Summer, Grandparents, Trucks & Costumes

Working today, on Black Friday...

And I am ok with it.

(First off - I avoid all those CRAZY-ASS SHOPPERS out there!!!)

 But also, and I know I've said this before, but I really believe my time away from my kids helps me be a better mother - more patient, especially!

I was recently reading an older blog post where the author from ByTheBrooke said about the same:

"I think I need a professional career to challenge me and make me happy and I am pretty sure it makes me a better wife and a better mom to NOT be a full-time homemaker/housekeeper/butt wiper."

That said, we had a great time yesterday (except Ms. Mack wails her head off if anyone is holding her besides mostly me... Daddy is sometimes an acceptable substitute... where I wished Button was a little less AllDaddyAllDayEerDay, Ms. Mack is total stage-four cling-on... be careful what you wish for, right?? lol)



And here's some more photo dumpage to slowly get us caught up:

We spent a weekend down the shore, enjoying the brisk-but-sunny days and the available laps to play in...

First time back-carrying Ms. Mack! She loved it!


My mom's parents drove up (FROM TEXAS! long story short, my grandfather - a former commercial airlines pilot - refuses to fly as a passenger...  lmao)
and thoroughly enjoyed time with their great-grandchildren

Button ran poor Grandad ragged - "Come see this!!    Come with me to my play room!!    Hey Grandad, check out this slide!!"

We went to a Touch-a-Truck event (very local, at my SIL's elementary school) and we got a little silly...

Yup... that would be a naked Button, with a bag over his head.....


Don't Ask...


I cleared out too-small clothes, and *gulp* pumping supplies...

(ok ok, I kept one single set, and my hand pump.... in case....)
seriously - we're still nursing 2x a day - morning and night, and I'm enjoying this stress-free phase! 

but - we did finish up the freezer stash for b.milk at daycare!

 And then it was time for magic to transform little babies into Owls and Pirates, and mommies and daddies into Daphne and Clark Kent!

We have a future NY Ranger (Daddy will have to attend the ass-crack-of-dawn practices!!)

We've also found a new yoga studio that has Mommy&Me classes, so both kiddos can come - and Button loves the aerial silks!



Next up (and not too late) is Ms. Mack's 11 month check-up!


And holy-birthday-planning!!!!

Number Two!

but not like, POOP "number two" - or maybe so - it is another "DUMPAGE" of photos!
😜
/\(just discovered blogger has an emoji button?!)

Anyways - where were we...

oh yea, the Great Latch-On, which was back on AUGUST 6th... -_-

I finally finished the sweater I began 16 or so MONTHS ago, and....

IT'S NOW TOO SMALL FOR MS. MACK! 
(so we sent it on to another very special little baby girl!! 💟)  

 We enjoyed my IL's pool (and my SIL's boobs.... LMAO)

 ((And by "we" enjoyed boobs, I meant just Ms. Mack... just to be clear...))

And some more pool time at our cousin's new house!

Dry land fun:

Really silly video of a silly Ms. Mack, egged on by a silly daddy, with Button's silly friend...
(and Button wanting nothing more than to eat his ice pop undisturbed... LOL)

Silliness:

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

late August I dropped a pump session at work, and battled the ensuing issues: trying to keep up with a steady demand at daycare (hence the hand-pumping after bedtime each night) and a recurrent milk bleb (that yes, would sometimes bleed when I finally got it cleared out...)

We practiced standing - and look! we're looking at a picture of Button using the same walker 2.5 years before!

We went to a fun local fair, and then had to rest afterwards...

((Busy Friday at work, we'll stop here so I can wrap up before leaving the office for the weekend!))

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Dumpage of Photos-Part I

ok, holy behind...

I have kept a drafted "catch-up" post with events/photos to post about, and was going to scrap it because - yikes - some of them happened 4 months ago!! EEK!

But then, looking back through my Googledrive of photos, they're too cute not to share!

So we'll try this as a photo dump (knowing me I'll have to really fight and try to resist getting too wordy in captioning photos)


Went to a Coldplay concert - took E's adopted sisters (18 and 19) and it was their first concert....

Dude - what a concert... we all had light-up bracelets that glowed with the music... and MICHAEL J. FOX came out and played Johnnie Be Good with the band.. what?! WHAT?!??!
Poor girls are going to think every concert is like that... =P


Then we had a wedding (where I conveniently was able to borrow a pump and take care of business at the house where Button was being babysat!)

Same night of the wedding, we hauled ass home after rounding up kids from respective babysitters, because - my parents flew in for a week!!!

The bottom right pic, we are all heading down the shore!

Geez, I've only lived here (NJ) for almost 10 years, and this was the first time bringing my parents to the shore house!

(She loved the pool.... not...)

We came back up north after a great couple of days - had to put in some time at work, had breakfast with cousins, and then started a summer enterovirus...

We weren't feeling well, started to get some stomach-speckles (Coxsackie had hit our daycare 10 days prior - EEK!)

No coxsackie, just a good old summer enterovirus, which ran its course after another few days...

Feeling better!

 and then we went with Mom/Baby buddies to a Big Latch On location (where I won a book, and Mom buddy won a bike!!! (for Baby)
Those babies were all tuckered out!

PhotoDump Part II coming tomorrow...