Random Happenings in January

Life has been nice and calm for the last little bit and that's the way we like it.  The weather finally turned slightly colder a few days ago, we're talking 60s instead of 70s, but it at least means that we don't need to run the air conditioner and it even feels good to wear a sweatshirt in the morning so I'm enjoying it.  We've also settled in to a routine and it seems like things are getting done around the house without me having to nag.  Overall it's just nice to have some uneventful times.

Even though life is uneventful the kids still fill it with hilarious moments.  The other day Finn and I were playing Legos and I got up to get something and got distracted talking to Nate and he came running in to the kitchen where we were sitting and grabbed my arm and dragged me back to the Legos.  It was really cute and though I felt a little bad for having forgotten that we were playing in the first place, it made me really happy to see how much he wanted me there playing with him.
Things with him in the toddler bed got rough for a couple days but that's starting to calm down as well.  He did so well for the first week and then Reese got him out of bed one evening and brought him to me saying he needed something and that was all it took for him to realize that he could crawl out of bed whenever he wanted.  The next two days were rough and I had to take him back to bed numerous times but he was better last night so hopefully he's starting to realize that he'll just get walked back to bed and it will lose it's excitement.  Oh there was also the morning that we woke up and found him on our bedroom floor playing with the kindle....we've got a baby gate across the hallway now so he can't leave when he wakes up.
Other things we've done over the last week or so have been making donuts on our Monday baking day,  they were a big hit, and Reese's ponies have been catching rides in Finn's big rig that is then being pulled by a pony....that's an almost daily occurrence.

And we've been watching football!  Nate's been trying his best to convince either of the kids to be Packer fans but Reese constantly referred to them as the Boo Packers and Finn wears his 49er jersey from Nana and Papa with pride.  Nate and Reese actually made a bet early in the season that whichever team made it the furthest the loser would have to buy ice cream so the playoff game between the Niners and the Packers was an exciting one for us.  Reese was excited to find out that she was getting ice cream and they turned it in to a daddy-daughter date one day after school.  Now she's excited for her 49ers to play the "birds" in the Superbowl.  Also, Finners is too cute in his football jersey.

Sweet, Funny, Reese

We had a great day today which was especially nice since Sunday is the start of Nate's work week and between the kids and I having church in the morning and him being gone by the time we get home, they don't get to see much of him.  Today we had a very relaxing afternoon where everyone was pretty much doing their own thing until I called the kids to dinner.  As soon as Reese walked in the kitchen she had her whiney face on and was asking me what we were having and telling me how she doesn't like it even though we've never had it before.  It should be noted that Reese loves pasta and hates meat, everything else falls somewhere in the middle and she could like it one day and hate it the next.  So she was complaining about how she was so hungry and I didn't make food she liked and I gave her our go to answer of you can either quite whining and join us at the table or go to your room.  During the prayer I made sure to pray that this "yummy food" would fill our "hungry bellies" and after the prayer was over Reese looked up and with a very dejected look on her face said "Heavenly Father was supposed to turn this food in to pasta."  It was hilarious.

On a completely separate note, at the start of the new year I made a new policy that 7pm was clean up time and anyone that didn't want to clean up could choose to go straight to bed.  I was feeling like the playroom was always dirty and it would be kind of huge deal for me to go through and pick everything up and make sure everything went in the right place.  The first few days Reese would mill about slowly and really take some prodding to help out, but as the first few days past she learned how quickly it went with all of us working together.  Finn did pretty well with it from the start, he needed a little bit of direction with what to do but even he has gotten better each day and now knows where most things go without being told.  It's been such a great change for us because every morning the playroom is clean and the kids have even begun to clean up after themselves when they're done playing with something because they know they'll be cleaning it up later anyways.  Well tonight around 6:30 or so Reese tells me that she and Finn are going to start cleaning up and have it all clean before 7.  I honestly didn't give it much thought and figured I'd just let them do their thing.  Well Reese directed Finn around and together they got the playroom picked up without my help and then moved on to the bookshelf and Reese had Finn wander around picking up all the books and bringing them to her while she put them on the shelves.  When she told me they were done I was so proud to find out that they really had cleaned everything up.  She's such a sweet girl and it was such a nice end to a nice day.

I Might Be Crazy

This week was so pleasant that I told Nate I wish every week could be just like this one, though I know they can't.  Nate usually works the swing shift but he had some training to do this week so he was working days and Reese's Christmas break was over so she went back to school on Tuesday so it was just Finn and I in the mornings.  I have missed having that one on one time with Finn and it was so much fun to have it just be the two of us and to get to interact with him without distractions.  It was only two days that it we were alone for the morning but we enjoyed snuggling on the couch reading books, playing with his superheros, and he liked helping me with the laundry.  

He seems like he's just in developmental overload lately using new words everyday and overall just learning to communicate better with us.  We've been trying to get him to say "please" for awhile now, and this morning he wanted my pen and I told him no and then he said "peas" so of course I gave it to him.  Then later he was pointing at the counter and whining so I asked him what he wanted and he said "cookie" and I looked at him for a moment and then he said "peas", so of course he got a cookie.  I'm just glad that he's finally starting to understand that he needs to use his words instead of whimpering all the time. 

And now for why I just might be crazy.  Nate and I have been planning to take Finn out of his crib on his second birthday, that's when we switched Reese to a toddler bed so we were planning to do the same for Finn.  Then I was speaking to my mom and discussing plans for our trip out to visit them in a few weeks and we got to talking about how they didn't have a crib for Finn anymore, since he's much too large for the pack n play, so they were just going to have to put him in a regular bed.  Nate and I talked about it and decided that it would be easier if he just transitioned him to the toddler bed a little bit early so that I wouldn't have to worry about it while we were on vacation.  So, tonight we made a big deal about taking the side off his crib and putting the little toddler railing on.  He was so excited and thought it was super cool that he and Reese could climb in and out of his bed.  Luckily it's still a little difficult for him to climb out because of the way the little railing is, so it takes a little effort on his part.  We were worried about how the first night would go, but he was fine and went right to sleep without crawling out.  When we switched Reese it took her awhile to become proficient at getting in and out so by the time she had mastered it she was used to the new bed and didn't climb out at bedtime, I'm hoping that it will be a similar situation with Finn.  Reese was even kind enough to give him her little bird pillow that her animals use until we can get a pillow for him, she's so sweet.

I love the cute little look he's giving me in this photo

Disney World Just Because We Can!

Since we are SOOO close to Disney World, we decided to go ahead and get annual passes since we were already expecting a few visitors who would want to go and the idea of being able to head over to the happiest place on earth whenever I wanted sounded too good to pass up.  We got our passes when we went for our 5 day trip for my 30th birthday (which I will hopefully get around to back posting about in a few days) and I was eager to go back just for the heck of it.  I had heard that January would be a really slow time and even though we were there less than a month ago I told Reese that we would go during her Christmas break.  Today was her last day of vacation so I loaded the kids up and we headed off to Orlando this morning.  I have to admit that I was a little nervous taking the two of them by myself, I've done a lot of traveling by myself with the kids but theme parks are crowded and I was a little concerned that a lot of my time would be spent keeping track of them.  Luckily it went very smoothly and we had a lot of fun.

We left our house around 8:30 and got to the park at 9:30.  We didn't have to park very far away so we just walked to the monorail instead of breaking down the stroller to take the parking tram.  I was a little surprised how busy it still was when we got the gates of the Magic Kingdom, I had figured that since the park opened at 9 most of the traffic would've already been in.  It really wasn't that busy of a day but I had been expecting it to be a little less crowded than it was.  I didn't really have any plans for what we would do, I figured that since it was just the three of us I'd let Reese run the show and do what she wanted.  Nate has more issues with standing in lines than I do (especially when it comes to character meets) so I didn't care that we didn't have a plan.  

We went back to Fantasyland and she said she wanted to ride Peter Pan first so I grabbed some Fastpasses for the Little Mermaid ride and then we got in line for Peter Pan.  The line was already about 30 mins long, which is actually pretty good for Peter Pan, but after we got in line a man asked us if we'd like some fastpasses for it because they weren't using all of theirs..SCORE!  It was such a great start to the day to just step right on.  After that we went on It's a Small World which is Finn's favorite ride.  He's probably going to think we're lying about this when he's older, but he absolutely loves It's a Small World.  He gets so excited and animated about seeing the little animals and he really dislikes a lot of the other rides because they're dark and he gets really upset when we go on a ride that's in the dark. We went on a few more rides and then had our lunch while Reese and I discussed what she wanted to do next.  She was eager to meet some of the characters because we hadn't done much of that on our last trip so she chose to meet Minnie and Daisy (which was the longest line we waited in all day) and then we used the Fastpasses we hadn't gotten for Dumbo and we were glad we had because it was a 75 minute wait when we went to use them which is insane. 

By this time it was after Finn's normal naptime and he was starting to drift, which would mean no more rides, so we jumped on the Tea Cups real fast since Reese was so eager to ride them and they both loved spinning around so I was glad we did.  Then we went over to watch the stage show in front of the castle.  I had it all planned out and we had the perfect seats to watch the show and then we'd just turn around and a few minutes later it would be time for the parade.  Unfortunately, the sang one song for the show and then it was drizzling so they cancelled it which Reese was a little upset about but she handled it well and asked to go on one more ride.  She wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, which Finn hates because of that whole dark thing, but I thought since he was asleep I might be able to carry him on no big deal.  That plan was a fail because he woke up while we were in line and was super happy but then got mad as soon as the ride started.  I'm hoping he gets over his aversion to rides in the dark soon, he's not afraid of the dark any other time.  We got off the ride just in time to walk over to the parade and watch it, which made Reese really happy, and then we headed for the exit around 3:30.

It was a good quick day and I was glad we did it.  It was nice to go to Disney World without feeling rushed to fit everything in to a certain amount of time, we just did what we wanted, went slow and had fun.  There will be a lot of Disney "just because" trips this year and I hope they all go as smoothly as this one did.

 Riding It's a Small World....sooo happy

 

Swing Set

Day 2 of the swing set installation was a lot harder than we were expecting.  We had to anchor it in the ground which first involved finding anchors and then involved a lot of work on Nate's part trying to get them in and make everything work.  The kids were helping me with some yardwork while Nate was doing that and I don't know what it is about boys but holy cow Finn manages to get a million times dirtier than Reese does and I'm convinced it has nothing to do with him being younger.  I was raking and they wanted to put my piles in our leaf box and Reese ended up with some dirty hands but Finn ended up COVERED in dirt, he had dirt down his shirt, and he even took his shoes off and was walking around barefoot getting extra dirty.  It was cute though to watch him "help" and it was nice to actually have Reese's help.  

After the kids and I had had enough of cleaning up, and Nate was still trying to anchor the swing set and getting angrier by the minute, I took them inside for a bath in the hopes that some silence outside would help Nate work.  A little while later he had finished and since we'd assembled all the swinging pieces the night before it was quick and painless to put them on the frame real fast and the kids were ready to play.  Finn loves the slide except he loves to walk up it and then sit at the top laughing until he realizes he can't get turned around to slide back down.  Reese like the horse and the seesaw, which we didn't put on until the following day, and she's also getting better at pumping her legs so she can swing by herself.  Personally I'm a fan of the flying saucer, I could easily waste an afternoon rocking away in the warm weather.  I'm so glad we have the swing set for the kids, I have fond childhood memories of the swing set we had in our backyard growing up and I hope this one gets as much use as ours did.  We the constant sunshine and warm weather we seem to have here I'm sure it'll get plenty of use.

January 4th

For Christmas my aunt and grandma bought the kids a swing set for our backyard.  We've been excitedly awaiting it's arrival and we finally got the email today that it was ready for us to pick up.  We had been out back trimming the trees in preparation for it so while Nate was at the store picking it up the kids helped me clear out the last of the branches.  We weren't able to get the frame put up outside since the weather was gloomy and looked like rain, so Nate and I spent the evening indoors assembling the various parts.  Tomorrow we'll just have to assemble the frame and hook everything on to it and we'll be good to go.  The funny thing is that online it said that the set up time was about 2 hours and Nate and I spent more than that assembling the slide, swings, rocking horse, and flying disc.  

January 3rd

Happily playing with one another

January 2nd

Reese is our resident doctor/vet.  Jaeger is constantly receiving checkups despite her lack of interest.

A Fresh Start to a New Year

I was terrible about updating the blog in 2012, there was a lot going on and I didn't feel like adding one more thing to my plate.  Now that things have slowed down I'd like to get back in to doing it, I'm sad that I missed documenting a lot of things in Finn's infancy the way I did with Reese's.  Maybe I'll eventually go back and fill in the missing gap of time because I'd like to have it, but thinking about doing that is making me avoid the blog so for now it is what it is.
I've read a lot about these 365 photo blog projects so I've decided that I'm going to attempt to do it, but for now it'll be without a schedule or guide of any type, just a photo of something from our day to remind me of this time in my life....so here it goes.

January 1st:  It was an amazingly beautiful day in Florida so the kids and I spent the afternoon in the front yard enjoying the sun and relatively cooler temperatures.  Reese is getting better at the roller skates she got for her birthday and Finn is slowly taking an interest in the strider bike Santa gave him for Christmas.  He'll only ride it for a little bit, but he likes it when he does and hopefully his interest will build.