Weekend Recap: 4 Days With Family!

I think it goes without being said that I LOVE weekends.  So when I get extra days off?  Well, that's pretty much the best thing ever.  I had vacation days that I needed to use before the new year, so I definitely took them!  It was a staycation and I loved every minute of it.  Seriously, it was hard going back!  Wish I could spend every day with my boys!

On Thursday, I got to take Ben to his library class.  He sat so nicely on his little carpet square and several moms/nannies/grandmas told me how well behaved Ben is every week.  Proud momma moment!  Andy was even able to join us for a bit.  We went to his usual Thursday lunch spot and he loved showing me all of the things he does every week.  Wish I could go every week!  He had a nice long nap in the afternoon before we went out for dinner.  I had a craving of sorts for Mexican so we headed out for some chips and salsa and (virgin for me) margaritas!  I'd like to say that facial expression was because he thought my drink was gross (which he did) but that is actually his forced smile these days.

He much preferred fries dipped in applesauce, of course.

I should have titled this post "the weekend of eating out every meal" because that is almost exactly what we did.  On Friday, I decided to take him to Chuck-E-Cheese.  It definitely isn't my favorite place, but we went right after it opened and there were barely any kids there---just the way I like it!  Of course, once daddy, Nana, and Auntie Anna heard of our plans, they wanted in too.  Yep, that's 4 adults to 1 child.

His favorite game by far was the basketball hoop!  I can't believe he can shoot (and make them) from the ground.  Andy had to hold him up last time!

Look at those skills!

We went out to dinner with a friend from college and her family on Friday night.  We were reacquainted because our boys go to the same school.  It was so fun!  Ben got to see some kids from school, I got to catch up with an old friend, and the husbands totally hit it off as well.  Looking forward to more date nights!

Saturday was my Nana's funeral.  My mom wanted it to be a small, more intimate affair, and it was just that.  It was a beautiful service followed by a nice family lunch.  Ben enjoyed the company and the cake. 

The rest of our weekend was fairly lazy yet productive.  My goal is to have my Christmas shopping done by December 1, and I'm off to a pretty good start.  This was my exciting Saturday night while Andy did school work!

I don't believe I mentioned this in a post yet, but Baby Fishler #2 officially has a name!  This name has been first on my list for several months now, but Andy was finally able to commit.  He "let" me order something with his name on it.  My mom and sister are dying to know what it is, so I've been messing with them by sending them pictures like the one below.  "Baby's name is on this."  They were trying to get Ben to squeal but our secret is safe with him.  Mostly because he tells everyone that his baby brother is going to be named, "Sister." 

We had a birthday party for my Uncle Mike on Sunday and Ben got to spend more time with his little girlfriend/cousin, Lydia.  He is so good with her-- I hope the same holds true for his baby brother!

In between our fun, we did a lot of preparing for baby!  We cleaned the bassinet as well as a bunch of the baby toys.  We are SOOOOO excited to meet him!  I had another ultrasound yesterday and Baby Boy looks great!  He is estimated to be around 4 # and 10oz.  He is still as cute as ever, looking just like his big bro!

Weekend Recap: Family Fun & Date Night!

Happy Monday!  It's been awhile since I've had some free time on a Monday night to write a blog post.    I could be finishing up some notes for work but…they'll still be there tomorrow. ;)  We didn't have much planned this past weekend, which I was happy about, but it turned out to be a pretty darn good one.  I'm drawing blanks on what we did on Friday night besides stay home and watch Dateline.  We were both so tired we barely made it to the end.  It was our usual Saturday morning of music class for Ben and me and studying for Andy.  Ben and I stopped by my mom's after music class.  Even though they had big "to-do" list, Nana and Papa John graciously offered to take Ben for several hours so I could get some stuff done.  I was a little sad to leave him, but it was so nice to have some free time!  My mom was inspired by my blog post from last weekend and wanted to check out the park we went to.  It is a good 45 minute drive, but totally worth it!  So while Ben was doing lots of this:

I was busy doing this:

I did some much needed organization of all of our baby clothes before my pager went off.  I'm on call 1 week a month and I typically get 1-2 calls a week, but I had to go in on to see a patient on Saturday.  At least I didn't get interrupted doing anything fun! ;)  On Saturday night, my dad came over so Andy and I could have a date night!!!  We really don't go on many dates these days and we especially do not go to movies, and we decided that we were due for one!  Again, I was sad to leave Ben, but he was SO excited for grandpa to come over.  Despite his 20 minute power nap in the car earlier in the day, he was in a great mood.  This boy LOVES to play baseball, and I love any opportunity where I don't have to be the pitcher.  (Mostly because he hits the ball nearly 100% of the time and he hits it HARD.  Andy got pelted in the arm right before we were about to leave and the ball left a mark.  He has a tee but apparently a real pitcher is more fun…)

I do not know what he is doing in this picture, but I do know that he did NOT want to stop playing to take a picture.

And of course, we needed one of us, since it was such a special occasion!

We tried a new local "farm to plate" restaurant and it was excellent.  We will definitely be going there again.  After dinner, we went and saw "Gone Girl" which we both really liked.  I want to read the book now!  It was our first movie since we went to a movie in Belgium when I was pregnant with Ben.  We kept saying, "we need to do this more often" and we definitely do! 

We missed Ben, but I'm pretty sure the only thing he missed was Grandpa not being there in the morning.  "Grandpa go?  Grandpa come back to Ben's house!!!!"  (Almost with tears, I might add.)  So he did the next best thing: played with the new toy from Grandpa.

Later on Sunday morning, we went to our cousin Lydia's baptism.  Andy and I were both too busy telling Ben to whisper and that he can't eat a granola bar in church that we didn't have time to take pictures.  (Side note, he later received a sucker in the middle of the service after he went up to the front with Auntie Anna and the rest of the kids.  He is probably going to want to start going to this church on a regular basis…)  I only managed to get a few pictures from the day.

As always, Ben loved hugging and kissing baby Lydia.

After I tried REALLY HARD for over an hour to get Ben to take a nap, I accepted that a good nap was not in Ben's plans this weekend.  Instead, we decided to take Rosco to the dog park.  We didn't last very long because it started to rain, but it was still fun.  There were about 25 dogs there and Ben wasn't scared at all until this giant dog came over by him.  I was scared too!  Mostly he just watched in amazement.  Love those little folded hands.

My boys!

We wrapped up our weekend with some much needed grocery shopping and an early bedtime.  Ben was asleep before I even left his room!  That never happens.  Have a great week!