my favorite things

as you might imagine these are all cashel related...

1. play ring around the rosy with me and/or jason and 'dropping' whenever he pleases

2. for some reason we can't figure out any time...and i mean anytime...we can be indoors or out...if a helicopter or airplane flies overhead cash stops whatever he is doing, puts one of his arms up to 'wave' and says 'bye byes'

3. his favorite word these days is 'up'...even when jason or i put him to bed...if he's not quite ready to be left alone he'll say 'up' and we have to pick him up to cuddle a bit more

4. cuddling a bit more before putting him to bed

5. he's had an explosion of words lately...he says his own name and the names of his friends at school including his teacher's name...in his own 'speak' of course: 'augie'(for his friend august who everyone calls auggie), 'tricia' (for his teacher miss patricia), 'annie' (self explanitory)...we're working on charlie, charlotte, brenden and henry. he says 'jason'...miss patricia tells me that when she changes his diaper she always talks to him about our names and it's so funny because i'll say, 'cashel, say jason and he says jason but when i ask him to say robin he says mama!'

6. since the ncaa tournament is on these days he has managed to establish a position of watching the games while standing on one of our footstool cubes

7. more of his favorite words: no, shoes, bird, sit (while pointing at the puppies), and any noise he can make with his mouth

8. he loves, i repeat, loves to dance...he'll turn up the music on the stereo and go at it and often begins to shake his head and clap in the car when music comes on

speaking of shreveport

starbucks in shreveport:

jason orders a tall americano and pays with a credit card

some random man in line behind jason:
you must be a lawyer or somethin', huh?

jason:
uh....no

my weekend

it's true what they say...parenthood changes you. i almost can't remember what it is like to sleep in, spend time in the bathroom alone, read a book, go to a movie, catch up on dvr shows (i've actually deleted many programs lately), exercise, sleep through the night (i still get up at least once a night just to make sure cash is covered up), just sit...you get the picture. jason was working hard on a job that happened to take him to shreveport, louisana, for part of december and january. being a full time working single mom for that time made me, ok, i'll say it, crazy. i did my best but it was hard. cash had two double ear infections during the time jason was away and i was also sick. oh, how i love my husband and how cash loves his daddy so boy oh boy, was it hard! we did it as an experiment - we won't do it again.

an-y-hoo.....that is really just the background for this post. this post is about my wonderful valentine's day/birthday present that jason set up for me. he got me a hotel room for one night in.....pasadena! ok - so pasadena is where i work and is only 20 minutes from where i live but it was perfect! it was the first night i had spent away from cash since he was born. yes....i missed him and i missed jason but i loved the me time!

i stayed at the hyatt hotel close to shops and restaurants. i parked at my school and rode over one of my school's orange bikes (my school provides bikes for our use - we're only supposed to ride them between schools and the parking deck so if someone from my school is reading this i am totally busted!). i saw avatar, walked around the shops, ordered a pizza to my hotel room, worked on cash's baby book, watched tv, took a loooooonnnnggggg shower, slept in (until 6:45 - ha!), saw another movie, then came home refreshed!

it was wonderful. i would totally do it again. here's some pictures of my adventure.

thanks sweetie - i love you!

nana's moving to california!

nana visited a couple of weeks ago and....dun duh duh duh....GOT A JOB AND IS MOVING TO CALIFORNIA! here is a picture of nana trying not to force a hug from cashel - he's a hard sell with the hugging of anyone besides his mom or dad...

but look....it worked!

we are so excited that she is moving close (about 1/2 an hour away) because when california was just a dream for us she would always tell us "if you move to california, i'll move to arizona, because i love the southwest" and jason and i said "what for lady? to still be a plane ride away? that's crazy? you may as well stay on the east coast if your not gonna go all the way!" i guess she heard us - oh, and being close to her grandson is probably more motivation to live close than anything else....

here's cashel giving her an unsolicited kiss....i don't think jason's too happy about this (the unsolicited kiss i mean)...we're super happy she's moving... :-)

generations

we have a beautiful 98(!) year old grandmother living with my awesome parents. miss thelma long is wonderful. she is sweet and funny. when we were home for christmas we made sure that cashel paid attention to her but he was, like many very young kids, a little intimidated by her automatic chair and wheelchair so he kept his distance for the most part...but....you should have been there on our last day. cashel made sure that everyone knew that he loves his great-grandmother.


we were just playing around and all of the sudden he approached her...


so i put him in her lap and he looked up at her...


they exchanged some babble and its about this time we realize what a special moment this is so my mom jumps in the picture...


four generations...


did you see that? cashel just slipped his arm around her neck!


now fingers in the mouth...


by the way...cashel has more teeth than grandmother


a little peck on the cheek - what a sweet boy...


a kiss back...


i like your shirt, great grandmother - do you like my run dmc shirt? and she said, "why yes cashel, i'm listening to run's house right now!"


mimi stealing on of cashel's famous open mouthed kisses

ahhhh...

what a great moment...

more things that make me happy

i thought of more things that make me really happy:

when he wants a bite of something he opens his mouth up as wide as possible - sometimes i look over when i'm eating and he has his mouth wide open

jason taught him how to say "ahhh" after taking a sip of water

oh - and these two pictures because, i mean really, how cute is he in his bike helmet and he loves drinking his daddy's protein shake and he has a protein shake mustache

some of what i've learned

1. poop can miraculously end up in your hair

2. people with kids have dirty cars for a reason

3. this thing they call "absentmindedness" is REAL people....and i'm riding that train as long as i can

4. it is possible to take a shower with your bra on and not even realize it

5. my ability to carry cashel and groceries up stairs, walk the dogs with cashel on my back, make dinner, bathe cashel, get him into bed and clean up all before jason comes home makes me superwoman

6. family is missed even more now

7. i think i'm superwoman sometimes - now i think of my mom with 4 kids - she's superwoman

8. cashel hugs and kisses are priceless

9. jason is every bit the awesome dad that everyone knew he would be

10. it's true what they say - parenthood changes you

something to tide you over

i'm working on a post called "what i've learned" but quite frankly at 9:02 pm on this wednesday night i'm pooped and have done the following:

1. changed my background to something fresh and springy
2. changed the two side pictures
3. realized how hard it was to change the two side picture because, as cute as that little boy is we have no really cute picture of US together (me/cash, me/jason, me/cash/jason) - he's really hard to get good pics of these days - he runs towards the camera as soon as he sees it to play with it and any other attempts seem to get him frowning or making a weird face - we need better pictures - i told jason that tonight

after all that i don't feel like i've learned enough to be able to post what i've learned so i'll hold off on posting that one until i at least remember 10 things i've learned - i only have two at the moment and am sure i've learned more than i can write but can't remember a darn thing at the moment

until then enjoy the following silly pictures

things that make me happy

in an effort to try to revitalize my blog i am committed to even short posts even without the cutie-pie pictures of the little man. i really want this to be a record of our life here in los angeles. i have a horrible memory so it also serves as a sort of diary for me so that when i'm old and gray (i mean really, really, gray - not the little i have here and there right now) i have a record of funnies, moments, events, to look back on. so here is a post that's a little different than the norm that i'm sure to find refreshing when i look back at this years from now....

the funny things cashel's done lately -

try to wink - he squeezes both eyes very tightly

squeeze watermelon as hard as he can with his bare hands to watch and feel the juice

practice walking sideways and backwards

climb on top everything- ok - not so much funny as scary

place a ball in his basketball hoop that's too big

smile and clap very hard during "if you're happy and you know it..."

point to everyone's nose and say "no?"

i swear he loves to be caught in the act - he'll grab something (the remote) he's not supposed to have - wait for us to notice and say something - smile, then run

speaking of remotes, as of this date, our tv remote has been "gone" now for 3 weeks

he says "ball" "dog" "cheese" "mama" "dada" "no no no (while moving his finger)"

grab his you know what anytime he's naked

runs from us when he's naked

grabs my shirt to "drag" me around

like to play "ring around the rosy" and "fall down" at random times

i told jason not too long ago that the coolest thing about parenthood in my opinion is that i get the pleasure of just watching this little boy grow. yea for us!

i can't wait to add to this list :-)

long beach aquarium

first of all, i want to say that you are all preaching to the choir when you say, "robin! you stink at updating your blog!" i know! believe me...i know! i'm on the road back. not sure how long the road is, it seems to get speed bumps, otherwise known as cashel and work but i'm working on it - i promise!

in the meantime i DID manage to figure out cool new way to display pictures and for your viewing enjoyment i have updated this website with our recent trip to the long beach aquarium this past weekend.

enjoy!