7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 54)

1) John is now officially a walker. I think New Years Day is the day I officially deemed him a walker because that's when he made numerous attempts to walk across the room without being encouraged to do so. And he can make it across the room sometimes. Yay!

2) John can also climb up and  down the stairs by himself (but don't worry, I still spot him just in case - he's not that good yet). This has been helpful because it was getting old (and exhausting) carrying him up and down the stairs all the time - especially if I had a load of laundry under one arm and him in the other.

Christmas morning breakfast

3) Joseph isn't one iota interested in potty training and I'm not gonna lie - I'm starting to get a little nervous. We had a short spurt of interest several months back and had a few successes, but now every time I ask if he wants to sit on the potty he gives me a very clear "no!"
I'm learning that his short-lived interest in potty training is just a part of his personality (he is classified as an "impulsive child" according to a test both Will and I took at the beginning of the potty training book I'm reading). I believe the description they used said impulsive children will go "gangbusters" at the beginning of training then quickly lose interest. That pretty much describes what happened with Joseph.
I've also been a bit amused by the book because all of their descriptions of what an impulsive child is like are spot on. So much so that I actually laughed when they said the houses of impulsive children are "baby-proofed to the hilt" and that parents of impulsive children are "unable to hold a conversation with another adult because they can't take their eyes off their kid." True and truer.

4) What other nouns were used to describe my impulsive child? Energetic and active - yep (but really how many toddlers aren't energetic and active?). Early walker. Check (he walked at 9 months + 1 day). Bodily risk-taker. I think (willfully) slamming his head into walls, people, couches, etc. along with having zero fear at playgrounds qualifies him for this one. "Enjoy rough-and-tumble play, and frequently are the children who take this too far and, without intending to, end up hurting a playmate." I believe tackling his brother, random kids at play areas and adults holding babies at formal events qualifies him for this one. Happy and adaptable. Definitely. Pretty much everything they had to say about impulsive children related to Joseph. Now I just need to figure out how to get the boy potty trained before......

5) ...the next baby arrives...

...some time around July 6 :)

6) So far the pregnancy has been fine. A little harder than the others, but manageable (it would be pretty hard to be easier than my other pregnancies). The exhaustion is harder to deal with simply because I have two other little people to look after all day. And this time around I've had afternoon/evening sickness which I've never had before. Really all this has meant is that the bare minimum has been getting done around here - laundry gets done, meals are (usually) on the table, boys are alive. This is one of the reasons the blog has basically been ignored. It's also the reason that I took exactly zero pictures over Christmas, so I'm relying on my sisters for pictures of Christmas 2013 (the ones in this post are from my sister - thanks Julia!).
I'm finally about to enter my 2nd trimester, so I'm hoping to do a little more blogging (but I make no promises). Maybe I'll even take some pictures of the boys this month :)

John and Frances are enamored by the train tracks

7) We're excited to be adding another sweet baby to the mix, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not even a little bit nervous to have 3 under 3 3 two and under (that sounds scarier, right?) for a few days. Buuuut, we're getting a minivan (no more manual locks! or manual windows! and I'll get cruise control! and spaaaaaace!) so all will be right in the world...or something like that.

Thanks for an easy way to re-enter the blogging world, Jen!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 53)

1) A Wegman's is opening near us, and I just signed up for my Wegman's card today. Word on the street has it that I should be excited ecstatic. I guess I'll have to wait for our store to open to see how I feel about it, but I have a feeling I'm going to like this little enormous store :)

2) John is growing like crazy. He is now crawling all over the place, pulling up and stealing Joseph's toys. Joseph is fine with the first two accomplishments, but isn't too keen on having his little brother take his toys (even the ones he isn't playing with).

I guess it won't surprise you that one of Joseph's current favorite words is "mine!" We've been working on sharing a lot around here. Very often Joseph will say "mine!" then he'll look at me, realize I'm watching, tentatively offer the toy back to John and say "share." It's a work in progress. Sharing is seriously hard business.

3) Most of the time, though, the boys play well together. It's especially sweet when Joseph tries to play games with John. Recently he's started crawling really fast across the kitchen and John giddily follows. They go back and forth and back and forth laughing the whole time. It's really cute to watch.

Joseph decides he needs to have his picture taken, too.
He jumps in during John's "6 month photo shoot."

4) Our mom's group took a little field trip to the fire station a couple weeks ago. All the kids loved it. Here are a couple pictures from the trip.

 

5) We went to a train museum near us for Labor Day and Joseph loved it. When I say loved I'm not even a little bit exaggerating. It was a small museum that had one large room with a display in the middle and one small room with a fairly large lego display. Granted, the displays were interactive in that you could push buttons to make the trains or people or various objects move, but still it was only two rooms. We spent two and a half hours there. Crazy. We met up with some friends at the park afterwards and one of them said "I can't believe you were there for two and a half hours!"

6) Joseph started Preschool last week. We joined a homeschool co-op that meets once a week for a few hours. So far he's loving it (not surprising). I'm excited for Joseph to have this opportunity. And, as much as I balk at the idea, it's been good for me to have a little more structure to my week.
Sadly, I was a terrible mom and didn't take the obligatory "1st day of (pre)school" photo. I didn't even dress him in particularly cute clothes for his first day. Ah well. You live and learn. Maybe next year.

7) We've been enjoying a few of the warmer days at some local fountains. So much fun!

Thanks for hosting, Jen!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 52)

1) This past Wednesday I went to the Like Mother, Like Daughter Crazy DC Meet-Up. It was so great to be able to spend the evening with Leila, Sukie, Deirdre and all the other women who came. I was so excited from the moment I saw the post that they were planning the meet-up. I really enjoyed hearing "Auntie" Leila's thoughts on building community, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that much of what she talked about I either already knew or is already being done in our community. We have been so blessed with a loving, supportive community. And I'm glad I was able to hear a few new ideas for what I can do to build up the community around me.

2) I recently joined Blinkbuggy and love it. I really like that I can record quotes and little snippets from our day so easily. I haven't done too much with pictures yet, but just having a journal of memories that easily accessible. I'm still figuring out how everything works, but hopefully I'll be able to share what I post on there with friends and family soon.

3) Have you ever thought about compiling a cookbook with all your favorite recipes? I dream of having time (and motivation) for such things. I would love to have all my favorite recipes organized into one book that I keep in my kitchen. Then I could just store all my cookbooks (or give them away!) and have that much less clutter.

4) I've been enjoying the challenge of posting every day this week. I've been able to get a few posts finished that have been languishing either in my draft folder or in my brain. So far I've posted a bunch of pictures of my two sweet boys - in story format :), talked about my thoughts on baby contraptions, listed my five favorite meals for new moms and gave a little update on what Joseph has been into lately. I'm hoping to do a post about our vacation in Ohio next. Here's a little glimpse of our week:

5) Diet Coke without Caffeine (aka: Caffeine Free Diet Coke) is like chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips. It's just an abomination. I (not-so-recently) took some diet coke that I had acquired after a potluck to a friend's house. We were having a little play date and I was feeling tired so I took some diet coke to wake myself up. When I got there and we were having lunch I got out my diet coke only to realize that it was caffeine free. I didn't even know what to do with myself. I was so upset. Who buys caffeine free diet coke? Why? WHY!?!?

6) I have a question for cloth diaperers: Does anyone have experience with Hemparoo inserts? Particularly with Fuzzi Bunz? I'm about to buy some off Craigslist, but want to make sure they work well before making the drive and spending the money. I have a couple Hemp Babies liners that I really like. I'd love to get more Hemp Babies, but these Hemparoo liners are being sold for $1 each. Are the Hemparoo liners worth my time and money?

7) This guy:

Love.

Him.

Thanks for hosting, Jen!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 51)

1) I would like to start by saying "Merry Christmas, Joseph!" I finally got around to buying his Christmas gift this week (Yes. That is in the singular.). I mean 4.5 months late isn't too bad, right? I didn't want to set the bar too high the first year we gave an actual gift to our son at Christmas.

2) I bought him an IKEA play kitchen. I spent months researching play kitchens, looking up used kitchens on Craigslist, hemming and hawing about what to buy. Once I finally decided I was going to get the IKEA kitchen I kept an eye on their website waiting for it to be in stock. I was hoping to buy both the kitchen and a couple spice racks at the same time, but it seems the spice racks are pretty much never available. So, I finally took the plunge and went to IKEA to buy the kitchen and just skipped the spice racks. Now I just have to put it together. Hopefully that won't take another 4.5 months.

3) Joseph was so good during our 4-hour trip to IKEA (I went with a friend and we took our time, what can I say?). The highlight for him, I think, was the helicopter that flew by as we were loading the car. He's still talking about that "hapidodur."

4) I love Ann Taylor LOFT. I bought this dress (in 2 different colors) and this shirt (in 3 different colors) this week. I've been wanting to buy some non-maternity + breast feeding friendly clothes for a while now and finally took the plunge. I took the boys with me and just powered through. And I'm so glad I did. I feel so much better in non-maternity clothes (I'm still looking for some shorts I like and am willing to pay for, though). It was definitely worth going (especially since the stuff I got was on sale!).

5) Our yard is a mess. About a month ago Pepco (our utility company) dug up a good portion of our front yard for "quality improvement work." Now Verizon is digging in a very large portion of our yard (all along the side and front of our house - we're on a corner) to install FiOS. I'm ready for all the destruction to be over so I can take Joseph out in the yard again. I just hope it doesn't take too long for grass to grow again.

The flags mark where they will dig/where lines will go.
This is about 15-20% of the flags in our yard.
Obviously, they haven't dug here yet.

6) Joseph loves to wear Will's hats. He wants to be just like daddy.

7) I let Joseph play with water in the sink a couple weeks ago. He LOVED it.

In heaven.

Completely soaked.

He played at the sink for over 2 hours! It was amazing. I was able to cook dinner, nurse John, read blogs.... But the mess. It took a while to clean up all the water/Jospeh. I'll probably let him do it again sometime though. Probably on one of those days where I hit a wall around 4-5pm and just. can't. do. anything. else.

Thanks for hosting, Jen!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 50)

 

1) We'll just title this Quick Takes "Welcome Baby John!" since I've been meaning to do a post announcing our sweet John's birth, but just haven't gotten around to it.

John Francis
2/7/13  10:43am
8lb.  20.25in.

2) I've been trying really hard to take as many pictures of John as I did of Joseph, but I've had to remind myself several times to take pictures and we already missed the "mommy, daddy and baby" picture in the hospital. Oh well. Here are a bunch of other pictures to make up for that.

Daddy and John (dodging the camera)

3) This was taken in the 3.2 seconds Joseph stayed on the chair. Despite what it looks like in this picture, Joseph wasn't the least bit interested in his baby brother. He was interested in all the cool stuff in my hospital room and wanted to get back to causing trouble.

4) Don't worry - Joseph has showed interest in his little brother since then and even enjoys posing for pictures. We've had to do a lot explaining about how the bouncy seat is John's chair - it isn't for Joseph to sit or play on (especially when John is in the bouncy). I'm happy to report that we are casualty free thus far.

5) Grandpa came to visit for a few days and made us some delicious food. Joseph loved having his Grandpa around. He got pretty spoiled by Grandpa. Grandpa let him watch him cook (by holding Joseph for ridiculous amounts of time while preparing food). Grandpa read the same books over and over and over...and over and over and over. And Grandpa, of course, played basketball with him. But don't worry, Grandpa also got a chance to hold baby John :)

6) Have I mentioned that John LOVES his pacifier? It's true. He loves it a lot. 

Don't even think about taking my paci away.

7) On a related (but not cute) note. I weighed myself today. I knew I shouldn't have done that. These pictures should make up for that mistake, no?

7a) Our first mommy, daddy and John photo - to make up for the missed pic in the hospital. Bonus: Will is smiling and his eyes are open (and John isn't completely blocking his face)!

Thanks to Jen for hosting!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 49)

1) Today is going to be a whirlwind of a day. It starts with a doctor's appointment (that hopefully shows labor is imminent) immediately followed by me hosting mom's group (most likely my last mom's group before the arrival of #2). Then this afternoon I head to a 3-day silent retreat. Hopefully Joseph will get a nap in there somewhere so I have a chance to get ready for the retreat.

2) I'm super excited about this retreat. First of all, it's a silent retreat. I've only been on one other silent retreat, and I loved it. It should be a good, relaxing, spiritually engaging time. Although I am a little worried about being away from Joseph for two nights. It will be my first time being away from him for even one night let alone two. But that's part of the reason we're doing this - to prepare Joseph (and me) for my hospital stay.

3) I found this website that tells you your chances of going into labor on a given day this week. Being the math nerd that I am, and wanting this baby out means I pretty much love it and check it on the daily. Not that me checking some website is going to get the baby out, but I like to know my odds for going into labor on any particular day.

4) I think I've mentioned before that Joseph's vocabulary is taking off, and it's true. He mimics words like crazy now. He pretty much tries to say everything we say and does a fairly good job pronouncing words. It's so nice that he's (generally) able to communicate what he wants now. We don't always understand, but our communication seems to get better by the day, and that's really nice.

5) Joseph loves numbers and counting. I will often let him watch Sesame Street (usually once a day), but occasionally he gets a little bored (the fairy portion bores him most days) so he goes and plays with his toys during the "boring" parts, but as soon as someone starts counting he perks up and runs back to the TV. It's pretty cute to watch. He also tries to say the numbers back to the TV and will dance along with the characters when they're counting. I can tell he's really interested and that makes me so happy! He's taken a particular liking to the number 9. So, when we count with him he says "9" anytime he doesn't know the next number. He can also point out the number 9 in his counting books (although he frequently thinks the number 6 is 9). He will often flip to the page with the number 9 and say "nine!" in the most southern accent you can imagine - it really sounds more like "nahn!"

6) My Christmas post is coming soon (finally), but here's a picture that didn't make it into the post (or maybe it will make it in, who knows). This was taken as soon as we let Joseph out of the stroller at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Instead of going into the Monster's Inc. show he just sat down on this ledge of concrete. Go figure. He was in the most magical place on earth and he wanted to sit here. Don't worry - it didn't last too long before he moved on to bigger and better things.

7) Have a lovely weekend!!

Thanks to Jen for hosting. Now go check out some more Quick Takes!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 48)

1) Countdown to my due date: t - 4weeks 5 days (assuming I go into labor on my due date). I can't believe how close I am. I remember counting the days with Joseph, but with this pregnancy it seems like the whole thing has flown by. I've barely managed to keep up with my bi-weekly pregnancy photos (I actually missed my picture holding "the sign" yesterday, but I did get a quick shot with photo booth). I have an inkling that this baby is going to come early - although I'm not sure how early I think he'll come. But I also thought our boy was a girl, so we'll see how this prediction pans out.

ready to go down the big slide

2) My patience has been somewhere along the lines of non-existent lately. I'm not sure why. Probably because I haven't been getting as much sleep. Joseph has been waking up early and I haven't been resting at all during the day because I feel the need to get stuff done. I'm going to try to take it a little more easy for a few days to see if my patience improves.

3) Nesting is in full force. I'm really glad I've been able to get a lot of things checked off my to-do list. And I'm starting to feel prepared for the baby, which is good just in case my early-arrival prediction is correct. Unfortunately, all the baby-related tasks have taken precedence over my regular cleaning schedule. I'm hoping to remedy that and do somewhat of a "deep clean" this coming week.

4) Does all the bickering about attachment parenting vs. non attachment parenting drive you nuts? It drives. me. crazy. Why can't people just parent however they like and move on with their lives? This goes for a lot of parenting stuff. All families aren't the same. There isn't a one-size-fits-all way to parent. I do enjoy a good, respectful discussion, but please no judging or assuming.

giving the Great Goofini a kiss

5) I'm going on a retreat February 1-3 before the baby arrives (assuming he doesn't make his appearance before then), and I can't wait! I'm really looking forward to having some time to relax and work on my spiritual life before the craziness of two kids hits. It will also be a good "trial run" for Joseph being away from me for a couple days. Not to mention it'll be good father-son bonding time.

6) I recently stumbled upon this blog and wanted to pass it along. I am Kristy's aide for Kindergarten CCD and I've really enjoyed getting to know her and her family this year. They're currently trying to adopt a second child, but are stuck until they can raise about $20,000. You can check out their website to find out more about them. Even if you can't contribute financially would you please join me in praying for them?

7) I can't believe Joseph is already 18 months old! He continues to grow at a crazy pace and amaze me with all the new things he learns every day. Happy 18 months little man!

Thanks Jen for hosting this week even though you're under the weather!

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 47)

 

I've been trying to do an "update on life" post all week. Luckily, it's Friday which means I can just stuff everything neatly into 7 little snippets :)

1) Last week we headed to TN to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We left on Tuesday in an attempt to avoid traffic. We were mostly successful. Our biggest worry was having to stop a bunch because Joseph was sick (with diarrhea). Luckily, we only had one major blowout on the trip down. (Sorry if that was TMI.)

2) Wednesday, Will and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We kept it simple and went out to lunch at a nice restaurant with Joseph. AND we got dessert - score!
Joseph also seemed to finally have his appetite back after nearly a week of eating hardly anything. I think that was his anniversary present to us (because he's much more well behaved in restaurants when he's hungry/eating).

3) Thursday we went to mass in the morning then had a nice late Thanksgiving lunch. My dad's turkey, stuffing and gravy were delicious as usual. But, I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the sides.

4) Friday we celebrated birthdays. Four of them to be exact - Will's, my sister, Alyse's, my mom's, and mine. We went out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants then went bowling. Joseph really enjoyed watching us bowl and running all over the place. Luckily, we were the only people there for the first half of bowling (then people started trickling in).

After bowling we had a delicious cookie cake. MMMMmmmmm. If you don't have a Great American Cookie Company near you, I'm sorry. Their cookie cakes are to-die-for (or maybe my family is just weirdly obsessed with them). The closest one to me here in MD is nearly an hour away, so I try to get my fill when I'm back home in TN.

5) We attempted to take some family photos on Thanksgiving, but that was a major fail. I realized after Joseph refused to cooperate that he was probably hungry. Lesson learned: make sure Joseph is well-fed before attempting a photo session.

6) Saturday was Will's birthday. He wanted to watch the Ohio State vs. Michigan game for his birthday. So, I packed while he watched the game. Then we left to come home late that afternoon (again, to avoid Thanksgiving traffic).

7) Unrelated to last week - I'm so excited the Christmas season is upon us. I'm hoping to decorate the house tomorrow. I've already started playing Christmas music. It makes me so happy and calm and happy. We're sticking with our little 4-foot tree again this year, but I can't wait to bring out the nativity sets and Christmas lights. And I especially can't wait to see Joseph's reactions to it all.

That's all for now in Casa de Rayel. I hope you have a lovely weekend. For more quick takes go visit Jen at Conversion Diary.