Thursday, March 20, 2014

Aaden at 3 1/2

Our little Bubby seems to be growing up fast.  He's changed so much in the last year. Here's some of what he's been up to...
He loves garbage trucks, fire trucks, horses and cows, & trains.  His garbage truck is his favorite toy ever.
He loves his preschool. Devin is his best friend there. Eli is his ultimate BFF. He also likes playing with his neighbor friends, Alan, Isaac, Raul, Scotty & Mikayla. I love that there are kids on our street to play with. He loves riding his scooter around with them when they are all outside.
He talks very, very well but it's so cute he still says 'let you' instead of 'can you' or 'will you'. Also says 'my' instead of I.  I will be sad when those go away.
His favorite color is now blue.
Loves Team UmiZoomi, Peter Rabbit, Jake and the Neverland Pirates,  Paw Patrol & Callie 'The Rest' (Callie the Sheriff)
He corrects us if we call him any other nickname besides Bubby. But he let's me get away with Monkey :)
We are so impressed with how much he's learning.  Miss Net is really impressed with him especially since he's the youngest one in her class. He knows the ABCs, the days of the week, months of the year, how to count to 20, how to count 10 in Spanish, his left from his right, and how to spell his name.  He is now always picking out 'A's when he sees them on thing and will say "that's my name".
He has an incredible memory and sense of direction. He will remember roads that we're on and say 'this is the way to such and such' or tell us if we're going the wrong way somewhere. The other day when we were on Union Road (which we hardly ever drive on), he remembered it was the way to his Christmas program (at Southside School).
He is very insightful - especially with things surrounding my Dad's death. He remembers Pappy singing to him "What a Wonderful World". And says the angels took Pappy to heaven and that he doesn't have booboos anymore.
He's really starting to get into the Giants. (Yay!) He likes Buster Posey and knows he's the catcher and he recognizes Panda.  He's learning how to hit a baseball and can actually get it sometimes without the help of a tee!  We need to get him into T-ball soon and possibly gymnastics too since he's always showing us how he can do a cartwheel and says, "that's gymnastics" LOL.
We are so amazed by him.  He is sweet and sensitive and funny and smart and pretty mature for his age.  Not to mention, he's so cute.   He's also an awesome big brother. Miss Net loves him to death and says how if she has a grandson someday she hopes he's just like Aaden.  How did we get so lucky?



Wednesday, March 19, 2014

St Patrick's Day 2014

 My Baby Girl on St Patrick's Day
Both my Paddy's 
Love this picture of them.  
Aaden excited and Addison not giving a shit. 
Nope, don't wanna...
Oop, she cracked a smile! I must have gotten her to smile with 
my "Aboogaduh, boogaduh"
Back to being pissed 
Damn it, stop! I'm over it!  
I had to instagram this picture
Aaden's cheesy smile.
Love this kid! 

After the kids headed to preschool and daycare, Seany picked me up and we headed to San Francisco.
Christopher and I had decided that St Patrick's Day would be the perfect day to spread Dad's ashes for the first time.  And to get our memorial tattoos for him.  St Patrick's Day was, hands down, one of Dad's favorite holidays.  The Irish soul that he was.  Since this was the first St Patrick's Day since he passed away, it was the perfect day to celebrate him.  And celebrate, did we!

As soon as we got to SF we went and met Christopher at his place.  Not before I fell smack dab on my hands and knees getting out of the truck. That was before any drinks!
 We decided to go grab some lunch at a place called Super Duper Burger.
Then we went to this little bar, Marina Lounge, for our first (errr, second beers). The bartender was awesome.  We told him our plans for the day and he was so moved by it that he bought us all a shot of Jameson.  And he took one with us.
After a couple drinks, we set out to find a place to spread Dad's ashes
This place seemed perfect
Saying some well wishes to Dad
Sail away, Dad 
Love these two pics where you can see the cloud
 Christopher getting fancy and throwing some behind his back
Rest easy, Dad ♥
Family joke - "Upside Down" 
(from Major League) 
Doing Dad's handshake.  
We've been doing this same handshake with Dad for about 25 years 
Seany's turn to spread some ashes. 
Sean was in Australia when Dad died so this was his chance to get to say goodbye
Selfie 
After spreading Dad's ashes, we headed to the Sunset District to One Shot Tattoo.  A place I researched for a while and had a pretty cool connection with the tattoo artist on the phone when setting up our appointments.  When we showed up, he got some more details of what we wanted and sent us to a bar down the street for a few minutes so he could draw some stuff up.  After a beer, we headed back. 
I went first...
Christopher asking me if it hurt. LOL
In progress
Done! 
Forever Young, my Dad's "fight song" for the last year of his life.  He signed every text off with these words. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to this song over the last year.  Bob Dylan's message in it is simply beautiful and this will forever be one of my favorite songs because it means so much to me. 
The ink is purple, the color for pancreatic cancer awareness and the shamrock is for Dad's Irish roots. 
We also had some of Dad's ashes put into our tattoos so we will carry a piece of him with us forever.
Christopher's turn!  His first tattoo ever!
His was much larger and had a lot more detail and took a lot longer.  Seany and I went down the street to grab a bite and a beer. Kate met us there. 
2 1/2 hours later and it's done!  I LOVE his!!
Joe, our tattoo guy :)
Light up sign on their sidewalk in front of the shop
After our tattoos, we went and checked into our shady hotel.  And finally went to grab some dinner at 1030 at night. We went to the Tipsy Pig and literally pigged out.  Kate couldn't join us for dinner though, so it was just the three of us. 
After dinner we headed to Fiddler's Green. I was so full from our late dinner though that I was having a hard time getting into it even though it was a cool bar.  After about an hour we went to Bullitt on Polk St and I had finally digested enough to start feeling better and was back to having fun.  
The bar was right next to Cresta's where Christopher is a part of the 2211 Club (whatever that means?) and that's the shirt he happened to be wearing that day! 
Total dive bar and definitely a lot of people on drugs but we had fun! 
This is what we get when we ask someone to take a picture for us - they take a selfie! Thanks DB!
We grabbed a cab and picked up some beer and headed back to our hotel.  
The luxurious Alpha Suites! LOL
We had such a fun night!  Christopher got up and went to work the next morning and Seany and I hit up Judy's for an awesome breakfast and a delish mimosa before heading back to Hollister. 
Thanks for an amazing time, San Francisco! Happy St Patrick's Day, Dad!