A quick get-away.

We’ve been really busy. We’re always busy, but lately, it’s been even more-so than usual. Neither of us had time to plan a vacation, but we had ONE weekend in all of June/July/August that wasn’t already busy with some obligation for one of us. I knew I really wanted to go somewhere to reconnect with Eugene, and also to give the little one some special attention before she’s no longer an only child. My hormonal, indecisive self couldn’t function enough to plan a trip, but thankfully, Eugene saved the day {or my summer} by booking a hotel and buying zoo tickets on a Friday night, just in time for us to leave the next morning.

We woke up at normal time {read: early, thanks to a certain two-year-old}, ate breakfast, got our stuff together and headed 2.5 hours away to Toledo. The little one napped in the car, thankfully. So the trip there wasn’t too bad, other than construction. We stayed one night at a hotel that had an indoor pool so the little one could swim, and then we woke up and headed to the Toledo Zoo. {I didn’t know until Eugene told me, but the Toledo Zoo is ranked #1 in the Nation by USA Today.} We stayed as long as the little one could handle, which worked out to be perfect. She reached her max right around 2pm, and we had finished almost all of the exhibits in that 4 hours, so we headed home and she napped before we pulled out of the parking lot!

Our hotel room had a nice view of the river…

 

Not surprisingly, she loved swimming with Dada – mainly jumping in nonstop…

We walked across the river and enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant on the river. {Pardon the blurry phone pic.}

She was so enthralled with the boats. It didn’t matter whether the boat was moving full speed or docked!

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She and her daddy got some really good time together on this trip. He’s been working some crazy hours lately, so it made my heart so happy to see them get such quality time.

  

And here begins the zoo pictures. Quick family photo before we entered the zoo. {BIIG ole belly! Only 4 weeks to go!}

We got to see them feed the penguins first…

 

There was a nice playground right next to the penguin exhibit, so we couldn’t escape without a few rides down the slide “all by myself!” {She’s getting so independent!}

Since she loves Curious George, I figured she’d like the primate exhibits. She was so focused the whole time, not even smiling, but I could tell she was just taking it all in. Later on, she talked with excitement about how the monkeys were eating fruit and swinging.  

I like the picture above to the right. Two sets of gorillas in love, ha!

I have had a longstanding fear of birds, but I faced that fear and willingly walked into the free-flying Parakeet exhibit. I can’t say I really enjoyed it, but I survived. ;)

She loved the elephant exhibit, kept wanting to go back to that one.

The picture above is her mimicking the horns. 

I think her favorite exhibit was the seals. It was really the only time she broke her intense focus with a laugh. The seal would zoom by her and she’d just smile and giggle.

Eugene & I both liked the polar bear exhibit. This guy was so playful and active, jumping off the ledge and diving after a bucket….

 

You can tell by her tightening grip around her daddy’s neck that she wasn’t as big of a fan as we were. I guess it is a little scary to see a huge bear flopping around right in front of you!

The zoo was great. It had an incredible interactive kids area that would have been perfect if the little one were even just a year older. The zoo was reasonably priced, was clean, contained well-communicated exhibits and paths, had lots of places to sit and enjoy a picnic lunch, had a fun playground area and ample restroom facilities {which is important with a potty trained toddler & a pregnant lady!}, and had interactive experiences to enjoy throughout the day. I’d recommend the Toledo Zoo for sure.

We had a great little get-away, and I’m so thankful that we got to experience it together. I love my family. {So much.}

Baby boy’s nursery.

Back when I originally planned this room’s paint color, I didn’t know whether the little one was going to be a boy or a girl. I loved the idea of a navy blue with bright white accents, regardless of the gender of the baby. Well, that decision played to my advantage this time around as well. If you remember, this is what the bedroom looked like when we bought the house, and then what the little one’s nursery looked like after some work:

I loved how her room turned out. It fit her well – bright, colorful, and happy. Once we found out we were having baby boy, we decided to keep the nursery as a nursery and move the little one into her own new big girl room. We had two main reasons for this: the bathroom in the nursery is really convenient because we use cloth diapers, and because we wouldn’t have to repaint, rebuild the crib, or re-do much of anything for that room. I love the navy, orange color scheme for a boy, so I was excited to get to use it this time around. I added in some grey and green too.

Here is baby’s boy nursery in its current state…

My mom bought new rugs, so I scored her old one for this room. It’s so nice having a soft rug in there…especially since the old wood floors are super creaky without it! I removed the button crib skirt I made and opted for no crib skirt this time around. I bought the little trash can at Big Lots for like $6 because it was perfect colors. We’ll use that for wipes, and we’ll keep the bigger white trash cans for the used cloth diapers. I also swapped out the Katie Daisy prints that I based the little one’s whole nursery on, and I used clip boards and prints I found either online or made myself. 

I bought the kelly green pendant light from Ikea for – get this – just $14.99. I was nervous it’d be too green, tut I think it adds nice variety to the space.

I kept the same orange changing table that I originally found on the side of the rode & painted. I used new scrapbook paper and modge podge to update the shelves to from flowery to stripes.

I loved how the little one’s colorful mobile turned out, but this time around I used scrapbook paper to make pinwheels, glued them to some twine, and created a new mobile for our little guy. {Just Google how to make a pinwheel. It was super easy!}

 

 

I had some extra pinwheels, so I made a little garland with them. I still need a lamp and some new decor items on the shelf.

    

I still have some ideas of things I’d like to add to the room, but for now, I’m happy with the results so far. :)

We are getting quite excited to meet baby boy. I can’t wait to see what kind of personality he has, how he looks, and how he and his big sister will interact. We have some exciting times ahead of us, that’s for sure!

Not the birthday we planned.

We had a 2 year pediatrician check up for the little one scheduled for the day before her birthday. She did great, held it together for her shot, and walked out of the doctor’s office with a sticker, confidence, and an overall “okay” feeling about the pediatrician’s office. {Winning.} Later that afternoon, we heard her yelling and crying slightly from her bedroom saying, “Mamma, hurt!” I rushed back to her room, and she was laying on her bed holding her arm. When I asked her how she hurt her arm, she said she rolled on it. She didn’t fall off the bed and wasn’t jumping or roughhousing. So odd. We decided to give her the evening to forget about the boo-boo, because often a little distraction goes a long way in forgetting what was hurt. However, she didn’t sleep well that night, and woke up on her birthday still complaining about her hurt elbow/arm.

 

I sang her Happy Birthday, and she kindly stopped me mid-lyric and told me to use her full name, rather than just her first name in the song. ;) We woke up, and I made her some pancakes with sprinkles and whip cream. She ate the whole thing with her left {non-dominant} hand, smiling one second and then crying the next about her hurt arm.

Our pediatrician squeezed us in that morning after breakfast, and he originally thought she had nursemaid’s elbow. However, after he tried to physically adjust the elbow, she didn’t get better. Typically, after about 15 minutes, the pain will be gone, but this wasn’t the case.

Our pediatrician scheduled us an appointment with a orthopedic specialist for the next day. In the meantime, we scrapped our plans for a fun morning at Young’s {a local ice cream, farm, putt-putt, restaurant place.} We instead, stayed home and watched our two-year-old hold her arm at her side, not using it for any reason. She cried and didn’t want to open any of her gifts. {Her big gift was a children’s table set, which she actually does like…just not at the time.} Poor thing. It was pitiful to watch. Later the evening of her birthday, she started to perk up and even used her right arm to bat around a balloon. We thought maybe the adjustment did the trick, but it was short lived as she was up all night in pain and didn’t use the arm in the morning.

The orthopedic specialist took x-rays of her arm and saw no breaks in her bones. He examined her arm, moving it in different positions, watching her grimace at a few spots. He told Eugene & me that typically they put a cast on the toddler even if they don’t see a fracture. It’s very much a precautionary approach. He said that sometimes fractures show up on x-rays after they remove the cast 2-3 weeks later. Her bones are so little, it’s really hard to see if anything is broken.

  

I wanted to cry {okay, maybe I did cry for a quick second when the Dr. left the room}, but the little one was super brave and did so great with it all. She didn’t cry for the x-rays, and held really still the whole time the cast was being placed on her arm. I was so impressed with her!

We asked her what color she wanted off of a swatch page, and she picked the brightest color possible: florescent, high-lighter yellow. She picked it 3 times. Finally, in an effort to try to dissuade her from the brightest possible color, Eugene said “how about the pink?!” And she surprisingly jumped onboard happily. She’ll have this lovely pink thing on her arm for 2.5 weeks, and we’re hoping after that she’ll be good-to-go and cast-free.   

 

All things considered, she is handling it all really well. Once the cast was on, she was a different little girl. We could tell she was no longer in pain. She’s only had it a couple days, but she is not letting it slow her down too much. Sleeping is tough though. She likes to sleep on her belly with her arms tucked under her, so a hard cast is far from ideal. I spent the first night on the couch with her, and following nights have been spent side by side with her. Nights have been the toughest for sure.

I’m so proud of how well she’s handling it all. Her cast is completely waterproof. She can swim, take a bath, even soak her whole arm in water – pretty awesome. The cast is really heavy, so it’s throwing her balance off and causes her to fall more often. She shows her “big band-aid” off to everyone around, and for the most part, it doesn’t seem to be holding her back too much.

She’s such a brave, resilient little girl. Kids are really amazing. All this for just simply rolling on her arm! It’s so odd. I think we’ll just pretend her birthday is another day later this month so she can actually enjoy the day. Let’s all just pray that the cast is off for good in 2.5 weeks and we can celebrate!

My little one is two today.

They say time goes faster when you have kids. I never understood that, but now I’m living it. She’s two. Already, two.

 
And it’s true- time does fly and unrecognizable speeds as you watch your little one change before your very eyes from a tiny, needy newborn to a spunky, joyful toddler in what feels like mere hours. I really try hard not to wish for her to stay the same, to not to grow up, to never change. I’ve loved every stage so far, and after losing a friend at 16, I also try really hard not to take a day for granted. It’s easy to think that our children will be around long past us, but you see, even for children, tomorrow is never a sure thing. As sad as it may sound, I have no guarantee that I’ll get to have the little one with me for years and years, so I pray a thank-you prayer for each night that God blesses me with her company. And I also pray for many more years with her, but all the while, I want to absolutely cherish the moments I get with her. Two years with my girl, and she has blessed me immensely.

She is silly and smart and spunky and doesn’t miss a thing. She is talking lots these days, mainly in phrases, but she throws out a few sentences here and there. She’ll attempt any word you ask her, and she rarely forgets a word once it’s shared with her. My favorite phrase is when she’s misplaced something; it’s always her yelling down hall, “Are you, baby?!” or “Ball, are you?” She also asks, “Dada, doing?” and “Mama is?” when she wants to know where I am or what Eugene is doing. The most used phrase is definitely, “Mama, what is it?” I can’t do it justice without you hearing it, but trust me when I say she enunciates this to an extreme! Oh, and she mixes up her pronouns pretty much every time {although she’s getting a little better the last few days.} Usually when she speaks about herself she says “you” instead of “me.” For instance, if we ask her who went to Nana’s today, she answers “You!” meaning “me,” which – you have to admit – that’s a tricky concept since Eugene and I always say “you” to her referring to her. Or she’ll say “You hungry” meaning that she is hungry. Gah, English is complicated.

She knows basic colors really well already: red, yellow, purple, orange, black, white, pink, green, blue. She mixes up brown and black occasionally, but other than that, she has her colors down pat! She can count to ten on her own, with the exception of missing five every time.

She loves when the school bus passes our house, likes pointing out stop signs and stop lights, loves “whimming” {swimming}, flip flops, and doing anything outside. She loves books, band aids, songs {in particular Oh Happy Day from Sister Act II and Take Me Out to the Ball Game}, Curious George, slides and swings, balloons, baseball games, and carbs. {Ha!}

She’s brave and obedient, as long as she understands the reasoning behind something. If I can explain why or how something needs to happen, she usually does really well with it. She gives great hugs…if she’s in the right mood. She has recently transitioned to a big girl bed and room {I’ll post photos of her room later.} And believe it or not, she is fully potty trained – even at night. She’s been daytime potty trained for about 3 months, and nighttime for at least 1 month. At church, we’re told she’s the welcome committee for the other toddlers in the nursery. And she has great manners {so far}, usually saying “tank tu” at appropriate times and even when it’s appropriate but I don’t expect it. For instance, she thanked me the other day for taking out the trash! ;)

She’s not afraid to get dirty, but then wants to be cleaned up right when she’s finished. She loves to wrestle on the bed with her Dada, and gets thrilled when he takes her to visit his “doof” {aka school…not sure why she says doof, but always has.} She’s strong-willed at times, while totally laid-back others. We’ve experienced our fair share of tantrums lately, but usually they’re a result of her being overly tired, hungry, or teething. We all have our bad days; it’s only fair that she does too. She’s also testing her independence and control more lately. I expect this to be a theme over the next few months/year, but we’ll survive. :)

 

From the day she was born, she would play with her hair or my hair when she was tired and falling asleep, and this hasn’t changed two years later. {Something about a sleeping child is just so special, isn’t it?} She still takes a daily nap, about 1.5 hours on average. We’ve gotten rid of the paci for bedtime, but she won’t nap without one, so in an effort not to get rid of her still much-needed nap, we keep the paci only for naptime.

The best way I can describe her is that she is an absolute JOY. Eugene & I prayed while I was pregnant with her that she would be full of joy and would bring others joy. God answered that prayer magnificently. She is such a joy.

She’s not going to be the little one much longer. In a couple months, she’ll transition to being a big sister, and I think she’ll love that role as well. She’s already talking about how she will kiss her baby brother, rock him, sit with him, and love him. It’s hard to believe we’ve had two amazing years with her in our family already. I am so grateful that God chose me to be her Momma. What a privilege and a blessing!

Happy birthday to my sweet little one! You are so special to us, and so very loved.