A Proud Mother's Ruminations: Photos

Showing posts with label Photos. Show all posts

June 10, 2013

Now You Are Two.....

Callen on the day he was born

Callen at 1 year

Callen at 2 years

Dear Callen,
Today you are 2! And what an amazing 2 years it has been, getting to know you! You, my son, are the sweetest of sweet boys. You brighten our lives so much with your sweet smiles, your snuggly cuddles, and your amazingly silly personality. You love to poke fun, to tease and trick, to do whatever you can to make us laugh. Lately you've started pointing and saying "Hey!" when someone does something like tickle you. It makes my heart melt every time.

Over the past few weeks, it feels like you have exploded verbally. You are saying so many words now, and stringing 5-6 words together at a time, completing thoughts and sentences! It feels to me like this has just happened over night. You also will repeat what other people say, with a question inflection in your voice like you are verifying that what you heard was correct. You understand so much!

You are still (and will always be, I am sure,) OBSESSED with wheels. You LOVE vehicles of all shapes and sizes, but the bigger the better it seems these days. We switched your car seat to be forward facing a few months ago, due to your height, and you love being able to see forward! Any time you see a bus, you'll tell me, "Mama! A Bus!" and if you see a big semi or any sort of out-of-the-ordinary vehicle (a garbage truck, construction vehicles, etc) you let out a loud, "Wooowwww!" that 9 times out of 10 makes me jump.

Another thing you love to do is play with water! Whenever daddy gets home from work, you want to stand on a chair and play at the sink while he makes dinner. You also love baths, showers, the lake, and the water tables that we have here and the one at grandma and grandpa's house.

Other favorite things of yours are the mall (many mornings when we get up you ask, "Mall day?"), play kitchens (you could pretend cook for hours!), looking at photos of nails on my phone (you frequently want to sit in my lap and look through my instagram pics of nail art) and Fievel.

But your most favorite thing is your sister. You love and look up to your sister in a way that makes this mommy's heart melt into a puddle on the floor. Sure, you have moments where you get tired of her directing your play, or times where you don't want to share, but you always want to know where she is and what she's doing. You also always want to get one of anything you might get from me or daddy, be it a snack or a drink or a dessert...whatever...for Audia. I know you don't know it yet, but you are so, so, so lucky to have such an amazingly patient and loving big sister. Audia loves you so much, Callen. She is always looking out for you, and worrying about you, and frequentlygoes out of her way to make sure that you are happy and having fun.

Personality-wise you are, these days, much more shy than your sister has ever been. You like the people that you know, and you do warm up eventually to people that you sense are "safe," but it always takes a little while for you to warm up to even the people you see regularly. You are very considerate, it seems....either that or you really see the benefit of having a clean play space. I frequently see you picking up toys and putting them away (in the right places!) all on your own! Mommy loves this....please keep it up and try to teach your sister to do the same ;-) You also love to bring people things of theirs if you see they are without them. You are constantly bringing daddy and me our phones or our beverages.

You fill our lives with such love, such light, and so many smiles. It sounds corny but you really do complete our family and make it whole. I feel like there is a perfect balance among the four of us; it is not always apparent or in it's best form, but it is there more often than not. I love you so very much, and I am so proud of you, and so excited to see what you will do, my handsome TWO year old!

Love,
Mommy

Callen's 2nd Birthday Party

Callen's birthday is tomorrow. I can and can not believe it. Unfortunately his annual well check isn't until later this month so I don't know exact stats, but I can say that he is in 2T clothing only because it is just barely long enough but still *kind of* hugs his waist. I'm still constantly pulling up his pants and wishing that they were longer. Tall and skinny is an understatement. He is almost as tall as some of our 3 year old play date friends. No joke. No idea where he gets that height from....(*eye roll*)

Anyhoo! We had a smaller party for Callen this year due to his shyness around people he doesn't know very well. My parents were gracious enough to host it at their house; their beautiful and spacious back yard is one of the kids (and our!) favorite places to play and lounge, and luckily the weather held out long enough for us to have our party! It ended up being a really nice day weather-wise, cloudy and in the mid-70's.

We felt especially lucky to have Grandpa Mustache and Uncle Brent come in from Chicago, and Great Auntie Sharon come down from northern MN just for Callen's party. Nana had an art show in IL and couldn't get away, but we look forward to seeing her later this summer!

We did a vehicle theme due to Cal's complete obsession with wheels. I designed the invitations myself using images of various vehicles I found on the web; quick mask quickly became one of my favorite tools in photoshop! lol. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Being bashful as the guests start to arrive

Audia and Grandpa Mustache

Audia and Uncle Brent

Cal and his truck from Audia

The kiddos

Definitely impressed by the Cars toys!

Opening gifts

Workbench from Nana and Grandpa Mustache

All the kiddos

Hugs for Auntie Sharon

February 5, 2013

Ten Years of Being 'Home'

Ten years. In some ways it feels impossible that it's been that long, and in others it feels like it's been much longer. Ten years ago I took a leap of faith and decided to meet in person a guy who I had met online. We had only emailed back and forth a handful of times, and I remember feeling extremely fed up with life in general. "Life in general" back then at the what now seems like EXTREMELY young age of 20, meant my romantic life, which of course was all that really mattered. There were only one or two guys in any of my college classes that were remotely interesting to me and they were either taken or not really my type. So when this 'Hot or Not' guy invited me (and any friends who I cared to bring along) to meet him and a group of his friends for bowling, I decided to stuff my inherent shyness and go for it. I remember walking into the bowling alley with my college roomie and BFF, Shaunie, and seeing Chris stand up a few lanes away. There was a feeling of relief; not only was he just as handsome in person as he was in his hot or not picture (YES. Hot or Not. I know. Who the heck meets their future spouse on Hotornot.com?? Well, I did,) but he had the same genuinely friendly vibe that I had detected in his emails. He came up, gave me a hug, introduced himself to Shaunie, and walked us over to his group of friends to introduce us to them as well. Shaunie and I didn't stay long, maybe a half hour or so. But it was long enough for us to both agree upon leaving, that they were a group of people we could see ourselves hanging out with again in the future.

I felt at home with Chris pretty much immediately. We had a level of comfort that I've found in most other relationships takes months or years to develop. A genuine, strong friendship has been at the heart of our relationship since day one. The first couple of years had their ups and downs; we broke up and got back together a couple of times. But we always remained friends. That friendship wasn't something that I think either of us was willing to let go of. It's the kind of friendship that spans a lifetime. And while our lifestyles have changed (we've replaced numerous camping and fishing trips with numerous diaper changes and trips to the pediatrician,) our friendship has not. We still enjoy just being together. We still make eachother laugh and think, we still support and advise eachother. We still talk. We still text and IM eachother midday just to say "hi." and "I love you." We still dream together of the things we'll do and places we'll see. And I am still so incredibly grateful for that leap of faith I took 10 years ago today. Because it really was the first day of the rest of my life. And I couldn't be any more lucky to have such and incredible man to share that life with.

Below are a few photos from the first year we were dating. Man, we look young, don't we??

December 28, 2012

The best of friends

The friendship developing between Audia and Callen is something that I feel so very grateful to be able to witness. Since the day Chris and I decided we wanted to have a second child, I've been worried about how it would affect Audia and how the two siblings would get along. I know plenty of people who either do not get along with their siblings, or for whom it took YEARS before they started getting along. I am not naive enough to believe that Audia and Cal will always be such close friends; all relationships wax and wane, and there are of course moments where one or the other of them wants nothing to do with their sibling. But overall, I really don't think they could be any luckier to have one-another. From the day Callen was born, Audia has been right there, wanting to help keep him happy, play with him, snuggle him, and love on him. And as Callen gets older and more independent, he turns more and more to his sister for play and assistance and hugs and loves. If Audia is upset about something, Cal is right there to give her a hug. Audia will give Callen half of her cookie, or snack, or whatever she has that he wants, usually without even thinking twice about it. And pretty much every time we go for a ride anywhere in the car, they can be found holding hands. It melts my heart every. single. time. I can only hope that their relationship will continue to blossom in such an incredibly sweet way, and that no matter where life takes them, they will always find their way to one-another.

November 7, 2012

Halloween 2012

As the kids grow older, the holidays get more and more fun. This year for Halloween Audia decided that she wanted to be Iron Man. Well, first she decided on the Hulk but then changed her mind to Iron Man when finding a Hulk costume in her size proved to be difficult (they do exist, they were just sold out everywhere we went.) I was a little surprised that she didn't go with Spiderman but I wasn't going to push the issue. And she still does L-O-V-E Spidey. This is really the last year that we got to decide what Callen would be, so I decided to go the oh-so-cute route. I found a super cute Lion costume at Target, and you can't tell me that he isn't the cutest lion you ever saw. Because I will hear none of it!

The weekend prior to Halloween, we went to Ghouls and Goblins at the Arboretum with my parents, and it proved to be a hit yet again. Audia kept running up to all of the decorations and saying "take my picture with him, mom!"

Halloween night we went to the mall closest to our house for Mall-o-ween so that Callen could go trick-or-treating indoors (aka safely) and then stopped by a family friend's house to see her new kitten. Last stop (but not least!) was to go to N,D, A,M, and A's house so that the men could take the girls trick-or-treating and us ladies stayed home with the babies to hang out and pass out candy. It was a very fun halloween for all of us!

September 16, 2012

Audia's First Day of Preschool 2012

Audia's first week at her new preschool went so amazingly well! Munchkin LOVES her new teacher, Miss Lacey, as well as her FOUR other teachers. She's in a class of 12 kids and they have one main teacher with four other assistant teachers. She is already talking about other friends that she's playing with and is just so, so excited to go to school every day.

This is all very exciting to me for many reasons. Number 1 is that she's skipped a year in preschool; we got her into the four year old class this year even though she is 8 days past the cutoff (it sounds like it wouldn't be a big deal, but most of the preschools we talked to were absolutely unwilling to budge on their cutoff date regardless of Audia's maturity and readiness.) So she is the youngest in her class. We are very hopeful that she will be able to test into and start Kindergarten next year. Number 2 is that she is at a new school, and was very hesitant, scared, and anxious prior to her first day, about not being at the same school she was at last year. Number 3 is that I was painfully shy pretty much from birth well into college and I've always worried that my kids would have the same disposition towards being afraid of talking to/befriending/meeting new people. Audia is proving over and over again that this is absolutely not the case for her and it literally makes me want to shout out and jump for joy. I felt like my shyness was such a huge limitation for me, and to watch her warm up to her new class in mere seconds on the first day, and to say goodbye to me with hardly a glance back, makes me over-the-moon excited for her. And I am so excited to see what this school year holds for her!

September 10, 2012

Audia's 4th Birthday

Our baby girl turned four on Saturday. FOUR. Growing at the speed of light. We had a party for her at the party room of our housing association; a nice, open space with lots of room for the kids to run around and very little for them to destroy. It was perfect.

Audia picked a Spider-Man theme for her party this year. She is very into Spidey the past few months and there was no question when I asked her what kind of party she wanted to have. We all had a blast.

As Audia gets older, it gets harder to keep track of milestones and interests as she seems to change so quickly in some ways while staying the same in others. It is fascinating to watch her try on different hats, so to speak, whilst keeping these core traits that are already so much a part of who she is. Her compassionate, willful, imaginative, outgoing, and silly nature are things that are steady and constant through everything else. She has been more shy with new people or people she hasn't seen in a while lately, but I can't help but feel like it's just a mask she is trying on, as she will say, either to me or to the very person whom she's shying away from "I'm being shy right now." Minutes later, she's over it and playing with that very same person.

As for her interests, obviously there is the Spider-Man obsession. She is also really into Fireman Sam and still really enjoys Yo Gabba Gabba when it comes to TV shows. Peter Pan, The Care Bears Movie, and 101 Dalmations are favorite movies of the moment (or year, as the case may be!) And as far as play, she loves her stuffed animals, care bears, legos, puzzles, and anything that makes music.
She surprises me regularly with her creativity and rhyming capabilities when she makes up songs about anything and everything.

She still adores her brother, although now that he is getting more and more independent, there is more 'arguing' that goes on between the two of them; fighting over toys and chairs and what-not as well as just general screaming at one-another is becoming more a part of day-to-day life. As an only child, I do find myself struggling to understand how they can be fighting one minute and best friends the next, but I love to watch their relationship grow and as long as they're enjoying eachothers company at least half of the time, I feel like we're doing ok there.

Happy, Happy Birthday, my dear sweet Audia. You enrich our lives in so many more ways than you will ever understand (until you have kids of your own!) We love you so, so much!!

September 4, 2012

Fair Fun 2012

We made it out to the Minnesota State Fair three times this year! Once with my parents, once with my college roomie, Sha (that's a nickname, not her real name. Ha!), and her hubby and little boy, who came from AZ to visit while the fair was running because she's heard me talk about it so many times that she decided she had to see it for herself, and once with our good friends J and L, both of whom I've known since I was a teenager. Unfortunately the stars did not align with scheduling and we did not get to make our annual trip out with friends N, D, A, M, and A this year, but hopefully next year we can make it happen!
What follows are just a few of the many photos we got at the fair this year, trying to cover all of the best parts of the fair and all of the fun that we had :-)