To all the graduates out there over the last couple weekends:

You have accomplished something important.  You've taken a big step.  You are capable of doing some great things!  Keep going!  Push yourself forward and achieve your next level of awesomeness.  Good luck in all the amazing things you try.

Dating

Hey there...come here often?  Oh yeah, I'm usually the one chasing a little blonde girl and pushing a handsome little babbler in a monstrous double long stroller...We mostly stick to the Barnes and Noble lego or train table.

Don't you love meeting up with someone you so rarely get to see out of certain contexts?  You know, people like your siblings away from your parents.  Girlfriends without the kids.  HUSBANDS without kids?  That is the novelty that we had.

We get the occasional trip to a store without the kids.  Valentine gifts (tickets to a comedy show) that require driving 4hrs to get to--luckily with a set of grandparents in between to drop off a couple kids who would not be appropriate audience for said show.  A Christmas party for his company...Oh, there was the hospital stay while Wyatt was asleep in his newborn state of nearly constant unconsciousness too!

Typically our 'alone time' is filled with schoolwork, crafting of greeting cards, catching up on the latest NCIS or NCIS LA, or apart altogether doing errands of sorts while the other is home.  If we are both home, we are lucky to only have to remind Alyssa that bedtime is required or 'tomorrow' doesn't come and if she doesn't sleep NOW...a handful of times.  If we have a miracle night, there aren't any tears coming from behind a gated toddler's door.

So while our friends are tag-teaming our kids alongside their own toddler, we celebrated still being adults with tastes that run more mature than My Little Pony or chicken nuggets and french fries.  (Well, maybe not much more mature than french fries...)

We highly recommend Iron Man 3....but stay until after all the credits have run through.  Now back to the standard parental lifestyle of attempting to remember to NOT pull our hair out, we'll go bald naturally eventually anyways from stress hormones.

Family Rooms

When we lived in our old house (starter house for us), there wasn't any extra rooms.  We had our room, Alyssa's room, the bathroom, kitchen, laundry/furnace room, and the living/dining combo.

Now we have all that PLUS a basement!  Oh, and a whole third bedroom (where the laundry/furnace was in the old house is a bedroom in this house and that was relocated to the basement here...seriously, it is funny how very similar layout this house is with a mere addition of a second level)!

What can we do with all this extra space?  Well, we definitely can fill it....They usually call it a Family Room nowadays.  The upstairs living room is considered the 'formal living room' and the basement is a Rec or Family room.  Here is the kids' half:

Yes, that is just under half of the family room filled with kid things.

The couch that you can barely see is the invisible barrier signal that toys SHALL NOT PASS (says Momma every night just after picking up the half of the room not shown).  There is a tv for movies across from the couch and the other half of the room is currently emptied of boxes but not furnished.  I have such grand plans...Momma plans....

In the meantime, I love our kids' side.

Did you see our Ikea storage for crafting/coloring supplies?  The chalk/colors are in lockboxes in those pop-out drawers so there will be less chance of wall coloring rather than table or color books.  I love these things and they just look so fun!

Regardless of what a parent thinks of the kids' play areas...they always enjoy moving out of there whenever possible.  Toys are like invasive species that way...they hitchhike rides from unsuspecting toddlers.  Notice the lacing boards beginning the trek from one end of the room, along the couch, and eventually they'll make it across there to the unfurnished area.  Sneaky things, those toys.

I'm still thrilled to have this extra space to spread out to on rainy days like this week has been and is continuing to be.

Rummaging!

I love this season!

Seriously, garage sales galore and weekends in which to sift through every offering...*bliss*  Now if only I could do it without the kids!

I was lucky last weekend to have a sale a couple houses down from us.  I got to meet those neighbors, spent some time outside, and bribed good behavior out of the toddler by offering up the park down the way after some rummaging.  I love that she is still young enough to not have figured out we would've been going to the park anyways because of the lovely weather.  HA!

Look at how perfect the condition is!  So beautiful even if I never improve my sewing skills enough to do it justice.

A few weekends ago was the ECFE hosted multi-sale at a local school.  We didn't score as big as I wanted to in the jeans department for a certain little man who is growing by leaps and bounds but we did find a treasure nonetheless.

That used to be a white and powdery blue Little Tikes table.  Now it is a purple, green, and CHALKBOARD spray painted Little Tikes table.  (Did y'all know that the amazing chalkboard paint is in spray cans now?!?)

Yup, we are having a load of fun with the rainy day chalk now and finally have a kids' table for all sorts of activities.  Now we just need another nice day with no wind to get the chairs from their powdery blue glory to updated and fun purple and green.

Do y'all frequent rummage sales?  Got any tricks when dealing with toddlers at rummages?

First Foods! (Pictures and Video)

TaDa! Mmmm?

Waiting for the first bite...

The first food...I love it!  It is always fun to see how they react to new experiences and as expected, the impatience to be fed wins out for the very first bowl.  When he masters the whole gumming part we will up the consistency and pick out the first fun food!  YAY!  (Wow the doctor recommendations sure have changed in only 3 years...go ahead and talk to your pediatrician if you're close to this stage because we apparently could have skipped rice altogether now!)  Anyways...a small glimpse at meal time around here now:

I know....he was pretty boring in the video but c'mon, that rice stuff has NO flavor.  We can't expect anything exciting when he doesn't get to eat something exciting!

Loving the spoon thing

Four Months

My dear little Mister,

You are beginning to laugh.  You beg for your sister's attention whenever you can see her (or hear her).  You smile and flirt like it's your job and wow are you good at it.  You have everyone wrapped around your finger simply using the charm that is inherent to you.

Keep that happiness that causes you to smile nearly every waking moment.  It will bless your life more than anything else can.

You have been playing with your toes for a couple weeks.  Don't think this isn't a big detail.  You're learning!  You're discovering that you are so much more than you realize even if it is just that you have toes.  Soon you'll learn that you can roll over past your side.  You'll learn that your smile can make others happy rather than just get you attention.  You'll discover talents big and small.  You'll amaze yourself with some things and amaze your Momma with everything.

You babble, you grin, you roll to your side.  You chew on toys, you stare at EVERYTHING.  You want to know what each thing is and what it does--then you want to nom on it.  You may not be coordinated enough to do many things, but your mind is working it out and soon you'll accomplish exactly what you wish to do.

You are my baby.  You're a great sleeper, a good eater, and a snuggler.  You make our family happy.

You tire my arms (I guessed 23lbs when you were just shy of 17lbs--c'mon, Momma's been carting you around for four months now!) but I love to hug you too much to put you down.

Your timing is impeccable because you always know just when to be hungry (right as I start cooking for your sister or eat something myself), but you're so eager to grab your own bottle right now that I am clinging to your feedings because soon you won't want me to hold you or need me to help you with those bottles.

You are a thumb-sucker.  Try as I might (and I am STUBBORNLY TRYING), you prefer your thumb to a nuk.  My stance is still that I will be able to take a nuk away much more legally and painlessly than a thumb.  I'll get you to nom on your pacifier somehow....

You're growing and I love and regret it.  I get to watch you learn and discover and enjoy life.  I also get to watch you leave stages behind where I wish to prolong them just a bit more.

I have dreams for you.  They change daily.  I want for you to follow YOUR dreams though.  I want you to discover YOUR talents and passions.  I want you to find YOUR happiness.  I'll always have dreams for your sister and you but I'll always desire your happiness first.

So grow up as you will, Wyatt.  Be happy.  Indulge in life as a child.  Keep charming those you meet.  Keep flirting.  Keep on learning, never stop.

Your Momma will always be rooting for you.

Happy Mother's Day

Wyatt wanted to give me a present today.

This was the face doing baby laughs/talking at me as I cleaned up the side of my jeans in the Best Buy bathroom today.  The lovable brat decided burping wasn't as productive as spit-up.

Such a freaking cute boy regardless, he had me laughing most of the clean up process.

To all you Moms, Happy Mother's Day.
To all you trying to become Moms, I am thinking of you today.
To all of you missing your Mom, I am wishing you happy memories today.
To all you women, you shape others' lives and we love you.
Happy Mother's Day!

Product Review: My First Look and Find's

We have so much fun with these books that I needed to share them with you.

Did you ever enjoy the I Spy books or games?  So many kids love to hunt for things and when they find them they are THRILLED and so proud.  If your young child loves treasure hunts or spying things that you ask them to find, try these books out:

First Look and Find books are the I Spy concept for toddlers.  There are many options out there for characters from Pixar to Disney to PBS and more.  Here is our collection (though there are some we have on our radar for a good book buying day still):

Our most recent addition was the Pony version.  It is easily the favorite which is predictable when it is also the favorite TV show currently.

We highly recommend these books for your toddlers.  They can be enjoyed together or for some quiet time.  The covers are done in a semi squishy material over the hardcover to soften it up just a bit which is nice considering I dig at least two out of the toddler bed each morning.  I love that they all have different searches for each page in the back in addition to the pictures that they are supposed to match on each page.  If I'm not available to read those extras, Alyssa sticks to matching the pictures on each page.  Later we go back and do all the extras together!

Toddler Photobombing

End of Toddler patience (aka Book Repo)

**Edit** This is a completely unsponsored review.  We purchased every one of those books because we love them.  We got them at Barnes & Noble (they usually have more in stock than online oddly but they are all tagged as 'Bargain Books').

Clownin' Around the Playground

We made our first trip to the local playground at our new house finally (in between our multiple winters--melt, snow, melt, snow...SIGH).  It was a lot of fun even if our little man looks put out for only getting to swing.

Alyssa had fun being a monkey on some new things to climb...

Then there are the classics...

Driver.

Foreman and her worker.

...and of course, the swing?

Ummmmmmm....yeah.

Kinda creepy but I think it is the older part of the park that they kept.  The seats are neat though as they are baby swings with one side open to form an actual seat for that toddler who can't quite balance when swinging by themselves.