TGIF!

First off, I have to wish my parents a VERY HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY!! 50 years - can you even wrap your mind around that? I can't! I'm very lucky to have been raised by parents who gave us such an excellent example of a healthy, happy marriage. I can't wait to celebrate this landmark anniversary in January. My whole family - all 20 of us with spouses/grandkids - will be gathering at a resort in Minnesota in early January.

Now back to the post at hand - I am especially excited that it's Friday as I am off work through Wednesday! I need to monitor emails from home on Monday/Tuesday but I am sure it will be very quiet! Here's a TGIF recap of my week!

The book I'm reading is City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. I had 3 library books to choose from - City of Girls, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, and Recursion. I've heard mixed reviews of City of Girls but decided to give it a try. If it falls flat for me early on, I'll abandon it! The other 2 library books are due on December 28th - maybe I will get to one other one by then? We'll see!

The high of my week was several things! First, we closed on the sale of our house on Tuesday! Woot, woot! It feels good to only own one house. Then on Tuesday night I got together with some girlfriends to celebrate a friend's birthday. Most of the girls went to college with Phil - another girl and I are married to guys who went to college with them. They've taken us under their wing, though. It was a fun night with lots of laughter and delicious Mexican food.

The low of my week was feeling under the weather. This has been a theme of our fall - one of us is always sick! Paul is back to full health but Phil and I have been battling different strains of a cold virus for months. It's getting a bit old! I came home mid-day on Wednesday as I felt so dizzy and just off. I ended up sleeping for 3 hours but still went to bed around 9 that night so my body was definitely fighting something. I opted to work from home the last 2 days because I still don't feel great and don't want to spread my germs.

A recipe I made was Creole chicken and sausage bowls in the instant pot. Our instant pot is definitely our most-used appliance! I highly recommend it. Meals come together so fast!

The best money spent was the cash for Paul's daycare teachers holiday/thank you cards. We are "team cash" when it comes to gifts for his teachers. It's less personal but we include a nice note in the card about how thankful we are for them. It's well known that daycare teachers aren't well compensated. They work so hard and take such good care of Paul that we feel the best gift for them at the holidays is cash. 

My plans this weekend include very little. I was supposed to go to Phil's work holiday party tonight but I canceled our sitter and am staying in with Paul. Phil will still go. I just don't feel well enough to be out and about and to stay up past 9. Ha. Tomorrow we have our last swimming lesson of the term and some friends are swinging in the late morning to see our house. That's it for plans, though! We are having Christmas at our house so I'll be busy planning/preparing for that meal. We are having ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, glazed carrots, corn casserole, and chocolate pie for dessert. I'm also going to make GF cinnamon rolls from scratch for Christmas Day. I've never made them before - fingers crossed they turn out!

What was the high of your week? Are you ready for Christmas?

TGIF!

Whew, it's been a week. I'm greeting the weekend with open arms!

The book I'm reading is The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. This is a short book at just over 200 pages but it is packed with heartache so it's not something you can rush through. It's about a boys' reform school in the Tallahassee area of Florida and it's terrible treatment of the students, especially the black students. It's based on a true story, which makes it an extra chilling read. 

The high of my week was *crickets*. Some weeks don't have highs - and that is ok. This was a really tough week. See low below...

The low of my week was Paul being sick and getting an RA flare. Paul started to get sick on Sunday. He was up multiple times during the night, crying 'mama' and 'owie.' I took him to the doctor on Tuesday morning and found out he had strep, which is what I suspected. The doctor told me I get mother of the year for bringing him in and an A+ for my clinical knowledge. Ha. I told her my mom was a nurse and I have had so many different illnesses so I'm pretty attuned to what is going on with Paul. They gave Paul a penicillin injection. It was a really painful injection for him, but he doesn't do well with oral meds so it was the right decision for us. He was totally fine within 5 minutes of the injection and he started to feel better that afternoon.

I had some really awful nights of sleep with all the wake ups so started to come down with a flare on Tuesday and it was worse on Wednesday so I opted to get a steroid injection in the joint. Injections are really painful but effective. Below is a comparison of my healthy hand (left) and my hand with the flare (right). Man RA sucks. I'm so ready to be done with the family planning stage of life so I can get back on my ideal drug combo (which is not safe for pregnancy/breastfeeding unfortunately). 

I see a PA for my injections and since he gave me so many during my pregnancy (9 I think?), we have gotten to know each other really well. I was thrilled to hear that he and his wife are expecting after 3 miscarriages. So that was a mini-high of the week for me!  

A recipe I made was Stuffed Pepper Soup in the instant pot. This is something we tend to have once a month as it comes together quickly if you cook the rice ahead of time (which I do in the instant pot the day before) and cut up the peppers, onions and garlic ahead of time. 

The best money spent was on black-out curtains for Paul's bedroom. The previous owners had 2 kids but neither of the kid bedrooms had black-out curtains. They must have had some really solid sleepers. We definitely need black-out curtains for naps as Paul sleeps much better in the dark. And come spring/summer, we'll need them for bedtime as his bedroom is west-facing. My MIL suggested we not get any and let Paul adjust to sleeping in a brighter room but I was like "hell to the no!" He's already a fairly crappy napper and mama needs as long of a break as she can get!

My plans this weekend include next to nothing. We were supposed to have a friend over for dinner tonight but I cancelled as I am feeling worn out/under the weather. Tomorrow we have swimming lessons in the morning - hopefully I will feel well enough to go as we have missed so many lessons this fall! Swimming lessons are our only plans for the weekend and I am SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS after several packed weekends! I'm hoping to sneak away to our bedroom for several hours on Saturday or Sunday. I was on my own with Paul quite a bit this week and could use a little break/me time. Phil is totally on board with this. 

Bonus Paul Pics

Paul likes to pretend that remotes or anything that resembles a phone is his phone, which he calls his "hello." Yesterday I noticed that he was holding the "hello" in front of him and says "cheese." I often take selfies with him to send to family so I guess he learned that me!

He enjoys looking at the Christmas cards we receive in the mail. I just can't let him look at them for too long as he has a tendency to bend them!

Looking through one of his favorite lift-the-flap books. This one is all about farms. He knows all the animals and the sounds they make! 

"Enough with the pedestrian board books, mama. Give me something with depth!" (He took interest in my copy of The Nickel Boys). 

Hopefully your week was better than mine - please share a high so I can live vicariously through you!

Christmas "To Do" and "To Don't" List

Tsh Oxenreider of The Simple Life shared a post last week that really resonated with me - it was a summary of her to dos and her to don't. I thought I would play along and share my Christmas "to do" and "to don't" lists. Like everything in life, all these decisions are "you do you!" Undoubtedly, there will be things on my to do list others skip and things on my to don't list that others couldn't imagine skipping!

To Do:

- Put up a tree. We did put up a tree this year after taking the year off last year. Paul has done really well with it. I put "kid-friendly" decorations on the lower branches of our (fake) tree. He has taken some of them off and played with them but that's fine with me since they aren't breakable. When I put the tree up earlier this month, he kept saying "wow!" with the cutest little voice, full of wonder! He hasn't touched any ornaments since those first few days so has handled it really well!

- Outdoor greenery. For the first time ever, I decorated the outside of our house - all thanks to my mom! She decorated 2 planters and our 2 window boxes. I also hung a wreath on our door and Phil hung another one on the peak above our porch. I love how festive our house looks!

- Cookie decorating party. I made time for a cookie decorating night with my college friends and their kids. We start planning in October since calendars fill up so quickly. I took last year off from hosting as I was too overwhelmed with work + caring for an infant. But I'm back at it this year! I hosted everyone on Friday night. It was loud and chaotic, but really fun. The kids did a gift exchange and the adults did one as well. It was a really fun night!

The kids have gotten so big! 

My friend's son Wyatt was happy to unwrap Paul's gift for him. Paul had no interest in unwrapping his gift

- Making time for family. We are not traveling this Christmas as we'll see my family in January at my parents' 50th anniversary resort weekend. But Phil has local cousins who always invite us to their house for Christmas Eve. These cousins are the nephews of Phil's late father. One of the cousins has everyone over around 6pm which isn't the ideal time to go to a gathering with a toddler that usually goes to bed at 7, but one later bedtime won't matter in the long run. So we are going to mass with Phil's cousin and his family and then will go to their house for a few hours. I really appreciate that they include us. Not every family would invite their extended family to a family celebration (3 brothers, their mom, and the grandkids gather each Christmas) but I think they recognize that Phil and his mom have limited extended family. We always feel really welcomed and Paul gets tons of attention as Phil's cousins' kids are all in college or older (Phil is the youngest cousin).

To Don't:

- Outdoor lights. Even though I would love to have lights on our house, we don't. Phil is not on board with it nor does he want to pay a company to put lights up. If I felt strongly enough about this, I could put some on our front porch area but I don't care that much! Maybe next year when I'm less overwhelmed with moving/settling in, I will put some lights up before the cold weather hits. We'll see.

- Buying much for Paul. We are not buying much for Paul for Christmas. This is not because we are miserly. We just acknowledge that Paul is too young to understand and appreciate gifts. We'll focus more on gift-giving when he is a bit older. This year, we bought him a 2nd-hand train table off Facebook market place for $35. It came with some trains and train tracks. We've asked family members who plan to buy him a gift to consider buying things for the train table. He loved playing with the train table at a toy store we visited last summer so hopefully he enjoys this gift! Besides the train table, we will get him some books for his stocking.

Playing with a train table at a toy store in August

- Exchanging gifts as a couple. Phil and I are not gift people. It's the dead last love language for both of us. So we don't exchange gifts for anything - Christmas, birthdays, or our anniversary. We tend to view our vacation spending as a "gift" to each other. So our Florida trip in February will be our gift for birthdays/Christmas. We used to go out for dinner for our birthdays but that has gotten challenging with a toddler so we often will order in instead. We do try to go out to dinner for our anniversary!

- Santa visit. It's hard to get him to sit on the laps of his grandparents so I know he'd scream if we tried to put him on Santa's lap (I can't blame him - it is a strange old man!). I know those screaming photos can be funny but I can't bear to watch him scream and reach for me. :/ We'll take him to Santa once he's old enough to understand the concept and shows some interest in going.

What are some things on your to do and to don't list?

12 Best Books of 2019

'Tis the season for the best of lists! By publishing this in early December, I'm running the risk of excluding something that I'll read this month but so it goes! I was surprised to find that 7 of my 12 favorite books were non-fiction! In the past, I've tended to read more fiction than non-fiction but that was not the case this past year. I hope you find something on the list that piques your interest. It was hard to narrow my list to 12 as I've read 95 books (!!!) so far in 2019!

Character-driven Fiction:

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane - I was so sad when the book came to an end as I wanted to see how the character's lives would continue to unfold. It's about 2 families who live next door in a suburb of NYC. A tragic event happens that forever changes their lives and has a ripple effect on the rest of their lives. The heart of the story is a love story about the son of one family and the daughter of the other. Mental health and addiction is a core theme in the book.


This is definitely a character-driven novel, but there is also a plot to move the book forward. It reminded me Anne Patchett's novel, Commonwealth, so I'd recommend this to fans of that book.

Christodora by Tim Murphy - This solidly resides in the literary fiction category. It jumps around between points of views and periods in time so it took some concentration to weave together the story lines and remember how the characters were connected. But it was worth the effort. The book covers the AIDS crisis of the 80-90s, the work of AIDS activists, drug abuse, adoption and human relationships. Similar to Ask Again, Yes, I was sad when it came to an end as I wanted to see what happened in the characters lives. 

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo - Similar to the first 2 picks,this is another character-driven novel. Clearly that is a writing technique that I love but it is not for everybody! This novel is about a family in Chicago with 4 daughters. The husband and wife had one of those rare marriages where there is just so much love and adoration. Their 4 daughters are sort of handicapped by witnessing this love because they struggle to find something similar. There's a lot of disfunction in this novel and the characters are all unlikeable at some point of the book but the characters were very real and I felt compassion for them, even when they were making terrible and at times avoidable mistakes.

Plot-driven Fiction:

Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny - I read a lot of Louise Penny books this year - 9 of them, to be exact! It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think Kingdom of the Blind, book 14 of the series, was my favorite. This series really does get better and better. Some will say you can read them out of order but I would not recommend doing that as you'll miss out on the through line story that builds with each book in the series. I will say that the first couple of books in the series are good but they aren't as great as the books to come. But it's worth starting at the beginning!

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - This book received a lot of buzz and I think it was worthy of the attention. It's set in the marshes of a North Carolina coastal area. The main character is basically abandoned by her family so she raises herself and has such a love and appreciation for the marshes. The author of this book is a wildlife scientist so she pays particular attention to describing the area where the story takes place. Sometimes detailed descriptions of settings can bore me but in this case it didn't. I will say there is some controversy and conspiracy surrounding this author as an article was published about her husband and his suspected involvement in the murder of a poacher in Africa. I'm skeptical about the truth of the allegations. I think if you were worried about your involvement in a murder, you wouldn't draw attention to yourself by writing a novel (which also is about a murder).



Non-Fiction:

A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold - This was a good, but difficult, book to read. It’s by the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the Columbine shooters. She talks about the life of her son, how surprised and devastated they were by his horrific actions, and she looks back on his life for signs they missed that Dylan was troubled. The heart of Dylan’s issue was depression and mental health issues. Now that I am a parent, I feel it’s important to educate myself about mental health and the warning signs the Klebolds missed. I hope and pray that our country makes progress on treating the pervasive mental health issues as well as makes progress in making it more difficult for people to acquire guns. But I feel that parents are at the front line of this battle and need to understand what to watch for and how to get help for their children.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - This was an excellent page-turning memoir written by the co-founder of Nike. I had heard good things about this book but it exceeded my expectations. The book reads like a novel as Knight and the group of early Nike employees faced so many challenges in the early years of the company. This book made me want to go out and buy a pair of Nikes! I have so much respect for what this shy, introverted track nerd accomplished!








Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - This is another fiction book that reads like a work of fiction. It's about a company called Theranos that allegedly was developing a blood testing technology that only required a drop of a patient's blood instead of a vial. It’s maddening to see how an unproven, unverified medical device was used to make patient decisions. So little due diligence was done by the clients of Theranos, like Walgreens. I hope the medical community and regulators have learned something from this experience.

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro - This book was so riveting for me. It’s about a woman who, on a lark, takes an ancestry.com genetics test and finds out the man she thought was her father actually wasn’t. Her parents had passed away by this point in her life so she wasn't able to ask them what the H happened and instead had to piece things together through her own research. This is such a relevant topic these days with the advent of inexpensive genetic testing. It made me wonder how many people receive a bombshell like this. But it also made me think about what it means to be a mother and father - how much do genetics really matter in the parent/child relationship? I think the answer is not very much but it’s easier to say that when you are certain of your genetic origin. I will say that my MIL's book club read this, upon my recommendation, and some of them thought the author was "whiny." Maybe it's a generational difference but I felt true compassion for the author. 

Just Mergy by Bryan Stevenson - This was an amazing and heartbreaking book about our broken criminal justice system. Bryan Stevenson started a non-profit that works with incarcerated individuals, including those on death row and juveniles that have been sentenced to death or life in prison without parole. It’s sad to see how racism has impacted our criminal justice system, especially in the south. I heard that a movie based on this book has been made. I look forward to checking it out. 







The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton - This was another heart-breaking read about our broken criminal justice system. The author spent 30 years on death row working to overturn his conviction. He was imprisoned at age 29 so he had spent more of his life on death row than as a free man when his conviction was overturned through the help of Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy. It's hard to wrap your mind around the fact that it took so long to overturn his conviction when there was clear evidence that showed that he could not have committed the murders.

Becoming by Michelle Obama - This book was probably my favorite read of 2019. I know there are strong opinions about Michelle Obama, especially among those who did not vote for her husband, but I think if you can set your political views aside, anyone can enjoy and be inspired by this book. I actually did not vote for Obama in 2008 or 2012 as I was more aligned with the Republican party back then (that is no longer the case since Trump was chosen as their candidate for president! I'm a woman without a party and vote for the candidate that is most aligned with my values these days) but I've always respected Michelle Obama. I really enjoyed seeing how their relationship developed and how she balanced working and being a mom on such a public stage. I also learned some unknown tidbits about living in the White House. 

What We Read in November

I read more books than I thought I would in November considering that we moved and assembled a whole lot of furniture! But I usually chose reading over tv once Paul was in bed.

Similar to last month, I'm sharing my "hits" and "misses."

Mom's Reads:

Hits:
- Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I had a good feeling I'd love this book since I've enjoyed her other novels. But it received so much hype that I was worried my expectations might be too high. That was not at all the case! It's a unique format for a novel as it's an oral history of a fictional band, so you get to see the story unfold from multiple perspectives. It's like the literary version of VH1's "Behind the Music" which is a show I used to watch in high school and college. I'd recommend this if you are looking for a light, fast read!

- Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner - This falls more in the 'literary fiction' category but is very readable. It's about a husband and wife who have recently separated. They share custody of their son but then the wife disappears and is completely unreachable. The book is told from the perspective of both the husband and wife so you get to see how the marriage dissolved.

Misses:
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - I am definitely in the minority in disliking this book as so many other friends loved it and it was turned into an HBO show. It's about a group of parents with children in kindergarten. What bugged me about this book is that there is a ton of foreshadowing about something that happens at a school fundraiser. You know one of the parents is going to die but you don't know who or how. But she spends 80% of the book building to this school event and it felt kind of manipulative. She did this with another book - "Truly, Madly, Guilty" and it annoyed me. I think maybe her books just aren't for me even though she is an incredibly popular author.

- Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer - Phil has raved about this book and said I had to read it so I had high expectations. The premise of this non-fiction book is interesting - it opens with a murder in a small Mormon community. The murders say they were compelled by God to murder a woman and her child (this part was extremely hard to read). The book then explains the history of the Mormon faith and how this fundamentalist polygamist sect split from the church. The problem was that it read like a very, very dry history book. He just included so much detail that I got so bored and ended up skimming the last half of the book. This isn't the first time I gave 2 stars to a book that Phil raved about. We actually have very different tastes but I've loved 2 other books by Krakauer so thought I would enjoy this one. Wrongo!

Paul's Reads:

Paul got to see a lot of family this month between Thanksgiving and seeing my parents the first 2 weekends of November so he got lots of family reading time! He still loves touch and feel books and lift-the-flap books. He also really enjoyed the Ranger Rick Jr. magazine that he gets every other month from Grandma Joan. He became obsessed with "Spookie Pookie" in late November, which is a Halloween book! We have the Christmas Pookie so I pulled that out at the end of the month and now he's obsessed with that, too.

Reading "Where is Little Fish?" with Nana and Papa

Reading his tractor book with my mom

Reading "That's Not My Snowman" with cousin Anna

Did you read anything notable in November?

Thanksgiving in Photos

We had a really great Thanksgiving weekend! It was really nice to travel, especially since we got a lot of snow! Luckily those who were traveling to Minneapolis made it safely. We got over 12" of snow from Wednesday through Saturday! I figure I will (mostly) let the pictures do the talking!

Thursday

We went to my brother's house on Thursday. He lives about 30 minutes away so we didn't have to drive very far. Paul got tons of attention from his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins! He handled the attention really well!

Looking snazzy for Thanksgiving

Reading with cousin Anna

Playing with cousin Matthew

Paul and his cousins: Andrew is 14 (top), Kolin is 12 (middle left), Matthew is 11 (middle right) and Anna is 8

Playing with aunt Julie

 Friday

Paul slept until 6:45 on Friday morning which is pretty good for him. He is quite the early riser. It's rare for him to sleep past 7.

Snuggling with mama

On Friday morning, my mom came over to help with meal prep for dinner. We made 3 soups - chicken wild rice, chicken noodle, and vegetable beef. It was fun to hang out in the kitchen with her! In the afternoon, we went to a local nursery/garden center to tour their "idea house." The garden center owns a small house next door and they decorate it for each season. I had never been but I will definitely try to go for each season as it's really cool to see all the decor. I did not take any pictures, though, so you'll have to take my word for how impressive it was!

My SILs Julie and Emily and my mom

It was really fun to show my family our new home! We were a little light on furniture but we made it work. Paul was extra clingy that night so it made meal prep a little bit difficult but it all worked out. I forgot to take pictures of the food but the chicken noodle soup was definitely the most popular!! My mom made the noodles from scratch but after watching her do it, I think I could make them on my own next time. I'll definitely make this again this winter as it was so delicious. As a celiac, I never get to eat chicken noodle soup so it was such a treat!

Saturday

My parents spent the night with us on Friday night. We had a list of things for my dad to do around the house. It's nice to have an electrician for a dad! He installed a light on our front porch, changed out an outlet and changed out some of the dimmer switches so they would be compatible with LED lights.

Phil and I snuck away to do some furniture shopping after breakfast and my mom watched Paul. We ended up buying a reclining chair for our bedroom. We have a very large master bedroom with a fireplace (see photo below from the listing). It's the perfect spot for a little reading nook so I wanted to buy an extra comfy chair. I do 90% of my reading in bed and while that is cozy, I would prefer to sit in a chair and read. I think this area of our bedroom is going to get lots of use!

My parents soaked up a bit more time with Paul when we got back from shopping. Then my mom helped me decorate some planters for our front porch and our 2 window boxes. I didn't take pictures of them but they turned out beautifully! After all that work, they hit the road!

After they left, Phil headed to his mom's to help out with a few things and to bring Oscar back! She stayed with Grandma Joan for 5 weeks! We really missed her but it was the right decision to remove her from the chaos of moving/listing our house! While Phil was at his mom's, I put our Christmas tree up. We didn't put it up last year since Paul was crawling and getting into everything. I really missed it so am glad we have it up this year. When Paul saw it all lit up and decorated he said, "wow!" in the cutest little voice. He says wow when he comes down every morning and when we get home from school. I put ornaments that aren't breakable on the lower branches. He has taken some of them off and played with them but overall he leaves the tree alone. Oscar likes to hide under it to get away from the crazy toddler!

Sunday

On Sunday, Phil got going on putting our kitchen stools together (we also assembled 2 other end tables over the weekend). It was quickly apparent that toddlers and furniture assembly don't go together (we put the other items together when he was napping or in bed).

"helping" daddy

 I figured we should take advantage of the fresh snow and go sledding for the first time. It took quite awhile to get Paul all bundled up. His winter gear is way too big for him, even though the coat is 12m size. I figure he will grow into it with time!

It was a beautiful morning. Our new neighborhood is great for sledding as we live close to a creek. So you can walk along the creek and cross over bridges, etc. Paul loved it and I got a good workout, especially when I had to go up a steep hill at the end! It was a really fun morning and I kept looking around and thinking how beautiful it was with all the snow covered trees!

So much for our wish for the snow to hold off until we closed on the sale of our house. Poor Phil has moved so much snow between our 2 corner houses! Fingers crossed we don't get more in the next 2 weeks!

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Paul at 21 months

Paul hit the 21 month mark yesterday. It's hard to believe that we are knocking on the door of Paul turning 2! I sound like a broken record but where does the time go? Here's what is happening in Paul's world!

Firsts:

- He had his first haircut in October. He was not a fan!

- He went trick-or-treating for the first time. We only went to 3 houses, though. He preferred "helping" dad hand out candy. By helping I mean grabbing candy from the bowl, running around with it, and putting it back in the bowl. ;) We didn't let him have any candy and he didn't show any interest in wanting any. He's more of a crackers man.

Words: Paul's language continues to explode - especially since joining the toddler room at school. Here are a couple of my favorite things to hear from him:

- When we finish reading a book he really likes, he will lift it up towards the reader and say, "again!" He must have picked this word up at school.

- He calls phones "hello." Whenever he hears a beep or sound from a phone indicating you have a text or phone call he yells "hello!"

- While he can say yes, he usually says "yah." Sometimes he sounds like a little Norwegian as he says a really prolonged "yaaaah." I guess you have to grow up around people of Norwegian origin like Phil and I have to know what I'm talking about but it's really cute.

- He is using more and more Spanish. He calls shoes "patos" (short for zapatos, the Spanish word for shoes), water "agua," hands "manos," and says "aqui" instead of here when we ask where something is.

- He can make most animals sounds and names some animals. His favorite animal word to say is owl.

- He's starting to say short sentences like, "bye, daddy." Over the weekend he started to say, "I'll get it!" when he drops or throws something. He also will bring a book to me and say, "read it!" He has the sweetest little voice so I love hearing him say more and more words!

Growth: He's still pretty petite but we know now that he's just going to be on the smaller side so I don't worry about it. I haven't weighed him since his 18 month appointment. He was 21 lbs at 18 months but he's probably gained a pound or 2? He wears 18-month shirts, 12-month pants, and size 5 shoes.

School: He loves the toddler room at school and has adapted well to the new schedule. After being a horrible napper in the infant room he is one of the better nappers and sleeps for 2 hours on a cot! We are amazed as it's rare for him to nap for 2 hours at home. They have a lesson plan every week and I think he gets quite a bit out of the lesson plan as he knows some letters and numbers.

Loves: 

- He still loves books and will ask us to read the same book over and over again, like "The Foot Book." I've had to hide it a few times to give us a break! ;) His favorite books are the Little Blue Truck books and he also loves anything with flaps.

- He really loves the farm set my parents got him this summer, his little people toys, and any toys with wheels. He's getting better at playing independently but it's kind of hit or miss and depends on his mood.

- We don't let him watch much tv but when he's sick or when we were busy with moving stuff or assembling furniture, we let him watch "Little Baby Bum" on Netflix. It's a combination of nursery rhymes and educational content. He LOVES it so we have to be careful about how much we let him watch it! He calls it "B bum" and will keep repeating "B bum? B bum?" over and over again in the sweetest little voice!

- Putting clothes in the hamper. He sounds like a little Frenchman when he says hamper - he says "am-pair." It's really cute. He seems to have a hard time with Hs which makes sense since there isn't a hard H in the Spanish language. If he doesn't want to go upstairs to bed, I will say - 'do you want to take your clothes off and put them in the hamper?" and that will get him to go upstairs without a fight.

Eating: Feeding Paul has gotten a bit better recently but I will say that meal time is our least favorite time of day - especially dinner. He's probably a little more picky than the average toddler but he eats more foods than he did at 18 months. We've been able to eat more family meals as he can handle eating dinner a little later (around 6 pm instead of 5:30). He still doesn't like meat unless it's ground, like beef, turkey or sausage. He's better at using a spoon or fork. He goes back and forth between using his left and right hand to feed himself. His favorite foods are yogurt, scrambled eggs, banana pancakes, and crackers. If it was up to him, 90% of his calories would come from crackers! He also loves milk (he drinks whole since he's on the small side and needs the extra calories) and anything with peanut butter on it. He's the odd kid who doesn't like cheese or fruit! He enjoyed stuffing and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving!

Dislikes: getting his hands/face washed, taking oral medications, and putting on a hat or mittens. It's quite the battle to get his hat/mittens on some mornings but it's usually pretty cold so hat/mittens aren't optional! 

Every stage seems to get better and better! There are of course challenges to every stage but overall I really enjoy the toddler phase!