Life Lately | Halloween Fun

We had a great time in our new home, trick or treating. Last year, we were eager to find a new place to call our home and we were so unsure if we should have looked into the city, or find a home in the suburbs. It was a tad stressful looking at homes and our first one at that. Coming from being a renter and dependent on someone else to do things for you, it can be a shock looking at something that is utterly all yours. Alot of projects and the sense of overwhelming and anxiety struck me a bit and besides a few minor headaches, we have had a great first year in our little gingerbread home. This is the first start to the holidays that I can truly get into the spirit of things around here and really eager to keep our home cozy and decorated to the hilt! We started off our Halloween morning with a little pumpkin paint art. Blake had so much fun painting on the paper and gushing the colors together in his hands. We pulled one of the mini pumpkins off the porch, where Blake could freely paint with it. I thought it would be great for each holiday, to try to have some fun creative outlet to make art and for him to play with and incorporate the associated colors with each season passing. It will be great to add to his childhood treasure box I keep for him. 

I just am in awe when I see how much Blake has changed and how amazing the growth and change in everything from his tiny hands to his little laugh. When I look back at last year, Blake and I went trick or treating without Justin due to an overload of projects but oh no! not this year! Justin was away on business in LA mon-thursday and he had taken off for Halloween so we could spend it together as a family. We went hand in hand and enjoyed the whole experience together. We snapped a few pictures quickly of our Lumberjack outfits. There was a lot of chasing around our little busy-body to get him into his outfit ( I am sure any of you with children know that one all too well) played some spooky and fun Halloween music. Yes, Monster Mash, Ghostbusters & Werewolves of London, sure made it in the mix! We snacked on sweets and watched our little lumberjack run around pulling his hat on and off. He now says 'hat' and want's to do it himself, whenever we are headed out the door. We walked around our neighborhood a bit and then drove into town to see if anyone was still out and about only to find the chill in the air and smell of a light frost sent us back to the car for warmth and hungry bellies eager for pizza. I hope you all had your very own spooktacular Halloween fun! 

Life Lately | Slow Mornings

A sweet breeze is blowing throughout our house this morning, yet it almost has a hint of Autumn lingering in with it. I am still enjoying these last few weeks of what is left of summer and there is always something special about the remainder of August.

The last few weeks, I have seen a mega jump in Blake and his little personality is flourishing! It has been so fun to watch and I get giddy thinking of the little person he is and is meant to become. I admit, it isn't always easy to watch them grow up, wistful for those newborn days.

It has been something that has been on my mind these days. So many expectations on us mother's... 

Everyone putting in their very own two cent's of how our babies should be. At what point they should be doing this and saying that yet, somewhere along the journey, we can either keep searching in hopes of the "perfect answer" or learn to be accepting and enjoy the ever present moment in the process. I choose to accept and embrace the beauty in the time passing us by because along with it all there is a lot of honest to goodness stuff happening. 

I will miss the mess on the floor after he eat's and even the most tiniest of smeared hand print's on the dishwasher. The little shrieks and giggles I hear as he is being tickled by his father in the bedroom in the morning. Let's not forget about those goofy dance moves to head banging when music is played. How he is ever insisting we place him on top of his little play push-mower and push him around. (and oh that face when he is in the glory of that moment) Reading books and having him show off his favorite pictures and insisting reading to us in a sweet babble. The way he thinks he is big stuff because he completely wailed the heck out of a drum session on his mini drum set. (I'm just putting it out there, mama moment, we may have ourselves a mini musician on our hands!) Seeing him stand at the bottom of the steps to yell, "Hey, Dad" or rather, more like "Aiyyy Daaa". Then there are the moments where I can sit down anywhere and he is right there to push his way in and plop down in my lap. The most loving and giving moment's of this little season we are in, is the way he looks at you and curls up those baby lips to lean in for a kiss when you say, I Love You.

Please do not think for a minute, with the rolled eyes like everything is all sunshine and rainbows over here. Those sweet moments are easy to remember but so are the hard ones, just the same! I am nowhere near perfection and there are days where I feel frazzled and still in my pj's at 2pm with a greasy top knot (topknot-because atleast you can feel somewhat fancy, right?!) I have had numerous days where all I really want is a hotel room to catch up on sleep and hide away in the closet with a bottle of wine and indulge in that dark chocolate bar I hid away for a special occasion or even just have some quiet time. The nights where all I have are a few extra minutes until my husband arrives home from work and I hope he doesn't take notice to the toys that are strewn everywhere and that dinner was not even made. (or thought of) Or that I didn't have even a single quiet moment to just read a book or just effortlessly flip the page of a magazine, which is a true treat, because the day just seemed to slip away...

So as you see 'these are the days' as the saying goes. The hard times, bittersweet times and the happiest of times. With that being said, I am learning to grow right along with Blake, by his side. It is a beautiful and exciting season to be in. 

Parenthood | 1...2...3...Cool Counting!

One of the best part's of being a stay at home mama, is the time together with Blake and spending it wisely. I truly want Blake to have as much fun as possible throughout our day together. A huge part of learning and discovery should be fun and thank goodness for the beauty in books and illustrations to keep a child's attention.
I have been dying for Blake to get into book's. The very thought of cuddling up together, turning the pages, it seriously just warm's my heart. For awhile, he wanted nothing to do with them and threw them all over his room. I remember thinking of so many other mother's I knew and how it seemed their babies took interest right away! I wanted that very same thing but, like all children, to each their own on timing. We love the books by Puck, which are a series of 'Cool Counting Books'. http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/978097.Puck
I highly recommend them for a sweet gift for any little babe out there. We received our first one, as a gift and have been hooked since.

We have been fortunate enough to become neighbor's with the copy editor and she gifted some special ones for Blake, personally. They are the perfect size to take with you on the go and Blake loves them! They can easily hold your little one's attention and what a vision it is, to see Blake on the floor, pointing at the pictures of taxi's, bridges, ferris-wheels to pizza slices!