belated weekend

that's john sitting on his daddy's
shoulders, watching sharks and rays.

did you know it's wednesday? and did you ALSO know that i've been planning to write about our awesome weekend since sunday night? and did you FURTHER know that i've written about everything but?

so. let's pretend it's not coming up on a new weekend and talk about the one that "just" ended.

"ernie" shoes

recently, john's shoes were starting to be too small. we had retired his size four sneakers, and the only shoes that stayed on his feet were his size five boat shoes. his size five chuck taylors flopped off his feet with every step he took.

so logically thinking, i decided he needed a size 4.5. which is very difficult to find, at least when you shop at wal-mart and don't like to spend more than $10 on shoes for a growing peanut. but since his health and happiness are paramount, we went off to stride rite saturday morning to find some size 4.5 sneakers even if they cost $30.

i figured we would measure his feet, just to be on the safe side. the lovely lady at stride rite plopped his foot on the little measurer and said, "looks like he needs a six!" not sure i'd heard right, i explained the 4.5 situation. she said he has a very narrow foot so we need to find something with good padding, but that a 6M was the right size for him. (spare a moment of thought for a contrite mama who's been jamming those little toes into shoes two sizes too small ...)

fortunately, there were several 6Ms to choose from in the under-$30 category, and we tried two pairs on john. the first ones were fine - he ran around like a maniac before returning back to me. but when he came back, he pointed at the other pair and screamed with glee, "ERNIE SHOES!" and proceeded to sit down, tear off the first pair, and try to put the "ernie" shoes on.

i have no idea why these are ernie shoes. there's no ernie on them. they're not striped blue and orange. there was no ernie in the store near them. but if you were wondering, this is what ernie shoes look like:

and they've barely left john's feet since.

the aquarium/french quarter fest

ernie shoes procured and securely attached to john's feet, we headed into new orleans to go to the aquarium. we had groupon tickets for the aquarium that expire at the end of april, so we were coming down to the wire on making it there. we knew the french quarter fest was going on, but we didn't realize that it basically encompasses the entire area around the aquarium.

thanks to some quick thinking and sharp navigating by my husband, we easily parked in the hilton parking garage and walked our way through the crowd to the aquarium. as we walked inside, john just kept saying, "fish? see fish?"

and pretty quickly, he was greeted with all the fish he could possibly want. they have one of those tunnels you walk through, where the fish are all around you everywhere you look. we spent about 10 minutes just looking at everything, and as we exited the tunnel to head into the rest of the aquarium, john kept pointing back at it saying, "more fish! that way!"

he also loved watching the jellyfish and we spent quite some time checking out the collection of frogs. we were only in the aquarium for maybe two hours, but that was about john's limit! but a good time was had by all.

then we ventured out into the french quarter fest where we had a little family picnic, listened to some good music, then fought through a CRAZY crowd by the main stage before heading back to the car.

the birthday party

my uncle's 50th birthday party was scheduled for 5pm at a friend's house in uptown new orleans. we headed that direction, but we knew we had about an hour of time to kill. fortunately, iphone's are pretty amazing ... and we found the creole creamery for a little ice cream before the party. (john's review: "YUMMMM!!!!!!!")

finally we made our way to the party, and visited with family and friends who came from all over the country to celebrate with my uncle. there was way too much food, more than a little to drink, and great company. a fine time was had by all ... and john's tired family made their way back home around midnight to fall fast asleep ...

a nap-free zone
and it's a good thing we slept, because john tried his hardest to declare sunday a nap-free zone. we made the mistake of taking john to church for late service instead of early, so by the time he and daddy came home john had been replaced by disaster baby. and disaster baby would NOT go to sleep. he laid in his crib and cried, then talked, then cried, then screamed, then cried for about an hour and half.

finally, he drifted off to sleep ... for three hours! see john, when mama says you need a nap, you need a nap ...

and i leave you with one more even-more-belated image - snapped at the camp on easter weekend. my cousin's girlfriend has the new-fangled version of a polaroid camera, and she was kind enough to snap this pic of a too-happy mom being climbed by a mischievous monkey: