I missed my little boy!

I had a really great weekend. And to make it even better tomorrow is MLK day so Charlie will be home!!! YAY! Brianna and I spent Friday night scrap booking for 5 hours. It was a lot of fun, especially since we got Chinese food and I actually managed to make progress on my pages. I found a HUGE lot of stamps on EBay (over 140 stamps) and purchased them for only $20 (incl. shipping). I got the box over the weekend and opened it today. WOW! I got such a great deal. There are stamps in there from some of my favorite companies, not to mention that some of them are new and still in sealed packages. Separately they easily would have cost me over $350...so I'm very excited about that. Now I have to get some jewel cases and ez mount foam so I can store them all. It's time to think about redoing my craft area/business space.

Saturday, Brianna and I headed to Dayton, OH for the weekend. It was the first time I've left my little baby boy alone overnight. That was REALLY HARD for me to do. Oliver seemed to do okay alone with his Daddy. Brianna I went shopping with my mom and she got all kinds of new stuff (and so did Joey, Oliver and Charlie...oh and I got a new jacket), and we also visited with little Kaylee when we went to pick up my sister. My itty bitty niece is so cute. She was a little upset to be away from her mommy when I held her but that's to be expected. I can't wait until she gets a little bigger. She's definitely changing already...so much more awake than she was a few weeks ago.

After that we went to dinner at Uno's, where I used to work as a teenager. Not a whole lot has changed. I got one of their signature dishes and it tasted exactly as I remembered. It was yummy. Then we headed over to the Victoria Theatre to see the Muse Machine's annual production. This year...Singin' in the Rain. It was awesome! Would you believe they actually made it rain on stage? That was the coolest live special effect I've ever seen! I can never get past the immense amount of talent in region.....high school and middle school students...who knew that kids that young could act better than some adults? Some of the kids that actively participated in Muse Machine over the years have made successful careers in performing arts....even on Broadway! It just amazes me. I cannot say enough good things about them. Brianna absolutely loved the musical as well. She cannot wait for next year's production.

After we got back at nearly midnight, Brianna, my dad, and I sat in the living room watching horror movies. Brianna just loves them, as do I. It was 2am before we finally ventured off to bed....and we didn't get up until after 10am. It was the first night of sleep I've had where I haven't had to worry about waking a sleeping baby or wondering if the baby will sleep through the night, etc. I got an actual straight eight hours of sleep! WOOHOO! As if that wasn't exciting enough, Brianna made everyone breakfast using her new cookbook (received at Christmas) and with a little help from my mom. I will have to say she did a fantastic job. I am so proud of how independent she's becoming.

When breakfast was over we got ready to go. I packed everything up. It was a little sad to think about leaving because I really do miss my family some days since I live so far away. On the other hand, I think my relationship with them has been closer because of it. Not to mention I was missing Oliver terribly and was just dying to get home to him.

We had lunch at The Chop House in Dayton with my mom and her friends before heading back home. It seemed like the drive took forever, and then when I got home, Oliver was napping. Ugh...so I had to wait even longer for him to wake up so I could see if he missed me. I'm not sure he was quite awake when he first saw me. But he did like all the attention I was giving him. We got a great video of him walking with his walker. He was so proud of himself. He gets the biggest smile on his face whenever he uses it. And even more exciting, tooth #2 is finally starting to poke through his gum!!!! It's about time he gets tooth #2.

Well, I really need to be getting to bed. I'm whooped! I'm glad I got to spend so much time with Brianna. It was a great bonding experience.