Just like when Momma was a Kid.....

 

Dear Monkey,

 

 

      A couple of weeks ago, we took you on one of the first trips to Maine that you may remember when you grow up. You loved it like Mommy and Daddy do. It is one of Mommy's favorite places to go in the world and I can tell you may be the same way.

 

      We spent lots of time on the lake. You loved your Bat mobile floaty.



 



 

     And you pretended to be a superhero in your new swimsuit. 

And, we took you to your first trip to Santa's Village.... You didn't want to leave!

 

You rode on your first rides by yourself. You were so proud and we were proud of you! 

      You loved the penguin statues... Probably because they were wearing a hat.

                   And you saw the big man. You told him you wanted dragons.

                  We also played the Elfabet game! You found almost all the letters. You loved stamping the card yourself.

                There was also ice cream and a visit to one of our local eateries! All in all a great trip! You have been asking when we can go back. We will go in a few weeks... but for now you will just keep asking to go. Just like when Mommy was a kid!

 

 

Love,

Mommy

In Which my Little Boy does Big Boy Things....

 

       Over the weekend we did two things with Monkey. The first- we saw Despicable Me 2 in the theater. It was fun and he was so great!

 

 

        The second thing we did was that we went to the Out of the Box Festival in Boston.  The festival had a lot of different performances and best of all they had a lot of FAMILY performances for free! Mr and I found out that Choo Choo Soul would be there and immediately made plans to take the boy in to see them.

 

        Choo Choo Soul is like the {insert popular band that tours kinda infrequently here} for toddlers. And the boy LOVES them. He used to blow kisses to Genevieve as a baby. This concert was made for him. So, on a gorgeous Sunday morning, we packed up the family in the car and headed for Boston Common.

 

       First of all, the community connection and atmosphere was incredible. There were 12 stages and lots of activities for families to do together. It was refreshing. We rode the Carousel and headed over to the stage, stopping (as is tradition) to get a lemonade from the street vendor. Monkey got his own, and clutched it as if he had found the holy grail of drinks. We headed over to the Park Street stage. Because we had gotten there early, we had our choice of spots, and we set up right up front.... while they were doing their sound check. The boy was excited to see Genevieve, DC and the dance crew. His first "rock" show.  

 

       I would like to state for the record that I will gladly give money to Choo Choo Soul anytime they want to come to town. They were amazing during sound check, talking with the families who were setting up shop while they were singing. Then the most glorious part of my son's day came. Genevieve came out and started talking with the kids and taking pictures. My son (ever the charmer) walked up to her and gave her a hug and told her he loved her. She hugged him back, kissed him on the cheek and asked if she could be his girlfriend and he told her yes. Then we snapped these two glorious photos!

           He ran back over screaming "Genevieve my girlfriend, momma!" She and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. He was so excited. I don't even think that she understands what she did that day that makes me so grateful, but I am. Mikey now has met a role model that he watches and idolizes and she took the time to spend a moment talking with him. She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and told him he was awesome and to keep being awesome. I am forever grateful for the two minutes she spent showing my son that he mattered. (Side note, I want to point out, that she is without makeup there, and she did the entire show wearing a long sleeve polyester conductor suit and no makeup. Rock on!)


         The show was amazing. It was so energetic and they really get the kids and the parents up and dancing and singing along. She made a comment that she wants to show little girls that you can make your dreams come true and not have to show some skin to do it. By the time it was over, I was willing to pay to see the second performance even though it was free. But we had places to go. So we had a quick lunch and went back to our car... where Monkey was out less than 5 minutes after we strapped him in.

       Monkey constantly shows us that he can handle going out and doing fun and new things. He is always open to trying stuff but also he is polite and respectful and that is so important to us. But also... I am happy to do these things with him as we start to create memories that last a lifetime.

A Bit o' Physical Comedy for You!

                          Ever slip on a banana peel and fall on your face? That is pretty much what happened a couple of weekends ago when I slipped on a leaf on a friends porch and fell and my legs came down after. It hurt a lot, but I think what made matters worse is that I tried to walk it off for two days. Then it looked like this.....

 

 

The pain was excruciating. So I went to the ER. Five hours later I was placed in an air cast and sent home on crutches with a severe sprain. And my leg looked like this....

 

I spent the following day sleeping and catching up on TV with my foot up.  The next day I returned to work and have been on a somewhat normal schedule since.

                     Except Mr. has been really awesome and has been picking up a lot of the slack because I have had to elevate my foot. He has been on night duty for a week and he has been all around awesome. Good lord I am lucky.

In Which My Little Man Hits a Lot of Milestones, Has a Great Weekend and Finally Gets Some Sleep

         I have been meaning to do this post for a while, but I have been laid up with a badly sprained knee. (In related news, I hate crutches, which I will write about in my next post.) Last week was filled with many milestones. The first of which is that the boy turned two.  We spent the morning playing at home. He has been going through sleep regression, so he had not been sleeping well. He opened presents and took a nap.

 

              Then Mr, Monkey and I went to the Children's Museum here in Boston. He had a blast, and we did too. The museum sure has changed since I was a kid!  

                 Then we took Monkey to his favorite restaurant where they brought him cake and sang. The child was so excited. And the cake was delicious!

 

                       He also finished his school year in the Toddler One classroom and now we get to look forward to the Toddler Two classroom. The program turns into a summer camp/transition classroom from now until September. To celebrate the end of the school year, the daycare had a BBQ with a petting zoo and bouncy houses. We loved it all...



This just in... Bouncy Houses are a hit with toddlers.


                      Saturday was Monkey and my Nephew's Birthday party. We did it at a park not far from where I grew up. We were able to use the pool and it was a gorgeous day. Monkey loved singing along with everyone!

And much cake was consumed by all.

We also had a bouncy house... which went over with all the toddler excitement you would expect.

                            Then Sunday was Father's Day... After all the festivities of the day before, we had a somewhat laid back family day. I made homemade pancakes, we showered Mr. with all the presents and love. I also made orange creamsicle cake and we had Indian buffet.

                           At the end, Monkey was given his first lollipop. He loved it!

 



 

                          The good news is that the sleep regression is getting better. He has (knock on wood) been sleeping through the night once we get him to sleep. 

 

 

Funny thing happened on the way to Daycare...

             Yesterday started out with a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call. Ugh. Monkey and I left for school and began the back and forth about napping on the way to school. He was yelling no at me, so I took away his car that he had managed to find in the back seat. He started screaming and in 30 seconds there was silence.

 

I looked back and this is what I saw....

 

Yep. That is the look of a toddler who was in no way tired. He didn't need a nap at ALL.

#Boston Strong

             Sometimes, a cause is so great that I shell out a decent amount of money and go have fun for charity. Last night was one of those nights. Last night, I left Mr. at home with the Monkey and headed to TD Garden here in our beloved Boston for the Marathon Show. (Mainly because I couldn't get two tickets. The concert sold out in 5 minutes.) I left work early to get there with minimal traffic interruptions, got a sweet parking space (yay pre-order parking!) and headed to a local bar, The Harp, for dinner and drinks. Y'all, their Mac n' Cheese was quite possibly designed to be orgasmic.

              As the show got close, I headed over to the Garden with all the other excited concert goers. The paperless ticket system was so amazing. They should do it for every concert. I got through, was handed a program and headed to my seat. My seats were great. I quickly made friends with those around me including the usher. The local band pre show entertainment was so much fun! I found out talking to the usher that no one was getting paid. This show was completely volunteer. That floored me. No one was in it for the money. 100% goes to The One Fund, Boston. Sadly, it was not televised for the world to see.

            Finally, the show started and it was a five hour emotional roller coaster that was the best concert experience I had ever had. The two disappointments were the J Giles Band (minus J Giles) and Aerosmith. The show on the whole was so solid. James Taylor and Carol King were amazing. And the whole place sang along with them to "On the Roof" and "You've Got a Friend". NKOTB was amazing as always and the whole place shook when they introduced Bel Biv Devo and Boyz II Men. Dropkick Murphys singing "Shipping up to Boston" shook the whole arena, because everyone was up dancing and singing with the band. Extreme reunited for one night only and Boston rocked the house with "More than a Feeling"There were tears, laughter, and lots of love there. I just wish everyone could have felt it.

              The concert ran 5 1/2 hours and no one cared. No one thought about work or what had to be done tomorrow. It was all about the night, helping the survivors and healing our city. The finale where Aerosmith called everyone out and the entire building sang "Come Together" and "Dirty Water" pretty much summed up the feelings.

We will come together.
We love that Dirty Water.
Boston is our home.

Terrible Twos?

My Dear Little Monkey, 

What has happened? You have all of a sudden turned into the two-face of a toddler. One second you are hugging me and the next second you are throwing an epic tantrum.

Look, I know that this is going to happen. And you know what? I am there for you.

It is tough being you. You want to tell me so much, but don't know exactly how to say it yet. You are starting to realize that you can't always have it your way and that makes you mad. You want independence. I get it. I have been there.

And this is not the last time you will try to assert that you are your own boy. You answer to no one. Except, in reality, you do. You answer to Daddy and to me. And if you answer rudely or hit, you get a quiet time out.

Everyone has their moments, even Mommies and Daddies... It is hard to convey a point. That doesn't change. Everyone gets frustrated with their life or a situation. Just know you can always talk to us. Your Daddy and I will always try our best to understand. We are never the bad guys. We are there for you. We want you to succeed in everything you do. Trust me, if something makes us scratch our heads trying to figure out what you are doing; we will tell you so.

That doesn't mean there won't be screaming and yelling... because that is going to happen. But none of that ever means we don't love you to pieces. It just gets frustrating sometimes.

I just had to say that. You are an amazing kiddo. You are generous, thoughtful and polite. I am so proud of you, especially when we are around older kids who push and don't use their manners. You constantly get complements about your behavior at restaurants and stores. We took you to Toys r' Us and you had no problem putting things back that you wanted. You are a great kid.

This is just a phase. We will get through it... like we will every tough phase ahead of us.

I love you Monkey!

Love forever and always,
Mom

P.S. Keep the European kiss thing you are doing right now. It is super cute, and when you grow up I bet the girls will love it.