Backlog: Emily's Wedding Part Deux

I already detailed Wednesday to Friday of our trip, but the main event, the wedding, happened on Saturday, in Manhattan. So on Saturday morning, we left Aunt Janet's house and set off for the city to get into hotel with enough time to prepare for the big evening ahead. Thanks to John's parents, we stayed in a suite at the Metropolitan Club, where the wedding reception would take place that evening. Thank goodness we did, because it made our lives a whole lot easier! We didn't have to worry about how to get to and from the hotel or where we should leave the car or if we should take or leave the diaper bag. It was really the best situation.

First, Grandma and Grandpa Durso took Johnny to a restaurant a few blocks down from the hotel and they brought back lunch for us.

The noodles were delicious. And all over the hotel room by the time the boys were done.

Then we got all dolled up for the wedding which included tuxedos and bow ties for the boys.

Hank was not thrilled with cuffs on the sleeves

Dark room + squirmy boys = not an excellent picture

The ceremony took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral (I KNOW), which was walkable, but not easily walkable with the boys. Luckily, Emily's parents had arranged for a shuttle from the hotel to the cathedral, which meant all we had to do was keep Johnny and Hank occupied while we waited for the bus to leave.

Keeping Johnny occupied = watching himself on my phone

We arrived at the cathedral, which was swarming with tourists and yet still grand and awe-inspiring. After a short wait, we went inside and watched Emily and Brian get married... well, John watched. Johnny was playing with my iPhone and I was running around the back of the cathedral with Hank trying to keep him occupied. But from what I saw, it was beautiful. Such a cool experience, not only for the bride and groom, but for the rest of us who got to witness it!

Emily, the bride was absolutely stunning. I know everyone says that brides are radiant, but seriously, she was radiant. So beautiful.

Hey look! A family portrait! Thanks for this one, Gail.

And then it was time for the reception... which was, in a word, incredible. The cocktail hour took place in the entire lobby, both the ground floor and upper floors, which meant you could wander around from room to room and explore the place. There were tons of food options to choose from as well as beverages. I spent the majority of the cocktail hour like this:

Tucked away in a corner while Hank napped.

Hank fell asleep on the shuttle ride over, so I just hung out with him on a bench, letting John's Uncle Bobby bring me food and beverages and keep me company for awhile. (Thanks again, Uncle Bobby!) John, on the other hand, was chasing Johnny all over the lobby and the courtyard, trying to keep him from falling in the fountain between quick conversations with family and friends.

Don't give me any sushi, Dad. Yuck.

How far can I stick my hands in before I fall over?

Then there was the actual reception. The food, the location, and the band were all exceptional. Especially the band. They were professional quality, that's for sure, covering everything from Frank Sinatra to Cee Lo Green. The only problem is they were loud. Really loud. For those of us who have a few decades' worth of wear on our ear drums, that was no problem. But Johnny was terrified of the reception room because of all of the noise. So John, John's parents, and myself took turns keeping Johnny entertained in a place other than the reception hall.

Johnny counting all of the posts in the banister. Whoo-hoo! This kid can party.

Hank, on the other hand, didn't seem to care one bit. He stayed at the dinner table and ate his children's meal and even did some dancing with me.

Then he crashed, hard. And that was the end of the night for us!

The next morning, the bride and groom hosted a fabulous brunch in Central Park and it was PERFECT for us. The boys ran around on the grass while John's cousins chased them around so we could stuff our faces with pastries, muffins and bagels. Delicious. I took a stupid amount of pictures, so I tried to pare them down and include only the good ones.

Hank the next morning, in last night's tux with Oliver in hand.

Nap time

JUMP!

Jump some more!

Aw, brothers!

Saying good bye to Johnny's favorite person.

Yes, that was pared down. Anyway. We bid everyone farewell and headed straight to the airport. Where karma bit us in the ass for having a delightfully easy first flight. The flight home was... difficult. Both of the boys were still tired from the wedding the night before, so they whined more than usual and Hank was WAY overtired and thus, did not want to sit in my lap, but he didn't want to nurse, nor did he want to walk up and down the aisles. I believe the word is inconsolable. But hey, we made it and no one punched me in the face for being THAT parent. Whew!

Altogether, we had a good time. I think I'd rather not travel with a one year old ever again though. Two? Sure. Younger than one? Not awesome, but I'll do it. 14 months? I'd rather stick a fork in my eye repeatedly.

Anyway! That was our East Coast trip! I wonder what kind of adventures this year will bring?

Backlog: Emily's Wedding Part 1

WARNING: Pic-heavy post...

Yeah, I know we went to John's cousin's wedding in August, which was about, oh, five months ago, but I never blogged about it. And I should blog about it because BOYS IN TUXEDOS!

John's cousin, Emily, got married last summer in New York. At first, I was not interested in going. Dragging two toddlers cross country to stay among the highrises in Manhattan for five days and then attending a huge wedding at night, with said screaming toddlers, did not sound like something I was interested in. So the initial plan was that John would go on his own and I would keep the toddlers at home, where their screams are (usually) tolerated.

Obviously, that idea didn't last long.

So on August 15th, we found ourselves waiting at Lindbergh field to board a six hour nonstop flight to Newark with John's family. Surprisingly, the plane ride wasn't awful. We brought along Johnny's car seat and he was totally content to sit there and play with the new quiet book I made for him especially for this trip. Plus John's mom packed some kid-sized backpacks with new stuff to keep them occupied.

Watching the planes

Playing with trash cans with Aunt Julie, arguably the best part of an airport

Letters and numbers from Johnny's quiet book

Concentrating

Hank enjoying Johnny's car seat for awhile

The flight was not that bad. We ended up in Economy Plus seating, which has extra leg room, Johnny and Hank both napped a little and were content to let us entertain them for the rest of the time. But we were all definitely ready to get off at the end.

Burning energy while waiting for rental car

Lifting caution cones. Because why not?

Then we were off to Aunt Janet's house. John's Aunt Janet owns a fantastic house on a horse ranch and it was the PERFECT place to stay with two young energetic boys. The pre-wedding party was held at her house, so we didn't have to go anywhere for a couple of days, which was just fine with us. The boys explored her lands, met some horses, picked flowers, threw grass, ran to their heart's content and were overall stinking adorable.

Neither Johnny nor Hank was particularly friendly with many of the family members that came around, but of course, most of them were strangers since the boys either hadn't met them before or hadn't seen them in a really long time. That was really the biggest problem early on; that and Johnny not understanding that we were 3,000 miles away from home, so he kept asking to go home. Oh, and neither of them slept much at all.

Sleepy Daddy... especially since he slept on the couch.

Look! We were there!

Meeting horses

Johnny's favorite person, John's cousin Joey

Whoa, dude, grass!

Visiting a local animal rescue ranch

Look! A Hank-sized pony!

And that was only the first part of the trip! The time at Aunt Janet's was, actually, a lot of fun. Even though the boys (and thus John and myself) hardly slept, it was great to watch the boys explore and spend time with the extended family.

I'll come out with Part 2 (the part with tuxedos!) later. I know. I'm such a tease. :)

Red cake

I feel like many moms on facebook are often saying something like, "Kid1 and I made brownies today! Then we busted out eight kinds of cookies and decorated them perfectly with royal icing. And to top it off, we made our own baked, painted and glazed some clay plates, so we could put the cookies on them and hand them out to our neighbors. It was SO MUCH FUN!"
I am not one of those moms. I made brownies with Johnny once, when he was about 27 months and I ended up with three broken eggs on the floor, wet brownie mix on the floor, in my hair and all over Johnny's head. The brownies were good, mind you, but it was not what I would call SO MUCH FUN.

So I decided to try again today. The boys were asking for cake and I agreed to give them some as long as we made it at home. I got out all of the cake mix flavors I had so they could choose a flavor (red velvet, because Johnny wanted a purple cake and it was closest I could get), then I got out the step stool so we could all mix up the ingredients. Johnny lost interest before I even set up the step stool, preferring to sit at the counter eating Goldfish demanding cake right this instant. Meanwhile, Hank stood on the stool and added the water and oil (with my guidance) and tried to crack an egg, but was not okay with having a hand covered in egg whites. Then he was done. Down he went to stand at the back door asking to be let outside to paint. I finished the rest of the mixing, pan greasing, batter pouring, cake baking and frosting making to end up with a cake.

I may have done the majority of the work, but they thought otherwise and man, they were so proud of the cake they made. And they were so cute eating the cake and saying "Mmmmm! Great cake, Hank/Johnny!" that it was completely worth it.

Stuffing their faces

I think they approved.

And now I have a ridiculous amount of cake left.

I have come to the conclusion that when a parent says, "My 18-month-old and I made chocolate cookies today!" What they really mean is, "I mixed up the cookies, dropped them onto baking sheets and baked them while my 18-month-old added a cup of sugar and then decided that pulling everything out of the kitchen cabinets was more interesting."

Tandem doctor visits - 18 mo & 3 years

In December, the each of the boys went to the doctor for a well child visit. This time, I made separate appointments since I learned last year that making them for the same day is a terrible idea. Something else I've learned about doctor visits? NEVER make a well child visit for a Friday. All of the sick kids get seen before you and there are a lot of sick children on Fridays since parents are trying to get their kids seen before the weekend. I've been that parent, so I don't wish them any ill will, mind you, I just need to learn to skip the Friday appointments. Live and learn.

Anyway. Here are their stats:

Johnny
Weight: 36 lbs - 86th percentile
Height: 39 inches - 79th percentile

Hank
Weight: 29 lbs, 6 oz - 95th percentile
Height: 35 inches - 100th percentile (as the doctor said, "No one is taller than him." Silly statistics.)

Basically Hank is still a tank and is catching up to his brother faster than Johnny would like, I'm sure. What I found interesting about this visit is that the doctor calculated Johnny's BMI and compared it to national averages for the first time. I'm not sure how I feel about such a loaded statistic making its way into well child visits so early in life. I mean, Johnny is 3. He's been on this planet for a mere 3 years and we're already going to start telling him he's fat compared to other kids his age? (He's not, he's actually perfectly average.) I just.... I don't know. It seems like a silly thing to worry about at this stage. I already get grilled about his eating habits and the doctor gives me further nutritional information for this age, so why do we need to add yet another statistic to worry about? I already obsess over the fact that he will only eat vegetables if I have refused to give him food or water for three days and it's the only food available in the house (just kidding), so why tack on another piece of statistical data that is pretty open to speculation?

When I was in college, I did a BMI test with calipers and another one based on just height and weight information. According to the height and weight calculation, I was overweight. According to the more specific caliper calculation, I was totally normal, and maybe a tad underweight for my height. Which makes sense because in college I was pretty much all muscle; that's not something a simple BMI calc takes into consideration.

I guess what I'm saying is that I understand this total freak out over childhood obesity, but adding another statistic that can be totally skewed and therefore, meaningless, is not particularly helpful. It probably just freaks parents out even more and gives them yet another thing to try to "fix" about their child.

Anyway. Rant over.

The boys were awesome at the doctor, but I'm glad I don't have to go back until June. :)