The Bear

If you've been reading my blog for very long, you've seen this bear before.

It was in Leland's monthly pictures and now it's in Alden's monthly pictures.

What you don't know is that I have had this bear for nearly 13 years. Dave gave me this bear when we first started dating. It was Christmas and we had been on a couple of dates. We weren't super serious yet, but we also weren't dating other people. It's sort of hard to buy a gift for someone when you've just started dating and you don't really know them all that well. And when you care about them, but you don't really know where it's all heading. I got Dave a hoodie, and he got me this bear. I thought it was pretty much perfect.

Ten years later, I started using this bear for Leland's monthly photos. Something for him to sit next to every month so we could compare photos and see his growth from month to month. And then I used it for Alden's monthly photos.

Leland loves this bear. He likes to carry it around, snuggle with it (you can see them just chilling in that picture above), pretend to tickle it and feed it, and treat it like his very own baby. He sleeps with it most nights and he calls it his bear.

 And Alden likes to climb all over it.

I don't have the heart to break it to them that it was mine first.

I love that this bear in all those photos has a story - a connection to their parents' dating days. A connection to when it all began. Hopefully they don't destroy it with all of their crazy boy-ness and it can stick around for many more years.

Simple Fun

Last night, after baths, Leland and Alden wandered into our bedroom (or "Daddy's room" as Leland calls it...apparently it's not mine).

They love to play in our room, even though there really aren't any toys in there. Leland climbed on our bed, so I climbed up too, and brought Alden with me (Dave was still cleaning up dinner). And we spent the rest of the night playing in our bed. No toys. No TV. No phone (except to snap a few quick pics). Just some pillows, blankets, two sweet boys and lots of giggles and bouncing around.

So simple, yet so fun. It really is the little things - the little moments - that are the big things. These are the things I want to always remember.

How to Get Baby Milk - A School Story

Every day at lunch, I leave my classroom and my team teacher watches my class so I can pump. When I come back, I always take care of the milk and wash my pump parts while the kids finish cleaning up from lunch.

My students often ask me where I go during lunch, and I have always given very simple answers. I tell them I go to get Alden's milk. They ask me where, I tell them the principal's office (that's where I pump). It usually doesn't require very many simple, vague answers to satisfy them.

Today, one of my students was asking me lots and lots of questions. After the above questions were already asked and answered, the conversation continued...

Student: Can't you just fill a big container with milk and take it home so you don't have to get it every day?

Me: No, there's not enough for a bigger container.

Student: Why can't you just buy it at the store?

Me: It's not regular milk. It's baby milk.

Student: I don't get it. And what is that for? (pointing to my pump parts)

Me: It's how I get the milk.

Student: I still don't get it.


At this point I decided my vague answers weren't going to cut it.


Me: Honey, where do baby cows get their milk?

Student: From their moms.

Me: And baby pigs?

Student: From their moms.

Me: And...baby goats?

Student: From their mom.

Me: (just looked at her for a minute, watching the wheels turning in her head)

Student: OH! Oooohhhh. Okay, that's just weird.


Ha ha ha. She was totally weirded out. I asked her not to talk about it with other students and she happily obliged. I think she would really like to forget all about it. That'll teach her to ask so many questions. Ha!

Saturday Shenanigans

Leland is at such a fun age right now. He is becoming so creative and enjoys imaginative play. He has silly conversations on purpose, just to be funny. His little personality is developing and it's so fun to be a part of it all.

As always, Leland loves to play with his tractors. He likes to set them all up and admire them, but he's starting to create little pretend scenarios with them. And one of his recent favorite things is to set them up, sit next to them, and then set up his farm fence in front of himself like a little barricade. He's in his own little space and says he's stuck. This weekend, he did the same thing, but then moved his fence just a little and said, "Mama, you wanna come in?" You better believe I joined him in that little barricade.

A few minutes later, Leland climbed into my giant LL Bean bag. I was amazed that he fit so well and I picked him up. He thought this was hilarious so I carried him around the house in it for a few minutes. We just may have done some swinging and spinning too. Leland loved it and kept saying, "I like a hot air balloon!"

This boy has the best little comedic personality. I think he gets that from his daddy. And he gets his sense of adventure from me. Not a bad little combination.

ABC Exploring

A friend of mine had this neat idea to "date through the alphabet." She and her husband used the letters of the alphabet to set the course for their date nights. I have always thought this would be a fun thing to do and then this summer, she invited me to join her facebook group, dedicated to exploring using the alphabet.

Since I was already busy exploring with my kiddos, I joined in the fun and started documenting our adventures in relation to letters of the alphabet. I got through letter I and then school started. So I'm trying to continue my exploration, but thought I would share my progress so far.

A is for airplanes

(when we saw the Blue Angels)

B is for beach day!

C is for cherries

D is for dawdling

(around the town of Alden)

E is for exploring

(Fishtown/Leland)

F is for fair

G is for Grandma

H is for happiness 

(visiting a new park)

I is for ice cream

J is for jumping 

(at the new play place we tried last weekend)

It has been fun using the ABCs to help us find new adventures (and reminding us that adventures don't have to be huge...a new ice cream shop can be an adventure). Now to think of an adventure for K.

Check out abcexplorers.com to see what kinds of adventures my friend Deb has documented.

Eleven Months

Dear Alden,

Today is September 17 and you are eleven months old. One more month until your first birthday! The past eleven months have been the fastest and most amazing of our lives.

In the last month, you started walking. At first you would only take steps if I was right near you. But then you started to get brave and now you are walking all over the place. You might be a little bit too brave, because you're not completely steady on your feet yet, so you fall a lot. You have several bruises on your face right now. But you get better and better each day.

Sleep is still pretty rough, but we have seen some improvements. In the last month, we have seen a handful of 4-5 hour stretches. We're still trying to figure out what it is that makes you sleep better on some nights, but we haven't completely figured things out. You are definitely a mama's boy and just want me at night.

You love food. There isn't much you don't like, but you especially love when you can feed yourself. You're not a fan of being fed by mama anymore, so finger foods it is. You still love Cheerios, and you're doing really well with a sippy cup these days.

You have six teeth (one more than last month), and two more that are really close. You won't let me get a good look though so it's hard to tell how close they are.

You're becoming very vocal lately. Lots of babbling and some screaming as well. I think you learned the screaming from your brother.

You are wearing mostly 12-18 month size clothes, and still wear size 4 diapers. In shoes, you wear a 3 or 4, depending on the shoe.

You had your first hair cut this month and you loved it. You smiled and giggled the entire time. Such a happy boy you are.

Oh, sweet baby. I love your sweet little self so much. Watching you grow is one of the greatest pleasures I could experience. I am so proud to be your mama.

Saturday Morning Fun

On Saturday, we met our friends for a play date at Bright Blooms, a new-ish indoor play place in town.

I hadn't been there before, but I have several friends who have raved about it, so I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.

And, oh my gosh, the place was awesome. There were about 8 or 9 different rooms to play in, each with a different theme: trains/trucks, kitchen, dress-ups, pirates, etc. Leland's favorite was the farm room. There were small tractors to play with, one big tractor to climb on, a rocking horse, and the like.

There is also a room with some large motor activities, like a slide and this trampoline. Leland's favorite thing these days is to jump in his crib. We were okay with it at first, but now that he's jumping really hard, we don't like it - he's totally going to break his bed. So he loved having something that he could jump on.

Now the wheels in my head are turning thinking about getting one of these for Christmas. All I have to do is convince Dave.

Upstairs from Bright Blooms is a Kindermusik studio. They were having an open house that day so we could try it for free. We decided to give it a try. I know that Leland and Alden love music, but they're not necessarily great at organized play (well, obviously, in Alden's case). I just figured we would see how it went and we could leave if it wasn't working.

But both boys seemed to really enjoy it. They danced around, and Leland even tried to do what the teacher was doing. He enjoyed the different instruments and things that they played with, and did a great job of putting them away when it was time. So perhaps we may try Kindermusik again sometime.

We had such a fun time. I love finding new places for indoor play. Winter is just around the corner, and it looks like it's going to be a doozy again like last year. We will need some fun indoor places!

First Haircut

This weekend, Alden had his first haircut.

I know many people like to wait until their child is a year old or later, or until they have curls, or until something else before getting their first haircut. I'm a little different. I don't have a desire to wait any certain amount of time - I wait until I think their hair isn't cute anymore.

With Leland, his first haircut was right around 10 months. With Alden, I wanted to cut it a few weeks ago, which would have been right around 10 months as well. But we just haven't had time so it ended up being closer to 11 months.

Before his haircut. Hard to really see, but the front was long (some strands in his eyes), and the back and sides were in
desperate need of a trim.

We finally made the appointment for this weekend.

He thought it was so funny.

Leland had fun in the pink car. He may love tractors, trucks, and all things "boy," but he also loves pink.

After haircut.

I love clean-cut, preppy boys, so his new 'do is so much more handsome to me. The place we went does kids' cuts, and as pictured above, they have fun little chairs for them to sit in. This is helpful for Alden's age because he's not great at sitting still. But at the same time, the quality of the cut isn't that great. For his first haircut, I will sacrifice quality for a fun experience. But after this, we will probably take him to my stylist (where Leland goes). 

Look out, Mandy! Now you'll have two crazy boys who won't sit still. Ha ha.

Newest Nephew

He's here! My newest little (well...at 9 lbs 13oz, he's not so little) nephew has arrived!

Levi Matthew was born Friday afternoon. I was able to visit him and his lovely mama on Sunday.

I wanted to get a couple of pictures, but my camera died after only one photo. Hopefully I'll be able to get it fixed soon and I'll be back with some photos of his sweet little self. Until then, iPhone photos will have to do.

Also, side note...I helped name him. A few months ago, we were driving to a baby shower downstate. I brought my baby name book along and was suggesting names the whole trip. Levi was one of my suggestions.

Family Dinners

When I was growing up, we didn't always eat dinner together at the table. Many times we did, but I remember many times when didn't. I think it was partly because there seven of us and only six chairs, so the only times we ate dinner at the table were when one or more of us was gone. Also, two of my siblings were older and had jobs, so they weren't always home for dinner. Most of the time, if we were all home for dinner together, some of us would eat at the table, and some of us would eat in the living room.

I love my family, but we're not incredibly close. I talk to my siblings, and I used to spend time with each of them, but it's not like so many other families I know where siblings talk on a regular basis. I feel like our family isn't as close as it should be, and I think a lot of that has to do with not spending as much time together when we were growing up. The lack of family dinners, among other things, didn't instill a closeness or a connection between us. Of course, there was the weekly family Rosary (not kidding here...every Wednesday night we prayed the Rosary together) that forced us to be together, but it didn't allow us to communicate with each other and develop relationships with each other.

Now that I have kids of my own, it's kind of a big deal to me that we eat at the table. I want my kids to be close and love each other. I want them to have the kind of relationship that I lack with my siblings. I want us all to talk and enjoy each other's company. And I firmly believe that family dinners - again, among other things - will help foster that.

Every night, we all sit down at the same time and eat dinner (or breakfast or lunch). Dave and I leave our phones alone (unless we're taking a picture or video of the kids doing something funny) and we enjoy our meal as a family. We talk, we laugh, and we get pretty goofy. It's one of my favorite times of the day.

These pictures are actually from breakfast. Oh well.

This weekend, though, we broke our dinner-at-the-table rule. I told Leland we could watch a movie together Friday night, but since we started eating a little bit later than usual, I didn't think we would get to watch the whole movie before bed time. I'm trying to stay on the bed time routine now that we're back on a school schedule, so I didn't want them to go to bed late, even if it was the weekend.

Our solution: a picnic in the living room. We set out a towel on the floor for Leland, but that didn't work out with Alden crawling around, stealing food and making messes. So we brought Leland's high chair into the living room and we all ate in the living room while watching one of Leland's favorite movies: Planes.

I, surprisingly didn't take any pictures of this. But it was a fun night. I sure am loving this parenting thing.

Little Boy Blessings

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law asked me to take some maternity photos for her. She was pregnant with her third boy and wanted to do something special. I told her I would be happy to, but I made sure she understood that I am no professional. I can take decent pictures, but I don't have the greatest editing software (nor do I know how to use it to its full potential). But I managed to get some good shots in her backyard. Here are some of my favorites.

The whole family

Isaac was quite a ham for the camera. Sweet boy.

I felt pretty honored to know the name before anyone else. And at first I didn't love that the 5 was showing on the 'B' block, but then I was cool with it when I realized the meaning - they will now be a family of FIVE!

There were a lot of things I would have liked to be better, but I think they turned out decent for a simple 20 minute backyard shoot. And Laura was happy with them, which is what really matters.

Every Last Ounce

School starts tomorrow.

I am always excited about starting a new school year. I love meeting my new students, hugging my returning ones, and seeing my former kiddos visit from time to time (usually daily in the first few weeks). I like setting up my room, even though it stresses me out every year. I am a huge geek about school supplies and get excited about pencils, pens, markers, crayons, and paper.

But with this excitement comes some sadness. Because I cherish my time at home with the boys, and I will miss it so, so much. Last week was a teacher work week, so I wasn't with my students yet, but I was still working every day. Almost every morning, Leland said to me, "Mama no go work. Mama stay home with Leland." Pretty heartbreaking to hear your two year old begging you to just stay home.

So this weekend was spent soaking up every ounce of summer. We went out to dinner twice (YAY for downtown gift certificates!), had a movie night and a play date, and just enjoyed the time together before the crazy busyness begins.

Dinner at Blue Tractor...while Leland played with his green tractor.

After dinner, we grabbed some froyo. YUM!

And then a little downtown walkin'.

Sometimes we get a little creative with our walking. 

I'm sad to see my summer with the boys come to an end, but I'm looking forward to all the fun things to come. I am teaching with a new team this year, which has already been awesome. Alden's birthday is just around the corner (I better start planning...). And so much more.

So, goodbye summer. It's been amazing. Here's to an amazing fall to follow.