All Better

I am happy to say that Aedan is completely back to normal. His RSV ended up turning into bronchitis, but we got him on some antibiotics on Friday and by yesterday he was doing MUCH better.

We had some errands to run this morning and Aedan feel asleep in the car. Usually if he falls asleep for a few minutes he is still fine going down for a nap later, but this time it was a little too close to nap time. He was out. I even heard him snore a little. Needless to say when we got home, he thought nap time was done for the day. Sigh.

Since he really didn’t nap and I didn’t want to hang around the house all afternoon with a cranky toddler, we loaded up and headed across the street for a walk. I took the long path and we walk (well I walked and Aedan rode in the stroller) for 30 minutes to a park, played for a good 45 minutes and then walked the 30 minutes back to the car. It was perfect. I got some good walking in and Aedan got to rest in the stroller. Then at the park, we ran into another mom I know from story time and her daughter, so Aedan had a blast playing.

The other nice thing about no nap days, is Aedan will go to bed super early. I put him down around 6:45 and haven’t heard a peep from him since.

So with that, I am off to enjoy a relaxing evening. :) But first here is a cute picture I found on my camera. I think I probably took it sometime in December.

-Lauren-

Five Things Friday

1. I am so glad it's Friday!!

2. Usually I try to only go to the grocery store once a week, but I always forget one thing. Seriously, it never fails, I will forget one item. The worst part is, I will remember the item when I get in the car to go home (you know, after I have loaded all my groceries in the car, buckled Aedan in his carseat and started backing it of the parking spot). It's annoying. I think it used to annoy Jon too, but now he just laughs at me when I get home and tell him what I forgot to get.

SO, this week I am trying something new out. We (Aedan and I) are going to the grocery store twice. Once at the beginning of the week and then again today. I like the idea of going twice because it means less meals I have to plan for at one and less to buy at once. We'll see how it goes...

3. I was sick all weekend with some kind of virus. My only real symptom was a fever with body aches and chills. No fun. A least it only lasted 3 days! I was bummed that it fell on the weekend because no one likes to be sick on Saturday and Sunday. But I am so glad Jon was able to entertain Aedan because I definitely did not feel up to it!

4. Speaking of sick, Aedan came down with something Monday night. He didn't have a fever until yesterday, just lots of congestion and a couch. His cough seemed to get a lot worse yesterday so I took him to the doctor. He tested positive for RSV. Poor guy. Hopefully he will start to feel better soon! Until then, he is basically on a milk diet because he refuses to eat anything else and neither of us is sleep well because he is up coughing and I am up worrying about him.

5. I'm sending out invites for Aedan's birthday party this weekend. We are just going to do a low key thing at home with friends and family. I'm so excited we have enough space to have everyone over! Now I just have to figure it what kind of food to serve...

-Lauren-

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Aedan–23 Months

I cannot believe in less than one month, my baby is going to be two!!

I haven’t done an update in forever. I was going to wait until his birthday, but I thought I would do a quick update now incase I forget then.

Aedan, here is what you are up  to these days…

• I am guessing you weigh between 25-28 lbs., but I have no idea. You have definitely gotten taller in the last few weeks because all of a sudden your 18 month pants are way too short. You officially wear 2T in everything.
• I just bought you a new pair of shoes in size 7. They are a little big, but they work. It’s the last baby/toddler size. Next time we will be looking at big boy shoes!
• You still sleep from 7:30/8 pm-7:30/8 am. You take an afternoon nap from about 12:30-3:30 everyday. Some days you sleep longer and some days you wake up after 2.5 hours, but 3 hours is your typical nap.
• You still love milk and probably drink way too much of it on a daily basis.
• You have some days were you eat great and then a lot of days were you eat like a bird. On the days you eat well some of your favorite foods are eggs, waffles, oatmeal, quesadillas, soup (Daddy gave you split pea soup last week and you loved it, you must not be my child after all) :), rice, chicken, spinach, peas, cucumber, black beans, strawberries, chips, string cheese, peanut butter, apples and yogurt.
• You talk all the time! I have completely lost count of the number of words you use everyday and you seem to be picking more up daily. I hear “what this?” a lot during the day. You want me to label everything you don’t know. You are starting to use a lot of 2-4 word statements and questions which is really fun to hear.
• You have way too many toys, but your favorites would have to be you toy vacuum and your tool set. You love to play with blocks, legos and cars inside and your golf clubs and soccer ball outside.
• You love to be around people (which is so different from how you were as a newborn, then you hated to be around anyone but us). You get super excited when people come over, especially when they play with you. You always want them to go to you “room” aka your playroom.
• You are pretty easy to take places. You do well riding in the cart and love to say hi and bye to everyone. If we have a quick errand to run, I let you walk with me and for the most part you do well. You don’t love holding my hand when we walk through the parking lot, but when I tell you its that or be held, you are okay with it.
• You love to have a job to do. At home if daddy is working on something, you want to be right in the middle of it. You will run and get your tools as soon as you see daddy get his tool bag out. You will help me carry things in from the car and put away some of the dishes. I have to be careful because sometimes you get a little carried away with your dishes and start pulling the glass stuff out of the dishwasher.
• You are in charge of letting Hiro in every morning and feeding him breakfast. You only need a little help feeding him because depending on the day, you want to give him way to much or not enough. :)
• We took the baby gate off the stairs this weekend and haven’t had to put it back up. You go up and down really well now, and you always come tell me if you are going to go up “dairs”.
• You don’t like being told no and definitely have a stubborn streak in you. Most of the time when we tell you no after you have asked for something you will try again with a “please” and then when you hear no again, you will say “ahhh” and walk or run away.

Aedan, you are so much fun! I could go on and on about all the things you do everyday. You can be a handful sometimes but mostly you are just plane fun to be with. We love you so much!! Love, Mommy

-Lauren-

Happy Birthday Jon

My mom wrote this letter for Jon on his birthday.

To Jon:

Today is my son-in-law’s birthday and for me, that makes it a day to celebrate the special person that he is. Although Dan and I can’t be there to celebrate with him, Lauren and Aedan, I wanted to send this little birthday greeting to him today.

I distinctly remember when Dan and I first heard of this certain someone that Lauren had met that weekend about 7 years ago. When she spoke about this guy, there was excitement in her voice and she told me that she had a “feeling” that something might develop between them. When the time was right and we finally got to meet him, I could tell just how much Jon cared for Lauren and how happy she was when she was with him. Of course, I admit, we were not 100% sure about Jon being Mr. Right, because as parents, you always have that feeling that no guy is ever going to be good enough for your daughter! After seeing them so happy together, those fears soon melted away. I know Lauren and Jon’s wedding day was such a happy one for us all---they truly just seemed meant for each other. When I think back to those times, I realize that while I was happy that Lauren was so in love, I also realized that our family now had a new member to embrace and love.

Through the first three years of their marriage, we all enjoyed getting together and getting to really know each other. I was delighted in the fact that Jon was so devoted to Lauren and I came to really appreciate his many talents in the kitchen. He would whisk dishes away to be rinsed and put in the dishwasher faster than you could say “jackrabbit” and he was ready to help with any food prep that needed to be done. What mother-in-law is ever going to not love that kind of help! I also knew he wasn’t doing these things to impress anyone but because he truly wanted to help.

However, one of the most special times that I watched Jon, was when they brought Aedan home from the hospital. Jon was more than ready to jump in to the diaper changing or do whatever needed to be done to help Lauren. Through Lauren’s blogs (which I am so thankful for), I am able to witness such special times that Lauren, Jon and Aedan share. I see what a wonderful daddy Jon is to Aedan---one who spends time playing, rough-housing, chasing, and teaching. I know that Aedan is so blessed to have a father like Jon for I know that Jon will always do his very best to be there in every way for his little family. To see Lauren so happy and content in her marriage and to know how much Jon loves and cares for her and Aedan means the world to me and Dan.

So on this day, I wanted to share just how important this young man is to our family. Jon has become someone who’s opinion I value, whose computer knowledge has no rival, and is someone whom I can always count on to give a helping hand (literally--as he appears from nowhere to give me a hand to help me get up from the floor after playing with Aedan!). Most of all, Jon is now the son that Dan and I never had and we are so thankful and blessed to have him in our lives.

Happy Birthday Jon! We love you very much!

-Lauren-

Daddy’s Day Off

Jon’s birthday is on Saturday, so he decided to take today and tomorrow off. I am going to a work conference all day tomorrow, so it will be a daddy/son day, but today is a family day…my favorite!

Of course Aedan woke up early on a day we could have all slept in. Most of the time, during the week, Aedan doesn’t start waking up until 7:45/8 and then he doesn’t really want to get out of bed until more like 8:30. Actually, some mornings, I think he would stay in bed later, but I drag him out by 8:30ish. But of course this morning he was up at 7, calling us and saying he wanted out. Ha!

Since we were up early with no where to be, we decided to go to breakfast. We headed to our second favorite breakfast place, Kirby Lane. They have the best blueberry pancakes! The servers don’t know us, like the ones back at our old neighborhood breakfast place, but everyone is nice and the food is yummy.

After breakfast, we went over to Academy so Aedan could get Jon a birthday present. I bought Jon some portable soccer goals so Aedan got him a new soccer ball. I was a little mad because the goals were delivered yesterday and I thought it would work out for them to come when Jon was up at a work meeting, but of course the UPS guy drops them off right before Jon leaves and there was a big picture of the goals on the outside of the box….hence why Jon is using them today and not opening them on Saturday. Oh well.

From there we headed over to Toy R Us to look at climbers for Aedan, but they weren’t open yet and we didn’t feel like sitting in the car for 30 minutes waiting. We went to Wal-Mart and while they didn’t really have what we were looking for, Aedan found a lot of fun stuff. I think he wanted to take home at least 5 different cars, a little people airplane and school bus and a new popper. Ha! We let him choose one thing and we ended up coming home with the little people school bus. Oh and a banana, because our Wal-Mart has the bananas set up by the checkout lines and Aedan took it upon himself to grab one. :)

We spent the rest of the morning playing in the backyard.

Aedan is so into tools right now. He loves to fix everything…

All my boys (including Hiro) are napping now, so I am off to catch up on some  TV shows. I think we are heading to the park later this afternoon and then just relaxing at home tonight. It feels just like a Saturday, too bad I have to be in down town by 8 am tomorrow morning…

-Lauren-

Ducks

The neighborhood across the street from ours, has a duck pond. We driven by a few times and pointed them out to Aedan, but we haven’t had a chance to let him get out and really see then.

Earlier this week, we decided to head over there as soon as Jon was done with work. Aedan loved it!

(pointing at the water, and reminding himself that he shouldn’t go in. haha!)

(doing some duck chasing)

And my favorite

I’m sure we will be going back soon!

-Lauren-

Love Letters

I’m linking up with Lindsey over at A Dollop of My Life. Go check her out and join in for a chance to win a $30 gift card!

Love letter to my two favorite valentines…

Jon: Where do I begin? I can’t believe I was only 21 when we met. That seems so young now! I knew the night we met that there would be something between us. I don’t know if I understood just how much, but I have this feeling about you. Now look at us…about to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary! I can’t imagine life without and wouldn’t want to experience it with anyone else. Thank you for working so hard for your family and always putting us first. Thank you for always being on my side, for being a sounding board for my thoughts and vents, a shoulder to cry on when life gets rough and most of all a partner to love. You are quick to jump in when you see that I am frustrated or have had a hard day. You know just how to make me laugh, even if I am not in a laughing mood.

Watching you with Aedan is so special to me. You are such a wonderful father. He may ask for me when he is sick or tired, but he loves his daddy and wants to play with you all day! It makes me so happy to see your special relationship with our son. I can’t wait to watch it grow more and more. I love you the mostest! :)

Aedan: Oh Aedan, what did we do without you? Our house was definitely more quiet and definitely more boring! I wouldn’t trade the noise and the messy for anything. You are so full of life. You are so extroverted and strong-willed, sometimes I wonder where you came from! Your smile is precious and your laugh is so contagious. Daddy and I talk every night about how much you have made us laugh though out the day! I love watching you grow and learn. I am amazed by the things you pick up each day. My wish is for you to always know how special you are and how much you are loved.

Happy Valentines Day guys!!

Love,

Lauren/Mommy

To check out more love letters, go here and link your up!

-Lauren-

Home with a Sick Baby

Last night around 10:30, Aedan woke up crying. It's pretty unusual for him, so I went in to check on him and he just wouldn't calm down. While I was holding him, he just kept saying he wanted night night and trying to dive into bed.  I finally just put him back to bed and after another few minutes of him crying Jon went in and had the same result. 

I thought maybe he had had a bad dream or something so I brought him into our room since we were able to go to bed ourselves. He would not calm down in our bed so I finally decided I'd just go put him back to bed. Literally 2 seconds after I picked him up out of our bed and walked into the kitchen he threw up all over himself and me. Ugh. Poor guy was so upset. 

We got him all cleaned up and calmed down and decided to let him watch a show. I wasn't sure if he was going to throw up again and have a repeat of this.  Well an hour later, he seems fine and even asks to go play. Ha! So we put him back to bed and crossed our fingers that he would be able o fall asleep. He did for about 30 minutes and then he was up crying again. Sigh.

Jon has a really busy week at work this week and I didn't want him no be up all night so Aedan and I camped out in the living room for a couple of hours. I finally put him to sleep around 2:30 but he kept crying off an on all night so I just stayed on the couch with the baby monitor. 

He was up again at 6 so we watched yet another episode of Bob the Builder before he passed out on he couch. I put him back to bed at 7:30 and headed straight to bed myself.  We both slept for a couple of hours and basically just laid on the couch all morning. I'm not sure what he has, but I am thinking maybe it's his two year molars? He has been drooling like crazy and he doesn't want to eat anything. He hasn't thrown up again so I don't know if that was a fluke or related to the teeth.  I gave him some Motrin this afternoon and he has been down for a nap for awhile now. He is sleeping pretty restlessly but at least he is sleeping. 

I've been useless all day. Its hard to function on only a couple hours of sleep!  I'm hoping he wakes up feeling more like himself and we have a better night tonight!

-Lauren-

Weekend Recap

It has been a really nice relaxing weekend around here.

Friday night we did our typical shopping/running errands and then out to dinner. We went by World Market and looked at curtains. I am have second thoughts about the curtains I picked out last weekend. Jon isn’t crazy about them either, so I guess I am back to square one there. We stopped by Lowes to look at rugs before ending up at Home Depot.

Our new house has tile floors throughout the kitchen and living room and wood in the office. It also has pretty tall ceilings everywhere. It is great and we love it but it can be a little echoy. We have been looking for a rug for Jon’s office as well as a couple of runners for our entryway/long hallway. We ended up finding a couple of options for Jon’s office so we took one home on Friday night. Aedan insisted on helping carry it out.

When we got home, we decided that the rug was too small and too light so we went back Saturday morning and exchanged it for a bigger darker rug. It looks great in the office and Jon really likes it (which is good since he spend a lot of time in there).  You can’t really tell from the picture, but it has dark brown, tan and blue mixed in.

After lunch on Saturday, both Jon and Aedan took a 3.5 hour nap. I got some laundry done and finally watched Break Dawn. I really wanted to see it when it came out, but I didn’t want to drag Jon to the theater for this one. It came out on Redbox yesterday so I grabbed it on our way home from Home Depot. The movie was so so, but I wasn’t really expected much. I just wanted to see it since I read all the books.

When the boys woke up, we got ready and headed up to my grandmother’s (Grandy) place for dinner. My parents were in town, so we all got together with my aunt, my other grandmother (Grandmom) to celebrate Grandy’s birthday. We got to eat in a private dinning room at her apartment which was really nice. Aedan did great, but it was nice that he could just run around the room once he was finished.

After dinner we headed over to the Dover House for dessert (it used to be Grandmom’s house, but she moved to an apartment and my parents now own it to use when they come down). It’s on Dover Ln, hence the name. :) Aedan had a blast and played his little heart out.

This morning, Jon went up north for a soccer game but apparently the other team didn’t show. Probably because it was only about 32 this morning and has since started sleeting off and on! Jon and his team played for awhile and he is now on his way home with P. Terry's for us for lunch. Yay!

After Aedan’s nap, we are going to do a little grocery shopping and just hang out inside for the day.

How was your weekend?

-Lauren-

Five Things Friday

1. My goal is to get back to blogging regularly. Last month I only posted 7 times! Since this is essentially my scrapbook and I love looking back at posts, I need to make more of an effort to actually post!
2. Along those lines, I totally fell off the picture a day band wagon. I did it for the whole month of January (although I never posted all the pictures) and then I just stopped. Opps.
3. Aedan totally thinks he has become a master manipulator. Here is a typical conversation between us….“mommy, I want juice” “sorry Aedan, no juice right now. you can have milk or water” “um, mommy, I need daddy” Jon comes over…“daddy, I need juice” “wease (please)”  Ha! Sorry buddy, it will never work but nice using your words. :)
4. It’s supposed to be cold here on Sunday so I am going to make chicken & dumplings in the crockpot. I am trying this recipe except, I am going to add some more veggies and half the chicken broth amount. Hopefully it turns out!
5. Another goal of mine is to get out my good camera more often and upload the pictures within the same week! I finally pulled of some photos from early January. Note to self…take pictures and then upload them as soon as possible or you will forget you have them!

Have a great weekend!

-Lauren-

Our Love Story

I’m linking up with:

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

We meet in March 2005 and pretty much started dating right away, so we have been together for almost 7 years. We got married in March 2007, so we have been married for just about 5 years.

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

We met when my best friend and I came down to Austin for a weekend during spring break. We stayed with my aunt and she took us to a concert with some friends. One of her friends ended up bringing Jon along. I posted more about how we met here and here.

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

We will celebrate our 5th anniversary in March!

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We had an outdoor wedding here in Austin. The place was perfect. I think it was pretty average size, about 100 people. We had a blast and I think everyone else did as well. I posted more details about our wedding here.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Mostly we just call each other dear. Sometimes Jon says babe but 90% of the time its dear.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

There are a lot of things I love about Jon, but most of all…

• I love that he is funny. He tends to be pretty reserved around most people, but he cracks me up on a daily basis.
• He also works really hard for our family. He has always been a great provider.
• He loves me for me. For the girl who doesn’t like to get dressed up, is not the best cook and is always cleaning.

7. Tell us how he proposed? Or your ideal proposal?

Jon designed my ring and ordered it in time to propose on my birthday, but when it came in they had messed up and it had to be re-done. It ended up not being ready until the week after my birthday. It was a Saturday and I had gone to run errands that morning. When I got home Jon asked if I wanted to go to lunch...which I would never turn down. So we decided to go to our favorite lunch place and Jon suggested that we take lunch out to Mt. Bonnell and have a picnic. We ate lunch over looking the great scenery and Jon started telling me how I was his best friend and that he loved me. I didn't catch on so I kept responding back with how he was my best friend and I loved him too. Finally he pulled my ring out of his pocket and asked me to me his wife...I obviously said yes!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

I guess more of a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy. We aren’t big on celebrating valentines day. I would much rather get flowers or a card on a random day than one that prompted by retailers.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Definitely a pop in a movie and relax on the couch. I am such a homebody. Luckily so is Jon. We like to go out every now and then, but some of our best dates are the ones were we just hang out at home.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

I guess it would be to travel somewhere cool. I’d love to go to Europe someday, although the though of being on a plane for that long does not sound fun.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

Probably nothing special. We will probably just exchange cards and maybe get take-out. There is no way I am getting a babysitter only to sit in a super crowded restaurant!

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope. We usually just exchange cards. Sometimes Jon will get me some candy but that’s pretty much it.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

I think my best advice would be to communicate well and often! When Jon and I have a argument we can talk it out without things escalating. One of us will always say something funny to break the tension and I think that is so important.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

What’s your love story?

-Lauren-

Weekend Recap

Usually I see clients on Monday, but Aedan’s sitter couldn’t watch kids today, so I flipped my schedule to Tuesday for this week…perks of working for yourself. :)

This morning we got up and did some grocery shopping and cleaning up from the weekend. Aedan is down for a nap now, so I thought I would recap our weekend.

My sister drove in Thursday night ,so we had all day to spend together on Friday. We did a little shopping Friday morning. I took her to Costco because she had never been before (and we needed a few things). She loved it. Haha. I scored some new hangers too. At $10 for a box of 35, I was able to switch out all of our old hangers for just $30. I feel like it makes my closet look cleaner and they are the kind that don’t let clothes slip off. I hate when all my tank tops or sweaters slide of the hanger!

After Costco, we headed to the mall. Aedan had a blast walking running around. I found a new bag at Macy’s and got a great deal on it! It is a cross body bag which is perfect since I usually hate caring a purse. It is the perfect size for all of Aedan’s stuff and mine and has tons of pockets to keep things organized. I love it! It was already 25% off and then Macy’s was giving an extra 20% off if you were wearing red (which my sister had heard about, so we dressed accordingly). I had a gift card from Christmas so I only spend $10 for the bag, not too bad.

We came home just in time to put Aedan down for a nap, only he was a little too excited to have his “Emmie” in town so he only slept for about an hour. He made it pretty clear he was done sleeping so we took him for a walk and to the park to play.

My sister’s roommate, Lexie, flew in Friday night (perks for working for Southwest; she can fly whenever she wants). We all had taco soup for dinner and watched 50/50 after Aedan went to bed super early (his lack of nap caught up with him pretty fast).

Saturday morning, my sister, Lexie and I headed out to do a little more shopping. I have been looking for some curtains for our living room/kitchen. I think I found what I want at World Market, but I need them to go on sale first. :) I did pick up a new vase at Homegoods to get me motivated to decorate the top of our kitchen cabinets. I still need to get some greenery and a platter of some sort to go in front of the tray, but I think it’s coming along.

While we were out shopping, Jon and Aedan hung out with some friends. I got a text with this picture from him at lunch. I think they all had fun.

Saturday night we were all pretty tired so we had pizza and TV night. We watched an episode of MOB Wives on Hulu. Yes, there is a show called MOB Wives and yes, it is as dramatic as it sounds. Haha.

My sister and Lexie left Sunday morning and we call had a pretty quiet day at home. It was rainy and cold so it was nice to just stay inside. We a couple of friends over last night for the Superbowl which is funny since we don’t usually watch football (Jon is more into soccer and while I don’t mind watching football, I am not going to turn it on myself). We couldn’t even remember the last Superbowl game we had watched. Haha. It was fun to watch this one with friends though.

-Lauren-