Big Boy Bed!

Back in April, we transitioned Alex’s crib to a toddler bed, and he did a great job sleeping in it. He actually never once get out of bed – although he would still call, “Mommy up!” when he was ready to get up. Even though the rail on the side didn’t run the length of the bed, he only fell out once – oddly, that was the night before we built his big boy bed! Funny how timing works out sometimes.

The transition to the big boy bed has been a long time coming. My friend, Amanda, gave us a toddler bed frame, so all we had to do was buy a 2nd toddler mattress. Then, while shopping for the mattress and bedding, Alex and Tim fell in love with a twin bed at IKEA – I was overruled and we went home with the frame 2 weeks ago. Then Aunt Beth graciously donated her twin mattress to Alex, and it all came together after we picked it up last weekend. Thanks to Beth and Amanda for moving us along in the bed switch so I can get my act together and set up the nursery!!

Alex helping Daddy push his new bed frame at IKEA.

The kid loves doing laundry! Washing his rocket ship sheets.

We also bought construction sheets!

Good-bye, crib/toddler bed!

Hello, new big boy bed!

This bed actually has 3 settings. His mattress is on the floor, so there’s a little lip keeping him from rolling out. It can be raised above the blue bottom, or moved to the very top – we left the ladder disassembled to avoid the temptation to climb in the middle of the night.

So far, Alex has been super excited to go to bed for nap and bedtime and loves his big bed! You can see we still have the camera mounted under the canopy, so I still get to peek at him throughout the night. Poor boy will probably be in kindergarten before I let Tim take it down.

And you wonder how he fell out of the toddler bed last weekend!

Making Pasta with Daddy

We celebrated Memorial Day Weekend with homemade pasta and spaghetti sauce. Kind of non-traditional, I know! When we moved from Charleston, we gave our grill to Aunt Brie and Uncle Jared, then our rental in Wilmington had a grill, so we just haven’t gotten around to buying a new one – meaning, no grilled food for us on a typical grilling weekend! Oh well, our meal was fantastic! Oh, and thanks to Aunt Brie and Uncle Jared for gifting us the pasta making supplies years ago!

Now can I turn the crank?

Cutting the noodles AKA snakes.

I see you, Mommy!

Up to the Moon!

As you all know, Alex is going through a rocket phase. He loves making Play-Doh rockets, watching rocket launches on YouTube, playing with his cardboard rockets, pretending his banana is a rocket … you get the picture. So, last week while I was off getting a massage, Daddy and Alex shot off baking soda and vinegar rockets in the back yard. Alex was impressed, but they took too long to go off and he’d lose interest – so of course Daddy then had to make a rocket launcher using a grill lighter. That’s life married to an engineer! Here’s a video montage showing Alex and Tim shooting rockets at Beth and Eric’s house over the weekend:

Field Trip to Boiling Springs

Our other exciting day from last week involved a trip down I-85 to visit my friend, Amanda, and her family. Cerys is 4 months older than Alex, and new baby Ace will be 2 months older than our new baby. After meeting the baby, we ventured out to Lake Bowen to look for boats and play on the playground. Cerys and Alex had a lot of fun hunting for and throwing sticks instead of eating their lunch.

On the way back out of town, we stopped to watch the demolition of the old Boiling Springs First Baptist. Both Alex and Cerys were very impressed to see the tractor in action!

An Exciting Day!

May 15th, 2013 will go down in history as the first time Alex asked to “pee” in the potty! He was upstairs with Tim, getting ready for his bath, when he looked at Tim and asked, “I pee?” Tim pushed the foot stool over, lifted the seat, and while holding a few squares of toilet paper, Alex was victorious – all the while aiming like a pro! He went two more times that night and has gone a few more times over the past few days. We are making exciting progress!

Sorry, no pictures – we are trying not to embarrass the poor boy when he’s older and his friends find his blog!

Exploring Davidson

Last week, Alex and I ventured out with friends to a neighborhood park in nearby Davidson. The park was really neat and designed just for toddlers with a huge sandbox, paved trail for bikes and toys, and an earthen tunnel. The best perks – lots of shade, tons of donated toys, and it was fenced in! Alex had a blast in the sandbox and running up and over the tunnel.

Afterwards, we ventured into downtown Davidson, home of Davidson College, and walked around a little. We shared a milk shake at Ben & Jerry’s, then found a friend at a nearby playground. All in all, it was a great day!

Mother’s Day 2013

Mother’s Day Weekend was all about a little pampering and having fun with family! Tim came home early enough the Friday before so I could get my hair cut and go to the grocery store without a toddler (it’s the little things!), then Mom, Dad, and Beth traveled up for the weekend. We had planned to attend the NC Brewers and Music Festival, but the weather looked a little iffy. Instead, we played in the backyard and enjoyed yummy wings at Wild Wings Café for Beth’s birthday. We all enjoyed the warm weather and lazy weekend!

We’re having a serious conversation about cheese dip, apparently!

Posing for the camera with their juice!

Baba and Alex digging for treasure.

Pirate Boat Fun

Alex has a new outdoor water toy! Now that we don’t have our massive sandbox from Wilmington for outdoor play, we knew we needed something fun and exciting for our first summer in Charlotte. After seeing an awesome sale at BJ’s, we knew what to do. We have already enjoyed several hours of wet fun! (Once it’s hotter out, we have a slip and slide, too!)

Darby Acres Farm

Let me just brag for a moment – this is my 200th post!

Alex and I met a few new friends at Darby Acres Farm this morning. The farm is small and behind someone’s house with a lot of land. Out of our other two adventures to family farms – Bee City in Summerville, SC and Old McFaye’s Farm in Wilmington, NC – I’d say this is our favorite place so far! There were several animals to feed and pet, including llamas, alpacas, and a mini donkey! Alex was too scared to let the animals eat out of his hand, but once I showed him how to just hold out his cup, he was thrilled! He was definitely partial to the little goat that kept following him around. I guess he’s always had a thing for goats – they were his favorite at Tregembo Animal Park in Wilmington, too! After seeing all the animals, there were several antique tractors and fun ride-on toys, then a huge dirt/sand pile and playground. Alex had so much fun that I had to carry him kicking and screaming back to the car. I definitely got my work out, and I’m sure we’ll be back soon!

Attempting to feed the alpaca.

Check out his face – these guys make him a little nervous.

He was so thrilled to have the goats so close to him!

This little guy bullied his way into Alex’s cup.

Alex didn’t seem to mind, though I did eventually have to pull the cup away for him.

Sitting in a “go, go, go car” after checking out the antique tractors.

Pure delight!

Random Oscar Mayer Weiner car behind the bunny houses.

First outdoor trampoline experience – he LOVED it! But no, we are not getting one!

Finally … Sunshine!

Alex was so excited to finally see sunshine on a day we didn’t have errands to run that he insisted on going outside in his pjs this morning – even before breakfast. I should have known he needed to perform test flights on his newest rocket!

You can see him counting down … the camera caught him saying, “two”!

After several test flights and a walk-about, Alex asked me to fill up his pool so he could play in the water. He doesn’t like to get in the water, but he loves scooping and pouring. Since he’d found a sponge from the last time I cleaned his pool, we decided to set up a car wash. The funniest thing about these pictures is that my little man hates not having his clothes (including socks) on at all times! I brought him inside to change him into a bathing suit, but for some reason he insisted on his diaper and new sandals:

Just a Day in May

Alex has had a rough few days as a two-year-old, so I was very relieved to have my happy-go-lucky toddler back on Wednesday! Good thing, because I had an OB appointment and errands to run! Here’s a taste of our fun day and an update on Baby.Next!

*Alex woke up to find a construction paper rocket from Daddy on the table. How exciting! Rockets are his new obsession of the week!

*When I told him we needed to get in the car to meet Daddy at the doctor’s office, he insisted we visit Baba instead. Not sure which Grandma he wanted to see – but he wanted one of them!

*Alex was so excited to see Daddy’s truck at the OB office and thought it was hysterical that I got out and he got in. I have such a wonderful hubby – he took Alex to Target to do some shopping while I went in for my appointment.

*Hard to believe that I will be 31 weeks tomorrow! Time has gone by so quickly!! Baby.Next’s heartbeat sounds great and he is growing just as he should be. My belly is huge, but he is measuring perfectly and my weight gain has been very minimal (but still healthy!). We’re still on track for a July 11th due date – though I haven’t made up my mind on C-Section versus labor. The doctors I’ve met have been wonderful and I am SO GLAD I’ll be having this baby in Charlotte since I was not a fan of my Wilmington doctors. Here’s a peek at baby’s face from an ultrasound at 28 weeks: this is a profile shot of his face. You can make out his nose and mouth – then you can see his eye and his little fist in front of his face. He moves around all the time, so this picture was the best we could get!

*After the appointment and oohing over Alex’s new shoes he bought with Daddy, I took Alex to Starbucks. Silly boy drooled over all the treats while I ordered my coffee, then ended up choosing a juice box and fruit pouch. I guess juice boxes are more exciting than cookies when you cut your kid’s juice with mostly water! Afterwards, we went by the park:

Wearing his favorite Mater shirt and new sandals!

Almost a year ago! This was taken June 13, 2012 – and he still loves the steps!

My sweet Alex is such a gentleman! He was several steps in front of me on the sidewalk when he veered off into the grass. I was planning on walking along the edge of this puddle, but Alex, looking very concerned, said, “No, Mommy! Stop” and motioned for me to follow him in the grass. I guess he didn’t want my shoes to get wet!

Grandma Lisa Visits!

Alex was really excited to wake up Sunday morning to hear that Grandma Lisa would be at his house soon! He was so impatient for another Baba to walk through the door! He loved his new “car truck” (you can see it loaded with eggs in the photo) and even loved meeting Lisa’s friend, Bob. The two of them were definitely the stars of the day! Thanks for visiting!

NC Transportation Museum

We’ve decided to take some mini-adventures while we are still a family of three – so last Saturday we took Alex to the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. Tim actually told Alex about the museum Friday night before bed, so Alex woke up and immediately asked for the trains and trucks! Poor thing had a hard time driving the 40 minutes up the road!

We arrived just in time for their hourly train ride. The train consisted of 6 or 7 cars that traveled the rails around the old train yard, stopping at several points of interest. Alex was very excited when he heard the first “choo-choo” and loved viewing the other trains from his seat.

“Let’s Go!” All ready for his first train ride!

Watching the train tracks go by.

More choo-choos!

The NC Transportation Museum has one of the only restored and one of the largest roundhouses in the country. The roundhouse was packed with several engines and rail cars. We also got to peek at several renovations – including a HUGE building filled with antique cars, trucks, and planes we hope will eventually be open for tours. Alex loved running from train to truck and marveling at how big everything was!

Both Tim and Alex enjoyed looking at the toy tractor exhibit!

Alex was very impressed with the traffic light – thanks, Go Dog. Go!

Working the controls!

Showing us the big wheel.

Alex did not want to leave! We had tons of fun, and will certainly go back soon!