2021 has arrived! Both boys made it past midnight in to the New Year. Though the party quickly ended and we all headed to bed. On New Years Day we had the traditional pork and sauerkraut while the boys enjoyed primarily mac and cheese and strawberries.
I’ve been finding hidden treasures, partially eaten or just the wrappers around lately, typically in the pantry. I just gives me a good laugh, really. I can just imagine the faces I would see had they been busted in action. The boys and I made Buckeyes to start off the New Year. They both had fun rolling and dipping them in chocolate, and sampling of course.
Are you noticing a trend in the photos I’ve been sharing? This is the latest installment in the series entitled “where we find Reid sleeping”. This kiddo really needs an afternoon nap (it’s pretty obvious?) but refuses to take one in a formal way. Instead, we find him asleep in random places around the house!
I really love to see the kids playing together outdoors. If Covid has been good for anything, I love that the kids have had to enjoy each other’s company outside which means no shows, screens, or electronics. Just good old fashioned play. They play long and hard and almost always some sport or game is involved.
Reid is the biggest snuggler of all time. Anytime he sits with you he wants to take your arm and wrap it around him or take your hand and put it across him or next to him. It’s too cute, if you move your hand he will move it back where he wants it :). And Griffin loves to snuggle and watch a show or sport at the drop of a hat
Being on screens so much between school and using them as a “babysitter” from time to time while Kevin is working, Santa gave them the blue-light blocker glasses for Christmas. They like to wear them and I think they both look cute. They don’t even know they are for blocking the blue light, they just think they’re fun to wear. Hopefully it lasts.
We moved Reid up to a full-sized Big Boy bed from his toddler bed this month! It makes me sad to think he’s growing up, but happy at the same time. He is young at heart for sure and loves to be a baby. But he was ready for his big boy bed! I took him to Target and he picked out the sheets and comforter (with just a wee bit of help from me, lol). We rearranged his room some and got him all set up. He was all smiles.
Reid loves to play and unfortunately through Covid has missed out on being in preschool and laying with same-aged friends. He plays with Griffin or the older kids in the neighborhood but he’s really mostly doing independent play even when they are all together. He loves barbies, babies, and the color pink.
We went to visit Haya, Mo, and baby Summer at their place. Summer is getting so big and the boys loved holding her and sitting with her. Throughout Covid and the quarantine, Kevin began giving the boys and himself hair cuts. They sit through them really pretty well and Kevin has gotten pretty good at it, doing them every month or so.
As a fundraiser for the PTO at Griffin’s school, Beehive, the local Powell bakery had pizza-making kits (amongst other things) that you could buy. So we made our own pizza from scratch one evening and it turned out great.
I love the quiet of the mornings and my routine of getting up early before anyone else, feeding Brutus, and sitting down to have my coffee before our morning walk. Brutus knows after I finish my coffee and get up that it’s time to get his collar on and head out the door. We have a good system down. And then once we’re out we often get to see cool things, like the full moon or a fresh snowfall.
Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein sent a valentine’s package to the boys before they headed out of town for Florida. Once it arrived there wasn’t any keeping it taped up! They were both excited to have lovies with their names on them and in their favorite colors (buckeye for Finn and pink/red for Reid).
We remodeled our first floor and kitchen area in 2014 and painted everything on the entire first floor and loft at that time in a color called Collonade Gray. Kevin and I both dislike how dark our house is, so in an attempt to lighten it up we decided to paint our family room and kitchen walls white and also update the baseboards from the cabinet/cream color to white in the kitchen and from the oak color to white in the family room. We also took down the ceiling trim piece in the kitchen along the long wall since we didn’t think painting that white would look great abutting the kitchen cabinets above the fridge. At the same time, I began to paint the unfinished trim around the new windows that we’ve now had for two (!) years. Yikes. Never thought it would be that long to start painting any of them but here we are. It’s not a fast process and as it turns out after doing part of it and then spring picking up at Millcreek the finishing is on hold!
The boys of the house are the shovelers of the driveway after each snowfall. Griffin and Reid like to suit up and shovel for a bit and then move on to playing in the snow and building a snowman if the conditions are right for it.
Griffin’s teacher, Miss Peacock, entered her class into a contest and won a Tonie Box for each kid in her class! I don’t even recall if I posted about that, but in any case Griffin really loves it and loves the different characters that you can put on the top to listen to stories or music. So after a while we decided to get one for Reid so that when we put him in bed at night he can listen to a story or song to help him get to sleep. We got him the Frozen character, which is his most favorite song at the moment and also Cars, Toy Story, and a Fox with Nursery Rhymes.
Mom and Dad sent us this selfie from the beginnings of their road trip to warmer weather in Florida for the month of February. I’m glad they decided to go and get out of Ohio for awhile and enjoy the sandy beaches of Siesta Key!
The Millcreek construction is moving along with the first floor framing, electrical, and networking cabling has been run and the HVAC is installed. The insulation is in and the drywall has been hung, the door trim installed and stained. The second floor will house our IT room – we will finally have all computer and networking equipment in one place rather than three!
Our H2A workers are scheduled to arrive and begin work on February 6th. So Fred, Shaina, and I went to Ikea and loaded up on furnishings for the three apartments that they will be living in. Dressers, night stands, lights, kitchen supplies, bath towels, you name it we filled up our carts. It was hilarious. Fred was done after an hour, lol. But we got so much done and off our list of needs. It was a great trip. Afterwards I took home all of the towels and washed them all. Fun fun! We will be ready for these guys soon!
The boys enjoyed some fun activities this week – of course the painting, of which Reid enjoyed painting not only the paper but also his body! Debbie did tell me that he wasn’t interested in eating it, which is great considering he usually puts everything in his mouth! The big kids made chicken noodle soup this week. Griffin loves to do this each year with Debbie. He thinks it is so fun to take the meat off the chicken bones (eek!!) and make the soup. I love that he enjoys it. Chicken bones aren’t my thing, lol. 
Reid continues to do really well sleeping. His naps are solid during the day and he’s still sleeping 12 hours at night. I sneek in to feed him and change his diaper once between 9:30-10 at night usually. And I love to find him amongst all of his pacis. Too many, I know, but you know what? He can always find one which makes sleeping at night for mommy and daddy that much better! Lately I’ve been noticing when I put him in bed that he has one in his mouth and he crawls or scoots around his bed to find another and then just kind of holds it in his hand or plays with it in his hand for a few minutes. Probably creating a bit of a crutch – but blue bunny that we got on Black Friday has been missing for 5 or more weeks, so he’s been going to bed with just his pacis. We’ve yet to unearth where blue bunny could be…..
And this boy has been sleeping hard too. He definitely grinds his teeth some and babbles in his sleep. And he is a sweaty hot-box! I find him in the craziest of positions all over his bed when I check on him at night!
And there are dog snuggles too. Brutus and Lils regularly hang out at the top of the brown stairs in the mornings. 
Awhile back I got these “iron beads” for Griffin but I must say, there require a lot of patience and fine dexterity! This particular evening Griffin said, “mom – I made a G!”. And sure enough, he’d made a huge G :). 
Reid, Finn, and I were all hanging in Reid’s room one afternoon. I had just unpacked a box of wipes and Griffin wanted to badly to put Reid in the box. He was able to do it all by himself (I kind of winced once or twice watching the attempts as Reid is not light, but he got it!). After he got Reid in the box he proceeded to get in himself and have the cutest conversation with Reid. “I just love you Reid” he said at one point. And they were just looking at each other. It was the cutest!
I’ve been struggling with poison ivy outbreaks over the last couple of weeks and one day this week Debbie texted me to see if I’d noticed a red spot on the back of Reid’s head. Instantly I thought it could be poison ivy because of where it was on my arm and how his head hits my arm when i hold or feed him. So I asked her to send me a picture – sure enough, he had gotten my poison ivy. Thankfully though it never really got bubbly and just kind of scabbed over. His healed very quickly and he didn’t ever seem bothered. Whew! 
We headed up to Mansfield for Mom’s early birthday celebration as they’ll be in Florida for her birthday. Graham wasn’t feel well so Andy stayed in Cbus with him, but the rest of us were able to gather for another tasty italian dinner and rich chocolate cake that Amy made. We spent the night and left early Sunday morning as we were in the nursery at church! Happy birthday, Mom!
