Day 314 | It's a Miracle

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Ok, miracle might be a little strong, but it's pretty unbelievable, nonetheless: Robbe slept in the car.

For most babies, this is not a story worth sharing, or celebrating. But my babies just don't sleep in the car. Period. It's usually a good thing: I don't have to worry about them ruining a nap because of a quick shut-eye in the car. On days like today, though, I was dreading what my I-won't-nap-in-the-car one year old would be like after 1.5 hours in the car as we dropped off uncle Matt at the airport. 

He did it, though. He fell asleep!! And he was out for 30+ minutes. I honestly still can't believe it. 

Ha! Funny what things are worth celebrating in the life of a stay at home mom. 

Day 313 | A New Rec Center

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We finally found the replacement for our beloved Sherwood Recreation Center that we visited weekly on the Hill: the Gwendolyn E. Coffield Community Recreation Center.

This place is perfect. A no frills open gym for wee ones with tons of room to run and lots of toys to keep everyone occupied and entertained. My only complaint? Why did it take me all winter to find it?!? I definitely recommend this place to any parents/nannies in the area looking for indoor activities. Although Chase spent most of the time just sitting in his car, he still had a blast and Robbe enjoyed honing his pushing-while-walking skills. There's even a playground right outside with, that's right, a choo choo. Ah, yes, we'll be back.

Want the details?
What: Toddler open gym
When: Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays from 9:30-noon
Where: 2450 Lyttonsville Road, Silver Spring

Note: It only runs during the school year so no open gyms during the summer.

Day 312 | Quick Visit

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Check out these fun scarves Uncle Matt brought for Robbe's birthday. I swear he likes them, too.
Uncle Matt came for a visit! Woohoo! He's only here as a stop over on his way to a much more exciting location, but we'll take it.

So far Chase has expressed an interest in playing choo choos with him and reading a Thomas book. I think we'll be able to make those dreams come true. 

Day 311 | A Line a Day

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I've never been a journal-er. For some reason, I could never get in the habit of jotting down my thoughts/experiences/life commentary on a frequent basis.

I'm so proud to report, though, that I've managed to stick to this journal for over a  year now: Mom's One Line a Day. It's such an interesting concept for a journal that I had to give it a try. What is the concept? Write one line (or more appropriately a quick few lines) a day for five years. Each day of the calendar has a space for five different entries (one for each year) so you can look back on what you did that day every year. Pretty cool, right? 

I started the journal on Robbe's birth day so I recently began adding another year to the pages. It wasn't always easy to motivate myself to stay up an extra two minutes (I'm so tired!) and there have definitely been catch-up days where I fill in multiple dates (thanks for the help, blog!), but it's so rewarding now that I can see what our world looked like a year ago. And cooler yet will be looking back four years, when the time comes. 

If pink and mom-my isn't your style, they have a regular version of the journal as well. 

Day 310 | Round Two

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Urgh. That's how I feel right now. Urgh.

The dishwasher broke. Again. It only lasted a week. I know it's petty, but in the moment there's nothing worse than surveying an over-flowing dishwasher blinking an error code at you instead of making your life easier. 

I don't even mind the dishes that accumulate as long as I can do them after every meal instead of a 45 minute washing session after days of filling the dishwasher up. 

Let's hope the repair man can come a little quicker this time. And let's hope the repair actually sticks. 

Urgh. 

Day 309 | Mail Museum

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It's a gorgeous, albeit slightly chilly, day in the District. We took advantage of the sunshine by busting out of the house to pop down for another visit to our favorite museum for toddlers: the Postal Museum (or "mail museum", as Chase called it today).

The place was pretty empty (it always is) and Chase was all over the place practically sprinting from one attraction to the next: mail sorting, truck driving, spooky trail walking, mail scanning, stamp making. We covered a lot in a short period of time. 

And we used the trains at Union Station to lure him to lunch and eat it quickly. Perfect! 

Once our sweet one year old drops his morning nap, I think we'll be frequent visitors to this place. I can see it now: Metro ride to the museum, lots of mail sorting, then lunch with daddy. Only time will tell if I can actually make it happen. You'll hear about it if I do!

Day 307 | Snow Day

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Why yes, Robbe is wearing plastic bags over his mittens and "boots." And yes, we're sledding on a cardboard box. When you don't know if DC is going to get snow, there's no need to invest in heavy snow gear. :)
What a lovely snow day. We ended up with about six inches of the fluffy white stuff (according to my eyeball estimation).

The day started out with yummy muffins, a latte, a fun play date, and some outdoor playtime. After lunch, the boys took nice naps (ahhh, peace and quiet) and I made some delicious black bean burgers for dinner while watching my three boys giggle and play. See? Lovely. 

Day 305 | Tootsie Roll Flare

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I'm happy to report that this will be the last birthday related post for at least a couple weeks (Chase's birthday is right around the corner, after all). I think we're all suffering from a case of, as the Berenstain Bears put it, " Too Much Birthday."

I couldn't help but share one last tidbit from Robbe's bday celebration: Tootsie Rolls! Did you notice the fun paw print on Robbe's cupcake? That was a Tootsie Roll melted and molded to make that shape. I did the same thing to make sheep heads for Chase's first birthday. It's so much more delicious and accessible than using fondant (the popular cake-decorating material). 

Just throw three or four Tootsies in the microwave for ten seconds and they become super pliable. I will offer one lesson I learned from experience, though: don't put the Tootsies on the cupcakes too far in advance and also leave them in the open air (not in an airtight container) once they're decorated. The Tootsies will melt and start to run if enclosed. 

Fun, right? Now back to our normal life around here. For a few days anyway. 

Day 304 | Today's the Day

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Today our sweet, smiley, perfectly-fiesty, gentle, outgoing, care-free baby turned one. I can't wrap my head around how March 2, 2014, is both just yesterday and a lifetime ago at the same time.

An ice storm threw our plans to go swimming out the window but our new one-year-old seemed to enjoy the library just as much. And he had his first restaurant meal (after all Chris and I deserve to be celebrated, too) at a new neighborhood restaurant. 

Thanks for thinking of Robbe today. He's one special little guy. We look forward to watching his personality continue to develop and are grateful for the hole he fills in our little family. 

Day 303 | Kitty Cat Tee

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As part of Robbe's birthday festivities, I used the same kitty cat graphic from the garland for a spunky tee for my favorite soon-to-be one year old (tomorrow!). This is the same process that I used for the favorite thing shirts at Christmas.

The kitty design was my most complicated to date. After tracing the design on the freezer paper and cutting it out, I ironed on the cat head outline first (just long enough to make it stick) and then added the interior facial features before a second round of ironing. It worked perfectly.

Here are the step by step directions, in case you missed it the first time.

Day 300 | 300!

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Three hundred and still going strong! Here's our team update for this round.

Name: Sara
Favorites: visitors! We're heading into another season of visitors. On the list, my mom, then my brother, then my good friend, then my parents...all in two months. Woo hoo!
Biggest hurdle to overcome: conquering the great potty training challenge of 2015.
Dreams for the future: get back to yoga. I practiced twice (2!) last week and absolutely loved it. It just feels so good for the body and soul.

Name: Chris
Favorites: honing his new-found talent of iPad animations (another one of the ten hours of presents). His doodles-turned movies are quite entertaining. Especially for the two year old demographic.
Biggest hurdle to overcome: survive the last stretch (we can hope anyway) of winter commutes. Walking to and from the metro in freezing temperatures/biting wind/damp precipitation is not fun. The guy never complains, though. He and I are very different.
Dreams for the future: winning the lottery (and not even the real one, but that would be nice). The public school lottery for Chase's 3 pre-k next year. Applications need to be in Monday and we find out at the end of the month. Think happy thoughts!

Name: Chase
Favorites: brainstorming ideas for birthday gifts (for himself). At least once a day we have pretty detailed discussions about which trains he's going to ask for for his birthday. It's a tough choice for this little guy. I'm confident he'll pull through with the right ones in the end. Other favs: saying "no no Miles," blueberries (he's consistent), saying "I love you [fill in the blank]," trains (obviously).
Biggest hurdle to overcome: do I really have to say it? Definitely completing his potty training course work. He's been a rockstar thus far. I know he can do it.
Dreams for the future: teaching Robbe to talk. During most meals and most car rides, Chase enjoys repeating words for Robbe to learn. He does it very deliberately and in an exaggerated way: "mama mama mama", "dada dada," "yeeesss" (with head shake), "nooooo" (with head shake). Isn't Robbe lucky to have such an amazing coach? He'll have him talking in no time.

Name: Robbe
Favorites: tumbling acts in his crib. He thinks it's absolutely hysterical to wake up and meet us by doing acrobatics in his crib. He stands by the railing and then falls onto his tummy, he does seriously silly rolling, he wedges himself against the rails. It's quite entertaining. Other favs: eating (any and everything), brother snuggles, daddy's glasses, Miga (of course), finding everything that's not a toy to play with.
Biggest hurdle to overcome: teeth. These phantom annoyances have been plaguing our happy little tyke for weeks. He still only has two (and he's had those for months) but I see probably four that are on the cusp. Just pop through already and give us all a break!
Dreams for the future: walking. I'm in no rush for this physical development (have you heard me say, "the later they walk, the smarter they are about it?") but you can see the wheels turning in his mind about taking steps. He gets how life-changing it's going to be. Now if only those wobbly legs would cooperate.

Day 298 | Two Babies, Two Years Apart

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Overall, I think having two babies, two years apart is great. I love watching them grow up together. It's nice that our older child still has the same interests (bigger toys, same songs, etc) as our little guy. And I hadn't completely forgot what it was like to have a newborn and all the challenges associated with that.

It's taken me almost an entire year (358 days to be exact) to feel completely at a loss for how to manage both babies at the same time. That's not too bad, right? You might be wondering, is it because Robbe is getting into EVERYTHING? No, but that's true. Or is it because Chase has finally started having his terrible twos/threes meltdowns on occasion? No, but that's true, too.

Did you guess potty training? Ding, ding, ding. Chase has transitioned half of his bathroom duties to the potty, no problem. The other half (you know what I'm getting at, right?), is another story. Until yesterday, he just held it until we put a diaper on for nap or bedtime. I had the great idea to get mini trains to encourage using the potty so we picked some out yesterday. Now, he really really wants to use the potty and spent 15 minutes on the potty five times today in an attempt to go. No success. Have you figured out the problem yet? Yep: how can I be supporting one baby on the potty for 15 minutes at a time while entertaining a very active crawler at the same time. The bathroom is not exactly baby-friendly, nor does a baby roaming around encourage any focused potty-time.

The epitome of this conflict occurred tonight before dinner. I needed 15 minutes of cooking time and that's when Chase decided he needed to, once again, use the potty. I decided to try a tip from another mom: put Robbe in the bathtub with toys (confined=genius!). So Chase on the potty (who needed a book read to him, obviously), Robbe in the tub (throwing toys down at Chase's feet), and dinner borderline burning on the stove as I ran back and forth to the kitchen. Ahhh!

I'm going to win this war. I know it. But today's battle was definitely lost. Think happy thoughts for tomorrow. Chase really wants to play with those trains.

Day 297 | Birthday Prep: Take Three

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Who thought it was a good idea to fit three family birthdays in a two week period? Lesson learned for next year: start the prep work right after Christmas. :)

So now I'm hustling trying to make Robbe's first birthday party as special, but not over the top, as possible. I'm confident we can pull it off. 

The theme is going to be cats. And I swear it's not because of my love of all things cat-related. He really does like cats. He can't handle not attacking, I mean snuggling, Miga when she's in the same room as him and if you ask "where's the kitty?" he strains his head in every direction looking for her. So a cat theme it is. 

First up on my craft list? Making sweet cat ears for all/any of our willing guests. Although not the quickest project, it is really simple: just felt, hot glue and headbands. I used paper to decide how big I wanted the ears and then just cut and glued the felt. Chase was pretty excited about them when I showed him the mock-up so hopefully at least a few of our guests will feel the same way.  

Day 296 | Artwork

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After a decent amount of snow yesterday, the sun is shining and it's 45 degrees today. I'll take it. We're still playing catch up around here: cleaning, laundry, dishes (did I mention we have a broken dishwasher?), prepping for a one year old's birthday party, etc.and in the midst of tidying, I realized I never shared a photo of the artwork the boys made Chris as one of his birthday gifts. The horror!

The one on the left is from Chase. I cut out a bunch of shapes and he decided what should go where and glued them down. I was really surprised, actually. I thought it would be fairly abstract but he had a more accurate image in mind. Impressive. And, of course, he selected blue for the background because, "that's daddy's favorite color."

The one on the right is made with Robbe's hand and footprint. Turns out paint + squirmy baby + one adult = tricky crafting. The finished product, though, ended up ok so I just went with it. 

There you have it. Thank goodness these boys humor me when it comes to projects.