a thank you

I forgot to post this a week or so ago. It's too sweet not to share.

The story behind this is quite simple. Gavin thinks Steve is SO cool. He will watch this video over and over and over again. If you haven't watched it before, please do, it's a good one. We watch it in the car, dance to it in the living room and even watch it in the bed at bedtime. Last year when Gavin started preschool he was shocked to see that Steve's son is in Gavin's preschool class. This year again the boys are in the same classroom and Gavin says they're besties, (among many others).

A week or two ago at preschool they were talking about the post office and how it all works. One day Gavin came home and told me he sent a letter to Steve. I quickly brushed it off because I doubted that Mrs Julie would send it out. To be honest I have no idea how it was sent or if it went home with Steve's son, but he got it.

A week or two later Gavin was overjoyed to get a letter in the mail and was SO excited when I read him the letter out loud. He was even happier when I told him it was from Steve. It was adorable. Plus, a DQ gift card? Wow, now that's cool. It is still sitting on Gavs bulletin board and he refuses to spend his DQ card. He has shared the story with so many people I'm sure they're sick of hearing about it.

It still makes my day to see my little boy so excited about it. And it was so sweet of Steve.

sweet two

My sweet little baby boy Jude is now two. I guess that means he's not a little baby anymore, huh? We celebrated on Valentines day with Grandpa Gerry (his favorite person in the world) and Grandma Shari, and of course, our little family of four. We had some pizza, cupcakes and gifts. It was pretty perfect. We even let him have his "daddy pop" -aka MT Dew, for dinner. Ironically enough he went to bed early, even with all the sugar.

Daddy left for Montana on his actual birthday- poor kid will probably never have both of his parents together on his birthday- so we got up and had a good breakfast and headed up to Alexandria despite the awful weather to hang with Grandma and go to the water park. Our plans got slightly derailed when we came to find out that Arrowwood Resort didn't have day passes on holiday weekends. It definitely slipped my mind that Monday was Presidents Day. We stayed at my moms house and had another favorite of Judes- spaghetti and to top it off.... a John Deere ice cream cake. He only ate the yummy gel frosting and whipped cream edges.

Sunday we headed to the water park where Jude and I enjoyed going down the water slide... on repeat. I bet we went down about 100 times, and that I am not exaggerating about in the least. It was great. Our hotel room was beautiful and we enjoyed everything about our stay. I will definitely be bringing the boys back to enjoy Arrowwood again this summer with daddy when there's more to do outside for little ones.

Our Monday was a doozy. It took us just about three hours to get home from Alex. The conditions didn't get bad until after Paynesville- the drive I know like the back of my hand- it took FOREVER.

We did a quick session with Renee from Dassel to get a few head-shots of Jude of his two year pictures. We got a few goodies with Sarah, but he wasn't too excited to do any solo ones. The mini session was great! It lasted about 20 minutes and was $30 which is a steal of a deal for a two year old.

I'm pretty sure my heart melted on the first and last ones.

Here's some of Judes favorites/milestones:

-He can obviously walk. It took him just past one to be able to walk. Now he gallops and my heart goes pitter patter every-single-time.

-He's not the greatest talker. His words consist of: ball, book, boots, kitty kitty, Bella, Lilly, blankie, tractor, go, mama, dada, more, baby, no, ya, milk, juice, uh-oh, nack-snack, phone, spoon, cow... I mean we're not adding any sentences together. Jude's always been a little delayed in the speech area. It will come.

-loves anything that moves. Tractors, trucks, buses, dump trucks, ect. You know, the usual boy things. Shrieks with delight when he sees Maddy or Lilly. 

-CANNOT live without his blankie. 

-loves swimming, bath time, playing in the sink.
-bananas, eggs and spaghetti are his fav foods.
- daddy pop is his most desired beverage. He constantly has a sippy full of something- water, milk, juice.
-Papa Gerry can make any day the best day ever.
-Fights tooth and nail with his big bro, Gavin. But then the next second they will be laying in bed reading books together. He follows Gav around more than Gavin really cares for.
-Jude is so even tempered. He gets frustrated when I don't know what he wants, because of the lack of words, but hardly ever slips into the "temper tantrum" mode.
-He helps mama around the house. Listens like a champ. If I say, "Jude, go bring your toys to your room" he will do it.... Immediately! I hope that never changes.
-Sleeps great! He goes to bed around 7:30 and gets up at 8. Takes an hour and a half nap from 1-1:30 to 3. It might be my favorite time of the day :)
-Looks just like mama when mama was little.
-Doesn't care much for tv. He likes Mickey and Jake but will only watch the show for about 10 minutes. He will, however, watch almost an entire John Deere movie.
-He hates to be in the car. Almost immediately he will fuss.
-Spends countless hours destroying my fridge and splashing in the sink.


We are so lucky to have little Jude Andrew. I couldn't imagine life without him. I cannot wait to see him grow.

gap

I don't know where you mamas buy your little ones clothes but for me the one stop shop has always been the Gap. So convenient and super close in St Cloud. There's always an abundant of little boys clothes for Gavin, I mean myslef, to chose from, and quick! Well little did I know that the St Cloud Gap has turned into a factory store and everything for little boys is.. well... junk. I don't really love the St Cloud Gap anymore. To be honest I've been there once since it turned into a factory store and have no intention of going back. I would much rather drive to Ridgedale or spend the afternoon at Southdale (my favorite mall) and even hit up MOA (WITHOUT kids). 

On Thursday I put three different outfits on Gavin. All three were too short. I can only assume Gav gets his height from his Papa Scott because no one around this household is extra tall. Gavin is up to my belly button and he is only FOUR!... what? By the time he's in middle school I'm pretty sure he'll be taller than I am. Which isn't too terribly hard to do because I am only 5' 2"... I lie and say I'm 5' 3" sometimes (shhhhh). Gavin has always worn a larger shirt than his "age" because he torso is SOOOOO long. But now we're going to a 5T in jeans as well. My little growing boy. I love that he's getting so big and growing up so nicely but it is kind of pricey to have this little boy going through so many clothes, so fast. Thank the Lord I have a sweet little boy who gets all of his older bros hand-me-downs that are still in mint condition. 

Anyways enough with the rambling. Today I decided to order some new jeans and a few shirts for Gavin via gap.com. I have no time in the upcoming weeks to head to the cities and Target seems to be pretty limited on little boy clothes in this winter/spring awkward time. Which by the way is probably the only other store I love for my boys, and to be honest... myself. Who doesn't love Target? So I filled up my cart and headed to the checkout. As I was looking for my card I noticed I still had a giftcard from TWO Christmases ago that I assumed had a few extra dollars to take care of the winter hats I ordered for the boys that they don't need (but they were so adorable). I typed in the numbers and pin code and BAM! $100 left on the card. Thanks, mom! Seriously it was a pretty awesome way to start off this Friday. So of course I did what any other person would do... filled up the cart even more and didn't tell Dan I found a giftcard. The boys should be set till spring. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!

the potty

I have been dreading this..

Potty training.

I knew it was time to start the never ending process of introducing "the potty" to Jude when he decided to take off his diaper in the middle (or beginning) of the night in his crib. Which means.... A mess when I get up. Not really a mess, just to clarify, but a soaked blanket or three.

He has followed everyone in this house into the bathroom more times than I can count so I knew he would be okay sitting on the potty and washing his hands, ect. But I wasn't too sure how the connection between a little mans pee-pee and the actual potty-ing would go.

Gavin was SO easy to potty train because it was just him and I here. It took just about two weeks to get him to always use the potty and only wear pull ups at night (ps, I forget about potty training at night... ohhh I just got stressed). Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

So we got out the leftover package of Thomas the Train undies that Gavin never wore and put them on last week. Day one, SUCCESS! I thought to myself, "wow, I have an amazingly smart little man". And then day two and three were just about as awful as they could get. Many soaked undies and messes to clean up on the floor. Dan has little to no time to deal with the messes so I'm always the one wiping up that yellow mess on the floor. Thankfully we have very little carpet in our house. I've never been more grateful for our tiny house. Today we are golden. No oppsies thus far. We sit on the potty every 30 minutes and read and hand out smarties left and right and sing as well. It's a beautiful time. Our bathroom can fit two people (one adult and one small child) comfortably, because it's teeny tiny, so when we put two small children and myself in there it's quite cramped. Plus, then Gavin thinks he needs treats for going potty--- ummm I don't think so. I remember a very specific maid of honor speech that was something along the lines of, "I was easy to potty train because I wanted to be just like my older sister" and I went with it. So all three of us hang in the bathroom and clap and scream for everyone who goes potty. It really is wonderful. Whenever I find myself getting annoyed I have to honestly check myself and think Jude wants to be just like his brother- go with it!

Now that we're on day four I'm going to try really hard to stick to our routine of using the potty. And eventually being brave enough to venture out of our house without a diaper or pull up on. But until the next two weeks are over (when my baby turns TWO- OH MY GOSH, REALLY? TWO?) I'll keep up with the potty training and undie wearing at home and pull ups when we're in public.

Crossing my fingers for a great, dry day :)