Weekend in KC

Another weekend, another road trip. :)

This weekend, we headed up to Kansas City on Friday after Adam got home from work. Here are my two road trip buddies.

We got to Matt and Rachael's house with just enough time to set up Sutton's bed and put him down for the night. The next morning, when he and Rowan woke up, they played together for awhile in their jammies. It was cute because mostly Rowan would just stare at Sutton while he played.

The two kids finally got to exchange Christmas presents since this was the first time we'd been together since well before the holidays. Rowan gave Sutton a glow-in-the-dark Thomas the Train book, and Sutton gave Rowan this cute little purse. He picked it out for her all by himself. He was very adamant that he wanted to get her a purse. :)

Rachael, Sutton, and I left at one point to go get coffee, and we came back to Matt and Adam playing Nintendo 64. This is how Matt was playing. :)

Part of the reason we went up to visit was to celebrate Matt's new job. We had a celebratory lunch on Saturday of Dr Pepper ribs. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've ever had ribs, so I needed a tutorial. And we all got messy.

I love hanging out with this lil gal. She's the sweetest baby EVER, and her face just makes me melt every time I look at it.

We had to make funny faces for one picture.

We got in lots of playing and cuddling during Sutton's nap.



Rowan has just started eating baby food. She loves her veggies and was eating carrots and avocado like a champ. Then Adam came over with his big scary beard and got right in her face and made her cry. Poor little lady.

But she was quickly happy again when she saw her mommy.



When Sutton woke up, we loaded up and said our goodbyes and went over to Ryan and Risa's new loft in downtown KC. They've lived in Wichita since we met them, but moved up to KC at the beginning of the year for Ryan's new job. We were so excited to see their super fun loft apartment! I was trying to take a photo of the apartment, but Sutton thought I needed to take one of him first.

After a quick photo with Risa for Instagram purposes, we went over to a nearby restaurant called Cafe al Dente for pizza and calzones. It was really good! But way over our calorie limit for the day, ha!

After dinner, we said a quick goodbye and got on the road to come home. Sutton watched shows on the iPad for a lot of the trip, and then slept for the last part.

And I just thought this was funny...on Friday before we left, Sutton and I took Diesel to my parents' house to stay with them for the weekend. Their house is about 30 minutes away, and we were past Sutton's nap time on the way home. He fell asleep about 2 seconds after we got on the highway, and slept for most of the drive in the position of the second photo. :)

Sutton {2 Years & 7ish Months}

It seems like Sutton is doing all kinds of new and fun things, so I've been writing them down, intending to do a post about them for quite awhile. I just didn't ever have the photos to accompany it. So today I finally grabbed my camera while we were outside in the driveway playing cars on this gorgeous February day.

*He likes to emphasize certain words. Common examples include:
       "I do ALL by myself."
       "I eat breakfast AND cutie."
       "I sleep WIF-OUT my puppy." (Credit to Ginger for that one.)

*He often tells us "I'm just a little guy. When I get BIG, I do it."



*If we tell him we can't do something, like fixing a toy or something, he says "Let's try. Let's just try."

*He's not very independent when it comes to playing, and I hear this about 3,472 times per day: "Mommy, play me? Play cars me?" The 'with' is implied. :)

*A lot of times he says "My" when the correct pronoun would be "I." Such as "My read this book now."

*Hands down favorite song right now is "I like to move it move it" from Madagascar.

*Speaking of Madagascar...that's the current favorite movie. He's watched the first one about 35 times because we own it, and we rented the 2nd and 3rd ones for him, and he had to play them on repeat.

*Sometimes if he says something I don't understand, I'll ask him to repeat it, but instead of repeating it, he'll say "What am I saying?" The way he says it makes it sound like he doesn't even know what he's saying, ha.

*A couple of things he's started saying make him seem very grown up. He'll often ask me to play with him and I'll tell him I need to get coffee first, or use the restroom first. He'll say "Go ahead. Go ahead Mommy."

*Another grown up phrase he's started using is "Nevermind." He'll say something that I don't hear or can't understand, and then he'll smile and say "Nevermind!"

*Little stinker is a smartiepants. He can sing all his ABCs quite clearly. But he usually does it best when he's not paying attention to what he's saying or when he wasn't asked to say them on command.

*He knows A, B, H, M, O, S, W, X, and Y by sight. He'll often point them out when he sees them on signs. One day he saw an airplane leave smoke in the shape of a Y in the sky and yelled "Look Mommy! Y!" His first letter to recognize was S...since his name starts with that, we have several things with his initial in his bedroom.

*He wrote his very first on-purpose letter last night...an M! He wrote it upside down, but it was definitely an M! (Or W, I suppose...). He's done it a couple times since then.

*He finally started singing songs on his own without me having to sing with him. Lately, when we're driving, he'll sing a weird combination of ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which he just calls Twinkle Star). It goes on and on. And on and on and on.





*As mentioned in past posts, he's been getting up way earlier than usual. He's been good about staying in bed or staying in his room until it's light out or until we come get him. When I go in there to get him in the mornings, he's usually sitting on the floor with his pacifier and blankies, playing cars. He looks at me when I walk in and says "I just waiting you Mommy." Sometimes he leaves out unnecessary words. :)

*Lately whenever I pick him up from KidsZone at the Y, or at school where he's been coloring, he runs over to me and gives me his picture and YELLS "It's for YOU!!! I made for YOU!" It's really cute, but he continues to yell it until I acknowledge this statement.

*He's very into planning ahead lately. Each morning as he's eating breakfast, he asks me "What we do next after breakfast?" And then if we're out on errands, he keeps asking "What's next?" until I've told him the plan of every place we're going to stop before we go home. He always remembers things exactly and tells me where to go once we get back in the car.

*He's too smart, and has started using the 'sharing' concept to his advantage. Whenever we get something to eat that looks appetizing, he always comes over and says sweetly "Let's share it!" and just assumes that we will.

                         

*He likes to copy words he hears, especially big words because he knows they get a reaction out of us. This morning I had an eye appointment, and the assistant asked me about macular degeneration. Sutton yells out from the corner where he's playing "Mac-lar?"

*He's going to preschool next year (what?!) and he can't wait. We toured his new school last month and he still talks about it all the time. The ladies there were very impressed with how articulate he is, which was very exciting to hear since I really have nothing to compare him to. He knows all of his shapes, colors, and several letters, and he loves to point them out unprompted...which is what makes me think he'll be ready this fall.

*Last but not least, he's at a very interesting age where he wants everything to be explained. He'll often throw tantrums because he doesn't want to do something we ask him to, but then if we explain why we asked him to do it, he is good to go. It's very weird but nice to be able to reason with him and for him to be able to understand concepts and abstract things as opposed to only what he can see and touch.

I'm sure I'll remember more things the second I hit Publish, but at least that covers most of it. :)

January Happenings 2

A few more photos from January...

Our honeymoon was one of the best times of my life, and we have such great memories from it. I posted this photo on Instagram for a Throwback Thursday and I just want to go back to Hawaii so badly!



I hardly ever wear my hair up but one day it was just making me angry, so I piled it on my head. Sutton told me my hair looked like a flower.

Sutton and I went to Newton one evening to hang out with my parents, and we made a stop at my grandparents house for ice cream. Cooper had to jump up on my dad's lap and even tried to get up on the table.

My mom and grandma with Sutton and his ice cream.

Diesel's baby picture for another Throwback Thursday on Insta.

Sutton was watching a show on our computer and decided that the coffee table was his bus.

We had a gift card to PF Chang's, so we went and ate there one Saturday. It was our first time ever to eat there. Sutton had two strangers tell him how handsome he was while we were there. :)

Outside the restaurant, Sutton decided he wanted to go sit in the grass.



One evening for dinner, I asked Sutton if he wanted PB&J or meat + cheese + mayo. He said he just wanted cheese + mayo and was very adamant. So that's what he ate and he loved it. Gross.

After a haircut, Sutton has a hairy back. :) We always jump right in the tub to "get the itchys off" after haircuts.

We visited Daddy at work over his lunch one day and Sutton helped out by grading some papers.

After that bridal show I did, I still had a huge stack of handouts left over. One evening I was downstairs working in my office and Adam was upstairs. I came up after awhile, and found this. He'd spread my handouts all over the counter. Thanks, buddy.

He wanted to watch his show while sitting in his toybox. Whatever. :)

As previously mentioned, this crazy child has been getting up at 6am lately, which is definitely not his norm. It's hard for him to make it to 1pm for his nap sometimes. This particular day, I told him to play by himself while I took a shower. I called out to him twice during my shower to make sure he was doing okay, and the second time I didn't get a response. So I got out and went to his room and found him like this. Poor guy had fallen asleep while playing with his box of cars.

I traveled to a Labradoodle farm last week to do a workshop with the lady who owns it. She wanted to learn how to take better photos of her pups.



Another Throwback Thursday (I think these are so fun). Adam and I at my senior prom.

We went out on our weekly Thursday date last week to Doc Green's. Love their salads. And this kid loves their mac n cheese.

I found this Greek yogurt stuff that only has 80 calories and is so good! Adam and I are trying to get back into shape/get more toned. It's a difficult process, but this makes it a little easier!

Diesel and Sutton cuddling. They're starting to have a bit more of a friendly relationship now that Sutton's old enough to understand that he has to be careful and gentle with Diesel.

Adam and I got to go out on a date night last Friday before we went to Salina for the fly in. We used a gift card from my parents to Hangar One Steakhouse, and then used some gift cards to the theater to go see Hansel and Gretel at the Warren. So fun! I love date nights and wish we could do them more often! But who can afford that? :)

Two days ago, we had a near 70 degree day. It was pretty windy, but I still wanted to take advantage of it, so Sutton and I went to the park in the morning.

He's really into pretending lately, so he wanted to sit at the picnic tables and make me food. He fed me chicken, ketchup, and candy canes. With cake and fruit snacks for dessert.



When we got home, a bird pooped on his head in our front yard. Poor guy didn't even notice, but after I told him, he kept asking me why the bird pooped on him.



Now for a couple photos of the other little guy around here...

Spoiled?

I got some fun new photo equipment in the mail this week. Hooray! But weird weird packaging...

And last night we had dinner at some friends' house and got to schnuggle on their sweet little baby Hunter.