E Love Day 7: My little helper

E cracks me up in so many ways. However, one of the things that I adore is that E loves to jump in and help around the house. Check it out...

Baking cookies with Granny. Notice the amount of flour on his shirt and the fact that his little man is also on the counter. 

Helping Daddy with the lawn mower.

Giving the hint that mommy should vacuum.

Look ma no hands (while) I mash!

Watering flowers in California.

Shredding with daddy (of course under supervision)

Turning on the lights.

Feeding Sweetpea...although it looks like she's helping herself. He can get the food out of the pantry, scoop the food, take it to her bowl, dump it, and return.

With his little yellow shovel (which matches daddy) he loves shoveling snow!!!

Besides these wonderful things, he's really a little fanatical about dusting. He has very specific ideas about which duster he should get to use too.  He also adores grabbing baby wipes from my bag or the kitchen and wiping down the walls and our coffee table. 

Sap, I tell ya! But, I love it!

xoxo

Ruler done!

Pinterest made me do it.

Really.

I had to make this cute ruler for E's growth chart. Since we move so much, I needed something that I could bring with me as we traverse across the country. I adored this one because it reminds me of marking my height on my grandparents door trim every summer. 

The ruler is super easy to make, but it took me awhile in between getting the board stained (thank you hubby) and actually getting the measurements marks done. It's been languishing in my laundry room for the last month mocking me when I actually washed our clothes. :)

If you want to make one, head on over to 517 creations for a quick tutorial.

xoxo

E Lovefest Day 6

In celebration of day six of my lovefest, I have to share with you that my boy is a CUDDLER.

After he wakes up in the morning, he grabs onto me like a monkey and generally refuses to walk to the living room. We sit down with his milk, pop on some 'toons, and snuggle. Rinse and repeat after nap time.

Before I put him down to sleep for nap and night-nights, I sit with him in a chair in his room and do more snuggling. I gather the necessary supplies of: a binky, two blankies, a sippy cup, and my iphone and put him in the crook of my arm. When daddy is around, he wraps the blankets around him like a taco. "Taco!" E will exclaim. We'll sit there together until a) E falls asleep, b) Mommy wakes up from falling asleep, or c) when I'm done at 30 min to an hour. The purpose is not necessarily for him to go to sleep but to calm down and go into sleep mode.

I love the warmth of him all snuggled up with me. Whether or not it is a quiet snuggle or a babbling snuggle, it's one of my favorite times of the day.

xoxo

E Love: Day 5

For my fifth day of my E love fest, I present to you this picture: 

because it makes me laugh. Seriously, how does he get into these positions?

xoxo

Day 4: Reader

I'm a reader. I don't just read, I actually devour books like they have an expiration date. So I really adore the fact that my son loves to read. 

Today he decided to have "soree ime" (story time) like we do at Kindermusik class. This meant he had to spread his blanket down before he could open his book. Adorable!

Love!!

xoxo

Day 3: My little swimmer

Monday night happens to be one of my very favorite nights of the week because it's SWIM CLASS! 

Last Spring

My son, the water bug, propels himself around the pool with ease. His legs churn the water constantly while his arms help him balance upright. We work on a few skills each class, but mainly we just enjoy the water and being together. He laughs and smiles most of the time we are there. Although on a bad day he might howl or scowl at me when I make him float on his back. I love it when he owlishly blinks the water out of his eyes from going under.

Compared to the freezing temperatures outside, the place we swim at is an oasis of warmth. No, I'm not exaggerating. The pool is kept at 91 degrees and the room is a humid sauna. It's bliss. Of course, when we exit the building, my wet hair freezes and my little eskimo runs across the parking lot holding my hand. 

I don't care though. I just love that he loves to be there.

xoxo 

Day 2: Binky

If there is one thing in this world that my son loves more than anything, it's his binky. As I peruse through his pictures, I find that even at two years old about half of them have the binky in! Considering that we've been working on getting rid of it since the summer, it's still in a lot!

Believe me, I've heard my fair share from binky-judgers over the last two years. (Eye Roll) I tend to be a tad bit sensitive about someone judging my parenting skills, so my inner self wants to sarcastically slice and dice people who venture onto the binky-judging mat.

Our first shot at weaning the binky was fantastic and we had him down to nap and nights only in about two seconds. Then we went New York. Ten hour flights, the four hour time difference, and long days of sightseeing and restaurants totally did me in and I soon let him have his binky all day long just to get through.

The second try was more difficult as E was aware of my efforts to whisk his binky away at opportune moments. That ended with our first trip to California and was nailed in on our second trip.

As you can see, I'm totally not above using it as a method of getting him to smile and look at the camera.

So now we are on our third and final attempt. I've resorted to gorilla tactics for detaching him from the binky in the morning without him devolving into a tantrum.

My son loves his binky. And me? I'm eternally grateful to the genius that came up with them as it's given him so much simple comfort over the last two years.

Sigh, my baby is growing up.

xoxo

The start of my love fest.

At the tender age of two, E already has soooooo much personality. Everyday I just marvel at his mere existence. I can totally understand how parents get all wrapped up in their own child. Because, well darn it, kids are just cool. Mine is no exception. 

So for December, I'm going to be highlighting my love of this little boy. December is going to be a love fest. So prepare yourself for some sap.

Day 1: Those eyes. There are so many times during the day where he turns his attention towards me and looks for approval, to see how I'll react, or to find the next fun thing I'll do. Often times I'll turn around and just see him checking out what I'm doing. 

xoxo