Divide and Conquer (Columbus Day Weekend)

Over Columbus Day weekend, Dad took Liam on a special trip to Milford to visit our Illinois family and celebrate our all-time favorite football coach as they dedicated "Sam Fanning Stadium" at Milford High School.  Liam was beyond thrilled to get to go on this trip with Daddy!  And he was double-spoiled the day before he left, when Theresa bought him Dots and his very first Starbucks to wish him a bon voyage.

Both Dad and Liam had an amazing weekend.  Liam loved hanging out with his cousins...

watching cousin Aidan's football game...

and getting to play in the Annual Derry-German football game!

They got to spend some time with Uncle Jake...

and Uncle Andrew... (don't ask!)

And Grandma made sure Liam was well taken care of in the safe treats department!

S'mores by the fire pit

Celebrating Toni's 13th birthday with his Derry and Ronna cousins

Back in the good old K of P, I enjoyed my first solo weekend with Joergen.  Although I of course missed Dad and Liam, it was just so nice to have time one-on-one with my baby boy.  I loved every minute of our sweet time together!

On Saturday morning, we decided to meet up with my choir friend Chrissie, her husband Doug, and their adorable daughter Kate at Rotorfest, a helicopter air show just a few miles away at the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester.  It was pretty cool!

Joergen in front of a military chopper

Watching the show

Checking out the inside of one of the choppers on display, waving "Hi Mom!"

"Ok, Kate- let's fly this thing."

"Or this thing!"

One thing I love about Kate and Joergen is that they are both thumb suckers.  It's really cute!  You can see Kate sucking her thumb in the photo above and Joergen in the photo below.  I think they bonded a little over this.

Sassy-pants Joergen.  And yes, he accessorized himself!

Chrissie took this photo of Joergen and I talking about the helicopters during the show.  I think *someone* was getting tired...

On Saturday night after dinner, Caitlyn came over to play with Joergen while I had a little Girls Night Out with Jen at Painting with a Twist.  So. Much. Fun. 

Jen and I with our creations

I have to say, one of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to say "yes" to almost anything Joergen asked.  It felt like such a luxury to have no real plans, to eat when we wanted, and to have no one else vying for attention.  So when Joergen would say, "Mom, will you play wiff me?"  "Can we go for a walk to dee park?" "Will you read me a dory (story)?"

My answer was Yes, Yes, and Yes!!

Doing construction puzzles

Making silly faces

One evening Joergen wanted to go for a walk, and as we walked around the pond near our house at sunset, this overwhelming feeling of peace and gratitude just kind of took over.  The park was so beautiful with the leaves turning, and I felt so grateful to be living right here and even more so for this special time with my Joergen.  And suddenly I heard this little voice say, "I wuv you, Mom."

It was all I could do to get out the words, "I love you too, buddy."