Parents: Protect Your Food!

Toddlers are weird about their food. Toddlers will eat things based on what plate they come from. They will refuse a food one day and eat something the next. Zoe goes to daycare 8 hours a week. I have found out that things that she won't eat at home, she will it at daycare. It is maddening.

New Year, New Look

Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve and are looking forward to all that 2016 brings.

I wanted to let you all know about some exciting changes that have come to my blog. I have given my blog a makeover. It has a brand new look. It also has a brand new name. I started this blog when Nate and I were first married. It was first called "Nate and Kate in the Show Me State" because it was about us and we were living in Missouri. I changed it to the "Lone Star State" when we moved here. Many things have changed since I started and named the blog. We are living in McAllen and now we have our little Zozo. The blog and life isn't just "Nate and Kate" anymore. The blog is actually mostly about Zoe these days. 

So I decided to change the name. The blog is now called "A Blessed Mess" and you can find it at ablessedmess.net. The name just reflects my life. I am a wife, mom, daughter and a bunch of other things which makes me a mess. However, in being all of those things I am very blessed. I also changed the domain name because nateandkatewollenberg.blogspot.com is really long. 

Holiday Season and Toddler Travels

Oh the weather outside is frightful...because it's been so darn hot. I hope that you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Our holidays are never the norm because we are a clergy family. That being said, we are creating our own traditions and putting our own style on the holidays.

One day, I was sitting at the computer looking at Groupon deals, as I so often do and I saw a deal for the indoor water park and resort. I clicked on it and realized that this amazing deal was only for one specific night, Thanksgiving. I told Nate, and he says, "Book it!" The past several years that we have been in McAllen, we have been blessed to be invited to be a part of our friends' Thanksgiving celebrations. This year we decided to lay low and take Zoe out to South Padre Island to splash around in the water. We took her to the Schlitterbahn water park and stayed overnight in their resort. It was only $69! You can't ever get a night on the island for that price, let alone three passes to the indoor water park included. We had a great time. It was a nice little one night getaway for our little family.

Minnie Mouse in the House - Toddler Halloween

Happy All Saints Day! Halloween is over. Enjoy eating your kids' candy and watching football. St. Paul had their annual (except for last year, but we won't mention that) Fall Festival.

Now, in true mom of a toddler and my husband was out of town all week mode, I had Zoe's costume ordered months ago and started and finished Nate's and mine today. Now, to be fair, most of Nate's and my costumes were things that we already owned. I needed to however find a Minnie Mouse Skirt. I did the thing that we all do when we all do in an emergency, I went to the internet. I searched Pinterest tirelessly. I read tutorials but everything seemed too hard or too short. I was going to wear leggings but the skirt still needed to cover my behind. So, I turned to "Everything for Dummies" also known as YouTube. This is where I found the perfect tutorial. You can find it here. I decided to sew it instead of glue it, like the girl did in the video. I do better when I don't have to wait for things to dry. I also needed to wear it about two hours later. I dusted off my sewing machine and it turned out great. Don't get too excited, it was two straight lines of stitching. I do feel pretty good that I made a skirt in less than 20 minutes.

Toddler Life: Cheese and Elmo

Toddlerhood is crazy. Zoe was a great baby. She slept through the night most of her younger months, she was quiet in public and smiled at everyone she saw. She was the picture perfect baby. Toddlerhood I imagine is difficult for most. Zoe is a crazy toddler. She is amazingly adorable, but crazy. It probably comes from her being so outgoing. She wants to know what is going on in every place at every moment. However I am doing my best to savor every moment of her toddler time because it is still so cute and wonderful.

Sometimes it amazes me what things Zoe enjoys and doesn't enjoy. She LOVES cheese. She is obsessed with cheese, She will stand at the fridge and say, "cheese, cheese, cheese, " like she will die if she doesn't get some. She loves mac and cheese, grilled cheese, Annie's cheddar bunnies, string cheese, cheese slices, quesadillas, and more. If I ever ran out Annie's Cheddar Bunnies, it would be bad. Those bunnies keep the peace. I could hear it now, "bubbies, bubbies." It would be so so sad. Nate and I both love cheese, so this is no surprise that she loves cheese. She however isn't big on meat. That is not normal for us. We love meat. However, I recently discovered that she will eat almost any meat with some ranch dressing or ketchup. Yay!