Valentine's Day.... is really a non-event in our house. Early on in marriage, Nason and I were NOT unified in this decision. Over the years though, I have, begrudgingly at first (has anyone heard the story of our first Valentine's Day as a married couple? That may have to be a different blog post), and now enthusiastically, adopted his view of this "holiday", and have come to realize that Nason actually treats me pretty darn special MOST days of the year, and that he has his own brand of romance, that isn't necessarily expressed in chocolates and flowers. It's more expressed in ways like, "Hey Babe, let me take Gunnar for the afternoon, while you have some time to yourself", or "Let me take care of that for you, while you relax for a bit".....and I'll choose that kind of "romance" any day. . I can buy MYSELF some chocolate, thank you very much. (By the way, lest Nason get some kind of reputation as a mushy, sappy, puppy dog, let's just clarify that examples such as those mentioned above are not a daily occurence or anything).
Ok, I got WAY off track though, because the main purpose of this "musing" was to say that we DID make Valentine's Day special this year, not necessarily for each other, but for our mutual "Valentine" aka Gunnar. We took him out for doughnuts in the morning, gave him a little gift, and then it was off to his Valentine's Day party with his friends at Big Bounce.
(On a side note, if you bring cake of any sort into the Big Bounce, you WILL get put under intense scrutiny and investigation, from the vigilent front desk worker, as she tries to make a determination as to whether or not your cake is a birthday cake, and therefore, whether or not you are trying to sneak in a birthday party without paying. If you tell this worker that it is in fact NOT a birthday party, she WILL NOT BELIEVE you, and she will then proceed to spy on you for the remainder of your visit. Trust me foks, it's scary. You don't want to have to go through that. Stick to cookies, pie, or some other less-threatening dessert).
Gunnar....is a super-quirky kid, and I am learning more and more to just embrace that. For example, Wednesday, it was warm outside, so I decided it would be fun to get Chick-Fil-A, and take it to the park for a picnic. I figured we'd eat, then play on the playscape afterwards. Wouldn't you say that's what most kids do at a park? Well, not us. Not Gunnar. We ate, and then we proceeded to walk around in a field, on the outskirts of the playground, for about an hour. We did not get on the playscape even once. We wandered around aimlessly. We picked a few clovers. We wandered around aimlessly. We found a stick or two. We wandered around aimlessly. We sat in the grass. We wandered around aimlessly. We left. And Gunnar had a blast. I literally had to bite my tongue at least ten different times, to keep myself from saying, "Gunnar, don't you want to swing? Don't you want to slide? Don't you want to go over there with all the other kids? Don't you want to [do anything besides wander around this barren field????], but I have decided that this is my kid's personality, and if going to the park was supposed to be all about him, and wandering around is what he wants to do, then wandering around is what we shall do.
If you have a baby....and we bring you a meal, it's going to be Chuy's. Hopefully you like that, because that's what you're getting from us. I COULD cook you something, and honestly, I'm not a HORRIBLE cook...I can hold my own in the kitchen...but is there anything I can cook that you would want more than Chuy's? Doubtful. If so, you need to try something I've cooked, then try Chuy's again, and then re-answer that question. We brought Chuy's to the Looper's on Thursday night, and I'm pretty sure that other than the birth of their son, and bringing their son home from the NICU, it was about the best thing that ever happened to them.
Us with Little Ben
When your "date night in" ends at 9:45, with both of you asleep on the couch, it means that you're: AWESOME. Hey, at least we were asleep TOGETHER on the couch.
"Lazy Saturdays at home: Really? IS there such a thing, when you have a toddler? I wonder if Nason and I are just weird. I mean, I really do wonder that. Because I always hear people, EVEN people with toddlers, talk about "just having a lazy morning at home with the fam", or "a lazy Saturday around the house", and that just does not compute with us. "Lazy" to us means: read a book. sleep. drink a cup of coffee while reading the paper. catch up on 20/20 or 48 Hours mystery. sleep again. It does NOT mean "think of an endless stream of activities for a bored, cooped-up 2 year old, who can't go outside to play because it's too cold, and who can't cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie, because 20 minutes is about the extent of his attention span, to do." All that to say, we attempted one of our FIRST, stay-home-and-do-nothing-all-day-on-a-Saturday, Saturdays. It was a failure. We were bored, stir-crazy, and irritable.
Three things to note:
1) We love Gunnar, more than just about anything
2) We love spending time with him
3) We're ok not having lazy Saturdays. We totally believe that having kids means you start having a different KIND of fun..maybe even a BETTER kind of fun...but definitely different, and definitely not lazy
So next Saturday, look for us at Chick Fil A, Big Bounce, the park, or the mechanical rides at the mall. Or possibly all of the above.
The Beth....had a birthday, and so Krista, Michelle and I had the honor of getting to celebrate it with her at Moonshine last night. I think I am so lucky to have Beth Losurdo as a friend, and I am SO glad that she was born. That's all I'm going to say about that, because she will likely be featured in one of my upcoming "Spotlight" editions, and I wouldn't want to ruin that, now would I?
P.S....my parents gave Gunnar a Buzz Lightyear for Valentine's Day, and upon seeing it, he said the cutest thing I've ever heard him say, in his whole life. He said, "I've been dreaming of this my whole life!" Love it. This is one of those things that falls into the category of, "no one else cares about, BUT since one of the main purposes of my blog is to document special memories, for MY future reference, this had to make the cut this week).
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