The highlight of our Thursdays

The beginning of our weeks are action packed with gym, soccer, preschool, etc. so by Thursday I welcome a chill day at home. On the agenda every Thursday: waiting & watching for garbage trucks!

waiting....

and playing garbage trucks while we wait
one of the many simple pleasures of being 2 (& a boy).

The start of something beautiful

The other day Cal decided it was fun to play with his bro, so I (& Bennett) embraced every minute of it cause who knows how long it will last... I was getting the kids ready for a nap this afternoon and while we were in Cal's room reading books he even told Bennett he could snuggle with his Smurf. This never, ever happens. Usually if B even so much as looks at his stuffed animals it's the end of it, so this was BIG. Hopefully he's feeling ok...

Day 2 of playing nice. loving all the attention
Day 3. And now that they're buds, Cal calls Bennett "Benny" (pretty darn cute if you ask me)

30 happens.

Last week we celebrated my 30th and Ian (& my fam) couldn't have made the day more special. It's the bday that just keeps giving since we also celebrated in Hawaii. I really have few issues with the big 3-0. The way I look at it, is that while my youth is slowly slipping away, life just keeps getting better. So bring it on 30! What I did have issues with however, is the 2 pesky gray hairs that decided to haunt me a few days before my bday... Rest assured, they are long gone now (I pulled them :).

Snuggle buds

Some of last week's happenings.

working on a sippy cup since Bennett's still on a bottle boycott
celebrating a belated Christmas w/ Jenni & the kids
and Cal got some new power tools... a big hit and Lo got a makeup set, so who else to doll up.... Cal. Week 2 of indoor soccer Go Fire cheer at the end of practice Thanks for the yummy cupcakes Jenni! Bennett having one of many staring contests w/ the dogs. the boys took their first bath together. and it was funa little brother 1:1 playtime
Surprisingly, Cal shared his sawbut he wasn't happy about it.
MWAH!

HAPPY!

It's almost an understatement with this guy.

Aloha!

We're back from a wonderful vacation across the Pacific. We spent 6 days soaking up 80+ degree weather in Maui & came back to driving through a blizzard on the pass and temps in the 20's. Welcome home.

It really was a great trip, the kids were fabulous. Some takeaways...

• Regardless of how good your kids are, a 5.5 hour flight is never fun. I do have to say, the kids did better than I expected and I haven't sworn off flying forever with them.
• No matter how many times I go to Maui, it NEVER gets old. However, next time I think we might visit Kauai or the big island.
• Maui is safe, very safe & I like that peace of mind, especially when traveling w/ kids. You can leave your car door wide open for over 2 hours in a parking lot while shopping and no one will bother with it. Instead, you come back to find someone waiting with it to make sure everything is ok (ask Ian about that).
• Even if the weather is a little crummy one day, Hawaii is Hawaii and it's paradise.
• There's nothing more serene than a walk on a nearly empty beach.
• Whales & dolphins in the wild are nothing short of amazing.
• It's never too early to crack a beer when you're on vacay.
• 6 days is a good length vacation with kids, 7 or 8 would be perfect.
• There's nowhere else I would have rather celebrated my last days in my 20's.
• Ian is easily my most favorite person to travel with, so much fun.

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Bennett's 6 month check-up

We're back and had an amazing vacation but pics of that are going to wait cause I just don't have the motivation/time to go through my hundreds of pics. Soon though.

Bennett had his 6 month check-up and here's the little beefcake's stats:

• weight: 21 lbs. 7 oz (94%)
• height: 28.75 inches (97%)

and little mister has 2 teeth now!

6 months already

Can you believe it? I sure can’t. I can’t believe we’re half way to the 1 year mark.

A little note about/to my little mister..

Watching you change from a newborn to a little person these last couple of months has been rewarding (and also a little sad cause I do miss your 100% dependency on me). You’ve brought more happiness to our family than I could have ever imagined. I count my blessings everyday that I get to be your mom & for your health after a slightly turbulent pregnancy. You are the PERFECT addition to our family which has proven to me that everything happens for a reason.

You love to snuggle, you love food (so far you've had rice cereal, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, peas & avocado), your hair is finally coming back and it’s growing in dark (love this), you sound like an old man when you toot, you’ve got pretty sensitive skin and the back of your head does not like our carpet, I have no idea who you look like aside from some resemblance of Cal when he was your age, you've got the most adorable little ears that stick out a bit, you love your brother more than anything else and get the biggest smile when you see him, he talks to you, etc., you want to touch/hold everything and everything goes in your mouth, I could go on and on about your smile – it’s contagious and you put your whole body into expressing your happiness, you've got lots of facial expressions, you squeal in delight, you move/jump and like to stand more than any other infant I’ve known and could jump in your jumper all day, you’ve got quite the grip and I swear you’ve pulled out ¼ of my head of hair, your face lights up when you see a mirror, I’m very thankful for your easy going personality and your chill demeanor made our transition to a fam of 4 easier than I expected, you don’t like it when I wait too long to feed you, you’re pretty particular about where you fall asleep now and rarely conk our if you’re just being held (you like sleeping in your crib, car seat, stroller & ergo) you refuse to take a pacifier, as of recently you’re not a fan of bottles, you have one tooth, our biggest struggle w/ you over the past 6 months was transitioning you out of being swaddled at 4 months and I have a feeling you’re going to be mobile sooner than I’d like.

rocking big brother's new head lamp

and someone was NOT happy about it...