Friday, December 30, 2011

Picaboo

Sorry for my recent slack in posting.  But I do have a legitimate reason.

About a year ago, I purchased $100 worth of Picaboo money for $30 on Groupon.  My idea was that I was going to turn my pregnancy blog and possibly my blog posts from Krew's first year of life into books.  The Groupon was valid for a whole year...until January 5th, 2012.

So of course, I waited until last month to start on this project.  And of course, it's taking about 500 times longer than I expected.  (And I do blame Picaboo for a lot of this...their program is not nearly as user-friendly as I was expecting.)

Needless to say, most of the time I would normally spend on editing pictures and blogging is going into making this book.  I'm only doing the pregnancy blog, not Krew's first year.  I'll probably use a different program to do his first year because I'm simply not a fan of Picaboo.  I'm sick of working on this.  It's taking forever.  I've wanted to give up many times.  But it's something I've always wanted to do, so I will endure.

You'll probably see me around more after January 5th. :)

PS Have any suggestions for good programs to use for my next blog book??  I was thinking maybe Shutterfly...

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Cereal With Milk and a Hair Chop

Last week I decided to give Krew his first bowl of cereal with milk.



And boy did he like it.







He gobbled it all up, then asked for more:



And when he was all done, he went and put the bowl "in the sink" like a big boy.





So proud!!


On another note, we got his hair chopped off last Friday. I don't think I truly realized how long it was. He definitely looks a lot older now. One of the kids at daycare didn't even recognize him at first!! When we go to church or some place special we spike it up a bit in the front, but I don't have a picture of it looking nice like that. Instead you get to see the following food-filled messy-haired picture:



You get the idea. Doesn't he look so different??

Now that I'm looking at pictures of it long again, it makes me miss it being shaggier. Maybe we'll grow it out again. :)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Life Catch-Up in Photos: Afternoon at the Playground

A few weekends ago, Dave and I invited Emily over to take the kids to the playground at the elementary school right outside our neighborhood. The school has three different levels of playgrounds, and one of them is for preschool kids and is perfect for our toddlers.

Ellie and Krew had quite a blast. :)




Awesomest static hair, EVER.





Baby Cate bundled up in her stroller:








Dreaming of days at the big-kid playground.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Life Catch-Up in Photos: Lafayette Visit

The first weekend in November, I went to Indiana to visit my longtime friend Audrey and her new baby girl, Cora. It was a nice, relaxing visit, which we spent just hanging out, shopping, cooking, and of course in lots of good, deep conversation. Audrey has been my friend for longer than anyone else in my life - since we were 1 1/2 years old! - and I cherish her friendship so much. She is a practical, strong, Christian woman, and it's so wonderful whenever we get to spend some extra time together. When Krew was around 5 weeks old, she came to visit me and spent several days with us. Now it was my turn to return the favor. :)


Baby Cora


Krew loved Kevin, Audrey's husband.







"Whoah, hold up. What's she doing?"


"Um, ok, I think I'm done with this."




And, while we were visiting Audrey, my youngest brother Aaron got to come over for dinner since he's at college just a short drive away. It was nice for him to get some uncle-nephew bonding time. :)






Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mom Moments That Warm My Heart

Sometimes when Dave is gone, I play music really loud in the house and let myself loose dancing and singing at the top of my lungs.  It's one of those things I used to do on a daily basis when I lived by myself, but I've tried to tone it down a bit now that I'm married.  (Mostly because it's embarrassing to have an audience watching you while you're twirling around like a third grader.)

Tonight was one of those nights where I decided to let it all out while listening to my Glee Christmas CD.  (Volume 2, if you're curious.) Krew (who hasn't yet reached the age where I consider him to be an actual audience) was playing by himself at the time.  As I marched through the hall singing, I looked over at him, and his face had broken out in a grin.  Before I knew it, he stood up and began following me, copying my every move and singing in that sweet little boy voice of his.

We moved into the living room and danced and sang through the whole song together.  When it ended, he said, "More! More!" and shoved his little hands together, giving the sign for "more" as he still instinctively does more often than not.  I restarted the song, and he kept right on going through the whole song again, just singing and dancing with all his heart, without a care in the world. And then he danced and sang to another song. And another.  It was such a precious, precious moment for me to share with him. Music touches me to the core, and to see him experiencing it in a similar way, and for him to be sharing that with me, warmed my heart in more ways than I can express.

It was a moment that I'll hold onto in my memory for a long time.


I tried to get pictures of our feet together, and this is all he gave me.

And I may or may not have let him chow down on an Oreo during one of the songs.


Saturday, December 10, 2011

House for Rent

My dear friend Casey is moving to San Francisco and is looking for someone to rent her current home. If you live in the Triangle area and know of someone looking to rent, please spread the word! Her house is in Garner, just off of 40 and close to the White Oak Shopping Center.


Here is her ad, with a link to pictures of the place: http://raleigh.craigslist.org/apa/2745893472.html.

And yes, I am devastated that she is moving. She has been a very special friend to me for many years now, and I am going to miss her TERRIBLY. But I know that God has a purpose in this and is going to use this move to bless her, her husband, and their children. It will be a very bittersweet goodbye.

Monday, December 5, 2011

20/21 Month Update!

Today our little boy is 21 months old!! Halfway between 1 1/2 and 2...crazy.  And he's really started acting sooooooo much older in the last two months.

His vocabulary has exploded...but unfortunately his pronunciation skills have not, haha.  He talks a ton, but usually only Dave or I know what he's saying.  He's even started streaming two or three words together.  His favorite phrase right now is "I got it!!!" whenever he does something he's proud of.  I think it's super cute.  He also likes to say "Daddy go???" ("Where did Daddy go?") and is always saying "Mo Mo?" because he wants to know where Maggie is (she is apparently his favorite dog right now, and we call her Moo Moo, but the closest he can get is Mo Mo).  His favorite single word undoubtedly is "NO."  Said loudly and defiantly with attitude.  To any question you ask him or anything you request of him.  It's gotten him in trouble more than once.



He now runs all over the place, and his run is getting smoother and smoother.  When he first started running, he'd do this funny twist thing with his hips that would make his legs fly all weird and cause him to run slower than he walks.  Fortunately he is doing that less and less. :)  He's also become a super climber.  He can climb ladders, playground equipment, up onto our very high bed, and up into the car and into his carseat.




He's definitely starting to hit the terrible twos and show a lot more attitude these days (typically using that "NO" I mentioned above).  We had two mornings last week where he was furious with me and wouldn't play with me before work because I'd reprimanded him for something. It made me a bit sad, but I guess there's no way around it if I want him to learn to obey.  I suppose that's the job of a mama...but it sure is hard sometimes.





In terms of clothes, he's wearing mostly 18-month pants (some 12-month in the bigger brands), 18-month shirts, 18-month pajamas, size 6 shoes, and size 4 diapers.  I tried to make it through our full stash of size 3 diapers before moving him into 4s, but I just couldn't do it.  I started worrying the diapers were going to cut into the poor kid's skin or block circulation.

He still loves his music so much, and it makes me sooooooooooo happy.  He just sings and sings...and surprisingly sometimes even sings on pitch.  Both Dave's dad and my brother noticed it in the last couple weeks and said something about it without me mentioning it...so I know it's not just my hopes and dreams putting notes in my head. :)  And today he did something really awesome related to music (in my opinion).  We were listening to Christmas music when a song came on that was just a guitar playing.  I looked over, and all of a sudden Krew put his hand up and started to pretend to strum a guitar on his belly.  I was like holy camoly he knows it's a guitar!!!  I mean, maybe he totally didn't know, but it sure seemed like it, and I told him, "Good job buddy!! Yeah, it's a guitar!!!" and he just kept strumming and strumming.  I was absolutely amazed.  And super excited.  Dave just smiled and probably inwardly rolled his eyes at me.

Krew still loves to dance, still loves sports with his daddy.  Still loooooooooooooooooves to be outside, even in the cold.  Favorite movies are still Horton Hears a Who, Blues Clues, and Veggie Tales. Still amazingly adept at playing on the iPad. And both of our iPhones. Still loves shoes. And usually has an opinion on which shoes he wears when.



I finally got him to eat some veggies this week by breaking up green bell pepper and giving him ranch to dip it in. He also ate some little steamed broccoli florets when I put little dabs of butter on them. I was stoked. (Other than that, he's been getting all his veggies through squeeze packs of pureed fruits and veggies.) I also discovered a trick about other foods he won't eat. I'd heard that a child could try a food many times before truly determining that he didn't like it. I decided that Krew should like pears, so I offered them for every meal for two or three days. He refused to eat them for the first couple meals, but then at the third or fourth meal, WHALLAH, they were gone! He ate them! I'm going to have to start trying that trick on other foods. :)






Speaking of food, Krew will NOT let anyone feed him anymore. Which means meals typically take twice as long and are four times as messy. But hey, I guess I should be glad he's learning to be independent. :)



Daddy is still his favorite person, although in the past two months he has started showing me a bit more love. There have been a couple times where he's requested me over his dad, which makes me feel SOOOOOO good. (No offense, Dave.) It's still a rarity though.  He still prefers grandpas and uncles over grandmas and aunts, too. Which, a friend pointed out to me, is a good thing, because it means he's relating to men. I'd never thought about it with that positive spin, and it made me feel a bit better.

Well, I think that's about all for now. :)

Have a Merry Christmas!