Halloween?

With daddy gearing up for a trial this week and mommy having a paper due, I didn't make it trick or treating, but as you can tell from the photo below...candy apparently is not needed for me to have a good time. Here I am cheering on my favorite team as they beat Miami on Saturday. I am with my favorite people, Pop Rock and Grami, AND I have my favorite thing...cars. I got to drive them all over the stadium, and, scream as loud as I wanted...Daddy was pretty sad to miss the game...it was a big deal, or so I'm told:)

the lawnmower

Here's some quick pics because it's late and Robert's still working...again...man, this new first year associate thing is ridiculous.

Mowing the yard with daddy...our son has become obsessed...to put it mildly...with lawnmowers, both his own little one and his daddy's...

Just so we're clear, this last photo is of a different lawn mower entirely...a second one was purchased for his at Grami and Pop Rock's so that he will never be too far from his favorite toy:)

hide and seek

So daddy taught us this really fun game, and the little guy is really good at it...so good that sometimes I wander around the house for several minutes because I truly can't find him...NOT my idea of a good time, but he finds it absolutely hilarious.

There are times though, that he picks an easier to spot location. It is at these moments that the game is pure fun for both of us. For example, here is his hiding spot today...and his revealing as well.

(my apologies for the quality, they are from my phone)



oh the pure joy of living in toddler land:)

A little beach, a lot of work...

We spent our first week of August at the Beach with all the Lucks...a yearly ritual that we look forward to as soon as those swimsuits come out in May! This year was a whole new ball game, as our last visit to the beach didn't include a walking, curious, busy, busy, busy little man. Plus, my big Robert was working through his first real trial as a lawyer. Rob and I are so proud of him for finishing today, but it meant that Daddy spent half the week holed up in our room going through depositions or whatever it is that lawyers do to prepare...I still don't understand but pretend to as best I can:)

Although this won't surprise anyone, my son had no fear of the water, both a good and a bad thing in our eyes. We wanted him to love the water, but not so much that he charged in unattended whenever the mood struck him. The result, a few ground rules were set and daddy and Robert's uncles carved out an in-ground pool in the sand for the little tikes to play in. Robert had a blast playing with his cousin Adelyn, and I loved watching the two of them finally interact!

Enjoy a few photos...we won't bore you with the hundreds that were taken, I left the photos small for space, but feel free to click on them to see his sweet face much larger:)

And, because a truck is never from my son's hands....
Robert's love of wagons runs deep, both big and small...he's even happy to tote Adelyn around:)

Requests and a quick photo

I don't often use this blog to make prayer requests but I'm making an exception this morning. Robert, although an incredibly happy child, has become too attached to his mommy. It is both difficult and flattering that he loves me so much, I mean, who doesn't smile when they see this face:

I pause here to thank Ms. Waidmann for our very cute birthday outfit...although I don't love baseball, the uniform is adorable:)



Carrying on...

Robert and I are beginning to get concerned. Let me elaborate, we spent several months taking him to the gym nursery (that means a 10 minute trip to the gym every morning to get him used to it) until five months in, when he finally stopped screaming bloody murder. But one week away at the beach and we are back at square one...bless the hearts of those childcare workers for putting up with us!

This attachment is a minor problem for the gym but our greater concern is the fact that we are joining a new church, starting one day preschool and a mothers bible study all this fall...that's three new environments that he has to learn to love without mommy around.

I understand that many of you may think this is a pretty trivial matter, and although you're right, please pray with me anyway, to us, it shapes our entire lives, particularly mine, here in Richmond.

With love and thanks today!

6 weeks away

It is no coincidence that our last posting occurred six weeks ago as my summer school class also started six weeks ago. The twice weekly drive to DC took up all of my blogging time! In the meantime, we've been busy doing lots of fun things! Here's what we did the month of June...July to follow:

Visiting my sister's best friend (and my self-designated little sister), Kristen at Lake Anna!
My son wasn't too sure about the life jacket but he enjoyed the slow boat ride.

Then, while up in DC, we played with our friends Aura, Summer and Amanda...Amanda was wonderful playing with Robert, letting him chase her around the park:

Then we had some fun playing with daddy..basketball, of course:

After practicing our skills, we moved out to the backyard to practice throwing the ball to Sabre. Poor dog doesn't quite know what to do when Robert only throws the ball about a foot!

this is what happens....

when daddy gets to pick the outfit...Robert is convinced that these shorts fit our little man:) and Yes, those are UVA Lacrosse shorts....hoo's surprised.

lead of love

So this Caedman's song popped up on my walk today and in addition to reminding me of Ocean City 1997, its lyrics also struck me looking back over the last few weeks/months of our lives....if you don't know them, look them up...now.

Things that I am thankful for:

1. My husband came home early from work the other day so that I could make it to yoga class...i never thought I'd love yoga, but I do....way harder than expected. On the way, I stopped by Target and my favorite cashier opened up a line just for me...we bonded over Target brand bread...amazing...do I go there to much, probably.

2. My husbands chocolate chip pancake birthday breakfast

3. Robert surprising me by coming home early to hang out with me on my birthday

....are you seeing a trend, I married a good man.

4. The cupcake-birthday cake that my son also enjoyed, exhibit a-c below:

a bit tentative at first, but he quickly took care of business...complete with a 11pm throw up episode which was immediately followed by little Robert on a sugar high...quite a sight.

5. My hour long phone with my dear friend Birgit...thanks for the call and the chat friend.

6.Birthday lunch with my friend Holly, my favorite Richmond friend who is walking with me through the life of a 13 month old.

7. The birthday messages and love that were simply overwhelming...thank you.

8. Dinner with our dear friends Peter and Kim tonight...excited to meet with new daughter and hang out with Jonathan!

The list could go on and on....see, "had to walk the rocks to see the mountain view".

my favorite book

I knew the day would come when my son could discern between different book covers and remember which ones he liked and disliked...that time as come and it finds me hiding his favorite book in hopes that he won't find it...sadly, my son is already too smart for me.


When I ask him to go get a book for me to read, this is ALWAYS what I see:





are you seeing a trend?

OH how I love you, and have long ago memorized, The Fire Engine Book.

Thank you marshalls for providing me with such a great deal, and what is surprisingly, a much treasured book.

keeping with the theme

so in keeping with the UVA theme, I thought I'd post some photos from a recent lacrosse game..again, my papers and work seemed to keep me from attending, but that didn't stop my son from enjoying himself with grami and pop rock...apparently it was a gorgeous and fun day...too bad I spent it at starbucks reading about the 1890s:)

First things first, enjoying (read: stuffing his face) with PB&J

Then it was off to the races...or constantly walking up and down the hill with pop rock following patiently behind...
A day as a luck man is never complete without a little manual labor...us Luck's start them early.

To Robert (my husband's) credit, he seems to be attempting to protect my son from falling and seriously injuring himself on the trailer...I can only hope that grami was supervising the process!

special thanks to sandra for the great photos...our camera's still broken:(

it's finally here!

not many of you would count down to the spring football game for the cavaliers of Virginia...unless, of course, you participate in the countdown and discussion on the sabre like my husband does...

sadly (or not so sadly) I didn't make it to the game this year, but that didn't stop Robert from making sure his son experienced is first spring football game (last year, miraculously, Robert got a pass...considering he was only a few days/weeks old)

They had a great photo op meeting the cavalier and his horse, Sabre, although our little guy wasn't too sure of the horse!


But he has gotten used to sitting on his dad's shoulders, and since he's now over 20 pounds, we enjoy it better than trying to carry him to!
too bad there weren't more fans there to cheer on the hoos...hopefully this fall brings a bigger crowd...don't you worry, our season tickets are all lined up...hoos surprised:)

Today is my first birthday:)

This has been such a crazy week, and it's only wednesday! Even though monday's are usually crazy, this one was especially so with two of our dear friends giving birth, which for meant the constant checking of blog/facebook for updates and photos..plus texting others to share the news! AND we got to spend our monday on a wonderful walk with our friends Holly and Hailey...it made for a fabulous start to my week.

Then came the usual tuesday trip up to DC for classes.....

BUT today my sweet boy turned one year old...whew, such an emotional roller coaster of a day. In order to prevent the tears, I'm going to pass you off on my sister-in-laws blog spot of photos of our little guy and my sweet niece, Adelyn...
http://luckisontheway.blogspot.com/
(thanks emily)

Here are a few photos from the day:

With grandpa in front of the happy birthday sign....for those of you that don't know, my mother has had this sign since I was about five years old, every birthday there is a photo taken standing/sitting near it. It's one of my favorite traditions at the Szymanski house.
Then it was opening gifts time...
(that's a fire engine wheel pal...which, before having a boy I wouldn't have known that amazingness of the wheel pal...thanks summer, aura and mrs. H)

Just testing it out to make sure it works:
We ended our day back in Richmond for a VERY special birthday dinner...aunt sissy, uncle william, pop rock and grami came from charlottesville and pop and gran luck from franklin drove in too! It's pop luck's birthday tomorrow so #1 and #4 are just a day apart (and a few years).

We just love the specialness of getting to spend time with Robert 1 and 2....daddy's ok too.

Roseola...what??

So first, I should mention that we are having major camera problems (read, doesn't hold battery power and constantly shuts off mid-photo) and that we are trying to get it fixed before the little guy turns one this week! That said, I don't have any new photos to offer you, unfortunately.

In addition to the camera issues we have been sick, sick, sick. It's so interesting what illnesses float around baby world. My sweet friend's daughter has hand, foot, mouth disease...WHO get's that really?? Apparently lots of babies, as it's the current popular illness among the pre-toddler set. Our little guy, no hand-foot-mouth for him, but roseola instead. This virus meant 104 temperature for us for two days, medicine every few hours and when the temperature finally went down a rash appeared all over his body (think chicken pox/measles), and since he's contagious until the rash goes away, we've had lots of Robert-mommy bonding time this week...mommy's exhausted and ready for a nice glass of wine.

This was our first real instance of a really sick baby, praise the Lord for that, but the memory of my child radiating heat won't escape me anytime soon.

catching and walking

here's a sweet video that we took the other day...

Little Rob's got throwing down, but not so much the catch part yet. BUT as you can see..he's starting to walk, and loves it...big surprise!

Peanut, Peanut Butter

Any parent, or really anyone that keeps up with student allergy news is aware that peanut allergies are amongst the top worry in today's schools..as a result, no PB and J for elementary schools anymore...needless to say, the prospect of our son having a peanut allergy has scared me to death since finding out we were having a baby. Robert however, has been itching to give our son some peanut butter since the doctor gave us the go-ahead a month ago....Aside for an easy display of how our parenting will differ over the years, Robert, like the good lawyer that he is, made a good argument in favor of letting the little guy try some. SO, this morning, we took the plunge. The result, like most other things that he gets his hands on, he loved it...well, he loved peanut butter in a strawberry smoothie. The rest of the morning saw me staring at him waiting for him to stop breathing or keel over...

another successful morning here on kensington avenue.

new furniture!

For those of you that don't know...Robert and I are a little obsessed with DIY...at least half our home was purchased from craigslist/antique stores and then changed in some way to fit our needs. BUT we splurged on a new couch for our den/guest room. We had the little guy test it out for comfort, and barely got the shot off before he tried to crawl off the edge!

Now, the couch is white with blue piping, but the pillow is navy with ORANGE piping...can you see a theme coming on?

why we love consignment

So many of you know my love of all things consignment...whether that we clothes and toys for the baby or couches and chairs for our home. To me, it's great getting things that are inexpensive, especially when it comes to Rob's clothes...which he grows out of way too quickly for my taste:)

Enter in my favorite consignment sale of the year, Here WEE Grow Again. It's held at Aldersgate United Methodist in Charlottesville, running from this saturday through the 13th. I get to shop early because I volunteer there, and let me tell you, we always have trouble deciding which things to keep and which to sadly part with.....that's my plug for them, if you come this saturday or next, look for me, i'll be working.

Just to give you an idea, here's what we scored, all for $120 bucks!

30 items of summer clothing...most of his summer wardrobe (we hope)..including a sweet easter polo, beach year, pjs and romping around clothes. Of course, we picked up three new UVA themed items...who's surprised.
10 new books...i was about to throw "the fire engine book" out the window I was so tired of it
4 new toys

My little man is loving his new toys already...he's getting to be such a big boy playing with trucks...



and, like any Luck boy, immediately trying to figure out how to take it apart...most likely to figure out how to lift it and paint it orange...just a thought.

Give me the Rock

In case you can't tell already, our little family enjoys UVA sports...some might say that the word obsession comes to mind. So from December-March, whenever we have the opportunity we sit down together to watch some UVA basketball...the men are doing well this year, finally catching up to the perennial success of the women's team:)

Our son loves watching basketball, and I'm slowly teaching him the different defenses, how to box out and exactly what it means to be "clutch" with two minutes left in the fourth quarter....so far, he listens intently and continues to suck on his truck.

UVA...Go Hoos...Go!


Come on guys...DE-Fense!

Put me in coach...I got what it takes....

Mom's so proud that he's showing such a love for the game at a young age...here's hoping he defies the odds and is 6 feet 4 inches....a college scholarship would come in handy:)

Tonka is my hero

Just two great photos of our little guy on his new Tonka ride on truck...scored in the clearance aisle at Target no less:)

Isn't he getting so big...we really think that he's becoming a little boy now!
(thanks Grami for the photo...we miss you and pop rock and aunt sissy)

All locked up

My son has been crawling up a storm for a few months now and while we love his adventurous side, it means that we've really started to crack down on our babyproofing..especially after a certain grandfather taught him how to climb the stairs...awesome, thanks dad:)

So, we gave in and purchased a permanent top of the stairs gate...Rob finds it completely hilarious, whereas Sabre feels trapped on one side and left out on the other...as evidence by the sulking here's doing here:


Our little man also discovered that his rollie balls fit underneath the gate, so now his favorite activity is sitting a the top of the stairs, and slowly rolling the ball until it falls under the gate and down the stairs...at which point, he stretches out trying to grasp it...we love his industrious nature and have placed a basket at the bottom of the stairs for him to aim at...what can I say, Im a coach.

Home Sweet Home

OK, so for the 20+ years that I lived in FC, we never had a snow like this...just because I'm jealous, and because it's a gorgeous photo of my family home:


Additionally, and only because my father sent me this hilarious photo, I must include that my father has enjoyed the snow for some good old fashioned male bonding time...who says that men grow out of their fratty stage?

urban trekking

If someone saw the following photos, you'd think that we were on our way to scale a very large (well, medium sized) mountain, not run out for some starbucks. BUT seeing as it decided to snow in Richmond...again...I made it my mission today to get outside. For those of you who don't know this about me already, I love me some Starbucks....it's my place of choice for meeting friends, studying or now, just utilizing the drive thru for a quick pick me up:) But 1.5 miles and an hour later, we made it...a bit sweaty, but excited to sit down and enjoy the sunshine and a tall skim mocha.

As an added bonus, we got the dog outside. Having a three year old labrador stuck inside for multiple days is WAY WORSE than being stuck inside with my baby. Our two mile trek today calmed Sabre down for approximately a half hour...incredible for his standards.

What a difference a month makes!

With snow predicted last month, we quickly ran out to purchase Rob a snow suit, thinking that clearly, he'd want to make a snow angel or two. However, his response was mixed, ranging from mild annoyance to sheer terror of the snow, the cold and particularly the snowsuit (all we could think of was the little brother from "A Christmas Story").

Here we are in December, he is not pleased:

BUT here we are sunday!! He was interested in the snow, sitting in it and laughing and patting the snow to be sure of how it felt:)