Busy, Busy Bee

Sorry for the sparse updates lately. There are tons of posts I’d like to get up – just haven’t had the time too though. Hoping to get a couple posts up to tonight. I can’t believe I missed two Foto Friday posts in a row – they’re my easiest posts, too!

Monster has been a busy, busy bee the past couple weeks. Lots of playdates, shopping excursions, and spending time outside enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. Which unfortunately hasn’t left much time for everything else.

Stay tuned for some new posts coming soon! Hope you’re all having a relaxing weekend!

Momma’s Little Helper

Monster loves to “help” out around the house. Usually, this involves Monster unfolding clean laundry, “reorganizing” Daddy’s school notes, and rearranging our DVD collection.

One chore Monster actually helps out with is vacuuming. For whatever reason, he just loves the vacuum. Maybe it’s the light on the base of the vacuum when it’s on? When I need to vacuum, Monster will sit on the floor and happily watch me run the vacuum back and forth.

Vacuuming is fun!

We put away our Christmas decorations several weeks, but our Christmas wreath was still hanging on our door. This wouldn’t be a problem, except it was a live wreath, so every time we open and close the door, both out entryway floor and the floor outside are showered with pine needles. It seems nice, but boy does it make a mess!

Now, I must admit it was my fault the wreath was still hanging on the door. P wanted/offered to take it out to the trash several times, but I kept telling him I wanted to remove the decorations (pine cones, fake berries, and bow) first. Despite his repeated reminders, I somehow never got around to removing the decorations until earlier this week. And before you ask, throwing it out before removing the decorations wasn’t even a remote possibility. 😉 I HAD to save them, so that sometime in the future when Monster is older, we can make our own Christmas wreath together – and we’ll already have decorations for it. (I know what you’re thinking – how thrifty and eco-friendly, right? Haha – I’m sure those are your exact thoughts right now. :-P)

Monster helped me remove everything – and boy did we make a mess! There were dried pine needles everywhere! After we got all the decorations off, I started vacuuming all the needles up – only to clog the vacuum. Whoops! I just couldn’t seem to get it unclogged, so I ended up sweeping everything up with a broom, as best I could. Monster was very helpful – he kept picking pine needles up and handing them to me. I was so proud of him for not trying to eat them!

Look at this mess!

Here Mom - found another pine needle.

If I’d been thinking, I would have saved all the dried up pine needles and made some scented satchels with them. Darn! Maybe I’ll remember next year…

P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts lately! Between fighting off a stomach bug, attempting to keep the house clean, and house-hunting – there just isn’t enough time in the day. Hopefully going forward I’ll be able to consistently post several times a week.

Snow Day

This past weekend we got several inches of snow. By Monday however, the latest cold spell has snapped and the snow was starting to melt.

Monster loves being outside, but this winter we’ve been spending most of our time indoors. On Monday, Monster kept walking over to the door and looking outside. It was bright and sunny – and most importantly – WARM! Seemed like the perfect day for playing in the snow, so we got bundled up and headed out.

I love it out there!

I know this slides open...

Monster’s played in the snow a few other times this winter. Each time he’s not sure what to make of it initially, but after a couple of minutes he warmed up to it.

He had a blast playing in the snow (although he fussed until I took his mittens off – crazy baby)! Of course, after being in the snow for a little while, he was ready to move on a something different. He wasn’t ready to go inside quite yet, so we took a walk around the block and soaked up some of the bright sunshine. Such a treat this time of year! 🙂

Hmm - I'm not sure I want to be out here after all.

Never mind - I love the snow!

Monster’s Fallen And…

As you all know by now, Monster is a ridiculous baby.

Case in point, Monster learned to walk before he could crawl. Now that he can walk though, he’s decided that he’ll crawl now too. I suspect he’s been able to crawl for a while, but for whatever reason he was holding out on us.

Monster does neither of these things when he doesn’t want to though. Instead, he asks to be carried around. After all, if he spent too much time walking or crawling he might tire himself out – and then instead of his usual 20 minute nap he’d nap for an hour or two. And if he napped for an hour or two, he might miss something. You know, like mom folding laundry or prepping dinner. Who’d want to miss that??

Lately, however, Monster has been doing really well at walking and crawling where he wants to go. Which has led to Monster having some pretty funny slip and falls recently. Usually when this happens his modus operandi is to cry until you come pick him up. However, he’s tried to get up himself recently, only to find himself stuck under whatever object he was using to support himself. This has largely been due to the clothing he was wearing at the time. Eventually, Monster just decides to go for a roll and gets himself out that way.

It’s so fun watching him learn and grow and figure things out for himself!

This floor is too slippery

What!?! Not again!

It's ok - I've got this figured out now

Foto Friday

Watching the snow flurries

Sitting Tall

While Monster was still in the womb (which some days still seems not that long ago), P’s parents gave us a children’s chair that was made by P’s grandfather (I think).

The chair has been sitting in Monster’s nursery, waiting for him to be big enough to use it.  Over the past couple months, Monster has taken an interest  in it and loves to rock it back and forth (while standing of course). It wasn’t until recently that I thought to actually sit him in the chair and help him rock it. He’s still too little to rock it himself  – but he loved it!

I tried to capture his glee in a photo, but he wasn’t in a cooperating mood, as usual. So for now, this is what I have to share:

Rocking Away

Gotta Get Going...

My Favorite Time of Year

It’s that time of year again – tax return time!

Is it sad that I love doing our tax return? (Please don’t answer that!) As soon as the first tax form arrives in the mail, I find myself looking forward to getting the mail everyday. I’m like a kid counting down the days until Christmas, except I’m counting down the number of tax forms that still need to arrive.

Although we always get our first form sometime during the first week of January, inevitably the last form never seems to arrive until January 31st (curse you, procrastinators).

This past weekend, I completed our federal and state tax returns. You can chalk it up to my Libertarianism, I suppose, but it rankles me that the government is “borrowing” our money interest free. It’s a pet peeve of mine, so you better believe I get our refund back as quickly as possible! It’s probably petty of me, but considering how horrible the government is at managing their spending, our tax refund is in much better hands when it’s returned to us. 😛

This was our first year claiming Monster on our tax return – and he was dressed for the occasion.

I'm smiling 'cuz your smiling

What's a tax deduction?

What’s your pet peeve?

Foto Friday

Cookie Monster!

 

"My cookie - not yours!"