Three years old. I can’t believe that you are three years old today. We celebrate with fun, fireworks, friends and family. You are so bright, funny and affectionate. The day is never done without you giving a million kisses, and then some more. “Kiss, mama, kiss!” you say to me over and over again throughout the day. If I give you one kiss and it’s not sufficient, you say, “No, lot of kisses.” I hope that you always want to share your affection with me, but I know there will be a day when you won’t so for now, I cherish each one of your sweet kisses. I am so incredibly lucky to have you. If it weren’t cliché to say so, I would declare you a firecracker—you are full of life, brilliant, and let’s just be honest, at this stage in your life, a little volatile. Three is this brave new adventure we’re embarking on together, and I hope you’re as excited as I am about it. While most focus on the trials this age brings, I know that it will be so wonderful too. You can tell me what you want and need (sometimes very emphatically), you have been potty trained for nearly a year, and you sing your ABCs almost perfectly (who needs e, f, and g anyway?). You love cars and trucks, playing with blocks and trains, digging and building in the sand, your friends and teachers at the “Baby House,” bubble baths, in fact, anything that has to do with water (except for the hotel pool), and always, always playing outside. Some of your favorite books are “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site,” “Llama Llama Red Pajama” and “The Going to Bed Book.”
Again, it’s beyond cliché, but the day you were born my life changed completely. Being your mama is the absolute best thing that has happened to me. Ten years before you were born, I was told that I may never have a child of my own, and I never let myself even dream of you. I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect child than you anyway. You are my angel baby, my sweet, sweet, sweet, my baby boy, my sweet pea, my silly goose, my bug, my big boy, my Young Master Gray, my heart, my darling dear, my Coco, my Coen Gray. I love you so much. Happy birthday, my love.
I will admit that when I started getting the first symptoms of the flu I was pretty grim about the whole thing. “How am I going to take care of a sick toddler when I’m sick myself?” “Great, now my birthday is going to suck.” And, of course, “Waahhhh, I’m sick.” Then, I joked with my sister that I was due for a birthday with the flu since my birthday last year was so epic. It’s really hard to top a birthday in Hawaii. After that I tried to change my whole perspective on the day and it really helped. So without further ado…
Reasons why my birthday didn’t suck even though I had the flu:
1. While my 2-year-old has more energy with the flu than I do on a normal day, we were still able to get a lot of extra snuggle time in. I hate that it’s because he is feeling bad, but I can’t be mad about snuggles!
So. Much. Energy.
2. My long-distance, we-met-on-the-internet-but-so-what-we-are-still-close friend had her baby boy yesterday and I was able to keep up to date on her labor and cheer her on via Facebook. Her oldest has the same birthday as Young Master Gray, so it’s pretty cool that this new sweet bundle shares my birthday now! Plus, what a way to put things in perspective. Having body aches and not being able to rest pales in comparison to trying to push a human baby out of you and not being able rest.
3. While refreshing and refreshing my browser to be sure and stay updated on the birth of that wee lil babe, I was inundated with sweet messages posted on my Facebook wall in real time. Each message, text, comment and call brought a smile to my face. They really and truly made my day.
4. I actually laid down during naptime. Now, I was not able to sleep because my brain wouldn’t stop going through to-do lists, but I also wasn’t running around trying to get everything done in that one small window of time as usual. I didn’t pick up the toys strewn across the floor. I didn’t clean. I didn’t cook. I didn’t work (okay, I did do some writing, but it didn’t feel like work). I didn’t worry about posting to any of my social media channels. I didn’t do much other than REST.
5. When Jeremy got home from work I was able to spend time with my little family. There wasn’t a big dinner or cake (I didn’t feel like eating anyway), but we had a quiet night in and we were together. I can’t really ask for more than that. As a bonus, Jeremy cleaned up while I took a hot epsom salt bath. He may or may not have suggested I go rest to get rid of the crazy lady who kept telling him he was putting everything away wrong.
6. While it wasn’t on my birthday (and thank goodness), I can’t leave out our little escape to Eureka Springs earlier this week. Jeremy surprised me with a plan to get away and camp for the night. He didn’t know it, but I had been hoping for a getaway. Of course, in my mind we were going to the beach, but I really love to camp so this was perfect. We talked about going to the Buffalo River, my favorite place to camp, but with limited time we decided to go somewhere close. After our anniversary trip to Eureka Springs in January, we were itching to get back and see some of the things that had been closed during that trip. There was a lot more to be seen, but unfortunately, a lot of places are still closed early in the week even during their travel season. I was so mad at myself for not remembering my camera, but Jeremy said that meant that I would just have to enjoy myself and not worry about my camera. Touche. However, I did take some photos with my phone. Here are a few highlights from our early birthday adventure.
Our lodgings for the night.In our haste we forgot matches, but we still managed to get a fire going.The Overlook Trail at Lake LeatherwoodThe Point at Lake LeatherwoodIt was a great place to rest and take in all that beauty.
That trip was so necessary. Before our hike Wednesday morning, I got a message saying that Young Master Gray was not feeling so well. He had a fever and I immediately felt guilty for taking that time away. I wondered, “Should we skip our hike and just head home?” We decided to go on our hike and then head home, and I’m really glad that we did. I needed that time to be out in nature and think about heavy things. Of course, when I got home Young Master Gray only wanted mama, but I knew he was taken care of and fine with his grandparents until we made it back. The next day I took him to the doctor and, well, you know the rest.
Yesterday, I returned home from Kansas City and the first thing I did was take a picture of the tree across the street. While I was gone the buds had opened up and it was so striking that I couldn’t not take a photo (or ten).
See what I mean?
Afterwards I hurried inside because I couldn’t wait to see Young Master Gray. He was all I could think about on the way home. My sweet boy looked up and said hi when I came in, but continued to play. I was not as heartbroken over this as I thought I might be. In fact, I had prepared myself for this kind of welcome. After a fun weekend playing with his cousins, I figured I would not be all he had thought about. He did finally put down his trucks long enough to come give me a hug and a kiss and then went right back to playing. Seeing him happy and enjoying himself made me happier than if he had come running right to me because he clearly was in good hands and had a good time while I was away.
Once Jeremy’s sister, brother-in-law and their boys headed home, I was able to get down to business–unpacking. Usually unpacking is first thing I do when I return home from a trip. It doesn’t matter how long of a trip it was, how tired I am or how much there is to put away, it has to be done right then. I just cannot sleep without it being done. In the past, there has always been one exception to this though. Whenever I return from a conference as I did yesterday, I tend to leave all of the handouts, swag and business cards I gathered throughout the event sitting there, unpacked. I used to think I was doing this for safekeeping, to keep all of the information together. However, since I rarely reference that information once it comes home, I think it has more to do with me getting overwhelmed by taking in so much information over a short period of time. Like any conference I’ve been to, the speakers at Go Blog Social covered a lot of ground and spoke on varying topics that I truly wanted to learn more about. I am so grateful that I was able to go and to learn, grow and connect. Instead of keeping everything I took away from the conference packed away, I am determined to take all of the info out and put it to use this time. As I begin to unpack and process it all, I hope to share the what I have learned here.
Until then, here are a few highlights from my weekend in Kansas City!
The bed I had all to myself for two nights!
And the shower that I was able to use without interruption!
Well, today just did not go as planned. I had planned to have everything ready and spiffy with a nice introductory post to the new blog, but then Young Master Gray woke up at 10 p.m. throwing up. While I had him in the tub cleaning him up, I noticed some green goop in the corners of his eyes. Great. I washed it off with a wash cloth and prayed it would be better in the morning. Then, instead of situating myself on the couch with a laptop in my lap, I had a sleepy little boy to hold and watch Curious George with until he fell asleep. When we woke up the next morning and he cried and told me to keep the lights off, I knew we were really in trouble. Instead of driving him to school and spending the day working, I drove him to the doctor and spent the day being mama. It wasn’t a horrible day, just not the day I had planned. Those plans included a morning post linking to my new site I have been building up for the last few days. Oh well. We got to snuggle, make cookies (I only let him touch the ones he was eating!), and even play outside for awhile.
I hope you enjoy the new website. I promise to come back and give it a proper introduction next week. {Knock on wood} A big shout out to my friend, Rebekah Wright for designing my new logo and for getting me all set up on the new blog! After you finish checking out the new site, be sure to look her up at Wright Printing!
So, confession, I am not really all that into Valentine’s Day. I can’t remember a time that I really was. Jeremy and I do not celebrate the holiday and up until this year, I’ve had no reason to decorate a shoebox and buy a package of valentines for Young Master Gray. As you might guess, I was not exactly thrilled to have this task this year. I did come up with a cute idea for the valentine’s box, but my heart still wasn’t in it. The valentine options at the store were nothing to get excited about either. I didn’t want to spend way too much money on overpriced slips of paper plastered with obnoxious characters that would most likely end up in the recycling bin. (Yes, I know it’s possible that one day Young Master Gray may beg for them and I will most likely have to change my stance.) Then, the other day I was scrolling through my Insta feed and I saw the cutest valentines from Gingiber.
Seriously. Just imagine me with heart eyes.
I have shopped with this small, Arkansas-based business before (see Young Master Gray’s shirt in yesterday’s post, for example) so I did not hesitate to purchase them. I mean, for $2 for the digital download and the cardstock that was already sitting in my printer, it was a no brainer compared to the boxed valentine prices! Not to mention they are super duper cute. Cute enough for me to want to hand them out to my own friends!
Now I cannot wait for Young Master Gray’s Valentine’s Day party! Gotta get started on that shoebox…
Yesterday was a bright and beautiful day. The weather was chilly unless you were standing in the sun, and then it was just right. The perfect day for a parade.
The annual Fayetteville Fat Saturday Parade of Fools was a taste of mardi gras with an Arkansas twist. It was our first time to go and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was very family friendly. They talked the laissez bon temps rouler talk (with an accent), but didn’t really walk the walk. At least not during the parade.
Since Young Master Gray fell asleep in the car on the way, we ended up making it right on time instead of early like I had planned. Even though we didn’t get a great spot to watch the parade from, I think it turned out to be for the better. As it was, we waited a really long time for the parade to even start. Luckily, we were right by a police car and got to see a firetruck drive by before the parade began. Plus, we were right by the Walton Arts Center where they were in the middle of a construction project (as you can see in the above photo). In other words, we had plenty of trucks to look at while we waited.
Afterwards, we got to go see the “choo-choo” Young Master Gray had been eyeing since the start of the parade.
Such a fun afternoon hanging out in Downtown Fayetteville! It made me wistful for the Crescent City. I can’t believe it’s been four years since I wrote this post about my visit to New Orleans. I definitely want to make it back one day!
