catch the moment: week 39

Posted on October 1, 2015December 29, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

My last post started off in a similar way – 2 Thursday nights ago Dexter wasn’t feeling well and ended up staying home from school the next day with a little fever but was better by evening. This past week, Theo didn’t feel like eating dinner Thursday night but didn’t seem to feel too bad otherwise. He woke up a couple hours after going to bed with a fever and ended up staying home Friday. He felt okay on Ibuprofen but his temp would creep back up a bit without it. Lucky for all of us, he was completely fine by Saturday. I’ve been getting into this whole Fall decorating thing a little bit this year. I found some good deals on wreaths and bought 3. Two for our front doors and one for my mantel. The ones for outside have some red leaves and gold sparkly-ness. The one inside has sunflowers and mostly oranges. This is kind of fun!

267/365: Thursday, September 24th. Theo graciously held the door open for me so I could photograph at least one of my new wreaths without a glare.

268/365: Friday, September 25th. By the time I got home with Dexter, Theo was feeling ok and him and Ryan were both itching to get out of the house. A quick dinner and a trip to Lowe’s wore Theo out. His fever started coming back while we were at Lowe’s so we aborted the mission. Dexter was really loving that huge burger and he ate most of it. And most of my fruit. And 2 chocolate chip cookies. Oh, the teenage years are going to be expensive.

269/365: Saturday, September 26th. I’ve added a little bit more to the mantel but I think it’s almost done. I want to get 2 canvas prints ordered from 2 separate photo sessions we’ve had done in years past. [Wow, it’s been 2 years since we’ve had any official family/kid photos taken!] I’m not sure the canvas prints will fit or work well on the mantel, but we’ll see. They’ll work somewhere!

270/365: Sunday, September 27th. A friend of Ryan’s from high school lives close and was kind enough to invite us over for lunch and to watch the Colts game Sunday. We had a great time and the kids had fun playing with a new friend and lots of new toys at a new place-all their favorites wrapped up into one. I think this is the first picture this year that I didn’t technically take. What can I say, Ryan’s arms are longer and stronger than mine. Have you ever tried taking a selfie with a DSLR? It’s not easy! I was having a great hair day – I only mention it because I chopped my hair off today and this picture is making me miss it.

271/365: Monday, September 28th. After school, after work, after a quick shopping and dinner trip to the mall, the boys wanted to relax and do a bit of art.

272/365: Tuesday, September 29th. Wouldn’t you know it – I met my beautiful and adorably pregnant friend for dinner on a beautiful night downtown and forgot to grab my camera out of my car. I realized on my way home that I was running out of time to take a picture for the day and snapped this one quickly at a red light.

273/365: Wednesday, September 30th. What a big day for Theo! For all of us really. Saturday we got a letter from his teacher saying to keep it a secret, but that she had chosen Theo as the student in her class who best exemplified the core value of “initiative” for the month of September and that he would be honored at a school assembly with an award. Theo has been talking about initiative and giving good examples of how to demonstrate it all month. Ryan’s dad was able to make it and boy was Theo surprised to see all of us at his school. When they called his name, he popped right up. Afterwards, I asked him if he was surprised when the principal said he won the award for his class and he said “no because I’ve been doing all that stuff!” Ha! Yes, you have but don’t think you are going to get an award every month! I’m so proud of him.

Fingers crossed that no one is sick this weekend. October is going to be a busy and exciting month for us! I wish I could put time in slow motion right now. I want to enjoy every bit of this month and delay winter as much as possible. But since it’s not possible, I guess we’ll move on.

Oh, it’s cute – now Dexter is proud to be showing initiative too. He cleaned up after himself after breakfast this morning and ran to tell Ryan all about it. It just took about 10 minutes for him to understand what Dexter was talking about because he forgot how to say “initiative.” This whole Kindergarten thing might just benefit the whole family after all.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: wk 35

Posted on September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

I feel like a broken record – it’s been another busy week. I can’t believe it’s almost fall. I can’t believe I have a kid in Kindergarten. I don’t want winter to come. I can’t believe how fast time goes by. I wish I had time to do it all. Every week I find myself making plans to do better at fitting it all in next week. I felt like I was at the gym too much during the week so I’ve been spending more time at home. Now I feel gross and tired and out of shape, but I’m enjoying more time with the boys. Where’s the balance? Can I just request 4 more waking hours in every day? We have some big fun plans coming up in the next couple of months so plenty to look forward despite dreaded fall and winter lurking around the corner.

The boys and I snuck off to Tennessee for the weekend to visit my family while Ryan did some demo work at home. I relished the family time and tried to soak up every minute with my nieces and nephew, my mom, my sister, and my brother-in-law. Seeing them just makes me that much more homesick, wishing we had more time to spend together. I had a big WHOA mommy moment while on the trip. My kids are getting older and more mature. I was worried about managing the 5.5 hr drive alone, but they were perfect angels. They were wonderful at my mom’s. It was more than doable, it was completely 100% absolutely enjoyable. A new phase of motherhood- fantastic! A feeling of increased freedom and confidence. At the same time, I can’t help but still have that WHOA feeling…it’s clear that they really are growing up.

239/365: Thursday, August 27th. Sometimes the best you can do is a POV picture while watching your guilty pleasure trashy TV late at night.

240/365: Friday, August 28th. Dexter was eating within 5 minutes of arriving at my mom’s. Three words for this boy. Human Garbage Disposal.

241/365: Saturday, August 29th. My 10 year old nephew, Mal. Seriously one of the kindest, gentlest, and coolest people I know.

242/365: Sunday, August 30th. Our trip was a whirlwind – we were barely gone for 48 hours. Sunday we said goodbye to my family before niece Penelope jetted off from my mom’s – don’t get your knickers in a bunch, it’s only 100 feet to their house.

243/365: Monday, August 31st. While we were gone, Ryan tore up the carpet – yes I said carpet- in our kitchen. Decisions, decisions! We finally narrowed it down and selected tile for the kitchen and powder room.

244/365: Tuesday, September 1st. Speaking of that powder room, here’s what’s left of it. I can’t wait to replace those 1983 touches with modern ones. Goodbye disgusting bathroom!

245/365: Wednesday, September 2nd. What would I do without these two? All in all a great week! I have been hoarding my PTO at work all summer so that I can take off when the boys have school breaks, so I’m really excited to have a long weekend to celebrate Labor Day and hang out -mostly at home- with my guys.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: wk 31

Posted on August 6, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

This week’s theme is definitely back to school with a splash of family fun! It’s been stressful, but in a good way for the most part. A whole bunch of transition but so far, so good. I can’t believe I officially have a kid in elementary school and this time a year from now, I’ll have 2. What?

I’m not sure what’s going on with the Catch the Moment link up group but it seems to be fizzling out. I’m still plugging along but hoping to hear and see more from the group sometime soon. Still planning to continue linking up with Mindi,Stephanie, and Carrie for week 31 of Catch the Moment 365.

211/365: Thursday, July 30th. Theo’s first day of Kindergarten! I’ll have to write a separate post all about this major milestone with a few more pictures. I feel like we are over this hump. There was so much anxiety (mine) leading up to this day and I’m glad that we are starting to get into a routine – bumps and all. MAJOR day for the family and I don’t know why I felt so proud of him, because almost every kid goes to Kindergarten. Maybe it’s the anticipation and promise I feel, knowing that he is capable of doing and becoming whatever he chooses. It’s just the beginning and it’s exciting, although bittersweet.

212/365: Friday, July 31st. We had Dexter’s open house for new and returning students. This will be Dexter’s 2nd year in Montessori pre-school but he has a new teacher so we all wanted to meet her prior to the first day. After reading a book with her and checking out all the changes in his classroom, he wasted no time getting back to his favorite place on campus. The playground! Theo also enjoyed playing at his old stompin’ grounds.

213/365: Saturday, August 1st. This was the first weekend in many that we really had no big plans. Saturday was a perfect day – farmer’s market with friends in the morning then laundry & playing at home all day before grilling a super fresh summery dinner. After that we ended our relaxing day with ice cream at the park. The boys were really into helping me prepare dinner, including setting the table. Where did these big, helpful boys come from? They literally set every bit of the table – I was so proud of them, but not nearly as proud as they were of themselves. Thank you Montessori…

214/365: Sunday, August 2nd. Ryan had lots of work to do around the house so I thought the boys and I would get out of his hair for a few hours. I took them to the best children’s museum in all the world. We got there before they opened at 10 – I thought we’d stay til 1 or so. We didn’t leave til about 3:30! The boys were very entertained (and entertaining) and the hours flew by. We had so much fun. I hope they remember special times with only Mommy or just Daddy. Dexter and I are particularly fond of the Chihuly Exhibit-Fireworks of Glass.

215/365: Monday, August 3rd. Another day, another first-day-of-school dry erase board. And another late night, forgotten photo kind of day.

216/365: Tuesday, August 4th. The first day of Dexter’s last year of pre-school. The first day of the last year of my kids being in pre-school. All kinds of mixed emotions on this one! This year Dexter did not hesitate for one second when I dropped him off. He met up with one of his favorite friends from last year and they were off. The transition back to school for him so far has been seamless. I was worried that he’d have issues with Theo not being there, but so far he has been fine.

217/365: Wednesday, August 5th. An after dinner, before bed coloring sesh with my sweet 4 year old. Today after school I asked Theo if anyone at school ever tells him he’s cute and he said “yeah.” When I asked him who, he said the name of his teacher. I asked “Oh? What does she say?” He replied, “she says ‘what would I do without you?’ to me.” Cue my heart melting…she told me on the phone yesterday that he is a great helper. I’m so relieved that Kindergarten is off to a fantastic start.

xo,

~C~

mommy in the midwest

memories

catch the moment: week 39

catch the moment: wk 35

catch the moment: wk 31