Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Snow!

FINALLY. We have snow! It just doesn't seem like winter without snow. A lot of people won't agree. I've been so bummed that we haven't had much this winter, I think because I want to play in it with Ronan. And today, as I watched out the window, my excitement grew with each snowflake sticking to the ground. yay!!

We had a fun playdate with some nearby friends and I really wanted to walk the 1/2 mile or so. But with the wind and blizzard-like conditions (ok, it wasn't really that bad), I decided against it. So when we got home, we burned off a little extra energy before naptime. I can't wait to go back out tomorrow. I think I'll drag out the sled...


first taste of snow
I loved watching him tromp up and down the walk way. So cute







Saturday, January 14, 2012

In Sickness and In Health

Oh boy, the stomach flu hit our household this week. Ro was the first victim and I fell about a day later (let's pray Patrick was skipped entirely!).  It was nasty, nasty stuff and I'm really glad it's pretty much behind us.  It was my first adventure into the world of having a sick kiddo-outside of a cold-and I've always wondered how I would handle it. I guess it's true that when the time comes, you just do what you have to do.  There were a couple of funny moments, I'll spare you the details, and all in all I had a surprisingly positive outlook. At least until it hit me, but by then Ronan was feeling better-thank you Lord!  We all know how awful it is to be sick, so instead of dwelling on that, here's my "silver lining" list (I thought a lot about these things this week, or tried to anyway)

1. Sick baby = Extra Snuggly Baby.  By far the best moment of my year so far was Ronan crawling up on my lap right after breakfast. Thirty minutes of snuggles was followed by 80 perfect minutes of holding my sleeping baby, studying his sweet face and sneaking soft kisses. Most of you know that this is unheard of with our active, social child! I haven't had him sleep in my arms like that since he was a newborn. It's the best
2.  Sunshine. It was nice to have a few rays of sun in the house instead of a grey sky adding to the dreariness.
3. All soft surfaces were spared :)  And as an bonus, my floors are extra clean now.
4. Ronan was hit first while I was still feeling good. I'm so thankful I was able to fully take care of him, comfort him, clean and do laundry before I was affected the next day. 
5. Patrick ended up not being on call Wednesday night, thank goodness! He cared for me in every way I needed while also making sure Ronan was taken care of. Unfortunately he did have to take call the next night, which really was not cool. But seriously, I'm so thankful it was not Wednesday.
6.  Movie days. We watched our first cartoon together (Cars 2) and I caught up on a couple I've been wanting to see.  Ro was feeling good by this time, so I felt a little bad that all I could do was lay on the couch, but he's so good at entertaining himself. And he was still pretty snuggly :)
7. Dare I say, weight loss? It would have been best for me not to lose the weight, but I know it was all water weight and it will find its way back in the next few days.
8. It was a good thing we had no desire to join the land of the living, because I found out my car battery was dead! This was while Patrick was gone for a couple of days.  I know I could have called nearby friends for help, but seriously, we weren't getting off the couch anyway!

Ro went through all of his jammies in one day. I came back from the laundry to find him reading in his rocking chair! So sweet

Ro loves playing hide and seek and finding new nooks to hide within.  His favorite hiding spot is on the side of the fire place.  I love when kids are this age and think they can't be seen just because they can't see you :)






Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Life

We had a pretty quiet week last week. Patrick was home until Wednesday, so we soaked up our last few days of his vacation with lots of family time. Patrick installed our new stair banister, which is great since Ronan loves the stairs! He also made some huge progress on the downstairs bathroom over his break and it is now usable! Yay! Ronan was a huge help, following his daddy around with his new set of tools :) We refinished a bookcase (hopefully I'll post a pic for you soon) which has launched me on an organizing spree. This time of year is perfect for that.  All in all a pretty low key week. Which was great since our "free" weekend ended up being very busy with so many awesome chances to hang out with friends and family. It was wonderful :) 

A few pics from last week. I love the first one.


"I thought you were watching him..."  Actually, this was on my watch. I thought he was in his room playing with his toys like he had just been doing 2 minutes earlier.
"uh-oh"
Luckily, he likes to help me vacuum! :) He really is such a help already, picking up his toys with me and trying to help with laundry and emptying the dishwasher.




Have a great week!


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Christmas 2011

Well, Christmas has come and gone and we've all moved on to the New Year. Even though I'm behind, I wanted to share these photos.  We had a great Christmas with my (Nikki's) side of the family.  We spent most of our time at the family cabin, which was wonderfully relaxing.  We were so thankful my mom, aunt and new cousin Jacob made it home safe and sound from China just a few days before Christmas!

Ronan soaked up all the attention from his family. He is truly a ham and pretty darn entertaining. I think he has most of us wrapped around his finger! Out of all of the goodness and blessing of the weekend, I think my favorite moments were watching Ronan and his cousin Keegan interact.  They are just getting to that age of actually being social with eachother and seemed to really enjoy each other. Keegan is on the verge of walking and then look out, we'll have double trouble on our hands!

Bringing in our Christmas tree!



Thrilled with his new squeaky shoes grandma brought back from China!

Talking with family

His big gift - a toolset just like dad's!

Our adorable nephew.



Christmas dinner...yum...


SNOW!





baby pong