Thursday, September 20, 2012

Things I'm Loving...and a Printable!

This week I'm doing a two for one:  a list of all the things I'm currently loving AND a free printable of my Fall Bucket List!! 

When I was pregnant with Nash, I realized there was a wealth of information on the internet about things to do with your baby to help them grow, learn, etc...  All these ideas from Mama's around the world about giving your kids all these experiences...all right there in Google.  Pinterest now makes it even easier, and with September finally here, I feel like I'm ready to tackle some of those. 

Printables and Bucket Lists are cool because it forces you to sit down and say, "this is what I want to experience" and then gives you an outlet to share it with others.  I had found a few good Fall Bucket Lists on Pinterest (like this one and this one), but nothing that was just quite right (after all, my List must be different than someone from Michigan, right?).  So I took some ideas from a bunch of places, added my own, and voila!  Here's my list:




Here's the good stuff.  The things that keep me coming back to the web with unbounded excitement.  Does that sound cheesy or weird?  No, ok good.  

  • Saw this Coolness Graph on MSN the other day.  Some of this is clever shit! 
  • I'm reading this book on my Kindle for iPhone right now...I can't put it down.  If you're married or not, it's a good read about why things do/don't work out in relationships.  Next up:  get the Hubs to read it too...it's like free therapy, eh?
  • I'm such an Apple snob...I so want this.  Now if only I can con Verizon into upgrading me early.
  • I'm shooting my new nephew's newborn photos this weekend, so I bought a bunch of new fabric.  I'm so loving these brights!  Thanks to Dana for giving the 411 in her blog...might be my new supplier! 

That's all for this week, but I've got a lot more cool stuff pinned on Pinterest.  If you haven't checked it out, you should.  Just sayin'.


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

21 Months


Yep, it's that time again, folks. Time for a holy-crap-my-baby's-even-less-of-a-baby update. Each month that I do these, it gets crazier and crazier because I realize how close we are to the big "2".   So close that Joe and I are already talking about his birthday party...which is a bit of a cluster already since we are living in Jacksonville, but visiting Melbourne as often as we can.

We know we want to do it in Melbourne, but were working out the location still. Before we even get there, we've got to tackle our first Disney trip, both Mama and Daddy's birthdays, Halloween, AND Thanksgiving.  Lots of living left to do before December 11th.  But back to the task at hand. Bubs is 21 months old now and things are starting to get crazy!!

Here's the rundown: 
Height: 34.5 inches (I think)
Weight: 27 lbs (ish)
Hair: still dirty blonde
Eyes: still hazel-ish
Teeth: still rocking all but the last 4 molars
Clothes size: entirely 2T now
Shoe size: 7 and holding steady


He has to pick out his own shoes...and he loves these red ones.

Eating: 
We've definitely entered the picky phase as he rarely wants to eat what we want him to eat when we want him to eat it. He loves shunning foods we assume are his favorites and will not touch anything that looks remotely weird or complicated. Often times he'll put something in his mouth, let it barely touch his tongue and then spit it out with extreme distaste. It's maddening. And he wavers between periods of ravenous eating and nibbling like an anorexic bird, so we never know what to expect.

He still loves bananas (which we can't really give him) and toast and fruit in general, although he's been rejecting grapes lately. He refuses to eat grilled cheese, which is so weird to me, and definitely loves crackers, cookies and chips (of course). He drinks a fair mix of milk and watered down juice, but doesn't really like water (although we give it to him every night when he goes to bed).  Still wolfs down broccoli and seems to prefer wheat toast to white, which is awesome.

Sleeping:
This deserves a post all to itself. We transitioned Nash to a toddler bed a few weeks ago when he began crawling out of his crib on the regular. He seems to love his bed so much, and is always running into his room and pulling all of his stuffies on top of himself in the bed. But when it comes to bedtime, he's still a challenge. He does ok if we're in the room, but as soon as we try to leave, he jumps out of bed, runs over to the door and screams bloody murder until we return.

 I think this is just a phase and we just have to wait it out, but it's definitely been trying on both of us. Add in his recent love of smacking people in the face when he's upset and you've got a recipe for ugly.

Who me?  No, I don't smack Mama in the face at least three times a week.  Nope, not me.

Talking:
He's talking up an absolute storm now and it's literally the highlight of the month. Joe and I are always talking about how he repeats just about anything and understands just about everything. He's able to say most of the body parts we've been teaching him (even though he doesn't always finish the last consonant...like he's say "mow" instead of "mouth." He even says, "Na" when we ask him what his name is and every time we ask, he's closer and closer to an actual "Nash." He says "Pop Pop" for Grandpop and "Gumma" for Grandmom. He recognizes both our cars (especially Daddy's) and walks around the house saying, "Kitty?  Kitty?"

He loves saying "uh, yeah" or "uh, no" to just about any question we ask him (this is particularly hilarious) and recognizes a lot of animals and their sounds. Whenever the doorbell rings or a phone goes off, he grabs his ear and say, "oh!"  If we hand him something he really wants (like a yummy snack), he says, "Awww, man!" It's freaking funny, people.   He also does this thing where he smiles, says "chee" and put his fingers to his cheeks whenever we tell him we're taking a picture.  Must have learned that a daycare.  Can't wait to see his first "school" pics!

Other Developments:
The best part is that we feel like we can finally REALLY reason with him.  The other night we were having a particularly hard time getting him to go to bed, so I told him,"You're a big boy now, and Mama knows you can do this on your own."  And he laid down in bed like he totally understood and WANTED to be a big boy.  He literally glows whenever he accomplishes something, like taking off his own clothes and diaper for bath time or throwing away his own trash or coloring.  He loves being a smarty for sure, and we're always telling him how smart he is. 

We only did a few swimming lessons, but we learned the basics and continue to encourage him to "swim."  He's able to sit on the steps of the pool and walk around without plunging into the water or needing either of us to be right on top of him watching him.  He kicks his legs and has even gone underwater a handful of times...all in the name of "swimming like Nemo!"

He jumps like a champ (with both feet) and goes up and down stairs.  He has mastered all but one of his puzzles and loves to sort his toys (Joe always tells me how he'll go into his room and come out with all of one certain kind of toy).  He's coloring now and even drew on the walls for the first time this month (that's like a mandatory toddler milestone, right?).  I try to come up with new things for him all the time, like water balloons or finger painting or helping me clean so that he's always learning.  He's really into movies now, so it's tough not to let him just sit in front of the tv after a long day of working. 


Overall, he's super sweet, but also super emotional and impatient so we're lucky to make it out alive some days.  Now that he's able to do a lot of things on his own though, we're starting to crawl out of the messy house, no time to relax, where has our marriage gone hole that inevitably accompanies the first few years with a baby.  Now it gets REALLY fun.  Right? Anyone?  Bueller?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

On the Verge of Big Boydom


{Sorry for the grainy photos...these are courtesy of my phone}

Last night was a rough night on all fronts.  We arrived back home late from a weekend trip down in Melbourne and made a mad dash to knock out a quick bath before bedtime.  About a week ago, Nash began crawling out of his crib on the regular, so we were worried he'd slip and fall one time while he was trying to get out.  So, we made the decision to convert his crib into a toddler bed.

While the actual conversion was a piece of cake, getting Nash to stay in his bed was not so simple.  Although he was super stoked about his "big boy bed," he wasn't so thrilled when Mama tucked him in and the made a move towards the door.  He wanted me to sit next to him while he laid in his bed.  Which normally wouldn't bother me except I had a lot of unpacking and work prep to do before an early morning.  And he was overtired, so he kept fidgeting.

I tried a few times to just shut the door and let him complain, but he


What we weren't expecting was how significant an event it is.  I knew going it that it would be tough for all of us - Nash has to get used to staying in bed now that he has the freedom to roam around and we have to get used to our little man growing up.

All this has come right when we're dabbling with potty training (I use the word "dabbling" verrrry loosely here) and he's talking more, eating by himself, learning to swim and hitting any one of a dozen other toddler milestones.  It's all so much I just want to throw my arms around him and say, "Stop! I'm not ready!"  Truth is, I'm excited about him growing up, but I also can't believe it's happening so quickly.  We went over to a friend's house for some drinks a few days ago, and our friend April says, "I swear you were just pregnant."  I was like, seriously...


I can't wait until this job comes to a close so I'll have more time to spend with him and Joe.   I know these next few months are going to be crazy as Nash speeds towards his 2nd birthday, and I hope I can remember to slow down and take it all in.  After all, these are the last three months that he'll ever be 1.    And I'm 100% sure we'll be making these faces on the regular.


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