Reese 18 month update

Everyone says "boys and girls are so different!" And while that is true, it's really hard to generalize that boys or girls do certain things because of their gender.  At 18 months I think the funniest thing about Reese (and THE biggest difference from her bother) is that she LOVES ALL THE THINGS.  Right now she is wearing a princess crown, her rain boots (on the wrong feet, of course), bracelets and dragging her doggie around the house. She's obsessed with clothes and shoes, her robe, sunglasses, jackets, hats, stuffed animals, babies, strollers, jewelry... anything to wear or carry around. She's also been known to wear 2 pairs of leggings at the same time and brother's underwear on top of that!

Kyle, on the other hand, hated anything on his body and kind of still does. He refused to wear jeans from ages 2-4, I had to FIGHT him to wear a beanie or hat, he hated jackets/sweatshirts and really didn't care much about stuffed animals, blankets, etc. Is that a boy/girl thing? I'm not sure... but I think it's hilarious how different my kids are about that stuff.

So Reesie girl, at 18 months -- you are just the cutest, sweetest little thing. With a bunch of sass! You give the best hugs and kisses (daddy gets them the most since you kiss him goodbye in the morning and goodnight every night) and you are oh so smart. You know lots of animal sounds, some colors, can say a ton of words, love to color and are obsessed with Elmo DVDs. Your favorite color seems to be yellow (and you say "yellow")! Your fave foods are sweet potato, avocado, blueberries, fig bars, milk babas, raisins and strawberries. You are, and always have been, the BEST sleeper at night and for that I'm so thankful. You go to sleep between 7-8 p.m. and stay in your crib without waking up until about 7-7:30 a.m. Your naps aren't as good, because you have too much to do during the day! So it's hard to get you down, but you'll usually nap around 1:30 - 3 p.m.

Here's some of the words you're saying:

• Mama
• Dada
• Eeees (Reese)
• Kyyyyy (Kyle)
• Peeeee (Penny)
• Yellow
• Baba
• Mimi
• Shoes
• Socks
• Up! Up! Up!
• Off
• Banana
• Eat
• More
• All done!
• Shhhh for sleep
• Suz (like shush) for grandma Suz
• I love you (only mama can understand that one, but you try)
• "I ok!"

You love baby school, where we go every Tues/Thurs from 8:30 - 10:30. Your teacher is Mrs. Brookler, and you give her a hug and kiss goodbye when we're done. You are such a big girl now, climbing up the rock wall and going down the slide on your own. You're also pretty good at riding scooters and have great hand/eye coordination! If I lay out the stacking cups, you will sit there and figure it out until you stack them in the right order. You also love to read books and your favorites right now are Brown Bear, Peek-a-Boo Barn, Where is Baby's Belly Button, Snoopy and Elmo books. You also love to jump from the ottoman to the couch and give mommy a heart attack. Oh, and I have to mention your hair. You have the BEST hair -- thick and blonde with perfect curls on the ends. 

WE LOVE YOU REESE!

Reese Elizabeth

We welcomed Reese Elizabeth to our family on July 14, 2016. She was 8 lb, 10 oz, 20.5 inches. My whole pregnancy I joked that I was hoping for a good eater and a good sleeper, and I was lucky enough to get just that! She is 3 weeks today and has been a dream. I don't want to talk about it to much in fear that I might jinx it! We love our little girl so much (especially big brother, who is an expert little helper!) and are so thankful for her health and sweet demeanor.

3 years old

Look at that handsome face. I just want to squeeze it all day long. Here's some things I want to remember about Kyle at 3 years, 3 months old:

• You talk NON-STOP. Words that end in "T" you pronounce with a "K" so you say "giank" for "giant," "righk" for "right," "presenk" for "present," etc. And some words that start with "S" you use "G" like "Gop!" for "Stop!" Words that start with "L" are "Y" like "Yoyo" for cousin "Lolo."
• You also like to say "that's funny huh?" or "that's silly huh?" "oopsie daisies!" and "aye yay captain!" 
• When we do thumbs up, you use your pointer finger shaped like a hook. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.
• You can write your name like a champ!
• You are about to finish your first year of parent participation pre-school, and you've grown up so much. You follow the rules, sit on the mat, do story time by yourself, etc. So proud of how far we've come since we started!
• You love to color and your pictures are no longer scribble. You stay in the lines and use all different colors. You're an amazing artist!
• You also love to paint and do such a good job on your crafts at school. You take them very seriously.
• Your favorite shows right now is Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Paw Patrol.
• You finally gave up your pacis last month. We were so scared to do it because you were OBSESSED your whole life, but after one night of torture we got through it and survived. The paci fairy brought you some Paw Patrol guys and their vehicles and I think you were satisfied with the trade.
• You started swim lessons last week and aren't sure if you love it yet.
• You sometimes sing a song to baby sister in my tummy that you made up. "Go to sleep, baby sisterrrr."
• You were a super potty trainer. Once you were ready, it was like you never even wore diapers! For us, the key was really just waiting until you were ready.
• You love the Step Into Reading books about Batman and the super heroes. But you also really love the Dr. Seuss books. We read a ton of books every night and you always ask for just one more.
• We like to go to the library and you help me pick out books now. 
• Last time we went to Knott's, you went on the log ride with Mimi! But now you say you don't want to do that again because you didn't like it. But you tried!
• After you get out of the bath, you and your dad like to trick me. You get in your jammies and then put your towel over them and make me think you just got out of the bath. You call it "jammie burrito" and think it's hilarious to do it EVERY NIGHT! You always say "I tricked you huh!!"
• You are a super friendly neighbor and say hi to everyone when we are on a walk or go to the park. The Fed Ex delivery guy came yesterday and you told him "I'm Kyle and I'm 3 years old!"
• We've been working on writing letters and you are doing really well! You can identify all of them and most of their sounds, and you can write A, C, E, H, I, K, L, M, O, Q, T, U, V, W, X by yourself (capital letters).
• You like to do puzzles and we play games a lot, like Candy Land, Memory, Chutes and Ladders, Sequence for Kids and Go Fish.

You are so stinkin sweet with your baby cousin and I can't wait for you to meet your baby sis. Only 5 more weeks!!

Baby #2 Coming Soon!

pictures by my good friend Morgan

It's been 100 years since I posted on this blog and I was actually going to delete it, but then I went to fill in Kyle's baby book and noticed that I had NOTHING written down for his 12 month update. So I came back and read my 12 month post and was able to fill in all the info I needed! Then I started browsing through all the old posts and realize how much I miss it. True, I don't have tons of time to spend on it, but whenever I have a few minutes to spare (like I do today) I want to post some updates to help me remember this time in our lives.

Only 5 or so weeks until we meet our baby girl and I'm feeling READY. Not ready, like I can conquer the world with 2 kids (I actually don't know how the heck I'm going to do it!), but ready, like I can't sleep very well and I'm uncomfortable and my feet are swollen from running around with Kyle all day so let's do this.

I also can't wait to see her sweet little face and introduce her to her big brother, who is excited beyond belief.

strawberry picking // 25 months

It was almost 90 degrees in the OC yesterday, but that didn't stop us from lathering on the sunscreen and spending some time at Tanaka Farms. During the spring they do strawberry tours, where you climb aboard a tractor, take a tour of the farm and then pick your own fresh berries to take home with you. (In the summer they have watermelon tours, the fall a pumpkin patch and winter Christmas trees.)

The entire tour is about an hour, and Kyle did great! I was actually surprised at how much he enjoyed it. He loved climbing aboard the tractor and sat nicely the entire time, pointing out cool things he saw, like a scarecrow and a hawk. On our way to the strawberry field we made a few pit stops to try some of their home grown veggies - we got to try carrots, cilantro, onion, celery, bok choy and sugar snap peas. And would you believe that my little picky eater took a bite of every single one?! (except the onion - I spared him from that experience). I couldn't believe it! I guess he got caught up in the moment :) He liked the carrots and peas the best, which is no surprise since those are his favorites at home too.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at how much Kyle loved the tractor ride since that's totally up his alley, but what really made me smile was how into the strawberry picking he was. He wanted it to do it all by himself and looked hard to find the good ones that were perfect for his little basket. And he was so, so proud of himself when his basket was full and he carried it back to the tractor. He climbed back in with his basket, opened it up and grubbed! Shoved strawberries in his mouth for the whole ride back.

We bought some sugar snap peas from their market and headed home, where Kyle was really excited to show his dad his basket of berries and eat a few more before dinner. We can't wait to go back this summer for some watermelon fun!

Santa Ana Zoo

I love taking Kyle on "field trips" when we have a free day. Sometimes we invite friends along, but other times it's fun to do things just the two of us. Last week, we checked out the Santa Ana Zoo. I had heard that it was a smaller zoo, so we knew going into it that there wouldn't be a huge variety of animals, but it turned out to be the perfect size for a 2 year old.

One of my favorite things about my schedule is that my "free day" is usually a Tuesday or Thursday, so when we go on these types of field trips we usually don't have to fight the crowds. This particular day was a Thursday, and aside from the bus of middle schoolers enjoying their actual field trip, there weren't too many people around. We saw tons of monkeys swinging around, which made Kyle laugh, an anteater, camels and an ostrich. But the highlight of Kyle's day was probably discovering that there is a CHOO CHOO at the ZOO! He was in heaven.

We took a lunch break and then I let Kyle play around on the playground for a while (by the way, he asks that I stay down now so that he can play by himself - what the heck!) and climb in the jeep, which was probably his second favorite part since he loves playing in daddy's real Jeep at home.

When Brian comes home from work in the evening, Kyle and I love to tell him about our day. When I asked him to tell daddy what we did that day, I expected him to say "ride choo choo," but the first thing he said was "see monkeys!" So cute.

Overall, we had a great day and I'm sure we'll be back again. Parking is easy and free and the zoo is right off the 5 freeway. Kids under 3 are free and adults are only $10, so it's a pretty affordable and fun outing for mommies with young kids. 

my daily routine with a 2 year old

chillin at home

park day

checking out the petting zoo

For some reason I love reading other mom's "daily routine" posts like this one from Pig & Dac, so I thought I'd share what a typical weekday is like for a stay at home/work at home/working mom. Plus, it will be fun to look back later and remember what life was like "back then" :)

6-7 a.m. (sometimes 5:45) - rise & shine!

Kyle wakes up, gets up from his toddler bed and comes and gets in bed with us. Sometimes he'll fall back asleep for a little bit, but he usually just snuggles with mom and kicks dad for about 30 minutes before we're all "ready" to get up.

7 a.m. - rise & shine, con't.

We all get up and head to the kitchen. I make coffee and pour Kyle some milk in a sippy cup and usually cut up a banana for him. Kyle and I either play or watch some Curious George/check emails/work on writing projects/prep for class while dad gets ready for work. (On Mondays and Wednesdays I need to be out of the house by 8 a.m. to teach my class, so those mornings are a little more hectic as Brian and I are both getting ready and taking turns keeping an eye on Kyle). After we're both wide awake I'll make us both breakfast.

8 a.m. - noon

Mondays/Wednesdays: I'm gone (teaching/office hours) during this time and grandma is home with Kyle. They usually take a walk in the park, do puzzles, read books, play outside, have snacks, etc. 

Tuesdays: auntie day! After breakfast I drop Kyle off at my sister's house so he can play with his cousin Jake, who is 3 (older cousin Harlow, who's 6, is at school). They usually do chalk outside, watch a movie and play with Jake's endless supply of cars/trucks/airplanes. My sister will feed him snacks and lunch because she is amazing. Kyle loves his auntie days so much and gets so excited every week. While Kyle is playing I head over to Coffee Bean to enjoy a latte and use their wifi to BUST SHIT OUT. This is my time to plan for my class and work on writing projects. I get so. much. done. during these uninterrupted hours and am so thankful for my sister for her help.

Thursdays/Fridays: I'm home with Kyle, so we will play around the house, paint/color, do puzzles, play choo choos, clean the kitchen, go to the park or do a fun activity/outing by ourselves or with friends. Kyle starts up his gym class again in a couple weeks, so he'll be doing that Thursday mornings for a while. Sometimes on Fridays we like to go to story time at the library at 10 a.m. and then stop at the park on the way home.

[Note - if I am having a crazy busy work week with lots of deadlines, sometimes I have to use this time to work at home. On those days, Kyle watches more TV than I'd like or makes crazy messes while I try and get stuff done.]

Noonish - lunch time/wind down for nap.

1-3 p.m. - NAPTIME AKA HAPPY HOUR AKA BUST SHIT OUT

I'm beyond thankful Kyle is still a rock-star napper. He's usually out for a good solid 2+ hours. This is when I frantically do laundry, vacuum, clean the floors and bathrooms (I try and clean when Kyle is up and he loves to help, but cleaning with a 2-year-old helper can sometimes be more trouble than it's worth), work on writing projects, grade papers, blog and every once in a blue moon sneak in a nap myself!

[Note - this is probably when I should be exercising, but you don't see that on the list above, do ya?]

3:30-6 p.m. 

Run errands or continue our play/learning time at home, head back outside or meet up with friends. Today when Kyle gets up we're heading to Costco, the post office and the gas station. He's a pretty good shopping buddy and I'm lucky that he loves to be in the car and helps me unload the groceries. There is definitely some snacking going on during this time as well. Other things we like to do: use our Knott's Berry Farm passes for a few hours of fun, go for a bike ride with Kyle in the "baby" seat, play with blocks, do sidewalk chalk, ride his little push Jeep or pull the wagon around the park with Penny or play on the playground behind our house. We sometimes like to check out other parks or kid-friendly places around town, like the petting zoo or children's museum.

Fridays: this is when I leave for my bar shift, and don't come home until 12:30 a.m. On these days, grandma comes over to play with Kyle until dad gets home from work, and then dad handles dinner/bath/bedtime.

6-7 p.m. - dinner time

Dad usually comes home around this time (usually closer to 7). Most nights I'll make dinner, some nights he'll bring something home for us and some nights we go out. Dinner is all over the board for us.

7:30 p.m. - bath time

I'm lucky to have an amazing husband who 90% of the time handles Kyle's bath while I take 15-20 minutes to myself. I'll usually just sit on the couch and catch up on Instagram, or sometimes I'll get a head start on the work I need to do that night. It's a nice break and I love him for it!

8-9:30 p.m. - play, think about bed time, watch a show, talk about getting Kyle to bed earlier tomorrow

We are in a bed time RUT! Our routine is so ridiculous right now. I think he's still in the in-between phase, stuck between the crib and toddler bed. Bed time takes forever because I'm not ready to just put him in bed, close the door and say goodnight because he will just play around, come out of his room, jump on his bed, etc. until the cows come home. So what we usually end up doing is play/read in his room for a bit, then saying goodnight and I'll stay in his room until he falls asleep. Sometimes I'll rock him, but lately he's just been wanting me to lay down next to his bed. A few nights he's gotten out of bed and fallen asleep next to me on the floor, then Brian picked him up and put him in bed. I'm usually in there for 45 mins- an hour (seriously) and 90% of the time I fall asleep myself. Sometimes I'm ok with that, but on nights that I need to do work it is BRUTAL to have to wake back up and turn on the computer.

10 p.m. - midnight

Depending on my work week, I'll use this time to BUST SHIT OUT. I'll plan for the next day's class, finish projects, catch up on email. If it's a light work week, sometimes I'll just leave Kyle's room and go right to bed. On fun nights when we aren't tired and have no work, Brian and I will watch a show together, have some drinks and enjoy some hub/wife time. Those nights are my fave :)

Thanks Pig & Dac for the inspiration. I'll have to remember to do these posts every six months or so to see how life has changed.

2 years old!

We celebrated Kyle's 2nd birthday with a train-themed party at the park behind our house. This kid loves his choo choo's, and he was pretty stoked when an actual train arrived to take the kids on a ride around our neighborhood! For the next few days every time we'd leave the house he would put on his fake pouty face and say "choo choo bye bye" - meaning he didn't want to say goodbye to that thing. It was pretty cool.

And check out that amazing train birthday cake that my mom got for him! The entire front part was made out of a rice krispy treat, and then the three train cars were chocolate cake, topped with hard candies, cake pops and cupcakes. Kyle was pretty obsessed with it and actually woke up early the next day, snuck into the kitchen and climbed up on the counter to stuff his face with blue frosting before I even woke up! Oh, and he pooped blue for 2 days :)

Since we kept Kyle's 1st bday party relatively low-key (just invited the family over for some cake and ice cream), this was our first time throwing a kid's party. I tried not to go too over-the-top, but I did want to throw a fun party for all of his little friends. We splurged on the train, but other than that I just had some train coloring book pages and crayons/colored pencils out, lots of outdoor toys for free play and sent the kids home with a cute little goody bag filled with a train cookie made by grandma, a train whistle or little wooden train, bubbles and a sheet of Thomas stickers.

Since his party was on Saturday and his actual birthday was two days later on Monday, we wanted to do a few things to make the day special for him. We snuck out to get him some birthday balloons and a birthday muffin, and then took him and his cousins to Chuck E. Cheese's for pizza dinner. Overall I'd say he started his 2nd year on a pretty happy note!

three things

one

MARS ONE. I cannot believe I didn't read about this before last night. Humans will establish a permanent settlement on Mars starting in 2024. Meaning, people are signing up for a ONE-WAY ticket to another planet to dedicate their lives to space exploration. They will say good-bye to their loved ones and lives they once knew, hop in a space ship and take the seven or eight month trip (with no running water) to Mars, where they'll spend the rest of their lives exploring their environment and reporting back to earth. Some of the American finalists to take the trip are married, and at least one man has children. Can you imagine seeing your dad for the last time as he boards a ship to live on Mars, never to return? This whole concept is blowing my mind. I stayed up waaaaay too late last night reading all about it.

two

PIECE BY PIECE comes out on Tuesday! I get so excited about new Kelly C. albums and love that you can buy 6 songs right now and then pre-order the rest for just $5.20 ;) LOVE the John Legend duet and also the title track. The whole thing will be on repeat in my car for a while - sorry Kyle!

three

THIS SMILE. I had the best morning with Kyle yesterday. We stopped at the local bagel shop, which has a kiddy corner made for my boy: a TV with Mickey playing and a little car to ride around while I enjoy my bagel and coffee. Oh, and he got a donut hole and apple juice, so he was on cloud 9. Then we headed to the library for story time, where he was such a good boy and so cute. He usually doesn't like to sit and listen to stories - he'd rather run around the room and explore what's under the table in the corner - but yesterday he sat on my lap and listened to Brown Bear and then participated in the songs and dances. It may have had something to do with the fact that I told him if he was a good boy we could stop at the park after to play with his new sand toys, but either way it made me a proud mama. This picture was taken after he didn't want to say "cheese" for me, so he stood up to get down and it started wobbling, forcing him to laugh and give me the cutest, biggest REAL smile. Even better :)

"snow" trip 2015

A few weeks ago we took our 2nd annual trip to Lake Arrowhead with a group of close friends. We look forward to this trip every year, getting all of the kids together and enjoying some time away. Kyle is the youngest kiddo of the bunch and probably the most work since he really, really loves walking up and down stairs all day long (and there were plenty of stairs in our three-story HUGE cabin), but we had fun nonetheless. It was fun comparing to how it was last year, when he was juuuuust about to take his first step and was crawling all around the cabin pulling himself up on everything.

The weather was gorgeous and we were able to play some outdoor games, and on Saturday we drove to Snow Valley for some sledding fun. Kyle loved going down the hill but was not a fan of his gloves or the ski lift (which freaked me out, too, thinking of him squirming out of my arms and falling out), so after his second run he got so worked up that he ended up falling asleep on me for a nice afternoon nap outside.

Instead of bringing the pack n play we just brought along his mattress to sleep on, but the first night he ended up rolling off and sleeping directly on the cabin carpet - which really irritated his poor face. That, combined with the sun/snow day and lack of good naps, really did a number on him and it took him a few days to recover from our vacation.

Next year Kyle will be almost 3 for this trip and I think it will be the most fun yet. Can't wait to go back to the beautiful cabin on the lake and watch him play baseball/soccer outside with all of his friends! Maybe next year he'll actually have fun in the snow, too :)

(You can read about our last year's trip here.)

23 months

Our last month with a 1 year old!

I took this photo of Kyle last Wednesday. I taught my first class that morning, picked Kyle up from his auntie's house and put him down for a nap. When he woke up I wanted to do something fun with him because it felt like we had been cooped up for the past few weeks while I met deadlines and prepped for school. I decided I wasn't going to open my laptop for the rest of the day, and we were going to make an impromptu trip to Knott's - just me & Kyle! It was one of those trips that I was soaking in every second because I was having so much fun with the sweetest boy. He's so good when we're there - he gets off the kiddie rides and waits for me, holds my hand, climbs in the stroller for a snack and has so much fun running from one place to the next. I know I'll remember these trips forever and will miss this time when he lets me hold him close while we ride the swings together.

23 months is really fun in our house, but can also be frustrating. It's so fun to watch Kyle remember words and communicate with us, but then it's hard to know what to do when he won't let us put pants on him or doesn't get his way and lies face down on the kitchen floor kicking his feet. He definitely gets his share of time outs, but I think they are mostly because he is working really hard to test his limits. Just recently he's starting doing "2 year old things" just to see if he can get away with them. Super cool things, like climbing on top of the piano and playing with his feet twice after I asked him not to, or pulling the diaper geenie bag out and wasting the entire refill pack by pulling 15' of plastic bag across the house. He also learned the phrase "no, no, no, mine" and can be possessive over things that he takes an interest in (where the F do they pick these things up?), so Brian and I are working very hard to teach him that those words are not allowed out of his mouth! It's so important to us that he's a respectful kid and treats others nicely. I know it's a process and will take time, so we are just trying to be consistent. It's a never-ending, exhausting journey through the terrible 2's!

I know things are clicking for him though, because he's usually a very sweet boy. He starting saying "thanks Mommy" or "thanks Daddy" without being prompted, which breaks my heart every time. He's asks nicely for things "play choo choos peeeeeese" and always takes a break from watching his show to pat me softly on the face and say "hi mommmmy" - you can only imagine how that melts me. We always talk to Daddy about our day while we're eating dinner, and he's starting to contribute to the conversation. After Knott's last week he kept telling him "choo chooooo!!!" because he was so excited that we took a ride on that train (his fave). 

23 month milestones

• Sleeping in his big boy, toddler bed.
  I feel like this milestone came a little too quick for us because I was definitely not ready to say goodbye to his crib, but he had been climbing out for months now and it just seemed silly at this point to keep the rails up. He loves his toddler bed and takes good naps in it, has only rolled off once and generally sleeps through the night (with the exception of last night of course when I finally fell asleep at 2:30 a.m. after my bar shift and he comes in our room at 3 a.m. and turns the TV on ready to watch Toy Story).

• Identifying a million pictures in a book.
  OK I'm exaggerating, but we read his "first words" book the other day and he could tell me so many words, I was so impressed! I'd point to a picture and ask him what it is, and he would tell me "hose," "bird," "shoes," etc. We're not quite there yet on the instruments page (no "cello," or "banjo" haha) but he nailed all of the foods, household and clothing items.
• Interest in sitting on the potty.
  Ok not sure if this is an actual milestone because he's definitely not even CLOSE to being potty trained, but he totally gets the process. He tries to go pee on the potty, but it just hasn't happened yet. But this month he would sit there and push, so I know he knows what to do. He also tells us when he needs a new diaper (sometimes). Baby steps! We're not going to push him until we know he's ready...
• Counting to 5!
  He loves to count, but he usually points to things and says "2, 2, 2, 2!" But a couple days ago he lined up his markers and counted "1, 2 3, 4, 5" and I freaked out! I randomly got it on video too, yay! I wasn't expecting it at all, and it's so fun to see things click in his mind. He hasn't done it again since, but now I know that he knows that there is a world beyond 2 ;)

January Update

Things are a little crazy in our house right now! I'm so excited to be teaching my first college class for the Spring semester (which starts next week, BTW), but since it's my first time teaching EVER I have so much reading and preparing to do, along with staying on top of all of my freelance writing deadlines and bringing home some cash from bartending. Brian is also super busy at work and finishing up projects at home, so between the two of us we could use a personal assistant to keep it all straight!

I am definitely not complaining, though. Teaching has always been a dream of mine and I am thrilled that I've been given this opportunity. My class is going to be Monday and Wednesday mornings, and I'll be doing my office hours 30 minutes before class starts. I've been told not many students stop by the office for help (darn college kids), so I'm kind of looking forward to having 30 minutes of quiet to myself to catch up on emails and plan my day. Kyle's grandma Suzie will be watching him at our house while I teach, and then Kyle will have a cousin play date at his auntie's house every Tuesday so I can stay on top of my grading and writing. My manager at the bar agreed to let me go down to two days/week instead of three, so that will help free up my weekdays to write and have some fun time with Kyle, too. It will be a busy semester, but I think it's going to work out great and I really can't wait.

In other news, we spent three hours at Ikea last Saturday (cue toddler and mommy meltdowns galore) picking out some stuff for my new office at home! We have a four bedroom house, and for the past few years one of the bedrooms has been our "room of doom" - AKA stuff was thrown in there and the door remained closed. I'm so excited that we took the time to clean it out and turn it into a functional space where I can (hopefully) be productive at home! We cleaned off the bookcase and desk and then bought a cute red cabinet for some of Kyle's toys and also got him a new easel with some chalk (Kyle helped Brian put it all together with his own hammer and tools, so cute). We wanted to get him this little table and chairs too, but of course they're sold out at the moment. My plan is to rotate the toys that are in here and put some sort of new, easy and fun little project in those white cabinets each week so when we go in there to work he's excited to check out what's inside and he can keep himself occupied for a bit while I work at the desk. I've been pinning some ideas and I'm excited to try them out! 

I hope with a reduced bar schedule, organized time to work and a new surge of motivation I'll be able to stay on track, kick butt at my work, plan healthy meals, keep a clean house and still enjoy time yogurt dates with the fam, time with my boy, QT with the hubs and maybe even an episode of The Bach and some decent sleep. A girl can dream, right? 

Welcome 2015

Happy New Year! I think 2015 is going to be amazing, and I can't wait to get started. We'll be celebrating Kyle's 2nd birthday next month and it's just about time to start planning his party. I haven't decided on exactly what the theme will be, but I'm looking forward to having all of his little friends over for some fun. 

Even though I'm not great at keeping resolutions, I think the new year is a great excuse to take a look at your life and make some improvements! Here's what I'm thinking about & working on for 2015:

• Stop procrastinating! I do a lot of work from home, and there's nothing worse than when I have to stay up until 3 a.m. after a long day to meet a deadline, and then wake up early with Kyle. My new routine will be to do a little work every night, even if the deadline is days away. I know it will be worth it because there's nothing worse than a zombie mommy. And I really need to be on my A game this year because I will have even more on my plate when I start teaching a class at the end of January!
• Start a mommy journal. I wish I would have done this sooner, but better late than never, right? I want to buy a beautiful journal and take a little time now and then to handwrite some thoughts and memories about raising Kyle. Maybe I'll give it to him when he grows up, or maybe I'll just keep it to myself. But there are so many tiny moments happening every day that burst my heart open and I need a place to keep them.
• Read more. I am ashamed to admit that I did not read any books in 2014. Not one single book! This is not acceptable. I love to read and need to make more time for it. This can be really hard when I'm trying to cram what seems to be too many tasks into the small windows of free time I have. When Kyle is asleep during the day I typically clean, do laundry, do work or sometimes just sit still for a minute. Then when Kyle goes to sleep at night I try and spend time with Brian, finish cleaning and finish my work. Sounds like a lot of cleaning but are the dishes ever done? NO! However, I do have some down time and if I make it a priority I know I can do it! Any book recommendations?
• Don't overreact. I think I'm usually pretty good at keeping my cool, but there are times when I have no excuse and I overreact like a crazy person. For example: just seconds after the picture above was taken by Brian, Kyle turned around and threw that hat into the duck pond. I actually cursed at Kyle and could not get over it for at least an hour. Over a stupid hat! I had my reasons, but none of them were valid. I need to learn to let those kinds of things go - every time. It's just not worth it.

Those are my big ones. I also need to lose a few pounds, exercise more, wash my hair more, make more of an effort to include family in my everyday life... the list goes on and on. But for now I'll focus on these few things and try to remember to enjoy the little things every day.

22 months

At 22 months, Kyle no longer walks anywhere - he runs or skips as fast as he can. He is all over the place and touches everything in his sight. Today at the store, in the 1.5 minutes it took me to pay for groceries, he pulled down the car air freshener and a bag of plastic bags off the shelf. The checker said "that's what boys do, mom!" and I guess he's right! He loves to explore outside and inside drawers, play with his cars and choo choos, throw balls, do play doh, watch Curious George, eat peanut butter off the spoon, and pull boxes of cookies off the counter and stuff them in his mouth (ok, that just happened once but it was hilarious).  

Kyle is really trying to put sentences together! So far they're just 2 or sometimes 3 words, but in the past few weeks his vocabulary has really grown. He loves to say "shoes on" or "shoes off," "out back," "bath time," "ready... go!" "watch show" "silly Penny" ... his little voice is so sweet. His favorite saying is still "up up up up up up" any time I'm sitting or relaxing somewhere because he just wants me to be UP holding him up or walking around doing whatever he's doing. Until this morning actually it sounded more like "uh uh uh uh" and then out of the blue today he said "uP" and enunciated the P!

He loves going on adventures with his mom & dad. He gets really excited when we all get ready to go somewhere. He makes sure dad is wearing his hat, gets his hat out of the closet, brings me my shoes and chooses a toy from his toy box to take in the car with him and gets cozy in his car seat with his blanket. He loves car rides and is such a good boy when we run millions of errands together every week. The ladies at the bank love him because he knows how to swipe my ATM card correctly, and everyone gives him so much attention because he's just so sweet and handsome with his red mop ;)

My favorite time of day is the morning, even though I'm never ready to get out of bed. Kyle will wake up, come in our room, climb in bed with me and get under the blanket. He'll snuggle with me every day - sometimes just a minute if he is excited to start his day, but sometimes for up to 30 minutes if he's feeling sleepy still. Sometimes he'll actually fall back asleep on me, and those days are so special since we've never been co-sleepers and I get to hug my boy as I catch a few more zzz's. Then we'll get up, get his milk, make coffee and watch a show before breakfast. An easy routine but I feel so happy and spoiled every morning being lazy with my boy before our day gets going. 

Kyle is really, really funny. He loves to tease us and make us laugh. He LOVES to be chased and "hides" by running away and dropping on the floor and crawling up into a ball. He loves his sister Penny - no one can make him laugh like she does. Except maybe cousin Jacob, who makes him belly laugh just by shaking his head silly. He knows how to push his boundaries and do things he knows he shouldn't be doing, but is also a great listener and such a good boy when we go places. He's been refusing to give us kisses and wipes ours off for a couple of months now because he thinks it's so hilarious. It is pretty funny, but I really can't wait until he's over that joke so I can get kisses from my boy again! 

Just two more months until we have a 2 year old! The thought of that is just crazy to me. I can't talk about it too much because I'm known to cry at the drop of a hat just thinking about my boy growing up. I'm going to miss these days when I can still rock him to sleep and he likes to hold my hand on the couch and do anything in his power (i.e. climb on my head while I'm working on the computer, climb up my legs when I'm standing or lay on my chest) just to be close to me. Great I'm crying now. Love my boy so much and this phase has been so much fun.

Knott's Merry Farm

Kyle and I had so much fun at Knott's last week with our friends. He's tall enough now to go on the airplane ride ALL BY HIMSELF (a very stressful 1.5 minutes for mommy). He loved it so much, but I was super nervous. We went on all the Camp Snoopy rides a few times and then stayed for the tree lighting show, which he watched from my shoulders - a first for us! He loved it. It's so cute to watch him interact with his friends. His favorite is holding hands and walking by himself... such a big boy. 

xmas jammies

 Can't. handle. this. picture. 

Bed head! Big boy pose! Jammies! Stop it.
Kyle has entered the dreaded phase of "point a camera at me and I refuse to smile or look cute," but our photographer worked her magic, and I am eternally grateful for that sweet smile.

21 months

I can't believe it is almost time to start planning Kyle's 2nd birthday party! I'm getting so excited about it because I know he's going to have so much fun playing with all of his friends and celebrating. He is changing so much every day, I can't even imagine what a big boy he will be on his special day in just 3 months.

At 21 months, our sweet boy is talking more and more. He's really trying to put sentences together and sometimes I can even understand him :) He is also learning how to charm his mom, which of course melts my heart. He bribed me with a kiss the other day and is starting to smile so sweetly at me when he knows he's starting to get into trouble.

Kyle loooooves to be tickled, laugh and be chased around the house. He's really into Play Doh, his Woody, pretending to take a nap (so silly), playing with his choo choos and riding his little Jeep around the house. He's becoming a much better eater and recently discovered the joys of new foods like mac n cheese, and he even ate broccoli willingly! He'll sleep until about 6:30-7 a.m. in his crib and then come climb in bed with mom for some morning snuggles. Some of his common words and phrases are "up up up" (all day long), "outside" and "pleeeeeease" when he wants to do puzzles on my iPhone. 

I just love my sweet boy to bits and cherish every single day I get to spend with him. He is my heart!

thankful.

This year, I'm thankful for:

• My healthy FAMILY! A supportive, hard working husband who puts all his love and trust in me. A sweet, smart, adorable, silly son who melts my heart and blows me away every day. A patient dog who loves us unconditionally. A mom who I go to for everything, a sister who's always there for me, a brother, dad and grandma who I wish I saw more of, and a niece and nephew who I love very much.
• My mother-in-law, who would drop everything (and does on a regular basis!) to help us out, and who loves Kyle with all her heart.
• The gift of staying home with Kyle most of the week, and the ability to make money when I do leave for work.
• The ability to use my education and writing experience to work from home.
• A great group of friends who I can be myself and laugh with, and who love Kyle as much as they love me & Brian.
• The means to indulge in fun things all year round, like Knott's Berry Farm, Discovery Science Center, a wine tasting weekend away, pedicures, train rides, dining out and family mountain trips.
• A good night's sleep.
• The fact that my back has not gone out since April (KNOCKING AS HARD AS I CAN ON WOOD ALL DAY LONG).
• My eyebrow girl.

'tis the season... to watch TV

Nothing gets us in the spirit like some good ol' holiday classics!

NOVEMBER

– Nov 26, 8:00PM: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (ABC)

– Nov 27, 9:00AM: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC)

– Nov 28, 8:00PM: Disney’s Prep & Landing (ABC)

– Nov 28, 9:00PM: Frosty the Snowman (CBS)

– Nov 29, 8:00PM: The Flight Before Christmas (CBS)

– Nov 29, 9:00PM: The Story of Santa Claus (CBS)

DECEMBER

- Dec 1: ABC Family’s “25 Days of Christmas” starts. For the daily schedule of the holiday shows they will be airing, click here.

– Dec 1, 5:00PM: Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family)

– Dec 1, 6:00PM: Christmas Vacation (ABC Family)

– Dec 1, 8:00pm: CMA Country Christmas (ABC)

– Dec 1, 8:00pm: Elf (ABC Family)

– Dec 1, 12:00am: Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family)

– Dec 2, 6:00pm: Elf (ABC Family)

– Dec 2, 8:00pm: Toy Story That Time Forgot (ABC)

– Dec 2, 8:00pm: The Santa Clause (ABC Family)

– Dec 2, 8:30pm: A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC)

– Dec 3, 8:00pm: Christmas in Rockefeller Center (NBC)

– Dec 4, 6:00pm: The Year Without a Santa Claus (ABC Family)

– Dec 4, 7:00pm: The Polar Express (ABC Family)

– Dec 5, 6:00pm: Disney’s A Christmas Carol (ABC Family)

– Dec 5, 8:00pm: Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Jim Carrey) (ABC Family)

– Dec 5, 9:00pm: A Very Grammy Christmas (CBS)

– Dec 7, 8:00pm: I Love Lucy Christmas Special (CBS)

– Dec 8, 8:30pm: Elf (ABC Family)

– Dec 9, 8:00pm: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (CBS)

– Dec 11, 9:00pm: Scrooged (ABC Family)

– Dec 13, 8:00pm: It’s A Wonderful Life (NBC)

– Dec 13, 9:30pm: Frosty Returns (CBS)

– Dec 13, 10:00pm: Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (ABC Family)

– Dec 16, 8:00pm: A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC)

– Dec 16, 8:00pm: Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas (NBC)

– Dec 16, 8:30pm: Home Alone (ABC Family)

– Dec 16, 9:00pm: America’s Funniest Home Videos Christmas Spectacular (ABC)

– Dec 20, 8:00pm: I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (ABC)

– Dec 20, 9:00pm: CMA Country Christmas (ABC)

– Dec 24, 8:00pm: It’s A Wonderful Life (NBC)

– Dec 24, 8:00pm/24 hour marathon begins: A Christmas Story (TBS)

– Dec 25, 10:00am; Disney Parks Frozen Christmas Celebration (ABC)

(thanks for the info, Breezy Mama!)

Is it Friday yet?

My week as a "single mom" did not go as smoothly as I'd hoped. I tackled sleepless nights, meltdowns and even a trip to the ER alone (croup strikes again). I feel pretty good about the way I handled things, but I am soooo looking forward to having daddy home tomorrow! Especially excited to enjoy a glass of wine while he handles bath time for the next few days :)