Life With Just One Kid #iPPP
Guess what? It’s spring break. What does that mean at our house? It means we’re having a party while our girls are gone to their grandparents’ house in Hilton Head. Brinky was a little sad when they left without him, but he quickly settled into life where all attention is focused on him.
He can play on their bed. The nice clean bed because their daddy was so nice he cleaned their disaster of a room. He can watch his own shows on TV. Well, that’s not really different because he already did that. He can have his mommy all to himself.
Lee and I are having lots of fun after Brinky goes to bed, looking at silly things on the internet, doing tons of quizzes on Sporcle, and looking at bad movie choices on Netflix and not watching any of them. And sleeping in until 6:00 since we don’t have the middle school schedule to deal with. Maybe that doesn’t sound exciting to you, but it’s just right for us.
We do of course miss the girls (mostly) and talk to them every day. Jenny’s sent me a couple text updates including a video of the clothes she got when they went shopping today and a picture of her sister (I requested) because it’s been 6 months since Reagan got her ears pierced so she was officially allowed to wear what she calls hang-down earrings today.
They’re very excited to be having fun in Hilton Head. Apparently the big excitement is watching The Voice every night because they’ve never done that here in our no reality TV household.
And in case we forget where they are, Jenny left a note on the door to remind us (or Lee really since it’s addressed to him):
She really just modified the note she left up for days that said she was outside, but I still think it’s funny.
While the girls are having fun, I still haven’t felt ready to send Brinky off to Hilton Head yet. Maybe this summer. For a brief visit. He’s just not ready to be away from his mommy.
How old were your kids when you let them spend the night away from you for the first time?
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
Project 365: Weeks 11 and 12
I’m doing a somewhat incomplete two week Project 365 post again. I’ve honestly continued to be too busy to really keep up, but I’m going to post what I have anyway, okay?
March 12:
Brinky had fun playing in the cul-de-sac with his friend Emerson. Emerson had fun until Brinky took his toy and put it in his mouth.
March 13:
Sorry to gross you out with Jenny’s nasty thumb picture again, but I don’t think I ever updated with the good news that it wasn’t just broken. The official diagnosis was “smashed.” Her fingernail’s getting close to falling off, but it’s still there for now.
March 16:
Brinkley just wants to catch up with all the big kids. Maybe he wouldn’t be weighed down so much if he didn’t have that big diaper on.
March 17:
He still loves to hide behind the curtains and pop out and surprise us.
March 21:
The keyboard seriously makes him happy.
March 23:
Even though Jenny’s very reluctant about going to Brinky’s gymnastics class with us, I love how helpful she is. It’s mostly driven by the fact that she’s embarrassed if he’s bad, but whatever works. If it’s not clear from the picture, he does not like being held back from jumping on the tumble track while he waits for his turn.
March 24:
Brinky and Reagan had fun playing together yesterday. This picture makes me laugh because he wasn’t paying attention to Reagan at all.
And a bonus picture since I’m missing so many days. Reagan’s jazz hands. This is how she likes to greet us in the morning these days.
Love for Sleeping Kids #iPPP
Last night when I went to check on Brinky when we were headed to bed ourselves, I found him looking so cute (and big) and just sleeping so well. (I think he has that slightly concerned look on his face because the flash on my phone almost woke him up.)
Seriously, sometimes he looks bigger to me when he’s asleep. Look at this old picture from when he used to take his naps on the couch as a baby. He was 7 months old and a giant boy.
This got me thinking about how much I love my kids when they’re sleeping – I swear I love them the rest of the time, too, but isn’t there just something so sweet and peaceful about sleeping kids? So I thought I’d share a few more sleeping kid pictures. I’ve shared some of my favorite hilarious sleeping pictures before. Jenny was always an amazing sleeper, amazing in that she rarely fell asleep in her bed, choosing the floor, piles of books, a chair, wherever she finally ran out of energy and passed out.
Even under her bed. I never knew where I’d find her.
Reagan’s always had a tendency to be a serious car sleeper. And she is the sweatiest sleeper.
She rarely takes a nap these days because she’s way too old for that, but if she does, you can tell it wasn’t intentional. (My brother-in-law caught this one a couple months ago when he was here for a visit and she was obviously worn out.)
I wish we’d taken a picture the time Jenny fell asleep at the dinner table. It was one of the funniest things ever. What’s the strangest position or place you’ve ever found your kid sleeping in?
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
Memories Captured: Piano Girl
My parents gave Reagan an amazing keyboard for her birthday last month, and unlike most of the toys she’s ever received, she’s still in love with it a month later. We’ve been fortunate to have a young neighbor with a lot more musical talent than anyone in our house who thought it would be fun to teach Reagan how to play the keyboard and the guitar she got for Christmas. She’s really doing a good job with Reagan, taking her time, and teaching her the fundamentals.
My memories captured post this month is Reagan’s first song on the keyboard, Alouette. She’s mostly mastered it at this point, and it’s wonderful. Though the rest of us might like it if she learned another song because we’ve heard this one just a few times.
Obviously she looks like a pro, but I also took a quick video so you can hear how she sounds. She’s still learning, but she’s making major progress!
Linking up with Alison and Galit for Memories Captured:
Chobani Greek Yogurt: A Healthy Treat for the Whole Family
Last week we received a few new flavors of Chobani to try, and I must say that we were very excited! Particularly since there were flavors pleasing to the whole family. I knew Banana would appeal to the kids, and I thought I would like Pear, and Lee (who doesn’t usually eat yogurt) really enjoyed the Coffee with Dark Chocolate.
I will admit that I have not been able to successfully get Jenny or Brinkley to eat Greek yogurt in the past. But guess what I found with the Banana yogurt? They both liked it. The texture was very creamy and the banana really mixed well with the yogurt. Reagan’s always liked it, so I knew she would be easy, but she really enjoyed the banana flavor also.
Brinky started out a little skeptical.
But he decided to dig in. With his spoon!
I think he liked it. Though he doesn’t know exactly how to use his spoon obviously.
Jenny liked it, and she’s by far my pickiest eater. (And not a fan of being photographed these days.)
Reagan, well I knew she’d be happy about the yogurt. She requested yogurt and fresh fruit for her special birthday breakfast a couple weeks ago, so that’s just the kind of girl she is.
Jenny couldn’t eat all of hers, so she gave it to Brinkley. He wasn’t sure he could eat it all.
But look at his happy face when he dug in!
It was a little rude of his sister to point out that his face was a bit of a mess though.
Just let him have his fun.
I was very happy to find delicious Greek yogurt varieties that appeal to my whole family. What do I love about Chobani Greek yogurt?
- Chobani only has natural ingredients, so I feel better about feeding it to my family.
- Chobani has twice as much protein as regular yogurt.
- The fruit on the bottom is fresher (and tastier) than some of the fruit I’ve had in other yogurts.
- Variety – there are so many flavors!
- It is readily available at most grocery stores, including mine.
- It’s delicious!
And one last thing I learned about Chobani on Super Bowl Sunday! I can use it like sour cream in dips. I had seen recipes that substituted Chobani plain yogurt for sour cream, but I’d never tried it before. I made ranch dip (Ranch dressing packet, 1 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup milk) using Chobani, and it was delicious! My girls didn’t realize it wasn’t the full fat version we normally make. I will definitely look at substituting Chobani in other recipes – or trying out some of the recipes on the Chobani website. Here’s a handy conversion chart:
Learn more about Chobani:
*Disclosure: I was provided with some tasty yogurt by Chobani. All opinions are my own.
Quality Time #iPPP
As a working mom, I sometimes forget that I need to make an effort for my time with my kids to be quality time. Sometimes I come home and I’m tired, and I just want to sit on the couch and play on the computer or watch TV (or both). One, two, or three of my kids may be in the room with me, but I’m not making an effort to focus on them like I should. I think that’s okay sometimes if I am particularly tired, but not every night. So last night I decided to have more quality time with my family, though it may not take a form that some people consider quality.
Most of my quality time with Brinkley occurs early morning, like this morning:
He likes to run into our room when he gets out of his room on the morning and climb up onto the bed. (He is wearing his sister’s shirt in this picture. I’m not sure why – I didn’t put him in it.) I’ll admit there’s not always a lot of quality to our time together these days, but last night I did spend more time with him playing and trying to get him to point to his body parts or ever talk. That sort of thing. I want to research a bit more what we can be doing with him to try to get him learning more and talking because he’s still not there.
After he goes to bed – and we’ve been trying for earlier because I think he sleeps better then – I can do a better job of focusing on the girls. We’ve all learned how to focus while Brinky is up in his bedroom running around like a crazy person until he goes to sleep. It involves jumping on the bed and constantly opening and closing his dresser doors.
Oh, and turning on his bedroom light so he can see what he’s doing. He does this for a while, but when he’s ready to go to sleep, he climbs into bed and goes to sleep.
So what did we do with the girls for quality time last night?
Reagan likes to look at funny things with us, so…it was BuzzFeed time. Only with age appropriate posts. Like these:
29 Pictures of ’80s Culture at the Reagan White House – bonus for including her name
If Pop Stars Were Birds, These Are The Birds They’d Be – celebrities + animals = funny
32 Pictures That Prove Vladimir Putin is Only Human – more for Lee than Reagan, but she enjoyed it
14 Things You Missed from the SAG Awards – because we love some awards shows and celebrities in this house
We kept going, especially with cute animal related posts. Those are her favorite. And of course, we read Honest Toddler’s newest post. She loves when we read Honest Toddler together. So for Reagan, quality time often involves reading and laughing at things together. It’s fun!
When Reagan decided to move on and read for a little while before bed, Lee and I started looking at iTunes because we wanted to check out the 69 cent songs – especially since we had an iTunes gift card to spend. Of course, music drew Jenny into the room. She had fun (and stayed up past her bedtime, but so did we, so it was okay) giving us her opinion on different songs and getting to choose a couple for herself. I talked last week about how music brings my girls together, but generally it can bring our whole family together, especially when we decide to listen through clips on iTunes. Jenny’s favorite thing is to go through the top 200 songs on iTunes and see which ones we know. Last night’s answer? Lee and I didn’t know any songs in the top 10! Jenny’s so much cooler than we are. And I can’t even tell you how much time Jenny spent smiling and laughing (which is becoming more rare these days) while we listened to music.
And for inquiring minds who want to know (also known as my brother), these are the songs we felt compelled to buy last night:
Daydream Believer – The Monkees because who doesn’t love this song?
Old Enough – The Raconteurs never heard this one before, but it sounded like something I’d like
Whatcha Say – Jason Derulo a Jenny choice
The Remedy (I Won’t Worry) – Jason Mraz I loved this song, okay? And the girls love Jason Mraz now.
Can’t Stand It – Never Shout Never Jenny again
Save the Best for Last – Vanessa Williams another one I loved so much – in high school
Cradle of Love – Billy Idol Lee loves this one, and somehow didn’t already own it
Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve Lee and I both realized we like this one and didn’t own it
Absolutely (Story of a Girl) – Nine Days another one I used to really like that we discovered Jenny also loves
Friday I’m In Love – The Cure seriously, we didn’t own this already?
D.A.N.C.E. – Justice I was so excited to see this in the 69 cent songs because I love it so much on Just Dance
And now that I’ve already made this post so long, I’ll also add a list of the songs the girls bought with their money last week after about a week of planning precisely how to spend their $25.
This Is My Paradise – Bridget Mendler
The Call – Regina Spektor
Sk8er Boi – Avril Lavigne
Take A Bow – Rihanna
You Found Me – The Fray
The Story of Us – Taylor Swift
Stuck Like Glue – Sugarland
Beauty Queen – Ben’s Brother
Best Friend’s Brother – Victorious Cast
Lucky – Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz
Fallin’ for You – Colbie Caillat
Mine – Taylor Swift
Realize – Colbie Caillat
Safe & Sound – Taylor Swift
I Won’t – Colbie Caillat
Ours – Taylor Swift
Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
It’s Time – Imagine Dragons
Too Little Too Late – Jojo
You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
Beautiful Girls – Sean Kingston
Never Say Never – The Fray
Bubbly – Colbie Caillat
Replay – Iyaz
The One That Got Away – Katy Perry
One last bit of information: we spent a lot of time listening to music, and I still ended the night with this song:
The girls bought it a couple weeks ago, and I think it’s been stuck in my head about half the time since then. I said that I kind of didn’t want to like it because Taylor Swift can be annoying, but I think it’s good. And Jenny said, “Yeah, I know, I don’t want to like Taylor Swift, but she’s actually my favorite artist and I love all of her songs.”
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
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