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?