Monthly Archives: February 2024

2 weeks ago, I ended my update with “a very fun week ahead!” Did I jinx us?

Monday of last week, the boys had the day off of school for President’s Day. The plan was to go to Grandma’s house. Gussie and I both woke up sick, so Nate took Xander, and Augustus and I spent the day in my bed, eating popsicles, napping, and being miserable. On Tuesday, Xander went back to school and it was day 2 for Gussie and I in bed. Body aches, chills, fever, absolute misery.

On Wednesday, Gussie went back to school, but Xander stayed home, and I was still unable to move from bed, absolutely miserable. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been that sick. Nate was a rockstar, taking over all household and parenting duties, while also keeping me fed and hydrated.

The issue with being sick all week wasn’t just that I wasn’t able to get anything done and I was miserable, it was that Nate and I had exciting plans on Thursday and I HAD to be healthy.

Thursday morning, I was still mostly a disaster. I was slightly better, and DETERMINED to mind over matter any lingering flu symptoms, but I was struggling. Eventually I rallied a little bit and managed to get the house ready, get myself ready and be a functional human.

Nate isn’t usually the planner between the two of us, so weeks ago, when he put “Natalie and Nate hotel” for 2 nights, I was like, “ok!” But it wasn’t just 2 nights away- he had booked us dinner reservations at a restaurant called Demi, which serves a 7 course tasting menu. The two of us watch a lot of cooking shows and I have said for years that my dream is to be a diner at one of the Top Chef competitions. I want to eat a meal where they place tiny details with a tweezers and the ingredients are things I’ve never tasted before. It wasn’t Top Chef, but the owner has been a guest judge, and it was the fanciest meal I’ve ever had (including the tweezer placed ingredients).

It’s a tiny space with the chefs in the middle of the U-shaped table. They brought out wine pairings for each course, and the chef delivered each course and explained what everything was. I wasn’t feeling 100% but my appetite wasn’t affected and it was truly such an extraordinary meal. At the end of the meal, they brought out gift boxes of tiny treats. I loved every second of it. Every single bite was exceptional.

The boys and my mom had pizza/movie night and lived their best lives.

Friday, Nate and I slept in, relaxed, went out for afternoon drinks and had just the most relaxing, luxurious day. I didn’t take any photos the whole time, which must be an indication of just how relaxed and lazy we were! Nate had packed bags of snacks and drinks. We ate good food and hung out and it was so wonderful.

On Saturday, we were back to normal life, which was ok because I missed the boys, even though I loved our mini vacation. On Sunday, my mom and I went to the Guthrie to see “Dial M For Murder” which was a fabulous show.

This week, the boys were back to normal. I, however, was still fighting for my life. I wasn’t flat on my back like the first 3 days, but I was low energy, had a hacking cough and was miserable all week.

The weather has been unseasonably warm and we’ve taken advantage by being outside as much as possible.

On Saturday, Xander’s basketball team had a tournament, and it was SO exciting! The first game was very even and the energy was palpable. Usually I don’t care- win or lose, Xander is happy either way. But this game was intense! They won by one basket and it was thrilling!

They didn’t have much time as the next game was immediately after the first. They were tired, but fought hard. Unfortunately, the next team they played was pretty good and they got beat and were out. But it was very fun and they did a great job.

In the afternoon, we had a neighborhood cookout! Aaron and Melissa fired up their grill and all of us gathered and made dinner together. The kids ran around the neighborhood until 7:30- it was dark, but still warm outside. We ate and drank and laughed and the kids played. It was a perfect night.

Today, the weather was 70 degrees outside in March in Minnesota! The boys played all morning, and around noon, they came home and demanded a picnic lunch. I brought their lunch to Sam and Abby’s porch and they are outside and then went right back to playing.

Xander had a playdate this afternoon at a friend’s house and Gussie spent the afternoon with Sam and Abby. It was a relaxing, warm day- the back door was open and I sat outside reading a book for a long time. Spring weather in March is very much appreciated!

I’m finally (after 2 weeks) feeling almost back to full health. I am hopeful for a normal, happy, easy week ahead.

It’s been a lovely week counting down to Valentine’s Day, celebrating, and then ending the week with the ultimate representation of love- MONSTER TRUCKS.

Starting on February 1, I put signs up for each of my men, “counting down to Valentine’s Day, reasons I love Nate/Xander/Gussie” and each night, I added a new heart with a love note listing something I loved about them.

We ate a lot of heart shaped things this week- both in the boys’ lunches and for dinner. I love a theme. And, proving that Xander is SO my child, he surprised Nate and I with breakfast in bed- heart shaped toast and a strawberry he had cut into a heart. He is so thoughtful and so sweet and he is the one who most appreciates my themes.

On Valentine’s Day, the boys had pokemon club, so in addition to Valentine’s for their classes, we also sent special macarons for after school. I brought Valentine treats for after my workout class. I love all holidays!

Nate surprised me with my favorite fancy candy, as well as corned beef and rye bread from a nearby deli- he knows the way to my heart.

I made all three men cute Valentine boxes that, when you took the lid off, the sides opened up with lots of fun treats. I saw them on instagram and immediately started working on them for the boys- Xander and Augustus had candy, pokemon cards, and gift cards to the card store. In Nate’s, I put candy, a new wallet, and gift cards to some different things. The boys’ reactions were so fun!

On Saturday morning, we started the day with a very exciting basketball game- Xander scored twice and his team won by a landslide. He is getting more and more confident and it is so fun to watch him each week.

Saturday night, we headed to Monster Jam- an annual tradition I never imagined would be part of my adult life. But the boys really enjoy it and it’s a great show. We ate a lot of fun snacks, cheered on our favorite trucks and had a great time!

We had a blast at Monster Jam and the boys were up past their normal bedtime but not THAT late. Everyone felt great… until about 2am, at which point Augustus woke up burning up, complaining about his body aching, and spent the rest of the night tossing and turning. He was miserable and as a result, I was up all night.

He woke up in the morning feeling much better than I’d expected, but by mid day, he was pretty run down. Forced rest time resulted in him falling asleep and taking a very long nap. He spent the majority of the day in bed, both Nate and I took turns snuggling, reading to him and keeping him company.

While he ate popsicles in bed, Xander played with Sam and Abby, and then his buddy Mateo came over and joined in the fun. Those 4 played all afternoon and had a great day.

We had family movie night and ate dinner on the couch, followed by bath time and early bedtime. Xander seems to be developing a cough and so do I. I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO BE SICK, so everyone needs to get a good night of sleep tonight. A very fun week ahead.

These last 2 weeks have been so intensely busy. We’ve had so many fun things on our schedule and I am so grateful for our friends and family.

The last week of January was pretty routine. The boys had swimming and basketball. They also started Pokemon Club, which happens after school on Wednesdays. They get to play pokemon, trade cards, and the 2 teachers who lead it are young, fun, know a lot about pokemon cards, and basically spent the whole time actively engaging with them in serious conversations about pokemon cards. The boys were thrilled.

Last Friday, Nate and I went down the block to Kelly and Silas’s house for game night and hung out with the whole neighborhood, laughing hysterically. Saturday morning, I woke up feeling the late night, and so Nate ended up taking the boys to Xander’s basketball game on his own. I spent the morning getting ready for our Thanksgiving 2.0 dinner party extravaganza which was happening later that day.

We had so much fun at Thanksgiving and enjoyed having a huge meal with a million side dishes, that the day after Thanksgiving, I texted everyone and insisted we do it again (with a new menu). This time around it was red wine braised short ribs, risotto, chicken wings, smoked mac and cheese, tres leche cake, and more. We ate and ate and ate, played games, and laughed until my stomach hurt.

Recently, Xander very thoughtfully said (completely out of the blue), “ya know, we never see Danny and Heather arm wrestle.” I told him that married couples don’t typically arm wrestle, but agreed that, yeah, it DOES seem strange we’ve never seen them battle it out. Luckily, we were able to convince them to go against each other, which made Xander very happy.

Last Sunday was a nonstop playdate- Xander was busy with Sam and Abby. Gussie had his good buddy E over for the first time (this is the young lady he told me he was in love with). Gussie and E decorated cookies, did some craft projects, played outside, played in the playroom, ate lunch, ran around, and stayed busy all day (10-3 was a long play date, but I think they could have played longer!). At 2:30, Xander’s buddy’s dad texted and asked if he was free, and then he came over to play. The weather has been unseasonably warm, and as playdates overlapped, our yard was filled with kids running, playing, and having fun. I was exhausted by the end of the day (as were the boys).

This past week was another pretty normal week, with a few exceptions.

Nate’s friend has a golf simulator in his basement, so Nate and the bros go to his house and hang out regularly. They have an ongoing competition where they add money to a pot and whenever anyone gets a hole in one, they get to keep it. Apparently that doesn’t happen very often, because Nate won a fat stack of cash when he hit a hole in one this week! It was very exciting.

Xander is showing interest in cooking and this week made eggs and toast all by himself. I was so proud of him and I can’t believe how grown up he is.

Speaking of growing up, another big milestone- Xander learned to tie his shoes! When we went to buy new ones, the pair he wanted had laces. We looked at “no tie” laces, but the shoe salesman said, “oh, if he’s playing basketball, he wants to tie them for the extra support.” SOLD. He was ALL IN on learning to tie his shoes. It took a few tries, but he is a fast learner and had it in under an hour. Such a big kid!

This weekend was FULL.

On Saturday morning, I somehow signed myself up for a rowing marathon at the gym. This was a memorial event for a young man who was a member of the gym and tragically passed away. I wasn’t going to sign up but my neighbor Aaron convinced me that it would be fun and that I should join his team. Our team had 5 members and we rowed 42,195 meters in 2 hours and 43 minutes. We switched off every 2 minutes, then 90 seconds, then every minute- taking 21 turns each total. It was BRUTALLY hard. And then our friendly, not-that-competitive event, got harder when people started saying our team was on track to finish first. OMG, I have never pushed myself that hard, but I wasn’t going to be the reason we lost (my 4 hard core bro teammates were KILLING IT). And then we won! I was so proud of myself just for showing up, but then to win was a huge surprise.

But a rowing marathon was just the beginning of the weekend of fun. After lunch, we went to Xander’s basketball game where he scored 2 baskets and their team won their first game! It was very exciting. By the afternoon, I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion, so we ordered pizza for dinner and had a movie night.

We had early bedtime, because Gussie and I were up early on Sunday for his first swim meet. We had to be there at 7:45 for warm ups. Xander and Nate were going to arrive later to cheer him on, but the meet was PACKED- like, wall to wall bodies crammed into the bleachers. I encouraged them to skip this one, rather than fight the crowd, so Xander spent the morning playing with Sam. Gussie swam the 50 yard free style and 50 yard backstroke races. He was one of 2 6 years olds (out of nearly 500 kids who were in this meet). He was SO tiny and I was so nervous for him. But he did well and he was calm and cool. I was so proud of him for just being there!

We got home from the swim meet around lunchtime and I had just a few hours to do some light house cleaning and food prep before the whole neighborhood arrived to watch the Super Bowl together. We had so much amazing food, spent lots of time laughing, snacking, chatting and hanging out. Xander LOVES Patrick Mahomes and was glued to the game (more than anyone else I think). I put the boys to bed after the halftime show. Xander was super bummed, but I promised to write the score on his whiteboard so he could see who won as soon as he woke up.

When the game went into overtime, Nate was pretty convinced that the Chiefs were going to win, and so we decided to wake Xander up to watch. He was VERY excited and happy he got to see them win.

This morning, our neighbor Sean texted Nate and I that he saw Xander outside this morning playing football. Sean said, he was “running up and down the block saying, ‘Patrick, go Patrick’. You made a great decision to wake him up to see his hero win.” I agree. Also, what an amazing text to receive first thing this morning.

It was a packed weekend and I am exhausted but happy.