We're Back--Did Ya Miss Me? (picture overload, too)

Oh great, we leave Easton for 24 hours with his grandma and we come home to find him with teething issues:

Hardee har har. Not really. That was later when we were decorating for Halloween.

Actually, Easton and Gramoo did awesome. I couldn't have asked for better. I am so thrilled they did so well just the two of them. I'm ready to go again! Let's back track a bit, though...

On Friday Gramoo arrived for her "practice" night with us. She didn't come empty handed. Here is E's new old chair. It was Lauren's when she was a wee one.

Easton is enjoying it although he'd rather stand or bounce on it most of the time. Blitz is using it properly. He loves it too. Anyway, on Friday night Gramoo and I did the bedtime routine with E while Jason went and got a haircut. On Saturday morning we had a nice breakfast and Easton was still happy to see his Gramoo there across the table:


After lunch, around E's naptime we decided to head on out. Jason said his goodbyes and then I cuddled E for a bit while standing in his room holding him pre-nap. Gramoo was positioned in the rocking chair to take over. I said my snuggly goodbyes and told him Gramoo was going to put him down for his nappy. He said, "No" but I handed him over anyway. He only cried for a little little bit. I could hear him stop because we were still home packing up to leave. After a few minutes I went to tell my mom we were actually leaving and I saw E was asleep in his crib with Gramoo patting his back. I knew at that point it would go just fine for them. Whew.

Jason and I left and headed for downtown. We checked into our hotel:

It was noonish, though, not nighttime like the picture implies. We went to check out the room. Here is the "heavenly" bed:

And then we grabbed lunch at a nearby deli and browsed the 16th Street Mall.

As we were winding up our mall browsing I was starting to whine about my feet hurting and could we please hop on a bus? Jason said, "Hang on I'm looking for this building we're mapping at work." Okay, fine. Then he said, "Here, let's head this way for a sec" as he led me down a side street. I had to ask, "Why?" and he told me, "I have a surprise for you." Huh?!?! This girl loves surprises. He led me to a fancy spa where he had secretly arranged for us to have a couples massage! Perfection. It was so special and so sweet. They even had a fancy pregnancy bed for me with a cutout for my belly when I laid on my tummy. Mind you, I can still sleep on my stomach at home. But still, it was really nice to have my belly swaying in the breeze. More like poking out the hole like a shy turtle but whatever... It was an hour long and so very relaxing. It was quiet enough to hear the whistler in my therapist's nose. Only slightly distracting because I really hate a whistling nose...just ask Jason. :) Oh goodness, the massage was so nice and they had two cups of tea in a little room waiting for us afterwards. I was so touched by J's surprise. What a husband!

Later we headed back to our room. It had this really cool window seat where we could enjoy our so-so view. We weren't there for the view though, people.

The nighttime version:


For dinner we headed to this Mexican restaurant known for their deceptively strong margaritas. I made Jason have 2 of them. Sometimes I hate to miss out on those kinds of things. Oh well...I won't be pregnant forever. Dinner was great and then we headed back to our room and relaxed and Jason fell asleep earlier than he normally would thanks to the margs. I didn't sleep great. I don't do well with complete silence. We run a white noise machine at home. I figured I could run the bathroom fan at the hotel--they didn't have one. My next option (from past hotel stays) was tuning the radio to some static. Well, the dang thing kept making popping sounds. So I went for silence which wouldn't have been so bad if it was truly silent but with water running in neighboring rooms, hotel doors slamming, the sounds of downtown below like sirens, a train, and occasional shouting all made for not the most rested night ever. Oh well. I did manage some sleep and the bed was nice. And big. I'm really not complaining. I knew what I was in for.

The next morning...my beloved breakfast in bed. Sooooo nice. I had a waffle with blueberries and a glass of juice. J had some other basic breakfast. I'm glad we decided to splurge because the cost of room service is insane. I knew this and that is why I've never had room service before. But, oh! So nice. We had some showers next and wrapped up in their fluffy white robes for some more relaxing in the room. Before we knew it it was time to check out and we set out to buy Easton a present from our getaway. We got him a little moose with a bouncy ball inside. So, it's basically a small stuffed moose with a bouncy ball for a belly--appropriate for him since he loves balls and Moosie was who stayed with him.

Easton was napping when we arrived home so Moo hung out with us till he woke up. She wanted to be the one to get him up from his nap and bring him to us so she could be the "good guy" too. His face when he saw us again was too sweet. He came bounding over to see us. What a happy reunion! Gramoo did a great job. I guess the only time he was sad in the whole 24 hours was when I called at bedtime the night before and talked to him on the phone and that made him cry for 15 minutes afterwards until they kissed pictures of Jason and me. Then he went through his bedtime routine and right to sleep no problem. He's crankier than that for us.

Anyway, now that we were happily reunited Gramoo headed back to her house and we went about decorating for Halloween.

That's E's Charlie Brown shirt from last Halloween. Of course it still fits him. Checking out J's hillbilly teeth:

Inspecting the Spider Whack game...the best Halloween game EVER. When I was pregnant with Easton Jason and I headed out to play in our apartment parking lot for my "exercise" that day. Hee hee!

Playing his Halloween bucket bongos with no pants a la Matthew McConaughey:

A slightly amusing yet strange pose of my boys:

And Easton enjoying his sippy cup while toting his personalized Halloween treat pail on his arm:


Easton loved all the stuff we got out for Halloween. Much of it is toy type things for him, festive rubber ducks for the bath, and decorations for the house and some in his room. Fun!

Today (Monday) is our lazy day. We tried finger painting for the first time today and switched to a paintbrush before long:


I rinsed the brush out to change colors and when I gave it back to Easton I made the mistake of calling it a brush (instead of paintbrush). So, this is what he does with brushes:


Good thing it was freshly rinsed. When he wakes up will be trying another foam craft kit while we continue listening to our festive Halloween music. We've got a whole "Halloween" mp3 folder on the computer. I'm fancy that way.

Whew, sorry for the mile long update. Before I go here are my "neice" and "nephew"

. You can click on them, I think, to get to see a bigger picture of them in San Antonio's "cutest pets" contest. Jack and Bailey are their names and they're on page 18 if you want to see 'em. Okay, I think that should wrap this up...until tomorrow or so...