The Tumor Card

Since the findings of my tumor, I've been treated so marvelously. Lets face it, you don't want to treat someone who could potentially have cancer like crap. My phone has been blowing up, too. Yes, most of those calls are from my mother, but still, I've delightfully heard from peeps I haven't spoken to in awhile. The best part though, was last Sunday. It was the day before my biopsy. For the first time ever, I went to a winery!

The exciting part....Kevin is the one who took me! =)

He is a non-wine drinker. I'm sure it didn't hurt that his client owns it and got him tipsy off some wine the week before at their meeting (I heart wine drinkers), but still, it was wonderfully surprising. He even drank just as much wine as me! We shared a bottle and it was yummy. There was live music in a very quaint garden gazebo. Aside from the heat, it was perfect. I wished we could have ordered another bottle and chatted with the band guys longer, but we wanted to get home before Kaiden woke up from his nap. Ahhh, parenthood.

Later that night, we even went to Joe's Crabshack (one of my favs). Here's Kaiden waiting for his food. Notice the fork in his hand. He cracks me up!!

It was a great day that really made me feel special. I didn't necessarily play the "tumor card" for this day, but maybe I should start to get more days like it! ha!

So, my question to you is: After surgery, how long do you think I can get away with playing the  "I had a tumor" card?? =)

Mama's Day Off

I think I need to do Mama's Day Off posts more often. They are great days and I love my special, alone time with Kaiden.

That being said, yesterday morning was challenging. The night before I stayed up until 2 a.m. finishing a book and not being able to fall asleep because I was having scary thoughts from the book. LOL. Yeah, mama needed coffee bad the next morning and didn't get any until 11. Needless to say my crankiness must have worn off on Kaiden, because he was a crank-butt too. =)

I finally convinced him to leave the house around 11. It took some convincing because he's obsessed with his toys right now. I reorganized them and put the door back on his changing table to "hide" the toys and he just thinks it's totally awesome. The boy loves a door, I'm telling ya.

Anyhoo, I told him I'd get him a new toy if he was good while I ran some errands and then we'd go see some animals (at our fav free animal conservatory b/c it is hot has heck out) and he obliged. I'm not a fan of the toy selection at Walmart, but since we were there, we took a look. I had about a $10 budget in mind and found a cool doctors kit and cash register that I thought he would choose from. He didn't seem too excited (like I was..lol) so we kept looking. Do you know what this boy picked?? A cell phone. He has like 5-7 of these things. He's obsessed. Bonus: it has Buzz Lightyear on it. =) He was in Heaven. He hugged that thing all day like it was his baby. The first thing he said when he woke up from his nap was "Where my buzz lightyear phone?"  ha!

And since I'm a book-lovin' mama, he got to pick out a book too. He picked an Old McDonald one and I picked out a kids First Bible one. He was running around saying "my Bible, my Bible!" Too cute. The rest of my errands took a bit and he was getting tired toward the end but still wanted to see the animals. I thought quick and asked him if we could go after his nap so dada could come. He agreed with that. =)

Turns out, they close at 4. Oops! Luckily our kid is easy going most days and settled for seeing a waterfall, throwing rocks and looking for bugs behind the conservatory instead. It was over 100 degrees, so we only stayed for about 20 minutes. He loved throwing rocks and I kept busy looking for bugs. We saw ants, a moth, a dragonfly, some butterflies, a spider and wasp. It's "Bug Month" at school, so I've decided to try and keep in stride with what he's learning. They had some cute flowers, so I decided to pop one in my hair. I swear the butterflies were trying to attack me, though. I'm a mama to a boy, so he thought it was funny. I try and do my part to entertain. ;-)

He was thrilled and sweaty but didn't want to leave. I enticed him with the promise of bubble time at home while I made dinner. This worked and we went home and enjoyed bubble time and dinner as a family. It was a great way to end our day!

I'm loving his hair right now.

Over 5 states & through some traffic...

To Nana's house we go!

I was so excited and impressed with how quickly Kaiden warmed up to Nana and Auntie Linda, considering he hasn't seen either since he was 5 months old. It melted my heart when we all hugged and kissed at the airport and starting to walk down to get our luggage and he whispered "I like Linda" in my ear! That was just the beginning of the beautiful connection I witnessed between the three. It certainly didn't hurt that Auntie Linda was well prepared with all things Kaiden LOVES in her car. It came equiped with a Super Man sun shield, elmo stuffy, alien stuffy from Toy Story, a new water cup. gold fish, animal crackers and books galore. He was seriously in Heaven.

Although Kaiden wasn't a huge fan of Nana's dog, Mandy, he had a great time and my arm eventually healed from holding a 32 pound toddler for two days straight since he was scared of the dog. LOL.

The first day I didn't take many pics, since we were all tired and settling in. However, I did think it was too cute going into bed and finding my sweet pumpkin passed out in the same bed I used to sleep in when I was young. Can you say COM-FY??

The next morning, we had a fresh start. He enjoyed playing with the new toys nana got him..

And wearing the his new shirt..

Playing and singing with his Aunties..

He especially loved eating at Nana's. She got yummy treats especially for him..

He also loved taking a bath, always a fav!..

He's swimming here..lol.

We also got in a cute photo-op..these are my favs..

We all had a great time. He left giving Mandy a quick pet and with the impression that "Nana is silly"...true that, kid, true that! ;-)