Mama Favorites

I've seen people doing this on several other blogs, so I thought I would do one!  It's not really something the boys love, just something that I love!  Socks.  Lots of people love the socks with the grippers on them, but I have never found any that I liked, would stay on well, didn't shrink, you know all that stuff.  My MIL had purchased some clothing items to keep at her house for when I forgot something, or the boys stayed the night so I didn't have to pack them clothes.  Well one day she sent Dylan home in these socks.  They were orange, and compression socks.  Kind of like the socks I have to run in.  Really snug, didn't slip down his heal, fit his foot perfectly.  I LOVE THEM.

Fast forward, probably 10 months, I asked for them for Christmas.  I thought they were Sketchers because they had an "S' on them.  She searched high and low, couldn't remember where she got them.  Come Christmas morning though, they were in the boys stockings.  Wanna know where they were from?  Target.  Cherokee brand.  She bought Smalls - The "s" and Mediums.  The mediums are actually too big for Dylan's feet right now so he is still in the smalls.  I always forget to see if they have XSmalls when I go.  They come in fun colors, and they are easy to match out of the dryer ( hey, I'm easily "wow'ed" So, if you need some new socks, check these guys out.  They are the only socks I'll use from now on.

So what are some of your favorite products.  I have one more new thing I'll try to write about soon!:)

Meal Plan

I made one this week, just hadn't gotten around to posting!

Monday: Pablano soup, left over chibata from Eatzie's

Tuesday: Roast Chicken, Green Beans, homemade french bread

Wednesday: Crock pot pulled pork on sweet potatoes, ranch style beans

Thursday: Cajun Chicken Pasta

Friday:  My Mama's Tuna Salad Pitas, Fruit Salad, Chips

Saturday Breakfast: Homemade Donuts

Saturday Lunch : Leftovers

Sunday Breakfast: Cinnamon rolls

Sunday Lunch : Super Bowl party ( probably)

Back to Basics

Back before Graham was born, and Dylan was a wild and crazy three year old, one of our weekly activities was story time. We sort of stopped going, when we found things like the open gymnastics, and jump mania.  Last week, I took the boys for the first time since Graham could remember ( he had gone when he was a couple of months old)  I'm so happy that I did.  They both loved it.  Graham sat in my lap, and Dylan giggled along with the silly stories and dances.  Even though it was geared toward walkers to 2 year olds, Dylan loved it.  The Wylie library also had some great big cubes out they could play with afterward.  We picked out about 10 books, mostly about trains, and played and spent about two hours there last week.  I look forward to going back this week too.  Great free entertainment for both of them!:)

Luckily for me, both of them are super into books right now, so I liked that the library has a few different days and times of day so we can make sure we add story time back into our routine.

Graham {15 Months}

Well I figure it's about time to update on Graham as well.  It's been a while.  He turned 15 months on the 7th.  I can't believe it!  He is so old.  Every time I think about it, I realize when Dylan was 15 months old, I was about to tell the world Graham was on his way!  Crazy right? 

Graham has showed us so much personality in these three months, not always good either.  He has so much more of a temper than Dylan did.  I'm pretty sure he will be our terrible two year old.  He will lay on the floor and scream if he doesn't get what he wants, or something gets taken away from him.  Luckily, it only last about 30 seconds before we can distract him with something else. 

He is such an eater.  Something I am new to. The kid will eat anything that he can get his hands on, he would literally stay in the high chair all day if I would let him.  If he is done eating, then sees someone else with something, he is there, like a puppy dog.  Even with him eating us out of house and home, he only managed to gain 7 oz in 3 months, weighing in at 19 lbs 14 oz, and 32 inches in length.  He is less than 10% for weight, and 85-90% for height. He will be our tall lean boy.  I think he is going to have his daddy and brothers high metabolism!  ( I wish they would share the wealth)

He doesn't really say much of anything with substance.  "Oh oh" Da" Ba" Mama" ( when he is whining) "Daddy" " All done" ( though unless you know what he is saying it doesn't sound like anything) " Bye bye" He yells a lot, babbles a lot, but hasn't really put much else together.  WE will get there, he is miles ahead of where Dylan was!

His favorite things are probably taking a bath, eating, and brushing his teeth.  At night after his bath when he is running around in a diaper are probably some of his happiest.  We will sit on the floor and he loves to run around us, he cracks himself up!  He also looooves stuffed animals.  I think I've said that before, but he really does.  He will cuddle them, and carry them around all day. We have finally gotten better about "petting" the dogs, less hitting, more actually nice gentle touches.  The animals are much happier.  He still hits a lot.  We didn't have this problem with Dylan, probably because he didn't have things like bats and golf clubs to hit people with.  It's an ongoing battle, but I'm confident in saying, he will eventually not whack the crap out of us with the baseball bat!!

Honestly, I can't believe that our baby boy is so much a toddler now.  He has his likes and dislikes, he can be happy one second, then ticked off the next, he is a sweet boy.  Want to do anything his brother is.  Loves to wrestle with Dylan.  Loves to blow kisses, I can't wait to see what changes he makes in the next three months! 

Dylan update

Something was funny

Well, we are a month into Dylan being 3.  I still can't wrap my head around it.  He was such a blast this year, as well as a little irritating or course.  He really loved opening gifts, but then of course wanted to open whatever the toy was.  I like to save toys an give them out all year, so they are not bombarded with a ton of new things that they only play with for a few days then couldn't care any less about.  So I packed up lots of already opened gifts.  Every time that we have been back to Grandma and Papa's there have been more gifts that have come in from family, so he thinks Christmas lasts forever, and a few nights has asked us if " Hohoho" is coming.

Baby jail?

1st day of MDO 2012

Speaking of speaking, we graduated from ECI speech Therapy on his third birthday.  We will still be going ( probably when we get back from Aussie) to a private therapist.  He is up to his age with his speech, though still doesn't have the K or G sounds.  Which they tell us is pretty common for delayed speakers.  His enunciation could use some work, which is why we will be going to therapy.  I've been told we probably only need 6 months to get him 100% caught up!  Sometimes, I still wish he couldn't talk.  He has really learned how to manipulate us.  We tell him " lets read one book before bed"  He looks at us an says " TWO"  He has also learned he can tell us what he doesn't like, and what he wants!  WE hear a lot of " I don't like that( when he does of course) and lots of " I want a cookie"  He insisted that that was the only thing he would eat for breakfast yesterday, then caved and had cheerios when I would give him one.  ( Grandma has spoiled him with ice cream and cookies sometimes for breakfast!)

We had his three year check up last week.  He loved the Doctor.  I told him everything the Doctor would be doing when we got there, even told him he had to check his ears to see if there were any "puppies in them"  So when the Dr came in and Dylan said " No puppies in my ears" Dr. Daniel was very confused!:) Everything checked out great.  He grew three inches, and three pounds in a year.  Which sounds like a lot, but it put him at 26 Lbs, and 37.5 inches.  So of course we are still trying to pack pounds on him.  WE let him eat butter, ice cream, tons of crackers, it's basically a struggle to get him to eat.  His Dr. isn't concerned though, said he just doesn't need as much as a 35 lb kiddo needs.  He can see how much energy he has so I guess I shouldn't worry about it.


A little crazy

Attitude

He has recently become a little more possessive of " his" toys.  It probably doesn't help that Graham is becoming more interested in doing exactly what his big brother is doing.  Little squabbles here and there.  I guess that's what having a brother is all about.  Sadly for Dylan, he will soon be outweighed, so sitting on Graham isn't going to work;)  He still loves his brother very much, and shares his beloved things such as his monkey, though Graham has his own, his "choo Choo" blanket, and certain balls.  He will tell Graham it's alright, when he is crying, and will come give a hug.

I feel like he has learned so much this year.  He can sing his ABC's, and count to about 12, though he always forgets 4.  We are working on that.  He says these sentences that I am blow away by.  He tells me things or answers my questions, when I didn't think there was any way he knew the answers.  He has become much more interested in movies in the last months as well.  He is

Supposed to be napping

currently obsessed with the Toy Story series.  He is such a sweet sweet soul, who in all honestly, has become so much more whiny now that he is three. Hopefully, he will be out of that soon.  I look forward to watching him grow and learn so many more things in this coming year.  I can't believe I have a three year old.

Ringing it in

2012 was a great year.  we had a great time celebrating the end of it though! Once again, Courtney threw a fabulous party!  This year the highlight was a beer pong tournament!  I think I was the only person there who didn't partake though!  I've never played, and honestly, wasn't really in the mood to drink! Adam on the other hand, played and he and Joel, Team LT guys, won the whole thing.  Really all this meant was that they were drunk! I am so happy that I got to spend the first few hours of the new year with old friends, and new!

We had big plans for the following day since Adam's parents were watching the boys until dinner for us, but Adam's hangover had different plans.  I ended up doing a few loads of laundry, taking a nap, and laying in bed watching lots of HGTV with Adam.  It was a very low key day, but I wish that we had gotten some of our to do list done.  This past weekend we knocked out some of it so I'm a happy lady!

Here is to a fabulous 2013!  I can't wait to see what it brings!

Pinteresting

I get lots of ideas from pinterest.  Many that I will probably never do, but sometimes, I do follow through.  When Dylan started school I realized that I was being over run with "projects" many of which he had scribbles some color on a piece of paper, but I found out that I didn't have anywhere to put them.  Our fridge isn't magnetic, so I only had a little bitty section on the side.  It filled up quickly.  Then I saw a pin where someone had put sheet metal on the inside of a cabinet!  AWESOME!  Sad day when I found out I didn't really have a good cabinet for that. Well a few months later, I found something I DID have room for.  As the post said, I called a few heating and Air companies, and quickly learned that Wylie companies apparently think it's humorous that they would sell sheet metal for a home improvement project.  I asked Adam what he thought.  Within a few days, we had us a professionally cut piece from a supplier he used as his old job!  AWESOME! it only took another week or two of it laying in our living room for Adam to actually get around to installing it.  It isn't finished because I haven't been to walmart to get any mail organizers ( which I desperately need) and I was a little sad that the magnetic letter game I wanted for the boys has been discontinued as well.  But never fear I found some dinosaurs and some numbers for them that are on their way!  Maybe once it is completely finished I'll do a short update.  I thank pinterest for this idea.  I hope that this will keep my kitchen cleaner and my brain more organized!