Showing posts with label Weekend Update. Show all posts

lately.

As we're in the throes of holiday season (my favorite time of year) and also approaching Liam's first birthday, I find myself super emotional these days. I have so many words and thoughts waiting to pour out of me, and can't wait until I can dedicate a few hours to just writing through all these feelings! (If only there were, like...double the hours in a day.)

We celebrated Thanksgiving last week in Iowa with both of our families. We were home for a long weekend and looked forward to spending copious amounts of quality time with friends and family -- but unfortunately, the sick Gods had other plans for us.

Thanksgiving night, Liam spiked a 104.5 degree fever that wasn't coming down with Ibupofen. We waited a bit, gave Tylenol, and finally, his temp came down to a way less scary degree. We agreed we'd take him to urgent care in the morning if it kept up. Needless to say, we were up all night with a hysterical child. His fever kept climbing and we brought him in right away on Friday morning. Poor guy has his first ear infection.

So, it was a rough couple of days with not much sleep for me and Bryan, and lots of rest of Liam. Which is to say, we basically stayed home ("home" being with my older sister) and made people come to us to hang out.

Being home is always difficult with both of our families being there. There are three sets of grandparents, four sets of aunts/uncles and multiple cousins to fit in to not enough days (especially with Liam being on a schedule, still.) Of course, we know it's a greater blessing than it is a curse to have so much family around, but it's hard for us to ever feel like we get enough time with any of them. We always complain when we are home that we can't relax because we are bouncing from house to house. But then over Thanksgiving when we didn't leave much, we felt like we should be seeing people. Double-edged sword, I suppose.

By the end of the weekend, Liam's antibiotics began to kick in and he was getting back to his happy self. We managed a trip to the children's museum, which he loved, and Bryan and I even squeezed in a date night with some of our friends.

Liam also took his first steps over the weekend! Completely nonchalantly, I just glanced and saw him take about 4 steps! We kept encouraging him to do it again and again, and he was getting frustrated by us picking him up and setting him down. The steps I happened to capture were after multiple attempts, so he is hysterically crying, but I kind of love it and think it's hysterical! (and, real life.)

Work has me working all kinds of crazy hours these days, taking up my normal evening blog time at home, but I promise to come back soon with details on what we are doing for the 1st birthday (hint - not much), and I'll finally write down some of those FEELINGS I'm grappling with as we close out 2015, and our first year as parents.

Monday, June 22, 2015 / 2 comments / Fathers Day Liam Weekend Update

Father's Day Celebrations

Hey Monday: SUCK IT.

Sorry, was that rude? I have a serious case of the Mondays, in case you couldn't tell. I always do, but always more than usual when I've just come off a fun weekend!

After some weekends of traveling, we were all home this weekend, which was so nice, especially since it was Father's Day weekend. I wanted the weekend to be all about my husband. He hates being celebrated for any reason, but I just really wanted to make it special for him anyway, because he deserves it!

Friday night, we stayed in because I was a little under the weather. Thankfully, come Saturday, I was back to my normal self! The weather wasn't AS nice as we wanted it to be, unfortunately, but no worries. We hung at home for most of the day, getting stuff done and playing with Liam, of course, plus we took a nice little stroll.

We went to a nice restaurant around the corner to enjoy some alfresco dining before Liam went to bed. Liam got to sit like a big boy in his clip-on high chair! We've used this at home, but finally remembered to bring it out with us. It's so easy!

Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas, and we got rained on, so had to bring our party inside. No worries though. Liam was awesome as usual, though he got a little riled up at the end of dinner and was screaming in glee for no apparent reason. Thankfully, we've found that people still find this to be cute at his age..along with staring. :) We had fun giving him some french fries to gum on, plus some bites of avocado, which he loved.

Sunday, Liam decided to grace us with an early wake-up at 6;45am (of course, after he slept in until 8am all week!). Being the loving wife I am, I let Bryan sleep in until about 10 as a Father's Day present. I intended on taking a nap when Liam went down for his first nap, but instead I got started on Season 3 of Orange is the New Black!

While he was sleeping, also set up B's Father's Day gift from Liam, plus a couple of cards and a bottle of champagne. I was a little nervous about the present. I know this type of gift is something I would love, but I wasn't sure if it'd be too cheesey for him. Thankfully, he loved it!

I got the idea from one of my girlfriends, but basically, I had Liam create three paintings, and then I framed them in shadow boxes from Hobby Lobby, and bordered the painting with pictures of Liam and whomever the gift was for. In Bryan's box, I included photos of him and his Dad with Liam, in my Father-in-Law's, I included photos of Bryan and him, and in my dad's gift, there were pictures of me and Liam.

To my delight, Bryan loved it! He said I "one upped him" by using Liam's footprints instead of hand prints, like he did for my Mother's Day gift, and I told him not to be silly. We popped some bubbly to start the day's celebrations!

It was a gorgeous day so we packed up and went to the beach! We set up shop on some grass on the edge of the sand (did not want to deal with a sandy baby). We had lunch at a bar/grill on the beach, and then spent the rest of the day snoozing, playing and enjoying the weather!

Bryan let me off the hook for cooking dinner and we ordered pizza instead, watched the season premiere of True Detective and called it a day. All in all, a wonderful weekend, and I know Bryan enjoyed his first Father's Day.

How was ya'lls weekend?

Monday, May 11, 2015 / 0 comments / Liam Mother's Day Revelations Weekend Update

My First Mother's Day

Well, this Monday officially beat me. As much as I want to lay my head down and go to sleep right now, I need to recap the lovely Mother's Day weekend I had first!

Let's say the weekend started on Thursday night, because I went for girls night out to see one of my favorite musicians, Tyrone Wells, perform at a local venue here. The venue was super intimate, had great food and wine, but most importantly I had great company with my lady loves! We had a great time, and Liam and Bryan had "guys night."

Fridays are usually pretty low-key at our house - Bryan and I are tired after the work week, and Liam is worn out from "school." This one was no different. Liam and I hung out while Bryan was at a work event, and we were all asleep for the night by 10pm!

After a beautiful few days during the week, of course the weather on Saturday was horrible. Cold and rainy. We spent the morning hanging at home with Liam, and on Saturday afternoon, Liam and I went over to my best girlfriend's (sister's) house so he could meet her family! He also got to catch up with his buddy Harvey, who was born just one week after him. I love love love getting together with my friends' kiddos.

When I got home, I found my lovely husband cooking me dinner! We put Liam down and enjoyed a dinner of ribs, charred corn, sweet potatoes and garlic pretzel bread, while we drank while and watched The Wedding Ringer. We mainly rented it because our friend from high school, Dan Gill, was one of the groomsmen in the movie. It was funny, but we were happy to have waited to see it on RedBox.

Sunday morning, I got to sleep in (until 8:30am...what what!) and was served coffee in bed while I fed Liam. When I went out to the kitchen, I was greeted by flowers, mimosa fixin's and a sweet card from Liam. Of course I cried at "his" note.

While Liam napped, Bryan and I sipped mimosas and got ready to go to brunch.

After, we watched a movie (Wild) and we all took naps, then got up and went on a long walk. We ordered my favorite pizza (taco!) for dinner, and watched Sunday shows. And of course, we facetimed with our moms, too!

It may not sound like an exciting weekend or extra special, but I loved every moment. All I wanted was to spend time with my family, and everything else was extra.

It's super cliche, but quite honestly, the meaning of Mother's Day was completely changed for me this year now that I'm a mom. Of course I have always honored my mom, stepmom, mother-in-law, sister, etc on Mother's Day. But it's almost like becoming a mom makes you a part of a club. Growing up, my mom always told me that I'd never know how much she loves me. As I told her this Mother's Day, I finally think I get what she means by that.

I feel so lucky every day that Liam is ours, and that I was chosen to be his mama. I never could have imagined how much I would love this new part of my life, but I do, so much. Being a mom is the hardest, best, most rewarding experience of my life, and I feel like it has given me new purpose.

Thank you to my husband for making me feel extra special and helping Liam with his gifts. And thank you to all of my friends who wished me a Happy First Mother's Day, as well as my family who showered me with the sweetest cards.

I hope all of you mamas, mamas-to-be, fur-mamas, step mamas, foster mamas, etc, felt the love and appreciation you deserve!

Tuesday, May 05, 2015 / 2 comments / Liam Life Lately Update Weekend Update Working Mom

lately.

Hello, friends. It's been awhile.

As I indicated, the month of April was rough. The theme was ADJUSTING. Liam was going through sleep regression like a boss and it was my first full month back at work. The whole month, in my opinion, was spent adjusting, re-adjusting and then adjusting some more.

As such, I didn't have much time or energy to sit and write.

But, it's a new month, and hopefully, a new season of parenting. I feel like we are finally close to turning a corner on the sleep thing, which means that we'll probably get used to about 2 weeks of a more regular sleeping pattern and then something else will pop up to derail our best laid sleep plans. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the moment. The past week or so, we've been able to limit nightly wakings to 1-2..and a couple of nights, none at all! I feel so proud of Bryan and I for coming through this horrible phase in one piece. I'll explain why a separate post devoted entirely to sleep.

I haven't been able to do any "Weekend Updates" recently, either, so thought I'd dedicate a post to some photos and small summaries of what we've been up to. The short story is: Not much!

Now that we really only get a couple of hours each day with Liam, we really cherish our weekend time, and quite honestly, have been totally fine with not doing anything. Especially due to the whole no sleep thing. We have been able to spend lots of time together as a family, but have also been able to get in a date night or two, as well as some time independently, and we were also able to spend Easter weekend at home with our families.

April 3-5

We traveled home to Iowa for the weekend and spent the weekend visiting with ALL of Liam's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. As you can imagine, Liam is a hot commodity when we go home and everyone is dying to spend time with him. We feel so lucky to have all of our family in one place, but it does make us feel like we don't get to spend quality time with everyone. In any case, complain about having too many people to see :)

Spending time with Grandpa, Great Aunt Helen, Aunt Nana, Gigi, and cousin Sloan.

Liam's Easter basket did have some classic candy (for me and Dad, of course!) but we filled it with things we knew we would need soon, in addition to things we already had. It had bowls/spoons, rice cereal, some pouches and Baby food. A book, onesie and lovey...some other random things. He loved it!

April 10-12

I have great friends and they were hellbent on throwing me a "Post Baby Bar Crawl." They made shirts that said, "Baby is here, More room for beer." and on the back "#BackOnTheBottle. (We are all in the business of content creation. Clever, right?!) The day was gorgeous and we had a blast. My hubby was kind enough to be on Liam duty all day and night! I missed my little though!

April 17-19

A typical weekend in the Farrell house these days! We just spent time snuggling and playing with Liam, and got out one night for dinner and drinks. Nothing better than a baby in a bar, right?!

April 24-26

The weather was *trying* to get nice, so we got outside for a bit, although it was still pretty chilly. Liam also got his professional 3/4 month photos taken and they are SO CUTE. Stay tuned...

May 1-3

Last weekend, it was FINALLY nice! Eight degrees nice. We put Liam in his Derby best, and got together with friends at a neighborhood beer garden and got some Vitamin D.

It was also so hot in our house, we jumped around naked (well, one of us did) and spent time on the porch.

So there you have it...life lately.

Monday, March 31, 2014 / 3 comments / 30 years old Weekend Update

Adults Do Disneyland

Long time, no blog! This time, my excuse is better than my typical “I’m lazy.” No, I just returned from 8 whirlwind days of travel to Orlando, Las Vegas and Madison (as in Wisconsin).

I've got lots to update you on, and since I didn’t do anything this past weekend except sleep (seriously, I got 12+ hours every night of the weekend. It was amazing.), I thought my first blog back should go back to two weekends ago, when we were on the first leg of our trip in Orlando, Florida.

It was one of my girlfriend's 30th birthday celebrations. She and her husband Matt were headed down to stay in his family's vacation home in Orlando and were kind enough to invite a crew of us down there to join them. Our celebration plan? Drinking around the world.

You see, part of Epcot includes a World Showcase featuring 11 countries: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. The intent is likely for those who haven't seen much of the world, and to share with them the culture and cuisine of different countries.

Unless you're a bunch of well-traveled 30+ year-olds who don't give a shit about culture and find any opportunity to create a drinking game.

Matt created t-shirts for the group, which were pretty amazing. I know I lost track of people more than once and it helped having the shirts. We also had several people ask us where they could buy them, so that means they were not only cool to us.

The "rules" for the day were simple: Everyone has to have at least one drink in every country and we have to ride the rides in every country that has one. I'm happy to report that everyone played by the rules and not only did we go around the world once -- we went back Mexico for a second time.

The group on the ride in Mexico

Some of the drinks on the menu: Margaritas in Mexico, Ginger margaritas in China, prosecco in Italy, sake in Japan, car bombs in the U.K...you get the picture.