Charlie and Nate

Last week was full of excitement and Nate's party was the tail end of it. On Wednesday Nate and I went to Brooklyn to stay with my brother and his wife to babysit for their 5 1/2 month old son Charlie. My parents were still on vacation and Charlie's day care was closed so I offered my help since I planned to take Thursday and Friday off to prepare for Nate's party.

Things went much better than I had hoped. Nate was helpful and was very good at keeping himself occupied while I tended to Charlie's needs. Nate can be very jealous of Charlie so he gets in his face a little too much and hugs him a little too tightly. I'm trying to work with him on that...and his constant whining that he NEEDS me. I was very excited that Charlie was really good for me for both days. I'm a planner and I like a schedule so I fed him every four hours and that gave us enough time for diaper changes, naps and play time before he would get fussy again and be looking for another bottle. We were able to go to the park by my brother's apartment on Thursday and Friday we ran some errands on the way back to my house and Charlie was an angel. It was nice to get some quality time with the little guy and I was happy to help out my brother. I also realized what it would be like to have 2 kids and I am not ready for another right now. I took a lot of pictures so here they are...

 Charlie is a really happy baby

 Nate NEVER held his bottle...his didn't have cool handles

 First Nap of the Day

 Nate loves a good swing

 So Does Charlie!

 Nate opted for the baby swing since I could

push them both at the same time

 Somebody woke up happy!

 Freaking Adorable!

 Fun in the afternoon :)

 Last Ride in the Swing

 Nate helped with Bath Time

 Jammie Time

 Somebody got sleepy again

 Love wanted to know how it was going so I sent him this

 We had a crazy storm Thursday night

 Back at my house on Friday hangin' on the couch

 We took a quick trip to 7-11 and Charlie passed out in the car

 He started fussing so I broke out the Bjorn so I could get some stuff cleaned...he loved it and we even watched The Newsroom while walking around the livingroom so I got a little exercise :)
and yes I would always look this bad if I had 2 kids :(

 Somebody has a tooth coming in!

 I loved how Charlie kept grabbing on to Nate while they watched Mickey Mouse on the iPad together.

oh no! Charlie left his favorite toys behind :(

Pirate Party!!!

Saturday was Nate’s 4^th Birthday party and I was all excited and super prepared…until it started pouring at 10am. What a way to start the day. We rushed home from swim lessons (Nate is swimming all by himself with just a noodle yay!) and I started running all over the house trying to figure out what needed to be done to move the party inside since I had planned another backyard celebration. Love started putting up the canopy on the deck and I began moving everything in the kitchen so I could squeeze in another table. I was so upset because I had big plans for all the decorations and the kids were going to have a great time outside running around with their inflatable swords…and then my dream was crushed…did I mention that Nate could have cared less?

After some deep breaths I got everything cleaned up and set up and it actually looked pretty cute…until the little pirates arrived! They had a lot of fun and I kept cleaning up just to have them throw everything on the floor again. I know I am OCD about cleaning up, but I honestly was afraid one of them was going to slip and fall on a fake gold coin or beaded necklace and get hurt. At one point one of the moms asked her son to clean up and the kid shoved everything under Nate’s bed and inside his closet and took the door off the tracks. I secretly wonder if that’s what he does at home lol. I already knew I was going to be going through all of the toys yesterday and reorganizing so I didn’t care where they put stuff as long as it was off the rugs.

Nate got some really great presents and he insisted on going to Toys R Us yesterday to use his gift certificates. Last night I went through his room and then the living room (I have another toy organizer in there) and bagged up a lot of stuff he doesn’t use anymore and brought it to the basement. Now all of his new toys have plenty of room and I feel better that it is organized once again. I’m glad that the party is over and that he had a great time. I need to get more pictures from other people because I hardly have any. Of course I meant to get more nice pictures but it never happens…especially when you have over 30 people jammed into your house…have I mentioned how small my house is?  

 Nate was really excited about the cake

 Sam's Club 1/2 Sheet Cake & Cupcake Combo...I added the pirate flags

 I decorated the table with lots of loot

 There would have been 3 tables if it didn't rain :(

 The kitchen looked cute :)

 The train table was perfect for the rest of the loot

 The rain let up enough for some outside time

 Paige and Nate

 He was shy about blowing out his candles

 So I helped him out :)

 Some of the boys helping open the presents

It got a little crazy

 I needed at least one cute picture of us...but where was Love?!?!

 Decorating treasure maps

 Frankie loves his big sister

 Leigha and Nate playing with his new Bucky pirate ship

 These two are so cute

 Cousins :)

 Charlie was the littlest pirate!

Finally enjoying some time with Love

Believe it or not I took this during my freakout about the weather

Where’s MY Vacation?!?!

This summer has become a complete nightmare. I am feeling so stressed out every day and I don’t even have a vacation to look forward to. My parents left yesterday for a 9 day Caribbean cruise and I should have stowed away in their luggage. The next month and a half are such a scheduling nightmare I dare you to even keep this straight…

First off, Nate goes to summer camp at his school Monday through Friday from 8am to 1pm. Normally my mother picks him up and takes him to my house or her house depending on the day and I arrive home at 6pm. Love’s schedule has been working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and every other Wednesday 7am to 7pm so he was able to pick Nate up Thursday’s and Friday’s and every other Wednesday. On Monday he starts a new job (at my place of employment – we’ll be co-workers!) and will now work Monday through Friday, 7am to 3pm for the rest of the summer.

As if that is not confusing enough we then add in my parent’s vacations. My mother works at a middle school so she is off all summer. My father usually take off 2 weeks in July and another 2 in August to go to their vacation house on Prince Edward Island in Canada (they love islands apparently since both of their homes are on one lol). August 5^th is their 40^th wedding anniversary so they decided to take the cruise this month to celebrate and next month they will still go to Canada. Normally I would take off a couple of days, Love’s parents would come for 3 and Love would take off one week to cover July. Nate’s school closes the last week of August so that is when I take a week off and the week before Love would take a couple of days and his parents would help out again.

Who wouldn't want to spend 2 days with these cuties?

Are you still with me? This year the schedule is completely different. My parent’s left yesterday for the cruise and Love was off so that worked out. Today is his last day at his current job so his parent’s are driving almost 4 hours to pick Nate up at school and spend the night. They will head home Saturday and come back Monday to pick Nate up again and will stay through Wednesday. Wednesday night Nate and I will head to Brooklyn to babysit for my nephew since his daycare is closed for 2 weeks and my brother and his wife need some help (and I love spending time with Charlie). We will head back to Long Island Friday morning with Little Mr. Charlie in tow so I can get some things done for Nate’s party (wishful thinking with a 5-month old I know) and my brother will pick him up Friday night. My in-laws will return Saturday for Nate’s party (I am so glad they are retired and don’t mind driving because I feel terrible about it).

As for August I thought we had that covered until my dad’s job told him he couldn’t have the last 2 weeks of August off. My parents will now go to Canada the middle 2 weeks. Here is the problem…Love cannot take any time off in August because he will have just started a new job. I cannot take off the second week in August because I have an event at work. I will take the third week off and the last week of August when Nate’s school is closed my mother will have to watch Nate from 8am until 4pm. Of course she is not happy about that because she goes back to work the following week. I had to gently remind her that it was HER vacation that was causing all of this chaos so she really had no right to complain.

Basically since I had Nate we have not had a week long family vacation because of my parent’s vacation schedule. I don’t begrudge them their time away because they deserve it. I also can’t complain because my mother has been watching Nate since he was 11 weeks old and it has saved us a lot of money. I just miss having a summer where we can spend time as a family. Nate and I will have fun during my time off but it’s not the same. I will keep reminding myself that it could be worse and MAYBE next year we can get away even if it’s only a few days. Maybe…

Birthday Festivities

We celebrated my Dad’s 62^nd birthday this week which means Nate’s 4^th birthday is right around the corner! He’s super excited to not be 3 anymore because 4-year olds apparently think 3-year olds are still babies. I guess he could pick up worse things at pre-school. I’m sure I have mentioned it before, but we are going all out for a Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme this year. He is super excited and luckily it was pretty easy to find pirate stuff since they are so popular these days. He is especially excited about the goody bags which will contain a Jake reusable cup, Jake tattoos and stickers, a pirate pencil, eye patch (in red, blue and pink!), gold coins, compass and skull whistle. Each kid will also get a foam sword and I will have inflatable swords for them to play with at the party. I’m counting down the days!

I’m excited about decorating too because I ordered a treasure chest inflatable cooler for the kid’s Capri Suns, rubber duckies dressed as pirates for the tables and of course cold coins to throw all over the Jake tablecloths. I hope it’s not too hot because Long Island has been experiencing a heat wave for what feels like weeks now. Half of my yard is shady but Nate has a big wheel, wagon, tricycle, scooter, push car and ride on motorized trike and they will all be in the yard for the kids to use. I thought about putting his pool out but I think it just gets messy and is a bad idea for an afternoon party. The kids will have to make do with the swing set and balls.

I think Love should wear this for the party ;)

I had quite a quandary over what to get him this year since I doled out what few Jake toys they sell to friends and family so I ended up getting him a pirate ship…a GIANT one. I found it online and when I first saw it in Toys R Us I could not believe how BIG the box is. It just barely fit in the back of my car. I hope he craps himself when he opens it J Of course the response I expect is that he wanted another Jake pirate ship and not this one but too bad. I’ll be happy to play with the treasure chests and pirates and the big skull that it comes with. I think it will be fun to have 3 big pirate ships so we can play as a family and not fight over one ship…yes, I know we only have one kid but there are 2 other big kids living in our house!

The other present he is getting is a joint gift since I refused to spend the money on it. He has no idea yet but he is getting a red Power Wheels mustang (arriving any day now!) that my in-laws were nice enough to go in on with us. He has been asking for one for a while but it never seemed like a good idea but now I think he will love it. Can’t wait to see his little face!

Towels for Kids

I bet I REALLY drew you in with that title huh? My friend just called to let me know that she was reading my blog and laughing and I thought, “Blog, what blog?!?! Oh yeah, I have a blog!” Welcome to summer brain! There is so much to catch up on so I won’t even bother right now. Instead I am going to be a mom and give a little tip to my mommy following (I do have a mommy following right?). Well even if I don’t here goes…

When you have a baby shower you receive hooded towels which are wonderful for small babies. It keeps them warm and cozy while drying them at the same time. Babies hate to be cold so they are perfect. Once your kid starts crawling he has probably outgrown the infant hooded towels and can move on to toddler hooded towels which are usually animals or their favorite cartoon characters. Around Nate’s second birthday I realized that he was now too tall for the toddler hooded towels and wondered what to do.

Don’t get me wrong, he could have used the same towels that Love and I use but kids want fun washcloths and towels. I realized that I had a lot of beach towels that would make perfect bath towels and voila – problem solved! They are the perfect size, not too thick and come in every pattern and character you can imagine. They also normally sit in a drawer or closet for 9 months of the year. The kicker is that beach towels are usually around $10 which is cheaper than the toddler towels he outgrew so quickly. So ladies, take my advice, save some money and make those kids happy!

Summer Sickness

Last weekend was the beginning of the end for me and I had an ominous feeling going in. Friday was a long day at work...which ended in Montauk at 8pm...meaning I didn't get home until 10pm. I would have loved to sleep in on Saturday but Nate and I started parent and child swim lessons at 9:30am (Yay! I'm such a great mom! Pretend not to be falling asleep while waiting for class to begin!). Luckily class is only a half hour and Nate was SO good and did SO well! Several hours later we headed to my parents to see my great-aunt (who also happens to be my god-mother) and great-uncle and my brother and his family.

Nate is all about his cousin Charlie lately but he has major jealousy issues with him. Being the only grandchild on my side is suddenly posing some problems. Nate has had free reign of my parents for just under 4 years so he feels like everything there is his...even if it's actually mine (hmmmmm I wonder where he gets it from?) Our day ended at a friend's annual 4th of July party. I was really hoping that Nate would be into the fireworks this year since I missed them the last 2 years but no such luck. Instead he was screaming, "I want to go inside!" so we left the party early. Maybe next year will finally be our year.

Sunday was mostly a day of rest while Love worked. Monday was a crappy day and I got a lot done but it was stressful and I was distracted all day. Nate and I had dinner at my parents and then headed across the street for a play date for Nate and me! We went swimming with my friend Wendy and her son and it was so nice. It made me wish I lived with my parents so I could do it more often. Wendy and I made a pact to do it once a week and I plan on sticking to that. Tuesday at work was hell and I just wanted the day to end since I had Wednesday off. The bright spot in my day was free lunch and leftovers for dinner (no cooking!). It's the little things sometimes.

Wednesday was going to be a fun day with Nate and instead turned into day 1 of my sickness. I woke up with a sore throat and headache and my nugget let me sleep until 11am when he couldn't wait to eat anymore. I felt so sad that he let me sleep but I was grateful. We ate breakfast and we went out to go in his pool. Before Love got home I cooked dinner and I went downhill quickly. Thursday morning was awful but I really thought I could make it to work. After dropping Nate at school I realized it wasn't happening. The doctor gave me an antibiotic and told me to rest so I headed home to bed again. The timing couldn't have sucked worse because I was on a deadline for work that got blown to shit. Monday is another day. I'm no good at being sick so I'm glad I'm feeling better tonight. I hate missing work and it's impossible for me to ignore my messy house. The worst is not being able to hug and kiss my little nugget. It feels weird that it's the weekend again but I'll take it.

Days off to De-Stress

Well that was the plan anyway but things in my life rarely go according to plan so there wasn't much relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful 5 days off but I really would have loved one day to sleep in and do nothing. If only I could have imagined how shitty work would be this week (no time to blog because I'm back to running!). Here's the breakdown by day and I'll add photos later. I haven't mastered blogging via iPad yet.

Wednesday
Nate's moving up ceremony was one reason I decided to take a mini-break. We had to sit in ridiculously tiny chairs made for pre-schoolers so thankfully it was just a quick speech by his teacher and then the kids sang the bumblebee song. They were adorable. Nate didn't want to wear his hat and didn't want me to take his picture. He did however want his presents and lunch at Friendly's. I can't believe my baby is starting pre-k in September. We came home and took a long family nap which felt great.

Thursday
After dropping Nate at school we headed to Home Depot for mulch. My gardens really needed some mulch for both appearance and to keep the weeds out and water in. Overnight it got very hot (did I neglect to mention that this vacation fell during the first heat wave of the summer?) so I was trying to rush so I could get it done quick. Love went to look for something so I grabbed some bricks to finish one garden and headed toward the mulch. After a few minutes in the blazing sun I decided that it was too hot to wait around. One at a time I loaded 6 large bags of stinky mulch onto the flatbed cart. I paid and went to the car. Two guys asked if they could help load the car and I told them my husband was right behind me. As soon as they drove away and I began loading the bags in. Those suckers were heavy but I did it. I was in the yard for 2 hours and I don't think I have ever been so hot. Sweat dripped off my face, I had swamp ass and I got sunburn after 10 minutes. A shower never felt so good. After relaxing for an hour we picked Nate up and took him to the aquarium. Nate ran around loving every minute. It wasn't crowded at all and it was nice and cool...until we got to the butterflies and birds. That was rough. We went outside to visit the snow monkey and as soon as we got there Nate started yelling that he was too hot so we rushed back inside. He runs hot like his daddy and he cannot handle the heat. His whole face turns red and he looks terrible. He took a good nap on the way home.

Friday
I still can't believe that Love and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary on Friday. We were married on a beautiful June day. It was perfect and we had such a great time. We celebrated a little differently than I imagined when we got married but we had fun. We went to breakfast at a tiny little local joint that is super cheap. It reminded us both of a place Love's parents used to take us called The Place. It's a throwback to another time which is a nice way to say the don't have air conditioning. It was so hot so we ate and hit the road. We did a little shopping and picked up Nate early. I had decided we should see a movie so we could be out of the house and also out of the heat. We saw Madagascar 3 and it was cute. Again, not how I imagined this day would go. On a side note, I buy cards for everything. I learned it from my mom and have always felt it is an easy way to tell people how you feel. Have I mentioned how stressful my job is in addition to Love's new schedule and Nate's new attitude? I realized how bad it really is the night before when in a panic I realized I never bought Love a card!!!!! The cherry on top was Love buying me TWO cards!!!!!! Worst...Wife...EVER.

Saturday
Our unofficial lazy day. Nate wanted to play on the computer which gave me the freedom to watch 2 movies while doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen. It was a reminder of what life was like before Nate was born. Weird. I dragged Nate outside in the afternoon to blow up his pool and sprinkler. Then it was 2 hours of playing in the water and cleaning up the yard.

Sunday
Nate and I joined a friend (and his girlfriend and her daughter) on a trip to Brooklyn to visit my brother and his family. We went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and it was a great afternoon. It made me realize how much I miss my brother. Good thing it's the summer so I'll have more time with him. On the ride home I realized my vacation was over and it was back to work in the morning. I was so happy to come home to Love and get some rest. If I knew what I was walking into Monday morning I would have opened a bottle of wine and savored my last night. Oh well. I'll have to remember that for next time.

Birthday Weekend!

Sunday was my birthday and I am embracing turning 35. Up until now I have viewed it as the mile marker in my life when my fertility goes down the toilet – more than it already was. My mother has been putting the pressure on for me to have a baby but I am just not ready. 35 is just a number and if we have trouble conceiving a second kid then maybe Nate was meant to be an only child. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Saturday we had the family over for a barbecue and the weather was perfect. I actually got to sit outside and enjoy my yard instead of cleaning it up for once. I am going to make an effort to do that again this weekend. On Sunday Love had to work so Nate and I were left on our own to celebrate my day of birth. We lounged around in the morning and I had chocolate cake for breakfast. Once I got a little energy I decided it was time to go to the beach. We went to a very small local beach because I knew we wouldn’t stay too long. We were one of 3 cars in the parking lot so it was perfect. An hour later when people began to arrive we left and went to Target…where I forgot the one thing I went there for. Another sign of being a year older. If it’s not on my list I forget it.

When we got home I put Nate down for a nap and headed outside to plant my birthday lily from my parents and put new bricks around my mailbox garden. Nate woke up just as I finished so we headed inside for showers and dinner. It felt so good to lay on the couch after dinner with my magazine. I could have fallen asleep but I was patiently awaiting Len’s arrival from work. I ended my day watching True Blood while drinking sangria. A great end to a pretty good day. Now on to a 5 day weekend! That’s a vacation in my book!

As usual there are no pictures of me from MY birthday weekend because no one took any. Maybe next year. At least I got some cute pics of Nate because we can never have too many of those.

Summer Stress

I feel like a broken record when I lament over how terrible the summer is for me. It is only June 14^th and I am ready to have a breakdown. I had to work Saturday at a dog walk (don’t even ask) which pretty much ruined my weekend because it is the only day of the week that Love and I have together. I had to call in Monday because Nate was burning up so I took him to the doctor and he has an ear infection. I had a huge issue at work Tuesday which I did not need on top of all of the crap I had to deal with from Monday. One day out of the office is a total disaster for me and I am scheduled to be off for 3 days next week. I don’t know how I am going to be able to get everything done when I get back. I’m ready to cry just thinking about it and it’s a week away. Ugh.

My “To Do” list gets longer and longer and I am drowning. My biggest problem is other people not doing their jobs. If you have ever worked at a large business (we have over 1,000 employees) you have probably had to deal with people in other departments (we only have 7 full time employees in ours) and outside vendors and that that is usually where my stress originates. I have been doing this job for a long time and I think I do a pretty good job. I am organized and am good with deadlines and I can also handle whatever is thrown at me on any given day…until June arrives. Then I lose my fucking mind.

I pride myself on being a multi-tasker. Even at home if you watch me clean you will see me go back and forth room to room for hours until everything is done. I have ADD when it comes to that. I start cleaning my room and go to the kitchen for something and get distracted and start cleaning something in there. Then I remember my room and head back and take something from my room to Nate’s and get distracted again. You get the point. At work I have lists and notes everywhere because someone will ask me for something and if I don’t write it down or do it immediately I have lost it forever.  It drives me crazy and makes me feel very off but that is usually how my entire summer goes. Every year I vow to be even more organized and get things done more efficiently and it never happens.

Sometimes I think the problem stems from the amount of time I’ve worked here. Whenever there is an issue in the office everyone comes to me. “Do you remember such and such?” “Did so and so donate a whos-ima-wachit?” As someone’s assistant I also hear lots of, “When you get a minute” (holy shit no kidding – it just happened!) from my boss. I spend lots of minutes handling lots of things that sprout up and screw up my plan for the day. I usually start the day with good intentions of going through my emails and then moving on to my “pile”. I keep a neat stack of things that I need to get done each day on the side of my desk. A good day means I have gotten to the bottom of that pile. A bad day is when I have added more shit to the pile. Today is an okay day. I am really hoping tomorrow will be a great day…positive thoughts…

Yesterday I had piles everywhere :(

Jesus Walks

This week has been another rough one. Last weekend was a 3-day weekend for me but it flew by between the boys coming home Friday, my 5K on Saturday and my brother and his family visiting. I won’t even get into how many hours I spent outside doing yard work and how many loads of laundry got dragged up and down the basement stairs. By Monday I was exhausted and the rest of the week has been more of the same. The one exciting thing this week was getting Nate signed up for swimming lessons. I think it’ll be fun for us to take a class together. Of course it could be a disaster so check back with me next month.

Last week while Aimee was driving us to work she pointed out a man walking down the street carrying what appeared to be a very large wooden cross. We had been wondering why there was so much traffic and sure enough as soon as we passed him it was smooth sailing. I wish I had fished my phone out of my purse to take a picture because it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. The cross was as big as the man and it looked heavy although he carried it with relative ease. Aimee and I are sarcastic bitches so of course we started making jokes. I wondered if it would be easier to carry if his hands were nailed to it (I’m going to Hell already so may as well enjoy it while I can). Aimee tried to think of some religious holiday that he might be doing it for. The local church just up the road had just been named a Basilica so I thought that maybe he had made the cross for the church and his car had broken down so he had to carry it. He was dressed oddly (almost monk-like Aimee noted) so we were very perplexed.

We had a lot of questions that will never be answered:

How does he go to the bathroom?

When/where does he eat?

Where does he sleep?

Isn’t he tired?

Does he take breaks?

Did he train with smaller pieces of wood?

We got to work and of course no one believed us when we told them we saw Jesus on

Hill Street

. As we left work one of our co-workers drove past and told us that they were talking about Jesus on the radio. Turns out this man was dressed as Jesus, carrying a cross and he was walking all the way to Montauk…from Brooklyn! He wants to draw “attention to Jesus because everyone needs him”. The most interesting part is that he is a former male prostitute. Repentance anyone? I’m not religious so I don’t understand his need to do this, but good for him for doing something that he believes in. I think we could all be better people if we focused on something in our lives and gave it our all. Just don’t ask me to carry anything heavy.

The more casual side of "Jesus"



BTW the title of this post is also one of my favorite Kanye West songs.