Leo - Month 17

::: 1 month recap ::: 2 month recap ::: 3 month recap ::: 4 month recap ::: 5 month recap :::

 ::: 6 month recap ::: 7 month recap ::: 8 month recap ::: 9 month recap ::: 10 month recap

::: 11 month recap ::: 12 month recap  ::: 13 month recap ::: 14 month recap

::: 15 month recap :::16 months :::

 

Weight: 22lbs 9oz

Nicknames: Leeman, Lee-Lee, Forest Boy, Weeward, Wee-whoa

Clothes: 18 months clothes, and we have gotten away with a few 18-24 month shirts from Gap if I roll the sleeves once. Pants are 12-18mth, still a size 4 diaper and rocking a 4.5 shoe.

Sleep:  You're a great sleeper. This month, as you'll read, you were sick. You had two nights with a really high fever that caused you to be up around 1:30/2 when your dose ran out. I went in, gave you a bottle, more medicine, and rocked you back to sleep, just like the good ol' days - but I had really forgotten how tiring it is to be up with you throughout the night....both of those days I needed a nap!

Schedule: 

7:00am - Up and Bottle

8:00am Breakfast- you looove waffles!

9-12am play

11:30am/12pmish- lunch

1:00 pm nap

3:15pm snack & playtime

6:00pm dinner

6:30 pm bath

7:00 pm 8oz bottle and bed

Health: You had a nasty cold this month. The only positive about this cold, is that I'm starting to learn a little bit more about whats normal for YOU when you are sick. 

Thankfully you haven't been sick often, but when you are, you seem to have a runny nose for about 5-7 days and then spike a fever +101 for 3 or 4 days before it finally breaks.

The problem with that, whenever I call the doctor for advice, they really suggest I come in and have you seen since you've had a fever for "so long". Next time around, I hope I trust my motherly instincts a little bit more - so I'm writing this down as a reminder to my future self.

Crying: Here are there, but this month you are really starting to express yourself more. You do get frustrated and will whine and cry a bit, but we're starting to find ways to communicate better. You have a new toy from your cousins Jack and Ella and you would get very frustrated every time the little frog piece would go down the tube because you are not quite strong enough to press the button down and release the frog. I showed you how to step on the button with your foot, and after 2 or 3 times, you figured it out. It eliminated a lot of frustration and now you spend hours a day playing with the frog and the tube.

 

Feeding:  This month you've really stayed away from a lot of meats and vegetables, but I'm sneaking veggies into your fruit drink and trying to get protein in you through eggs, peanut butter, and cheese.

Likes: You love to be the star of the show. You like to make sure you have everyone's attention so that you can perform for us. You love to play peek-a-boo, you love to dance to music, and you love to be chased by your daddy. You are really enjoying pushing around your new grocery cart and you probably bring me 30 books a day to read to you.

 

You love to get out of the house and go to music class, the library, your grandparents house, wherever!

Dislikes: This month, this biggest dislike you have had has been mommy leaving you at the gym kids club. We started going about 4 weeks ago, and the first week was brutal. You would cry and latch on to me like a little monkey. I would only workout for 30 minutes, and the entire time the ladies at the club would push you around the "magic stroller".

Each time I dropped you off, the ladies would assure me you were warming up, and sure enough, you really have. 

You cry for a few minutes when I leave, but then you find friends or new toys to play with and your happy as can be! We try and go 3 times a week for 50 minutes, and its been such a treat for me to workout and have a little morning break AND you get to be around other kids (except....colds), spend time away from mommy, and play with new toys.

Milestones: My favorite new word this month? YES! You say it incredibly cute and nod your head ferociously along with it. There's been a lot of sneezing around here this month, and wouldn't you know it, now you say "bleh u" for bless you.  

You understand a lot of commands, are starting to understand the routine of things, and are working really hard on jumping.

 

Places You’ve Gone: This has been your first full month here in Chicago and in our new house. It is so evident to me how happy you are here. There is so much more space to run around that you are much more content staying at home then you were in LA.

 

Visitors: We've had a busy month of lots of friends and family coming to see us and the house.

Roscoe: You two are truly the best of friends. You want him to chase you all day long, you ask for RoRo as soon as you wake up, and you laugh when he runs up and down the stairs like its the funniest thing you've ever seen.  And most of all (MUCH to me and dad's dismay, you love to throw your food off your highchair to him).

Random Ramblings

::: Leo's been on again, off again sick for like the last week or so. Every time I thought he was totally out of the woods, a new symptom would walk right in. The last two days he's had a fever, and despite him being tough as nails, it absolutely breaks my heart. I get really anxious with health and sickness, so it always physically and mentally exhausts me when the troops go down.

::: Thankfully the weather and sun have been on my side. We've been able to get outside and enjoy fresh air and a little vitamin D and I am SO thankful for that. Who would have thought that LA would have one of their worst winters on the books, and Chicago would have had one of their best the year we moved.

::: I swear I am in TJ.Maxx at least once a week, but I could sustain life with that store only. This week's hauls included a shopping cart for Leo (for under ten dollars) and my new favorite gift to give anyone that moves into a new home.

I went to visit my cousin Ryan who moved a few months back and included a little card with all of these goodies that said the following (in case you want to borrow this idea, because its adorable, easy, and a crowd pleaser). 

Bread - so you never go hungry

Salt - so you may always have flavor

Cookies - so you always enjoy the sweetness

Candle - so you always have light

Wine - so that joy and prosperity may reign forever

::: I'm pretty much back to cooking 5 days a week which feels nice after a long hiatus in the kitchen. Our routine is going to get a MAJOR shakeup next week when I start working again, but I'm hoping that I can tap into some legit magic powers and keep everything afloat despite some of my time being taken up.

 

::: The street we live on is decently busy, so I think I'm going to borrow my sister-in-laws idea and get a driveway fence. Have you guys seen these? They were new to me when she brought it out last summer, but I think its genius and will give us a lot of comfort when we play outside. that is, when we get around to doing a majorrrrr garage cleaning



::: It's funny, before we moved into our house, I could spend hours on Pintrest browsing beautifully decorated home and looking for inspiration and ideas, but now, I'm trying to avoid it a little. It sort of feels like a giant reminder of how much we  "need*" to do.

::: We just booked our tickets for our first trip back to LA. We have a dear friend (Ami) who is getting married, and so we are making a weekend of it. We're going to stay with friends in LA on Friday and Saturday, and then drive down to San Diego on Sunday to meet my newest niece before flying back home early Monday morning.

::: Even though my job will be based from the house, I'll be downtown training all next week. Instead of commuting each day into the city, I'm staying downtown one night to break it up a little. I'm so excited to have a day in my old life. To dress up, work in an office building in downtown Chicago, meet girlfriends for happy hour, and go out to dinner, not run a bedtime routine for a toddler!....I didn't soak up that fun enough when I had it!

Weekend Recap

The weather this weekend was insanely beautiful and you could just feel the buzzing energy of everyone wanting to take full advantage of every minute.

Friday after school, my cousin Gia and a few of her friends came over to hang with Leo and I. After playing outside for a few hours, Gia stayed over for dinner with Joel and I, and the three of us watched a few shows and went to bed. 

Saturday my sisters and my cousins Amanda and Sean all came out from the city to spend the night with us.

I set out sandwiches, we went through a lot of champagne, we played a few games, watched the dunk contest, ate a ton of pizza and then everyone fell asleep on the couch before 10. 

It was glorious.

and King Leo was loved on hard.

Sunday Amanda and I took Leo for a long walk, and then decided to sneak away to go watch 50 shades darker.

 

She went back into the city, and I picked up my boys and we decided to go get a few beers at Crystal Lake Brewing.

The place was packed, and its just such a perfect spot. We grabbed a bucket of Jenga blocks for Leo to play with and stayed in this perfect little corner of the brewery for almost two hours. 

Joel's parents ended up meeting us there for a drink together, we had a quick dinner with them at their house after, and then headed home.

I walked to my neighbors house to was Big, Little, Lies since we don't have HBO and then basically melted into my bed at 9:30 after a long, exhausting, but such fun weekend. 

Five on Friday

::: 1 :::

Shutterfly and I have spent a lot of time together this past month. I finally finished Leo's baby book and I did it through my go-to which is Shutterfly. This blog sometimes feels like a chore, but boy did it make my life easier when I looked back at all of Leo's monthly updates. I'm so excited to have them printed off into a book with pages dedicated to his first holidays and vacations too. It's well worth the $30 dollars (because books are always 50% off, so wait for the sale!)

I've also found Shutterfly to be a great place for backing up my photos. Not only does it make it easier to just click and print them off, but now they're all there for when I want to blog too. I previously had been emailing myself photos, saving them to my hard drive, and then uploading them onto the blog. With Shutterfly I've cut out the middleman. I keep the app on my phone, upload my photos everyday, and then when I go to blog, I copy and paste from Shutterfly's website which stores all of my photos by date. It's been a game changer! 

::: 2 :::

We had a great Valentine's day. Joel and I had celebrated on Sunday with a divine dinner cooked by Joel....

So that come Tuesday, the day was spent with a little extra love for the family. We started the day at our favorite tot rock class.

And then we had a visit from Leo's Grandmother AND Great Grandmother. He was spoiled with love.

 

 ::: 3 :::

I have two new podcasts that I've been binge listening too, so I thought I'd share. My friend Mallory turned me on to I Do Declare, and then they turned me on to The Pop Cast. I love both and they're easy, fun, lighthearted podcasts.

My friend Annie asked when I get a chance to listen to podcasts and for the most part, I listen to them everyday during nap time. I like to have my headphones in and listen to them as I prepare dinner, do laundry, clean the house....whatever. I also keep a pair of headphones in our stroller and will pop them in at that point if we go for a decent walk around 4pm.

::: 4 :::

This post is very technological for me, but I wanted to share my experience with the app called Headspace. I don't think it's all that new.....in fact, Joel had already gone through the ten day trial when I told him all about my "new" finding. But regardless...

I'm really liking it. You start with a free, ten day trial and it just helps you train your brain. I have to keep really on top of my anxiety and this is one other tool to really keep it at bay. 

::: 5 :::

Leo's favorite game in the entire world is hide and seek. He will leave a room, and come rushing in with a big "BOO" in hopes for a big reaction of how much he scared you. This week his favorite hiding space has been c/o his new TeePee that he got from his aunts for Christmas. 

 

This weekend (week actually), is supposed to be in the sixties so I'm thinking we're going to clock as much park time as we possible can! My sisters are coming to hang on Saturday and that's about all we have planned. Have a great weekend! 

New house needs

Initially when we moved into the house, I was on a "get things perfect" rampage, and couldn't be slowed. 

Once we got all of our stuff from our 2 bedroom apartment in LA, into this much larger home, I was able to fill some immediate furniture holes.

I'm actually surprised how not empty this house is, given the change, but there are some holes.....and some of those holes are just going to have to wait a while. 

I'm not good with waiting, and I'd like every room to look done, and looking done now, but there's no sense in rushing, so I'm working with it.

What I'm hoping to scoop up in the next few weeks is a hallway runner, a comfortable, fun couch for our living room (and I'm leaning towards navy), and a small table that would work well in front of our front bay window. 

 

and then I'd like to put that table up in the guest room (where it belongs!)

 

 

I'm kind of hoping I can score a little bit with the upcoming President's sale so I've been on the hunt and really like this one from Wayfair. I need a dark colored rug that can really hide dirt since this runner will be in a heavily trafficked area. 

My parents are building a house later this year, and I'm hoping to scoop up a few of my moms pieces when they move. I've got my eye on two cozy chairs for our master bedroom, vintage end tables that were my Grandmothers, her outdoor set and mmmaaayyybbbeeee even her sectional if it proves to be too big for her basement! She wants new and I am ONE HAPPY CAMPER to take any of her used goods! 

Our upstairs bedrooms are pretty lacking too, but with time, I know that this house will some day feel small to us!

Making Marriage Merry

Last week a few of the blogs I read (Home of Malones and Mix'n'Match Mama) posted on the topic of "How to Make Marriage Work"...and in honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd throw my two cents in the game. 

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Joel and I have been together for TEN years next month! Pretty dang insane. We have walked a lot of life together, have grown up together, and have ebbed and flowed in what we like, what we want, and we need together and apart.

Every stage of life has required different things from each other, but when I thought about what has been consistent for the last ten years, these are the few things that I think have kept our bond strong.

Find things you both like doing outside of the house and do them...as often as you can. 

Joel and I don't operate well being at home constantly and being entertained by the television. We both like to stay active, and we have a lot of fun when we are active together. We really like to play tennis together - we're going to join a pickle ball league this summer together  - or back in California we really tried to get in a hike together every week. We also really like to play games, and even more so at a bar, so we try to do that whenever we can. Just doing things that help keep things fresh and fun.

Create traditions

My family will tell you...but I live and die by traditions. They're my absolute favorite thing about life and I like having marriage traditions too.  Watching our wedding video at our anniversary, staying in together on New Years Eve, whatever they may be are fun and help connect us.

Surprise each other

Honestly, I don't think this has to be grand or extreme, but a note under my pillow when Joel leaves for a business trip or cooking his favorite dinner after a bad day at work makes us both feel loved. It feels nice when someone goes a little bit out of their way to make the other one feel special.

Go on adventures 

There's nothing more I love than going to new places with Joel. Sometimes it's a new town or a new country - but I love everything about it. We both enjoy the anticipation of adventures, and we both dive into the place we are going to. We like to research and find the best places to eat, see, visit....and it's fun to get out of our sometimes stale routine. 

Try not to air your dirty laundry 

I think we all have been guilty complaining about our loved ones...especially after a few glasses of wine with your girlfriends. When its been a tough day, tough week, or tough year, its tempting to go to your girls and be reassured that "he's an idiot", but, for the most part, after I've done that, I wished I hadn't. I don't like my girlfriends to think poorly of Joel - and more times than not - I'm keeping my part of the argument out of the story. It's just a tough position to put everyone in, and I try really hard to stop myself from doing so. 

Set yearly goals on your anniversary 

We have done this for the last 3 years, and its something I really like doing. We spend our entire anniversary dinner talking about how the previous years goals went, and setting ones for the following year. We both try to come prepared with a few ideas, and a lot of the goals end up getting repeated. We try to pick a financial goal we want to reach by the end of the year, a romantic goal (like more date nights), a family goal (go to church more), and a travel goal (like go to Europe). Sometimes the goals are a bust, sometimes a success, but more than anything, its nice to be on the same page about where we want the year ahead to take us. 

Kiss

There's got to be something more in a marriage than just a roommate or co-parent. Kissing hello and goodbye, finding time to make out, and just remembering your attraction to your husband or wife, is pretty damn important. 

We are lucky in the fact that if given the choice, [for the most part], come Friday or Saturday night, there really isn't anyone else we would want to spend time with besides each other. Joel is everything I need in a partner. He balances me, calms me, motivates me, and loves me and I truly Thank God I was smart enough ten years ago to see that and not let him go.  

We're obviously not perfect, and we have a lot of room to grow in our relationship, so I'd love to hear what you feel like you are conscious to do in your current or previous or future relationships!

Weekend Recap

On Friday afternoon, I accepted a part time job!

The opportunity came to me back in December when my old boss caught wind that I was moving back to Chicago. He reached out to see if I would be interested in a part time sales position - one that would be a work from home gig - and with the help of my mom and Joel's mom - I couldn't say no.I start in two weeks, and while there will be some training downtown Chicago, mostly I'll be working from our office from 12-4:30pm, 4 days a week. I'm really excited to see what a little extra work on my plate will do for our family...for good or for bad...but here goes nothing! 

To celebrate, I went out and got my hair and nails done, and then Joel and I went out to dinner with friends so it was a fun impromptu, baby-free celebration! 

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Saturday morning my mom picked me up before 9am, and we headed into the city to celebrate her birthday! 

My sister is the events director at a new hotel in Bucktown/Wicker Park called The Robey. 

If you live in Chicago, you have to visit. The views, location, ambience, and food are absolutely incredible.

We walked across the street to Publican Anker for a pretty solid brunch.

 

It was packed to the brim, and while brunch fit the bill, it was a bit over done for me. The brunch menu is pretty small, and of the 7 or 8 dishes we got, I really only totally loved one.

Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the PrivateBank theater for Hamilton! 

We bought these tickets back in October and have honestly been looking forward to the show for months. 

I wasn't sure what all the hype was about, but my final verdict is that there still isn't even enough hype for how good it is.

The music is unbelievable, the story, message, show, everything about it blew me away and had me wiping away tears at the end. It is a MUST SEE, and it honestly is worth the expensive price tag. 

After the show, we went over to Mama's Boy for a really solid dinner. Classic Italian food but we had a great bottle of wine, great appetizers (the burrata salad was my favorite) and an overall great time.

We capped it off with a cup of tea at The Robey cafe and went to bed before ten! 

Sunday I was home really early since my little Leo caught a little cold. I knew something was inevitable since he is new to these Chicago germs, but I'm hoping its short lived and he's back to his healthy self in no time.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Five on Friday

 

::: 1 :::

 

Gym dare is still going. I'm shooting for 3-4 times a week, and while the inital drop off is not getting easier (in fact, worse), the teachers assure me that after twenty minutes Leo settles in and starts to play and have fun. I've only been working out for 45 minutes, but I think starting next week I'm going to bump that up. It will give me a better workout, and give Leo more time in the kidzone of actual play time. We will get there! 

::: 2 ::: 

I can't help myself with holiday outfits. I have never decorated my house for Valentine's Day (although I might next year), but Leo is my walking decoration. I've got another few shirts lined up for next week, but my little boy looks pretty darn good in red! 

::: 3 :::

Leo's sleep has been totally off whack this week....one morning I had to wake him from a deeeeeep sleep at 8:40am, and then today, no nap at all! He's cutting his molars (1 has just started to cut through), so that is one part to blame, and his room has been just way too bright, so that's the other part. I've bought a small fortune in window coverings, so I'm hoping that helps! 

::: 4 :::

 

I'm finally starting to get my cooking groove back and its been nice to sit at the table and eat somewhat balanced meals together. This week we had superbowl leftovers on Monday, bunless burgers and sweet potato's on Tuesday, Korean bowls on Wednesday, and delish White Chicken Chili yesterday.

::: 5 ::: 

This weekend is due to very much so NOT suck for me. I'm getting my hair and nails done early afternoon thanks to wonderful in-laws who have offered to sit for Leo all afternoon and evening tomorrow - and then we are going out to dinner with neighborhood friends.

Saturday I'm ditching my boys for an overnight in the city to see Hamilton and spend some time with my mom and sisters. 

Hope you have a great weekend too!!