Happy Birthday Shane!
Today is Shane’s 29th* birthday. Please join me in wishing him a happy day! I made him some chocolate truffle brownies, which he promised me he would actually eat if I also provided ice cream and chocolate syrup.
The weekend was filled with birthday festivities, mostly centered around eating as this post will attest. On Friday, the Joneses visited our favorite neighborhood spot, Mezcalito’s (http://www.mezcalitoscantina.com/), to enjoy some great food and drinks prepared by our friends Neil and Vladimir. Carson enjoyed her chicken taco and rice, but she especially enjoyed the cheese dip with jalapenos. Of course, this feast was preceded by the fun-filled Spring Fling at the Children’s Campus, where C enjoyed the jumpy thing and some time on the playground, as well as some cotton candy, sno-cone, and baked pretzel. The sno-cone was cherry. C got so much on her shirt that she stained her belly. But she sure did enjoy it.
On Saturday, we took a long walk and played lawn bowling. Let me tell you how Little Ms. Literal enjoyed our lawn bowling session. We set up the pins and asked Carson if she could knock the pins over with the ball. Holding the ball, she walked over to the pins and, with ball still in hand, used it to knock over each of the pins. That’s pretty good direction-following, I suppose. We really enjoyed the beautiful warm weather, although C declared that it was “freezing cold” in the shade and said that she would “go inside” while “mama stay[ed] outside.” We stayed on the patio as she went back in, hung out for a minute, and then popped her little head back out of the screen door, declaring, “I’m back!” We observed bumblebees, worms, squirrels, ants, birds, and the beginnings of the mulberries on the mulberry tree.
We also continued the weekend trend of Shane selecting all food, which resulted in a lunch of Five Guys. Carson liked the pickles on her cheeseburger the best. Then, it was time for C to take a nap and head off to stay with Nana and Pop-pop, while Shane and I hit Fritti (http://www.frittirestaurant.com/fritti/splash.html) for some Prosecco and munchies, followed by an unbelievably delicious dinner event at Veni Vidi Vici. We enjoyed summer sausage, peppers, fresh salads, grouper with chick-peas, lamb chops, garlicky green beans, a shrimp and tomato cream pasta, sorbet and ice cream, and cappuccino. Then we rolled home.
On Sunday, I felt repentant and went for a long run, followed by Shane’s choice of breakfast venues– I’m sure you can guess that locale, where I had a waffle and he enjoyed chicken and eggs. I used my quiet time with C away to plant some veggies from the Oakhurst Community Garden Project (http://www.oakhurstgarden.org) in the garden. I hope they will grow. Knowing my luck, we will sell the house and someone else will get to eat them. I’d better amend that seller’s disclosure to exclude the plants.
Carson had a great time at Nana and Pop-pop’s, which we topped off with a cookout at the home of our dear friends the Traylors. Carson enjoyed playing with little Gavin. Well, I should clarify. Shane and Tom were watching a recording of the G-Day game. I suppose Carson got caught up in the football excitement, resulting in a clear 15 yard personal foul, whereby she walked over to Gavin, who was quietly enjoying his jumpy-thing, and TAUNTED HIM by deliberately spinning the spinning toy that was right in front of his face a single time, smirking, and walking away. It was obvious to all present that the foul was an intentional one. Otherwise, C enjoyed our visit by rubbing her grubby hands all over the Traylors’ gorgeous and brand-new furniture which they just had delivered on Saturday, trying to double-dip in the pumice (hummus), and otherwise wreaking havoc on the peaceful, clean environment of a household with a baby who is not yet crawling. Tom and Laura, you were so gracious, and you must have been wincing inside. Seriously, I did my best to erase all evidence. : )
*True age not revealed
Happy weekend
It sure is beautiful here today– I hope it holds for the weekend. This afternoon I’m headed over to the Children’s Campus to join the Spring Fling– an exciting event for the kiddies complete with jumpy-thing, cotton candy machine, sno-cones, popcorn, and plenty other stomachache-inducing items. I know C will love it. What else is up this weekend? We are headed out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate Shane’s birthday (Monday) at VVV.
Carson continues to amaze me with her developing language skills. The friends in the class made popsicles this week. I asked C when I picked her up in the afternoon how she enjoyed her popsicle, and she said, “It was cold, and it’s all gone.” Well put, Carson!
Birthday pictures
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http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8c1acg6.cr3a3h5i&x=0&y=-2t9ln3&localeid=en_US
Where have I been??
I know, I know. Three weeks ago I promised to post pictures from C’s birthday. Still no pictures– and also no updates! So sorry. I have been emotionally invested in C’s transition to her new room at school and have not made the time to touch base. So let me try to catch you up.
Carson is now spending full days in her “new class,” as she calls it. Drop-offs are really hard in the mornings, as C really does not want me to leave. She screams and holds her breath, but I’m told she settles down and is fine for the rest of the day. I’m inclined to believe that, as I have spies around the school checking up on her. She seems to be gaining self-confidence each day, though. I will be happy when the rest of Carson’s friends from her old room join her in the new room, which starts on Monday. She really seems to miss them. I will also be happy when drop-offs get a bit easier. It is hard to struggle through mornings and then come to work and face the maelstrom here.
Meanwhile, I am thrilled with how much C is learning in her new class. Her teachers are awesome! In the last three weeks, Carson has begun speaking in complete, understandable sentences and is using words and phrases to tell us how she feels more often (as opposed to simply screaming). Over the weekend, she told me that she was hungry and thirsty. She loves the song that Ms. Amiinah leads during circle time, which walks through everything we do to get ready in the mornings, and she sings it over and over: “I brush my teeth; I comb my hair; I put my clothes on; I put my socks on; I put my shoes on…” Last night in the bathtub, Carson said, seemingly out of the blue, “I forgot!” I asked, “What did you forget, Carson,” thinking she was just repeating something she’d heard me say. But she responded, “I forgot my lambie! Where’s lambie?” She really thought she had forgotten something. I was amazed, and assured her that while she may have forgotten lambie, I had not.
So what else is new? We continue to hope that we’ll get a bite on our house so that we can get on over to Adams. We are still in the process of working through plans for the addition there. Shane has been very busy at work– resulting in the great news about the Delta merger announced last night. We enjoyed a celebratory bottle of champagne and some homemade chicken tacos (not together). Shane’s team has been working very hard to make this happen, and I know they are thrilled.
Pictures to follow– though they are a couple weeks old now, I hope you don’t mind. Send in some comments and let me know what’s new with all of you.
