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.