Family Vacation . . .

We survived out first ever family vacation! Sure, it was only two nights away from home, but I feel that it was an accomplishment!

We hit the road Thursday morning, and with only one stop along the way, arrived at the hotel in Syracuse at around 12:30pm. We checked into the hotel, fed Liam the dreaded jarred infant food (which he ate eagerly, given that lunch was an hour later than usual, but as the vacation wore on, so did his patience for jarred food!) and then hit the NY State Fair.

Thursday was a great day, weather wise, and we all had fun wandering around the fair. Liam loved watching all the people!

He smiled at everyone and talked to anyone who would listen!

Thursday evening, we took in the FREE Sara Evans show. This was Liam's first ever concert! He looked adorable in his little ear protectors! But, an 8pm show was just a little too late for my little bear! He fell asleep before the show started.

He woke up for a little while in the middle to enjoy the show with his dad!

Liam slept amazingly well in his playpen in the hotel room. I was worried that he would have difficulty sleeping in a stange place, but I worried for nothing!

Friday was another day at the fair . . . Liam visited with a police horse, a K-9 blood hound, saw lots of bunnies and chickens, and just about every other kind of farm animal you can think of! We spent the entire day walking around, at the fair. Unfortunately, just before the Kenny Chesney show, it started to rain. And it rained for the rest of the evening. Jake Owen and Kenny Chesney both put on a great show, but the rain put a bit of a damper on it. Liam slept in my Moby wrap through most of it, which was probably a good thing, because was able to him wrapped in my coat. But even that wasn't enough . . . by the time we got to the car at the end of the night, EVERYTHING was soaked! Once we were back to the hotel and in dry clothes, everyone fell into bed and slept soundly until morning.

Saturday, we packed up and headed for home. We took our time coming home, stopping a few times to eat and shop. As much as it was a successful and fun vacation, I was glad to be home and able to sleep in my own bed last night!

Travelling

Packing for two days with an infant is a job in itself! I have spent just about the entire day packing for our two day trip to Syracuse for the New York State Fair. And I haven’t packed a thing for myself.

Liam needs to take just about everything he owns with him! Playpen to sleep in (we are staying in a cheap hotel that doesn’t have cribs), stroller for at the fair, food, bottles, sippy cups, clothes, toys . . . the list is really endless. Liam just smiles as he watches me run around grabbing this and that as I think of it and drop it in a pile of things to be packed. What he doesn’t know is that he won’t be smiling if Mommy forgets something important like formula or diapers!

Mommy, who should be relaxing and excited for a couple of days away (the only trip we are taking this year) is stressed and worried that something will go wrong. Maybe she will forget something important, like Liam’s bottles. Or what if he doesn’t sleep in the hotel room. Or what if he won’t eat the jarred infant food that he will be fed during the trip. (This will be Liam’s first taste of jarred infant food, as I have been making all of his baby food.)

So, after a day of running around like a chicken without a head, I think that Liam is packed and ready to go . . . except for the last minute things like his bedtime blankie and buddy. I however, have not packed a thing for myself! So, now, I am exhausted and headed off to bed, hoping that the packing fairy will come along while I am sleeping and pack my things for me. And then when she is done that, she will load everything into the car for me. I know, it’s highly unlikely, but I can hope!

If all goes according to plan, we will be leaving around 9am tomorrow, the plan is to put Liam in the car seat just in time for his morning nap, so that he will sleep most of the way there. Wish me luck! And if we all survive this trip, I will be back on Saturday!!

Kenny Chesney's Sun City Carnival Tour hits Ottawa!

Today, I feel the need to stay from my chosen blog topic (as I am sure I will do often!) to share my thoughts on last night's concert.

Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lamber and Kenny Chesney - I knew from the moment it was announced that it would be a show not to be missed! And apparently many others agreed . . .

Lady antebellum took the stage first. Every time I hear their song, "Love Don't Live Hear Anymore," I am taken back to a hot, sunny day at Riverfront Park in Nashville during the 2007 CMA Music Fest when a group of unknowns rocked the stage in front of a moderately interested crowd. I loved the song from that moment, and was thrilled that they have grown into a well known group. Last night, they rocked the stage in front of a roaring crowd at Scotiabank Place. They have a ways to go before they are the in the league of Kenny Chesney or other big names, but they have come a long way in two years! And what better way to learn than to tour with Kenny!

On the outside, Miranda Lambert's blond hair, blue eyes and silver tank top give people the impression of a sweet girl next door type. Then, you look a little closer and see the crisscrossed handguns on her stage backdrops and the mic stand, designed to look like a shot gun (or maybe a rifle, guns aren't my thing!) and you raise an eyebrow and wonder what's up with this girl. But when she rips into songs like Kerosene, Crazy Ex-girlfriend, and Gun Powder & Lead, the women in the audience are on their feet, clapping, cheering and singing along while the men in the crowd are peeing their pants in dear. Fortunately, she also shows us her humorous side when she let's us know how it feels to be stuck in a "Dry Town" and to be "Famous in a Small Town." Miranda is a force to be reckoned with in the country music game. And God help Blake Shelton if he ever pisses her off!

And finally, the moment that everyone had been waiting for. The curtains around the stage are raised for the one and only Kenny Chesney. All eyes are on the stage, waiting for the first look at the super star - all that is except the diehard Kenny fans. Our eyes are on the back of the floor area because we know that he will come in on a chair suspended over the crowd, sining "Live Those Songs Again."

Critics have complained about this, saying that it's been done before - but here, we don't care if he's done it every tour for 16 years, because, well, that's how long we've been waiting for Kenny to come to Ottawa. Yes, that's right, Kenny Chesney has been touring for 16 years and this was his first trip to Ottawa. When he mentioned this during the show, the crowd went wild. Kenny laughed and said, "I can tell that we waited 16 years too long to come to this town. We will be back!"

Kenny puts on an incredibly high energy show. By the time he a few songs in, you can already see that parts of his shirt are a few shades darker as he is dripping in sweat! But he never stops smiling. And even when he stops singing to have a drink of water, he never stops moving. My only complaint, is that it is hard to get good pictures, cause he is moving so much!

Everything about this show is larger than life! The band, the stage, the lights, the screens, the 20 trucks that bring it all from place to place are all as impressive as the show itself! Kenny does a perfect mix of fast ("Living In Fast Forward", "When The Sun Goes Down") and slow ("Me & You", "There Goes My Life"); old ("I Go Back", "How Forever Feels") and new ("Out Last Night"). And of course, as us die hard fans knew, the ever popular encore, "She Thinks My Tractors Sexy."

To top it all off, after Tractor, he spent probably 15 minutes singing autographs for fans in the Sandbar and around the rest of the stage. I thought that was a pretty decent thing for him to . . . just wish I had been down there!

All in all - best concert that I've ever been to! Let's hope that he doesn't wait another 16 years to come back!

Not enough time . . .

As I look around this mess I call a house, I wonder how in the world am I going to have time for everything once I get back to work full time? Seriously, I am home all day long, and sure, I am taking care of Liam, but some days I can hardly find the time to have a shower and do the dishes amongst changing diapers, making baby food, preparing bottles and the ever important playtime.

So, you know full well what is going to get over looked once I am back to work . . . the house cleaning. My house will become more and more cluttered and unorganized.

Does that bother me? Yes.

Does it motivate me enough to do a clean sweep before I go back to work, so that it will at least take a little while for the clutter to engulf our lives? NO!

Everyday, I wake up with good intentions of getting some housework or yard work done. Every day, I manage to do a couple of little things; today I cooked, pureed and froze a pot full of sweet potatoes for Liam, cleaned some unidentifiable leftovers out of the fridge, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, and make a card for a friend. But the list of things to do always seriously out numbers the list of things accomplished.

So, I have come to the conclusion that I will do what I can do and learn to live with the clutter and dust bunnies until someone figures out how to create more hours in the day. Or until someone figures out a way for humans to survive without sleep. Unless someone out there wants to volunteer to be my maid!

Daycare Visit

Daycare Visit . . .

We made a quick visit to the daycare on Tuesday so that I could pick up enrollment forms for Liam. Of course, everybody ohhed and ahhed over how adorable he is. And my friendly little man went happily into the arms of anyone who reached out for him. A part of me is happy that he is content to go to anyone. It should make the transition into daycare much easier for him. But at the same time, there is a part of me that feels disappointed that he's not at least a little bit sad when I hand him off to a complete stranger. But, we'll just have to wait and see what happens the first time I drop him off and leave. I can guarantee that there will be tears . . . even if he doesn't cry, I am sure that I will. I am sure that this whole back to work, starting daycare thing will be a lot more difficult for me than it will be for him.

So, as I sit here typing this, I am avoiding the envelope of enrollment forms because somehow the thought of filling them out will just make this all so much more real. I am still hoping for a miracle - you know the kind - hubby will suddenly get an enormous raise, we'll win a lottery or money will start falling from the sky, anything that would allow me to be the stay at home mom that I wish I could be. But time is running out and the chances of a miracle are very unlikely.

A month to go . . .

I sit here, trying to prepare, mostly mentally at this point to go back to work. I have been off since Christmas on maternity leave with my first child. Liam was born on Christmas day, he is my pride and joy and I adore every minute that I spend with him. But our lazy, but fun filled days at home are quickly coming to an end. On August 31st, Liam will start daycare and on September 8th, I will go back to work. This isn't what I want. I want to be able to take the full year of maternity leave. I want to be a stay at home mom. My husband wants me to be able to stay home with our little boy. But we don't always get what we want from life. Financially, there is no way that I can stay home any longer. So, we prepare for the day when we have to start getting up and getting ready early in the morning, instead of sitting around in our pajamas for half the day.

The daycare space is secured, and although Liam will be attending the daycare that I have worked at for the past 10 years, it is amazing the amount of thought I have to put into preparing for him to be there. I am already making lists of all the things I will have to take for him on the first day . . . diapers, wipes, diaper cream, extra clothes, sunscreen, food, bottles . . . the list seems to be never ending. Maybe now I will understand a little better when parents of the children forget something that their child needs!

And then there is the mental aspect . . . I have to leave my baby with other people. Yes, I know them, I have been working with them for years, but still, he won’t be with me. In some ways, it is probably easier knowing the daycare as well as I do, but in other ways, I think it is harder. I know that there are times when my baby won’t get the attention he needs right away, because there are 10 other screaming babies, and that breaks my heart, even though I know there is no way around it. And even though I will be in the same building, I am saddened by the things that I will miss. I hope he will accomplish his first steps and first words when he is home with me, but the reality is that I know I will mostly likely miss at least some of these things.

But, life will go on. Not the life that I have come to know and love, but a new crazy, busy life.