23May
1. For the first time in the whole life, I have a tan. Not a sunburn. A real tan.
2. I started the Couch-2-5K program last week to help tone up this summer. The first day of training required 20 minutes of walking/jogging. I made it 10 minutes and haven’t done it since. But I have the app on my phone, so I think I’ll try again this week.
3. When Bean and Gracie take their afternoon nap, I usually spend that hour on my float in the pool. It is heavenly.
4. We have really tried to stop watching TV around our house so instead we have music playing all the time. We listen to Bean’s music, Disney soundtracks, country, classic rock, big band, alternative, pop, and everything in between. My playlist this morning has Michael Franti, Baby Einstein Mozart, Taylor Swift, Michael Buble, Adele, Jimmy Buffet, and more.
5. Chris built this awesome fence on our back porch that encloses the area with both back doors. Now, if Bean were to somehow get out of either door, there’s still a big fence keeping him from the pool. This area has become our favorite playground. Bean, Gracie, and I spend most of our day out here. The other parts of the day we’re in the pool.
6. We have had fresh corn on the cob and watermelon at every dinner for the past two weeks. It’s awesome! I love summer foods!
7. After dinner, we have bath time and then bedtime for Bean sometime between 7:30 and 8:00. After that, it’s still light outside, so Chris and I sit on the back porch and drink lemonade. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we listen to music, and sometimes we just sit in silence. It is the perfect way to unwind.
8. I’m trying to lose my baby weight by swimming in the pool as much as possible. I swim laps, tread water, and do push ups on the side of the pool. Plus, when I’m playing with Bean, I’m throwing him all around and that’s a work out, too. So far, it’s working pretty good, but I don’t own a scale so I don’t know for sure. But I can fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes! Yay!
9. Bean’s favorite thing to do outside is play with his water table and the hose. He fills his table up with water from the hose and he chases the dogs around the backyard trying to shoot them with water.
10. Gracie sleeps really good outside. I put her in her bouncer seat on our table on the back porch and she snoozes while Bean and I play or swim. I can’t wait until I can take her in the pool!
11. Chris is working on his golf swing and so he spends evenings out in the back yard hitting wiffle balls while Bean chases them.
12. Summer officially starts next weekend, but it began in our backyard a couple months ago.
13. In Connecticut, fall and winter were my favorite seasons and I’ve been surprised at how quickly I’ve grown to love the summer heat down here. It’s going to get hotter and hotter and muggier and muggier, but that’s fine with me. I plan to have an awesome summer at home with my babies!
19May
Chris and I have just about decided that my next car is going to have to be a mini van. I have mixed feelings about that. I know we need it. Right now I have a small SUV and with two car seats in the back and a stroller in the way back, there’s just no room for anything else. When I go grocery shopping now, I have to stack my bags all around the stroller and, when I am really desperate, around the kids. We have run out of room already and as the kids get bigger, we’re just going to add more junk and a mini van is the obvious solution.
On the other hand, I’m 28 years old. I’m supposed to be wearing short skirts and driving convertible Mustangs and staying out past my bedtime on a school night, right? I’m too young to drive a mini van. Mini vans are for moms.
To pump myself up for the mini van that is in my inevitable future, I have decided to conquer my greatest fear as a mother of two. The double stroller.
My parents gave this to me for Christmas and I was horrified (sorry, Mom and Dad). Horrified. Single strollers and travel systems were for hip, 20-something mom’s with tiny babies and toned calves. They were for mom’s who wore wedge platform sandals while changing diapers and had their nails done once a week. Single strollers were the sleek SUV’s of child transportation.
But double strollers? Double strollers were for moms of multiple kids. Old moms. Moms who wore mom jeans and 80s hair. Moms who said things like, “Because I said so!” Moms whose children had temper tantrums in front of nice restaurants. Double strollers were the clunky mini vans of child transportation.
Clearly, I was a single stroller person. Or, at least I aspired to be a single stroller person. When given the choice, who wouldn’t choose toned calves over 80s hair?
But things have been getting hairy around here on outings. I called my mom after the dreaded sushi catastrophe and complained that I had lost all control. She was very helpful and gave me some good advice on handling Bean right now and then she said, “You really need to be using that double stroller. At his age, containment is your best option.”
So, yesterday I had to run some errands and before we left the house, I took my single stroller out of my sleek SUV and loaded up my mini van sized double stroller. When we got to our first stop, I hauled out the big stroller and spent the next 15 minutes in the parking lot cursing and huffing and puffing while I tried to figure out how to get the darn thing to open. See? Already this stroller was big and inconvenient. I loaded up the kids and headed into the mall. And you know what?
IT WAS AWESOME!
Both kids were secure. Bean couldn’t bolt away or lay down in the middle of the floor. I was able to move around much easier without Gracie in her sling. And we were in and out in record time. True, the double stroller is longer, but it is actually just as slim as my single stroller, so I wasn’t bumping into things like I worried I would be. I fit in small aisles and could maneuver it really well. Why I hadn’t been using this the whole time!
I’m 28 years old and I’m a mom to two beautiful kiddies. I’m a young mom. And that means that I might have to drive a mini van and push a double stroller. But I’m learning that that doesn’t have to be ALL that I am. The car I drive or the stroller I push or the 80s hair that I have, all of that is just part of my life. It’s not who I am.
I’m 28 years old and I’m a mom of two beautiful kiddies. I love reading and writing. I am married to my favorite person. I burn things when I bake. I love my family and wish my sister lived closer. I like cold watermelon and warm swimming pools. I don’t know or care much about music. I get my joy from my faith. I love bookstores. I’m a happy person.
Strollers and mini vans are just the accessories.
(Having said all of this, I should confess that I did wear wedge sandals while pushing my double stroller. Vanity is a hard habit to break.)
28Apr
Since Gracie’s birth, I have been staying home with the kiddies while I’m on maternity leave. When I stayed home on maternity leave with Bean, time seemed to fly by. I was home for 12 weeks and it felt like I blinked and that time was over. I stayed home for about six months at the beginning of last year with Bean, too. We had just moved to Florida and I was looking for a job, so I kept Bean home with me until I found one. During that period, time seemed to drag on incredibly slow. I was waiting for a job to come through, money was tight, I was stressed, and staying at home, quite frankly, bored me to tears.
The truth is that I’m terrible at staying at home. I’ve always considered myself to be pretty self-motivated, but something about being at home all day made me lose all motivation to do ANYTHING productive. I tried really hard to keep both me and Bean active and busy, but our days just felt long and boring.
Something is very different this time around, though. I don’t know if it’s Bean’s age which allows us to do all kinds of fun activities or if it’s because there are two kids now so “boring” isn’t exactly on the menu these days. Or, maybe I’m just satisfied and full in my heart now. Maybe it’s a little of all those things. I don’t know what the reason is really, but I am really enjoying this time at home with Bean and Gracie right now.
Our routine has become really nice for all of us. In the mornings, we usually play outside on the back porch before it gets incredibly hot. I sit Gracie in her bouncer on the patio table and then Bean and I can play. We play with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, Bean’s wagon, and all his other outside toys. We also throw balls a LOT, hit golf balls, and (when I’m not looking) throw things into the pool. Though, that last one means we have to go inside because we’re not allowed to throw things in the pool…
Bean helps me make lunch and we eat around noon and then he plays outside more while I clean up. Bean usually goes down for a nap around 1:30 and sleeps until about 3:00, which is when I try to get some things done. My goal is to get the kitchen cleaned, the floors swept, a load or two of laundry done, and at least one other room cleaned a day.
In the afternoon, we try to do something. Either a friend comes over to play or we run an errand or two or we go to the park. Lately though, we’ve been playing outside in the yard and pool. Yesterday we played in the sprinkler for the first time and Bean thought it was the greatest thing ever. He also had his first Icee Pop.
By 5:00, we head back inside and Bean plays while I finish some things around the house and get dinner started (if I’m lucky…). By the time Chris gets home from work, Bean and I are worn out and Gracie is finally starting to come alive. She usually has her perkiest time between 6:00 and 10:00 in the evening, which is nice because it gives Chris and I some time with her after Bean’s gone to bed.
I miss teaching and am looking forward to going back to work, but for now I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself really enjoying this time. I like spending my days playing with Bean. At this age, he’s like having a little friend around all the time. And I really love this time getting to know Gracie and seeing how fast she grows. I like getting things done around the house and running errands with both of the kids. I even like occasionally fishing Pez dispensers out of the bubbles.
My days are full, fun, and happy right now. I’m excited to see how the rest of our summer goes here!
25Apr
Easter ’round these parts is a day of relaxing, enjoying family and friends, and giving thanks that we serve a living God. And yesterday it was also about a competitive game of croquet in our backyard with our friends and christening our pool for the first time this year.
We were up early to open Easter baskets before church. Which meant Bean got hyped up on jellybeans and then we turned him loose on the nursery staff. That’s just good parenting, right there.
We came home and sat around outside while lunch was prepared. We attempted a family photo since we were all clean and pretty. I’m learning that in family photos, if just one person is crying then it’s a good picture. This one might get a frame.
After pictures, we all changed clothes and played out on the back porch while lunch was being prepared. We dyed Easter eggs and Bean played with his water table. Chris also showed him how to use his new fishing pole and fish that the Easter Bunny brought him.
Our friends, Scott and Sarah, came over to eat and play, too.
After lunch, we had a little Easter egg hunt for Bean. It was the first time he’s been old enough for one and he loved it! He hunted around our backyard for about half an hour and found a ton of eggs!
Once all the eggs had been found, it was time for the big kids to play a rousing game of croquet in the backyard. And by rousing, I mean SCOTT IS A BIG, FAT MEANIE! He chased all of us all over the backyard! Just as one of us would get lined up to hit our ball through one of those little wire hoop thingies, Scott would come along and knock our balls to the other side of the yard!
It caused some frustrations.
And some death threats. Made by his wife.
Bean hung out with us while we played croquet, too. He got his own mallet and everything.
But his favorite thing was crawling under the bushes to dig out balls. He was filthy by the time our game was over. He looked like a little hobo.
After a hot afternoon in the sun, we ended the day by jumping in our pool for the first time this year. It was so much fun! Bean hasn’t been in the pool since last year and I was amazed by how much more fun he was this time! He was excited and fun and loved the whole thing! We had a wonderful afternoon playing with each other and just having a lot of fun! It makes me so excited for swimming lessons later this spring!
It was a wonderful, full day of fun. We didn’t end up coming inside until after 6:00. By that point, Bean’s little eyeballs had glazed over and he was walking around in circles mumbling about “E-ter eggs.”
After we put Bean and Gracie down and all our company had left, Chris and I sat on our couch watching TV and munching on ham and potato salad.
“I had a perfect day,” Chris said to me.
“Me, too,” I said.
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