Not in College Anymore

We had a fantastic weekend…. (a few weekends ago now) I mean Jacob had a Reserve weekend this weekend and that was kind of a bummer but I got to see some great college friends and go shopping… seriously how could that be bad. On top of that the weather was beautiful and Aurora had a good weekend too… minus the shopping.
Now when the some of my college friends get together, we enjoy kid friendly activities. Friday we enjoyed the beautiful weather at the zoo with Courtney and Carla, some friends from Gannon, and Carla's 16 month old son Mason.  Unfortunately I had not seen Courtney and Carla since the spring some time maybe.  I was worried I missed too much but there is something special about friends who cannot talk often enough and pick right back up where they left off. I'm bad at keeping in touch, sending cards of any kind, especially birthday and thank you's, so I whole heartedly appreciate friends (and family) who accept this about me and pick up like nothing has changed.
I love having a zoo membership. We can go and only get through 1/2 the zoo… or less and I don't feel obligated to stay to get my monies worth. I know I'll be back.  The Pittsburgh Zoo had a great… fantastic kids area.  This takes us a couple hours including play time.

I didn't get them in the picture but this guy loved Aurora's sparkly shoes.   

Between my back pain from the pregnancy and the lack of caffeine I was feeling pretty worn out by the time we were done with the kids area. Also, my husband was at home making a fresh shrimp lunch for us. Although he did not take us with him on his work trip to Florida that week, he did bring home some fresh, huge Gulf shrimp.  Aurora however was not ready to go so we checked out the sharks and polar bear before heading out.

That evening, I got to do something I don't do nearly enough. We had a ladies dinner at Cheesecake Factory with Courtney, Carla and Ashley joined us as well.  I'm not big on chain restaurants but Cheesecake Factory is one of the few exceptions.  I have never had a bad anything there. I managed a somewhat modest dinner so I could indulge in cheesecake and an unfortunately NA beverage after dinner.  As usual, all delicious! I had originally thought I would go out with the girls for a drink or two after dinner, me having juice or water of course.  I even thought I was going to make it to my wonderful cousin's anniversary party.  But by the time dinner was over and we did a quick trip to the mall, heavens sakes, it was almost 9pm!  I needed to stop at Home Depot and run to Giant Eagle to grab milk on the way home.  My loser self was not even up for a quick stop at a low key bar or running into the city to celebrate an Anniversary. I had throughly enjoyed the company but I just wanted to go home and lie on the couch.  I'm totally blaming that loser moment on the pregnancy. So I stopped at Home Depot, got distracted by the 75% shrubs and plants outside, grabbed what I needed, ran into GE for milk and went home laid on the couch and I think I might have passed out before 11pm.  If I didn't feel old already, which I did, the realization of how lame that was definitely rubbed it in.

Halloween

I was pretty disappointed in myself while downloading hundreds, literally hundreds of photos from one of our cameras.  The other I didn't even get too. I can't believe I let this summer and majority of fall slip by with out documenting my daughters cuteness… and my belly which does seem impressively large.  Also, I'm upset I haven't shared some pretty kick butt recipes I've tried.  

I'm hoping that with shorter days, colder temperatures and gardening and harvesting (almost) over I'll stay up to date. I mean it is not like we have a whole upstairs to redo before Max MacGyver is scheduled to arrive in 8 weeks.  

Dance class has been exciting and stressful. Aurora learned she absolutely loves dance class and we have learned that she is not the prefect little angel we liked to believe she was. Turns out she has a hard time following directions, waiting her turn and keeping her hands (head and legs) to herself sometimes.  I have kept her involved socially with things like story and activity time at the library, play groups, swim class but I'm there for all them. We knew she was ready for an activity without me by her side but we didn't know how challenging it would be for all of us.  It has been 2 months of an hour once a week of ballet, tumbling and tap.  The first few weeks I thought it was just an adjustment period but it didn't get too much better after 3 weeks then Jacob had the opportunity to start coming and he was worried we were horrible parents.  So the next few weeks were filled with what to do and what not to do conversations before dance class and Aurora screaming like we had just beat her post dance class when we would not let her have the sucker they hand out after every class.  Risking jinxing all progress that has been made… the last couple weeks have been better.  The extent of not keeping hands (thankfully just hands) to herself is when she is trying to grab another girls hands to get her to dance with her. And the following the teacher (who is great) is getting better too.  These pictures are from last week when they had a Halloween party.

Look how well she is listening!

Attempting the wheelbarrow. 

Sitting on the bench waiting her turn!

Practicing tapping

Happy Halloween! Here is the cutest witch.

Gramma Predis is 88!

At the end of July we had a surprise birthday party for Jacob's gramma. She was a bit confused at first because her birthday was in June and she was told she was coming to our house for dinner.  At first when she got there she just thought we invited her to a picnic but after a couple explanations, a birthday crown and cards, she got he picture.  And we think she loved it. It was so good to see her enjoying everyone's company.  She did the polka with her son, she was much better than he was.  She took pictures with everyone and held babies.  We really wanted to make sure she knew how much she was loved.  Erin put in a lot of work planning and Claudia and Aunt Lousie did a lot of cooking.  Thanks to everyone who helped!
That morning, after being told she was coming to our house, she told Erin she didn't really want to go anywhere that day. She just wanted to have a day at home. Erin said, "Too bad, you have to come." I think in the end she was okay with it.
Okay, here is a lot of pictures….

Slightly confused because there are so many people and they are all saying Happy Birthday to her.
Her birthday was back in June and it is the end of July after all. 

Erin explaining that the party is for her. 

Somewhat realizing what is going on

Her one request was to Polka with her son

Who would have guessed she is 88?!?!

Too Long

It has been a long time. Too long. I am pretty disappointed in myself. As always, I kind of have an excuse but even I think it is pretty lame. First I'm pregnant and the first trimester, Jacob was in Little Rock for training.  I had my active two year old by myself and I was trying to get in a pretty big garden in before I left to join Jacob in Little Rock.
I would love to catch up on all the exciting things we have been up to but then I'd never get to what we are doing now so I'm just going to start right in.
My brothers were visiting this weekend. Friday night we got some more rain that our garden desperately needed so Aurora got to do one of her favorite activities, run in the rain.  After Jacob had enough of running in the rain, Uncle Everett kindly indulged Aurora… stipulating that he must have a rain coat…. therefore Aurora wanted a raincoat.

We are already wet, why not go in the pool!

 

 

When we are home on Friday nights we sometimes do movie night. No surprise, Aurora wanted to watch "Beauty and the Beast." This is pretty much all she ever wants to watch. Everett and Wesley were thrilled.  Although a bit disappointed because it delayed Everett from playing the Wii, they were both troopers.

Last weekend we went back up to Conneutville and Erie.  Aurora was thrilled to go swimming in gramma's pool.  She LOVES the water.  She does excellent with her swimmies on.  She doesn't need any help and doesn't really want it. The problem comes when we take off the swimmies.  She still does not want help. She just wants to swim on her own…. which she can't yet.  She gets very frustrated with us holding on to her that it gets to the point where we just have to let her go under a little so she understands that she needs our help.  This is also why we haven't joined a city pool. They require a lifejacket in most of the big pools but this totally prohibits her from being able to learn how to swim.  It throws her balance off and makes her back heavy.  But she loves the pool otherwise!

She loved this spiderman gear!

This past weekend we got together with some of my old high school friends. My friend Greg and Becky have a beautiful daughter, Isla, who is 6 months older than Aurora.  In the past I had noticed the age difference when they got together to play but now it seemed to have melted away.  By the end of the party these two were the only ones left around their age and they got some one on one play which was fantastic.  Isla has a very similar personality to Aurora, bossy, determined and likes to do what she wants.   This was the first time Aurora played one on one with someone as fierce as her.  What was even better was Becky and Greg had the same attitude as Jacob and I to let them go and duke it out. It was great for Aurora, I wish they lived closer so we could do this more often.  Unfortunately we didn't too many good pictures.  

Fighting over something

I got this bucket fair and square.

We're good, I swear.