Day 282 | Turkey Thicket

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It's a beautiful day and I can't wait to get outside to work on a special Valentine surprise for the boys...but first, a photo from our morning. 

We ventured over to Brookland to visit the Turkey Thicket playground. It's a family-favorite. There's no doubt about it. Did I mention there's a train to climb in? Yeah. That's right. 

Day 280 | Sharing the Love

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Chase has been all about sharing the love the last few weeks. He's constantly pausing mid-conversation or mid-playing (and I mean about 10 times an hour) to look right into my soul and say, "I love you, Mommy." He does the same to Daddy and Robbe. It's probably one of the sweetest, most heart-warming sentiments ever.

The scene above occurred for the entire last five minutes of our grocery trip this afternoon. See? Sharing the love. 

Day 277 | Books for the Babies

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With two birthdays right around the corner (and two more if you include mine and Chris's), I've been pretty deep into bday planning mode around here.

One of the items high on my to do list for these birthdays is updating the babies' books. Seems simple enough, right? I've done a pretty decent job keeping up with the task along the way (I'm not even starting from scratch!) but the process of reviewing scribbled notes, writing everything out, and finding the perfect corresponding photos is crazy time consuming. 

Some tips I've learned along the way:

  • Jot down notes along the way. It's impossible to think you'll remember when things happen by memory. There are just too many milestones! Have a sheet of paper in a convenient spot (ours lives behind our calendar in our kitchen) that you can quickly write down the date when something fun happens. 
  • Keep photos organized. I know it's hard but it's worth it. It makes picking and choosing the right ones much less of an overwhelming task. 
  • Go with your instincts. Don't hem and haw about the ideal thing to write down for the questions. Your voice will shine through if you don't over-think them.
  • Know your style. I've realized after working through Chase's book that I prefer a fill-in-the blank type book, which is what I got for Robbe. Chase's is more free-flowing and open-ended. I've realized I'm much better at just filling in the "answer" and can do that much quicker. 
  • Start a box, too. There are a lot of random baby memories that can't live in a book. Claim a box for the sweet baby mementos (think: the hat he got in the hospital) so you know everything is in the same place.
In case you're interested, this is Chase's book (on the left) and this is Robbe's book (on the right...and this one even comes with a keepsake box).

Fingers crossed I can get these both updated in the next month!

Day 276 | We're Getting Closer

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Not to be outdone, Robbe added to our week of big (huge!) accomplishments last week.

Example #2: Robbe is no longer eating in the middle of the night. That's right: we're down to just three feedings a day (8am, 1:30pm, 7:30pm). Woohoo!

I'd like to say he dropped the feeding/waking on his own, but I decided it was time to nudge it along a bit. He's handled it remarkably well. He has still woken up most nights (though not last night!), but he goes back to sleep on his own and isn't starving when he wakes up. Progress indeed.

Day 275 | He's Kind of a Rockstar

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Remember when I mentioned last week was a big week?

Example #1: We're well on our way to a fully potty-trained toddler! Can you believe it? We can't either. It started on Tuesday night when Chase decided he wanted to wear his Thomas undies (that had been sitting in his drawer for a couple of months). Full disclosure: credit goes to Chris for broaching the subject again.

We spent two days changing pants a lot. I started to get a bit worried, I'm not going to lie. Did we start to early? Is it going to be like this every day now? Ahhh! Then, Friday he had no accidents. None! We did put a diaper on him for an outing and lunch and he came back dry. On Saturday we went all in. No diaper except during sleeping. He did it! Stayed dry all day again. And the same thing happened today. Three days seems pretty good, right? We're pretty stoked. I know we can slide backward but I think we've made good progress so far. Chase even earned his "potty train" (Get it? It's a train he gets for using the potty) in record time by getting a sticker every time he used the potty. Quite the motivator, I have to say.

We still have some work to do...I'll spare you the details, but hopefully everything continues as smoothly as the last couple of days have gone. Yippee!

Day 274 | Back At It

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I'm back to my regularly scheduled blogging. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into the random things that bring a smile to my face these days. It's been a big (huge!) week around here while I've been distracting you with My Favorite Things blog posts. I'm going to keep you hanging one more day before divulging details, though, because we went on an outing too fun not to share this morning: to the National Building Museum.

I've talked about it before, but this is really one of my favorite indoor activities to take the kiddos to in the District. Judging by the crowd of people and two sold-out Building Zone sessions, a few other people think the same thing. We had lots of fun looking the Hot to Cold exhibit, playing in the atrium, and visiting the gift shop (Chase is really into picking things out for his birthday lately). The highlight for both boys was the Building Zone (no surprise). Then we packed up the car, braved DC traffic, and made it home in time for naps. Just perfect.

Day 273 | My Favorite Things: #5

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Home sweet home.

I'm in love with our house. It's the perfect size for our little family (not too big but room for everyone to spread out). I'm a big fan of the layout (it's very open). The kitchen couldn't be more ideal (yay for cupboard space). And any of the issues we've had since moving in have been quickly remedied by the construction crew that did the renovation (thank goodness for tough negotiations during closing). I feel very lucky and blessed to be living in this house, in this city, with these boys. 

Day 272 | My Favorite Things: #4

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I'm so happy that knitting is back in my life. I tend to do a few projects (love it!) then somehow stray away due to other crafts. 

I'm definitely back in a big way this round. I finished my first Christmas stockinge last week and then quickly transitioned to a project just for me (woop woop!): a stocking hat. A beyond-adorable, perfect-for-me hat that I can't wait to finish and wear it out. It's pushing my knitting capabilities: I've never done two colors before and it called for a different casting on technique. I'm happy to report I'm nailing it so far!

Here's the pattern so you can see what the (hopefully) finished product will look like. 

Day 270 | My Favorite Things: #2

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Random cat items. I think my love affair with cats (did you know I can speak their language?) has officially transitioned from the real animals to amusing cat things (don't worry, I still love you, Miga). I'm not looking to add on an addition to our house to make room for this growing collection (it's actually the purr-fect small-size at the moment) but for some reason this random cat stuff just makes me smile.

Special note: Thanks to my mom and dad for the adorable cat blanket. And to Mary Catherine Starr for the sweet kitty mug. And to Chris for thinking I stole the tiny cat figurine (I really did pay a quarter for it...I swear!). All pictured above.

Day 269 | My Favorite Things: #1

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After a long long week last week full of too much crying and Chase's first full-fledged, limp-body, kicking-and-screaming meltdown (we almost made it to three years without one, that's something to be thankful for, right?), I'm tying to stay positive this week. So, to brighten my own spirits, I will be posting a photo a day of my favorite things. And I really mean "things," material things that is. Otherwise I'd feel obligated to come up with baby-related uppers and I'm trying to steer clear of those. I still have a tiny bit of me that exists outside of being a mom.

Here we go, day one: fresh flowers. And these in particular. I'm not even sure what they are...I picked them up on a whim from Trader Joe's and they're my new favorite. So dainty and feminine. 

Day 267 | Prepping for Christmas

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That's right. It's January and I'm planning [way] ahead for Christmas. That's what you have to do when you're taking about knitting stockings for the whole family.

I've wanted to craft stockings for my family since before we had kids. That's serious. Now that we've settled in as a family of four, it's time. 

My mother in-law crafted some amazing stockings for the boys which we'll continue to use for official Santa business (since they're much fancier). These knitted ones will hang on our mantle, just as festive decor. 

I'm debating about how to add names to these beauties (some sort of tag hanging off of them, probably) but for now I'll just keep on knitting. One down, three to go. 

Oh, and here's the pattern for all you fellow knitters. It's surprisingly easy and quick. You can do it!


Day 266 | Chase Update

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It seems only fair to offer an update on our older tyke as well, right?

Here's your Chase fix for the day:
  • He's still very into reading, reading, reading. Favorites right now? Thomas (no surprise), Berenstain Bears (although the obsession has subsided somewhat), anything from the library (new=exciting!), rediscovering old favorites (oh that's what those books on the other end of the bookshelf are).
  • He's been practicing standing on one foot. And he's pretty proud of himself for it, too (for good reason). 
  • He memorized his first (long!) book. To him, he's "reading" it but it's apparent that he's just heard the book (a Thomas one, obviously) a million times and can now recite it word for word. It's pretty text-heavy, too. Quite an impressive feat. Thanks Uncle Brian and Aunt Tera (and the girls!) for getting the book for him. 
  • He can spell all his family members' names. And this is definitely more letter identification than memorized tricks. Chase's real name (remember, we go by middle names around here) is eight letters long so, again, super impressive. 
  • He can identify letters. As noted above, he's getting to be quite the alphabet expert. It's amazing how it's like a light-switch flips and all of a sudden he can do all these awesome things.
  • He knows all the Thomas and Friends characters and can tell you color and number for most of them. This boy loves Thomas. 
  • He's started breaking into song randomly. It's like we're in a fantastic musical where "I've been working on the railroad" and the alphabet song are the leading songs on the soundtrack.
And his status quo list:
  • He's still obsessed with trains: riding in them, reading about them, playing with them, talking about them, giving compliments related to them, etc. And can you guess what he's asking for for his birthday coming up? Yep! More trains/attractions for his wooden set. We're getting to be quite the impressive railroad track engineers around here. 
  • His favorite food? Yes, sir. Still blueberries (and fruit in general). At least he's consistent. 

Day 265 | Robbe Update

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Robbe signing "all done."
It's been awhile since I've given an update on our little guy. Things change quickly in the life of a soon-to-be one year old so I couldn't wait any longer or we'd miss some fun stuff.
  • He's waving at everyone. At the grocery store, at Chase's school, going up to bed, everywhere. 
  • He's signing "all done". That's the photo above. Chase didn't catch on to signs until well after his birthday so I wasn't expecting this so soon. I love it, though!
  • He's eating finger foods. I'd say about 75% of the chucks make it into his mouth at this point. Not too bad, right? Favorites include: bananas, sweet potatoes, green beans, cheese, carrots, Cheerios, strawberries, blueberries, oranges. 
  • He's saying "dada" pretty consistently, although we're not ready to call it his first word yet. Of course, it usually comes after I ask him to say "mama." Ha! Sounds about right. 
  • He can accurately tell you what a camel does. It's kind of a pfugh sound with lots of spitting involved, in case you didn't know. 
  • He really really likes the following: playing on the couch, being up in his brother's business, chasing Miga around (good thing she's fairly tolerant), playing up/down in the crib (stand up, squat down, repeat), pulling a blanket up and down to reveal his face (aka peek-a-boo), and reading books.
  • He enjoys doing somersaults (or a close relative of them anyway) by putting his head down in my lap and having me flip him over. 
  • He's a lover. This kid is constantly giving smooches and snuggles. My favorite is all the kisses he gives to animals and people in books. He does kind of a dive-bomb with his head to give the kisses. With people, we're trying to work on teaching that kisses without teeth are better. After that, we'll start working on less juicy smooches. But one thing at a time!
And a couple of things that have remained status quo:
  • Still not sleeping through the night. He's only done it once (this time) so far. But I'm staying optimistic. It's going to happen...for good...soon!
  • Still just two teeth. I think there are a couple on the horizon, though, so stay tuned.