Mud Puddles!

I'll probably continue on with some nostalgic posts here and there, but I'm not motivated to today. I had fun posting some throwback pictures on Facebook yesterday. I had "lost" a bunch of photos that I knew I had. The other day I was digging around in the basement and found 2 bins. They weren't really even hidden, just buried under other things and forgotten. All I can say from looking at them is that I have had some serious hair problems in life. Thank the Lord I discovered the wonder of a hair straightener and got rid of my bangs!

The weather is finally warming up! It's nice walking outside and not getting smacked in the face with bitterly cold wind. 

Yesterday I took Daniel out after nap for some mud puddle jumping! He had a blast. He was covered in mud, but it was so worth it!

 

That boy sure loves to explore. He doesn't sit still. We're making it a requirement that our next home will have a fenced in back yard! I don't mind exploring, but sometimes I'd like to stay in one area! :)

Little Man is also learning his days of the week. He can say Sunday-Wednesday, but then needs help. If you ask him what day it is he will always tell you that it's Sunday! He also says the alphabet pretty well. He skips some letters, but does pretty decent.

After 2 years of not really have a comfort item, he has one. I don't think I've written about it. About 2 months ago we were at Kroger and they had a bin of plastic animals for $1. I let Daniel pick one out. He picked an alligator (which he called a dragon the first day). Then he started calling it Lizard. We rolled with it, so it's Lizard the alligator. He loves that thing. He sleeps with it every night. It watches him go potty. Sometimes it eats meals with him. Lizard comes on car rides too. 

Well...last night Jacob noticed that Lizard is breaking! Daniel hasn't really noticed, but it's only a matter of time before Lizard's mouth rips off. So, I did what any sane person would do. I prayed Kroger still had them, and then went and bought 3 more as backup. Haha! I was even prepared to find a manager if the bin was gone, to see if they still had any. Somehow Daniel didn't notice me put them into the cart or check them out. 

This boy is also very fond of routine, and you best not break it or there may be a full on meltdown. He doesn't like me to change things up on him. Of course, I kind of understand because I don't like my routines getting messed up either, but it can definitely wear me down and frustrate me. Two year olds are hard! I hear three is worse, but I'm hoping that it gets better not worse! There are a lot of fun things that come with the age too. I love the random moments when he'll wrap his arms around me and hug and kiss me. I love that he'll sometimes just snuggle up and watch TV with me. 

I love a line in the book we gave him for Valentine's Day:

"I love you when you're nice,

and when you're cranky too.
I love you without liking

the naughty things you do."

Sums it up perfectly! 

If I Could Go Back

I've been feeling super nostalgic lately. I love memories. It's why I love to take so many pictures. I can capture those moments and freeze them in time. Maybe I'll do a blast from the past week...or month. We'll see.

Lately, it's the little things that are making me smile. Not vacations, birthdays or holidays. Just randoms days and moments. Sometimes I'd like to go back and relive those days that I took for granted, just like almost all of us do.

If I could go back I would:

*go on one of our family hikes at a state park.

Those were the days. Mom and Dad would pick a park in Iowa and off we'd go. Mom would carry a backpack with snacks, a jug of water and Dixie cups. It never failed. Within a mile of our hike we'd all be wining and begging for a snack and drink because we were obviously famished from all of that walking. Sure, we'd complain sometimes, but there was always something special about the hikes!

*spend a day at work with Mom when she cleaned the church.

Oh man...if those church walls could talk. Mom would always assign Erica and I some kind of task to help her with, which we would maybe follow through on, or do it as fast as we could. (Remember the Indy 500, Erica?)
Once Mom stopped caring about what we were doing, the fun would begin. You know...wheel chair races up and down the hallways, knocking a light cover down, spending time in our "S.H.S." aka Secret Hiding Spot...which happened to be in between some pews in the sanctuary. It's where we'd go to hide from Kendra because little sisters are SO annoying! Oh, and I'd like to say sorry if they were short some cookies one day for VBS, because Erica and I totally gorged ourselves on some Archway chocolate chips cookies one day. Clearly, we were well behaved little church children.

*go on a bike ride with Dad

We spent many hours going on bike rides together. There was always something special about getting to go somewhere alone with one of your parents. Bikes rides were what I loved best with Dad. We'd ride all over the Cedar Hills neighborhood. Take a ride through the "Monkey church" lot. Don't know why we called it that, but I'm fairly certain that we'd making monkey sounds and everything! Biking down the hill at E-Free was the best though...until they put up that stupid gate.

*lay in the dark with the whole family with just the radio on.

Yep. We totally did this. We'd just tell stories and laugh. It was even more fun when the Christmas tree was up and we would have the tree lights on. Dad has the best childhood stories...and of course he had his own tales that he made up. Electric Man, anyone?

*play all of our stupid made up games

The "buzz game", pretend radio shows..."Wake up Cedar Rapids!", "Avon calling!", keep away from the alligator (who was always Kendra because we wanted to get away from her. lol!) and then of course "Jack Ass" which came along many years later. That one had to do with a butt and a tennis ball. Hahaha!

As I'm typing I keep thinking for more and more things. So stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!

February Fun

It's finally March!  Even though we have another snowstorm coming tonight, at least I know Spring is coming soon. I've heard birds chirping every morning for a week now. We set our clocks forward next weekend! I'm so excited for more daylight! Plus, there's only 20 days until the official start of Spring.

Before our last snow melted, I decided to let Daniel paint the snow. It was too cold to go out, so I brought the snow in. I ended up with colorful melted snow all over the place, but it was worth it. Daniel had a lot of fun. I'm not always a fan of messy things, but I try to do a few messy things each month.

 



Then we had a warm up, and all the snow melted away. Since it was 50 degrees out, we were able to spend a much needed morning outside. I of course, had to grab my camera!







This last week, we had a Daniel and Mommy day! Well, obviously we have those every day, but we went out on a "venture" (adventure). We drove to Springfield after we were done at the Y and played at Ergadoozy! I was really excited to check it out. It's kind of pricey, but I had asked good ol' HoHo to leave us some money to go, and it was a blast!

They had a whole room of activities. Legos, blocks, supermarket with carts, kitchen and tons of fine motor toys, plus a small climber with a slide. The other room has a big 3 story climber with slides and such and a hand pedal train.

We mostly stuck to the main room, because as it turns out Daniel was terrified of the climber. We managed to get trapped. Not really, but Daniel felt like we were and no amount of coaxing or encouraging was helping. He was bawling and I was sweating profusely because I felt like we were never getting out either! He happily returned to the other room to play again though. We played for 2 hours and then he was actually ready to go. I was prepared for a fight, but he was worn out.











Since he had only had snacks and I hadn't eaten lunch, we stopped at Panera. Other than Daniel taking off on me when I was paying and racing down one side of the restaurant and back up the other, he was really good. It's getting fun, because I can actually sit and talk to him too.

Once we were done I made one last stop at my favorite consignment shop and ended up with a few things for Daniel that I needed.

By the time we got home just after 4, this is what I found in the back seat.

 

Other than that, we've just been up to the same old stuff. Some days I feel like a boring mom and other days I feel fun and creative. Some days I have zero patience for my rambunctious little trouble maker and other days the kid makes me laugh all day long.

He really is a smart and funny little boy though. He just has a temper and likes to test the limits...sounds like most 2 year olds though, I suppose. I write a lot of things that he says on Facebook, but I really need to start documenting them in a journal for him. He just catches me off guard so much lately because he'll say things that I didn't know he knew and uses them in the right context.

Our next adventure in life is potty training. He's getting really good at going when I take him, but only occasionally will tell me that he needs to go. We now have Pull Ups AND big boy underwear. He's less than thrilled with either option, and will tell me he wants a diaper. I did get him to wear his Thomas undies over his diaper all day yesterday to get used to them. Today he chucked them on top of his dresser and told me to put them away. I told him he had to wear those or a pull up, so he finally settled on the pull up. Silly boy. We'll get there.