Weekending it

We are headed to Kansas tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving with Dan's side of the family so it will be a quiet week on the blog while we are away.

This past weekend we decorated the apartment for Christmas so it will be nice and festive upon our return. We also announced some special news this weekend as well!!!

Baby girl Johnson arriving May 2020. We are all super excited!!

With a lot of tears and frustration from both parties, here is how trying to take photos for the announcement went:

Post nap bribed with chocolate.

Finally agreed to play with "mama."

Have a wonderful holiday!!

Sweet Scenes

Just some random shots of things I find around the house.

Breakfast!

Buses tucked-in for the night.

Not sure what this is about. Two cars on top of my hedgehog slippers.

Not random, all these containers and objects Kip strategically placed around the star cookie cutter.

Actual train CARS

Boots made for walking

Weekending it

Officially winter. Officially. It was such a quick transition. Summer. Extended Summer. Late Summer. Fall. Depths of Winter.

I'm grateful the transition comes with early Christmas in all the stores and holiday tunes on the radio. Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week??? Wild.

This past weekend was pretty low-key. On Friday, we got a babysitter lined-up so that Dan, Mandy, and I could all go see Ford v. Ferrari at the movie theater. We had planned to go to the dinner/movie theater where you can order dinner at your seat and we even reserved tickets. But, the subways were messed-up and the sitter was delayed and we ended-up canceling our tickets, finding another theater with a later show time and readjusting plans. It worked out fine and we all LOVED the movie. It's probably the only race car movie I'd be willing to watch more than once. Christina Bale. Matt Damon. History. Fast cars. Noah Jupe. Good soundtrack. Great movie night. Highly recommend.

On Saturday we didn't really have any plans but I wanted to check-out the dollar spot and Christmas stuff at Target so we went to Staten Island after Kip's nap. We had lunch at Applebee's and then went to Michaels and Target. Unfortunately, the dollar spot was picked over and our cashier forgot to give us one of our bags (the one with the receipt in it). We didn't realize until we got home. It was a bit disappointing but I guess we got some chores done and had a nice lunch.

Sunday I had classroom duty in Kip's class. We had a good time but his behavior is what you would expect when a parent is in the room.

We spent the rest of the weekend watching Disney+ and football. Busy week ahead and the start of the snowball through the holidays.

Flower Bull

My boss gave me the original Ferdinand book as a baby shower gift before Kip was born. At the time I was not familiar with the story although, I guess, it is a classic.

The most recent animated adaptation of the book came out in December 2017 when Kip was just a few months old but we didn't see the movie.

Flash forward to this past spring when I went through my Jonas Brothers re-obsession and discovered the song Home from the movie written and sung by Nick Jonas. I bought the movie on Prime that day and watched it with Kip. He was glued to it and I thought it was just as sweet as the book.

In the movie, Ferdinand is a bull that doesn't want to fight but is forced into the arena because he is a bull and that's what bulls do. He is bullied by the other bulls because he wants to protect the flowers in his pen instead of fight with the other bulls. He runs away and finds a new home with a little girl named Nina and her father who owns a flower farm. I won't spoil the story, but there are several really cute scenes where Ferdinand interacts with flowers.

Kip picked this up and started to do the same. This past fall we've seen him go up to a bunch of flowers, bend over and smell them. He also does it when Mandy or I wear flower clips in our hair.

I've shared pretty much all of these photos on Instagram but I just think it is so sweet and I know it's a gesture that will likely be fleeting at this age but a memory I will treasure.

If you haven't seen the movie, watch it. It's a very heartwarming story with a wonderful message.

Weekending it

We had our first cold snap of the season this past weekend and although 40 degrees will feel warm in three months, at this point, it was a freezing slap I wasn't prepared for. Woo! Had to pull out the scarves and ear muffs and everything.

On our fall bucket list we put November movies as something to check off. There are so many movies coming out this month that we want to see.

Honey Boy
Ford vs. Ferrari
Midway
Motherless Brooklyn
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Dark Waters
Jojo Rabbit

Mandy and I have been anticipating the release of a movie called Honey Boy since February. It's been a countdown and we were SO glad to live within the area where the movie was released. It only opened in four theaters in the entire country, so we took the opportunity and saw it twice. Once on opening night and again the next night followed by a Q&A with the director. Big shout-out to Dan for letting Mandy and I go see it twice and for putting up with our incessant talk about it for the last nine months.

Since Mandy and I got to see a movie, to be fair, Dan picked a movie he wanted to see and he and I saw it Saturday afternoon after cleaning out our storage unit in New Jersey. He picked Midway which was actually very good. Classic WWII movie which I'm always a fan of. This one was kind of like a historical sequel/continuation of Pearl Harbor. It came out on Friday and there were only 10 other people in the theater with us...all of them were over the age of 70. It's sort of a shame there isn't an audience for movies like that as much.

If you're thinking, geez Stephanie you got the best deal this weekend getting to accompany everyone to a movie, you would be right. It's nice to be in the middle sometimes. :o)

On Sunday we went to church and Kip enjoyed his Sunday school class again. No tears. I said, "bye Kip" and he said "bye Mama" and never looked back.

Other scenes from this weekend.

Play Station

In most older New York City apartments, each main room has a radiator. Most units have metal radiator covers that hide these huge ugly contraptions. At our apartment neither bedroom had radiator covers when we moved-in and we just left it like that for the first couple of years because custom radiator covers are very expensive. But, shortly after Kip started crawling, we felt like we needed to purchase a cover to protect him from touching the hot radiator in his room.

Turns out that was a highly useful investment since he immediately started using it as a play station as soon as he could stand. It is undoubtedly the place he plays at the most.

It's the perfect height and wide surface to push cars along all day. And it's magnetic too!

Good grief he has grown SO much.