My 2 year is sleeping. His sweet body is resting from his "busy morning" and taking a nap. He went down about an hour earlier than normal but how could ignore his yawns and zoned out eyes? He's been sleeping for 2 1/2 hours which is also longer than normal. Poor Max, he must be really tired. I wish I could teach him to just sleep in later in the morning. :) So while he sleeps, I will blog!
Here's the fun we had over the weekend back on May 18, 2013...
We got together with some friends of ours for a Farm and Ranch Day at a local children's hospital but first we met for an amazing breakfast! They suggested the place and now I can't remember the name. We ate outside. It was local and their menu was focused on local, organic, fresh, and homemade. They even had steel cut oatmeal. I loved it. Totally my type of place.
Oops - I hear my Max "Kallie...." "Kallie...." I jinxed it! I will finish later... He stopped calling for me so I left him alone. When I checked on him he was awake but just hanging out playing with the slats on his crib with his feet. We finally decided to go in and get him after about 3 hrs in there.
Max and S. playing on the iPhone while we waited for the food.
At the hospital, we first checked out the animals. Max loved the goose (I kept calling it a duck and Peter corrected me) and would have stayed there watching it forever.
He wasn't interested in touching any of the animals.
Dad, Max, Andrea, and Jeff (S is on the playground)
It was really hot so Dad tried to cool Max off
S. checking out the big tractors
Future farmer?
Checking it out together
This is his "I'm hot and tired" face.
We didn't stay much longer. We were all wiped from the heat.
When I checked on my boys during nap time, only one was sleeping and it was the wrong one. :)
Max cooled off in the afternoon by playing in the pool.
Sleeping all tucked up, with his head in the corner. I still check on him whenever I go to bed to make sure he's okay (breathing). I rest my hand on his sweet back or belly and then I lightly touch his sweet cheek and LOVE HIM. I am so grateful to have this sweet boy in our lives. We hit the lottery.
On Sunday we got the kids all ready to go visit the splash park in our neighborhood (how cool is it that we have an HOA splash park!?). Unfortunately, it wasn't working. How disappointing!
Max trying to make it work
We still got some fun in the water by going next door to our neighbor's pool and enjoying some great brisket/food. They are great hosts and always so welcoming.
Max enjoying his slice of watermelon
Landen liked the watermelon, too
After the little boys were done swimming, the big boys (the teenagers) took over the pool. Hayden and Landen just stood there and watched the big boys, in awe. It was funny. :) I am glad I have some time before Max gets to that point. Those teenagers sure are fearless - yikes!
Saying "Cheese"
Video - Max does some pretty awesome jumping jacks. :) They are first in the video and pretty fast. And it cracks me up when he jumps right on his bum.
Sometimes traveling for work is really a blessing! I had a short work trip to Phoenix which allowed me to spend time with my Grandma Carlson. I haven't seen her since my mom's funeral.
Max had fun while I was gone.
Grandma gave me a tour of her house since this was my first time there. It smelled like my Grandma and definitely felt like her house even though it wasn't the house she lived in for the majority of my life. It was so great to be able to see her and talk to her. I sure love my Grandma!
We went to dinner at Dairy Queen along with my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bert. I told Grandma I wanted to take her out for mother's day and she could pick anywhere she wanted. She picked Dairy Queen (she told me that it was a special dairy queen that was very good). :) Not where I would have picked but hey, it was Grandma's choice!
After dinner we went back to Grandma's and Nancy came over to visit as well. We enjoyed looking through old photo albums and catching up.
Brittany, our cousin Steve, and Kimberly
My cute little Brittany - 5 years old. :)
Me and my Grandma
Man, was it hard to leave. I sure love her. I hate that I live so far away from so many members of my family. I wish it could be like it was when I was growing up where all my grandparents and most of my aunts/uncles/and cousins lived within a 45 minute drive.
I AM GRATEFUL that Max gets to be close to some of his cousins. These boys are great playmates.
Double trouble
Notice his pajama pants that are dragging on the floor? Yup. That's how short he is. These are size 18 to 24 month.
Playing dress up at Brittany's house.
Max on May 17...
We are able to negotiate with him when he's eating. So we can say 1 more bite of chicken and you can have more milk. He understands this and will either take that bite or just say no to both.
He calls Peter "Peter" more than he calls him "Dad"
When he has gas he calls it a "poot"
He is aware of when he has pooped and will let you know (if you didn't know already from seeing him stand there grunting or you smell it....joy)
He is an expert at giving raspberries, especially on your arm
Ahhhh...vacation is so awesome. It's so nice to not stress about work and "to-do's" and other things. It's great to have someone else cook for you and make your bed. :) It's so nice to be able to sleep in....
....NOT... When you have a toddler, there's no such thing as sleeping in. Max wakes up at the same time whether it's a weekday, weekend, or we're on vacation. Joy. It did ensure that we were able to make the most of our days and get going much earlier than we would have normally.
Breakfast at the hotel. He was super cute. I think everyone around us was entertained.
Our hotel room and pack n play provided by the hotel.
View out our window. WOO HOO - right on Cocoa Beach!
Max all covered up, sunscreened, and ready to hit the beach!
I was hopeful things would be different this morning but he still freaked out when we tried to set up down to walk on the sand. So Dad carried him down towards the water.
It took a little bit but eventually he wanted to play with the shovel and bucket
Once again freaking out about walking on the sand but we made him walk this time.
When we were done at the beach, we enjoyed lunch outside on the patio. It was great except for all the flies. GROSS.
I enjoyed my vacation drink - a pina colada! (Picture courtesy of Max. We were trying to keep him entertained while we waited forever for our food.)
This is how you know it's been a great day - you have a bathtub with lots of sand.
After naps, we visited world's largest surf shop and bought some trinkets.
That night we went to dinner at a restaurant right on the water with my dear friend, Colleen. Colleen used to be my boss but moved onto another team which allowed us to move our relationship into a great friendship. This restaurant is known for having great views of the sunset. However, there was a huge rain storm tonight so that meant that not only did we not get to enjoy the sunset but that we had to sit inside too. The food was good though - we ordered fish (risky for us!). I thought my grouper was great and Peter thought his mahi was edible. :) We also had some coconut shrimp. We were very adventurous, ha!
Colleen spoiled Max by buying some fish food so he could feed the fish.
Me, Max, and Colleen.
The next morning is was overcast and humid. We still went to the beach though because this was our last chance! We had to check out of the hotel at noon. But first, we hit the restaurant for breakfast so mom could get a great, cooked-by-someone-else breakfast on Mother's Day!
Video - Max telling me "Happy Mother's Day"
Max still didn't want to walk on the sand. He was okay where it was firmer out by the ocean but further up the beach where it wasn't as compacted, he really didn't like. BUT at this point he had fully warmed up to playing in the sand and the ocean and was loving it. We took him out in the waves a few times. Peter took him further out than I did...it made me nervous. And after one big wave came that required Peter to lift Max over his head to ensure he stayed above water, Peter decided to move closer to the shore.
Cloudy day meant mom loosened up and didn't make Max wear his shirt. Although, it cleared up more towards noon.
Silly kid wanted to wear his hat like this for awhile.
Do you see the black dots on the sand? Those are bugs. Apparently they are called "love bugs" which is a good name because they were mating all over the place. They were EVERYWHERE. It was really gross. By the edge of the water it looked dark like seaweed but when you get close you realized it was tons of dead love bugs. They were all over the sand, all over your towel, all over your stuff. I had to work hard to not think about it or I wouldn't have been able to stick it out at the beach. I don't like bugs.
We bought a (if I use the wrong term - sorry...totally not an expert) boogie board for body surfing at the surf shop yesterday. We both gave it a try but never really were successfully.
Me, sort of catching a wave.
We stayed as long as we possible could at the beach and then quickly went back to the room, cleaned up, and checked out. Because the boys had an early flight home in the morning, we decided to stay closer to the airport on the last night.
While driving around looking for food, we found an Outlet mall. Guess what was one of the stores!? Happy Mother's Day to me, I went shopping for clothes for Max. :)
While I was shopping, Peter stayed in the car with Max since he had fallen asleep and found a place for us to go for lunch. He did a great job choosing - Tommy Bahama's. The food was FANTASTIC!!!
Kisses from dad
Trying to give Max more kisses
Ha! Dad always wins. :)
This was their "kids" spaghetti. I was really appalled with the portion size. I mean, come on. Too bad I can't order off the kids menu.
After lunch we got checked in at our hotel and got ready to go downstairs and hit the pool. We were the only ones at the pool but it was FREEZING! Not fun at all. :( Bummer.
For dinner we went to Tony Roma's. It's been forever since I have been and it sounded soooo good. Their onion loaf, their BBQ sauce, their ribs... Yeah, it sounded much better than it was. Especially after the great lunch we had eaten, this was pretty bad. They got our order messed up, forgot some of Max's food, etc. And the ribs weren't even good. No more Tony Roma's for me.
Again, we entertained with the iPhone. Keep in mind this isn't our first chain of defense. First we colored, then we played with cars, but eventually he's not interested in any of that. So, out comes the iPhone. We certainly love the awesome servers that will bring out Max's food first because usually he's so done by the time our food comes that the meal isn't very enjoyable.
Our quick weekend trip came to an end far too soon. :( On Monday morning, I took my boys to the airport and dropped them off for a early flight back home before I drove on to my work meetings. Peter was a trooper and handled it all himself - the suitcase, the diaper bag, the stroller, Max, and the car seat.
Right before I said goodbye. It was AWFUL saying goodbye. :(
Peter took this picture to show me how his flight was going back.
No middle seats were open on the way back, the flight attendants weren't nice, and Max was wiggly. He said he'd never do it again. Sorry, Peter - thanks for doing it though!!!
It was such a great vacation because #1 - we were at the beach #2 - we did some fun things we've never done before #3 - we were able to spend time with some great friends #4 - we also were able to spend time alone as a family without daily distractions. So glad we we did it!
Wife, Mom, and Career Woman. Trying to succeed at all three. Enjoy cruising, time with friends and family, and sleeping. Busy life doesn't leave time for as much fun as in the past but that's okay, it's still a good life.
