20 Months Old- 8/30/13

Weight/Length- I would guess between 29-30 pounds and 33ish inches

Eating- Getting pickier with food. You don't seem to like meat as much as before and still don't really like veggies. Prefer fruits and bread and have developed a love of cut up cherry tomatoes which makes me happy because I love tomatoes as well. 

Sleep- Sleeping well. So long as we stick to our bedtime routine you go to bed easily and rarely wake up in the middle of the night. My only complaint would be that you tend to wake up pretty early, around 6-6:15am, which is not so fun on the weekends.

Clothes- Still 18 and 24 months.

Diapers- Size 5 both daytime and overnight.

Appearance- Still blonde, wavy hair with a few curls when it gets long. Eyes are looking more green everyday but will look more blue if you are wearing blue. You are thinning out now that you are more active and losing most of your baby chub :(

Personality- You are Mr. Personality. Now that you are talking and imitating more you love to try to make us laugh and do a good job of it. You can be shy at first when out in public but after a few minutes you turn on the charm and love to say Hi and Bye Bye to people. You have the typical toddler tantrum when you don't get your way and 6pm seems to still be your meltdown hour. I think you just start to get hungry and anxious for dinner (much like your mother) because as soon as you finish dinner you are back to your happy self. You are still a sweetheart that likes to give hugs and kisses.

Likes- Pretty much the same as last month:- You are OBSESSED with the iPad and watching school bus videos and Baby Einstein videos. You refer to the iPad as bus and it's the first thing you ask for in the morning. I let you watch videos while I get ready but try to limit you to just the mornings.

-Still very attached to your ladybug pillow pet and often carry it around the house with you.

-Climbing on the massage chair and jumping off onto a pillow.

-Playing with your lego building blocks, you've gotten much better with them.

-Eating crackers, I swear you are constantly saying "cracker"


Milestones-
-First time apart from mommy and daddy for more than a day and spent 5 days with your Nana.
-We bought you your first potty and you like to sit on it but haven't actually gone on it yet.
-Saying more two word phrases
-Can say No and will shake your head while doing it. And it's pretty much the answer you always give when asked a question.
-Can say and point to your elbow, butt and penis.
-Can walk down the front steps and the two steps into the living room without holding onto anything.
-Will jump when we ask you to jump.

New words that you say regularly and in the right context:
-Elbow
-Taco
-School Bus
-Big Truck
-Boo Boo (and will point to a cut or bruise)
-Ow (you say this when you see an ambulance)
-Please (sounds like Peeese)
-Thank you (sounds like Tant Tu)
-D'oh (like what Homer Simpson says when he messes up)
-Mo Mo (for Elmo)
-Out (and you say this as soon as you finish eating and want out of your highchair)
-Mow (for your lawn mower)
-Pool
-Rain
-Pee Pee

SWW

Another Wednesday means another SWW!

 

This week I'm saying So What if?

 

-I'm not ready for fall. I'm not ready for my husband to be gone all the time for hunting or for it to get dark earlier or for cold weather.

 

-After working here for almost 5 years I finally received an official employee handbook yesterday. We are a small company and never really needed one but because we are slowly growing they finally made an official one. I did learn that as of October (which is my 5 year anniversary here) I will now be getting 3 weeks vacation time a year.

 

-The President and VP of my company (who are mother and son) both bought Jaguars this past weekend and my first response was "if I don't get a Christmas bonus this year because you wanted a Jaguar I'm gonna be pissed". I was only half kidding. They assured me Christmas bonus money is already set aside.

 

-I spent most of yesterday afternoon unable to work because I was in shock over (happy) news I received.

 

-I'm tempted to check out some other daycares in the area. I do like Hunters daycare but between the new rate increases and the diaper rash issues I'm starting to think maybe we should move him.

 

-We bought a small potty for Hunter already even though we're really not trying to potty train him right now. We figured it was a good idea to go ahead and get the potty so he can get used to seeing it and sitting on it and not be scared of it when the time comes for the real training. As they say "baby steps".

 

-It took close to 10 months but we finally hung up all our pictures frames to create a new gallery wall in our dining room. It looks so much better in there, now I'm just waiting for the photos that I ordered for the frames to arrive.  

 

-While I think Miley's performance on the VMA's was over the top and completely trashy I don't know why parents are getting upset over their kids watching it. Anyone with any sense knows the VMA's are not appropriate for young children to watch, there is ALWAYS at least one inappropriate performance on there. Don't let your kids watch it to begin with. Miley is 20 years old, if she wants to act like a ho-bag that's her right. MTV is not family friendly programming. 

Weekend Change of Plans

I mentioned last week that we would be heading to my in-laws beach house for the weekend, however on Friday night they told us that they had to head back early on Saturday because there were a few things that popped up unexpectedly that they had to take care of. No biggie, we still made the best of our weekend which actually started a bit early when I got a call from Hunter's daycare saying I had to come pick him up early due to a diaper rash issue.

*Sidenote- we've had to get him 3 times in the past month for diaper rash issues, this is a whole ranty post on it's own but let's just say I was NOT happy to have to leave work early to get him for what in my opinion was really not a problem.

We did make the best of our extra time together and after he woke up from his nap (which actually gave me time to get some work done from home) we headed to Target with daddy to stock up on some much needed (and some not needed) items.

Kristian learned a valuable lesson, you can't just "browse" the toy aisle WITH the child unless you plan to go home with a really annoying new toy. See above.

 

 

Saturday morning we headed out for some yard sailing and scored an awesome bike trailer for Hunter to ride in when Kristian goes on his bike rides. He's been wanting one for awhile so that he could actually ride his bike more often in the afternoons but they are pretty pricey. We scored one in great condition for $45! We then headed to the store to get Hunter a helmet. My big headed/big brained child needed one for ages 8+! The others were just a bit too small and this one fits more comfortably with room to grow. **It also fits me! 

He actually hates wearing the helmet and freaked out when we put it on him at home to put him in the bike trailer. Hopefully he'll get used to it soon.

 

Later in the day since it was so beautiful out we took Hunter to the pool. About 30 minutes after we got there our neighbors showed up with their little boy Zachary who is 2 1/2. Hunter and Zachary are BFF's and love playing together out in front of the houses. Hunter was SO excited to see his buddy, he immediately put down the snack he was eating and got back in the water on his own to go play. 

Zachary was splashing Hunter and making him crack up. Look at the smile on Hunters face.

 

One thing I didn't mention last week was that this past Saturday was the 5 year anniversary of Kristian and my first date! We went to our favorite sushi restaurant to celebrate and brought the best thing we've done in the past 5 years with us to dinner. 

 

Hunter does NOT like sushi, however he loved the Miso soup and rice.

We then headed home to watch the rest of the Redskins game, which they won! Hope they keep this up during the real season.

Wearing his RGIII jersey. He also knows how to say "Touchdown"

 

Sunday was a lot of laying around. I went to the pool alone during naptime (it was blissful) and we just hung out and did stuff around the house. Kristian wasn't feeling well but a few Hunter kisses helped make things better. 

 

So even though our plans changed we had a very nice weekend together as a family. Hopefully the weather holds up and we can make it down to the beach house this weekend for Labor Day.

Five on Friday

I kinda dig this linkup and haven't done it for a couple weeks. 

 

 

 

1. This was my first full week back at work after vacation and good Lord it was never-ending. I much prefer a two day work week like I had last week. How do I make that happen?

 

 

2. We are going to my in-laws beach house this weekend. We've only been once this summer and want to go at least one or two more times before summer officially ends. Also, I think Kristian is getting itchy to take some kind of road trip in the new car.

  

3. Last night I had the gel tips that I had put on for the trip/wedding removed. It had been two weeks and they were getting too long and annoying. I debated getting them re-filled but I really don't need another miscellaneous expense and it was harder to type/text with them on anyways. Also, getting them removed = ouch.

 

4. We've been trying to sell my Corolla on Craig's List for what we feel is a very reasonable price yet people keep calling trying to low ball us. Fortunately, we aren't in a rush to sell so we are going to hold out for a while. I'm sorry but offering $2-3K less than we are asking ain't gonna work.

 

5. I'm not ready for Fall. I love Summer and this year it has just flown by. With that said I would love me a Pumpkin Spice Latte though. 

Cayman Trip Recap- AKA Post with an obnoxious amount of photos

It was hard trying to narrow down the more than 700 photos we took during our trip (that includes 2 cameras and 1 iPhone).  Kristian took around 300 underwater photos alone on the waterproof camera. He loves to snorkel and the fish down there are pretty amazing.

But no one wants to look at 700 photos so I tried to narrow them down to some of my favorites (which are still probably too many for one post, oh well).

We flew out of Reagan National Airport at 8am with Kristian's sister, her fiance, their 6 kids (they each have 3 kids) and two of the boys girlfriends. The flights were smooth and after a quick layover in Charlotte we arrived on the island around 1:30pm

*Secret- that is not my Bloody Mary, it's my SIL's, apparently my diet coke didn't look cool in the picture. I choose caffeine over alcohol at 7am everytime. No shame.

On our first flight together in 3 years.

 

We stayed at the Marriott Grand Cayman. It was a lovely hotel/resort. I would definitely recommend.

We had a view of the courtyard, which had a little river going through it, turtles included.

 

We were actually on the beach before we even got our rooms since we had to wait a couple hours, no point wasting prime sun/drinking time.

Isn't that water gorgeous? I can't get over how blue and clear it was.

The first night the whole group walked down the beach to another hotel that had a nice restaurant on the beach. We were all pretty exhausted from being up since 4am and traveling all day so as soon as dinner was over we went back to the room and crashed.

 

Day 2 was spent on the beach and included lots of laying out, swimming, snorkeling and drinking.

This was the first time I was able to successfully snorkel, it was pretty cool.

My husband however, is the snorkel master, he did it for hours.

We discovered the fish down there love bananas, if you threw some in the water they would surround you like piranhas, fortunately they didn't actually touch us. Well except for one of the girls who happened to be wearing a yellow bikini top, a fish mistook the string for a banana and tried to pull it off.

 

The second night the whole group took an hour long boat ride over to Rum Point for dinner. One the way home, after a few cocktails, most of the group was up dancing and doing a conga line on the boat. It was a fun night.

My sister-in-law and her new husband the night before they tied the knot.

The whole group of girls.

My in-laws flew down the day after we did, just in time for the boat ride.

Sunset from the boat.

Dinner on Rum Point.

 

During the day on Sunday we did much of the same as the day before, laying on the beach and swimming. We all had to head inside early to get ready for the main event of the trip...my sister-in-laws Wedding!

Here I am before the wedding with my two nieces (who are both taller than I am), they are the daughters of the bride and were both bridesmaids along with their new step-sister.

Now THESE are some wedding shoes. I should point out that barefoot my SIL is around 5'9 so throw these bad boys on and she's over 6 feet tall. I tried walking in them and felt like I was walking on stilts.

Kristian's older sister, the lovely bride.

Waiting for the wedding to start.

Married!

PSA- if you see a couple getting married on a public beach DON"T be the jackass hanging out behind them on the beach getting into all the pictures. Not cool.

After waiting a long 4 years I guess Joe was pretty excited. Also, I got a new brother-in-law!

The new Mr. and Mrs.

Kristian was not a groomsman and did not intend to match the groom. They both do look pretty damn handsome though.

 

After the ceremony we walked up to the courtyard for the reception in the area they roped off for us. It was a very casual cocktail reception with passed hors d'oeurves and a pasta station. There were about 25 of us there to celebrate. They did do the cake cutting, bouquet/garter toss but other than that it wasn't very formal. The reception ended around 8pm and we decided to all change and go for evening swim in the pool. I felt bad for anyone that had a room overlooking the pool if they were trying to go to bed early that night because we were a bit loud.

 

On our last full day there most of the group decided to go take a boat ride to "stingray city" where you get to snorkel with the stingrays. My MIL and I had no interest in that so we stayed back at the hotel, ate lunch together, shopped in the gift store and sat out on the beach. It was quite relaxing.

 

That night (our last night) I pretty much insisted on a date night alone with my husband. After being with the group for 4 days I wanted one dinner alone just he and I, especially since we don't get many of those at home.

It was nice to just be husband and wife and not daddy and mommy for a few days.

We started off at the beach bar in our hotel and after getting a recommendation from the bartender headed about a mile down the road to a nice seafood restaurant.

Can't beat that sunset.

We ate at a wonderful restaurant called the Lobster Pot. We had great seats on the deck overlooking the water.

 

After dinner we decided to skip the cab and walk about a mile back to our hotel, it was a great night for a walk and one of the things I like best about the Caymans is that it's very safe, none of the "don't leave your resort" talk that you hear about when going to Mexico or Jamaica. We left the hotel on our own several times without any issues.

 

Finally on Tuesday we woke up early, grabbed breakfast, made one last quick trip to the beach before heading to catch our 2:30pm flight.

Waiting at the Cayman airport.

Excited to get home to my little guy.

Sunset from the plane.

 

 

The trip was great. We both loved the Caymans, everyone was very friendly, it was clean and safe and beautiful. It's a very international country, we met people living there from all over the world including Ireland, Australia, Nepal and Jamaica. I definitely preferred it over Jamaica and in some ways over St. Lucia (though St. Lucia will always hold a special place in my heart because that was our honeymoon). It was fun traveling with a big group, everyone got along well. We were definitely that annoying group out on the beach being loud and having fun. Now we are trying to figure out were we want to go for our next Caribbean vacation!

 

**I definitely do not regret not taking Hunter. Though I missed him I don't think this would have been a good vacation for him based on our activities. And I know I would not have been able to relax or enjoy hanging out with the group as much if he were there. I'm thinking we may start him with an easy trip to the Outer Banks next year.