This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to travel to San Francisco to meet my sister’s new baby boy! Obviously I was excited to see Denay, Tom and their 2-year-old cutie, Ryan as well! I left my house around 4pm Friday night, flew out of Chicago close to 7 and arrived around 10 Cali time. I returned this past Monday and got home at 9:15 PM…after my own babies were already asleep :( The only tricky thing was that Brian had to fly to London on Monday morning. Thankfully his parents were generous enough to help with the boys all day until I could get home!

Pictures from my weekend!!

Here is my new gorgeous nephew who tipped the scales at a healthy 9lbs, 11ounces the day of his arrival. Look closely everyone…he’s doing a very special trick in this picture that you won’t see often…he is opening his eyes! This kid is one sleepy baby (reminds me of Brady!) I bought him the little ugly doll on in his left arm on the way to San Fran. Monkey on the right is from Ryan’s first days of life (Den’s first baby). I call this: Nate and his crew. It looks cute, but it was actually helpful to still the ever-moving baby arms…you moms know what I’m talking about – that jerk reflex they do that looks like they are falling?!

Here is sleepy Natertot laying on my legs during a back-yard BBQ at Tom and Den’s Saturday afternoon. Natertot is my personal favorite Nathan nickname…unfortunately it’s his father’s very LEAST favorite nickname…which actually makes it even more fun to say! By the way, Den’s kids are always thoughtfully and adorably dressed (unlike mine who miraculously manage not to clash as I hurriedly pick out three sets of cloths each morning). This shirt has an image of Small Paul (the monkey) and his friends on a rocket ship. It says in tiny print, “Small Paul is your friend…even in outer space”. So very Den…so very trendy (Den-dy…can that be a new word??) 

Another pick of Nate sleeping on my leg…this time during big brother’s swim class on Sunday.

Me and Nate at swim class. Afterwards, we had a delicious Mexican dinner…at a place whose name has now escaped me. I had the prawns…yummy!

Nate sleeping again…outside the airport before I took off for Chi-town (via Denver)

The three of us took a different picture first, but Nate’s head was like buried between our shoulders. This one is hysterical! Look at his face!!

Den and I did a little shopping on Sunday and then Monday morning for my boys. I brought back this awesome drawing book and stickers for Aiden. He did a couple pages of the book and then did his typical “play with stickers” thing for over an hour (he puts stickers on a page as he narrates a story about what is going on)

I brought back 2 packs: ice cream treats and monsters. The monsters were having a battle. The ice cream treats became the ships and weapons. I have to laugh because really…would a girl do something like this?! See the yellow monster on top with an arrow pointing down? Aiden told me, amongst a gazillion other things about his creation, that the spikes on the yellow guy’s sides were pointing down to attack the monsters below, but they had built popsicle weapons around them. Really?!!?!! Really. This thing eventually got pretty elaborate…and is now hanging in our art gallery per Aiden’s request.

Den helped me pick out an animal train for Brady. He LU-UVED it…for like 2 hours this morning!!

And here it is…I cheated a little. I really didn’t know what to get Logan! We were in a toy store and I almost grabbed some legos. Then I thought, “Aiden will be bummed if he doesn’t get legos too…and only this drawing book…he might be sad”. We had to rush out. I called Brian for advice. Brian said legos were the way to go…maybe just a small set so Aiden wouldn’t be bummed. BUT…we were in our car heading home and, honestly, toy shopping in San Fran is hard to come by! I asked Brian, who was then currently on his way to our local Meijer’s, if he could swing by the toy section and grab something. He got a very small little knights and catapult thing. It was in a bag on the counter for me when I got home last night. Logan loved it of course. Shhhhh…I swear I had my hand on something just like this while shopping with Den!!!!

A note on Logan’s sleeping attire: he likes to sleep in his boxer shorts only (the kid has been HOT since he was born!) In the mornings, however, I prefer that he put some pants on…even when it’s not really “time” to get dressed. To that end, I purchased him some “lounge pants”. Every morning, he grabs a pair of his pants and puts them on before going downstairs. Shirts are obviously optional.

This is such a sad side note (sad because it’s stuck at the end of a post and should be on it’s own), but I took some pictures at Logan’s karate class tonight. He has SUCH fun and it’s soooo much better than our attempt last year when he was in a class with MUCH older and way more experienced kids. In the previous class (at a different studio…we now go to our park district), he just sort of gave up, goofed around and rolled on the floor a lot. This time, however, he really tries, does well and has a ton of fun. Go Logan!!