Happy Birthday Love

Today is my husband's 34th birthday.

He's in Chicago and I'm in Michigan blogging from my childhood bedroom while little c sleeps next door in my brother's childhood bedroom.

What's wrong with this picture?! I want to be at home celebrating with my love. Why aren't we all together?

Because of this:

This bathroom renovation has become the monkey on our backs, or to my husband the ultimate challenge. And safe to say, we're both ready for this challenge to be over so we can sit in the tub and drink wine while watching t.v. and listening to music through the speaker system. Oh...... how wonderful that will be!

This was a project that we thought might take all of Christmas break. Then, it got pushed back until end of February. Now, we are hoping to get it functional by Easter with the finishing touches done by May. If anyone can do this, it's my husband. He's a handyman wizard that one.

Why all the delays? Simple. Life gets in the way. A project deadline at work, the flu, family in town, and one little boy who loves to play with his dad are just some examples of life getting in the way. And I'm thankful for a husband who will drop everything to play a game of chase with his son.

So last week, my husband suggested that on his birthday, I take the little man and head to Michigan for the week in order to give him time to work on the bathroom. Wh- what? You want us to leave? On your birthday? Is this fishy??

But really, other than it being his birthday, we agreed that the timing was perfect, for us to get out of town and him to crank.

That's why today, I'm reminded of a quality that I so admire in him- and worry about sometimes.

He puts everybody else first. He's the most selfless, kind, extraordinary person I know.

And he's mine. I mean, this is a guy that volunteers to get up early with our kid on weekends WAY more than I do, so that I can sleep in!

And I know that there's one main reason he's home spending his birthday working on that bathroom:

and he's wearing the orange, blue and white stripped sleeper.

The other reasons probably have something to do with drinking lots of beer, eating frozen pizza's and leaving all the toilet seats up. All this and no diapers to change!

But don't worry, I do have a surprise birthday date planned for this weekend.....

Happy Birthday Baby. I love you more than you could ever know.

No joke

Chris and I got our asses kicked this weekend. By monday morning, my husband and I looked like we'd just participated in one of those crazy sleep studies I remember seeing advertised in college-

"stay awake for 48 hours and let us observe what happens.... earn 20 dollars".

The culprit?

One toddler ear infection. They are no joke! C was basically up all night friday night, all night saturday night and all night sunday night. I felt so bad for the poor little guy.... but I also felt bad for us! Being first time parents, we thought he just had some sort of flu (he had a 101.6 temp on saturday) but it didn't occur to us that he might have an ear infection. Duh.

Around 2 a.m. saturday night, we were trying anything and everything to help get him comfortable so he could sleep. He seemed to be most comfortable while laying either on me or on chris. So in bed with us he crawled and he laid right on top of me, squirming and squirming to try and get the just right position until finally... he fell asleep. HALLELUJAH! I knew I'd be sleeping in this contorted position on the very edge of the bed for as long as this kiddo would stay asleep! I didn't dare move.

Hmmm.... Even though I was so uncomfortable and probably in a sleep deprived, delusional haze, there was something so yummy and sweet about him in that moment.

Chris reached over and squeezed my hand. We didn't have to say anything.

We're parents :)

Sometimes I can still hardly believe it

Birthday Pics

Here are a few pictures from the little man's first birthday. My parents came from michigan, Chris's parents came from South Bend, our brother's, sister's and my sisters in law's also came as did our best friends laurie and brian. It was such a special day.

I think that my favorite part was watching little c come out of his shell. At first, he was so shy and kept coming over to me and burying his head in my shoulder. I don't blame him. There were so many people and they were all focused on him. Everyone wanted to be near him, help feed him, hold him, play with him etc. and I think this was overwhelming for him.

But then something remarkable happened. It was as if suddenly c realized this was all about him and he turned from being quiet, shy guy to being the life of the party. I will always remember him eating his goodies off his bench while workin' the room with his laughter, smile, big gestures and those eyes....

I love this kid so much.

Happy First Birthday!

Little c,

One year ago right now, I was just waking up from a nap and feeling a twinge of pain in my belly. Labor was beginning. It wasn't easy, but it was the most beautiful, amazing, sacred night because at 4:15 a.m we got to welcome you into the world. You were finally ours to hold and kiss and love and raise. How can I put into words the joy that comes from being your mom? I love watching you grow. I love watching your personality develop. Nothing compares to when you smile, reach for my hand, or rest your head on my shoulder. A part of me wants to keep you little forever but another part of me is so excited to see you grow and develop. (Mostly I want to keep you little and all mine!)

Your dad and I have decided to get you a special gift for your first birthday. You won't appreciate it now but I hope that you will someday. Just today, daddy opened a special account for your college savings and we put as much as we could into it. We believe that an education is one of the greatest gifts we can give you and also one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. It's your ticket to do what you want in life. My mom always said to me, "Once you have an education, no one can take it away from you."

I hope that you will get a solid, formal education. That is important. But then, I hope that you will add to that by educating yourself in other ways. I hope you will learn about the world around you. It's smaller than we think. I hope you will learn about different cultures with an open mind and heart. We're all more a like than we are different. I hope that you will educate yourself spiritually and in turn develop your faith. We can teach you what we believe but ultimately faith is something you have to figure out on your own. I hope that you will volunteer your time and talents. When you give, what comes back to you is ten-fold. For me, some of the greatest life lessons have come out of volunteer experiences.

There are no words to describe how much we love you and how extraordinary this year has been.

Happy Birthday Little Man

Swim drama- part 2

Oh boy. Where to begin.

Swim lessons are always an adventure. Between getting there, surviving the sub thermal pool temperatures and getting our wet selves dressed again, I nearly loose my mind.

We missed the past two lessons while visiting my parents in Michigan and truth be told, I was dreading returning today. But- we paid for the lessons and besides, I thought, we can't have many more left. In fact, last night, my husband even asked, "when do swim lessons end?"

"Not soon enough" I thought in my head. I know, what a bad mommy I am. But seriously, I'll sign little c up for swim lessons again, just not in the middle of a Chicago winter. And I'll wait until when he has a little more meat on his bones to protect him from the freezing water temps. Or, at least until we find him a full body scuba suit to keep him warm.

So, back to today.

I rush into the pool area and all the mom's and babies are still waiting to get in. We're early! Yes. Score one for mom. The only thing is, that I don't recognize any of the moms or their babies. Hmmm. "Am I here at the wrong time?" No, 10:30 is our time.

And then, just as the swim instructor was motioning us all into the pool, it hit me.

This is a whole new session of swim lessons begining. A whole new session that I didn't sign up for. Or pay for.

Oh God. What to do, what to do. The conversation in my head went like this:

Just raise your hand and ask, "Excuse me, is this perhaps a new session, because I was in the old session and just continued coming, and I'm not signed up. Guess I'll leave?" No that sounds nutty. You'll be the nutty mom. And the little man looks so excited.... Raise your hand and offer to pay for just one session because Lord knows we're not continuing this madness week to week. But YMCA doesn't do that. They don't let you just pay for one lesson. In fact the series of lessons fills up very fast. This is probably a full class! How would that work anyway if I suggested paying for just this one? They'll ask me to leave and I'll be embarrassed. C will be confused. We worked so hard to get here! I'll just stay. It's not that bad is it? I mean, I missed the last two sessions so...technically this could be a make up.... but if not, if they take roll and our name isn't on the list, then what?!? (I Picture of two lifegaurds ushering us out like heathen rule breakers)

I decide to risk it and slither into the water. My plan is to keep a low profile today and then never come back. But, of course, there's always that super friendly mom in the group and she has her eyes set on me. "What's your name?" she asks. "What's your babies name? Where do you live? Did you miss last week because I don't remember you."

Oh my God, this isn't even the first lesson! It's the second lesson of a whole new session. What is wrong with me? Seriously.

"We were out of town", I mumble and then casually slide over to another part of the pool, far away from the inquisitor.

Well, we made it through class undiscovered. They didn't haul us out in handcuffs.

And although I feel really bad about attending a class that we weren't signed up for, somehow it seems a fitting end to our swim lesson debacle.