Embrace the Camera: June 23rd

Emily's blog is up and running again, which means she's back to embracing the camera. Hopefully she is feeling much, much better these days. Or, at the very least, feeling human again. Sometimes making beautiful babies is hard work, you guys!

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There is a tiny little community center in our neighborhood. It was built in the early 1960's and had been increasingly neglected over the past 10-20 years. Luckily, it seems that recently the neighborhood has had a renewed interest and the community center has been undergoing some sort of beautification process. The center includes a swimming pool, tennis courts and picnic area and is located right next to a boat dock and park. Oh, and it overlooks the St. John's river. It could be quite beautiful and I'm so glad that the neighborhood is putting for the effort to make it that way.

I recently had an old friend move into a house a couple of streets over. She told me that she and her husband and their baby had been going to the pool every other night. It's open from 7-8pm for free swim. I'm sure it's also open during the day, but since we work, the 7-8 time frame is perfect for wearing our little one's out right before bedtime! Haeden has spent a lot of time in the pool the past few weeks and he really seems to be enjoying the water. He is a little apprehensive at times, but I'm sure that by the end of the season he will be completely comfortable. We're already working on teaching him how to swim, something I think is very important --- especially living in the state of Florida.

The only problem is that Haeden doesn't want to wear his bathing suit. Last night he kept telling me to take it off. This is new. He's never been the kind of kid who takes of his diaper or runs around the house nude. He actually prefers to pick out his clothes, and shoes... and hats. He's becoming quite opinionated on the subject, really. I know where the blame lies though... my mom. Or, my grandma, "Oma". Apparently he spent some nekkie baby time in the pool at grandma's house this weekend. Now he knows the joys of skinny dipping and isn't interested in wearing his swim diaper/trunks anymore.

Thanks, Mom!

On the way to the pool... I suck at taking pictures of myself with the phone.

Usually I cut people's heads off in the process...

 Case in point:

Vacation - Part Two

After the Hard Rock tour we decided to see a movie. That is one thing that I have missed since becoming a parent. It's such a big deal for me to go to the movie theatre these days. I had to do a little convincing to make it happen on our trip, but eventually I got my way. The compromise, of course, was that I had to see a boy movie. They chose The Green Lantern. I had no desire to see it, especially in the theatre, but I actually reallly enjoyed it. And not just because of the eye candy either (Ryan Reynolds = hot stuff!). The movie was actually pretty entertaining.

Oh, and before the movie, I purchased my "souvenir".

I have been wanting a pair of Tom's shoes for mooonths. There are only one or two places to get them locally and neither of them are convenient. I refuse to buy shoes without trying them on, so I 've been waiting for the opportunity to do so. I scooped these babies right up when I saw them at one of the surf shops at City Walk. Never has a person been so excited to buy a pair of shoes. I would be embarrassed to say that if it weren't for the fact that buying those shoes meant that someone in need would get a pair, too. Totally justifies my elation, I'd say!

We spent Monday morning and early afternoon at Universal Studios. I think everyone enjoyed that park a little more. Me for nostalgic reasons and the boys because the rides there are a little more tame. We also got to see a couple of shows, Fear Factor and BeetleJuice something or other. Monday was hotter than Sunday and it was almost unbearable. We were totally ready to hit the road by 3pm. I was so excited to get home to Haeden and so, of course, he was SLEEPING (at 7:30pm?!) when went to pick him up. I tried to wake him up and it just wasn't happening. And since I had to be at work the next morning at 7am, I didn't get to see his smiling face until Tuesday evening. Complete and utter torture.

Now, the trip was great, so don't get me wrong. Buuut, I missed my little man so incredibly much that sometimes it physically hurt. I know that sounds silly. It was just 2.5 days, but maaaaan, it's the truth. We would be in the middle of something, laughing and having a good time and I'd stop for a second and just say, "Gosh, I miss my Haeden!" And everyone would nod their heads in agreement and smile thinking about the trouble he'd be getting into if he actually had been with us. This is not to say that I wish we would have taken him to Universal with us. That would be crazy talk. I'm neither brave enough nor stupid enough to take a toddler to a theme park in the middle of summer! I think I would have just preferred to have him on the trip with us, but maybe also have someone there to hang with him while the rest of us went to the parks.

Give me a "mommy's night out" any day of the week, but a whole weekend?! No, I think I'll pass. There is just too much happiness and joy that needs to be soaked up with him right now. I can't stand to be away from those big, blue eyes for too long.

Thankful Tuesday - June 21st

I am thankful for VACATIONS! Even the mini ones.

Our weekend trip to Orlando was a blast. It was also hot and sticky and ohmigod HOT, but it was a great time. I expected that we would take a bazillion or so pictures, but I was so wrong. On the first day I was actually worried because I forgot to bring the camera charger, but that worry was for nothing (as usual) since we took probably less than twenty pictures over the three day trip. I blame the heat. It was just too hot (have I mentioned how hot it was?! Hotter than hot!) to stand out in the sun long enough to pose for pictures or to even bother with taking the camera in and out of my backpack. That was precious energy that I need to keep myself from passing out from the heat. Also, those pictures probably wouldn’t have been pretty anyway. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a window and, uh, you guys don’t need to see what I saw anyway!

We arrived in Orlando Saturday afternoon and after a delicious lunch of fresh, sliced mozzarella with tomatoes and roasted red peppers and NY style pizza decided to partake in a game of miniature golf. It’s kind of a tradition for us when we visit Orlando. The Hubs decided that since it was only $2 more, it would be a great idea to buy two games instead of just one (they had two different courses). I knew that it was a terrible idea, but since I kicked everyone’s bootay in the second game, I won’t complain now… except to lament that I got a serious sunburn on the back of my neck. I am usually really good about applying sunscreen, but I didn’t think we’d be out that long so I didn't bother. Husband blamed and lesson learned. Once we checked into the fabulous resort hotel (I feel classy just typing that!), we took a boat over to City Walk and had dinner at Margaritaville. The food was good, but that is definitely not my scene. I can safely say that I am way too cool for that place/ music. ha! We tried to hit up the pool when we got back to the (resort) hotel, but no less than 5 minutes into it, we had to get out due to the bad weather that was quickly approaching. That was no biggie though. We go swimming all the time anyway, and I had something more important to tend to... underwear. Yeah, I totally forgot to pack underwear. This is what happens when you're in Mom Mode and you have to worry about everyone else and whether or not they've packed underwear. I wasn't happy about the fact that I couldn't wash it first, but I made sure to buy the pre-packaged brand because I figured it had to be somewhat safer and wouldn't you know that they, of course, didn't have my size? I had to go a size up, which meant that I had a wedgie for the remainder of the trip. Awesome.

We spent Sunday at Islands of Adventure. We got up extra early to take advantage of the early access to the Harry Potter area. That and the fast pass are perks your receive when you stay at one of the on-site resorts. Worth every penny. The thing about getting there an hour before the general public is let in and then also having a fast pass for all of the rides is that you're basically done with the park in just a few hours. We had done and seen everything we had wanted by 1pm. Being that I had a headache from the heat and the boys wanted to cool off at the pool, we decided to head back. I elected to take a nap while everyone else went swimming. A NAP, you guys. It was glorious. Later we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe followed by a tour of the restaurant/ VIP area. Did you know they did that? We didn't. It was so cool! I would venture to say it was actually the highlight of the entire trip. Their "VIP" room is a replica of John Lennon's living room and they even have his favorite couch!!! If you ever go, you really should ask about it. It's free, but you'll definitely want to tip your guide. Ours spent an hour showing us around. He was amazing.

Okay, this is getting long and my attention span isn't that long today considering I am having to squint to see the computer screen at this point. It is still smokey as hell here in Jax and my head is starting to feel like a balloon. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of the story...

Kick It!

 My friend, who shall remain nameless, had dinner at Cracker Barrel earlier this week. On her way out she realized she had a napkin stuck to her shoe (not as bad as toilet paper, but still embarrassing nonetheless). Rather than stop and remove said napkin, she decided to try and shake it off while she walked towards the exit. Bad idea. Can you guess what's about to happen here?

Yeah. She kicked her shoe off in the middle of the restaurant. And that's not the worst of it because the shoe went flying through the air and hit some guy in the leg and then fell down underneath his table.

I just wish I could have seen the look on her face. Or, his face for that matter.  I probably would have spit my food out laughing. I wonder how many people witnessed it. Did the place suddenly go quiet? Did people erupt in laughter? Luckily for her, the guy and his friend laughed it off and handed her shoe back. That had to have been a long walk to the door.

I guess she should just be glad the shoe didn't land in some one's food. Now, that would have been bad.

This may or may not be the culprit. Don't worry, girl, you're still remaining "nameless"!