Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Yesterday by four-ish, the errands were done. The fridge restocked. The laundry folded. All was right in the world. The temp outside was bearable and Deedda was grilling steak and corn. The sprinkler was going and G discovered the fun of running through it. Dinner was awesome!

De Plane! De Plane!

Weekend before last we braved the airplane ride with toddler and car seat in tow. It was far better than my imagination feared it could be. In fact, G was a model traveler and even earned the right to visit the cockpit AND push the seat belt sign to hear the ding!

It was an old home weekend for me. We visited the college crew with bonus sightings of Jo/Dave in from FLA and Aunt Jamie.

I think Shannon may have put it best... with background noise that included some crying, some laughing and the sound of a beer can opening, she said, "this really isn't that different than college."

I couldn't agree more. It's hard to believe 13 years ago this month was graduation and just a couple months later I was home. My time with my dear friends in Boulder seems like yesterday for the most part. Unless I think about it enough to realize just how much time has gone by, how many kids have been born and how many gray hairs have appeared on my head. Maybe it just seems like yesterday because it feels so comfortable to pick up right where I left off with all the gang. I treasure their friendships so dearly!
Friday we went bowling, a first for G and so fun! Saturday, we drove to Evergreen for a get together at the Haver's. G slept much of the drive. After a late night arrival Thursday, late night bowling Friday and boycotted nap time overall, the poor kid had to get a few winks in where he could. So, he missed the first big vista view from the highway...just after the infamous (for the Butera household anyway) chief hosa exit.

Guess he figures he also missed the climb up the big ladder he was sure we needed to get up the mountain. He did wake up in time to enjoy the twisting and turning road up the mountain to the house. His observation was so appropriate.

"We're taking a drive like Sally and Lightening," He said.

Yep. Just like that!

Sunday was Mother's Day. The boys surprised me with an amethyst necklace. Mother Nature surprised us all with snow flurries. (just enough to make the mountain experience complete, without making the mountain drive an issue). We visited with Aunt Jamie and Miss Lilly Dog briefly for a great brunch before we rushed to the airport where we left the camera bag in the rental car but successfully retrieved it... and then rushed around in time to wait for a plane that ended up being an hour delayed.

Deeda and I lucked out at caught the finale of celebrity apprentice on the plane. (such trash. so good). G drifted off to sleep... deep sleep. So deep we deplaned, collected baggage, drove home and put him in bed while he slept.

It took me most of the week to fully recover. I realized when we got home how tired preggers mama was. But it was well worth it!

In other news, baby dionne deaux is officially showing outwardly and fluttering a bit. Oh boy, here we go. Lord, let the ankle swelling hold out a little longer. Thursday is the big 18 week ultrasound. Can't wait to count fingers and toes.

funky town

Sometimes we listen to music at dinner. Classic country. 70s. 80s. adult alternative. smooth jazz... all types. One night a few weeks ago we were just finishing up when Funky Town came on.

Won't you take me to... FUNKY TOWN! Won't you take me to, Funky Town...

Deeda suggested we postpone clean up and "go to Funky Town"... we danced around the living room. G jumped all over and thought it was hysterical. We had a blast.

Fast forward to night before last. A song that gets G's attention comes on. It's one of my current favorites too... Lady Gaga...

Just dance, it will be alright. Just dance.... Da da da dum...

Apparently the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. G loves a good beat. So, this song comes on. We're finishing up dinner when G says, "Let's go to funky town!"

We danced all around the living room.

It's a...

After an incomplete voice mail message, a phone call re: the incomplete message, another day of waiting and the final and complete voice mail… We final got the gender news last night.

The opportunity to tell G seemed to present itself tonight when he told us about how our good friends the Bromley’s are having a baby sister soon. “Her name is Chandler,” he told us, repeating back to us a discussion we’ve had with him a couple times over the last couple weeks.

And so we told him at the dinner table that he was going to have a baby brother... And that the baby is growing in my tummy now….He smiled and it seemed to sink in for a minute.

“And he can sleep in my baby bed,” he replied. “And play with my baby toys.”

Ahhhhhhh- already sharing… we talked about it for a minute or two more and then as Deeda commented, it was kinda like G said, “That’s great, please pass the ketchup.” The big moment we’d been imagining kinda seemed like a spontaneous blip in the evening routine. And then the big moment I’d been imagining came.

After another rousing episode of the super friends and the hall of justice (I will be happy when we can move on from that one), it was time to brush teeth and head for bed. Before racing Deeda to the bathroom, as they do most nights these days, G stopped and turned back to me.

“You have a baby in your shirt?” he said. “I want to see.”

He really looked at me a minute and then he looked at my stomach. “Yes,” I said, “you can see.”

“You can kiss it,” Deeda piped in.

And, so, he gently kissed my tummy. (And I swear I am not making this stuff up.)

*****

Today I find myself daydreaming with a new mental image of what the family Dionne looks like. It’s all a new reality that we are four plus Dee dog. The question mark is out of the picture and it’s so fun to imagine what our life looks like six months from now, six years from now, 26 years from now…

*****

p.s. the fever I declared to be viral last week (because I am an expert in the medical field) turned out to be an ear infection,which was obvious about 3 a.m. this morning. Poor kiddo.

Official Word

I’ve wondered from time to time who reads this. So, I thought this piece of news would be the perfect opportunity to get an answer to that question. Exactly two months ago today I surprised Deeda with what may be his best Valentine ever. Drum roll…. I am pregnant and we're thrilled to be expecting a new addition to the Casa de Dionne.

In the weeks since then we’ve attempted to keep the news quiet for the standard first trimester. It’s been mildly successful. We told the immediate family swearing them to secrecy and nearly killing the grandmothers in the process. Then, one by one, many friends made their own conclusions based on conspicuous lack of diet coke and wine drinking. Some called it out. Some just smiled knowingly.

So, it’s not new news to everyone at this point, but this is the official notice. Baby Dionne #2 is due October 22. Mama is feeling great now that she’s at nearly 13 weeks. I waded through a couple-three weeks of moderate nausea and pregnancy induced narcolepsy. But I feel more "normal" now.

We got our first good look at the little alien last Thursday for a nuchal translucency exam via ultrasound. If our home office had a working scanner I’d post the photos here... instead here’s an image of what the little lemon-sized kiddo looks like. This image actually shows a lot more than what I have... the coolest part of the exam was seeing "it" stretch as if just waking up from a nap or something. Clearly, arms above the head and legs stretched out. Head to rump, the measurement was 2.8" long. Right on track.

Since I am an old mama the nuchal exam is standard procedure. Everything looks to be on the up and up. Most exciting thing about this exam is they can do a DNA gender test at only 12 weeks via the same blood work. So, we’re anxiously awaiting those results. We should know if we’re painting pink or blue by week’s end. Yikes and yippee all at the same time!

G doesn’t know he’s going to be a big brother yet. I think he’s going to totally get it and be super excited. He’s told us before his pal Brooks is his brother and when we’ve attempted to explain why he’s not, G has simply moved on to say that then Batman is his brother. Cool.

We’ll probably tell him soon. I can tell the physical evidence won’t be hidden for long. Ironically, his phrase that pays right now is “big, fat.” He says, “Mom, I want a big, fat strawberry.” Let’s just hope he continues to apply this descriptive phrase to berries and not bellies.

Back to brother Batman, G hit a milestone last week. After a month and a half of extremely difficult swim classes, he floated “all by himself “– for which the brave boy earned a Batman DVD. Basically, he has been floating by himself the entire time, but whenever the instructor would take his hands off him, he would get scared. He’d scream and cry like someone was pulling his toe nails off. The shriek echoing through the indoor pool was a long and harsh, “maaaaaa-maaaaaaaa!” It felt like we were back at that first class all over again.

They ended up having two instructors on the task of getting him over this hump… and we resorted to bribery at home. It finally worked! I could see him holding it in as he floated. He didn’t need the reward he was so proud of himself… but we marched straight to Target anyway. We’re now watching Super Friends nightly. The whole gang, Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Twins (activate!)…

He's also a bike riding fool... FINALLY! Santa is so proud.

Days Go By and Still I Think of You

Remember that song? Days go by and still I think of you... unce... unce. unce... I think it was a car commercial. Maybe early ipod commercial. Just the perfect riff to start this post.

Been too busy to blog. We've had one bounce house birthday party, a very special valentine's day, and an anniversary since the last post. Lot's to celebrate!

Bounce house was a blast for the kids and the adults alike. We liked it so much we did it all over again the following day to celebrate cousin Aubrey's bday. What a weekend! Complete with the entire Perritte clan in town from Dallas. G chose a Batman cake "all by himself" at Randalls and has carried the durn Batman everywhere with him since.

Deeda and I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss on Wednesday. That means we've been official for officially half of our total relationship. And it all began one fateful football game date where I looked like I walked of the set of 90210... His outfit wasn't as comical as mine, but his polo cologne made up for it. To add one more stat to the nearly 18 years we've been functioning as a team, we've been together half our lives. Can that possibly be? "And we never had a fight."

We have about a thousand photos (literally) from that night. These are the ones I think tell the story as simply as possible. That kiss. Hand in hand and looking good (I must say). And we danced our tail feathers off! Honestly, it was the best night of my life. So fun looking at these photos. When I see the kids that were kids then and realize they're full grown adults now, I have perspective of the time that has gone by. A lot.

Back to current events, the adult discussion of the week has been about how certain things seem so long ago and others like yesterday. But the things that seem like yesterday are usually the ones that were a long while ago and vice versa. So strange how the brain processes time and events. The wedding seems like yesterday. The Atkins diet, a long time ago...

The kiddo discussion of the week has been about the spaceship G and his school buddies are going on. And the fact that he wants to be a swim teacher or scuba diver when he grows up...

The imagination is amazing and I being witness to it so much! It's an inspiration.

When I picked G up today he was playing on the hill at the playground. Running up and down, singing the "I, I, I, go running down the hill" song at the top of his lungs. That was his first favorite song and still is a hit. He's starting to be interested in singing (FINALLY!). I am so glad, I've got all kinds of good songs in my database from my preschool days. Always amazes Deeda.
Meanwhile, it amazes me he doesn't remember much about preschool.

I remember it vividly. The perfect example of something that seems like yesterday in so many ways. I can smell the soap in the "practical life" area. I can remember the cold metal of the shape tool we would trace with colored pencils. I remember the songs we sang and the kids in my class. I remember polishing silver and wood objects as part of a lesson with cotton balls and q-tips. I remember putting my hand in a velvet bag to touch a vegetable and having to guess what it was. That's how an eggplant became one of my favorite things. There's so much more... but the point is, I hope G remembers his early school years as fondly as I do. The friendships made then, literally changed the course of our lives. At least two people from my preschool class were at our wedding. Preschool family friends connected mom and Joe ...

My neighborhood girls and I are working hard for our little S.C. Red community school. The pet project is gaining momentum as we plan for our third community meeting in April. We've conducted a survey, written a marketing plan and distributed letters to nearly 400 homes with kids under 6. We had more than 70 parents at the last meeting. Interest is there. Survey results show if more neighborhood kids went to the school more neighborhood families would enroll their children. Uhm, so, let's all enroll our children and it's a done deal. Right?

The more I learn about Red the more enthused I am. The only thing I would really like to see change is to have more neighbor kids in the classrooms. Deeda and I plan to tackle a web design next. And, the press release I recently worked on sparked interest with a local news station who's assigned a producer to cover our next meeting. Hooray!

It's all exciting and fulfilling, especially because the group of moms I am working with is the best

group of gals I've come across is some time. Our meetings are long and our agendas include school topics, wine and whatever other discussion we please.

What else? Oh, so, so much to tell. But I'll save those details for another time. ;)

Cheese-eeeee

Call it day of the cheese. Commercial appreciation day. Or Superbowl Sunday. They're all one in the same at our house. We've added it to our list of family holidays.

Last year, as we geared up to watch it seemed the perfect excuse to break out the Velveeta and make some queso. K-so, we made cheese dip deluxe and G thought it was the greatest thing on earth. We ate gooey chips and cheese around the coffee table, watched football and danced to Tom Petty at half time. There's video. It was one of the stand out memories I've logged in the last three years with G-man. So, naturally we were thrilled to do it all over again this year. This time we even invited a few friends. Deeda was especially excited to watch on the new and improved TV. Good times.

Just a year ago, G's grasp of the world around him was such that he really thought the Superbowl was the plastic bowl of cheese he was eating from. I have no doubt he knew last night that it's the name of the game. He also knew the name of every character in the Pixar commercials. He called them out with equal enthusiasm for each as they flashed for a nanosecond on the screen.

He's sponging up all kind of info these days. Tonight at dinner he told us W was for watch. And then we listed together a ton of things that start with B. Buzz (numero uno of course). Baloo. Books. Blue. Balls. Bats. He knows how to say yellow in Spanish and I can't even type that word because I am not sure how to spell it. He says, "guess what mom?" like he's 10 or something.

He's just sitting back, taking it in and telling us like it is. His seemingly simple announcements are a near constant perspective-meter. What a difference a year can make. There's no baby left in that boy- unless he's just stubbed his toe.

Next up? The big boy birthday. Tonight we ordered a Batman cake and picked out party favors at the dollar store including bubbles (a new favorite pass time). Sunday before game time G and I spent nearly an hour blowing and chasing bubbles outside while Deeda was playing Rachel Ray over some hot wings. It was a springy day. Great to soak up some son and sun!