We went to a local Festival of Trees yesterday with my parents, sisters, and brother and significant others; and Scott's parents, sister, brother-in-law and our nephews. A great time was had by all. Above is a picture taken there of me, Adam and Scott in one of the trees we loved. Sadly, we didn't win any in the raffle, but we came away with some great ideas for our own tree.

Happy Thanksgiving

Adam's cold became a croupy cough (up all night one night coughing, but thankfully breathing fine) topped off with a double ear infection for good measure. He's been on Amoxicillin for a week now and is doing so much better. That nasty cold/cough that's lasting for 3 weeks plus is really going around -- my sister-in-law's kids both have it as do the kids of a friend of mine. Crazy bugs!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A new look

Trying out a new look on the old blog. This one reminds me of the Cape, where I grew up. Okay, so I didn't live right on the water like in the picture, but it's the general idea of the Cape.

Not much going on. LD's in the sicky mode again -- this time, it seems to be just a cold (as opposed to allergies, or an ear infection, or early, early stage pneumonia again). He was coughing quite a bit yesterday and last night, but he actually slept pretty good last night. He woke up this morning with a faucet of a runny nose. Poor guy! He was in great spirits though besides that, so off to preschool he went (to infect those he got the cold from in the first place ;) ). Fingers crossed that we don't get a call that we need to pick him up, and that indeed this is just a cold.

And so it begins...

I just signed up to chaperone my son's daycare field trip in a few weeks. Since he's very cautious, I figured that would be a good way for him to enjoy it a bit and be able to go. He's still young for a field trip (3), but since his class is going, I guess there'll be other 3 year olds there as well. It's to a science center since they're learning about dinosaurs, and I predict many requests for dinosaur-themed toys for Christmas.

End of an era

Okay, that's over-dramatizing more than just a bit, but CasualCorner.com is shutting its doors as of November 17th. That was my site to go to for twin sets (yup, just call me Bree from Desperate Housewives -- minus the creepy pharmacist love interest, of course! ) that I always knew would fit. Damn, I'm going to miss that site -- however, they seem to be offering 50% off on everything on the site until they close the site on November 17th, so I know what site I'll be checking out tonight.

Happy Halloween

Dr. LD wishes you all a Happy Halloween. He had a blast trick-or-treating and greeting trick-or-treaters at the door, although I think he now is hoping we'll be going trick or treating every night.

The case of the missing lunch box

Had a lovely parenting freak-out today. Got a call from LD's daycare that his lunch box wasn't there. Hmm... it was with him when he went to preschool this morning. Maybe it somehow didn't make it on to the bus. So, I called preschool and spoke to his teacher, who told me it was in his hands when he got on the bus. Great. Then, I called the bus company and gave them (what I thought was) LD's bus number -- they searched that bus and no lunch box. Then, the daycare director called and mentioned to me that she was a little concerned about the bus company, because on Tuesday, they went to give her the wrong child -- not LD. Errr... not quite what I wanted to hear about the transportation company I entrust with my child three days a week. She said she was concerned about it, and thought it might be worth a call to the school system. I agreed.

I called the school system and spoke to the transportation coordinator there (yes, there actually is such a person with that exact title :) ). He was quite concerned as well that that had happened, especially since LD's bus has only 4 kids on it and is considered a "special needs" bus (LD qualifies for that due to a speech delay and a wee bit of a sensory issue, go figure). So, yeah, even more troubling that the monitor of the bus doesn't have an idea of what kid goes where. He was going to call the school company and see what was going on.

In about a half hour, I got a call back from the transportation coordinator. He talked to the monitor and it turns out it was a simple mistake that was rectified immediately. She said that when they got to daycare, she got up and went to unbuckle the wrong child, but then noticed it right away and then went and unbuckled LD -- at no time were the kids off the bus. That made me feel a bit better, and I have a feeling the daycare director may have been overly cautious, which is fine by me! But, that was quite a fun couple of moments where I had these thoughts going through my head that LD might wind up being given to the wrong daycare or person. Oy!

In related news, I had the wrong bus number and the transportation coordinator had the right one. They checked that bus # and sure enough, the lunch box was still on it, so LD will get it back tomorrow morning -- they'll give the lunch box to his preschool teacher when she gets a child off the bus in the morning.

Nor'easters -- Have to love them

We had a "Nor'easter" today here -- thankfully, it wasn't snow related (too early for that in my world ;) ), which is what I usually think when I hear the term. We did get gale-force winds and plenty of rain. However, said winds knocked out the power to LD's daycare. Greaaat. I got a call at work in the late morning from there and was thrown for a loop a bit because I knew LD was still at pre-school and wasn't even there yet. But, they were calling because they had to close for the day because their power was totally out. I was surprised to hear they didn't have a generator, but maybe they do, and it was knocked out as well. I didn't even think to ask.

Since it was 2 minutes from when LD was going to get on the bus to head from pre-school to daycare, he still took the bus and then daycare kept him there until I got there to pick him up. There were a bunch of other kids still at daycare as well when I got there, so I didn't feel bad.

Thankfully, the power at home wasn't knocked out at all (knock on wood!), so I was still able to work from home. Big phew to that since I'm still training my new editorial assistant as today was only her 2nd day. Kind of bad timing, but thankfully, she got a lot of training yesterday, so I was able to help her out with anything else remotely today. Phew, phew, phew!

Halloween candy be gone

Can't wait for Halloween to be over! LD's dressing up as a doctor, and I'm sure he'll look adorable... but, I will love not having Halloween candy in the house anymore. Specifically, I'll be glad to be rid of those tasty little treats of fun-sized Butterfingers. They're the devil. I'd never tried them until last year's Halloween, because for some reason I thought they'd taste gross. Clearly, that was the wrong judgement because now I can't get enough of them. And, it's just the fun-sized ones. I'm not a big fan of the regular-sized Butterfingers -- too much effort to break them into bite-sized pieces. :D

Yes, yes, it's my own doing that I keep buying these little devils and then eat them. Mind you, I'm not even buying it to give out as treats for Halloween. We already have two bags of 115-count candy from BJ's stashed away -- which is about right since we live in a big family neighborhood and easily pass out 200 pieces of candy each Halloween. So, since we already have Halloween candy, why do I keep buying these? Yup, no will-power whatsoever. Thankfully, Halloween is over in just a little over a week's time and I can stop buying those damnable little pieces of goodness and get back to eating apples as snacks instead.

Okay, and now to catch up besides just this week, since I somehow haven't posted in here since March...

LD is now 3 years old and has started preschool. He's doing great and absolutely loves taking the yellow bus from preschool to daycare three days. He had to leave his little girlfriend (mentioned in a blog back in March) behind at his old daycare, but he has, of course, found new girlfriends at preschool and the new daycare.

Scott started a new job about a month ago that is going great. He loves the company and the people and is doing a fantastic job. Much better than a past gig or two that he had and hated.

As for me, per a recent post (that I pasted in here today from another journal), I'm now a manager. Yup, lil' ol' me is now managing three people. Perish the thought! But I seem to be doing pretty good at it. When I hired on the third person, I went out and bought The One-Minute Manager (great for my ADD ;) ) and The Everything Guide to Managing. Some interesting theories in The One-Minute Manager, but I think I might check out The 30-Minute Manager -- have heard better things about that.

A sweet compliment

Catching up on the past week's events in here:

Saw my husband's aunt and uncle from CA on Monday. His uncle's a plastic surgeon. I haven't seen them in a while and got a great compliment from his uncle -- he said I "looked great". Well, hearing that from a plastic surgeon is a definite high. So glad he didn't think I needed work and tried to slip me his card. :D

A new phrase

LD said "I love you" for the first time last night -- S and I were saying "I love you" to him and he suddenly looked at us, grinned and said "I love you" right back. My heart leaps just remembering it.

LD has a girlfriend

LD has a little girlfriend at daycare. For the past two days, we've dropped him off and one of the little girls has come up to him and handed him his favorite book (a Blue's Clues one -- LD's latest addiction). Then, he sits down at the table happily reads the book. It was cute the first time and adorable the second.

Intro time

I've jumped on the Blog bandwagon. About time, I know.

Brief intro for those who may have found their way here. I'm Mary -- I'm an Editor for an Internet media company. Husband is Scott and we have a son -- to be known here as "LD" for "Little Dude", a nickname that seems to have stuck and a big old dog named Blake.

In here, you'll read about our adventures, or misadventures as the case may be; the ups and downs of toddler life (LD is 2-1/2); and other such stuff.

Welcome!