Wednesday, November 2, 2011

22 months old

Seth, you are 22 months old! I can hardly believe that in 2 months, you will be 2 years old. What can I say about the vibrant, confident, excited, curious and happy little boy that you are? At 22 months: -You wear 18 month size pants (you have short legs like your mama) -You wear 24 month size tops, jackets, and shirts -You wear size 7 shoes Your blonde hair, long eye lashes and blue eyes kind of make you a magnet. You are friendly to people when we're out and about, waving "hi!" and "buh-bye!" at people that pass us at the grocery store. You flirt and are friendly to anyone who will make eyes with you. Morning time is your favorite and you'd stay in your crib for an hour if I let you. I come in to your room, say good morning, open the shades and turn your Kindermusik CD on. You point to the books that you want to look at. I put the books in your crib and you'll sit in your crib for an hour (if I let you!) just flipping through the books. I've been encouraging you to call "Mama!" when you need something and you're starting to do that more. You are such a fun little boy. Smiles on your face most of the time, with an occasional pensive look that you've been known for since you were an infant. You like to run around, do a happy dance with your feet moving really fast. You like to run, so we have many games of running up and down the hallway. You like to be chased and tickled. You are smart little boy too! I ask what color are your pants (or other clothing) and you can tell me if they're blue, green, orange or yellow. What do you like to play with right now? Balls, the yellow Fisher Price bus and airplane, your Melissa & Doug puzzles (especially the sound puzzle with the ambulance, car, train, etc), your car ramp, a music box and some blocks. You are getting into coloring, but we're still working on not munching on the crayons. :) In fact, your playing has changed. You are starting to sit longer and play with a toy, instead of hopping up and bouncing from toy to toy. You are a little helper around the house. You sense that Papa and Mama like to have the house in somewhat of an order, so if you're playing with the pots and pans, you will even put them away! Your verbal expression is increasing and now you always call for us, "Mama!" or "Papa!" You have the sweetest little voice. You are always saying "Uh-oh!" when something breaks, falls, gets hurt or isn't right. You are learning your colors and are saying the color of an object - blue, orange, purple and green are your favorites. You are doing well with listening to Mama tell you to put your hand on the car when I take you out of the carseat. You're walking when we're out and about, more so than the stroller. You finally bonded with Uncle Kyle. He is quite entertaining to you now. You just hadn't quite warmed up to Kyle's expressions and high-energy. But now Uncle Kyle gets just about as much attention and love from you as your Grandpa does. Here are some fun pictgures from your 22-month birthday:

Video of Seth getting into this birthday cake

I know Seth is nearing his 2nd birthday, but I just ran across the video of Seth at his 1st birthday party touching his first birthday cake. It was so adorable and I just don't want to forget how little my little boy was.

Seth's 1 year old Birthday from Kyle Teichroew on Vimeo.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

October weekend re-cap

The weekend got started with a birthday dinner and celebration for Jenni at my parent's house. We had many laughs and a delicious dinner. Speaking of dinner - Mom made her now-famous french fries, which is the birthday girl's (and my brother's) favorite. We tease that it was really Kyle pushing for the french fries. We had a special dessert for the birthday girl and then presented her with gifts. That's the fun part!!! Saturday was completely random. We decided at 9:30am that we would take Seth to the Minnesota Zoo. Yeah - the big one about 45 minutes away. After breakfast and a little cleaning up, we hit the road to the zoo. What can I say but Seth LOVED the zoo. We went into several exhibits. The exhibits are great because they have little tunnels just for small kids where they can get a different view of the animals. Seth loved exploring the tunnels and caves. He got really excited over the penguins, birds, flamingos, beaver, and otter. But his favorite? The goats at the Farm. They have a little goat pen for the kids to pet and feed the goats. Seth went up to each animal and hugged them, squealing in the process. He tried to sit on the old goat sitting in the corner. He liked looking at the pigs too. Seth squealed with happiness when he was able to pet the cow's head in the barn. A polka band played music in the farm area, so given that we all know Seth loves music and dancing to music, is it any wonder he dropped a boogie anytime he got near the band? It was such a delight to see how Seth responded to the animals when he saw them for the first time. It was like seeing these animals for the first time. I love to watch Seth get excited over the things that I have taken for granted. I repeat. It was so fun to take Seth to the zoo! Seth missed his afternoon nap, but he was such a trooper and was totally content sitting in the stroller with a bag of popcorn when he was a little tired. At the end of the day as we walked out of the zoo, Seth just rested his head on Jason's shoulder and just hugged him all the way to the car. On Sunday, we visited a particular church in MG for the second Sunday in a row. After church and some relaxing in the afternoon, I had a fun photo shoot with a friend from work and her 3 daughters in downtown Anoka. We had a lot of fun! The weekend was complete with our small group coming over to discuss Crazy Love. It was a good weekend! I'm not ready for another week.:(

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

August week re-cap

I know these posts are blog-world worthy, but I just had to jot all these fun summer times down so I can come back and read them later!

Every day I get so tickled that I actually got to stay home this summer. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm so thankful Jason worked it out for me to do this.

Our Mondays always begin with the roar and slam of the commercial size lawn mowers at our neighbor's house across the street. At 7am in the morning. That's fine for me because I get up at 5am, but not so great when Seth usually gets up at 8. Oh, well. Sometimes Seth sleeps through it, sometimes he doesn't. I've been tempted to go across the street and ask if they'll do our yard for free since they've woken my sleeping child. :)

After breakfast, blanket time and playroom time, we took a field trip to the store to pick up some baking supplies to make cupcakes for my Grandpa and Grandma. We stopped at one of our favorite playgrounds in MG where there were a ton of kids playing. It was so interesting to watch how Seth interacted with the boys and girls, who are at least 2-3 years older than him. There were a few instances from a few boys that did not like when Seth tried to play with them. My heart squeezed at my son's attempt to play with them and then getting pushed away. I saw an image of my son a few years older going through the tribulations of playground play.

After naptime, we went to Jason's softball game. What a gorgeous night. Seth got his fix of fresh air and running. And so did I! He had to touch each bat lined up against the fence. We counted and named the color of each bat. I just let him run down the path, to which I ran right after him. Seth constantly moves and so do I when we're at things like this. You need to keep an eye on the little ones so they don't run out onto the field. Seth is learning how to obey and listen - toddler steps!

On Wednesday, we hit the ground running and were out the door by 8:30am. After picking up some Melissa & Doug puzzles via a CraigsList posting, we brought coconut cupcakes to Great Grandpa and Grandma. They absolutely LOVE seeing Seth. Seth always gives them hugs when we get there and when we leave. He sat on the chair next to Great Grandpa while GG explained how he needed to sit still for a little bit because if he doesn't, he's going to loose all the energy he needs for later on. It was SO precious. Seth just kind of looked up at him with this awe of authority. Great Grandma took us to see the aquarium fish - actually, Seth spied them first with a huge squeal. He ran up to the aquarium and squealed and said his fish word, "Fee!". It's been good to see Great Grandpa and Grandma. It's important that Seth spend time with them. Hopefully he'll remember them later on when he's older.

After that, we had a little Mommy and Seth date at Caribou Coffee. Oh my word! We had such fun and it was so pleasant. I brought snacks for both us and sat in the back near the little kids table and chalkboard. Seth sat on all the chairs and played with the chalkboard. We found an awesome park on the way home. While it had two little play areas - one for the toddlers and one for the bigger kids, Seth gravitated towards the big kid play set. Seth had to climb all the way to the top, while I was one foot behind him the whole way. The slides were a little steeper, but he got a kick of the slides and squealed as he went down. There were a few where I had Seth sit on my lap on the way down.

Wednesday was a fun day for us. I took Seth to downtown St. Paul to have lunch with his daddy in the "big city". We talked about the big city all the way across town. I got totally lost downtown when we were trying to find the place to meet Jason. It was funny because we were in the car at a street corner and Seth saw Jason standing at the same corner and just squealed, "Pa!". He is so observant. We had a great lunch at an outside cafe. Seth got a special treat of a PB&J sandwich and french fries. Lucky him. :) Jason is really lucky to work at such a cool place like downtown!

On Thursday, after a very trying blanket time, we ran errands to pick up new library books, get some toddler supplies and on a whim, went to the towne green for a kids program. Seth did really well sitting in my lap during the program (for the most part) and squealed with excitement over the red-tailed hawk he got to see at the program.

We had Jamie, Paul and their new baby girl over for dinner last night. They're in town from CO and we HAD to see them! Seth was enthralled with the baby, but he got SO jealous when I was holding the baby. He also tried all sorts of tac tics to draw attention to himself when he realized the baby was getting more attention. Uh, oh! But he was a hoot and really loved Jamie and Paul. He ran up and gave them hugs.




Week Re-cap

Try saying "week re-cap" three times in a row and it begins to sound like "reek re-cap", "reek re-crap" and "week wee-cap". I don't know what my week re-caps are going to come out like, but it will sure give me a way to remember these busy summer days! Monday was supposed to have a get-together with my Made to Crave book club girls and their kiddos. Seth had developed a little cold the day before, so on the safe side, we decided not to go. We picked up and dropped off Joyce at the car place and then went home for the rest of the day. This was the first day of huge thunderstorms. Seth was tired from his cold and he slept right through the huge thunder boomers! So....I started this post with the intention of posting a recap of each day, but as you can see, I never finished and it's kind of comical just to leave it that way.:)

Weekend Re-cap

This past weekend was...well...kind of uneventful, in light of my Grandpa's homegoing to the Lord. It was good that it was uneventful. There was a lot of family time and I was fortunate enough to have a family photo shoot out in the country. It was Kyle's birthday on Friday, so the whole family (sans Jayson & Jen) took Kyle out to dinner at the new IHOP in town. We had a good time, just enjoying each other's company and having lots of laughter. We also arranged for Kyle to get serenaded by the IHOP crew. He was amused. I think Kyle would say that his best birthday gift was that Seth finally warmed up to Uncle Kyle. When we got to IHOP and saw the fam waiting for us, Seth reached first to Jenni and then reached out to Kyle. This was huge! Seth has been a little shy with him for the longest time, but I think now that he's a little older and loves to be teased, he found a good comrad in Kyle. Seth found himself to be so funny and entertained us the whole dinner with giggles, exclamations and a comic show. He is going to be already a ham! We followed up the dinner with dessert at home and then an enthusiastic game of Apples to Apples. I had a family photoshoot for a dear friend's sister in Long Lake. The most beautiful drive took me out to the country and even though I got lost (by about 8 miles), this dear family was so energetic, fun, sweet and so photogenic. The rest of the day had some relaxing and then a big bonfire at night! It was Seth's second bonfire, but his first to really pull up a chair and sit in front of the bonfire. He loved it! On Sunday we visited a local church that we're testing out. We had some good experiences in the service and are still prayerfully considering if this is the church that God wants us to be at. After naps, I did a little grocery shopping. I went to small group and Jason stayed home with Seth since he wasn't feeling well. It was a really good weekend!!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Hot tomales

It's 9pm on Sunday night and the windows are all fogged up because it's SO hot outside right now (even at 9 at night) and it's cool inside. Just enjoying a long stretch of HOT and HUMID weather. I'm talking 95 degree F, 80% humidity!

After raining so much on Friday and kind of being stuck inside, Joyce had dinner with us. We played around with Seth in the living room and then it was time for bed. Seth's favorite time of the day. Kind of - not really. Once we get Seth in his sleep bag, he starts to chill out and sleepiness kicks in.

It's funny how much Seth avoids the inevitable cycle with what happens after he is asked to put his toys away. He knows what's going to happen next. "Let's go to the bathroom and brush our teeth". He runs in circles. After 2 tries, it turns into the option of whether or not he gets to walk to the bathroom on his own or Mommy picks him up and carries him there.

Seth was tired from all the activity and he fell asleep quickly. We watched the movie The Adjustment Bureau and then called it a night.

Saturday was super fun too. We packed up the stroller, lots of water, sunscreen and headed to our town's fair. Have I gushed how much I love our town? It has this old, main street feel to it with a big pond and amphitheater at the center. We walked up and down main street looking at the artisans of the art fair. Seth was digging the colorful balloons. He was in HEAVEN! Then, we walked around the lake to the food fair and ate lunch. Seth LOVED bopping his head and dancing to the live blues music at the food fair.

Later that night, we headed over to my parents' home for a barbeque and to visit with my grandparents, plus my other relatives that came up to visit. It was so fun to be around my family. Seth loved being the center of attention and really hammed it up for everyone, showing how we play ring around the rosie.

Sunday was low-key - church in the morning, nap in the afternoon and a little swimming in the evening.



Sunday, July 10, 2011

Weekend Re-cap



We had a good, low-key summer weekend. We lived it large and went out to Perkins on Friday night, with chuckles of amusement over how our dinners at fancy restaurants have shifted to kid-friendly restaurants. We wouldn't trade this time in our life for anything!

Saturday was great. Lazy morning with some good bluegrass music playing in the background. Leftover Perkins pancakes and breakfast potatoes.

Seth and I went grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon. Seth was a ham to the other customers. He's back to doing his attention-getting happy high-pitched scream. I learned by watching Seth happy-scream at various customers that he does this to get someone's attention as a way to say 'hi'. So now I say to Seth, "Little voice. Use your words and say 'hi!'".

When Seth went down for a nap, I was lucky enough to redeem my Mother's Day gift and go to the salon for a full-body massage. Woo-hoo!!! It was a fabulous hour and a half. Thank you to my wonderful husband and son!

When I got home, the boys were outside in the back playing in Seth's little pool. Seth loves playing in the pool.

We had a typical Sunday morning with ABF. Seth looked adorable in his madras shorts and white shirt. He is doing so much better with going to the nursery now. Seth walked all the way to the nursery while holding my hand and when we walked into the nursery, he reached out to put over the counter so he could go play. My baby's separation anxiety was short-lived.

We ended the weekend with playing in the pool in the backyard. Seth loves playing in the water. Oh, and he loves drinking the water in the pool. He stands and bends his face to the water and tries to get a drink before I'm after him for doing it.

Seth got over his fear of bubble baths, as you can see below. A month ago we were at Seth's friend, L's, home and we plopped the boys in a bath full of bubbles after they got super dirty while playing outside in the mud. Seth screamed and screamed because he'd never had a bubble bath. So, we've been gradually helping him get used to bubbles. Now, he begs for bubbles in his bath!


When Seth turned 18 months, I felt like he was old enough to watch a show. Now, I let Seth watch a "show", like Sesame Street or Curious George on the dvd player while I'm making lunch. Give me the bad mommy award this week for letting him kick his heels up on the table! :)


Thursday, June 30, 2011

18-months

Seth, you are 18 months old...a year and a half! You are such a fun, sweet boy. I love the summer that we are having together.

Your stats:
Clothes size - 18-24 months
Shoe size - 6
Weight - 25lb 4oz (45-50%)
Head - 18 3/4" (50%)
Height - 33 1/2" (75-80%); if you continue on this percentage, you will be taller than your Daddy!

We went to visit Dr. Lisa for Seth's 18-month check-up and she had great things to say about Seth, with no concerns at all. Seth was quite the ham in the check-up room. Happy, interactive and busy. He even pointed out the window at the cars in the parking lot and said, "Car!".

Seth's bank of words is starting to increase. His favorite word is "ball!" whenever he sees a ball or something that looks like a ball. But it always accompanies an exclamation point and wide eyes when he says it. It's the cutest thing how he gets so excited. He has also said "truck" and "rock" when he's seen either of those.

Seth is starting to become an affectionate little boy. When we were at our friends' home the other day, we were leaving and I encouraged Seth to say good-bye to his little friends, K and N. He went up to each child and gave them a hug! I couldn't believe it. He also tends to wrap his arms around my neck when we're sitting in his nursery chair and when I'm changing his diaper. He just squeals.

Seth is not afraid of strangers. He goes to church nursery so easily now. There was a period of 3 months when I'd drop him off at the nursery and he'd just scream at the top of his lungs. He's definitely gotten better the last two times we've taken him there. When we see strangers out and about, he'll do one of two things - study them with his serious look or flirt. It's so cute to see him flirt. He always gets comments on his long eyelashes and blue eyes. Oh, dear. This will be a girl problem for him when he's older!

Seth is so playful. While I was sitting on his bedroom floor folding clothes, he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulder so he could have a piggy back ride. He also loves to be chased, thrown up in the air by his daddy and loves to dance to music.

Rocks are Seth's favorite things. When we walk outside, he goes straight to the garden edging and picks up a rock for each hand. Jason laughs when he mows the yard, because he's constantly picking up a pair of rocks scattered around the yard and he knows exactly where they came from.

This next part is really my own notes for what our days are like right now as Seth is an 18-month old. Seth sleeps until 8am-ish, then we wake up and have breakfast. Seth loves my special concoction of toddler oatmeal with applesauce. He also has either pancakes or fruit. Then, we play for a little bit and most days we run out on errands. Either we go on a playdate, grocery shopping or just errands. He's a trooper and a fun little companion.

Then, we always make it home by about 11-11:30am for some playtime outside and then it's lunch. I've started letting Seth watch Sesame Street, so this is his special treat while I'm making lunch. He gets to sit in the highchair and watch 15 minutes of that show. He giggles, laughs and squeals over the show. It's so cute.

After lunch around 1pm, Seth takes a nap that lasts 2-3 hours. He so needs it and typically never fights it. I busy myself with cleaning, organizing and more cleaning and some dinner prep. I try to sit down and relax a little bit during that time.

Nap time ends around 4, so I get Seth up and we play outside for a little bit before I start dinner. While I'm prepping dinner, I let Seth play on the upstairs deck with his picnic table and toys. He loves it. It's nice for me because I can see exactly what Seth is doing, so I'm okay with letting him play there. It has a sturdy gate, so I have a little security know he won't go down the deck stairs. Well, there you have it!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Sleepy mornings

Quite honestly - these are the days that I was praying for and it is only by God's provision that I am experiencing them. I'm going into my second week of being a stay at home mom with Seth. Someone asked if I missed work.

Nope. Not at all. Sure, I miss my friends at work, but I really do not miss the heart struggle of wanting to be home with my son and taking care of our home. I really feel that I am in my element now that I'm home. I like being able to get the home stuff (like laundry, dinner prep, organization) out of the way so we don't have to do them on the weekend. This past weekend was great because I was able to get my chores (grocery shopping and laundry) done on Friday, so we just did fun family stuff over the weekend.

I've kept up my normal of routine of waking early, going to the gym to work out, showering and eating before Seth gets up. I've also added in the time to read the Bible and read some devotions.

This morning I had a little extra time because my sweet son does not want to get out of his crib and start his day! Seriously - I'm looking at the video monitor and here Seth is, just cuddling with his blanket in his crib. Not a care or desire to start his day. Oh, well. He can have that. :)




Saturday, June 11, 2011

It's hard to say good-bye

To good friends that are moving out of state! Our friends, M & K, are friends from Jason's Bethel days. They've been so dear to us over the years - during college, standing up for us in our wedding, visiting Jason in the hospital. They have a big adventure awaiting them in Texas.

Tonight we went to their open house to say good-bye, to reminiscence, see each other and just plain visit. It was a gorgeous summer night and such a perfect outing. There must have been 20 kids running around M & K's fenced backyard, which is like a forest with paths and trails all over. Seth was in heaven! He played alongside other little toddlers and started learning the concept of sharing with his little friends, Kayla and Alec. Oh, it warmed this mommy's heart to see how Seth interacted with the other little toddlers. Sometimes he would just go off and explore something, like a corner of the patio or the sandbox. Other times, he'd follow the other little kids to see what they were doing.

We sat around the kitchen table to eat dinner and Seth clearly remembered that's where the food was later on, because he found his way back to the kitchen where all the goodies were and asked for food! Aww - a child after my own heart. He knew exactly where the treats were!

Seth got the obligatory, "He's so intense - look at his furrowed brow!" Yes, at times when he's around lots of people and he's getting a lot of attention, he would rather study the person instead of showing off.:) I love that Seth is so observant.

The rest of our weekend so far has been soooo perfect. Our babysitting swappers watched Seth on Friday night, so we went to a movie at the cinema grill. So fun to go out to a movie!

Saturday morning was perfect. We slept in till 8am, had a delicious pancake breakfast and went to the park before Jason went to play soccer.

I'm so thank for days like these!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Our Memorial Day Weekend

It was so nice to have a 3-day weekend! We kicked Friday night off with dinner at Perkins. Saturday was a beautiful day, so we used it to work around the house and yard.

We visited with Brian, Kay and their son, who is the same age as Seth. Those boys know how to play! We spent much of the time in their backyard where they're working on an addition. A huge mound of dirt was perfectly placed in the backyard, perfect for two little boys to play on. We had not been in the backyard for more than 5 minutes when Seth tripped, landed all fours in the mud and proceeded to eat a handful of mud! Oh, dear.

I knew at that moment that as mommy to a little boy, I had two choices: 1) bemoan the fact that I'd need to give my boy a deep cleaning, or 2) say, "How was that mud pie?" and laugh it off. I choose #2 and proceeded to enjoy watching Seth conquer the mud mountain. After dinner and more play, we gave the boys a bubble bath and got them clean. Seth's dirty clothes are still wadded up in a plastic bag waiting to be cleaned. :)

We had friends over from church on Sunday night. Seth was so energized having two of his friends, K & N, visit. I loved the scene playing out in our home: the adults gathered around the kitchen table while the kids were playing back and forth between the living room and Seth's bedroom.

Memorial Day was a fun day. We tried out the bike trailer and went for a bike ride to Joyce's house. It's debatable if Seth liked it or not. He did NOT like his helmet, as you can see below.:) It was fun just to get out and go for a ride. I'm looking forward to many more of these rides this summer!

What made this weekend so great was that it was leading up to my last days of work. It would be the last long weekend of mourning the fact that I'd need to go back to work.










Thursday, May 26, 2011

5 more days

until I get to stay home and play, teach, love on this little boy without having to wave goodbye each day while I head off to work.

5 more days until we have a summer of picking rocks, climbing....things, exploring new things with this little boy.





Sunday, May 22, 2011

One raspberry on my floor

There's going to come a time (years and years from now), when the significance of a raspberry sitting under the table on my dining room floor is going to spur on the tears.

There is, in fact, a raspberry sitting on the dining room floor right now. I'm not quite rushing to pick it up, even though I'm taking a risk that it will not stain the floor. I'll let it sit there for a moment while thinking back to the cause of events that led up to the lone raspberry sitting where it is.

It was lunchtime and Seth was sitting in his usual highchair at the kitchen table. I placed a plate on his tray with some new fruit for Seth to try: blueberries and raspberries. He LOVED the blueberries and they were inhaled within seconds.

The raspberries, on the other hand, sat un-eaten on Seth's plate. They were poked, but not eaten. And then, I heard a giggle. I looked up from plate to see a raspberry hanging precariously on Seth's pointer finger. Giggles, giggles and a proud little boy. Beyond being a scrumpcious and tasty fruit, there is a purpose to raspberries!



The raspberry was popped into his mouth and after an unsuccessful attempt at his trick again, he got a little frustrated. Mommy stepped in to help. :)


And this is how Seth came to like raspberries - first on the tip of his finger and then into his mouth.

And apparently one raspberry didn't make it.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Main Dish Recipe - Cranberry Pork Tenderloin

I could probably have Cranberry Pork Tenderloin three times a week. The bonus is that it's a crockpot recipe and it's a reasonably healthy recipe! My mother-in-law introduced it to our family and we were forever hooked.

CRANBERRY PORK TENDERLOIN
You need:
(1) Pork tenderloin
(1) Can of cranberries
(1) Packet of dry onion soup mix
Crockpot

Directions:
Mix the dry onion soup mix packet and the can of cranberries with about 1 cup of water. Spray the bottom of your crockpot with cooking spray. Put the pork tenderloin in the crockpot. Pour the onion soup mix and cranberry mix over the pork tenderloin. Make sure there's about a half-inch to an inch of liquid that the tenderloin is sitting in. Turn your crockpot on to cook for about 6-8 hours.

We usually serve this with brown or a mix of wild rice. I always cut up the pork tenderloin, serve it on plates and drizzle the onion/cranberry gravy over the tenderloin and rice.

I haven't had this in a while - it's going on next week's dinner list!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

17-months

Seth, you are 17-months old! You are looking more like a little BOY, then you are a baby. I have reservations about this because you're growing up so fast!

You love your crib. When you wake up in the morning and come in to greet you, you're all smiles and you hold up "Pooh-Bear" (your lovey) to me, so I say "good morning" to
Pooh-Bear too. Then, you point to your books and I put a handful of books in your crib. I pop in your Kindermusik CD and you'll sit in your crib for a half hour just looking through your books.

This month has brought a whole new play world for you: OUTSIDE. You would play outside all day long if you could. Picking up rocks, touching plans, swinging in your swing, strolling around the perimeter of the yard. You love playing with rocks. There are little groupings of rocks all around the outside of our house. You pick up a few rocks, then gift them to me or your Grandmas. Sometimes you just clutch two rocks in your hands as we take a stroller walk to the park.

At one particular playtime at the park, you clutched one rock in your hand the entire time you were playing on the playground set. You wouldn't let it go. But then it dropped under the equipment, you looked at it to see where it went and then you were on your way again. So, you're not super attached to your rocks, but it's important for you to have a few in your hands. :)

You are learning to take Daddy or Mommy's hand if we are walking someplace. This will be important for us this year because you are getting big and we're not able to carry you for long extended periods of time when you were only about 15 pounds! You do this better with Daddy than with Mommy. I think you're a little proud to be holding Daddy's hands. :)

We celebrated your new use of sign language "please" and the way you say "please" is so cute! You wave your right hand back-and-forth, kind of like how it's supposed to be done but in a very exagerated way. It's adorable and now you use it all the time - not just eating, but anytime you want something. You also sign "help".

It's hard to say, but you seem to have a bit of a compassionate heart. Whenever you are near a baby that cries, you go over to the baby and stand there, looking back and forth between the baby and his/her mama to make sure she's taking care of the crying baby. But you are also very aware when adults are sad or not feeling well.

You haven't always been the super cuddly little baby who would be content sitting in my arms for long periods of time, but you definitely are affectionate. You give open mouth kisses and are starting to learn how to hug. When I hold you before going to bed, I say, "Rest your head on my shoulder" and you nustle your head on my shoulder. It just endears me!

One morning on my way out the door to work, I was holding you and prepared to do a hand-off to your grandma. You wrapped your arms around my neck and burried your face into my shoulder. I was about ready to call in sick!

In the last month, you have NOT liked being dropped off in the church nursery. I thought I was one of the lucky parents whose baby was completely content and happy to be dropped off in the nursery with no separation anxiety at all. Heh, heh, heh. Well, a few months has changed that and you CRY and CRY when I drop you off. But, I'm always told by the (super kind, sweet and loving) nusery workers that you eventually settle down and play.

Your hair is starting to get long in the back and you're turning into quite the blondie. It's still too early to get it cut, unless it starts to be a mullet. Your bright blue eyes and long eye lashes always get commented on.

Here you are at 17 months!



Sunday, May 15, 2011

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day! I love being a mother and I feel so blessed that God has given me a wonderful son. Being a mommy is unlike any role I've experienced. Jason and Seth made me feel very special all day.

I am so lucky to have two wonderful women in my life, my mom and my mother in law, as great examples of being a mom.

The day started out really pleasant, so while Jason headed to church early to help out with the service, I let Seth take a little nap before getting him up and dressed for church. I needed to get Seth up by 10am and out the door by 10:20. Seth probably fell asleep 10 minutes before I needed to get him up. Bless his heart - I went into his room, opened the shades, rubbed his tummy and he would not budge! He was deep asleep. So I did what any other mommy would do. I grabbed my camera, because I have no pictures of my active little boy.

After a great sermon at church about Lydia and the working-out-of-the-home mother (Pastor Rick did a great job with a touchy subject among evangelical circles). I was really encouraged about being a diligent worker as I'm finishing up my career
at my company, but also how to be diligent in my new responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom.

We had a relaxing afternoon. I had a little treat of reading my commemorative edition of the TIME book on the Royal Wedding.

My parents, grandparents and Joyce came over for dinner and dessert later in the afternoon. Seth was tickled that all of his favorite people were together. I'm sure he thought they were all over at our house to play with him. Ha! He had a blast getting chased by my dad around the house.

It was such a great day!




Sunday, May 1, 2011

Toddler Musings

Oh, boy. I have really slacked on writing on our family blog! These are such fun times with toddler Seth that I really don't want to forget about the funny and amusing times of the Counihan household....well, in our eyes, it's pretty amusing!

Indulge me for a second while I spew the tender and amusing times of living with a toddler!

If only we knew what was racing in Seth's mind while he lay down in his crib for an afternoon nap. After I rocked him his chair for a few minutes and he was poking my mouth that produced a round of giggles, I laid Seth down in his crib. He was giggling and giggling to himself for a good five minutes before he conked out for an hour and a half.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Weekend re-cap

We started the weekend off just right with a visit from our good friends, B and K, and their 22-month old son (and Seth's first buddy), L. It was so fun to watch the boys play together, but kind of not play together. They're still at the age of playing alongside each other, but not together. At the end of the night when they were leaving and it was time to "give each other a hug", Seth got his first buddy hug. Cute, huh??

On Saturday, Seth and I took a long walk to Target to get a few things. Walks are so fun because Seth points and squeals at everything. I get to see birds, kids playing baseball, dogs for the first time again, but through the eyes of my child.:)

After Seth's nap, we dressed up for my grandma's 90th birthday party with all my family. It was at my uncle's VFW where there's a big party room in the basement for the party and a huge room upstairs for the kids to run around. Seth had a blast running around the basement, except when the kids when upstairs to play tag and then he had to follow them to see what was going on. He apparently thought he was 10 years old because he wanted to run around with the kids too. He'd run back and forth, stomp his feet a little. Seeing the kids run around brought me back to my own days of chasing my cousins around. I'm so happy that Seth will have cousins to do this with soon!

We carried the party back to Aunt Patty and Uncle Ray's house for dinner. The weather was nice out, so the ladies took Seth for a walk over to the park. Seth was acting like such a big boy, with one hand in mine and the other holding onto the gym set, he climbed all the way to the top and took his very first solo slide ride. He was THRILLED! The look on his face was exhilaration - huge, wide smile and big eyes. We did this again and again and again!

It was so nice to spend time with family. Boy do we feel blessed to have such great people to share life with.:)

Monday, April 4, 2011

April weekend recap: could this get any better?




I don’t want to brag. I really don’t. But we just had one of those perfect Saturdays that I want to remember.

Seth slept until 8:30am. This is unusual. As unusual as it is for ME to sleep until 8:30am. Seth and I are very similar in that we go to bed early, wake up early. He usually wakes up at 7am, which is fine because I’m usually up an hour or so before he is. But this Saturday was different. After laying around and surfing the web, Seth announced he was awake and called for us to hang out in his room.

This little boy loves his crib. Jason sat in the chair while I sat on the floor. We giggled. Seth jumped up and down in his crib. We tossed stuffed animals in Seth’s crib. He threw them out. Pretty soon Jason declared, “I think it’s a Perkins morning!”

I got Seth dressed in 10 seconds flat. I love me some Perkins. Seth loves being out, batting those long eyelashes and sparkly blue eyes….and getting fawned over. It’s a win-win. Pretty soon we were happily situated at Perkins with Joyce, who joined us last minute. It’s nice to have people who you can call up last minute at 9am on Saturday morning with a, “Hey, wanna go to Perkins? See you in 15.”

After a trip to Target and lunch at home, Seth had a long nap and this momma got to work. The cleaning bug gave me an itch, so pretty soon the kitchen, the living room and floors were cleaned.

After dinner, I went to babysit at our friend’s house and watch their sleeping babies while our friends went out before their 3rd kiddo arrives in a few weeks. We started a babysit-swap with these sweet college friends and it’s great because they live in our neighborhood too!

Sunday was equally relaxing with church in the morning. I got the organizing bug that afternoon while Seth was napping, so pretty soon I had re-organized some kitchen cupboards and made Seth his very own cupboard in the dining room. When Seth got up, I brought him out into the dining room and told him he could open the previously forbidden cupboard. I’ll never forget his expression when he opened the door to see some of his favorite toys and a few new little goodies: his eyes got huge, he looked at me to be sure it was true and his jaw dropped to the floor while he started digging into the cupboard. It was so cute!

It was fun when Seth’s grandmas came to watch him during the week. I’d say, “Seth, show your Grandma where your special cupboard is”. His eyes would get huge and he’d race over to his cupboard in the dining room, while looking back to see that they were following him. He was so proud!

The weekend was finished off with our friends from church coming over for our Small Group get-together on Sunday evening. It has been a while since we’ve had everyone over for small group, so we just took time catching up. We all marveled while sitting in our living room overflowing with little toddlers and babies how much can change over the course of a year! Who knew our group would grow from 8 adults to 8 adults + 6 kids!

Seth was so funny on Sunday night with the other little babies and toddlers. When two of our friends brought their babies in their carseats up to the living room, Seth immediately had to check out the tiny babies. He stood right next to the babies and watched their mommies take care of them. He wanted to press the car seat button to get them out of their seats. He was so gentle with them!

It was a great weekend…..

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Sickies

Friday night after work did not come soon enough. I got home first, picked Seth up and we made it to the bank in time, before heading over to Noodles & Company for dinner. Jason would be meeting us there after he was done with work.

We had a fun dinner with Seth, but he was becoming a little whiny and not his happy self. We made a stop at Babies R Us. That's when we knew something was up with Seth. We were standing in the checkout line and all I remember was looking down at a slouching, tired little baby boy. Poor Seth - it must have just hit him. He was warm, tired and starting to get that sick zone in his eyes. I've never seen Seth like that.

Upon getting home, we took Seth's temp and sure enough, he had a small fever 99.8. A little infant acetaminophen, some cuddles, a bottle and bedtime. We were praying that God would help Seth fight whatever virus his little body was taking on.

Seth slept until 9am in the morning. Wow. I couldn't believe he needed so much sleep. Poor buddy was so warm this morning. His fever got up to 100.8. Seth barely had anything to eat for breakfast and I was trying to get as much liquids in him as possible. He just wanted to be held and cuddle his Pooh bear. He was starting to yawn around 11am, so I put him down for another nap. He slept until almost 2pm.

His fever got up to 101.6, so we called Triage just to make sure we were doing everything right. Thankfully we haven't had many instances in which Seth has been this sick in his little life, so this was a little sudden and I wanted to make sure I was doing the right things. We were.:)

Seth took another nap and when he got, his cheeks weren't as red and his fever had broke. He was a little more himself and even had some food for dinner. We knew Seth was getting back in business when while he was sitting in his highchair, he started to blow raspberries when he knows he shouldn't and giggled when he tooted.

This is how Seth looks when he isn't feeling the hottest. Seth is always such a happy, spirited little boy, so seeing Seth like this makes me feel for him. Bad momm for taking photos of my sick baby.:)