outdoor fun

Ya know, if my family didn't live here, I'm not so sure I would stay. I mean, now with Jon owning the bagel business, we are kind of stuck here. And, I don't think my parents are leaving for awhile either. So, we are stuck here. Honestly, it's not too bad here; it's just the weather. It sucks.

But, today we got a good weather day! It was nice out, and warm too! We got Cole his Yankee hat for his birthday and I am pretty surprised how long he keeps it on. I love little boys in baseball hats! They didn't have any girl ones, so the princess got the same one (and they were buy one, get one 1/2 off!). Actually, Jon and I have matching ones too. Yes, we are dorks.


Love.love.love this picture. It's hanging up on the wall already!


Some practicing with the camera! A littlle different!

Just chillin!

And, Nicolette got to experience her first hopscotch. She loved jumping and counting!

Nicolette has dance on Saturday mornings and usually wants to stay in her leotard and whatever tutu she has on that day. Today she didn't match at all!

This is SO nicololette. She makes this face all the time and I absolutely love it.

And, we can't forget the little guy. That smile is contagious!

We LOVE nice weather here. We probably appreciate it more than most, living in central NY!

life

Brace yourself... I am going to get all deep here.

You hear cliches all the time about life... "Life is like a box of chocolates...", "live life to the fullest", "when life gives you lemonades..." and countless others. Taking one of these common sayings and abiding by it can sometimes make life easier. Almost words to live by, if you will. There have been a few things lately that have really made me stop and evaluate my own life and all these sayings. In my mind I still believe I am young, with my whole life ahead of me. Of course I know I am not, but it is going too fast.

As the kids are growing up (way too fast), I am reminded that I am only given one life to live, and at any moment that life could be taken from me. "Each day is a gift"... Each day truly is a gift, and life is only what you make of it. This really strikes me. When I was young and naive I thought I was immune to the bad things. I don't really think I grasped the concept that I was indeed, not invincible.

A dear friend of mine recently experienced a house fire that was declared a total loss. My wonderful friend lost all of her belongings. I am relieved she is fine physically, but I can only imagine the aftermath of it all. And this follows a whole bunch of other crappy things, including breast and skin cancer, in the last 4 years. What happened to my friend could happen to anyone. And while she has been incredibly lucky, despite her really crappy luck, not everyone is that fortunate. This got me thinking... am I living life to the fullest? Am I making the most of my time here? Will I look back on these days and smile? Will I have regrets? I only get one shot at this, only one shot while my babies are this age. Do I live it to the max? The answer, quite truthfully, is no I don't, but I am getting there. I spend more time with the kids, making memories. I stop worrying if my house is spotless (which, btw, I don't think it ever really was), and live. Live like it's our last day here, because really, you never know.

I also keep thinking about how I'm not getting any younger here. I have goals, and dreams for my myself and at the rate I am going I have no hope of achieving them. I want to learn how to use my camera, I want to buy a bigger, nicer house, I want to lose weight, I want to travel to so many places, I want to build my stamping business, I want to do a bizillion things with nicolette and cole. I want to do all of these things (and so much more), but I definitely put things off until tomorrow. The living needs to start, like now, so I don't look back one day and wonder why I didn't accompish more.

Everything somehow leads back to the whole working mom thing. The major major guilt I have for working, when I want nothing more in this world than to stay with my babies. I know I am loving them differently, by providing for them, but I just can't get past it. Maybe I need help to get past it, or maybe I need to focus on the good more (which I really try to do, because there is SO SO SO much more good). And, it hits me randomly. I am not like this everyday! I am embarrassed that I can't get over this and just be happy with our family situation. I'm embarrassed that I work. When I tell people what I do, I somehow feel the need to blurt out that I would rather be home with nicolette and cole. I need people to know I work because I have to and not because I want to leave my kids or that I have this awesome job I love that I go to everyday. Writing in this blog seems to help at those random times, and if I ever print this blog for the kids, who knows if I will keep this portion.

My wish is that I can find peace with working and I can stop being so jealous of moms who stay at home, because the grass is not greener on the other side, despite the way it may appear (that was much easier to write and not as easy to believe). We really do have a great life. We're all healthy and happy and that is really what's important in life. I am fortunate and it's hard to have it all and I need to make peace with that. Why is getting old so hard?? Hopefully I'm getting it all out now, at 29 and 30 will be easier, because God knows I am terrified of the big 3-0!

Ahhhh... feel better!!

easter 2010

Easter was a lot of fun this year. Nicolette started to "get" the whole Easter Bunny thing. She kept asking when the Easter Bunny was coming. I really think she thought she would see the Easter Bunny at our house! Funny because she wouldn't go near the Easter Bunny at the mall. He happened to be standing on our route to Old Navy at the mall a couple of weeks ago and wanted a high five, and that's as far as we got. I hope the kids don't end up scarred when they grow up because we really don't take them to see Santa or the Easter Bunny.

Our plan for Easter was to go to breakfast at the bagel shop and then do dinner later at my parents. Jon got out of work at noon, so the Easter Bunny came then. I have to say, I love the kids matching outfits. Nicole and I went shopping at the outlets awhile ago and I spent a ridiculous amount of money. We were tired and were on the way out when I asked her if she cared if we went to The Children's Place real quick, to check out sunglasses. Of course, once we got there, we had to shop around a little. I saw Cole's shirt first and really liked it. Then I looked over and there was a matching dress for Nicolette. They were both affordable, so I purchased them and we went home!

I bought Cole a few ties at The Children's Place last year for dirt cheap and thought the green one would look great. Looking back, it looks a bit formal, but still cute, for Easter!

I keep saying this, but I need to learn to use my camera. Nicolette is so not in focus in this picture. It's the only one I have of both kids together. Bribery is at its best when taking these kinds of pictures.

Miss Nicolette (that's weird... that was me almost 5 years ago!) and her Uncle LuLu (he loves that!).

Nicolette and Grandma.

Cole was having a blast sliding off the couch. With getting older comes so many fun things!

It was SO nice to have Nonni here. The kids love her!

Nicolette and Cole were having a blast playing at the window.

I wrote down what Nicolette wanted to write to the Easter Bunny. We left him a little snack!


Some Easter candids...

A little snack while Cole napped!

We went back home to get Daddy and see what the Easter Bunny left. They both got clothese, and new shoes, bubbles, books, Wonder Colors activity kits, umbrellas and lots more.

And later, at Grandma and Papa's we had an easter egg hunt. I need to do a better job of hiding next year! Nicolette was sad when one of her eggs didn't make any noise. Little did she know, that yellow egg held lots of bills!

Thank goodness the weather cooperated! It was a good day!

the dentist, 80 degree weather and forward-facing carseat, oh my!

The weather was BEAU-TI-FUL here the past couple of days. Like really, really nice. Eighty-five degree nice. Record breaking nice! So, of course we got outside and enjoyed it. I know I said before that it took all I had to not break out all the spring/summer stuff, but yesterday I couldn't resist bringing out a few more.


Before we got to enjoy the sunshine, I had to go to the dentist. I brought nicolette with me, just so she could see what it was all about. We read some book about the dentist the night before and talked about what it would be like. They don't like to take the kids until they are at least 3 years old, but I think this was good for her. I will probably schedule her an appointment sometime soon after her 3rd birthday.






On Friday Lucy came over to play and we hung out outside for a good portion of the day. It was so warm that we had to take frequent water breaks and go inside periodically. Nicolette got 3-d chalk from Nicole and Uncle Michael for her birthday last year and we never got a chance to use it. I was looking forward to using it, but almost didn't want to because it was so cool and I didn't want it to be gone. Can you tell I am a packrat, for this exact reason. I need to be better about not saving the "good" or "cool" stuff for a special occassion and just use it because everyday is a special occasion.

Sine the weather was nice and I vacuumed my car, I decided it was time for cole to sit forward facing. He sits forward in Jon's car and my mom's and he was really getting uncomfortable. Honestly, it didn't really phase him. I thought he'd be so excited, but I got notta from him. B ut, when did he get so big and look like such a little boy? He's still my baby. I wish he'd keep the hats on longer because I'm a sucker for little boys in hats.

On Saturday we waited patiently for Nonni to come. We did some shopping to get Smidgons and lunch. Nicolette, who has not napped at home in at least 3 months, fell asleep. Jon too her upstairs to read and they both feel asleep. Makes me laugh when Daddy falls asleep first. Cole was down for a nap too, so I unexpectedly got the house to myself, and it was eeriely quiet. I knew I should have cleaned or been productive, but I sat and blogged while I watched Guiliana and Bill. Oh, and I made Pineapple Lush cake for the barbeque at the Wolf's later.

When my family woke up we went outside to really wait for Nonni. Daddy, like me, wanted to enjoy the weather and bring out things we haven't see in months and months- lounge chairs, kites etc. Despite the breeze, he wasn't able to get the Elmo kite up too high. Cole was in awe watching him try though. Apparently he know "Mao" and kept shouting it!

We were invited to the Wolf's for Aaron's birthday. It was gorgeous night to be outside and take in all the fresh air and warm breeze. Since it was only April, all the bugs were happy to stay out of the air, so we didn't even need to worry about mosquitos!

My intentions were to let the kids fall asleep on their own. Cole was almost there, but then got a second wind. He thought the strawberries were the best thing since sliced bread and could.not.get.enough of them. He literally tried to eat the whole thing in one bite. Silly boy!

Nicolette was feeling under the weather (probably what cole had) and was almost out on Jon. The medicine kicked in and she was back to herself.

It makes me smile because both kids got the cleaning "gene". It definitely skipped a generation because my mom loves to clean. I don't mean they just like to try it out for a second. My cleaning fools could clean forever. Nicolette was eating cake, which she loves, and stopped dead in her bite, and immediately got down to help Deb clean the floor. It's pretty comical. Cole jumped in on the fun and the two of them chased each other while they cleaned. I am so putting them to work as soon as they are older!

We can't wait for the Easter Bunny to hop on over. He left me a message that he wouldn't be over until Daddy gets home from work!

happiness

There are so many things that make me happy.

1. little nude-y nude-y babes She actually prefers no undies at all, but she refused to put her clothes on on this particular day.

2. bunny ears We are eagerly looking forward to the Easter Bunny hopping to our house. Nicolette asked me earlier how the Easter Bunny gets to her house. I told her he hopped, and she thuoght it was the funniest thing ever.

3. cuddley little ones, even if they are under the weather. At 15 months and 2.5 years, the kids are constantly on the go. They rarely sit still, let alone with Jon or I holding them. Well, Cole was feeling pretty crappy and was exhausted. He fell asleep on Jon, the day after Jon said he would never fall asleep on him. Of course I wish Cole felt better, but it was nice to cuddle with him.