toddler life | thirty months

THIRTY MONTHS

 

Let's catch up here because, um, Conner turned 2 1/2 years old over two weeks ago already!  This is a really busy season in our lives and it's hard to soak in details of this little boy when time flies so fast.

Honestly, my little Conner Bear is growing up too.fast.  And if it weren't for the toddler tantrums that come with this age, I'd want him to stay this age forever.

  

Toddler Talks

I have loved that this little boy's been back at daycare and around plenty of other littles his age.  It's expanded his vocab tremendously.  And he is structuring more and more sentences.  Sometimes there's a verb or noun in the wrong spot, but that's what makes conversations with him quite hilarious at times.

He's really taking off on his ability to describe objects by their color. He ran around the house a lot this past months counting his numbers too... always going from 5 and skipping straight to 8, 9, 10.  So funny listening to this.  So, now when he sees colors, numbers or letters, he's typically shouting them out in pure excitement.

 

Toddler Play

Life revolves outdoors nowadays. Usually three seconds he walks in the house after daycare, he wants to eat and get right back outside to all those chickens. We have 5 acres of mostly woods and now that Conner is a little older, we've been letting him venture off on his own a bit.  Easy to do since our trees are still lacking foliage so we can keep an eye on him while we work outside.  Plus, wherever the chickens are, Conner will be right there with them.

There are times that I offer him crayons to see if he shows any interest, but time after time, he just doesn't get into coloring.  He still prefers to play with anything with wheels that he can run around the house with.  Don't see that changing... ever.

The best times with this little boy is watching him in the living room with Linden playing with him and making him laugh.  Conner is loving his little brother more and more and makes sure that he has plenty of toys to play with while he plays with his toys. (Even when Linden's trying to fall asleep, Conner makes sure to pile him up with toys to fall asleep with.)

 

Toddler Eats

Fruit. Check. Veggies. Check.  Milk and yogurt. Check. Bread. Double check. Meat... not so much.  We still struggle a ton to get him to eat meat to the point that I have been supplementing other higher protein foods.  Lately we've been eating a lot of greek yogurt with a spoonful of peanut butter mixed in.  (Try it... you will love it!)  We've also been expanding into higher protein veggies like edamame, but it's taking him a little while to get used to those.

With everything we have going on around our house this summer, I'd prefer not dealing with a garden this summer, but Conner is pretty much the sole reason why we're doing one.  That boy loved going out to the garden last year with Joe to grab cucumbers and green beans to eat, so we want to keep giving him that opportunity.  Okay... and I love having fresh romaine lettuce around.

 

Toddler Sleep
I love this little boy's sleep habits.  He's so good about brushing his teeth and hopping into bed with thirty-four trucks surrounding his pillow and reading our favorite Sandra Boynton books.

Naps can be a different story. Some days are no struggle and he willingly goes. Most others are not. And now that we have summer sneaking up on us I feel like there will lots of days with missed naps because there are just not enough hours in the day to play outside.

PHOTO DUMP:

 

weekend wrap up | hellllo, warm weather

This weekend was buuuusy. Like, on your feet non-stop kind of busy and all of it focused on home projects and chores.  Maybe it was the warm weather or the never-ending sunshine, but I felt completely okay with spending our weekend working away.  We had to cancel anything fun on our calendars this weekend to stay on track which means there's a craft show in the Petoskey area that had my name written all over it that we had to miss. Oh the sacrifices of owning a home.

 

This weekend we were tracking to put up the first of our new siding on the basement walkout level, but with one step forward, we were taking five steps back.  I mean, if you want to see how a house shouldn't be constructed, come on over, and we can show you countless examples around our house.  Sometimes Joe and I just scratch our heads and wonder what the builder was thinking when we uncover all these rookie mistakes.  I could write a book on it there are so many.

 

But as we started prepping for the basement siding, we found water issues from the floors above.  Water = Havoc.  Water is your enemy in the construction world.

 

We Joe worked fast at redoing the flashing detail at the deck above our basement to redirect any future water out and away from the house. But it still took two solid days to address it and a prayer that the wood that's already rotted and we physically can't access will hold out. Maybe we could've gotten the work done in one day, but when you have a 2 year old that wants to "help" and me being tethered to Linden's schedule, not a lot of progress gets done quickly.

 

Don't get me wrong, the boys and I had a blast around the yard and going on countless walks just so Conner could watch for any trucks that came driving down the road.  And now that we've had a sweet taste of warm weather, bring on Summer!

 



four month baby checkup

I can tell we are busy around here.  We had to keep pushing off Linden's four month wellness check with his doctor, but we got it crossed off our checklist yesterday.

 

That little ham wasn't feeling it yesterday, and spent most of the time at his appointment looking unsure and vocalizing his complaints.

 

Overall, for being sick with cold viruses for the past 3+ weeks, he's doing great.  We talked about his new sleep pattern to see if he would be ready for night weaning. And as much as I wanted the doctor say start the night weaning, that wasn't the case.  She advised me to keep up the night feedings if he wakes up until he's at least six months.

 

I think that's partly because his weight growth has started to fall off compared to where he's been at.  Right now, it's nothing to be concerned about.  I know that little boy eats well, but he is pretty active for being four months and the doctor led on that his body may be settling into his genetic makeup.  Boy's got his daddy's and brother's fast metabolism.

 

We also covered some of my concerns with his skin.  Over the past month, his skin has become so dry and rough.  We've been staying on top of it with using lotion, but if we miss even one day, his skin gets so dang dry.  It would help if winter would get over with already.  We started trying Cerave cream, and after a few applications, I already like it.  His doctor also advised switching laundry detergent, so we will see how that works out for him.

 

Weight:  14 pounds 6 ounces (25th percentile)

Birth: 8 pounds 0 ounces

Height: 24.6 in (23rd percentile)

Birth: 20.5 in

Head: 41.5cm (20th percentile)

Birth: 33cm
  



thank a lineman

What would we do without power? I know how I react on the rare occasions of losing power even for an hour.  I get antsy and annoyed, but mainly annoyed.  So much of our everyday life is centered around sources of electricity that the second you take it away you can barely function.  It's like that morning cup of coffee.

 

Today is National Co-op Lineman Appreciation Day.

 

I admit, I would completely overlook this day if it weren't for my husband being a lineman because if I didn't see what it takes for lineman to do their job firsthand, I just wouldn't understand the importance of it all.

 

When the weather is at its worst and nobody even wants to go outside, they're out there working to get the power back on.  When there's an accident or a fire, they're out there making it a  safe environment for police, firefighters and victims.  When they're ready to celebrate their kids' firsts in life and someone loses power, they drop it all to go help those in need.  And this doesn't apply to just a few days out of the year.  Every day they work as a team to keep each other safe and others in the community safe and powered up.

 

Most of these men and women are pretty selfless and humble about it.

 

Joe took a leap of faith five years ago to leave the construction industry and corporate America to follow in his father's footsteps and pick up the tools of this trade.  That man has never been happier and he's never thrived more than he is now.  It makes my heart happy to see him doing what comes so naturally to him.

 

He works his tail off at work, staying involved with the boys, keeping up with the house, working on five different house projects at once, and possibly being the most fun and loving a husband could ever be.  And for me, that's a lot to appreciate on a daily basis. And like electricity, that's a lot that I take for granted everyday if I'm being honest.

 

These pictures are old, but I love them. And I'm pretty head-over-heels for the man in the pics too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



10 ON 10 | APRIL 2016

10 Photos | 10th of April

 

There's now a red squirrel running around our house and garage that's missing its tail.

I had the special honor of photographing a bridal shower for a special bride-to-be.