Kissing Cousins

My boy loves to give kisses.  He gives them freely and to anyone who wants one.  And his cousin, Addie, is one of his favorite people.  So over Thanksgiving weekend, she got lots of Dylan love.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Gastonia with my family, and it was good eats and good times!  The highlights:

• Watching the kids together
• Spending a whole 4 days with my wonderful family
• Shopping an entire afternoon with my mom and sister in law (kid free...see Boys will be Boys post for where Scott, Dylan, Seth, Addie, and Dad were!  LOL!)
• Finding out that in late April I will have another niece (Emilee Renae)!  

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

See if you can stand the cuteness of these two precious little ones...I dare you!

Boys will be Boys

What happens when the Daddies are in charge for the afternoon?

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Bye, Bye, Fishy

The surgery center where Dylan had his tubes put in had a giant fish tank.  And the kid was mesmerized by all the fishies.  That gave me the bright idea to get him a gold fish.  So last weekend, our little family went to Petco, and $50 later, we walked out with Dylan's brand new gold fish.

And three hours later...he was dead.  I killed him, while Dylan was napping.  Poor guy never even got to see him.  I set everything up after he was asleep.

Part of the $50 was a brand new little tank, food, rocks, and a dragon and castle to go inside.  NOBODY said a word to me about buying drops to treat the water.

So there you have it...I killed poor little no-name fishy in record time.  And you wonder how I am responsible for a 19 month old and 2 dogs.? :-)

Oh, and we will be replacing the fish this weekend.  Apparently you have to treat the water first before dumping the fish in.

Worst Blogger EVER!

I just realized it has been 2 months since I last posted something.  Wow, that officially makes me the worst blogger ever!  The past couple months have been busy, but I am back and I promise I will do better!

So I guess I should catch everyone up on what has been going on...

Dylan had his tubes surgery and all was successful.  Hopefully this winter will be much easier on him than last.  He turned 19 months old last week.  And while I love all the new fun stuff he is doing; I wish I could slow time down a bit.  It's just going too fast.  I am afraid I am going to blink and he is going to be starting school.

I had my first truly embarrassing moment with Dylan last week.  I went to pick him up at daycare and he started throwing a tantrum in his classroom.  I carried him kicking and screaming to the car.  You see, he hates the process of getting in his car seat (he is usually fine once we get on the road) and he has started associating putting his jacket on with his car seat.  Let's just say that every teacher and parent stopped to stare in shock.  Dylan is always the perfect, happy child at school.  He has never thrown a tantrum there, so needless to say, they were just as shocked as I was embarrassed.  I know this is only the beginning.  I have been told that in the next couple years, name calling will be included with the tantrums.  Yay!  :-)

He continues to constantly entertain us.  I love seeing what he is going to do next.  He is now repeating everything we say and do.  He can identify family members and other things that he is familiar with by their pictures.  And just the other day, he started to sing the Wheels on the Bus with me.  He was already doing the hand gestures for the song, but then he sang "all the through the town" with me, and you could have knocked me over.  I have always loved singing with him, but now it has an all new meaning.

Scott and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on September 30th.  We spent a weekend at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC.  This place was SO NICE and we had the best time.  We spent one day at the spa in the hotel and another day exploring Asheville.  We hiked to the top of Chimney Rock.  We were quite proud of ourselves for this accomplishment.  It is a 1/2 mile of stairs straight up.  And at first we said, "no problem, piece of cake".  Yeah...it's harder than it looks, that's all I am going to say.  And it was beautiful when we made it to the top.  Lake Lure was right there, and I had Dirty Dancing scenes running through my head the whole time.  :-)

We took another trip at the end of October to NYC to see my best friend, Erin.  We really had the best time.  It was the weekend before Halloween so we got to do a lot of interesting things, including an interactive theater play and a 20's Halloween party.  But my favorite thing we did was making brunch and playing board games all day when we got snowed in.  It really gave us the opportunity to get to know Erin's fiance, Brian.  And I can now say after spending 4 days with them, that they are definitely made for each other.  They fit together so well, and most importantly, really ENJOY each other.  I can't wait for the wedding and all of the celebrations leading up to it next year!

Hear are some pictures over the last couple months, just to continue catching everyone up.  And I am now back on track, so be expecting much more to come...especially with the holidays!!  I love this time of year!!  In fact, I am feeling the urge to watch the Sound of Music; a holiday tradition of mine.  :-)

This is only the beginning...

Ok, this just makes me laugh.  It was very cold and windy!!

No more wire hangers!!

Clyde, Bonnie, Joan Crawford, Newsie Boy

Dancing, having fun!

Don't mess with me; I have an aluminum gun...

Catching Up

I have been pretty lazy about the blog this month so I wanted to catch everyone up on us!

Dylan is now walking everywhere.  Everyone told me that life changes once they start walking, but so far I am loving it.  He imitates everything we do (even coughing).  It's like he is a little sponge.  He is still testing me, and only me, with temper tantrums.  At these moments I am sometimes at a loss what to do.  Mostly, I ignore it or put him in time out.  But it is funny the way I am the only person he does this with.  The daycare teachers looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned temper tantrums to them.

And speaking daycare...he has moved up to the toddler room!  Not surprising, that is when he started walking.  Dylan's favorite teacher is no longer with the daycare.  She has been with Dylan since he was 3 months old, so this was quite a blow for us.  I know he misses his "Cole".  Nicole, love and miss you girl!  But we keep in touch and I know they will continue to have a relationship.

I have discovered that I have a very picky eater on my hands.  He eats what he knows.  His favorite food?  Bread, bread, and more bread.  Getting him to eat veggies has become similar to watching an episode of the Jerry Spring Show.  It starts with me chanting (like the Jerry fans), "GREEN BEANS, GREEN BEANS, GREEN BEANS".  He pops one in and, I throw my hands up in the air and "WOO HOO!"  I am hoping if I keep putting them in front of him that he will eventually eat them without being prompted.

We have more and more ear infections to the point where the pediatrician has recommended tubes.  In fact, we have an appointment with the ENT this afternoon, so stay tuned.  I have to say though, I am perfectly okay if this is the conclusion we come to.  The medicine is so hard on his little body and he has been on them for half of this year so far.  We average 1 ear infection a month.

We just got back from a family beach trip a few weeks ago with my family.  We had a blast with Nana, Pops, Papaw, Paula, Addie, and Debbie (Seth had to work).  I was in Savannah a couple weeks for a fabulous bachelorette party for our friend Jenna.  I hardly ever get "girl" time anymore, and a whole weekend?  Well it was so much fun!  Scott and I have our 5 year anniversary coming up at the end of September.  The two of us are taking a trip to the mountains and Grove Park Inn.  Neither of us are mountain people, but I have to say, we are really excited about this trip.  It has been a long time since either of us has seen Asheville and the time together is much needed!

I am posting some pictures from the last month of our trip to the beach and a trip to Gastonia that Dylan and I took.  Hope everyone stays safe this weekend with big bad Hurricane Irene making its way up the East Coast.  An earthquake and hurricane all in one week?  CRAZY!!

Pushing Addie!

Feeding the ducks

Tony's!

Holden Beach

A few weeks ago, we traveled to Holden Beach for our annual trip to see the Aguirre’s.  Jonathan is an old friend of Scott’s, and we always make the trip to see him and his parents, John and Wanda.  They are two of my favorite people.  Wanda and I keep in touch through out the year, and I am always sending her updated pictures of Dylan, but we always get so excited to make this trip every summer.

They, quite simply, spoil us rotten.  They put up with us taking over their house and then prepare a feast for every meal.  And the last two years, they have watched Dylan while Mommy and Daddy had some adult time with friends.  Dylan just loved them.  He had such a blast hanging out with the two of them this year.  He expressed his enjoyment, by pulling out every piece Tupperware that Wanda owns.    

Now, I know I’ve told you how much Dylan loves the beach, but there are no words for how much this kid loves the ocean; so I took video (see two videos below).  We could not keep him out of the water.  He would literally crawl from the blanket into the ocean, and he would keep going if we let him.  We are looking forward to another beach trip with my family this weekend.

So, not surprisingly, we never want to leave at the end of this weekend.  Wanda and John, thank you for always making us feel a part of your family; we love you guys!

Super Mom!

I had a conversation with a very good friend tonight who was at the end of her rope.  She needed what all of us need every once in awhile;  a girlfriend to listen to and reassure her.  She's stressed out, and honestly, I would worry about her if she wasn't.  She has three children, ages 5, 2, and 6 months; just thinking about that stresses me out.  So she says to me, "I feel like I need to be Super Mom.  I fix the same five dinners over and over again, I have mounds of laundry, my house needs to be cleaned, I have bottles to wash."  I told her she can't be Super Mom.  There are only 24 hours in a day; you can only do so much.

But this conversation got me thinking about a book that I am right in the middle of right now, TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career, & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood, by Samantha Parent Walravens.  My friend Meg strongly recommended this book, and it has been eye opening, to say the least.  The book is compiled of essays by the working mother, balancing career and family.  It's by turns hysterically funny and incredibly sad.  It grabbed me from the very beginning because I recognized myself in some small way in every essay.  From the mom who cried sitting in the daycare parking lot after leaving her screaming child behind, to the mom covered in food that her child threw at her.

You see, I told my friend tonight that she can't be Super Mom, but that's easier said than done.  We set high expectations for ourselves as mothers, and then feel guilty when those expectations are not met.  So my take on this situation is that you can be Super Mom.  But you have to define what Super Mom means to you.  For me, working full time and being a part time single mom (when Scott travels), means Super Mom is making sure that I get to spend at least 30 minutes a day playing with Dylan, getting full meals (including veggies) into is belly, scrubbing the grime of the day off him in the bath tub while he soaks me, reading his bed time story, and tucking him into bed.  I get to the housework and laundry when I get a chance, but it can always wait.  In my little world, Super Mom means doing the best for Dylan that I can.  If that means I have a messy house and dirty laundry, I am okay with that.

R, I think you are an awesome mother.  Your kids are never lacking in affection or attention from you; and that is the most important thing.  Everything else pales in the grand scheme of things.  I admire you and I think you are doing a wonderful job!

Here is a quote from the introduction of TORN.  It sounds vaguely familiar from when I had a breakdown a couple months ago.  HA!  Maybe that's why this book grabbed my attention from the very beginning:

"After a horrific two-hour commute home along a backed up freeway, I found myself screaming at my husband to make his own dinner while throwing a box of cereal on the table in front of our two-year-old-son.  They looked at me, bewildered.  My inner good girl, who thought she could do it all, had snapped."

As for this book; I would recommend this to every mother, young or old.  You will see yourself in it.

Moms, do the best you can and be proud of that effort.  We can't do it all; that's just plain fact, but we are still ROCK STARS!  Just look at the kiddies for proof!

Oh the Changes!

This afternoon as I was driving home from work, a sweet little voice rang out from the back seat.  Like music to my ears, he called, "mama".  My heart just simply melted, and then I looked in the mirror and started laughing.  Dylan had his hands in the air and was bouncing (as much as he can) and dancing to the music on the radio.  I was not expecting this...the kid normally just sits back there and looks out the window while sucking his thumb and hanging on to his blankie.  So he entertained me the rest of the way home.

I find myself more and more entertained these days by Dylan.  He is talking all the time.  His favorite words are: all done (a-ga), mine, good, bye bye, hey, mama, and da-da.  He has been saying mama for awhile.  But he calls for me now; when he sees me at daycare, when he is upset, and sometimes when he wants my attention.

He mimics everything...he puts his hands up in the air when you yell touchdown and he doesn't necessarily need music to truly break it down and shake his bum.  All he needs to be entertained is a ball.  He walks very well holding onto the furniture or my hand, and has walked a few steps independently; but much to Scott's disappointment, we haven't been able to capture this on video.  He loves to skype with Grandma and Paw Paw, Nana and Pops, and Daddy, when he is out of town.

And my personal favorite...he thinks everything is a phone.  He holds up the TV remote, the monitor, his toys, to his ear and has a conversation (since it is babble, the subject matter is a mystery to everyone but him).  Then, he hands the "phone" to me for me to talk.

He has begun to assert his independence.  He doesn't like to be held all the time anymore.  He likes to be free to check out his surroundings.  He is drawn to all things that don't belong to him, most especially, the TV remote.  When something is taken away from him or he doesn't get what he wants, he pitches a temper tantrum.  Sooooooooo, hello, time-out.  When he misbehaves, he spends 1 minute facing a specific corner. Considering he faces the corner and doesn't crawl away tells me he understands this a punishment.  This may be very un-mommy like behavior, but I can't help but giggle a little at time-out.  He looks and sounds so pitiful, that it is almost comical.

The changes just keep on coming!  The first year of his life, I was both excited and anxious to see him changing so much.  I find that so far, in his second year of life, it is nothing but excitement for me.  One little voice this afternoon got me thinking about all of his newness.  I wanted to share the perfect sweetness, that is my son, with y'all!

Family Reunion in VA Beach!

One, two, three...listen to me.  Recently we travelled to Virginia Beach for the Mandronico Family Reunion on Scott's mother's side of the family.  There were about 25 of us and we came from all over the place....Raleigh, Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, and upstate NY.  We used to see everyone at weddings, but then we ran out of weddings.  So Marie and her sisters planned this family reunion and we all converged on Virginia Beach.

It has been a couple years since we have all been together and since then quite a few of us have had children.  Including Dylan, there were 5 kids at the reunion; all boys.  They booked us all together on the same floor of the hotel...which was fortunate; for those of you who remember Jon and Tara's wedding know that we almost got kicked out of that hotel for offending soccer moms who didn't appreciate our noise levels.  Aside from almost getting booted from an Irish Pub, we were are all very well behaved on this trip.  Oh we definitely had a few crazy moments...naked sleepwalking, strollers/kids galore, group family picture...to name a few.   But those were just entertaining stories.  The weekend really went off without a hitch.  Here are a few quotes that Scott's aunt and uncle put together of the weekend:


Steve: “Her jaw is permanently lubricated at the factory and she can go 5 minutes on any subject - give her a    topic...”

Tara: “ Jon, what are you doing?” 

Jon: “ I’m going to the bathroom.”  

Tara: “I don’t think you’ll find it in   the hallway!”

Erin: “You want to take one of these kids home?  No problem - help yourself!”

Marie: “I love that Bryan, he dances to a different drummer!”

Bev: “He’s a drummer?  I thought he played the guitar!”

Bill: “Come on Bev - give me your hand, we have to go back to our room now!”

Marie: “Ron, take your shoes and socks off - how do you expect to get an even  tan?”

Ron: “Are you crazy, I don’t have anything on underneath.”

Bev:  "Are you sure I can go to the bar dressed like this?"

Jon:  "Well nothing says Italian like a track suit, Aunt Bev!"

Jayden, Dylan, Ashten, Caleb and Riley: “Wow! And they put these people in charge;  yeah, and this is only the beginning!”

It was such a good time that we didn't want to come home.  Here are some pictures from our fabulous weekend!

Dylan's 1st Year

Scott worked really hard to create a video of Dylan's first year of life.  I am a little late in posting this, but better late than never, right?

Scott, you did such a good job on this video, and I will treasure it for the rest of my life.  Thanks for doing this!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGFh3MQfkL0

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Bandit the Friendly Ghost, one mystery solved!

Well, we know one thing...the ghost IS NOT opening the baby gates for Bandit. He is sailing right over the bottom one and working his way over the top one; its pretty funny actually. He waits until Scott leaves for work and then makes his move. It looks very uncomfortable getting over that gate, but he has the last laugh, as he is spending the day on my bed.

One thing to note before you watch this short clip, we edited the video down to when he actually jumped over the gate, so the sound you hear actually took place when Scott first turned the camera on.

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10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1...and welcome home Daddy!

I did it...10 days of Working/Single Mom is over, and I did it!  I struggled whether to write about this or not because it sheds a somewhat embarrassing light on me.  But if you love me, you love; and that's that.  As I said, Scott was gone for 10 days between DC and Richmond.  This is a long time for our family.  And it kind of snuck up on us; as we didn't know he was going to be gone until a week or so before it happened.

Our plan was to go to Gastonia last weekend because my best friend and her boyfriend were in town from NYC.  Scott ended up having to go to DC so Dylan and I headed to Gastonia by ourselves.  At this point, Scott had been gone for 4 days and Dylan has had 2 ear infections for about a week.  Things did not go very well in Gastonia.  Dylan was just off, and I knew something was wrong.  I figured we were going to need to make another trip to the doctor.  And with his history of ear infections, I knew we needed to see our doctor.  So under the very wise advice of my mother, I cut my trip short and drove back Saturday night to Raleigh so I could take him to the doctor first thing Sunday morning.

Here is the embarrassing part...As soon as mom mentioned this idea of driving back, I broke down.  I literally started bawling and I don't think I stopped until Sunday after Dylan's doctor appointment.  I am not really sure what happened to me.  I was exhausted.  When Scott is gone, and I am working, my day starts at 4:30am and ends about 8pm.  I had been doing this for about a week by myself.  And add in sick/fussy baby and it doesn't get easier.  I was sick.  Stomach virus...enough said.  I was sad.  I had seen Erin and Brian for all of two seconds and I was missing time with them; the whole point to my trip home.  I was worried.  Dylan had an ear infection for a week and I was scared the medicine wasn't working.  He just wasn't acting himself.  I was overwhelmed.  I had help in Gastonia.  I was coming home to an empty house for another whole week.  I just didn't want to leave.

But I think what really set me over the edge was the absolute concern in mom and dad's face for me.  It was the ultimate parental concern.  I could see it in their faces, "my child is upset, and I would do anything to make it better for her."  My sweet, sweet dad offered to drive me and Dylan back to Raleigh.     I can only hope that I am always as good a parent as they are.  No matter what, I always feel that love, concern, and support from them; even now it brings tears to my eyes.

So I took Dylan to the doctor first thing the next morning and he was fine.  So I cried some more at the doctor's office.  He assured me lots of moms hit a wall and cry, and it didn't make me a bad mom.  I believe he is about to get some more teeth.  And he is also starting to test me.  I take something away that he shouldn't be playing with, and he pitches a fit.  I have learned that if you don't respond to the tantrum; pretend like it isn't happening, it passes pretty quickly.

We had a pretty good week.  We definitely have a routine when Scott is not here and it works beautifully for us.  So we played a lot before bed and I think we only had one tantrum all week.

Everything is back to normal now.  Scott came home on Thursday and I have been trying to forget about my 24 hour meltdown.  That probably won't be the last one I have, to be honest, but hopefully it doesn't happen again for awhile.  I know I am a good mom, or at least I try to be; but I was pretty ashamed of myself over this.  I have a very good child, and I am so lucky to have him.  He makes me laugh constantly.  I know things can't always be hearts and flowers and basically perfection.  But I really dislike the fact that I behaved this way.  And as it was hard on me, I know it wasn't easy on Scott to be away from Dylan for that long.

And I will just say...my hat is off to all of you single moms.  Seriously, I have nothing but respect for you.  I can't imagine doing it by myself all the time and being the sole supporter.  Y'all are my heros!  :-)

Despite all the drama from last weekend, Dylan wasn't fussy the entire time and he did get some quality time with Nana and Pops.  He got ahold of cell phone and before I could stop him, had it up to his ear and was "talking".  This is new!  The things they learn!

Addie and Dylan

Hello?  May I spek to mommy?

Cutie Pie!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a crazy weekend!  The 4th Annual Eadsfest was held on Saturday.  For those of you not familiar, this is a Beer Olympics competition modeled after Beer Fest, the movie.  The Drunkenbauers came in 3rd place, as they are destined to every year.  I only competed the first year back in 2008, and it was a lot of fun.  By 2009, I was pregnant, and I chose to referee.  Yeah, I won't ever do that again.  The sole blame for that goes to the Drunkenbauers, my own family!  I say this with all the love in my heart; they are competitive and obnoxious, and didn't have lot of respect for the referees.  It was so bad that I refused to go anywhere near them after the first game.  I didn't compete in 2010 because I had a 5 week old baby, and well that says it all.  And this year?  Simple, I can't drink.  Two glasses of wine puts me under now a days. An all day beer drinking competition would land me in the hospital.  Not to mention trying to take care of 13 month old with a massive hangover the next day.  That is just not happening.  This year's team consisted of my brother Seth, my sis in law Paula, Scott, Jon, and our friend Paul.  They had a great time, and while I was dreading them coming home drunk, they regaled me with stories of the day and just made me laugh.  They continued the spirit of competition when they got home with Seth, Scott, and Jon taking part in a McDonald's 50 count chicken mcnugget challenge.  I still don't know who won, but it was fun to watch.  I am just picturing the faces of the people at Mickey D's as they all these drunk people walk in and order a total of 150 nuggets.  So, what did I do while they were at Eadsfest?  I took my sweet boy on a wagon ride and then Tara and I took Dylan to Lily's pizza for dinner.  I think I got the better end of this deal.

On Memorial Day, we went to the neighborhood pool with Jon, Tara, and the Eads family.  I learned some things about the kind of mother I am that day.  First, Dylan's first experience in a pool a few weeks did not go over very well, so I knew we were in for a challenge.  I held Dylan and inched my way in.  We started with my feet in the pool, then moved to sitting on a stair, where it seems we sat for a very long time.  Then Steph and I sang The Wheels on the Bus very loudly and I was able to move the rest of the way into the pool without any problems.  Here's the thing about Dylan...there are 2 things which can defuse any fussy/scary situation pretty quickly...a blanket and the Wheels on the Bus.  It is his favorite song and he gets SO happy when I sing it to him.  So sure enough, as soon as we started singing, he cracked a smile and forgot all about his fear.  From then on, he just wanted to be in the pool.  So I learned that I don't care how embarrassing it is, if it calms my child, I am going to do it.  Another thing I learned about myself...I am officially old.  There were some teenage boys that were throwing a football around and got too close to us a couple times, and I gave them "the look".  Hello, there is BABY right in front of you?  They politely looked at me and said "sorry ma'am."  MA'AM????  Who are you talking to?  THEN later, Me, Dylan, and Eads were standing around when a football wizzed past my head, and I heard, "watch out for the old people behind you."  Seriously?  I am "old people" now?  Okay, I will say I was a little hard on the other teenagers who started to throw a football threw our group, who again included a baby and Lily, who is 3 years old.  But in my defense, we had asked them to move over several times before I got snappy.    And yes, as I am writing this, I am laughing at the whole experience because the thing is?  I don't really care all that much.  I actually find it humorous.  So I learned that I am "old people" and I am "that" mother that yells at teenagers when there is too much roughhousing.

So I hope everyone had a great weekend!  It really was a busy, but fun weekend for us.  Enjoy the pictures!

After Eadsfest...Scott and Seth in the middle of the nugget challenge.

Mom, I am trying to eat.  Please get the camera out of my face.

Wagon ride!

Success!  We are in the pool!

Eads family!

Uncle Jon and Aunt Tara

Playing with Daddy and Uncle Jon

Lily and Scott having a snack

You see those boys to the right?  They are the ones that called me "old people"

Hanging with Daddy