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…