Photo A Day: Day 8

I was going to try and combine a few days of pictures into each post, but I just had to post this one right away!

Day 8: Sun

Yesterday we had complete cloud cover and no sun. Today is gorgeous - warm temperatures (for a Wisconsin winter), no snow, not a cloud in the sky, and that is a whole lot of sunshine coming in the front door this morning.

Photo A Day: Days 3-7

I'm not falling behind, but I am not exactly succeeding at my Photo-A-Day challenge.

Day 3: Hands

I got a new MacBook for my birthday/graduation present and much time was spent transferring and organizing my music, pictures, and documents this weekend.

Day 4: A Stranger

I felt so weird taking a picture of a stranger and had 1,000 opportunities to do it, but couldn't get to it. Brode and I were out running errands on Satuday and these two kids were walking around the Lawrence campus singing and dancing away as loud as they could with not a care in the world.

Day 5: 10 AM

10AM at our house was very lazy this weekend. Brode had been up since 730 and was ready for relaxing time. He typically watches movies/shows on the little DVD player so we don't see the same ones multiple times!

Day 6: Dinner

 My first missed picture. Monday was probably the worst day of the week to have a dinner picture because I'm extremely busy. I run from work at one location at 545 to a different location to start at 6 so Monday's dinners typically are a sub sandwich on the run and I forgot to snap a picture!

Day 7: Button

I love this button. The button on my watch that turns the intervals off and on, tracks my distance, and tells me my calorie burn. The strength, ab, and boot camp classes I teach do NOT like this button. I got this watch for Christmas and it does EVERYTHING. It has helped so much in my own training and with teaching classes. The clock in our group exercise room has been broken all week so they get to rely on the interval beeps of my watch.

A Photo A Day Challenge: Day Two

Day Two in the February Photo A Day Challenge (see previous post) is a photo of words!

Perfect day for a picture of two specific words I've heard a lot of today:

Today is my 23rd birthday!

I walked into work to banners, flags, and bright balloons all over my desk. Celebrating includes working and going out to dinner with my family! It has already been a wonderful day of well wishes from friends, family, co-workers, and clients.

A Photo A Day

While reading blogs I like to keep up with I stumbled upon the February Photo A Day challenge.

I don't typically participte in these types of events but it seems so fun to take a picture a day and I definetely like that they give you the ideas and I can be creative off of that. When I'm stuck in a routine I think to myself "there was nothing exciting I could have taken a picture of!" when really there are hundreds!

Day 1: Your View

Nothing extraordinary for my view. This is my workspace at work. It probably is a lie that this is my view because I rarely get time to sit down at my desk and take care of the mess all over it!

It really should be cleaner as everyone walking into the wellness center has to walk by me first - probably not a good first impression!

Of course my computer with emails galore, the bag contains a fun incentive prize for a winning participant, my binder with to-do lists and workouts, an open water bottle as I try to keep up with water intake as I teach classes all day, my lunch box (because lunch usually spans for a few hours around appointments), and my planner are daily essentials. The best part is the cake pops on the counter for my birthday! Tomorrow is my birthday but the majority of our attendees are M-W-F people so I figured I should bring them in today.

One aspect you don't get from the picture - the fact that it's about 60 degrees and I have a space heater under my desk keeping me warm. Oh the joys of working in an air conditioned gym year-round.

Nap Days Are Fading

Toddlerhood is a very strange stage. It really shows how different kids can be at 2 and 3. Between potty training, naps, talking, etc. they all fall in different times. He was potty trained around 2 and 1/2 and tells you full stories, making him a fairly fast leaner and developer.

We're stuck in the awkward 'Should Brode Nap?' stage. Day care requires they nap in his room and for the most part they continue to nap through the 5yr old room.

Brode has always been an excellent napper. Sometimes he says "no I don't want to rest" but once his head hits the pillow he is out and he still continued to sleep 12 hours every night, especially with a new big bed. It is beginning to fade.

Typical naps go from 11:45-2:00 in his room. Lately this has turned into 12:45-2 as he struggles to fall asleep because he just isn't tired then. This causes a ripple because Brode is NOT tired by 8pm when he naps during the day (last night he sang Christmas songs in his bed for an hour and a half until 9:30, alone). The past few weekends when we put him in his bed for nap he would sit and sing and play and never fall asleep and as 2:00 would approach there was just no point in making him try anymore or he would be up all night. The last 2 weekends I let him just stay up and didn't even try. He seems to do ok on Saturday and bedtime is much easier. By Sunday he is ok without the nap but it catches up with him by early evening.

EXHIBIT A:

This is on the way to the Y for Family Night Saturday night at 6pm. Of course I thought tiring him out by playing at the Y for a few hours would only help, would you believe me if I said he talked ALL the way home?

Although his attitude is much better with naps, bedtimes are a struggle and it is much easier to plan our day without nap.

His day care teachers will SCOLD thank me for this someday!

Park Play

Last weekend we had another wonderfully relaxing weekend. There wasn't anything too exciting going on and we had nowhere to be.

Sunday was by far the most fun as Brode and I spent a majority of the day playing in the snow! After hanging around home in the morning we finally packed up everything (I mean EVERYTHING, my trunk was full) of snow gear and toys and headed off to the park.

First we practiced ice skating and guess who got to moving a few feet on his own:

We have not yet been to the ice rink to use a walker so for not getting the opportunity to try it on his own, he is doing great! It helped with a bit of snow on the ice for him to learn getting up and down.

There were boys on the other end of the ice playing hockey so he was very distracted and insisting he needed his stick. I told him he needed to learn to skate first (didn't want to do the battle of telling him I forgot his stick at home even though I remembered every other thing).

After over an hour of skating we switched to sledding and he loved that just as much. I was nervous to send him down the big hill alone but he laughed all the way down without tipping out. A few times the sled turned around and he was going backwards but just kept laughing.

By 2:00 he was getting tired, hungry, and cold. We headed to McDonalds ("Old McDonalds" in Brode's words) for lunch and playplace time. He always says "Mom, I'll eat my entire lunch before I play" and does alright but just can't wait to play. This time around he dove into his lunch without looking up and ate the whole thing. I guess skating will do that to a little boy! It took him all of 2 minutes to meet a new little friend and they played together in the playplace for an hour.

He fought sleep the whole ride home but once he was on the couch at home with a pillow, blanket, Tigger, and a movie he was out for almost 3 hours!

This is a busy week between my work schedule, added work hours, swimming lessons, the radio interview, hockey games, and seeing friends. Good thing we don't have anything planned next weekend again!

Radiothon for Kids

 

This is the week! Thursday is the day!

 

On Thursday morning, 7:00AM, I will be doing a live radio interview for the Woodward Radiothon for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

 

Throughout Brode's care at Children's he became registered a Children's Champion and we submitted our story and pictures to be used in any type of Children's fundraisers and events. I was contacted the first week of January and asked if I wanted to do an interview as it is being held at the Children's hospital in our city so we do not need to travel to Milwaukee.

 

They mailed our packet of information, I was given a list of things to talk about and I prepared the points I want to cover.

 

Because the interview is so early and I have to be there ahead of time Brode will not be joining me (either he would be crabby and whining like crazy at 6:30AM on the radio, or he would be shy and silent the whole time anyways).

 

I'm excited to tell our Craniosynostosis story and raise awareness, to share the great care we had at Children's Hospital, and to help raise money to give back! If you're in the area tune in anytime Thursday and Friday to hear stories and interviews of kids and families that have all received care at Children's!

 

Below are the 7 local stations this will be broadcasted on:

 

95.9 KISS FM

105.7 FM WAPL

92.9 FM Country WXMM

104.3 & 103.5 FM Chuck

1150 AM WHBY

And for those of you that don't live near these (because I know I have some friends at school that will be curious), there is a Listen Live link below to listen to 95.9:

http://www.959kissfm.com/listen_live/

 

Here's to hoping I don't get nervous, I talk at a controlled speed (major challenge for me!), and I share all that I can!

Car Didn't Leave the Garage

This weekened was a wonderful weekend of doing nothing! My car did not leave the garage and I loved it, we got so much play and rest time that has been greatly needed after the holidays.

Friday night we went out to dinner with my moms side of the family to celebrate all the birthdays that we have in January and February (my grandpa, grandma, me, my uncle, and my cousin). We had a delicious steak dinner with cake to follow and then opened cards and presents. It was much easier to get everyone together do it in one big dinner then try and figure something out every weekend in a row. Afterwards we went back to my aunt and uncles to hang out and Brode learned all the rules of pool and foosball.

Saturday started the weekend of laziness!

Brode and I got outside to play in the morning and he LOVED it. The little boy has been waiting and waiting for snow. They can only go out at day care if everyone has their stuff and the wind isn't too bad so they haven't gotten any opportunities this year yet. He was just as excited to get all of his new snow stuff bundled on as he was to actually play in the snow. New snowpants, boots, and long underwear are exciting things!

Brode got two new snow toys for Christmas that we were able to get out! First, a sno-art kit. The kit came with 3 bottles that look like giant crayons, the mix to make the colors, and some stencils. After a few drops of color powder and some warm water the crayons were full and we were ready to draw.

Brode also got a new sled for Christmas. Last year we squeezed every last inch of him into his baby sled so he was due for one. I pulled him around the yard and we stopped and did drawings that we could see from the windows inside the house. Brode's requests for drawings included a snowman, a snowflake, an airplane, a hockey stick and puck, and the strangest that can be seen in the picture below; a bandage.

After pulling him around I started pushing him down the small hills in our backyard. He insisted he lay down and go backwards (head first) down the hill while the dog chased him. Nothing can be normal with a crazy little boy.

He was extremely worn out after we played, but still refused to nap (I think we're nearing the end of nap days). We had a warm grilled chese lunch and played the rest of the day.

Sunday we played in the house the entire day. Hockey, movies, cars, legos, games, play-doh, you name it we did it. Brode never even got out of his pajamas.

With all of the down time and playing I started reading the book The Help on my kindle (want to read it before I see the movie). I got completely sucked in. 290 pages later I'm 60% finished and dying for time to keep reading so I can watch the movie. It's great if you're looking for a new read!

3 Year Old Portraits

After much waiting we were able to get Brode's 3 year old protraits done! Our usual photographer that has been doing Brode since 5 days old was on maternity leave and building a new studio so she has been very busy. After moving appointments a few times we got in early December and got some of Brode and well as the both of us together!

Because we were in a different studio we had to work with what we had, but I still think the ones of us together came out great. We're excited to get into her new studio the next time around or try some outdoors!

The Time Has Come!

Brode officially got on the ice on his skates for the first time! It seems weird that we (along with everyone we know) have been talking about this from the day we found out we were having a boy.

We had been looking at going to open skate for a while then when things got crazy over Christmas we figured we'd just wait until the public parks froze their ice rinks. Well weeks of warm weather later we haven't been able to go.

This weekend we had absolutely no plans so it was the perfect Saturday to go!

He was a bit nervous at first so daddy skated around with him but he eventually loosened up.

Once he got going we would tell him if he skated a lap with us then daddy would take him on a fast lap. By the end he was all smiles doing multiple laps.

Now that he has been on the ice and gotten a bit of a feel for it and shuffling his feet we're planning on going back, loading up the pads and learning through trial and error. Open skate was crazy with people this week so we're hoping for a day that it's a bit quieter and we can get a walker out!