Back to life, back to reality...

Don't we look so happy...that's because we're in paradise!

Yes, I did just quote '90s band En Vogue in my blog title...that's how bad it is. Ryan, Elliot and I returned on Monday from an awesome 12 days in Hawaii. If it had not been for the fact that we didn't have Ollie with us and that he was returning from "Camp Grandma" in the northwoods of Minnesota on Tuesday, we might not have come home. I think I saw a tear in Ryan's eye as we boarded the plane.

Ryan will write all about our trip in another post but just for the record, it was pretty amazing.

Being away from Oliver for 19 days was really hard. I missed him so much! He didn't seem to miss us which definitely made it easier. By all accounts he had a blast at Ryan's parents' house with his 4 year old cousin Macy. He keeps talking about her and asking to go to Teddy Bear Park in Stillwater, MN. Kathy/Grandma H. says that he and Macy absolutely adored that playground and would have spent all day everyday there if they could have. But, alas, they had to take breaks from Teddy Bear Park to go to the Children's Museum and to go swimming with Grandpa and play in the sandbox and swings in their backyard.

Oliver learned some new tricks while he was in Minnesota, too. Unfortunately none is food-related (I had half hoped that we would discover that all his feeding problems were related to poor-parenting and that under the influence of his more experience grandparents he would learn to enjoy eating). He learned to climb out of his crib. AHHH!!!!!! After climbing out of his crib six or seven times last night I finally lowered the crib rail because I realized that while he wasn't going to stop trying to climb out, if the rail is down at least he wouldn't hurt himself if he falls. He is basically a monkey so I don't think he would biff it, but better safe than sorry. Anyway, last night was a total disaster in terms of getting him to bed. After repeatedly firmly placing him back in his bed, giving him "consequences" for repeatedly disobeying my directive to stay in bed, he ended up in our bed at midnight where he finally fell asleep. So I'm really looking forward to this new challenge of getting him to sleep in his own bed! Kathy laughs because Ollie was such an easy baby, it's payback time now.

Before we left, I went up to New York for the Brennan family shindig (more about that in a previous post) and met up with my dear friends Emily and Katie and their children. I wanted to post some pictures of that visit here.

Emily, Davey, Elliot and me on Abby's GORGEOUS roof deck. She has the most amazing (and huge!) roof deck. It is such a peaceful refuge in the city.

Emily getting to know Elliot
Thanks to Charlie, who decided to arrive a few days late, we got to hang out with Katie on her due date! We can't wait to meet him...another trip to NYC might be in the works.