy, it hit me that I hadn't held him for an hour and a half straight in a very long long time.  Then I started thinking about how Becky must feel when she sees her adult boys.  Then I just plain lost it and had to pretend I was looking out the window at clouds for a while.

As schedules get busier, and babies get bigger and hopefully joined by another, the opportunities for quick trips may become fewer and farther between.  I sure hope we'll continue to take the plunge when we can!