cici's night

I cringed slightly when I picked The Mayor up from preschool today and saw he was wearing the "CiCi's Tonight" sticker on his shirt.  Ugh.  The thought of all you can eat "pizza" just made my heartburn flare up.  But since a portion of the money CiCi's makes tonight goes back to the school, we decided to go and support the night.  The kids had a blast...and ate like kings...and for free...so it was a pretty good night.  I forgot kids 3 and under eat for free...sweet!

After dinner, we came home and enjoyed our play set.  The weather was P-E-R-F-E-C-T!  I am loving this fall type weather that has been gracing us the past couple of evenings.  I could have stayed out there all night.

Quick showers and then I went to put The Mayor down and D put Love Bug down.  The Mayor and I laid in his bed and sang songs and then prayed together.  And we talked a lot about how we act at school...because tomorrow is Friday and we have yet to come home with a sticker on our behavior chart from school on a Friday.  I just know tomorrow has to be our day.  PLEASE.

we make our "big eyes" everywhere...even CiCi's

and on the 7th day, there was a playground

Today was The Mayor's 7th smiley face (3rd round) and also happened to be the day the play set in the backyard was being installed.  Now that is a special treat if I have ever heard of one.  Gonna be hard to top that next week...

The Mayor and Love Bug spent most of the day watching the play set get erected.  The Mayor kept asking if we could go "play on the playground".  I really wish it had been installed on a school day.  It is torture for an almost 4 year old and 18 month old to sit there for hours watching a play set get erected.

Finally, at dinner time, the play set was done.  Well, 99.9% done.  The glider swing isn't up.  The installer didn't realize he had left the hardware to hang it back at the warehouse; he is coming back in the morning to hang it.  But the baby swing for Love Bug and the big boy swing for The Mayor are up...and so is everything else.

The Mayor loved climbing all over that play set and Love Bug loved following him around.  I joined them up in the fort, and while I was sitting up in the fort I asked The Mayor to climb the rock wall so I could take his picture.  He said "sure mama!  I'm coming!  I'm coming; I need to save you!".  Oh, my prince.

Now that the play set is up, we can get the sod laid.  Which needs to happen sooner rather than later because it is a dirty mess in that yard.  But that is definitely not going to keep us from enjoying our new play set.  Sadly, rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days.  Torture.

watching the play set being built

in just 6 1/2 short hours, it went from this...

...to this!

"I'm coming...I need to save you"

we are back

D and I are back from our quick trip to Richmond.  We missed our babies so much.  D is used to being away from the kids since he leaves everyday to go to work, but I was crazy sad just 10 minutes after we left.  I knew they were in excellent hands with MeMe and Big Daddy being here, but I still missed them.  So happy to be under one roof again.

D and I had a blast on our trip.  We spent all day Saturday in Williamsburg and then Sunday we were outside of DC for the New York Giants/Washington Redskins game.  It was so much fun tailgating with family and being outside of DC on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  It was a pretty powerful day.

We left before the sun was up this morning and were back home by 2:30.  D and I are exhausted; it was a lot of driving for a long weekend and we are counting down the hours until bedtime.

Tomorrow is a school day for The Mayor and Wednesday the new play set is being delivered and setup in the backyard.  The kids are going to be so excited.  The Mayor keeps looking at the catalog talking about the new playground.

Going to go and love on my sweets and make up for the time I was away from them this weekend.

one of those days

Today was one of those days and it had absolutely nothing to do with my kids.  Today was my first tennis match of the fall season and without going into too many details...it was a disaster.  My partner and I won the match but I have never been treated so horribly by another human being (another woman no less) in my entire life.  The super super short version is one of the women we were playing against went ballistic on the court and cussed me and my partner out, several times, and then called me some names.  I cried for about 30 minutes...it was horrible.  The delicious beverage above helped take some of the edge off.

But thankfully I had my two favorite sweets with me the rest of the day and that made everything better.  I am just loving my new little boy.  That sounds horrible...of course I have always loved my little boy, but he has just been such a dream since his surgery.  He is a totally different kid.  I guess he is just feeling so good and it's making him just so happy.  Tomorrow will be the true test.  Fridays are the days we usually have issues at school because it is the day he is the most tired.  So I am hoping since it has been just over a week since his surgery, he will sleep well tonight and have a great day at school.  I may even attempt a cartwheel if we get a star on our school behavior chart tomorrow.  What a blessing that would be! (the star, not the cartwheel...I'll probably pull a muscle)

Tomorrow, MeMe and Big Daddy roll into town for a weekend with the kiddos.  D and I are heading to Richmond for a quick get away.  We will be going to the NY Giants game on Sunday with my cousins and uncle.  The Giants are playing the Redskins in Washington DC.  It is also the 10th anniversary of 9/11 so it should be pretty amazing since New York and Washington are playing against each other.  I am going to miss my babies so much but am looking for a weekend with my man.

his best day of the school year

This is the exact quote The Mayor's teacher told me when I picked him up today.  "Today was his best day of the school year"!  The Mayor was like a new kid when we went to school today.  He is usually happy in the mornings but when we get to school is a little reserved.  But this morning he was waving to everyone and when we walked into his classroom, he walked up to his teacher and gave her a big hug.  Something he has yet to do this year.

I was so relieved when I walked into his class this afternoon and got the thumbs up from his teacher.  She said today was just such a great day with him.  It is way too early to tell, but it looks like this surgery has helped our little guy feel better and sleep better.  This past weekend he was much happier and well-behaved at home.  It kind of breaks my heart thinking he has been walking around not feeling well all this time and didn't know how to tell us.  Shoot, he probably thought that was how he was supposed to feel.

The best part of this news was the smiley face sticker he got at home.  Today was #7 (for the 2nd time!) so we got to celebrate his best day of school with a special treat!  After dinner, we went to TCBY where The Mayor made himself a large bowl of yogurt with yummy toppings.  Hands down...an amazing day.  The best day of September...so far!

near perfect

Today was just about perfect.  With Love Bug falling asleep last night before 6:00 and The Mayor falling asleep at 6:30, I wasn't sure how they were going to do through the night, but both slept until almost 9:00 this morning.  And Love Bug was so tired from missing her nap yesterday, she was ready for a nap at 11:30 this morning.  She slept for 3 hours, ate a late lunch and then we went out and did some shopping.

The kids were so well behaved today.  Not once did we have to remind The Mayor to share his toys or be sweet...he just did it on his own.  It was just one of those days you wish didn't have to end.  We just really enjoyed being out with the kids today.  They were just so sweet.

After some shopping and dinner, we came home and enjoyed the cooler temps.  Rain is coming in and the temperature outside reminded me of fall.  I was really sad our play set wasn't already here and installed because tonight would have been the perfect night to enjoy it.  But we ran around the front yard, kicked the ball around and cheered The Mayor on while he rode his tricycle (or tribicycle as he likes to call it).

I am so happy tomorrow is a holiday and D will be home.  There is 100% chance of rain in the forecast so we will have to find some fun things to do with the kids but if tomorrow is anything like today...it's going to be awesome.

night and day

So D and I learned something about our kids today. They are different as night and day when it comes to discipline.  The Mayor is strong-willed and some days it doesn't matter what kind of discipline you use, it doesn't affect him.  Love Bug, is quite another story.

We had to discipline Love Bug today for the first time.  She was holding my old iPhone and hit The Mayor on the head with the phone.  She thought it was funny so she did it again.  D and I both looked at her and firmly said "no ma'am".  She looked at us, her lower lip jutted out and the tears started flowing.  She was so upset.  And they weren't fake tears, they were real full-on tears.  Then she pointed upstairs and said "night night".  Man, if this is what it is going to be like disciplining her...I am going to LOVE the toddler years with her.  Although, truth be told, it did break our hearts.  D scooped her up and started kissing her and comforting her...she has him wrapped.

D and I both took turns going to the gym and working out this morning and when I got home, we decided to go out to lunch and run some errands...and then my iCalendar reminder went off reminding me someone would be by the house in an hour to buy something I put on craigslist.  So we fed the kids some snacks and waited.  Of course they were late so we didn't leave here until 1:30.  After we were finished with lunch at 2:30, we went to the playground warehouse and purchased the kiddos a playground!  Hopefully it will be installed this week.  It is awesome!! But we didn't leave there until 3:30.  Love Bug usually naps at 1:00...so she missed her nap today.  Miss Priss is also cutting 4 teeth.  She is pitiful.  Anyway, she was sound asleep before 6:00 tonight.  She fell asleep in the chair with D while he was rocking her and when he stood up, she curled up in the chair.  Precious.

This weekend is the kickoff to college football.  D is so happy.  I am so happy because it means my most favorite time of year is around the corner.  I can almost smell the cooler weather and hear the leaves crunching under my feet.  Go Dawgs!

look at this sweet sad face...she was so tired...

and this was after she was "disciplined" and melted down

my little dawgs