Dempsey and I were on our own this weekend and it was the best! Joey was up in Breckenridge skiing for a few days, leaving me to care for the little guy all on my own. I’ve never even been on my own for a single night, so the prospect of three nights (in the midst of one of Dempsey’s worst runs of nighttime sleep ever) made me nervous, but go figure, he was on his best behavior and slept like a total champ. We had so much fun! We’re glad to have Joey home though 🙂

Thursday was a breeze because my parents watched him all day then stayed and had dinner with us and Friday was easy too because Lori came and picked him up in the morning, then I worked from home (it was eerily quiet!) and picked him back up at 4:30. He played, ate a burger and played some more, then a fun bath time and right to bed, easy peas-y. I watched the Opening Ceremony after he went to bed and someone remind me what these ceremonies were like before these projector floors were invented??

I had to wake this guy up on Saturday morning because he was sleeping in so long! He helped me make pancakes and cut them into cute shapes, then wanted nothing to do with them when we sat down at the table. He’s been on a pancake/waffle strike for a few weeks and I hope it ends soon because Joey and I looooove making them on the weekends. He chased the world’s smallest feather around for a while afterward, then got tired and sat down to watch some of the Olympic coverage 😂

We took a quick trip to the library later on and then he walked around in the snow for a bit. He is very into picking it up and crumbling it 😂 Back at home, he had a snack then went down for his nap. Remember when I said we were back to two naps? I lied. We had a couple of days in a row where he skipped that second nap altogether so we’re back to one and it’s actually been going really well! He’ll sleep 2.5 hours usually. Weird to have lunchtime to ourselves again but also kind of nice. I ate on the couch, then watched some ski jumping and finished my book. I read Me Before You back in 2016 and just got around to the sequel, so I guess that means I will read the third one in 2028 😋

Once Demps was back up, he ate lunch, looked out the window (I know I’m biased, but he is gorgeous!), then headed out to Elliott’s third birthday party! This silly boy is a deer in headlights whenever we get someplace new or meet new people, so for the first hour of the party, he just sort of stood or sat there staring. I try not to push him and just be a safe place in all the newness till he’s ready to interact. He had a mini donut and came alive 😂 We left around 6, had dinner and then it was off to bed for him and more Olympic watching for me.

I hadn’t slept the best Thursday or Friday night, but finally did on Saturday and didn’t open my eyes till 7 AM. Dempsey woke up shortly after and we placed an order at The Nosh from bed, then hustled over to pick it up. Had my fingers crossed Dempsey would like biscuits and gravy but he did NOT. He was plenty into egg, blueberries and cinnamon roll though!

He put his Parkway hat on all by himself 😍 We played inside, we played outside and then he went down for his nap and Joey came home shortly after. Once Dempsey was up, we did some chores but also just all hung out. I made us chili and cornbread for dinner and Dempsey seemed to like it all. I know the two adults did! So happy to have had a few days with Dempsey all to myself. I love hanging with him. He’s the sweetest and funniest ❤❤❤ Hope you all had a good weekend as well!

We are still struggling with sleep, but one out of every four nights is good and we got one of those on Friday! This weekend also included a fun dinner out on Friday, my first massage in so so long, Saturday afternoon at the park, a home-cooked dinner, three movies (of differing quality) and now we bid farewell to January.

I think our new Friday schedule involves Joey and I working from home and Dempsey being out of the house. Feels weird being there without him! We picked him up from Lori’s at 4:30, made a quick stop at Target, then wrangled Dempsey back into his carseat to literally drive across the street to Edgewater Public Market and by the time we got there, he was covered in big crocodile tears 😢 We all ordered food from different counters, then found a table in the brewery and that boy could not eat fast enough. I think he was sad because he was hungry!!! He perked right up after that and we had a fun night. We let him wander the halls for a bit after dinner and it was very cute, even if he did mostly just want to touch all the shop windows 😂 We put him to bed and fired up Being the Ricardos, but we didn’t finish it till Saturday night, so more on that later.

Celebrated our full night’s sleep with blueberry ricotta pancakes that Dempsey was NOT into. More for me! 😂 A bit later, I headed out for a massage. I left a little bit early so I could see some of the areas that were destroyed by the fire in Louisville and it was insane and very sad. There were areas that seemed just fine and then BAM, a fully leveled neighborhood. Hard to believe still. It was so nice seeing my mom and getting that massage. My back has been killing me. Wonder if it has something to do with carrying a toddler around 😋 Back at home, lunch for everyone, a trip to the park and Mom-as-a-jungle-gym. If you’re wondering, we have totally backed out of the one-nap transition. He was not sleeping long enough and with how much he’s been waking up at night, I think he needs those two naps still. Oh well, no reason to push him, if he’s not ready.

We made palak paneer (sub tofu for paneer) for dinner and everyone was a big fan! Seems we make something saucy with rice and naan about once a week these days. After Dempsey went to bed, we watched the rest of our movie and can someone please tell me why we keep having to make these mediocre bio-pics? Is it because name recognition gets people to watch?? I don’t know, but I don’t need any more. I thought this was okay. Mostly the way it was formatted was just so unnecessarily convoluted and I thought Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem were wildy miscast. Was Lucille Ball really that unfunny in real life?? That sort of depressed me. We watched a bit of SNL before bed and that “Now I’m Up” skit was too real 😂

Sunday morning we all woke up feeling sort of out of it. I had a bagel, Joey had an egg sandwich and Dempsey had scrambled eggs and then we managed to make salads for the week before putting that little boy down for his nap, letting Steve and Lorna in and heading out for a movie. I have eaten far too many lunches at the Alamo Drafthouse lately, but hey, their food is actually pretty good for a movie theater! We saw Drive My Car and though it was three hours long, it is so smoothly-paced, so well-acted and so interestingly complex and beautiful that it never feels long. We both really liked it!

Back at home, Dempsey would not go down for nap #2, so we tried to have some rest time with a snack and the end of Encanto — only took us a full week to watch it 😂 — and maybe it was because we watched it in so many small chunks but felt like it didn’t really have a plot. Sure looked pretty though! Leftovers for dinner then Dempsey bedtime and a couple episodes of The Mandalorian for Joey and I. We just started watching and that Baby Yoda is even cuter on the show than he seemed in all the internet GIFS I’ve seen over the past couple of years. I hope you had a nice weekend!