Monday Picture

Looks like Brad needed a haircut on Christmas morning

Hipster Toddler?

I am not a trendy person.  There I said it.  I'm sure it is blatantly obvious.  Brad is not a trendy person either (I'm sure this is coming as a shock to some of you).  Clothing choices in our family tend to fall more in the "functional" than "fashionable" category.  Most of Mike's clothes are fairly durable play clothes - jeans and t-shirts, sweat shirts for when it is cold, sturdy shoes, etc.  I refuse to spend ridiculous amounts of money on name brand stuff that he will out-grow in a few weeks/months.  I would guess that over half of his clothes are hand me downs from generous friends.  A few nights ago we ran to the mall to get some Starbucks gift cards for a few of his daycare teachers.  Mike was wearing his "daddy jacket" (it looks like one Brad has so named it as such), and carrying his little, tiny, Starbucks hot chocolate and looking quite cool if you ask me.  Maybe the Warlicks are turning over a new leaf in cool...led by a two year old???

"Michael Do It"

Mike has officially entered the phase where he wants to do everything himself and throws a nice big tantrum if I ever try to help him.  He wants to put his own coat on and zip it up.  After 5 minutes of struggling he will usually ask for "Mommy help."  He has to climb into and out of his own booster seat.  He has to climb in and out of the car himself.  The time it takes us to get out of the house has greatly increased, but it is so fun to see him learning all of these new things.  One of the things he is most proud of is his ability to peel oranges (cuties) all by himself.  If I start it for him, he can finish it, segment it and put it in a bowl.  He always claps and proudly exclaims "Michael do-ed it."

Monday Picture

Happy Friday

Work Update

Even though I found out two weeks ago, it was finally official on Tuesday (so now I can tell people)...I am officially the Manager of Internal Financial Reporting at Peabody!  I'm excited to move into a new role and face new challenges.  Wish me luck!

Like Father Like Son

Sometimes this kid is so much like Brad is is scary.  As I type this he is eating guacamole out of a bowl with a fork.  He loves it.  It cracks me up how similar his and Brad's tastes are.  Don't get me wrong, he can give me a run for my money any day when it comes to macaroni and cheese, but what two year old doesn't like mac and cheese?  Guacamole and spicy food is a whole other story.   Brad secretly (or maybe not so secretly) loves it.

Birthday Party!

Mike's birthday party consisted of a pool party followed by pizza and cake back at our house. In total there were 27 people who celebrated with us, it was quite the event. Mike was spoiled rotten by family and friends and really grasped the concept of opening presents.  He has been happily playing with all his new stuff for the past few days. I really have no idea where we are going to put everything, especially with Christmas just around the corner.

Blowing out the candle on his "Cars" cake - he got it on the third try :)

I'm pretty sure he didn't eat any actual cake...just frosting.

Baby Landon enjoying some cake.

Apparently beer is a necessity at kid's birthday parties.

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2

I'm not quite sure how my baby went from this:



 To this:

In what seems like no time at all.  Seriously where did the last two years go?  Each phase with Mike is so much more fun than the last and I can't wait to see what is next.

Happy Birthday Monkey.  We love you more than you can ever imagine!
Mommy and Daddy

Random Cell Phone Pictures

This post may be a cop-out, but as it is pretty much completely comprised of pictures of Mike, I don't think anyone will complain.

Rawwwrrrrr

While sitting on the couch, Mike looked at me and proclaimed "Inna cracker" (I want a cracker).  He jumped off the couch, ran into the kitchen and came back carrying a box of graham crackers with this look on his face.

Ear infection + two year molars = sick baby.  Here we were waiting at the wal-mart pharmacy to get his prescription for ammoxicillan filled - ah good times. 

I see you

The kid is obsessed with phones. 

Building towers is a serious business

Mad scientist Mike

The Grinch

...or as Mike calls him "The Ginch."  The newly renovated Peabody Opera House opened a few months ago.  As I work for Peabody and we (obviously) have a bit of an interest in the newly named "Peabody Opera house" my company holiday party this year was a special dress rehearsal screening of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" at the opera house.   Seats were randomly assigned.  We scored great seats on the main level.   Mike LOVED the performance.  He sat completely mesmerized on our laps for the entire 90 minute show.   Sorry for the grainy cell phone picture, but they are all I have.



Monday Picture

Things He Does

I've said it before and I know I'll say it again but Mike learns new things every.single.day.  His vocabulary is exploding (the other day he busted out a seven word sentence).  So before this phase passes and I forget all of the cute things he does, I figured I should jot them down.

1). He finishes most of his requests with the word "first."  I don't think he is implying he wants something first versus second, I think he just picked it up from me saying "ok, we can do that, but let's finish this first."
2) He used to always say "yeah" now it is "ok."
3) He LOVES to clean the floors and gets the broom and mop out at least once a day and makes the floor "clean clean clean" he is also adamant that I help and will get a broom out for me too.
4) He has started telling us when he is ready for his nap by declaring it to be "seepy-time."
5) He is fascinated with Christmas lights and calls them "pretty yights."  We "yook" for them with our "eyes" while driving home every night.  While in the car he consistently asks for "more pretty yights mommy."
6) He has to pet Sammy and Kitty good bye every morning before we leave for daycare.  We can be out the door and he will run back inside to give them pets.
7) He is picky about his shoes and insists on wearing certain ones each morning.
8) Moo-mie (movie) = Gnomeo and Juliet.  I can't even count how many times we have watched parts of that movie. 
9) We bought him a little tent with a tunnel attached and he loves it.  The first day he kept trying to convince me to come into the tunnel with him.  I was smart enough to tell him I was too big, so now anytime he sees the tunnel he looks at it, then at me and while shaking his head no says "mommy no tunnel, mommy too big."  He studied Brad REALLY carefully before making the same assumption about daddy.
10) He refuses to wear socks if he isn't wearing shoes.  It is kind of like the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"...if you take his shoes off then he wants to take off his socks, then his pants, then his shirt then his diaper. 
11) He doesn't like to use kleenex and instead requests wipes.  He also needs a wipe every morning when I change his diaper to "keen [clean] up panda" (his favorite stuffed animal).  But don't worry, he gravely informs me that "panda no poop"  each day (thank goodness for that).
12) He loves to "help" me cook and pushes his step stool over to the appropriate place when we get home each night.  He also insists on "pouring" everything that needs to be poured.  We end up with a lot of minor spills, but it is 100% completely worth the help.
13) He is great about helping me set the table each night.  He even reminds me of what needs to be set out ("pates" = plates; "fork", "na-kins" = napkins, "dinks" = drinks, and "bib").  He even knows to put one of each item at each person's place.  He gets really confused when I only give him two of something (usually because Brad isn't going to make it home to eat with us) and asks "mommy or daddy?"
14) He likes to grab both sides of my head and give me kisses. 
15) While driving to daycare each day he has to name each of his friends and each of his teachers.

Christmas Tree

Mike loves Christmas so much he can't help but hug our Christmas tree every time he sees it.

Monday Picture

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with great friends. The turkey was done an hour early (when does that every actually happen???) but we made the best of it and enjoyed a great dinner with people literally laughed so hard they cried (thank you Brad for the answer to "what does a monkey say?" and Brandon for the "roaring" contest you had with Mike).

Mike ready to eat...just a few hours too early

Raaawwwwrrrrr

Thankful

Thanksgiving.  A day to spend with friends and family embracing what we are thankful for.   We really are amazingly lucky and thankful for so much.  We have a wonderful family and wonderful friends.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I'm especially thankful for these two.

Spice it up

The other day while cooking dinner, Mike decided our spice rack needed to be rearranged. He is always so helpful.

Monday Picture

Because sometimes you just need to make a huge mess (then you get stuck when mom and dad tell you not to step on your books...then they have to rescue you...then you pout while they make you help put everything back)

Oh Toddlers

So I'm pretty sure we have begun to battle the dreaded "two year molars."  For the past few days Mike has had a runny nose and been irritable.  The past two nights he has woken up intermittently throughout the night crying (very unlike him) and has woken up each morning extra early crying. 

This is how our morning went yesterday:

I pulled him into bed with me (because he woke up early crying) and we had the following conversation:

Me: "What's up buddy, are you feeling yucky?"

Mike: "yeah"

Me: Can you tell me where you feel yucky?

Mike: Sticking his fingers in his mouth "My mouf"

Me: "Your mouth hurts?"

Mike: "yeah"

Me: "Can you tell me what in your mouth hurts?"

Mike: Pointing to his two front teeth "My teef"

Eventually we got ready and headed downstairs. I let Sammy out and Kitty in and I fed Kitty while he fed Sammy.  While he was returning the dog food scoop to the bag of dog food in the pantry he spotted his second favorite food ever...fruit snacks (second only to suckers), grabbed the box, pulled out a pouch and asked "Mommy open it."  I told him we weren't having fruit snacks for breakfast.  He proceeded to throw a 15 minute tantrum writhing around on the kitchen floor (remember he hasn't been sleeping well and is likely getting new teeth).  After giving up on the tantrum he decided that maybe cheerios are ok after all.

Half way through his cheerios he looks at me and says: "mommy, spoon - no yike it.  Inna fork peas" (translation for those of you who don't speak fluent toddler: Mommy, I don't like my spoon, I'd like a fork please").  So then he finished his cereal with a fork.

After declaring he was "all done cheerios, all done mik" (milk) I may have mentioned that we needed to wash his hands (something he usually loves).  He said no, and I washed his hands anyway which sparked another melt-down on the kitchen floor.  By this time we were running a few minutes late so I asked him if he wanted to pet Sammy and Kitty bye-bye before we left (something else he normally can't get enough of).  This led to a chorus of "no, no, no, nos" and me grabbing him around the middle and carrying him like a football out to the car.

It sure is a good thing he is so cute.

Update on Baby #2

I had my 28 week appointment on Monday.  As I mentioned before, due to the single umbilical artery, I have to get (get to get?) ultrasounds every 4 weeks to make sure that our little man is still growing.  With Mike I had an ultrasounds at 12 and 20 weeks and that was it.  So this time around, it is really neat seeing how much baby #2 (still nameless) changes.  He is growing just as he should be.  His head is measuring big (no surprise there the Kessenich side, or perhaps we should go back to the Conway side is really good at making big heads).  He has 10 fingers, 10 toes and is still a boy.  He is currently bum down and already has hair (we could actually see it on the ultrasound). 

As for mommy, I'm doing pretty well.  Still feeling good, but experiencing a bit of pitting edema.  My doctor and Brad agree that it is a little early for pitting edema and are both keeping a close eye on me.  It was pretty bad last week in one leg.  The "in one leg" is a little scary because it is more suggestive of blood clots (both legs is somewhat suggestive of preeclampsia...obviously neither are good).  Otherwise I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. 

Then and Now

 28 weeks with Mike:

28 weeks with baby #2:

Monday Picture

Brotherly love.

Choo Choo Dance

Glow Sticks

Glow sticks in the bathtub = endless fun for your toddler.

Monday Picture

See Ya

The other morning Mike took a seat on the Pooh Train (yep, that's what we call it) asked me for Monkey then said to me "Me, Monkey, go ride...See ya!" and disappeared down the hall on the Pooh train.  I almost died from the cuteness.

Halloween

I grew up in the country.  We lived in a subdivision, but the lots were large making your neighbors far away.  If we went trick or treating we would usually receive about half a bag of candy at each house because they knew you would be one of the only kids to come around and didn't want to get stuck with all the candy.  Trick or treating involved planning my costume around my winter coat because more often than not there would be snow on the ground.  It also required the use of a vehicle to get from house to house.  There were a few years where I would go into town and go trick or treating with my friends.  I remember being shocked the first time I only received one piece of candy at a house until I looked around and saw the streets flooded with ghosts, witches, goblins, super hero's and princesses.  Mike's first experience of trick or treating was a lot different than mine.  We headed over to a friend's house to take him with her kids.  Her neighborhood goes a bit crazy for Halloween with lots of decorations, candy and fun.  Mike absolutely loved it...until he didn't (toward the end of the night he sadly sat down in a driveway and declared that he was done).  The kids did great even with a few minor setbacks (Mike falling into a hole, declaring himself "stuck" and losing a boot; the Conductor having to wear my sweater because he was cold and looking more like a grandma than a conductor, and me possibly being temporarily blinded by crazy kids with flash lights), and collected WAY more candy than anyone really needs.

The cast of characters:

A trusty train conductor:

The every lovely fairy Silvermist:

And of course, our own little cowboy (who was being a bit of a stinker so he posed with mom):

You mean if I hold this pumpkin up they will put "can-eee" in it?!?!?

Apparently even toddler sized cowboys can saunter

Look, they even let Brad out of the hospital!

 

Because even cowboys get cold



 Thanks so much to the Lyons family for letting us come play!