"Reading"

Cal is OBSESSED with a few books about Lightning McQueen.  We have read him one of these books every night (and nap time) for the past few weeks.  I started reading the page to him and letting him say the last word on the page.  Then, he started reading along with me as I read.  Then, he just read each page.  Obviously, I use the term "read" VERY lightly here... he is NOT reading, of course, but he pretty much says each word on the page. 

The teacher in me is excited about his love of reading.  The geek in me is excited too... just had to share this video of the first part of the book...

part 2:

(not uploading.... will try again later....)

Random-ness

Totally random post today. I feel as though I owe it to y'all for reading through my Monday bitch-fest.  So here ya go... some randomness for your Wednesday!

1. Cal just came into the study and said to me, "I be riiiight back, Mommy. I gonna go run a few errands, but I be riiiight back. Okay, mommy? Okay? Okay, Mommy? I be riiiiight back!"
It was awesome.

2. I have done nothing for Andy's birthday.  Seriously, nothing.  I am hosting a party for my mom's 60th (along with several of her friends) the night before the party and I am so set on making her party perfect, that I am not working on Andy's.  It will all come together, I know, but WHEW, I am a hot mess trying to do it all...and do it all well...you know?

3. Back to Cal (who is in his room screaming for me right now: "mommy??? you need me??? I right in here!!!!!")... he has been cracking us up lately saying the funniest things (see number 1).  Andy has also been a trip and acting like he is about to pop from excitement all the time.  We took this video last night in the bath.  It is best to watch it with volume, but it is loud, so maybe not while at work??

I swear, it's like he knows his birthday is approaching and he can hardly stand all the excitement!

4. I pulled up Etsy the other day to attempt to make progress on said birthday party for said one year old, and this shop popped up.  Why do I find this so funny?

source

Perhaps I am having a hard time accomplishing things for Andy's birthday because I take time looking at outfits like the above and then send out the link to all of my friends with daughters telling them they should seriously consider this outfit combo... yep, it was a time suck, but it made me laugh.

5. Want in on the recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies ever? They are insanely easy...and insanely good.
Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie bag mix (the oatmeal choc chip ones are bomb too)
1 egg
4 soup spoons full of vegetable oil
Mix it all up, form into 6 balls (can't make more or they aren't as delish)
Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes
You will thank me. Your waist line might curse me, but your husbands/friends/family will all thank me.  These are the cookies I bake ALL the time for people and I can't even express how easy they are to make (or how often I get requests for them).
The only rule is, you have to tell me when you make them... I like to know when the goodness is going other places!


6.  See this nugget?

That's me... or is it Andy?  hmmmmm......

7. I forgot one more thing that happened on Monday that I left out of my ranting post:
As I was leaving the gym, carrying my bag, my 18 pound water jug (okay, it doesn't weight 18 pounds, but it is heavy-- it holds like, 70 ounces, I think...), my baby, and my 2 year old's hand (while he was jumping up and down), I approached my car, which had a pretty good parking spot.  A car pulled in behind me and put his turn signal on for my spot.  Ummmm.... I would understand this if there were NO other spots in the lot, but I looked down the row and counted 7 other spots...not even 5 yards from my spot! I looked at the guy and he gave me some kind of a wave...I am telling myself it was a take your time wave, but it in all honesty looked like a let's get a move on wave.   I started putting Andy in the car and I was trying to hurry for this a**hole unpleasant man, but then I decided to take my sweet time.  I saw two other cars pull out from my same lane and this guy sat, still waiting for my spot.  Wait, have I mentioned we were at THE GYM??  Isn't the point to get some exercise, chief?  Honest to goodness, y'all! I saw his license plate was from New York...nothing against New Yorkers (except this guy), but I was ready to join him in honking my horn.  But I didn't.  Because a southern gal is nothing but class.  (wink wink)

8. Have y'all read Fifty Shades of Grey? I just started the third one this morning.  Funny story-- I heard so many people talking about this book... it was on the Today Show and all kinds of talk shows.  I bought it on my kindle for our trip out to LA, not having ANY idea what it was about.  Ummmmm.... we were on the flight and Eddie bought the wifi for his phone (twitter-addict). I got about 30 pages in and I asked to borrow his phone so I could google search this book.  I liked the Twilight series, but I did not want to read another book about vampires and I had no idea what the "catch" was with this book... well, the first 10 pages that came up in google all said things like "mommy porn", "erratic read", " S&M romance."
I wanted to stop reading right there, but I couldn't.  I flushed plenty of times on the airplane, that is for sure.  If you aren't aware of the books, they are racy, but actually pretty good, even with/without all the sexiness- haha.  Some parts are just downright raunchy, be forewarned....
In honor of Mother's Day this weekend, I pass this video along to you-- TOO funny!

Video From SNL

9. The Bachelor starts this Monday-- HOLLA!  Can.not.wait.  I am going to have to get some wine for this household. I love "watching" the show with my friends on our facebook group.  It sounds so lame when written out like that, but we all have so much fun together.

10. I just started using some Jergans self tanning lotion.  I used it a ton last year before I had Andy because I wasn't trying to be all pasty while on the operating table and it worked really well... we will see if I have success this year too.  I must shower now so that I can apply some skin darkening goodness to my legs.  It has a funny smell to it though...hmmm...

I told y'all this would be a random mind dump!  And THIS is why I don't get anything done! My mind is racing with all this other mumble jumble stuff!

Have a great Wednesday, y'all!

M.O.N.D.A.Y.

Today was one of those days where if it could go wrong, it would go wrong.  It got to the point of almost being comical.  I have decided to write about it, just to get it out of my system, so that I could let it go and move on! (let me pause and take a sip gulp of wine...ahhhhh)

I swear I am not going to make a habit of using my blog to vent, but this is one of those days that I hope to look back on some day and laugh...

The day started out fine: Eddie had early appointments, so he was out of the house early, leaving me with the boys-- totally fine and normal.  They were both up a little earlier than I would like, but whatever, that is nothing big. 

We went downstairs for some breakfast and that was all fine...Cal was insisting on some cinnamon cereal in a bowl... I had NO idea what kind of cereal that is...so I brought out every box of cereal in the pantry and had him pick from there. 

After breakfast, we were playing in the family room and I was enjoying a few sips of my diet coke-- I do not drink coffee, so diet coke is my morning drink (don't judge)...and I savor those first sips (you can judge that comment...it was lame).  Annnyyyywayyyyy.... Cal decided he wanted to sit on me and Andy pulled up on the side table next to the couch.  I was trying to get Cal comfy when Andy started to get excited about something (I think there was music on the Today Show that got him riled up) so he started bouncing up and down, rocking the table like crazy.  I freed one of my arms from Cal and grabbed hold of the lamp that was about to go flying, but I couldn't grab the diet coke.  It took off flying off the table (the kid was really rocking the table!) and spilled ALL over him, all over a huge bucket of toys and into a basket of magazines.  Coke was everywhere.  I yelled as the lamp was about to go-- more like a gasp-- and I think the whole scene scared the ba-jesus out of Andy and he became HYSTERICAL screaming.  This upset Cal, so he started crying.  Hank was still waiting to be let out to pee, so he was at the front door, also crying/howling.  Seriously, I had all three boys crying before 7:30am.  I tried to calm Andy while wiping up with mess with Cal trying to climb in my lap.  Y'all, it was quite the scene!

So while holding a whimpering Andy, we decided to let Hank out to go to the bathroom.  I was still in my robe, by the way.  Cal wanted to come with us because he loves letting Hank out (and I can't wait until he's old enough to do it all the time!).  Well, Hank saw a squirrel and took off towards the backyard/mudpit.  I screamed at him, which scared the still-whimpering Andy and set him off again.  About 25 neighbors walked by at this point with me (in a robe, holding a baby) trying to wrangle Hank, calm Andy and answer Cal, tugging on my robe, saying, "what's wrong with Ahn-dy? why he crying? where is hankers? he go find squrrrrrrrel?? hankers coming? oh no! my feet dirty like hankers!" After wiping off feet and calming everyone down, Andy was spent.  You could tell just by looking at him that he was exhausted.  I put him down for his morning nap (even though we are supposedly dropping that) and got ready for the day.

After cleaning the house and getting everyone ready, we headed to the gym.  I dropped off the kids and got into my workout on the treadmill when my phone rang and the person left a message.  I listened to the message while still going and I about fell off listening... it was the appraiser...waiting for me...at our house... for our 10:00 appointment.   Eddie set it up last week and called me to tell me, but I was at the grocery store with both kids checking out, so I never wrote it down.  Eddie and I both forgot this morning, unfortunately.  The appraiser measured the outside and then was willing to come back in the afternoon so that I didn't have to race home (which I offered, several times).  After that little discussion was behind us, and I apologized profusely, I went back in to workout. 

Cal had been talking about a hamburger all morning...why? I have no idea.  The kid wanted a burger, I guess!  When I went in to pick him up at the gym, he asked for a hamburger immediately.  So I agreed since he was a good boy in the childcare room and they said he was a great listener.  We headed to Wendy's, all the while Cal was in the backseat talking NON-STOP about his hamburger.  I pulled into the drive-thru and started ordering. You know how you sometimes raise your voice when you order? Well, Cal was in the backseat "ordering" too, just as loudly as I was.  He started in "I want a hamburger! With fren-fries! And some apple juuuuus!" I guess he thought he needed to repeat that order over and over again-- bless his heart, he wanted that hamburger!  He was even trying to lean out of his window towards the speaker while he shouted.

We headed home and the boys got in their seats for lunch.  I opened Cal's kids meal and there was a crappy little toy, about 8 french fries...and nothing else.  THEY LEFT OUT THE FREAKING HAMBURGER! Oh, I was HOT mad, and I would have driven back there, but it was too far away for a quick trip and Andy was hungry and ready to eat right then.  I prepared myself for a meltdown from Cal, but instead, we had the following conversation:
me: ohhhhh, no
Cal: wass wrong, mommy?
me: they didn't give us your hamburger.
Cal: oh, reallllly?
me: mommy is really sad, Cal. That makes mommy upset.
Cal: I sorry mommy.  I so sorry.
me: Calboy, you don't need to be sorry, it isn't your fault!
Cal: that's okay, mommy. Don't be mad. It's not Cal fault. It not mommy fault!

Seriously? Who was the adult again?

He ate some chicken nuggets and was happy as could be-- go figure!  I thought I would never hear the end of that one!

After lunch and some playtime, it was time for naps.  I got Andy down and then got a call from a very good friend with some VERY exciting news (yayyyyyyyyy-- this news seriously SAVED this day!).  While I was on the phone with her, I told Cal it was time to go potty before naptime.  We walked into the bathroom (me still on the phone), right up to the potty, and Cal started smirking and said "haha- I peepeed in my pants, mommy!"  This child has NOT had ONE accident in weeks! Maybe even months now! It was almost funny....*almost*

Of course, Cal did not nap today, but he "rested" in his bed for a few hours.  While he was "sleeping"...

The appraiser came back, right when I got him in his bed.  I ran downstairs and the first thing she says to me is "well, you haven't changed your clothes, now have you?" I looked at her, absolutely dumbstruck.  She then decided to clarify by saying, "Well, you were at the gym earlier and you are still in your gym clothes."  Thank you, captain obvious.  I explained that I typically try to shower when the kids are sleeping, and I haven't had a chance to yet today....honestly, did I smell bad or something?  This shouldn't bother me...but it just annoyed me. Don't come into my house-- where we are paying you-- and make a comment about my attire.  For all she knows, I was dressed up for her...in nike shorts...and sneakers.... whatever..... perhaps I am just testy!

After she left, I called the local Sam's Club to speak to the bakery about ordering a cake.  Well, the main line was busy for 10 minutes straight, so I called the pharmacy line, hoping to be connected to the bakery.  They refused to connect me and told me to call back to the main store.  Okayyyyyyy.  Once I got through and was connected to the bakery, the girl on the phone was UNbelievable.  So so so rude.  I was asking about the different sizes of cakes and how many people each size would serve-- nothing too out of the ordinary, given her JOB.  She let out the biggest sigh before each answer and it was almost like you could hear her rolling her eyes at me.  I have never felt someone THAT annoyed with me before! So, I was in mid question and I stopped and said "I am really sorry that I seem to be annoying you so much while you are at work.  Is there someone else with whom I can speak that might be a bit more willing to help me? Perhaps your manager?" She changed her tune at that point, but I was over her and dealing with her (and perhaps people in general) for the day.  I thanked her kindly and hung up the phone, while muttering under my breath about mean people.

Cal was up and full steam ahead by this point so we played for a while until Andy woke up.  I have a million and ten errands to run this week and I wanted to get out of the house this afternoon to run one of them.  I got both kids downstairs, dressed, shoes on, snacks and drinks packed-- and if you have kids, you realize how time consuming this can be. I feel like it is an act of congress to get everyone dressed and out of the house!  We were walking into the garage...and the power went out.  UGHHHHHH! I thought about lifting my garage door manually, but it was pitch black in the garage and I couldn't see where the handle was, and I was worried that I would lift it up and then not be able to get it back down again by myself.  Again, Cal started in with his questions about where are we going? When are we leaving? Why we not leaving now? Sooooo...we stayed put and hung out on the back porch some. Which was fine-- I was fine with this... just annoyed at the wrench in the plans.

The work crew came out in the back yard to work on the electrical box and Cal wanted to see them so we went to the swing set.  We were on it for about 10 minutes when the bugs swarmed us! We got a ton of bites immediately, which spoiled our playtime. 

We came back in and it was getting close to dinner time.  I was planning on making spaghetti and meat sauce-- a difficult task when you have no power...I started to panic a little because I couldn't just hop in the car and go get anything (and Eddie was out of town), so I grabbed some bread and peanut butter and started to make whatever I could throw together- ha.  I also poured myself a glass of wine at this point. 

The power came back on soon after we started dinner and I quickly browned the beef and got everything ready.  It was no Pioneer Women dinner, but it got the job done.  It was Andy's first attempt at spaghetti and he LOVED it!

So, there you have it... my day turned around considerably once the wine was poured, if I am being honest (and I try to always be honest on here).

The day did not go as planned, but hey- that's life, right?  Now that I have written it all out, it sounds so stupid and insignificant.  Oh well... it IS stupid and insignificant....but it's my blog to bitch about it, right??? ;)

Cheers to you all...hope your Mondays weren't hateful!  Bring it, Tuesday!

boys boys boys

The sickness has LEFT the building, thank goodness!  PHEW!  I still have a little bit of a cough, but I feel a TON better and the boys seem to be back to all good too.  Last week kicked my rear, and I was so looking forward to this week of just getting back on track.   

I realized I haven't done a post just updating on life now with these boys, so it was about time...

Starting with ANDY...

 Andy is 11 months old now and I can.not.believe.it! I just mailed out the invites for his 1st birthday party and I am in shock that he could possibly be old enough for that.  We are just doing a really small get together for his party.  With so many kids with older siblings, the party could get out of control FAST, but we wanted to do something for him... so a small little pool gathering it is!

 Andy is not walking yet, but he is pulling up on EVERYTHING and he has started letting go more and more.  He loves to walk while holding hands-- it is more of a run-- but as soon as you let go, he will stand there and then drop to his bum to crawl.  He is a SUPER fast crawler.  It is CRAZY to watch how quickly he can get from point A to point B.  Cal was never a good crawler, so it is wild to see Andy go.  I am not sure when he will start walking-- he is very efficient at crawling, so he might be content to do that for a while. 

 He is in to everything.  He is so speedy too, so it is difficult to keep up with him.  He will get into one thing, and I will move him away from it and pick up whatever he did, and then when I turn around, he is into something else already and making an even bigger mess!  He is a wild man! 

 The above picture is sideways and I can't adjust it, but you can sort of see his top two teeth are breaking through.  He has the bottom two and now the top two are making their way in.  It looks as if he will have the Richards gap.  For those who did not know me when I was younger, I had a gap so big, my mom could fit her finger through it.  (cute, huh?) BUT, I never had braces, so we will see what happens with Andy's teeth. 

 Again, he is into everything, and he is getting really good at hearing the word NO! haha!  Cal says to him all the time, "no, no, andy! that is a no touch!"  Think he has heard that a time or two??  So, in the above picture, I told him no touch for the night light.  I took it away from him and put it on the dresser, and when I turned around, he was doing this, below...

 I swear, he is always into something! hahaha! It is definite non-stop!  I remember when Cal was at this stage of not yet walking that I was just so ready for him to start walking (Cal started at 10.5 months).  I am ready for Andy to walk just because I think it might slow him down a bit and make him easier to catch.... not sure if that is in my near future though!

 ta-dah! he loves to stand up and show off his newest trick.  He can hold it for quite a while, but then gets nervous and drops down. 

Andy continues to be a good eater, but he has started lately not caring for meats of any kind.  Cal loved hamburger meat and chicken and chicken nuggets...Andy throws them as fast as I put them on his tray.  He LOVES fruit and I have to work hard to get him to eat anything other than fruit.  He loves bananas and I've been getting those little fruit cup things and he will devour those in no time at all.  I gave him some mac and cheese the other night and I thought he was going to eat the cup.  He CHOWED down! He was shoveling it down and screaming for more and then clapping when I brought him more.  Funny sight, for sure!

 We are starting to drop the morning nap.  It's a little soon, I think, but his naps are starting to be inconsistent if he takes his morning nap.  He still gets sleepy around 9:00, but he has been pushing through just fine.  He wasn't always taking a morning nap, so he would sit in his crib and talk or laugh or jump up and down for an hour or so while Cal and I were chomping at the bit to get out of the house.  When he doesn't sleep in the morning, he take a wonderful afternoon nap and I am grateful for that.  If he does nap in the morning, his afternoon nap is off and he doesn't sleep for very long.  Cal was down to 1 nap a day by this point in his life too. 

Andy is just so much fun and we are having the best time with him. It makes my heart hurt to think about how fast he is growing up. I just want to kiss him non-stop everyday all day. 

And on a side note: it was at this point in Cal's life that we got pregnant with Andy.... just some food for thought.... NO, I am not pregnant, and NO, we are not trying again-- don't worry.  Just throwing that out there. 

  Now on to Cal!

 It is getting harder and harder to get a picture of him! He won't stand still and he refuses to look at me....ahhhh, such is life with a 2 and a half year old!

Cal is SO much fun right now and his vocabulary is growing everyday, which is really fun too.  I love to hear what he has to say and he loves to tell me stuff!  He is such a sweet boy and he has really grown up over the past few months.  Just when I think I couldn't possibly love him any more, I fall more and more each day. 

 He can be so naughty and make me so mad sometimes, but then he looks at me with his sweet little head cocked to the side and gives me the sweetest smile and I can't stay mad at him.  He has really been enjoying plowing into Andy lately.  He will see Andy crawling and he will run up to him and pretend to fall right into him-- knocking his shoulder into him and laying Andy out flat.  This lands him in timeout, and when he comes out, he immediately goes over and squats next to Andy and says "I so sorry, nugget. You okay? You okay, nugget?"  He calls Andy either Nugget or Ahn-dy (with a soft A).  I think it is freaking adorable. 
Cal's little legs are solid muscle and covered in bruises.  He is SUCH a little boy! The other day I was actually worried the people at school might say something to me since his legs are like one big bruise.  It doesn't seem to bother him though!

 Cal doesn't nap very often anymore, but he goes into his room for quiet time everyday.  He stays on his bed and I make him try to sleep for an hour, and then I will give him the iPad for an hour, which he loves.  He sometimes watches movies, but a lot of times I will hear him in there playing the the different apps working on spelling and the alphabet.  I figure it can't be all that bad of a way to spend that time! It gives both of us a break and he comes out of his quiet time super happy and ready to go go go!

 These two little munchkins are just so much fun and we love them to pieces. 

 That was a boring post, I am sure, but I needed to do a quick update on the wild ones.  Our country club pool opens this weekend and it is supposed to be super hot so I am excited to take the boys.  We told Cal we were going to go to the pool this weekend and then later we asked Cal what he wanted to do this weekend and he said "go to the pool an go swimming just like in Mexico!" Pretty good memory for a 2 year old!

Sick Week

Whew, we made it to Friday! This week has not been a very good one for us.  I wrote in the last post about me coming down with something, and let me tell you, it hit me like a ton of bricks! It is SO hard to be a momma and be sick! Life goes on, though, as you all know, so sometimes you just have to suck it up and carry on....but man, it ain't easy. I did not pick up one thing and I did not cook a meal (I did do a crockpot BBQ chicken, but that doesn't count since you don't really do anything).  Our house was like a disaster zone.  I made myself take some naps, which I NEVER do and told myself that the mess would be there later and I would tackle it then...maybe. 

Here is a look at our week...

MONDAY:
I woke up on Monday and felt like I was hit by a mac truck.  I was achy all over and had a cough that wouldn't quit.  There was no going to the gym for me today.  I got Cal dressed, but Andy stayed in his jammies the whole day.  I would like to give a huge shout out to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for getting us through this day.  I swear, we watched a LOT of Mickey on Monday! When we took a slight break from Mickey, the boys played under the kitchen table and rode the helicopter car together-- super cute.

TUESDAY:
After a pretty rough night of sleep, I was glad Cal had school so he would be able to burn off some of his energy without my help.  I took him to school and decided to attempt going to the gym.  I have become addicted to going and I kept thinking that if I just went, it might actually make me feel better.  Oh, I was so wrong.  I got on the treadmill set at my usual pace and incline and within two minutes, I was coughing.  I slowed wayyyyy down and decreased the incline and my chest was killing me.  Normally I do 30 minutes on the treadmill...I made it 10 before I realized how ridiculous I was being.  Not wanting to go back into the childcare room after 10 minutes, I figured I would do some light weights-- again, bad idea.  I couldn't stop coughing and by this point, I thought my head was going to explode.  Soooo, I went and got Andy and get out of there! We ran into Target for one thing and only bought the one thing-- a SURE sign you are sick!-- and headed home for lunch.  That's the other thing...with this funk, I have had no appetite.  Like, none.  Which is great for losing weight, but horrible for trying to maintain energy to keep up with two little ones!
The President was in town Tuesday to speak to UNC students and guest on Jimmy Fallon and he was going to be driving down the road right by my house, so on the way to pick up Cal, I stopped to watch the motorcade go by.  Whatever your political beliefs may be, it is really neat to see the President of the US of A ( :) ) driving down your road.   I tried to take some pictures of it.
After naps on Tuesday, we played some more and Cal and Hank had some love time in the kitchen after dinner.  Andy had a great time with the bubbles in the bath tub!

WEDNESDAY:
I decided on Wednesday that I was sick of my house looking like a tornado hit, so when I woke up, I decided that I didn't care how I felt, I was going to clean my house! By about lunch time, I was feeling a bit more human-like, so I took the boys to the grocery store and continued working on the house.  A friend of mine was having a birthday dinner out and I was sooooo excited that I'd be feeling well enough to go.  After naps, I took the boys over to see a good friend from DA who just got a new puppy.  The puppy is sooooooooo adorable and the boys were really well behaved.  I sat talking with my friend for a while and I was laughing, because that's what we do when we are together, and then a huge coughing fit hit me.  It was time for us to go anyway, so I quickly loaded the car and headed for home...where the coughing fit didn't stop.  Ugh.  I was coughing to the point of puking over and over again.  Let me tell you how NOT fun that it.  I can not even begin to tell you how much I was looking forward to this girls' night.  I even had a cute outfit picked out to wear (I am a geek, I know).  So, anyway, I was really disappointed to be feeling so crappy to have to miss out on the fun.  Honestly, I think I probably overdid it in the morning with the cleaning and the grocery store and it just kicked my rear that evening. 
I don't have any pictures to share from Wednesday...

THURSDAY:
Sleep the previous night was non-existent.  I was up coughing/puking the whole night.  My head seriously felt like it was going to pop off and my chest was so sore.  It was time to go to the doctor! I wasn't sure if I could take any medicine, but I thought it would be smart just to get checked out and make sure this wasn't in my chest... I would MUCH rather have just a cough than pneumonia! So, I took Cal to school and my mom kept Andy for me and I went to the doctor.  After getting checked out (her response to the back of my throat: "girl, that is sooooome kind of nasty back there!"), it was determined that I have a sinus infection on top of a really bad cough.  Unfortunately, they have been seeing a lot of the coughing going around and it usually is lasting between 2-3 weeks.  FABULOUS! Oh, and also? She said the next "step" in this little doozy is losing your voice, and I should be expecting that to happen in the next few days. 
My mom had this same cough, and hers lasted 2 weeks and she lost her voice too....
But, they gave me an antibiotic for the sinus infection and a prescription cough medicine so hopefully that will all start to work together to kick this crud.
I was really disappointed to miss Zumba this morning because my FAVORITE instructor is leaving and this was his last class... :(
Andy had a great time with Grandma and never took a morning nap so he crashed before we were even out of her neighborhood.  And that afternoon, Cal got some good Mickey watching in with Hank.

FRIDAY:
and that brings us to today!
It has been another lazy day and this morning Cal was acting like HE was not feeling well...! sheeeeesh! He felt warm earlier and was acting a little "off" so I am hoping he was just in a funk and isn't getting the funk.  Honestly, though, I can't imagine how he wouldn't get it.  He has been all over me while I have been sick and he was all cuddles with my mom when she had it.  He woke up at 4:30 this morning and wanted to get in my bed.  I didn't want to wake up Eddie since he had a late night traveling the night before, so I got in bed with Cal and we snuggled until Andy woke up...I am sure it's coming...

Not to only focus on the negatives of lately...Cal has been an EXCELLENT napper this week.  He napped everyday but one, I think, so I have no complaints there.  I think he knew I needed some quiet time- haha. 

Both kids are asleep now and I think I might grab a quick shower and then relax a little. 

Hope you all have had GREAT weeks! Also hope that this nastiness stays far away from you! ha

NYC

(woah....blogger has changed, right?!?!)

After a super quick trip to the west coast for HEA, we got home Sunday evening.  Mom and I had a flight bright at early Tuesday morning to head to NYC for our annual girls' trip!

We do this trip every year, but normally it is in November. Since I was nursing Andy, I couldn't get away for a weekend, so we postponed it until right now.  It was really fun going a different time of year when the weather was warmer.  We aren't sure which time of year we like best: winter and Christmas decorations everywhere, or spring and warmer weather. I think it's just fun to have that time together with no kids, no schedules, no tennis matches...nothing but US and OUR time together.  I cherish these trips with my mom and feel so fortunate that I am able to share this special time with her. Eddie's mom came into town to help out with the boys since it was during the week and Eddie had to work-- thank you, Patty!

Our NYC trip is filled with a lot of walking, a lot of shopping, a lot of drinking, and A LOT of laughing...a whoooole lot.  And I wouldn't want it any other way!

Here, our trip in pictures:

The taxi in to the city.  We landed at 7am.  I picked mom up to head to the airport at 4:30...it was an early morning!

Our first day there was gorgeous! We headed to Rockefeller and as we were walking out of the J.Crew, I spotted Hoda Kotb.  I love me some Hoda.  I also have zero shame when it comes to approaching famous people.  I tried to nonchalantly take her picture, but once I looked back at it, I noticed she was staring right at me. Whoops!

 Then, the ladies next to her vacated their seat so we ever-so-nonchantly walked over and took their spot.  We tried to casually act like we were just hanging out, but then I leaned over and said "Hi, Hoda." yup. Just like that.  Honestly, it's hard being this cool.  Anyway, she was SUPER nice and even said "so, should we take a real picture?" hehe- busted.  Notice the gorgeous blue skies behind us? It was a beautiful day in NYC!

 We asked Hoda for some lunch spot recommendations, but all the places she told us to try were suuuuper expensive (all salads were $35 and up....we would rather spend our money shopping!). So we found a little bar and had a fabulous lunch and a couple of beers.  It was just what we needed to be rejuvenated!

 Our hotel had breakfast every morning and happy hour every afternoon.  The picture below is leaving happy hour and heading to see Spiderman!

 A highlight of the trip for me was afternoon tea and the St. Regis hotel....SO MUCH FUN! We decided to have a bottle of champagne with our tea and it was delicious!

 After tea, we decided to keep the party going, so we found another bar, this one a rooftop bar, which had some fun drinks and great views. 

 It was such a fun trip, but I did miss my boys terribly.  Between LA and NYC, I have been leading a crazy life and I was ready to get home to "normal" life.  Sadly, this is what Andy looked like when we got home:

Bless his little heart, he got a terrible cold and his eyes are all red and swollen.  He woke up today a little better, thankfully, but now I have it and feel soooome kinda bad.  And, need I point out that stay at home mommas don't get to take sick days...?

Anyhoo... it was a fabulous trip to NYC and I loved every minute spent with my momma! I am so lucky to have her in my life and we are both lucky to have the kind of relationship we have. 

LOVE YOU, MOMMA!