A Day in the McLife: February 2010

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Uncle Ryan's in Da house!

Aren't these boys just beautiful!?

We picked him up on Thursday and it was a lovely reunion. Lane is glad that there is someone else around the house to swoon over him and we're glad that, well, there is someone else in the house to swoon over Lane! Conversation and drinks are always flowing when Uncle Ryan's in town...and of course the laughs!

I was grateful to go to the gym on Friday morning by myself to attend an 8am class I have always wanted to do and never get myself and Lane ready in time to make it. Everyone was still asleep when I left but by the time I was done, the boys were up and at 'em and heading to Starbucks. So we did the Starbucks thing and then decided to put Lane down for an early nap so we had the majority of the afternoon to bum around.

We headed to lunch when he woke up and then we showed Uncle Ryan the ropes...we went to the park of course!

And I'm not sure who had more fun Uncle Ryan and Daddy or Lane!

We started off at the "little kids" section of the park, but soon ventured over to the big kid's side.

I don't know how other parks are these days, but this one has this futuristic stuff. It's pretty cool.

They started out tame with this slide, but then things got interesting.

They tested their balance and agility.

And they had fun twirling Lane around until he was walking sideways. Just watching him spin makes me nauseous.

Then Daddy decided to give this one a try.

And the future of swings?

Giving the rock wall a try...who needs monkey bars?!

And whatever happened to the good old fashioned merry-go-round?

Needless to say its been replaced by this circular off-balance contraption.

Anyway, we had a great time. We finished our Friday off with pizza at Barley's. Lane got a taste of a grown-up Friday night because we didn't eat until almost 9:30. Luckily he was consumed with our visitor and fit right in with us adults, well besides for drinking out of a sippy and eating pizza with his fingers...wait, we do eat pizza with our fingers...well then I guess it is safe to say he fit right in. And him and I were in bed before 11:00, I'm not sure what time those crazy brothers finally retired for the night.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

A day in the McLife!

I love most of my days. I get into the occasional rut which only seems to happen if I don't work out for a few days in a row or we don't leave the house. And that usually happens when the weather is bad, which also puts me in a 'mood.' But most of my days are spent with my best bud and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so much enjoying this toddler stage. Lane happily plays with his toys in his room, freely goes up and down the stairs at his will, and occasionally finds me in the kitchen or laundry room to ask for a drink, show me something he's playing with, or stop and give me a leg hug. I love leg hugs.

He also likes to be out. We go to the gym and run errands in the mornings now because his main nap (and only nap) happens usually between 1-4 and that really takes up most of our afternoon. He loves to go to the gym and play with all the toys and all the other kids. It's great for him to be away from me and socializing with other children. The other day when I picked him up he was sitting at one of the tables (kid-sized) with another little girl and they were playing with some fake food and a cash register. He looked so big sitting in that chair. It made me sad, in a way, but also made me smile. And then it made me wanna go out and buy him a little table and chairs. And I always get a leg-hug when I go pick him up...it's the best!

Most of the comments we get from passer-bys are about his smile. "He's so smiley" or "What a happy little boy!"

We fill our days with walks in the warm sunshine,

Or runs,

Making music,

Playing at the park,

Exploring,

Having picnics on our patio,

watching Sesame Street, playing with the football or any ball really, reading and more reading.

And of course, laughing, we do lots of laughing,

We enjoy our mid-morning snacks and late afternoon snacks and our smoothies. We are really into smoothies lately. We make them with ice cream (for the calories, for Lane, not me, but I still drink them!), whole milk, and loads and loads of fruit. He loves his smoothies and so do I!

He's a wonder to me. He talks about things I didn't even realized he knew even existed, and when I don't understand just quite what he's trying to communicate, he makes me understand by repeating the word, taking a break, and then going back to the word. When I do realize, I'm like "DUH" it's so obvious what he is talking about! And he really knows.

When he sees the fish tank at the Dr.'s office he says 'wa-wa' (water) and 'fis' (fish) when just 18 months ago he was making baby sounds in his car seat that he looked to little to be in. He truly is amazing and he's mine all mine! Well, and Matt's too. And I we couldn't be more lucky to call him my our son.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Birthday Weekend Part II

Taking advantage of the first "warm" weekend we've had in a while, we decided that Sunday we would go to the zoo. It's about a 5 minute drive from our house. It's right near Cleveland Park, our favorite park we always go to. Apparently everyone else in Greenville had the same idea! It was packed. People and cars everywhere. There were cars parked in places I had never seen cars before. We played at the park for a little while, waiting for the line at the zoo to slim down a bit.

This year I knew I wanted to get an annual pass to the zoo. It's only $49.00 for our family and that includes unlimited zoo access for the 3 of us for the year, 6 guest tickets and free admission to over 200 hundred other zoos across the U.S. You really can't beat it. The regular admission to the zoo is $6.00/adult so if we go more than 4 times then we will get our moneys worth. I know Lane and I will be there a lot this spring and summer. It's big enough to enjoy, but small enough to navigate. He was having a complete ball roaming freely around the zoo. He really enjoyed the freedom of being out of the stroller.

He really wanted out here, but we were in line and there is a parking lot near by so I wanted to contain him until we got in...he was pretty happy about it :-)

Looking at the HUGE elephants...

Turtles

On our way to Africa to see the lions and giraffes.

Apparently he feels the same way about giraffes as Aunt Cece does.

Cheeser

Monday, February 22, 2010

Birthday Weekend

I had a great weekend! Well of course, I spent it with these two so how can you not enjoy yourself?!

Saturday was my b-day...29th to be exact and it was wonderful! I am so ready for 29. I think I had a way harder time with 26, 27, 28. I don't know why 29 seems so easy for me, but it is. Maybe it's because if my 25 year old self had to picture myself at 29 I would be super-happy to picture myself this way in this life right now! So needless to say, it was a celebration!

When they walked into The Shop, I had no idea what he was so happy about, but it was his kids meal.

The boys brought me lunch to work on Saturday. We had Subway and Lane totally scarfed it. That was his first ham and cheese. I didn't know he liked it, but I'm glad he did. He's totally scarfing lately and it's probably because I posted about how he never eats. Well now he does and lots and stuff that he's never eaten before.

After devouring the sandwich, he went onto some apples and of course milk.

Subway has a pretty nice kid's meal! After eating he got down to explore. He loved the drinking fountain and turned over the empty garbage can to play the drums.

After work we went to church and then out to dinner.

Lane Diddy put his sport coat on for the special occasion...he looked so handsome!

We went to Brick St., a restaurant we love, but it's not especially for kids. They have really small tables with all glass everywhere! But he did great. Nothing from the kids menu looked appealing so we got him the cheese quesadilla. It was on the appetizer menu and they were delish! He almost ate all 4 of them, of course with some help from us.

Matt had the special, ahi tuna, and I ordered crab cakes. Everything was great and we had a really cute table in the front window. He was in a picture mood when we got home so I took advantage!