Fun Weekend and My Birthday

The weekend started off right since I only had a half-day of work. For those who don't know, I work for the State of Maryland. We found out at the end of last year that all state employees would be subject to a furlough plan in 2009 so that the state could save some money. The number of furlough days was assigned based on your salary... I had to take 3 days. Now, mind you, my work is stupid and would not allow you to take whole days off. No sir, you had to take your furlough days in 4 hour increments, with 4 hours per pay period, which is every two weeks. So I took every other Friday as a half-day for 6 pay periods. This past Friday was my last furlough day. Even though I wasn't getting paid for those 4 hours off each week, I am going to miss the furlough days because 1. It's a half-day off work! and 2. I (selfishly) would go home for a few hours before picking up Peyton from daycare. Mama needs a little "me" time once in a while (that doesn't involve grocery shopping or some other errand). Haha.

So anyway, I met up with Kyle and a few of his friends from work for lunch at TGIFridays. While none of them will claim responsibility for it, the waitresses came over to sing Happy Birthday to me. I hate this more than anything! Although, I did get free ice cream out of it, and that's always good. After lunch, I headed home and played Guitar Hero for like 3 hours. Fun! Kyle picked Peyton up from daycare on his way home from work.

Saturday, the temperature was in the upper 90s. It was hot. What happened to spring? After Peyton's nap, he and I headed over to the playground. He slid down the slides about 8 times, and then declared, "Hot hot." I asked him if he wanted to go home and he said, "Yeah!" I guess the heat was bothering him, because it is very unlike him to want to leave the playground. Normally we have to drag him back home.

I knew that Kyle would watch the draft all day, so I planned on going to the Orioles game with my parents. The Orioles have a promotion that you can get one free upper reserve seat any time in the month of your birthday. Those born in January-March get a free ticket in April. So all three of us got free tickets to the game. Here is the view from our seats. Not bad at all for being free.

It was crazy packed at Camden Yards. I guess everyone wanted to go out and enjoy the weather. We waited about 20 minutes just to get our tickets, 10 minutes for some food, and 5 minutes to get on the escalator to the upper deck! Unfortunately the O's were not on their game. The pitcher gave up a lead off home run in each of the first three innings. The O's finally scored runs in the 4th and 6th innings. It drizzled a little throughout the game. It felt good though because it was still so hot, even though the sun had gone down. It was lightening too, which was pretty neat to look at. We decided to leave at the end of the 7th inning because it was 6-2 and not looking good. (The O's came back a little in the 9th, but still ended up losing 6-5.) We did enjoy ourselves though.

On Sunday, we met up with my parents and Jeremy for my annual birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Peyton, for one, enjoyed the food! Before we ordered, they brought him a plate with his own bread and some banana slices. You could tell he thought he was special.

The family

Kyle and I

I ordered my usual Thai Chicken Pasta, and Jeremy copied, as always. It is so good. Peyton ate a ton, including some of my chicken, some of my mom's pasta, some of Kyle's french fries, and lots of my dad's peas. Everyone ordered cheesecake for dessert, even KYLE! Yum yum yum! Peyton enjoyed sharing with his Pop-Pop, who let him eat all of the whipped cream he wanted.

Jeremy wanted to show that he could eat a lot of whipped cream too.

As for gifts, my parents got me tickets to DC101's Chili Cook-off, which is both a cook-off and a concert. This year the bands playing are The Offspring, Third Eye Blind, Shinedown, Papa Roach, Puddle of Mudd, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. It should be good. Jeremy works at Panera, and I just love their broccoli cheese soup, so he gave me a whole big package of it. Yum-o! Thanks guys.

Monday was my birthday. Kyle had softball, so Peyton and I went out to a very special birthday dinner at Burger King. When Kyle got home, the boys gave me my presents. Peyton handed me my card and I opened it, then he ran back to Kyle and said "More!" He did this after each gift he gave me. It was pretty cute. I'm glad that he likes to give as much as he likes to receive. Peyton helped me open my gifts, and even cleaned up the wrapping paper each time.

I got another camera!

What a big helper!

I also got a camera bag, memory card, and three shirts. Thanks Kyle and Peyton! My boys also baked me birthday brownies. Here I am blowing out my Big Bird candle (clearly left over from Peyton's birthday party, ha).

Thanks to everyone who left me birthday wishes!

Pictures!

I just wanted to share some pictures that we've taken recently.

This picture says it all...

Enjoying the play house from the Shultz's

Peyton was putting this Easter egg everywhere:

On his ears

On his toes

Another shirt that describes Peyton perfectly

Peyton and I playing Guitar Hero together

Playing under the table this morning

In other news, Peyton now consistently knows the colors red, blue, yellow, orange, and green. He also knows the shapes circles, squares, hearts, and stars. Peyton has started using the phrase "Oh boy!" He must have picked that one up from daycare because we never say that around here. Peyton also has recently learned that a rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo" and that is just hilarous to hear him say.

That's all for now. The weather is so beautiful -- I gotta go!

Beautiful Day

On Saturday, it was sunny and 80 degrees! It was the most gorgeous day we've had this year so far. To enjoy the beautiful weather, Kyle, Peyton, and I met up with my parents down at the Inner Harbor. Here's me and my baby while we were waiting for my parents to come.

It was so crowded at the Harbor. I think everyone else in Baltimore had the same idea as we did. All of the restaurants were so packed. We finally decided to eat at a Spanish tapas restaurant. This is a picture of all of the food we ordered. The food tasted good, but it was fairly expensive for the small portions that you get. Also, our waitress was an idiot and none of the other staff spoke English, so I don't think we'll be returning to this place.

Here are all of us at dinner.

After dinner we just strolled around the Harbor. There is a merry-go-round that we were going to take Peyton on, but it wasn't operational. Boo. Here is a picture of the aquarium.

And Peyton loved looking at all of the boats. He would point and yell "Boat boat" over and over. We were pretty close to this boat when it was pulling out of the dock. Peyton waved goodbye to the people on board. In fact, Peyton is sitting with me right now and he is still getting excited and saying "Boat" while looking at this picture. We'll have to get him out on a boat sometime. I think he'd like it.

After walking around for a while, my mom decided that she wanted some ice cream. Peyton enjoyed that too. We didn't leave the harbor until after 8:00, which is Peyton's bed time, so of course, he fell asleep in the car in no time. We thought it was funny that he passed out with Kyle's hat on.

18 months

Peyton turned 18 months on April 12. I took him to the doctor today for his 18 month check-up. He is currently 32 inches tall, which is the 50th percentile. He's been in the 50th percentile pretty much his whole life, so it looks like he's going to be of average height. Peyton weighed in at a whopping 22 lbs 1 oz. That's the 8th percentile, which is actually an improvement because he's been in the 5th percentile over most of his life. The doctor is not worried though, because she just thinks that he has a high metabolism, which he clearly gets from his daddy and not me. Anyone who knows Peyton knows that the kid loves to eat!

Overall, Peyton is doing very well. He is healthy, and that's really all I care about. We can even begin to give him his inhaled steroids only once a day, instead of twice a day like we are doing now. Hopefully he will stay symptom free with the once a day treatments. And I'm still crossing my fingers that maybe one day he'll outgrow this asthma!

The doctor said that at this age, Peyton should know 3 to 5 body parts. Well, Peyton knows his hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, cheeks, chin, hands, arms, belly, feet, butt, tongue and knees. That's 14 if you stopped counting. The doctor was very impressed. I also told her how many animals (and their sounds) Peyton knows and she couldn't believe that either. She told me that the next things he should be working on are his colors and shapes. Then I told her that actually he already can identify circles, hearts, and stars (and sometimes squares). He also has begun to name red, blue, and yellow things consistently.

When she asked me how many words he says and if he can form word combinations (about 50 and yes), she told me that his speech was that of a 20-22 month old. His intelligence, based on the body parts, animals, colors, and shapes, is that of a 22-24 month old. Go Peyton!

Happy Easter!

On Easter Sunday, Peyton woke up around 8:30. Kyle and I both got up with him so that we could go downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny left. Peyton got a basket full of candy, Elmo Live, sand toys, foam bathtub letters and numbers, an Elmo/Easter book, some small beanbag balls, an Elmo figurine, and a bunny in a car. Wow.

Peyton liked all of his loot, especially the egg that looked like a football. He didn't even care about the candy inside, just the awesome-ness of a football egg! He's holding it in the picture below.

Peyton really liked his Elmo too. Here he is giving Elmo a kiss...

And a hug...
And just having a conversation with Elmo.

Next, it was time for the Easter egg hunt. The Easter Bunny left 12 eggs hidden in our family room. Peyton was pretty good at finding them. The Easter Bunny didn't leave anything in the eggs, because he figured that Peyton wouldn't know any better and wouldn't care. Well, when he found the first egg, he popped it open. Kyle said, "It's empty." From then on, whenever Peyton found an egg, he would open it up and say "empty" like he was so dissappoited. I don't really think he knew what he was saying though, but it was still pretty funny.

Peyton and all of his eggs.

After the egg hunt was finished, Kyle and I took showers and got Peyton dressed so that we could go to church. Here's Peyton in his Easter best. (Peyton now says "Cheese" when we're about to take his picture. As you can see in many of the pictures, he has that smile where you can tell he just said "cheese.")

We went to St. Bernadette's church, which is only about 5 minutes from our house. We tried to go to church there on Christmas Eve, but it was just too packed, so this is the first time we actually stayed for mass there. The church was a little strange in that there were no kneelers and the Communion wasn't hosts, but little cubes of real bread. But, I'd say that is an improvement! Peyton did pretty well in church. We got there about a half hour early because we didn't want a repeat of Christmas Eve. So Peyton had to sit still for an hour and a half. That was kind of the limit of his stillness. He was very friendly all through mass, saying hi and waving to whoever would look at him. He especially liked the sign of peace because everyone shook his hand. We sat in front of the 'cry room' just in case we needed to make a speedy exit into it. In the room, there was a mural of Noah's Ark. All throughout mass, Peyton needed to point to and yell out say the names of the animals in the painting. He wasn't too loud though, so it was cute. We had to bust out the cheerios to keep Peyton occupied about halfway through the service, but overall, I was proud of how well he behaved.

After church, it was time for lunch and Peyton's nap. I also started cooking the ham and warming up the sauce and meatballs for dinner. Dinner was at 4:30 and people began arriving around 3:30. Jeremy and Jill got there first. Then, Kate, Dave, Noah, and Dave's parents came. My parents were next. Here is Peyton and one of his favorite people, Pop-Pop.

And although Peyton just will not say her name, he loves Grandmom Gram Nana this woman a lot too.
Peyton and Uncle Jer and Jill.

It looked a lot like Christmas in our house, even though it was Easter. Peyton got a baseball bunny and his very first baseball mitt from Uncle Jer.

From Grandmom and Pop-Pop, Peyton got some books, candy, lots of summer outfits, and a mini patio set, complete with chairs, table, and umbrella.

Kim, Bo, and Dougie hooked Peyton up with a bathing suit, t-shirt, stuffed bunny, lots of Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, and animal crackers.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of Peyton with Nadean or Aunt Bev. However, Nadean, Vester, and Austin gave Peyton a basket with some candy, a fun book, puzzles, and some bathtub crayons. Aunt Bev gave him some chocolate dipped pretzel rods (which he is still too little to eat, so I'm helping him out with those!) and some money. That kid made out pretty well. Kyle and I also received some gifts from everyone.

I think that everyone was in agreement that dinner was delicious. We had ham, ravioli, meatballs, sausage, broccoli salad, cracker corn, mashed potatoes, bread and rolls. Thanks to mom and dad for the sauce, meatballs, sausage, and cracker corn. And thanks to Nadean for the bread! For dessert, there was death by chocolate, cheesecake, eclair cake, funfetti cake, and cupcakes. Whew. Thanks to Kim for the two cakes! And thanks to my mom for helping me with the cooking there at the end when everything was a little crazy, to Jeremy and Jill for helping put stuff on the table, and Kyle for keeping Peyton out of the way! (I feel like I just won some award, and this is my "Thank you" speech).

After dinner, Kyle conviently snuck out of the kitchen when it was time to wash the dishes. I washed and Kim and Nadean dried. Thanks girls! Kyle finally reappeared and helped us put away the clean dishes. I'm on strike for the rest of the week when it comes time to do the dishes!!

While we were cleaning up and before dessert, most of the boys headed downstairs to play ping-pong. Austin and Dougie also played with Peyton.

Here is Noah. Isn't he too cute?!
The Borowski's.
And finally, us.

It was definitely a lot of work hosting dinner for 18, but everything turned out well and I'm proud that Kyle and I were able to pull it off. I guess we really are big kids now!

Hope everyone had a great Easter as well!

Preparing for Easter

Saturday was all about preparing for Easter. I got up with Peyton Saturday morning and while Kyle was still sleeping, Peyton and I had arts and crafts time. Peyton colored in his Sesame Street coloring book while I made him a bunny ears hat. I was kind of shocked that they didn't do any Easter projects in daycare all last week. In fact, they haven't even done any spring themed projects yet either. So, I took it upon myself to do an art project with Peyton to celebrate the holiday. This is what we made:

While Peyton was taking his nap in the afternoon, I prepared a few things for Sunday's dinner. I made Kyle's mom's death by chocolate, which my family has grown to enjoy very much. I also made Aunt Bev's broccoli salad, which I enjoy very much!

After Peyton woke up from his nap, we dyed our Easter eggs. Peyton had a good time dropping the eggs into the cups of dye. I really can't believe it, but none of them cracked. Here are some pictures from the egg-dying fun.

Finally, after Peyton went to bed Saturday night, Kyle and I moved the sofa from our living room into our family room to make space for the extra tables that we needed to set up for dinner on Sunday. Let me tell you, that sofa is heavy! We set up the two extra tables and all of the chairs, put the table cloths on, and set the table with dishes and silver plastic-ware. We wanted to get as much done as we could so that we could just focus on cooking and having fun on Sunday.
Stay tuned for a post about Easter... coming soon.