11 Month Reflection

One month from today I will have a one year old again. My baby is going to be one.  WHAATT? Where did this year go? How is my sweet little baby who used to just sleep in a Moses Basket walking now?

As I reflect on these past 11 months I feel so blessed to have such an amazing, healthy baby girl. So in honor of Boos' 11th month today, I'd like to share with everyone the 11's on her.

1) She's curious. Very curious. I've mentioned this before, but she doesn't miss a trick. I can't leave her alone for more than two minutes before she is trying to find me and up my butt again to see what I am doing.

2) She really, really loves her brother. She thinks he's just hysterical. Even when he's taking toys from her and rubbing her head (which I am constantly telling him to stop doing). She plays with his toys, mostly his cars, and tries to imitate the things he does. He colors, she wants to color...he's learning to wash his head, she wants to wash her head. I'm not exaggerating, I have a copycat. Thankfully Noogs is a trooper...for now.

3) She's a full blown walker. Yes, crawling is a thing of the past pretty much. She took her first step at nine months and two months later she is just walking around like she owns the joint. Its super cute but, I'm totally stressing how to do baby gates in this open floor plan of mine.

4) She's a huge eater. Actually she's been done with baby food for a while now, but she eats whatever we eat. I guess she always has though. I made most of my own baby food and would just puree what we would eat, but now I'm cutting it into small chunks instead of purees. She eats a lot. She can easily out eat Noogs if I let her. Her favorites are pasta, carrots, strawberries and eggs!

5) She loves peekaboo, high fives and kisses. She gets totally cheesy doing them all.

6) She has hair. Yes, up until like a few months ago, she didn't have much hair, and if she wasn't in pink when I was at a store, people would ask how old "he" was. I made a point to try and always have a headband with a flower on her, but she started pulling them off....enter the baby snap. I LOVE these things. Check out Clips4Her. Baby snaps are awesome (and comfortable for baby) for those with little wispy hair like Boo.

7) Shes a babbler and a squealer. "Mama's" "Dada's" "Hi's" "Hello's" and "Ella's" are as far as the vocabulary I can understand goes, but shes talking..in her own way. She knows how to let me know what she wants.

8) She drinks from a big girl cup. She makes a huge mess and starts kind of choking, but she gets the gist of it : )

9) She still loves her pacifier : / I have to work on this. Noogs was not a pacifier baby much, but she totally is. She only uses it for naps and night time, but I need to break the habit now.

10) She is an amazing sleeper. I lucked out with both of my children. She is even better than Noogs was. She'll easily give me an 11-13 hour night with no interruptions. The first time she slept like 10 hours she was only like two months old. I don't have to rock her, I don't have to do anything, I literally put her in the crib, kiss her goodnight and out I go, I'll hear her humming herself to sleep (its too cute) and within five minutes she's out not to be seen until the next day. Nap time is just as easy and since I cut down to one nap a day, she'll give me anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

11) She doesn't have a "lovey". Most children I know have something they like to cuddle with or carry around, she just hasn't found one yet or won't have one. I always try, because I find it cute, but she usually winds up throwing it, feisty little thing. Probably for the best so its not another habit I need to break.

So there you have it. The 11's on Boo. I can't believe how fast this year went, but I am so excited for what the next year holds for her. Although I of course miss her being a "baby",  I am loving this age and think it's going to be a great summer with her. She's such a bright, beautiful little girl, I am so proud to be her mother.

Peter Cottontail

This was by far one of my favorite Easter's since I've moved to VB. I love having family in town. I love that people want to come here and spend holidays with us. I loved it was Boo's 1st Easter. I LOVED the weather. Screw the fancy outfits and Easter bonnets, it was all about bathing suits, cotton clothing and outside water fun.

Check out the album to see how the M clan kicked back for the holiday!

Eggstravaganza

Chesapeake City Park had one today from 10-12. I knew this place was going to be a total mob scene knowing it was a FREE event. I usually try and stick with more low key events, but since this one was two minutes from my house...and free I thought we'd check it out. We got there right for 10AM and I am glad we did because it was crowded already. They had quite a few bounce jump house play type things set up in the back for the kids to play on. After waiting in a couple lines and Noogs whining a bit about it being "his turn", he finally was able to play on some. I think it was worth the wait for him.

Boo is too little for stuff like this, but she kind of did her own thing while waiting for her brother before the Easter Egg Hunt started.....
Like being adorable!

and searching for a snack...

which she found easily..

They started the egg hunt at 11AM. I was REALLY happy they put it in age groups. It was chaotic enough to begin with and I really don't know if Noogs would of been OK with a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds. (I mean really though, why are you like 12 on an egg hunt...you clearly don't even believe in the Easter Bunny anymore!) Anyway..there was A LOT of people. We went to the end of the field in hopes on steering clear of the big crowd. We were at the end of the field and all I see is a surge of kids (AND parents!) start running towards the middle and I'm like "OMG, we need to go, it started". Where was the gunshot to start it? A whistle? The National Anthem? Give me something here City of Chesapeake! I felt like I was about to run a freaking 5K and there was a mad dash for the finish. Anyway, Noogs lost it. He made it two feet and got so overwhelmed with people he just started crying. In a matter of two seconds, Hubby swept in and saved the day. He passed Boo off to me, scooped up Noogs and ran to a somewhat empty part of the field where there were lots of eggs. Noogs' crying immediately stopped and he was able to join in the fun..

 Even Boo joined in!

I kind of lost Hubby and Noogs the whole two minutes of the egg hunt tending to Ella and the two eggs she found, but when I saw the two boys charging back like "yea what?" I knew they did well..

So after a few cries...a few pouts...a few whines...the whole hour and a half we spent at the Eggstravaganza was worth it!

The Traditionalist

I love traditions. I have a tradition for every holiday. From Christmas to Valentine's Day to 4th of July, I have some sort of something that stuck throughout the years and some new ones I added as I had my own family. For me, I grew up with different traditions and I find comfort in them in some sense, consistency somewhere in this crazy world.  

I was lucky enough to marry a man who loves me for my quirks and goes along with it all and enjoys the traditions as well. I think he gets more excited about "Christmas Tree Decorating Day" than me, just saying, but its cute and its us and I love him for it.  So at this point Noogs and Boo are stuck with traditions as they grow up, I hope they enjoy it as much as I did...and if they don't they are pretty much beat until they are old enough to tell me so.

So on forth with Easter. I mean really, Good Friday would not be complete without the smell of vinegar and hard boiled eggs in your house. I think this is the first Easter Noogs understood what is going on and it is so fun to see him get excited about dying Easter eggs and baking cookies. It's really the little things that say it all. Like the "Mommy, what do we do with this thing?"

So we started by baking cookies. Christmas time I make cookies from scratch (oh yes, I have a Christmas cookie baking day tradition) but today, it was all about Pillsbury.

Then it was time to (and no not play beer pong or flip cup, that was so 5 years ago for me...minus this past NYE where I was kid-free and kinda kicked butt in flip cup, just verifyin the fact that I still got it...anyhoo) time to dye the Easter eggs!

Noogs was beyond stoked.

So it began.

Hubby and Noogs were their usual selves while we waited for the dye to do its magic.

Boo is REALLY walking now, and she participated by walking around the kitchen, throwing her magnetic fridge letters and just being adorable.

I was able to get a little snuggle time with her before she wanted to get down again.

Anyway, we all enjoyed this evening, as a family. I mean that's really what it's all about. Traditions aren't much if you don't share them with the ones you love.

Hello? Hello?

Is this a sneak peek of what teen years will be like?

The Notorious N-O-O-G-S

Noogs loves music. For a three year old he can watch an old Led Zeppelin concert, hire the volume on the TV himself and be content or "mosh" around to Authority Zero or Bad Religion. Tonight, it was all about Biggie Smalls. Thought I'd share a clip...

Spring Pictures

I was in total momographer mode today and took advantage of the gorgeous day (and new lens) to take some spring pics of the kiddies! Here are some of them:

Ahh...I love my little peeps : )

Shake What Your Mama Gave You....

I do not take after my mother when it comes to gardening. My mother has a sick green thumb. She can make a pile of dirt and weeds into an array of color, and style that stay alive all season and come back stronger each year. Me?  My thumb is brown. Sure I have a couple house plants that have made it through the years, even though they may have been starved from time to time and I have the hanging flowers each season that last about a week or two. My basil plant last year made it 2 weeks! (hollleer!) But that is the extent to where my planting skills go. Words like "soil" and "annuals" are foreign to me, and I just learned today what "perennial" meant.

So each year since I moved on my own, my mother would come down to VA in the spring to "help" (and I say that graciously since she really does all the work and I would just sit back with the "are you sure it should go there?" "whats that thing called..oh a shovel?" "I have to dig a hole?" "what?..wine..please"). So the plan was for her to come this weekend with my sister since me and Sissy were running a half marathon this weekend.

Our yard was a mess. We had weeds growing in our flower bed like crazy, I actually thought the weeds were maybe plants because they were so full, so I was so excited to get it all cleaned up this weekend. The worst thing happened though. My mother could not make it down on Friday as she was really sick. I was so worried! I mean, who would plant our flowers and clean up our ghetto garden?? (don't get the panties in a bunch, I totally made sure mom was OK and just had a bug before I started to bug about the garden, moms OK : )

So I had to put my big girl pants on and do the gardening myself. Hubby and I thought we'd do it together, you know some bonding type stuff. So this morning we set out to Lowe's on our first gardening excursion alone! (Sissy was home with Noogs and Boo before she left for her venture back NJ).

We walked around a little aimlessly at first, there was a lot of "what do we get?" "should I call my mom?" "let me take a pic, I'll send it to her to see if that's the right one". Thank God my phone died because then it made us do everything on our own.

So after an hour of aimless looks and reading tags, we got some flowers, new baby bushes (we were pulling old dead ones out), new mulch, some tools and solar lights. I was excited at this point to get started. This is what our front yard looked like before.

Dead bushes, lots of weeds, old mulch

First thing we did was pull out those awful bushes...easy task. Noogs helped too.

Then we started planting all the new stuff...

Noogs wanted to name every bug we found...

Oh and I got these for my flower basket in front. I have no idea what they are called, but they're pretty : )

I loved these too, something "pillowtalk" or something, thought they were pretty with a cool name!



Things were really coming along and I was so excited we did it ourselves without mom holding my hand. Of course there were some phone calls to her about some term "edging" that I don't think we did, and we're still unsure if we should put some kind of stone around the bed like we had before because we took old stone out. BUT, I love it. I love it because we did it ourselves as a family and I actually enjoyed doing it instead of finding it to be a pain in the.... I even found myself at one point saying outloud "poor little guy" when a flower I took out and replanted seemed really floppy. So here it is, our finished product!



I'm not a big "lawn ornament" type person...but I LOVE this, mostly because my Mimi bought this for me. And its solar powered, so it lights up at night. (just went outside to check it out and it looks nice : )

And this guy I've had since my apartment, so he's practically family.

So there you have it folks, our first gardening experience alone. It was fun and I think after today I may have somewhat of a greener thumb. My mama would be proud!

Do you smell that?

No, not the pollen (does pollen even smell?) But warmth, clean cut grass, flowers, the beach....or maybe I smell the beach because of my new Scentsy scent "Rio Beach" (I highly recommend it). Anyway, the beach. I LOVE the beach. It's in my blood. Literally, it really is. There's something about the sand and ocean that is so peaceful and tranquil, if I had to pick a place to die, it would be the beach...in a totally non-morbid kind of way.

I'm not quite sure where my love of the beach stems from. It could be the fact that I was brought up on the Jersey Shore, and spent every single summer as a baby, toddler, young girl and teenager at our family beach house. (I'll save the 'beach house' for another post, as it holds a special place in my heart, and I'm so excited we still have it to take my children to)....but yea, I love the beach...

So I woke up this morning to birds chirping and sun shining through the blinds....(also a 3 year old jumping on top of me...something about "get up mommy, its morning" and "cartoons...juice"...its all so vague)...anyhoo,  it was an actual day we had no plans. I was caught up on house work, school work and Noogs had no school..so what was I going to do on this gorgeous day? Half asleep I got out of bed, made my tea, and sat on the couch for a good episode of 'Martha Speaks', Noogs asked "mommy, what are we doing today", I knew what I wanted to do. "We're going on a picnic to the beach". The excitement on his face was like I just told him Batman and Robin were outside and Spiderman and Santa were on their way. He's so my child. And a double bonus, I'll do a run on the boardwalk with the kids in the jogger! 
It was about 7:45 at this point....I started getting ready right away...as getting ready for a day trip with two children by yourself is quite a tedious task.

So I did the usual, gave Noogs breakfast, fed myself breakfast and as I'm eating breakfast I'm totally using my multi-tasking skills and making lunch for the actual picnic part of our day. (PB&J for the Noogs, chicken salad for me and Boo..and some other snacks).

I woke my sleepyhead daughter up after 8, fed her, got myself ready, which really consisted of water on the face, a teeth brush and throwing on my smelly workout clothes (hey, I have no one to impress). Getting the kids ready is the tedious part. I usually spend about ten minutes alone chasing Noogs in a circle to go brush his teeth, meanwhile Boo is following me around like a puppy with her "mama" and sticking up her arms. Dressing an almost one year old is fun too. I usually give her my phone to play with, but I think she's starting to realize I lock it and now she just throws it and the squirming continues. By the time I am done getting them ready, I'm not quite sure why I need to go workout, because surely I just burned 700 calories....

FINALLY, by 9:45 we are ready to leave. I live about twenty minutes from the actual Oceanfront. I try not to freak down at the Oceanfront during heavy tourist season (will talk more about VB in future posts), but April is pretty locale. And the Grommet Island beach park is tons of fun.

So we get to the beach a little after 10, takes me a good ten minutes to load up the jogger, kids, and all our supplies and we are finally ready!

I told Noogs I was running first before we went to the park. He was totally fine with it, until I actually started running. The whining was hurting my ears and I couldnt concentrate on breathing, nor could I really breath because it was so windy. I finally initiated a game of "eye spy" and he allotted me a 3 mile span to run....but at least I got the workout in!


Afterwards we went to the Grommet Island park. This place is really cool. Those who live in the area, if you've never been, check it out. And if you have, you probably love it too and if you don't..you're weird. Anyway....this was Boos first real time at the beach! I mean she's been to the beach last year at the beach house, but she was like a month old and was in a netted bouncer under an umbrella, I mean really, could that be any fun? So since she's like a real little person now, she got to enjoy it and LOVED it. Check out how much fun my girl had today.

Noogs had a blast too!



Even the whole "mommy, I think I'm stuck" ordeal didn't ruin his day!



There was one minor argument over a shovel....stubborn little peeps...no idea where they get the stubbornness from...Boo won this fight..

At this point I figured I better feed these kids before they really start getting out of hand..so we had a picnic. A windy picnic, but a picnic nonetheless!

Looking for seashells was a total bust. In my head I pictured coming home with a bunch of seashells to paint with Noogs...but this guy was all we found...

Oh well, maybe next time.

So yes, beach season has begun and my little peeps have beach in their blood. Its going to be a great spring/summer. I mean really, how could it not with moments like these?