A Paone Thing

We made it to Houston. We’re here at my parents’ for the next week, chilling and catching up. The trip went much better than I expected. We’ll see how the trip back goes, however, now that Jude knows the drill.  The kids are enjoying meeting the Grandparents. Next stop… thanksgiving day.

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you and pray and wish for the best for you this year. I’m a zombie tonight. I’ve been up way too late making those “bedroom slippers” for you and dad for your birthday and christmas gifts. Heh. Okay, so don’t be disappointed when it not slippers– It’s a surprize, I have been burning the midnight oil on this, so am not altogether here right now. I love you a lot though and wouldn’t be here today (in more ways than one) without your love, faithfulness and dedication. I’m going to be a flat failure as a mom compared to you, so could you just raise my kids. Nyahaha. Just kidding. I really do admire you all the more now that I’m faced with juggling kids, work, marriage, friendships, family. How does anyone do it? Well, you did it very well, in my humble opinion and I’ll be picking your brain for tips when I see you in a few weeks.

Love you and hope you had a blast for your birthday!

Happy birthday, honey! Sorry you’re feeling sick. Hopefully that delicious hot chocolate and those pancakes Violet made you this morning have made you feel a little better.

We love you! Thanks for being a great dad and a wonderful, patient husband.

Jesse, Justin got your text message this morning. He was very touched. He wanted to call you yesterday for your birthday, but was pretty sick.

Justin and Jude are both October boys and we’ve been having fun celebrating in anticipation of each of their big days. We celebrated Jude’s birthday at Oma’s Pumpkin Patch with a bunch of his little friends. The kids loved the hay maze, the cotton seed slide. Jude was in Heaven getting to ride on all the big farm equipment. He was a little horror on the hayride, but that was my fault for not following my instincts that he was still a little too young for that. Violet is a pro at milking cows and Jude’s good at terrorizing the baby cows in the petting zoo. For Justin’s birthday celebration, we teamed up birthdays with Maria of Sam (Doehler) and enjoyed beer and sausages (and real beer floats) at the Stone Ale Brewery Gardens and Bistro in Escondido. I fell in love with that place and can’t wait to go back. I haven’t seen anything quite like it, the mix of modern architecture, beer and gardens. If you’re ever in Escondido, ask me to take you there. I’d be happy to oblige.

Tomorrow is Justin’s big day. He’s been a little sick with sinus problems, but hopefully he’ll be up and around tomorrow enough to party just a little.  Jude, meanwhile, yep… he’s still teething. Another molar just broke through, poor baby. Violet is a happy little clam…. er, mermaid these days. She’s just being her princessy little self. I scored a few princess dresses and a some cute outfits for her at the annual Parent Connection swap meet. So, be on the lookout for Belle or Snow White (with a real red bow) walking around our home next time you’re over.  You’ll score extra brownie points if you can name the princess right and comment on her dress when she looks down and pats it timidly.  Jude, meanwhile, is busy practicing with his dragon gear. Apparently he’s got a knight or two to take out with some firey breathing in a couple weeks at the kids dress up party.

Here are a few pictures at the Pumpkin Patch

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To keep this from being my absolute worst posting month, I’m sneaking in one last September post. — just a small update. I can’t give any major excuses for my absence from the blog, except maybe really bad internet.  The two constants in my life these days — bad internet and Jude teething. Heh. He just got his first molar this past week. He walks, talks, reads… okay, fine — he just walks and shrieks all throughout the house all day. Other than that, he’s about the naughtiest kid on the block at the moment. We were joking about needing to make him a special play box with plugs, a fan, some extra electric sockets, sprinkler heads, small rocks, a spoon to bang on things, a cell phone and IPOD to throw in the garbage or flush down the toilet the second you’re not looking. He rushes out the door every time it opens and God forbid you try to sneak out of the room without him. He will walk up and bite you on your toes and feet if you’re not paying attention — or give you a nice bear hug followed by a little bite on the shoulder. Ahem. He turns one on October 24th and will celebrate his first birthday (weather permitting) at Oma’s Pumpkin Patch with a few friends. So… that’s the 411 on Jude the Terrible.

Violet is my fairy princess. She’s going to her first official fairy party this coming weekend. Her friend, Carly, is turning 4, so that’s the occasion. She’s decided to be the Christmas Tree fairy. She has also decided that I can be no other than Poppy and Jude must be “little white clover.” Hmmm… We should have a few pictures to post in  a few short days. Violet is still learning to speak clearly, but her vocabulary is quite extensive. -She made her first real trip to the dentist last week and I was so proud of her.  I was nervous of having her sedated unless it was absolutely necessary and she ended up doing fine with the laughing gas. She was so brave and didn’t make a peep. She goes back in in few weeks to get her other two cavities filled — yep, she had 4. The dentist said it was from not flossing.

Justin and I celebrated our 5th anniversary by getting to go have a nice dinner sans two little ruffians. We enjoyed a few hours to dress up and go out to a fancy restaurant for some grown up time. That was fun! It’s been an exciting 5 years. I feel bad I didn’t do a anniversary post this year, but the good news is we BOTH remembered our anniversary in plenty of time to plan something nice together. Progress!

Well, that’s the midnight report. I’m tired and off to bed to wake up tomorrow morning in October, the month of birthday boys, time changes  and holloween parties.   Good night!

I posted on Facebook on time.

I love you though, Tim, and wish you a wonderful new year ahead. Come out and see us? You have a niece and nephew to get to know.

Happy birthday from all of us.

The Parent Swap Meet is on October 11 this year and is again in the parking lot of the Canyon Crest High school.

Dr. Chris Mlot hosted a special summer barbeque this past weekend. Justin and Violet decided there was no place like home, but Jude and I got to enjoy great company, gourmet food and be pool party animals for a few wonderful hours. I was feeling lazy on the photography front,  but you can blame it on Amy who found me sipping margaritas and chilling with friends and actually teased me about all the photo ops I was missing.  Heh.  The party was really was nice though. You could tell a lot of love and hard work had gone into making it just perfect. Thank you for a great time!

Oh, I know every mom probably hits this crisis, but the other day out of the blue I got a panic attack that my life is just “happening.” I feel like I need a plan or I’m going to look back and wonder where it all went and realize I lived life day to day without any real direction. I have no time for family, friends, loved ones. So, I google “life plan” and find out there are some very organized people who seem to have also hit this crisis and have thought it all out for me. Mchael Hyatt’s blog put into words exactly how I was feeling. I think I’ll take some time and make myself one of these “life plans.” Can’t hurt! I need help prioritizing what’s important to me. Maybe this will help.

I am now the proud mother of a 10 month old. He’s such a little charmer, calls me “Mama,” waves, claps, sings. And then, a few days ago, Jude up and starts walking. He’s so proud of himself. He’s been balancing and taking a step here and there, but I haven’t been encouraging him much as I’m a firm believer in the crawling phase being very important. Well, that, and I’ve had this selfish desire to keep him a baby just a little bit longer. Then, last weekend Jude and I visited a family who has a toddler about Jude’s size who was walking all around. I could tell he was processing the fact that if this kid can do it, he probably could too. Anyways, we got home and immediately he started working on walking, turning, standing up and now he’s real getting the whole walking thing down. He’s also doing pretty good on the multi-tasking part of it. He can grab something, clap, carry a ball, waves his arms — all while walking (with just “a few” falls on his bottom). I was discussing his walking with Violet and that now he’s not so much of a baby anymore. She immediately pipes up, “Mommy, you need to have another baby now.” Ahem.

These little guys are growing so fast. Violet had her first sleepover last week in our guest room with her little 3 year old friend, Elena. I was worried that Violet would wake up and miss us, but apparently that didn’t happen. She woke up the next morning and bounced into the room to grab a few toys. I tried to say good morning and hug her, but she was so worried about getting back to play with her friend… grrr… Apparently, she also did not cry for us at all. She just played till midnight with Elena and then crashed on her own bed. I’m going to miss these days.