Michael's 33rd Birthday

Michael's birthday has come and gone. He's another year older. He has to wait another whole year before the spotlight is back on him (or, just 3 weeks until Father's Day).

Spencer is reflecting on what all this birthday business means. Hmm. My dad is old. I am young. Hmm. Interesting.

We took some fun family photos to mark the event.

Michael claimed that including Ginger in the family photo would ruin his day. I told him he was stupid and wrong and to suck it up because she's part of the family. Nice way to talk to my hubby on his special day, huh?I've decided we need to start doing more pictures of just the two of us. No children or dogs with their wandering eyes and heads to ruin what could otherwise be a nice picture. We went to T.C. Eggington's for breakfast. Highly recommended. Look at this pancake that Spencer got. And Michael got a free slice of chocolate pecan pie because I mentioned it was his birthday. After breakfast we went to the mall and let Spencer play at the indoor play area. It's supposed to be 112 by the end of the week. It's indoor play for us until at least October.Present time! New shirt time!This was the 1st year since Michael and I have been married that I actually didn't make him a special dessert for his birthday. He did get very special brownies from AJ's though. I still feel kind-of bad about my slacking.Spencer got to help blow out the candle.After nap time for all of us Michael and I got ready to go out. Alone. Just adults. We went and saw Date Night. Hilarious. Laughed so hard. Plus, that Mark Wahlberg is pretty easy on the eyes.After the movie we went to a wine bar for some bruschetta and wine. Michael got another free dessert. I'm feeling less and less guilty about not baking something for him.

Party People

We were invited to (and went to) 2 parties today. We are POPULAR.

The 1st party was Lauren's Housewarming party. Michael's mom is spending the weekend with us so Spencer stayed home with her and napped while we went to Lauren's. We considered telling people that we left Spencer home with Ginger because it worked out so well for those kids in Peter Pan.

Josh and Amy were there with baby Jacob. I swear he has totally changed in just 1 week. He's gained weight too. This is not the best picture because of the sun beam behind Michael's head, but Jacob looks so cute I couldn't not share it.

Better with the sun issue, but now Jacob is covering his cute little face. The new homeowner Lauren.After Lauren's party we went and picked up Spencer and Michael's mom and headed to Tyler's 1st birthday party.

Spencer playing with his girlfriend Lilly. A picture where all the subjects are looking at the camera AND smiling. Incredible. Unbelievable.Tyler has a cool little jungle gym in the backyard.Here's the birthday boy. Nothing like playing in the rocks at your own party. Spencer got a little rock time himself.Karen (Tyler's mommy and my friend since 5th grade) was a baker extraordinaire and had cupcakes for everyone.Tyler had his own smash cake. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it.Hey! This frosting stuff is fun. Fun to smoosh all over my mother!It's the only time I have ever seen a totally clean baby and a totally frosting/cake covered mother.

Spencer was all over his cupcake.

He had the messy face to prove it.
It's hard to see in the picture but Zac had just smashed a cupcake into his mother's chest. She was covered with cake and frosting. Karen still had a fair amount of cake and frosting all over her. We wanted to get a group shot before Chelsea left so I had to stand next to Frosting 1 and Frosting 2. It was a little close for my comfort.Laura was supposed to be here too but her daughter got sick this morning so they didn't drive up from Tucson. We missed her. But Laura, at least you didn't have to stand next to Frosting 1 and Frosting 2 and have your picture taken. (Just kidding! Love you Chelsea {Frosting 1} and Karen {Frosting 2})

Tomorrow is Michael's birthday. He's going to be 33. I've been celebrating birthdays with him since he turned 20. I bought him a hat that year. Spencer already went ahead and told Daddy what we bought him at Old Navy. Geesh! 2 years old and already ruining secrets.

My 1st day of summer vacation

It was a good day. A normal day, but good because I know I don't have to go to work for 2 months.

Spencer and I cuddled in bed for a good 15 minutes. It was lovely. Then we got up and I made breakfast. My parents were here so I had to do better than cold cereal. I made fried eggs and toast. My fried eggs were horrible. This is why- I used Pam spray instead of butter. Never a good idea.

Then we all went to baby gym class. My parents stayed for about 20 minutes then they headed back to Tucson. (They've been in Northern AZ for the past couple of days and stopped here on the way back). Spencer and I ended up doing our regular class and then story time/free play after. We were there for 2 1/2 hours.

After class we went to lunch at AJ's. I love eating lunch at AJ's. I don't love the price I spend to eat there, but I do love their food options. Particularly their bakery items. I didn't get anything from the bakery today. Boo.
When we got home Spencer went down for a nap and I exercised with this DVD. I now have 3 Jillian DVD's. That woman is a fitness monster. She's literally making me kick my own ass. The good news is that I did in fact lose 5 pounds since last Friday. I'm hungry and sore. Michael came home from work and we ate dinner. Then we went to the mall to get a gift for a party we're going to tomorrow. We went to Bath & Body Works. I bought a few little gems for myself.Spencer's in bed now. Thought I'd get on the ol' blog to write the absolutely, positively most boring blog post I have ever done. Honestly. Did you read this thing? It sucked.I will make up for it though. This weekend is going to have 2 parties and Michael's birthday. I will, no doubt, gain back the 5 pounds and, knowing me, about 7 more.

It's the Final Countdown

Do you see my new ticker? It's counting down the hours until SUMMER VACATION. As I write this I have 24 hours and 15 minutes until I am freeeeeeeeeeeee! Until August 2nd.

These are the present progressive "ing" things I want to accomplish this summer.

Swimming. Swim lessons. Swim parties. Lap swim. As long as the water is cool and hopefully urine free.

Eating. Preferably food that I have not had to prepare. Dinners out, parties, take-out and get-togethers at someone else's house are all welcome.Sleeping. A lot. Traveling. Specifically to Flagstaff, Tucson, Vermont and New Hampshire. And maybe Maine.


Shopping. Preferably with someone else's money that they have generously shared with me.

Going. To the movies. A lot.

Baking. Whoopie pies. Mini tarts. Giant cupcakes WITH paper liners. This will make up for my lack of cooking.
Lounging. On the couch. A lot.

Man, it's gonna be a good summer.

I don't want to talk about it

Before you start reading this (and I start writing this) picture me taking a big, long, drawn out breath. Now picture me blowing it out slowly. And I'm shaking my head slowly back and forth.

Today was just one of those days. One of those days that you don't ever want to think about again, but you have to blog about so when your kid is 13 and sassing his mouth off to you, you can pull up the archives and throw it in his face.

We have a window like this in the guest room. Nothing was covering it. Our guests wake up at the crack of dawn and feel as if they are waking up on the sun. I decided today that we needed to buy a curtain to cover it. Today was the day because my parents spent the night last night and my dad was bitching about it this morning.

So, off Spencer and I go. To Target. We look at the dollar section. We look at the mommy clothes on sale. Then we head to the very back of the store where curtains live. We're looking. We're looking. "Mommy, me have to pee." We race to the very front of the store. Spencer sits on the toilet. Nothing. I pee. He sits down again. Nothing. We walk to the very back of the store. Looking at curtains again. "Mommy, me have to poop." "Are you sure this time?" "Yes." We race to the very front of the store.

Spencer does his business. Good. Let's go pick this curtain out. We walk to the very back of the store. Again. For the 3rd time. "Mommy, me pooped again." "What? You need to go again?" "No, me poop again already."

Oh, GAWD. What do I do now? I did the look test. Nothing. I did a little sniff test. Nothing. So we went and picked out the curtain. And a curtain rod. Then we went to the baby section and bought some wipes, just incase.

So, we go out to the car and unload everything and I empty the Target bags to use as laundry/garbage bags, just incase. I pull off Spencer's clothes. Yup. Little accident. Not bad, but definitely not pleasant and definitely not sitting in a car seat in cookie monster underwear on the way home. I use the new wipes to clean him up.

Now, I always, always, always bring a change of clothes with us wherever we go. Since Spencer stopped wearing diapers on March 2nd he has had one accident, on March 5th. Really, he only had 1 accident the entire potty training experience. But I always bring clothes. Just incase.

Where are the clothes? On the backseat? No. On the front seat. No. On the bench at home? Yes. Great, no clothes. What do I have? A size 4 diaper from when Spencer was 1.

Well, it was better than being naked. The curtain looks nice. It will block a lot of sunlight. It was SO not worth what happened. But just incase you were wondering, it does not, in fact, make me want to take a break from shopping at Target.

Llama Time!

Do you remember when we went to see Elmo at the toy store? And then we saw Peter Rabbit at the same toy store before Easter? Well, I belong to the toy store's Facebook page so I get daily updates on their upcoming events. Yesterday was Llama Day. Or as Spencer called it, Llama Time! Llama books and a real live llama. Yeah. Seriously.

We got to the toy store and as we were parking I said, "I wonder where they have the llama? Maybe in a pen behind the store? I can't imagine they would have it inside of the store".

Do you see where I'm going with this?

So, we walk inside. Yup. Live llama. In the toy store.

Her name is Dora. Dora the Llama. She stood around with her stinky breath while we listened to Llama Llama Red Pajama.She ate hay off of the CARPET.

Then it was petting time.
Spencer looks like he's all into the experience, doesn't he?
Not really. This is what he had the most fun doing. This is what he talked about on the way home.
Then they brought out this llama. This one was significantly less stinky than Dora.
If you could get over the llama aroma, Dora was actually quite cute.
Next time I want them to have something really outrageous, like "dolphin day" at the toy store. We'll walk in and totally see a live dolphin in a plastic kid's pool.