My sweet girl is 20 months!

Macey Jean,

You are 20 months old...which, to me, means you're officially almost two. You're no longer a baby, but a toddler. Of course, I occasionally miss the little squishy blob of newborn that you used to be, but mostly, I adore every second of who you are right now.

At 20 months, you:

• Have finally hit 20 pounds. Woohoo! You continue to be my little peanut.
• Are incredibly fast. Maybe it's because you're so tiny, but when people see you sprint around when we're out and about, they look shocked. Just the other day, we met your brother's friend at an indoor playground and his mommy said to me, "Oh my goodness! When did she get so FAST?"
• Are my little daredevil. I tell everyone that I will have you enrolled in gymnastics by age 3. You climb, you jump, you roll, you run-- you're totally fearless when it comes to physical activity. At the aforementioned indoor playground, you climbed UP all of the big slides with ease (while your poor mommy scaled the slides behind you, completely lacking your agility).

See? No fear.

• Love being outside and would spend all day running up and down the sidewalks while pushing your shopping cart if I'd let you.
• Adore your brother. Some of your favorite things to do together include: jumping on Camden's bed, running and hiding from Mommy, and playing dinosaurs.
• Love to draw and color now. You will say, "Paper?" and will scribble away when I present you with a crayon and some blank paper.
• Love to watch Peppa Pig and Bubble Guppies.
• Have developed some stranger anxiety. While you're totally fearless when it comes to physical activity, you have quite a bit of hesitation around new people, especially men. Occasionally you'll cry if someone makes you really uncomfortable, but usually you will just climb me and bury your face into my neck. Because, you know, if you can't see them, they can't see you.
• Continue to put 2-3 word sentences together. You will say "Bro's shoes", "May-May's shoes", "Thank you, Mommy", and many more short sentences. You also speak animatedly in your own gibberish language.
• Love bath time! As soon as I mention that it's bath night, you will say, "Bro, May-May, bath!" and head for the stairs. You have no fear of water either and won't hesitate to stick your face right into the bath water and blow bubbles.
• Continue to take one nap, from about 1-3. You have, however, started to fight going down for the nap. You protest the entire time I carry you upstairs and yell loudly when placed in your crib. But, you still fall asleep within 10 minutes.
• Go to bed around 8:15-8:30 and wake around 7:30-8.
• Still take a pacifier fairly often. I hope it's not going to be a battle to wean you from it eventually. Your mommy had a paci until she was in high school. Kidding...but it was way too long. It's amazing how easily you talk around your pacifier though.
• Have started to count. It's one of your favorite things to do. You say, "Two, free, four, six!" proudly.
• Love to read. You'll often let me read a few books to you, but you also like to flip through them yourself while reciting some of the words you've memorized from the story.
• Love yogurt, peas, green beans, pancakes, pasta with alfredo sauce, pizza, goldfish, cheese, and banana.
• Just started eating cereal out of a bowl with just a tiny bit of milk. You're pretty efficient with the spoon and love eating like a big girl. Of course, the meal usually ends with you turning the bowl upside down. Hence, the "tiny bit of milk".
• Are loving, affectionate, smart, silly, adventurous, sweet, curious, and a tiny bit mischievous.
• Are completely perfect and we feel so lucky that you're ours.

Happy 20 months, my sweet Macey Jean. You are so loved.

Love,
Mommy

A little Pinterest makeover

So, I have this little problem. I go through these phases where I become completely obsessed with a project (or a few projects) that I come across on Pinterest. They're all I can think about and I want them done like right this very second. The only problem with that is that I am severely lacking in the following categories: artistic abilities, painting skill, and handy-man expertise. Which basically means that I can't accomplish any of my Pinterest visions solo.

Cue: my wonderful mother, who is artistic, an excellent painter, and is also pretty darn handy. And so she always gets sucked in to these grand ideas of mine, but I'm lucky because she does so without complaint.

 Over the past few weeks, my 'must get done right this minute' obsessions have included: adding Macey and Camden's spring photo shoot pictures to our family wall; adding a chalkboard wall to the playroom; adding some Ikea spice rack bookshelves in the playroom; and transforming Camden's toddler-looking room into a more grown up Star Wars themed room.

Mission accomplished.

(Thanks, Mom. And Matt, who also helped with the painting. For the record, I am very willing to help paint. I've just been kindly pardoned due to some minor mishaps while painting our old house. Like I said, I'm not artistically inclined.)

And what would a Pinterest project post be without pictures? Here you go:

 

First up: the chalkboard wall. The kids think it's pretty cool that they can draw on the wall now.

 

And the Ikea spice racks turned book shelves. I only used two because I wanted a small, simple selection of books in the playroom (each kid has their own bookshelf filled with books in their bedroom too).

 

Here are the 'before' pics of Camden's room, which you might remember from my "House Tour" post. We sold his train bed in a yard sale a few weeks back (a little bittersweet, I must admit). It just seemed like it was time to make the room a little less toddler and a little more boy.

 

 

And after! Gone are the bright orange walls, traded for a much more neutral shade. The colorful Camden letters are replaced with some Star Wars comic book collage letters (courtesy of my mom, of course). Other changes we made: the bookshelf and trash can were both painted black. The twin bed has a new Star Wars comforter. Overall, the room just looks less cluttered and more spacious. I'm very pleased with the results. So is Camden.

 

A close up view of a letter.

 

A little Easter catch up

I think I've mentioned about a billion times on this blog how much I enjoy experiencing the holidays as a parent. It's so much fun being on the other end of the months of planning and it's so rewarding watching it all come together in a way that's so magical through the innocent eyes of childhood. And now that Macey is old enough to actually participate in our holiday traditions, it's twice as rewarding.

Initially, we had planned on going to our neighborhood egg hunt on Saturday morning, but the weather had other plans. Because no one wants to be outside hunting for Easter eggs when it's 45 degrees and raining, the egg hunt got scrapped, but they did still have the Easter bunny visit our clubhouse. They also had some cookie decorating and a few little crafts, so we (along with my in-laws) took the kids over for a little while. Macey wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Easter bunny, but Camden marched right over to him for a high five.

If you had told me he'd voluntarily take a picture with the Easter bunny when he was two, I would've told you that you'd lost your mind.

We woke up bright and early (as per usual) on Easter morning and headed downstairs to search for baskets. I don't know if that's a normal Easter tradition for most families, but it's something that I carried over from my own childhood; our Easter baskets were always hidden. Matt's childhood Easter Bunny hid their previously dyed Easter eggs instead of their baskets, so we do both. So, Camden and Macey (okay, Camden) had a lot of hunting to do first thing in the morning. After baskets (and eggs) were located, both kids sat on the family room floor and checked out their goods. One of Camden's "goods" was a new bike. That's not a typical Easter gift for us (they're usually much smaller), but he was in desperate need of a big kid bike. I was feeling bad for him riding down the street on his tricycle while passing other 3 and 4 year old kids on their regular bikes. He was thrilled (and he loved the Mohawk helmet too).

 

Big kid bikes take a lot of concentration and focus.

That evening, we hosted Easter dinner at our house for my side of the family and Matt's parents, who were in town visiting. We also put together a little egg hunt for the cousins in our backyard. The kids had a great time; the older cousins were good about making sure the little ones had enough eggs. And Camden ended up getting the "golden egg", which contained a dollar bill along with some candy. He was pretty thrilled about that!

 

The hunt begins. 

Macey was much too busy to have her picture taken, but her Grandpa managed to snap this picture of her coloring at the kitchen table. I love that little dress she's wearing with bunnies on it (courtesy of Old Navy).

The golden egg recipient with his cash prize!

It was a very happy Easter around here. I hope yours was, too.

Happy Easter from my blondies

 

Here they are- Camden and Macey's Spring/Easter photo shoot, courtesy of my sister. I seriously adore every last picture and feel thankful to have such a talented photographer in the family.

 

This was such a fun shoot. We drove to an awesome little park, took the kids' shoes off, and let them run free in between pictures. That way, it felt a lot more like play time than a restrictive photo shoot. My sister, Lauren, has a photographer's eye; she's naturally artistic and has spent the last couple of years studying the technical side of photography. As mentioned before, she has finally started her own business (long overdue, in my opinion) called 3 Anchors Photography. If you are local, feel free to visit her Facebook page here.

 

 

I'll be back soon with a recap of our Easter adventures. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

My little technology pro playing Ant Smasher on the Kindle. I know I will date myself when I eventually share with my kids that I used a typewriter until college.

 

 My dinosaur-loving boy.

A quick sneak peek of a spring/Easter photo shoot my sister did with the kids a few days ago. Can't wait to share more when I receive them and tell you about the business she (finally, after much nagging encouraging) started.

Hello, spring!

(Disclaimer: If you follow me on IG and are confused because you saw these pics a week ago, you're not going crazy-- this post was scheduled and not published right away. Just wanted to clear that up!)

Finally, at long last, it looks like spring is (maybe) here to stay. I was just about over having a random 70 degree day that served as nothing but a tease, followed by a wintry mix of sleet and snow the very next day. We celebrated the beginning of our warm streak by heading to our local Life and Science Museum. Camden is very big into dinosaurs right now, so we figured it would be the perfect time to check out the Dinosaur Trail, along with some of the other exhibits. Our nephew, Will, tagged along for the trip and I have to say-- having 3 kids was a lot more manageable than I thought (but don't get any ideas, people!).

Our first stop: the train ride. This was a big hit with all of the kids. They especially liked the glimpses of the dinosaurs that you could catch as the train flew by them. Another big hit? The tunnel. The train conductor instructed us that it was mandatory to scream while going through the tunnel. The kids happily obliged.

Poor Camden was sick, but held up like a trooper.

  This was taken in a mirror that's along the side of the track.

I've had an Ergo for a while, and I got a lot of use out of it when Macey was an infant. Since she started toddling around, it's hung over my banister, untouched. The other day, I decided to dust it off and learn how to do the back carry. It was a good decision. Macey spent at least half of our trip on my back.

Dinosaur trail! The kids loved this part. This was the only dinosaur that they were allowed to climb on, but they loved spotting the other ones in the woods. Camden was mesmerized and the first thing he did when we got home was get out all of his toy dinosaurs to play with.

At the end of the dinosaur trail, there's a little site where kids can dig for fossils. They're actually digging for shark teeth, coral, and sea shells (among other ocean items), but they didn't know any different.

Wordless Wednesday

A small disclaimer: if you follow me on Instagram, you will see a few repeat pics on my Wordless Wednesday posts. If you don't follow me on IG and you want to, I am: @klo1215

 

 

 

Celebrating the Orioles winning their season opener (too bad they haven't won many more since then!)

Exploring the neighborhood pond and stopping to feed some ducks. Or: attempting to feed a "duck", which was really a mean, aggressive goose that we later ended up running from.

Taking our neighbors up on their offer to use their trampoline anytime. The kids LOVE it, even though Macey can't stay on her feet for more than a few seconds at a time.

Playground time! Have I mentioned how much we're loving this spring weather? Minus the allergies, of course.

 

But with spring and outside play time, comes our first skinned knee of the season. Nothing a little TMNT Band-Aid couldn't fix.

 

Camden and his honorary cousins (otherwise known as my neighbors), but Camden has no idea they're not related to him.