Grandma Jean, Papa Jim and Terri Visit!

We had Adam's Grandma Jean, (Papa) Jim and Terri come up to visit on their way to Khirstin's house this weekend.  What a great visit we had with them!   We did a lot of eating, took them on a fine dining tour and the rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing.

The first place we took them to eat was at Melt Bar and Grilled.  OMG, this is the dairy free person's HEAVEN.  I've always liked their Vegan Mozzarella cheese, but never realized they had other Vegan cheeses, everyone got a different sandwich, and I tried something new for once, and it was good (Backyard BBQ - it had BBQ Pork, fried onion rings and cheddar cheese (vegan), apparently, the 'butter' they use to grill the sandwiches with is vegan as well, SCORE! 

Ares playing games with Grandma

Atlas just chillin' 

After we over indulged ingrilled cheeses larger than our heads, we headed to Jeni's ice cream.  They had two dairy free sorbet's, so I even got to eat here! Awesome!  I had a cherry lambic sorbet (VERY tart) and a reisling poached pear sorbet (very mild), combine them, and  YUM!  Ares had a dark chocolate, Adam got a pumpkin kind, Terri and Jim both got sweet potato with scorched marshmallow and a scoop of salted caramel, grandma got the same cherry as me, plus a salted caramel.  We later walked the park with Ann Marie and her kids.  (Terri, Adam, grandma and I also we to Starbucks afterwards, OMG!!!)  

Hmm Terri, I wonder if you're taking a picture of ME taking a picture here...?   lol

After we came back home to our food coma's, Ares and Grandma sat very quietly on the couch coloring.  IT. WAS. AWESOME.  Ares never colors, let alone for a good half hour.  They nearly finished the project they were working on.  Papa came back from Terri's hotel and finished up with them.  I'll have to take a picture of the final project if I can! Atlas slept terribly last night.  I mean, up every 15 minutes, not even every hour - bad.  So, I just nursed him, got a shower, and  now it's time to finish up here and get my day started.  Yay.  I Soooo want my weekend to continue.   =(  

3 Months Old!

Atlas turned 3 months on October 20th.  He's about 28#'s (not really, just feels like it) and wears mostly 6 month clothes.  His favorite food is milk, but not if you've had anything with milk, chocolate, cheese, hummus, or any other type of milk protein. I think his favorite color is red, although, he loves to watch the TV when football or baseball is on.  He talks - A LOT.  Like, a lot- a lot.  He ADORES his older brother.  

He loves to sit up, he can't yet do it on his own, but he wants to sit on your lap, or sit up while holding him.  He doles out the smiles, quite often, and is not afraid to laugh  - although, you better have a boob or a bottle ready at 2 hours, because 2 hours - on the DOT and he's ready to eat.  There's no messing with this kid's appetite.   We love you little buddy!

Apple Butter Fest

Last weekend after soccer I got my hair cut - a lot .  About 13" taken off.  I donated it, as I usually do. This time I went to Simply Swank to get it done.  It was a really nice spa place, in Hudson, that I could probably never afford again - but they cut hair for free if you donate it.   Then I paid $23 to get my brows done, lol!

After I got my hair done, we all packed it up and went to Darah and Devin's house to lift weights.  Well, Adam, Devin and I lifted, at least.  I made the mistake of doing weighted lunges first.  Wow, did my legs hurt immediately, they didn't wait for the next day to be sore!  I did a handful of arm exercises too, but my chest/arms/back did not hurt at all.  Next time I must have to add weight.

After lifting we went out to buy a new lawnmower.  It took about 2 hours to buy a lawnmower.  Thanks SEARS.  I was not impressed at all with the company, but we walked out with what we wanted, albeit, the floor model due to their inventory being destroyed by some sort of Hulk like monster. (Or forklifts played soccer with them, as the boxes and units were all bent to Hell.)

On Sunday we met Megan, Scott, Hannah and Zach at the Burton Apple Butter festival.  It was pretty expensive to view absolutely nothing.  The only good thing about the place is they had an open hay bale for the kids to play in.  It was about 10x15' of loose hay.   Afterwards we went out to the Rusty Bucket for dinner.  It was pretty nice.   We'll never go back to Burton though, it was terrible.

Ares had the traveling bear for this weekend (Something his classroom does)

See my short hair?!?!

Wedding / Brew Bus

The first weekend I'll post about in October was pretty laid back to start with, and then crazy busy!   Betsy and Derrick got married on the 5th, but the ceremony and reception were so spread out, that we decided to not have someone watch the kids ALL day long and only attend the reception.   During the day, Ares had a soccer game and we made some Flash T-shirts for him and his Papa.

The wedding reception was a great time.  She loved the place cards I made for the food/name tags and the alcohol was awesome.  It was supposed to be the night that I drank, and Adam didn't since he was going on the brew bus the next day, but Adam had quite a bit to drink as well.

We had a ton of fun on the Cleveland Brew Bus.  a large group of us from Ares' pre-school went.  Devin/Darah, Ben/Sabine, Colin/Abby, Mike/Jen, and then Mike/Jamie and Gary also came with us.  We had a great time.  Jenn and I didn't drink, but we still got to partake in the pretzel necklaces.   If anyone has a group of friends they think might be interested in this, I HIGHLY recommend this.  I don't drink beer, but with the right people, it can be a blast.  

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA, my excuse is a combination of being extremely busy, and my child nursing now, so I'm not at a computer much.  My work computer doesn't let me post any longer, which is a HUGE bummer, as most of my posts usually come from that place.

Posts to look forward to:

Betsy's Wedding/Beer Bus Weekend
Soccer
Ares' Sayings
Hair Cut
Halloween Costumes
and more.....!

Atlas is 2 months old!

Atlas went to his 2 month doctor's appointment 10 days after he turned 2 months.  He is 12 lbs 12.5 oz and 24" long.  That's 50% weight and 80% height.  My big boy!! Love him!  

Goooaaaalll!!!!!

Ares is #4

Right after I took this, Ares scored a goal.  

The fans could see who scored, but the coach had a bad angle.  We all congratulated Ares, and the coach asked him if he was the one who scored.  Ares just shrugged his shoulders and quietly said "yeah" before getting back to his (midfield) position.  lol.

He's got pretty decent skills, but he just doesn't stay on his feet.  He likes to kick and fall, which prevents him from following the ball.  He is DEFINITELY one of the youngest on the field, and the youngest on his team.  Next year he'll be even greater!

Hocking Hills

We went to Hocking Hills with the Robbins and Gerhardts for a weekend of luxury cabin camping.  I don't remember most of it, but we had a good time.  Darah went to run a 60k race (37 miles) and Adam ran a 20k (12 miles) while we were there.  It rained The Entire Weekend.  I thought it was pretty cold out, but the kids didn't.  They put their bathing suits on and went out to play!  Atlas sat back and relaxed - all nice and bundled up.

The kids playing in the rain. 

Two peas in a pod.  These two love each other. 

Ares and Eve building a fort while Davis was watching his mom run. 

It rained so much, the kids did watch/play with the iPad.
This caused all of the arguments of the weekend. 

Adam pre-shower, post race.  

Atlas turned 2 months on the Friday we left for the cabin! 

Davis and Ares both had Mousies that weekend. 

I love these kids.  Wish Mikayla was here this weekend too.  4 Besties

This is more like them!  

Weekend at Grandma's

A few weeks ago we had our 'vacation'.  We always take our vacation days and either spend them at home, or spend them in Cinci or Louisville.  This year, we did both!  We drove to Cincinnati and stayed the night on Sunday, drove to Louisville to visit the Great Grandparents Monday until Tuesday (where we had THE BEST bbq dinner).  I know I must have photos somewhere for this weekend, but I can't seem to find them.
On Tuesday, we went back to Cincinnati and stayed until Wednesday where we spent the whole day with Adam's mom, going to the Findley Market, Washington Park, playing in the fountains, and lunch at a cool little coffee shop before going back to Cleveland.   Thursday was spent at home cleaning - major cleaning before meeting the typical group at BW3's.  Friday we packed, met the group for a Sushi lunch, and then drove to Hocking Hills for a weekend of fun!

I have a lot of photos, I'm just not sure where they are.  Hopefully I can update shortly.

Amazing!

Tonight, I nursed my son to sleep.  For those of you that don't know me - that is a BIG deal!  =)

It's been a long time

So I've been MIA for roughly 2 weeks -  I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've been here!  Over the next few days I'll start posting about:

• Week "vacation" 
• Soccer
• School Pictures
• Back to work
• Atlas' statistics
• Weekend at Hocking Hills

Look at that hair!

But first I'll start with my super-happy baby boy!  Atlas has been amazing.  Apparently this whole 'no dairy' thing has something going for it.   The formula worked to get all dairy out of his system, and gave me time to get it out of my system.  I kept all of the milk I pumped while transitioning to dairy free, so hopefully some day he CAN have dairy, as I could, quite possibly have about 2 months stored up already.    For me, I eat a little healthier too.  We found out the hard way that Atlas doesn't like hummus, that's ok, my body doesn't love it either, but at the latest football party, I couldn't eat much at all, no dips, no desserts, just the main dish, wings and veggies and chips.  I still didn't eat well, but much better had I been allowed to eat what everyone else did. 

My troll baby doll.  Cute!! 

Atlas gives away smiles like it's his job, he talks to us, he coos, he kicks and plays, it's SUCH a nice thing - to have a baby that's happy!

He's also started sleeping a lot more.  Last night we got 9 hours, the night before that, 11.  Eleven isn't normal, but 8 or 9 is.  It's pretty crazy.  

Three days ago he decided to start nursing.  I've been exclusively pumping for 2 months (since he was born, pretty much) but regularly trying to see if he'd nurse, and lo and behold, he did this past weekend!  It's great, to be able to go to a party, and if I run out of bottles, to just nurse him rather than find a room to pump - although, typically I have to still pump after he feeds, so it's not THAT much more convenient, but I can wait until I'm back home to do so.  Awesome sauce!!

Ares is an awesome big brother.  He requested that we put Atlas' car seat in the middle section so that he can be RIGHT next to him so he can see him and touch him.  It's awesome.  Ares now puts in pacifiers, he also cleans spit up, and even better, when Ares isn't in the car, I can now reach Atlas if necessary.  whoohoo!

Alright, that's it for now, there will be more in the next few days or so, I have to get my pictures off of my camera.