January 16-31, 2020

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Going back in time to put together some posts that I’m behind on. Our worries were far less back in January! Reid and I are up and at em early this morning I figured I’d go back and put together some blogs. As I look through these pictures from school it seems like such a long time ago! Now, granted I’m putting together a January post in late March, but still, even though the boys have been out of school for two weeks it seems like all that has happened with the Coronavirus and various orders within Ohio started such a long time ago!

Griffin and Reid play together quite often. Reid basically imitates anything Griffin does from words and conversations to running, jumping, or any other physical activity. Things go from fun and laughter to screaming and fits in an instant around here!

I  was able to volunteer at Tyler Run during the COSI on Wheels visit. I stepped up to the pH table and talked to the kiddos about the difference between acids and bases and did some hands on experiments with different liquids to determine if they were an acid or a base. It was a fun and fast afternoon! Griffin was excited to come to my table :).

Here Reid is playing in our refrigerator cubby in the kitchen. Our fridge has stopped keeping a consistent cool temperature. It fluctuates all over the place and unfortunately, the fix is to replace the entire cooling system which costs half as much as a new fridge. So the hunt is on for a new one, though it’s not as easy as you would think. It turns out our space is 33″ wide and most fridges are 35.75″ wide, ugh!

One afternoon I arrived home and Haya was cleaning up paper off the floor. I wasn’t sure what kind of activity they had done, but as it turns out she brought a balloon filled with confetti the color of which revealed whether she was having a boy or girl! She recorded a cute video asking each of the neighborhood kiddos what their thought was and then Griffin popped it with Reid sitting nearby. It was cute!

 

We celebrated Andy and Mom’s birthdays with dinner at Polaris Grill followed by dessert and presents at our house. We celebrated a bit early as Mom and Dad headed to Florida for the month of February! We also celebrated our neighbor Abbie’s birthday with a fun party at the Bolan’s house. Tons of kiddos played for quite a long time and little miss Abbie tore into her cake!

For Christmas I’d given Kevin an Order of the Moth membership at Nocterra, though honestly I forgot to give it to him, lol! Then I got a reminder of the Launch Party from Nocterra and gave him the belated gift. Thankfully I had it together enough to get a sitter back when I purchased it so we headed out for the launch party on a date night. We love hanging out at our community tap room!

Brutie is getting some love from all the Manning girls. I rode with Sarah to pickup Abbie from a retreat and the rest of the girls watched Griffin and Reid. It was a win-win for everyone.

This was a beautiful sunrise I captured upon leaving the driveway one morning en route to work. The picture isn’t nearly as pretty as it was in person, but you get the idea! This is Wyndbend.

The new office and restroom building inside our Shipping Facility is coming along quite nicely. Drywall is up and mudded!

January 1-15, 2020

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Reid wishes everyone a Happy New Year (check out the video below)!

We’ve started off the new year with some lounging and relaxing family time. Movie nights in the loft, Griffin has been making ice cream “sundaes” each night with our yummy peppermint ice cream and mint meltaways. We’ve been playing with duplos, legos, magnets, and dressing up like superheroes and cops, jumping in big puddles, and I got a cute video of Reid playing with Brutus (rather being bossy, lol) and trying to ride him like a horse.



 

Kevin and I had a date night and headed out to dinner at Cap City followed by a stop at Urban Meyer’s Pint House, and then we ended up at Vaso Rooftop Bar in the new Bridge Park area of Dublin. They have super fancy and unusual cocktails and it’s a pretty different vibe than most Dublin and Columbus spots. Honestly, the drinks were a bit too unusual for me, lol and I’d rather just hang at a more low-key place but it was fun to get snazzy for the night and go somewhere different.

We joined Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan, and Greta along with Mom and Dad at a Blue Jackets game. Rowan’s team got to play on the ice during the second intermission so it was fun to see him score a goal and hear his name announced on the speaker! It just to happened to be Kids Takeover day so each of the kids got a CBJ piggy bank and the whole game there were kid-focused programming.  Afterward we enjoyed dinner at the Bethune’s and then the following day we watched Graham’s hockey game.

Our boy Brutus can be a hard one to figure out. Griffin and a friend were in the garage and Brutus rushed out into the garage and barked  and chased Griffin’s friend out into the driveway. It scared me to hear the screams and barking though Brutus didn’t “do anything”. Trying to figure out what triggers him to be so fearful and react by scaring off his perceived threat is a challenge. I must say, I was in tears over this situation. We’ve spent a lot of time and money in training, daily walks, and we love him so much. But the lack of certainly and unpredictable behavior is worrisome to me. I took these pics wondering if we need to rehome him and all of the emotions that go along with that. Ugh. He’s such a good dog with our family, I just wish he wasn’t sketchy with strangers!

Each week after swim or gymnastics we typically go out for a quick dinner before bedtime. The kids like to choose (typically Canes or Culvers) and Culvers is always a hit on Tuesday’s as they have a face painter there. She is so kind and will paint anything you want! This week the boys both got Pokemon.

Reid is at such a fun age. He’s stubborn and sassy but also quite often loving and cuddly. He definitely likes to put on a show and be bossy from time to time (even if he’s just re-enacting or repeating something he’s seen or heard). He absolutely still adores his pacifier and doesn’t sleep without it. He makes so many different facial expressions! He really enjoys gymnastics class and I believe he quite enjoys me having to chase him down or bring him back to the circuit he’s supposed to be doing (rather than what he wants to do in the moment!). He is affectionate and caring and his verbal skills, words, and concepts that he grasps are impressive for a 2 3/4 year old!

We ordered a bookshelf for Reid’s room so he can more easily get to his books. He was so excited to help build it! Griffin wanted to hang out while we built it so he brought his Pokemon cards to the hallway and periodically handed me parts :).

Griffin came home with another Pawsome note and all of the promise areas were circled: Teamwork, Respect, Effort, and Spread Kindness. His teacher is very encouraging, which I really appreciate. The Cub Scouts had a special Pack Event at the OSU Planetarium. Kevin took Griffin and they had a fun morning learning about the solar system. Afterwards they explored campus starting with Buckeye Donuts and then heading on to a fun adventure. I think Griffin has seen more of the campus than I ever have! They ended up walking so far from where they parked that they rented scooters and scooted back!

This Winter I signed Griffin up for indoor Flag Football. It is 4 on 4 and he’s on a team with his friend Owen. He gets so excited each week for game day. The boys really enjoy baths (bath bombs in particular) and for the most part playing together. Though it doesn’t take long before there is screaming and crying, lol.

For Christmas I gifted Kevin an Order of the Moth membership at Nocterra. It’s our hang out spot so I figured he would enjoy it and it supports our local business. We’re excited for the launch party of 1/24.

One of our date nights we headed to the Remodeling Show at the Convention center. We got several ideas for an outdoor treehouse/playhouse from these “she sheds” that were on display. We also signed up for all kinds of free quotes for various projects. We’re hoping to get some pricing info together and then put together a plan for making some improvements around here like painting, lighting, our front step/walkway that’s falling apart and such.

The interior building project in our Shipping Facility is moving right along. Framing is done, electrical and networking is complete, the insulation is in, drywall is up, and the weather covering is up too.

And our Amaryllis is adding a pretty look to our kitchen with three large red flowers!

December 24-31, 2019 ~ Christmas and New Years Eve

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Well, it seems appropriate that as I sit here writing about the Christmas and New Years Even holidays it is blistery and snowing outside! Perhaps even more wintry than it was during Christmastime.

Dad, Amy, Greta and I did our traditional Christmas Eve Shopping trip this year a day early on the 23rd so on Christmas Eve we hung out around the house and had a lazy morning. It was a nice and warm day, quite unseasonable actually, so when I  headed out with Brutus we went on a nice and long 2 mile walk. The kids played hockey in the driveway along with Amy and Andy. Then later in the afternoon we packed up to head to Powell for Christmas Eve at NPC. We got home in time to drop off and feed the dogs, do a quick change out, and pack back into the car to head to church all in about 10 minutes. Whew. We didn’t really plan ahead for dinner but we lucked out and were able to enjoy a tasty spread at Koble in Powell on our way home. Yummers! Once we got home we put out cookies, carrots, and milk for Santa and then put the boys to bed. After a short bit we were off to bed ourselves as we knew we were likely in for an early morning.

The boys got up about 6:20 and once we were all downstairs we jumped right in to their stockings and gifts from Santa that were on the hearth. They were both excited for many of their gifts and moved right along through everything. Some of the top hits: Pokemon cards, Pokemon Go balls that crack open and have mini characters, and a PS4. Reid loved his kids karaoke machine and Griffin got some new winter boots.

Check out this picture from two years ago – Griffin is wearing the same sweater that Reid wore this year! These boys are getting big!

After a light breakfast at home we packed up into the van and headed to Mansfield for Christmas with Mom, Dad, Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan, and Greta. We made it there by about 10, I think, and began with a nice tasty breakfast before digging in to more prezzies. After a restful afternoon we enjoyed a deluxe prime rib dinner and figgy pudding for dessert! Mom and Dad always go to great lengths to feed our combined army’s while we are there and we love it!

We hung out for the next couple of days which usually began with pretty early mornings for me and the doggles. I often got my cup of coffee at least started before I heard the pitter patter of the kiddos coming down for the day anywhere between 6:30-7 am. The kids played together outside, Rowan and Griffin played a lot of Pokemon cards, Greta used her pottery wheel, Reid and Greta (and Finn, a little) decorated a gingerbread house. Graham played his rubix cube and could often be found reading.

Kevin worked in the basement with Dad on the basement demolition tearing down the wall paneling, pulling down individual ceiling tiles and subsequent ceiling staples. Kevin also helped Dad move the internet and telephone from the basement to the upstairs den and in doing so needed the assistance of a helper in the form of a smaller body to climb into the confined crawl space. Enter Griffin! He was a great helper to get the wires through to where they needed to go. He was a bit apprehensive at first to go into a small, dark space but he worked through his nerves and did great!

After Dad’s office was relocated up to the dining room Kevin found Griffin sitting next to Dad talking football.  Now, this was well past his bed time, but this kid has a heart and passion for sports and it was really sweet to see and hear him having a conversation with Dad about the game they were watching :).  Oh…..and then they moved on to Poker!

These aren’t the greatest pictures, but the document our trip to the waste management facility to drop off a truckload of paneling and ceiling tiles from the basement. From the time I called to see what time they closed until we were leaving with an empty truck was about an hour. We busted booty to get it done and we made it!

And once we returned home I was anxious to get our dying tree taken down! It was hard and bristly and losing needles and I couldn’t wait to get it to the curb! The boys were happy to climb up the ladder yet again. Reid has NO fear, he just zips right up there. Griffin is a little more reserved but once he feels confident he loves helping and going up and down. Lots of play happened over the next few days.

I knew the day was coming when we were going to remove the front of Reid’s crib and turn it in to a big boy bed so I snapped some photos of him sleeping in his crib. Those big cheeks still get me. It’s always such a milestone and a happy yet sad one. He had been climbing out numerous times each night;it was pretty much a fun game for him and he had a really good system in place! While I was at work one day Kevin took the front off while he was home with the boys. Reid was SO excited to have a big boy bed. Ironically, I checked in on the video monitor while I was at work and I saw it all happening. His reaction was cute and the video below is when it all went down, lol.

 

This next series I describe as the “many faces of Reid”. this boy just has so many expressions. I mean all day long whether he is happy, sad, mad, silly, whatever it is he has an expression for his emotion and it cracks me up. It is one of the many super cute personality traits of our feisty little man.  I love it when he looks at me, squints his eyes and smiles and says “I miss you mommy”.

 

For New Year’s Even we had a few neighbors over to our house for a low-key hangout. George, Ella, Dewey, Griffin, and Reid all played together for quite some time. We had pizza, lots of finger foods, drinks, and party favors. Carlene, Matthew, and Jade joined us a little later and even Brutus and Lily got to come downstairs before the ball dropped. We were sitting down just talking and turned on the ball drop and believe it or not we completely forgot to pop the champagne and get our drinks ready for the countdown! We scurried at the last minute and made it just in time.