Summer Break Has Commenced!

The end of the school year was a doozy! It felt busy, hectic, and my kids were bursting with excitement for summer break (so was I)!

The first week of break was fabulous and calm. It's been so nice being home and being with Mason everyday. He seems like he's growing and learning so fast. He's babbling so much and picking up a lot of language lately. I love how big he is right now! He can climb up on the couch and now has "free reign" over the house for the most part. Two cute things he is doing right now that I don't want to forget:
#1 When he wants something, he sits down on his butt, nods his head, and says "more".
#2 He also points at an object and then points back at himself when he wants something.
Both of these things I find adorable!!! I also love the sound of his little voice and his little feet running around.

As usual, with good weather and more time comes the desire to be active. I've been walking and/or working out most days since school has gotten out and it feels really good. Gil and I have both been tracking our steps with our Fitbits and that's been motivating.

On Sunday, we celebrated Father's day with a present and cinnamon rolls in the morning and then we went to the park in the afternoon. Mason loved the splash pad, even though it was pretty busy. A lot of kids had buckets there and Mason kept following them around trying to play with them. After that, we walked the trails and checked out the little nature center at the park for the first time.

Happy Summer!!!

Little By Little- House Progress

I'm closing in on the end of the school year and I couldn't be more excited! We spent this weekend in Grand Haven, one of my favorite places on the planet, and then out on a friend's boat yesterday. It's been a lovely weekend!

I'm looking forward to being home this summer to hang out with my favorite little munchkin and also to getting our house organized and decorated!

We haven't done tons lately and to be honest, I don't know that we will do any huge projects in this home since it probably will not be our "forever home".

But just painting and doing little things here and there has made a world of difference. We've put a little work into the dining room and I think it's the first room in the house that we can call finished.

We had the wallpaper taken down, painted, put up curtains and a little art and called it a day. Gil also took down the terrible light fixture and switched it out with one I love!

Here are some photos from when the previous owner was still occupying the house:

Here are photos of the dining room in its current state:

The pictures are a bit dark, but the wall color is navy and I love it with the touches of red. There are also splashes of navy in the adjoining rooms. Can't wait to work on some more projects in the coming months!

Midwinter Break!!!

I have officially  made it to an important point in the year...Midwinter Break!! It has been so nice to have this week off of school. I especially feel grateful because many districts around us only got Friday and Monday off, but we have the full week. Yippee!!

It's been a busy week, which is nice on one hand, but on the other hand it makes things go too fast! Monday Mason went to daycare and I got a bunch of random errands done, like bringing Laila to the vet.

Tuesday we went to my old coworker's house for a playdate with other teachers from my school and their kids. It was so fun and cute to see the babies together. We were all pregnant together at school and now the boys are big enough to play {kinda} with each other!

Wednesday I had a lonnnnng overdue hair appointment and Laila went to the groomers. I like getting my hair done so I don't look crazy, but it takes soooo long. When I get a cut and color it takes 3+ hours. I don't know if that's normal or if my hair stylist just talks too much. I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't gotten a haircut since JULY! My hair was down to my shoulders and I got it chopped at about chin length. It's going to take 2 second to blow dry my hair now! My hair salon is right by our old house, so I always drive by to see what's going on on our old street. The house looks the same but one of our neighbor's houses looks like it was recently flipped.

Today Erin and Ada are coming over for a visit. Laila went to daycare, which she was super excited about. I'm going to stay inside as much as possible today because the temperature is -4 and feels like -19. Yuck!

Tomorrow Mason and I are going to go have lunch with Gil at work. That'll be fun for Mason to get to see his work but also so we can spend some time with him. He's been so so so busy at work that we haven't seen him much lately. Can't wait for busy season to be over!

Mason is getting to be so fun. He's starting to say words like "hi", "uh oh", "daddy" and I can see him studying my mouth when I talk to him. When I get time off like this, it's so so nice to spend it with him but it also makes me sad seeing how much I miss during the week when he is at daycare. I try not to focus on that, but it stinks that I'm missing out on so much! I love watching him learn new skills every week. Right now he loves opening and closing doors, turning on and off the light switches, opening and closing drawers...you get the picture. He's also starting to voice his opinion. He will fuss and throw a mini tantrum when I take something he wants or if I make him stop playing to get his diaper change. Even when he's being a little cranky pants, I love it all! What a little cutie patootie!

Life is Busy, Busy...

but I am trying to soak in the lovely moments everyday. From the time my alarm goes off, I feel like I run around like a chicken with its head cut off. That's kinda just the way things are right now with working full-time and a little guy who is almost one!

But everyday, I try to put a "to do" item to the side and replace it with a "want to do". Cleaning up after dinner can wait...playing with my little guy before bed cannot. Laundry can wait...rocking my little one cannot! I could just give him kisses and hugs all day long and never get tired of it. Really!

I know every mom probably feels like this, but it is going way too fast. I truly can't believe he is so big and can do so much. It's bittersweet to see the baby leave him, but it's so fun seeing the little boy he is turning into!

What a happy little guy. Love him!

Just Checking In...

Wow, this year is flying by so I just want to take a second to check in with myself! If I don't, I think I will forget everything that is happening right now.

First of all, I have never been so busy in my life! I've been back to school for a couple of months now and man, the days are long! The daily routine is really wearing me out, but luckily only one more week before winter vacation. Then two weeks of with my baby and Gil!

Mason is so fun these days!! He's crawling, pulling up to a stand all by himself, and working on popping his 4 top teeth any day now!

To say I lovvvvve him is an understatement. What an awesome little guy he is! He loves being silly to make us smile and is the happiest little guy ever. He loves looking at his books and will usually reach for a book over his toys. He likes being read to and turning the pages. He loves crawling around and exploring.

Gil and I have been plugging away at the house, doing projects here and there. I love the changes we've made and it's really starting to feel like a home. We had most of the downstairs painted and have finally started hanging things on the walls. Gil has been working hard at replacing old fixtures, like light switches. He also replaced all the toilets. We just ordered a new washer, dryer, and dishwasher...thank you Black Friday deals!

We are going to replace the light fixtures on the main floor soon. Over winter break we will hopefully  knock out a few more projects.

This is the first year that we aren't going back to GR for the holidays. We are looking forward to starting some new traditions as our little family of three (plus Laila!) this year. We have the Christmas tree up and Gil decorated the house with lights.

This weekend we are going to pick out Mason's first ornament and stockings. I just ordered The Night Before Christmas so we can read it to our kid(s) each year on Christmas Eve.

Looking forward to the holidays and some time to relax at home!

Here are some catch-up pictures:

From Grand Haven this summer

Some Miscellaneous:

What a little love!

Sleep? What's that!?

Just taking a second to check in so I can remember this period of my life. Otherwise, it'll all be a sleep deprived blur!

Mason will be 5 months old on Monday and he's so so fun and adorable. He's learning new things and seems more like a real little person each day. That being said, he is terrible at sleeping! Ha! Just being honest.

From the get go, he hasn't been a great sleeper but it's getting harder everyday. Maybe it's the four month sleep regression everyone talks about...I'm wondering how long it'll last!

It's super hard to get him down for naps lately and once he actually falls asleep, it's 30 minutes tops. I'm hoping this truly is a phase he will get through. I never imagined that sleep would be so hard for a baby but he sure knows how to fight it. He definitely has not learned how to get past the first sleep cycle and how to fall back asleep without help yet. I tease Gil that Mason inherited his stubbornness. Gil claims he got it from me. Maybe he got a double dose. :)

Yesterday Gil and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We had such a fun day. We did some projects around the house in the morning. Gil changed all the light fixtures in the upstairs bedrooms and hallway (I helped minimally). I'm so happy all the ugly ceiling fans are outta there!

Then in late afternoon, the three of us headed to a new brewery, Griffin Claw, we hadn't tried before. It had an awesome outdoor eating area for summer and reminded me of Brewery Vivant in GR. If you go, try the fried pickles. They were delish. After dinner, we headed to RO to get dessert at Astoria Bakery, per our anniversary tradition. We walked around for a while and then we took a drive by our old house. It was a fun, low-key evening.

Looking at Daddy at dinner

The night before we enjoyed our last bottle of wedding wine!

Can't wait to see what the future brings for us!

Mixed Feelings

I know it's still June and I'm not going back to work until the end of August, but the wheels are already turning in my head thinking about school and everything I need to do before the year starts up again. It feels like so long since I have been in my own classroom since I did push-in this year and have been out of school since the end of February. I really hope I haven't lost my mojo! Ha!

Part of me feels excited to get back in the classroom. I'm excited to have a new group of kids, to decorate my new room, and to be back in the groove of working everyday. But...a big part of me feels terrible about the idea of Mason being with other people all day, everyday while I'm gone. Right now he is literally a different baby everyday when he wakes up. He's learning so fast and has new skills to show off everyday. I don't want to miss that! The idea that he will be at daycare for at least 8 hours a day is really depressing to me, even though we found a place that I'm sure he'll love. But oy...not fun to think about leaving my little baby, especially when I think of how fast four months has already flown by. I feel like I'm going to blink and he'll be 17.

Since I am definitely going back to work in August, I'm trying really hard to get myself excited about it, instead of concentrating on the bad parts. When Mason goes down for {very short} naps, I've been trying to work on back to school stuff. The best I can do is be very prepared and organized so that I don't feel stressed during the school year. Hopefully that'll help ease the blow.

Through it all, I can't help thinking that every woman should get a year maternity leave! All these poor little babies being separated from their mommas...doesn't seem right! I am thankful at least that I have a job that allows me to get out of work relatively early in the day, have holiday breaks, and the summer time off.

Working mommas, any tips for easing the guilt when your little one is away from you during the working day?!