since you've been gone

While I'm sure you were all utterly captivated by my scintillating monthly to-do list, I didn't intend to leave that up as the top post for this long. I had a holiday weekend post sitting in drafts that I just flat-out forgot to finish and now it feels a little late for it, but I also don't want to delete it all, so here's a mishmash.

holiday weekend

We ended up with no plans on Saturday of the holiday weekend and used the opportunity to get some errands done. It wasn't the most relaxing thing we could've done, but it wasn't bad. It was too hot to do anything other than hang out inside or move from indoor location to indoor location, so our options for fun would've been limited anyway. MB wanted to get a pair of casual shoes (I hate calling them tennis shoes since we don't play tennis, and I also hate the word sneakers.) since his actual running shoes / trainers died a while back and he only had his huge heavy work boots to wear. I decided since my trainers date back to before I was pregnant with Elliott and have holes in them, I should probably look for a pair, too. I usually buy expensive Saucony shoes from the running store because I'm prone to shin splints at the gym, but since I'm not going to the gym right now I decided to scale down and just buy some comfortable bargain version trainers. I'm sure this will sound like blasphemy to some people, but I don't really care about shoes. It would be nice to have cute shoes or sassy shoes or cool shoes but I have wide feet and toe problems, so I'm pretty much limited to the very few options that fit my feet correctly. Since having my babies, any amount of heel is too much heel. In typical man-shopping fashion, MB found, tried on, and bought one pair of shoes. I tried on three pairs. The pair I liked best didn't fit, the pair I liked second-best wasn't that cute once it was on, and the pair I liked third-best ended up being just fine so I bought those. Nico has two pairs of brand-new shoes in his closet that I had bought on clearance so I'd told him he could look but not buy. But then MB let him try on kid shoes to pass the time while I was trying on my shoes, and we ended up buying him a pair of terribly tacky but somewhat hilariously cute Lightning McQueen shoes. They didn't have a price tag on the box, so we went with the "how expensive could they possibly be?" strategy. We're now afraid to look at the receipt.

Interesting factoid: Nico has never actually watched Cars. We bought the DVD for him shortly after Elliott was born, but it was a little too intense / talky for him and he only got about 20 minutes into it before asking us to turn it off. He loves all the characters, however, thanks to the ubiquitous Disney / Pixar marketing machine. We managed to resist it until he was about three, but he now has Cars stickers, toys, dishes, pajamas, underpants, a Cars backpack, a Lightning McQueen camping chair, and (thanks to clearance rack luck and Goodwill) several Cars T-shirts. Good thing we like Pixar, I guess.

Poor Elliott got diapers and wipes and no shoes at all. I did buy him this adorable T-shirt at Target, though, since it's awesome and Nico would never agree to wear it due to a complete lack of vehicles:

On Sunday we went to a cookout at my cousin's house. Nico got to run around in the yard with my cousins' kids and while he definitely still has some learning to do when it comes to how to play with other children, I'm so happy that he's trying now.

On Monday we did our third annual theme park visit with my friend Julia's family and it was awesome. Nico was eager to go on rides with and without his buddy Nathan and he looooved the water park. I couldn't convince him to try the big kid slides, but once MB decided to join us in the pool I think they were on the slides together about 30 seconds later. They rode the slides nonstop for at least an hour. Nico's favorite thing overall was the antique car ride, just like the past two years. Elliott got to spend the whole day being spoiled by the grandparents and while I missed him, I was glad we decided not to take him with us...it was so hot. Luckily for me, the park added a really swanky nursing room this year. It had air conditioning, rocking chairs, free lockers for breast pumps, a sink, and even a mini fridge for milk. It was fabulous.

Gigantic three-year-old ahoy!

Just because I feel like getting a little teary, let's compare this to Nico of two years ago:

shopping interlude

After a very, very long time away I went to Goodwill this past Sunday with evilducky. This is unheard of, but I found three pairs of jeans (three!) and a pair of cords for myself. I also got a good handful of shirts for Nico, three pairs of nice Nico pants without the knees already half worn through, a pair of Chucks for Nico to grow into, and a pair of sweet, very well-sewn homemade pajamas that I couldn't bear to pass up. They looked like they'd never been worn and it plucked my heartstrings to think of someone's mom or grandma working to make them only for them to end up on a thrift store rack.

baby interlude

Let's check in with baby Elliott who has also become gigantic all of a sudden.

heading off to college

rare (but cute) crankyface

normal state of being

His new thing this week is to make this face while whiffing air in and out his nose. It may actually be the cutest thing ever.

not-a-baby-anymore interlude

My sweet Nico had preschool orientation last week and his first day back to school this week. His classroom is warm and bright and happy, his teacher seems eminently capable of herding a passel of three-year-olds, and Nico seems quite happy to be back. I have hopes that it'll be another really good semester for him. And he'll get to go on field trips this year!

He refused to smile for his official back-to-school picture. (Yes, he is wearing socks with his knockoff Keens. He insists and I figure it's not worth fighting over.)