First Time Mama - First Time Blogger: August 2014

What book am I reading now?

Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love by Bret Baier

I am reading a few pages at a time when I get a few minutes for myself! Fabulous book for heart moms and families to read.

I also read the Mariano Rivera book called "The Closer"- about the best closer (in baseball) of all time. Loved it!

What did I do this summer?

As usual, it seems that summer went by too fast and here we are rounding the corner to fall already! I don't blog much in the summer, there is just too much going on as much as I have the good intention of doing it. This summer, even though it has been on the cooler side, we spent a lot of our weekends on our boat trying to relax. It's hard to truly relax with a 4 year old and 1 year old - but we sure tried! We went on vacation in July to Ocean City, Maryland. Well, we actually stayed about 20 minutes north in Fenwick Island in a bay front townhouse - it was a lot of fun and much needed. It's fun for the kids because we went to the boardwalk twice where there were plenty of rides for Julianna. She was in her glory! I'll be posting some pictures of vacation soon enough! Did you take vacation this summer? Where did you go?

Exciting News?

We sure do have some really exciting news here in our household! My husband accepted an offer to work with a larger company in a higher management position a few weeks back. He just started his new job recently and he is in his glory. This new job means longer hours and unfortunately more responsibility for me to take care of the kids; I now get them up in the morning, feed them, pack their lunches, log into work (I work from home) and then drop them off at daycare down the road. He won't be around as much during the week, but it's worth the sacrifice in the end.

The other big news is my that company is spinning off from our larger fortune 200 parent company in October. I work for the 'Dealer Services' division of ADP (the payroll/human resources co). In October, Dealer will be spinning off and leaving the nest to be our own company. The new name was just announced and is CDK Global. We will be a fortune 1000 company and not much will change for us day to day - business as usual in my own group especially. This is a really good thing for our company and looking forward to the future of CDK.

How is Tyler doing?

How Old? Tyler is 15 months old
Eating: He eats most table food even though he doesn't have all his teeth. He loves any food you put in front of him. He eats pasta, most cooked veggies, sweet potatoes, any fruit, anything roasted or steamed, meatballs, fish, whole wheat muffins, oatmeal....and the list goes on!
Drinking: He loves his milk in a cup (about 24 ounces a day) and he also drinks water in a straw cup. We do not offer juice.
Sleeping: Tyler sleeps through the night from 8pm to 7am, with the exception of some separation anxiety he has every couple of months; where he has a few nights of crying himself to sleep, which is difficult when both kids share a room.
Size clothes: He is wearing 12 months pants/shorts. He is wearing 18 month tops. He's on the small side, so I think he will be in size 12 bottoms for a little while.
Talking: Not saying much yet. He says mama and dada sometimes - but not much else. He is delayed in speech and is having a hearing test in a couple weeks to rule out any hearing issues. I also have a call into Early Intervention to have them evaluate him to see if he will need some speech therapy. More to come on that.
Walking: Heck yes. Running, actually.
Doing: He is a true boy; tears the house apart, destroys things, climbs furniture, gets into trouble and laughs about it.
He likes giving things to me like the remote control, toys, his milk cup. He understand requests like "Sit down' and stand up... please give to mommy ... More milk? I can tell him to go to put his cup in the sink, and he does. He listens & responds, just no speaking yet.

How is Julianna doing?

How old? She is 4 years old and going on 10! What a little lady she is turning into!
Eating: She is expanding her horizons in her picky toddler eating. She recently discovered she likes peanut butter smeared on apple slices and also grilled cheese (up until 2 months ago, she wouldn't touch grilled cheese). She has been a very picker eater but getting better.
Doing: A lot of things. She is making new friends & having a blast playing with any kids she meets! She is a fun & happy girl who wants to go go go all the time!
School: She is starting pre-k in 2 weeks. I can't believe in 1 year she will be starting kindergarten! My baby girl!
Friends: Lot's of them - I wish I could let her play more often but it's hard to find the time with us working full time. She's excited to start up school in a couple weeks and reunite with her friends from last year.
Size clothing: Julianna wears size 5 bottoms and 6 on top. She has zero clothes for school and the fall or winter. We need to go do some school shopping ASAP!
Her favorite things: baby dolls (new thing for her!), giraffes, jewelry, lip gloss, octonauts, sherriff callie, chugginton, disney princesses, Frozen (I can't take a simple car ride with out her wanting to hear and also sing Let it go!)
Value of money: We are trying to teach her the value of money slowly - even if it's her learning how many quarters it takes to get on the ride at the mall! She has her own change purse and brings it with her - she decides how she wants to spend it but once it's spent, it's gone.
The beach: This girl loves the beach - she would go to the beach every day of her life if she could. She gets that from me! The girl loves summer and warm sunny weather!