Over the last 2 weeks, we have been wearily transitioning Sky from his crib to a twin bed. Today, I’m happy to report we are entering night 5 of him sleeping solid and not waking up {minus one wake up last night}. Before, I wasn’t sure if the bed was the problem. He was waking up multiple times a night just screaming for “more milk, more milk!”, wanting to play, or read books for hours on end. He was very resistant to sleeping. It was NOT FUN and I was one cranky mama. He was like this before we moved him to the twin bed so I’m thinking that it must have been a developmental thing, or being sick. He’s a happy camper now.
Aside from adapting Sky to this new situation, I’ve been given some sleeping struggles of my own. Now, we read books together, laying in his bed. After that? He likes me to play with his hair….and I will lay there with him sometimes until he falls asleep. More often than not, I’m out like a light and wake up anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour later with heavy eyelids, wondering where the night went. You see, once bedtime hits, that is my time to get things done – like laundry, dishes, blogging, editing photos, and working on projects. Since waking up from my mid-evening snooze, I’m completely out of it and can’t even fathom loading the dishwasher. Last night, I scrapped even turning on the computer and went straight to bed. I’m not sure whether to take this as a blessing or a curse right now. Time will tell…
Over the weekend, we took a magical trip to the land of snow and winter. One of the great things about Washington is that a two hour drive can put you into another world; there are so many types of landscapes. Our particular location happened to be Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, a 6,400 acre luxury resort with so many amenities it will make your head explode.
This trip had been many months in the planning. My girls, all our kids, and husbands {plus one boyfriend} too, decided to rent an amazing house with the intent of chillin’, eating, and playing all weekend. And, that’s just what we did. Each family took a meal and between the 20 of us, there was probably enough food to last the entire week. Aside from constantly eating meatloaf, tacos, spaghetti, pancakes, eggs, and Jill’s amazing monkey bread, we had our fair share of drinks after the kiddos went to bed and fireside chats about nothing and everything. Even with the chaos of so many kids, it was so peaceful to be here – just spending our days watching the snow fall.
This is my friend Flannery’s sweet baby girl, Morgan. Isn’t she the most darling thing you’ve ever seen? She is such a happy baby!
We have the best group of friends! Maybe E! should make a reality show about our lives, we are pretty funny and our kids are hilarious. Oh the stories!
Although our trip was wonderful, Sky was clingy, whiny, and non-social with nearly every other kid and adult. The morning after we arrived home, he came down with a cold so maybe it was the pre-sick blahs, but it was exhausting and frustrating at times. I get that he’s a little young to play WITH other kids but sometimes you just wish your kid would act like he’s having fun. I’ve been feeling kind of annoyed with his behavior lately but then, on Monday, I read this post from Melissa, with good perspective and good insight. It was just what I needed to remind me. We are given the type of children we have for a reason. Where we, as mothers, need to grow and learn, that’s what we are provided. It will be fine and these ARE the best of times.
Sometimes, life plans your weekends for you. In our case, it gave us a sick baby with a 103 temperature, 8 inches of snow, and a virus-infected computer. I'm wondering if it was the universe telling me to slow down? I get antsy when I'm not feeling productive but I’m going to decide, right here and now, that snuggling my boy all weekend was enough. It was productiveness in its truest form, being there when someone needs you. We watched Bob the Builder at 3 am, read too many books to count, ate donuts and soup with lots of oyster crackers, snuggled to even more TV, watched the snow dump down, and visited with Grandma and Grandpa {on Saturday as the fever was presenting itself for the first time}, all while ignoring most of the household chores, minus dishes which just need to get done.
The snow started early on Saturday and was off and on all weekend. After Sky woke up from his nap on Sunday, he was begging for "boots" and "sled" so we bundled him up and walked the neighborhood. Josh pulled him in the sled and all he could say was "again!", "again!". He LOVED it. It was snowing too hard to take the new camera with me, boo! I’m dying to try out some snow pictures with it!
One walk in the snow and that was our big outing for the day. Sky was beat and we spent the rest of the day loungin’. Lily {our dog} seems to be his new best bud. He'll come over to her and go "Hey Lily! How ya doinnnn?" It's so dang cute. Sometimes she acts annoyed but I can tell she loves him – she sleeps in his snow sled for crying out loud!
It was a rare occurrence on Sunday - Josh had the day off. We decided to take full advantage and ended up venturing to Edmonds for Sky’s first ferry ride to Kingston where we had lunch and played a nearby park. It was very low key and quiet everywhere we went, such a welcome, peaceful break from the normal crowds. It was also the perfect day to practice using our new Nikon camera. I’m completely in love with it. Like, IN LOVE. It takes amazing pictures.
We got so lucky. Of all the days we’ve had lately, it was not frigid (50!) and the sun was out for part of the day. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw BLUE SKY. Oh, it felt so good to just be outside……walking……in sun……in January. My bones needed some air. We actually ditched the car in Edmonds before getting on the ferry and walked our entire adventure.
Sky loved being on the boat! We spent most of the trip over outside in the blasting wind, running, watching seagulls, and doing “muscles!” with dad. Sweet boy fell down on the bumpy concrete ground and after kisses to fix his “boo boo” on his hands and crying for {what else?} – that dang binkie and blankie, we retreated to the inside of the boat for the rest of the trip.
For lunch, we walked over to J'aime Les Crêpes, a crêperie just up the street from the ferry terminal. Josh and I are both suckers for crepe restaurants so I knew we had to try it. There are so many sweet and savory options, it’s hard to pick just one. It’s kind of like the perfect food.
For the record, Sky had a strawberry jam crepe, Josh had “The Canadian” {canadian bacon and eggs drizzled with maple syrup} and I had the “Grilled Chicken Supreme” {white meat chicken, spinach, provolone, sliced almonds, and a lemon pestoish spread}. I usually ALWAYS go for sweet {the warm peach and apples with cinnamon crepes were taunting me} and the people ordering in front of us were getting NUTELLA AND BANANA CREPES. I mean……hellloooooooo?It almost changed my mind. But, I’m glad I tried something new. It was soooo yummy, filling, and warm. It’s one of those things you can eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner……or all 3!
After stuffing our bellies, we strolled up the street and found a nice park. Turns out, a ferry had JUST left as we were finishing our food so we had an entire hour to kill until the next one. There wasn’t a single person at the park so Sky had free roam. He had fun running, going up and down the stairs…over and over and over, and spinning with dad. That boy LOVES to spin.
The ferry ride back brought some gorgeous views of Mt. Rainier {can you see the Space Needle?} and a very tired and worn out little boy who sat inside the boat, pressed up against a sunny window, watching the world go by. All in all, a beautiful, wonderful, day.
We are on the eve of a new year and things are slow and thoughtful. The Christmas decorations are almost all put away, although I’m pretty sure I’ll be finding pine needles in odd spots for months to come. The house is in that post-holiday lull, where there are still new toys everywhere, boxes that need to get recycled, goodwill bags to pack, and re-organizing to be done all among the still pretty poinsettias and Christmas sweets leftovers. It’s an odd time of year. The world seems quieter with everyone nestled at home away from work, but there is still lots of change happening; reflection of the year that just happened, and hope for the year ahead. Do you make resolutions each new year? I don’t usually, but this year, I just might.
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The other night, Josh and I watched a movie for the first time in a long time. “Life as we know it” with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. I’m not really a fan of either of them and I’m also not sure how the DVD ended up in our Netflix queue but it did…so we watched. If I got anything out of the movie, it was that Atlanta is a beautiful city. Have you ever been? I love the amount of trees. In fact, Wikipedia tells me it has the largest tree coverage of any major American city in the US! The house in the movie IS my dream house. Turns out, it was for sale in 2010 for a mere 1.7M. If that house were in Seattle, it would be at least 5 or 6M. A bargain!
Sometimes I think about what it would be like to move to a new city and start completely fresh. A city that has character and history, and charming houses. I wonder what would happen if I lived somewhere with more sun? Would I be happier? These northwest winters seem to be getting me down the older I get. Besides Washington where I’ve lived my entire life, I’ve only ever been to Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, and Illinois {Chicago for work}. I feel like there is so much of the US that I’ve never explored. Are there any cities out there that I would love to live in? I don’t know. I can’t imagine moving away from all our friends and family but sometimes the thought of a different way of life crosses my mind.
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A few nights ago, near the end of a very long day, Josh picked up Sky to set him in his booster chair for dinner. This unleashed a stream of tantrums, crying, and screaming and led to two very frustrated parents who were seconds away from throwing in the towel and declaring bedtime. When all had settled, nearly 20 minutes later, and we were finally eating in unhappy silence, Sky looked over at Josh and, out of the blue, said “I love you dad”. You could tell he was sorry. And there it was, for the first time, my baby knew we were upset because of how difficult he was being, and he was sorry.
I don’t have Sky’s apology captured anywhere. Instead, I have a much cuter video:
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So, I got some knitting supplies for Christmas. I don’t know how to knit but I’m determined to learn. My mom is so cute. She talked to the lady at the craft store and got all the right “starter supplies” along with 2 templates for the most basic things – a washcloth and a small scarf. The book she got me is called “I can’t believe I’m knitting!” and is exactly what I’ll say if I ever figure out how to do it. It’s so intimidating. Do you have any tips for me or good places to start?
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And last, but certainly not least, Josh surprised me with a cake stand that I had seen in the window of a local antique store. What a sweet hubby. It reminds me of my mom’s cake stand and I’m very excited to use it, not just for cake, but for anything baked. Maybe I’ll get one of those clear lids like you see in fancy bakeries to protect the {insert amazing something here….macaroons, lemon bars, cupcakes}.
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Thank you for joining me on this little blog of mine over the past year. It means so much that you take the time to read and I’m excited for us to all start a new year together. Here’s to 2012! Happy new year!
The holidays are finally winding down so I thought I’d share a little of what we’ve been up to! Christmas this year was good….and bad…and long….and tiring…and happy….and blahhh and I’m ready for a fresh start. Sometimes I feel guilty over the fact that as soon as Christmas day is over, I’m just DONE and ready to move on. Bring on 2012!
{I tried red lipstick and my sis-in-law managed to capture a family photo!}
Highlights of our holiday? Lots of quality family time, more food than I normally eat in any given day, Josh having 3 days off in a row, lots of sweet presents, and morning and evening books and snuggles with my boy since I didn’t have to go to work.
Lowlights? One cranky toddler who has not been sleeping well and who could have cared less about presents or Christmas, lots and LOTS of driving, many messes, crappy photos, and not much time to just sit and relax. Sky’s whining, clinging, crying, tantrums, and general un-pleasantness kind of put a damper on my days and even though we didn’t go all out for him, it felt a little rough getting no signs of gratitude in return for our hard work and preparation. {Not like I expect a toddler to understand gratitude but I’m just sayin’…}. We almost had to force him to open gifts on Christmas day, he was just not interested, WHAT?!?! He did love his remote control airplane and tool/drill set he got on Christmas eve though and seemed to be in an ok mood for most of that evening, thank goodness. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it one day, and I’m sure next year will be better. But still, it has just been exhausting to handle him these last 6 days. He’s not sick so I can only guess that it might be teeth {still?} or some other developmental milestone. Which reminds me….Sky counted to TEN today as he was going down the stairs. Yes, TEN…12345678910…all by himself. It seems a bit early for a 2 year, 10 day old kiddo but I'll take it! Should I start him on SAT prep exams now?! So smart!!!
You’re probably sick of hearing about it, but my little boy turned 2 on Sunday. We had a small family gathering at our house and Sky had been waiting for his “party” all week. Each day, we would talk about who would be there and what it would involve {mainly cake and candles since that’s what he seems to be obsessed with lately}. Sweet boy thankfully took a nap before the festivities started and woke up ready to go! We had lots of yummy food, the best cake ever, some simple decorations, and lots of wonderful family to help celebrate.
Thank you to Malia and Clint for capturing one of the best photos of Sky EVER with their snazzy new camera. I’m so in love with it.
The cake had a minor accident during the car ride home but it was still one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. It was four layers of chocolate bliss with cream in between and crazy buttercream frosting…like REAL frosting that you could eat over and over and over. Magical.
Malia and Clint – aren’t they cute?
Pinterest supplied nearly all the food choices. The pizza muffins turned out perfect!
Me and my bro – he’s taller than my fridge!
Josh, if you are reading this…I didn’t get your permission to use this photo, and I’m sorry. I think you look studly but I worry you’ll think you look silly. You are asleep right now and rather than wake you {since you work at 3 am}, I’m going to risk it. Somehow, we managed to go the entire day without taking a family photo to commemorate this great day in history. I love you.
Finally, the moment he had been waiting for…Happy Birthday song and blowing out candles.
It’s amazing what a difference a year makes. I actually love these photos. Everyone needs a picture of themselves screaming on Santa’s lap, it’s just what you do when you’re a kid!
Oh my sweet baby boy, can you get any cuter? Look how happy you are to meet Santa!
To celebrate my sweet baby boy turning 2 tomorrow {!!!!}, we are taking a trip down memory lane. Here are a few of my all time favorite pictures of Sky in his second year. This concludes the mini-series of Sky, so we will be back to regularly scheduled programming on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend!
To celebrate my sweet baby boy turning 2 this Sunday, we are taking a trip down memory lane. Here are a few of my all time favorite pictures of Sky in his first year. Such a pumpkin!
