Bye Bye Baby

Just reminiscing about how grown up my little baby has become. This photo is one of my favorites from about a year ago. Jack is now such a big boy! He plays frisbee with the dog, pushes his lawn mower around the backyard, has MANY teeth and even MORE words. Last weekend he was identifying different shaped blocks and matching them to their appropriate cut-out hole. He even knows the names of some of them, like star and circle. He is starting to put his little one syllable words together, forming simple ideas, like da (Dad) and ca (car) while pointing to the Prius. He is developing a great sense of humor, learning to laugh when we are being funny and even doing funny things to make us laugh. He now takes us by the hand and leads us everywhere, exploring the world around him. He is just amazing! I realize how quickly the time has passed and how quickly it will continue. When we were at the wedding last week, Rob leaned over to me while Max danced with his mom and said, "One day that will be you and Jack." Gulp, tear, yikes. For now I'll just be grateful for the chance to stay home so much and savor the moments. In the whirl of activities every week it's good to remember that I'm living my dream every day.

Mother's Day Again?

I could've sworn it was Mother's Day again today. Rob got the baby up this morning, changed his diaper, brought him to me for a cuddle and followed it up with a cup of coffee for me and a sippy cup of milk for Jack. All of this before our knight in shining armour went out to slay dragons for us! What a man! It's good to be reminded that everyday is the perfect day to appreciate those you love! Thanks honey!

With a day that starts that great what can a girl complain about? Jack played in the backyard this morning, mowing the concrete for Daddy. I threw the frisbee about a million times for Gracie. We dropped off our ballot at the polling place. Got a good workout in. Paid bills (with a little left over for fun). And now Jack is down for his nap. What a GREAT day! And it's not even 2PM yet!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day too. Happy Tuesday!

Where'd the Time Go?

The last three weeks have flashed by in a blur. Two baby showers, a wedding, a quilt, Mother's Day and all the usual business rolled into one blip on the radar. Starting with the baby showers, my mom, Andria and I hosted a party at the restaurant the week before Mother's Day. We had a lovely time and don't even get me started on the Napoleon cake! It was to DIE for! Then, this weekend we all attended a shower thrown by Nikki's best friends. It was so much fun...great food and wonderful company. I worked feverishly to get the baby's quilt finished on time. Nikki is due in about 3 weeks, but she looks great and is getting around like a trooper. She just finished her Master's degree in Biology and moved into her new condo last week!

Between showers we attended a friend's wedding in Santa Barbara. It was the daughter of our friend Rob Pearson. It was a gorgeous event and Max and Marisa managed to pull it off seamlessly despite the raging fires that week. What a celebration!

If I'd known how fabulous Mother's Day was, I'd have had a baby sooner! My mom was up to watch Jack while we went to the wedding, so we celebrated with her on Saturday and then Rob spoiled me Sunday. As every mom will appreciate...I stayed in my PJs ALL DAY! Jack let me sleep in, we watched movies and I got a gift certificate for a facial. It was the perfect relaxing day.

Sorry to those of you who missed our blog, I'll try to make it up to you with many more adorable photos of Jack in the near future.

Nudie Cutie

Jack was Nature Boy this morning. Another beautiful day in Ventura, so he was running around this morning in the backyard with his birthday suit on. If you had to wear diapers all the time you'd be this happy too if you were naked. He ran all around the patio table and then chased the dog. She hates to admit it's fun!

Plan E?

Picture the scenario...Rob, Jack and I were relaxing over the end of a nice dinner last night when the phone rang. No big deal, right? Oh no. Our wonderful day care provider who NEVER gets sick had been throwing up all evening. Well, stuff happens, go to Plan B. Rob will stay home with the baby, work out of the house and I'll go to work. Problem--Rob has back-to-back meetings all day for the gigantic housing conference he is hosting Saturday through Tuesday. He can't possibly stay home! OK, Plan C. I'll call in for a substitute teacher. Happens all the time, right? Problem--I was scheduled to take my class on a tour of the Reagan Library! This is way beyond just writing sub plans! Plan D, my mom has come through more than once to get us out of a scheduling snafu, we'll call her. Problem--she won't be back from Houston until Saturday. Plan E...oh for the love of God! Who has a plan E!?!?!?

Well, we managed to survive. As it turned out, my teaching partner took our class to Reagan Library, my sub took the class she was supposed to be teaching and Jack and I met them all at the library. Jack had fun touring Airforce1, eating lunch with the students and playing with all those big kids at the park! He has been napping for 2 hours now, so we might take a field trip every day!!

It's good to remember...everything will be OK in the end. And if it's not OK, it's not the end! Have a great day!

Popsicle

What better way to beat the heat? Yesterday Jack played in the backyard in his little wading pool, ran around naked for most of the afternoon and then had his first popsicle in the evening. If you haven't tried Trader Joe's Dixie Peach Juice, try it. It is really good for drinking AND making into popsicles. We all loved it!

Wild Weather

It was hot as a blaze here today, 93 degrees at 4PM. Still, Jack insisted on wearing his rainboots this morning! He finally gave them up for these funny sunglasses after lunch. We cooled off at the beach for an hour this afternoon, doing our best to stay cool. You know how Rob loves the heat, according to him it was "disgusting" in Santa Barbara! I've got to check the weather forecast...it'll get cool again soon, won't it?