To the beach!

Mommy makes me wear long sleeves on the beach because she's afraid of the sun...

We took advantage of one of the nice perks of living in NYC this weekend…we went to the beach. This is one of the things that I have not taken enough advantage of living here. I’ve been here 8 years this week and this was only the third time I’ve gone to the beach.

The husband has been swamped at work and really wanted to get out of the city, so he obsessively watched Zipcar until a car was available near us and then immediately booked it for the entire day on Saturday.

We packed up our stuff and headed out around 10:00 Saturday morning. We went all the way out to Robert Moses State  Park because we had been told that it would be less crowded. The trip took about an hour and 15 minutes, during which Brady slept, waking up in a great mood right as we were parking.

We staked out a spot, laid down our blanket, and headed down to the water…which Brady hated! But only for a little bit. After a break and a snack we went back down and the little man was ready for another try. After braving a few small waves a big one came and knocked him over covering him with sand and causing him to cry and hang onto Daddy for dear life.

But he’s a trooper and went back in only to have a great time. We had to drag him away from the water as he shivered and screamed “more, more.” We got changed, had lunch, and got back on the road where Brady got another nap in. We even stopped on 23rd St and picked up my father-in-law’s birthday present at Best Buy.

After weeks of drizzly, gray, cool weather this was the perfect way to break into the summer.

A late Father’s Day wish

So yesterday was Father’s Day, but I was really busy so I didn’t get to post. We had a lovely day. Brady woke Daddy up with cards and presents, including the mug that he painted for him at Make. Then, all the in-laws came over and we had brunch at our place. We spent the afternoon just the three of us enjoying the little bit of nice weather we got.

The cup that Brady colored for Daddy

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to my wonderful husband for being such a great dad. Because of work he hasn’t gotten to hang out with us as much as he’d like to lately and I know it’s tough on him and on Brady. It makes me so grateful that I’m able to be home with Brady nearly everyday and I feel so bad that he misses out on that.

Anyway, I don’t think I say it enough or get the point across a lot of the time – but I have a great partner in this crazy being-a-parent thing and I really don’t know what I would do without him.

Flipflops, mulch, and the ER

Sprinklers are fun!

On Friday afternoon we took advantage of the few hours of sunshine that we got and headed over to the sprinklers in the playground. Brady had an awesome time and the husband left work a little early and came over to meet us.

As we were walking home my foot tipped over the edge of the area around a little tree, sliding off my flipflop, and into the mulch. A piece of the wood stabbed the bottom of my heel and, as the husband says, I “went down like a sniper took me out from the rooftops.” I’ll admit that I was a little dramatic – but it hurt! I pulled the piece of wood from my foot, limped home, and cleaned it out. Oh and the best part – as I sat on the sidewalk yelling at my husband that I actually was hurt, my son was crying “mommy, shoes, shoes, shooooooes!!!”. Apparently it was NOT right that my shoes should be off outside like that.

Now, this wasn’t just any weekend, this was the first time that the husband and I were going to have a night alone in 19 months. Brady was off to his Nonna and Nonno’s house for Saturday night. We were so excited to be able to go out and meet up with friends and not worry about getting home. But as we went about the day on Saturday my foot hurt more…and more…and (despite bloody mary treatment) more.

It was looking not so great – red and swollen. It was deep and I couldn’t tell if I had gotten everything out of it. I could barely walk at all. So off we went to the ER. Super fun. Luckily they saw me very quickly. The doc came in and took a look and then went out to grab the syringe of Lidocaine. I warned him that I have a bad reaction to Lidocaine, and although he didn’t believe me. I did have a bad reaction. I got hot and flushed and sick. I made it through and he cleaned up the wound, but the last shot of Lidocaine did me in. I tried to breathe through it, but I couldn’t take it and I had to puke. Probably the worst part of the whole thing.

Foot wounds are NOT fun!

We got out of there, went home, showered and went out anyway. I think we did a great job of salvaging the evening. We couldn’t meet up with friends like we had planned but we had a nice, late, leisurely dinner at Jacques, down the block and shared a delicious bottle of wine. If you want good  moules frites, Jacques is the place. They are awesome.

We slept in until 9 the next day…a real treat. My foot was feeling much, much better. And we were super excited to see our little pickle again! He had a great time with his grandparents and slept fairly well. Which makes us feel like we might be able to do it again sometime! Minus the trip to the ER of course.

The Most!

I’ve always said to Brady, “how much does Mommy love you?…the most!” The other day I said this to him and he answered me “the most!” It was one of the most heart warming moments of my life! So cute.

Now he’ll answer “how much does Mommy/Daddy love you?” with “the most” every time. And when I ask him who loves him the most he’ll answer either Mommy, Daddy, or kitty. I have to beg to differ with him on that one. Out of everyone in our family, I’d have to say that kitty loves him the least. In fact, if he’s lucky, she’s indifferent. But he loves her very much, so I see where the confusion comes from.

I love Daddy the most if he does this!

Contemplation

I’ve been feeling very contemplative lately and have been trying to stop myself from writing a post entitled “why can’t I get my shit together?” So instead I’m going to write a mushy mommy entry.

As I was lying on the couch holding my sleeping little boy about 20 minutes ago – an activity that I have complained about countless times – I had a sudden and stark realization. It occured to me in the heart-stopping, breath-sucking way that it occurs to you that you will one day die. One day Brady will be separate from me. We will not go on being the two-headed monster that we are today forever.

There will be a day when he won’t ever sleep lying on my chest. When I will no longer be able to kiss his lips and smell his skin and cradle him against my heart the way I do now. One day he will be his own person living his own life. One day he will have secrets from me, things I will never know. There will be days when I have no idea what he’s doing.  One day he will let some girl know more than I will ever know about him and share his life with her instead of me and he won’t ever remember the way we used to live our days together.

Of course he will always be mine and I will do my very very best to make sure that we always have a good relationship – the way I do with my mother. But regardless of that he will absolutely still be apart from me in the future. And I’ll want it that way. But it’s difficult to fathom right now.

So I think I’ll enjoy his sleeping today.

precious