Spring 2016
Now that Aiden is over a year old, I'm switching the format of his update posts from being monthly to seasonally. At the end of each season, I will post an update with some of the fun things we've been up to and how he's been growing! Aiden is currently 14 months old. If you're looking for more frequent updates, I have been posting regularly on instagram (@marlyssamarie) and I might do photo round ups on the blog from time to time. I also want to post some house project before and afters whenever I have time (and whenever we get around to finishing any house projects to have before and afters, haha) But until then,
Here's how our Spring has been!
MOMMY
Total pregnancy weight gain: 36 pounds
Total weight loss: 41.8 pounds
Weight to lose for pre-baby weight: 0 pounds (goal met)
Weight to lose for pre-wedding weight (last goal): 1.2 pounds
My weight hasn't changed since the last update, but I'm fine with that. I was able to go to a work out class recently, and it was my first real workout since having Aiden! We've gone on plenty of walks, I spend much of my day on my feet doing housework and chasing after a toddler (haha) so I'm very active, but this was the first real work out I've had where my muscles are so sore for the next few days that it hurts to move around! It was a good feeling (:
Most days are good. Every now and then I have a rough day, but who doesn't? I am trying to let go of trying to do things "my way" because let's face it, things don't always go according to plan when you're a parent. The more you can bend and sway, pick your battles, and go with the flow, the happier everyone seems to be. That's not to say you don't parent your child and let them do just anything - you just don't go after them for everything - because they're kids and sometimes "fun" to kids means making messes faster than you can clean up other ones. And you have to give yourself (and your child) enough grace to gaze at them and their messes and smile. I don't want to be a worn-out tumbleweed of stress for being nit-picky over every little thing. Let them get dirty. Let them make messes. Let them make art. Let them imagine. Let them be little.
AIDEN
Height/Weight:
At 14 months, Aiden is 31 inches tall and weighs 20 pounds 13 ounces! This puts him in the 54th percentile for height and the 30th percentile for weight! And his cranial circumference is in the 95th percentile! (: He still has a big noggin (:
Refresher course:
+ At 12 months he was 30 1/4 inches long and 20 pounds 10 ounces
+ At 6 months he was 27 1/4 inches long and 17 pounds 6 ounces
+ At birth he was 20 1/2 inches long and 6 pounds 14 ounces
Sleeping:
At the last update, I had been starting to change Aiden's schedule to one nap a day. It seemed like it was what he was needing at the time, but after a week or two we learned that his two naps just needed to be moved to different times throughout the day. He used to go down for his morning nap at 9, and his afternoon nap at 2, now he goes down for his morning nap anywhere between 10-11 and his afternoon nap somewhere between 4-5. I know that might sound late for an afternoon nap, but considering the kid doesn't go to sleep until 11pm at night...it's all good. And yes, we do laugh to ourselves every time someone says "he should be falling asleep soon, it's late for little babies" ...when it's only 8pm. I've found that being more relaxed with his schedule has helped tremendously. These days I pay more attention to his cues instead of the clock. It only took a year for me to figure out that that's what works best for him, but now most days I spend less time trying to get him to sleep and in turn he actually takes longer naps! Insane! Many days he will nap 3-4 hours total between two naps. (It used to be if he slept for a total of two hours in a day, we were doing good.) The last week or so he has only been taking one nap a day, so I do think the day that he drops his morning nap forever is still upon us, but I'm taking it one day at a time and going by what he needs. Over night he sleeps 7-8 hours, and he usually wakes up once in the night and once in the morning. He's still gets less than the "average" hours of sleep for his age, clocking in at 10-12 hours in a 24 hour period, but hey. I'm happy that he's sleeping a little better!
At the last update, I had been starting to change Aiden's schedule to one nap a day. It seemed like it was what he was needing at the time, but after a week or two we learned that his two naps just needed to be moved to different times throughout the day. He used to go down for his morning nap at 9, and his afternoon nap at 2, now he goes down for his morning nap anywhere between 10-11 and his afternoon nap somewhere between 4-5. I know that might sound late for an afternoon nap, but considering the kid doesn't go to sleep until 11pm at night...it's all good. And yes, we do laugh to ourselves every time someone says "he should be falling asleep soon, it's late for little babies" ...when it's only 8pm. I've found that being more relaxed with his schedule has helped tremendously. These days I pay more attention to his cues instead of the clock. It only took a year for me to figure out that that's what works best for him, but now most days I spend less time trying to get him to sleep and in turn he actually takes longer naps! Insane! Many days he will nap 3-4 hours total between two naps. (It used to be if he slept for a total of two hours in a day, we were doing good.) The last week or so he has only been taking one nap a day, so I do think the day that he drops his morning nap forever is still upon us, but I'm taking it one day at a time and going by what he needs. Over night he sleeps 7-8 hours, and he usually wakes up once in the night and once in the morning. He's still gets less than the "average" hours of sleep for his age, clocking in at 10-12 hours in a 24 hour period, but hey. I'm happy that he's sleeping a little better!
He still isn't entirely sold on the idea of food. Let's put it this way: we were recently at a graduation party and one of my good friends was holding Aiden and offered him a small piece of cake. He looked at the cake, poked the frosting with his finger, looked at his finger, looked at the cake, (repeat that for a few minutes), touched his frosting-finger to his mouth, looked at the cake (now looking very confused), and then tried wiping the frosting off his hands. I repeat, cake. He did this with cake.
Some new foods he likes are: Fruit Loops, watermelon, sausage, beans, and he doesn't entirely despise banana. The other night, Aiden was having a hard time going to sleep so Jason tried a "one-last-hoorah" bedtime snack. And that evening the kid ate Fruit Loops, watermelon, sliced meat, and pork and beans until he was almost dozing off! I told Jason he was eating so much only because he was so tired he had no idea what was going on. In the morning I tried feeding him some of the foods he had gobbled up the night before and... nope! He didn't even want to taste any of it. I really do think it was partly because he was so tired that he was eating. haha. He really does have to be in a particular mood or he just won't eat any solid food, even food he likes!
pictured - staring out the window (probably in an existential break) watching the trash truck - mouth full of watermelon
Developments:
+ At the last update, Aiden was walking but was still wobbly on his feet. Now he is walking really well! Sometimes he's almost running! Haha. He's much better at walking uphill and on soft or uneven surfaces. He never crawls anymore unless he's sitting on the floor and you crawl toward him to chase him. (:
+ Now that Aiden is wearing shoes most of the time when we go places (unless it's just to the backyard or for a quick walk in the stroller) I'm realizing I have a shoe addiction - a baby shoe addiction! (Similar to having a baby clothes addiction) For comparison's sake, Jason has more pairs of shoes than I do, so this is not a normal, well established thing for me to be addicted to shoes. I just love baby shoes! haha. Aiden has a few pairs in each size and it seems like he grows into a new size every few weeks. (ps, thrift stores are amazing for finding baby shoes, and clearance sections online. I also found a brand new pair of shoes for Aiden at a garage sale for $3!)
+ How do you count teeth if they aren't all the way in yet? Aiden has eight fully erupted teeth now (his top four and bottom four teeth). He also has a molar that is about 3/4 of the way through, and the molar on the other side of his mouth should start making an appearance pretty soon. There were a number of days-in-a-row where he woke up several times a night crying from all the pain he was in. :( They don't seem to be bothering him that much right now, but I know his molars are still working their way through and I think all four of his canines could be coming in soon also with how long he's been chewing on those for.
+ He doesn't have very many new words that he says on a regular basis, but he says "down"/"done" a lot more now (which sound almost exactly the same when he says it). He knows to say "done" when he is done with something and sometimes he says "down" when he wants down from somewhere (but maybe he's actually saying "done"? haha). We have a trampoline so sometimes he says "dum" for "jump". (He doesn't say mama very often, but he does say dada a ton. I think he likes saying things with "d" sounds!) He still says "tee" for "kitty" and sometimes now he will say it more like "k-tee". My favorite word of his right now is "done". He says it for so many things! He can be turning the pages of a book, and with each page he turns he says, "done!" When he wakes up first thing in the morning, he says "done!" haha! He even once said "done" in his sleep (: Cutie pie (:
+ He has started to nod yes and shake his head no, but it's a very new development so I haven't figured out yet if he knows what they mean. But he knows how to do it!
+ He knows the sound an elk makes (which for my California people holy moly, I have never heard such a thing), he knows what sound an owl makes, and he knows what sound a train makes. If you ask him any of these three things, they all sounds like "whooooo!" but all three sound slightly different from each other. (:
+ He doesn't have very many new words that he says on a regular basis, but he says "down"/"done" a lot more now (which sound almost exactly the same when he says it). He knows to say "done" when he is done with something and sometimes he says "down" when he wants down from somewhere (but maybe he's actually saying "done"? haha). We have a trampoline so sometimes he says "dum" for "jump". (He doesn't say mama very often, but he does say dada a ton. I think he likes saying things with "d" sounds!) He still says "tee" for "kitty" and sometimes now he will say it more like "k-tee". My favorite word of his right now is "done". He says it for so many things! He can be turning the pages of a book, and with each page he turns he says, "done!" When he wakes up first thing in the morning, he says "done!" haha! He even once said "done" in his sleep (: Cutie pie (:
+ He has started to nod yes and shake his head no, but it's a very new development so I haven't figured out yet if he knows what they mean. But he knows how to do it!
+ He knows the sound an elk makes (which for my California people holy moly, I have never heard such a thing), he knows what sound an owl makes, and he knows what sound a train makes. If you ask him any of these three things, they all sounds like "whooooo!" but all three sound slightly different from each other. (:
+ He loves to wave bye-bye to people! Anyone and everyone (: And he knows our morning routine before Jason leaves for work consists of kisses and saying "I love you" and that it means it's time to wave bye-bye to daddy! Sometimes he waves bye bye if he sees Jason and I kiss or if we say I love you to him or each other. haha, Silly boy!
+ He's definitely getting to the stage where he wants to copy the things he sees other people do and where he starts learning things really fast. If he sees me scrubbing something, he will often grab a wash cloth and start scrubbing. Anything. Everything. haha!
+ He's starting to take an interest in the potty but I am in no hurry to potty train him yet until I know he is fully ready. Right now we let him flush (because it's like a button that makes water go!) and because it will help him start to see the difference between being in diapers and being potty trained. I've also taught him to take his wet/dirty diapers to the trash can in his room. He really likes the sense of accomplishment of lifting the lid and seeing the diaper go bye bye! Sometimes he claps for himself after he does it. haha (:
+ He does know how to go down stairs now, and he has gone down our entire staircase on his own many times. He will also go all the way up the stairs and shut the baby gate behind him! (:
+ Now that snow is long behind us, Aiden has gotten a lot of lawn mower rides with Jason, and so going along with the theme of picking up on things, he basically knows how to run the mower if it weren't for being too short (: He sits on Jason's lap and gets a mower ride a couple times a week. What fun! He also gets to push the button to open the big garage door. (And he loves buttons (: )
+ His memory is getting sharp! He is starting to remember things more (of course, this is not long term memory, but more like, "familiar" memory). When I say "flower" he blows air because I showed him how you can blow on dandelions. (: So he thinks all flowers are "fffffpth". And the other day we were out for a walk and were near the train tracks and he went "whoooo!" (the sound he makes for trains). There wasn't even a train on the tracks or anywhere nearby, yet he remembered that that's where a train usually is! (: He's also doing better in the nursery at church and doing better with feeling comfortable with people that he doesn't see as often as Jason and I. (:
+ He's still a total character. He is goofy, silly, bashful, flirtatious (holy Hannah Montana is he EVER flirtatious with the ladies), he is loving, sweet, kind, smart, ingenuitive, resourceful, cuddly, energetic, calm, quiet, loud, peaceful, happy...(:
+ He's starting to take an interest in the potty but I am in no hurry to potty train him yet until I know he is fully ready. Right now we let him flush (because it's like a button that makes water go!) and because it will help him start to see the difference between being in diapers and being potty trained. I've also taught him to take his wet/dirty diapers to the trash can in his room. He really likes the sense of accomplishment of lifting the lid and seeing the diaper go bye bye! Sometimes he claps for himself after he does it. haha (:
+ He does know how to go down stairs now, and he has gone down our entire staircase on his own many times. He will also go all the way up the stairs and shut the baby gate behind him! (:
+ Now that snow is long behind us, Aiden has gotten a lot of lawn mower rides with Jason, and so going along with the theme of picking up on things, he basically knows how to run the mower if it weren't for being too short (: He sits on Jason's lap and gets a mower ride a couple times a week. What fun! He also gets to push the button to open the big garage door. (And he loves buttons (: )
+ He's still a total character. He is goofy, silly, bashful, flirtatious (holy Hannah Montana is he EVER flirtatious with the ladies), he is loving, sweet, kind, smart, ingenuitive, resourceful, cuddly, energetic, calm, quiet, loud, peaceful, happy...(:
General Preferences:
+ He loves his push toys! He has a Tonka truck and a shopping cart he likes to push all around outside. (:
+ He loves giving kisses if you catch him at the right time, and he loves giving hugs. He also loves flirting with the ladies - especially the lady that is usually our cashier at the grocery store. You have not seen a bashful little ham of a boy until you've seen the way this kid looks at Sheila. She says his smile makes her day! (:
+ He still loves being outside. I think he would be content if we would set up our tent in the backyard and just live out there instead. haha
+ And along with being outside, he loves lawn mower rides! Jason sent me a video of them mowing together once, and from the perspective the video was taken, it almost looked like Aiden was driving all by himself and he looked so proud! (: Like he knew completely what he was doing haha (: And it's nice for me when thy go out too, because then I get an hour or so a couple times a week to work on stuff around the house!
+ Pushing buttons on anything and everything is a favorite of his (:
+ He loves giving our cats hugs. I say "it looks like kitty needs a hug" and he will lean over, holding the cat, and give either of the cats a hug, all while laying his head on their tummy. Haha. The cats haven't entirely decided what they think of this, but they go along with it pretty well (:
+ He still loves snuggling - and oh how I know I need to cherish these snuggles more! Who knows when he could start thinking he doesn't need to snuggle his mama as often?
+ The beach! Oh my goodness he could just live there too. The first time we went to the beach this Spring (mind you, the water was still quite chilly - the lake does freeze over, ya know) he walked right into the water. I mean we're talking no inhibitions here, people. I was holding his hand and he just walked right in, waist deep and was laughing the entire time. (: What a ham! He still does that every time we go to the beach, but now the water has at least warmed up a little. (:
+ He loves his push toys! He has a Tonka truck and a shopping cart he likes to push all around outside. (:
+ He loves giving kisses if you catch him at the right time, and he loves giving hugs. He also loves flirting with the ladies - especially the lady that is usually our cashier at the grocery store. You have not seen a bashful little ham of a boy until you've seen the way this kid looks at Sheila. She says his smile makes her day! (:
+ He still loves being outside. I think he would be content if we would set up our tent in the backyard and just live out there instead. haha
+ And along with being outside, he loves lawn mower rides! Jason sent me a video of them mowing together once, and from the perspective the video was taken, it almost looked like Aiden was driving all by himself and he looked so proud! (: Like he knew completely what he was doing haha (: And it's nice for me when thy go out too, because then I get an hour or so a couple times a week to work on stuff around the house!
+ Pushing buttons on anything and everything is a favorite of his (:
+ He loves giving our cats hugs. I say "it looks like kitty needs a hug" and he will lean over, holding the cat, and give either of the cats a hug, all while laying his head on their tummy. Haha. The cats haven't entirely decided what they think of this, but they go along with it pretty well (:
+ The beach! Oh my goodness he could just live there too. The first time we went to the beach this Spring (mind you, the water was still quite chilly - the lake does freeze over, ya know) he walked right into the water. I mean we're talking no inhibitions here, people. I was holding his hand and he just walked right in, waist deep and was laughing the entire time. (: What a ham! He still does that every time we go to the beach, but now the water has at least warmed up a little. (:
+ He loves trucks and anything that has wheels or that has a motor and makes noise. (: He loves seeing the trash and recycling trucks come by! (: And he loves going on any kind of ride he can with his dad (:
+ He figured out how to work squirt bottles - and so when he gets a hold of a squirt bottle, he points it at himself until he gets sopping wet. He laughs the entire time of course. (:
+ He loves going on walks and seeing the trains go by!
+ Playing in his sandbox. He has a few sandbox toys and an excavator toy that Jason's parents got him. There's one similar to it at the beach, but now he can play with this one at home! (The one at the beach is much bigger anyway, this one is more his size that he can somewhat operate on his own!)
+ He also likes going in our big garage and sitting on the four wheeler and climbing into my car and pretending to drive. (:
+ Aiden got his first rides down the water slide at the beach and he loved it! (He also likes the regular slides at the park too (: And the swings, and the see-saw!)
+ He loves golf cart rides (because it's another thing with wheels and a steering wheel and motor that "goes"!) We went to our church's annual golf event and Aiden and I got to go along for some crazy golf cart rides with Jason as our driver. Aiden liked sitting on his lap and holding onto the steering wheel like he was the one driving. (: Aside from that, we mostly stayed on the driving range and it was my first time hitting golf balls with real golf clubs haha. (I've only ever done mini golf before). It only took about a hundred shots, but I did get a few of the golf balls out to the 75 and 100 yard lines! (: Jason was literally hitting them out of the park, past all of the flags (far beyond the 250 yard flags). Where are the MLB scouts when you need them, right?
+ He figured out how to work squirt bottles - and so when he gets a hold of a squirt bottle, he points it at himself until he gets sopping wet. He laughs the entire time of course. (:
+ He loves going on walks and seeing the trains go by!
+ Playing in his sandbox. He has a few sandbox toys and an excavator toy that Jason's parents got him. There's one similar to it at the beach, but now he can play with this one at home! (The one at the beach is much bigger anyway, this one is more his size that he can somewhat operate on his own!)
+ Aiden got his first rides down the water slide at the beach and he loved it! (He also likes the regular slides at the park too (: And the swings, and the see-saw!)
+ He loves golf cart rides (because it's another thing with wheels and a steering wheel and motor that "goes"!) We went to our church's annual golf event and Aiden and I got to go along for some crazy golf cart rides with Jason as our driver. Aiden liked sitting on his lap and holding onto the steering wheel like he was the one driving. (: Aside from that, we mostly stayed on the driving range and it was my first time hitting golf balls with real golf clubs haha. (I've only ever done mini golf before). It only took about a hundred shots, but I did get a few of the golf balls out to the 75 and 100 yard lines! (: Jason was literally hitting them out of the park, past all of the flags (far beyond the 250 yard flags). Where are the MLB scouts when you need them, right?
What we've been up to:
+ The running theme for almost a year now is that I had started to work on redoing our upstairs bathroom - ripping out wallpaper, repainting (once or twice) and just trying to get the room in a state of where I liked it (because it was the room I disliked the most when we moved here.) Well, nothing new has been done to it in the last two months. I am still hoping to have a window installed to let in natural light, and I still have some painting to do and some trim to put up and some drywall needs to be replaced. In the meantime, Jason finished out my laundry room and I love it! That's another project that had been sitting in limbo for a while, and now it's finally done! (Well if you want to get technical, it's about 98% done, but who's counting? It's functional, beautiful, and I love it! ) One of these days I will finish putting away all of the laundry and take pictures of it's finished-ness and make a post about it (: Hopefully in the next few weeks or so. (:
+ Our family room still has a little bit of work to be done to it - nothing major though. (it's one of those "98% completed projects, but why finish now when we're this far ahead?" kind of things) It's also in a constant state of disarray (along with the rest of the house...) since I'm doing this house-wide purge thing, but I'm hoping that soon I will be done. I had been working on a project for Aiden for in the family room but it has been delayed in part due to copious amounts of rain (I had been working on it outside). Maybe someday if we have enough sunny days in a row we can get working on Aiden's project again. (:
+ On a smaller scale for DIY projects, the last time we went out of town and did some thrifting, I found a Winnie the Pooh piggie bank. I thought it had the potential to be cute....as there's always the question: could it look better? So, I painted it white! Now it functions as a bit of a bookend on a shelf (out of Aiden's reach) with some of his books. And see the black wall? (: There's a bit of a preview of my family room for ya! (Which will also be another post once I get Aiden's project done and once I get it actually somewhat clean and finished. haha
+ We've been going on a couple evening walks a week as a family which has been nice. Aiden loves the outdoors and it's a good way for Jason and I to get out and get some exercise and talk. (: Now that it's Summer, we often see pontoon planes taking off and flying over the lake and the trees. The other day we watched one circle around us overhead and we saw it land on the lake and pull into its little canal. (: We also get to see some pretty spectacular sunsets out over the lake that we can't see from our house!
+ We went out to the nearby National Park and Aiden got to sit in a canoe (: He thought it was fun and liked how the boat felt rocking with the water. (:
+ I had my second Mother's Day which was celebrated with a much needed nap. (: I still don't take naps very often, but I've been giving myself more grace in that if I feel like I have to work really hard to stay awake...I'm going to take a nap if I have the opportunity. Haha
+ There was that one time where I was working on Aiden's project outdoors, and looked up to see that Aiden had found what was left of my m&m DQ Blizzard (and what was left at the bottom was mostly m&m's). May I also mention that it was very hot that day. Here is the aftermath:
+ Speaking of messes, I recently rearranged the pantry because we have a lot of canned foods in glass jars that were on the lower shelves. So first I put all the breakable things on a high shelf, and then I took a break before I decided how I wanted to rearrange the rest of the food to keep the pantry "toddler proof". Well, I knew I couldn't leave the cereals too low, because then they would end up getting dumped over and spilled on the floor. Not five minutes after I had that thought, Aiden went in to the pantry and there went a box of cereal on the floor! haha. I hadn't gotten around to moving the cereal up high at that point yet. At least my intuition was right? (:
+ Aiden loves when the neighbor's dog comes by to visit. We often feed him a treat (and I've showed Aiden how to feed him.) The dog is really good with Aiden and sits patiently waiting for his food. (:
+ Jason takes him out on mower rides a few times a week and he gets to "help" with the weed whacking and raking. He sure loves spending time with his daddy! (:
+ Jason celebrated his second Father's Day! Aiden and I made a lawn mower themed Father's Day card for him, of course! (: Jason made some fantastic food for lunch, we went to the beach and on a walk for ice cream, and Jason made a makeshift slip and slide in the largest rain puddle in our yard. Both Jason and Aiden were soaked and covered in mud and grass clippings at the end of it all, while I filmed the insanity. I sure love those two. (:
+ We celebrated the ten year anniversary of owning Moop (my black cat) It's hard to believe it's been ten years already because I was in high school when I got him. I tried getting a picture of him and Aiden together since they're my two babies, but Moop had other plans! haha
+ Sprinkler fun! Lots and lots of sprinkler fun on those hot almost-summer feeling days.
+ The running theme for almost a year now is that I had started to work on redoing our upstairs bathroom - ripping out wallpaper, repainting (once or twice) and just trying to get the room in a state of where I liked it (because it was the room I disliked the most when we moved here.) Well, nothing new has been done to it in the last two months. I am still hoping to have a window installed to let in natural light, and I still have some painting to do and some trim to put up and some drywall needs to be replaced. In the meantime, Jason finished out my laundry room and I love it! That's another project that had been sitting in limbo for a while, and now it's finally done! (Well if you want to get technical, it's about 98% done, but who's counting? It's functional, beautiful, and I love it! ) One of these days I will finish putting away all of the laundry and take pictures of it's finished-ness and make a post about it (: Hopefully in the next few weeks or so. (:
+ Our family room still has a little bit of work to be done to it - nothing major though. (it's one of those "98% completed projects, but why finish now when we're this far ahead?" kind of things) It's also in a constant state of disarray (along with the rest of the house...) since I'm doing this house-wide purge thing, but I'm hoping that soon I will be done. I had been working on a project for Aiden for in the family room but it has been delayed in part due to copious amounts of rain (I had been working on it outside). Maybe someday if we have enough sunny days in a row we can get working on Aiden's project again. (:
+ On a smaller scale for DIY projects, the last time we went out of town and did some thrifting, I found a Winnie the Pooh piggie bank. I thought it had the potential to be cute....as there's always the question: could it look better? So, I painted it white! Now it functions as a bit of a bookend on a shelf (out of Aiden's reach) with some of his books. And see the black wall? (: There's a bit of a preview of my family room for ya! (Which will also be another post once I get Aiden's project done and once I get it actually somewhat clean and finished. haha
+ In a nut shell, when Aiden was a month old, we moved our bedroom upstairs so I could be close to the nursery. After about a month of waking up 3-4 times a night and getting out of bed and nursing/rocking him back to sleep, I decided that cosleeping is king (and the best option for my sleep/sanity) but we had left our bedroom upstairs regardless. Now that Aiden is getting older, I am starting to transition him to his own bed (for now it's only at nap time) and we are moving our bedroom back downstairs into the actual master bedroom. And - we ordered an actual bed! I mean we have a mattress obviously, but it had always been sitting on the boxspring on the floor. When the bed is unmade (which is often) it looks really nice. And I mean real nice. Like real nice. You know what I'm saying. So I finally decided to adult and budgeted for a bed, picked one after three or more months of looking around, and it was finally delivered a few days ago! All this to get around to saying: our master bedroom is narrow and long, and the only wall the bed can go up against is only wide enough for a full bed (which is kind of crazy). The wall has a doorway on each side of where the bed goes for the "walk-through" closet, so I commissioned Jason to close one of the doorways and now the wall is wide enough for a king bed. Yay! Also, I will probably have pictures of this project/update in another blog post in the future. (:
+ Back to Aiden and his own bed - he never liked being in his crib. If you tried putting him in his crib now, he would wake up the second you put him down and he would start crying. So, I took the side off and put the toddler rail on and he totally loves it! It's a complete game changer. I feel like he thinks it's "his" very own bed now, which for his age, independence is starting to be a more and more important thing. So for now we're only doing this during nap time so that he can get used to sleeping in his bed and in his room for a bit before we make the full transition. I also want to make a Dutch door for his room so that he won't be able to climb out of bed and leave his room once we have him sleeping in his room at night. (For safety reasons.) My sister is coming to visit us for a while in a few weeks, and when she does, she will be staying in a room on the same floor as him so I think that will help with the initial transition of having him sleep in his bed overnight. It's a big change, and a sad one for me, but I know it should happen at some point. For now we're just seeing how it goes day by day. Who knows! We might keep cosleeping for a while longer.
+ I had my second Mother's Day which was celebrated with a much needed nap. (: I still don't take naps very often, but I've been giving myself more grace in that if I feel like I have to work really hard to stay awake...I'm going to take a nap if I have the opportunity. Haha
+ There was that one time where I was working on Aiden's project outdoors, and looked up to see that Aiden had found what was left of my m&m DQ Blizzard (and what was left at the bottom was mostly m&m's). May I also mention that it was very hot that day. Here is the aftermath:
If you give a boy a few m&m's, am I right? Pictures were necessary, of course. Oh, and, a bath.
+ Speaking of messes, I recently rearranged the pantry because we have a lot of canned foods in glass jars that were on the lower shelves. So first I put all the breakable things on a high shelf, and then I took a break before I decided how I wanted to rearrange the rest of the food to keep the pantry "toddler proof". Well, I knew I couldn't leave the cereals too low, because then they would end up getting dumped over and spilled on the floor. Not five minutes after I had that thought, Aiden went in to the pantry and there went a box of cereal on the floor! haha. I hadn't gotten around to moving the cereal up high at that point yet. At least my intuition was right? (:+ Aiden loves when the neighbor's dog comes by to visit. We often feed him a treat (and I've showed Aiden how to feed him.) The dog is really good with Aiden and sits patiently waiting for his food. (:
+ Jason takes him out on mower rides a few times a week and he gets to "help" with the weed whacking and raking. He sure loves spending time with his daddy! (:
+ Jason celebrated his second Father's Day! Aiden and I made a lawn mower themed Father's Day card for him, of course! (: Jason made some fantastic food for lunch, we went to the beach and on a walk for ice cream, and Jason made a makeshift slip and slide in the largest rain puddle in our yard. Both Jason and Aiden were soaked and covered in mud and grass clippings at the end of it all, while I filmed the insanity. I sure love those two. (:
+ Sprinkler fun! Lots and lots of sprinkler fun on those hot almost-summer feeling days.
+ Jason got out his hockey sticks and a ball and he and Aiden had a little game of hockey in our big barn. I'd say he loved it. (: And Aiden had a lot of fun too (:
+ We went to a Star Wars themed birthday party and Aiden had a Star Wars shirt so he wore it to match the occasion (:
+ We also went to a country cowgirl themed birthday party and Aiden got to look like a cute little country boy! (: He also got to hit a pinata for the first time and he got a few good swings in! (:
+ Since Aiden loves the outdoors so much, and since I have just about run out of projects I can work on outside, I took it upon myself to plant some flowers. I've got a well renowned knack for having never been able to keep a plant alive, but I figured what the heck, I'd try. (Again) Right? So we cleaned up our garden bed along the side of the house and I planted some sunflowers. I think they might be starting to grow...but it's hard to tell at this point if they might just be weeds. Haha. (in the pictures you can see other plants planted there, but those are perennials that have been there since we moved here and they grow back every summer without me having to do anything - so I had no hand in making them grow. haha)
+ We have a bunny that lives somewhere close by our house and this one day he came by and started running near where Aiden was. I pointed to Aiden for him to look, and when he turned around the bunny was close by in the grass! Aiden slowly paddled over and was actually able to get really close before the bunny ran off into the woods. (: From where he was standing and where the bunny was (near his slide) I'd say he got within 15 feet of him!
+ Even though we don't have snow to pull him around in his sled to take the mail out, we still take the mail out every day. (: My little helper just comes along with me with a beach bag in tow instead. We're seasonal like that. haha (:
+ Even though we don't have snow to pull him around in his sled to take the mail out, we still take the mail out every day. (: My little helper just comes along with me with a beach bag in tow instead. We're seasonal like that. haha (:
+ A cute little story about the picture below: Jason was walking around with Aiden one evening when all of a sudden something seemed super familiar. I snapped a photo, looked back on instagram - and sure enough - what seemed so familiar is that two years prior I had taken a photo of Jason in just about the same spot on just about the same day. The photo from two years ago (left) was taken on May 5th, the one taken this year was on May 1st (right). Jason was even wearing the same jacket in both pictures, and it was roughly the same time of day, same lighting, etc. The only difference is that this time he had a little bundle of a toddler in his arms (:
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And now, an ode to Spring with my band of quirky people.
As always, you can check out more of our adventures (with frequent updates)
by following me on instagram - @marlyssamarie
Happy Spring, Aiden! It has been so much fun over the last few months seeing the snow melt, the flowers bloom, and the grass and trees turn green in preparation for Summer. This stage that you're in right now has been full of adventure and learning and it still amazes me seeing you learn new things all the time and how you're really starting to remember things more. I love your hugs, your snuggles, especially when you wrap your arms so tight around me. This year has certainly been different than last year - and that is a learning process all on its own for me. Last year in May when the flowers were starting to bloom, it was just getting warm enough and you were just getting old enough that we could take you out on walks down the street in your stroller. Now all you want to do is run around outside and play (but you still love walks down the street in your stroller). Last year in Summer, going to the beach meant I could read a book and you'd take a nap after we played in the water for a while - this year it's like an obstacle course for mommy and daddy, chasing after an adventurous and energetic toddler! (: This is a realization for me that you won't be little forever and that every season from one year to the next while you're little will be different. (Because when you're an adult, every Summer feels the same, but seeing you experience this Spring/Summer vs. last year, it is so incredibly different!) It's bittersweet in a way knowing that every Summer, every Winter, every Spring, and every Fall will be different from the last.
But it reminds me to cherish these moments all the more.
And oh what an adventure it is.
Happy 2nd Spring, Aiden.
I am so excited for this Summer ahead.
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