EASTER!

We had a great Easter weekend! It gets a little tricky having 3 families to see on holidays; however we always make it work. I always stress about it initially because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and make sure to switch it up, but thankfully we have fairly easy going family. Henry and I went to my dad’s on Saturday morning (Kyle was out golfing with his dad and brother). My dad set up an Easter egg hunt for Henry and it really moved me and brought back memories of my own childhood. Seeing how much my dad Loves being a grandpa makes my heart melt. They gave Henry a bunch of sand toys, bubbles and a wheel barrel to keep at their house for this summer as well. We went out to eat and it was making me laugh watching everyone who wanted to be by Henry’s side the whole time, and take him for walks around the restaurant, etc. This kid isn’t loved at all!!!!!! HA!! He really loves all of his Uncles and you can tell he always goes straight to Uncle Bub, Uncle Jared and Uncle Drew. They are all so sweet with him and Henry is soooooooo lucky to have so many Uncles! We spent the rest of the day outside writing with chalk and went on a long walk at my dad’s house down by the naturey part of his neighborhood.  I snapped a bunch of adorable pictures of Henry down there…it was a beautiful day and the lighting was great. On Easter Sunday we had our own Easter at home, with coffee, an egg hunt, opening Henry’s easter basket and then headed to my mom’s for brunch. She set the table up with Great Grandma’s dining ware and it looked so pretty. She made my favorite…pierogis (Holidays just wouldn’t be the same without them!) pork loin, cucumber salad. It was delish. When Henry started getting tired we drove to Valerie and Scott’s (my in-laws) and had another delicious meal there! She made ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, coleslaw and a yummy cheesecake. There was another easter egg hunt waiting for Henry there as well! He loved it and brought each egg to his Grandpa to open for him. He was a little cranky on Easter day and I’m thinking since it was only that day he was just overly tired. He didn’t eat really all day and slept for 13 hours that night. We kept him home yesterday and didn't go out anywhere to catch up on sleep and he seemed much happier. 
Since I knew we would be keeping him home I decided to make it a craft day. I found a great salt dough recipe ( 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, ¾ cup water~ bake at 200 degrees for 2-3 hours) and did Daddy and Henry handprints, and Mama and Henry handprints. Henry loved doing it and you can tell he does handprint art at school a lot because he knew exactly what to do. I also did a “Made in MI” sign using his foot and hand to look like the mitten and the U.P. It turned out so cute! I framed it and put it by our kitchen.
This week is spring break and although we are a little sad we aren’t on vacation- we have a few coming up soon!! We are going to a lakehouse on Lake Michigan with the Schultz Family for 7 days the first week of July. I can’t wait!!!! Annie, Ryan and Ally will meet us there from Chicago. Then on July 17th we are flying to Florida with my mom and we get to see my Uncles and they finally get to meet Henry! Kyle is still unsure if he is able to come or not because of some football scrimmages he has during that week (life of a coach!). He may end up flying out seperate after the scrimmage. We will see. If he ends up not able to go I will be so sad, but it will be fun to have a girls getaway with my mom to Florida like we always used to too. We will also do Disney World and Animal Kingdomon that Thursday and Friday. I can’t WAITTTTTTTTTTT to take Henry to Disney World! We are staying in a timeshare right at Disney. Too fun. I know he is young but I know he will just go nuts there and will love the rides with us and seeing all the characters and people. I really can’t wait.  In August we are in the works of planning a weekend getaway with my dad and Tracy up north as well. Summer can’t come soon enough! The warm weather has been great. It’s so nice to not have to bundle Henry up in a thick jacket and hat and just let him walk on the porch when he wants to. I know I am going to LOVE our back deck this summer….on the warmer days we’ve had I’ve just left it open (no bugs yet) and let Henry go in and out as he pleases. The kid loves going and being outside and when you bring him in he will sit at the door and bang on it and cry…aww. Speaking of outside- we ordered Henry a Schwinn trike off of Amazon! It is sooo cute and he loves riding it. He also loves drawing with chalk and makes us blow bubbles while he yells "boobles...bubbles" constantly.

April has some fun things planned. We are looking forward to baseball games starting this month (Kyle coaches) and taking Henry to all of his games!! I am also having a pinterest party this month and will definitely make a post about that.

Just remember...APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS!! :)

A different kind of journey

If you would have asked me 15 months ago, when I first gave breastfeeding  a go (and when I say go...I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing- but knew it was something as a mother I wanted and needed to do) I would have never said that I would make it past a year. It was tough....learning how to do it all/all the hours you spend pumping to give your baby breastmilk for when you go back to work....no one tells you how taxing nursing is, and the attachment your baby has with you (at all hours of the night..ha) but once Henry and I got in our groove, it was like the stars aligned and we knew what we were doing. I remember once I got to 3 months, I felt relief and accomplishment that I made it that far and decided to set another goal to 6 months. Once I made it to 6 months, 9 months was my next goal. I remember the day I made it to 9 months, I had no idea how I made it this long...but neither I or Henry were ready to end our nursing relationship and I remember thinking could I possibly make it to a year??? No way. 15 months ago I would have said that would never happen, I couldn't imagine nursing a toddler! People would say "she is still nursing her 1 or 2 year old...ewww" and I would agree! SHAME ON ME! Well....we did make it to a year and I felt this sense of urgency to wean him when he turned one. The American Pediatric Association recommends nursing until at least 2 years old, along with our pediatrician who would ask me why I was in such a rush to end it when I would ask her for advice. Why did I feel this urgency to wean him????? Well that's easy....because of others opinions. Henry was not ready to wean at one, and honestly neither was I. Don't get me wrong...he's not attached to my boob all hours of the day or asking or anything like that, it's simply his comfort before he drifts off to lalaland....many others kiddos need this as well aka a pacifier or bottle or blanket or lovie. I have joined so many breastfeeding groups throughout the past year for support/encouragement/advice....and it seems every nursing mom I've come across feels the same way. Unless you have had and nurtured a nursing relationship with your baby past 1.... that person will never have any idea of the type of bond it builds and euphoria. Just as people who bottle feed say they feel judged for not breastfeeding...same thing goes for women who breastfeed...except we get the "you are STILL doing that????" jibber jabber. That's all it is to me now...jibber jabber, uneducated opinions, insecurities...etc,etc. I think back on our whole breastfeeding relationship and think Wow....I did it. Nobody praises mom's for making through the hurdles or breastfeeding and reaching your goals...no one. (I take that back...my mom did, and my mother in law as well...so thank you for that <3) I know that this journey is slowly coming to an end, and I will try not to be sad, but happy looking back on that amazing time of my life and I will never forget it.

This is an article I found on one of the facebook groups I joined about a woman ending her nursing relationship with her son. It broughts tears to these eyes.

http://www.natthefatrat.com/2013/02/on-end-of-nursing.html?m=1

ZOO!

This past weekend it was unseasonably warm and instead of going to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum- we took Henry to the Detroit Zoo! We never got around to taking him last summer (I know...I can't believe it!...although we did do the Chicago Zoo with Ally, Annie and Ryan!). What can I really say other than that he LOVED it with his whole heart! Not only did he love seeing all the animals, but he loved running free and being around all the other kids. His favorite animals were definetly the GEESE and DUCKS! HAHAH! They were everywhere and he always yells "wooooah" whenever he sees birds, and they really excited him. He really liked the rhinos and kangaroos as well. Pretty much everything and every animal was an amazement to him. Me and Kyle realized how out of shape we are...the zoo is huge and Henry was running around everywhere. I really do hate when I see parents coop their kids up in strollers the whole time and think it's good (even though way more exhausting for us parents) to let them run free and explore. The difference on a tots face...from being stuck and contained in a stroller, to running free and exploring. I felt bad for some of them there! Even when we go to the mall, I rarlely bring the stroller with me. I love watching him walk/run around and have some control in what he wants to do and what he wants to see.

Henry LOVED all the animal statues and we think he thought they were real....too cute

Henry chasing the geese

Lots of other little ones were pushing strollers and so of course Henry wanted to follow suit

Vegas & Henry 15 month update!

The hubby and I had a wonderful time in sin city. I missed Henry terribly and thought about him non-stop…but I had pictures texted to me all the time and lots of updates which helped. I don’t even think he realized we were gone! It was probably good for him too to get out of his normal routine. He LOVES his grandparents and they all had so much fun with him. This is our 6^th (yes 6^th!) time going to Vegas since we’ve met, and it wasn’t our typical trip. Usually we go to a few shows, and we kept checking the show tickets, but we didn’t see anything that really interested us. I would like to see another Cirque show, but Kyle wasn’t too info the first one we saw…I will admit…they are WEIRD. We had fabulous lunch and dinner’s everyday… I cannot get over the food there. It is always SO good and I’ve never had a bad meal. It isn’t your normal burgers and fries…everything is different, and so fresh, and so amazing. You can’t get food like that over here in MI. We won some money too! All in all…great trip and great couple’s time. Now I am back in full time mommy mode. J

We went over my mom’s last Thursday since Bub and Kati were in town for the night before they leave for Florida. Kati’s mom and sister came over to meet Henry….he was hilarious, as usual, and loved being the center of attention, as usualJ. He was running around in just his little diaper, and making everyone clap for him and just acting like a goof ball. He is always flirting with Kati and he gets a little shy around her! It is so cute. It is so sweet how much he loves uncle Bub…always reaches for him or runs right to him with his arms out. When Henry and I first got there I asked Bub if he didn’t mind watching Henry for a few minutes while I showered. SO random…but I LOVE all my mom’s skin and body products and wanted to use them! LOL. I also dug through her closet and found the comfiest clothes I could find and lounged in those the rest of the day over her house. She laughed when she got home... it reminds me that I really need to start buying some nicer face cream and what not because it really makes a difference.

I pretended it was spring this past weekend and did some spring cleaning upstairs! I L-O-V-E cleaning, and it has gotten worse since I had Henry! I love feeling organized and everything to always be in its place. I went through all of his clothes and boxed up the clothes that are too small. I know a lot of people get sad doing that, or thinking of their babies growing up…but I just get excited for him and I am loving every stage more and more! Back to cleaning…. I am really trying to throw stuff away/store it if it isn’t being used or is just “extra”. Babies don’t need to be surrounded by a million toys and I have gotten good about putting a lot of it away, and separating it into rooms so we don’t have a ton just in our living room. I’ve read since Henry was a newbie that it isn’t good for the babe to be surrounded by a ton of toys and it is better to give them a few options and keep rotating them out.  I am the complete opposite of a hoarder…whereas Kyle likes to hang onto stuff and it drives me nuts.  I think a household runs SO much smoother when everything is clean, and has a place. Now if only I could get Kyle to understand this….:)

Henry update: 15 months!

Henry is officially (unless he sleeps bad the night prior) down to one nap a day, and has been for a few weeks now (he will take a second nap in the car if we are out usually). I have to remember to write all these things in his baby book so I can compare with future babies! They say they usually drop the first nap around this age and he definitely has…which I am thankful for, because it makes going out and doing things easier since I know he doesn’t nap until around noonish now. Even if he only gets an hour nap all day….he is still cheerful and doesn’t get cranky like he used to when he was younger. He somehow naps better at daycare sometimes than at home! They tell me they sometimes even just rub his back and he lets them give him baby massages after baby yoga time. What! I couldn’t believe it. He is pretty good at sitting still to watch a movie or whatever…but to lay there and get his back massaged shocked me! I need to try it…I hear baby massage is awesome for them. Speaking of daycare…he still loves it. Walking up to the door everyday he smiles so big and can’t wait to take his jacket off to see his buddies.  We discovered he likes fish sticks (my favoooorite!). I am going to try normal fish with him…I think we did a while back and he liked it. He is a pretty good eater for the most part, I can’t complain. Isn’t always the biggest eater, but I know he will let me know when he is hungry. Oh- minus milk and eggs. He hates it and gags. His words are still fascinating me everyday…my mom showed a few videos to a speech pathologist at her work and she couldn’t believe Henry was only 15 months (yes…I am totally bragging!!!! ;)) No but really… sometimes I don’t even realize he is picking up on things and he does. When we were gone to Vegas, his grandma Val taught him that sheeps say baaa….and when I read him a book the other day and pointed to the sheep he smiled big and said “baaaaaaa”.  We have been making him say owl, octopus and hippo a lot because it sounds so stinkin cute. He loves hippos.  When he wants something from me and I am busy he has started saying “MAMAAAAA”. He has said mama for a while, but not to get my attention. :D LOVE that.  What else? Oh- he really enjoys “organizing”. He loves taking bowls out and stacking them and moving them around, same with items from the pantry, etc. He will bring real food to his play kitchen and put them in the fridge. He likes throwing his dirty diaper away in the garbage after we change him and claps after. His favorite movies are Finding Nemo and…..Lion King. I LOVE snuggling up with him after a long day and watching a Disney movie. It is the best….I myself  am a big Disney lover. We’ve found that anything with animals in it he likes. He is really loving his dog Iggy…although I am still not totally comfortable with them playing. Iggy still isn’t a huge fan, and Henry likes to ride him like a horse and is constantly climbing all over him. Henry loves throwing him the ball and chasing him around outside. We took Henry sledding for the first time in our backyard and he LOVED it. All the neighborhood boys were doing the same right next door and he had fun watching them.  I have some cute videos of him going down the hill... I will try to post one. He wanted to keep going over and over. I was surprised he actually stayed in the sled going down the hill. He had a few big falls, but he is hardly ever dramatic and nothing seems to phase him really. That’s why when he does cry from getting hurt, we know he’s serious.  

We have some fun things coming up, we are taking him to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum this weekend, I am so excited! The link is here: http://www.aahom.org/ If any mommy friends want to go, let me know! We leave for Chicago in a few weekends as well for our niece Ally's 2nd birthday! I can't wait to get Henry and Ally together as well. They are so cute together every visit we have.

Henry is almost 15 months! And February is almost over....wow...

What a week off! Kyle and I left Wednesday night for our couples getaway to Vegas. Thanks Dad for the skymiles! We ended up doing the trip for almost free. Can't beat that. We had a GREAT time, however have come to the conclusion that our next getaway will be much closer and more of a tranquil setting. We definitely enjoyed staying in bed, taking random naps and relaxing much more than going out. Although...the older Henry has gotten, the harder it makes it to leave. He had a blast home with his Grammy and my dad helped out and played with him for a bit as well. I don't even think he missed us!!!! :) He ended up sleeping 13+straight hours the day we got home...I ended up waking him up in the morning and bringing him in bed with us because I missed him so much and he just laid between us smiling and talking to the fan...:) <3

It is a few days early but I want to post about Henry at 15 months now! He is still in 18-24 month, or 2t clothes....and we bumped up to size 5 diapers. His eyes are still hard to tell what color they will be....so we call them hazel for now, mixed with brown blue and green. He is starting to play on his own with his toys more (and actually playing with some toys) like his cars, car garage, golf club and golf balls, basketball hoop and still loves books. He just loves the Lion King....I swear he wakes up sometimes and roars! It's so funny because he does the exact same thing at certain times in the movie...like certain dances for certain songs, and says uh oh or claps at certain parts. His grammy bought him some Lion King toys and he loves them and sleeps with Nala now. It's seriously so cute how much he loves it and just animals in general. He makes lots of noises that animals make, even more now than last month....and we always have him do what a mouse says..."squeak squeak"...but he does it really fast and quiet. Grammy said she had him do it the whole time we were gone:). If he says a cow anywhere he moos, or quacks for a duck.  My favorite is Hippo..."Happo". I will post a video of him repeating all the words. This post I guess is mainly about his speech at this age....I cannot believe how much he says, how clearly and he is already stringing two words together! Whenever he hands us something he says thank you...and can I add it is the cutest sounding thank you I've ever heard? It's cute enough that when he hands US things he says it, but the way he says it...gets me everytime. He has also mastered all done...saying it, the meaning of it and he has known all done in sign language since about 6 months old. We crack up, because whenever we are done doing something, anything...in the background we hear "all done!" It's hard for me to wrap around how much he understands at his young age and how much he can say. Like....the other day...I didn't know he knew what an apple, penguin, tree or whale was...and he pointed all of them out to me on his playmat. I feel like stuff like that happens everyday that he surprises me with knowing. His kisses are the best right now and loves to give them, especially to mama and babies. We were at the playcourt at Great Lakes the other day and he was loving on a baby there...and I recognized right away that it was a little 7-8 month old red head cutie from his classroom at school! How stinkin cute that he recognized her?!? He sleeps through the night 97% of the time now I'd say.... for 11-12 hours. Sometimes he will nap for 3 hours a day, and other times 1 hour. Ya never know. So basically for being a wake up every 3 hours type of baby for the first 11 months of his life....he is a great sleeper now! I still sleep like crap and never seem to get a good nights sleep no matter what. Boo!

I have a project I am going to be working on soon...and I haven't even told Kyle! I've seen all of these awesome DIY pottery barn knock off tables on pinterest and other tutorial websites...and I am going to give it a try soon. I've always hated our high top table in our kitchen, it's beautiful, but not sturdy and just doesn't feel cozy to me. So.....that is on my agenda for the next month....I am sure Kyle will be thrilled.....:)

Well....back to work tomorrow, kind of looking forward to getting back in our routine...and I know Henry will be excited to go back to daycare, even though most of his daycare days are half days now...it still gives him 3 hours in the morning to play with his buddies and do some fun activities. I cannot believe that Friday is March 1st.... the way time is flying by nowadays is freaking me out.

Sorry about the weird, random post.... I will get back in a groove this week! :)

Happy SNOW day! (Well...for me and Henry anyway). I cannot believe there is another snow day. I feel like we have had one a week for the past month at least. Kyle and Henry (they are different school districts) had one Friday as well. Now that Henry attends school at the elementary school, they are closed whenever the school is. I get so excited when I get that text early in the a.m and turn off my alarm. WWWOOOOOHOOOO :-). So only 4 more days of work until 9 off with my baby and two of those in Vegas with the hubby (alone time is muuuuch overdue....Even though the thought of leaving the little is killing my heart!) We spent the day at Somerset with Grandma Lynn and now are being lazy bums the rest of this cold, windy Monday...making butternut squash soup and watching Disney movies. <3

Here are some random pics from this past weekend:

new hair color! (sry about no make up here...) a coworkers sister is doing an apprenticeship and needed hair models= free cut and color/highlights! cha-ching!

hair did! (first time in a long time...)

V-day cupcakes....strawberry cake with vanilla frosting

 

 

philly cheese steak green peppers... O-M-G....I followed the recipe exact from here

 http://peaceloveandlowcarb.blogspot.com/2012/06/philly-cheesesteak-stuffed-peppers.html  They were soooo good and so pretty. I served it with scalloped potatoes and a salad.

A little toilet paper roll Valentines craft for the Grandparents

 

:)

 

 

Happy Thursday! I am up bright & early today....Kyle's cough kept me up all night last night. :(. Poor guy. He is staying home today and gets some Henry time as well. I am just praying Henry and I don't catch whatever he has... ***Edit*** I am just getting around to finishing this blog post today (friday!). Today was ANOTHER snow day! I feel like we have had quite a few so far.

So our dinner's this week thus far have been SO good! On Monday's Valerie (my mother in law) watches Henry during the afternoon...and we came home to a delicious dinner! Thanks Val! What a treat that is....it is not often that someone else cooks ME a meal during week nights. Tuesday I was really craving some chinese...now Kyle does not really like chinese. And we have tried every chinese restaurant within 10 miles of us and they are all disgusting. So I decided to take on baked sweet and sour chicken and fried rice. It is hands down the best chinese I've ever eaten, SO easy and it's also a great meal to serve to guests because it turns out so well and everyone is always impressed. Here is the link that I got the recipe from:

http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html

It really is worth giving it a go. If you like chinese...and want to know what is going in your chinese food:) this is the recipe! Here is a picture of how mine turned out...

Last night I whipped up a simple and easy spinach salad, with walnuts, feta cheese and tomatoes. I drizzled some poppyseed dressing on top. I could eat feta all day every day. Yum. Such a simple, healthy and satisfying light dinner....(compared to the meal I cooked the night before...look above...for whaht looks like an army!) Here is a picture below

Hopefully I get around to cooking some new and fun meals this weekend. We have no big plans as of now and I have a few new ones I've pinned that I'd like to try...and quite a few toddler treats too....until then!