Vacation at home

Why is it that being home feels so safe. I still consider my mom and dad's home as my home, my home away from home. When I am there, I feel safe, and relaxed. I don't know if its because when I am there, I'm not constantly thinking of what I need to do to clean or prepare with my next free second, or that I don't have to pick up a finger for a homemade meal, or glass of wine. I don't think it's because my room upstairs looks like I am still in high school, dancing on the drill team with my Bat Mitzvah picture hanging above my bed.

I swear that the first few times I left their house after Eli was born and I was going home to an empty house because Blaine was at work I had tears running down my face as I drove out of the cul-de-sac. It kinda sounds like I live in another state or another country and don't make it home that often. But in fact, I'm just a handful of miles away and across the river.

So, we are re-doing our fireplace (Blaine is actually do it). I don't have any pictures of the original one because it was so heinous that I made sure it was cropped out of any pictures that it snuck into. In order for us to miss the banging of broken tile, the loud nail gun, the screeching of a miter saw, and fumes of Kilz and paint, we camped out at my parents house all weekend. It started out that I was going to go over there on Friday after Eli's chiropractor appt (that's a whole other story, for another time) and packed the bare minimum to stay the night just in case. Well, Saturday rolled around and we were still there, still hadn't gotten out of our pajamas and progress was being made on the fireplace....so we stayed the whole weekend. Blaine came for his daily visits and dinner since he cant bare the stay away from Eli for too long and we hung out at home all weekend long with my mom. I felt like I was on vacation.

Here is the thing about being at my parents house, Eli is the star of the house and everyone is excited to see him. He claps, we cheer, he poops, we cheer, he laughs, or stands up, or rolls over...you get the point...we cheer. So, all I have to do it sit back and be there to provide the milk, he provides the entertainment and my mom helps out with Eli.

My grandmother, "Mom" comes over every Saturday after services and Eli LOVES it when she sings to him. There is one song in particular that she sings to him in French that mesmerizes him.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so my mom and I took Eli on, the 3 mile walk to see Maw, my other grandmother. She has this truck filled with Lego's that has gotten so much mileage from all of the 6 other great-grandchildren, and Eli was no exception....

So, our weekend get-a-way home was great and the big fireplace reveal is soon to come!

It was time to end the weekend with our bedtime routine. We got home just in time for dinner, and Eli could not be more ready to get on with dinner and on to his bath...

He loves his bath so much that when its time to even just walk to the bathroom, his whole body tenses up with excitment! Its the same thing every night...I get the water ready, and he watches.

Check out those legs!!!! I mean, really, where did those legs come from??? This night our bathtime went a little different than usual. I had just undone the plug to let the water out and I caught a glimpse of something floating past the toy turtle, and low and behold...POOP...a poop nugget floating in the water. Eli pooped in his bath. So instead of wrapping him up in his puppy towel and making puppy sounds all the way to the bed to get him in his pj's, we scooped out the poop, and all his toys, took a second bath, and sanitized the tub and all the toys!

It was then story time, and off to bed.

Goodnight!