A Day in the Life (in Photos)

I've always enjoyed "A Day in the Life" posts because they are ones that I tend to go back and look at to remember just what life was like during different times in our lives. However, I don't always do them as often as I would like (or as often as I think about doing them) because, well, I have an inability to be succinct and the posts always take me forever to write. So when I saw a different approach to a "Day in the Life" post, I was all over it. Without further rambling, welcome to our day (September 21st, 2016), told through a picture taken every hour.

7:00 A little quiet time to myself before the boys get up

8:00 Boys have eaten breakfast, dinner is in the crockpot, and we're ready to start the day!

9:00 A little reading/play time before we get ready to head out for the morning

 

10:00 Visited one of our favorite places, The Museum of Visual Materials, for an obstacle course they had set up--in addition to all the awesome toys they always have (I forgot my phone at home, so I stole this photo from the Facebook page. Don't look too closely for my boys because you won't find them!)

 

11:00 (more like 11:15) Lunch time for the boys. And yes, there are plates for two but only one is eating. Garrett is throwing a tantrum in the other room because, well, life is hard when you are 18 months old. He did eventually sit down and eat. Eventually.

12:00 Squeezing in a few minutes of play time before getting ready for naps (bonus points if you can spot the flying elephant!)

1:00 Boys are napping (or at least in their rooms) so lunch and Facebook for me (PS Have you heard of LuLaRoe? It's a little addicting. So far I've been doing a good job exercising self-restraint, but I'm afraid my resolve is getting weak and I just want to buy all the clothes)

2:00 After (finally) getting William to actually settle down and take a nap, I move on to tackling a few chores. Namely, cleaning the mess that is our kitchen.

3:00 Boys are up and (shocking!) they want to eat

4:00 (Part One) Off to another one of our favorite places, the Washington Pavilion. We went with some friends this time so it was extra special!

4:00 (Part Two) More playtime at the Pavilion

5:00 Remember that nice crockpot meal I put together this morning? Well, leave it to my family to make plans at 1:15 for all of us to meet at the Shriner's Mosque for dinner and bingo. Thankfully the soup we were making will make an excellent freezer meal, and a nice bonus of the plan was that we were able to walk to dinner from the Pavilion!

6:00 Bingo night at the Mosque (and yes, I took a picture of my bingo prize instead of my boys loving up on their cousin Jonathan. I'm sure the latter picture would have been much cuter, but I was super excited to have won!)

7:00 Heading home for bedtime

8:00 Remember that kitchen I was going to clean earlier? Well, Garrett woke up literally ten minutes after I took that picture, and I was not about to continue cleaning while he was awake (Darrell doesn't mind letting the boys "help" him wash dishes, but I don't really have the patience for that). So instead, it's back to cleaning the kitchen as soon as the boys are in bed

9:00 Nothing like a little yoga to end the day, although it probably would have been more enjoyable if I hadn't been interrupted a couple of times by a three year old who just didn't want to go to sleep

10:00 Wrapping up the night with a little NCIS and wine before bed!

10:42 Last picture before bed. And really, I only took this so I could moan about the temperature. Seventy degrees at almost 11:00!! Not acceptable weather for the middle of September

As much as I enjoyed taking the pictures for this post, I almost scrapped the idea about halfway through the day. When I was picking a day to do, I tried to pick a "normal" day since I feel that best represents the majority of days around here, and between the two outings we went on (normally we only do one) and the audible on dinner, it just wasn't shaping up to be very normal. But, I realized that part of that is our normal--the rolling with the punches and going with the flow that isn't always the easiest with two boys but we try to do it anyway!

Garrett: Eighteen Months!

Height/Weight: Thirty (almost thirty-one) inches and a mere 21 pounds, 8 ounces. If I thought William was a peanut at this age, that must make Garrett a sunflower seed. Granted, the boys had a nasty little stomach bug in June that caused Garrett to lose over a pound, so I'm actually really happy with the weight gain he had. And so is our pediatrician, which is obviously more important since I don't really know anything medical about kids.

Wearing: I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but he's still wearing twelve month clothing and size three diapers. We've finally been able to start mixing in some of his eighteen month stuff, though, and we'll be switching him up to size four diapers once we run out of size three, so soon enough he'll have a new wardrobe of clothes for Momma to choose from (although we just got a bunch of hand-me-downs from Darrell's sister so I'm excited to wear some of those twelve-month pieces before he outgrows them!).

Eating: Everything. Although because he's eighteen months going on thirteen, he's randomly started to refuse certain things just because he wants to exercise his opinion. And it seems like his pickiness is based solely on moodiness and attitude; he'll refuse something one night and gobble it up the next time we serve it. So that's fun. He even turned down blueberries the other day--a sure sign that he's just pushing buttons for the sake of pushing buttons and not because he actually doesn't like the food!

Sleep: I pretty much just need to get rid of this category, because it seems I always jinx myself whenever I start talking about his sleep. The good news is that he sleeps through the night probably 90% of the time--the bad news is that on the nights he does wake up, he wakes up screaming bloody murder and nothing seems to help. We know that he's a little too young for night terrors, plus he responds to us more than I typically associate with kids having night terrors, but man alive he gets worked up about something. He'll scream at us, push away from us, shake his head "no" in response to anything we offer to him, and then after five or ten minutes (aka an eternity), he'll take his pacifier and settle back down. It's weird--and pretty annoying. As far as napping goes, he pretty well rocks his one afternoon nap and Momma loves it. We've even gone out for lunch a few times and he's fallen asleep in the car on the way home but then transitions pretty seamlessly into his crib.

New Stuff: Well, hopefully we'll be done complaining about teething for awhile, because all four eye teeth have finally poked through. And they pretty much all came within a week--so that was fun. I know we still have his two-year molars to deal with, but I'm hoping we get a break and those don't come until closer to two years. In the weeks leading up to Garrett's eighteen-month appointment we made a concerted effort to count the number of words in his vocabulary because we knew it would be a question on his development form at the doctor's office. We counted enough words for him to "pass" that question and were feeling pretty happy with his communication, especially considering he had signs for probably half a dozen more words. And I was all set to list out and brag on the words in his vocabulary... And that night after his appointment he started repeated pretty much EVERYTHING we said. We were going to the pool so we told him we needed to get our flip flops on and he said "fip fop". I told the boys I was getting out cheese for their snack and he said "sees". He started pointing to his pajamas and saying "ball" and "fish". Needless to say, he's doing just fine on the communication front. A few other (mostly) fun things our little peanut is doing at eighteen months:
--Copying everything big brother does, and he is remarkably adept at following through with his efforts. If brother climbs it, he climbs it. If brother hits the ball, he hits the ball. If brother squeezes out his own toothpaste, he squeezes out his own toothpaste. If brother buckles his own car seat, he buckles his own car seat. If brother does interlocking puzzles instead of peg puzzles, he does interlocking puzzles. And I kid you not, we have a few four-piece puzzles that he can actually do. On his own.
--Obsessing over babies and dogs. While this isn't necessarily new, it's continued to get worse (and borderline problematic). He is All.Over. his cousin Jonathan whenever he is around and I'm actually afraid he might suffocate him one time. I almost can't take him to playgrounds anymore because not only am I terrified he's going to fall and hurt himself trying to climb up the ladders like William, but he will wander off after a dog or someone pushing a stroller. Keeping an eye on him is exhausting.
--Pinching his nose when we say "stinky" about his poopy diapers
--Becoming addicted to his pacifier and taggie. Not only did he make up sign language for them, but he also has to have them with him everywhere he goes. He isn't allowed to play while he has them, so sometimes he'll climb up on the couch with them to sit down for a few quick sucks (with his taggie pressed up to his ear) and then leave them there and go back to playing. It's pretty ridiculous. I'm not looking forward to the day the pacifier gets taken away for good.
--Sticking out his bottom lip when he pouts. It's about the cutest thing I've ever seen, which only makes it harder to follow through on punishing/scolding him. I fear that his spitfire personality and never-ending attitude are going to cause serious problems down the road since he's mastered the fine art of the pout at eighteen months.
--Blowing bubbles like a boss
--Practicing the art of being our sous chef. He can maneuver our kitchen chairs anywhere in the kitchen to get to what he wants, and his favorite activities are "washing" dishes and sampling cutting the vegetables. He also likes to play in the drawers with our large utensils, and loves having us tell him what they all are. Whisks are pretty much his favorite toy ever. After puppies and babies, of course.

It's been a whirlwind eighteen months and the little bugger definitely keeps us on our toes, but we love him (and the relationship he is forming with William) to pieces! And we even have a few pictures to prove that he isn't the completely forgotten about second child :-)

Meeting cousin Jonathan for the first time. His grin says "I'm going to torture you to pieces, but it's just because I love you that much"

Too impatient to wait for Mom to cut the avocado. See also moving the kitchen chairs around to get whatever he wants

What happens when William gets all done painting and I turn my back long enough to wash William's hands in the sink. Garrett is a quick little bugger

Loving on some animals at the zoo. Not pictured is the random grandma who kept pulling Garrett away from the openings because she thought he was getting too close. Clearly she didn't think I was doing my job adequately enough

Twining!

Helping to make Daddy's birthday cookies

Rare naptime cuddles

What's this Mom? Only the third sharpest instrument in this drawer? I better go back for the stainless steel pizza wheel or paring knife. Or maybe I'll just grab one of the skewers and see if I can poke someone's eye out

More animal loving at the fair

Doing our best to cheer the USA Women's Soccer team to a gold medal. Spoiler: It didn't work

Yes, that's raw onion. Yes, he's about to eat it. Yes, he will go back for more. And more. And more. Sometimes I swear he is not my child

Clearly there are only so many clever sayings they can come up with to put on boy's clothing. Jonathan's shirt is brand new; Garrett's is at least three years old.

Anything William can do I can do better--or at least match. Being "too small" for something is not in this kid's vocabulary

Beach Weeks

So apparently having two kids and busy summers means I no longer get around to blogging about our beach trips with Darrell's family. And I'm fairly certain 90% of the reason I made a point to blog about our trip in 2014 is that we took some pictures on that trip to use in our announcement of my pregnancy with Garrett. But, rest assured, even though posts haven't happened, the trips (and the fun!) still have. And I decided that instead of racking my brain and trying to recap this year's trip (or, even worse, last year's trip), I'm just going to share a photo from each year I've been there. Darrell's been going since he was a wee one (minus a few years where he was away at college or working at summer camp), but my first trip was in 2007--we haven't missed one since.

A couple of babies in 2007!

No picture together this year, but Darrell did manage to snap this very artistic picture of a seashell

In 2009 we had some fun taking engagement photos on the beach (nothing professional, of course--just Darrell's sister with his camera!)

We were apparently burned out from wedding photos at the beach in 2010, because we didn't take a single picture together. I had to steal this photo with us in the background from Darrell's sister (and let's be honest, our nephew is way cuter than we are anyway)

A selfie off the pier in 2011!

Why take a picture of just the two of us when we can take one with our cute nephews?

First family photo at the beach in 2013

So this is the picture that almost wasn't... Darrell's sister and brother-in-law were helping us get the "perfect" photo to announce our second pregnancy, and I had them snap a family photo as well. What I didn't realize until months later (#pregnancybrain) was that Darrell's brother-in-law had actually taken the family photo on his phone, not our camera. I was in tears (#hormones) because I was convinced they wouldn't still have the photo and our tradition of getting a family photo on the beach was going to be ruined after just one year. But thankfully, here the picture is. In all its glory. (I should note that we do, in fact, have other pictures of the three of us from this year, but this was the only one of us on the actual beach. Which, for the sake of the "tradition" that I had convinced myself we were starting, mattered.)

Family of four in 2015!

LOVE!!

Of course, now that I've gone and done this post, I don't know what I'll do next year for my 10th anniversary of beach trips. Maybe I'll make the post in a timely manner and actually recap our week... But that seems pretty ambitious.

Reality

When you've spent most of June sick and most of July traveling (or preparing to travel), it's only fitting that you decide to go on an impromptu three-hour road trip the first weekend in August. Because life just hasn't been crazy enough. Don't get me wrong--we had really good reason to go--it was just a little crazy. But I'm pretty sure that's just the norm for life these days...

My brother's baseball team, whom we love to support even if we don't get to as many games as we used to (darn 7:30 start times), was playing in the District Tournament for a chance at a berth to the State Tournament. So we decided to go. Spoiler: they didn't advance and we don't actually have any pictures to prove that we watched two baseball games. Moving on...

The city that was hosting the games is also home to the "famed" Storybook Land, home of the roller coaster to ride in South Dakota (at least according to a recent parenting magazine I read). I'm pretty sure it won that distinction because it is the only roller coaster in the state, but whatever. The whole park is very family orientated, including the coaster, so William actually got to ride on it with Grandma.

He was pretty tense the whole time and didn't really seem to enjoy himself, but he didn't scream or cry--and he even smiled when he got off (although that might have been from relief more than excitement). I'm guessing it will be awhile before he agrees to go on a roller coaster again though.

The park also had a really cool swing that allowed parents to swing with their children--we've never seen anything like it before and it makes me wonder why. It was pretty cool.

Now, if you're thinking "a cool park plus a few baseball games doesn't seem like that bad of a way to spend a weekend", you'd mostly be right. Because we definitely had enough fun to justify the six+ hours in the car. But here's what hasn't been mentioned: having all four of us stay in a single hotel room. We get spoiled when we visit Darrell's family because we rarely, if ever, have to stay in a hotel, and outside of those trips we don't do a ton of overnight trips (at least ones where we don't have someone's house to stay at). So when both boys are asleep by 8:30 and all Darrell and I want to do is have a late dinner, drink a few beers, and watch NCIS... We end up in the bathroom.

Candidly, it wasn't awful, as long as you aren't a major germaphobe or something (which we obviously aren't). But it definitely left us strategizing how to make hotel stays more enjoyable, especially if our family continues to grow in size. I'm thinking we should look into getting a suite--or at least making sure to remember to get the key to my parent's hotel room, which was right across the hall. Live and learn, right?

Still Sick

I typically consider myself to be a fairly optimistic person, and I usually try to look on the bright side and remind myself that there are always others who have it worse. But when my kids are STILL having on-again off-again diarrhea and who knows what else, it's REALLY hard to remember that there are mothers out there who would love it if all they had to worry about was a little diarrhea (as opposed to chemo or hospitalizations or major surgeries or anything else). Life has just been a major struggle lately--I'm struggling with the constant stink, I'm struggling with all the laundry, and mostly I'm struggling with the constant disruption of plans--and while I (rationally) know my boys aren't intentionally being extra whiny and crabby, I find myself struggling to be patient with them. William was supposed to start VBS this morning, which I was really looking forward to--good social interaction for him (we've had a few outings/classes that have been kind of a bust for my little introvert, so I was really looking forward to this experience for him since he'll know some of the other kids from church) plus a few hours in the morning for Mommy to only have one boy to wrangle (hello easy errands!). But nope--William was up at 5:00 throwing up and although he's done with that (thank goodness), he's still been in the bathroom plenty this morning. And this was after he'd been fine all weekend (he even had a solid poop last night before bed). Silver lining (I suppose) is that he got sick before I took him to VBS so he didn't get sick there. But this pretty much just confirms I can't go anywhere--I tried going to the park on Friday (after he'd been okay for a few days), and we spent as much time in the bathroom as we did on the playground. So that was fun.

We're headed to the doctor this afternoon--after going last week and getting a diagnosis of gastroenteritis, which should have run its course by now--so here's hoping we can get some more answers. Or at least a magic pill that will make all this stop (and make Garrett's eye teeth come in as well, since I'm pretty sure that is contributing to his issues).

A Vote to Outlaw Holiday Weekends

Remember how our Mother's Day Weekend was, well, a little on the chaotic/disastrous side? Despite my comment about not having to worry about doing much to make sure Darrell had a better Father's Day, I'm actually saddened to say that I'm pretty sure my mother's day topped Darrell's father's day. If I try really, really, hard, I think I can come up with three highlights from the weekend:

1. Darrell got to go golfing on Sunday. Only nine holes, but that was probably okay because he re-opened his wound from his fun little knife incident (after getting the stitches out Friday, no less). Nothing major, just prolonging the healing (and pain) a little bit.
2. Despite throwing up a handful of times (and all but one of those times in his bedroom), Garrett managed to miss the rug in his room every time. Which we were very grateful for--cleaning his sheets, bamboo floors, and even the recliner was a lot easier than trying to figure out how we would clean his (mostly white) rug.
3. Even though William has been in underwear for less than a month, he had absolutely zero accidents all weekend (since Thursday, actually)--especially impressive since he had some pretty constant diarrhea (TMI? Sorry. But it's been the story of my life all weekend for both boys--we just didn't have to worry as much about Garrett since he was wearing diapers, although he did leak out a few times).

How's that for highlights of our weekend? For the worried grandparents out there, we took the boys to the doctor today, and as long as things get, ahem, "plugged up" in the next five to seven days (and they stay well hydrated during that time), they'll be just fine. Just a stomach bug (although he used a much fancier word)--which I should mention Darrell had as well. Only because it was truly the icing on the cake for his father's day. Maybe things will improve for his birthday later this week--although I'm not going to jinx myself and say that things certainly can't be worse than they were for Father's Day!

Life as a Horse

So you know what's a blessing--and equally a curse? Having the immune system of a horse (total sidenote--but any idea where that expression came from? It's totally random in my opinion). It's a blessing for obvious reasons--no one actually enjoys being sick--but when you have two kids and a husband who do not have immune systems of horses, it can also be a curse. Because guess who ends up being the healthy (or at least, healthier) one that always has to take care of the sick people? Lucky ol' me. And I know--being able to be home with the kiddos when they are sick is (rationally) a blessing: I don't have to worry about them feeling under the weather and being in someone else's care, and we don't have to worry about juggling PTO and missing work to be home with them. But seriously... Sick kids are awful. And draining. Especially when they don't actually know how to be sick. Rather than just lying down and enjoying (somewhat) unlimited TV time so they can rest, my boys would rather continue to be up and about doing stuff--but being very whiny and temperamental while doing so. And thankfully, Darrell doesn't fall into the "man flu" category of being sick--he'll usually just shut himself up in the bedroom and stay out of our way--but still. Part of me gets envious of his life behind those closed doors. Lying in bed all day? Napping freely? Time to actually rest--and maybe even do some reading? Seriously--where do I sign up? Granted, I'd have to be pretty sick for Darrell to stay home and watch the boys, and if I'm that sick I'm definitely not enjoying a minute of my time in bed (and let's be honest--I'd probably feel guilty about being a lazy pile, regardless of how sick I might be), but still--a girl can dream. In the meantime I'll just continue to suffer through this mild cold that I've had for two weeks (because yay immune system of a horse that keeps me from getting more than mildly sick) while taking care of my boys who seem to pick up colds and stomach bugs at the drop of a hat.