My 1st Mother’s Day & Patio Progress: a house log

Oh man Sunday was lively. In that nontraditional I am-sure-some-other-moms-might-not-get-it way. The whole weekend was sort of an extended Mother’s Day extravaganza since we made time for visits to the farmer’s market and a Bon Air parade/festival with Clara and John on Saturday (Burger’s afraid of firetrucks and loud noises, so he skipped the parade). Then on Sunday, I was awakened by the bean who was holding a handmade card (she scribbled all over it with crayons- so cute) along with an equally sweet card from John and Burger. I was also given a printout that was entitled “The Tale Of Sherry’s First Mother’s Day” which explained that John tried to hunt down the gold Calypso for Target dangly earrings that he knew I had been drooling over, but they were sold out in two stores that he drove to as well as online. So he snuck onto my Pinterest boards and saw that I was also obsessed with these lovelies (found here on Etsy)…

… so he ordered them for me instead. Yes there was excited arm flapping. I enjoy them so much. They kind of remind me of lemons which take me back to our wedding day. And I enjoy that John thought to check Pinterest to find something I was obsessing over. Smart man.

Alas, my new lovely lemon earrings did not arrive in time to be handed over in the flesh, so a picture of them was sweetly included in my little First Mother’s Day printout along with news that John was also getting me a Mother’s Day massage to continue the tradition that he began last year when I was hugely pregnant and desperate for some prenatal massage relief. Wahoooooo. He intentionally did not book the massage for Mother’s Day (he told me to pick a later date because he knew I hoped to spend the whole day with Clara). Sweet, huh? Thanks hubs. For the Mother’s day rubs and the striking baubles.

Anyway, after my little wake-up slash card & gift fest, Clara and John and I went to Einstein Bagels (one of my go-to breakfast spots) where I got an asparagus and mushroom flatbread sammy (for two bucks with a coupon- haha). It was so delicious I cannot even say. John and Clara shared a muffin and a coffee cake in case you are wondering (suddenly this play by play got quite specific). Then we headed home for Clara to catch a nap and John parked me on Karl The Sectional to watch some delicious reality TV (Pregnant in Heels) while he went outside and got back to work on the patio. The plan was for him to work for two hours while Clara napped and then come in and shower and play with us for the rest of Mother’s Day.

Here is where Mother’s Day veers of into the nontraditional realm. By about two hours into Project Patio it was apparent that John needed waaaaaaay more time to make progress, so I chose the best possible way to spend the day would be to play with Clara while daddy kept working on the pavers (what mom does not want a wrapped up patio for Mother’s Day?). So Clara and I played with blocks and puzzles and crayons and had some lunch and brought daddy some granola bars and even practiced walking a little bit (do not worry, it was all assisted so John did not miss any true first steps). We even got outside for some fresh air and had lively on the patio while John worked away in the background.

Burger was especially excited to have some lively out there too, and it was cute to see both of “the kids” enjoying our new space- even before it was fully wrapped up.

And about eight hours of hard hubby handiwork later, I had my Mother’s Day patio! John had fully cut all the edge pavers – he simply needed to add sand between the cracks, which he planned to do on Monday (final “after” pics should be up tomorrow morning for ya, btw). And we had simply sufficient time to enjoy a pleasant family dinner (burgers from Five Folks – mmmm) and then it was time to put the bean to bed and enjoy some sofa chillaxing (John wrote Monday morning’s post while we watched a criminally long episode of The Apprentice – seriously three hours is about two hours too many). But it was the best Mother’s Day ever.