Le weekend

My weekend started off with the sad news that Stephie's (one of my BFFs) dad passed away of cancer. He had been battling it for quite awhile and is now at peace and pain-free. His memorial is tomorrow evening, and Brooke, Laura, Kristin, and I are going to go to Rochester after cutting out of work early to be with Stephie.

On Saturday, Kevin, Colin, and I met up with Tony, Leah, and Isaac at Lookout Ridge in Woodbury. It's an indoor playground. Leah summed it up pretty well in her blog post and included some great pictures of our adventure, so I'm going to let her take it from here. Read it. Please excuse Colin's pouty face (he really did have fun) and my husband's appearance. While we were in the car on our way, I noticed he had awful hat hair and he was wearing his work sweatshirt. I pointed it out to him and he all of a sudden he realized it too. He got all embarrassed and, I believe, was thisclose to turning around and changing.

On Sunday I met up with Brooke, Laura, Kristin and Stephie at IKEA for some lunch and shopping. Then we hopped over to the Mall of America. It was fun to hang out with more friends!

On Monday (which I realize isn't technically the weekend), I ran for the first time outside this season. I decided to make it easy and run to the grocery store and back. It's about 2 miles round trip. I walked the first .25 miles (5 minutes), and got back home in 19:09 minutes. I'm not sure how that calculates into min/mile, but it's around 9 or 9:30, which I'm happy with! It was so good to be outside running. No more excuses about not being able to go out. It can only get warmer from here!

Snow Day

It's inevitable. Every March, the snow starts melting and you think spring is right around the corner. Then BAM! Another snowstorm just to bamboozle you right out of your spring jacket. And so it was.

School was canceled today, so Colin and I stayed home. We didn't do much. We played inside and outside. Colin wanted to stalk the plow around the neighborhood in his car stroller thing, but I didn't allow it. I spent a few minutes here and there designing his birthday invitations. I will reveal them once they are distributed in the mail. All I can say is I love them and thank you to Leah for her expertise in deleting backgrounds from pictures and her general designing knowledge :)

After lunch and nap, we played some more. Then we went to Walmart to pick up the invitations, which got tossed at the store because the writing on the top got cut off at printing. Back to the drawing board on that one.

After Walmart, we went to the bank where I deposited a good amount of piano lesson money into our Explorer loan account. I hope on all my hopes that I can continue to use piano lesson money towards the Explorer for the next two months and squeak a few extra hundred dollars in before summer comes along and I don't have students anymore. Being that there's only two months left, it won't be much, but every little bit helps! I just wish I would have thought of doing this sooner. I guess I did, but just didn't commit to it.

Kevin was home when we got home from the bank, so I tweaked the invite and ordered it again. I haven't gotten them yet because Walmart's photo department is closed for the night, but I'm super anxious to see them!

Although it was uber productive, I hate snow days this time of year. I want warm and sunshiney days. Enough of winter.

Developing Memory

This week, I taught Colin how to do the Chicken Dance. I know, I hate that damn song/dance too, but it's so fun for little kids. He loves to do the dance. Today we were at the park and Colin and I were up on the playground equipment. Rocket climbed up onto the equipment too, and he didn't want to go through the tunnel to get to us, so I told Colin that Rocket was being a chicken. So what does Colin do? The chicken dance, of course!

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We checked out 3 books at the library on Tuesday. Two of them are Curious George and the other is a lift-the-flap book about opposites. We have read them at least once a day since Tuesday, and today Colin opened up the Opposites book and started reciting the opposites: clean/dirty, sad/happy, wet/dry, hot/cold, upside down (but not right side up). It was one of those moments where I had to call Kevin to quickly come see.

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Yesterday before we left to pick up our pottery, I told Colin that we were going to pick up the painting he made. Then he started to "tell" me that he had paint on his hand and he put it on the plate.


It just amazes me that all of a sudden, he remembers events that happened days ago. I love to watch him learn and recall what we do, see, and read.

Spring Break Day 5

At 2:20 a.m., Kevin I awoke to Colin saying, "Mama potty." I wearily asked Kevin, "Was that potty or puppy?" (sometimes they sound the same). Kevin said he thought it was potty. We jumped out of bed and I asked Colin if he wanted his puppy. He said, "potty." Away we hurried to the potty, with Colin's teddy bear's head in a choke hold under his armpit. He went potty, we re-diapered him and we put him back to bed. As we climbed back in to our own bed, I said to Kevin, "That was interesting." Mystifying, amazing, all of that.

This morning we went to the pool to swim. Mr. and Mrs. L. said we could use one of their guest passes so we could get in for free. We took swimming lessons last summer, but he was so much more comfortable swimming this time. There weren't many people there aside from a few lap swimmers and a water aerobics class. He liked to pretend he was a fish, and he did a great job of kicking his legs. He really liked just being dragged around the pool and watching people and enjoying the water moving around him most.

Swimming wore him out because he slept for about 2 and a half hours, and then he woke up and slept on my lap for another half hour.

This afternoon we picked up our pottery that we painted on Saturday. Here's the plate I made for Colin to use on his birthdays. The cupcakes are his hand prints (minus the thumb):
And here's Colin's first pottery masterpiece:
Still not sure what I'm going to do with it. I'd like to display it somewhere, somehow.

After picking up the pottery, and Colin and I stopped at Once Upon a Child. I hadn't been in one, so I wanted to see what kind of bargains were there (nothing good enough to buy, although I did consider a pair of rain boots). Then we went to the fabric store. Colin was doing just fine there until he saw a cart and he wanted to push it. The store was not busy at all, so I let him push the cart. Then he ran into a shelf and knocked it down. In an effort to not wreak havoc on the entire store, I said he had to sit in the cart and I put him in it. Enter tantrum. I pushed the cart back to it's spot and we left. On our way out, I told the employees that it was our first store tantrum and there's nobody even there to see it. Disappointing.

This evening after supper we went for a walk. Colin directed us to the school's park, so he went down a few slides.

Two more weekend days and my awesome week will be over. Would it be pathetic if I started counting down to summer now? 11 more weeks (with some days off due to Memorial Day and Easter). Seems so long, but knowing I only have 11 more weeks to make a difference in my students' lives seems like a heavy burden to bear.

Spring Break Day 4

We started off the day with a wet bed. The undies were no match for him. Good thing it was 6:10 and he was ready to be awake anyway.

Kent Hrbek made an appearance at our grocery store to promote the upcoming Twins season, and was all about going. I grabbed a new baseball at the entrance to the store and we stood in line. Kent was parked by the steaks, and we were standing by the Caribou. The lady who came to stand before us had the gall to ask me, "Are you even old enough to remember the ('87 & '91) World Series?" I quickly came back with, "Yes I am!" (The NERVE right?) I wanted to tell her that I may have been young, but I remember Kent Hrbek's 1st base play and Kirby Puckett's home run like it was yesterday, but she started talking about how she and her husband went to Atlanta after the '91 series and the people there were making excuses for not winning. Whatevs, Lady. Luckily the line moved quickly, and Colin was Mr. Content checking out all the baked goods in the bakery along the way. Knowing that our neighbor, Mr. L., is a big baseball fan, I told him about Kent so we saw him there as well. Colin was more starstruck to see him there than Kent. Obviously. We got the baseball signed and came home.

We played outside a lot because it was the nicest day of the week. A lot of snow was melting, which makes me so happy. I love seeing the grass, even though it's pretty nasty.
Being St. Patrick's Day, our town has a parade. There are a lot of full-blooded Irish families here, so I guess it's a big deal. We're not Irish that we know of, but that doesn't stop us from taking part in the festivities! Colin and I walked to the parade. When we got there, it hadn't started yet, and he didn't really want to be there. But then he saw tractors and horses lined up at the beginning and that peeked his interest enough to stay. He loved to look down the road to see what was coming next and tell me about it.
And the candy! he was excited about that too.
Colin chose to wear diapers to bed, which made me much more at ease about night time (read Day 5 to see how that all panned out).

Spring Break Day 3

This morning Colin and I hit the store bright and early to buy some cookie ingredients. I gave Colin a quarter, and he decided he wanted to buy a banana with it, so that he did. He gave the cashier his banana and his quarter like a pro. Then we came home and played outside for awhile. We saw the neighbors again and chatted. We got a ride in Mr. L's golf cart, just a half a block away and back.

After lunch Colin took another decent nap while I baked chocolate chip cookies. It was Kevin's mom's birthday today so I made her a largish chocolate chip cookie. It was the perfect size to fill a paper plate. I practiced my decorating skillz and wrote happy birthday on it.
Once Colin was awake, we went to Kevin's parents' house to hang out with the birthday girl. Colin got to ride on the snowmobile. He loved that, no doubt about it! Every time Kevin's dad would make a circle around the yard and stop up by the house again, Colin would ask for more. He probably rode around for a half hour or so. The boy loves things he can ride on.

We got home around supper time, hung out, and then it was bed time. Colin has been on a night time bath strike (we can get him to take a bath in the mornings, which isn't always convenient!), so we moved on to getting his pajamas on. He was goofing around and not listening, so I started giving him choices as I undressed him (socks off first or shirt off first?). He was not having any of it, and was throwing a huge tantrum. Finally I got him to calm down and he was in a good mood again, but would not get his pajamas on. I don't know who or what possessed me to ask him if he'd rather wear undies or a diaper, but I did. And he chose undies. And then I couldn't take it back. He hasn't been waking up dry recently. Nevertheless, he went potty one more time, I prepped his bed (sheet saver on top, a flat changing pad under his sheet, and the pre-existing mattress cover), and bribed him because that's what good moms do. I told him if he kept his undies dry all night long, we could get him some Curious George pajamas that we saw at Target. Night time potty runs will be a lot easier if we have some 2-piece pajamas. So....here's hoping!!!!!!!!! The worst case scenario is I end up changing sheets and pajamas and putting on a diaper in the middle of the night, right? Good thing it's spring break and I can sleep in a little if I need to!

Spring Break Days 1 & 2

Monday
Bright and early in the morning, I started making some apple coffee cake. After a taste-test, I packaged a few pieces of cake up and Colin and I went next door to our neighbor's house. They're an older couple and adore Colin, so I thought it would be nice of us to stop by with a food offering. Colin loves to see them as much as they love to see him, so it was fun to visit. Colin and I headed across the border to stock up on some Curious George party gear. We got some plates, napkins, and cups with the curious monkey on them. The party store is next to Target, so of course we stopped in. I want to find a Curious George shirt. There were no George shirts to be found. I walked out of Target empty-handed (sacrilege, I know). When we got home, we had lunch, Colin took a nap, and then in the afternoon we played outside for awhile.

Tuesday
This morning, we went to the car dealership to have something fixed on the Explorer. Something with the speed control had been recalled, so we got that remedied. While we were waiting, Colin checked out a Mustang and I checked out the new Escape (those were the days...). We left there and got a car wash, then we went to the library for story time.

I wasn't sure how Colin would do at story time because he tends to be shy. Sandy does circle time every morning, so he gets a taste of sitting in a circle and singing songs and doing activities. Well, there are no stories at story time. It's songs and nursery rhymes and movements with noisemakers and scarves. Which is all great! Colin did pretty well. He just watched the other kids sing songs, but he did participate in the noise maker and scarf activities. He even walked up to the adults and received and returned the props himself. At the end, he walked up to the lady and waited patiently amongst the other kids to get a stamp on his hand. I was quite impressed :)

When we got home, we played outside for awhile, had lunch, and Colin napped. While he was napping, I tried out my cake decorating skillz. I have this grandiose plan that for Colin's birthday I am going to bake a cake (I am good at baking) and draw Curious George's face on it. So I made some frosting, loaded up a decorating bag, and free-handed George onto a circular piece of parchment paper. It turned out okay, but definitely needs to be tweeked. His face isn't wide enough and his ears are too elfish. And, obviously, I would use color and actually finish filling in the face. But I am quite impressed with the writing, seeing as it was my first time EVER.
I think I'm going to enlarge the picture I have of George and make a stencil out of it and draw it on the cake that way. The good thing is, Colin recognized it as George when he saw it.

After I was done putzing with that, I put all of the extra frosting into the refrigerator. No sense of letting all that yummy goodness go to waste, right? ;)

When Colin woke up from his nap, I got an awesome 20 minute snuggle with him, then we played outside until it started drizzling. We hung out inside for a little while, and then later on we went outside again.

I have had so much fun with my little boy these last two days and I have more fun planned for later this week. I love spring break. It is such a privilege.