the 4th, the friends, the food, and the frenzy.

Did someone say foot?

Oh wait, I have a blog to keep up with too?  This poor thing has been neglected, it's just been a crazy week, and it was only 4 days!  Since I've written last, I've cleaned the house from top to bottom, been to some barbecues, taught the kid how to swim (eh that's stretchin it), started a new job, and gained 2 lbs.  We've gotten into a nice new routine of wake up, let the dogs out, feed dogs, work out, shower, wake up kid, change kid, feed kid, dry hair, get dressed, fill bottles, make cereal, pack baby food, let dogs out again, change kid again, drop at daycare, then go work.  And that's the easy part.  The hard part is running out of work and speeding the whole way back to daycare in time to make it before we have to start paying the late fee of something like 10 bucks a minute.  But, being only week 1, we have a few kinks to work out, and I'm sure as I get more comfortable at work I won't be so worried about leaving on time and I'll just go when I need to.  After all, I took this job for less stress, right?

And somewhere in the midst of all this, Mr. Gobbles has started crawling.  Backwards.  Yup, I have a mooncrawler baby, he only crawls backwards for right now, but he can get around the room.  Last night I sat him on the basement floor (carpeted) while I carried up a few bottles of wine for dinner, and I came down a minute later and he was across the room, pulling the controller out of the playstation.  Yikes.  They really do get into everything.  Time to babyproof!

We don't need to babyproof - we've got a sitter.

Backing up to recap last weekend, it was choc full of friends & family.  We typically throw a huge bbq/party every labor day weekend, but since this year we have wedding #2 of 4 in an 8 week stretch then, we decided to do it earlier this season.  And it worked out well - the weather was beautiful, it was less humid than normal, and Mr. Gobbles got to show off his guns in a festive sleeveless shirt. 

Welcome to the gun show -

I can rip grass up with my bare hands.  ARGH!

We relaxed, ate good food, chatted with good friends, and roasted giant marshmallows in the fire pit.  Toward the end of the evening, with the party still going on outside, I tried putting the little man down to sleep.  While I was doing this, my friend was in the next room feeding her son, Gobbles' lil buddy.  A few of the girls came up to say goodbye to us and we came out of the rooms holding our respective babies.  I think it was Kite who said that we were just like old college roommates again.  We looked at each other and laughed, because for a moment it did feel like that.  I've commented on this before, but when I look back at the last 10-15 years of my life, I cannot be more thankful for the friends that I have (my family of friends) and the experiences that we share. 

The next day, while we cleaned up the backyard, we took Gobbles out to play in his pool.  He's been swimming in the ocean and a lake, so he was a pro by now, just maxin and relaxin.  Later that night, we crashed a friends' family bbq, since it took place at her sister's house just a few houses away.  Another round of summer ales and giant s'mores, some more fireside hanging out, and a nice tired baby.

I loooove swimmin!

and i love to relax by the pool

Round three of the patriotic celebration came the next day when we attended our town's parade, conveniently ending about a half mile from our house.  I didn't realize that some people go all out to watch this, lining up tents and chairs all along the main drag.  The displays were definitely worth sitting in the hot sun - large floats with water hoses, small floats with miley cyrus wannabees, decorated strollers and children's bikes.  Maybe Gobbles will enter next year?  Everyone who marched by through candy of some sort at the spectating kids.   I truly felt the 4th of july spirit after sampling the free hot dogs, pretzels, water ice for everyone.  Sheesh. If my weight watchers people knew how much I ate last weekend, they'd probably applaud me for only gaining two lbs!

Can I eat this?

The weekend ground to a halt later that afternoon, and I was brought back down to the reality of my new job starting the next day.  I laid out my clothes and packed my purse with the first day of school type of feeling.  We raced through the aforementioned routine, for the time being deciding it was most feasible for me to do drop of and pick up at daycare because of the location.  Though this could change depending if my work hours start to get weird.  Work is work, the actual tasks of the day are not much different than I've been doing for years now, but for some reason I was instantly comfortable.  The people on this team are actual people, not the soulless drones I've worked with for the past three years.  Ok that sounds a little harsh, but honestly after one week with this group I know more about a lot of the people than I ever learned about the guy who I technically shared an office with throughout my tenure at my last company.  Granted, I haven't seen him in over a year because of our conflicting travel schedules, but still. 

Besides the relief in knowing I've done the right thing taking this job, my mind has also started to ease about the new daycare.  The activities that Gobbles is doing and the information being shared with me about what happens throughout the day has made me a lot more comfortable.  Friday I came home with a picture of my little boy painting.  Well, the teacher was walking him through some paint and onto a canvas, he's not exactly using a brush or anything.  Yet.

First, we'll concentrate on crawling forwards, then we'll worry about the rest.

When that thing starts moving on it's own, he will not find me!

Camping- Baby Style!

Ok, I've dillydalleyed enough.  It's my last hour with my work laptop (which, yes, I use for personal use such as facebooking and blogging and whatever else I may need it for), so I don't know when the next chance I'll get to blog away.  Gee Gobblesmom, you can't drag yourself up to the bedroom and use the 6 year old desktop computer to play around on the internets?  No, I cannot.  It runs toooo slooow.

Funny I should be without the internet at my fingertips this weekend because last weekend, out of choice, it was the same thing.  As well as no tv.  And it was liberating.  I haven't been that happy in a long time, just spending lazy hours with my husband and son.  Time just moved slower, it was amazing.  So next time I complain about having no time, please smack me in the face, tell me to turn of the tv and computer, and go outside and jump in a lake!

The weekend started off pretty hectic, as we were without power for over 24 hours leading up to our departure.  But I just wrote about that last week, so onward to camping!  With beautiful weather on the forecast for the weekend, the traffic to the mountains was a bit horrendous.  A typical 90 minute ride turned into about 3 hours, but it was worth it because I ended up installing google maps onto my blackberry and had fun watching it triangulize our location on a little map.  It's the little things.  And I'm a dork. 

Anyway, we made it up before dark and pitched our tent among the tent city our friends had made.  This year, we had to upgrade from a three person to a six person tent, just because of one 20 lb addition!  I'm sure I mentioned this a million times too, but damn to babies need a lot of gear.  I should also disclaim that we weren't exactly roughing it.  There was a small cabin with a working bathroom and kitchen.  Friends' parents get this place for a week every year and invite all of their children's friends to stay, in a tent, just outside the cabin overlooking the lake.  It is beautiful, and we are so grateful to be a part of this little family, even if we only see them once a year.

Gobbles was brimming with excitement because he was going to see his girlfriend for just the second time in his life.  After settling in and grabbing some grub, darkness set in and we all sat around the campfire chitchatting or just staring into it, enjoying the warmth.  It did get a bit chilly that first night, probably down into the fifties - we were up in the mountains after all.  Our tent was closest to the fire, so we put Gobbles down to bed in the pack & play and enjoyed our friends and some toasted hot dogs. When we turned in for the night and disrupted the little man, we just brought him onto the air mattress with us to keep him warm. 

The next morning it was warming up quickly, so we wasted no time getting Gobbles into his swimsuit and out into the lake.  His girlfriend was there waiting for him, and hubs found a couple of swim rings in the cabin, perfect for kids this size.  At first he was a little iffy in the water, but it didn't take long for my little man to start loving his swim.  His daddy took such good care of him walking him out into the calm, warm lake and letting him have fun. 

Hmm. This is interesting...

I love the feel of this stuff... whaddya call it?

Help!  I'm floating away!

Ahh ha ha. My feet are wrinkly

Why hey there pretty lady!  Come here often?

While the lake was pretty much the highlight of the trip for me, we also had good food, good beer (homebrewed by a friend, who will have his own brewery soon enough, mark my words), and an overall relaxing time.  We went for a few walks and played in the annual softball game, which I had to miss out on last year since I was knocked up.  My team won and I managed to contribute with a few hits, runs, and a lot of double plays (2nd base holla!). 

And the biggest thing I learned that weekend has nothing to do with camping, though it has a little to do with nature.  You know the myth about crying babies triggering a mothers' milk?  Um yea, it's true.  See, there was another baby there as well.  A three week old (and you think I'm nuts bringing a 6 monther?).  The newborn crying during our second night there, with the distinct pitch of wehhh wehhh wehh, had my 6 days of no production boobs leaking.  All over.  With clogged ducts that were hard and oh so painful.  I couldn't relieve myself by feeding the little guy because I'd been drinking all day, and my pump was back home.  I managed to find some relief by hand expressing (ouch) and using some warm compresses.   Looking back, it's kind of hilarious but that night I didn't know how I'd make it through.   But alas, I have survived.  I look forward to going back next year hopefully with more next generation campers.  As my friend's dad said - with these little ones comes a whole new era.

Thank you everyone, we had so much fun!

We'll miss you.

I am tired and Mommy's beer is empty.  So until next year!