Friday, February 28, 2014

Five on Friday: Funnies Edition

Well it's Friday and we all know what that means: Five on Friday!
Lately I have been all about the "humor" section on Pinterest. I never looked through it before because I mainly just used Pinterest for decor, party ideas, and recipes. About a month ago, I was laying in bed before sleep, doing my nightly Pinterest perusing, when I happened upon the "humor" section. I was bored with all my normal categories, so I thought I would give it a try. Normally I can't stand the constant barrage of memes and such all over Facebook; I like Facebook for keeping updated on family/friends lives'. However contrary to my initial skepticism, this section on Pinterest is the best! I get at least one good laugh every time I skim through it, and usually by the end of the night, I need a good laugh! 

So here are my current favorites compiled in this weeks Five on Friday: Funnies Edition

[ONE]
Via 
I literally LOL'ed on this one! I think it's so funny when you find a meme that is totally you, but you thought no one else did or thought the same. I seriously do this a least 100 times a post. I am embarrassed by how horrible my spelling is.. I am a teacher for goodness sakes (though not a language one thankfully)! I have always been a horrible speller, so I rely heavily on spell-check and Google to be sure I don't make a fool out of myself. When I was in college, 90% of my tests were essay, so I had to be very strategic with my writing. If I wasn't 100% certain on how to spell a word, I would have to change what I was writing to use another word. #nospellwell #badspellerproblems

[TWO]
Via
So sad, but so true! This doesn't happen every time, but it happens more often than I would like to admit. There are times I know that no one in the house will eat the leftovers, but I feel guilty throwing them away. So, in the Tupperware they go, only to be thrown away a week later. But for some reason I don't feel as bad then because, you know, now it's too old to be eaten, so I have to throw it away. First world problems at its finest y'all!

[THREE]
Via
  This pretty much sums up my thought process everyday. Unfortunately, the nap part usually doesn't happen unless I lay down with Myles for his nap. I have been a nap lover since I can remember. I used to purposely not sleep as much at night, just so I would be able to take a nap in the afternoon. This was soo me all throughout college... and if I am being honest... my first years teaching as well!

 
[FOUR]
Kids say the darnedest things, right?!? They are also extremely smart :)

 [FIVE]
Okay this last one isn't from Pinterest, but I had to include it. 
First a little background: Weird things happen in our house sometimes that can't really be explained (like coming home to our bath tub completely full and the water on full blast).  After the first couple of times, I decided it was a ghost and named him George. If one of us forgets to do something or leaves something on, I always blame George. He's a pretty good scapegoat if I ever seen one! 
So anywho, one day I am in my room folding clothes that I emptied out on top of the bed. I kept smelling something really horrible, but I couldn't quite figure out where or what it was. I thought maybe Myles had a poopy diaper or the dog had pooped in our room somewhere. After I finished the clothes, I went on an investigation. Well, it didn't take too long to figure out where the smell was coming from: I found the cat in his usual spot on our bed, but he happened to have a little something peculiar on him. Yes, that is right folks, he had a big pile of poop on him! I shit you not.. totally real!
I sat in shock for what felt like 10 minutes before I got the courage to clean it all up.. But I couldn't for the life of me figure out what happened. I racked my brain for the next couple of days and even now I can't understand. It couldn't have been the dog because we have a tiny miniature pincher that can't climb onto our bed because he is too small and old. Even if he did, I can't imagine the cat just sitting there while the dog pooped on him (our cat and dog do not get along. The dog is scared of the cat). Furthermore, the dog does not poop like that. I would say that it looks more like the cat poop, but how is that physically possible? I am missing something here? Does anyone have any thoughts?

Also I would love to have a caption contest! I have thought of a few myself but I want to know what you guys can come up with! Leave a comment below.

 Some really great ladies put this link up together, including Darci and April! Go on over and check out all the other Five on Friday posts; it's a great way to meet new bloggers and grow relationships :)
THE GOOD LIFE BLOG
Happy Happy Friday Y'all 

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Wine'd Down Wednesday {24}

Welcome to the 24th Week of Wine'd Down Wednesday!!
Hello fellow wine'd down-ers!! Thank you SO MUCH to everyone that has been linking with us so far, we are beyond thrilled to have you coming back week after week and just love reading all of your posts! We were all so excited and overjoyed that so many of you want to come and share your awesomeness with us. Keep on sharing and spreading the Wine'd Down love :)
Are you interested in joining our fun? Why not co-host with us! We are looking for co-hosts to help spread our wine'd down love! Join us, it's free! :) If you are interested, email Michelle at Michelle@ourthreepeas.com.
Without further a-do, on to the party!
Our Three Peas

 

We are so excited you have joined us for a girl’s night out, blog style! So…why Wine’d Down Wednesday? Well, what’s the best kind of party? The kind where wine is served of course! Since we can’t meet our fellow blog friends in person we thought we’d throw a party every week. So grab your wine, link up a recent post, and mingle. Your post doesn’t need to include wine, linking up while drinking wine is completely acceptable and encouraged! We want any of your funniest, heartfelt, absurd, crafty, or delicious posts. As an added bonus, we will also be rotating a different social media outlet each week so you’ll get minglers at all your hangouts.
 
Our Wine'd Down Wednesday Pinterest board is brimming with all of your amazing posts. Each week we look at all the link ups and each choose the one we like the best! It's always difficult to each choose just one, but we did and here are our 3 top Wine'd Down favorites for this week:
 
WDW_featured picks
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1.Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats by Not Just the Cakes
 
2. Kitchen Reveal by Pasta Love and a Tool Belt
 
3. The Tipsy Leprechaun by Our Mini Family
 
Congrats to all that were chosen! We have pinned these in our Wine'd Down Wednesday Pinterest Board.
 
If you were featured, don't forget to grab our "I've been featured on WDW" button!
Our Three Peas
 
Now come meet and follow your hostesses with the mostestesses!!
Michelle from Our Three Peas
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Chastity from My Rays of Sunshine
HELLO - WINE IMAGE
Kristin from Dizzy Busy and Hungry
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Please welcome our amazing co-host this week!
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This week we are super excited to have Julia from The Everyday Momma as our co-host! Julia has a wonderful blog centered around her adorable son and family! She loves to write about all things mommy. Go and check her out now!
Come give her some wine'd down love and visit her on twitter, pinterest, instagram, google + and bloglovin!
Now for the rules!
1. Follow your hosts and co-host in any way you can.
2. Visit 2-3 other blogs. It’s not a party if you’re not mingling!!
3. Link up ONE recent post. No posts to other linkups, reviews, or giveaways please. {pretty please!}
4. Help us spread the word about this party by displaying our button on your post or sidebar.
5. Tweet and spread the word, if you feel so inclined :)
6. Use the hash tag #wineddown when sharing about us!

Got your wine ready??? Not yet? Ok, we'll wait.......Got it now? Great! Let's get our links on!
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Myles Monthly: 8

As you may know, I didn't decide to start my blog until my son Myles was about 8 months old. And well... now he is 18 months old! So I am focusing on getting caught up with monthly updates and monthly favorites, so I can get, and hopefully stay, up to date with current times. 

  March 15th- April 14th, 2013


Statistics
Born: 7 lbs 6 oz and 19.5 inches
Eight Months:19 lbs 2 oz and 28.5 inches

  Health 

This month was not good in the health department. He got his first real cold. It was mostly just a runny nose, but oh my goodness, he can make his weight in mucus everyday! At first I used our normal bulb nose-sucker from the hospital. It had worked well enough before, so I figured it would be fine. However after days of no improvement, I was getting really irritated with that dumb thing. It really wasn't getting anything out and 2 seconds after I sucked him, he would be all congesting again. I decided to try out the infamous Nosefrida. I will say that this baby item is actually worth all the hype it gets! We also invested in some Boogie Wipes (also totally worth buying) and in about a week, he was all better!

This month also brought a new, terrifying 'habit'. One day Myles was hanging out in his crib (he liked going in there to be able to stand up) and I was sitting in the chair next to him. Out of nowhere, he started doing this scary head twitch: 


I tried not to freak out too much, but I wasn't doing a very good job at it. I posted the video on a mommy forum that I belonged to and asked what they thought. I also posted it on Facebook. I was going to make an appointment regardless, but I was trying to calm myself by seeing if anyone else had seen their child do it. Everyone who commented said that it was not normal and suggested that I go to the doctor right away. He didn't do it all the time, but a handful of times throughout the day was enough for me to be concerned. 
I made an appointment and showed our doctor the video. She said she really couldn't say what it was and set us up to get an EEG. Based on the results we would talk with a neurologist. Part of me was scared to get the test done, but my mommy intuition told me that it wasn't anything serious. I don't really know why I thought that, but being around him 24/7, I just felt it was something that he was doing for some goofy reason. 
But we had the test done to be sure. It was so hard watching him be all hooked up and then hearing him cry for me. We had to sit out in the waiting room while the test was done, and it was the longest 30 minutes of my life! Huge kudos to all the parents that deal with major issues like surgeries, illnesses, tests, etc. I couldn't even handle him crying and being away from him for just this little procedure, I can't even imagine what others go through. 
Waiting to get his EGG done
It was an agonizing couple of days waiting for the results. But then they finally came back, and thank God I was right. It wasn't seizures or anything else serious. Although we didn't get an answer for why he was doing the head shake, I was extremely grateful that it was nothing to be concerned about. He continued to do it for about a month; a couple random times a day. We had a few guesses as to what we thought it was (teething, his reaction to not wanting to be in something like his highchair, crib, car seat, or his way of dealing with over-stimulation), but we never got a definitive answer and eventually it stopped.


Eating
Not much new here this month. Still not wanting baby food at all. He did start eating more other foods though. He still liked sucking on fruit through his mesh feeders and he started trying Puffs and Mum-Mums. I tried all sorts of methods to get him to eat purees, but he would be over it within 3 bites. I tried the food pouches a couple times and he liked to suck on them, but he would never eat more than 1/3 of it at a time. So he was still mostly just sucking on fruits. 



Sleeping 
Nothing new to report here. Still doing all the same things as last month. His nighttime sleep was getting better; very slowly, but compared to months six and seven, I could see a difference. He was sleeping for longer stretches in the beginning of the night and throughout the rest of the night and morning. He still seemed so far from sleeping through the night though!

Outings
  • We took Myles to the big mall about 45 minutes away from us for a little day trip. I was worried it wouldn't go over very well because he was going through a phase in which he hated being in his stroller and not being able to see me. For how long we walked around that day, he did really well. We took him out here and there to hold him, eat lunch, check stuff out, etc., but I was very impressed with how well he handled the stroller the whole day. We had to stop at the Disney Store and of course, I caved and got him a new Mickey (we lost the one he got for Christmas). He fought sleep so hard that day, by the time we were leaving he couldn't hold his head up any longer. He fell asleep in the stroller and then on daddy and then in the car seat on the way home! 
  •  It finally started getting nice out this month, so we took every opportunity to go outside and enjoy the fresh air and scenery. My parents live right across the street from a huge park and playground so on the first day that it was nice enough, we hightailed it the couple yards to check it all out! He absolutely loved the swing. When he would swing towards me I would 'boo' him and he laughed and laughed!
We also did some playing in the yard: climbing trees, playing with balls, and checking everything out for the very first time!
That is a bench that used to sit at my grandparents grave site. A very special picture as Myles was not able to meet them before they passed.  
  • Myles went to the indoor play place for the first time this month. We went with his cousins Ryann and Ayson.
  • We were still going to swimming lessons as a family as well.

Milestones
  • Belly laugh: I finally got Myles laughing on video. He knew the camera well, and if he saw it come out, he would stop laughing... every time! This video isn't very good because I was trying to hide the camera from him, but it's his first real laugh caught on camera. The easiest way to make him laugh was to take anything with a face and move it around in his face; pulling it back and pushing it towards him fast. (This also worked well with real people too. He always laughed when I went towards his face fast and made funny noises.)
  •  First swing: This was from the first day it was nice enough to hang out outside. Since my parents live directly across the street from a park, I had being eying the swings for months. I couldn't wait to put Myles in there for the first time and see his reaction. The swing did not disappoint: he loved it, all smiles the whole time.
 
  • Waving 'hi': Myles starting waving 'hi' or 'bye' this month. He didn't do it all the time, but he would wave if you asked him to or showed him first and said 'hi'.


  • Crawling on the grass: This is most favorite video of Myles. I could watch it over and over. This was Myles' first real trip to the park and after checking out the swing and slide, we just sat him down in the grass to see what he would do. I did not expect him to react the way he did :)
  • Big boy bath: Last month's 'bathgate' was pure torture and I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. So one night as we were approaching bath time, I decided to get crazy and see what would happen if he took a bath in the regular tub. It couldn't be any worse than what I already was dealing with, so it was worth a try.                  Praise the bath gods, it was a beautiful, joyous occasion! He loved it and didn't make a single fuss. After that night, I threw his tub in our sell pile and never looked back!

  • First 'Boo-Boo': Well it was sure to come sometime. Ever since he started crawling and pulling-up, his (unwarranted) confidence skyrocketed! He wasn't super steady yet, but you would never know by watching the moves he would try. He would fall almost daily, but nothing serious... until this time. He was standing up next to an end table, when he lost his balance, and fell to the side right on his forehead :( I was super freaked out and called the doctor to see if I should bring him in. They said that he should be fine and to just watch for symptoms. He got a huge knot, but nothing other than that. I was probably more traumatized than him.
  • First St. Patrick's Day: another first holiday in the books. We didn't do anything to celebrate, but I just wanted a reason to put this picture up ;) My mom has a huge box of holiday dress-up accessories and this hat was in there.
  • First Easter: Myles also had his first Easter this month. We always do eggs together for Easter. I love thinking up fun and creative designs for the eggs. So of course, we had to get Myles in on the fun this year. My mom helped him stamp a couple of eggs and I made one with his name and year on it. He also loved playing with his basket full of eggs that grandma filled with treats. 
  • On Easter Sunday we spent the day with family. We went to church and then had brunch with my parents and brother. Myles took a short nap on me in the car while we were waiting to go into the restaurant. Brunch was great and we took the time for a little photo op outside by the fireplace. Then we went to Mark's aunt's house to see his family. Myles got to see some family that he hadn't seen in a while and really enjoyed all the attention he got. 
Likes
  • Myles was never into cartoons, kid shows, or movies. He had no interest if I put it on. We stopped watching TV when he was about 4 months old, so he just didn't care about it. I liked that he didn't want to watch it, but I had wished I could find something that would keep his interest for longer than 2 seconds for when I had to cook, clean, or if he was upset when I had to leave for something. My step-dad likes to watch music on NPR. They have a series called Tiny Desk Concerts that you can watch online. Myles started really showing interest in watching them with him. He really liked the bands with lots of different instruments. It was so crazy how he would just sit and watch that forever, but wouldn't even give the TV a glance.
  • Being goofy: his personality definitely started to come through this month. The more physical things he could do, the more confidence he got and then the more stuff he would try. He was a busy-body and needed to check out everything. He was always making me laugh by the stuff he would try to do, as evidenced below:
  • Birds: his extreme love of birds/ducks started this month. He loved looking at the birds outside on the bird feeder and even had a little collection of stuffed birds that made noises. He started making a bird noise himself. This was his first animal sound; he would yell "aht, aht" (like a duck call).
  • Family: He was really starting to show love to other family this month (pictured here with Uncle Chris), He was still very attached to me, but he was getting more comfortable with the people he was around a lot. 
  • Mickey Mouse: since we got him a new Mickey at the mall Disney Store, he started becoming very fond of him. He particularly loved to chew on his nose. 
  • Balls: When I say that Myles is ball obsessed, I am not exaggerating in the least. Most kids have a pacifier or blanket, but Myles has to have a ball everywhere he goes. I keep balls in every room, tub, car, outside, etc. If he sees another kid with a ball and he doesn't have one.. GAME OVER...seriously. So we must bring one to all parks/play areas we go to. Looking back, I can tell this month was when the ball loving started. He had a favorite ball that he would play this game with (as seen in the video below). This was the best video I could get of it unfortunately, but he would take the ball, touch it to his mouth, throw it, crawl back over to it, and then do it all over again and again! 

Dislikes
  • Stroller rides: it finally started getting nice enough to go outside this month. We went to the park a lot, but Myles would not stay in his stroller. He hated not being able to see me. He would twist and turn and then cry at me to get him out. This went on for a while, so I gave up on stroller walks for a bit. I tried distracting him or walking faster, but he was not having any of it. 
  • Highchair: he also started to hate sitting in his highchair. When we went to restaurants he was fine, but he would freak out in his booster one at home. Since he still wasn't eating much, it really didn't matter, but nonetheless, it was frustrating. I decided to try out a new highchair. I was wanted to find one that was more like the ones at restaurants. Since I couldn't find one of those, I went with what I thought was the next best thing: the Ikea Antilop Highchair with tray. For $10 used, it was perfect for testing out. It wasn't a miracle chair or anything, but he did like it a little bit better. 
 
Come back to check out my favorites from months seven & eight!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Feature Friday: Week 11 {Co-Host}

Welcome to Feature Friday for Week 11 of 
Countdown in Style

This week I was a co-host for Countdown in Style. I was super excited to have won the spot to be a co-host at  April and Brittnei's blog hop. This weeks link-up was so awesome to be apart of. I really enjoyed looking through and reading all your posts. I found so many new blogs to follow that I would have otherwise never knew existed. 

I painstakingly narrowed my favorites down to six, and from there it only got harder to pick just 3! All you ladies are so creative, thoughtful, and inspiring that I really would have loved to just feature everyone! I don't know how April and Brittnei do this every week! It takes a lot of hard work to create and maintain a blog; and the caliber of your blogs is far above standard. I know how nice it feels to be recognized for all your work, so I applaud and send encouragement to all of you!
With that said, here are my features:
  
{ONE}

Breastfeeding hurts!: Uncovering 11 Breastfeeding Myths and Lies by Katelyn from What's up Fagans

If you are a reader of my blog, then it's probably evident that I am huge breastfeeding advocate.. at least I hope so. 18 months strong with my son Myles and it's been the best decision I have made so far as a new mother. I love to help, support, and encourage breastfeeding mothers as much as possible. It isn't always easy but it is 100% worth it! It saddens me how many women choose not to try breastfeeding or give up so quickly. I think most of their decisions are based off of myths and untruths and not enough support. That is why it is so important for breastfeeding moms to share their real-life experiences about breastfeeding. We need to encourage other mothers/soon-to-be-mothers and get the right information out there. I think Katelyn does this perfectly in her post. They are all so true from my experience as well. 
 
 {TWO}

10 Toys for Speech and Language Development by Michelle at The MaMade Diaries


I picked Michelle's post because it was one that I will benefit from. My son Myles is 18 months old and is at the age where his brain is becoming a sponge. He is learning new words and skills everyday. Because he doesn't go to daycare or 'school', it is my job to teach him and prepare him for preschool. To be honest, I am at a complete loss when it comes to educational toys/games. Of course I want him to learn and be on par with his peers, but I don't want to push too much onto him. Once he starts school, he's going to be there for a long time... I just don't want to rush everything. I think it will all happen in time, but I know that I have to step up my teaching game. I can tell he learns a lot just by playing and reading with me, but I think it is time to start doing some more planned and deliberate learning activities. I really love this list that Michelle put together. She even gives ideas for how to work on speech and language with each of the toys! I want everything on her list, but I am really eying the art jar and alphabet puzzle. And I know Myles would love the farm animals; he has several animals noises down already. I love watching his little mind work :)
Any other advice on educational toy, games, etc. is much appreciated!

  {THREE}
Let Me Count the Ways by Rea at REAlity Bites


I'm not a very lovey-dovey person by nature. I'm not a big romantic and I tend to shy away from being touchy-feely as well. I understand the importance of it all in a relationship though. I know my boyfriend needs to feel affection and love from me; I'm just not good at it. It's something I have to consciously think about and work on everyday. That's why I really liked reading Rea's post. I can totally relate to not wanting to be in a crowded, impersonal place to celebrate the special love between you and your significant other. Valentine's Day should be about showing your person how much you appreciate them and everything they mean to you. Personal, homemade gifts are the best. Putting thought and effort into something will make anyone feel really special and Rea killed it with the present she came up with for her husband. I am so impressed with her commitment and dedication to writing out 100 reasons why she loves her husband. I am totally impressed and quite inspired by her generous and loving spirit. Almost makes me want to make one of these.... almost :)
Don’t forget to pop over and see what posts were featured in April’s and Brittnei's lists.
 Have a great weekend everyone!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

It's the Little Things: Best Friends

Today, am I linking-up with the beautiful Ashley over at Words About Waverly for It's the Little Things again. Two weeks in a row; GO ME! This is quickly becoming my most favorite link-up in the history of link-ups! It's so nice to put together a post about something so little, yet so powerful. I honestly can't thank Ashley enough for putting this together: it has really made blogging enjoyable again. Whenever I go to write up this link-up post, I am just reminded of how incredibly blessed I am as a new mother embarking on this beautiful journey. Of course it has its lows, but the highs are... well no words can describe the highs.. only other mommies know that feeling!

Last week, I touched on how hard it was to make the decision to move 2,000 miles away from our families. I did not know one single person living in the city we moved to. (Mark has a couple friends and family in neighboring cities, but none in our city). It was scary, especially having a one-year old and no real support. I decided to start taking Myles to a place called The Little Gym. For the younger ones, it's a parent-child class where they work on gymnastic skills, exploring, group activities, and more. I love the place and have been going for 7 months now. It took a couple of months of going, but I finally made a friend. 

Right away, I could tell she was my kind of person. I don't find many 'my kinds of people' because I am very introverted, a semi-loner, and have a very low tolerance for BS. One day, I decided it was time, and I nervously asked for her number ;) I mean, how hard is it to make friends once you're older?!?! I dealt with enough rejection as a child/teenager! 

We texted, started having play dates with our two boys, and the rest is history! Her little boy Cameron is 3 months older than Myles, but they are seriously like two peas in a pod! More and more now they are learning to play together and it's the best thing in the world to watch! My heart melts into a puddle every time I see them interacting! I hope they stay friends forever! I am so thankful to have found Leesa and Cameron; Myles loves playing with him and I love some adult interaction! Amen!
Here are some of my favorite shots of them together:

Playing at the park:
Cameron giving his buddy a lift :)

Working on Cameron's jeep:

Superhero besties:

These next pictures are from Valentine's Day this year. Leesa's husband was working late, so she offered to watch Myles while Mark and I went to have dinner. This was the first time Myles stayed with anyone other than my parents or Mark's sister. I wasn't sure if he was going to be upset that both Mark and I were leaving, but he did not care AT ALL! It was crazy to go out and not be worried about him. I knew he would have a good time, but he took it to a whole other level! He didn't even bat an eye when we came back. No 'mommy' 'daddy'.. no hugs.. nothing. But I was just so happy to see him having fun and not worried about us.

This is a video of Myles trying to get Cameron to go play where he wanted! He kept bringing Cameron places, Cameron would leave, then Myles would have to go back and get him :) 
I die...

And lastly, my most favorite picture of all time. We had been waiting to capture this for a long time and it was better than I could have imagined!

 It really is just all about the little things...


Do your little ones have a best friend?