Proud Wife Moment

 

Today is my husband's 34th birthday!

We've been together for 15 of his birthdays. And you know what? I am more proud of him today than ever. He juggles the vineyard, his full-time job, church leadership responsibilities, our household finances (he is a banker after all), and family time without getting stressed out or angry. He is as steady as they come and knows how to talk me down from my various ledges. To top it off, a few months ago he started getting up at 4:00am three or four times a week to go swim with an aquatics masters program in an effort to renew his health and regain a huge part of himself that he gave up when adult responsibilities and "life" crept in. He is a superstar.

We've had our share of ups and downs over the last 3 years.

Back when we were dating we were involved in several couple's Bible studies where we had extensive and often teary-eyed (for me) conversations about our expectations of each other. We talked about the gender roles in our homes growing up and what our expectations were for each other in the future. Through these dramatic conversations we were able to break down walls and get on the same page before heading into marriage. The first seven years of our marriage were pretty smooth. There were rocky points when we both lost our jobs, and we never "had enough money," but overall we were in sync.

Seven years later we had our first kid. Roles and expectations began to shift, but with only one child, I was pretty comfortable shouldering many of Luke's needs, so things didn't change much and the ship sailed on.

Two and a half years later we bought 5 acres of land and our home doubled in size. Justin took on the farm. I took on some additional opportunities outside of my regular 8 to 5. Then we added a second baby to the mix. All of a sudden our individual responsibilities more than doubled and our roles in our family were thrown for a loop. Along with those additional responsibilities came changes in expectations, but with little "grown up" time we never really talked them out. We tried to carry on as normal, but things were strained at different times.

Over the last few months we've been able to have some of those conversations. We're bringing our expectations in line with our life as it is today. The church we've been waiting for (a story for another day) finally developed from an in-home/coffee shop evening gathering to a full-fledged Sunday morning service, so we can finally go to church as a family. We're falling into familiar rhythms now that we're almost into our 4th cycle with the vineyard and our 2nd year as a family of four. We're good. We're content. We're moving forward into our future with gusto. We still never have enough money (ha!), but we've established rhythms with that too.

16 years later and I'll never be sorry I chose this man. Hard working, loyal, and faithful to the end.

Happy Birthday JP! I love you more than ever and I'm proud to be your wife!

Austin - 1.5 years

 

 

 

The littlest Perry is now a year and a half! (Actually now he's almost 20 months, but better late than never right?) Here's a little bit about our Aus now. Writing things down makes me feel like I'm more in control of the passing time than I actually am. :)

Luke calls him "Aust." I call him "Aus," "Aussie" or "Aussie Sauce" or "Boo," among several other annoying pet names. Justin is completely enamored by him.



First trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in March

He loves to sit with me and read books. He'll point to the chair and say "book book book." After we sit down I'll grab a book and he'll say "yaaaay" and snuggle back against me so we can read. He has a similar move where if I'm sitting on the ground he'll pick up a book and back it up toward me until he is sitting in my lap. You'd have to see it to understand how cute it is.

First day of "school" back in September.

 

Austin loves "school." He goes two days a week and his teachers are the sweetest young women. A couple of months ago, his teacher told me they were out on the playground and found a ladybug. She said the other kids we either uninterested or wanted to stomp on it, but not Austin. He was really into examining it and letting it crawl on him. They had a similar experience with a beetle recently. I've noticed when we are outside that he really wants to bend down and examine the twigs and rocks as we walk. It's hard to be patient and let him explore, but I try to give him that freedom as much as I can when we're together. He also has a little school buddy, which is kind of hilarious to me. Apparently the other day a kid was being mean to Austin's friend and Austin stood up for him. I'm not sure exactly what that looks like in a room of 15-20month olds, but it sounded pretty sweet. I just hope he stays on the "defender" side of things his whole life.

Examining the flowers

Austin has always seemed like a thinker, even as a baby he looked like he was absorbing things around him and I think this still defines him. He also knows how to push big brother's buttons  - and he isn't afraid to do so. He doesn't let Luke railroad over him, he stands his own.

This happy guy

Austin still sucks his thumb - mostly when he is sleepy or unsure about a situation. He still holds my hand as he falls asleep and likes to have me hold his foot while we drive (because I can't reach his hand.) He'll take his shoes and socks off and grunt or cry until I realize that he is thrusting his foot in my direction and take hold. I wondered why my right arm had a perpetual knot in it...

First haircut, back in November. There were tears and the thumb was needed.

Even though he was shaggy before the haircut, he was still so cute.

 

He says things like "ready-set-goooooo!" and "flip flops" and "thank you." He is my snuggle bear and will randomly grab one of our hands, put his thumb in his mouth and put his head down to the side. It's the cutest. It's like he just wants to let us know that he's there and share a little love.

The other day he went over to the shelving brackets in his room and pretended to be picking something and then came back and "shared" it with Luke and me. Even though this isn't my first rodeo when it comes to having a toddler, the imaginations of these little guys always catch me off guard.

I love you Austin Tyler! Onward to two in a few short months! (But let's not rush it.)

Valentine Pictures 2014

Valentine pictures are my favorites. I tried to take some a few days ago, but the timing was bad. I set up my scene and had Austin be my test subject, but by the time Luke woke up from his nap it was late afternoon and a bit too dark in the house. Even though I had the camera on the no flash setting it kept going off anyway, which meant I missed a lot of perfect, both children looking at the camera, standing still moments. I'm a big fan of natural lighting because it means I don't really have to learn how to use all of the fancy settings.

I don't think I posted the pics from 2013 on this blog, so I'm including my favorites from last year too. I have the one on top blown up and hanging in my bedroom. I just love it so.

 

 

And here are the 2014 photos. These are the low-resolution versions.

 

 

 

 The scene usually started out like this (above) and ended with the boys wrestling on the floor. I probably reset them half a dozen times. At least they were having fun. I love the ones of Austin. I can't believe how big he looks in the ones by himself. I can't believe he'll be 18 months next week!

 

Truth: Valentine's Day Edition

The other day I was reading a blog and the person wrote that she was making valentines for her child's class, because, and this is a direct quote ... "store bought Valentines...ew." Fortunately I promised myself back in January 2013 that I was going to stop caring about crap like that and do what was right for us/me and rid myself of any "mommy guilt" that the Internet might try to lay on me.

Let me tell you, this year I took Luke to Target and turned him loose in the valentine aisle. He settled on a $2.50 box of "Planes" cards and I am totally okay with it. #noshameinthisgame.

....


Update:  I just spent 45 minutes addressing said cards, affixing stickers and positioning the accompanying temporary tattoos and realized that being creative might have taken an equal amount of time...buuuut it probably would have cost me more than $2.50, so I'm still good.


Here's to a guilt-free Valentine's Day everybody!

"I'll show you how valuable Elle Woods can be!"

Let's do this December!

I'm having a moment of vulnerability, people. Have I ever told you about my theme song? I know, how Ally McBeal of me, right?

Whenever I feel like I need a dose of girl power or a reminder to be awesome, I listen to this and it makes me feel like kicking some ass and taking some names. I'm embedding the video here to give you context, but the song by itself is a bit more motivating.

This clip always makes me want to hit the stairmaster though, which is never a bad thing...

Things I don't want to forget about right now...

-The way the trees around here just exploded with color overnight. Reds, yellows, oranges.

-The shower of leaves that rains down from them when the breeze hits.

-Luke shouting, "It's a fall day?!?!"

-Austin's new-walker waddle, especially as he rapidly walks away from me, usually carrying something he's not supposed to have.

-How Luke cares for his brother when he's upset and how he looks after him by holding his hand or pinning him down so he can't get himself into trouble.

-Luke kicking his legs in the tub and Austin cracking up.

-When I tried to leave Austin in the crib and he wasn't ready to be left. He stood up and looked over the edge at me and put his head down sideways on the railing with his thumb in his mouth. He looked so much like a toddler and it struck my heart in an oddly poignant way.

-Luke singing, "Happy Birthday Jesus," a song he's learning for the school Christmas performance, unprompted in the car on the way home.

-Watching Austin do the "fast waddle' over to me, arms held up exuberantly to be picked up when I arrive at daycare.

-Luke's face lighting up and a shout of "mommy!" when he sees me come into his classroom.

-Luke coming out from watching a show with his dad and asking, "will you do night time with me?"

-The magic sleep inducing powers of a warm little relaxed body lying next to me in bed that throws my evening plans for productivity completely out the window virtually every night.

-The completeness I feel snuggling up to Luke and reading stories before bedtime or when I'm rocking Austin to sleep in his room.

-The way Austin savors his food; smacking his lips and enjoying every bite.

-How I can turn either of my boys' moods around with tickles or some other silly trick.

-Luke's imagination. Ships, pirates, race cars, scary octopus, rocket ships, going on missions, "the sea." "That will be perfect!" "Sure, mommy." "No no no no no no no, not that way...this way."

-Austin saying, "1, 2, 3 go!" and trying to sing his ABC's along with Luke in the car (that one caught me off guard).

The Party

We had a nice little family party to celebrate Austin's first birthday. Even though it was a small gathering, I still wanted to decorate. I went with a typical first birthday party theme, "Route 66/Vintage Roadside Americana." You know, totally in all the birthday party catalogs.

I was really proud of the invitations I made. Too bad they never actually made it off the computer and into mailboxes. Part of the problem was that I couldn't decide which one...the back was cute too, but I'm too lazy to try and pixelate my address, so you only get to see the front. I was pretty proud of them. Oh well, at least they get to live forever on the Internet!

I totally painted the sign behind Austin's head. At approximately 11pm... the night before the party... using random tubs of sample paint I found in the garage...while watching Pitch Perfect. Again, so proud.

Thanks Sommer for the birthday banner that keeps on giving!

Chevron napkins!!!

He was so into the cake that I couldn't get any pictures with his cute smile.

Found a way to bring a version of the invitation out for the world to see!

51 Weeks

Visiting friends in San Diego

At some point this evening I'll get an email that says my baby is 51 weeks old today.

They come every Wednesday and they are always a surprise to me. I'm pretty sure I stopped keeping track around 14 weeks this time around, so they are a nice mid-week reminder.

We ran out of formula last week and decided to just make the jump to whole milk. He took to it like a champ.

We haven't totally made the switch to sippy cups, but we've started the transition and he's cool with it.

I threw away the bottle drying rack on Monday. And the bottle warmer.

He isn't walking yet, but I expect that any day now he'll decide that dropping to his knees and doing a mad crab walk across the floor is yesterday's news and that will be that.

I find myself in awe of the things he can do and then I remember how old he is.

He has some fun semi-curls around the bottom of his head and ears. It's adorable and I don't really want to cut it right away.

He's quite pretty and is often mistaken for a girl, so the hair cut may have to come sooner than I'd like.

 I think he looks a lot like me when I was a baby, but I definitely see some of Justin in there too.

Some people say he doesn't look anything like Luke and other people say, "he looks EXACTLY like Luke." I guess he just looks like Austin.

I feel like I'm still trying to figure him out. I guess I forgot what this stage is like - the in-between not a baby/not yet a 24-7, imagination-gone-wild chatterbox preschooler.

I didn't think he looked as big to me as Luke did at "1," but now that I look at these pictures I guess he does.

Whoever he turns out to be, I can't imagine our lives without Austin! He is pure joy!

 

Shell Beach near Pismo.

Santa Monica Pier

Soccer practice with big brother



(Is it possible to rotate pictures inside Blogger? This has driven me crazy for years. Years!!! Don't make me go back, edit and re-upload, Google!)

Woodies on the Wharf in Santa Cruz

Fourth of July - this is my favorite face.

More Conversations with Luke

Conversations with Luke (Age 3.5)


On Leg Hair:

Luke wanted me to put my legs in the bathtub the other night. As he tried to "swim" under them like a tunnel he made an observation.

"Mommy, your legs are spikey...like a dinosaur."

And then he proceeded to try to clean them off with a wash cloth. "We need to clean them," he said.

For the record, it had only been 2 days since I had last shaved, which is kind of a marvel and really only because it's summer.


Diabetes:

Upon finding a syringe at the bottom of the refrigerator.
Luke:  What's that?
Me:  This is a syringe, it's what daddy uses to take medicine for his diabetes.
Luke:  When I get big, I'm going to use one of those just like daddy.
Me: Oh no sweetheart, you don't want to use one of those. You don't want to have diabetes.
Luke (pouting): You tease me.
Me: What?
Luke:  You tease me about not having (gibberish) like daddy.
Me:  Oh Luke, diabetes means you can't eat any sugar. You love sugar, remember? (He always tells me he loves sugar - so not awesome.) You wouldn't want to have diabetes because then you'd have to eat less sugar.
Luke: Oh, okay.

A little bit later Justin comes out to go to work. Luke stands up, sticks his finger in his dad's face.
Luke:  Listen daddy, you can't have sugar because of your 'beeds.' You not eat any sugar okay?

Things I've Done in Heels

How do people get out of the house for work everyday on time with multiple children?
 

And now for a little segment called "Things I've Done in Heels."

Okay, that's probably misleading. While I do wear heels a couple of times a week, they are usually wedges or a 1-2 inch Mary Jane heel, which isn't all that impressive. I can most often be found in ballet flats.

In this particular instance, however, I was wearing a low kitten heel. A pretty obnoxious black/white dotted pointy toed kitten heel with turquoise accents that I found on clearance at Target (can't imagine why) and had to have. They're amazing. I digress.

95% of the time, when I arrive home from work I throw my laptop, purse on the dining room floor and immediate dive into Mom mode. Making dinner, giving hugs, changing diapers, clearing the table, baths, bedtime routines, etc. I usually don't change out of my work clothes until much later in the evening, which means I sometimes have my "heels" on for several hours after work. (Unless they're wedges, in which case, those bad boys hit the floor with aforementioned lap top and purse.)

This brings me to the point of this "Things I Did in Heels" segment. Here are my recent claims to fame.

1) Cleaned carpet covered in animal poop
Last night I came home and soon discovered that someone (thing) had left feces all over the boys' toy area (perfect). Gross. My money's on the dog. I quickly found myself crouching down in my pencil skirt, blouse and kitten heels armed with clorox wipes, paper towels and a can of Resolve. That's number one.

2) Ran through a vineyard
Shortly after an uneventful dinner, Luke headed outside with my dad to drive his mini-John Deere Gator. My dad came in and announced that Luke had headed out toward the back of the property, driving through the vineyard by himself (he's 3) and my dad wasn't feeling up to chasing him down. I got up from the table and bolted out into the vineyard. As I was running through the weeds, dried grass, spider webs, etc. I looked down and realized that the kitten heels were a poor choice for this job. An unexpected 1/4 mile run later I was finally back in the house and made the smart choice to change into post-work appropriate footwear.

What have you done in your "heels" lately, super moms?

My dear, dead friend

One of my favorite friends left this birthday comment on one of my instagram photos a couple of weeks ago. I'm still laughing about it. I love her.

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Nine Months

I can't believe he's nine months old. I know, parents always say these things, but it's completely true.

I've tried really hard to savor all of the baby-ness this time around, but now that it's almost gone, I feel like I missed it somehow. I know I didn't, it's just that overnight my baby turned into an-almost toddler.

 

He tries to communicate. I swear he can say "hi mama." Which, if I'm really being honest with you, really sounds like:  "ahhh, ma ma ma" but he waves at me while he's doing it, so therefore it goes in the baby book* as "hi mama." Same with "baby," "brother," "bottle" = "ba ba ba ba ba ba." Although he did crawl over to Justin in bed the other morning and say, "da da."

Basically, he's a genius.

He started crawling about 6 weeks ago, started pulling himself up on stuff a few days ago, and took his first steps cruising around furniture while holding on last night. We lowered the crib this weekend. Whoa. Rome wasn't built in a day my friend. Let's take this physical development down a couple notches, 'kay?

He cried when I closed the bathroom door and wouldn't let him go in. Then he tried to find another way.

 

I guess Luke was around the same age when he started doing this stuff, it just seems so...fast.

He has seven teeth. SEVEN! And eats pretty much everything, including small pieces of steak, chicken, rice, pancake and any number of other things we happen to be eating that pass the "can I give my baby ____" Google search. Actually, I finally looked up "what CAN'T my baby eat?" The list was much shorter.  I've heard tales of these children. Children who eat. He's taken to eating the food that we buy for Luke when we go out to eat. This is a good thing, because Luke only eats about 15% of it, leaving a lot left for little brother to enjoy.

He weighs a little over 18 pounds.

 

He's a sweet little love who likes to fall asleep holding my hand. He holds onto your arm, shoulder, back, or hair when you carry him on your hip. He's a thumb sucker. He has the biggest smiles, especially for his big brother. He loves the bathtub and the swimming pool. He is generally a content, easygoing, flexible and happy baby...until he doesn't get what he wants. Then he lets us know.

Trying to make out with Uncle Mike.

I can't believe we'll be coming up on a year old soon. One. This is crazy.

* This statement implies that I have one and that I actually update it. I do, but it's still in the packaging. Luke's baby book wasn't filled out until a couple of weeks before Austin was born. What I do have is a five-year"one-line a day journal" that serves as a running log of our days and as a stand-in baby book for milestone moments. Just to clarify. :)