Spring Fling!

Sara over at Domestically Challenged came up with a fun idea she is calling her "Spring Fling"! Our challenge was to write a post about the girlie thing we couldn't live without. The fun part is we had to send our post to Sara and it is going to appear on someone else's blog. The even funner (that should be a word) part is, we don't even know where our own post will appear until we go hunting for it!

I got Lindsay from Short & Sweet and here's what she had to say!

I know the assignment was a “girlie” product I couldn't’t live without and I had mine all picked out and ready to post until something happened that changed my view on what I truly can’t live without.

Yes, that’s right. I can’t live without this unisex product. Especially, when I’m home alone with my 16month old son and I find myself stuck on the pot after he came and snatched the toilet paper from me and took off running. I tried to lour him with every other item in my grasp in exchange for the TP, but he had no part off it. When he would extend the toilet paper out (just enough) for my finger tips to touch it he would seize it once again and take off giggling.

Yes…my son has learned to mock and torture me…But 20 mins later… victory was mine…and I will f-o-r-ever remember to put the TP on the spool.

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So go check out the Spring Fling and find my post. You may even meet other awesome blogging ladies along the way!

Funky Friday

It's Friday. I'm in a funk. I don't want to be at work today. It is supposed to get up to 70 degrees here. The first "warm" day and I'm stuck inside. I'm sitting at my desk in my gym clothes procrastinating. I keep telling myself I'm waiting for my coffee to digest before I head down to the gym. I've been here since 8am. I'm not even fooling myself with that one. I think I'll work out, do about 2 hours of work and then leave. Yep, that's my plan. Don't try to stop me. Unless you have a legit reason for me to skip the gym. No? Damn.

A walk in the park

Our vacation served 2 purposes, to relax and attend Aaron's brother's wedding. The first couple of days we were in San Francisco it was in the upper 50's to low 60's and really windy, but you would never have known that on Sunday. Barak and Sarah were married in the Shakespeare Garden, in Golden Gate Park, on the most beautiful day of our trip. There was not even a breeze and it was a perfect 70 degrees out. Sarah looked gorgeous, Barak was his usual loud but dapper self, and we managed to keep Natey quiet except for a couple impromptu, "Hi, uncle B"s during the ceremony.

I said we managed to keep him quiet, I didn't say how!!He made up for it with a minute long hug to welcome his new Auntie to the family.

All of the Scampoli boys in attendance that day (3 uncles were missing). (Aaron, Uncle John, Tom (FIL), Barak holding Natey, Ollie and Danny. Yes, my hubby is 1 of 4 boys and his dad is one of 5 boys and 1 girl! Do you think I have ANY chance of having a girl??

Let us pray. :o)

Nathan smelling grandma's flower just before he ripped it apart.

They had a small reception-esk picnic lunch at the park following the ceremony and then we had a formal dinner reception later that evening for close friends and family.

This kid can sure eat! He devoured that whole smoked chicken leg!

Congratulations Barak and Sarah.

You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
-- Sam Keen

Natey at 22 months

Two months 'til you're 2 my sweet boy!! I have started telling people you'll be 2 in June because, like I've said before, the months thing is getting old! The funny thing is, whenever I tell people you're not 2 yet, I get a look of disbelief and usually a comment about how big or smart you are for your age. I personally think you're a freakin genius, but hey, I'm your mommy and way too biased! Here are some of the things you do and say that I'm loving at the moment.

• Your understanding of sentences and their appropriate context is blowing me away right now. When something amazes you, you say "Wow, oh my goodness!" and, after a book we read yesterday it has become, "Oh, my goodness gracious".
• Here are some of my favorite things you are saying right now:

"What that kind?" (and insert any noun after that such as noise, which is the current favorit)

"Wha happened?"

"No like it!"

"Go away, momma, go away." (when I try to change your diaper or you just want to be a pill)

"Found it!"

"My do it!"

"Oh, man!" (Thanks Dora for teaching him this little gem, and yes he uses is at the right times.)

• You are obsessed with dinosaurs. T-rex is your fave, but you also have "ceratops" and "spinesaurus" down pat too. You get upset if T-rex isn't in the bath for you to wash him.
• You can now count to 10 in English and Spanish (thanks again Dora. At least something good comes out of your annoying show).
• You have finally figured out the fork should go straight in and not sideways, although you still spill a lot of food and usually revert to your fingers about half way through.
• The hitting is slowly getting better, but I feel we still have a ways to go to get through this phase.
• You learned your first country and capital. I am going to get a big laminated wall map so we can start this country learning project in earnest!
• You are doing great with the potty training. After 2 times of #2 in the little potty, mommy got grossed out and bought you a seat for the big toilet. I We like this much better anyway.
• You are so polite. You always say please and thank you. You even say, "No tanks" when you don't want something. It cracks me up every time.
• When you get upset, you do this pitiful whining thing and say, "crying, people sad". I think you got this from when I tell you not to hit because it makes people sad.
• You are obsessed with finding things as we drive. You love looking for school buses, flags and garbage trucks. When we see a flag, you immediately say, "more flags!" and will continue repeating yourself until I say, "Ok, lets look for more flags".
• You only sit still for 1 thing, and 1 thing only. "Toons". You could watch Nemo over and over and still want to watch it again. I am happy this is the case, because it saved us on the last cross-country flight.
• You are in a phase of wanting to hear me (or daddy) sing songs. "Need more song, mommy", is a phrase I hear often. When I ask you what song you want, you sometimes reply with things you like that aren't even songs. Mostly, it is Nemo song that is requested, so I made one up and you seem to love it.
• It also amazes me that you know the words to all of the songs we sing. I found this out one day as I was singing and stopped for a second and you filled in the words. Now I do it all the time because it is fun.
• Whenever we drive by a park you say, "Go in there, tube slide". This gets fun because I have to tell you every morning on the way to daycare that we can go in there later, but now we have to go to Rachel's house. This seems to appease you momentarily.
• You know your full name and I can hear you saying it in your crib sometims. It sounds a bit like, "Natan Thomas CamPOLI" (you really like to emphasize the ending)!

I love you buddy and all of the things that you do. You're so sweet and kind and it amazes me that you rarely cry. I love your sunny disposition and, even though you are crazy and some times exhaust me, I am loving every minute that is the Natey show!!

Happy Easter Bunny?

That's what Nathan kept saying all day. I tried to explain that he could just say Happy Easter, but the bunny kept on following. I gave up because it was cute anyway! I suppose I will save reasoning with him until he is actually 2. I have been killing you with long posts so I will give you the weekend in a nutshell...

We colored eggs successfully, well mostly

Nathan got an Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa and destroyed it in 2 minutes flat

Easter brunch, lunch, dinner that lasted 4 hours (could I be any more full right now???)

Bubble time with Papa

My handsome husband watching our boy play

Glittery Easter Eggs

And finally...

An almost in focus,

2 of us looking at the camera,

me making an only slightly stupid face

family shot

101 Update-long overdue!

I stink at updating my list!! I have actually not been slacking on checking items off the list, just reporting them out when I do. I'd prefer to do a post per goal, but since I have been lagging and haven't updated since {cough} January, I will sum it all up in one post!

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#28: Read 50 books- I read my 5th book on my way to my goal of 50. I actually polished it off in 2 flights when I went to California on business at the beginning of March. I read Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. It was a great book, just like every other one I have read by her. In case you were wondering, {you know it has been burning in the back of your mind} I ditched that 700 and something page book that I got half way through (The Fountainhead). I did not like the book and was basically forcing myself to read it, so I decided it was ok just to put it down and walk away.

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#43- Teach Nathan all the countries of the world and their capitals- (1/193) Nathan learned the capital of America. Hey you have to start at home, right? He cracks me up when I ask him because the Washington part is a little slurred but he belts out the D.C. with authority!

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#50: Try 10 new restaurants- (7/10) When I first came up with this goal I thought it would apply to RI, but I went to 2 new places in San Francisco that were amazing so I am counting them in my list.

The first one was Anchor Oyster Bar in the Castro district. It is a tiny restaurant that seats 25 people (including the bar) and it had some of the best seafood I've had in a while. I went to lunch with my grandma, uncle and his girlfriend and we all loved our food. I shared with my grandma and we had prawn cocktail, a Caesar salad with the most delicious croutons and sole with a sun dried tomato aioli. Mmmm, I'm salivating just thinking about it.

The second one was Frantoio. It was the restaurant where my BIL's wedding reception took place. We started out with passed appetizers of scallops speared with lemongrass and polenta, cheese and spinach bites and mushroom crostini. The best part of the meal, though, was the pasta course. It was squid ink ravioli (sounded gross to me at first but it was to die for) stuffed with with day boat scallops with a white whine cream sauce. It was so good my hubby asked for another plate (piggy)!

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#79: Watch the sun rise 10 times- (2/10) The first one was also out west when we were in Washington, but this time I got to watch the sun rise over the mountains as we left at the crack of dawn for the airport to go home. You'd think being on the East coast, I'd easily polish this goal off, but since I am generally at my house, I can't see the sun til it is already up. I'll have to hit the beach early in the morning to catch the sun rising over the ocean.

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#86: Sing at a Karaoke bar- Yup, I did it and I did it SOBER. What? Who the heck does karaoke sober? Me, unfortunately. I'm sure I sounded like a dying cat, but I couldn't really hear myself. We went out to a Karaoke Bar called Mint for my now SIL's bachelorette party. It was the very end of the night when I got called so luckily the place wasn't packed to the gills with the ringers that sang earlier in the night!! In case you are wondering I sang Fiona Apple's song Criminal, and my rendition just might have been.

The happiest place on earth!

Welcome to part one of our trip! I will spare you the plane ride details, but I will say that Natey was so good we bought him dinosaurs when we got to my sister's house. Amen for that because mommy has been know to get a little batty dealing with Nate and daddy on cross country flights!

We spent 5 days in southern California. It was in the 70's and gorgeous the whole time. That is, until we woke up on Monday to get ready for Disneyland. It was raining. Not a downpour mind you, just some sprinkles. I checked the weather and, on 3 different sites, there was NO mention of said rain. We decided to go anyway and it was sunny and beautiful by the time we got there!

I grew up in So Cal so Disneyland has always been a favorite of mine. My mom took me for the first time when I was 2 1/2 and this ride was there. I have a picture of my mom and I on the Dumbo ride and I had to have one of me and Natey. He thought it was the best thing ever. He pretty much yelled "Weeeee" the whole time, and when it was over he kept saying, "more ride".

My niece Megan loved having her little cousin there. She was so good with Nate and he just ate her up. Every morning when he woke up (even after we got to San Francisco) he would ask, "Megan go?". She was a good sport in riding the kiddie rides too, since that's all we really went on. Oh and before you even judge ask, yes, that is a backpack leash he's wearing. Sorry, but my kid could double for speed racer, without the car, and I didn't want him taking off. My friend Darcy is shaking her head in shame right now, but I'm ok with it.

Of course Disneyland (and vacation for that matter) means getting to eat things that are normally on the no-no list. Meg had an ice cream sandwich and after one bite Natey couldn't get enough. He helped her polish it off before we got on my favorite ride of all time...Small World. They just re-did the ride so it is all sparkly and new, but it still brought me back to my childhood. Natey loved it and stared in awe at all of the dancing dolls. He kept pointing and asking, "What that one?" over and over again.

And what's a trip to Disney without getting your ears?? I had to distract him with goldfish to keep the hat on long enough to get some pictures. Sadly, he was housing them so fast, I couldn't get one without his hand in his mouth, but you get the point!

We saw all of the characters and Natey was so enamoured with Goofy. I, on the other hand, wanted to punch him in his over-sized head. He was walking and I asked him if we could take a picture and he just kept pointing in the direction he was going, so we followed. I noticed he was headed for the staff area and I was not letting him get away without a picture. He sat down next to a baby on a bench and totally ignored me. As soon as he stood up, I told him we were taking a picture and he managed to stand still for 2 whole seconds. We got the picture and that's all that matters right?? :o) We saw Mickey and Minnie but they were dancing so I just snapped a shot of them. And I'm not sure why that other random kid decided to be in our shot with Pluto, but hey, at least his face is covered. Oops, was that rude?

By 3pm, a tired toddler and a cranky mommy were ready to go, so we called it a day. It was so fun and went surprisingly well for Nate being so young. I can't wait for him to be old enough to take to Disney World. I loved spending the day with my sister and my niece. I had a pic with all of us in it, but I'm the only one paying attention and Kiersten would kill me if I posted it! Ha! You're welcome, sis!

Guess who's back?

Yes dear friends, I survived my vacation. I enjoyed 9 gloriously warm days in California and am now back to a cold and dreary New England Spring. Thanks for all of the words of support as I almost lost my mind packing. I did manage to get all 3 of us packed and the only casualty was my hair. I forgot my shampoo and conditioner. Luckily I used my sister's while in So Cal, and I bought conditioner in San Francisco, but then I couldn't find it and had a questionable doo for the wedding, but oh well. I wanted to post pictures today but I am still jet lagged all to heck so hopefully I can get to that tonight. I am glad to be back at home. I really feel like I need a vacation from my vacation, but I'm back at work today. I tried to keep up with everyone via my BIL's I-touch, but it was a pain to comment, so just know I read and sent out happy thoughts even if I didn't post them!

Here is a sneak peak of some of the family fun we had on our trip. And yes, a trip to Costco is considered fun in this family!!