cafe o play Archives

After last weeks drama that nearly put Moosh into the hospital for an overnight stay, we welcomed the weekend with open arms — and hesitation. Cause who knew WHEN this kid would have another episode, right?

Well he definitely wasn’t feeling himself Friday. In fact, after a quick trip to Café O’Play where we pretty much just stood in the dance room, we picked up a pizza and headed home. It was definitely needed after our week. Chad went to an NFL Draft party with some of the dudes in my family and I stayed at home with my snuggle bug watching movies.

Scratch that: we watched movies together for a while; then this mama scrubbed the house from top to bottom before Mimi showed up for a weekend visit!

But let’s talk about how seriously not himself this kid looks. It definitely was NOT cold; but Moosh kept saying “Mommy, I cold! Blankie Tom, peas!” And then he wanted my Lululemon Vinyasa scarf to wrap around his head (he’s been a bit attached to it since I wrapped him in it in the hospital last week).

We ate “peetzy” and salad and watched Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo on repeat until Mimi arrived.

And then? Mass chaos! Ha!

Yep. That’s my kid running around in his underwear. Moosh finally fell asleep way way later than he should have. With promises of lots of fun on Saturday and goodnight kisses from Mimi, that seemed to do the trick.

My mom and I had planned to wake up early to get a long run in Saturday morning. But we stayed up WAY too late. And then Moosh woke up earlier than anticipated. So we improvised. We brought him with us. I despise running with the jogging stroller, but Mimi decided that we could switch off pushing him, so I agreed. Hesitantly. Ha! We got a couple miles in before having to head home. But every step counts, right?!

Mimi agreed to babysit Moosh while Chad and I went on a day-date to see the Avengers: Age of Ultron. The movie was amazing! Yes, yes… I’m a total dude-movie nerd. I love all of those nerdy comic book movies. But it really was good. And funny. Also? Robert Downey Jr?? LOVE that guy.

While we were at the movies, Mimi took Moosh (or is it the other way around — Moosh took Mimi?) to Café O’Play in an attempt to wear him out and get him to nap. Well, he was worn out. But he refused to nap. Which was extremely inconvenient because we had suite tickets for the Indians versus the Blue Jays that afternoon. So a nap of some sort was nearly required to prevent crazy-baby meltdown. But the little dude did extremely well. We even got to meet the hot dogs! Moosh loved Mustard, could care less about Ketchup (weird considering he eats ketchup as a main course these days), and was downright terrified of Onion! Ha!

Mimi and Chad had fun watching the game. Moosh and I mostly just played. Cause for me, a ballgame is more about the experience of the ballpark than paying attention to the game. SPORTS! Ha!

I’m super bummed that I didn’t get any photos of our food. We visited the new Right Field District and I was in awe of the food and drink selections! My mom ordered a sandwich from Melt, Ari got ice cream from Sweet Moses, and Chad and I split nachos and a taco from Barrio. And GLBC on tap for the win!

On the way home we indulged a little more with some Rita’s Ice. Moosh wanted “Boo ice!” which means blue ice, if you haven’t figured that out. 🙂

Moosh obviously didn’t fall asleep on the way home. And he went to bed really late. Like 10:30.

And Sunday morning he was up at an ungodly hour. 6:00 am. This kid sleeps til 9:30 on the reg, and decides after a day of no napping and staying up late to wake up at 6am!? Sigh, kid, sigh.

Mimi and I took him to Café O’Play for an hour or so before calling it quits! Kids had fun but was nutso! So we grabbed lunch from Planet Sub and headed home.

PS. I’m not certain how I feel about Ari’s most-recent obsession with Monsters Inc. and Monsters University. So he just does this “Roar!” face all of the time. Sigh. It’s cute; but not when he’s meeting new people. KID you do NOT greet people with a roar! Ugh!

We totally bailed on a family party (sorry fam!) so that our teeny family could rest. We were all exhausted and Mimi wanted to get home to Poppy before it was too late. Honestly, we needed it. We slept and slept and slept! It was perfection. The night ended with a clean house and happy hearts.

The perfect ending to a perfect weekend. 🙂

The last month has virtually flown by. It’s been a whirlwind of exhaustion, cold, fun, illness, and what was nonstop marathon training.

Here’s a recap of what we’ve been up to as of late:

1. It turns out my kid is afraid of giant plants. A few weeks ago Moosh and I went up to Cleveland to hit up the Cleveland Museum of Natural History… but the parking lot was full. I took that as a sign that we should find another place to explore. So we went to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. I thought “Hey! This is a great idea!”

And the gardens were absolutely stunning. There was just one teeny problem. Moosh was absolutely petrified of the plants. Heck, even the flowers. I think the size of the leaves and trees was what was scaring him. Either way, I of course, thought it was kinda funny. And then I was kinda frustrated that he didn’t want me to set him down to walk around. In fact, he clung to me so tight that when we got close to a plant, he squeezed his thighs around my hips and wouldn’t budge.

I laughed. All the older people who were there enjoying the gardens probably thought I was a bad mom. Oh well. 🙂

2. Lunch date at Barrio in Lakewood. Post-Botanical Gardens, we headed to Lakewood for some tacos with Grandma Dee (my aunt/Godmother). I was beyond happy to see that Barrio was now open for lunch. If there’s two things that Moosh and I can agree on, it’s fruity drinks (his non-alcoholic, of course) and cheese dip.

Add in an empty restaurant full of staff who thought Moosh was the cutest thing ever? Day. Made. Totally makes up for his fear of gardens.

Also? Tacos. Yummy, yummy, tacos for the win. I’m definitely not mad that Barrio is open for lunch. Just sayin’.

3. Chocolate. Lots of chocolate. While I was in Lakewood I stopped by Sweet Designs (if you recall this is THE chocolatier that changed my views of chocolate forever). I nearly forgot that the next day was Valentine’s Day and that it would be crazy, but this mama was determined to get some (and by some, I mean a pound) of sponge candy! I may have also picked up a handful (or four) of other chocolate goodies for Chad and Moosh. What? It’s a once a year splurge! 😛

4. Play dates galore. Thank you, Café O’Play, for the neverending fun (and exhaustion)! We’ve been meeting up with friends for lunch and playdates as much as possible as of late. The new indoor play place near our house, Café O’Play has been an awesome go-to winter play place.

Also? They had Ari’s hero come in for a visit while we were there — TINKERBELL! (Yes, our sons two heroes are Thomas the Tank and Tinkerbell. But for serious – have you seen the Tink movies!? Awesome!).

5. Tumbling. Ari’s third (or is it fourth?) session of Wee Tumblers is officially over, complete with one final meltdown on the last day. We LOVE tumbling because it complete wears him out on a weeknight. Bonus? He has SO MUCH FUN. Who knew paddy cake would be the coolest thing ever?

6. Family time. Besides playdates, we’ve been soaking up time with each other. Ari has been a mega ham for the camera and, honestly, a little blogging break as of late, has done wonders for my marriage. I’ve been spending more time with Chad in the evenings after work. Just me + him (sure, sometimes me and him and Ari), hanging out on the couch before bed.

Mimi and Poppy have also been up to visit a few times as of late, so we’ve been spending as much time with them as possible before they trek back to Kentucky. Sometimes that even means hanging out on the floor by the fire. LOL. (Hence the picture above).

When Moosh and I have our days off together I try to do fun things with him. When that isn’t visiting the (scary) botanical gardens, that usually means a day of crafts. Recently we went to paint pottery and his little crafty heart was so, SO, full! And so was mine

7. Just keep running. I’ve already announced that I’ve put marathon training on the backburner until Moosh is older; but that hasn’t stopped my aspirations to run and keep training. I will continue to run after a ten day break (doctors orders, per a fairly severe pulled muscle). All the running and (mostly) clean-eating has helped tremendously with my continued (slow, but steady) weight loss.

8. Sickies galore. Thanks to a seemingly extra-long and extra-cold winter, this mama has been fighting off everything under the sun for the last several weeks. And after just getting rid of a nasty stomach bug, I ended up in the ER the other day because I may have accidentally inhaled tiny particles of glass while I was cleaning up the shattered glass door to our entertainment center (#toddlers). Oops.

9. Buh-bye, Mercury in retrograde! I had never bought into the astrology thing before; but while mercury was in retrograde, we had a plethora of less than stellar things happen. In fact, we were overwhelmed. First, I was sick. Then, on my way to work, a tire blew out on my car. Four new tires later, Chad’s car breaks down… no brakes. We got sick again. Pretty much one thing after another after another. It was bad, but thankfully, things got better! Hooray hooray! PS. Right after my car started feeling like a new car (thanks, new tires), we actually bought a new car to replace Chad’s old car!

I’m kind of in love with the new car. I’ve promised to keep this car clean because, well, mine is NOT. Mine is a mess full of stuff from Moosh and food he’s thrown on the floor. It’s just… not pretty. But I’m determined not to get this beauty dirty.

10. We spent our second night EVER away from Ari. Big thanks to Mimi and Poppy for taking Ari for a night. We had our second ever night without him. It was… weird. But wonderful! We had our own little buffet of cheese and meats. And sparkly wine!

I’m grateful that we had that time. But still, it really opened up our eyes that our family is really most complete when there are three of us under one roof. However, we need to make more times for moments like this, even if it’s just after Ari goes to sleep.

11. Yoga night with the MRTT ladies. I went up to Harmony Studios in Willoughby in the middle of a major snowstorm to take a yoga class made for runners with the Moms Run This Town Cleveland Chapter ladies!

So yeah, we’ve been busy. Very busy. Sure, there are a few things that I would have liked to have not happened over the last couple of months. But honestly? We survived. And just like this weeks’ mantra stated — I’ll continue to survive. <3