Entering the 3s

I am too many days behind on the birthday post, so lets call it the "Belated Birthday".  Holden, my sweet little baby, is truly a little boy now. Before we know it he will be headed to the bus stop and its happening too fast.  According to Holden, his birthday party was "really cool" and he was so excited to show his room off to his buddies from daycare.   Holden requested a "Monster Truck" birthday party.  He is a huge fan of grave digger.

Monster Truck party food

 Since this was his first real birthday party, I kind of did it up.  Pinterest was full of ideas for a Monster Truck theme.  We used Grave Digger colors, some Tonka Trucks for candy holders and I didn't get a very good close up photo (however, I do have to show off my cake decorating skilz).

.

Showing off his Birthday shirt

 I had this bright idea that we needed something to entertain 3 and 4 year olds so I took my happy self over to lakeshore learning and bought some washable art activities, giant stamp pads and dot art (which are really just washable bingo dobbers).  And a giant thing of play dough.   Lesson learned #1: 3 and 4 year old boys would much rather play with cars and trucks.   Total waste of money and a lot of play dough in the carpet (stupid rainy day).

one of the few birthday presents that weren't monster trucks

 Holden got a ton of cool things from his friends.  Lesson Learned #2:  If you have a birthday party with a theme, expect to get lots of toys related to that theme.  Holden has probably every version of a monster truck that is in the toy department.  Its cool, he loves every one of them, especially the ones that make lots of noise.

Really cool cake with Grave Digger!

 Again, have to have the classic birthday shot with the cake.  Holden was just interested in finally getting to play with the grave digger monster truck since we wouldn't let him have it (I need it for the cake decorating!).  Lesson Learned #3:  Do not open presents before cake/ice cream/singing Happy Birthday.  It took all of the parents to round up the kids for the obligatory Happy Birthday, they all wanted to play with the "cool new trucks". 

Day after, cool new fort from his friend Graham and loads of Hot wheels

 All in all, it was a successful 3rd Birthday.  We celebrated in style and Holden is still talking about how much fun he had with his friends on his birthday. 

Happy Birthday!

This is the first of 2 birthday posts, however late.   Holden is 3!   We have his well visit next week but here are his latest tricks.

The growth chart indicates he is 3 feet tall.  About 2 inches taller than 2.5 (we were a little late in the measuring last year)
He is super close to daytime potty trained.  In underwear this week at daycare, so fingers crossed.
He knows about 80% of his letters, he gets hung up on T and B and a few random others
He can recognize some of his numbers and counts to 11 without messing up.  The teens get all jumbled until he hits 20.
He knows his address, but tends to refuse to tell us when we practice
Lastly (to Jeremy and my dismay) he is saying "y'all" and has that southern drawn when he says his "a" sound.  Not sure how to combat this.   On the bright side, his is already a huge Husker football fan.

Now for your video enjoyment:

All About Me

A blogging friend Laura (I have met once in real life at the most awesome race, warrior dash)  posted 11 questions and then asked her readers to answer 11 of her questions. She's offering a chance for an $11 Starbucks card, but I'm really doing it because I have been a total slacker when it comes to my blog lately. Maybe you'll learn something about me.


1. What is your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

Peanut Butter sandwiches, but the shortbread are a close second

2. What is the one item on which you always splurge?
cheese, see number 6.  And chocolate, expensive chocolate always seems to taste better.


3. What's the best book you've read in the last 10 years?
Unbroken and Hunger Games.  Can't decide

4. What is your favorite summer drink?

Vodka tonic with a splash of lime.  Very refreshing

5. Spring or fall?

Fall.

6. If you are not doing your dream job right now, what would it be?

My dream job would be owning and operating a cheese shop.  Charlotte really needs one too.  Just too bad that I'm not that much of a risk taker. 

7. Is there a better movie role model than Maude?

Not sure, haven't seen Harold and Maude and I'm a super slacker when it comes to movies. 

8. If you had $100 to spend at Target, what would you buy?

Really good towels.  Plush "you don't want to take off" towels.

9. Have you ever tried boxed wine? If it was good, what was the brand?

Not since I stole my parent's Franzia out of the fridge. 

10. If you could meet one blogger who would it be?

Motherhood Uncensored, she is a super woman I think

11. If I could photograph you doing anything, what would it be?

I really want to have a good family photo done, but secretly (or not so secretly now) I want a classy pin-up photo taken.

Winter Getaway and Little Catching Up

We spent the weekend with great friends in Boone, NC.  The weekend was perfect.  A little bit of snow, first sledding experience, first hot cocoa, lots of laughs and a very big and time consuming puzzle.   I haven't posted anything since before Christmas so this is a photo filled post to catch up the family.

First Annual Gingerbread Smashing

Not a lot of snow on Day 1

Enough to make snow angels on Day 2

Tis the Season

This is the first Christmas where Holden is starting to understand the magic of the season.  We are having a really fun time watching him experience the holidays.   This year we started what I hope will become long term traditions in our house during the holidays.   We have checked off the obvious ones, decorated the inside and outside of our house.  We are the crazy people on the block with Christmas lights set to music. 

As always we decorated the tree and gave out this year's ornaments to the boys.   Holden helped pick out the tree and helped Dad put the angel on.  Holden has also made the astute observation that we have and angel on our tree and not a star (I hadn't noticed but I guess all of the commercial trees have stars on top).   Holden didn't really want to help put the ornaments on, but he had a blast looking at all of them as we unwrapped them.

 

The second tradition I borrowed from a blog friend, Laura.  Holden and I built his first gingerbread house.  Holden helped decorate it and we told him that the day after Christmas we can take it outside and smash it with our hammers.  He is definitely excited about the smashing part.  

Holden was hamming it up for the camera

We have also started the Advent Calender tradition.  I looked and looked for an Advent Calender before Thanksgiving and couldn't find one.  Low and behold, Black Friday there were Advent Calenders everywhere.  I never would have thought that the one Christmas item that is not in the stores before Thanksgiving would be an Advent Calender.  But I digress.   

We found a very cool book that does a story for everyday on the Advent Calender.  So, Holden opens his day, eats his chocolate and we read a story.  The thing I like the most about the book is the stories have a Christian theme about a little bear following the star to Bethlehem.  Since we have totally fallen down on the Church going (a story for another day), I have been looking for ways to teach Holden about our faith and the real meaning of Christmas (you know, Jesus' birthday and giving etc.)    Long story short, I really like the book because it a couple of paragraphs a day with a giving or loving message to them.

 

We started collecting a new Christmas Book every year.  It started with the Night before Christmas which Jeremy wants to read to Holden on Christmas Eve.  Then we got the Grinch and this year picked out a new book when we found the Advent Calender Book.  I'm going to keep this up at least until picture books are no longer favored in our house.  

 

One last thing we have done so far, that was met with very enthusiastic eyes.  Here you can get a video message from Santa.  Holden loved his and I have video of him watching his message but not at my fingertips to post. 

I still want to do the following with Holden before Christmas

• Visit Santa (probably this weekend)
• Bake cookies (we have a cookie party with Holden's BFF, Cameron in a few weeks)
• Christmas shop with Holden to start learning about the "giving"
• Make our JibJab electronic Christmas card

Lastly, a few more ideas that we will have to work on as Holden gets a little older and has a bit more patience

• Angel tree or similar giving/volunteering that we can do as a family
• Elf on a Shelf.  This phenomenon has me intrigued.  My only hesitation is will I be able to keep it up for 25 days every year.

Any other suggestions are welcome.  Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our First Date

I got an idea from a blogging friend to take time every once and a while for a special Mommy and Holden date.  Last night we had our first.  It was a little spur of the moment so next time I'll do a better job on the planning end.   We went to get him a haircut which yes you can point out isn't very fun, however he got to watch Looney Tunes, sit in a fire truck car and received a prize and lollipop afterward.  A lot more fun that when I get a haircut.  

We followed up the trip with a visit to the local toy store on a mission to find Thomas the Train stickers.  No luck, what toy store has everything Thomas but no stickers?  Holden's response "we go to Target".   Yep, that's right, my son thinks everything comes from Target.  In our house, its a pretty good bet that it did since our house has pretty much been furnished by Kohl's or Target.  We followed up the evening with a trip to Chick-Fil-A for some chicken nuggets and waffle fries.  


It was a pretty good first date.

Another First

Holden has been very much into Cowboys lately that we had an opportunity to go to a Cowboy Church Fun Day this weekend.  I'm not exactly sure what a Cowboy Church is, however it was a place where Holden got to see horses and Jeremy got to break out the neglected cowboy hat.   Holden loved the horse and he didn't ride very long as both of use were a bit concerned about the lack of Helmet (much to Holden's dismay).  Another first that was much earlier in his life than I would have imagined.

Not Sure I Can Parent a Boy

I have a boy and not sure if I'm up for the challenge.   We were out and about today and Jeremy wanted to take a test ride at Harley Davidson.  We indulged him since he was kind enough to sell his bike when we had Holden.  Plus they always have free food at those events.   Holden and I were getting him a hot dog and he wanted to go sit down.  As I'm making his hot dog up (i.e. Ketchup) he is about 10 feet away and tumbled from the picnic bench to the asphalt.  Normally this wouldn't phase me too much, a little crying and calming of a little boy's nerves usually does it with a tumble.  Not today, he cut the back of his head when he fell and I'll tell you a head wound is REALLY bloody.   I felt terrible.  He's fine and recovered well after being shook up a little.  But I'm not sure I'm going to let him do anything for himself again (not really that would cause more temper tantrums then necessary).  

I got all kinds of advice from strangers about rushing him to the ER.  Instead I called my mom.  They offer the best advice right?   Anyway, he seems to be just fine, case in point, I better just accept that I have a boy, and in 2 short years we have a dislocated elbow and a head wound.   Can't image what will be next.

And now for an update on the cuteness.

 Helping Dad loading the empty Keg.

 

Our Little Cowboy (the boots are most likely the culprit for the fall today)

I have found the most wonderful place

On the Internets there has been a buzz about a site called Pinterest. So I finally checked it out this weekend. It is the most wonderful, happiest place to waste time. It is a total time suck, not blocked by my company's IT department. AND I have already found an idea for my sister's Christmas presents, and Holden's third birthday cake.

I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one, but if your even later than me, totally look at it. A great place for new ideas.

I am a Warrior

I survived Warrior Dash and will sign up again next year. I did the 3.1 miles and 11 obstacles in 1 hour 10 minutes. We didn't run much but the obstacles took the wind out of you so running was not really happening.

Before

Here is taste of our obstacle course, I have photos of the last few courtesy of our friend Diane but that is the only place for non-racers to stand and cheer:

• 5 foot walls followed by crawling under barbed wire
• Up and into and over 4 roll off dumpsters (empty) with tires between. This was difficult, I'm about a 1/2 foot taller than the side of the dumpster so on the outside there was a foot hold, on the inside there wasn't. A kind competitor helped me on the last 2 to get my leg swung over the side
• Balance beam like the ones you see on survivor
• 11 foot wall with a rope. This is the one obstacle I couldn't do. Tried really hard but couldn't get started. However, Stacey did awesome and conquered not only the wall but her fear of heights.
• Cargo net
• Crawl through a dark tunnel
  
• Scale a platform and slide down a fire house pole
• Waist deep pond (green algae and all) and up and over logs
• Soaking wet up and over another cargo net
• Scale another platform and over
• Jump over fire
• Crawl in mud under barbed wire
  

After

A taste of the characters at the Dash. We also saw a group of men in superhero boxer briefs.

IT WAS AWESOME!

Preparing to be a Warrior

Tomorrow I am running (walking?) the Warrior Dash with some awesome women. I have no illusions of grandeur that I will be crossing the finish line without collapsing. However, I have been running/spinning/lifting for five days a week the last 10 weeks. Even though I don't expect I can run all 3.2 miles in August Carolina heat and humidity, I feel like I'm headed into the race with the overall fitness of above average.

My race day gear includes:
Clothes and shoes I'm willing to toss after the race
A colored bra so I can change in the parking lot
A towel to put on my friend's car seat for the ride home
A change of clothes and shoes

Our heat is at 10am, and the Dash is a place for us amateur athletes to run through some mud, crawl under some barbed wire and jump over fire. And when its all done, we get to eat turkey legs and drink beer. My kind of race.

I am excited (suppose I should be more scared than I am). My awesome women and I are going to do the course together and finish together. We didn't find awesome costumes to wear but I'll make sure to get some photos of other competitors. Holden and a friend kind enough to watch him are going to cheer us on at the sidelines (Jeremy will be drinking beer at the Nascar Race in Bristol). Stay tuned for a follow-up post with photos of the Warriors!

Weekend fun

We are Bank of America customers and they are running a promotion that on the first weekend of the month they pay the entrance fee to hundreds of museums. We have been wanting to check on the Nascar Hall of Fame here in Charlotte and it was on the list of free museums through BofA. So we took advantage of being BofA customers since there isn't much else in the way of advantages to big banks.

It was a good hall of fame and I would recommend it to race fans and visitors to the city. Its very interactive. Holden loved all of the race cars and I'm pretty sure he is going to follow in his Dad's footsteps when it comes to the love of all things mechanical. And their mutual love of Kyle Busch the driver of the Number 18 M&M car.

Also, we learned this weekend that Holden is over his fear of bubbles. Just like that he wanted bubbles in the bath and has so much fun. He's a strange one sometimes.

2.5 is hard

Holden has been really frustrating lately. His need to be independent coupled with his lack of compliance/listening has been trying our patience the last few weeks. There seems to be so many things to teach him at this age that I'm finding it hard to focus on things and want to throw my hands up and say hell with it. Also, the hitting mom phase is back as are the timeouts. He doesn't hit with any authority, just when he doesn't like what I tell him, he couples a "no" with a slap.

Lastly, I'm uberfrustrated with potty training. We seem to be getting nowhere fast. We went and bought training pants and underwear for him as I think pull ups do not serve the purpose they are intended for. Holden does not act any differently when wearing pull up than a diaper so we thought training pants/underwear would give him some self awareness or at a minimum let Jeremy and I know more accurately his "timing". But here is where my frustration lies, he has gone through 8 pairs of training pants in 2 days (this is only while at home, there is no way we are leaving the house without diapers yet) because he pees and then tells us. No acknowledgement before peeing. I guess I should be happy he acknowledges when he pees in the underwear that is at least a start. Maybe I'm still rushing it? He has peed in the potty several times but not really on his own accord, just when I've sat him on it in the morning. Any advice from seasoned moms would be welcomed.

Oak Island

The Beach House was a great time, but all great things have to come to an end. However, we have all decided we will be making it an annual occurrence. We spent the week at Oak Island, NC with our close friends, Katie and Jay. Holden had a blast, he sang the Beach Song "going to the beach, going to the beach" every morning running circles around the living room. It was truly a vacation for Holden, he got to watch movies all the time (The Incredibles were watched daily), had a menu of hot dogs, mac & cheese and PB&J pretty much every day and endless bike rides.

Holden loved the beach, its still amazing how much he likes the water compared to last year. He's a bit fearless so we had to go and buy a life jacket after the first day as he wanted go in deeper water with Dad. Jeremy took him into deeper water the first day (before we had the life jacket) and I freaked out. Not that Jeremy wasn't holding onto him tightly, or that I didn't trust him but I could just see a wave take out Jeremy and he lose his grip. Its been a while since I had a moment like that but that is why we now have a life jacket, and surprisingly Holden didn't mind wearing it to go out and swim with Dad. Good thing we are in swim lessons.

Holden would get to our spot on the beach, immediately take off his sandals and run towards the water. Fearless I tell you. I can envision visits to the ER in my future.

Jeremy burying Holden in the sand

We took a road trip one day to Fort Fisher, the NC Aquarium and the USS North Carolina Battleship. Holden took his first ferry ride and loved it. Jeremy obviously loved the battleship (see the photo with him shooting the guns). Katie and I also got to spend a day shopping in Southport and have a nice relaxing lunch.

Southport to Fort Fisher Ferry, being cool like Dad.

NC Aquarium, we currently really like Alligators

USS North Carolina deck

Our childhood friend, Nick, showed up on the last couple of days to join in the fun. It was his first time hanging out at the beach as he has only lived in the Charlotte area for little over a year. Needless to say, he made the classic rookie mistake and got really sun burnt. Although, the rest of us seemed to make the same mistake on the last day also, funny how that happened. I'm just glad the sunburns didn't occur on Day 1.
I had to add this last photo, which classically shows how cooperative Holden is for photos lately. We can't wait to do it all again next year.

Beach Week

This is where I am for the rest of the week. Its awesome. Been wanting to rent a house at the beach for the 6 years we have lived here, don't know why we waited so long. Holden and I went on a bike ride last night and I took a turn a bit too slow and toppled the bike. The end of the bike ride went a little like this
Me: "Holden you have a good time?"
Holden: "Yes, Mommy fall down"
Me: "Lets keep that our little secret and not tell daddy"
We come inside and Holden runs to Jeremy
Jeremy: "Holden, did you have a good time"
Holden: "Yea, Mommy fall down"

Just the beginning I suspect of my son tattling on me.

1/2 way

I was bold enough to post my 2011 goals back in January. Now that its July I thought I'd do a sanity check on my progress. Pretty disappointing if I say so.

Amanda's 2011 Goals

• Will - Yes yell at me know, Jeremy and I have been meaning to do a Will since we got married 4 years ago. Its time we did it. Still haven't done it.
  
• Gardianship - Same story, we need to have something written out for Holden, this is a hard one for us mainly because we can't settle on who to put down. Again not done, but finally decided on who we are going to list, that was my big hurdle.
  
• 500 Miles in 2011 - Laura put me on to this goal as she completed it in 2010. We also got a Wii for Christmas and I think this will help during the winter months. I haven't run since October and my excuse has been the lack of daylight. I have not been keeping track and so this probably needs to be off the list :(
  
• Healthiness - I'm not going to put a number down because I have disappointed myself for 2 years in a row. But I really want to get rid of the baby weight I've been carrying around at a minimum. I also hope the spending freeze helps get me back on track with the lack of eating out. I want to be more diligent with our meatless Mondays and we try to follow a real food diet (no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, etc.) but it has allowed maybe a bit too much butter into the diet and I need to find a balance between healthy/low - fat and real food so I don't fall into buying "diet" food. Weight watchers has been a huge help for my girlfriend Stacey, so I have rejoined as a tracking tool and recipe source. Making progress, we joined the YMCA back at the beginning of the summer and I'm getting pretty consistent in my workouts, and the change of pace from just running is nice.
  
• Family Dinners - This might not happen until the 2nd half of 2011 but we want to push Holden's dinner time back an hour so that we can all eat together the same meal. I'm not sure if he is still too little to do this as he wants to eat at 5:30 now and its impractical to think we will all be home at 5:30 let alone have dinner made. This is going OK, it probably only happens at the most twice a week, mostly due to our new fitness schedule I don't get home until 7 some nights. A small sacrifice for hopefully healthier parents and better examples.
  
• Church - We think its time we start putting some consistency in our church attendance for Holden. This is still off the table. But I've made a big decision for myself and I think we are going to go back to the Catholic Church. I don't think we will be the "church every Sunday" kind of family, not sure yet. But those of you that know me closely know that this is a big internal struggle. However, I do want Holden to have his First Communion.
  
• Date Night - Once a Month (after the spending freeze). We are sporadic on this one but working it in the schedule.
  
• Pay off 2 unsecured loans - This is part of a larger 5 year goal of ours to buy a home in a different school district by the time Holden enrolls in 1st grade. First one paid off in July.
  
• 5K and Warrior Dash - I'm still on the fence with the warrior dash because I don't want to do it alone, but definitely going to run another 5 K once it warms up. Did a 5K in the spring and Warrior Dash is August 27th.

So not sure if the assessment means I had too lofty of goals or I'm just slacking. Guess we'll reevaluate in December.

Big Step to Big Boy Status

Holden decided Friday night that he was ready to sleep in his new firetruck bed. He did great all weekend with the sleep transition. Goodbye crib, Hello big boy room. He had a bit of a struggle laying down for his nap Saturday afternoon with all of the toys and books to distract him, but he eventually fell asleep after a couple of rounds of Mom checking on him and reminding him what he was suppose to be doing. The best thing about his transition to the twin bed, he can't open door knobs yet and he played independently for over an hour Saturday morning without asking for us to come get him. Yay for getting a little more sleep on the weekends!

Since he did so well with moving into his own room, we decided we better get the crib/baby room to a point where he can't regress back to the crib. So, I packed up all of the crib sheets and receiving blankets, etc. that were around. I'll have to admit it was a little sad, my baby is not a baby anymore.

Now if potty training would only go as smoothly.

Family Visit

My mother-in-law came to visit over the last week along with Jeremy's 14 year old nephew. We took them to Myrtle Beach for a long weekend and my MIL got to spend some much needed quality time with Holden. Of course because we were having too much fun, I don't have many photos.

Holden loved the beach, we were really surprised how quickly he took to the ocean this time. Bodes well for the week long beach trip we have planned in July, which I will say I am stoked about. Grandma got him a ring floaty that was in the shape of a tiger and it definitely helped with his courage.

On a side note, we have been in summer heat for over a month now and Holden has taken to any type of water. We started swim lessons this week with Holden's best bud, Cameron. They are going to have a great summer.

Zoo Review

We took Holden to the NC Zoo Saturday and it was all he was expecting but Jeremy and I have high expectations growing up in Omaha with access to Henry Doorly. That being said, the NC Zoo is very well laid out and I did like that the large grazing animals looked like they had plenty of room to roam. Holden got to feed the giraffes which he loved. Also, Holden was so excited about the alligators. The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of big cats, they had one cougar but no lions, tigers etc. Big cats are my favorite at the zoo, so that was a bummer.

It was a beautiful day all be it a little hot and Jeremy had a great time people watching. All in all, we will definitely go back. Holden has been talking all about the animals he got to see for 2 days straight now, so it was obviously a hit.

Holden watching the elephant drinking.

I didn't get a good shot of Holden feeding the giraffe, but they came right up to the deck to eat out of the kid's hands.

All smiles after feeding the giraffes and spotting the zebra.

Easter 2011

Our Easter weekend in photo form

Coloring Eggs

Sunday best

Hunting for Easter Eggs with Miss Cameron

Playing with their cool bubble fans that Stacey got them for Easter

Too Cute for Words