I am so behind on posting that’s a little hard to get back in the swing of things. Here is my blogging dilemma. I have the words to write while I’m at work…but not the pictures. I hate posts with no pictures, so I wait to write the post when I get home and can post pictures, but when I get home I have zero desire to look at a computer screen when I have been looking at the same thing all day at work (yes, even Pinterest isn’t appealing many nights!)
So I get behind. And then I realize I have tons of thoughts and memories and stories I want to share and it all feel overwhelming, so I don’t post anything for 2 months. And then I finally get back on track and post 10 entries in 2 days, but post date them so I have a better record of when things actually happened. Man, I am a drama queen! Today starts one of those spurts that I want to catch up. (I’m actually writing this on MArch 7th, not Feb. 7th. See, sneaky.)
Feb
07
Way behind!
Feb
01
Missed-a-got
I know what you are thinking…huh? Our thoughts exactly.
Reed is hilarious. Strong-willed, obstinant, borderline defiant at times…but hilarious. His latest word jumble is above. Let me illustrate.
Reed: Mommy, I missed-a-got to wash my hands.
Mommy: Reed, do you mean you ‘for-got’ to wash your hands?
Reed: No Mommy, I missed-a-got.
Mommy: Whatever you say sweet boy.
Our two other favorite Reed-isms are – kerrshomal break (commercial break) and maz-a-gine.
Why does he say the word ‘maza-gine’ you ask? Well, when Reed first started using the potty it was Thanksgiving/Christmas time. During this time we get like 100,000 toy catalogs. One day Reed was taking a long time on the potty so Randy offered him a magazine while he sat. And now we know why men read ‘maz-a-gines’ on the toilet…because their fathers taught them to do it!!!
One other unrelated thing I feel needs to be mentioned is that Reed is very opinionated (go figure) about his music selections. His #1 choice?…Pink. That’s right, Pink. I got the greatest hits album in my stocking and he L-O-V-E-S when I turn it on in the car. He gets this big goofy smile and it totally cracks me up.
Jan
15
Ali’s Birthday Party details
So I LOVED planning this party. I have always struggled to plan a cute party for Reed and now I know why…I am not a boy. When it comes to girly fun parties I have more ideas than I can possibly carry out. I almost wish I had waited to do this theme for her when she is a little older. I had so many ideas of fun crafts to have and paint the party guests toenails, etc. Maybe I will get lucky and Ali will love rainbow colors as much as I do and we will be able to do it again someday.
Here are the details:
1. Invitation – purchased off of Etsy. I bought her cupcake onesie from Etsy and my mom made her second onesie with the ’1′ in ruffled fabric. I love both of them so much. The only reason I even bought the cupcake one is because it was long sleeved and the party was in January.
2. Decorations. The Balloon wreath was the star of the show. I seriously LOVE this wreath. It turned out so much cuter than I had expected. I found the idea on Pinterest and then went with it. I can’t wait to pull out the birthday wreath every year in January and again in March. Other decorations were just a hurricane full of balloons, rainbow fabric on the dessert table, and punchouts of a rainbow paper to decorate the food table. I had brightly colored plates and silverware to finish out the (super easy) rainbow theme.
3. The cake. This cake was the inspiration for the whole party. I saw it on a blog and completely fell in love with it. It just makes me SO happy to look at it. I made lots of modifications to the original cake which included baking only half layers of each color. I wanted to have all the colors, but didn’t want a wedding cake for 30 guests. My second big change was to color the icing to match the cake and not frost the outside. I love that you can see all the colors of cake and icing without even cutting into it. I also made some chocolate covered oreos that I colored to match the cake. (That’s the only sweets Reed would even touch. That boy does not like sweets!)
4. Food. The food was typical Julie food. Cheese 7 cracker tray, turkey/provolone/chive cream cheese rollups, Homemade 7 layer dip, rainbow goldfish and rainbow fruit kabobs with a lime mint syrup. I tried to make kid friendly food that was dressed up a little so grown ups would enjoy it too. The party was at 3pm so I didn’t plan to serve a full dinner, just snacks.
5. Since this was a 1 year old party I didn’t mess with colored drinks. We just had soda, beer, wine and juice boxes.
6. Party favors were brightly colored sand pails filled with simple play things. I had some glow in the dark bracelets, plastic bracelets, a book, a princess wand, a tube of play doh, and a wooden car. Every little girl needs to play with cars, right?
All in all, this was one of my favorite parties ever. The mix of guests was perfect, the time of day was perfect, the weather was lovely, the birthday girl had a wonderful time playing with her friends and opening presents…and I had fun prepping. All the ingredients for a fantastic afternoon!!
-JB
Jan
14
Alison’s First Birthday Party
Ali’s first birthday party was a delightful hit. I’d say it went off without a single hitch. Julie loves planning birthday parties for the kids, but I think this one was her favorite. She kept talking about how happy all the colors made her.
The theme was “rainbow”, and that assimilated itself most obviously in the cake and desserts. Julie made a rainbow-colored layer cake, where each layer was baked individually and colored. What came out was both beautiful and tasty!
As for the Birthday Girl, she was in the best mood the entire afternoon. We strategically timed the party for late afternoon, when she is at her best (when fully rested). She had a great nap and we fed her as soon as she woke up. She was primed and ready to be social when everyone came over. Reed, too, got a great nap and was very helpful and compliant for the most part.
*This post was obviously written by Randy and I will write a separate post with party details. I really loved this party and want to share all the fun stuff I did/found.*
Below is a sample of the pictures we took and a video of Ali getting into her first birthday cake (beautifully colored, I might add). Check out the Full Photo Album for more.
Jan
11
1 Year
Alison Michelle, you are one year old today. I woke up this morning remembering this morning last year. I was SO ready to be done being pregnant, and I was SO ready to see your smiling face. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be capable of loving you as much as I love Reed, and I am still nervous about how to raise a confident, Godly, happy girl. But oh how I love you. All of my fears are pushed aside every single time I see your sweet smile and you reach for me. I can not wait to watch you grow and listen to you talk and fingure out how your sweet little mind works. All moms who have more than one child are right…it IS possible to love the second baby as much as you love the first.
As 1 year old you have 5 teeth. You have just decided to drop down to one nap a day. Selfishly I love that you and Reed are finally on the same nap schedule. Weekends are going to be so much more fun now that we aren’t spending the bulk of the day at home around nap times. On New Years Day you took your first steps. You are definitely not ‘walking’ yet, but you are getting more adventurous.
One of your funny new things is that you demand that we hold you and walk around the house so you can point at every single picture on the wall. It is so cute because you just love to point at things. Last night you figured out how to work the light switch so I’m sure that will become a new pasttime for you too.
You are SUCH a water baby. When you are in the bathtub you choose to lay on your belly and put your face in the water. You do this over, and over, and over again. When you pull your face out of the water you have the biggest smile on your face. You would stay in the bath for hours if we let you.
Last night at dinner you would only eat green beans and blueberries. Anytime we tried to feed you something else you would blow raspberries at us. You screamed when we took you away from the table…until you realized Daddy was taking you into the bathroom. Then you kicked those little feet and tried to jump out of his arms.
You are trying to talk. The funniest thing is when you drop food on the ground (which you do ALL the time) you look at me and make the ‘O’ face and say ‘UH-ooooh’. Melt my heart. Last night at dinner you actually made the ‘more’ sign (in sign language) and I was so excited. I love that you are becoming more communicative.
If Reed is the singer in the family (and he is) you are definitely the dancer. Anytime you hear music you start dancing. On New Years Eve we were listening to a PINK album and you could not contain yourself. I wish I had video of your dance moves.
I know I say this all the time…but you and Reed have the SWEETEST relationship. He can’t wait to see you when you wake up from your nap. And when you see him you kick your feet and smile so big. I think the only time you want me to put you down is if Reed wants to play with you. Reed is moving to the other side of the day care building soon and I’m so sad. Every day you two get to see each other. When he is playing outside he pulls a car up to the window to your room. He stands on the car and demands that your teachers put you in a seat by the window so he can see you. One day I walked in when this was going on. Your back was to me and you were facing Reed on the playground. You were kicking your feet and waving your arms so much. Seriously. Melt my heart.
I know I say it all the time, but I love you so much. You have been a handful this first year, and you better believe we are thankful that you have finally figured out how to sleep through the night…but that sweet smile makes up for all of it. I love being your mom and I can’t wait to see the person you will become.
Happy Birthday Ali!!!
Jan
07
Choo-choo Potty
Reed is now proud to announce, “No More Diapers!” He is proud to proclaim that to anyone, and then follow up by telling everyone that, “Reed is choo-choo potty.”
Huh?
It took us a second to figure out…. Reed is potty trained!
That’s right, over the last few weeks it has been a progression of milestones with very little setbacks, and now Reed out of diapers completely.
Nothing like a little peer pressure to get the ball rolling, but in mid-Fall, Reed’s friend Caleb had made the move to underwear, and we made a big deal of it when his mom told us. From that point Reed finally wanted to try the little potty we had bought several months earlier.
We had tried a few days of underwear when we got home at night, but he always had accidents. We couldn’t get him to go sit on the potty, even if he didn’t have to go, so it was going to be up to him to make the move. Then one night after bath, he was running around butt-naked (which seems to happen regularly after bath time), and he announced he had to go potty. We got all excited and ran with him to the bathroom and had to pull the potty out for him to use. Success!! We of course made a big deal of it like you are supposed to do, and thought we had turned a corner.
We tried the next weekend with just underwear and added the reward of candy (since Halloween had just passed and we had a stockpile). He still was late in telling us and went through several pairs of underwear. We realized our best success was with him butt-naked. Why? I suppose he didn’t feel that safety net and knew he had to do something about it.
So, Thanksgiving weekend, we were home for the extended time with not much going on. We decided to let Reed run around the house naked from the waist down, and focus on going to the potty. Sure enough he started to learn the sensation and could tell us ahead of time, every time. We added underwear as reward after a period of time, and by then he figured out what was going on. He was very persistent about the candy as well.
At this point, he was in underwear all day, and would change to a diaper for naps and bed time. There were many times that he woke up dry, and only after getting up and walking around did he use his diaper. He had a few accidents at school, so we would pack a few changes of clothes for him every day.
Then the accidents seemed to stop and one weekend he gave us a hard time about putting a diaper on for his nap. We let him sleep without one, and sure enough, he woke up dry and went potty shortly after getting up. Success!! We got more persistent about going potty before getting in bed, and now after starting the whole process just weeks ago, he is sleeping through the night completely dry, and has never wet the bed.
He is still using his little potty at home, but he is not scared to sit on a regular toilet at someone else’ house, or even in a public restroom. He is pretty much independent when we are home, except if the light is off. He will make the move to a regular toilet in is his own time… as we have learned with so many other things about Reed.
-RB
Jan
04
How to raise a little girl
I just read this blog post and it stopped me dead in my tracks. When I found out that Alison was a girl I was terrified. I am terrified that I will raise her to have the same ugly hang ups that I have. I’m terrified she will be too caught up in fitting in with the crowd and forget to be her own person. This article gives concrete guidance to help all of the parents out there struggling with the same questions.
http://jeffdlawrence.com/2011/12/23/some-thoughts-on-how-to-talk-to-little-girls/
Enjoy
Jan
03
The word for 2012
First of all I have about 7 posts that need to be written. Oh my goodness I am SO behind. I will catch up in the next week.
In 2011 I chose to declare one word my goal word for the year. In place of several resolutions I decided to choose a word and attempt to live that word for the entire year. I prayed about the one word that summed up my shortcomings and how I could improve my focus to live more like Jesus in a world that is so easy to lose sight of him. In 2011 my word was intentional. I wanted to be more intentional about my home life, my work life, my Jesus life…and more importantly I wanted all of those ‘lives’ to be in agreement with one another. I wanted to intentional act like the same Christian woman in each aspect of my life.
When I reflect on 2011 I feel successful. My family probably heard the word ‘intentional’ 10,000 times if they heard it once. Once I set my sights on trying to live a more intentional life I was very focused and became aware of areas in my life I wanted to adjust or activities I wanted to abandon in order to focus on the more important areas.
Fast forward to 2012. What is the word this year? JOY. That’s right Joy. 2011 was an awesome year that brought me a sweet little girl that I love, I was able to watch the love between Reed and Alison grow, Randy and I enjoyed several vacations with friends and family and had an overall awesome year.
So…why do I need to focus on JOY? Although 2011 was a great year on paper, the everyday part was not joyful. I found myself being dragged down by the little things. Ali is still the world’s worst sleeper (yes, she is almost a year old and still won’t sleep), Randy and I had a tough time adjusting to life with 2 very small and very needy kids. I will admit it, we argued and went our separate ways several times. Reed is SUCH a strong willed child and he pushed me to my limit several times. My point in all of this is that it is so easy to miss the JOY in daily life. For 2012 I want to stop and focus my energy on finding and celebrating that joy everyday.
So what are you doing for 2012? I hope that by publicly stating my focus word for the year it will help keep me accountable to live it everyday in 2012.
Dec
26
Dec
12
11 Months!
Ali you are 11 months old (a few days ago). Unfortunately we had to take you to the doctor because you have ear infection, but we know that you weigh 18 pounds, 11 ounces. You are still a skinny-minny and can fit into 6 month onesies (although they are finally a tight fit). You can still wear size 2 diapers, but 3′s fit a little better.
You have 5 teeth and you are starting to get a few little curls in your hair. Your eyes are still blue and hair is still strawberry blonde. I would love it if you hair stayed this color, but I’m not holding my breath.
I love seeing little parts of your personality come out as you get older. You are so silly and really love to make us laugh. You have figured out peek a boo and love to put your hands on your head as though you are hiding when we play ‘where’s that baby’. My favorite part is how much it makes you laugh. I love your sweet smiley face.
One funny thing is that you LOVE to play with toys. Reed never really played with toys, so it is a surprise to see how much fun you can have sitting on the floor surrounded by your toys. (I guess that means I should buy you a few toys for Christmas!!)
You are a terrible dinner eater. At school you eat like a champ but for some reason you don’t like to eat at home…no matter what I feed you! Let’s hope this will get better soon. We are working on the sippy cup these days and I think you are starting to like it. I’m afraid it probably won’t be as easy to wean you off the bottle and pacifier as it was to wean Reed…but time will tell.
You are very expressive and very communicative, but no real words other than “mama” and “dada” and “nana” (banana). I do think you try to say Ya-Ya to mom though.
We won’t even talk about the sleep. You are still so erratic that it makes us crazy. We had a good run for about 3 weeks and we thought we were in the clear…but you have started waking up at night again. I really hope it is just the teething and the ear infection.
I love you plumpy!!
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