A Busy Long Weekend

Whew. We had a great weekend. Just, GREAT.

The funny thing is that just as it feels like we’re getting into the groove of, I don’t know, life… Gus is on a pretty good, if unconventional routine, not to mention he’s sleeping (!) and over the last week has finally given up the glorified bottle he has insisted on drinking his milk out of (only involved 2 relatively short-lived tantrums), and I have been on this streak of cooking comfort food and baking and feeling domestic and just really truly content… well, next month this happy little existence of ours is going to be thrown a crazy curveball when we bring a newborn into the mix. A whole new PERSON in our family! It’s so exciting, but also quite scary, if I’m being completely honest.

Even though we are so busy, with so many commitments and so much to get done before Christmas, and then before baby, and it doesn’t seem like I have a moment to relax and really just do nothing, life still has this feeling almost of, well… the calm before the storm.

These last few days have been really fun and festive and laid-back, yet kind of insane at the same time. I’m feeling pretty lucky to have the husband I married and the son I gave birth to. And in addition to my boys at home, I get to be a part of these two amazing and unique families, and am able to celebrate the season, and the upcoming arrival of a new little one, with such a supportive core group of friends. I’m incredibly fortunate.

We had friends over Friday night to celebrate the holidays. I made Crockpot lasagna and it was so simple and perfect for the occasion. The Crockpot (slow cooker?) has to be one of the greatest inventions ever right? Friends brought other delicious goodies, as well as their adorable children and it was a rowdy bunch to say the least. Twelve adults and seven kids will make an old house with small rooms feel even more cramped than it was before. Ahhh well, that’s okay. I really truly do love our house, I would just love it more if some of the walls were not there and it had a little more of an open floor plan. Residential home builders circa the 1930’s, however, obviously did not favor the idea of an open floor plan.

But yes, it was a fun night, and when things got a little bit too unruly with the kids, some of them up past their bedtime I’m sure, we broke out the Christmas crafts! See, another example of my newfound domesticity… me being all organized and planning ahead with CRAFTS to keep children busy and happy. I am definitely learning on the job at this mothering thing… a year ago I would have never thought to have something for the older kids to do.

Oh but I wish Gus would be into crafts, because he so IS NOT. Lisa snapped this photo as proof that he sat down and worked on one of my little prepared projects, but in actuality this lasted for just a few minutes. See that glue stick? He really didn’t want to do anything crafty that didn’t involve licking that glue stick.  

The rest of our weekend was amazingly productive. We spent Saturday finishing up shopping at the mall, and it was of course insanely busy and we were so thankful that we just had a few small things to get. The mall the weekend before Christmas is not quite as horrible when you have a plan, and very little you need to accomplish. Of course Gus had a great time watching the high school band that was playing holiday music outside Macy’s, and it’s always nice to get a change of scenery and help him run off some steam before naptime. After lunch he took a glorious 3 hour nap that allowed us to finish wrapping presents and get ready to go to Dan’s parent’s house for the evening, to welcome them home from their Mexico vacation.

Sunday I had vowed to get all our bags packed for the hospital, and I feel SO MUCH BETTER having checked that off our list. It literally had been keeping me up at night, ridiculous I know, but I pretty much lay in bed overwhelmed with thoughts of all the things I need to do soon-ish so I can feel relaxed and at peace with baby boy making his entrance into the world.

Labor bag, hospital overnight bag, and diaper bag are all ready to go. Suck it swirling brain of stress!

After accomplishing that feat, I went grocery shopping and then baked for two hours while the little boy napped. Yum!

I don’t work Mondays, so along with Fridays, they are my little weekend bookends and I love them. My mom and dad were both off work so we all went down to the Mall of America to take Gus on a few rides and see the mall all decked out for the holidays. I’ve avoided the mall like the plague throughout the holiday season, but we figured it wouldn’t be all that busy on a Monday, and we figured right.

Gus had a total blast, and grandma and grandpa went on a bazillion rides with him.

After a pretzel and smoothie for lunch, Gus took another awesome nap and had to be woken up to go to his very last swimming lesson at the YMCA. So freaking cute. I had never been, because this was something we signed him up to do with daddy, and I worried that I might be a distraction or a nuisance to the whole process, observing from the side of the pool. But with this being the last class, I had to go and take a few pictures and see first-hand Gus in all his “scooping” and kicking and motor-boat singing glory.

And he was such a little pro about the whole thing, so cute to get a glimpse of this little routine Dan and he have had over the last few months of lessons. We all went into the family locker room together and I helped get Gus changed. Oh my goodness, I am so proud of the little boy he’s become, so independent, so smart. He walked me through the whole process, brought me his swim diaper and told me to put it on him, then his plastic diaper cover, then his swimsuit and swim shirt. Finally he showed me how he and daddy have to rinse off in the shower before going to the pool.


Shirtless husband picture ok for the internet?  I hope so.  We'll keep it small. 



This kid is so awesome. Seriously, wasn’t it yesterday I was nursing and rocking you to sleep child?! And now here we are, you showing me how you and daddy get all ready for swim lessons?

Goodness, I was already a pile of mush before he even got in the pool.

Here are a bunch of photos from the lesson, there’s only one other family enrolled in this session and they weren’t there last night, so it was a private session with the sweet-natured teenaged instructor. Dan said Gus was pretty uncooperative last night, compared to all the others. I didn’t notice, because I couldn’t hear a word of what was going on, but he seemed to have thoroughly charmed his instructor, despite his stubbornness, and I wouldn’t have expected any different.