A Summer Update

Dang, here I go again neglecting the blog. For the record, I am having issues loading photos onto blogger so that’s a huge reason I have not blogged…no one wants to read my blabber, they want to see pictures of the almost 2.5 year old in my life.

That being said, I am jotting down a little update so I don’t forget about our summer ‘o fun. We have been traveling a lot this summer. We were in Walker for my cousins wedding at the end of June, then on to Neenah to visit Dave’s family for the 4^th and then up to Linka for our annual cabin weekend with the fam. Lennon swam in 3 different lakes and at the pool in Neenah. He got brave and even went down the water slide a couple times (with daddy). Last weekend we hit up Highland Fest (it was brutally hot!), BBQ’d with my high school friends and their kiddos, caught up around the house and took Lennon to his first Saint’s game in downtown St. Paul. I had bought tickets for Dave for father’s day and it was really fun! We fed Lennon snacks to his heart’s content and he flirted with some grandma’s who sat next to us. The weather was perfect…what a fun Sunday evening! In the next couple of months we have another out of town cabin weekend and 3 weddings. We will blink and fall will be here.  


Other than traveling and dipping our toes in MN lakes, we have just been enjoying this beautiful summer. Our weather has been so great this year! We BBQ and eat dinner on our new patio most nights. Lennon loves to run around in his swim diaper and help us water the yard or play in his kiddie pool. Dinner outside is great, but not very relaxing as Lennon gets up about every 30 seconds to point out a new bumble bee or pull a tomato off our plant. We will not be getting any tomatoes this year because he keeps picking them off! Lennon and I do swimming lessons on Monday nights and he absolutely loves them. He is so squirmy and doesn’t listen well to me, but perks up and performs like a pro for his teacher. Maddox Park is our favorite place to hang out in the evenings and Lennon loves the green swing. In fact, all the kids of the neighborhood do so it’s a mad rush to claim it when it’s available. We have dabbled in potty training, but as most parents know you can’t really “dabble” and expect it to work. Not sure if Lennon is quite ready so we probably won’t get serious about if for a few more months. Same goes for the toddler bed. We’ve been talking about it, but with all of our travels coming up I think we’ll push it off to a lighter month.


More exciting news is that we’re expecting baby #2 in January! I am about 14 weeks along and am starting to feel so much better. The first trimester was a doozy this time around. It’s a game changer with #2 when you’re chasing a toddler around in the evenings. Dave and Lennon were forgiving and on the few really bad evenings they took a trip to the park while I lay low at home. Lennon points to my belly, lifts up my shirt and says... “there’s a baby in mommy’s tummy”. I think he’s pretty confused, but he’s sweet around baby’s and has been talking about them a lot lately. He loves baby dolls at the moment and acts very nurturing to them. Cheers to 2^nd trimesters!
I will have to do a photo dump once I get my computer figured out.
I hope you all are enjoying the summer as much as we are!

“Whether from a sagging inflatable kiddie pool, a deserted swimming hole, a rocky Pacific beach, the shores of East Hampton, or a gushing city fire hydrant, we define our summers by the water we sit by. We smell it, taste it, love near it, write about it, and cast our gaze out past it. We make important decisions near it and also use it to forget, just for a time, those things we don’t want to think about anymore.” Joanne Dugan

Xoxo

Erin

Ice Cream

Ice cream is Lennon’s favorite treat. He loves to look through our Jeni’s ice cream book and ask, “what do you like, mommy?”.  He says his favorites are chocolate and mango. There's an "ice cream" song that he found on YouTube that gets played over and over again. "When the weather's hot and steamy ice cream is so cold and creamy..." kill me now. We had a rainy Sunday a couple weekends ago so Lennon & I darted over to Choo Choo Bob’s for a bit. It’s conveniently located a few stores down from Izzy’s Ice Cream Shop. Lennon remembers this, so the two trips kind of go hand in hand.

 

After having ice cream we went back to Choo Choo Bob's for one more round of train action. When we left a second time he immediately headed  for Izzy's again. Sorry buddy, that's not how that works ;).

I think if I let him he would eat a whole bucket of ice cream, no joke. This kid has a serious sweet tooth. Just like his daddy and Grandpa Wyon.

 

Cheers to summer & many random ice cream stops!

                                 Erin

Puddle Radar

If there's a puddle, he will find it.

Little Red Hen Play

Lennon’s daycare put on a play a couple weekends ago. It was really the pre-school kids who acted, but the toddlers got to be “extras”. Lennon’s class dressed up as stars and I think they were supposed to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” but that didn’t really pan out ;). It’s pretty adorable and hilarious to see how your kid acts in new situations. Lennon looked shocked and nervous during the whole 30 seconds or so that his class was on stage. His coping mechanism was to have his finger up his nose the whole time. I think he had no clue what was going on and was like “why the hell am I walking into this room full of adults, dressed like the crappiest star in the universe while my parents laugh?”

Rosy Cheeks from all the excitement ;)

At the end of the play it was complete chaos as all the kids ran to their parents. His teacher, Ms. Mandy saw Lennon shaking so she ran up and grabbed him, ha ha. He now keeps telling us he was scared at the play & repeats “too many people”. Luckily there was an ice cream social…which was Lennon’s favorite part of the day, of course.

Here's to many more awkward events in the future!

xoxo

Erin

Mothers Day 2015

As sappy as all the Facebook and Instagram posts get, it’s hard to deny how special motherhood is. The bond between a mother and her child is hard to put into words. I definitely felt it with my own mom before having a child, and now that I am a mother it has grown stronger. I was listening to a podcast the other day where the man speaking put parenthood into perfect perspective. He said that before he had children, he had felt like he lived a great life and that he was ready to die whenever that happened. He had traveled, fulfilled career goals, had loves of his life and a supporting family. He said the moment his daughter was born that all changed and he became panicked at not being around for her. Becoming a parent makes you so vulnerable. It’s very true. You almost grow a new heart when you have a child. So cheers to all the mother’s out there-a day late.

xoxo

Erin

Nuk

Last weekend we took Lennon’s pacifier away. He had only been getting it for naps on the weekends and at nighttime for a while, so it wasn’t as bad as we thought it might be. Typical parenting where you never know what to expect. A couple weeks ago Lennon mentioned that nuks are for babies. I’m not sure where he picked that up, but I figured it was a good time to jump on that idea. When we took the nuks away we told him that we gave them away to a baby who needed them. Kind of a stupid idea because he seemed a little obsessed with this baby and asked where the baby lived, etc. He probably hates this fictional baby who now gets to enjoy his beloved nuks.

As much as we started loathing the pacifier towards the end I will kind of miss it. Or rather, the fact that Lennon is not a baby anymore. I loved that tired, dependent look he’d get when he’d put it in his mouth. I loved that we could get him to do pretty much anything with the promise of a nuk. I won’t miss his stinky nuk breath or the cries in the middle of the night when he’d drop one out of his crib. I still get a pit in my stomach thinking about the noise it would make through the monitor as it hit the ground, ha ha.

Cheers to another milestone! Tears to kids growing too quickly!

TWO!!!!

Yikes, our baby boy turned two years old a couple weekends ago. Words cannot express the love we have for our little munchkin. He is such a funny little character & we tend to sit and laugh (internally or externally) at almost everything he does. It’s safe to say that we are in awe of our little man and his shenanigans. Being two comes with some big attitude and we’re definitely there with Lennon. He wants to do everything on his own and will either say “I try it” or “Lennons turn” to voice his demands. His coping mechanism is to throw anything within reach if he’s upset. He also has been hitting Dave and me during heated moments. Toddlerness at its finest. He surprises us daily with his knowledge & has been talking up a storm lately. Sometimes it’s very clear what he is saying and it’s fun to be able to communicate with him. Other times we have no idea what he’s saying and he repeats it over and over again and starts to get frustrated. Some of my favorite moments as a mom are when he says a new word, phrase or sings a new song. Basically parenting a toddler is one big game. We spend lots of time literally playing games, but also lots of time negotiating and trying to stay one step ahead of what we know could be a melt-down if not executed properly.

Favorite toys: His “gurrrl” (blonde trapeze artist from his circus set), his baby doll Eric (mine as a kid), his toy stand mixer, firefighter set from grandma mary jo jo and grandpa Wyon, play-dough and his doctor kit.

Other favorites: His grandmothers, mom, being outside, vacuums, the park, treats. Lennon has a major sweet tooth. Offer him cookies or pancakes any time, any place and he’ll house them. Snacks in general-cheddar bunnies, fruit bars from Trader Joe’s…the list could go on. His new thing is calling everything “big”. He wants to use the “big” vacuum and eat a “big” orange. Ratatouille is his all-time favorite movie and he likes his “Larry the Lawnmower” book these days.  Negotiating-Lennon will almost always try to throw in a deal in order to make things more pleasant for himself. Ex. Getting a nuk while he gets his diaper changed or getting a fruit bar to get into his car seat.

Dislikes: Eating breakfast at a reasonably quick pace, leaving the park, getting dressed, getting his diaper changed, vegetables-dinner can be a struggle, getting into the bath-once he’s in there we’re good to go, but we have to coerce him in with extra bubbles. Getting out of the tub once he’s in. Going to bed. No matter how tired he is he will run around the house in circles and procrastinate like none-other. He picks the longest books to read and will ask questions and point everything out when he knows it’s bed time. I chase him around like an idiot trying to “calm” him in the evenings. The good thing is once he’s down he’s usually good to go. Most nights he sleeps from 7:30-6:00 with the occasional midnight wake-up call and request to watch a movie. Not happening little dude.

He has transitioned to the Older Toddler Room at daycare and I had the realization that he has been in daycare for almost 2 years now! I can’t believe that. It has gotten so much easier to drop him off, but we still miss him so much during the day & Monday mornings are always difficult. While the toddler attitude can be challenging, I love that we can somewhat rationalize with him now. By rationalize I basically mean blackmail, ha. He’s starting to get concepts like… “no cookie if you don’t finish your peas” or “if you get out of the bathtub we’ll let you watch Ratatouille”. It’s so fun to see the different stages these kiddos go through.

Happy 2^nd birthday to our little man. Still can’t believe you are no longer a baby! Tear.

Xoxo

Mom