Thursday, March 21, 2013

oh great, there's a baby on our flight...

 
 
i'm sure that's what everyone was thinking when they saw us sit down to
wait in the terminal, and then get on the flight to st. george, but our little
stud muffin shocked and amazed them all.  and they didn't hesitate to tell us.
 
yep, we flew to st. george.  richard earned a big delta voucher about a year ago
when he volunteered to be bumped from a flight, and it was just about to expire
so we decided to use it to take marty cakes to meet the other half of our famdamily.
his first vacation was a big success, but also a big disappointment for us because
now we know what we're missing out on every time we drive to st. george: little
bags of peanuts and an hour-long trip.
 
 
 
we made a quick stop to visit sarah at work.  i'm sure we were far less exciting than
the celebrities she met during sundance (hello, ron freaking swanson), but it was a fun
way to start our adventure.

 
 
the plane was small, but it did the trick.

 
 
even before take-off, marty was out like a light...
defying expectations of all our fellow travelers.


 
 
ty-mo picked us up, and we headed to get liz from work.
it was love at first sight, and they spent lots of quality time
getting to know each other that weekend.

 
 
the weather was soooo nice, so we took marty on his first trip to the park.
the actual sunlight was a little bright for his eyes that were used to being mostly
inside up to that point, but he was happy as a clam.


 
 
he had fun getting to know the smith boys, too.
scott says that marty inherited dale's earlobes.

 
 
eli is going to be a great cousin.  our favorite thing from the whole
weekend was him saying, "hi marny!"


 
 
it was also fun watching marty and mary size each other up.
i'm sure they'll be great friends in no time.

 
 
it was a great weekend, and i think that we definitely made the most of it.
marty got lots of snuggles, and richard got to play lots of ping pong and
smash brothers.  what more could my boys ask for?

 
 
before we knew it, we were on a plane headed back up north.
but we'll be seeing everyone again soon when they come up for our little
guy's blessing on easter weekend.


Sunday, March 17, 2013

spring has brought us such a nice surprise

 
actually, spring has brought us a bunch of nice surprises:
 
 
this handsome devil discovered that he looooves sucking on his
hands.  started with his thumb, but now it's just any and every finger
that he can possibly get into his mouth.  he'll still take the binky, but
he doesn't have to have it.  some are telling us to nip the thumb-sucking
in the bud, but i think that it's adorable, and that they can just mind
their own p's and q's, thank you very much.
 
 
 
i've only been working half-days on mondays and fridays, so one
friday we went down to visit booboo.  i love that they love each other.

 
 
the sun has finally broken through the inversion that's been suffocating
us all winter to start melting the snow, and it's warmed up a bit, too, so
we've introduced marty boy to our love of walks.

 
 
we took a trip to the heart attack grill at daddy d's with the ericksons
after they went to the hafb museum with their boys, who are the coolest
kids we know.  they take after their parents.

 
 
there has been plenty of father-son bonding going on around here...

 
 
 
and i don't see that changing any time soon because marty lets richard
do pretty much whatever he wants, and he loves every minute of it.
 
 
 
i took the boy to chow's birthday dinner with these nuts

 
 
and then i saved him by taking him away from them.

 
 
a not-so-nice suprise that we were introduced to was baby sickness.
we hated the cold that he picked up (and brought home to us) from daycare.
we also hated the reasty accidents that seemed to accompany his illness.

 
 
especially the ones that happen right before heading to work.
getting myself dressed is now pretty much the very last thing that
happens before we walk out the door for work.  live and learn.


 
we got really serious about taking walks and finally invested in a
stroller.  the timing is perfect since richard has a couple more trips
to boston for work coming up and i won't be able to make it to the
gym unless i strap the boy to my back, and that is just not happening.
anyway, we were pretty excited about it.

 
 
and he obviously loved it, too.
 
 
 
welcome, spring!  welcome.
 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

hell week

i think that is an accurate description of my first week back to work.
partly because it was hella busy catching up on everything, but mostly
because i had to start saying goodbye to my little buddy every morning.
 
 
 
i also had to learn to make the most of our early morning quality time if
i was going to survive an entire work day without bursting into tears.  yep,
that happened a lot during hell week.  like, a lot a lot.

 
 
there were some pretty happy memories made that week, though.
like when this nut flew by the seat of her pants and decided to get 
hitched at the courthouse on a wednesday morning.

 
 
it was so last minute that richard still had to be at work, and marty boy
had to go to daycare so that i could get to work in time for a meeting
as soon as they were pronounced man and wife.


 
 
i'm so happy for sarah and shae.  she found the one, and she is
his lobster.  i love them together, and i know they love being together.


 
 
we also got to spend our first valentine's day with marty.
he didn't fit in the outfit i bought him, and it's not like we
did anything fancy, but a night with my boys was just what
i needed.

 
 
it also helped that we stuck with our longstanding tradition
of devouring a heart-shaped pizza.  over the years, no matter
how valentine's day has turned out, i can at least count on the
one constant of enjoying a heart-shaped pizza.  and that's comforting
for a girl who hates change.  and leaving her baby.  and had a huge
dose of both of those things during that hellish week.