In Hindsight

Some people may think that I take too many pictures. 

Maybe I do. 

Maybe people shouldn't worry about what I do. Maybe nobody does. 

Where the eff was I?

Three days ago it was stunningly sunny and warm. So I took pictures like I usually do. 

Little did I know, it would be the last sunny day where we'd be outside and I could get pictures before it rained, and before Camden split his head open which means the next month of pictures is going to involve a huge ugly gash on his forehead. Or a lot of Photoshop editing. 

Backstory: On Saturday (two lowly hours after I left Brad and the boys home while my mom and I planned to spend the day in NYC) Camden was running from the back yard to the back door and faceplanted on the metal step leading up into the house. The cut was about two inches long and the depth of the length of your pinky finger. One borrowed car, awesome neighbor and ER visit later: Six stitches in two layers (three stitches on top of three stitches due to the depth of the cut). Stitches come out this Friday which should be a blasty blast. 

Aren't you glad I take so many pictures now? I better get better with my Photoshop. 

And now what we have to look at for the next forever. 

      

NYC in a day

I took my mom to her maiden voyage in New York City yesterday. I didn't bring kids, a backpack on my back, even a purse. I threw an ID and a couple methods of payment in my pocket and a cell phone and just went. 

I didn't even bring a camera!

I didn't want to deal with anything. I didn't want to stop and take pictures. I've been there once before. I took pictures then. I didn't need to this time. I just wanted to live it. And live it freely.

We did Times Square (daytime and nighttime). We did the new 9/11 memorial. We spent a few minutes at Seaport on our way to somewhere else. We wandered into random stores, and some on-purpose stores.

Including my first Lego Store experience. Holy amazing. Being a certified Lego maniac from my younger days, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I haven't gone into an actual Lego Store before. I was in stunned silence. It was literally floor to ceiling Legos. You could even take a cup, go to a wall of clear bins that had loose Lego pieces in and pick and choose what colors and pieces you wanted. Fill up the cup, pay a flat rate of $14.99. Great custom starter set. Then, go to the Minifig (fellow Lego children of the early 90s like myself call them Minifigs "Lego Men") station, and build your very own customized guy. 

Is there a better store in the world than this??

I know they are all over the place in the nation. But I had never come across one. 

We ate street food (hot dogs, roasted nuts etc) and had a big lunch at an Irish pub and watched the NFL draft (which just happened to be in NYC - we walked past the satellite and network trucks). We wandered and took our time. It was almost relaxing not having a real agenda. 

We ended the day at Rockefeller Center and went to the top of the plaza building, which in my opinion was a MUCH better view of the city than the Empire State Building (which I did last time). We hung out there for a long time until it got dark. 

And then? We walked back to the car and drove 3 hours home. NYC in a day. We didn't see everything, we didn't do everything, but we did enough, and we had a lot of fun. 

I did take a few pictures of the 9/11 memorial with my camera. And I'm using Google to show you the awesomeness of the Lego store. And my Lego stash. 

North tower 9/11 Memorial pool. There is one at each spot where the towers fell. It took our breath away.

Surrounding the borders of the two tower pools is the engravings of the names of the victims. The first responders killed were in gold and protruded

Ripped off from Google. The Lego Store in Rockefeller Center. See those display cases full of loose Legos? Take a cup, fill it up with whatever you want. Pay flat rate $14.99. Done. Awesome.

My Lego store score (minus a set or two)

  

The Lego Bag

We interrupt this broadcast with a special non-compensated endorsement.

Recently I was perusing through Amazon looking for a reasonable efficient way to store Legos. Any mom of boys that has ever existed has torn her hair out over either a) getting your kids to clean up their Legos off the floor (unlikely), or b) cleaning up abandoned Legos after you've stepped on one and wanted to amputate your foot from the pain (most likely). Legos are wonderful but evil. They hurt. They hide under your couch and the moment you are either vacuuming or walking somewhere barefoot, they purposefully slide out into the middle of the floor. 

So anyways I came across THIS fabulous Lego-catching-storage-apparatus:

http://www.amazon.com/Lay-n-Go-Original-Activity-Mat-Blue/dp/B007BO5OAY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366944557&sr=8-1&keywords=lay+n+go

The idea is simple. Lay it out. Throw Legos on top. Play with Legos. Toss stray Legos back onto the mat (much simpler than forcing them to pick up 392822 Legos and put them in a box). Pull drawstring. Instant Lego Bag. Done. 

Mine came in the mail today. It works better than Amazon even promised. It's amazing. It's beautiful. It's effing life changing. 

Never you mind the $50 price tag. Pay $100 if they ask you to. Pay $200. Give it to every parent-to-be at their baby shower. It's the new official best.thing.ever. 

The First Beach Day

We took my mom to the beach in downtown Cape May today. 

Nevermind the fact that it was only 55 degrees with 700mph winds and heavy cloud cover. We don't worry about those details. 

We lasted umm 45 minutes tops. It was cold and the sand pelting our faces was worse than sitting inside a tornado in a lawn chair. But the kids had fun. For a while. 

 

Camden's Birthday (Round 2)

My baby is two today and I don't know what to do with myself!

Actually, I figured it out. We went to the aquarium. 

Fittingly, the aquarium in Camden, NJ. 

Which he's totally NOT named for since it happens to be the #1 most dangerous city in the United States. He was in fact named well before we had even heard of that city. 

So anyways. We started the day with birthday pancakes. He still loves it when we sing Happy Birthday to him. And he even attempted to blow the candles out (which didn't really work out, but Daddy helped).

Then we spent the day at the aquarium. That aquarium rocks. Not just the usual fishies, jelly fish and sea horses, but a stunning amount of large fish, sting rays, sea turtles, penguins, hippos and the largest and most diverse population of sharks in the nation. Including a shark tunnel. And a place to pet baby sharks. And a place to pet sting rays too. And huge ENORMOUS tanks that fill entire walls of various large creatures that coexist (sharks, rays, turtles, tuna, etc). I mean really seriously the coolest place in the history of ever. Camden was very crabby because of a lack of nap so he didn't give two poos about the fish for the most part, but he did absolutely love running through the exhibits at full speed, turning around, running back, around and around without his little legs ever stopping.

Whatever, it's his birthday he can do what he wants. 

 

Petting a huge leopard sting ray

After the aquarium and a 40 minute drive/nap we pushed our luck and went to Red Robin for early dinner/late lunch, which the only possibility of surviving through that with an especially cranky just-woken-up Camden was Netflix on Mommy's phone. 

God bless technology. 

Then our traditional trip to Toys R Us. Cam didn't really have an opinion on what he wanted, except a certain toy airplane (him and his airplanes I swear) and a Disney Cars car. Brad and I got him an ogre that goes with their castle that roars and smashes his arms down that seems extremely fitting for Hulk Smash (aka Camden). 

Camden's Toys R Us swag

The boys fell apart in a thousand pieces from being over tired so they went to bed at 5:45. Neither of which have fallen asleep yet (it's 7:30). But they are being quiet and not stimulated anymore and out of our hair which is all that really matters. 

It was a fun day celebrating. Happy birthday to our little big man.       

    

 

Camden's Monster Party

Camden's birthday is tomorrow but we had his little party today with our neighbors and friends. We did a (friendly) monster theme since one of his many nicknames is "Monster". No party games or anything, just playtime inside and outside with his favorite things to eat: cake, cupcakes, hot dogs, tater tots, french fries, juice boxes and a plethora of candies and lollipops.

Cape May Zoo

We took the boys and Gramma to the Cape May County Zoo today for the first time of the year. It was cloudy and windy and had rained this morning which means no one was there and it wasn't too hot so the animals were very active. Aka perfect zoo day. 

Feeding goats

"Rocky" put on a show and walked right in front of us

Camden calmly laid down in the middle of the walking path. He was done. It was naptime.

 

Camden the Superhero Returns. And Gramma is here.

I really can't get over how cute this kid is in his caped superhero shirt. So I took more pictures of him and his cuteness today. 

Also my mom flew in last night and the kids couldn't get enough of her. 

 

Woody

I cleaned out our big shed today. 

Actually, I reorganized the shed. As I'm emptying my entire life out of the shed and into the lawn with my neighbor watching, she asks me "what exactly are you trying to accomplish in doing this?" In which I didn't really have an answer. But as I was putting everything back I figured out what exactly I was doing. 

I was attempting to comfortably fit 10 tons of shit into an 8 ton space. 

Which I actually accomplished, thankyouverymuch. 

So anyways while I was cleaning out the shed I found a Woody (from Toy Story) doll. I'm not sure why or how Woody got in there. I'm thinking an old neighbor gave it to me during yard sale season before they moved, and I saved it for when the kids got older.

It just so happens that my kids are in a huge Toy Story phase. Calen's eye caught it (he was with me when I found it) so he snatched it up and played with it for a brief time. Then later we came inside and suddenly, Camden found Woody. 

And didn't put him down for the next two hours. 

He snatched up that Woody and ran around the house yelling "YEE-HAW. YEE-HAW!!!!!!!!" over and over and over. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever, especially since he had never even said those words before. 

Woody ate dinner with Camden. He watched tv with Camden. Cam talked to Woody in his own little Cam language. He even went to sleep with Camden. 

It's one of the first toys that Cam has ever legitimately been obsessed with (playing with toys just for the sake of keeping them away from Calen (and thus pissing Calen off...which Cam seems to do on purpose) does not count). 

I wonder if he'll even remember it tomorrow. 

Talking to Woody

Watching TV

"Yeeeee-HAW!!!"

Eating dinner with Woody