Spring here!!!

YES! Spring weather is FINALLY upon us. Boy have we had some crazy days around here. First, we spent most of the weekend outside:

 You can tell this photo was taken April 1st when we still had snow, and a winter jacket was needed... but I took the sensory table out to the porch, and Killian's been able to play in it with his diggers whenever he wants.

 Killian's finally got the hang of a big bike with training wheels. He's SLOW when he walks with me and the dogs, so I make him ride him bike to keep up (and we STILL go slow). During this bike walk, Killian asked me to take him training wheels off!! Yes, my child has his own pace for everything. SO I bought a balance buddy, and we're going to try it this week. Who am I to stand in the way of a two-year old riding a 2-wheeler?

Bubbles came back out this week... he's really into them since he finally knows how to successfully blow them himself.  Oh, notice the hat? For the last 2 summers I've tried getting him to wear a baseball hat. Apparently, all it takes is seeing his dad wear one, because this year he's all about hats. (PS He puts it backwards).

In addition to being outside, I bought his last, and biggest, birthday gift... a jeep! I found a great deal on craigslist, and couldn't' pass it up. Unfortunately, that meant Killian came with him to pick it up. So, I let him ride it for 5 min. and then we put it away in storage. He's desperate for more fun... and I might give him it early in May if he's still bugging me for it.

 

This week, we also saw alot of our grass grow... I think I forgot to mention that we planted grass. Well, we did. And this week Killian got to cut it:

In addition, we let our butterflies go. Killian was very sad, but I did get this great shot of him:

So.. .what else has been new? Well, we had a tornado go through our city on Sunday... terrifying me and keeping Kilian up late. Luckily, there wasn't any damage to our house/property. However, less than a mile away there were roofs ripped out and trees that look like dominoes. I'm VERY grateful that we're ok.

This week we're starting on our garden :) I'll try and post photos as I finish bits and pieces. I hand tilled for an hour today and only got about 5 square feet tilled.... it'll be a long process.

I'm raising a teenager...

I've recently decided that I'm raising a teenager trapped inside a (almost) 3 year old's body. Why? Well let's look at some of the conversations I've had with him lately:

Killian wanted a toy after he'd just gotten a new one hours earlier.
Me: Well where's your money for this toy? If you want it, you'll have to buy it yourself.
K: It's in my pocket.
Me: Ok, show me the money.
K: It's in there
Me: Pull it out and show me Killian.
K: (rummages around in his pocket). Aw man! It must be at home. I will just give you money at home.
Me: No, no, no. If you want to buy this toy you need your money here.
K: Ok, its in my pocket. Hold on. (rummages around again, and pulls out nothing) Here it is mama. (handing me "pretend" money).
Me: No Killian. You need real money, like this: (I open my wallet and show him three 1$ bills).
K: OH!!! There's my money! It was in your wallet. Phew! Let's get the toy.


*** Ok seriously? Here's another one:

Me: Monkey, what are you doing?
K: No, NO! My name is only Lillian (Killian). Not monkey!

*** Seriously? He's embarrassed by nicknames already??? Here's another:

Me: Killian, Amanda's getting married. Would you like to walk down the aisle with a pillow and rings and give them to Michael?
K: No. I'm not going to.
Me: Everyone will look at your beautiful face.
K: MM. Ok then. I will do it.

***Another one:

K: Mama... I made a mess.
Me: What? Where is it? What did you do?
K: (as he holds my hand and strokes my arm leading me to the mess... in the sweetest voice) Mama, MOMMMYYYYY, I love you. You are beautiful. You are my mommy. I love you. Kiss me, snuggle me. I love you.

**Make no mistake. He was trying to pacify me before I came upon the plant that he had DUMPED all over his bed. Where did he learn this? Seriously!

 Me: Killian, I'm going to sell Stella.
K: NO! I wuvaaa her! Mama, I wuv her. She will be nice now.



Sigh. I'm in such trouble when he's able to reason even more. Perhaps I'll be raising a 30 year old in a teenager's body soon........ though that might actually work to my advantage.

Spring break!

This past week was my spring break, and I took Killian on vacation with me. We had ALOT of fun! I ordered a new little ice cream maker for us. It makes just enough for ice cream for the 2 of us in about 10 minuets. GREAT :)
So... this week we went to two story times- one at the library and one at Barnes and Noble. We played outside:

 With bubbles... and bikes!

 We had a picnic inside....

 We did lots of art work... bug stamps and painting

 It was a messy art day!

 We played Pillow Island.. where Killian had to step on pillows instead of the floor. :)

 I did some sewing... I sewed these sandwich bags for Killian's lunch bags.

 My sis got me two reusable sandwich bags for my bday, and I love them. Killian uses them quite often, but I thought maybe he'd like some of his own.

 We played with his coffee set,

 And he tried on his flipper for swimming :)

 We had a playdate... Killian LOVES babies.

 We went to the Fond du Lac children's museum...

 On Saturday we went to Bubolz Nature Center pancake breakfast with a maple syrup demo and played in a one-room school house.

We went to the Tundra Lodge on Saturday. OH MY GOODNESS. Killian has SUCH a blast. WE went down the water slide about 20 times. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of the 2.5 hours that we played there.

Our vacation was quiet and eventful. It was wonderful having alot of bonding time with Killian again. With my crazy school schedule, we both needed it. In addition, being with me made him back into a SWEET, KIND, well behaved child. (let's just say that his father's LACK OF discipline doesn't work well for our son). I loved the moments when we were just sitting next to each other, and Killian would kiss me and say "I love you mama". Awww.......... This week has really helped bring us together again. :)

And now I've got to get ready for a crazy-whirlwind-week of school and tag-team parenting with Killian's dad. Can we just put this past week on a time-loop and play it over and over again?

Problem Solution: Recipe Organization

Time for another Problem and Solution Post!!

Problem: I read through magazines, and find recipes that I love, so I cut them out, and then........
Well I tried putting them into a journal, but it was hard to organize, so I'd never bother looking through it. So the recipes laid around not being used.

Solution: It was pretty easy, but did take a little bit of time. I found a box for recipes.. a nice wooden box that I had laying around. Then glued/taped the recipes to individual index cards, and organized them by category (ie dinner, desert, breakfast, etc.) I then typed up a word document with the names of the recipes:

Breakfast:
Perfect pancakes
Eggs in a nest
......

I pasted each of the categories with the names on index cards too. AND I organized it. Very simple, but effective. So now if I'm looking for a new recipe for dinner, I grab the dinner card and see if any of the names look good. :) I'm finally using the recipes I've grabbed from magazines as well as making some new things (I always get stuck in ruts with my cooking).

St. Patty's Day and Caterpillars

 

Alright! I didn't get these posted when I said I would. Life is so busy and exhausting!!! But here they are!!! When I picked up Killian from his grandma's on St. Patrick's Day, we came home to a gold coin hunt. I hid chocolate gold coins all over my house as well as a green race car. Killian wasn't sure how to hunt for them, but he got the hang of it. :) The picture above is of him with his st. patrick's day balloon (A HUGE hit with him, not so much with the dogs who are terrified of balloons).

This picture is of him with his gold coins clutched in his hands :)

He found his green race car. Have I mentioned that he loves hotwheels now? UGH, when did that happen? Anyways.. after the hunt, we went to my mom's for a St. Patty's day party! We had corned beef, cabbage, and green chocolate covered strawberries!! Killian helped down at the barn and then played in the sand with his diggers before I dragged him home. On friday, our caterpillars came! I got Killian a butterfly garden kit a month ago, and waited to order the caterpillars until it was warmer. Well, this child LOVES them. He looks at them all the time, and tells me the WHOLE story about how they're going to grow big, hang from their heads, build a cocoon and become beautiful butterflies.

 

Of course, Stella had to see if she can eat them. 

So what have we been up to? Besides school and work, we've enjoyed the outside and our pool. This past weekend I've started spring cleaning the house, reorganizing and finally putting the final touches on decorations (we're only going on our 3rd year of living here). I'm hoping to teach 2 classes on Saturdays (if I get a few more students signed up), which would be GREAT. Hopefully it all works out. 

I'm on spring break, and I took my vacation with Killian this week, so we get 7 whole days of uninterrupted LOVE and PLAY time. :) We are relaxing, hitting up story times, movies at the library, monkey joes, building for kids, play dates, hopefully a trip to get raw milk, and just enjoying each other. Of course i have a MASSIVE to-do list (I teach a whole unit of Science next week and are in Kindergarten 40+ hours next week, so I'm trying to get that finished up). But I decided to do all my to-do stuff while Killian naps and sleeps. I want to enjoy my time with him. :)

Photo update

Alright... it's been too long again. Why do I let it go this long? I don't know! But the quickest way to update is photos :) AND I promise to take some photos of tomorrow's st. patrick's day fun and upload it tomorrow night.

 I bought Killian some window crayons... they are a big hit! He loves drawing on the window, spraying the window with window cleaner, and wiping it away. :)

 Killian's been doing alot of chores around the house to help me out.. here he is helping me dry the dishes.

 Killian got really into the sensory table this week. He asked me to pull it out two times, fill it with dirt, and play with his bob the builder toys.

 We made window paints with cornstarch and liquid baby soap (luckily I still have alot of baby soap from Killian's baboy shower!!)

 We also made OObleck.. Killian was obsessed with it :)

 We got out the baseball tee. Killian's gotten SOO much better lately.

 We put down the bed rail and got rid of all of Killian's sippy cups. We practiced how to sit up and drink water instead of laying down and drinking like he used to with the sippys. He's been doing pretty good the last few nights.

 We've been riding bikes ALOT. Killian's gotten very good on his tricycle. I'm trying to get him to ride his bigger bike, but he gets mad about the brakes.

 Killian received a bag from my Great Aunt and Uncle in the mail from Australia. He was SOO excited and put his money in it. He calls it his "money bag".

 We took a spring walk with his "treasure bag".

My favorite photo from the day :)

Problem and Solution: Clothes organization

I'm a bargain shopper. I love end-of-the-season clearance shopping and second-hand store shopping. I almost NEVER buy Killian clothes at full price. I just can't- not how fast kids out grow their clothes, and Killian doesn't even outgrow his all that fast. He definitely gets a good 6-9 months out of each size. Sometimes he gets 2 seasons out of the same set of clothing (such as coats). But still, I like to get a good deal. SO, every season I find that I have bought too many pants and shirts. It happens. I always forget what I already have and keep buying them at good prices. Then I get frustrated when I feel that he's not getting enough wear out of each outfit. So...

Problem: I tend to pick the same shirts and pants for Killian to wear, and neglect the other stuff. Which upsets me since I bought them.

Solution: The solution is 2-fold. 1. For the items in his dresser (PJS and pants). I can fold them up in stacks of 2's. Then, I use the pants from left to right, top to bottom. When I wash pants, I put them in the dresser on the farthest right hand side. So that way they get used in order. So if his dresser is full, I'll use the top pants on the far left first, then the bottom on the far left. Then I push everything over leaving a space on the far right and continue using the pants on the left. As I wash them, I put the on the right. That way I'm not using the same pants over and over. I do the same for his PJ's, though I let him pick them out. I simply put the washed pjs on the bottom of stacks so he can't see them, and he'll pick the top PJS.
2. For clothes that get hung in the closet (shirts, sweaters). I just came up with this solution. I was going to do something similar to the pants, work from left to right. However, I like to have his clothes hung by category- long sleeve tee's, sweaters, button up shirts, sweater vests/ vests, and finally t-shirts (summer items are all on the right hand side of the closet and during the summer, winter clothes get moved over). SO, if I wanted them hung by category, but still  know which ones have been worn most frequently, I'd have to be doing 5 small left-right organizations and that was just too much. SO, my new solution: different colored hangers. I have both blue and white hangers, but just grabbed them as I needed. NOW, I have all his shirts/sweaters/etc. on blue hangers. As they are used and washed, they get put on white hangers. Then, I'll know to use the blue hangers first. Once all shirts are on white hangers, then I'll start putting them on blue again. It's working great. Of course since he has more sweaters than long sleeve tee's, those get used more often. However it is forcing me to put him in his button-up shirts more often as well.

SO, that's my solution. Left-right usage in drawers and different colored hangers in the closet. Of course, at some point I'll have to come up with a system to stop over-buying. I've thought of making a print-out of all the items I have in storage, but I can't very well bring that along with me shopping. Any suggestions?