This Killed Me

I was doing laundry the other day. A completely normal task. A task I take for granted that I get to do with relative ease. I normally don't really pay much attention to anything else while doing laundry. I wish I hadn't been paying attention on this day. 

I walked into H's room and just stopped in my tracks. This is what I saw:

A very messy boys room that had been cleaned but one thing was forgotten, Blue Bear. That killed me. It killed me to see Blue Bear forgotten. Really, tossed aside and then forgotten. 

You see, Blue Bear has been a constant companion of H's since he was able to move. Blue Bear would sleep with him, come in the car with him and play everything with him. I was so used to seeing Blue Bear everywhere that H went. But, it seems, not anymore. 

This is telling me that H is growing up. He isn't relying on stuff like Blue Bear for comfort anymore. He is moving around so much and too fast to worry about bringing a bear along and I know that soon he won't be worrying about bringing me along to things anymore either. 

My little boy is growing up. Next Tuesday he will be 3 years old. He can count to 16 and has recently started calling us Mom & Dad, not Mama & Daddy. Blue Bear was just the first of many clues telling me that he is slowly pulling away and is definitely not a baby anymore.

Haven help us. If I am freaking out over him not using Blue Bear anymore, imagine what I am going to be like when he learns to drive or goes off to college. 

Oh, well. Fare you well Blue Bear. You were a great companion and I hope you enjoy the keepsake box I put you in. I know that when H has kids they will love you like he did. 

This past weekend

This past weekend was a pretty typical/normal weekend. Nothing truly awful happened but nothing exciting happened. 

Friday was bad day. 

This is how H & I both felt on Friday.

H was an extremely defiant 2 year old. He was in the mood to test boundaries and see if I would follow through with my threatened punishments. I have to note that even on H's bad days, he isn't really bad. JJ and I have lucked out with a very sweet, gentle and kind boy so when he is bad it doesn't fit with his personality and I honestly don't know how to handle it. His bad day consisted of climbing up on windowsills after we repeatedly told him not to, taking a toy away from A and tearing the dust-jacket off 2 fairly old book. By the time that JJ came home, I was mentally done. We ate dinner as a family and put the kids to bed. JJ poured us both a glass of red wine and after talking for a little bit I went to the room for some alone time. I ended up just sitting in the quiet listening to the Carole King Pandora station. This helped me calm down and get to sleep. It was a nice, relaxing ending to a stressful day. 

My beloved Seminoles lost in the super-regionals. We just couldn't get our act together. We looked awful!  We had a great team and JJ & I were sure they were going to the College World Series. Alas, we were very wrong.  We only lost 3 games at home all season and then in the post season lost 2 in 1 weekend. I want to call the loss a heartbreaker but it really wasn't. We were sloppy and weren't able to hit the ball well. Indiana deserved to win.

A is really starting to come into her owna nd making us fall more and more in love with her. She truly babbled for the first time on Sunday. She was bouncing in her seat above and just started looking around saying "Dadadadada" like a champ. JJ was out golfing so he didn't get to hear it but always love that our kids say Daddy before Mama. A has also taken to wrapping her left arm around my neck and grabbing the hair at the base of my neck when she is tired and I am walking her to bed. She will then bury her head in my neck.  It melts my heart every time and I am going to miss it when she stops doing that. 

I hope that everyone had an uneventful weekend as well and that you are having a great Tuesday!

KK

A is {Finally} holding her bottle!!

I have been working with A for about the last month to get her to start holding her own bottle. She has to start growing up and since she refuses to even work on crawling, we are working on all sorts of feeding. 

She pretty much has eating baby food down. You should see that girl go after a spoon or her Baby Mmm-Mmms. There is nothing she won't eat right now.  She is going through about a jar of baby food a day. 

So, onto the bottle. Her primary form of nourishment is still milk and since H is an active 2 year old, I can't always hold the bottle for her. I was using a blanket to hold the bottle up for her but last month decided to start the transition. I would lay her down and sit next to her and force her hands around the bottle.  

I forgot that babies don't have the muscles to just automatically hold a bottle. I forgot that her arms would get tired and she would have to build up stamina. So, I would slowly increase the amount of time that I held her hands on her bottle.  After increasing it to what I thought was a sufficient amount of it, I slowly took away the blanket that was supporting the bottle. 

Today was the first time that I let her try to hold the bottle the whole time without a blanket and what a success it was! I am so proud of her that she has finally mastered it.  She is also very proud of herself.

of course the moment I try to get her smile on camera she stops smiling.

Next on our list is to eat sitting up and then, whether she is happy about it or not, we are working on crawling.  She is ready to crawl she just hasn't realized it yet. 

Hope you have a great Thursday.
KK