An Early Valentine’s Getaway

So last week, after dinner one night, Justin asks Tristan if he’d given me the picture he made for me yet.  I was smiling, wondering if Justin had done a craft with Tristan?  Then, Justin brings out this cute little note written to me from “Tristan.”  How cute is that?

 

I was blown away and so excited for our pre-Valentine’s weekend away.  Justin had Grandpa come in town to help Aunt Co-Co with Tristan for a night and two days while we got to getaway and have some sweet couple time together.  Believe it or not, we’d never taken a night away from our little man since he’d been born.

So we packed a small bag and left Saturday around lunch.  We went shopping a little then had a nice lunch at LaMadeline!  Justin would never usually break the doors of that place, so I was extra appreciative!  Then we went to an afternoon showing of “Up in the Air.”  Was a little disappointed in that movie, but still fun to get out and go to the movies together.

We checked into The Renaissance Hotel in downtown Dallas, and watched Baylor scrape by a win over UT in basketball.  That was a great game.  Then, the best part, we got all dressed up to go out to dinner.  Justin got us reservations at The Captial Grille.  It’s at the bottom of the Cresent downtown and by far the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been to.  Everything was fancier than fancy and every bite we took just melted in our mouth.  We soaked up every minute!  It’s fun to play rich for a night every now and then.  Here we are all dolled up before dinner.

We slept in until 9:30 the next morning which was a dream in itself!  I’m so thankful to my wonderful hubby for making “us” time a priority and planning this special weekend just the two of us.  I love you more than ever…Happy Un-Valentines Day Love!

January

Instead of writing Tristan his monthly letters with all the things he had accomplished that month like I did during his first year of life, I was inspired this year by my friend Elizabeth to make a monthly page to hang on our refrigerator.  Each month has a different cutsy little page and a marker hung on it.  Then, whenever Tristan does something cute, silly, or just anything I want to remember he did this month, I jot a little note on the poster. Here’s the January poster I made, nothing too fancy…  

At the end of the month, I have a whole page of quirky, fun little things our little man did that month.  I’ll probably keep all the monthly pages and put them into a book at the end of the year.  And I don’t have to worry about forgetting to blog about or document the little things he does.  It’s fast and easy.

As I go, I’ll also transcribe all his new tricks and accomplishments here on the blog as well to give those grandparents an update on what’s latest in our little man’s life.  And of course no post would be complete without a few pictures too, so I’ll throw in some fun ones of us from this month.  (see below)… In many ways, we are not sad to say goodbye to the month of January at all, as it’s marked a month of sickness for our home.  It started with a nasty stomach bug that made it’s way through Tristan, me then Justin in a matter of days.  One week gone.  House disinfected and cleaned.  The next week a cold, which sounds mild, never underestimate a cold, wreaked it’s havoc on all of us as well and has seemed to linger longer than we’ve liked. 

But, we also have TONS of things to be thankful for and smile about from this month as well…here are a few things about Tristan from the past month in no particular order…

• found him a couple of times chewing off his sock in his car seat, usually when he’s ready to be OUT of the car seat!
• Walked by himself around the kitchen bar.  We’re proud he learned how to walk and turn. Good job T!
• Always wanted to be picked up and see what’s on the counter.  Says “dis?”  as he points to objects on the counter.
• Uses “please” sign all the time when he wants something.  Signs it with a cute little “mmmmm” for emphasis.
• He loves to flip light switches on and off. 
• Likes helping mommy put detergent in the washing machine and see the laundry going in.  Also helps push the wet clothes into the dryer…what a helper!
• Favorite new snack is craisins = thank you Grandma
• Likes playing with pots and pans, especially while I’m cooking dinner
• Started walking everywhere confidently, with a little wobble of course.  Walking finally became his preferred method of transportation which has been so fun to watch!
• Started signing ALOT, especially when he wants something.  He uses signs for please, thank you, food, more and up.
• Started to throw lots of things: balls, cell phones, anything he can hold.  Does this with a hand cranked waaay back and a little “uhhh” when he throws. So cute.
• He loves opening and shutting doors.  Thinks its real funny when he shuts me in the closet while I’m putting away his clothes. 
• Spoke his first sentence.  Said or rather yelled, “I wan my mamma!” to Aunt Co-Co several times while mom was away. 
• He LOVES sitting in the middle of Courtney’s bed, with her and Vegas, one remote in each hand.

And now the fun stuff…Random pics from January also in no particular order.

We don’t ever take life too seriously around here…

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Tristan loves hangin’ on the couch with daddy, especially if he’s got the remote!

Our little COWBOY…

 

BUDDIES…playing with his buddy Caleb one afternoon, these pictures melt my heart!

Oh, and one day I looked out the back door to find THIS!  Justin’s going to kill me for posting this.  He had the incredible task of raking the leaves this month…something like 25+ bags of leaves in the FREEZING cold!  Thank you babe for all your hard work, and doing it in style! :)

 

Snowman Day

So my good friend Jessica started this really cool tradition last year of having a “Snowman Day” sometime in the month of January. It’s a fun random day in the middle of the month to bring a little spice in between Christmas and Valentines. Her hubby’s family has been doing it for years. My friend Brittney followed suit and did snowman day for her little man last year too. Both had so much fun, I had to try it for myself this year. Please know that ALL the ideas on here are purely copied from Jessica’s and Brittney’s fun snowmen days of the past! Thank you girls for your CREATIVE inspiration!

So we started the day off with a fun SNOWMAN waffle breakfast! Our breakfast man had a waffle body, craisin eyes, cereal bar hat, blueberry banana buttons, chocolate syrup smile, honey pretzel arms and marshmallows for snow! And it did rain a little syrup in the middle of breakfast too! I think the pictures can attest to the yumminess for Tristan. He LOVED it! All except for the snow, T’s takes after his mommy in his not liking marshmallows.

Notice you know who in the back there eyeing Tristan’s special breakfast…hmm, I think he wants his own snow-dog breakfast too!

Yummmm!

On top of our breakfast sugar high, we read a couple of fun snowman books which Tristan semi-listened to. And played with our snowman stacking blocks. The idea being to stuff them with cotton balls and stack them like a snowman. Tristan had other ideas. Like how fun it is to put them in his mouth or bang them on the floor and hear the cool noise! And to open and shut the lids again and again.

Then we brought out the winter dress-up tub filled with all kinds of winter hats, scarves and gloves. I thought Tristan would get a kick out of dressing up all crazy, and I also thought maybe we’d be able to dress up Vegas. Neither idea turned out quite like I’d hoped. Tristan did think it was funny when mom started throwing on the winter garb. That’s okay, I guess boy’s aren’t supposed to like dress up anyway right?

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What in the world are you doing to me mom?Next, we headed to the study to watch a cute snowman cartoon on the computer. We got about 7 minutes of the 20 minute video before we were ready for our nap!

Little bit was off to dreamland while I got busy making our fun snowman lunch! We had a grilled ham and cheese body and hat, string cheese scarf, craisin eyes, carrot nose, grape buttons and some pretzel arms. Tristan wasn’t quite ready to eat again after he woke up from his nap, so we left snowman on the table while we went to play a little. When we came back ready to eat, this is what we found…

Dun, dun dun!

What happened? Who in the world might have eaten almost all of our snowman!?!

Vegas said he didn’t know, but he saw something running the other direction just as we walked up. But not to worry, after a little steam wore off, we were back to the skillet to make our snowman sandwich good as new…

Tristan agreed fresh and new snowman sandwich tasted better than ever! MMmmmm

Then, after our yummy lunch, we headed over to listen to another silly snowman story and played with our build-a-snowman felt center. This one will be perfect for next year we decided, but Tristan did love playing with the sticks and trying to stick the buttons in his mouth. We’ll try again next year!

After that very short-lived activity we stripped down to try our luck at some snowman painting. I will admit, I did not have high hopes for Tristan to actually do this activity, but thought I’d try it just to see what happened. And to my surprise, this was Tristan’s most favorite activity of the day. He did an INCREDIBLE job dipping the Q-tips in the paint and painting the snow scene all over the page. I was so proud. He was very meticulous about it and so proud of his finished product which is proudly hanging on the front of our fridge! Looks like we’ll be bringing on the paints again soon! Since T was having so much fun painting, we carried on the painting theme with our afternoon snack. A little Cool Whip painting that is. I made a little Cool Whip Snowman and let him paint/eat away. Of course he loved it! LOVED it! So much that when it was over he cried and cried and cried asking for “more please” with his signs. So bad that we took a detour trip to the park to take his mind off the Cool Whip!

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And finally, after a fun, sugar-filled day of playing, stacking, building and eating, we ended Snowman Day with a Family Snowball Fight in the living room. Tristan just laughed and laughed while Justin pounded him with mounds of cotton balls. He even got pretty good at trying to “get us” with the cotton balls too. What a fun ending to a special day. Hopefully the first of many more to come!

If you look real close, you can see the drool dripping down his shirt as he waits in anticipation.

Do I have something on my head?

I’m gonna getcha dad!

Happy Snowman Day 2010!