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!

Zoe is 18 Months!!

Zoe is 18 Months. I can't believe it. I can't believe how she is turning into a kid and not just a baby. She still has her moments where she acts like a baby, but with all of the words she is saying and all of things she understands. She is quickly becoming a big girl. She has added the word "no" to her vocabulary. She doesn't just say "no", she says, "no" with this little head shake. It is very cute which makes it that much harder to get her to do something she doesn't want to do. Zoe gets cuter by the minute and we couldn't be happier to be the ones watching it all happen.

Mommy Went Back To Work

Many of you know that I have been staying at home with Zoe for 17 months. It has been the best 17 months of my life. Although, it probably has been longer because I loved pregnancy, too. Anyway, I was filling in at St. Paul in the office one day and Nate came in and told me that they needed a librarian. School started in a week, so they didn't have a ton of time to figure this out. I decided to think about maybe taking on the position.

This was a painstaking decision. I LOVE being a stay-at-home mom. I have never been happier. I love my freedom. I love that if Zoe and I want to stay in pajamas all morning, we can. I was worried that she would notice that mommy wasn't around as much. I was worrying that I was putting work before her. I was worried that we would lose something. I wasn't sure what that something was, but I was scared. All of these things that I knew probably weren't a problem. Those darn mommy hormones. They are so fierce. They get you so worked up over almost nothing. I was just THINKING about offering to do it. I wasn't offered the job yet and I certainly had not made up my mind. Those hormones will hit you when you least expect it. I saw a Quaker Oats YouTube video about a girl and her dad the other day and started crying. What the heck? I mean I am emotional, but I don't even eat oatmeal.

So I thought about it and talked to Nate about it until his ears fell off. I agreed to work 12 hours a week, which translates to three half days. Nate stays home and hangs out with Zoe on Fridays, but she attends our friend Lety's in-home daycare the other 8 hours a week.  Lety has a very small group and Zoe was around her all the time anyway because she is a good family friend. I wasn't ready to send her to big day care at St. Paul just yet.  In fact, started to fill out all of the paperwork and I was getting chest pains and shortness of breath. I need more time. I know that when it comes time for preschool, I am going to need an oxygen tank and anti-anxiety pills for the registration process.

I have been doing the Library gig for two weeks now. So far, I am liking it a lot. I get to help out our school by working 12 hours a week and still feel like a stay-at-home mom. I don't feel like I have lost all of my precious time with my little girl. We still spend so much time playing and running errands.

Friday Finds: Nuk Active Cup

It’s Friday. This means many great things, but I know what you have been looking forward to the most is Friday Finds! Try to contain your excitement. Today’s Friday Find is the Nuk Active Cup.

One of the many transitions that moms face in the life of their baby is the transition from bottles to sippy cups. In the case of Zoe, she took a bottle from birth (after much effort and failure with breastfeeding). I started her on a sippy cup around 6 months old. She only would drink water from the cup because she was still drinking formula from a bottle as the bulk of her nutrition. Just after she turned a year old I started her on whole milk. With this change, I wanted to transition her off of the bottle completely. Before, Zoe had no problem with drinking her water in any sippy cup: short/tall, straw/no straw, handles/no handles, Disney princess or even Mickey Mouse. Not so much with the milk. When I put milk in her cups she was like, “Are you kidding me mom? I wasn’t born yesterday, more like a year ago, catch the memo.”

I remembered that another mom had mentioned that the Nuk Active Cup was a great transitional cup, so I headed out to the store and picked up the turtle design.

These cups made the transition seamless. One day we were using bottles and the next day we had packed up all of the bottles and we were only using these cups. I am so glad that these cups were recommended to me and I would recommend them to anyone.

We started with the tall cups. When I got tired of washing one or two cups over and over, I ended up buying another cup, but one that was shorter and had handles. She used all of them for a while, now she will only use the ones with the handles. Toddlers. Always changing their minds.

Here’s my little nugget.

That’s all for now. God is good.

End of the Summer Days

After a very busy summer we have settled back into life in McAllen for a little while. Between trips to Missouri, Connecticut, and short trips within Texas, one or all of us were gone most of the summer. I was on and off of a plane every two weeks from May 1 to July 16. Needless to say, we are glad to be home for a while. We don't have another trip until the end of August and that is just to San Antonio. 

In these days, Zoe and I have been settling into a routine. Over the summer, we lost her morning nap. I am still mourning the loss of two naps. This week Zoe has been napping like a champ, which is fabulous, because that means I have been given the gift of productivity. I try to make sure we have some kind of morning outing every day to make up for the time she used to spend napping. We go grocery shopping, visit Target, go to story time at the library, or her newest and most favorite adventure, the splash park. 

There are a couple of splash parks in the city of McAllen. I was worried that she wouldn't like the water. She hasn't always been the biggest fan of going swimming. She also has a love-hate relationship with taking a bath. There was no need to worry. She would splash all the time if she had the chance. The only things that get in the way are an abundance of bigger kids, or when she spots the playground and decides to run over there. Otherwise, she is the queen of the splash park. It is terribly cute. I don't know what it is about babies in little swimsuits and those cute little sun hats. If she had the vocabulary to request more than just food and water from me, I would be in trouble because I am putty on her sun screened hands when she is in that cute little get up.

I just want to squeeze her.

Swoon.

My favorite.

This right here. Putty in her hands. Do you see that hat?

Story time at the library is another story. Zoe must be the most active toddler ever because like all of the other kids at story time, she will not sit in my lap. She MUST get up and see what is going on. She MUST roam around the room while we sing the song after the story. Everyone says, "She's so social." I'm glad that they don't mind her getting in their space. 

Shopping these days isn't super easy. She obviously doesn't want to sit in the cart for a long time. When we are at the grocery store she says, "Mmmmm", almost the entire time. Everything looks delicious I guess. I have figured out how to buy myself enough time to enjoy my Target trips. Two words: Cheddar Bunnies. Annie's brand has Cheddar Bunnies, that are basically Goldfish Crackers, but they are easier for her to chew. They have made my life much easier in the shopping department. They are also a yummy snack for Mommy, if she is famished.

I hate to burst everyone's bubble, Zoe watches TV. I know. I know. Parent grade decreases to B-. I should be teaching her Latin when she is not having play dates. When we aren't out and about or just playing we really enjoy Sesame Street. When I saw "we", I mean we. Mommy may like Sesame Street more than little Zo. I'm not kidding. "The Letter of the Day' song is my jam. It is really catchy. If you haven't heard it, go here, or watch below.

I am enjoying these summer days with my bug. We are having so much fun. 

Turtle girl.

How can you not just collapse from the cuteness of her in that jumper?

That's all for now. God is good.