Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...
Welcome, Friday. I’m glad you’re here. It’s been a long week of crazy weather – tornado warnings, lots of rain, moving our cars in case of hail. But, luckily we didn’t deal with anything too severe like so many people in AL and AR did. Now we’re ready for a sunshiny weekend – perfect for yard work! woohoo!
Cleaning off the iPhone today…it’s been backed up with photos!
Have a GREAT weekend!!
The boys both had on their Superman shirts and the pull of the camera was too strong to ignore so I tried to get some smiley pics…
Hmmm…not the best. Then little brother joined…
We tried for a cute picture with both smiling at the same time.
Didn’t go so well but Maxwell’s face did make me laugh! Of course, as soon as Maxwell stopped smiling, Spencer smiled. Figures.
Then I got some brotherly hugs…
which made me go “awww” but wasn’t the smiley picture I hoped for. Then they were done.
and that was that. Oh well, they may not be smiling but they’re still pretty cute!
I mentioned on Friday that I was doing something VERY fun for the weekend and it turned out to be just that – VERY fun! I went to Vegas with 3 other girls to see Britney!! Oh yes, Ms. Spears herself. Hit Me Baby One More Time, You Drive Me Crazy, Toxic…all of it! Robert ended up having to travel for work through the afternoon Friday but luckily GJ was in town so she kept the boys until Robert got home. Unfortunately, Maxwell used that small 3 hour window to get sick – as in puke under his bed. Ugh. Poor buddy and poor GJ. And, poor me, because right when I got off the plane, he called me in hysterics begging me to come home. Break my heart. But, it all got cleaned up and he was back to his old self by later that night. Thank goodness because I had some Vegas exploring to do!
We stayed at the Palazzo at The Venetian all weekend but spent most of our time at Encore at the Wynn. We had dinner there on Friday night at Andrea’s and it was fantastic. After dinner, we gambled a bit and all won big…except opposite.
Saturday was actually a rainy day in Vegas (very unusual) but we got out early to check out some of the other casinos and, mainly to see all of the incredible floral arrangements everywhere…
We then had an awesome brunch at Tableau at Encore. I love brunch, especially when it involves good coffee and a trio of juices!
We then shopped around a bit before heading to the spa where we had appointments to get dolled up, Vegas style! 🙂 Well, maybe not Vegas style but more dolled up than I’d been in a long time.
We all got hair and make up done and felt very fancy! Check out my (obviously fake) lashes!
We also decided that, since we might never be this dolled up again, we should practice and nail the art of the “selfie”.
I think we did pretty, good! 🙂
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
GJ was keeping the boys very entertained with a new golf set and bubble guns. The soap from the bubbles somehow ended up all over Spencer’s hair. Somehow I think Maxwell might have been involved! 🙂
After the spa, we headed back to get ready to go to dinner and to BRITNEY!!!
We practiced a few more selfies…
and then went to the Aria for dinner at Julian Serrano.
The show was at Planet Hollywood at 9:00 and we were ready!
It was a fun crowd with several people dressed up in the iconic Britney costumes through the years. Not us though, we were happy to be there with sparkles, blow-out and lashes!
The show started at 9:15 and she performed for an hour and a half. It really was awesome – the sets, the costumes, the back up dancers – all fantastic. It was cool to see Ms. Spears herself and how big/not big/tall/not tall she was (for the record, she’s small but not as small as she was back in the Slave for You days..but who is?!) Britney lip synched the entire show (no surprise) and danced…as best she could. She does a lot of walking and vogue-ing! It was totally what I expected and I did love getting to see her in person. In one part of the show they were playing montages of all of her videos and memorable performances and it made you remember all of the great songs she’s had and how so many images of her at various stages are burned into pop culture and your mind. She may be crazy but she’s got an impressive pop resume!!
After the show we went back to the Encore for a bit and people watched – which is honestly the most fun thing to do in Vegas! We had no problems with our flight home on Sunday and, as always, the best part of going away is coming back home…
A huge thank you to Robert, GJ and everyone else that helped me make this trip happen!
When looking at some of these pictures from a few weeks ago in the backyard, some of them just screamed out for black and white…
While I hate to hide the pretty colors of the azaleas, I love how the light comes through in the black and white.
Which way do you like them better?
I also like the fact that it masks Spencey’s poor red, allergy eyes! 🙂
See you tomorrow!
I took Spencer to see Dr. Walley on Friday for his 18 month old checkup and all looks good! BIG and good! 🙂 As Dr. Walley said, Spencer’s the height of a nice sized 2 year old! 😉 He’s 34 inches (98th%!!) and 27.5 lbs (95th%). His head is 19.25 inches (95th%). That means he’s grown 2 whole inches in only 3 months and gained 2.5 lbs. My sweet, big boy. For comparison, here’s Maxwell’s 18 months stats: 33 inches tall (75th to 90th %) and 24 lbs, 13 oz. (50th %). Needless to say, little brother may not be the littlest one forever! 🙂
He’s got a nasty cough again with a little bit of wheezing so we’re going to try putting him on Singulair for a while to see if that will help open up his airways and let him breathe a little better. No way to tell if he’ll end up with asthma or not but Dr. Walley seems to think that if we can control it with Singulair now, we should be ok. He had to get 3 shots which is the only reason he got to have puppy with him at the doctor!
Dr. Walley isn’t concerned yet with his (total) lack of words. I think I mentioned earlier that we have started the Early Intervention through the state to get speech therapy. Here’s the quick version: At 15 months, Dr. Walley mentioned that if he wasn’t talking by 18 months, perhaps we should look into Early Intervention. With no words at 17 months I decided to go on and move forward. I called the state to set up an evaluation which was done at the AL Department of Rehabilitation which is about as nice and welcoming as it sounds…as in not at all. We had a 30 minute “evaluation” done by 3 ladies, one of which was a therapist sitting on the floor with a bunch of outdated toys, all trying to get Spencer to do things he could do, but didn’t want to. He just wanted to get out of that room. Period. But, we made it through and I burst into tears afterward. Not surprisingly, he qualified for Early Intervention because he has a greater than 25% language delay. They then sent his case to UCP and we got assigned to a totally lovely, really sweet therapist named Carrie who will come once a month until it’s no longer needed. Our first session was last week and, honestly, it was kind of a big nothing. She basically just gave us some encouragement and reminded us to be very intentional in all of our interactions with Spencer and use every moment as a teaching moment. She wants us to start teaching him some signs to use and focus on using short phrases, i.e. “put in” instead of “put the toy in the box.” She expressed no concern over Spencer catching up eventually and I really don’t have a concern either. He babbles ALL THE TIME and is a very vocal baby. It just doesn’t come in the form of real words yet. Well, not real words to us but I’m positive that the sounds he’s using are very real and attached to specific things in his head. All that to say, he’s getting the help he needs now because I pushed it forward and I’m glad about that.
Also, I’m going to record his first real word as Nana. He has a picture book and several times he has pointed directly at the banana and said “Nana.” So, nana it is. Go Spencey go!!
Real words or not, this kid has no problem communicating his wants. And he may not say “I love you Momma” but he sure does know how to show it! 🙂
See you tomorrow!