St. Patrick’s Day Weekend 2018

I love how the title of this blog post is “St. Patrick’s Day Weekend 2018” and yet we didn’t do much to celebrate and the green our family sported all day long was rather minimal. I’ve had my eyes set on Easter so St. Patrick’s Day totally sneaked up on me this year but we did manage to celebrate with some corned beef and cabbage on Friday night!

YUM!

Saturday

Our St. Patrick’s Day kicked off with breakfast and a little more babymoon vacation research before Chase was up for the day and ready for action. I wasn’t in the mood to work out on Saturday and suggested a trip to Discovery Place Kids with Chase as our morning activity instead of any kind of fitness. Our DPK membership comes in handy for spontaneous visits and since it was in the low 40s in the morning, it seemed like a decent family activity to enjoy while the outside temperature warmed up a bit.

Chase made a beeline for the pretend vet’s office when we arrived and quickly fell in love with a stuffed dog that he then proceeded to cart all over Discovery Place with him for the next 90 minutes. He called it his “Fire Puppy” after it rode shotgun with him in the big pretend fire truck and they were BFFs for the morning.

Before driving home, we ended up popping into Whole Foods to grab food from their hot bar for lunch and candy from their candy bins which I’d love to blame on Chase, but let’s be real…

By the time we made it back to our house, it warmed up and reached the 60s outside. The perfect sunny walking weather! Ryan handled settling Chase down for his nap after a quick jam-session on some pots and pans and then I headed off for some one-on-one time outside with my favorite furry lady.

Sadie and I covered around two miles together which was just enough time for me to make it through my favorite NPR podcast, Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! I know I’ve mentioned this podcast a number of times on the blog, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you like trivia, enjoy hearing about current events in a lighthearted way and like to laugh!

By the time I made it home, it was pretty darn clear Chase wasn’t going to nap successfully on Saturday. He was upstairs yelling “MOM! DAD!” in the midst of choruses of “Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang.” Listening to the words that come out of that kid’s mouth when he babbles and sings in his crib is one of my favorite things to do because he’s SO random. He’s like a little radio cycling through every song in his head and various imaginary scenarios with whatever toys he has around him in his crib. He also creates little games for himself sometimes where he’ll try to chuck all of his stuffed animals onto the twin bed or into one of the decorative storage bins in his room and say, “Mom! I made a basket!” when I open the door.

With Chase’s non-existent nap checked off the list, we decided to make the most of the gorgeous weather and spent the next few hours outside, playing at a local park, throwing rocks in the lake and feeding the ducks. I love easy, slow-paced Saturdays that involve lots of sunshine so much!

We made it home feeling ready for food and when I suggested a quick drive up to Mooresville for seafood from Eddie’s, Ryan immediately agreed so we piled into his truck and dug into an assortment of shellfish, shrimp and salmon as we overlooked Lake Norman. We rounded out our evening with bath time for Chase and an episode of Dateline for me and Ryan while Chase snoozed away and Sadie hijacked more than her fair share of our bed as always.

Sunday

Ryan was up and out the door for yet another west coast work trip before 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. (Chase and I are ridin’ solo for a good part of this week.) With a mother-son day ahead of us, I took advantage of a quiet morning and got some work done on the computer. Chase slept in until nearly 8 a.m. (the time change has actually been kind of amazing for his wake up times lately – I hope it lasts!) and we eased into the morning together before getting dressed and heading off to church for the first service of the day.

Sunday’s weather mirrored Saturday and the sunny skies were too much for us to resist after church. The minute we got home, I made us some smoothies to take on a walk to the park with Sadie. We spent the next two hours outside playing at the playground and watching a fishing tournament at the nearby boat docks. I tried to just kick back and go with the flow during our time outside and let Chase take the lead on our little adventure which paid off big time.

He wanted to spend a solid 40 minutes sitting on the dock, watching the men fish for bass and there was something about simply sitting down in the sunshine with Sadie in my lap (her disregard for personal space continues) and Chase by my side that filled my heart right up. There are so many precious moments of motherhood I cherish and this weekend was full of them. I’m not sure if I’m feeling hyper-aware of some of these sappy mom feelings because of pregnancy hormones or what but in the midst of day-to-day craziness, these moments are the moments that rejuvenate me and make me feel so incredibly grateful for Ryan, Chase, Sadie and our little one on the way. I know that life is about to change in a big way and get a bit more chaotic soon, so I’m really trying to embrace some of the slower moments of motherhood right now.

We made it back to our house around 1 p.m., ate a quick lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cashews and green beans (bless you, Whole Foods hot bar, for making a vegetable my child loves) before Chase settled down for his nap. I worked while he slept and got a jump-start on a recipe post before I started typing up this blog post.

We rounded out our Sunday with an evening at home which meant we were in our pajamas niiiice and early. Just the way I like it! Once Chase was bathed and sleeping, I read a few pages of The Keeper of Lost Things and while I like the book enough – it’s a good break from the suspenseful novels I’ve been devouring lately – it’s admittedly a bit slow. Ryan laughed when I told him I’m liking the book because it makes me actually GO TO SLEEP at a decent time rather than read for all hours of the night but I’m definitely looking for something a little more engaging for my next read. Up next on my Kindle: Little Fires Everywhere. Have any of you read this book yet? I’ve heard good things so my hopes are high!

I hope you all have a great week ahead! Thanks for stopping by PBF today!