More Mature Or More Boring?

Here is the deal - I pride myself on organized chaos. I realize it may be a strange thing to find joy and contentment from, but I do and I don't apologize for it....most days.

I'm a fan of planned discipline and writing a "to do" list is the only way I can make it through my day. I'm one of those people that goes back to my 'to do' list to write down and cross off something that I accomplished that was not previously listed. I'm anal about my lists. I walk around with a notebook practically attached to me. I save all notebooks which means I have to-do lists from 10 years ago still accessible. Not that I spend time going through them...but you never know when you may need some older information. 

This is so true.

That being said - I tend to fight structure. The thought of doing the same thing day in and day out would make me lose my mind. Eating the same thing for breakfast each and every day of life would drive me nuts by day 4. I need to feel like my life has some spice and spontaneity in it - even if it is as small as choosing my meal.

But - lately, things have been getting away from me. Don't get me wrong, I am the energizer bunny and am constantly on the go. I don't really watch tv, I don't like talking on the phone and the joy others find in 'surfing the internet' is extremely baffling to me. I have a bit of trouble with the notion of 'doing nothing' and can honestly say I've not felt 'bored' since I was in college.

Often I look around and wonder how other people get it all done. Is it a facade? I know that I want other people to think I've got it all together. I assume they have fooled me as well. Those that know me well enough to have peeled back the onion know that my 'togetherness' is more of a house of cards than anything well executed. I'm not sure how you are supposed to find the time to effectively run a business, be a mom, be a wife, be a daughter, cook meals, do laundry, clean the house, pay bills, plan for the future, play tennis, play volleyball, exercise, visit friends, go to church, drink wine, write this blog and actually get some sleep.

For those of you who read the list above and immediately say I should give up the tennis, volleyball, wine, friends or blogging - you need to get to know me a bit better. That won't happen. I am a firm, firm, firm believer in life-balance and the importance of activity, sports, creativity and a nice glass of wine. 

So, after a few conversations with friends and some surveying others on how to get it all done, I'm afraid I've had to abandon some of my "organized chaos" for "organized structure" - kill me. I've recently abandoned some of my spontaneity in life's little decisions in the hopes that it will free up enough time to allow for larger areas of spontaneity (weekend trips, last minute get-togethers, extended trips to the park, etc...).

A few of the 'new things' I have incorporated:
1. All Laundry now gets done on Sunday vs. throughout the week with piles of clean clothes to be folded. 
2. Weekly Meal Planning occurs every Thursday night for the week starting on Sunday.
3. Grocery Day is now Friday mornings. Good sales and zero crowds.
4. Dinner is now served promptly at 6pm to impress the importance of Family Dinner on Andrew.


Welcome to the more grown-up version of me. I've been dragged kicking and screaming in to this part of life and I've been told that 'once you get used to it, things get much easier to manage'. So, this is me getting used to it...I think I'm going to need a glass of wine.

Your Chariot Awaits...

Andrew's daycare facility is extremely close to our house so on nice days we will walk to pick him up. Normally, it is just Jeff and I who take the walk down to the daycare, but today we decided to take Cooper with us. Since Oscar is so old, we usually leave him home when we go on walks. He has arthritis and several joint issues and the walks are not something he is very interested in anymore. BUT - today was different. When Jeff got Cooper's leash, Oscar (who is deaf and mostly blind) got extremely excited to join us on our walk today. We hemmed and hawed about it for a minute and then decided...what the heck, let's bring him.

Our average walk is pretty quick and we are there to pick Andrew up within a few minutes. Today was a bit different. Since Oscar had not been out on a walk in a while, he was strolling along at his own pace and had to stop 3 different times to empty his bladder and do his "business". This was all before we even made it to the end of the street. By the end of the street, he was pooped. We knew he was not going to be able to make it all the way - so my genius husband fixed the problem!

Notice in the stroller.

Andrew was a-ok with letting Oscar ride in his place.

Oscar loved it!

Driving my kiddo crazy.

The daycare was hosting another night out for the parents so I was bringing Andrew to daycare Friday night from 7pm-10pm where he was going to get pizza, play with his friends and stay up late (8:30 vs 7pm). I bathed him and put him in his jammies and then pulled out the camera. Now that I know that Andrew will smile on command, I tend to follow him around with the camera and as you can see from the last pic...drive him nuts.

Andrew smiling for Mommy with Graham Crackers in his mouth.

I can't smile right now - I have to pull every toy out of my toy chest.

Ok, I'll smile again - No problem.

Seriously, stop following me around with the camera. I can't take it anymore.

 It was at this point that I put the camera up for the night.

Smile For Mommy

I guess my kiddo has adjusted to having a camera in his face all the time. Today, before we left for school, I asked Andrew to stand still and smile for the camera...this is what we got.

Not bad!!

A Bum On The Bottle

 

This morning before we left for school - my bum was relaxing on his couch sipping on the bottle. 

Tennis Anyone?

Today was an amazing day! Why? Today, we took Andrew to the tennis court for the very first time and he absolutely loved it.

Jeff wanted to play a little tennis so we figured why not make it a "family event". Although, the tennis racket was too big for him and rather heavy and a burden - Andrew adored chasing balls around. He would sit in the middle of the court while we all played around him. It was great and he never got hit - which is a good thing considering the amateurs on the court. Not only was it Andrew's first time on the court, but Jennifer got to try out that new racket I got her for Christmas. It was her first time playing tennis and she did extremely well! It was a great day and one that we will repeat many more times - Tiger Woods of Tennis - well, he may just be!

Right when we got there - he was very excited about the can of balls.

So excited that we had a hard time getting them away from him. 

His orange shirt is making his reddish/blonde hair look very red today.

Racket may have been a bit too big. He grunted while he walked with it. 

He could not figure out why that ball would not go through the net hole. 

 

Got tired - needed to sit and take a little break.

Drinking water so that he could get back out there. 

And...he's back at it!

Time to go home but he wants to stay and "practice"

Andrew 15 Month Update

Andrew turned 15 months old at the end of February. He is progressing along perfectly in my opinion. I adore each stage that he is in and have so much fun watching as he learns something new. A few updates with our guy are below:

Vocabulary
Since Andrew's tube surgery, his efforts at speaking have improved. His vocabulary before consisted of momma, daddy and 'ba' which meant bottle in most situations but really could have meant anything at all that he was pointing towards. It's been about 3 weeks since the surgery and he has expanded in to some new areas...

Now he says "nigh nigh" which means night, night - he accompanies this with a "fake sleeping act" where he throws himself down on to his couch and closes his eyes but keeps grinning the entire time. It's the dog version of "play dead" and it's awesome. Entirely too cute - will capture on video and post.

He also has included "bye bye" which he was attempting to say on occasion before the surgery. Now, he says it every day when we are leaving daycare. And, he says it like an old southern lady dragging out the words - more like a baahh biii - again entirely too cute.

He is a pro at saying "uh oh" - every time he throws 'drops' something on the floor - we get an uh oh!

He talks all the time now - I can't understand most of it but he has full blown conversations with the dogs. He is also getting very good at sign language. We teach him here and they teach him at daycare, so he is around it quite a bit. It helps a ton to get an idea of what he wants.
 
Daycare
When I drop him off at daycare, he actually does an "I'm so excited to be here" dance. He replaces that with "sweet eyes" because the majority of his class is made up of girls. As soon as we walk in, one of the girls in the class immediately says "Drew Drew" and gets a big smile on her face. Of course, he plays it cool and surveys the scene to see where he wants to hang out once I leave. I'm afraid this boy is a "Heartbreaker In Training"

Work in Progress
We no longer have "Paci" during the day. For the last several months, Paci is only allowed in the bed when he is sleeping. So, when I get Andrew up in the morning, I say "Put paci in the bed" and he takes it out of his mouth and puts it in his bed. He is very proud when he does that. I still allow it at night because he takes comfort in it and he tends to wake up a few times during the night and immediately looks for it. Which actually means, it makes it easier on me. I can stay in bed because he is soothing himself with his Paci. We will transition away from it all together pretty soon. But, for now - he can sleep with it.


We are still giving him a bottle for milk. He refuses, absolutely refuses, to drink milk from anything other than his bottle. We have tried sippy cups, people cups, straws, etc... he spits it out. If you give it to him in the bottle, he is a happy camper. So, out of my desire to have him drink milk - I'm allowing the bottle. I'm not giving in on this one anytime soon though. I'm so tired of cleaning bottles that it fuels my desire to get him to drink milk from a cup. Any ideas on accomplishing this are welcome!

Actions
It is in this area that I'm most impressed with my kiddo. It's truly amazing how much he observes and can mimic. He will literally unload the entire dishwasher. He knows exactly which drawer or cabinet to put each and every item. The cutting board, pots & pans, plates, etc... He knows that plastic cups and glasses go in one cabinet and coffee cups go in another. He takes one utensil at a time and walks over to the drawer and opens it - puts the utensil in it and closes it and goes back for another.

It's not just the dishwasher - when we feed the dogs, he knows the entire process and wants to participate. He knows that we soften their food with hot water and so he heads that direction before I do. He knows that when we get home, we let the dogs out of their kennel and immediately let them out the back door. He even folds laundry the way that I do. He watches everything... well almost everything. He does not seem to pay any attention to mommy picking up his toys when we are done playing. That part has just escaped him - wonder where he got that from. ;-)

I'm amazed by him every day. He is an unbelievably happy child with so much excitement towards life. He is absolutely independent. He wants to do everything for himself and does not want help. He is going to be a very strong and driven man that will accomplish anything he sets his mind to. I'm excited to see how he continues to develop. Although, in the meantime, I force my hugs and kisses and snuggles on him as much as I can and we try to mind our P's and Q's since he is watching every move we make.