I love you, Samzilla.

I only gave Jason one thing for Father’s Day…

jason

This t-shirt by the amazing Sammy Kaye. Sammy has been an internet friend for almost 10 years. She was one of the first people I gushed about Jason to. She’s a Michiginian, transplanted to Chicago, who just recently returned to the United States from a couple-month-stay in South Korea where she worked in a school with some freakin’ adorable kids. She blogged about her stay, complete with gorrrrrrrgeous photos, here.

ANYWAY, I love me some Sammy art, so I snagged up one of her Buschemi-giraffe t-shirts the first day she put them on Etsy. Jason likes golden yellow shirts, so it was perfect! We also have a Bill Murray shirt in white, but I’m thinking I may need a blue one soon. Go check out her shop and give her some loooove!

Baby no more

I should probably stop calling him my baby. He’s the youngest, though, so he might be stuck with the “baby” nickname for all eternity. Or until I’m brave enough to get pregnant again (oh, the VOMIT!).

He’s growing up fast! Because I knew he’d hate the long drive and then the long ceremony, I timidly suggested he stay with grandma while I went out of town. Afterall, daddy was going to take Nathan to his first baseball game and I knew Andy wouldn’t really like that.

It took a bit, but we solidified our plans and I kissed his sleeping face goodbye, early Saturday morning. Later that afternoon, he got dropped off at grandma’s.

And we never heard from him again.

I KID! To my complete and utter surprise, he did wonderfully! Nary a fuss! In fact, when we went over early Sunday afternoon, he was happily riding a bike in the driveway. I asked if he wanted to go and he kinda pulled back. As if to say, “no way, Jose. I’m at Grandma’s!” Alas, we had plans to go to Grandpa’s, so we had to head out pronto. With promises of a prompt return, I buckled him up and off we went for a few hours.

I’ll have you note, it was now over 24 hours since he last nursed! Pretty amazing. We spent a few hours at Jason’s dad’s, where I smelled a magnolia for the first time.

magnolias
[1] & [2]

My father-in-law got a ladder out and plucked this from his tree. It smelled amazing! A clean, lemony, floral scent.

We headed back to grandma’s in the early evening. We had dinner, opened gifts, played, etc.

just hanging out

nathan diptych

and the newly minted “big boy” himself:
swinging diptych

It was a pretty swell weekend.

Park fun

We went to the park, this evening after dinner.

after-dinner park fun

That boy right there has found his courage. He tried to climb anything with a rung for him to hang on to. Ladders, slides, jungle gyms, etc. When he couldn’t quite climb the jungle gym (blame the short arms and legs), he started eating it…

eating the jungle gym

He was trying to climb it to get to daddy, who was perched up top. It was a pretty big domey jungle gym. Not even the big one could get up on his own.

getting help

Speaking of the big one; he’s turning five, this June. FIVE! I thought the day would never come. All those long nights I wished he would just grow up already! and now he’s turning FIVE and I want him to be tiny again. He’s sassy and talks back. His hair is always a mess. His room is always a mess. He says big words and he scolds ME when I interrupt him.

But.
He’s also smart. He tells ridiculous jokes and dances like a crazy-person. He lets me win card games and take his picture. He was the first.

swing fun

Jason love: he never says no.

tree boy

He never says no when I ask him for anything. Well, OK, maybe he did tell me NO when I asked for a camera upgrade. And he may have even said NO to me putting a certain CD on repeat in the car, but he never says NO when I ask him for a photo. He usually goes above and beyond the call of husbandly duty. I asked for a cheerleader jump and he proceeded to make me laugh so hard a lot of my photos ended up too blurry for use.

cheerleader jump

THEN, he started running and jumping off the tree for even more hilarious photos, like the one below. I have SO many, but I will only share these few. The rest will have to be printed for a scrapbook. you know, when I actually start getting around to even composing simple photo albums. I’m going to be caught by surprise when my boys are all grown up, demanding SOME proof they had a childhood.

OMG!JUMP!

Jason, thank you for being so cute and awesome.

Day O’Love

hearts and hearts
Heart knit from pattern found in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. It’s the back of the “Heart Hat” knit with Lion Brand’s Thick and Quick

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

I might not be around the interwebs, tomorrow. My hubs leaves for a convention in Las Vegas (a men’s fashion convention–ha!), on Monday, so we’ll be spending Valentine’s Day packing and dealing with the emotions (mine. anxiety, hello!) of his departure. I’m trying my best to focus on the positives like:

-Andy & I get the bed to ourselves.
-I don’t have to practically beat him up to get him to wake in the mornings.
-I can practice taking photos with my brand-new Lensbaby.
-I can fart whenever I please.
-I can knit after the kids go to sleep without feeling like I’m neglecting someone.

But I’m finding my mind settling on the things I’ll miss. Like his help with evening meltdowns. His laugh. The way his hair smells. And his middle-of-the-night cuddles. It’s only 4 days. Only. Only. Only.