Five on Friday!

Surprise — a post! Things continue to be wild around here but should hopefully settle soon and regular posting will resume. In the meantime, a few (or five) things…

one. Last week McKinsey hosted Supper Club! She made the most incredible Jamaican Pork Tenderloin in the slow cooker and served it alongside roasted cauliflower, green beans and rolls! Two thumbs up!

two. My friend Mel had her baby — Madison Marie!!!! I’ve been over a couple times in the past few weeks to sneak in some itty bitty baby snuggles. She sleeps in this little basket all day! JK — newborn pictures in progress here. But my goodness, I blacked out through both of my kids’ newborn days and forgot how sweet and sleepy new babies are!

three. Last week we had another huge eye appointment and y’all (I’m already crying just writing this)…Thomas NAILED IT. Most of the time these appointments, which take around three hours to complete, are pure torture for us all. But Thomas was the biggest champ. He even had to get his eyes dilated twice (the first time wasn’t enough) and let Dr. D give the most thorough eye exam while he SAT STILL in the chair BY HIMSELF (sorry I’m screaming with all caps, I’m just so excited and proud). In the past it would take three of us to hold him down and pry his eye lids open for an exam. Because we were able to get such good measurements we are tweaking his contacts with a new prescription. Previously we were working on his long distance vision and now we are going to switch to his reading vision — and hopefully this will help us with things like STAIRS (our nightmare)!!! Without lenses in his eyes we can only pick one vision — near-sighted or far-sighted vision to work on at a time, so Thomas will always struggle a bit with whichever vision he isn’t working on over the next few years, until he gets a permanent lens implanted in his eye. Anyway, this little dude is SO DAMN AWESOME. I couldn’t be more proud of how he’s handled this journey with so much strength! Oh, and if you know us in real life, don’t be offended if Thomas gives you his confused stink-eye look if you’re interacting with him from too far away — you’re blurry!

four. In other exciting Thomas news — we finally got his summer shoes in! Poor guy had been wearing his sissy’s pink natives and pink tennis shoes for a bit while we waited on his new kicks to arrive. He and Caroline now wear the SAME size shoe. I’ve written about my love for Natives before but these shoes are absolutely our favorite summer shoes — they are durable, breathable and perfect for errands and trips to the splash pad.

five. Yep, still using HelloFresh, thank goodness. If I didn’t have these meals waiting on my doorstep there’s a good chance we’d be surviving off of cereal 7 days a week right now. But instead we’re only eating cereal 4 days a week and amazing things like pork chops with crispy chorizo Brussels sprouts smothered in balsamic glaze.