Week Away

Jay & I spent last week in paradise. Also known as Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We left the little guy at home (heart-breaking), but he obviously was in good hands. Plus there was plenty of skyping to satisfy my need to see my baby.

The trip was perfect and just what we needed. Time alone, fun with friends, a week without a clock (seriously, I didn’t know what time it was most of the days) and lots of sunshine.

Picture taken by Photo Souvenir

Daycare Fun

Yesterday I got the following e-mail from daycare:

“Once again Brody was the only boy in the room. When I was putting ‘prettys’ in the girls’ hair, Brody pulled his own hair and signed ‘Please.’ He even looked up at where we keep the rubber bands! With the new refined ‘please’ baby sign and those big blue eyes I couldn’t say no…”

She also added that she told him that some football players wear ponytails too! And then said, I hope you don’t mind! This type of thing doesn’t bother me in the slightest, I think it’s cute. With Brody’s mohawk the first year of his life, it isn’t the first time a teacher put his hair in a ponytail! I laughed, put the picture on my phone and forwarded it to Jason right away.

However…Jason thought Brody should have a hairstyle more like Daddy’s…so here’s what he looked like this morning…

I do have to say, the styled look does make my heart melt. He looks like such a big kid!

Best Purchase Ever

There are a lot of silly purchases we’ve made since we found out Brody was on the way. But more often than not, we end up getting something that works out really well.

This past month we bought Brody a play kitchen. Winter seems to be never-ending in Wisconsin this year (though I’m truly hoping the 70 degree forecast for Sunday turns out to be accurate). All of us have been feeling a little stir crazy. So we need something else to play with in the house.

So a few coupons and my employee discount combined, we got this kitchen for steal. And it was worth every penny. Though I have to say, I end up finding pretend food scattered across the house. I found an orange in the bathtub tonight…the same orange that is in the bookshelf in the picture below.

Even tennis balls make their way into the play kitchen somedays. The best part is that I really think it will last for awhile as he gets older.

What I Wish for my Son…

This blog is generally about Brody. However, I still like to write about my non-Brody experiences from time to time. Who I am as a person both before and after Brody really shape the type of mother I am. And this past weekend as I was driving home from a really wonderful Friday night, I began dreaming about Brody’s future and the types of friends that he will have someday…

Let me start by saying, I have truly amazing, wonderful friends that I never see often enough. Most of them live too far away to see on a regular basis. And even if they lived closer, we are all busy with babies, pets, houses and work. On top of that – I’m awful at staying in touch on the phone. Luckily one of my best friends is pretty good at calling me – otherwise I swear we’d never talk.

So last weekend she invited me to her house for a girls-night. It wasn’t all of our girls, but the ones that live close enough to get together. It was perfect. It’s great when you get together with the husbands, and children, but every once and awhile you need time with just the ladies.

And what did we do? We sang Karaoke. Yes – it sounds silly – but that is actually what we used to do when we were in high school! (Did I mention I’ve known these ladies for a very long time?) So we took a trip down memory lane and sang some really good and not-so-good songs.

As I drove home Saturday morning I thought about how lucky I am that no matter how often we get together – they’re still the people I can tell anything to or sing stupid songs with and we’ll still be friends.

As Brody grows up, I hope he’s as lucky as I am to find good friends that stick with you for life.

Choo Choo!

This weekend we headed off on another Autumn themed adventure. We celebrated my Mom’s birthday by heading to a local apple orchard. We had never been there before so we weren’t sure what to expect.

It was a little weird heading to pick apples and pumpkins in almost 80 degree weather, but we went anyway. I figured that despite the great weather, if we went during the football game, maybe it wouldn’t be so busy.

I was wrong.

Our main goal was to go on a hayride, yet we quickly discovered that the line was a 30-40 minutes long. There was no way any of us were going to wait in line in the hot sun for that long. So we looked for plan B. Luckily there was a train that passed through the farm that looked interesting, so we went for it.

The train took us through the some of the country areas that we were nearby and the conductor talked about some of the history of the railroad. He also told some pretty corny jokes, on the way there and back.

Brody didn’t take in the train as much as he would/will when he’s older, but he seemed to have a good time. Most importantly, he didn’t freak out when they blew the whistle right next us. Instead he gave the driver a look like “what the heck is that noise!”

And possibly the best part? The day ended with a decadent carmel apple and an apple pie to bring home to Daddy.

Little Dancer

I love to dance with Brody and we’ve been dancing since the day he was born. Which really means, I dance, he’s just looks at me like I’m crazy. But apparently I’m starting to rub off on him…