Mother's Day 2009 - weekend update

This weekend was busier than originally planned.

On Saturday, I decided to take DJ out to run errands with me. First we went to Kohl's to exchange an outfit he got for his birthday for a larger size. While we were there, I didn't have DJ contained in a stroller, and he decided that it would be fun to swipe clothes off of the shelves in one fell swoop and then run around the displays with my chasing him, giggling the entire way, bringing smiles to all surrounding customers with his infectious giggle.

Then we went to the Post Office. I was hoping it would trigger a "Sonny?" (since Sonny is a retired postal carrier) but it didn't.

Then we went to Lowe's. What a zoo - as was expected since it was the first rain-free day (sunny, in fact) in over a week. I wanted to go to Sam's, too, but its parking lot looked like that was even MORE of a zoo, and I'm not quite sure how. So we went into Lowe's, fought the crowd to get to the topsoil and grass seed, and then hunted for various other items that we've been needing. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything that would fit for our broken cabinet drawer in the kitchen, so that meant a trip to the Gnome Depot, too. While in Lowes, I saw an old neighbor from the townhouse neighborhood. What a nice surprise!

At that point, DJ was cranky, and I realized, it's lunchtime. So I took him to Chick Fil-A as a treat to him (and me). While at Chick Fil-A, DJ learned how to drink through a straw! At first, this surprised him when he actually got milk in his mouth, and then that's all he wanted to do. He drank his bottle of milk in a blink of an eye. He also tried dipping his waffle fries in ketchup. At first he just licked the ketchup off, but then he started eating a ketchup-dipped fry. He's been so anti-ketchup until then, so maybe he'll be interested in it now.

While we were eating, I saw my next door neighbor from middle school - Anne Krajewski. Married and expecting her first in November, she looks great, looks happy, and seems to love her job. It was so funny... we haven't seen each other since high school, I don't think, and we recognized each other immediately. Amazing. Always was a sweet girl and that clearly hasn't changed.

After lunch, DJ and I walked ("alk! alk!") through Gnome Depot, found the part we need for the kitchen cabinet drawer, and headed home. I took the back roads, down Pot Spring and Old Bosley, both of which have some fun curves and bumps. I took the first set on Pot Spring spiritedly (heard some giggling from DJ) and when I got to the stop sign at Old Bosley, I heard, "More?" AWESOME!!! That put a huge grin on my face! So down Old Bosley we went, with a little more (!) spirit . I heard lots of giggling and a "more?" when we got to the traffic light at Dulaney Valley. Unfortunately, that's where the "fun" road ends, so DJ fell asleep shortly thereafter.

When I got home, we put DJ and Elektra down for naps, and then went out to the front bed by the mailbox to seed it with the grass seed and topsoil I'd bought at Lowes. Of course, I've now just guaranteed that we'll be in a drought, but oh well. ;-) We seeded some other bare spots as well, including where an old tree stump was in the back. The outside is really a never-ending project, but I have a few things on my plate. 1. Dig up (maybe I can find a tiller...) the bed by DJ's room so I can seed that with grass. Right now it's so full of weeds and annuals that you'd never know the bed was cleaned out once already!! 2. Trim back the azaleas and rodhodendren (spelling)? 3. Get the ivy out of the azalea down by the road and 4. Reduce the number of hosta on the other side of the front walk. From the way the hosta exploded on the side I did reduce, you wouldn't even know I reduced them. It's insane. Maybe the next few weekends will afford me some time outside again.

On Sunday, Steve let me sleep in a little bit, and then we cleaned the house in preparation for Mother's Day dinner. My sister and her family drove from Lancaster, and my parents and my mother-in-law came as well. It was a nice day, with beef tenderloin, rice, salad, fresh from the bakery lemon merangue pie and key lime cheesecake (or as Spiro called it, key lime cheese pie). DJ and Elektra slept through most of time everyone was over, but that gave Steve and me a chance to visit without stress. I think everyone had a good time, and we got to put the kids to bed on time.

DJ, meanwhile, said a few new names:
"Fia" - for Thia and Sophia
Nouna
Laldia - for Grace's mom, Nadia
Jeff - for Grace's dad, Jeff

All in all, too short a weekend (what awesome weather!!), but a very nice one indeed.