Wednesday, May 21, 2014

March Photos and Updates

We had a really low-key March since Trevor had lost his job and we had very little income. We spent a lot of time doing free things (like playing at home) and having playdates with friends.

Here's Charlie playing in his native habitat, his playroom! Gotta love that blue-eyed cutie. I also got adventurous with my baking and made my first ever pie from scratch! That's right... crust and all. It was a key lime pie (really just regular lime since you can't buy key limes around here) with graham cracker crust. The crust turned out tasty, but really crumbly. So I may buy pre-made graham cracker crusts from now on unless I can perfect a crust recipe! It was SO tasty and very sweet/rich! :)
Sometime during the middle of the month, my Mom came out to see us for a couple days! She accompanied a friend from NC to UT driving across the country and took the chance to stop in for a couple of days. We had a blast while she was here! We did quite a bit of fabric shopping for baby girl's quilt, went to the park, and to story time (which Charlie LOVED having his Kimma there)! This first picture is a comparison picture of Charlie on the same slide (left picture was taken one year prior to the right picture, taken this March). I can't believe how much he's grown, especially those legs!! The second picture was taken at story time during a bouncing/jumping activity that Charlie really likes.
Here's a picture of a typical Sunday afternoon after we get home from church. My boys are usually so exhausted that they'll fall asleep anywhere! A couple days later we had an early spring snow, so I turned on our new fireplace for warmth. It wasn't quite finished aesthetically, but it was functioning, so I turned it on! :)
Since we were getting less than 3 months out from having this baby girl, I decided to start transitioning Charlie to a big boy bed so I could free up the crib. I thought it might be a bad idea to switch him to a new room and a new bed at the same time he was getting a new baby sister. It might have been too many big changes at once. So, I went to Costco and bought a twin mattress and found a Cars brand sheet set from Walmart. We put the mattress on the floor, put about half of his toys in the closet, and tried out the big boy bed! It was a little iffy the first couple of nights with crying and confusion from Charlie, but he was really smart and, for the most part, always gets in his bed when he's feeling sleepy. It's been about 10 weeks and he's not perfect at napping every day (he probably doesn't nap 2 days a week, which isn't bad), but the main problem is that sometimes it would take him 2 hours of playing before he'd finally fall asleep for a nap around 3pm or so... which meant he didn't want to go to bed at 8 and wouldn't sleep at night until 9:30 or 10pm. Regardless of the irregularity, it's been a relatively easy experience. I have had to put ALL of his toys in his closet now at nap time to encourage sleeping, and that seems to work most days, but lately he's taken to getting behind the blinds and watching what's going on outside his windows. Haha. Oh well!
Pictured above is my man grilling us some amazing marinated pork loins and pineapple. We had a stint of warmer weather and we love to take the chance to grill when we can! MMMmmm! Below... Charlie found another comfy place to nap after church on the next Sunday. He loves to sleep with a pillow on top of him. It's so funny! And I also finally let him play with PlayDoh for the first time (a cheap, fun activity!!) despite my reservations about the mess it would make. It hasn't been too messy yet, so PlayDoh is not on my hate list anymore haha!
We were goofing around with a selfie photo session one day when I was being too pregnant and lazy on the couch. I just love his silly, sweet faces! "Say Cheeeeeese!"
And here's a picture of when I was pregnant at 28 weeks, getting ready to go to yoga. I have to say, doing yoga saves my LIFE when I'm pregnant. I can go in feeling like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz and come out loose, relaxed, and happy again! Love love love! It was around this point where I was pretty uncomfortable quite often, as my belly was stretching exponentially and it was always really painful. Plus, little girl loves to roll around and poke me with her elbows, heels, knees, feet, etc... and that can get pretty uncomfortable after a while too! But I love her anyway :)
Pictured above, we had a blustery March storm roll through really quickly one evening, and when it passed, it left this gorgeous view out my back windows! LOVE these mountains! I'm so grateful for where I live! And below are just two more pictures of my boy. I couldn't help but snap a picture of him in his I<3NY tee while eating a slice of thin crust pizza. It was all too legit! Hahahaha... too bad we weren't actually IN New York City. That would have been fun! And last, his sassy face! Who can resist!?
We really do love this boy who is learning all sorts of new things every day, especially words and sounds. He's definitely 2-years-old, though, and throws his fair share of tantrums, refuses to listen to anything I say unless there's some sort of reward/treat attached, does what he wants when he wants, and shouts "NOOOOO" on a relatively frequent basis. He has more pent-up energy than I know what to do with, and often tries to smash his head into the floor or my face, or kicks things rapidly with his little feet while sitting down (including ME and my poor belly, ouch!). Heaven help me when this baby comes. But despite all the tiring days I have, his sweet personality and cute mannerisms make me the proudest, happiest Mom of all time! <3