Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Toddle Along Tuesday ~ Andrew's Mis-Matched Nursery

This is my first time linking up on Toddle Along Tuesday and this week's topic is nurseries.  It made me realize that I never really showed the finished nursery. I posted some pictures of the progress along the way, but never the full thing. So here we go:


This is the view into the room from the hallway. We used to have it flipped, with the crib on the left and the dresser and glider on the right. We switched it at Christmas so we could fit both bookshelves on the same wall with the crib.


The letters on the wall were centered over the dresser before and we haven't moved them yet to be centered over the crib.  We had to put the crib rail covers on since Andrew decided to use them as a teether a few months ago. Thankfully he only really damaged the side rail on the left.  We should probably remove the mobile from the crib since he can stand in there and grab it, but he likes to watch it and play with Snoopy so we haven't taken it out yet. The bookshelves had to be finished after he was born. I'd only gotten the actual shelves stained before he made his early arrival so I finished up the rest of them while J's mom was here helping with Andrew the first two weeks.


We need to switch the stuff on the shelves around and move the stuffed animals down where he can reach. Now that he's standing he likes to go over and pull stuff off the shelves, particularly the books. He'll pull the little bins out of the bottom to get to his toys, too.


Originally we had the glider in his room, but for Christmas J's parents got us this La-Z-Boy recliner and it is awesome.  It rocks and reclines so it is great for times when Andrew is particularly fussy and needs to be cuddled. We moved the glider to the guestroom instead. That dresser is from J's grandparents (so it's old) and we refinished it to match the bookshelves and crib.  We figured there was no point in getting a changing table that eventually would be useless so we have the changing pad on the dresser and later on we'll just remove that and he'll have the dresser.


The view from behind the recliner.


Those little cars up on the wall were in J's room when he was a kid.  They don't really match the Snoopy stuff, but since nothing really matches in the nursery I guess it doesn't matter, right?  Those little green boots under the drawers are Andrew's favorite thing to go over and pull out. For some reason he loves to play with those things.  They won't fit him for a while, but they were a hand me down from a friend and they are really cute. A lot of the little stuffed animals up in the shelves were also from when J was a kid. We should probably pull them down and put them in the bins in the bookshelves so Andrew can play with them.


Andrew's Snoopy bedding.  Yep, we have the bumpers in there.  I know a lot of people don't use them and they recommend against putting them in there, but we have them.  He didn't sleep in the crib until he was 3 months old and it took him a long time to start rolling around in there.  He also has a couple toys tossed in there so he has something to play with if he wakes up early.

So that's it. Nothing fancy and it doesn't really have a theme per se.  No murals on the walls that will have to be painted over and nothing that won't easily transition into a little boy's room.  I guess we could have done more, but he seems to like it so I guess it's not all bad.

I'm linking this post with Toddle Along Tuesday with Mama G over at Growing Up Geeky.






Monday, February 27, 2012

11 Months (and one day)


Holy cow!  Our little munchkin turned 11 months old yesterday.  I am SO in denial about the fact that he will be a year old in just 28 days...


He can't believe it either!



Age:  11 months - yikes!

Stats:  I'm just going to guess that he is about 21 lbs and 30 inches.

Size (diapers, clothes, etc.):  Still in size 3 diapers and they are fitting just fine.  9 month onesies and bodysuits still fit, but the 9 month pants are now looking like capris on him so he is wearing the 12 month ones.  He still has some 6-12 month outfits that fit fine.  I put him in a 12-18 month one the other day and it was huge.  So for right now the 9 and 12 month clothes appear to be the best fit.

Sleeping:  He's still sleeping 10+ hours most nights with very few night wakings (of course last night was one of those few - mommy is tired).  Still doing two naps a day around 9:00 and 1:00.  Two days last week he took almost 4 hour naps in the afternoon.  Not sure what that was all about, but I guess he needed the extra snooze time. Thankfully it didn't mess with his night sleeping.



Eating: BF in the morning and evening (if he wants it).  He's been getting three 6 oz bottles of expressed milk at daycare and we give him a bottle of formula or formula/BM at bedtime.  I feed him breakfast before dropping him off at daycare - either cereal with fruit or yogurt.  He eats meat and a veggie (or fruit) for lunch and has snacks of yogurt bites, broccoli puffs, wagon wheels or goldfish throughout the day.  We've been doing the stage 3 foods for dinner along with some finger foods. I am proud to say that he celebrated turning 11 months last night by eating 6 pieces of pork tenderloin and 5 or 6 scalloped potatoes.  No gagging and no puking - I was so proud!

Milestones:  Two more teeth (the next ones on top) and another one on the way on the bottom (so he's up to 6 total right now).  He has started clapping, is pulling up on everything, and climbed up 5 of the stairs yesterday. We really need to get a bannister on those things!

New adventures:  We took him to the Southeastern Wildlife Expo last weekend and he got to kind of play on one of the bouncy houses. He also went to his first event at Boone Hall plantation when we went to the oyster festival.

Favorite toys and activities:  He loves the little activity table now that he can stand up and play with it. Still a huge fan of the jumperoo - this kid loves to bounce.  Right now he loves anything that he can bang on the floor and make noise. I have a feeling our hardwoods are going to need some TLC after this kid gets through with them!  Oh, and now that he can stand and reach he loves to pull things off the shelves in his room.



Funny happenings:  The funniest thing is just the comments and compliments we get on him and his hair when we are out.  When I have him in the shopping cart at the grocery store he just sits there and chills so when I am unloading the groceries at checkout he sits there staring at the person in line behind us.  He never fails to bring a smile to the person  that's there.  Everyone loves his fuzzy head  :)

What I'm looking forward to:  Obviously the biggest thing will be his birthday. I'm not really looking forward to it because then we no longer have a baby.  I have enjoyed this first year even more than I ever thought possible and it amazes me that it's almost over.

Friday, February 24, 2012

TGIF

Even though this was only a four day work week (thank you President's Day!) it still felt like a long week.  Maybe the crap sleep that I've had has something to do with it. Anyway, I am glad that it's Friday and very excited that it's almost the weekend.

After a good night's sleep Andrew was in a great mood this morning.  He even helped me pick out his outfit for the day:


For once he didn't fight me and actually devoured his breakfast, which means we were out the door and on the way to daycare by 7:40 this morning (the earliest we've been able to manage this week).  As soon as I set him down on the floor he took off down the hall towards the playroom.  I had to chase him down to get my goodbye kisses in.  I will say that I love how happy he is at daycare and it makes it so much easier to drop him off knowing that he enjoys himself.

About an hour after I got to work I received this picture from Andrea:


All the kids were so excited to be heading to the park.  I crack up anytime I see a picture of all of them in that stroller.  I know they must be a sight rolling down the street in that thing!

Now here it is, 2:00 in the afternoon, which means I only have a little over two hours left of work for the day (obviously I'm working hard as I sit here and blog  ;p ) and then I am hitting the gym and getting in a run (only 6 miles left to hit my 50 mile goal for the month) and then having a relaxing night at home with my husband and munchkin.  I'm looking forward to my 9:00 AM hair appt tomorrow and my mom coming and spending the night tomorrow night on the way back from my parent's anniversary cruise, too.  Man I love the weekends!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Birthday Party Planning

Yikes!  I can't believe it is that time already.  The thought that we need to plan the munchkin's first birthday party is scary. And exciting.  And just a little bit sad.  My little man is growing so fast.

Yesterday I ordered his birthday invites through Shutterfly.  Yeah, I am not crafty enough (nor do I have enough time) to do any fancy handmade invitations. Martha Stewart I am not.


We're planning on doing his party the Saturday after his birthday since his actual birthday is a Monday (damn leap year).  The reason for doing it that weekend instead of two days before his birthday is the Cooper River Bridge Run is the 31st.  I want to run it this year (I missed it last year for the first time in 6 years) and strollers are not allowed.  We figured since the in-laws will be in town for his party they can watch him that morning for 2 hours while J and I run.  Probably a little (or a lot) ambitious to plan a party for 1:00 that afternoon, but hopefully we're up for the challenge.

This isn't going to be a big fancy theme party with over the top decorations, amazing catered food, and hired entertainment.  We're planning on just doing a little cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill (please please please let it be nice weather!), some balloons for him to play with and a cake for him to destroy.

We still have to figure out just who we are inviting. I don't want this to be a big thing and don't feel the need to have 30 people at a 1 year old's birthday. I particularly hope that we don't have to invite J's crazy ass aunt and awful cousin.  This day is supposed to be all about Andrew and those two have a way of making everything about them (our wedding included).  Ugh - I guess we'll have to sit down and work out the guest list soon.

I'm debating if I should just buy a cake for him (less work) or if I should try to get my Martha on and make one of the awesome cakes that I found online:


What do you think?  Am I crazy for thinking I can make something cool like this without it ending up a complete mess?  J laughed at me when I showed him these.

I guess we'll just have to see how confident I'm feeling as the big day approaches.  At least I already have his birthday wardrobe picked out. I got him some 1st birthday shirts from Carter's (one for his actual birthday and one for the party).  Any excuse to buy him more clothes  :)

Aaaahhhhhh - I can't believe he's turning one soon!!!



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Photoshoot at the Park

Obviously I love taking pictures of the munchkin.  This is evidenced by the thousands of pictures that are already on J's external hard drive (so grateful for the extra space!).

Anyway, this past Friday I had to take the day off because our daycare was closed for a vacation day (one of the (very few) drawbacks to a small in-home daycare).  So since the weather was nice - if a little windy - I decided it was the perfect day for a little photoshoot with my munchkin.

We took a little stroll over to Alhambra Hall where J and I got married almost 3 years ago. I set up a blanket and got to clicking:




There was a man throwing a ball and having his dogs chase it. Andrew was very interested.









This was mid shriek. He has figured out the shrill ear piercing sound and loves it.



Then we headed across the street to the playground (one of his favorite places) and he did some swinging before I plunked him down in the wood chips for a few more pictures:



He was a little upset to be taken out of his favorite swing



"Mmmmmm... wood."

I call this his grumpy old man face




He's such a great little model  :)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

SEWE

This weekend is the Southeastern Wildlife Expo (SEWE) in Charleston. I had actually never been to any of it in the past even though I wanted to go down and see the dock dogs and Jack Hanna.  This year we decided to make the effort and take the munchkin down to see some of the sights.

We started by watching the Birds of Prey demonstration.  They were releasing falcons and hawks from the roof of the hotel next door and we could watch them swoop down and attack a fake bunny.  Afterward they held them in the ring so we could walk around and see them up close:






We had to go into a tent to see the horned owl, but he was pretty cool:



Then we walked over to watch the pony rides and the camel rides:




Andrew loved watching the ponies and camel

The camel was not very amused


We thought about having Andrew do a pony ride, but after watching some of the screaming babies we decided that maybe we'll wait til next year.

Then I took Andrew over to the petting zoo area:

Porcupine

Not sure what this was, but he was funny

A llama

Feeding a sheep


At the end we hung out and watched our friend's 2.5 year old play in the jump castle while Andrew and baby Evan played.  He did spectacular all day and it was a nice little family outing.  And I have President's Day off tomorrow so I get another day with my munchkin. What a great weekend  :)