No Monsters Here!

Just in case you were concerned, there are officially no monsters under Ethan's bed. We had a great monster hunt the other night.

Just when we thought we were in the clear and ready to get the Orlando Monster Free Seal of Approval, they found a little monster!!!

The situation was quickly diffused and everyone slept in peace.


Don't forget to enter my giveaway!  There's a second place prize for the comment section!  It ends tonight!

Learning to Say No

We've hit the stage in Ethan's toddler years that he says no to almost everything.  Remind me in 6 months that I thought it was the cutest thing ever.

I'll admit that I am really afraid that our next baby will be stressful, difficult, and completely overwhelming because we have been so lucky with Ethan.  He has been such an easy baby (most of the time).  He eats well without any reactions to any foods, he sleeps well, and he ENJOYS alone time.  In the mornings that I don't work, he wakes up between 7:30 and 8:00, but he doesn't want anyone in there with him for at least 30 minutes after he wakes up.  He likes to wake up slowly, play with his stuffed puppy (Ruff), and jabber until he gets himself completely woken up.

Once he's ready for you to come in his room, he still doesn't want to get out of his bed for another 30 minutes or so.  We play the game of tossing Ruff in and out of the crib, pick his clothes out, and pick up any stray toys we missed from picking up the night before.  Sometimes this process is so long that I leave and come back several times before he's ready.  How do I know if he isn't ready? When I try picking him up, he will free fall his entire body back onto the mattress to show he is still content in his crib.  His long wake up process doesn't bother me in the least, it's amazing how much I can get done while he plays contently in his crib.

He's usually pretty irritable that we have to cut this routine short on the mornings I have to work, but he doesn't fuss too much, just enough to let me know he isn't happy about it.

Here's a little clip of his morning "don't get me out of bed."  I wish I had been able to get him diving back onto his mattress, but of course he wouldn't while the camera is on.  However, you will hear many times his new strong ability to tell me no in his "uh-uh" way.    

How did I get so lucky to get such a sweet boy?

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for 25 free 5x7 Christmas cards!!  You can gain new entries every day!

Orlando Arts Christmas Card Giveaway!

If you've been around here very long, you know my husband is an incredible graphic artist.  I drive him crazy by asking him to help me with projects, from gifts to invitations to blog header designs (see above) to photo editing.    Some of my favorite custom projects he has completed for me are:

 

Most years, I enroll in promotions with Shutterfly to offset some of the cost of our Christmas cards (we have a really long list of people to send to.  Sadly, it seems this year the promotion they usually run is no where to be found, so I asked Jason if he would design and print our invites this year.  I don't know why I've never thought of this before, I love having unique designs for my cards and I always love telling people that Jason did them.  I like to brag on him, in case you haven't noticed.

So when I asked for him to "whip up" a few unique designs, he kind of went a little crazy and came up with a ridiculous amount of designs.

Same design, two different color schemes:

 

I can't decide exactly which design we will use yet, but we have decided that we want to help you guys out this year!  Jason has agreed to print (with envelopes included) 25 FREE cards to one of my readers!

You will get your choice of design, with whatever photo you choose, with 2 edits for the design you choose to make it as unique as your family!  To see the details of these designs better, visit Jason's website listed above in my tabs bar.

Enter below!

Due to shipping costs, we must limit this giveaway to US and Canada residents only.


  a Rafflecopter giveaway

As an extra, smaller give away, leave me a comment about which design you would choose if you one! I will randomly select another winner for 10 FREE cards and envelopes after the giveaway ends.

Ethan's First Haircut

On a complete whim, my Mom and I began discussing Ethan's "baby mullet" and how heavy his hair has gotten.  So heavy, in fact, that his sweet little curls were beginning to straighten out, and we decided it was time for a trim.  Not a complete "little boy" cut, but just a small trim to even out his length and pull some weight off.  So off we went!

He sat SO still for us, mainly because we gave him his toothbrush (boy loves to brush his teeth), filled the sink full of water and let him splash his feet to his hearts content.  20 minutes later and we had his curls back!

I sent these pictures to Jason at work, and said "Surprise!"  You would have thought I told him I was birthing an alien.  Once I promised him that I didn't cut all of his curls off, he relaxed a little and said he was glad we evened things out.  We saved a few curls for his baby book, and checked off another one of Ethan's sweet "baby" milestones.

Yabba Dabba Do-It-Yourself

I'm the first to admit that Halloween isn't my favorite holiday.  I'm a bit of a Scrooge about it, if you will.  I'm not against Halloween, I just think it is a little silly.  However, that doesn't mean I'm not going to take full advantage of the opportunity to dress Ethan up for some adorable photos!

When we were kids, I don't ever remember my Mom buying our costumes.  We told her what we wanted to be, and we made it work with things we already had around the house.  Last year, in the midst of our financial scares with no job, I had no choice but to make Ethan's costume on the cheap.  This year, even though I'm working, those adorable $50+ costumes just weren't in our budget.  Plus, I really enjoyed making his costume, and I wanted to do it again.

I really struggled with what to make Ethan.  Last year he was an adorable Charlie Brown, and I wanted something just as unique and creative, but obviously easy enough to make.  I originally decided to make him a pirate.  Mom was going to help me with making his vest and eye patch, but I finally had to admit I just wasn't feeling it.

After a little internet perusing, I finally decided I really liked the cartoon character theme we went with last year and decided to go with it again this year.  Good ol' classic Fred Flintstone.  All for $4.02 (read, this used to say $1.72, but one mishap and that number ended up not as awesome as it had been.)

It started with a plain white t-shirt that my husband brought home for me from the sample box at his office.  Could I have just gotten an orange t-shirt?  Probably, but that wasn't free.  So instead I splurged $1.50 on my budget for a small box of orange dye.  And then I sprung the extra 22 cents on a piece of blue felt.  We already had some black felt around the house for other projects.  I love having an artist for a husband.  Supplies galore.

The t-shirt is where I ran into my problem with my "super-cheap" budget.  I had it dyed completely, triangles and tie cut out, bottom shredded, ready for the hot glue when I decided to try it on Ethan to make sure it was going to work.

It didn't.  Dang t-shirt barely covered the diaper.  Luckily we had a back-up that was a little larger, but I didn't have enough dye.  The shirt came out yellow, which meant a trip to the store for some red dye to mix and make it orange.  Enter the additional $2.48.  How annoying.  That's what I get for bragging that Ethan's costume was going to cost me under 2 bucks.  I guess under $5 still sounds pretty amazing, but let's face it.  It would have been way cooler.  Anyway, moving on.

Careful, haphazard placement to make sure it all worked the way I wanted it to and only ONE hot-glue burn later...

I was so excited how it turned out.  I love the fact that it didn't have to be perfect to be cute, since cartoon clothes are never perfect.  I couldn't wait to try this one on him and see how adorable he looked.  So excited, in fact, that I decided to play dress-up the moment he woke up from his nap.  That didn't go so well.  He kind of yelled at me about it for nearly an hour.

However,  he was much happier about wearing his costume yesterday.  He was a hit at his ELC parade and really enjoyed trick-or-treating.  We took him to a couple houses in my parent's neighborhood and then let him pass out candy to all the other neighborhood children.  He loved putting candy in the bags for other kids, and was really proud of himself for the praise he was getting from all of us for listening so well.  

I was also really impressed that all of the trick-or-treaters were so patient to wait for Ethan to drop their candy in their bags/buckets, instead of hurrying him along or snatching it out of his hand.  Some even thanked him and praised him as well, and even a few little ones commented on how the baby gave them candy. Hats off to the parents of those kids, it was really great to see and I so appreciated that he felt included and important in such a "bigger kid" evening.

How was everyone else's Halloween?!

My True Success

Besides Ethan, if there is one thing I am proud of, it's my marriage.

Friday evening, my husband and I had a date.  One that didn't include Ethan, just the two of us.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit that this is only our third time out together since he was born 16 months ago.  We had one dinner date shortly after his arrival, we attended a beautiful wedding in June, and then Friday evening.  Oops?

We met at home after work on Friday (Ethan was already with my parents) and got ready for our date.  We headed to a beautiful little restaurant on our town's square that holds very few people, is super quiet, and extremely not child friendly.  We talked about our jobs, our hopes for future babies, our desire for Jason's evolving career, and the possibility of creating his own business in freelance work.  We had a few sweet moments, a fantastic dinner, and a couple hours of quiet.

We were at my parents house to pick up Ethan by 7:15, home with him by 8.  Even they made fun of us for showing up so early.

Are we total losers?  Do we just not have the ability to paint the town red anymore?  Have we lost the spark that once kept us up talking until the wee hours of the morning?  No, far from it.

You see, I like my husband, which apparently most people we encounter are constantly surprised by.  We are the best of friends.  So while we rarely ever get out together without our sweet little love, I don't feel deprived of time with my husband.  It's the one thing that I don't feel is a struggle. 

Ethan is usually in bed by 8 (at the latest) and the rest of the evening is ours.  Sometimes we work on our own projects, but often we curl up together in front of the television, we play a game, or we wait to have our dinner until then.  We don't have to leave the house to have a date.  We are constantly dating one another.  He holds my hand in the grocery store, we watch our favorite shows together, we giggle like teenagers about things that aren't even funny.

On the evenings that we work on our own projects or spend time apart with other friends, we can always count on our pillow talk.  Seriously, it's almost nauseating for me to tell you about.  There is nothing that I can keep as a secret from him (sometimes a curse when it comes to wanting to surprise him) and vice versa.  He knows without saying when I'm worried, and he makes the most ridiculous jokes that I can't even deal sometimes.  No matter how stupid they are, I end up laughing because he finds himself so funny.  He's really not that funny, I swear, but it amuses me that he thinks he is. So in a weird way, I guess maybe he is.  Great.  I just talked in a full circle.  Are you still there?

Every weekend is our time.  We hang around the house, take Ethan to the park, run errands, everything normal.  So normal, in fact, that I often wonder about what to blog about.  He is my priority, and our other friends are the icing on the cake.  We enjoy each other, we want to be around each other, we make time to spend.  Life doesn't come before marriage.  Life doesn't come before children.  Marriage and children make our life.

It's the little things that keep each other at the forefront of our minds.  Like getting up a few minutes early to download the new Taylor Swift album on the day of release (which, by the way, I love) so I wouldn't have to wait all day to hear it.  Or taking a few minutes to re-draft a cover letter because he hasn't the slightest idea how to use a comma.  It comes easy for us, and there is only one reason why.

We don't compare ourselves to others.

What works for our relationship certainly won't work in every relationship, or maybe any other relationship.  What comes easy for us doesn't come easy for others.  What we struggle with are things that are no-brainers to others.  We don't worry about it.  I don't worry that someone else's husband loves his wife more than Jason loves me.  He's not worried that someone else's wife actually knows how to make breakfast that isn't a Pop-Tart.  It isn't a contest.  I'm not more in love with Jason than any of you are in love with your spouses.  I'm not more of the one for him than any of you are for your husbands.  We aren't more meant for each other than anyone else.  And no one else is more right for each other than we are.  We don't worry about that.  We do what works for us, and we love each other unconditionally.

Are the ways that we show our love weird?  Absolutely.  It works for us.  It's our easy way.  I still like to impress him.  I love that I can be in a ratty t-shirt and it not matter.  I like to do something extra to make him smile at work.  I like that I can't hold back the truth on how I feel about something from him.  I enjoy that he can tell me that my outfit is completely not working.  I want him to be the forefront of my mind when it comes to our relationship.  We focus so much on each others needs that our own needs in turn become fulfilled.  And for us?  That comes easy.

So when I say that our fun date last night wasn't "so needed" or "refreshing," it's because we don't wait for a night out to make that happen.  It just happened to be one more lovely evening that I got to be with the only one I would ever want to share my life with.

Pumpkin Patches: A Photo Dump

Kentucky has some crazy weather.  Last week we were busting out the sweaters, boots and jackets, and this week we are back in our flip flops and tank tops.  We took full advantage of the beautiful weather and took Ethan up to our local pumpkin patch and apple orchard. 

So, without further ado, a photo dump:

His first ride down the "Cider Slider."  His smile got bigger and bigger with every ride!

Waiting for the petting zoo.

He thought it was hysterical when the animals ate out of his hands.

I LOVE his smile.

The thing that killed me the most?  Take a look.  We visit this same spot every year.  It amazes me how much of a difference a year can make.  My baby is way too big already!

I'm really feeling like he needs a brother!! Maybe for 2013?!