Day 568 | Looking Festive

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I've been on a mission to explain to Chase what "festive" looks like. I think he's gotten the hang of it just in time for our favorite holiday season.

Since most of our friends and family won't be able to share our holiday decorations with us, here's a peek at a few of my favorite festive corners of our house.

And, in case you're keeping track, I did finish the knitted Christmas stockings that I started last January (but only in the nick of time). I ended up unraveling the first one I did due to some sizing issues, so I actually knit five of them. I think they look pretty happy hanging from our mantle. 

Day 567 | Family Day

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There's a chance we will only be without family for three days during the entire month of December! We have two rounds of visitors coming in the next couple of weeks (my mom for sure and *fingers crossed* for Chris's brother and his family) and then we head back to Wisconsin for the holidays. Whoa! We're over the moon excited about all the family time but we realized with so many visitors and trips planned, it means limited time with just the four of us from now until 2016 (again, we're not complaining!).

So, what does that mean? Today was officially family day. We had breakfast (and took selfies with the boys) at our favorite breakfast joint and then headed down to the Mall for some fun museum time. Chase chose the American History Museum and, as usual, it didn't disappoint. Both boys had a blast running from exhibit to exhibit. It was about as perfect as an outing can be.

Day 564 | Feeling Thankful

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Happy Thanksgiving, wonderful family and friends. I hope you were all surrounded by lots of laughter, reminiscing and delicious food on this turkey day.

I'm happy to report we checked all those boxes with the friends and family we shared our meal with today. I still can't come to terms with today being Thanksgiving (where did the fall go?!?), but if I can't be back in Wisconsin for all the festivities, today was just perfect.

Day 563 | Holiday Weekend

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We had a lovely start to our holiday weekend. Robbe and I met Chase at school for a Thanksgiving feast. Robbe sat right at the table with the big kids (do you see him at the back of the table) and had a blast. It was adorable.

Then this afternoon we enjoyed some wonderful quality time with Aunt Kelli. Have I mentioned visitors are the best? And we're beyond ecstatic to be celebrating the holiday with family tomorrow. Yippee!

Day 561 | Old Enough?

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I'm back! It's been a lovely break from the constant chronicalling of our lives but I'm happy to be here sharing photos with you again. Hopefully you all didn't mind the break...too much!

I'm thrilled to report that everyone is healthy (except maybe Chris and his looming cough) and things have gotten back to normal around here. We've been talking a lot about Christmas and Christmas presents...a lot. Turns out 3.5 years old is a fun age for all things related to the holiday spirit. So, my question for you? Based on Robbe's new favorite hobby (see photo above), is 1.5 years old too young to ask Santa for a skateboard? Ha! Even though his skills are impressive, maybe we'll wait until his birthday.


Day 559 | Moms

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Sometimes I don't understand why my boys like me so much. I'm not always as patient and understanding as I'd like to be. I'm the primary disciplinarian (mostly because I'm the one with them for the majority of the day). I'm not nearly as sympathetic when they're sick (especially when it draws on for six+ week) as they deserve. I'm constantly multitasking when we're together (of course I can clean, cook, play, and read all at the same time).

And yet...they have this never ending, never questioning love towards me. It's amazing, really. Where is this coming from? Two events from the past few days:
  1. At pickup from school on Friday, I found out that Chase didn't sleep at nap time. We've had a really good stretch lately so I thought maybe we were past this. He definitely needs the sleep and naptime lasts 1.5 hours. He can just lay there, quietly, for 1.5 hours. Crazy, right? Just close your eyes! Anyway, I was slightly disappointed and frustrated by this news and was grilling Chase about why he didn't sleep. After several minutes, he finally said, "I didn't want to sleep." When I dug deeper and asked why, he hesitated for a moment then looked me right in the eyes and said, "I just needed you, momma." Are you kidding me? Talk about going from frustrated to putty in his hands. I honestly teared up. Could you imagine hearing anything sweeter from your 3.5 year old?
  2. As I've mentioned, Chase is getting into writing and drawing. I'm really enjoying watching this evolution. It's fascinating to me. This weekend, he wrote his first word. And guess what it was? M-O-M. I'm sure it's just because it's a short, easy to write word, but he purposely wrote it, knew what it spelled, and was so proud of himself (as he should have been!). One again, just heart melting. 

You just want to bottle these little moments up and save them for when the boys want nothing to do with me as teenagers. Instead, I'll just try to absorb as much of this sweetness as possible for as long as it lasts.

Day 557 | Noodle Necklaces

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Today was the perfect day for creating some good, old-fashioned noodle necklaces. 

Chase stayed pretty into it the whole time, even making one for Chris. Robbe was more focused on figuring out the best way to eat the rock hard noodles (his string reminded me more of a traditional candy necklace that he was trying to bite the noodles off of...ha!). A good time was had by all. 

Day 556 | Retail Therapy

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After the toy aisle, these balloons were a close second place favorite spot during our shopping spree.
Retail therapy: it really works, doesn't it?

I'm not sure I've ever (in 3.5+ years) taken a baby shopping with me solo. Target? Sure. But never as a fun, optional activity. Although Robbe wasn't an ideal shopping companion, he hung in there better than expected. 

After the great clothes and decent deals, maybe Robbe and I will make this a weekly activity. Ok, definitely not, but as a reward for surviving six weeks of sickness (and hopefully not a day more!), yep. I'm in. 

Day 555 | Busting Out

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Robbe went 24 hours without a fever today! He's far from 100% but to celebrate this important accomplishment,  the boys and I (unfortunately Chris is still down for the count) headed to a park for some much needed fresh air and vitamin D. This was our first real outing in five days. That's an eternity for me. The beautiful fall day sparked the life back into me, though. Ready for healthy babies around here!

Day 554 | Close Call

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On the walk to our car after school today, a small tree cracked loose from its trunk and landed about four feet away from us on the sidewalk. Chase and I agreed that we've never had something like that happen to us before (slightly more impressive coming from me than a 3.5 year old).

Oh, and that's the minivan on the other side of the tree. This incident could have been slightly less humorous if we were a little quicker walkers or if the wind was blowing the other way. 

Feeling lucky. 

Day 553 | Board Books

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How can you tell a 1.5 year old is sick (oh, did I forget to mention Robbe and Chris are sick...again)? He'll sit through all these books in one sitting. Yep. One sitting, all these books.

As I was making the stack of read books, I realized that most of these are our all time favorite board books. What a perfect opportunity to highlight some of them as recommendations for anyone in the market for some new reading material.
Happy reading!

Day 551 | Drawing

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Painting time with Mary Catherine today. The blue one is Chase's space ship and the red on is Mary Catherine's. Adorable, I know.
Chase's interest in writing and drawing has really exploded over the last few weeks. He went from never wanting to color or paint to being interested every time I ask him...and he even requests it sometimes. So interesting.

And he's practicing his letters now, too. It's about the cutest thing ever. He's really mastered the "M" and can write a bunch of other letters too (but "M" is his favorite). I'm sure this budding interest comes from activities he's doing at school, but they definitely don't push practicing letters or writing on them. The process to teach writing is quite fascinating, isn't it? 

Day 549 | Becoming a Dalmatian

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You didn't think I'd overlook a friendly DIY guide for our favorite Dalmatian, did you? Here goes:

What I used:

  • a gray sweat suit (separate hoodie and pants), inside out
  • black flannel for spots (the flannel glued to the sweatshirt easier than felt would have)
  • black felt for the ears and tail 
  • stuffing (for the tail)
  • black thread (for minimal hand sewing)
  • fabric glue
  • ribbon for collar
  • old pet tag (or make something that looks like one)
How I did it:
  • Cut out a bunch of different-shaped spots and lay them out on the sweatshirt in an appealing pattern. Maybe you noticed that I started out spacing the spots evenly (see photo above), but ended up clumping them a bit more. I was much happier with that layout.
  • Use the fabric glue to adhere the spots. Don't go too heavy with the glue application or it'll seep through the felt fabric.
  • Cut ear shapes out of the felt fabric and handstitch them in place (the glue isn't strong enough to handle this job).
  • Cut a skinny cone shape out of the felt for the tail and hand sew up the long edges. Then add stuffing (not too full) and hand stitch the tail to the bum of the sweatpants.
  • Finally, attach the ribbon to the neck of the sweatshirt to act as the collar. Instead of handstitching the ribbon all the way around, just tack it on there with one stitch at each opening and one in the middle (where you'll add the tag with one stitch, too).