1.5

Somehow, our sweet boy turned 18 months young on Easter Sunday. How can this be already? Time continues to pass so quickly. I so want time to slow down, yet I am loving every minute of all of the changes James is exhibiting. Some things that about you at this age....

• Man, are you a busy boy! You run. Everywhere. All of the time! You are fast, sneaky and love to climb. You also have some killer dance moves. One of these days I fear we will end up in the Emergency Department for you to get stitches. It's only a matter of time...sigh....
• You are smart. SO smart. Your vocabulary is booming and you are a little jokester. Recently you have started finishing sentences of books you often read and I will say, it's pretty impressive. The lately book you do this to is the "Bubbles, Bubbles" Elmo book.
• You LOVE your "Bankie" (Blankie) and all of your other"friends" in your crib. Just tonight, I chuckled as I heard you talking to "Pooh" and "wheeeel" (whale shark- from Finding Dory). You are so good at consoling yourself to bed.
• You LOVE your daddy. You are always keeping an eye on him and always want to know where he is. Pure sweetness!
• You love going on walks in your stroller to the park. Most days after we get home from daycare, you'll look at me as I get you out of your car seat and shout, "walk?!". You love to be outside and I love that about you. When we go on runs together you have started shouting, "FAST, FAST", as I run and you'll let me know if we aren't going fast enough for your liking.
• You are a creature of habit and routine. You are often ready for bed between 6:30/7:00 no matter the day, and often rise by 6:30/7:00 a.m. no matter the day. You also never fall for the "go to bed late, wake up late" trick. :) And if you wake-up mid nap, there is no getting you back to sleep.
• You continue to be a picky eater. I call you the "Carbotarian". You mostly love carbs, meat, fruit, and dairy. Daily foods for you consist of mac n' cheese, grilled cheese, cheese pizza....are you sensing a pattern here? You hate vegetables- although you'll eat "zoodles" (zucchini noodles- explain that one to me!). I pray you have gained weight since your lasts appointment with Dr. D, although I am skeptical. Sigh.....
• You are starting to exhibit so much independence and are so ornery! Just this week your lead teacher at school had to inform me that you have been a little challenging at times. Obviously you are only 18 months so a lot of it is to be expected, but a lot of it is that you are so smart and are starting to challenge others more. You were also reported to have been climbing more at school, which also makes sense because you are getting more brave at home starting to climb. Sigh.

James- you simply bring us pure joy. You are our life. Our world. Our happiness. Our world revolves around you and you make us happier and our days brighter- more than you even know! Although these toddler days have their moments, I would not trade them for the world! I told your Grammy just the other day that although you are SO busy, you are SO much fun! Your personality lights up the world and I am so, so, SO grateful that God made me your mommy!

Wednesday Fun







We had special visitors last Wednesday- The Howe's were in town from Minnesota while the girls had Spring break. And boy did we have a day packed full of fun!

The clan arrived at our house around 10:30. We gave a quick tour of our house before heading down to Grinder's for lunch. The kids were happy to see each other and didn't take long to warm up to each other. 

A quick story before leaving for lunch.

The kids were all really good at lunch. James was excited to color like his big cousins.



Precious!

Post lunch we went to an event space just a few block from Grinders to the Charlie Hustle t-shirt sale. No pictures were taken as it was pure madness trying to navigate the crowds while carrying a wiggly toddler!

Next up was LEGOLAND!  

Building things.

 

The Howe clan on one of the rides.

James- refusing to nap.

 After the chaos of LEGOLAND, a walk to Union Station for some coffee and a treat was a must!

We killed a little more time at Crown Center before dinner. They had a free "Sea-Underwater" exhibit that the kids enjoyed running around.

 

 

 

  

We wrapped up the day at Q39 for some obligatory BBQ. As usual, it did not disappoint! Although James did not nap the entire day, he did great!





 

Love these little ladies- seems like yesterday they were James' size snuggled in my lap. :)

Thanks again, Howe clan for coming to have fun in KC! Come back soon! 

Weekend Adventure in Phoenix

 

We are back in the groove after our weekend adventure in Phoenix at the end of March.  It was a fun, fast weekend- here is a rundown of the events.

Preparing to fly with a toddler apparently had me convinced that I needed to prepare for battle. I took advice from anyone and everyone possible, stocking up on all sorts of crazy distraction devices for a 2.5 hour flight. Here were some of the chosen items. James is obsessed with Finding Dory at the moment, so thank goodness for the Target dollar bin and all of the themed items.

**Side note- I was kicking myself for buying the stupid $8 stuffed Elmo doll. Turns out he was one of the biggest hits of the trip!**



 A co-worker of mine who is well versed traveling with little ones gave me this snack idea.

 

Our flight was scheduled to depart KC at 6:10 AM. This meant we needed to be out the door at home no later than 4:00 AM. Insert a displeased toddler here when his daddy went to get him up.

Here is what we looked like as we prepared to depart....

 

Ok, now this is much better!

 

We had mixed emotions on the flight. James started out pretty decent, but then got super antsy and was over it. Thank goodness for the sweetest 21 year old college girl who just doted over James the whole time. We left KC at 6:10 AM and with the time change in Phoenix we landed at 6:30 AM.

We grabbed our bags and headed to get the rental car. James didn't seem too enthusiastic to be in Phoenix, haha!



 

We headed off to the resort after we got our rental car. Our room wasn't quite ready so we found a breakfast spot. James did pretty well entertaining himself with some color time at breakfast.

 

Post breakfast we headed to grab a few snack items at Wal-Mart. Sweet boy grabbed a quick nap while we drove around and scoped out the city.

 Mom and Dad while James napped.

We finally got settled into our room and decided it was a good time to hit the water park with James. He was a little unsure at first, but then LOVED the water!

Scoping out the suite.

 

Not so sure about the waterfall.

Loving the water!

That thumb is never far.

 

Poolside snack- Cheerios!

 We got cleaned up to head to dinner at a yummy taco place then enjoyed a beer flight at a local brewery.

Busy boy running around the brewery.

On our way we decided to detour and check out mommy's childhood home in Phoenix. I don't remember a single memory living in Phoenix as a toddler, but it was neat to see the house in person that I have seen in pictures my whole life.

 

  

Tired from the long day we all headed to bed at a decent time. Daddy found he and mommy some local beers, so we enjoyed them in our suite while James went to bed.

With the lovely time change, James awoke us around 4:00 on Saturday morning. After only being able to contain him so long, we grabbed some coffee and ventured out for a walk around the resort to help pass the time. 

 

 

Post early AM walk, we went for a drive to grab some breakfast. James enjoyed a long nap while we enjoyed some massive burrito in the Walgreen parking lot. Keepin' it classy!

 

Late morning we ventured to Surprise, AZ to head to the Royal's game. The gates opened at 11:00 so we wanted to be there relatively early in case James didn't last the whole game (which we figured he wouldn't and he didn't). 

 

Headed into the stadium.

"I got your back, Dad!"

 The early arrival allowed for several photo-ops and play time within the stadium.

Family selfie!

"Try to catch me, Dad!"

Bubble break!

  

  

All conked out and headed back to the resort.

Saturday evening was low key. We ended up ordering room service for dinner, watched the KU game and headed for bed early to prep for the flight home on Sunday. The apple doesn't fall far from the mommy tree when it comes to couch sleeping. :)

 

We were up and at 'em early again on Sunday. We decided to get to the airport early just to ensure we were on time and didn't have any snafu's. We got through the car rental place and security without issues then grabbed some breakfast to fuel up for the journey!



 We quickly got settled with some snacks and Elmo before take off. It wasn't long before our sweet babe was snoozing away! The flight home went much better- James slept most of the way and was more content that on our way out.

We were happy to be back in KC. We grabbed our bags and headed to the curb for our ride home (thanks, Grandmommy!). I think it's safe to say that James was over the weekend of travel! ha!

 





It was a great weekend over all. A lot of special family memories were made and several lessons of traveling with a busy toddler were learned! :)