Charlie, Lately.

It's been a while since I've posted about Charlie. He's done a lot of growing since his 15 month update!

He's now 21 months old and SUCH a little person. It blows my mind how smart this kid is. He's still a little string bean at 36" tall and only 23 lbs - but while he may be "small", he makes up for that with a BIG personality.

Without further ado.. here's what Charlie has been up to since May... mostly in photos!

May brought yard clean-up with Daddy and a super cute cheesy smile:

May also brought us messy, but contemplative, Charlie:

May showed us Charlies love for walking in too-big shoes:

And the end of May brought warm weather and lots of time on the slide!

 June meant lots of outside time, which also meant more space for Oscar chasing...

Charlie turned 18 months old in June...

... and discovered the animals at the park...

...and a love for swings.

In August Charlie had his first hair cut.. where he went from mullet-toting baby...

..to this little grown up in the span of a few snips:

Now it's already September and time just keeps flying by. Before I know it my little man will be 2 and have more of an opinion than ever. I love this kid.

Oh, Hey!

Long time no blog, right?

Life has been just a tad crazy since my last post “The End”.

What have I been up to…
I moved to a new job, which is great. I certainly keeps me busy, that’s for damn sure. I’m doing a lot more website design rather than graphics design. But everyday is a bit different. I miss my old co-workers, but I’m lucky that I still see quite a few of them often.

I’ve been doing quite a bit of Freelance design work in my “free” time (I use that term loosely!!). A website for a friend of my sister has been the big one. I’ve also been doing some work with a local photographer.

Hmmm… you wonder about Charlie, do you?
There’s a lot of mischief that comes along with this sweet face, let me tell you!

At nearly 20 months old (how the heck did that happen?!?), he’s definitely keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes. He’s such a big, independent boy now.

I’ll be doing a more detailed Charlie post in the next few days (and by days, I mean hopefully before his 2nd birthday!). So watch for that if you're interested in what my little trouble maker has been up to!

What else…
We’re prepping our house to put it on the market!
Yes, even after the kitchen and bathroom remodels. We finally have the place looking spiffy and now we’re OUT OF SPACE!!

The process is slow going, but we’ll get there. The housing market in our little city isn’t the greatest right now – most houses are taking 1+ YEARS to sell, so I’m trying not to get too excited. Things will happen when/if they’re meant to (according to my wise husband).

Anyways, that’s what’s been up the last… has is really been four months? Wow. Sorry for leaving you all hanging!

More to come, hopefully soon!

The End.

March has come to an end, as has my NaBloPoMo challenge. I managed to do pretty well, only missing one day overall. Not to shabby.

With that done, I do hope that it was the kick start I needed to be more consistent in blogging. While I certainly won't have the time to do it everyday anymore, my new goal is at least five posts per month - although I plan to push myself for more.

NaBloPoMo wasn't the only thing that came to an end in March for me.

This past Friday, I said goodbye to the last seven years of my life. I gathered with my friends and now former co-workers as I cried happy tears (and some sad) on what was my last day at my first ever adult job.

It was certainly a bitter sweet moment. Saying goodbye to people that were not only coworkers, but also people I considered great friends. It wasn't easy, we formed our own little family over time and now I'm walking into a new situation with new people - it's honestly really overwhelming!

I managed to hold it together pretty well as we enjoyed happy hour drinks. That was until I had to say goodbye to a man that was like a father figure to me... a father figure that told inappropriate jokes and talked about his relationship problems.. haha! But in all seriousness, saying goodbye to all of them was hard, but he was the most difficult goodbye of them all.

I genuinely hope that those goodbyes were not permanent. I hope that those seven year friendships can make it and we can all still keep in touch. Here's to positive thinking on that part.

So, now I move on the hopefully bigger and better things. I hope I've made the best decision I could for my career and my family, time will tell. For now I'm going to take it one day at a time and hope for the best.

Photo of the Week

A sign your photo shoot may not be going well: You get a better photo of the dog than your child.

Bad Things Come In 3's

I hope? Maybe?

I'm ready for bad things to stop anytime now.

You may (or may not, I don't know that anyone actually reads these posts) have noticed that I didn't post yesterday - therefore failing at my "blog every day" thing.

However, I totally had a legit excuse:
I got hit by a semi truck.
Yes, literally.
Yes, I'm ok.
No, Charlie was not with me. Thank God.
My car is not so ok, but I'm not sure on the total damage as of yet or if it's fixable.

So yeah. That happened.

The day before that my dentist diagnosed me with stress induced muscle spasms in my jaw. Those hurt like crazy by the way. He told me (I'll paraphrase a bit here) "to chill out and take a vacation".

{source}

Instead I get hit by a semi. I obviously listen well.

I'm hoping the accident counts for two because I don't think I can handle anything else.

Here's to hoping April is a far better month. Aside from the new job offer, March has been an evil wench.

Wordless Wednesday

If this post were, in fact, wordless (which it obviously is not), you wouldn't get this perfect caption: "Please Mom, no more pictures!"

What a Crock.

Crock Pot, that is.

I have some huge schedule changes happening very soon, so I've been looking into ways to make dinner time Monday thru Friday easier on everyone. All while trying not to screw up Charlies schedule and finding a way around my husbands picky eating habits.

Let me tell you, it's been a challenge.

Before now, I've only ever made about three things in a crock pot. And I've never made a freezer meal. I have Pin after Pin on Pinterest for both of these things, yet I've never tried most of them.

Well, things are about to change. I've been researching like crazy to come up with at least two weeks worth of meal plans. So far, I haven't come up with quite that many.. but I'm still working on it!

Here's some of the recipes that are on the slate to try out, hopefully they are keepers!

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken by Semi Homemade Mom

Crock Pot Pork Roast with Apples & Potatoes from Amy's Cooking Adventures

Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole by The Country Cook

Roasted Pork Loin from Peace, Love and French Fries

As far as frozen meals go, I'm thinking Lasagna, Meat Loaf, maybe some Enchiladas. I also plan on making a huge batch of Spaghetti Sauce to freeze in smaller bags.

Obviously this process is going to be trial and error for a while. My main reason for looking more into this is because my work schedule will be changing, along with a major career move. This means that I will be getting home at about the time Charlie is usually demanding dinner - not good! Hopefully we'll get into a new groove after a few weeks.

If you have any crock pot or frozen meal favorites, feel free to share!

15 Months

Ok, I realize how completely late I am on this.. only like two weeks...

Anyways, I'm going to do these updates to go along with his well-checks at the Doctor. For now, we'll see what happens after he turns two (TWO! Holy crud). I'm going to do them a little differently than his previous Monthly Check-Ins. Here go's...

Who took my baby and replaced him with this big boy?

 Weight: At his last check on 3/22/13 he was 20lbs 12oz. He's been all over the map in terms of weight because the poor thing has been sick for the better part of a month. We're doing monthly weight checks for the time being to see if we can get him to gain a little more since he is on the small side.

Height: About 32"

The butter container he stole from my Tupperware drawer.

Diaper Size: One-Size Cloth, Size 3 Disposables

Clothing/Shoe Size: A really random mix of 9, 12 & 18 month sizes. It depends on brand and what it is. He's currently in size 4 shoes.

Eating: Generally speaking, this kids eats like a horse. There has been a lot of days in the last few months where his appetite is MIA - whether from illness, teething or just plain pickiness. But to make up for those days, he has days where he eats... and eats... and eats! I often find myself wondering where he puts it all! It's some sort of miracle that he only weighs 20lbs!

Enjoying some yogurt and animal crackers!

Sleeping: There's good days and bad days. Unfortunately for us, more of the latter lately. Between all the aforementioned illnesses and teething and colds and other random stuff, his night time sleep has progressively gotten worse. We're talking about trying some sleep training once his health is back in order. Naps on the other hand, have gotten a lot better *knock on wood*. He generally takes just one nap a day now that lasts anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Huge improvement from before. Now we just need to get night time straightened out!

Teeth: We're at 12! A FAR ways away from the mere 2 he had three months ago. 

Cuteness!

Communication: This kid is always making some sort of noise. I generally speaks his own language and it's pretty funny to witness because he'll just go on and on in jibberish for an endless amount of time, complete with wild hand gestures.

He's picking up really well on sign language. Currently, he signs 'More' (his favorite!), 'All Done', 'Please' and (occasionally) 'Book'.

As far as verbal communication, he has a pretty wide selection of words that he uses correctly and regularly. Those include (and I'm probably going to forget some...)

• Oscar
• More
• Please
• Hi
• Bye
• Turtle
• Uppy
• Hat
• Shoe
• Belly
• Bear
• Cracker
• Blue
• Ball
• Out
• Off
• On
• Dog
• Book
• Poop
• Baby
• No
• Yes
• Hug

He also says a few "Phrases": All Done, Uh Oh & Oh No!

I think that's about all we have on Mr. Charlie! I'm sure I could go on all day though :)

So I leave you with this:

awwwwwwwwwwwww!

A quick craft.

I had about an hour to work on a project I've been thinking about for a while now. It came together rather quickly!

I introduce my Magnetic Fabric Shapes! A great fridge toy, and better yet, both sides are magnetic.

Tutorial coming soon!

Buy All The Things!!

If you've ever spent anytime at all on Etsy, you know there is A LOT of great stuff on there.

I could probably easily drop thousands on Etsy, but fortunately for my bank account I'm able to reign myself in!

Let's start with a few items that have been floating around on my favorites list for a while.

Peridot Diamond & Silver Twig Ring from EveryBearJewel

Buy for $99.00 Here

Key To Your Heart Necklace by bijouxbydesif

Buy Here

Chevron Print Camera Bag by Janine King Designs

Buy for $79.99 Here

Now for a few of my favorite shops!

Snugglens Camera Bags

 

Janine King Designs

Roots and Wings: A Life Americana

Hi Butterfly

Lupen Grainne

Jacqueline Ann Invitations

My Nerd is Showing.

Have you heard?

Canon has introduced it's newest line up of DSLR cameras.

And I am drooling. (Not on the cameras though, that would be bad. Unless it was in a waterproof case.)

Source

They've rolled out the Rebel SL1 /EOS 100D and the Rebel T5i/EOS 700D.

They are both 18-megapixel SLR cameras. The main difference between the two is the size, the SL1 is significantly smaller and lighter. That leads me to believe that the body is likely mostly made of plastic. In my opinion, a mainly plastic body is not really a direction anyone should go in.

However, I can see the SL1 becoming pretty popular. A lot of users love the DSLR functionality, but loathe the bulky size (I'm actually guilty of that!). So because of that, I see this one jumping up in popularity.

Based on the reviews I've read so far, the T5i is very similar to the T4i.. and the T3i... and the T2i. Very little difference. You could purchase any of those models for far less than the T5i's $800 price tag and get similar functions and photo results. I guess it's a preference of how "up to date" you want your equipment to be.

I'm still rocking a T1i here. Old school. So basically I'm chomping to upgrade. I'm not holding my breath though, my current camera works just fine!

I will however, continue to dream.

Kindle Fire: A Review

I'll be the first to admit that I was hesitant to jump into the world of the E-Reader. While they've been popular for a while, I just purchased mine around Thanksgiving 2012.

Better late than never I say!

So, which one did I get?

 

I went with the Kindle Fire. They were having a Cyber Monday Sale (and I'm a sucker for a good online deal!) with $30 off the list price. I also had a $25 Amazon gift card, as well as $39 in credit card points that I could use towards an Amazon purchase. All of that brought down the final cost of a Kindle Fire to only $65! A pretty good deal if you ask me!

Oh the joys of online deals.. sigh.

Anyways, on to my review.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been hesitant about E-Readers. I mean, there's nothing better than curling up with a traditional book, right? Turning the pages, the smell of the fresh paper and ink on a new book... why would I want to give that up?

Well, for $65, I figured I could take a chance. I'm glad I did.

No more books cluttering my already full bookshelf. The convenience of being able to just toss this little guy right in my ginormous purse. Buying books with the tap of a finger and having them there instantly (this is both good AND bad!). Also, the ease of use when a toddler refuses to nap anywhere but on you is pretty great!

What I Like:

• Lots of digital storage
• Free Cloud Storage 
• Fast downloads
• Wi-Fi connectivity & ease of finding networks
• Ease of customization
• Fairly long battery life
• The ability to use it as a Tablet
• The Kindle Lending Library
• The Free Month of Amazon Prime

What I Don't Like:

• That I can't lend certain books (this is more publishers that Amazon)
• You can only borrow one free book a month with a Prime Membership
• The Facebook App SUCKS
• The web browser is finicky
• The keyboard is super touchy
• Auto-correct is even worse the the i-Phone
• You have to buy a separate charging adapter

I know that seems like a lot of negatives, but in retrospect, it's all pretty minor things. The positives far outweigh the negatives so far.

Overall, I think the Kindle Fire is a worthwhile purchase. If you have the money for it, I would even recommend upgrading to the Kindle Fire HD. I've heard great things about that as well.

So, what about Accessories?

There are three things that are a MUST in my opinion: A Charging Adapter, A Screen Protector and a Super Cute Case.

The Charger: Amazon Kindle PowerFast

$19.99 on Amazon

This is NOT included with the Kindle Fire! It DOES come with a USB cable, but that only works to charge if you hook it up to a computer. This little gadget works anywhere you can find a standard outlet. Using the USB cable included with your Kindle, you plug that into the Powerfast and the other end into your Kindle. Super fast charging pretty much anywhere!

Note: Make sure you buy the correct Powerfast to use with whatever Kindle model you have. There are different types!

The Screen Protector:  Moshi iVisor

$15.99 on Amazon

A good quality screen protector is a must in my opinion! I chose this one based on the reviews and I'm really happy with it. It went on easily and truly "bubble free", you honestly can't even tell it's on there because it fits so seamlessly. There are a lot of other screen protectors to choose from, just choose what will work best for you.

Again, Note: Make sure to purchase the correct one to fit your Kindle model!

A Cute Case: Verso

$24.99 on Amazon

Verso cases seem to be pretty popular. There are a TON of case options out there, you just need to choose the one that best fits your personality. The price range is also pretty large, this one is on the lower end - but even though it's less expensive, the quality is still pretty good in my opinion.

Again, make sure you purchase the correct size!

Whew! Long winded post. I hope this review might help those who are teetering on the e-reader edge like I was!

New Things

You may notice a few new things hanging out on my blog today...

• My new Pinterest Button (over on the right)
• A Bloglovin' link (also on the right) and another on on top of the page
• A new "About Me" page up top

...and a few other random updates. Nothing fancy.

Follow me here to keep up with this blog and my oh so interesting life!

Book Review: "Requiem"

*First off, you may have heard that Google is discontinuing Google Reader (boooo Google!). Anyways, I'm hopping on the Bloglovin' train.

Follow me here to keep up with this blog and my oh so interesting life!

There will also be a permanent button in the side bar and included in new posts for the time being. Now, onto the book review!*

"Requiem" by Lauren Oliver

SUMMARY from Goodreads
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.

But we are still here.

And there are more of us every day.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.

Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.

Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.

But we have chosen a different road.

And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.

We are even free to choose the wrong thing.

Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

MY RATING

MY THOUGHTS
I wanted, more than anything, to love this book. Really, I did.

Don't get me wrong, I liked it, but it feels like she forgot a few chapters at the end! Way too many loose ends for my liking. There were so many characters that were built up throughout the series and then never wrapped up. Too many questions left at the end.

Don't even get me started on Raven, I could talk all day about her. BUT...I won't because I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read it yet. For those that have read it, you likely know what I mean - a very anticlimactic way to wrap up such a strong character. You also never get any solid ending for Julian (whose character was never fully developed in my opinion) or Hana and Fred. Even Lena and Alex are left somewhat hanging.

It was still a good book, and I'm glad I read it, but I feel like the author was rushed to an ending or failed at including an epilogue. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise great series. I have heard rumors of a potential epilogue or short story addition to it, and I truly hope that's the case - it may ease my disappointment.

We can't win around here.

Last weekend was a double ear infection, this weekend appears to be some sort of stomach bug!

My poor baby wants to eat but can't keep anything down :( We're trying to stick to a bland diet and offering lots of snuggles.

I think it was this same time last year that a stomach bug swept through our house. It was horrible. Charlie was spared last time but not this year, poor guy.

Spring and warm weather can't come soon enough. We need to open some windows and air out this germ factory!

I hope everyone is having a better weekend than we are :(

Charlie Lately

I haven't really posted a true Charlie update since his twelve-month post and my sappy ONE post. I have an official 15 month post planned for Monday/Tuesday after his appointment.

But what has my little trouble maker been up to for the last three months?

He's been a busy guy, changing every day. He is great at keeping Mommy on her toes!

Let's see what he's been up to...

He started walking the week between Christmas and New Years! It really didn't take him long at all to work his way up to a full-blown run. In three and a half months this kid has gotten FAST. Like REALLY fast.

It was pretty crazy, he went from just cruising a little bit and then one day he was all "let's do this, I'm done with crawling!". It's amazing how quickly babies learn and pick up new skills.

He's been a really great eater lately. Now he eats pretty much whatever we're eating and fortunately he's not very picky so far. Veggies are a battle sometimes, but if he clears his plate of everything else and all that's left is veggies, he will usually cave.

Charlie is definitely a big boy now, choosing to eat most meals off a plate with a fork or spoon. I've noticed lately that he's starting to be a little less messy too, which is pretty nice! He seems to be gaining more control with his hand/eye/mouth coordination. That doesn't mean the bibs have been retired quite yet though :)

We have a little mime on our hands. We've been noticing more and more that he is beginning to mimic our actions and tries to say what we say (no more cuss words!).

If we're reading the paper, he "reads" (or rips apart, whatever) the paper. If we're washing our hands or putting on lotion, he's rubbing his hands together just like us. If we're thumping our chest gorilla style, so is he. You get the idea! It's pretty adorable.

In the last month or so, I've noticed his vocabulary is really growing. He will try to repeat nearly every word you say. In his 15 month update post, I'll go a little more into detail about his talking. Charlie is an animal sound pro and it would appear that his favorites are Turtles (hearing him say "turtle" is pretty much the most adorable thing EVER) and Lions... ROARRRR!!

Charlie built his first snowman about a month and a half ago. With a little help from Daddy, of course.

He was pretty unimpressed with that white stuff we call snow. The marshmallow suit combined with the cold, snowy weather had him looking pretty glum the whole short 15 minutes we were outside. Oh well, I'm sure he'll enjoy it a little more as he gets older... or he'll be like Mom and just choose to stay inside when it's snowing, which is fine by me!

I think the last three months have been my favorite months so far in this parenting adventure. He changes SO MUCH everyday. It really blows my mind. It's so cool that I get to witness all the awesomeness that he exudes on a daily basis. It's pretty great and I wouldn't give it up for anything!