Saturday: Belmont Tour of Homes

So, today was my third consecutive day without a workout. I am taking a four day workout hiatus in response to a fever and cold that I had on Wednesday. I am determined to encourage my cold into remission by participating in a sedentary lifestyle for exactly four days.

Honest words: It feels weird. Friday felt like it was a good three days long. I sat about and watched an old movie and The Wiggles. I had a coffee and slept late. Who does that? Who, indeed?

Anyway, on day three of my sedentary lifestyle, I awoke at 7:30 and made myself some tea and a smoothie. I then began to prepare for a walking tour of the homes on the Belmont Tour of Homes (the brochure of the tour of homes is pictured above, along with my favorite home on the tour, and he last is a picture of my Aunt's garden which was featured on the tour as well).

Preparing to take an 18 month old on a walking tour is sort of like rearranging chairs of the HMS Titanic. You can get it all together, but that ship is still sinking; and sink it did. I meant to photograph my endeavors today, but I wasn't able to take any great pictures as I wasn't able to take the pictures, hold the bottle, keep up with the balloon, change the diapers and, in general, hold down the fort and keep the natives alive and get the pictures taken. For this reason, we will all have to settle for the lamely taken photos that I took of the guidebook while it was lying in the kitchen. They were taken in the time that Ivan was having his pre-bedtime meltdown and I was promising myself that though this had been a rugged day, I would only have one glass of wine. After a long day with an 18 month old, one glass of wine is a hard bargain.

Anyway, my mother met me at 11:30ish at my Aunt's house, so that we could start the tour with her garden. Her garden is amazing and Ivan started off the day well running around in his Halloween casual wear. This consists of his squeaker boots, a pair of corduroys and a jack-o-lantern sweatshirt with a hood that looks like the stem of a pumpkin. Note: If you are taking a child somewhere where they will most likely misbehave in an epic way, it is wise to dress them in an irresistibly attractive fashion, so that when people become quite frustrated with them, they cannot find it in their hearts be truly frustrated and therefor relations with strangers are salved. REMEMBER THIS. Cuteness is your only hope.

Ivan made it through all houses with the aid of a balloon. Every home on the tour was marked by a trio of balloons. Ivan is heavily into a balloon phase. My strategy went as follows: 1) approach house, 2) see balloons, 3) thieve Ivan a balloon from the mailbox display, 4) Ivan would hold onto the balloon for the first half of the tour = reasonable behavior so I can look at fabulous remodeling, 5) Ivan would lose his balloon to the high ceilings of the house, 6) he would commence meltdown, 7) we would leave quickly and hurry to the next house, 8) I would rip a balloon off the mailbox of the next house, 9) the cycle would begin again.

We saw some homes that were so lovely that I was filled serious envy. Such lovely bathrooms and wood panelling are surely things that I deserve. However, overall the tour was a lot of fun and my mom and I had a delicious lunch afterwards and a bit of shopping. I made it home to my promised one glass of wine. Painted my nails in a lovely OPI shade "Linkin Park After Dark" in preparation for my sisters baby shower tomorrow.

Off to Birmingham tomorrow!! Will let you know how it goes!!