Tuesday, July 5, 2016

4th of july | 2016

Happy Tuesday everyone!! I hope everyone had a blast celebrating their 4th of July with family and friends.  I know we made the most of it.
 
We spent our three day weekend potty training. [Insert overwhelmed face here.]
 
Since Joe was on call and we had three days off work we decided now would be the best time to get the ball rolling.  And in all reality, there's never a good time to start training, but everyone dreads it.
 
We started Saturday morning, and I can say we've come a long way since.  It started pretty tragic with a boy who didn't care if he peed on the floor, peed in his underwear, or peed in his bed, but he absolutely cared about sitting on his potty (and not in a good way either).  Sitting on the potty is like the worst form of punishment to him.
 
 
But we really have made strides in potty training department.  He now screams and gives me a distressed look to let me know that he's gotta go and runs off to his little Mickey potty.
 
Since we were do the potty-training dance this weekend, we turned down any of the fun plans that were extended our way.  It was sad not to go hang out and enjoy the holiday weekend with everyone, but this will pay off in the end.
 
We even got brave on Monday and ventured off to a nearby park without any accidents! Woohoo!  And since we were on a roll and halfway to the river property anyway, we decided to head over and see papa.
 



 
Of course that led to some spontaneous swimming in the river that was we were completely unprepared for.
 
 
We rounded out the night with dinner on the deck. :)
Thanks to all those that gave us (and continue to protect) our freedom!!
 








 
 


Friday, July 1, 2016

thursday night

Sometimes Joe comes home with fantastic ideas.  Last night his idea was to hit up the beach and ice cream.
 
Two words:
I'm in!
 









Thursday, June 30, 2016

dreamin' of the weekend

Here we are almost to the weekend, and I'm still dreaming away about the weekend we just had.
last weekend = amaaaaze.
 
Joe and I both got off work early last Friday and spent every precious moment of that squeezing in as much fun (and food!!) as possible.
 
We stopped at the local country store to get a little lunch which actually didn't turn out to be little.  It was a half pound chicken burrito.  And from there we dashed to drop off cars and hit the Boardman for a short kayak ride down to the property.
 
It's been sooo long since I've had a chance to sit in my kayak.  Way overdue.  And the time away from the boys was long overdue too.  I love them, but sometimes you just need a date away.
 




 
And the weather, perfect.
 
Thennn, we went and loaded up on some more food on the patio at North Peak.  It's been a long-standing tradition to sit on that patio and eat mussels every summer.
 


 
Oh, but that's not all on the food-front. We hit up Burritts since we in downtown and had a gift card, so we splurged on some NY strip steak, cheddar jalapeno sausage, and cheese.
yummmm.
 
Unfortunately, the time flew by and our date time was up so we headed over to pick up our boys from daycare.  Also, unfortunately for my waistline, we decided it would be a lovely end to our Friday to get Moomers ice cream because it happens to be the best in the country and my taste buds agree. 100%. 200%
 
It also gave Linden a chance to experience ice cream for the first time ever.
Home boy did not care for it.
I know, I know.. he'll learn.  He can dislike ice cream, but he will learn to love Moomers. 
 




Wednesday, June 29, 2016

linden | seven months

Home boy just turned seven months last week, and now we are officially on our way to his first birthday. And yes, I am already thinking about his birthday and what the theme should be. If there's one thing I know, it's that these next five months are gonna race by us.
 
Seriously everybody.  This kid keeps getting better and better every month!!
 
LAST MONTH: 
 
THIS MONTH:

EAT
Eat it up boy. Those words pretty much sum up the fact that this little boy loves his food.  And if you want to see him get really upset mad, just take his spoon away from him to refill it or block his sight from his food, and you'll get an earful for the next five minutes solid.  And once he gets mad about that, there's no calming him down, so instead all I can do is laugh because it's just too funny.  I know, terrible parenting right there.
 
Food-wise, we are still trying out new things, but I'm finding that he really doesn't seem to like anything cold.  That's a shame because ice cream is cold, and I love me some ice cream.  One of our biggest changes this month is that we have started supplementing with formula while he is at daycare.  I think I was a nervous wreck introducing formula, but in true Linden fashion, he didn't really care.
 


 
SLEEP
We made the leap and started sleep training.  I was about as far as I could go with the broken sleep. We've had a pretty consistent nighttime routine since he was 3 months old, but we still had trouble with him crying a ton when we put him in his crib. And then one day, I closed his door on my way out, and he stopped crying. And then I did that again the next night, and same result.. no crying.  So I think we found the trigger for him to fall asleep without any tears. just close the door.

He still wakes up almost every night around 2am out of habit and he'll cry for a minute or so, but then he'll put himself back to sleep.  All in all, it's an ongoing process, but we're getting there.




PLAY
This child is all about playtime.  He doesn't even want to sit on anyone's lap anymore.  If I've got him on my lap, he immediately starts wiggling his away off on to bigger and better things.  If he sees a toy out of reach, it doesn't stop him.  He'll figure out a way to get to it.  And watch out if you think it's safe to take a toy away from him.  Remember how I said he flips out if you take his spoon away?? yeah, same effect if you take his toy away.
 

 
Baby Misc:
Linden LOVES the phone and iPad.  He has to hold the iPad when we FaceTime Nana and Papa.
He can go from laying on his tummy to sitting without hesitation.
He doesn't like holding broccoli.  It goes right to the floor. Every time.
When I try laying him on his back, he manages to flip over to his belly before he touches the changing table.
Diaper changes now take 5 minutes of trying to hold his little hips down from flipping.
I forgot what solid food diapers are like.
   
 PHOTO DUMP: