The Weekend in 3 Parts

 PART 1

 

I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Elisa on Saturday.  It was in Tucson.  It's kind of hard to co-host a shower from a distance, so we spent the weekend down there.  Spencer had gone down on Tuesday to spend some time with his grandparents for Fall Break.  Michael still needed to work on Friday, so Elliott, Ginger and I went down earlier on Friday and Michael came after work.

 

I timed it so that we were driving during Elliott's normal nap time.  This is what I had hoped for (using a random baby I found through a google search):

 

This is what I got.

Yep.  Elliott screamed and cried the entire way.  All 105 minutes.  It was super.  Ginger was sitting on the seat next to him the whole time.  I think she was close to figuring out how to roll down the window so she could jump out. 

 

I made pumpkin spice caramel popcorn, chocolate caramel popcorn and chex mix for the shower.  I started at about 11:30 pm on Friday night.  I finally finished everything and went to bed at 1:45 am.  Elliott woke up at 2:22 and needed some reassurance that he was, in fact, OK sleeping at Gramme and Grandpa's house, so I didn't really get to sleep until close to 3:00.  Yuck.

 

The pumpkin spice caramel corn involved peeling 2 bags of Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses.  It took 15 minutes per bag.  That's a lot of wrappers.

 

On Saturday morning my cousin's wife, Stacey, brought their little girl, Stella, over to visit.  Stella is 2 and it was the first time we have ever met her.  Zach (my cousin), Stacey and Stella live in Seattle and it has just never worked out that we were in Tucson at the same time as them.  It's ridiculous that we haven't met this little cousin of ours in over 2 years.  Zach's brother Alex lives in New Hampshire and has a little boy, Xander.  Xander is about 8 months older than Elliott.  Someday we'll get all 4 of them together. 

 

I wish my grandmother had been here to see this.  Three of her great grandbabies all together.

 

Elliott tried to throw himself off the couch, but Stacey was there to save the day.

 

It's not easy to get a 5 year old, 2 year old and almost 10 month old to simultaneously cooperate for a picture. 

We did try to take pictures with the moms too, but those were completely disastrous.  You can see half of Stacey here.

I made pumpkin muffins for everyone.  Elliott didn't get one since he hasn't had pumpkin or eggs yet.  Soon baby.  Soon.

 

Saturday afternoon was the shower (Part 2) and on Sunday I went to a coffee party at Jeannette's house (Part 3).  Those are coming soon because right now Michael and I are are going to watch the SEASON PREMIERE OF THE WALKING DEAD.

 

I will totally dream about zombies and be scared all night, but I am so excited.  When Season 2 ended last spring, October 14th seemed soooooooooooooooo far away.  But it is here!  Let the blood bath begin!

Fall Break, Sleeping and a Photobomber

Spencer was on fall break all of last week.  He has all of this week and part of next week off as well.  Lucky kid.  Papa drove up here yesterday and took him to Tucson for a little grandparent quality time.  We miss him, but life with 1 kid is pretty easy (especially because the remaining kid naps during the day and goes to bed earlier!). 

 

Michael and I have been enjoying having longer evenings together.  We have not been enjoying the extra packing we have been trying to do with those longer evenings.

 

Spencer and Papa went fishing today.  Spencer caught TWO catfish (catfishes?)

They are going fishing again tomorrow.  Spencer will be an expert fisherman by the time he comes home.

 

On Saturday night Michael and I were *trying* to watch a movie, but Elliott was waking up every 20 minutes.  He had finally reached the point where being swaddled bothered him more than it helped him.  I decided it was time to go cold turkey.  He hasn't been back in the swaddle since. Nightime is going better than nap time. 

 

You have to check this out:

 

He broke it tonight though.  He rolled over the second I put him down.  It must have been because his jammies snap instead of zip.

 

Speaking of those jammies. 

 

Michael's mom and I were at Target together in like 2005 or 2006.  We saw these duckie jammies. I said something about how cute they were and how I would buy cute clothes like that when we eventually had a baby.  She went back later and bought them and then hid them in her closet.  When we told everyone that I was pregnant with Spencer it took her about 4.8 seconds to retrieve them from her closet and give them to me. 

 

Spencer wore them for the first time when he was 7 months old. 

 

And now my second baby is wearing them.  I still think this outfit is just as cute as when I saw it at Target all those years ago.  This might be an outfit that I have to split when I get my baby clothes quilts made- part for Spencer's quilt and part for Elliott's quilt.

We had been out and about for a while tonight.  Ginger was very excited when we got home.  Normally she keeps her distance when Elliott is playing on the floor (well, except when I demand that she come over every few minutes so I can pet her and love on her) because he makes her nervous.

 

Tonight, though, she was all up in our business.  She thought we were on the floor to be closer to her.  She photobombed just about every picture I tried to take. 

 

 

You would think that this was just the continuation of her walking by from the above picture.  Nope.  It was her second loop around. 

 

This is why Elliott makes Ginger nervous.  He's known for the fur grabbing. 

 

 

This isn't even a photobomb.  She's just taken over the whole photo now. 

 

I have 4 hours left at work tomorrow (tomorrow is 10/11/12, by the way).  Then it's my Fall Break.  Yay.

Brothers- Fall 2012

A Brother is a special gift

Sent from God above

For us to cherish daily

And fill them up with love.

In the beauty of a brother

It's so plain and easy to see

Just how wonderful they make your life

And how they were meant to be.

Now what is it that makes a brother

It's quite difficult to say

Except he is the reason

Why your sun shines everyday.

 

**************

And, the rest:

 

 

(I found the poem through a google search.  An author was not given.)