The Catchings Chronicles: Week 23, A Sentimental Week

Well, I'm happy to report that Week 23 brought the end of the month-long sicknesses that swept through (repeatedly) the Catchings clan! I'm still feeling pretty tired, but the actual sick-stuff is gone--woohoo!! Also, as the title indicates, this week was a really lovely week. There were several of those "Mom" moments, the ones where your kids do something so sweet, that it just touches your heart like nothing else can. I know many of them will sound like no big deal, but there's just something that can't be explained about the connection between a mother and a child until you experience it--there, enough of my sap!

The week started off on a fun note as I took Leslie out for a birthday dinner. She had been gone the previous week on vacation with her family, so it was nice to catch up on everything! Plus I had 2 coupons for her favorite restaurant--Carrabba's! We tried to grab coffee afterwards at some local coffee shop in Holly Springs instead of our usual Barnes and Noble after dinner wind-down. Well, while we felt good about supporting local business, both of our drinks were terrible, despite the uber-chipper high-schooler that seemed please to make them for us :) Thank goodness the food at Carrabba's was delish!

Leslie's favorite meal--always the same...chicken marsala!

Okay, I never do this, but their chicken caesar salad is AMAZING!

The first of those sentimental moments came on Tuesday morning while Tommy and I were at his speech therapy. We had kind of a "fun" session (not that they aren't all fun!) because Tommy kept trying to tell Kelly about everything we had done last week. So, she decided to pull up the good ol' Catchings Chronicles and have Tommy tell her about all of the pictures. Well, I'm not sure if all of those 'wonderful family memories' got Tommy's soft side going, but when we went into the elevator, out of the total blue he turns around and gives me a REAL hug and says, "Mommy, I love you so much." It wasn't in an excited voice or a jokey voice--it was just so sweet, pure, and genuine. I tell you what, that made my whole week right there!

Okay, obviously this isn't from that day, but I remembered this picture because I thought he was so adorable in it!

So, after therapy, we decided to keep the good vibes going and surprise my Mom with a "special drink" for her birthday from our favorite spot--STARBUCKS! I can't remember if I've said this before, but bear with me if I have--every single time we get in the car, Tommy says, "Okay, time to go to Starbucks!!". It's literally his favorite place to go, and Davey and I have no idea why--but, that's our funny tooterbear! I swear I don't go all that often!!

The new Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappaccino is Grandma's "special drink"!

Another cute thing that happened this week was when Ethan and I went to get Tommy up from his nap, and he walked into Tommy's room and said, "Hiiiiiii Tom-bee". While it seemed to go completely unnoticed by Tommy, I was touched by the sentiment! The boys seemed to be much more amicable this week too (perhaps because they weren't both sick!). There were a lot of fun chases (with Mommy being the "safe base" for Ethan of course!), building with legos, and of course the parental favorite--screaming wars! One day, we were coming back from the store, and Ethan was just exhausted. The trip had lasted longer than I thought, and we didn't start coming home from Cary until after 12:30. Well, Ethan was whimpering and crying for the first 5 or so minutes, and I was thinking "oh boy, this is going to be a fun trip home". The next thing I know, Tommy and Ethan are cracking each other up in the backseat. Tommy would hold his cup out and say, "Ethan hold-a the cup", and then when Ethan reached out, he would take it away. Don't ask me why Ethan also thought this was funny, but thank God he did! Nothing makes me smile bigger than the boys laughing with each other <3

On Saturday, Tommy and Ethan were invited to their friend Natalie's birthday party....at MONKEY JOE'S!!! Now, if you'll recall from an earlier post this year, the last time we tried to go to Monkey Joe's it was a supreme failure. Tommy flipped out immediately, and we had to leave after never even leaving the lobby! Needless to say, I was super nervous about the upcoming party. Emily (Tommy's OT) gave us some great strategies though which we faithfully implemented! We talked about Monkey Joe's everyday leading up to the party, I told him all of the fun stuff that would happen there (not the least of which were "birthday party" and "cake with candles"), I drove him by Monkey Joe's twice so he would recognize it when we got there, and I even allowed him and Ethan to jump on the furniture all week so I could compare that to what he'd be doing at Monkey Joe's! Now, this last one may come back to bite me--I'm sure it will in fact :) BUT, we were 2 very proud parents on Saturday! Tommy did absolutely AMAZING!! He didn't even get upset one time. It was way more than we could've hoped for. Ethan actually started off a little scared of everything, but within minutes he was zooming around unassisted! We had such a blast at the party, and we were just so so proud of Tommy! Here's a look at my little dare-devils at Nat's 3rd birthday!

Tommy loved jumping up and down (and even falling!) in the bounce-houses!

Ethan LOVED going down the huge slide!

Ethan's patented "Happy Dance" aka Black Church Dance!

The boys making their way up the steps that led to the big slide!

Daddy being a good sport letting me take his picture! He took some pictures of me too, but those shall remain unseen :)

My 3 guys having some fun together!

Ethan getting some practice in for his big day on June 22 :)

Look at those red cheeks!! He played his little heart out <3

Well, we were certainly riding a high after that Monkey Joe's experience, so we were happy to continue our partying ways and head on over to Goggi and Gramps' house for a combined "Daddy and Goggi" birthday party!! Bill grilled out some burgers and steak, and we had some delicious corn on the cob to go with it. Nate and Sarah brought specialty olives, which I LOVE, so I was stoked about that. And, what Catchings party would be complete without a few different varieties of ice cream cake?! The boys were excited to play outside in their pool. And, we were super excited to get Davey's birthday present--a new camera from Bill and Susie--woohooo!!! I'm sure you can immediately tell the difference in the pictures from Nat's party to this one--so clear! Tommy was loving life as there was yet another birthday cake with candles to be blown out! He's starting to finally grasp the concept that every birthday isn't actually his birthday. While he starts the birthday song with "Happy birthday to Tommy" again, he does at least end it with "Happy Birthday to you Goggi"!