Finding balance

Today my friend Jake gave me one of the nicest parenting compliments today - he said "for the son of a lawyer and a lobbyist, Sam really has a Tom Sawyer-like life! Playing in the garden, eating dirt, and swinging from trees." What a wonderful thing to say, it totally made my day! I love this gorgeous spring weather and truly cherish my wonderful schedule. I am at work Wed-Frid and home with Sam Mon/Tues (and the weekend). I feel like I have the best of both worlds and really love taking Sam to playdates, Stroller Strides, walk in the neighborhood, play in the backyard with the dog (his best friend), go to the playground, push him in the swing under the tree, bang on pots and pans together, and just hang out. He has had a bit of a cold this week and has fallen asleep while cuddling with me several times in the past few days. There is truly nothing better than snuggling with your baby. I feel like I’ve found a fabulous balance in my life and feel very blessed!

Sam's new favorite game on the plane

This past week, we spent a glorious 4 days in Orlando FL. Brad was invited to speak at a conference so Sam and I tagged along! The resort was gorgeous - it is Marriott's biggest hotel in the U.S. http://www.marriottworldcenter.com/

We swam, slept, played, and just hung out. While we were there, Sam learned to kick a ball (future soccer player!), clap his hands on command without us making any hand gestures, became very proficient drinking milk through a sippy cup, learned to drink from a straw, and bear-walked everywhere.

The "family" security line at Orlando Int'l airport was ridiculous, tons of screaming/crying kids throwing tantrums b/c they were sad to leave Disney. I hate being relegated to the family line - I want to tell TSA that I am an expert traveler, despite the stroller and I don't need to be in this line for slowpokes. Argh.

When we got to the gate, Sam was whining and crying a bit and wanted to get out of the stroller. We started getting looks from other passengers waiting to board the flight. You knew they were thinking "Great, we're going to have a crying baby on our flight." I joked to them that I promised he wouldn't cry and he's actually quite good on the plane! What an understatement, Sam was the star of the flight and cracked everyone up.

We were giving him crackers to help with his ears popping. He held the cracker out for Brad to take a bite of the cracker and then when Brad went to bite it, Sam yanked it away from him and then threw his head back and howled in laughter. He probably did this about 50 times and laughed hysterically for like 30 min. Everyone around us was laughing too and wanted to hold him, etc. He's such a ham and loves to put on a show. We laughed throughout the entire flight. What a good little boy. The vaca was much needed for all of us.