32

My weekend went a little something like this. Crazy.busy.non-stop. Ha!

Friday morning, Jackson had a 9am dr. appointment which went pretty well. Jack is healthy and strong. He's 21 lbs 10 oz (he actually gained more than 1 1/2 lbs in just under a month! That may be a record for him!) and he's 31 1/4 inches tall! I had to fill out another questionnaire like I did at his 12 month appointment for gross motor, fine motor and speech assessment. He scored a little low on his gross motor again ~ but one of the questions was about climbing/crawling up stairs, which was impossible to assess since we live in a ranch (with a basement, but he doesn't go down there), so that was a "not yet" answer ~ and he was borderline for speech. The pediatrician ~ whom I love, but am a little frustrated with about this ~ is wanting us to call that early childhood place again. Since they said they would follow up in May and the PT gave me her name and number if I had questions before, I will call her directly and see what she thinks. Also, over the weekend, at my sister's, he proved he can crawl up a whole flight of stairs, and he learned a new word or two. Jack says "dog" now and it sounded like he said A's name and a couple of other things too. So honestly, I think it's so hard to follow those assessments. I understand why and that they are probably very helpful and a great tool, but sometimes, it's not a good indicator of skills/milestones. Also, she wants us to sign a form about vaccines, saying we are declining and it goes to the state or county health department. I really want to wait since I know we don't really need to sign anything till school starts (5 more years!) plus the way it reads somewhat worries me. We are not necessarily planning to get him any, but currently we are delaying until at least 2. E and A won't be getting anymore either. It's a personal decision based on lots of research and loads of discussion with Jas. I know it's a controversial choice and people may not agree but it's our choice. Besides, I have to say, he's been our healthiest boy so far... makes you wonder, you know?

OK. So back to the weekend's craziness!

Jas, E, Alex, Jack and I drove to Toledo, and took the older boys to Jason's parents' house for the weekend. Oh and Buddy, our dog. I have to say, my in-laws are pretty wonderful to not only take Ethan and Alex for 3 days but also our dog when they already have 2 of their own! It was super-helpful. After we dropped them off, we went to pick up my mom and visit my dad for a few minutes before heading South to Columbus!

On the way, we stopped at picked up my nieces (my sister's fiance's daughters), A - 10 and M - 12.

Friday night, we ate dinner and then between all of us girls, we got some of the wedding favors taken care of (no details, because I know some family members will be reading this! ;) ) and finally go some sleep.

We all woke up pretty early Saturday, some earlier than others *ahem, Matt!* (<--- he was up and out in the yard both days before us, building stuff!), ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the bridal store to look for dresses for us bridesmaids. Of course, the store had our appointment wrong, made Heather (my sis) pick up her dress that day ~ the wedding is in September... ~ and the first lady we worked with was so rude. We got "assigned" to a different, much nicer lady but we couldn't all agree on one dress. The one we all kind of liked was way over-budget, before alterations (and because I'm fat - hey, I am! - there was an additional $20-40 charge.) so we decided to keep looking.

Heather, the girls, mom, Jack, Chelsea (another bridesmaid) and her daughter and I went to lunch at IHOP in between shopping. I think it was a much needed break and we were able to sit and talk a little about our plans for a bridal shower.

 The next place we went to was not really any better. They were a little more polite, but the selection stunk and anything we did like didn't come in our color (hello, black is a pretty easy color for a dress, people!). No luck.

Off to the mall. Well, most of us. Chelsea and her daughter live about an hour from Heather and it was already after 4, so they had to get home. I feel bad that we wasted their time shopping. :( Chelsea is very nice and between her and her daughter, I was cracking up!

So we checked a few stores at the mall, to see if maybe they had any prom dresses that might work. Ugh. Time to just go home.

Late dinner - pizza which was yum! - and Heather and mom and the girls did some more of the favors while I tried to get Jack down for the night.

Oh by the way, Saturday was also my birthday. Not to mention, I'm not really a fan of clothes shopping but this was somewhat fun. Even when it was stressful, LOL. I got a sweet card from my honey.

Heather did some online searches and found another local bridal shop that opened at 11am Sunday that looked promising.

After a big breakfast, all of us girls and the baby went out to the shop, which is in a 120+ yr old farm house! To be honest, upon first sight, I was a bit nervous about their selection. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by three very sweet ladies who showed us where to look, got us what we needed and helped immensely. We found 5 dresses to try on and since the largest in-store size was a 12, we had M try on the dresses. 2 of them we somewhat liked, 2 we didn't really, and 1 we fell in love with. We can get it in black with ivory, it's much less expensive (by almost $100!!) and comes in every size we need. I tried it on with a corset-type strapless and while I couldn't get the 10 zipped all the way up, it gave me a good idea of the fit and I loved the flowiness (sp?) of it. By the way, Mom got it on, zipped and it was big on her! I think that put a big smile on her face :) She looked beautiful in it - too bad she's not a bridesmaid, LOL. Also the salesgirl didn't charge me the "extra" fee so I got it for the same price even though I needed larger than a 16 (typically they charge $25 per the manufacturer/designer). We put half down on mine, M's and A's. Chelsea and Marcy, the other bridesmaids, got pictures texted to them and they both answered with an affirmative answer :) Thank goodness. I was getting depressed that we were having such a hard time!

By this point it was after 1pm, so we had to get the van loaded so we could head back to Toledo, drop off Mom and go to Jason's parents' house. We didn't get there till 5:30. My MIL had dinner ready almost immediately (thankfully!) and we went out and played for a little while with the boys before cake and ice cream. We never got on the road till after 8, I think. Home around 10pm, boys were in their jammies, so they went straight to bed.

This morning was a little rough because all of us were tired from a long week/weekend and a late night again, and I didn't realize we had finished the juice boxes sometime last week so when I went to pack lunches this morning, I had to dig out $0.30 for each of the boys to buy milk (chocolate for E since he can't stand regular ~ he's got to have something with lunch and I don't have a small thermos for water that fits in their lunch bags :( ). We were late, but neither of them seemed to upset. I didn't remember till I was helping E at his locker, that I forgot snacks for both of them. It's going to be a long day...

Oh. Yeah. The title of the post is 32. I forgot. I turned 32 on Saturday. But apparently I look 17. According to A, at least. LOL. That was a great compliment. I look half my age! Yay! But I also don't look old enough to have kids, she said. Hehehe. Silly, sweet girl.