February

We started out February with our 14 year anniversary. I got some flowers delivered to me at work. I also surprised John and got a babysitter so we could go to dinner that night at High Tide. Really I just wanted some spicy seafood pasta and it was a good excuse.

Just a picture of Bug one day driving home with my purse. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m going to get when I pick him up. Sometimes he is really tired and grouchy and sometimes he is super silly. But no matter what I get everyday about 2 or 3 I am so ready to go get him. Monday’s are worse and I want him sooner.

We’ve definitely seen a change in his attention span. I know TV is supposed to be all bad and everything but it’s useful when we’re trying to get ready for work or make dinner but he’s had an attention span of about 5 minutes until lately. Suddenly Frozen is his favorite thing to watch and he can sit for about 30 min or so and watch it. He was so into whatever he was watching here I had to get a picture. I know he doesn’t watch any TV at daycare so I figure a little bit of TV at home isn’t going to kill him and he still highly prefers to be outside than watching TV. I hope it stays that way.

 

On the 6^th John and I did our Molly Weasley Ugly Jumper 5k. It was a horrible run for me. My calves were cramping less than a mile in and it was a slow run.

I don’t get to play much but sometimes I like to take JJ in to let him play on the piano.

 

With it finally being nice outside that is where we’ve spent a lot of time. JJ loves this statue in the back of his grandma’s yard. It’s his little girlfriend. He will touch her face or point to her eyes and try to give her kisses. He’ll put stuff in her basket too. So silly.

It’s still cool in the mornings but gets warm during the day so we send JJ to daycare in pants but when it’s warm Laura changes him into shorts. I don’t remember if she didn’t have any shorts or what, but I picked him up one day in a pair of daisy dukes. It was a pair of girls shorts and they were definitely too small for him. I about died laughing when she opened the door and there stands my little boy with his cute little white legs sticking out. None of the pictures truly do it justice for how funny he actually looked.

 

February is when our lemon tree really puts out some fruit. We always have WAY more than we would ever use and rather than letting them rot we tried to pick them off this year and give them away. They are huge and smell so good. JJ likes to eat them too.

This owl sits in the extra bathroom. I got it from my mom. JJ loves it. He will break in on me in the bathroom and wants to hold it. I try not to give it to him but one day he wanted nothing else so I gave it to him and hoped I wouldn’t be cleaning up broken glass. I came out a few minutes behind JJ and found the owl nicely placed on the rug.

 

Another example of my days. After work is always a little hectic because I’m trying to get dinner started, clean up various things, play with JJ, etc. So occasionally when he climbs into the dishwasher……fine by me. Here he had thrown the bottom rack out so he could get in better.

Probably the big event of our month was JJ’s first haircut. We took him to a place nearby and he thought it was pretty great a first with all the toys. I don’t know that I was prepared for what the haircut would do to him. He hated it; no surprise there. We didn’t use the clippers at all just scissors. I’m sure it’s not even and it will grow out fast because we didn’t get it very short but it definitely changed my baby into a little boy. The funny thing is I think it makes his hair stand up more now than before. I’m surprised at how light it still is but just yesterday I thought, oh look how dark it is now. So I’m sure it will darken up. He’s such a handsome guy. 

John’s aunt and uncle were visiting from California so we spent a few evenings over visiting and having dinner. It had been a long time since Aunt Viv had seen JJ.

Valentine’s day was JJ’s 17 month mark. It was the same weekend we cut his hair so crazy to see how much he’s grown and changed in that time. He’s really at a fun age right now. It’s not without its challenges but overall he’s just a fun kid who makes me smile every day.

 

We had made plans to go to dinner with Stephanie and Bart that day as well. We went to Zinburger. They branded hearts into our buns. As always the food was yummy. 

I spent President’s day running around like crazy. I went for a run that day, dishes, laundry, grocery store, and then tried to tackle the office. Every year I move last year’s files out and put new files in for the current year, plus go back 8 years or whatever and shred stuff. Well…………. I hadn’t done that for 2 years. So I had a mess. On top of that we want to sell our desk so it needs to be emptied out. I got most of the paperwork moved around as needed but that was about it for the day. While going through old paperwork I found the vet bill from when we put Dakota down. I can’t believe it has been 8 years. We got him 2 weeks after we got married which was probably a mistake and he had so much energy for the first 4 years of his life and just when things were getting really good he got sick. We both miss having a big dog and would like another one but we’ll see. It’s hard down here when it’s so hot and small house, and small child….. and two other small dogs… maybe someday. 

One of our current favorite dinners is creamy shrimp pasta. I have only cooked with shrimp about 2 times as it makes me a little nervous. The first time I tried this recipe I wasn’t thrilled with it but I wanted to try again. It came out SO much better the 2^nd time. JJ even likes the sauce and noodles. I place a lot of self value in if I can get JJ to eat something I make. This past weekend was a win when we got him to try apples and peanut butter and jelly. 

I don’t know what he was watching here but I cracked me up the hand on the hip.

I broke down and ordered a new shower curtain. I had a hard time finding one I liked but I think it’s cute. JJ likes it. Some mornings we have to go in and say hi to it before we do anything else. It also goes pretty well with the paint already there so now I just have to change my towels and I’ll pretty much be set!

When we got hockey tickets back in December it was cheaper to do a package so we had 4 more tickets to use. Nick, John, Shar, and I went out for the St Louis game. We made it out in time to grab some dinner at Crave and then get into the game. It wasn’t the best game, but Arizona tried to come back at the end. We had a good time and met up quickly with 2 of Karol’s boys since they were there.

Plans were made to meet up with all our hockey friends on Sunday for brunch. We got to see Melissa, Gard, Paris, Finn, Karol, Noe, David, and Kristian. It’s hard to believe how much all those kids have grown up! It was fun to visit with everyone and hopefully with Kristian coming to school up in Phoenix we can all get together more frequently. We went to Cracker Barrel. I was worried that it was going to cut into JJ’s normal nap time; which it did. He fell asleep on the way there and we were able to get him to sleep for about 45 minutes. The rest of the time wasn’t the most fun because he really didn’t want to sit still for anything.

 

This is pretty standard lately. We spend a lot of time out on the patio. I had been afraid I would miss the window for this outfit so I was glad when I was able to put him in this. He will probably hate Mickey Mouse, but right now he has no say.

It’s part of our routine to go to the grocery store on Saturday or Sunday. This ball thing is the bane of my existence. JJ can see it from pretty much anywhere in the store and he thinks he needs a ball every time we are there. 

We also had to run to Lowe’s one night after dinner. This is called trying to keep the kid entertained. Carpet and tool boxes were my distraction of choice.

 

I look at this and I think it’s so funny but what I really see if how Grandma Wallace would come and roll our shoulders back and make us not sit humpbacked. I guess I need to start that with JJ.

We got our medal for our 5k also. I think I talked about this last month also, but it’s the Hogwarts Running Club. It’s a virtual running club. The money they raise this year is going to a charity to provide coats for kids. John and I are members of the Hufflepuff house. 

I got looking at my vacation for the rest of our year (ends in September) and I have 15 days to use and NOTHING planned to use them. I am tentatively planning a trip home but that still leaves me with a lot of time so I decided to take last Wednesday off. I used the day for another run and cleaning the office up some more but I made sure to take a little time for myself to watch a TV show. I also got to try this lemon butter chicken recipe out. I liked it. Not sure if John did because of the spinach. I took the day off because I was really close to taking a new job which would have meant basically no time off between now and December. It was a long weekend trying to work out details on the job but in the end I turned it down. When I realized if I’d taken the job and would have lost at least a week of vacation that prompted the impromptu day off.

 

Here is the office after my day off. I got the file boxes put away and moved the piano. Next up was moving the next storage unit into the room. Next is getting the desk actually emptied and out of the room. I’m working on that part now.

Karol told John and I we needed to read this book. I’ve started it but I’m not that far into it yet. I’ve decided that child raising isn’t about the kid as it’s more about not letting the kid train you. We’ve gotten bad with JJ on catering meals to him and letting him graze. That is going to stop. 

This past weekend John dressed JJ in his track suit. I thought it was adorable. We spent all morning out on the patio and in line with not catering to JJ I made his snack apples instead of goldfish crackers. He did pretty good with them. I know I need to just get better foods in the house for him so that is one of my goals is more fruits and veggies.

 

Saturday evening we went to the Paniq Room with Nick and Shar, and Nathan and Erica. Shar had gotten a groupon or something for it. It was a lot of fun and we escaped. It was similar yet different from the other escape rooms we’ve done. We had a good time and we’re glad we’d been invited. We all went for a burger at Habit Burger afterwards and sat and visited a little while. 

That pretty much sums up our month. I can’t believe another month has gone by. It went really fast. I don’t have much on my calendar for the next while so we’ll see what we come up with to keep us busy.