Saying Goodbye to 14 Months

I tell you, the whole 13-14 months has been awesome. Yes, it can be exhausting keeping up with a kiddo that goes as much as my Daredevil, but this is an awesome stage. He is Mr Personality. He learns new things daily. He is so much fun to hang out with. I'm smitten. I think he's so cool. I'm slightly biased.

Here are some of his fun new tricks.

Climbing. He's been climbing for awhile, but he's got his hopes set on new heights. Specifically our dining and kitchen tables. He's managed to get on the dining table already. I tell you, he's capable of so much! It's crazy! Just last night he climbed up and stood on our friends' end table like he was just expected to do that.

He loves to stack blocks and knock them over. Even better when I stack them and he gets to knock them over. Much faster. :) I'll ask him to stack one and the next one and he's pretty consistent at doing it until it gets too tall. Our favorite set is 3 ft tall!

He loves his golf clubs that Gampa got him for Easter except he uses them to stir dog food and make music on the furniture instead of practice his golf swing.

He likes to color but only if he can snack on the crayon after. We found some big chubby crayons that are triangle shaped (instead of round) so they won't roll all over when he drops them.

He likes noise - tv, music or toys - as long as it makes music he can dance to. His current favorite us the theme song to Tinga Tinga Tales. I sing it and he just cracks up. I downloaded the song and when I play it over the Apple TV, he drops everything to get down.

He loves bubbles. He chases them and he tries so hard to touch them without them bursting. We are working on saying and/or signing bubbles. I'm afraid once he learns one or the other we will be playing with bubbles all of the time.

If we "shake, shake, shake" an instrument and I say stop, he will! He loves his music class so much. I can't recommend it highly enough. Not only does he learn so much but it is all things that we can bring home and do here. He loves the music, singing, dancing, running, babies, etc. There's one song where we alternate walking, galloping, tip-toeing, swaying and then stopping. He cracks up whenever we gave to stop. Now that he gets to hold my hand instead of being carried, he thinks its the bee's knees!


He still loves to explore and soak everything in. I hope he never stops exploring.

He loves playing outside in anyway possible. Running, riding, swinging, etc.

He now likes to jump into the pool standing, not sitting. How is that even possible?

He is awesome at Whack a Worm (which is a game I made up at swim class awhile back). He is quick to grab those worms regardless of where they pop up at!

We are working on learning body parts, colors, shapes, numbers and letters. We have a long way to go but it's where we are.

I'm a bit sad to be leaving 14 months but I'm excited for what's ahead.

Earth Day

Earth Day turned out to be a nice day! 57 and partial sun? Whoa. We'll take it! Awesome day to play outside.

Daredevil woke up to some gifts for Earth Day! He got a new bedtime story called Good Night World that highlights all the wonders of the world... oceans, mountains, etc. It is lovely and beautiful. He also got a book called Choose to Reuse that shows how to reuse things like cardboard boxes!!!

 We also used some old plates from Goodwill to make some yard art flowers for my garden. This has been a project in the making but they will officially be ready to put in the ground around dinner time tonight.

We used up some over ripe bananas instead of throwing them out by making banana nut bread! The recipe I used has 3 or 4 ingredients, seriously, but it is so good! Don't ever throw out over ripe bananas again! I'm excited to deliver these tomorrow to some un-suspecting people.

We also spent time outside enjoying the weather, went to music class, played with bubbles, colored and then ate crayons, made fruity pebble treats dipped in chocolate for life group snacks tomorrow, did 6 loads of laundry, finished all mother's day gifts and got everything ready for our upcoming travels. I also did a lot of not fun stuff, too.

Weekend

Snuggles...

Walks...

Date night...

Runs...

Family time...

Kisses...

All in all an excellent weekend!

Random

Spring cleaning always makes me want to freshen up things in my home... new room sprays, fresh flowers, a plant, etc. This year, I'm in the mood for a new rug for the kitchen and living room. I found some at Target but I'm not ready to drop the cash.

I also like getting new storage items, too. This year, I want this trunk but I don't really have a place for it so I didn't get it. But, boy, I sure love it.

I did manage to come home with this beauty. I think it looks great on my front porch. It's like bright lipstick for my front door.

Daredevil is as cute as ever. Even whew it's "Whoops."

I need to buy this for someone. It is the cutest little summer dress! Can you tell that Daredevil let me have a leisurely walk around Target? It was awesome. And I only spent $30. That's practically a miracle.

Here I am, spring cleaning myself. I needed a freshening up, too.

We have a busy weekend around here! What are you up to?

Monsoon

Another monsoon kind of day. More thunderstorms. More rain. 

I bought flowers to cheer me up. Trader Joe's is my secret place to get the best, cheapest flowers anywhere. Mr Tech Guy knows I'd 100% rather get flowers from there than any flower shop. True story. Nothing tops an impromptu Saturday morning when he swings by TJ's and says, go find the best bouquet.

Daredevil and I thought we had some clear weather in between storms. We were wrong. We were wet. We were cold. He was hysterical by the time we got home. Worst. Mom. Ever.

Ben got a hair cut, too. He's mighty cute now. Well, he's cute all the time, but now, too. Here he is in his fancy Thunder Shirt. We'll do anything to contain the "thunder terror" that ensues at our house.

More storms today. I may have to do a Leslie Sansone video inside today. I don't want to risk a repeat of yesterday. I'm supposed to join a friend this afternoon for a long walk at one of her favorite routes. Maybe the weather will turn off awesome? Maybe? Anyone? 

Still knee-deep in spring cleaning. Is it pathetic that it takes me a full week to spring clean/declutter this house? I've been going room to room but I gave myself two days for the kitchen because of the amount of decluttering it needed done. I have bags of food to donate to the local food pantry, books and magazines to take to Half Price Books, a full back of the Acadia to take to Goodwill and on and on. I just keep loading up the car. And I haven't even done the master bedroom yet. It's last (for the upstairs). I'm hoping that once the house is done -- projected to be Sunday -- the weather will turn and Daredevil and I can start working on the outside. Fingers crossed! 

Mom's night out tonight, playgroup tomorrow. Busy busy Bs!

Running Buddies

I am crazy and signed up to run a 5k in 6 weeks.

Ummm, I can't run. Like, have an asthmatic fit with a slight jog. Like, if you see me running call the police because I'm probably being chased. Like, I'm truly crazy. Truly.

I've been wanting to run this for awhile so I just did it. I just signed-up... I even did it before the early bird deadline passed. It's the funniest thing though. Wanting to run it and signing up for it has been crazy motivation. I know that in 6 weeks you can't become a 5k runner, but it'll give me somewhere to start and something to aim for.

I started the C25k which I do 3X's/week. So far on the other days, I walk anywhere from 1-3 miles depending on the weather, Daredevil's mood, our schedule, etc.

My running buddies are awesome and they keep me in line. I think they have more fun than I do. Once it warms up on our non-C25k days, we'll most likely swing by the park on the way home making me the best ever.

I'm still pretty sure I'm nuts though. I wasn't going to even tell anyone I was doing it because it is so crazy sounding. And because I'm pretty sure I will chicken out. But what the heck, now you know. I'm crazy.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

We got a few hours of sunshine this morning! It was a great couple of hours. We took a long walk/run before music class. I know that all this rain will make for great gardening weather in a few weeks but right now it seems never-ending.

I've been finalizing my garden plans and ordering the few starts that I get from an organic gardener in Mt Horeb. I think we're going to grow some herbs and a few vegetables here at home but the majority will still be at Epic. I'm working on getting our house spring cleaned indoors so that as soon as the weather clears, I can head outside and get everything set up! I'm going stir crazy... but it is nice having a clean house. So far the guest room, the bathrooms upstairs and Daredevil's room have all be spring cleaned as well as the hallway and its two closets.

I'm also working on a backyard cookout for Mr Tech Guy and Twin's birthday. It's the big 3-0! I'm thinking that the backyard will still be too muddy to hang out there but I'm just going to be flexible.

.........................................

I also just want to send out some prayers for Boston. What a senseless act. What is this world coming to? 

Dogs - and their "baby" adjustment

One of the questions we got, and still get, is how the dogs adjusted to Daredevil. Both Oliver and Phinneas took it in stride from the beginning. He was cool but whatever, no big deal. Benton, on the other hand, had a harder time adjusting to everything. We'd gone to a baby ready pet class from our local humane society before so we'd worked on getting them adjusted to baby gear and babies crying (thank you, YouTube). We prepped ourselves on the initial introduction and made all those necessary arrangements.

Then, we had Daredevil, stayed in the hospital for 8 days and finally made our way home. Just like they suggested, Mr Tech Guy and I came inside first (while my mom stayed in the warm car with Daredevil) and greeted the boys. They acted really weird with me. I don't know if I smelled different from the surgery, meds, anxiety but Phin especially took awhile to approach me. Finally they greeted us and calmed down so we brought in Daredevil. We brought him in in his carseat and let them smell him in his seat first, then we took him out and let them give him so kisses and smells. At this point, Oliver and Phinneas gave him sniffles, snuggles and kisses and were over it. Benton smelled and smelled and smelled but never gave kisses and really didn't want to leave him alone. After a much longer time, he figured that Daredevil wasn't leaving and he chilled out.... until I started my breast pump. He didn't bark when the swing went but when I cranked on my pump and "lamp-post, lamp-post, lamp-post" began, he went crazy. He barked non-stop, like hysterical barking, if you can imagine. That was something we didn't have before Daredevil was born so we couldn't play it for them ahead of time. I'd say it took 72 hours or so for him to chill out when the pump was on. After that, occasionally  he would bark when Daredevil would cry but more to alert us that the baby was crying not because he was crying.

After the initial stages of introduction, Benton did well except during times of transition...grabbing, rolling over, pulling up, crawling and walking. Crawling was the worst transition because it was the first time that Daredevil was truly mobile (ie room to room) and Benton thought he should follow him everywhere and herd him to where he thought Daredevil should be, which was not where he wanted to be. By herding he would bark and nudge and bark and nudge Daredevil. Ugh. It drove us crazy. We debated finding him a new home, hiring an animal behavioralist, exercising him to exhaustion, etc. We tried water aerobics, long walks, a lot of fetch, drives, early bedtimes. It feels like we tried everything. There were days when he just plain drove us crazy despite all of our efforts.  Neither of us could bear the idea of finding him a new home and we prayed that he'd adjust to Daredevil's new mobility. We prayed hard to wisdom on what to do and the only thing we got was "wait." And so wait we did with as much patience as we could muster. We are so glad we gave him the time and space he needed to adjust and realize that the moving Daredevil was here to stay. And then, one day, he just got used to it.

Having three fur-babies who are treated like princes did cause some challenges in bringing home baby, but with time, even Benton got adjusted. All in all, I'd say that they that adjusted great and I'm so proud of my fur-baby boys!

Sick

We've been sick since Tuesday. No joke. Whatever Daredevil got, he shared and we've all been lucky enough to enjoy it with him. Let me tell you this flu bug is nothing to mess with. I got it Wednesday, Mr Tech Guy and Twin got it Friday... I thought I felt better today but my tummy is still touchy and Daredevil is still having trouble keeping anything solid down. I hope we're over this hurdle and on our way back to tip top health soon. But that's what I was thinking about while he napped in my arms this afternoon, that this will come to pass. I've cried this week, been puny, weak, flustered, praying for this to pass and for us to feel healthy but truthfully it could be worse.

I have two friends fighting big battles in their families right now that make our flu look like nothing.

One, a husband with a severe digestive disorder who has been in and out of the hospital (more in than out) for the past few months. Her husband has had this condition for awhile but lately they can't keep it under control so he's in the hospital until they can. He goes home, it gets out of balance again so in he goes again. She is so strong keeping her family together, taking their son to visit her husband and still managing life even while things are turned so upside down and are so unpredictable.

And another, a child with leukemia. Her daughter is merely a few months older than Daredevil and she's already endured so much in her little life. On top of that, she got a diagnosis of a rare form of leukemia about four months ago. She's been fighting a hard fight. Tests, procedures, treatments, lengthy hospital stays, etc. When they first got the diagnosis it was unlikely the daughter would be able to go home until the end of treatments seven months later. Let that sink in, your child in the hospital for seven months without coming home. Can you fathom? You won't be home much in that time either, what about your spouse, your other children? Just thinking about it gets me overwhelmed but I've learned that you do what you have to do and my friend is keeping her head above water one day at a time. They've worked with the doctors to keep their daughter at home as long as possible between treatments. She is making this challenge work for her family. I'm amazed by her.

This morning, her daughter developed sepsis and she's very ill. If you pray, please pray for her.

Sometime all you need is perspective.

Photo Op

It has been a rough day here. The kind where you want to hide or run for the hills, you're joined at the hip with your child(ren), you're covered in bodily fluids (99% of which aren't yours), and you've changed a billion and five diapers. I could've cried tears of joy when Mr Tech Guy came home and I nearly floated my way to LifeGroup tonight. I pray that tomorrow is better.

I did want to show off my photo op from last week (I can't believe this was only 7 days ago). All it needs is my stroller with the extra bag and you would've gotten to see the whole kit and kaboodle but this will have to do.

Here's to a better day around here... and maybe some sunshine. Fingers crossed.

We are family!

In addition to Easter we were able to celebrate Elaine's birthday this weekend! It was great to see N+E and to be able to help her celebrate. We had a great day of just being together. Enjoy our photos.

Hope you had a great birthday, E! Love you.

Easter Celebration

We celebrated Easter again this past weekend in Sterling with Daredevil's Nene and Grand-paw.

He had an Easter egg hunt filled with lots and lots of money. Seriously, Mr Tech Guy went crazy on the eggs and he filled them all the way up with change. Those boys were heavy! Daredevil loved shaking them.

The Easter bunny came, too!

He liked his gifts but he was more impressed with the Easter grass. Go figure!

The pups even had an Easter egg hunt. The eggs had holes in them so the pups could smell the treats.

We colored eggs, too. Daredevil wasn't too interested but he kept trying to eat the hard boiled eggs.

We had a lovely time doing all the "Easter" things, enjoying time with the family, going to the 505 church service, etc. It was a fabulous weekend but now we're back in the swing of things at home.

Daredevil's Tenth Flight

Daredevil flew his tenth flight from PHX to MKE this week. He was diagnosed with an ear infection the day before. This was not our best flight.

He played on the iPad for awhile and watched Mickey. Then he got antsy and spilled the drink of the lady next to us all over her, him and her laptop (ugh). Then he got tired and screamed a few times while he was trying to (ie fighting) sleep. He tugged at his ears a few times, but all in all he did ok.

Always an adventure with that one.

I wish you could've seen me wearing my backpack diaper bag, wearing a sleeping Daredevil in the ergo on my front, my messenger bag across me and pushing the stroller with a yet another bag in it. Seeing how it was 1:30 in the morning, I thought it was hilarious.

Still, it was good to be home.