Car Show 2012!

Doesn't it seem weird that this is the eighth year we have gone to the car show together?

I can remember being eight years old.  When did I get old enough to say I've done something for the last eight years ...with the man I'm married to .. and have two kids with? 

I felt all grown up this year pushing my double stroller with a baby on my hip while my husband manned our two year old as he tried out how his sippy cup fit in the bwack car .. and the blue car .. and the .... you get the idea.  Wait. Why was no one in the stroller? ;o)

It was grand.

He is just a total lost cause.  He is so wrapped around that tiny little finger you would not believe it.

There's just something about traditions, isn't there?

Things you do year after year, that come to punctuate your life and cause you to pause for a second, reminisce, reflect, and look back at what has happened since the last time the year came full circle.

Maybe that's why I like them so much.

I can't tell you what I was doing three Friday's ago. But I can remember last year at the car show, and our first trip to the pumpkin patch, and the times spent around my aunt's dining room table celebrating the Christmas Eve's of my childhood.

And we want our children to have that.

There is something wonderful about being married to a man who has the same goals and values you do.  And amazingly, on the issues where we stand apart time has served to close the gap.  Maybe this just means we spend way too much time together and we're slowing starting to meld into one person. Ha! I kid, I kid. But in all seriousness we were driving and Joe goes, "I am really looking forward to the Car Show. I think it's just that we do it year after year, it makes it feel like a special day.  Almost like a holiday."  And I fell a little more in love because, seriously? It's just a room full of cars, or a field full of pumpkins, an orchard full of apples, a man dressed up in a red suit in New York after a breakfast of pankcakes.  You can choose to make it special or you can not. And we both want lives full of special for our babes.

And as you would expect, Joey was in heaven.

 He was in and out of about a million cars and very impressed with the cup holders.

The surprise of the day was that Gracie Girl also had her own little world of fun with the Car show.

Her turn to "drive."

Sissy Girl has learned how to reach.

 And she lets her will be known.

In any given situation, you've got about five seconds between the time her eyes meet Mommy and those little arms go a reachin'

The smile annnnnd......

........the reach.

We were at the Car Show for a seriously long time.  Grace just could not make it but Little Man hung tough.

 He is just a ridiculous amount of fun right now.  He's at this part baby/part boy phase with his own observations, connections, and one-liners .. and the baby is fading fast.  Sometimes I think he can feel it too like when he looks up at me in the morning all groggy and says, "Pwease carry me Mommy? Like I a baby pwease?" And I always flash forward to when he's six, and 'too big' to be carried.  I pick him up every time and as I walk down the stairs with both of my arms full I say, "Mommy has ..." and he fills in "Two babies!" I say, "Who are my babies?" and he says "Joey annnnnd Dace." If I forget to say it he says it himself. 

Grace slept through China Town and we drove into the city a bit more to our favorite restaurant in Philadelphia.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a moment for me to be sitting there with 'our family.'  We started coming to this place when we were only dating and I can still remember the feeling of walking around the city with Joe at night when I'd have to stay there for work. We'd stumble into this restaurant as all the shops closed.  And we've been going back ever since.

Joey fell asleep in the car and in an unprecedented event would not wake up when we took him out of the car. He slept in the stroller, through the loud streets, through the transition out of the stroller in the restaurant, and on my lap while we waited for food.

It was really kind of nice sitting there with him like that, all dead weight, and sleepy baby, with his puppy hat.

We were worried about bringing them to the restaurant for the obvious reasons, a six month old and two year old with no naps and a long day behind him, they were obviously tired.  But as we always end up doing, we decided to push the envelope a little and see if they would rise to the occasion. They did, as they always do, and they were both wonderfully behaved. 

It was my favorite visit to the Car Show yet.