Memorial Day Weekend

This is what we did over Memorial day weekend....

...with a lot of eating and fishing thrown in there as well.

A Conversation with Kale

This video is how Kale's conversations go...he has a whole lot to say without really saying anything at all. He does say about 10 distinct words/phrases. All di (all done), uh oh, hi-ya (think karate chop), hi, mommy, daddy, what's that, and I think Dane gets dropped sometimes too. I finally got him chatting away on video and wanted to share.

15 Months Old!

Kale had his 15 month checkup on Thursday, May 17th.  He got 2 shots and although he handled it like a tough guy, it is terrible when you have to hold your baby's arm down so he can get stuck with a needle. I went through our blog and tried to find Dane's 15 month stats so that we could compare the two, but I cannot find them! Not sure what happened to that blog post! Anyway, Kale continues to be tall and not quite as skinny as Dane always seemed to be! His stats were 25lbs, 8 oz (50-75th percentile) and his length was 33.25 inches (95-97th percentile). I never thought they looked alike, however Dane's teacher thinks they do. Almost everyone thinks that Dane is the spitting image of Cameron and Kale looks like me. My father-n-law thinks that Kale looks like Cameron did as a baby. So...here is a comparison of all of our pictures. I think that people see what they want to see, but now you can draw your own conclusions. We are all between 12 & 18 months old in the pictures. Dane is the first picture, Cameron is next, I am in the picture with Jeff (it's all I have) and Kale is last!

Taking NYC by storm....

At least that is how Cameron referred to my girls weekend in the big apple. I will say that we stayed out later than I have since I was in college and the times I went to Vegas. I paid for it on Saturday though...wasn't at all happy with myself for the lack of sleep and the un-lack of wine. Either way, it was a great time to catch up with my friends. Friday night we stayed in Brooklyn and went to a couple of Julee's haunts. On Saturday we were at a rooftop in Soho all afternoon because the weather was amazing. Saturday evening we went to a comedy club called Cafe Wha and it was fantastic. Sunday was a very low key day to recup...nice 4 mile walk around Brooklyn, a nice rooftop lunch and then hanging at Julee's with JB and the girls. 

 

A Letter to my boys...

...that I took from boston.com/writer Kara Baskin because I loved everything she wrote and it is how I feel exactly. I am just not able to write my feelings as eloquently as she did...so I "stole" it. Enjoy!

Here’s my wish list.

I hope I raise a child who says “thank you” to the bus driver when he gets off the bus, “please” to the waiter taking his order at the restaurant, and holds the elevator doors when someone’s rushing to get in.

I hope I raise a child who loses graciously and wins without bragging. I hope he learns that disappointments are fleeting and so are triumphs, and if he comes home at night to people who love him, neither one matter. Nobody is keeping score, except sometimes on Facebook.

I hope I raise a child who is kind to old people.

I hope I raise a child who realizes that life is unfair: Some people are born rich or gorgeous. Some people really are handed things that they don’t deserve. Some people luck into jobs or wealth that they don’t earn. Tough.

I hope I raise a child who gets what he wants just often enough to keep him optimistic but not enough to make him spoiled.

I hope I raise a child who knows that he’s loved and special but that he’s not the center of the universe and never, ever will be.

I hope I raise a child who will stick up for a kid who’s being bullied on the playground. I also hope I raise a child who, if he’s the one being bullied, fights back. Hard. Oh, and if he’s the bully? I hope he realizes that his mother, who once wore brown plastic glasses and read the phonebook on the school bus, will cause him more pain than a bully ever could.

I hope I raise a child who relishes life’s tiny pleasures—whether it’s a piece of music, or the color of a gorgeous flower, or Chinese takeout on a rainy Sunday night.

I hope I raise a child who is open-minded and curious about the world without being reckless.

I hope I raise a child who doesn’t need to affirm his self-worth through bigotry, snobbery, materialism, or violence.

I hope I raise a child who likes to read.

I hope I raise a child who is courageous when sick and grateful when healthy.

I hope I raise a child who begins and ends all relationships straightforwardly and honorably.

I hope I raise a child who can spot superficiality and artifice from a mile away and spends his time with people and things that feel authentic to him.

I hope I raise a child who makes quality friends and keeps them.

I hope I raise a child who realizes that his parents are flawed but loves them anyway.

And I hope that if my child turns out to be a colossal screw-up, I take it in stride. I hope I remember that he’s his own person, and there’s only so much I can do. He is not an appendage to be dangled from my breasts on the cover of a magazine, his success is not my ego’s accessory, and I am not Super Mom.

SUMA time (almost)

It is almost summer time...Dane cannot wait and Kale is just happy being outside, running away from us over and over and over again. As soon as we hit the yard, Kale and Dane go in two completely separate directions. Thankfully, Dane does pretty well on his own and knows his boundaries because most of my time outside is spent chasing Kale down and bringing him back to our yard...much to his extreme disappointment. We have had a couple days that were almost hot and our little water bugs insisted on sprinkler or pool both times. The pool day ended up turning into a block party....

Long Overdue Update

This post will likely be very scattered with no thought process because that is how my life has been this week! We got socked with the stomach flu again...Dane got it last Friday while I was supposed to be working at the garage sale we had with a friend at her house. I got it on Monday morning and (of course) Cameron left that morning before I got sick to head out to Denver for the week. Thankfully my mother-n-law is retired and lives close by so she came to help me out....good thing because I absolutely would have puked on our boys if i had to take care of them that day. I crawled out of bed at 6pm so I could help put them to bed and I got a text at 11:30 that night from Cameron....he was out with clients in Denver and had to rush off to the bathroom to puke...so it did hit all of us (I think Kale had it earlier last week but not as bad as the rest of us). Then our real estate agent had an open house for us on Tuesday and guess what?!? She got it too!!

 A few months ago I was planning a girls weekend with the ladies I went to Sonoma with last May....this time we're heading to the big apple. We booked the flights and hotel without even realizing we were booking it for Mother's day weekend. So. Upset. The weekend has turned into a debacle....
1. Cameron has been gone all week returning late tonight and I leave tomorrow - bad timing.
2. Mother's day is on Sunday and I don't get back til Monday - bad timing. I HATE to miss spending my special day with my boys but luckily they are young and won't remember and I can assure that it will never happen again.
3. One of the girls I am going with messed up booking her flights so she isn't on my flight out of Chicago on Friday and she will be coming back to Chicago on Sunday instead of Monday.
All in all, I am not sure this trip was really meant to happen. The stars didn't align as easily this time as they did last year but it is happening. I know it will be a great time but leading up to it has been less than stellar (stomach flu, Cameron gone, flight mishaps, etc.).

 One quick funny story that I don't want to forget. Ever. Last week on that really hot 80 degree day, Dane wanted to play in the sprinkler. We were already playing outside and I just let him stay in his shorts and tee shirt to run through the sprinkler. About halfway through our sprinkler extravaganza, Dane whips his shorts and underwear down around his ankles and tells me he wants his swimsuit on. After explaining to him that he cannot just drop trow in the middle of the neighborhood, I left him in the garage to run upstairs to get his swim trunks. I did tell him to stay in the garage however when I came back down with his swim trunks in hand, he was back in the front yard streaking through the sprinkler. No Pants. No Underwear. Thankfully he's only 3 and hopefully no one noticed the little exhibitionist running through our yard.

 So....with all that being said, we are good. The boys are hilarious and the absolute funniest things come out of Dane's mouth. I really wish I could catch one of Kale's "conversations" on video...he chatters and chatters without really saying anything. Hopefully soon. Here is a little video of Kale doing what a 15 month old does.....and a couple pictures of Dane.

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