Pardon My Dust

Almost two months ago I turned 30. If you would’ve asked me when I was turning 29, how I felt about turning 30, I would’ve told you it was the worst thing ever. In my head, 30 is a real adult. When you’re in your 20s you can still make stupid mistakes and that looming “oh she’s just so young” or “she’s in her 20s she’s learning” excuse to help slide you by. However in your 30s people downright…

I’m a teacher. I picked this career in hopes some day making a change in the lives of our future. Really though, I picked this career for three other reasons…Spring Break, Summer Break, Winter Break. The glorious built in vacations that allow me to sit around without being at the mercy of an alarm clock, making sure my kids are raring and ready to go before 6am and staying up late catching up on…

I’d like to start off by saying thank you. Thank you all so much for the kind words during my “return” to the blog world and sharing the hills we’ve been climbing over the last year. Sometimes it is very hard to be completely transparent. Although sometimes it is completely easy to be transparent to the computer screen. Then I remember once I hit post, people I love a lot will read it.  I get…

The Labels that Define Us

It’s been a really long time since I’ve logged in to this space. The last time I sat down to type was August 30, 2015. The very next day my life changed forever. I found out I was pregnant with our second child. In that time since we’ve built our house, had a baby girl, sold our other house, survived the hardest season of our marriage, continued to raise a toddler, work, and so on. But it’s that…

Summer Recap: Part 1

Well, summer is officially over so I finally have the desire to sit down and stare at my computer screen. If there was any way to sum up our summer, I would definitely say it was the BEST SUMMER EVER. Sure I probably had summers as a child that I thought were the greatest, but for the first time in many summers, I can say this summer was the icing on the cake of awesome. With that I bring you…

I Lost the Lust

If any of you are still around, you’re probably shocked to see me show up in your news feed. Heck, you probably forget about Pardon My Dust….I kind of did too. In all honesty though, I lost the lust and love for blogging that I once had. It happened around the time I decided to step away from the Internet and spend more time being in the zone. The creative juices stopped flowing, I got sick…

*Took me almost a month to write this post. Goals….blog more (for real this time). This post is obnoxious. If you don’t read…I forgive you*

As per usual I’ve really let myself down with this whole blogging thing. Though I blame Mother Nature. I blame her for everything. It’s cold. It’s windy. It’s dark. It’s dreary. Really takes a toll on a persons emotions. Plus, there was the plague. Plus I…

I started typing this post almost a month ago, but stopped multiple times because I am superstitious. It was like every time I sat down to write, I knew I was jinxing myself and bringing back the plague. Yep, I said the plague. Don’t worry, not the bubonic plague. I vaccinate my child. The plague where there’s lots of puking, some diarrhea, and a whole lot of tears from all parties. I’ll spare…

#ZOOCREW 2015 Days 68-88

The amount of posts I’m going to blow you away with this week will make up for the fact that I haven’t posted in what seems like forever. This working mom business sure keeps a girl on her toes! I look forward to March because it seems the busy time of life slows down. Plus there’s spring, which usually means warmer weather. Except we live in Wisconsin….

Day 68: My shadow and I took the little…

Not Too Legit to Quit

You post one picture saying that you quit Facebook and your whole world blows up. You get texts  like “there’s no way you, you must of just given it up for lent.” I have only ever given up one thing for lent and that was pregnancy two years ago. I think sometimes you don’t have to justify yourself when sharing your feelings on this blogsphere and then I think there are other times when you…

Hi! I can’t believe it has almost been a month since I sat down and opened this little blog page. I’m not sure if I’ve been busy or lazy, possibly a combination of the two, but I’m back and ready to take on the world. Well I’m not sure about taking on the world, but something about 40 degrees in March in Wisconsin makes a girl feel extra rejuvenated. Day 47: Got these great pieces from IKEA. Part…

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Choo Choo HD Turned Two-Part Two

Last Friday, Henry turned two. Since he’s beyond awesome, he was lucky enough to get to spend three days celebrating his birthday. By the fourth day, he was asking where the presents were and we’ve had to explain to him multiple times this week that the cake is all gone!

Carol is so incredibly awesome that she throws each kid their own birthday party. Henry is an almost holiday baby, which means…

I’m finding that taking pictures this time around is a lot harder. After doing it for 365 straight days it should be natural by now, but for some reason I’m struggling. I think it’s the pressure to put out really good pictures and no just constant pictures of my ever so cute toddler.

Day 26: A weekly batch of muffins for the hubby. This batch failed…terribly

Day 27: Hats Off to Me for being…

Since I don’t do anything small, we of course had a party and the boy spent three days celebrating turning two. There were lots of presents, sweets and smiles. I’ll post all about his party, the decorations, foods, etc tomorrow, but today a little statistical update on what being Henry is like.

We haven’t had our two-year check up yet, but I’m guessing he weighs around 30 pounds and is around 32 inches tall. He still has short leg syndrome, which makes buying pants a real treat. Big belly, short legs. Can you say high waters or drowning in your pants? I have faith he’ll outgrow it. His short fat feet have started to thin out. There’s hope for his stubby legs.

Eating He continues to love eating, but is definitely picky. What toddler isn’t? Carbs are by far his favorite, next to fruit, pancakes, milk, yogurt and dip it (also known as barbecue sauce). We still don’t do juice, but he does get it other places. Actually yesterday he asked for juice and when I said we didn’t have any in our house his response was “AWWW man, mom!” Chicken is not his favorite, even chicken nuggets don’t get much love. Not sure if it’s hard to chew for him or what. He eats vegetables best when they are mixed in with something or contain sauce. Some days he loves eating and other days he’s pushing his plate away after two bites. I don’t make a huge deal out of the days he doesn’t eat the best. I figure he’ll eat when he’s hungry enough.

We have ditched the sippy cup for the most part, except for the car and outings. He hasn’t sat in a highchair in months. I think I stopped cutting up his food almost a year ago.

He loves to help prepare food, which I’ve learned plays a big part on him eating it too!

Intelligence/Developmental Stages Developmentally he’s where I assume two year olds should be. He talks, a lot. Some of it makes sense and other times I have no idea what gibberish he is speaking of. However, I think the babies at daycare do because they’re attentive when he talks to them. He can count to 10 and sometimes we can get him to 15. We sing the ABC’s daily, but he has his favorite letters (i, j and h in that order). White, pink and red are his favorite colors. Though he knows more colors he chooses to say every color is one of those. Recently he told me what a circle is, thank you Carol for teaching him that.

Potty Training

We are going to push potty training this Spring. He has a lot of interest in it. Last week he even pooped in the potty. That was a HUGE deal. Hopefully he will be on board with this change because Ben and I are ready for it.

Sleep I feel like talking about his sleep habits might set me up for disaster. We still get a good nap during the day. It can span anywhere from 2-4 hours on the weekend. Bedtime is around 7:30 and if we don’t wake him up, he will sleep until 7:30am. There are zero complaints in the sleep department (I’d like to keep it that way). He continues to love the big boy bed as long as he can sleep with 800 cars. Even at my parents his has a bed now and there’s been no issues. We bought him a blow up mattress with sides for when we travel. Testing that out next week for the first time.

Play As a very active little boy who loves planes, trains and cars you can imagine what our life is like. There’s lot of vroom, bang and boom going on. The boy can play for hours with his cars and he does. Books and puzzles are the bees knees. We are trying to move him up to more complicated puzzles for a little bit of a challenge.

He’s particular about what he wants to watch on TV. I try not to let him watch too much TV, but I’ll admit it does help entertain when we need to get things done without interruption. Every morning he does get to play on the iPad while we get ready. He sits in our bed, we put the parental controls on with the 12 minute timer, he plays on the app, and when the screen says “Times Up” he knows to hand it over. Rarely do we have an issue with this. Before I implemented the timer, we had fits, now he just gets it.

Other Stuff Showers are far more superior than baths. Especially showers in our bathroom. Blankie is still a must. It’s not a pacifier, he has stopped dragging it every place we go, so I’m not too upset that he’s obsessed. We do make an attempt to make sure blankie is out of sight when he’s not sleeping. Being social is especially fun. He talks to people in the grocery store and wants to be friends with everyone he meets. Complete opposite of me! He’s kind of bossy, mostly towards the dog. Completely like me. His memory is amazing. I don’t know if all toddlers have a memory as good as his, but he remembers EVERYTHING. I’ve become a bit more lenient with his sugar intake. I still hate it, but he’s not living a sheltered sugar life anymore. It’s only fair that he gets sugar if I do. He has more good days than bad (shoot I probably just jinxed myself again). While he’s naughty at times, more often than not he’s a really good kid. His listening is on point for most days. We don’t have to tell him to throw things away or put his plate in the sink, he just does. In a few years I’ll reread that sentence and pray for those good manners to return. Speaking of manners, I often think he’s overly mannered. He says please and thank you A LOT.

Best of all, he’s a lover. The boy LOVES to give hugs and kisses. Whether it’s when he’s leaving a room, someone is entering the room or just randomly gets the urge while playing, he gives the best hugs ever. They are by far my favorite part of every day.

If you would’ve asked me two years ago if I thought this stage would have been my favorite, I think I would have said no. I loved baby Henry. Truth is though, toddlers are just as exhausting as newborns, but WAY more fun. If he could speak a little more, I’d wish him to be this little forever. But, as Carol says, they have to grow up so you don’t have to change diapers for the rest of your life!

This next year is going to be great. I’m sure it will have it’s trails which goes with the toddler territory. Everyday seems to be a new adventure for Henry and I love that we get to see the circle of life unfold.