Respect

Went to the beach with olivia this past weekend to celebrate our Anniversary. My mother-in-law was kind enough to watch the girls. My mom also kept an eye on the crib and fed and loved on the cat. The time off was amazing and just what we needed, a special thanks to you both. A full recap of the trip coming soon, but first...

Up this morning making coffee, paying bills, dressing kids, packing lunches, making bottles, working out the grocery list, doing laundry and planning the rest of the day and it isn't even nine am yet. Later its the post office, car mechanic, the bank, two grocery stores and home to clean the house after a weekend of neglect.

I told my wife this the other day and she said I should post it here. Ever since I quit my day gig, I have been more and more aware of what exactly she does during vacations and breaks from school. I always knew it was work and a lot to do but I never knew just how hard and demanding it is to be responsible for the every need of two little humans. I am glad we made the decision we did, tough as it is at times there aren't many things more rewarding.

That said: if you are now, or have ever been, a stay at home parent I have nothing but the utmost respect for you.

Random Shots

 Sailor listening to NPR and looking at out onto the street...

 Ruby coming in from the car. She always kicks her shoes off, leaves them in the backseat and walks inside barefoot. I literally carried three pairs inside the other night.

Breakfast this morning, chili cheese dogs and coffee. THANKS DENISE!

Weekend Recap

 Saturday afternoon, the extended Birmingham family (me, olivia, the girls and my mom) hit up the local DIY frozen treat vendor, Yogurt Lab. Ruby had birthday cake and mini M&M's. I had Thin Mint with crushed Ande's Mints and my traditional garnish of puppy chow and a yogurt covered pretzel. It is always a competition between my wife and I as to who can create the best treat. She put me to shame this trip with a show-stopping pumpkin themed offering: pumpkin spice yogurt with pumpkin seeds, warm crushed caramel walnuts, pecans and cinnamon chips. Yeah, it was awesome.  

We received an invite to a Trunk or Treat for Sunday night and decided to get the girls dressed up and check it out. Ruby is going to be a giraffe this year and Sailor will be the traditional chicken coming out of the egg that Ruby was her first Halloween.  

The Giraffe on the firetruck. 

 All of the "trunks" were themed and some were in fact too elaborate to be in a trunk. Among them was the fully functional Angry Birds station. It was a great idea and people had a great time with it.

 There was so much to do from movies on an inflatable screen to a dunking booth. Ruby took a ride on the horse and loved it. She is getting really good with sharing and waiting her turn, so much so that she nearly let a couple girls in front of her despite a good wait in line. We saw some of her friends there and they played together all night. We ate and went from trunk to trunk and had a better time that we had expected. The girls arrived home moments from sleep and both slept in this am.

Ruby surveyed the score this morning after breakfast and decided to get to work on a Tootsie Pop. It lasted her quite awhile. Thankfully we did get some healthier items too like raisins, pretzels and fruit snacks. She has been very good at sharing too. This was a good primer for the main event next Monday...

The Donut Factory

I promised Ruby something special at the end of this week. I started telling her Wednesday and she was more and more excited when she would remember...and early this morning we went. I took the girls to Krispy Kreme in Hoover, aka "The Donut Factory."

As a celebration of and tribute to the new  Hip Hop and Classic R&B station 102.1, we decked Ruby out in one of her older (and one of my favorite) t-shirts. Mommy says it is to small, Daddy says it is fitted and that's trendy.


We've passed Krispy Kreme a hundred times, it is at a pretty big intersection near our neighborhood. I started priming the excitement before we even turned into the parking lot. She was really ramped up at this point. Once out of the car she all but drug me inside and posted up near the large glass windows that gives you a great view of the donut making process.



I lifted her up so she could see everything including the dough elevators, the conveyor belt and the flipper. I gave her a quick rundown on how they are made and she had a huge grin and giggled looking in and said "Donuts!" with a huge smile on her face.

We got in the short line and up to the display case. I told her she could pick two. The sour cream cake donuts were at her eye level, that was number one. I picked her up to look at the rest and she selected cinnamon apple filled. To wash it all down, whole milk in a cup with a straw.

I got the girls situated at a table and went to fix my coffee. When I turned back around, she was a couple bites into the cinnamon apple filled. Picking it up with both hands, they were soon dusted with spice and sugar and her upper lip was covered with the apple filling.




She took medium sized bites and occasional breaks for big gulps of milk. 3/4's of her way in, she stopped to try the sour cream cake. This one was not as big of a hit, I offered her a trade for one of my original glazed. She put that one away in a hurry. She had a couple more bites of the other and then offered the rest to me. At this point, she was in need of some serious cleanup.

We took one more look behind the scenes and gathered everything up to go. I'd say the trip was an overwhelming success. However, I may not feel the same later when dealing with the sugar crash...