thanksgiving weekend

whew!  we made it.  not only to thanksgiving but through jason working weekends since september!  we are so glad to have daddy/husband back at home on the weekends.  it feels more normal.  thanksgiving this year was much different from last year.  last year we didn't have family over...didn't have family to visit.  cashel was sick...again. it was warm.  it was just weird.  this year we hosted our first thanksgiving!  we had a modest crowd of us, nana, uncle brian, and our friends nick, danielle and bill.

 

here is my first turkey!  it's brined and was delicious!

 

cashel and daddy rocking out

cashel and uncle brian playing wii

i put cashel to bed around 9 pm and fell asleep with him.  jason comes in around 9:45 to wake me and get my help with the kitchen.  it looked like an explosion had occurred after we had cooked.

santa barbara zoo

the next day we took a day trip to santa barbara.  we ate lunch at an italian restaurant that was awesomely family friendly with unexpectedly huge portions then headed to the santa barbara zoo.  we all had a great time!

do you see that?  where else can you see a giraffe with the ocean in the background?  lucky giraffe.

cutie pie

 after the zoo we headed to the pier before our drive home.

one of my favorite shots from this wonderful family day

the happiest place on earth

we did it. we took cashel to disney...land....not world...that's too far away for us...but, fortunately, disneyland is only about 45 minutes away!  yahoo!  i was a little concerned about how a 2 year old would react to the eye candy that is disney.  i thought it would be too overwhelming, creating more of a little monster who would be to stimulated, to overtired after it all to console...leaving exhausted parents more exhausted...but...it was great!  jason was really the advocate of the trip (as usual).  he's thinking it would be a great tradition that would someday lead to cashel inviting a friend or two along the way to celebrate his birthday.  in hindsight we treated this like a business trip.  what's the parking situation like, how overwhelming will it be, the food, etc.  although jason and i had both been there once each, separately, him - before i rocked his world and me - 4 years ago for a science teacher conference (cue the dork comments here).  we were there for only about 4 hours (expensive, yes, but we got a deal - call me for details).

bottom line - cashel l - o - v - e - d it!  i mean, he didn't run up to the characters or anything...as you can see....he was still a bit nervous about them, but he loved the eye candy that is disney.  we rode only one ride (the casey train) while we were there for a couple of reasons.  1.  i was told which ones to avoid for his age which really limited us and 2.  the lines were ridiculously long and we weren't about to wait in a line for even 20 minutes with a 2 year old!  next time we'll be more prepared.  it was a ton of fun for all of us.  there's nothing like seeing disney through your child's eyes. 

warning:  $7.00 balloons pop just as easily as much, much, much cheaper ones...

one last note...part of the reason we left after only about 4 hours is because it was cashel's nap and anyone who knows me knows how nutso i am about his nap.  so...it was his nap time...we succeeded in getting him to stay in his stroller and strolled around and after a chat decided to head home.  cashel wakes up as we are putting him in the car and proceeds to scream "more!  more!  more!"  he is obviously upset we have taken him from his new bff, disney, and proceeds to scream this for about 30 minutes.  

in the background you see the $7.00 balloon that cashel popped as soon as we got home.

all in all, a great day...

stuff my mom says

i love my mom with all my heart but can't resist making fun of her.  lately she has sent me some texts that are just hilarious. 

"hope your thanksgiving's going well.  just wanted u to know that i just found a used diaper of cashel's under your bed.  love u."

"dad and i were in walmart last evening and a fight broke out in the vegetable area."

keep 'em coming mama - they make me smile!

we just can't believe it

everyone says it. everyone says, robin, this time is going to go by so fast you'd better enjoy it.  and they're right.  we cannot believe that our boy turned 2 almost a month ago!  it makes me happy...it makes me sad.  he's 27 pounds.  i don't think i'll be able to carry him around when he's 3 and i'm going to miss that.  the baby that he was.  but i'm excited for the awesome boy he is and will be.  the one comfort is that i hear so many people say, every stage was my favorite.  it gets harder but better all at the same time.  i don't see how it could be any other way.  yea for us!  and yea for him!

so...ON cashel's birthday he had a party at school. The best part was that all of the kids were super excited about getting to go to a "party" and eat cupcakes, but no one was sure who's birthday it was.  i kept asking cashel, "who's birthday is it?" and he would say, "claire" or "ethan."  anyone of his school friends' names but never his own!

jason was home for dinner that night and we had cashel's favorite - salmon!  afterwards we had his second favorite - cupcake!  

 

the saturday after his birthday we had a playdate with two of his friends from school - brendan and charlie.  before the party nana came over and gave cashel one of his favorite toys - a lego farm - he loves it and plays with it everyday.

and i made a basketball cake!

they all had such a great time.

and...this would be one of our favorite pictures.  it says so much about how happy cashel was to have brendan at his house.

we tried to get a picture with charlie but charlie wasn't up to it.  so a couple of weeks later i snapped this shot at school.

 happy 2nd birthday baby boy!