Tag Archives: enon

August 20, 2017 ~ 13 weeks

Reid is really developing his personality! He is definitely recognizing people and voices and is doing a really great job at tracking people and objects too. It is becoming easier to console him when he’s hungry (or upset) by picking him up and talking to him. He typically calms down unless he is super hungry. He is a good morning napper as he often falls back asleep easily after his first and usually second morning feeding. He’s even begun to rub his eyes a bit when he’s getting tired. I typically wrap him in his swaddle, give him his pacifier, and lay him down in his cosleeper in our room. I turn on the heartbeat noise maker and he drifts off to sleep on his own! He’s pretty simple that way! He also loves to be held and will sleep as long as you hold him :O). His neck is growing stronger and stronger and he gets “tackle time” practice with Griffin usually every day. He’s really able to arch his neck and shoulders into the air and high above his bottom. I thought he would have turned over by now (back to front) as he has a strong shove off and arch in his back, especially when he’s mad! I think it will be soon, He is also regularly putting both of his legs in the air and both of his arms forward and in the air. It’s a joy to watch him concentrate by making this cute face and straightening and tightening his upper lip. His smile lights up a room and he’s happiest just after he’s eaten or when he’s taking care of business ;). 

I’m enjoying my last few weeks at home. Griffin, Reid and I adventure out on bike rides/walks and various places together. I have mixed emotions about going back to work. I’ve really, really, enjoyed being home with Reid and Griffin over the last 13 weeks. I love to be able to spend time with them during the day and not just in the evenings. And I’m thankful for my workplace that has allowed me to be away on maternity leave for such a long period of time. I do enjoy my job though I’ve certainly enjoyed a change in my daily schedule that I’ve only had one other time (when I had Griffin) over the last 19 years being at Millcreek. And being home over the summer is a great time of year!

Thursday morning we went on a long walk/bike ride and then rushed home to shower and get ready for our adventure. Kevin and I were planning to surprise Griffin with a daytime trip to Pins Mechanical only to find out they don’t open until 4 pm! I had told him we were going to COSI, but really we were going to surprise him at PINS. Ugh! So instead we ate lunch at Si Senor and then Griffin, Reid, and I actually DID go to COSI. We also ventured to the library this week where (gasp) I even checked out a book for myself! Griffin was getting so frustrated with me trying to find something I could start reading while he wanted to play in the kids area. Several times he handed me books off the shelf and said things like “here, Mom, this is the one. Read this one. This is good.”.  I’ve never been good at reading as I fall asleep as soon as I start not to mention my wondering mind. But it’s a small goal of mine so I wondered around not being familiar with any authors and in the end took a book off the end that was a “librarians pick”. So far I like it! And as for Griffin, he loves reading or being read to and he really has fun choosing new books. He loves being read to at the library to see if he wants to check the book out. This particular morning Finn wanted the same thing for breakfast that Grandpa Beilstein had made him for lunch earlier in the week: scrambled egg and salami slices. And thanks, Mom and Dad, for coming down to watch Reid and Griffin so I could head in to work for a few hours for a meeting. Somehow I didn’t snap a single photo! I’ve not always made time for tummy time each day but I’ve begun to get more regular use out of the jungle mat with Reid. It’s cute to watch him reach for the animals and listen to the sounds and watch the lights. And then there’s Brutus always wanting to be around the activity.  I actually took Brutus to the vet on Thursday as he’d been doing some licking. I figured while he was there I would also ask them to cut his toenails (that’s a real win right there!). I’m really glad I took him there as my initial reason for visiting the vet was to refill Lily’s medicine. He weighs 105# and I was surprised to learn that she thinks he should lose about 10 pounds! What?! He’s only 11 months old! But it seems we’ve been feeding him too much (perhaps 6 cups some days, but he’s often not interested in eating all of it). He should have 3-4 cups a day so we’re going to shave his portions back to 4 cups total each day. She also looked in his eyes, ears, looked at his feet, teeth, etc., and she showed me some redness and scabs in his right ear. He doesn’t have an infection per the ear cytology so she gave me a topical ointment to put on it to clear it up. She thinks he may have some allergies (perhaps food or environmental) so I’m going to start being more observant as to what and when he licks and itches.  Looking back I realize he’s always been more of an itcher but I never once considered allergies! He did great at the office and only barked a couple of times. Even those barks were soft barks not his deep loud barks. He is just a ginormous baby though as I had to walk with him to the table for him to be examined. Otherwise as they were leading him to be examined he was yanking backwards trying to slip his collar!  On Friday morning I met up with Laura down at Columbus Commons. It was a beautiful warm and breezy day full of fun inflatables, building blocks, and art activities. Oh, and it’s free! I left Reid home with Debbie and Griffin and I had a morning date. It was fun! The letter of the week this week, “O”, is for Octopus, I love how much Griffin loves Reid. He regularly asks to hold him and snuggles with him. He talks to him and is such a great helper. Whenever he hears him crying he rushes to his crib to give him his pacifier. He often says things like “I just can’t believe I have a brother”, “he’s just so cute”, “awe, look at his cute face”. It brings my heart joy.  And guilt for being overly stringent sometimes about germs or just correcting him rather than just letting him express his love for his brother Reid. So, each day I try to do better than the last and strike a better balance. I love when Griffin is able to calm Reid down and make him smile. It’s the cutest. On Friday night we went out for our first Japanese Steakhouse experience with Griffin. He thought it was super cool to see the chef do the tricks with his utensils, including cracking the egg on his spatula and trying to toss broccoli into his and Kevin’s mouths! Oh, and he absolutely loved the soup (just not the mushrooms, lol).  On Saturday we took meals to Missy and Brett as she is recovering from surgery. We then made a pit stop at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong’s house. It was a fun afternoon.  And on Sunday after church we celebrated with the Bethune’s and friends for Rowan’s 6th birthday! It was a sunny afternoon and a fun group of kiddos. I can’t believe he is already 6! He was just 3 months old when Kevin and I began dating!

August 13, 2017 ~ 12 weeks

We’ve had a busy week filled with all kinds of fun and adventure though most of our fun happened over over the weekend as you’ll see in a minute.

Throughout the week various family members began arriving in Ohio in preparation for Jim and Pat’s 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration on Saturday, August 12th. Uncle Todd spent the night with us and Griffin really loved having him here. He wanted him to do everything – play superheroes, dodge ball, read books, color, any and everything he asked Todd to do it with him and Todd obliged 🙂  On Friday I went Kroger and Costco to pick up white flowers to make arrangements for Jim and Pat’s anniversary party.  I got home and put them all in big vases and from there began making arrangements. It was so fun! And I think they turned out pretty well.  Later on Friday night we headed off to drop the kids at Uncle Andy and Aunt Amy’s house with the cousins while Kevin and I went to our friend Laura’s 40th birthday party. The theme was Prom 1995 (the year she graduated high school) so we got all decked out in dressy stuff. I was fortunate to borrow a dress from a friend and I found a matching bow tie and cummerbund for Kevin. I ordered us matching corsage and boutonniere as well. It was a fun celebration and I enjoyed getting the below text updates from Amy and Andy letting us know all was well with the kiddos. We’re grateful they were able to watch them for us! Saturday morning we woke up early and got the car packed up and headed to Enon to begin the party prep for later that afternoon. When I made all of these flower arrangements I had no idea how many I would end up with or what size or how we would get them there! Turns out we had five (four pretty large ones) to somehow get there in one piece. Kevin did a great job of making support boxes for them so they wouldn’t move during our trip. They all arrived looking great thanks to his packing genius.  Here they are, the celebratory couple standing next to their party sign! Kevin had this banner made locally in Columbus and they did a great job. The picture on the left is from their wedding day and the picture on the right is from our wedding almost 5 years ago. It worked out great and was easy to setup and take down.
We brought cookies, cupcakes, and an anniversary cake for the celebration. I went and visited Sweet Tooth Cottage, a local bakery in Powell where I’ve previously gotten custom cookies. I had heard good things about their cakes so I figured we would get it there along with cupcakes too. Oh my goodness – the cake was delicious! It was chocolate with vanilla buttercream and the frosting was so good. Flavorful but not too sweet.  And that cake, oh my goodness, four layers of chocolate loaded with beautiful flowers and gold dust on top. It was SO HEAVY! And we had cute little cupcakes to match and custom hearts with “fifty” written on them and wedding cakes with “fifty” as well. And we enjoyed finding decorations and having pictures made for everyone to see Jim and Pat 50 years ago! It was great to have so many family members make the trip to Enon to celebrate and also to see the progress Jim and Pat have made on renovating their “new” home! It was also nice for everyone to be able to meet Reid! He was passed around for most of the afternoon and got to meet many aunts, uncles, and cousins from Ohio to Texas to California.  After the party we headed down the street to Kevin’s high school friend, Eric’s, annual pig roast/party. It is literally a few houses down the street. Tons of people were still there and they had a lovely bonfire that Griffin really enjoyed.  Pat’s request for her anniversary was that she wanted all of her kids under one roof! Who knows when that may happen again, but we made it happen this time complete with grandkids too! Here Griffin is fast asleep after a super late night and a loaded party day!On Sunday morning Griffin enjoyed more play time with Charlotte and Max who were in town from Albuquerque. Charlotte and Finn really loved playing with the cars and the track forming it into various shapes with different ramps and such.  Chris and I joked as we sat around on Sunday morning that this is the new “family” time. Every single person in the room was using their electronic device be it a laptop, tablet, or cell phone.  Too funny, but the way it is these days it seems.  On Sunday afternoon Brett and Missy made fried chicken for dinner for everyone. It was tasty! And here are some others from throughout the week.  rother

February 21, 2016

IMG_4449Check out our little exercise man! I’ve been doing P90x3 for a couple of months now and Griffin has taken to my yoga mat pretty well.  He loves to exercise with me – and man is his core strong.  Oh to be young again, lol! This particular day I put him down for a nap. I had been checking in on him using the video monitor as I could tell he wasn’t falling asleep. About halfway through my workout I hear “Momma, I done sleeping”, so I yelled up and asked him to come down and lay on the couch and rest while I finished.  That lasted about 10 minutes and for the last 5 or so of the video he got down on the floor and exercised with me 🙂  He is also really great at push ups!IMG_4445 IMG_4444When I do my workout videos in the family room, I usually have an audience of Lily and Cameron. It has certainly been a very emotionally taxing time for our family over the last couple of months, and weeks, in particular. Cammie’s health (really her tail) wasn’t improving and we made the very painful decision to say goodbye to her this week.  It is such a hard thing to do, this girl has been through all the ups and downs of life with me and our family for as long as I can remember. And as I said in our post about her, she was a sweet yet stubborn and sassy girl.  We miss her (and the sound of her beating her tail) a lot and Finn regularly talks about how she is up in “heben” (heaven) chasing balls. IMG_4408 IMG_4417 IMG_4415Finn and Sammy ventured outside this week and built Frosty, complete with a hat and gloves! IMG_4429 IMG_4428And quite a mess of his books:IMG_4432(1)And some snuggles (or smothers!) with Lily:IMG_4437 IMG_4438And a simple mommy and son dinner one night. I’ve told some of you this before, but I originally bought the Fruity Pebbles (although they are the ALDI brand) cereal for me. However, it quickly became Finn’s cereal of choice and he asks for it by calling it “colored” cereal. This particular night I had the “adult” cereal and Finn had the “colored” cereal.  About halfway through he said “let’s trade”.  So sure enough, I got the “colored” cereal.  Yum, lol! IMG_4440And this weekend included a boys adventure to Enon, where Finn and Daddy enjoyed lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa, checking out the progress on their new house.  Kevin used the warm day to empty out a storage unit from back in his single days :).  An extra special treat was the warm, sunny, and windy weather which made for a nice afternoon at the park that is right down the road from Grandma and Grandpa’s new house! Joe went along for the ride too. Joe, you know, Finn’s scooter.  He pretends he is a horse and when he’s finished riding him he puts him back in the barn for the night.  Oh, and he does his business outside in the yard, like Lily.  This boy – his imagination is non-stop!IMG_4452 IMG_4454 IMG_4455 IMG_4456 IMG_4464 IMG_4462 IMG_4463 IMG_4461While the boys had their fun, I spent the afternoon hanging out with my college girl friends Amy, Jaime, and Kim. We basically hopped from restaurant to restaurant, from Dublin to Easton, and back to Dublin.  We enjoyed catching up on each others lives, kids, spouses, and such. And it was a treat to be able to enjoy the nice and unseasonably warm weather. Though we don’t see each other as often as we would like, we always have fun when we get together!IMG_4457