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!