A night off

Every mother needs a night off from being "mommy". A night where you can put your wallet into a purse and out of the diaper bag and go out on the town. Wear heels knowing you won't need to chase down a mobile toddler. Don earrings knowing they won't be ripped out of your ears. Wear a shirt that doesn't require easy access to baby-milk. Every mother needs these nights of sanity.

I needed this night of sanity. It had been a while since I had been out - sans my son - in a long time. With a trip to Cali with Ace in my care 24-7 "free time" was non-existent unless he was compliantly unconscious; and while that did exist between 10pm-2am consistently, my social circle during those hours was minimal at best. So after a long two weeks I finally cashed in on my husband's insistence to get out of the house! It didn't take too much twisting of the arm... especially since getting Ace to sleep these days has been a challenge (and THAT is the biggest understatement of the year, FYI!)

I had planned to see a movie with a group of friends, but that fizzled into nothing and I was left this afternoon thinking that I was once again stuck at home. Damn. I'm not a HUGE fan of going out by myself... and while I do find shopping to be a solo experience that is enjoyable it wasn't really in the budget. In the end it worked out that two of my friends after a long day of packing were game to go to the Purple Cafe, a wine bar! What a DELIGHTFUL turn of events that turned out to be.

We headed there around 7 and closed the restaurant down. We sat at the bar and enjoyed yummy food and delicious flights of wine. Our bartender, the same one we've had previously on our adventures to Purple was as helpful, informative and fun as ever. It was a wonderful evening with yummy food and delicious wine. The restaurant closed at 9; and we left at 9:45 after enjoying several sample glasses tastes of various bottles the staff was finishing off. We might just return there at about the same time next week ;-)

Overall I found it to be a perfect way to regroup my non-mommy side of myself. It's what I needed to regain some sanity, and just to unwind. And it was a ton of fun as well. I very much did enjoy my night off.

Thirteen Months Old

Ace started off his second year of life with a great start. More firsts for Ace included: his first happy meal, his first trip to the library.

Ace's language skills are improving on a regular basis. He now says "nigh nigh" on occasion when he is ready to go to sleep. Sometimes that proves to be a false statement on his behalf causing mommy 90 minute nigh-nigh routines until he finally gives up the wiggle-worm fight and drifts off to slumber land. He waves 'bye bye' to people when it is time to go nigh-nigh. The other day he pointed to a book and said 'book' there was a witness, so I wasn't crazy, but he has yet to repeat this verbal identification. He does regularly refer to me as momma now, not just when he's hungry, sleepy, or cranky - so that's nice. :)

Ace's motor skills also are expanding on a regular basis. His latest venture in mobility has been testing out his toes. Yes, Ace is enjoying discovering his tippie-toes. He continues to stand on them and every now and again we see him trying to jump. It's only a matter of time before he's jumping off the ground - quickly followed by jumping off the furniture which he has mastered climbing. :)

Ace also is recognizing and understand more and more. He understands 'On and Off' and 'In and Out' (we utilize this often for picking up all those ball that he enjoys playing with so much) and also he recognizes characters. Nemo of course has been ingrained in his memory bank for some time now. However, now he's expanded into Buzz and Woody. Yes we are quite the Pixar family around here. He is doing wonderful with his listening and understanding and deciphering what people say to him. We are all thrilled with his comprehension levels.

A week ago Ace enjoyed his fifth trip on a plane. The first time since he's been truly mobile, so it present a bit of a challenge for mommy. While we did have the seat next to us empty, it wasn't known until boarding was complete and therefore not enough time to get his carseat up and into the seat before takeoff. So while we had the extra space, we had plenty of wiggling and squirming to do. Overall he did wonderfully. The gentleman on the aisle seat was happy to utilize his legs as a wall and didn't mind Ace running into him and back and forth. The flight home was easier as we knew ahead of time the availability of a free seat and so we just loaded Ace straight onto the plane in his seat. That flight was treated just as a car ride and Ace did great.

He also had an other great trip to California and had a good time seeing lots of Aunties, Grandma and even extra Grandmas :) He did great while mommy helped host a bridal shower, and also did wonderful while we dragged him all over the place doing other bridal type things. He was a great traveler. I hope the trend continues.

According to Grandma's scale Ace weighs 19.5lbs and from the looks of things has grown a bit taller, although no official measurement has been taken since his 12th month appointment.

Ace is doing wonderful and is a very happy boy. Pictures will be added soon come back later to see!

Aged Spices

Found while cleaning out my grandmother's pantry a few tins of spices.

MOH - The Bridal Shower

Where have I been? Oh well you see - I am in California. Why? For the second most anticipated event of wedding festivities: the bridal shower. As the Matron of Honor it is my duty honor to throw the bride, my best friend, her bridal shower and today we did just that. Yes together with the Mother of the Bride, we planned the bride a very exciting shower. With 35 guest attending, there were games, laughs, presents and Cold Stone ice cream cake! I created the guest favors: little bags with tea and candy - and made the bride a towel cake with some silk flower decor.













The festivities got started with the first game of how well does the bride know the groom. For every answer she got wrong she was decorated with more colorful excitement turning her into a beautifully colored bride-to-be. She got 14 questions right out of 32. Not too shabby, some of them were nearly impossible. It was quite amusing.

Then of course the traditional toilet paper bride game had to be played. It was great fun! The shortest bride one. The bride may or may not be biased as this is her (soon-to-be) step-daughter.

Of course there were presents to be had, some for the home, some for the bedroom in the home ;-) and then of course there were other things occurring while she opened her gifts. The bouquet was made and the notations made of what she said after she opened each gift. hehe. Of course when the list of her reactions to presents was read, they of course were revealed that these were things Becky would say on her wedding night! It was amusing!

On the invitations that I made, I requested that everyone bring an item or two to help stock the bride and groom's new pantry and what a blessing - the guest delivered! They are set!

And then of course there was ice cream cake, and my best friend and I being silly. I am so glad she had such a good time. She deserves only the best.

Fall is coming

The leaves are turning, the weather is cooling (occasionally), and the feel in the air is that fall is on the way. Fall is my favorite season of the year. While Christmas is my favorite time of year, my favorite season bar-none is fall. I love all the colors, I love to watch how God paints a masterpiece of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. I love to decorate for fall; and Labor Day weekend I did just that.

This weekend, I redesigned my blog for fall. I used pictures I took in my backyard of the leaves for my header and sides (if you do not have a wide screen monitor you cannot see the side leaf pictures apparently.) I just love fall. So enjoy the tour around my humble abode while I share my fall decor with you.

By the way, if you like this wreath,
you can buy one from The Ravenna Girls

A trip to the library

Ace enjoys reading and although getting through a WHOLE book is a total crap-shoot, he does enjoy reading a few pages before toddling off to do something new and exciting. For a boy and being 12.5 months old, he has a decent attention span. I'll take it. He always is so excited to see new things and so today, I decided that a fun outing on a unseasonably warm day would be to go to our public library. A location I have not set into since studying for the bar and the last time I owned a library card was 1995. It's been a while. In fact the last book I checked out... I still have.

I am not a good library participant. However, for the sake of my son, I signed myself up for another library card. And a lot has changed since 1995, now I'm subject to the government checking out my reading list. I hope those secret service, CIA or FBI dudes enjoy breaking down the hidden meaning behind my book lists which include titles such as: The Three Bears, Baby Animals of the Northwest, or The Bernstein Bears. I'm sure there's some hidden twist with animals that is a violation of national security. I digress.

We ventured into our local library and Ace was in awe, so many books! We went into the children's section and he got to running around. He focused on a few books that I said no thank you to such as the "Dinosaurs Get Divorced Too" or "Father Sky & Mother Earth" he moved quickly on and found a few more. And yes, I have no issue with censorship with my one year old, who doesn't yet even understand the concept of most books and I certainly don't want to read about divorcing dinos or personified nature. Ace went on to find others and one was in spanish, and I figured oh what the heck. The librarian checking us out double checked and I said sure why not. :)

Ace also found the very bright and exciting keyboard and computer. Doesn't he look so cute with those headphones on? He enjoyed watching the different things on the computer, but he was a tad rough on the keys. After checking out we went to the park immediately next to the library and Ace had fun running around. Ace had a great time and now we have more books to read!

Happy Meal

They say whatever you eat in excess when you are pregnant will be one of the first foods that your child takes a liking to. Well, I ate my weight and then 40+ pounds of McDonald's french fries while I was pregnant. Now I've always been a McDonald's fan, but when I was pregnant I wanted it for every meal. It was nearly an epidimic - and let's not discuss how many Monopoly pieces I gathered during October. Needless to say Ace ate a lot of french fries. So it was no surprise to me when he took to enjoying our fries. We also recently have started getting him some chicken nuggets when we go. So the other day when I met my friend there I decided to get Ace his very first happy meal. His consumption of fries to nugget ratio was subpar on the nutritional value but he certainly enjoyed himself. He also enjoyed his first taste of cows milk. As McDonald's is not in the habit carrying goat's milk as on option. He enjoyed it all and when he was starting to interrupt mommy's conversation mostly done I gave him his toy. He had a blast with it. After we finished eating Ace got to play in the play area. It was pretty empty and he had himself a good time.