That could have been bad!

Next week, we're going on a trip to Florida to see my nephew graduate high school. For the past few weeks, we've had it in our mind that we were leaving on Thursday. We planned everything around that- dropping Coco off at my parents and the rental car. Well, said nephew texted Jony (he's technically his nephew) asking what time our flight arrives. I went to get the specific details and noticed that our flight is on WEDNESDAY, not Thursday. Oops. After a bit of a freak out (how could I have the wrong day?!?), it seems as though we were the only ones who thought we were leaving on Thursday. So, our room situation is fixed (never was broken) and all plans are right on track. We still don't get the rental car until the next day, but we've formed a great solution to that problem that involves taking Jeffrey to the Florida Aquarium. Everything worked out great!

Can you imagine how horrible it would have been if I'd gone to check into tour flight next Wednesday to realize that we'd actually missed it? Yikes. Glad we got that text.

One Quarter

I turned the big 2-5 on Friday. Being a mom and all, there was no huge party or late night craziness (such as what you might have seen at 21). It was a nice and calm day with my two favorite boys, and I loved it. It's exactly what I wanted.

Jeffrey woke up early because he was too excited to wish me a Happy Birthday and give me some love (this is what I tell myself). After a calm morning where he actually ate his breakfast without a huge fuss, we went off to spend the morning with some new friends at the Children's Museum. The boys had a blast, and us moms enjoyed chatting while they ran around like fools in the Tot Spot. Then, Jeffrey and I boarded the light rail to head downtown and meet Jony for lunch. Jeffrey was SO excited to see him, and we ate at one of his favorite restaurants: Chipotle right by the light rail so that he can watch the trains go by. Seeing my son so happy is a fantastic component to a great birthday. After a long nap, we dropped Jeffrey off at the in-laws and went on a date to the Melting Pot. Yum.

I'm feeling all sorts of relaxed because I have an appointment made for a massage and pedicure next week AND I got what I wanted for my birthday: housecleaning. Jony arranged to have a natural cleaning service come and do a thorough deep cleaning of the house. He hated doing it because it's such a "lame gift" (his words), but it's what I really wanted!

As an added birthday bonus, Fertility Friend popped up some crosshairs after I entered my temp on Friday. I'm still not entirely sure I believe it, especially since the temps keep going down, but it was a nice thought for my birthday.

Just Jeffrey

There's been a lot of talk about gender roles lately- a lot of it regarding a Canadian couple that's keeping the sex of their baby a secret. While I can understand that concept of why you would choose to do that, I think it's unnecessary. There's no reason to completely disregard the biological form your child was born in order to defy stereotypes and societal classifications.

I have a son. He was born that way- a boy. There is no denying that. Whether that couple would like to agree or not, there IS a difference between boys and girls. I've changed his diapers quite enough times to realize that. When you really think about it, though, does he know that he's a boy? No, not really. He may be beginning to understand that there are differences, but I'm sure it's as simple as "that person is like daddy/mama." Nothing else to it in his innocent eyes. We're not forcing him to be a boy. We're not forcing him to be a girl. We're not forcing him to deny himself in order to not be either. We're merely allowing him to be himself.

I won't lie and say that we buy him dresses and frilly items because we don't. If, when he's older, he asks to wear something like that? Sure, we'll let him. We definitely don't care. At 18 months, he's super happy throwing on some Mardi Gras beads as a necklace (which he has absolutely worn out in public) and throwing some of his stacker rings around his wrist like bracelets. He prefers my shoes to Jony's (specifically my high heels; he wears them more than I do). He absolutely adores playing kitchen and house with his 4 year old cousin, Aly, and will also join her in a fabulous game of dolls or Littlest Pet Shop. He likes to cuddle his stuffed animals and give them kisses.

On the other hand, he loves building with his block and then knocking them down. He's obsessed with cars and everything else that moves, especially if it's "big!" He's rough and tough. His favorite place to be is outside, and he cannot get enough of balls. He's super excited about life when he's digging in the dirt, and he has no issues getting dirty (for the most part).

You can easily put his likes into categories of 'boy' or 'girl,' but it's much easier to just say that's Jeffrey. Those activities are what he enjoys, and I enjoy seeing him love life. For the rest of his life, we'll do just that. As long as he's himself and he's happy, then we'll be happy for him. Whether he's wearing an apron and helping me vaccuum and do dishes or running around roaring and causing havoc with his favorite toy dinosaur, he'll always just be Jeffrey to me.

Combining masculine and feminine in the form of cuteness: soccer shirt and high heels!

This post is a part of Feminist Friday over at Transatlantic Blonde. Check it out!

Wordless Wednesday

Mr. Picky Pants

It's safe to say that I have a full fledged toddler on my hands. And that toddler comes loaded with a whole bunch of opinions, most of which are opposite of mine. I suppose he truly is my child. He has very particular needs and wants. I'm thankful that every day brings about another word or form of communication because it can get very frustrating trying to decipher exactly what he wants.

• When he's hungry, he wants something specific. Not to end there, sometimes it needs to be cut or given to him in a specific manner. 
• He likes to sit in a particular chair when doing anything that involves sitting: putting his shoes on, reading books, eating, etc.
• He has a major preference for which pair of shoes he'll be wearing at any given time (thankfully, it has not moved on to clothes as of yet)
• He lets us know if we're not doing what he thinks we should be doing (example: We were playing with a ball yesterday. I was holding it and throwing it in the air, and he told me to put it down. Obviously, it was kicking time.)
• He wants a specific sippy. And, no, it's not always the same one. Color is important.
• When reading, he must choose the books. If you start another one, he will grab it and put it back on the shelf. 
• His blanket must be put on him in a specific manner that changes each time. This also sometimes means that he doesn't want the blanket.

You get the idea.

Although difficult and sometimes frustrating, I love it. I was raised to always question authority, and I'm so glad to see that Jeffrey will be following in those same footsteps. You can't be too upset when you think about how you're raising a strong, independent child who knows what he wants! 

Bathroom: Floor is DONE.

Well, the grout still needs to be sealed, but that won't take long this evening. We're very pleased with it! We chose a grout color that, color-wise, is in between the cream large tiles and small black tiles, and it looks really great. I'm absolutely loving it and really loving that our bathroom is on it's way to looking like an actual bathroom again! You'll also notice that about 1/2 the room has drywall up! The whole toilet area is completely done; I just can't take a picture since I can't walk on the floor yet. We need to make a final decision on sinks and sink placement so that we can get the electrical stuff finished. Then, the rest of the room will have walls (should be by the end of the week). The fact that we have a long weekend coming up excites me as to how much we can get accomplished in there. Right now, it's really looking good for us to be finished by our first vacation the second weekend in June.

the completed pipes for the 2 sinks

18 Months!

I cannot believe my little baby is a year and half old. We're officially closer to the 2nd birthday than the first. Yikes. Thankfully, I am enjoying him so much right now and just soaking it all in.

18 month stats:

• 23 lb 10oz and 34.75 inches
• wearing 12-18 month clothes
• sleeping and napping is still the same, although we're getting less and less nights with wakings. 
• 11 teeth with one more about to pop through! After that, it's just the canines and 2 year molars!
• running, climbing, jumping, hanging on just about any and everything
• can complete his entire ABC puzzle all by himself
• adding new words all of the time; I have no clue what number we're up to- communication is so easy now (when he wants it to be)
• can hold up a "one" and say it when you ask how old he is. Also, when you ask how many vitamins he gets.
• can point to almost every body part: hair, head, eyes, nose, mouth, lips, teeth, tongue, chin, ears, neck, arms, hands, fingers, thumb, belly/belly button, legs, knees, feet, and toes.
• has peed in the potty twice and pooped once
• always lets us know right before, during, or after he's going #2 (it varies which of these it is)
• favorite food: fruit snacks
• favorite book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
• favorite activity: trying to dribble his balls

6 months?!?

6 months until we head back to the Pediatrician. 6! That's SO far away, and I cannot believe it. He'll be 2 years old. Blows my mind.

Today, Jeffrey had his 18 month appointment, and, as usual, he blew it out of the water. He's doing amazingly (which we knew) and growing so well! He even got 2 stickers for being such an awesome kid. He was really stinking excited about that. Our pedi was really impressed with him, especially since she had to go into the 2 year old developmental checklist before she found something that he can't do (saying 50+ words- we're nowhere near that yet!).

The biggest shocker of the appointment was the measurement. We knew he's gotten taller since 15 months due to the growing amount of reach that he has, but I was taken aback by exactly how much: almost FOUR inches. He's now 23lb 10oz and 34.75inches. All the people that were worried about his not being as tall as they though he should be (Jony is 6'4'') can all rest easy now.

He had one shot and didn't react at all. It was actually pretty strange. He just sat up afterwards and pointed to the band-aid and said "sticker." The NP was semi-freaked out by his non-reactive nature and joked if she'd actually had a needle in the shot, lol.

So, six months until the next visit. Very strange.

Bathroom: Hello Floor!

We've finally gotten the floor completely tiled! It's not completely finished since it still needs grout, but it's close enough for me! As I've said before, doing large DIY projects around nap time is a tricky thing. It's especially not helpful when the toddler decides to take epic naps. So, tiling the floor took us two entire weekends. You can't do much during the weekdays, since you need a pretty large chunk of time to do some actual work. It's worth it, though! We're pretty proud of ourselves, especially since we tackled a fairly complicated design for two people who have never tiled before! It's not perfect, most notably around where the previous vanity was since the floor wasn't level there. Nothing too bad, though, and it's nothing that should be noticed. I'm so excited that we'll be installing the toilet soon and that the next major project is drywall!

There are a few more odds and ends before we get to that, though: one more connector thingy for one of the sinks and the wiring for a new light. I'm sure you can guess what we'll be doing next weekend!

Jeffrey helping sort out all of the spacers

Making sure that dad is getting the thin-set to the correct consistency 

the FLOOR!

Feeling Pretty Rough

I'm not sure if I'm getting sick or what, but I have been feeling really gross the last two days. It's a combination of dizziness/lightheaded, and it sucks. At least I don't have the headache anymore- yesterday was awful! I'm wondering if my body is just freaking out hormonally. My chart is all over the place; these last two days I've had ridiculously high temps. Todays was not as high as yesterdays, thank goodness. I was a bit freaked out yesterday because the fever alarm went off (It was 99.86!). I used our regular temporal thermometer, and I don't have a fever. I'm just not sure what to think. I used to have super messed up cycles pre-BCP. It was a major factor in why I started taking it in the first place. When I stopped, I had pretty nice cycles. Now, I'm on CD 60. Of course, it's only my first PP cycle, so I understand there will be some time needed for regularity. That wouldn't be as big of a deal if I didn't feel so gross. Blech.

Update on "The Agreement"

Things are going well, but we've been discussing making a change to our plans for TTC. Originally, we were waiting until the condoms ran out. However, we're getting impatient, and it's just not possible to have sex THAT much when you have a toddler. Especially one that goes to sleep around 9pm. So, we're ditching the original plan AND the condoms. As of last night, we are officially on the road to Baby #2. I don't think it'll be an easy journey since my body is still all crazy from breastfeeding, but we both are happier knowing that the potential is there. I had stopped charting my temps the last two weeks or so, so I'm going to start that again to see if anything is going on. There's been no signs of ovulation or AF since I got my first period almost two months ago. There's no plans to cut out feedings or wean at this point in time, so we'll see what happens!

Swimming, swimming

Jeffrey graduated from his swim class on Wednesday night, and I'm so proud of him. This year, he was actually getting something out of the class besides just getting comfortable in the water. There's a tremendous improvement in his water skills from the past month. We had a fantastic teacher (we went to the YMCA), and he had a great time! On the last day, he was actually swimming! Of course, we were still supporting him, but he was doing his arms and legs and LOVING it. We'll be going over to my parents at least once a week to keep him in the water and improving.

Wordless Wednesday: Watching the Royal Wedding

Bathroom: Finally some tangible progress!

You can finally start seeing that something is happening in the bathroom! Yay! It's still going a lot slower than we hoped, but we're working with the time that we have. We try to do a little something each day, even if it's not a lot.

In the last week, we have accomplished:

1. completing all major plumbing (there's still a few small things to do for the sinks)

2. put in new insulation on the outside wall, including spray foam around the windows

3. put down cement where vanity was and around the entire edge of the bathroom to level the floor

4. cut the majority of the floor tiles

5. installed four (lol) floor tiles!