If It Were Anyone Else, It Would Totally Be Creepy

Dear Maizey, 

Last night while you slept, I watched you. It might seem a little creepy, but I promise, I didn't mean to be. I just like you and want to be close to you. 



I love you, 
  Your adoring little brother, Budski.


it seemed a wee bit creepy and whole lot adorable to us. I was out last night and that is the picture that Brian texted me that said 'it's 9:00 and this is how I found him' . This transition period, right after turning a crib into a bed, can be painful. Super painful actually. Bedtime takes FOREVER. As I type, they are sneaking up the stairs AGAIN, waiting for us to see them so they can run, giggling back to bed *pours another glass of wine* . We will get past this too. If I seem grouchier than normal, blame the fact that it takes until 9pm every night to get kids in bed and asleep.

An Unexpected Christmas List Addition

So obviously, there is a lot of discussion in our house about Christmas right now. (How the shit can it possibly be December 1st??? For the record, I have not even started getting organized. Not even a little.)
We had planned to take the kids to sit on Santas lap today and get the obligatory crying photo with him, so all morning I talked to Maizey about what she was going to tell Santa was on her christmas list. She made up her mind about a week ago and hasn't wavered since.
A field journal like Diego and a pair of ear muffs.
Thats all. I felt pretty confident that Santa was going to take care of that for her.
Then today, she went and added one more thing.
An iPad.
 Ummm.... what the wha??? We are a strict anti-apple home on account of my husband hates Apple, everything little thing about the company and no matter how shiny and fancy and fast and high-tech their products are, he will never waver. Ever. So, without squashing her dreams of an iPad (out loud) I was all well, I guess you better see what Santa says about that one and she seemed satisfied with that. I also told her to make sure she mentioned it to her Daddy, you know, just for fun. So around the dinner table this evening, I *casually* brought it up.

Me: Maizey tell Daddy what you are going to ask Santa for on your Christmas list. 

Maizey: A field journal. Um, those cool things you wear over your ears to keep them warm, but like, not a toque. Aaannnndd (totally dramatic all on her own) an iPad!!!!

Brian: uhhhhhhhhh...... an i- what did you just say???

Maizey: ya, an iPad. I want one. 

So we naturally, dug a little deeper and asked more questions.

Who do you know that has an iPad? 
What do you want to do with it?
What do you think it's for?
Why do you think you should have one? 










All of our questions were met with answers like, I don't know. No one. I don't know. I just do. I don't know.

Us: Seriously, do you even know anyone that has one??

Maizey: YES! I can't really remember who it was. I think it was a little kid. Actually, I think it was Rimini (my two year old niece).

Me: Um, I know for sure that Rimini does not have an iPad.

Maizey: Yes Mom, she does. She showed me. It's so cool. It's got like a tiny little picture of Violet on the the big button. (Said with the biggest grin on her face)

Me: Violet? What do you mean? What are you talking about? 

Maizey: You know, Violet. The dog. Like my stuffed animal. 

Me: Ummm, Maizey, are you talking about a LEAP pad?? 

Maizey: YES! THATS IT! A LEAP PAD! RIMINI HAS ONE AND IT'S SO COOL!!! 

So Brian could stop hyperventilating about how he had failed to teach his kid what acceptable technology in this house is and whats not. Plus, we all got a good laugh out of it.
Also, do your kids have a leap pad? Tell me about it, I would love to know. You know, just in case Santa decides to bring her one.

The One About A Few Small Fibs

I try to remember things my kids do. The stuff they say, the funny little things they do. I want to remember this time of our lives. It's fast paced, hectic and tiring. Most days I love it. Some days I have to work really hard to love it. Other days, I don't bother faking it and remind myself that these days will be over soon and I will miss them, but that sometimes it's okay to say THIS SUCKS. Like the days Jace has seven accidents. Which Ang reminded me are accidents and not actually Jace just subtly giving me the middle finger. Those days are hard. So are the days with constant fighting, constant whining voices, giant messes and no one to cook for them or clean up after them but me. Even in some of the crappiest moments though, there are some little things that help lighten the mood and make me smile.
Jaces vocabulary and speech has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few months. His words are getting closer and closer to full sentences, just with periods between every word.
Tonight at dinner he was licking sour cream off his finger when he accidentally bit it (his finger).
He let out a whimper and when I turned to see what was going on he said "finger. bite. my. mouth." then he thought for a second and turned to Maizey and said "my mouth. bite. my. finger."  Not one minute before, I was threatening every thing I could think of to make him stop throwing his dinner on the floor, but in that moment I actually laughed out loud. He goes from this crazed monster to this funny and quirky little boy in the blink of an eye.
Last week he had a scratch on his leg and I asked him how it happened. "Nannie. Hit. My. Knee" is what he told me. I laughed quietly and texted my mom to tell her that he had ratted her out. But when on the phone with her trying to get him to say it again, he changed it to Daddy. "Daddy. Hit. My. Knee".
Another time it was his thumb and Papa was the culprit. It's always someone hit something and it's always a different person. It's also totally a fib. I laugh discreetly and tell him he has to be honest. It is funny though.
We have had a particularly busy last few weeks. With being actually busy, not the glorification of busy I usually pull off, comes a lot to do with less time to do it. When we are busy, it's easy for me to get overwhelmed. I don't do crazy and hectic all that well. If I don't look for the small, funny moments, all that would be left to do is cry.

San Francisco, Baby

When Brian and I travel together our trip is pretty much lived out by television and movie quotes. We can (and do) relate most things to a line from somewhere. Usually it's a line from Friends, but when the time is appropriate, the lines come from any other movie or show that we know.
It all started years ago on our first trip to Seattle. We walked by the office supply store Office Max.

   Me: Man, girls are so hard to buy for. 
  
   Brian: Ya, when you shop at ..... OFFICE MAX!!!

and we laughed and laughed and laughed. That was when we noticed how many lines we could pull from our most watched and most favorite tv show and pertain to a moment, a city, a trip and just plain life in general.


Cut to our trip to San Francisco last week.
(This is exactly how our conversations go, seriously)





About to cross the border-

   Me: LONDON BABY!!

   Brian: Do you have your passport?

   Me and Brian at the same time: Uh, ya, it's in the top drawer of my bedside table. Wouldn't want to lose that. 



 Flipping open the safety card on the plane -

   Brian: awww, these aren't the ones from Flight Club. 

   Me: BRIAN. What's the first rule of Flight Club??

   Me and Brian at the same time: First rule of Fight Club - you never, ever talk about Fight Club.




Ordering wine at lunch -

    Me: I just might have two glasses of wine at lunch. 

    Brian: Two glasses of wine at lunch?? Only prostitutes have two glasses of wine at lunch!!! 





All of that to say.  We had a fantastic trip. We crossed the border with only a small hitch, they pulled us into the garage and searched every nook and cranny of us, ok not us but our bags and our vehicle. Besides the two dehydrated christmas oranges from LAST YEAR that he found in the bottom of the un-used diaper bag that still sits in the truck for emergencies, we were clear. But he did remind us that we had two undeclared pieces of fresh fruit and that is totally illegal. Ahem.



San Francisco. Where do I start? I have wanted to go there forever and it did not disappoint. It is the city that just keeps going and going and going. We didn't stop for the full three days and we didn't even touch on all there is to see and do. I think you could go 100 times and still not.







The highlights:

Lombard Street - the "Crookedest Street"
One city block, eight switch backs. I think it would likely be the worst street to live on, what with all the inconsiderate and ignorant tourists that bombard it every day, but it is definitely a cool street to see.





The Golden Gate Bridge
Every bit as impressive as the movies make it seem. I only wish we could have seen it as the sun was setting.











Chinatown
Speaks for itself. Although, the funky smells I could do without.







Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl
Yum. I love that the food they are famous for is so delicious and healthy. haha.





The trolley car
Such a cool historic piece of the city.  Also, super fun to ride. Epecially when the hand brake operator you are standing beside loves his job, loves talking to people and loves to tell funny stories.









More food
All the food. All of it. I started out taking pictures of some our meals and Brian was all OMG stop taking pictures of your food, people on the chive make fun of people like you all the time. Thats not why I stopped, I truthfully just forgot because I was busy shoving the food into my wide open gob, but for the record, WOW we ate some delicious meals. And we ate so so so much. So much.









The views
With hills that big, theres obviously going to be some view points. And there were. And we saw them.











Sadly we missed Alcatraz, all advance tickets were sold out and we slept in the morning we were supposed to go down to the pier at 7:00 to wait in line for two of the 50 tickets they reserve for the day of. That is a perfect excuse to go back!







We really had so much fun. The whole city was amazing. I could not have prepared myself more for what was to come and still, I was blown away. It was beautiful, clean, friendly, easy to figure out (right there, just saying that, I am picturing us, standing on a street corner with map in hand trying to figure out where to go and one of us saying "well, I gotta do it. I'm going into the map"  and then us laughing and laughing. That one will never get old.)





I have to go back. I want to see and do more. I also want a friend to move there and live in one of those beautiful Victorian homes and have me as a houseguest pleaseandthankyou .  I would love to take my kids back, but first they need to be big enough to walk themselves up those giant hills.
I missed those tiny little people and I have to tell you, one night, I spent a long time watching videos on my phone of them. I was very happy to get home to their smiling faces and arguing voices. It was nice to walk at grownup paces, and eat at fancy restaurants. We did a lot more than we would have been able to had they been with us. It was good to come home too.





I brought in my 30th year with great friends and I settled in nicely with this amazing and unforgettable trip.





The line goes I'd walk back to London for another frosty one of those bad boys.  Well I'd walk back to San Francisco for another piece of that tiramisu in little Italy, or, as the locals call it, North Beach.

p.s I've tried to decide whether other people would find us annoying or fun to travel with. So hard to say.

My 30th Birthday

My husband, with the help of my best friends, pulled off the ultimate surprise.
Apparently it has (had) been in the works for months, there were secret text messages being sent, a private facebook group and plenty of whispers when I wasn't looking.
I was so surprised.
Turns out this turning 30 bullshit is actually a gift that just keeps on giving. It has been a non stop celebration since Thursday and isn't over yet.
First of all, thank you for all the love on Thursday. The calls, texts, emails, facebook messages, facebook wall posts, instagram wishes, and face to face love. I sure felt a lot of love. Maizey had crawled into bed with me sometime during the night and when she woke up in the morning she remembered first thing. She rolled into me and whispered Happy Birthday Mama with a little shy smile on her face. I welled up and gave her giant hug. What a fantastic way to start my day. I got to spend the day with my family, I got to go for a long run, I got to have sushi for dinner with my family and friends, I got a home made birthday cake, I got flowers brought home, hand delivered and sent from a friend that is on vacation in Australia right now.  It was a very, very good day.
I had big plans to do nothing all weekend. I didn't feel the need to celebrate much thanks to the little trip I booked for next week. You know, the trip I booked because there was absolutely nothing else going on for the my birthday. Ya, that one.

I don't even know where to start. Maybe with the knock on our front door while I was eating dinner with Ang and Chelsea and the kids on Friday night. I was so super shocked at who was crouched down, hiding beneath the window on my front porch that there was a tiny bit of screeching and laughing and omg what are you doing here??'s.
Wait. There's video evidence! 



I found out that everyone was involved in this surprise visit. We stayed up way too late catching up and laughing and drinking. I thought that was the main event, that my two high school best friends had come to spend the weekend of my birthday with me.
I clearly had no idea.....
Looking back now, I missed a lot of signs. I mean, I walked right past Brians parents car on my way into the bowling alley and didn't even notice. I looked at Angs truck and didn't notice. I saw Alicias car and thought it was a bit early for her to be having sushi for dinner. The thought that she would be at the bowling alley to surprise me never even crossed my mind. For the second time in less than 24 hours I was super shocked. I just thought my friends thought of something we could do with the kids that would be fun for every one.
It seems like everyone was in on this party and I am so grateful. Brian had everything lined up - people, food, babysitter. There was another home made cake and kids bowling and friends laughing. It was so fun. Then the kids went home and the real bowling started.


 Literally only three blog appropriate photos from the entire night. wow. 

You know, the kind with serious trash talk, guys vs girls, MVP's (Obviously, that was me. It's not a big deal. I'm not bragging or anything.), bottomless ceasers. I just have to say, the only thing better than bowling, is doing it with your best friends. The night continued long after the bowling. I remember shooters, a few, not that many. And shooters always lead to my best dance moves obviously. I think Cartwright would agree with that.


obviously. 

We danced and drank and watched the onesie party with amusement and slight jealousy. (don't know what a onesie party is? Just picture grown men and women wearing onesie pyjamas. at the bar. sounds fun, right?!). We partied. Ohhhh, we partied. We ate pizza at 2am and it was so delicious. Oddly enough, the next morning I didn't bounce back like I did when I was 20. Weird.



I had the absolute best weekend. I normally like to think of myself as pretty intuitive, I pay attention to what is going on around me, I notice small comments. Seriously, I knew nothing about this which makes it even more awesome.
Thank you. Everyone, thank you. It is so cool to be on the receiving end of something so thoughtful, so well planned, so totally fitting, and so fun. I could not have asked for a better welcome into the 30's. I think I'm going to like it here.
Next up; Craig Ferguson with my girls. 

On The Eve Of My 30th Birthday

I'm turning 30 tomorrow.

I waver between being perfectly fine with it and crying into my bottle of coors light over it.

I had to fill out a form today where I had to check an age box. Obviously I checked the 25-29 category because today? I am totally still 29.

I'd say I'm like 80/20. I'm mostly fine until I have to say the words. Thhhhirtty. It doesn't sound nice. I kind of choke it out every time.

I don't know why it's hard to say. I mean, I'm doing awesome, I have a fantastic life with a wicked family that loves me so freaking much. I feel good, I like to think I'm a pretty young (almost) 30 year old, I ran a 1/2 marathon a few months ago. I have the worlds absolute best friends. I'm happier and more confident with myself than ever before. I care less and less about what other people think of me and more and more about being happy with myself. It's weird to feel weird about it, when I am actually super happy with where I am at in life.

Ang came over today and I was wiping a thick layer of dust out of a window sill and cleaning a cobweb out of the top corner of it (no joke. don't judge me) and she was like, oh great - now that you are 30 you have to deep clean your house? and we laughed and laughed. 

I have had a line from the Friends episode The One Where They All Turn 30 stuck in my head all day...
  
      "Monica, you remember mean old Mrs. Kreeger in the 5th grade? She was 30!!"

Naturally, I will be watching that episode tonight.

Last weekend, my girlfriend Chelsea turned 30 (she's wayyy older than me) and we hit the bar as though we were 20. She wore a sash and carried a wand and we stormed the bar in style. A young blonde bimbo bounded over and asked in a high pitched voice who's birthday it was? I pointed Chelsea out and then she exclaimed that it was her birthday on Monday. Oh fun, I said, it's mine on Thursday. She asked how old I was turning so I told her the truth. Oh! She said, I'm turning 21.
Bitch.




Anyways, to ease the transition, I booked a trip for Brian and I. Next weekend, we are off to San Francisco. I will make the jump into my 30's in style.
Until then, I will weep over my lost youth and wrinkles on my forehead.

Why Is Fall The Shortest Season?

October is half over.
My favorite month, and it is flying by.
Our anniversary, my birthday, my moms birthday, thanksgiving, beautiful fall weather. All my favorite.

We've visited my parents. We've been for many, many walks. We've rode bikes, thrown rocks into the river, drank a lot of coffee and eaten a few hippy bombs. We have pulled out winter coats and boots, and officially put away the flip flops. We are getting cleaned up from summer fun and getting ready to hunker down in the snow. We hosted one more bbq pizza night before putting the cover on the bbq for the last time. I am down to one twisted tea in the fridge and I don't feel the need to buy more. We are breathing in the cool autumn air, while enjoying how beautiful our town is at this time year.





If I'm being honest, I find Thanksgiving one of the hardest times of the year to be away from my family. I am remembering last year when we were (almost) all together in Banff and feeling a wee bit nostalgic about it.

There's still some time left of this month and this fall and we plan on taking full advantage of it.