The Princess & the Bulldozer...

I can't recall the last time I had a weekend to spend with my munchkin.  I was beyond excited.  When we heard Peyton wanted a playmate for the day, we were thrilled to spend time with her & Auntie Nicole!

 

When I first found out I was having Connor (over 4 years ago), I didn't know how I'd entertain a boy.  The legos, blocks, race cars, dirt, etc was all new to me.  Now that I have him, I don't know what I'd do with a girl!  I'm so used to playing rough, climbing with no fear, launching toys from high altitudes to watch them crash to the ground, etc.  When we play with Peyton, she is a fun challenge for me.  Don't get me wrong, she is the easiest, sweetest, most well mannered little lady & I enjoy every second we have her around!  She is so gentle and quiet, yet has the cutest things to say when she talks.  Its just a parenting challenge to go from a bulldozer of a boy to a sweet little princess.  Its amazing how boys and girls are wired so differently!

 

We had Peyton over to play at the house first & decided to head outdoors since Connor was a little too loud, fast, and downright crazy for a little lady.  Seriously he was off the walls...we needed to give him room to release his craziness!  We loaded the kiddies in the wagon, packed bags like we were headed on a vacation, and headed on up to the playground.  Connor was off to take on the heights, slides, and complicated ladders.  Peyton, on the other hand, took on the lower heights and avoided the puddles that had built up at the bottom of the slides.  They played well together, yet looked at things completely differently.

 

 

After taking Peyton on a quick potty break (which potty trips are also completely different with a girl vs boy), the kiddies decided they were hot enough & wanted to head to the fountains to cool off!

 

They were both super obedient with posing and smiling when asked! :)

 

The kids were great chasing eachother through the fountains!

 

 

We took a few shadey breaks involving some snacks in between all the water action!

 

When Peyton told us she wanted to lay on the chair, but it was too hot...I set her up like the 'big girls do it', put a towel down, propped her feet up, and let her borrow my glasses. 

 

Shortly after, both kiddies had decided they were ready to load up & head home.  We ate a little bit, and watched a short bit of "Halloween Rugrats", before saying goodbye to the girls.  We had such a good time & would love to do it again soon.

Seems like yesterday...

I've always been good about getting rid of things around the house if they aren't used.  I'm far from being a pack rat.  Yesterday, I posted a few items on Craigslist in hopes of making some quick money.  One item I listed was Connor's high chair.  Within a half hour, I had already lined up a family to come buy it for their 3 month old baby boy.  When they arrived a few hours later to buy the high chair, I took a look at their baby boy then looked at my baby boy and I couldn't believe how long ago that was... The sweet couple had me hold their baby while they loaded the high chair in their car & I warned them that I may not give him back.  Connor even cried when they left, because he thought we were "keeping the baby."  This little episode yesterday made me want to look back on my baby boy in his high chair & how much love & use that high chair got in the past 3+ years.  To think my child ate a lot when he was little...

 

First taste of something (rice cereal) other than breast milk...

 

My precious smiley babe at around 6 months old

 

Sharing his food with Coop

 

Sweet potato baby food massacre

 

Our favorite past time around 7 months old---skinning a peach & letting Connor gum it to death!

 

Peach mauling was a great time killer!  The slippery little thing just slid around his tray while he tried to catch it in his mouth :)

 

Spaghetti :)

 

Our morning breakfast time routine together at around 9 months old.  I got the best giggles first thing in the morning :)

 

And then overnight my baby turned into a real boy...

I used to wonder how his feet would ever reach the foot rest that hung from the bottom of his high chair.  Those were the days...

 

Farewell high chair.  It was one of my last pieces of babyhood.  I think I will need to accept the fact Connor's big now.  Ehhh...nope not ready yet. :)



Simple day

With so much going on, we were craving a simple day.  We were busy and even squeezed in a few productive to-do's, but it was just what we needed.  Our day started off great with a full night's sleep.  Seriously, I can't recall the last full night's sleep we've had.  I heard a few whines around midnight & snuck upstairs to find that Connor had fallen out of bed & fell back asleep on the floor.  So technically it wasn't a full night's sleep, but man it sure felt like it!  Amen!!!

So after being well rested, we started the day off with some Halloween cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  We de-jammied, got ready, loaded up the car with Connor's 15+ stuffed animals that had to ride around with us, and headed to the library.  We hung at the library for a good hour, picking out new Halloween books, movies, and Veggie Tales music for the car.  Connor turns to me as we're leaving and says "Hey Mom! Wanna go to the park?!" I couldn't resist, so we headed down the street to a new park.  Sometimes something as simple as a new park is so refreshing.  Oh & it was!  Connor grabbed his tiny dinosaur "friends" and he occupied himself on the playground all alone for about an hour!  And I can not tell you how much I loooooove playgrounds without sand and mulch!  We left the park as clean as when we got there!  Can I get another "Amen?!" :)

The picture below shows that Connor & his green dinosaur insisted on saying "Cheese" at the top of the rock wall.  Funny kid talks to his dinosaurs like they're little people.  Poor kid does what he can without having a sibling or friend to play with! 

If you look closely, I put each of his dinosaur friends on each monkey bar as motivation to get him to go across on his own.  The technique seems a lot like the same approach I used with Cooper to train him with treats.  Like child, like dog--it worked!

I promised him no more pictures if he posed nicely on the paver walkway.  My obedient little squinty boy!

We snuck in an appointment at the tuxedo rental place to get Connor measured.  About 2 more weeks... yippee!!

Happy Hump Day!

House...Wedding...Halloween...EEEK!

With settling into the house, planning a wedding that'll be here in 2 weeks, and thinking ahead to Connor's favorite holiday (Halloween), we've been pretty busy to say the least!

 

I haven't been doing a good job of taking good pics on my camera lately, so here are a few I've captured with my phone.

 

Below is a pic of Connor's new chair for the playroom.  There's not a lot of space for seating & we were thinking about a bean bag chair, but I was having a tough time finding one that didn't look vinyl-y or dorky.  Solution: Overstock.com had a papasan lounger in limey green.  Connor's a big fan :)

 

 

The living room has come together quite nicely over the past week.  Last weekend, we painted the walls a light gray.  Couch arrived on Wednesday. Rug arrived on Thursday. Then on Saturday, I used a little Pinterest.com "pinspiration" to do stripes on an accent wall.  It took a lot of patience, a neat laser level, and lots of tape to create the final product.

 

 

With the wedding/honeymoon coming up in a few weeks, I wanted to make sure we were all set for Halloween ahead of time.  I've been looking online with Connor at costumes, as well as in Walmart & Target, but Connor could not make up his mind.  In the past week, he's requested being Batman, Pizza, a hot dog, Superman, a Power Ranger, Woody, Buzz, an Angry Bird, Stay Puft Marshmellow Man, etc.  Since I was afraid we'd never decide, I went to the store a day I didn't have Connor with  me & picked out a few to try on.  Connor was thrilled with his two choices...

 

 

Or...

Connor insisted on trying on Woody first.  He was just precious & I thought it'd be perfect for him, since he's been taking his Woody doll with him everywhere lately.  We already practiced his "Howdy Partner" for when he goes door to door Trick or Treating :).

 

While Superman was hilarious with his built in muscles, Connor got annoyed with the hard chest & cape around his neck.  I knew he'd be uncomfortable, so it made our decision making a little easier!

 

We have plans to do our Trick or Treating while riding in his wagon full of his Toy Story stuffed animal friends.  Now all I have to do now is convince Matt to dress up as Buzz & we're all set! :)

Hanging around

Every day we must find time to play Connor's favorite game--"Dropping things."

 

Rules of the game are as follows:

 

Connor stands at the top of the stairs with all of his "soft friends."

 

Mommy, Matt, or any other lucky appointed house guest must stand at the bottom of the stairs.

 

Connor begins launching each "soft friend" over the railing and watches it crash to the ground.

 

When all "friends" reach the bottom, the person at the bottom must collect all the items and launch them back up to Connor.

 

Then repeat.

 

 

We load his bed nightly with all of his "soft friends."

 

We've been "sleep training" the last week...aka weaning Connor off of his need to have Mommy hang around in his room until he falls asleep.  Our nights have consisted of many trips up and down the stairs in the dark, but we are inching closer to longer stretches of independent sleep.  Amen.

 

We made a trip to Target yesterday to browse through their fun Halloween section & when we left, we noticed a full length rainbow.  I'm not a giant rainbow gazing fan, but it was pretty neat to see one go all the way across the sky.  It was kinda funny to look across the Target parking lot to see so many people stop and stare at the sky.

 



 

After Target, we got home to find Matt home from work.  We taught Connor the art of saying, "Excuse me" every time he wanted to interrupt our conversation.  It was pretty cute and made his interruptions a little more bearable :).

 

 

Off to pick up the Peanut from school soon!

Happy Tuesday!

Paintin'

This past weekend, we were paintin'!

 

Connor didn't come close to any wet paint or brushes, but did perfect the art of climbing the ladder.

 

Over and over and over and over...

 

We waited until the Smurf was in bed, then we were off...

 

Matt did the trim work (he's WAY better than I am on painting a straight line)...

 

And I did the rolling...

(please disregard my jammies...)

 

We worked til' the wee hours of the night!

 

At about 2:30am, we decided to paint fun stuff behind the fridge that we will one day find again...

:)

 

We showered & headed to bed around 3:00-ish.

 

It wasn't long before Smurf woke at 7:30am.  He was thrilled to see all the ladders in the living room still just waiting to be climbed!

 

Our house is starting to feel more like our home and it feels so incredibly nice :).

Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake

...baker's man...

 

 

Bake me a pumpkin cake...

 

....as fast as you can

...(our pumpkin's face may have slightly sunken after applying loads of frosting...what can I say?! We love frosting!)...

We had one yummy pumpkin cake for my Halloween lover!

We.Have.Internet.

In between organizing the garage and tackling 1 of 1000000 tasks for today,

I had to utilize my internet to post a few random recent pics of the Peanut!

 

 

Supper date with Nana :)

Birthday supper with Charlie :)

Cheeseball.

 

Have a nice weekend! :)

Home Sweet Home!

This past weekend, we toasted to our new start in our new home.

 

 

With the wonderful help of family & friends, we moved in to our house last weekend.  We couldn't be more blessed!  The past week has consisted of unpacking boxes, launching stuffed animals down the stairs for fun, arranging and rearranging, and just trying to take it all in.  I still feel like we're playing house.  It can't be real.  Oh but it is! :)

 

While I'm sitting in a booth alone at McDonald's while Connor's at school to steal their free WiFi, I have oodles to tackle while I can access the internet (our Comcast guy is coming Saturday).  So with paying bills, contacting random service people for our house, posting items for sale on Craigslist, and random research, I'm throwing in a quick blog post to let you all know we're alive, well, and moved in! :)

 

In no particular order, here are some pics from the past week.

 

Connor pooped himself out at the community pool/kiddie area in the neighborhood.  We've already made friends with a little girl named Malena that lives right around the corner from us.  We see many pool/playdates in our future already!

 

Since I'm not a huge fan of object photos without people in them, what better than a few house photos with my favorite little guy?!

 

 

Connor's current favorite toys are his gooey dinosaurs from Aunt Debbie.  These little guys go all over the house with us.  The launch off the stairs, stick to the walls, play in the tub, have their own 'guy' when we play Candyland, sleep with him, and even request certain meals.  I love this age's imagination!  Seen below is Connor eating his spinach pizza.  He gave one to his green dinosaur and he ate the other.  Funny kid.

 

 

What we're learning quickly is that we must organize, so we aren't trotting up & down the stairs 1000 times.  Connor likes to crawl in bed, then go..."Mom, I'm firsty.  I need my drink." Or he likes to go upstairs for bed then go, "I left my dinosaur friends in the living room."  I think I'm going to need to wear some kind of tool belt with a spare everything at all times to avoid to continuous trips up & down the stairs! :)

 

More photos to come... :)