Although I didn't plan our weekend to be eventful, it turns out that time does fly quickly when you have so much to do! I hopped out of work early on Friday to head home and take some estimates for our new furnace and air conditioner. Let me make one comment on this - it seems that all furnaces are pretty much on par with one another, but it's the company that really makes the biggest difference. That was something I was pretty surprised to learn. In my last appointment on Friday, I made this comment to the service representative, who kind of laughed and told me that in the industry, I'm known as a "one-legger," meaning I'm not going to sign on the dotted line the day of the estimate as I will need to discuss things with my husband. At this point, I laughed and told the guy that if that was the mentality of some HVAC companies, they had another thing coming. Basically, after all this is said and done, I'm going to tell Jeff what furnace we're buying, which company is going to install it, and how we're going to pay for it. The fact that some of these representatives treat me like poop on their shoe does not provide me with the incentive to choose their company.
So anyways, Jack was home with me and after the sales representative left, we had some dinner and then changed into our jammies. I really wanted to see if Jack would watch a movie, since he hasn't shown any interest whatsoever in television, but it seems like a good Friday night activity, right? So, we snuggled down in our bed, turned off all the lights, Blue hopped up on the bed with us, and we watched Dumbo. Jack actually watched about twenty minutes of the movie before falling asleep, so I'd consider that a success.
And another comment on Disney movies - watching them as adults gives you a much different perspective. Commenting on this to my cousin last night, she remarked that we should count all the Disney movies where something happens to one of the parents, the main character is an orphan, or one parent is missing from the film. Just think about it. When it comes to Dumbo, Mrs. Jumbo doesn't have a Mr. Jumbo to come home to after her hard day of work at the circus. Plus, she's shackled as a "mad elephant" leaving Dumbo to fend for himself. And don't even get me started on the "Pink Elephants on Parade" scene. Still, most of that seemed to be lost on Jack, and I think he actually liked watching the movie and snuggling with his mom and puppy. I know I was in heaven.
On Saturday, Jeff had to work most of the day so Jack and I were on our own. We did our chores, took a nap, and had some lunch. Afterwards, we went to the Eden Prairie Center. I wanted to do some shopping - Jack needs new pajamas - and I wanted to poke around for a new belt. Anyways, no trip to the mall is complete without a stop at the children's play area.
We've been here many times before, but it's always been a "play at your own risk" kind of place. It's usually overrun with kids, and kids who are WAY too big to be playing on the equipment. Fortunately, a security guard came by about every fifteen minutes and kicked out the big kids, so it actually turned out to be a pretty good time for Jack. He loved climbing on this wooden deck and jumping off of it. Seriously, he must have done this for a good half-hour, which is a lot longer than anything he does at home!
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Anyways, he was sitting around and taking a break when a little girl came up to him, grabbed his face with both of her hands and planted a big kiss, right on Jack's lips. It wasn't just a little smooch either. After she was finished, Jack started squawking and flapping his arms, almost like he didn't really know what to do with himself. This, of course, prompted big laughter from all the watching parents. I was fumbling with my phone, trying to get a picture, but I couldn't get there fast enough. Suffice to say though, I saw it, I laughed, and I don't think Jack will be running around, stealing kisses from other little girls any time soon...
Afterwards, we hit up Barnes & Noble to get a birthday present for Cousin Wim and we had some story time as well. We got home and sat down to have some resting time and look at our new books - not the ones for the birthday party though! Jack seems to be transitioning to just one nap a day, and it's kind of hard to figure it out. My rule of thumb has always been that he'll go down for a nap about every three to four hours, depending on what he's been doing and how well he slept the night before. Now, it seems he's ready to go down for his morning nap, but doesn't want to take his afternoon nap. This creates a whole host of problems because he get really crabby around 6:00 in the evening. It's been quite the challenge. On Valentine's Day, for example, I had this vision that I'd get Jack from school, we'd come home and cook a nice dinner for Daddy, and color him a Valentine.
No such luck.
He was whining the minute we walked in the door. The only thing that would seem to calm him was if I held him and walked around the house. He didn't want to sit on my lap and color or look at his books, he just wanted me to hold him and walk around. This was exhausting because it feels like you're carrying around a bag of rocks. As I was trying to cook dinner, he would wedge himself in between my legs and the stove, and press his face into my knees and just sob. This proved difficult to maneuver around, especially when I was working with a hot pan. He will grow out of this, I know, and we will figure out his new napping schedule, but for now, I'm just deciding its a good lifting regimen. This was the ONLY picture he would let me take on Valentine's Day, and keep in mind that this was in between hysterical sobs:
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Yesterday, poor Blue had some "surgery" which left us kind of home-bound for most of the afternoon. I feel so bad for our poor little buddy. Jeff dropped him off at the vet early yesterday morning and then headed to the gym to work out. Jack and I stayed home and got our things ready for today, and made a huge pot of jambalaya for dinner last night. Jack went down for his nap a little before 11:00 and slept for maybe twenty minutes and then was hollering for me to come and get him out of his crib. I'd heard that there was a new children's play area at Southdale, so I dragged Jeff to the mall with me. The play area was nice - definitely made for really little kids, so it wasn't too crowded and there was little danger of Jack being bulldozed by screaming eight year-olds. Afterwards, we walked around the mall for a bit and Jack ended up falling asleep. We managed to transfer him to his car seat without waking him up, but Jeff couldn't make the second transition to the crib when we got home.
I went to pick up poor Blue. Seriously, I feel so badly for him. He's got this HUGE cone on his head and can't seem to figure out how to move around the house with it on. It will get stuck on a doorway and Blue will just stand there, hanging his head in shame. Really, it's pretty flexible and he could get around, but he hasn't gotten that far yet. We kept him in our bathroom most of yesterday because we didn't want him going nuts and playing with Jack and we didn't want Jack beating on him either. Jeff got Blue a really nice bone to keep him occupied, but I could hear him crying upstairs every once and a while - almost like he was wondering what he had done wrong. My poor little buddy. He's got to keep that cone on for two weeks - and it's going to be a long two weeks, let me tell you. I took it off for a bit last night so he could eat and his first instinct was to go for his stitches, so I guess it's a good thing he's got it on, but he just looks so pitiful.
Anyways, my cousins, sister, and Cousin Wim came over last night for our First Inaugural Cousin Dinner. Both Wim and Jack were feeling pretty short on sleep, so the tears were flowing pretty freely, so dinner didn't last that long. Still, we had some wine, jambalaya, and dessert, so it was a success, in my opinion - and a good way to cap off the weekend.
So, all in all, it was a busy and fun weekend. Even though it's a federal holiday, I'm at work today and have a pretty slow week, which will be nice. Jeff heads to Duluth on Friday for some conference, but I think he'll be back on Saturday afternoon. I'm going to use his absence as an excuse to snuggle the crap out of my little boy and watch endless movies with him in our bed all Friday night!
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