For months now, Nathan has had an obvious disdain for brocolli. Nothing worked. Calling them trees. Covering them in cheese. The tried and true "Here comes the airplane" trick. This kid's no fool and he was determined not to let a single piece of broccoli enter his body.

So imagine my surprise when the other night at dinner, when presented with a plate full of meatballs, pasta, chicken and broccoli....he ate 4 huge pieces of broccoli and didn't touch the good stuff like meat and pasta!!

I don't know what got into him but I hope it stays for a while!

Rise and shine

There have been many times when I've been talking to a friend and she will yawn and say "I'm so tired, Little Billy woke up at 5:00 this morning." And I would sympathize and complain about the early mornings and tell her I felt her pain. But honestly? I have never felt that pain.

Don't get me wrong, the infant stage of Nathan's life was complete and total hell when it came to sleep. But once he finally figured out how to sleep through the night at 6 months, he has been a pretty solid 7:30 - 7:30 sleeper. In the past year I can count on my hand the number of times he has woken up before 7. And on the very, very rare occasion, there has been a 6:30.

But today, I felt that woman's pain. Today my son decided to wake up at 4:51. Let me repeat that, Nathan woke up today at 4:51. I didn't even have to open my eyes to know it was still dark when I first heard him. I decided to let him cry for a while, hoping he would settle himself down. But at 5:01, I was afraid the neighbors might come knocking so I went into his room. I kept the lights off and the door closed to he couldn't escape. I kept telling him "It's too early to get up Nathan, it's still night time." Nathan felt otherwise.

We agreed to disagree.

We have a small loveseat in Nathan's bedroom so I told him he could lie on the couch with me but that was it - no playing, no reading. He requested his cribmates - Pooh and Seahorse and I complied.  It took a few minutes of wriggling around but he finally seemed content to lie on me and settle down. Nathan was quite comfortable, completely spread eagle across the top of my body. I on the other hand was trying to lie on a couch that's about 4 feet wide which is hard enough but when you add a sleeping 27 pounds on top of you so you can't really move around and adjust yourself - it's next to impossible to get comfortable.

By 5:30 he was sound asleep. It was time to plan my escape.  I didn't dare put him back in the crib - it was too risky that he would wake up during the transfer. So instead, I slowly inched my body out from beneath him until he was on the couch and I was on the floor. I grabbed one of the couch pillows and a blanket and settled in onto the carpet. Normally, this would not be ideal, but at 5:30, it felt like heaven.

Next thing I knew, I was waking to the sound of someone laughing, repeating "Mommy on floor" over and over. I looked at the clock and it was 7:05, not too shabby. It wasn't the best night of sleep, but compared to those newborn nights, it wasn't the worst one either.

Back in the day, when 4:51 wakeup calls and babies sleeping on top of  me were the norm.

After two years, we finally got around to taking some professional pictures as a family. We could not be more happy with them.

A few weeks ago, we were walking around the town we spent our wedding weekend in when we passed a photographer's studio and stopped to look at the photos displayed in the window. They were gorgeous and we made sure to write down the name so we could look it up online.  After checking out more pictures online, we booked him immediately.

Glenn and April are a husband/wife team and they were so wonderful to work with. Glenn took all the pictures while April kept Nathan entertained with bubbles, puppets, and toys. It was a pleasure working with them and we are so grateful for the gorgeous images they captured for us.

How to remove ink from a fabric chair

That is what I googled tonight.

And this is why.

I should have known something was up. We were in the home stretch, it was almost bedtime and I was taking a few minutes to clean up the apartment when I suddenly realized Nathan was being suspiciously quiet. When I called him over, I discovered the chair was not the only victim.

It's just a chair, nothing a little elbow grease and a half bottle of Resolve couldn't take care of. And it's hard to stay mad when someone flashes those dimples.

I did find it ironic however that this is the book Nathan chose to read when we finally did make it to bedtime.

Guilty conscience??

Things I never thought I'd say

Another two sentences to add to my list of  things I never could have imagined coming out of my mouth:

Take the remote out of the potty

and

Don't comb your hair with your fork

Happy Mother's Day

To my amazing mom

my wonderful mother-in-law

and me!!

Things I will never understand

* Why no matter how many dishes I wash throughout the day, the sink is NEVER empty.

* When I put Nathan to bed an hour late, he wakes up the next morning an hour early.

* What is it about Barney that kids love??

* How kids know to rub pizza in their hair only right after you've given them a bath.