20 Months

Last week our son turned 20 months old. Thinking about having an almost 2 year old is sort of nuts. Some days I still feel like we just brought Lennon home from the hospital. He definitely is a little person now with his own personality, interests and agenda. Lately he’s been repeating almost everything we say and will say two or three words in a row. His favorite two word sentence right now is “one more!” In reference to reading one more book before bed. He doesn’t quite get that “one more” literally means we’ll only read one more book because he inevitably asks for another. He has words that he learns to say and wants to keep repeating them. Apricot, Octagon (the one shape that he knows) and apple to name a few. He’s going through a mommy phase right now where he wants only me to read his books to him and pushes Dave away if he sits too close, ha ha. It’s cute and I’m sure it will turn around and be daddy-fest before we know it.

 

A few Lennon-isms to note from this month:

I took him down to get his photos taken by my friend Christy Bode…of Christy Bode Photography. I knew it would be tough to get some good photos of the stinker in a studio, but I didn’t realize how tough. He would not sit still, kept saying “all-done” & waving good-bye to Christy and he was terrified of her camera. After 45 minutes of shenanigans we gave him my cell phone and played Miley Cyrus “party in the USA” and that’s the one thing that got him to smile. I’ll be lucky if we got two good photos. F.

Dinner time a challenge lately. Lennon has been a picky eater and some nights he’ll just sit at the table, whine about his food and eat only a couple morsels. On those nights he always requests crackers before bed.

Lennon is friendly and blows kisses at inanimate objects. There is a porcelain dog at our dry cleaners (kind of weird) that he walked over to, patted on the head and blew a kiss at. The college-aged man at the counter said, “that is really adorable.”

A real dog licked Lennon in the face and he broke out in a rash. I guess we can add puppy saliva to our list of sensitivities.

We’re boycotting restaurants until Lennon is 8. How do French kids act like adults at the dinner table? I read the book and I don’t buy it.

It snowed for the first time this week (November 10^th…ugh) and Lennon was kind of fascinated. He reached onto the hood of Dave’s car, poked at it and got a suspicious look on his face. We already took the sled out for its inaugural ride. I think it’s going to be a long winter.

Lennon has a friend at daycare named Lauren. The two of them are buddies and they play together often. Last week a new girl named Thea joined the class and his teachers told us he totally ditched Lauren for Thea.

Lennon’s favorite color is purple. He’ll point at any color and his first response is always “puwple”.

We’re really enjoying these days with a 20 month old. It’s pretty amazing how your kids capture your heart. No matter how many struggles you had throughout the day when you put them to bed at night it’s all worth it. Probably because they’re not awake anymore and you can finally relax, ha. Kidding.

 

Happy 20 months little buddy!

xoxo

Mom

Candy Highs and Lows

I have to admit, I didn’t have high hopes for Halloween this year. I figured we’d struggle to get Lennon bundled in his costume, he’d be shy and we’d call it a night after visiting a couple neighbors. The little bugger surprised us though. He ended up being a Halloween pro that acted like he’d been doing it for years. We must have hit up 20 houses and he could have kept going. He walked up to all of them on his own, uttered a version of “trick-or-treat” and even blew kisses instead of saying thank-you…winning over the hearts of grandma’s on every block.

 

 

 

At one point his candy bucket was so heavy that it dragged on the ground, but he wanted to carry it on his own. Very possessive of his candy this one was. 

Our friends live on a block in St. Paul that goes crazy over Halloween. The street gets blocked off and all of the houses have parties and decorate their homes to the max. I thought Lennon would be scared…heck, I was kind of scared of one of the guys handing out candy…but he wanted to keep trick-or-treating so we took him around that block as well.

This is a good age for tricking your kids. For all Lennon knew, the neighbors were giving him colorful, crinkly bags of nothing. He can’t have 99% percent of the candy due to his nut allergy so we filtered everything out when we got home and he was none the wiser.

The night ended like every Halloween night should; with an overstimulated child having a bathtub meltdown.

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween celebrations as much as we did this year!

xoxo

Erin

Maybe he's in the linen closet...

Lately Lennon has been really in to hide and seek. Well…his version of hide and seek. Basically he has 3 hiding places in our house. If we “find” him too quickly he gets upset so we have to pretend like we don’t know where he is (even though we watch him go to his hiding place). Dave and I carry on a conversation about how much we miss Lennon and we wish we could find him, but “oh well, I guess we’ll have to move on.” Then he either starts giggling or we “find” him and dramatically gasp and act surprised that he’s there.

It reminds me of this Louis C.K. skit. So true..ha ha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYxxZoXJVc

Happy Mid Week!

Erin

Crimson Trees and I.D.'d Pajamas

  Our fall weather is turning out to be stellar this year. The leaves are magnificent. On Wheeler street around the corner from our house they are breathtaking. Pictures never do it justice, but I couldn’t stop shooting photos of them this weekend.

What is it about kids constantly wanting to be outside? Is it the freedom they feel to explore? All I know is most of us grow out of this by the time we’re adults and it’s kind of sad. I don’t think I’d be content prancing around in the yard and digging in the dirt for 5 hours like Lennon is. If I did our yard would not look like it currently does, ha. He doesn’t need anything fancy…just a rake and maybe a watering can and he’s content. I think it’s inherent in the human spirit to experience nature…this coming from the family that lives on a small city lot, ha. Nevertheless, we love our time outside exploring. Our walks to the coffee shop and our park trips. I'm a sucker for fleeting fall days and knowing that our sweaters will soon be replaced with puffy winter coats.

 

On a side note; My parents watched Lennon on Saturday night and when he got up on Sunday morning we noticed a little something shining through his pajamas….

 

 

Upon closer inspection I realized it was a driver’s license, ha! Then I recalled my mom mentioning she let Lennon dig through her purse the night before. Somehow her I.D. ended up spending the night with him. I can picture exactly how it happened and it's a hilarious image. He slept until 7:30 so maybe we’ll stick an I.D. in his pajamas every night.

 

Have a great, fall week!

xoxo

Erin

Grandparent Withdrawal

Lennon is going through a little withdrawal today after a fun-filled weekend with his grandparents. He absolutely lights up when any of his grandparents are around and this weekend was no different. He sure is loved and we are really thankful for the support we get from both sides of the family.

A perfect example of the love of a grandparent; on Saturday we decided to head to the ice cream shop in the afternoon. Dave and I took a longer route and ran while Dave’s parents took Lennon in the stroller. Dave and I beat the walkers so we hung out outside and waited for a few minutes. A few minutes turned into 15 minutes, and then 15 turned into a half hour. We peeked our heads around the corner, but didn’t see any sign of Mary Jo, Wyon and Lennon. After 45 minutes we started to get a little worried. In my mind I knew all was okay, but I wondered if they had an emergency diaper issue or something of the sort. After an hour Dave decided to go out looking for them while I waited at the ice cream shop. Not more than a minute later I could see the whole crew trekking down the sidewalk. Was there a soiled diaper issue, or worse, some type of accident? Nope. The grandparents had just let Lennon walk and explore. The little stinker walked almost the whole route while stopping whenever he wanted to check out such things as kittens, garage doors that might have a lawn mower behind them and anything else his little heart desired. He was very pleased with all of his adventures when he arrived at the ice cream shop. It was really sweet.

 

Have a great week!

Erin

The Wiegratz's Do Big Woods

This past weekend we headed down to Big Woods State Park in Nerstrand, MN. The last time I had been down there was five years ago when some friends and I ran our first half marathon. We basically didn’t do any research on the run and just picked one that landed on an open weekend for all of us. We didn’t realize until we had already signed up and started training that it was a trail run…and a hilly trail run at that. The race was wrought with ultra-runners and mini mountains (by Minnesota standards). I think I might have cried at one point. Big Woods is beautiful though. Throughout the run I kept thinking I’d love to get back there to hike sometime. Fast forward through a marriage, a baby and couple more realistic half marathons and I finally got back. Dave joked that now he could stop hearing me talk about it. I must have needed to check this off the list to get over my PTSD from the initial visit.  

 

The weekend may have been our last for summer-like weather for several months. You never know in MN with our occasional 85 degree Halloweens, but we’re supposed to have another brutal winter this year. Wah.

Lennon likes riding in the hiking pack for about as long as his 19 month old self will allow.

 

 

Dave the “map” guy.

Flashbacks from the half-marathon. This might have been the point where I stumbled and got mud kicked in my face by an annoyed ultra-runner who nearly tripped over my limp body.  

 

It was really dry in the park so the creek was pretty much dried up. We were able to walk along the rocks that normally would have been covered with water. It was really neat…but I guess not as neat when you’re balancing shifting toddler weight.

 

 Family selfie

 

Lennon needed a snack so it was time to head back, but what a lovely day!

Fresh Air does a boy good.

 

Happy Fall!

Erin



Toddlers Be Toddlers

 

We’ve not been up to much lately. Lennon has been battling a bit of a respiratory virus, couple that with some monster teeth that are coming in and our sleep schedule has been a little disturbed. 4:30 wake-up calls anyone? Most mornings he wants to eat breakfast right away too. So this new behavior has made for some cranky mornings, tough days at daycare and interesting dinners that include several tantrums and food throwing. Basically 18 month olds are irrational. I feel for him because I’m sure he’s overly tired, but I wish he understood that sleeping-in past 5:00 would help with that…a lot.

 

On the food front Lennon would eat sweets all day long if we let him. He loves anything sweet, but he mostly joneses for any kind of breakfast pastry or bread. Muffins, pancakes, banana bread…you name it, he loves it. We still struggle with getting him to eat meat, but turkey or ham lunch meat will usually do the trick. Lately I have been making him smoothies and sneaking in vegetables. He thinks it’s ice cream….sucka!

Lennon is very curious about how things work. I picture him as our little mechanic or engineer. He’s always putzing with cords, the vacuum cleaner, i-pad, etc. He’s a “hands on” kind of a guy and seems to not care much about most of his toys. If he gets into a groove he’ll play with kitchen utensils for a good hour or so. The other day he asked for a whisk and a bowl (by pointing). They must do this at daycare because he knew how to use them together…and Lord knows mama isn’t baking on a regular basis.

We transitioned to the toddler room at daycare about a month ago and so far it’s been going pretty well. We still have a biting incident here and there…not surprised. The young toddler room also posts on Instagram so we love to dart in and see what our little guy is up to throughout the day. Drop off’s can be tearful, but he usually stops crying by the time we reach the door. When I pick him up at the end of the day he will barely give me eye contact. Not sure if he’s kind of mad at me or if he just doesn’t want to stop playing.

 

New words within the past couple of weeks include; banana bread, pee pee, elmo, Aiden & Auyu (friends from daycare), and cracker. His vocabulary has started to provide him with a new opportunity to constantly ask for snacks.  

So that’s about all that’s new in our life. We’re plugging out the days and hanging on to the warmer weather and light evenings while they’re here. Winter is going to be interesting this year with a high-energy toddler.

Lots of love,

Erin