Independence

A couple of months ago, Walter started being more and more involved in making decisions and participating his daily routines. Putting on his pants: "I do it!" Picking out a bedtime story: "I do it!" Climbing into his booster seat for dinner: "No Mama. I do it!" The more he realizes he can do, the more he wants to do. And he wants to do it when he feels like doing it. He gets dressed only when he's good and ready. And leaving the house is a 20 minute ordeal. We reason with him for 15 minutes, then end up wrestling him into his car seat, while he screams and cries. His behavior is the same whether we're going to the bank or going to get ice cream. That's right – not even the promise of ice cream will get him into the car without a fight. But, somehow, he manages to mix his worst behavior with his best. Between these fits and tantrums, Walter is sweeter than ever. He snuggles, he hugs, he kisses, he laughs. He runs to the door to greet me when I come home from work. So, I think we'll keep him. The kicking and screaming won't last forever and when he's done, we get this silly, adorable little boy to enjoy.

Shopping without a list

My sister asked me to go to the fabric store to help her choose fabric to line a sweater she's making. Easy enough. We picked out a cozy cotton that Finn will love. But, 2 shops and $40 later, I have 8 balls of yarn, and half a yard of fabric. And I don't have a clue what I'm going to do with any of it. Any ideas?

It's growing!

I'm such a dork. I get so excited when the garden starts to show signs of life. I've grown plenty of gardens before, but I still think it's some sort of miracle when the things I plant actually start sprouting out of the ground. I check on it every day, and whenever I see something new come up, I run to tell Nate, "We have beans!" He humors me, and pretends to be excited too. (Sort of.)

Ready to go

It was a HOT day and we decided to go out for ice cream after dinner. We told Walter to get ready to go:

If that's not ready, I don't know what is...

Road trip and 90 minute shirt

We just got home from a short road trip to the Twin Cities. We were only gone three days, but we did a lot! Two zoos, an aquarium and the children's museum. Nate took nap duty one afternoon so I could spend a couple of hours alone in the Mall of America. It's such a luxury to shop by myself these days. We also saw the Brewers play the Twins – and lose. It wasn't pretty. But it was fun! And Walter got to wear his new 90 minute Brewer shirt. I'm getting so much use out of the 90 minute shirt tutorial. This time, I used a (free!) XL Brewer t-shirt: 

And turned it into a tiny tee for our little Brewer fan:

Sadly, no matter how many times he yells, "Go Brewers!" they just can't seem to win. But we'll keep cheering...

Field trip

The boys from the bachelor pad have packed up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and are going on a field trip. I hope they brought sunscreen – the Emperor is awfully fair-skinned...

Busy, busy, busy

Here it is, the middle of May, and our summer is pretty much booked. Baseball games, graduations, road trips and a certain little boy's birthday party – yikes! Our weekends are full. It's all a little overwhelming when I look at the calendar, but I think everything we have planned will be fun and I'm actually looking forward to all that time spent traveling in the car – the few hours here and there when I can knit or read.
Walter has always been very good in the car, but with all these road trips in our future, I wanted him to have something new to keep him entertained (so I can do all that knitting and reading). I made him a busy book, packed full of fun toddler activities.

Things to buckle, tie and button. (He'll need help with these things.) A "wallet" holding cards and keys.

Baseballs to slide from base to base. Number flaps, hiding buttons to count.

A traffic light with velcro lights to rearrange. A street with trucks to slide back and forth. A dump truck full of shapes.

A pocket full of animal pictures to flip through.

This was a really fun project for me. It certainly kept me busy! I worked on it a little bit here and a little bit there, making a page whenever I got a new idea. (I found tons of good ideas here and here.) I sure hope Walter likes it. I'm crossing my fingers for happy, fuss-free car rides all summer long...