What makes you happy? Do you dream of big things? Or are there little day to day things that make you have a big grin on your face?
Obviously I am happy with my family and my job, and there is really nothing quite like watching your partner and child interact. However, there are other things that make me smile throughout the day.
These are things that make me raise my hands up in jubilation:
A clean house. Too bad I don’t like the actual cleaning part.
Thin mints- Did anyone else out there just get their orders of Girl Scout Cookies? It’s hard to restrain myself from eating a whole sleeve…or a whole box.
A completed to-do list. Check it off!
Beaches or being poolside. Nothing is more relaxing to me.
The ability to color code something. Y’all should see my outlook Calendar.
Any type of cereal.
Having all the socks find their mates when I do a load of laundry. Victory!
When you leave for lunch and you come back and are able to park in the same parking spot.
When someone brings food to share at work.
Post-its.
When a student recognizes me in the hall. EEK!
When the dogs warm up the foot of the bed before I get under the covers.
Drinking ice cold water with a straw.
Fuel-saver points at Hy-Vee (our local grocery store). One time I got a full tank of gas for 14 cents!
Online grocery shopping
Hy-Vee cafeteria and buffet
Being able to get the choreography correct in a cardio dance class.
Every time I water my office plants because they are still ALIVE.
When a 90s song comes on the radio.
Getting my email inbox cleaned out.
Apparently, my happiness is dictated by food, organization, and Hy-Vee.
I really have no idea what we did in February. Do you ever look back, and think where did all the time go? It was such a quick month. But really, we probably say this every month.
Let’s check in on how I did with my goals before I share my March goals.
Fitness-200 push ups. I actually did this! I was a little sore after each set, so it did something for me.
House Tasks-
Hang up photos in dining room and our bedroom-NOPE. No excuse. They are sitting on the floor in their respective rooms..
Clean up the yard-NOPE. I could blame it on the weather, but nope.
Build the dog “apartment” downstairs-We decided not to do this, so I didn’t really not accomplish this because we changed the direction we wanted to go for the dogs.
Something with George-build a blanket fort. We tried this, and George did not want to have anything of this. He was unimpressed. At the babysitter’s, his friend tries to build them and he ends up sitting on the blankets waiting for her to drag him around.He does sit in his reading tent a lot in the living room, so I think someday he will be on board with the tent making.
I tried in the living room several different times. Then Tom tried on our bed since he is obsessed with jumping on it but he kept climbing off and looking at us like we were crazy. Also Tom is wearing shorts…
Something with Tom-Go on a movie date. Nope. This one is mostly my fault. Tom really wanted to go last Friday, but I put a stop to it for various reasons.
Something for me-finish some photo projects. I got some sorting done, and I finally put together George’s one year video! That was the big one for me.
I also want to blog at least twice a week. –I did do this! I actually got in three most weeks. Look at me go!
Well month two didn’t go so well…
March will be better.
Fitness-I want to do Jillian Michaels 30 day shred videos three times each week. I know that it is supposed to be 30 days of Jillian, but I have a pretty good workout system two days after work, so I don’t want to change that if I don’t have to. There are three levels, so if I do each once a week I think that is a pretty good goal and leaves me with two days of flexibility. After taking a couple weeks off due to everyone in our house coming down with the illness, I need to get this booty back in shape. This lethargic body needs to go.
House Tasks-
Hang up photos in dining room and our bedroom for real.
Clean up the yard-We just need to tell ourselves it will just get worse if we don’t suck it up. Also it is getting close to time to put some plants in the ground.
Clean up the craft room so I can use it since that is the point. Unfortunately, it has become one of our dumping grounds. Tom and I are really good at creating useless piles that are just in the way.
Something with George-play outside more. Little man LOVES to be outside. This is a great time for us to run around and not be distracted so hopefully the weather will cooperate to give us more opportunities to be outside. He is just so happy out there!
Something with Tom-do a BBQ. Can you believe that we have yet to BBQ at this house? Not after this month hopefully! Hot dogs and baked beans get in my belly!
Something for me-finish a book. I have two books that I have started, but anytime I sit down to read, I fall asleep within a matter of pages. I also have some books that I am going to be reviewing in the spring, so I want to get these two finished before I get those.
What are you goals for the month? Is it nice where you live?
How is this littler booger a year and a half old?!?
Weight: He is 27 lbs.
Health: This kid and teething. He now has 16 teeth. He had a rough time health wise the last month. He had an ear infection and a bout with RSV. We are doing much better now. He also endured quite possibly the worst diaper rash. It broke the skin in several places. It was so sad to have to change him because he was so uncomfortable. He still acts like he is teething right now with chewing on everything in sight (including his own hands), so I don’t know if those last four molars are coming in. I thought they come in much later!
Diet: He has the same appetite. He loves meats and carbs. We still struggle with getting him to eat vegetables. It is a little frustrating because he used to do so well, and he would eat more veggies than anything else. Thank goodness for squeeze packets. He loves veggies that way! He smacks his lips and starts salivating when we get them out. He will always eat oatmeal, rolls, chicken nuggets, and bananas. We have been really working on his utensil training. Some days he does a really good job; others a bath is a necessity. Many times, he will pick up his food with his hand and then try to stick it on his fork.
Clothes: He is mostly in 18 month clothes. On tops we can also use 18-24, we just have to roll the sleeves up. 18-24 month pants are way too big. He is in still size 5 diaper and 5 shoe.
Sleeping: We are officially down to one nap, and he takes it right at lunch time. He sleeps at night from 8-about 5:45am. (We have tried keeping him up later at night, but he still won’t sleep past 6.) He sleeps through the night pretty regularly still. Thank the Lord for that. Those nights while he was sick were absolutely brutal.
Likes: He loves the dog bed in the kitchen. Jumping on anything is a big hit. He LOVES blocks and stacking things. He loves pointing at things. Also proud parent moment, he started making fart noises with his hand/arm, so that is a fun past time for him. He likes to take my phone and turn it on and off and pretend he is talking on it. He loves to crawl in our laps. (I have loved how snuggly he has gotten over these past two months!) He absolutely loves to be outside. We have had a few nice days where we can go roam our yard and play on our slide. He loves to chase the dogs and throw them their balls. He thinks it is so fun to climb our hills and just be outside in general. I can’t wait for more consistently warm weather! He also loves this blue chair.
Dislikes: He does not like it when I am too slow with getting his milk cups ready. He did not like the Nebulizer and doing the breathing treatments. He does not like veggies. He also is not a fan of prayer time at dinner. He can see the food on the table and doesn’t understand why we have to hold hands and not be eating so we usually have to pray very loudly over his screams and clap for Jesus.
Milestones: He hugs us intentionally. It is the most delightful thing. He can follow most instructions like put “this” away, go to “this” room, hand me “this.” He is actually a really good listener. We have had some temper tantrums, but for the most part if you tell him a couple times and help redirect his attention he will listen to you. His new words are ball, Bill, bana (banana), key key (kitty), mmm (milk), yep, and cah (car). He does his own babbling a lot so we have started trying to make up what he is saying which has turned into some pretty hilarious sayings. He blows kisses and gives you open mouth kisses. We have had a solid week without a pacy anywhere! No car, no bedtime…NO PACY! He still cries for a few minutes in the car, but we sing the ABCs (which he will mouth it trying to mimick me) and talk about what is outside to distract him. I have been super amazed!
Quirks: He does this hunched over squat walk around the house. He just hunkers down and scuttles along. He does this scrunchy face smile where he crinkles his nose and shows you all his teeth. If you start laughing he will make himself laugh. He has had some issues with hitting. He has been hitting a lot of people. I tell him every morning that today is not the day to be a bully. Some days that message is received and other days it is not. But what is funny is when you try to correct him, he knows that he wasn’t supposed to do that so he will pull you in for a hug as you reprimand him for hitting and give you the best hug and a kiss. He is basically a sour patch kid commercial when it comes to hitting.
Nicknames: Stink, Booger, Gdubs, Gman, Sweet cheeks, Little man, Georgie, Georgieman, and my most used right now is Boogs (short for another nickname booger).
We parents are: tired. This has been rough couple of weeks. Tom’s quote, “We’re like college sophomores. We are still trying to figure things out, but we kind of know what we are doing. He is getting fed, and he has a roof over his head.” Our parenting in a nutshell some days. We have had a lot of family time this month too which has been nice. Also I am trying to comprehend how in the world he is 18 months old…That elephant used to be twice his size!
The dogs are: driving us a little bonkers. I think they can feel spring coming, and so they want to basically live outside right now, which means that they bark at us A LOT to let them out. Crosby will come in from outside and within five minutes bark at us to let him back out. They are still sweet dogs though. George just loves them. However, the hitting is not just happening with people. We are really trying to curb that in general, but with him hitting the dogs specifically. He does give them hugs and kisses their backs every night before bed.
Every day I love this kid more and more. I still can’t believe that he is ours most days. I still wonder how in the heck we became parents. But God graced us with this wonderful delight of a human being. He has such a bright personality that I am really enjoying watching come out more and more. He is going to be a ham for sure!
Amanda’s kids are adorable. Ben did a good job with them on the beach. But the real questions is, how does Amanda wear that top with two small children. I can’t even wear normal tops without George trying to pull them off, let alone having a strapless get up…What IS your secret Amanda?
I feel like anytime they have a “meet the kids” date, it is always on a beach.
Why do I not live somewhere where there are food trucks?
Whiskey Library? Missouri you are missing out on a lot of things!!!
I love the hard questions of skepticism of the families. How can they not wonder how the experience goes of dating more than one person?
Ben said that his relationship with Caila was the deepest, and that shocked me. I would not have said that from what we have seen.
My heart is exploding over the toy house building. That is such a great idea! However, how come we never see those types of colors in what is sold in stores?
Do all these families have little nooks in their houses with perfectly symmetrical double seating? Does anyone else notice that?
This season has been relatively drama free, and then there is this letter from JoJo’s ex. I wouldn’t even know how to react. You wonder if they are just trying to ride the 15 minutes of fame train.
Also how did she not recognize his handwriting? She read the first page before she questioned it. Nooo.
JoJo’s mom is adorable. She is so sweet and totally a cheerleader for her daughter.
Ben held his own in that tough family cornering, but I think they have valid points. You can’t blame them for being over-protective. And I do think that the contestants are coached in some ways especially with what they are “allowed” to say.
Did anyone else notice that JoJo’s sister never made another appearance after the initial introduction?
None of them have said I love you yet going into the rose ceremony.
My heart is pounding waiting to see Amanda or JoJo….AHHHHH.
I knew that Amanda wouldn’t make it to the end, and it is sad that her girls had to get in the middle of that. Although I guess I am not good with math, but she keeps saying she has never introduced anyone to her kids. Hasn’t it only been a year since her divorce? Her youngest is only two right? How many people has she dated in that time? I guess that statement confuses me.
Is it weird to say that was a sweet breakup between Ben and Amanda?
I for sure think Lauren is in the final 2, but now after JoJo and Caila’s hometown I am not sure who will be the other! I am still going to go with JoJo. Also I totally called these three being in the final four!
Only a couple more weeks! Who do you have in the final two?
Days go by so quickly, and I want to remember the little things.
I saw another blogger record just a random day for her family, and it prompted me to do it for us. Our days change so much with our schedules, and with an ever changing toddler, but I thought it would be nice to see just one day of our lives laid out.
And I also happened to do it on a Monday. The day that I rarely have my crap together. Sounds about right.
My alarm goes off at 5:10, but I hit the snooze until about 5:30 when I grudgingly get out of bed. This day, George was still asleep so I rushed into the shower to get done before he decided to join the day. Every day is different though. Some days he wakes me up before my alarm, other days I have to wake him up 15 minutes before we have to leave.
This Monday however, he stayed asleep until I got out of the shower and dressed. He EVEN read his books quietly for about 5 minutes before I went to get him up for his milk.
One of my favorite parts of the day is when I pick him up out of the crib is that he hugs you so tightly. Seriously the best. It warms my cold morning heart right up.
First thing on the agenda for little man is getting some milk. He is barely awake so he usually gets upset when I put him down so I can get his cup ready.
He is obsessed with this chair. He carries it around with him, and he will sit so proudly in it. He looks way to big sitting in it. I do not approve.
Most mornings though he isn’t done snuggling, and this morning was no exception. So he crawled in my lap as I ate breakfast and did my morning devotion. However, I think the snuggling is all food motivated because he generally gets some cereal in the process. (He eats a full breakfast once he gets to the sitter’s.)
Every morning George shuts us in this room to get ready. I have the door open, but he feels so proud of himself that he can shut the door on his own so he does it anytime he can. Even though all his toys are behind the door, he usually finds other things of mine to play with, like my scarves. He LOVES my scarves. He is often carrying them around like Linus in Peanuts, or he wears them as scarves are meant to be warn. He is infatuated with them.
He also loves this box and that he can sit on it like a chair. Surprisingly, he will sit on it quietly for about 5 minutes just content with the world on a box.
At about 7am, we are finally getting George dressed for the day. And I take the opportunity to get some good snuggles in.
And in the car we go. Folks this Monday, for some reason I decided to make this the day that we no longer use a pacy in the car. It might have been because my car stash had all made it into the house, and I didn’t feel like running back in to get them. But hey, Mondays already are the pits so why not endure a screaming toddler in your backseat.
(He did really well actually. He only cried for maybe 3 minutes on the way there and on the way home. This was our week I guess!)
I also need to mention that I got all the way down the street before I realized I was not wearing real shoes. So we had to turn around so I could grab work appropriate shoes instead of my slippers. #Mondays
This Monday apparently was like the heavenly Monday because I made it to work on time as well, even with the lack of shoe debacle.
My day at work was a pretty light day. I only had one student meeting. We also had a huge event planned for Tuesday (that I was co-running), so I had a lot of prep work to do for that. Bulletin boards, last minute emails, random printouts, and event set-up were on the docket to make it successful. I also have been working through a personal financial planning course for the last 6ish months, and the final exam was this week. I blocked out a lot of time to study for that, and my test anxiety came back real strong. But I passed it! Now I will be able to talk with students about their personal finances more effectively since our office sees so much of these struggles and looking for options.
I am loving that it is still daylight once we get home which is sometime between 5:45 and 6:30 depending on the day.
We are trying to teach George how to get from the car to wherever we are going. It is a process. Sometimes he loses footing or his focus.
His hugs. Can’t.Get.Enough.
George looks like he is having a very important meeting.
We generally play a little bit before dinner, or while dinner is cooking. He loves his puzzles.
I have started letting George record himself while holding the camera. He thinks it is great, and I find the videos hilarious to see his viewpoint.
George knows how to feed himself a banana, but some days he will only eat it if I hold it. If I try to give it to him, he throws a tantrum. Some days I am up for dealing with the tantrum. This Monday, I was not.
We had spaghetti and meatballs with brussel sprouts for dinner. Truth: the meatballs were from a bag in the frozen aisle.
George needed some reassurance before getting in the bathtub.
Sometimes toddlers are odd.
George just climbed up on this chair to assist his daddy with getting ready for work. Tom was on the midnight shift, so he gets ready after we do bath time.
It’s not easy to say goodbye, but at least we have these moments.
He may not be talking much, but he can follow instructions.
He does a really great job brushing his own teeth now. It makes me so proud!
Whenever Tom is home right before bedtime, George gets to jump on our bed. HE LOVES THIS! Jumping is a new development in the past couple weeks.
Before we go to bed, we have to say “night night” and dole out hugs to everyone.
We usually read two or three books each night. I let George pick out at least one of the books each night, and he ALWAYS picks the “That’s Not My” series.
Once Gdubs is in bed around 8, I get my me time since Tom went to work. Monday nights I don’t worry about any dirty dishes or the toys every where. Whether it is Dancing with the Stars or the Bachelor franchise, Monday nights are my nights. I am a bump on the couch and enjoy my ice cream watching the drama go down.
I start getting ready for bed around 9:30/10pm. I am asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
Pretty good for a Monday if I may say so. Every day is a new day trying to make this thing work. But we all made it to where we needed to be…on time…and eventually wearing shoes. So that is something!
findingmyyellow.com 