moor, please: March 2014

I was trying to come up with a cute name for this post - but really I just need to write something for January. I cannot believe I haven't put anything down about January yet - Yikes! So, January it is.

We started off the beginning of the month having just celebrated Corben at 10 months (no pics in the official number shirt). But, Corben has started clapping and can do so on command. He thinks he is pretty awesome for being able to clap. He can also wave. He waves, really big waves. He is still trying to walk. He has been pulling up and cruising for what seems like forever. Now he will stand alone and also sway back and forth between furniture. He took 1.5 steps the other day but that is it. I think I'm happy for him to wait until after our big trip to Disney for his birthday - but, then I remember I have no control. Yikes, again! Corben likes to eat but when he is done with one particular type of food (meaning that he may not be finished eating - but he is done with that particular food) he tosses it gently to the floor. Over, and Over and Over again. This does not make a happy mama - but at least he is eating. He is eating ground beef, chicken, turkey too. Also veggies although he hates spoons. Literally hates them. So, options are more limited with him. He did eat some yogurt one day with a spoon but the next day he wasn't having it. So, back to finger foods. He loves him some crunchy puffs. He is also totally interested in Connor and Cora's cups - but not drinking out of them. Just holding them, turning them upside down, etc. It is going to be tough to get him to stop drinking his bottle I think. Speaking of bottles. One of the many things that happened in January was the Snow Dusting of Birmingham, aka Complete Paralysis or aptly named the Snowpocalypse. The day started off fairly normal. We got ready to go to Cora's dance class which started at 10:10. We weren't running late, but we weren't early either so I decided to wait to get gas until after class. Mistake Number 1. It was snowing on the way to Homewood, but it was literally dancing on the ground. Wisked away by the wind and literally nothing to worry about. Mistake #2 (if you are counting). Homewood cancelled school at 10:25 for 10:30 pick-up. That raised a few eyebrows but still operating under Mistake #2 - this is nothing to worry about. My mom texted me that snow was sticking - I shrugged it off. Connor's school had not cancelled and I was literally right down the street from school - like 1/4 mile. But back to Mistake #1 I needed gas. Dance class ended at 11:00. We hurried out to the car and started driving to get gas. Roads were super slick. Uh Oh. I pulled up a small incline at the nearest gas station. Uh Oh. Mistake #3 - pretending I was in my old SUV not the minivan. I slid sideways down the "hill" barely missing the jerk who was too close behind me anyway. I was freaking out at this point because I had NO GAS and couldn't get up the hill - oh and had two small kids with me and one kid stuck at school. I proceeded to the highway thinking that it was more travelled and so probably not as slick. Wrong again. And it took me 45 minutes to get from one gas station to the other and it is less than 1/4 mile. It is a miracle that I didn't run out of gas. After I got the tank filled up it was a short 1/4 mile on fairly flat street to Connor's school. It took 1.5 hours to get to his school. I had no food (Mistake #4 - not buying some at the gas station but there was a huge line of people at that point waiting for gas and I felt bad running inside - leaving kids in the car - oh and I was now super late to get Connor - and I didn't know that it would take over an hour to go down the street). Corben was sleeping, thank goodness but then Cora got hungry and started screaming bloody murder for food. I finally found 10 stale cheerios in an empty (uhoh) formula container. I tossed it back to her. She caught it - both slightly miraculous. Then she couldn't open it. I tried to talk her through it - but she was just getting more and more frustrated so she threw it back and I carefully tossed her individual cheerios so as to keep CB asleep. When we finally got close to the school, I decided to actually listen to Colin and slide into the handicapped lot in front of the Church - which luckily was empty. Got the kids in the stroller, some diapers and a old water bottle from Connor's seat and headed into the school. At this point I knew I couldn't get out of the parking lot in my van so we were going to have to spend the night unless Colin could come get us. But I told him to stay at work for the time being - there was no point in sitting in traffic for 5 hours to go 3 miles. Connor's school was so sweet. The got us in the library and got Cora some food (which she devoured) and CB some milk. I had no formula or a plan so I put milk in the old water bottle which had a pull up top and tried to get him some food. He ate cheetos and real milk - all to celebrate turning 11 months old, that day. We ended up sitting around until about 6pm. They kept us warm, played games, and fed us some delicious pizza. Colin showed up with my dad and my 4WD and after installing all the car seats and reconfiguring the seats in the way back - we all piled in the car to try to make it home. About 7:15 we pulled into my mom's driveway. And it was so good to be there. But if I had it to do over again, I would have stayed at the school. The drive home was the scariest drive ever. Our car was fine and probably only slipped once but the roads were horrible. Covered in ice and people abandoned their cars on every stretch of every roadway in the most haphazard fashion the only way I can describe it (since I didn't dare try to take a picture) was that Aliens descended from the sky and people jumped out of their moving cars and ran. There was no rhyme or reason to the way these cars were abandoned.

No one is in these cars in the photo - no one.

No one tried to push the car to the side or anything. Just got stuck and got out. I guess it was unavoidable since hardly anyone here has 4WD but we couldn't treat the roads because of all the cars and some roads were impassable for days because of abandoned cars. It was a day I hope never happens again. We had 3 snow days a few weeks later and only 1 day and 1 inch of snow.

Look how happy they were at school - Connor cried when we were leaving to go home. It might have been fun to stay if I hadn't had the baby with me - I would say maybe next time but I really hope there isn't a next time. No one wants to relive that day.

I did escape earlier in January to St. Louis with my best friend, Caitlin. She got me watching Resale Royalty on Style Network. It is about a mom and her 2 daughters owning a few resale boutiques in St. Louis. The show is pretty cute and Caitlin had a free Southwest ticket that was going to expire on MLK so we just had to go! We have never been to St. Louis. I honestly don't think I had ever been to Missouri. But there was a tv show about high-end resale and we went. I was a little worried that if the store was a disappointment that the rest of the trip could be a let down too. I did some research on St. Louis and asked around and had a plan in the event our first stop was not the same as it looked on tv. Caitlin and I can pretty much "make our own fun" as my mom would say so I wasn't too worried. We arrived via a stop in Tampa together.

Got our rental car, very easily I might add - no waiting no problems - oh, except that it was snowing! We requested a snow scraper and took off to find a place to eat - Mexican of course.

Then off to locate Women's Closet Exchange. To me, the outside looked the same as it did on tv (with the exception that the super sketchy bar next door was conveniently cropped out on tv) - an average older strip mall in the middle of suburbia. As a side note, Caitlin checked the bar out on TripAdvisor - the description was "strong drinks, super cheap" - we skipped that bar and headed to shop - and as luck would have it - they were having a 70% off sale! Everyone in the store was super nice - we looked around for hours - but the store is definitely way smaller than it appears on tv. But nice. We both got a few items after trying on a ton! By then the snow had stopped and we were ready to find our hotel and stay warm. I wouldn't say the store was a letdown. It certainly was not any nicer than I expected. It was great in the sense that Caitlin really feels like she can have a shop like that one day - and maybe in a less sketchy strip mall. We both wonder how in the world Stlye Network found this place. But it was a great start to the trip! Next stop Moonrise Hotel in the Loop.

Our hotel was in a very eclectic part of St. Louis and had a very fun rooftop bar (indoor).

We grabbed a delicious dinner at a local spot and then sipped some drinks up on the rooftop and met so many nice people. Seriously, everyone we met in St. Louis was over the top nice and accommodating. We met a chef who explained why everyone was so nice - no one comes to St. Louis for vacation - ever. Sort of like Birmingham! But, I am definitely going back to St. Louis in the summer - it is such a fun place! We slept in (something as moms of 3 we rarely get to do) and headed out to do the Budweiser free tour downtown. For free, it was a great tour. Some people with cheap hats and shirts paid $20pp for the same tour - we were happy to escape without ugly hats and for free. We saw the Clydesdales and of course the beer. After the tour we got to sample some beer (also for free!) and then we decided against going back to Women's Closet Exchange and instead we went to a Chocolate Bar I read about online.

Our lunch of cinnamon pretzels and coffee

The Chocolate Bar did not disappoint and neither did the nearby restaurant Vin de Set recommended by our Budweiser tour guide. It was so delicious I just cannot explain and its location seemed random but then once we got upstairs we saw the view. You could see all of downtown from the restaurant and they too had a rooftop bar - closed due to freezing temps - but will be so great in the summer! So happy we chatted up the tour guide!

To make up for our less than filling lunch - we enjoyed a cheese plate with our hot chocolate martini. Yummo!

So delicious!

Back to our hotel - not without making another wrong turn. I love Caitlin so much - more than I could ever say but she cannot navigate. She is very open about her inability to navigate - but I really didn't think it would be this bad. We were never actually lost but we got off on the wrong exit every time we got in the car. Every time.

Parade of gifts for kids

On Monday morning we got up, checked out of the hotel - luckily the guy at the front desk asked Caitlin to show some ID to pay for the room. Panic - she can't find her ID at all. After a mild panic the ID was located in her coat pocket. Whew. Glad that didn't happen at the airport! We headed back downtown to shop at The Collective - a collection of little shops all in one - and we ate pizza at and see the Arch - I mean, you can't go to St. Louis and not see the Arch. Did you know you can go inside the Arch? You did? I didn't. We went - up - and I am not really claustrophobic but the "elevator" was so small I almost didn't go up.