February Updates

Now that I have stopped updating the blog every month with Mason's latest info, I realize I really need to keep some sort of monthly action on this little ol' blog. This blog is much more complete and detailed than either child's baby book will ever be and I need a place to keep those memories that will surely be forgotten  over the years. So, I am starting a monthly update on the kids so my frazzled brain can spew out the memories that I want to keep so I can thoroughly embarrass my kids when they are older with tidbits from their childhood. 

So, our biggest news from the month of February is that Aubrey got a seat at Mountain Island Charter. We are so relieved that we don't have to worry about that anymore. We were so fortunate to be chosen for that school because we have only heard great things about it.We did not get into any of the other schools we chose, but that's ok. A member of our small group from church is the Head of the Lower School at MICS so we are confident that Aubrey will be well taken care of and looked after. We did not get into any of the other schools we chose, but that's ok. Now, we start planning what that means for our schedule starting in August. MICS is about 20-ish minutes away and no bus provided so we have to work out a lot of details like drop off/pick up/Mason being taken care of on days I work. He's starting preschool in September so that helps some, but we are trying to minimize the crazy driving all over creation. But, we have some time to figure all of that out and get everything together. I am still a little in shock that Aubrey is starting kindergarten  in less than 6 months so hopefully I can get myself together by then, too.

Another fun part of February was the big snow. Living in NC, we usually only see a dusting of snow every winter. So, it was a complete thrill to get 8-10 inches of snow this month. I haven't seen that much snow in 10 years or so and it was beautiful. The kids throughly enjoyed the snow, but we were all pretty tired of it by the 3rd day. 

We discovered Mason's left 2-year molar broke through on February 16th and it was a beast for everyone. Teething and the terrible 2's just don't mix so we've been in h-e-double hockey sticks with him for the past few weeks. And, we still have 3 more of these nasty molars to wait on before we can close the books on teething. Sigh.

Speaking of terrible 2's, OMG. They SUCK. I know time diffuses the memories, but I swear I don't remember Aubrey being this much trouble at 2. But, Mason has turned into this crazy toddler in the past few months and it is maddening. He has perfected the art of a full-on screaming on the floor tantrum. He climbs on everything. He gets into absolutely everything. He loves the word no. I know its all typical 2-year old stuff so I try really hard to take it all in stride. But, man, its hard sometimes. And I do feel bad for him because I know his gums hurt on top of it all. I think its safe to say we are all ready for this phase to move on by.

Aubrey proved she is getting too big by surviving a complete night of a sleepover at her friend's house. Her friend had to change from preschool to daycare and this has been a tough transition for the little clique in Aubrey's class. This little group of 4 has been friends since the beginning of the 3-year old class so losing a member is the first real lesson of loss to them. So, the friend's mom arranged a play date for them and said if any of the girls wanted to, they could spend the night at her house. Todd and I were fine with it and of course, Aubrey was ecstatic. At first. Then, she got a little nervous about sleeping there as they day got closer. We told her we could pick her up at any time if she got scared, but we never got a call. The mom said it was a rough night and 1 friend did end up leaving, but I think Aubrey just enjoyed playing with her friend's toys too much to leave. But, we are proud that she was able to deal with something a little different and scary and make it through the night on her own. 

So, that was the month of February. We are over the cold weather and ready for spring and all the fun activities that come with the season. 

5th birthday party, check up, and school plans.

Since we did the trip to Orlando, we weren't going to have a party for Aubrey's birthday. But, she kept asking us to plan different things for her party and she was so excited about the idea of a party, so there was no way we could skip out on a party. About a month before her birthday, I saw that our local Sweet Frog frozen yogurt shop was offering a birthday party package so I thought that would be perfect for Aubrey since she loooooves Sweet Frog. We decided to keep it pretty small and invite just a few friends because the pocketbook strings would be a little tighter after the trip.

It turned out to be such a good party for Aubrey. 4 of the 5 friends she invited showed up and they had a such a good time eating frozen yogurt and opening presents. It was a little crowded in the shop and I'm sure the other customers were deaf after listening to 4 preschool girls squeal, but none of that mattered to the birthday girl. 

Todd took Aubrey to the doctor for this year's well child check since I had to work. She weighs 39 lbs (45th%) and is 3' 5.75" tall (35th%). She has dropped a bit from her usual growth curve, but Dr. Little didn't seem to be troubled by that for now. She passed all of her screenings with flying colors and Dr. Little said she is on track for everything. The bittersweet part of the exam included Dr. Little completing her kindergarten physical paperwork and giving us a copy of her shot records for the school. 

Kindergarten is such a hot topic amongst the parents of 4 and 5 year olds. Discussions started at preschool around Christmas last year about what our plans were for Aubrey for school. While we are ok with our local elementary school and middle school we are not quite so fond of our appointed high school. Its not terrible, but some things I've heard do not make me feel quite so happy about sending either child there. So, we've been researching charter schools in the area and decided to apply for 3 of them. All of the charters have lotteries, so we should be finding out in the next few weeks if Aubrey gets a slot in any of them. If she does, great. If not, we will be just fine with sending her to the public school, but will continue to apply for charter schools until she can hopefully get a seat. I know high school is a long time from now, so hopefully if we have to stay in the public schools, we will have moved into a better high school district before we need to worry about it.

So, our season of birthdays has ended for the year. It is always fun to have the birthday excitement, but after what usually turns into at least 3 weeks of birthday celebrations, we are ready for some quiet and relaxation. 

Turning Five in Orlando

It has taken me so long to write this post because it is so bittersweet. My sweet Aubrey Grace turned 5 this year and I'm still in a little bit of denial. Since Aubrey was born, we've planned to take her to Disney on her 5th birthday. It seemed like such a long time away when she was born, but before we knew it, it was July 2013 and time to start booking the trip. We kept the whole thing a surprise until a few days before  when we told her we were going on a trip to Florida for her birthday, but didn't say what we were doing in Florida. We made the looong drive down there the day before her birthday and told her we were going to a big park the next day. So, on her actual birthday we woke her up and this is what happened.

(Short version, she wasn't very excited at first, but warmed up over time.)

We got to the park and got on the monorail and of course, Mason was in heaven since its so much like a train. Aubrey still wasn't too sure about the whole Disney thing until we got into the park and she laid eyes on Cinderella's castle. This was my 5th trip to the Magic Kingdom and I was still excited, but nothing beats watching a child experience it for the first time. We got to enter the park before it opened since our breakfast reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table was for 9:05. We got to take a few pictures in front of the castle before the park opened and then got sprinkled with "pixie dust" (AKA, a crap ton of glitter that will survive the apocalypse since it took 4-5 washings to come out). We walked into Cinderella's castle at 9:00 and before we knew it, Cinderella herself walked out. We still weren't sure how Aubrey would react to the characters themselves, but she surprised us completely by giving Cinderella a huge hug and even talked to her. She got a glimpse at some of the other princesses before we sat down and was disappointed when they left before she could meet them. We ordered breakfast (which they were amazing with Mason's dairy issues by sending out the chef to discuss what he could and couldn't eat) and then they re-introduced each princess and Aubrey was in heaven. Each princess walks to every table and spends a few minutes with the children before moving on to the next table. She got to meet Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, and Jasmine and I thought she was going to break their necks hugging and loving on them. The Disney princess absolutely rock at their jobs and they treated Aubrey and Mason like royalty. It was just as amazing as we hoped and worth every single expensive penny we paid for that breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent most of our day in Fantasyland since that was where most of the rides for Aubrey were.  We did spend some time in the other "lands" during the day, but with our Fast Pass schedule, we spend most of our day running back to Fantasyland for our ride times. We met Cinderella and Aurora again in the Hall of Princesses, participated in and met Belle in her show, and met Ariel again (this time as a true mermaid). We thought our day had been topped in best experiences by Cinderella's Royal Table until after we met Ariel. As we were leaving Ariel's Grotto, these 3 Disney staff members come up to Aubrey and start talking to her. They asked her if she had done everything she wanted to do on her birthday and she looks at us very confused by their question. They reworded their question to ask what she had done over the day and she told them about the rides and meeting the princesses. They asked her if she'd met all the princess and she said all of them except Rapunzel. We wanted to see Rapunzel earlier in the day, but chose the wrong line in the Hall of Princesses and by the end of the day the wait was over an hour to meet her. So, the staff asked if she would like to meet Rapunzel and Aubrey nodded yes so they asked us to follow them. 2 of the staff grabbed Aubrey's hands and she talked their heads off the entire walk. Todd and I were still a little confused and shocked about this whole thing. We weren't sure what was happening but we were curious what they were planning for Aubrey. They led us back to the Hall of Princesses and basically fast passed us through the line to meet Rapunzel. Then, they gave Aubrey an autograph book (yes, we were super slack and forgot about that earlier in the day), pen, a Cinderella collectible pin, and another Fast Pass for us to use on another ride of our choice. Todd and I were almost in tears at this point. We couldn't believe they were so sweet and doing this for our little girl. So, we got to go through the Hall of Princesses again and meet Rapunzel and Snow White (again). It was just amazing and awesome to see Aubrey get her wish for her birthday and I can't thank those unknown Disney staff enough. She used the Fast Pass to ride the Peter Pan ride, which she said was her favorite ride of the day. After dinner, we had to dodge a few rain showers before we watched the Electric Parade. Another magical moment happened during the parade. We were a little late getting to the parade because of dinner so we were standing about 3 rows back when the parade started and it was hard for Aubrey to see. This very sweet mother was sitting on the front row and noticed that Aubrey was struggling so she asked us if it would be ok if Aubrey sat on her lap to watch the parade. So, Aubrey got front row for the parade and was so excited to see more characters in front of her. After the parade, they used Cinderella's castle as a backdrop for movie clips and fireworks and it was amazing. We finally left Magic Kingdom around 8:30-ish, completely exhausted from such a fantastic day.

We got back to the condo and sang Happy Birthday to Aubrey before letting her dig into a cupcake (yeah, I understand the hype about Publix' cupcakes now. They are good.)

We originally planned to spend our 2nd day in Animal Kingdom, but late on Sunday we decided to change to Hollywood Studios so Aubrey and Mason could do some of the Disney Junior things. We met Sophia the First right off the bat and then watched a few shows, including the Disney Junior puppet show. That was another magical moment of the trip because Aubrey and Mason were both fascinated watching the characters in person that they see on tv everyday. There weren't quite as many rides for the kids at Hollywood Studios, but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. We did meet Minnie and Mickey Mouse at the end of the day and both kids enjoyed that.

Our 3rd and final day of the trip was spent at Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. This was more for Todd's benefit because he really wanted to visit the Harry Potter attraction. There was a Dr. Seuss attraction that both kids enjoyed, but the rest of the Islands of Adventure park is really geared for adults. I will admit the Harry Potter area was awesome, though. Todd rode the castle tour and we all drank some awesome, yummy butter beer. I wish we had had one more day to do the other side of Universal Studios so that is one of our priorities when we go back for Mason's birthday.

Wednesday, we had to drive back following the ice/snow storm in Georgia, SC, and NC. We had so many people try to convince us to delay our trip another day after the drama in Atlanta, but I had to go to work the next day so that wasn't an option. The drive back was not too bad and we didn't see any snow until we were almost in Columbia, SC.

So, it was a whirlwind trip and we learned quite a few things for our next trip. I can't wait to go back in 3 years and do it all over again.

The 2nd Birthday Party

We decided to have Mason's 2nd birthday party at home and keep it pretty small. Even though it was small, I wanted it to be fun and 2-year old geared so we went with the construction theme. He loves trucks and dirt, so it was perfect for him. He seemed to enjoy it and I think that is the most important thing.

The spread

No construction party is complete without dirt cake

His little serving of dirt cake

Dirt cake mustache 

Sharing his favorite present with his buddy Tyler

And then he was TWO!

I swear, the birthdays really snuck up on us this year. And that's crazy since I have a full year to think about them. I started getting early ideas in my head about Mason's birthday in late fall, but going back to work and the hustle and bustle of the holidays took so much of my time that it was the day after Christmas before I really started putting firm plans in place. Luckily, the busyness kept me from drowning in the bittersweetness that is having your baby turn 2. It means he's really not a baby at all anymore. He's full on crazy, but lovable little boy.

I kept us busy on his actual birthday by going to Discovery Place Kids, getting cupcakes, and wrapping his presents. These were good distractions that still focused on him and reminded me that I am so lucky to be his mom and glad that we were blessed to have him in our lives.

Another bittersweet part of him turning 2 is this is my last monthly post. Ever. Sigh....

Milestones this month:
*No teeth came through this month. I was a little surprised because I thought a molar was pretty close last month. But, no dice.
*We argued and debated for weeks before we finally made the tough decision to turn his car seat around. I really wanted to keep him rear facing as long as possible, but it was becoming a hazard to drive with him because he would scream the second  you put him in the seat and would scream off and on the entire trip. The trip to Atlanta was our final straw because he screamed most of the 4 hour trip and we just realized it was time. Sadly, the day I actually turned the seat around, he was quite a grumpy little man, so he didn't give me the happy reaction I hoped for. But, the screaming has completely stopped and driving is much easier now.
*We took him to McAdenville for the Christmas lights and decided to walk the tour this year and he was amazed. He kept saying "Lights. Mommy, Daddy, look. Lights." Over and over again. It was so cute.
*Christmas was a blast with him. He enjoyed opening presents, but was really more excited to be in the playroom and able to play with those toys.
*Speaking of playroom, after we took the tree down we decided to leave the gate off the playroom entrance so Mason could go in. He was thrilled. For the first few weeks, he wouldn't leave the playroom and insisted on playing with the kitchen set and Aubrey's other toys. We bought a new toy bin to put in the room and were able to clear the toys completely out of the living room. After 2 years, it is so nice to have our living room back again.
*He had his 2-year check up on the 20th. His stats were 24 lbs, 7 oz (10th%), 32.5" tall (13th%), and 47.5 cm head circumference (20th%). The first thing Dr. Little brought up when he came in was his concern over Mason's drop from his growth curve. He seems to think Mason is not getting enough protein and fat from the hemp milk and that is why he is not gaining like he should. I also shared that we are struggling to get Mason to eat much of anything except his same handful of choices (pb&j, hot dogs, waffles, fruit). He has been refusing most protein and all vegetables. We discussed that he has continuing issues with dairy products, but not so much soy anymore. He wants to see if he has possibly outgrown the milk protein intolerance, and now has some lactose intolerance instead. So he encouraged us to make an attempt with lactose free products and Lactaid so see what happens. Otherwise, he said Mason is perfectly healthy and developmentally on track. So, we've started a trial of the lactose free stuff and we'll see how it goes.

One of my favorites from his 2-year old session.

Seeing his birthday cupcake for the first time.

Testing out the birthday wheels.

Old and new resolutions

2013 was such a big year for me. I made a lot of changes personally and professionally and I am very proud of how things turned out in the end. When I set my New Year's resolutions in December 2012, I had no idea that what ups and downs I'd face through the year, but I guess no one ever really does. I knew there would be changes so I wasn't sure how I would make my resolutions work, but somehow they worked. I know most people set their resolutions and throw them out the window after a few weeks, but I guess I am just stubborn and hate to give up on things. That's why I sat down at my little blog and typed them for the world to see so I couldn't give up. There were times I wanted to quit and times I almost messed up, but in the end I successfully lost my goal weight 15 lbs and completed a 365 day photography project.

In some ways, the weight loss was the easier of the 2 for me. Exercise and eating healthier became part of my routine. I still can't say I just love to exercise and don't want to eat 3000 calories a day, but looking and feeling better are big incentives. I had no idea when I started running again in April that I would complete a half marathon. I also had no idea that I'd lose 30 pounds when it was all said and done. But, I did both of those and it feels pretty awesome to look at what I accomplished.

Now, the 365 project turned out to be a huge hassle for me. I really started struggling with creative ideas and often times just didn't want to pick up my camera. So, I started out the year with 80% of my pictures being with my DSLR and 20% iPhone, but by the fall it was the complete opposite. There were some days it turned out to be a screen shot of something on my computer and my dogs were always last resort options at 11:30 at night. I think my photography rut has extended itself and now there are many times I can go a week or 2 and not even touch my DSLR. But, I managed to get 365 images to document my year and that means the resolution was a success. I still love photography and I am so glad that I have the ability to document our lives with some awesome images, but I think some other hobbies have taken over for now and that's ok. I am behind almost 2 months in blogging the remaining photos, but they are all edited and waiting so I hope to get them up soon and close the door on the 365/2013 project.

With those goals accomplished, it was time to turn my focus on 2014. With being back at work and having more limited time, I had to be careful when setting new resolutions. My new job is pretty demanding and the little bit of energy I do have on days I work is spent with my family and exercising so I decided to focus on one thing at a time before setting new challenges.

I hate to say it, but I did gain 5 pounds back after I finished my half marathon. I was so burned out on running/exercising and combining that with the holidays meant calorie overload. But, the good news is I have refocused and decided that is not acceptable. I didn't work so hard last year to give up, so my goal is to lose those 5 pounds again and shave time off my running pace. I have started running more seriously again and added strength training back to the routine and I know combining those things with healthy eating will bring positive changes. Todd and I have signed up for a half marathon in Charlotte in April and I am determined to beat my time from November so I have some work to do. I've also got to work on eating better, especially on days I work. I am a total stress eater so those working days are really tough for me to handle. I plan to limit the eating in the cafeteria at work and limiting the snacks and wine at home. I have to find a good balance with food and my training so that is also something for me to focus on.

So, the first 4 months of 2014 are dedicated to being me better physically. Once I achieve those goals, I will reevaluate and see what I need to work on next. Reevaluating my goals throughout last year really helped keep things achievable so setting smaller time limited goals are the way to go for me. Here's to a positive start for the year!

2013 in review (picture style)

January brought us birthdays, first haircuts, and family time inside.

February and March gave us new toys and some outside play time.

May and June saw recitals, gymnastics shows, and family celebrations.

July and August meant plenty of extra playtime.

September and October meant back to school, cooler weather outside, and Halloween.

November and December were about good times spent with family and turning the car seat around.