2017: The McKenna Update

You might be wondering to yourself: WHO IN THE HADES is this person taking over a dead blog??
Well, it's me. Elyse. Mom of McKenna, Chief, & Boogs. Wife of Kevin. Stay a home mom turned small business owner! Yup. A lot has happened. I feel ashamed that I have not kept up with milestones and life, but the adjustment of moving, toddlerhood, a husband working endless hours hit me hard enough to set it aside for a while. I'm not committing to anything so don't get too excited, but I did want to come and chat with you (aka Myself).


Two years old held quite a bit of "lots" for McKenna.. let's just say she's officially an independent human being with some very independent views and opinions on life.  I didn't even check to see when the last time I made a post was, but we've had some significant things happen like potty training, weaning, and starting school to name a couple!

McKenna took on Potty Training herself not long after her second birthday last February (2016). We did a lot of naked time in front of the tv with the small potty, lots of ooopsies, and lots of excitement for forward progress. Truly, I believe it was going out of town that pushed her to consistency. I actually hadn't really intended to potty train when we went to Miami for a couple of days because it was so early in the process so I didn't even bring her little potty.  Lo and behold, even while wearing a diaper she informed us when she needed to go and we just plopped her on the big potty at the hotel. Upon our return, she was no longer interested in a baby potty and wanted the seat for on top of the toilet.  There really wasn't much looking back for her. She even night trained within a few months on her own.... we have had a setback recently and decided to just start wearing dipeys again because having accidents wasn't waking her up anymore.  I guess she sleeps as heavy as her daddy does!

Speaking of sleep, McKenna was down to nursing at bedtime for several several months.  We were very grateful that any changes to her "routine" (aka removing nursing sessions) were met with an understandable and manageable amount of an adjustment period. Even experimenting with that last session was trial and error, but she seemed to know and understand that she was OK without it anymore.  We spent several weeks working toward no longer nursing to sleep and I would spend extra time reading/rocking with her or we would have daddy come in to the helm.  Then, one day, it was just the day it didn't happen. No dramatic ending, no sadness. We just went a few days without (as she had done before) and then she never asked again.  It wasn't until a couple weeks later I looked back at some of my "final" nursing selfies to realize that it was over.  The beginning was a tough journey for us, but if you asked me that I would nurse a child until they were 2 years, 4 months old I would have told you you were crazy! Funny, I could say that about a lot of parenting decisions! :)

Potty Training and nursing are covered. I need to get back to Momming and hopefully I can come back and update more on school and just McKenna's incredible personality in general.  Good chatting with you again, hopefully we do it again soon ;-)

Quite the "toddler" week! -toddler bed

It's official! McKenna sleeps in a "Big Girl bed" as of Saturday!! 

We spent last week explaining a toddler bed to McKenna. We describe how she would be able to come and go from her bed as she pleases. She showed incredible excitement, and even decided to use her crib to experiment my description of climbing in and out. 

I had kinda regretted describing it in those words. Before this discussion she had never shown any interest in scaling her crib. Luckily we didn't have any escape attempts in the interim period. 

Bedtime went about as usual. We rock her to sleep, so bedtime wasn't a huge concern.... she likely wouldn't notice her bed unless she woke up in the middle of the night. My prayer was that she would sleep through the night and not wake up afraid. Come 7:15 am......

Not much movement from the night before!! I would say that was quite the success!!! I think I even slept through the night! I as more concerned about myself that first night than I was for her. 

Flash forward to today:

First nap in her own room since she was like 6 months old! It was a transfer from her stroller, but hey, I'll take it.

We did some simple proofing before that first night. Moved the monitor to a wider location where the cord would be hidden. Put a lock on the closet. Also we decided to put a gate at the door. My worst fear would have been a stumbling McKenna tripping over one of the dogs in their dead sleep. As sweet as they are, no one wants to be startled in the middle of the night. 

I think McKenna has been ready for this transition for a while. I'm confident this will be a positive change for all of us! 

Quite the "toddler" week! -multivitamin

2016 is already turning out to be super eventful for us. McKenna must know she's turning 2 in less than a month so she needs to squeeze a bunch of Firsts before she officially turns TWO!!

McKenna still to this day does at least one thing everyday that amazes me. But this week was particularly big for "milestones" (if you can even call them that at this age). I'll split this up into multiple posts. 

First off, McKenna started taking a daily multivitamin! Extended breastfeeding has really made me not prioritize finding a vitamin because breast milk has filled in the deficiencies. But with that down to the occasional nap and before bedtime, I thought it was probably about time to find one that she would take. You can tell a child that doesn't eat much sweets when they LOVE a chewable vitamin! Lol. I give her her "kitty" and she asks for more for the rest of the day! Kitties:

 I hope the enthusiasm sticks around! Though sometimes she cries because I can't give her another lol. 

I have put it off for so long because I just couldn't decide what to go with. I officially decided to just pick one to get started and then we can always change it up. We went with Whole Foods brand Chewable Multivitamin. 

I was satisfied enough with the ingredients, and my shopping partner was over my vitamin indecisiveness. This is only 1.5 month supply so we'll motor through it soon enough! She likes it, and it's adding a variety of vitamins to her diet so I'm happy for now. 

Halloween: my little Daisy Duck

Wouldn't ya guess.  Only back into blogging for a couple of months and I'm already getting behind! Maybe I wasn't cut out for blogging, but you know what? I'm still going to post what I want to when I want to, and you can decide if you want to come back and read about the madness.  Honestly though, I find I get behind when I pull out the "nice" camera because then that means I have to get the computer out to upload photos. Which in turn I feel compelled to "edit" pictures before uploading them. All of that takes way to much time.

BUT I DIGRESS!!!!!

HALLOWEEN! which already feels like it was a month ago.

We had quite a potential scare with our little miss Daisy Duck costume not arriving. It's a custom made costume from a shop on Instagram.  I ordered it mid/end of September, and I checked in several times to assure it would be sent with ample time. Long story short, it was shipped the weekend before Halloween and got lost in the mail, with Priority Shipping.  USPS can really suck sometimes.  From Utah it decided to take a detour to New Jersey on its way to St Augustine. High anxiety I started tossing around ideas of things I could make from around the house. We missed wearing a costume for several little outings throughout the week of Halloween. Then. FRIDAY. The day before Halloween..... DAISY ARRIVES!! And the face on McKenna when she tried on her costume made the entire debacle 1000000000% worth it.

Sometimes I wonder how people get such good shots of their toddlers. I took well over 100 pictures of her on Halloween and only got a handful of pictures, none of them really showcasing her entire outfit (or showing her clutched to her Donald Duck stuffed animal).

 "Gang's all here!!!!"

She had a blast Halloween night too. Instead of trick-or-treating, because I'm not sure she really would have taken to it without an older child to follow, we set up shop in our driveway and handed out candy. And McKenna Rocked That Sh*t!!! She was handing out armfuls of candy to kids, saying Happy Halloween, yelling goodbye as they walked away. It was literally a blast. She really didn't even ask to eat any candy. But she had more than her fair share of dried fruit... literally a few bags of it! lol. I'll take it.

We're more than 2 weeks passed Halloween and McKenna wants to wear her Daisy Duck costume regularly.

Fall Festival day!

Today we spent a couple of hours at our community's Fall Festival. It mainly seems directed at the elementary school-aged kids because they all run amuck and go crazy in the bounce houses, but we still had fun. We mainly walked around taking in all of the madness. It's less than a 30-45 second drive to the clubhouse and McKenna managed to doze off and get the Zzzzz she had been fighting all day.

McKenna did get to show dada how well she can scale the big kid part of the playground. 

She also picked out a pumpkin at the pumpkin decorating station. Though McKenna seems as indecisive as her mommy and wanted to #decorateallthepumpkins

She was sure proud of her pumpkin once she finally got it decorated. 

To boot, we finally got to show off our fall Mommy and Me leggings!!

 



This is such an exciting age. She was so excited when I pulled out leggings for her that matched the ones I had on. Let's just say it made getting dressed a little easier than it has been the last little while. Ohhhhhhhh, Toddler. How you play with my emotions so. This St Augustine weather is just too much to handle too.  I'm hoping we'll be living in our backyard for the next couple of months!!

Pumpkin Patch goin'

We hit up a fall festival over the weekend with my best friend and her family, but we still haven't gotten our pumpkin to carve. If all goes well, this will be our first time actually carving a pumpkin we bought lol. Anywho, even having rained for the first time in weeks, we knew last night would likely be the only chance we would have to get to the pumpkin patch. No worries, I've had McKenna's outfit picked out for the pumpkin patch for weeks so we were ready at a moment's notice.

The whole ride there McKenna was lighting up saying Patch Patch Patch. As soon we got there she was ready to test her abilities....

You know how that saying goes... "She will move mountains".....err..... pumpkins. Any surely she will try!

 

She was determined....

 

 

Even until Daddy found the Perfect Pumpkin, she had one goal....

Well.... Daddy ended up helping get this one to the front,

 

But she was able to finally pick one out!!! ;-)

It was a rather quick trip to the pumpkin patch because the rain was upon us, but we found the perfect pumpkins!

20 month old LITTLE GIRL

I just really can't put into words how difficult it is to accept my baby girl is just 4 months shy of turning 2 years old. 

She amazes me with something new everyday. Most know her as a quiet, reserved, thoughtful, even timid little one. And while this is true, there is a spunk and sassiness that can test even the most patient of tempers.  

Stubborn. Just like her father (ADMITTEDLY, People!). While I am known for being a bit reserved and modest, I have a stubbornness as well. So she was doomed from the start.

I love watching her in new places because really, that shyness about her is almost her is calculated. She is observing and analyzing people and situations; you can watch her wheels crank. She stays back and gets a feel for her environment and the people in it. Because it typically won't take long for her to jump out of her shell, even though it still seems as if she stays in her own world. It's been incredible to watch her at Kindermusik last the last couple of weeks. New class, new city, new faces, new places. Down south we would typically see at least one familiar face when we went to a baby time class, but we're thrown into a whole new ball game here. So far, she's just going with it, and adjusting far better than mommy is!

She loves being outside, but honestly I think her favorite thing to do in the whole world is read books. We could go through every shelf of books we have and then start all over again, and that's just before lunch. And her language development is far beyond what I could ever imagine at this age. She can repeat pretty much anything, including phrases. The newest one being "I got this!" Perhaps one of the cutest things ever. 

Her intelligence and humor surprises me everyday. She outsmarts us regularly, and I know it's only going to continue getting worse! Time will only continue to fly by, all the while I'm just trying to keep up with this little ball of energy. 

Just another Monday

As I typed the title it autocorrect an accidental mispelling. Just another Momday. How fitting. 

We're still getting settled into our new home, but I felt more at home the first day we moved in our new house than in all of the three years we lived in our house in Southwest Florida. It is just our perfect home, and I feel so blessed and humbled it's "ours". 

Transitioning into the "big city" life is a little bit of a different story. We live in a beautiful, quiet community, but it is going to be quite an adjustment for both McKenna and I. It is essentially a 20 minute drive on the interstate to get anywhere. That includes Target. That alone is quite an adjustment for me and McKenna. Roaming our indoor playground requires a bit more planning than it once did. And with getting the home in order, I've found it difficult to find the motivation to get out and check out allllllllll of the fun things this city has to offer for a toddler whose world is her oyster. 

This weekend's home priority was getting our pretties a home on the wall for the first time. 

Many people will never truly understand the beauty in this picture. And that's ok. But it makes my heart happy (and I'm sure any other Tula-loving mom that happens upon this blog. I just block out that this is what the wall underneath the rack looks like at the time being:

Her bins upon bins of toys and stuffed animals will find a home soon 😁.  

Dehydrator action

Dehydrated and freeze dried fruits are one of our favorite snacks in this household. But they can get super duper pricey!! I believe I posted previously about our favorite brand Just Tomatoes. So I started exploring options to make at home. 

I borrowed a relative's dehydrator to give it a shot and we loved it!! Problem was the one we borrowed was like a $300 machine. I did some research and ended up buying a more economical dehydrator off of Amazon. 

Here's the "real thing" sitting on my counter. 

It had good reviews, and was super nice on the wallet. Shoot, I figured if we ended up using it a lot we could always spring for a nicer one. Because I'm buying this so save money! 

I began dehydrating immediately. With Just Tomatoes fruits ranging from $6-$9 per bag, we recouped our initial investment in the first TWO times I used it (maybe even FIRST time). 

Best part: McKenna is a fan!! They aren't exact same as the "freeze dried" fruits, so they are a little firmer and stiffer. I'm not sure I would have started with them as snacks from the get go. But so far we have tried out Apples, Pears, Bananas, Pineapples, Kiwis, Blueberries, Peaches... Im sure I have forgotten something! 

So far banana is McKenna's absolute favorite!

 

So much so that whenever she sees the dehydrator machine she says NaNa! 

I often forget to overcompensate how much to put in it bc we "test" (read: snack) on half of it before it's all done. I guess I'll need to buy a few more screens so we can do even more at once! 

The manual that comes with the machine outlines pretty much everything you need to know, including approx dehydrating times, etc. 

The one thing that hasn't really worked for us so far was Spinach. I'm not sure how I anticipated it coming out, but it just kinda disintegrated as McKenna attempted to bite it! Needless to say it was a nightmare and it ended up in the trash. 

It has been fun testing out all of the varieties of fruits, and we haven't even scratched the surface. I can't wait to try veggies, and Kevin is excited to try for Beef Jerky! 

As far as the machine, it is more than sufficient for our use. I'm not sure what type of features other ones offer to be so expensive! I'm not super versed in dehydrators, but food has to be dehydrated at a certain temperature, so it's not they they could shorten dehydrating time by much! Here's a link to the one we have on Amazon: 

Nesco FD-80A Square-Shaped Dehydrator

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090WOCM6/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_u3FAvb0JS18ZT

We are extremely happy with ours. I don't see us purchasing another one until this one goes caput. I definitely encourage anyone and everyone that wants hassle free snacks on the go to give dehydrated foods a shot! 

Memorial Day 2015

Despite having rained on and off most of the weekend, McKenna and I enjoyed a relatively relaxing few days. Unfortunately dada I had a baseball tournament he had to coach, but we were able to spend a little bit of time with him here and there throughout the weekend.

On Memorial Day we spent the afternoon by the pool while Kevin smoked some food in the smoker.

 We had a little bit of rain on our parade, but it didn't stop us from dancing in puddles.

As you can imagine, yes indeed there were a few slips and bumps of the head.

As a bonus, we did a family trek to Lowe's. I can't even begin to describe how excited we are that we finally found some vanities for our master and guest bathrooms. We have been searching for the right ones for a couple of years, and these were perfect and just so happened to be on clearance for more than 50% off!!! #winning

Kevin and I ended the day watching American Sniper. It was an incredible movie and definitely hit home the meaning of Memorial Day.