Moving On

Last week: was one of the busiest weeks in a while. Not sure why, but we were out and about every single day. On Tuesday, I brought M along with me on errands and we stopped at seven stores. He was a perfect angel the entire time and met a lot of new people. I like taking him with me on most errand-runs because it lets him interact with the world on a very basic level. He gets to see how things work and what other people do and all that cool-to-a-toddler stuff. A different day that week, though, I did drop him at Mom's while I hit another seven stores in 40 minutes. That just can't be done with a toddler!

On Thursday: Yana and I visited Once Upon A Child for another one of their sales. This one was the ten for $10 sale so I got M some 3T stuff for next winter, even though he's only 16 months (this week!). The child grows like a weed! Anyway, this is the sale that comes after the 50, 60, 70% off (depending on what time you go) sale and before the stuff-everything-you-can-in-a-bag for $20 sale.

When you ask M: to say, "Mommy," he says, "Daddy." He gets the joke now, so he'll do it with a coy smile. He says "Daddy" so clearly and with every syllable. He knows who Daddy is, but he'll call me and Grandpa "Daddy," too. Guess it's just easier for him. D is loving it, though!

Animals: are M's new obsession. He can identify (by pointing to them) quite a few, make the sounds they make, and "read" animal books. He loves watching the animal DVDs from Baby Einstein. D has some vacation days coming up in the next few months, so I'm hoping it's warm enough to visit a zoo or at least another aquarium. It's fun to see what interests him and then facilitate that interest. Much better than learning those arbitrary numbers and letters!

Speaking of days off: D took Friday off and we're taking advantage of it by turning it into a Date Night :). We're probably going to go see Avatar in 3D and hopefully eat at Red Robin (they keep the coupons coming in the Inbox!). I bought some dark chocolate and Mom picked up some dried apricots for me so I'm hoping to make chocolate-covered apricots for dessert. YUM! D was on call this weekend from 8am until 8pm both days. He didn't end up getting home until after 9pm both days. We missed him!

Saturday: we were busy all day with Yana's baby shower at Mom's house. She and Rita did an awesome job putting everything together. Yana got a lot of nice stuff and should be all set to welcome our new niece in a few short months. I got her some gadgets and tools to make her own baby food and a bag full of things to make her hospital stay more comfy. M had so much fun being entertained and entertaining everyone there. Of course he missed his nap because he knew there were people downstairs to interact with and food to gobble up. At least he wasn't being bad, quite the opposite! Made the day go by quickly and I got to end the night with MI-5 and my hubby. Anything better? I think not.

Tomorrow: M and I are fulfilling our Christmas gift to Mom. D is probably glad he's working, but he's sponsoring the outing so he's doing his part! Since Mom will undoubtedly be reading this and since she has been pestering, I mean bugging, I mean asking, me what exactly are in the plans (it's a surprise) I won't say anymore! But it promises to be a fun day :) and a chance to spoil her like she spoils us!

Yesterday: was the seventh anniversary of our first date. We're not into celebrating every little milestone in our life, so as we were lounging in bed on our laptops, D looks over at me and says, "Oh, today was the day we had our first date." "Oh yeah, you're right," I responded. Then we went into how long seven years ago was and so on until we fell asleep. Kind of romantic...