It’s hard to believe we did anything fun this month because the last two weeks have just been us passing fevers and other fun stuff back and forth (as I write this from the couch with both Paige and I down today). But we did!

We’ve been having fun going to the middle schoolers’ home basketball games! And Greg and I have been loving the quotes coming from our non-sportsy kids, like “We watched them score some hoops!”

One of my goals for the year is to get really good at making fires (inspired by my camping trip with friends in October). My first attempt was pretty awesome and we had friends over for s’mores.

The kids had two mornings of 10am start due to icy road conditions. The first morning they made nests and pretended to be birds. The second morning they came with me to my physical therapy appointment and got iPad time.

I chaperoned Paige’s field trip to the Pacific Science Center and we had fun with the carnival mirrors.

Greg’s office recently moved and we went to visit and have lunch on an off school day. It is such an upgrade!

And the reality of what the last two weeks have looked like, just sub which of the four of us was down at any given moment. I think I’m the lucky one who got hit hard with both.

It’s National Lutheran Schools Week, which means Spirit Week for the kids. I missed photos on Monday (Neon Day) and Tuesday (Team Day) because I was sick in bed.

Along with fun dress up days, they have special House time every day (their school has four houses, a la Hogwarts) and a penny war that goes all week. Paige’s house won the penny war and Chase’s came in second!

For Wacky Wednesday Paige wore a bunch of random clothes with her hair in four pigtails and Chase wore his sweats inside out and backwards.

Kindergarten got to vote on something they normally wouldn’t do and they picked Show and Tell, which had Chase’s influence all over it (he’s been trying to make this happen since August). He brought a floating ball that Paige gave him for Christmas in a box suitcase he created last night. 3rd/4th graders each got to teach their teacher something new. Paige chose teaching her how to finger spell her name in ASL (Paige has been teaching herself ASL via Epic videos).

Decades Day was maybe my favorite. I told the kids they could each get something new to wear one of the days and the other four they needed to shop their closets. They both decided to go big for Decades Day. Our little hippie and newsie also got to deliver flowers to local businesses with their classes.

Forgot pictures on Friday but they had fun with pajama day, breakfast and Bluey to start the day in the gym, and ending the day/week with a paper snowball fight. Back to boring old school days next week!

The blizzard that was to be was not, but we did get some freezing weather. Literal freezing, it was 18 degrees when I dropped the kids off at school on Friday and never really got out of the low 20s this weekend. That’s very unusual for us so we mostly stayed inside, nice and warm.

Friday was my 43rd birthday. I went to a super sweaty yoga class, had a massage, ordered pizza for dinner, and ate a delicious cupcake. We realized that night a new Amazing Race season is available, which is our favorite show to watch as a family. Overall, 43 is off to a great start. Plus, Greg replaced my Kindle, which had gone through a full laundry load and fallen in the bath multiple times (it still worked, but very v e r y slowly), so I have zero complaints.

For the rest of the weekend we managed a trip to IKEA for a guest room mattress and more storage for the kids’ rooms, the kids and I finished a puzzle, they had friends over, and I went on a mostly freezing walk – it’s so sunny, hard to resist!

I have a goal this year to document our adventures and non-adventures in some tactile way, so that we can actually look back on our memories. I also have a goal of not using Instagram at all in 2024 (for other reasons), which is where I’ve shared and documented photos for the most part the last several years. I don’t love it as a way to document though because the stories live online and rarely get looked back on… except when I can’t sleep.

I considered picking up Project Life again because those albums from 2012 – 2014 are fun to look at (the kids especially love seeing our pre-kid life documented), but when I think about actually gathering supplies and doing it every month, I feel overwhelmed. And that does not give me high hopes for seeing it through the year.

I considered the monthly books from Chatbooks, which I did for a bit in 2022, again the kids loved getting these in the mail each month, but twelve books a year does not appeal to my pseudo minimalist views and it does not work well for sharing the stories behind the photos. I’m here for the stories. 

So, here we are. Picking up this little blog that I started on Mar 2, 2011. As I scroll back through posts all I can think is I’m so glad the internet didn’t lose all this because I completely forgot how much I captured on here from 2011 – 2017. I wish I didn’t have a seven year gap, but it is what it is and all I can do is start again. My plan is to print the year into a book, because I am Little Debbie. IYKYK.

So, on to our first weekend of the new year! We arrived home from California on Monday afternoon and it was a long week for a short four day week of school with everyone being tired and out of sorts… after what was a very long 2023.

There were some complaints on Saturday morning when it was time to leave, but we ended up having a fun time at the Sammamish Animal Sanctuary, feeding and visiting all the rescued animals.

I haven’t been an Instagram mom in a while, so I guess we’re all going to have to practice looking at the camera again.

That evening Mary came to watch the kids and Greg and I had plans to go for a walk around Green Lake then have dinner, but it started to hail about two minutes into our walk so we had a drink at Wooden City Tavern then dinner at the Broiler.

On Sunday, Greg took the kids to lunch and to see Migration with Grandma Berta. Reports are that the movie was good and Red Robin was… Red Robin. (We don’t spend $10 for me to nap through cartoons, so I went to yoga and Costco to stock up for the great blizzard of 2024 – check back next week to see if that happens or not.)

And clearly I am out of the documenting game because I don’t have any photos of our date or their visit with Grandma.

It’s good to be back. I’m already excited to get this book in the mail in January 2025!

Paige will be 22 months on the 28th, and since I haven’t written anything in six months it’s probably time to write down a few of her quirks, mannerisms, and general loveliness before we forget.

She used to say ‘milk’ and ‘bottle’. Now she just says ‘muckle’. 

Yes, she still drinks a bottle before nap and bed. I don’t have that fight in me right now. 

The way she’s says ‘hello’ makes my heart melt. I really need to get it on video. 

She started to say ‘brother’, and I think she gets that a baby is coming, but who knows.

She loves to pat to right where she wants you to sit. Which is usually not the eaiest location for my 35 year old, 6 month pregnant body. 

She has zero interest in opening presents this year.

She was not into Santa at all. We ended up taking a family photo in which she sat with her back to him. We may not even bother with this tradition in future years because there about a thousand better ways we could have spent 90 minutes of family time. (And I’m a total curmudgeon who has hated santa and the idea of santa since I was 3 years old.)

She wears size 18-24 months clothes – took a year and a half but we caught up!

She says 2-3 new words a day. They are always surprising as they are things I have no idea she knows. Yestersay I asked if she wanted fish for lunch. She responded with “ummm, steak?” Well okay then. 

She loves animals. Naming them and making their sounds are her favorite current activities. 

Book nerd! It’s fun (and exhausting) that she will now sit for an extended story time. She will also review her bookshelf for a good long time while she picks exactly what book she wants.

She mostly sleeps through the night, but she’s back in our bed. We’re hoping to get back into her room starting next week. We started with new fun lion bedding for her bed. 

She has been so good with the Christmas tree! All the breakable ornaments are above her level, and she made takes one or two of the safe ones off a day, but that’s about it.

She loves the Wiggles. She can sing many of their songs along with them and makes all the hand motions and dance moves. 

She’s uninterested in anything animated (another trait she got from me). 

She sings Twinkle Twinkle on her own and it’s damn adorable.

She says ‘thank you’ about 90% of the time. We just model it, don’t teach it, and I’m really amazed at how well this has worked. If you don’t say ‘you’re welcome’ quick enough, she says it again. I’ve read ‘please’ comes much later developmentally. 

She is really into the dog right now. She calls him Buddy and always has to know where he is. She loves to give him treats and insists that he follows us upstairs or downstairs. He’s in it for the treats she wants to give him all day. 

She loves to announce “poo poo” loudly when someone walks into a bathroom. Working on that one.

She loooves being outside and going for walks. She says ‘walk’ fifty times a day and will bring out our shoes if we’re not getting moving on her timeline. 

She likes to sit on her mini potty fully clothed, but has no real interest in potty learning yet.

She refuses any sort of bows in her hair. Sadness. 

We arrived in San Diego Saturday evening for a week of family time and a big family reunion for my dad’s side of the family. 

We rented the most adorable little house in Encinitas for our family vacay portion of the trip. It’s perfect – 2 min walk to park, 10 minute walk to beach or downtown shops/restaurants/Whole Foods.

The house has everything we need for a toddler (mat or pack n play for sleeping, booster seat, bubbles, puzzles, and other toys) and trips to the beach. It really was an amazing find, and maybe 10% more than an average hotel. But about 200 times better because we don’t have to take a toddler out to eat for every meal and there’s a bedroom we can out her in to sleep at 7pm. I’m happy to share the info if anyone is interested in the property!

Anyway, we flew down Saturday afternoon. Flying at 16 months is not fun – too old to nap, too young to care about screentime. We entertained the little monkey however we could. And snacks. All the snacks. 

We didn’t get to San Diego until 5:30 and by the time we got bags, car, and stopped at Whole Foods for dinner, it was someone’s bedtime. We originally got the house instead of a hotel so we could have a room to put her to sleep in without having to sit in the dark after she goes to bed. But her sleep is so bad right now we still sat in the dark on our computers in the living room, less we make a peep and wake her up. 

In the brilliant words of our good friend Jon: there is no such thing as a vacation with a kid, there are trips. 

Sunday was so much fun! 

Paige woke up at 6:05 and was a total grump from not enough sleep. Greg had some work he needed to get done so he could shut off for the week, so I took her to the park that is about 100 yards from the house. We were there at 7:02am.

After 30 minutes of melt downs I gave up and put her in the car. She took a nap for awhile while I drove around. The we hit up Whole Foods (trip 2) to get goodies for the week and for the BBQ we were hosting. 

Our friends Ashley and John and their one year old live in San Diego so we invited them to come over. I also invited my best friend, her husband and their three year old to come down from LA. Then my sister ended up being in town early for that reunion too, and since her kids are the same ages, we added them to the mix. It definitely filled up the casita! There were a few tears, but for the most part a ton of laughs and a great time visiting with people we don’t get to see often. 

I took no photos, but here are a few from others. 

Paige and Owen, with my nephew Oliver with his back to the camera.

Paige and Sloane, who thinks P gives the best hugs and kisses. 

Monday we took advantage of the nearby beach and had a beach morning. We packed up this fun cart with toys, snacks, towels, all the sunscreens, an umbrella,  and a cute toddler. We rolled her and all the stuff right from the house to the beach. 

We left our phones away to keep out sand and to spend time together so I didn’t get many photos. 

Our beach babe loves the water. We took turns chasing her in to splash in the waves. Like with most things, she has no fear of the water. 

We headed home to try to get her to nap. As usual, that was a failure so Greg took her to a car nap while I got a few thigs done. 

In the early afternoon we walked into town. First stop: kombucha on tap at the local vegan cafe. So tasty. 

We walked forever until we found a park to play in for an hour or so until it was late enough to eat an early dinner. 

Dinner at the fish shop! It was so good and they had a kids menu that didn’t have typical kids junk food on it. Yay. 

We walked back home and hit the park near or I rental again. I swear, day to day parenting is a lot of trying to figure out how to pass another hour. I can’t be alone with this thought, right? 

We got P down to sleep (or maybe we didn’t, honestly the nights all blend together these days) and I headed to the yoga studio on the propert (a little one room studio that I’m guessing they legally can’t call a bedroom so call it the yoga studio instead) to do some yoga. Loved this mat when I rolled it out!

Next up: Paige and I take Greg to Legoland to fulfill a childhood dream! 

What’s going on in PC’s world, in a ten bullet list format:

• Balls. She loves balls right now. She recently learned the word so she points out every ball she sees and her favorite toy is an old gross tennis ball of Alfred’s. 
• Birds. We’ve moved on from dog obsession to bird obsession. She calls then “bac bacs”, which is her attempt at saying “quack quack”. It’s applied liberally to anything that flies.
• Climbing. All the climbing. She’s constantly climbing furniture.
• Stair fall. We had a little incident recently where Alfred knocked her all the way down the stairs. She’s fine, but it was scary.
• Good byes. She’s said “Buh bye” a few times in the past, but the last two weeks she’s using it way more and she can anticipate the end of a conversation. She also tells Greg “buh bye” when’s she’s ready to go to bed so he’ll leave the room (input her to bed because at the moment that is the only way she’ll go down). #everythingisaphase
• Nursing. We’re down to just before bed and in middle of the night. I wish it was nothing, I’m SO DONE, but she is not so I’m trying to be gentle with my weaning. You can read more about the rocky road it’s been here. 
• Mimicking. She copies so much of what we do now. Hilarious and scary! If you squat down to talk with her, she’ll squat too. Or she’ll copy a routine we have, like putting Alfred’s pillow away in the morning, that I didn’t realize she noticed. She also likes to take wash clothes and kitchen towels and wipe down the floor. Obviously she’s learned that from me. 😉
• Not sleeping. She’s teething and not sleeping and we’re just going with it. Hopefully her canines will break through by the time we’re back from vacation and she’ll sleep in her room again. We’d be (even more) exhausted if we tried to fight her sleep patterns so we’ve learned to just roll with them. She’ll sleep through the night in her own bed in high school, right? 
• Dancing. This girl still loves dancing. She will dance anywhere if she hears a little music. Or if someone says the word “dance”. 
• People. She loves loves loves people. I’m finishing this up while she eats her snack at the zoo and all she’s done in the hour we’ve been here is watch people, wave to them, ask them to pick her up, and climb. 

We’re on our way home from another Fourth of July with good friends on Camano Island.

Because we had to time car naps and hope for not being up all night, so we left at 4pm. Before dinner and hours before fireworks. #parentlife

I just had the brilliant idea that I can blog from my phone, and maybe there’s a small chance some of our adventures will be documented!

So here’s 4th of July. Paige is 16 months old. We joined our good friends at Becca’s childhood home on Camano Island (about an hour north of Seattle).

The small town has a parade to kick off the holiday. And this year was a typical 60 degree 4th. Summer in Seattle starts on July 5th.

This is the view from the Holland’s home and backyard. NOT BAD.

Paige is obsessed with wearing everything right now. Including buckets.
She’s also into climbing into chairs, and was very excited to find this pint sized one.

Family photo. Because we never take them and I’m trying to get better about that.

Hope you had a great holiday!

I’ve done a terrible job of documenting Paige’s life. I started off strong, and have pretty much tapered to nothing. I am using the 1 Second Everyday app, which is super fun, but it doesn’t really tell any of the stories.

So, here’s the first ten things that come to mind about Paige right now, at 15.5 months. And a few unedited pictures. Because something is better than nothing, right?

1. Paige LOVES dogs. She calls them “woof woofs” and gets so excited when she sees one. She points out our windows to the park all day saying “woof woof”.
2. Paige talks all the time, and says a handful of understandable words: dada, mama, up (which means “up”, “down”, or “i want out of my carseat”), ball, Alfred (“al-bed”), grandma (“mo-ma”), all done, this (all day long she says “this” and points to things), thank you (some gibberish if you hand her something), and “woof woof”.
3. Paige loves water. So far this summer we’ve been to the beach twice, swimming twice, and to the splash park. She has loved every second. At the splash park she was in the biggest sprays. I learned not to wear a thin cotton dress to the splash park.
4. Paige sleeps. Sort of. I hesitate writing this because I 100% believe in jinxing children’s sleep. But she wakes up 1-2 times a night now, during a 12 hour period, which is light years better than 4-6 like we did for the first 14 months. (Literally 5 minutes after I wrote this sentence she woke up. WHEN WILL I LEARN THAT BABY SLEEP IS LIKE FIGHT CLUB.)
5. Paige likes to go up and down our stairs on her own. She’s getting better at climbing down stairs, but still usually sits down and scoots if she’s not being assisted.
6. Paige is a great eater. The only thing she won’t currently eat is broccoli. She eats meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. I tried to give her some cheese the other day and she looked at me like I was giving her poison. If I hadn’t spent 43 hours birthing her, I would question if she is mine.
7. Paige loves Alfred. She follows him around, hugs him, always is ready to grab his leash and give him a “walk”. He is coming around to her and tolerates her quite a bit, even parading around with her while she walks him.
8. Paige weighs 17 lbs and 13oz. At her 15 month appointment she had moved up to the 7.8%. Quite an accomplishment for the girl who was in the 3rd percent for quite some time.
9. Paige poses for the camera now and needs to see the photo after you take it.
10. Paige does not like toys. Do any kids? She spends MAYBE four minutes a day playing with toys and all the rest of the day trying to play with real life objects.

Apparently I can’t add photos because I’ve reached my “plan limit” and I’m too tired to figure that out right now, but she’s really darn cute.

 

Friends! It’s been quite some time since I’ve stopped in here. 2.5 months to be exact. Since then, Paige has turned one and started part time daycare. That’s right, I’m officially a (part time) working mama. I’m so excited to introduce you to my second baby – Small Bites Wellness.

If you are interested in nutrition and wellness, I invite you to join me on my new website. I’ve been writing articles for the last few months, but just this week I opened up my nutritional therapy services and shortly will be opening group nutrition classes. The first class is around nutrition to optimize fertility, which will be offered this spring. I hope to offer a general nutrition class starting in the summer, as well.

—

I hope to get back into the habit of documenting our personal life here. At the moment all my efforts are going into building a business (the paperwork! the technology! the headaches!), but I do hope that dies down eventually. For the meantime, here’s baby girl at her first birthday party. We love her more than words can say and watching her enter toddlerhood both breaks my heart and expands it daily.