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Belated Birthday Trip for Da B-Man

We finally left town for a couple days this past weekend to celebrate Barry’s birthday – only a few weeks late this time, but we had important business to attend to on his actual birthday weekend! It couldn’t have come at a better time…us packing  our car and heading to our rented beach house. We got lost on the way there and Maggie begged us from the back seat to head back home so she could ‘go night-night in [her] own bed.’ 

Of course we didn’t turn around and as our cell phones announced their lack of service and our headlights hit the front steps of our house, we were already ready for some time to unwind. One of the very, very best traditions that Barry and I established early on in our relationship is replacing physical gifts with the gift of experience. Birthdays are often celebrated with a small gift and a weekend planned by the other person. Barry is a complete MASTER at this  – more than once he has ended up taking us to really fantastic places that I have no idea about until we actually arrive. On the other hand, I’ve taken us on some doozies…places I never wanted to know about and I’ll never tell anybody that I actually went there. 

So this past weekend when I woke up Saturday morning and realized that I’d actually done a good job in finding a great place for us, I had to do the Happy Dance to celebrate. In fact, I pretty much Happy Danced the whole entire weekend. The only bad part about the weekend was this: the dang weather was too beautiful. I kid you not. I had packed us for what I had thought to be typical Washington Coast weather and when the sun greeted us each morning, I cursed my wool sweaters and warm coats that I’d stuffed into our suitcase. I survived in my muumuu and flip flops, but daaaang, where were my shorts when I needed them. (Side note: I have zero pairs of shorts that fit me right now, so that complaint is not even legit.)

If I had to write myself a note about this all it’d go like this:

Dear Hannah,

Remember when you were driving home from Seabrook and you just kept looking at Barry trying to contain your smile because being away for 2 whole nights felt like a major getaway?

Remember how Maggie raced into the waves and rolled in the warm sand while collecting sticks for ‘Flag Camp?”

Remember how Sydney turboed on the beach until her little chubby legs couldn’t go anymore?

Remember how Barry forgot his running hat and Maggie yelled at him not to go running without it?

Remember how you discovered that yummy ice cream?

Remember that getting away fills your tank.

Love,  Hannah

So, really…Happy Birthday to Barry. May our tradition of getting away to celebrate birthdays be one that lives long in our family. I really love us and for once I feel pretty much like a smug person for picking a place we’ll probably go back to. 

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Patient Pug @ HBHQ

Barry told me last week that Maggie marched up to Sydney, gave her a huge hug and exclaimed, “I love you so much, Sydney!” 

I’m sure that if Sydney could talk, she’d say something similar back, but more specifically along the lines of loving all the food droppings, scoops of food and cheese chunks that Maggie shares with her. Although Maggie is our first child, Sydney in many ways is our first born. She was the reason we rushed home from work, started to take morning and evening walks, and most of all, the first living thing that both Barry and I fell in love with together. 

To see the love blossom between Sydney in Maggie makes us smile a bit more broad and knowingly chuckle when we see them together. I often say that Sydney is like a glorified cat because she’d sleep 23 hours a day if we let her and she is also shaped more like a fat cat than a dog. Sydney loves to chew her bones on Maggie’s bed, especially when Mags is already in bed….which results in Maggie yelling, “Barry, can you call Syd, please!”  (It seems that more and more, we’re learning that Maggie doesn’t miss one dang thing…)

If we were giving out Best Dog in the Universe awards, today would be Syd’s day. She’s so patient, friendly, happy and laid-back….a perfect companion. I remember when I was pregnant with Maggie and suddenly Syd couldn’t fit her body onto my lap anymore.  I swear she looked at me as if it were all MY fault, she certainly couldn’t understand that Barry was partially to blame for my ‘condition.’ Anyhow, with a second baby coming, I fully expect another stare-down from The Pug once we bring B2 home. Because there are only so many toddler hugs and paper crowns a Pug should have to wear in a lifetime…or at least that’s what I’ll gather from her woe-is-me look. 

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The List and Other Randoms

This morning I woke up with the list of ‘things-that-need-to-get-done-holy-hell-school-starts-tomorrow” spinning in my head. I’ve had kids floating in and out of my class – moving to PM Kindergarten or full day and so I haven’t even written their name tags yet. Worry not, that task is on The List. I intentionally left my notebook, which is keeper of The List, at school over the weekend because I wanted to really enjoy this Labor Day weekend with not too many distractions and school pressures. Translation: I sent myself e-mails about what needs to get added to The List.

Yesterday we squeezed every, single ounce of the day out and by the time our heads hit the pillow, we were satisfied with our weekend. Friday, when we had our ultrasound,  seems so long ago and the things we did in between then and now aren’t really important, but boy did we enjoy the weekend. After we left the ultrasound, Barry and I set out on a mission to find a perfectly round pink balloon. We were successful in finding the balloon; however, it wasn’t until we got out to the parking lot that we realized that perhaps the balloon wouldn’t fit in our car. It was that large. We did some maneuvering and got it to work and next time I have a need for a balloon, I plan on getting another rad huge one. The instant we walked through the door with the massive thing, Maggie was enamored. It didn’t take much convincing to get her to ‘take the balloon to get some pictures taken.’

And that was the start of our weekend. We went to Bellingham to visit Barry’s family on Saturday and Maggie got to spend some time playing with Greg and Linda. I slipped up to Bellingham to run some errands and by the time I got back, they were still having a great time. It doesn’t matter where we go, Maggie always remember who has what toys at their house. I suppose we’re all that way as kids, I can clearly remember toys that both sets of my grandparents kept for the grandkids. She just seems so young to be remembering!

I wish I was better at writing down more of Maggie’s day-to-day anecdotes (maybe I should add that task to The List?) because she has become so dang funny. Like the other day when I was changing over our duvet cover in our bedroom, a long process, and suddenly I heard fake snoring coming from the corner where she was playing. I looked over to see her curled up inside a pillow case with her head sticking out making sleeping face.  Then she’d pop up and yell “Good Morning!” and instantly fall back in to sleeping face/snoring/ball curled inside pillow case. She then insisted on finding a rubber band “I need rubber band right here. I need it now” and tying the pillow case closed around her waist like a potato sack. She kept the pillow case on to hop to her table and eat a snack and for quite a bit of time afterwards.

She’s also trying to figure out who her friends are and anytime we mention some of the little people she knows, she says “they my friends, mama.” She also is figuring out that mama and papa have friends too. We’re working on helping her distinguish between family and friends because as we were pulling out of my grandparent’s driveway the other day, waving to them, Maggie informed us that ‘them my friends.’ She’s right that my grandparents are her friends, but they’re also her family.

 [Other side note, the other morning Barry dropped me off at the Farmers Market and waited in the car with Mags and Syd. I guess while they were waiting for me, Maggie started to ask “Where’s Janet? Where is she? Where’s Janet? Where is Grammy” Barry tried to explain to her that Janet/Grandma was at her house. I wish I could have heard her ask for my mom by first name. So funny.]

But trying to figure out  the friends & family concept is a tough one, because what happens when you have friends that really are like family? How do you explain that? We’re not going down that road quite yet….instead we’ll settle for pillowcase wearing