Life Lately

Life lately is....marveling over our fall family photo shoot.

It was definitely the most difficult of all the times we've done it...but only

because we have a very busy boy :)  After picking up the proofs - I

quickly turned them around to Christmas cards!

 

Life lately is a very active little boy....

who loves his trains, planes, diggers, and trucks!

This is a pretty common scene around our house...all of the

vehicles all over the floor.



 

Life lately is... finally purchasing an artificial Christmas tree. And holy

moly nobody warned me they are so expensive!  I mean I guess we'll have it for

a long time...but wow!  Also - would it be weird if I didn't decorate it? The look

of just the lights is sort of growing on me.  And when I think about adding

ornaments, garland, and other decorations and how much work that will be for only about three

weeks of enjoyment, I really start to question if it's worth it! Not to mention Max's

love of rearranging the one ornament that is currently on the tree.

 

Life lately is full of artwork....we finally got smart and just put some

white butcher block paper down so he can just go to town on it!

We've used markers, crayons, paint dobbers, and of course, stickers....

ALL OVER IT!

 

Life lately is...family donut dates every Sunday :)

 

Life lately is finishing up the yard work and prepping the

yard for winter.  Yanking out the zinnias and sunflowers...

cutting back the hostas, yarrow, lilies, and other perennials.

Max and Rob were getting it done together :)

Max wants to be just like daddy!

 

Life lately is...creating place cards for our Thanksgiving dinner.

We let Max get crazy with the paints on some die cut turkeys.

He made each one a total masterpiece.

 

Life lately is...gazing at the first snow.

We got about three or four inches last Sunday night/Monday morning.

It kind of caught me off guard in terms of how long it would

take to get ready and out the door in the morning!

 

Life lately is....checking out some of our favorite local indoor places.

We spent some time at the Franklin Park Conservatory this Saturday.

It's perfect because we can go for about two hours in the morning

and then Max usually takes an awesome nap afterward!

 

Life lately is afternoon book time with Daddy.

 

Life lately is...getting creative with our weekend lunches.

Turkey shaped sandwich, sweet potatoes, and banana (with peanut butter for dipping)

 

Life lately is...breaking out the Christmas pajamas!

I just love Max in his pajamas!

He is also studying up on Santa Claus ;)

 

Yes life is busy...messy...crazy....and full of silly fun!

We certainly wouldn't have it any other way!

XoXO

Sibling Love (and no, I'm not pregnant)

We're going to be talkin' about this gal today!

(picture circa this summer when I told everyone to make

a "hard core face" obviously we are real hard core)

Before Max was born, I worried pretty consistently about how bringing a new baby into the world would alter my relationships with people (among many other things - see, never sleeping in again, my house being overrun with toys, and raising a teenage boy just to name a few). But most specifically, how it would change my relationship with my own sister. Other than Rob, she is the person I see the most, text with the most, and generally just want to hang out with all the time. We would hit movies, occasionally work out, craft together, lounge on the weekends, text every day, and no sooner than we would wrap up one fun time - be planning for the next. 

(Auntie Stacy and Max's first days together)

 

Now, the fact that I was worrying will come as no surprise to anyone. But I'm finding more and more that I shouldn't have worried at all. If anything - Max coming into the world, has made our relationship even better.  I'm finding that with a little bit of planning - we can still do all the things we used too.  (Actually the planning part is true with most things post baby...but hang with me here)

(Best Buddies!)

 

If we want to hit a movie, she just comes over, has dinner with us and then we go to the movie after Max goes to sleep (because Papa Rob is also amazing at making sure we get some sister time). And crafting?  Believe it or not, I'm making a quilt for Max! What? I know! But, Auntie Stacy let's me come over on the occasional Friday (after we put Max down for the night) and we hustle with the cutting, sewing, more sewing, and piecing that needs to happen.  She is literally helping make my Pinterest dreams come true! But, dear blog readers, it doesn't even stop there.  She is willing to meet us for long walks (with Max in the stroller), scoped out playgrounds near her house, shoe shopped with us, cooked us dinner, and talked me off the crazy wall more times than I care to admit.

 

To be honest, with Max on the scene, I think she wants to see us more.  Fine by the Haucks!  Even Rob asks, "is Stacy coming over tonight?".  We just love it so much. She is like a marriage counselor, toddler whisper, family chef, fashion consultant, boss lady...all wrapped in one. It's no joke when I say to people - "everyone needs an Auntie Stacy".   But don't even think about trying to steal ours!

 (Don't steal our Auntie Stacy or you might get punched!)
 

Who else would buy "stickies" and color on the floor with Max?

 

Who else would sit next to us on the airplane flight to and from Florida while Max climbs here there and everywhere?  And download an episode of Peppa the Pig for Max on her own I-Pad?

 

Who else would know the perfect book to pick for Max?  It's called "Big Green Monster" by the way.  And he loved it so much that he ripped nearly every page and demanded it over and over for days at a time?

 

Who else would come over for trick or treat...be part of our crazy costume.....and

then stick around the answer the door for possible trick or treaters while you put your own trick or treater to bed for the night?

 

 

Who else would remind us constantly that we probably need to bring the diaper bag? (Why we are 18 months into this parenting thing and still forgetting the diaper bag is kind of embarrassing)

 

Who else would offer to babysit just because so Rob and I could have a night out?

 

Who else would continue to love me even when I am the biggest butthole ever and when I say the stupidest things and make snap judgements?  (well, Rob would, but he VOWED to forever and ever).

 

The answer is obviously Auntie Stacy.  And while she is in Mexico living it up right now (you know, as much as you can when traveling with your parents and 92 year old grandpa) - we are missing her big time. One thing I worry about a lot now is - what if Max is an only child? Will he hate us forever (according to my own mother, yes). But moreover, I already know he will miss this amazing gift that is a sibling.  What to do? What to do? Obviously only time (and the money tree seeds taking off) will tell.  Until then, we will continue to enjoy our Auntie Stacy and realize how truly lucky we are.

 

XoXo 

18 Month Update

Age: 18 months

Stats: 27 pounds (even!) and 34 inches long.

He continues to be in the 75th to 90th percentile for weight and height.   

 

Clothes:  Wearing size 18-24 months shirts and pants.  His winter coat is a size 2 and fits perfectly.  He tolerates mittens.  We are wearing all winter clothing at this point.  And even bought a stylish pair of boots this weekend (because I don't think the Nikes are going to be so great in the winter).

Size four diapers. Size 6 shoes

 

 

Favorite Foods: Scrambled egg, bagel with cream cheese (he literally shouts for this from his high chair), donuts, yogurt , peanut butter and jelly, chicken nuggets, strawberries, bananas, smoothies, applesauce, rolls, crackers, raisins, cheese, sweet potatoes, and anything he can put ketchup on. He loves to "dip" things.  

 

 

Favorite Words: bagel, doggie, cat, duck, moo, mama, daddy, outside, play, snack, chair, yeah, circle, cracker, cookie, train, chugga-chugga, truck, sit down, airplane, no, mine, all done, hello, bye bye, up there, down there, back, more, and again.

We also hear him say things like "no no cat" when he walks past our cat.

Sometimes he says "no way" which is particularly funny. 

Honestly, he says new words everyday...and he's super into mimicking (which means mommy will need to clean up her potty mouth).

 

Favorite Activities: We have one vehicle obsessed child. Recently we got some new trucks, car, airplanes, and diggers (he will say, digga digga which is super cute) and he loves to pile them and lots of other toys in his tent.  He also likes to run them up and down your legs, shoulders, and hair.  This month brought the addition of the "crawl through" tunnel.  We bought one for a friend's birthday party and of course had to get him one too! He loves crawling through it and sending cars through it and throwing balls into it (something Auntie Stacy taught him to do). The other thing he loves is books!  Particularly vehicle books and counting books. He is at the point too where you can ask him to point to things (i.e. where's the duck?  where's the truck?) and he also has his favorites. If he really likes it, no sooner will you have shut the book then he will say "gen" (again).  Max also requests "stickies" a lot.  I have literally found stickers in my bed, on my clothes, on Papa Rob's clothes, on the table, and in the carpet.  He doesn't yet understand that they are supposed to stay put. :)  With stickers he also seems to like coloring with crayons, paint, and chalk.

 

Least Favorite Activities: sometimes getting up in the morning (which is especially difficult when I'm trying to get ready too), diaper changes are still a struggle, pacifier (when he gets over this sinus infection, we are going cold turkey on the pacifier), adjusting to daylight savings time, staying in his high chair when he's told you he's "all done", and being sick.

 

Favorite Things:

Donut dates with mama and dada

 

Books: If I were an Elephant, Trains Go, Duck and Goose Look for a Pumpkin, Tractor, and

1,2,3 Baby 

 

Looking at himself on any video

 

Playing with mama and daddy's cell phone

 

Going to Franklin Park Conservatory

 

Melissa and Doug mailbox

 

Ikea Tent

 

Crawl Through Tunnel

 

Any Truck, Car, Plane, Train, Tractor, or Digger

 

Signature Moves: helping turn pages in books, grabbing at his diaper (and occasionally sitting on the potty at school), brushing his hair, using the stool to brush his teeth and demanding "paste" for his toothbrush, changing his mind constantly, asking for books in the bath, running to the bathroom to get a tissue and wiping his own nose, requesting his "paci" when he's in the car, piling his unwanted food on his plate and then wanting to put it "up there", grabbing all his art supplies out and dumping them all over the floor, saying "cheese" for the camera with his tongue in the corner of this mouth, getting possessive of his toys at school, helping to take his own jacket off, putting stickers EVERYWHERE, walking past our cat and getting in her face and saying a long drawn out "no", wanting to bounce up and down on your back if you are laying on the ground with him, and giving hugs and big open mouthed kisses. :)  those are kind of my favorite.

Mom's Proudest Moment: when he began opening his mouth on his own for medicine! (first because of teething - working on those canines is serious business and then for his sinus infection) and willingly holding still for me to suck the snot from his nose (gross but necessary).

 

Dad's Proudest Moment: loved seeing him trick or treat and proudly push out his candy bucket

 

 

Other Milestones: Continuing to build simple sentences

 

Always adding new words

 Overcoming a sinus infection

 

Working on four canine teeth

 

Still working on sharing toys and not pushing others away from toys he's playing with

 

Can repeat little snippets of songs (especially twinkle twinkle, ABC's, and ring around the rosey)

 

Building tall block towers and then loves to knock them down

 

Loves to mimic (wanted to help Papa rake the leaves yesterday)

 

Trick or Treated for the first time and loved his costume

 

Painted his first pumpkin

 

Very good with spoon - okay with fork

 

Has sat on the potty at school many times - seems very interested (according to teacher)

 

 

 

Oh Max, you bring so much joy to our lives! You are learning so much right now

and you surprise us everyday with the little things you say and do.  Just the other day you ran to the bathroom to get a tissue and WIPED YOUR OWN NOSE.  whaaaaatt?? When we have

our family hugs and you give us kisses, daddy and I just look at each other

in amazement. Like, how did we get so lucky?  The end of your seventeenth month

brought a nasty sinus infection and even then you were just the snuggliest.

We love you lots and can't wait for the fun of the holiday season

XoXO

 

 

Trick or Treat

I know that we're already into November at this point (actually six days in...how did that happen?) - but since this blog is really the only form of a baby book I'm doing for Max,  I had better keep it updated!  In all honesty, I had a bit of a freak out last Thursday when our babysitter told us that trick or treat was actually that evening (October 30), and NOT Friday which is what we had been planning for.  And by planning, I mean I had invited my parents and Auntie Stacy over to hand out candy, be part of an epic group costume, and have pizza!

 

(Halloween 2013 and Halloween 2014)

 

After a flurry of phone calls to my mom and the city of Powell, it was confirmed that yes in fact, trick or treating would be happening on Thursday.  Apparently this is determined partially by city and partially by where you pay taxes.  We pay taxes to Columbus - so we are supposed to follow their schedule.  I'm going to file this under crap someone should tell you when you become an adult (along with things like, how deductibles work? how to do your own taxes? etc.). 

 

Since Max is still of the age where I can force my crazy costume ideas on him and also guilt others into participating in our fun - I decided to go the animal route again. This worked out perfectly because we were given a hand me down costume from another family - and it was a lion!  But you know, I couldn't just leave it at that.  Some late night pinteresting led to the group costume of "Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, oh my!"  I was able to convince Rob to participate in promising that he would only have to wear a t-shirt that said "oh my" and that it would be free.  I roped Auntie Stacy into being the bear because I said she could wear all black (her favorite color combo anyway) and I agreed to order her a hat from Amazon. So really, the only costume I had to worry about was my own. Thankfully, I had an old tiger striped smock from a previous ZooKid costume and it was pretty simple to make the ears. Boom. Done.

 

(no this is not a pregnancy announcement like my crazy co-worker thought)

 

Whew! Now that you know all about how our group costume was supposed to go down - here's what actually happened when we figured out what night we were supposed to trick or treat.  I left early from work on Thursday and drove through the drive through of Wendy's (so we could keep our pizza tradition for Friday night).  We fed Max immediately when I got home...so he would be nice and full and cooperative :)  We had put his costume on a couple of times in the weeks leading up to Halloween, so he could get used to it. Thankfully, he LOVED it.  He would actually bring it over to us and demand it get put on. He even loved the hood part and the mittens.  It was as if he was meant to be a lion!

 

(ROAR!)

 

After we got the costume on and made sure he would be warm enough - we waited by the front door and handed out some candy (just to be sure that it was the right night). Then, we unleashed our lion on the streets! In reality, I walked him to our immediate neighbors houses and a few more across the street.  He was a little timid and couldn't actually say the whole "trick or treat" phrase. But, he did have a death grip on the bucket and made sure to shove it out there when people came to the door. We did a few practice rounds of this also.

 

 

 

 

Also - he was super cute and who doesn't want to see an adorable lion? 

 

(Happy Halloween from the Haucks!)

 

 

 

Auntie Stacy did end up coming over a bit later too!  (though none of us had our part of the group costume on)  We hit up a few more houses, but Max refused to walk.  He only wanted to be carried and he only wanted to be carried by Mama. So - we only lasted a few more houses again!

 

 

All in all - it was a pretty fun Halloween! 

 

Max even got into sorting out his candy and declaring ever piece "mine". It was hysterical.

Sidenote:  We did let him have some Kit Kat and York Peppermint Patty which he seemed to like.

 

 

But of course, we didn't want to let any of Max's adoring fans down - so we celebrated again on Friday night with Grandmim, Grandpa Tim, and Auntie Stacy.  This time - we did all put on our part of the costume and I have to say - We look great!  I don't know what I did to deserve a toddler that totally loved his costume - from the mittens to the elastic straps that went over the bottom of his shoes - he was working it. It made my mama heart want to burst!  Just look at him and tell me you don't want to squeeze those cheeks!  So, So cute!

 

(My Pinterest vision has come to life!)

 

As it turns out - I'm glad we did trick or treating on Thursday because Friday was absolutely miserable weather wise.  It was windy, cold and just gross out...so we just partied inside.  Grandpa Tim even made an appearance as a pirate.  Max was loving the bear hat.  And, we ate delicious Jets pizza (after I gave them some business from not getting it from Bellacino's).

 

 

So, there you have it!  It was a Halloween for the books blog.

Now I have a full year to dream up the next great family costume :)

xoXO

 



November edition:// 10 things right now



It's been awhile since I've written one of these posts - but they give a good little look into what's going on in our lives (and more specifically Max's life) right now.  So here goes - ten little things that I noticed happening lately around the Hauck's nest.

 

(family dinner last week)

 

 1.)  It seems everyday Max’s verbal skills are growing.  He will randomly say words that I didn’t even know he knew!  And he is starting to put together little two-word sentences (i.e. mama bagel – this he shouted from his high chair or bye-bye truck.)  I learned that the words he uses are called his “expressive” language – makes sense, right? He is telling (demanding) what he wants.  And if he’s not telling us – he’s leading us to it (i.e. the high chair when he wants to eat). The words he understands are called his “receptive” language. I would say he also has a pretty good grasp on the things Rob and I are talking about/asking of him (i.e. go get your shoes, Max or where’s your jacket?)  All in all, he pretty much keeps us in stitches with his words and his antics.

 

(pushing his beloved truck down the hall...)

 

2.)    I know you’ve heard me lament about my love/hate relationship with his pacifier. I love it because when you pop it in, it’s like automatic soothing for him.  It’s so crazy how fast he can calm down when you even mention the word “pacifier” and trust, me knows that word well. He also knows where to look for them in the morning (because he usually drops them or they fall out of his crib at night).  On the other hand, I hate that he needs it to be soothed. I could rationalize every excuse under the sun to give it to him – “he’s teething”, “he’s tired’, “he’s having a meltdown” etc. etc. We really are trying to only give it to him at nap times and bedtimes…but man, it can be brutal.

 

(more trucks and of course a paci appearance)

 

3.)  We have a whole wall dedicated to Max’s artwork in our house.  Is there anything better than toddler art?  You have to remind yourself that it’s process over product at this point and of course, in my case, that it’s okay to get messy. Another art related thing that Max is super into is stickers!  Or “stickies” as Max calls them.  You better watch out when there are stickers around - he likes to put them on himself, the floor, your feet, and well, you get the idea!

 

(art wall!)

 

(playing stickies with Auntie Stacy)

4.)    Lately (as in the last few days), he has become a little bit more picky about food.  I’m not sure if this is due to his illness (which I will get to in a minute) or age, or the cycle of the moon?  Either way, it’s super frustrating.  Last night, he literally stood in front of the refrigerator and yelled “sauce, sauce,” for his applesauce and then basically just ate that and half a bagel.  Who can survive on just bagels?  Please resume your normal eating Mr. Max – your body will thank me.

 

(mama cooked all this food - you better eat up!)

 

5.)    Thanks to Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sugar, we were all set when the winter weather showed up.  They gifted us an awesome puffy winter coat from Columbia last year for Christmas (and at the time I remember thinking that it looked huge – size 2) and let’s just say it fits perfectly now. Also – he loves wearing the hood on the jacket – thank god.  Because he mostly hates wearing hats.

 

(this is one hat he will make an exception for)

 

6.)    As you know, Max has been fighting a cold for over a month.  We finally bit the bullet and took him to the doctor on Saturday.  The doctor declared he has “just a cough” but we were in the red zone for an ear infection.  Just a couple hours later – boom – fever and fussiness abounding.  Sleep?  Who needs it when you can just fuss from your crib. It was bananas.  Back to the doctor he went (this past Monday) and they declared he had a sinus infection.  Once I read the symptoms on dr.google (terrible idea by the way) – I have to agree.  He had all of them. Thank goodness for medicine that’s hopefully making him feel better.

 

 (when you have a cold...sometimes only snuggles from Dada will do)
 

7.)    Max loves bath books – right now his favorite is “Barnyard Bath” by Sandra Boyton.  He pretends to “wash” all the animals as you read. So, cute!

 

(bath time fun!)

 

8.)    Another fun addition to our bath time routine – brushing his teeth!  He climbs up on his little stool and shoves his brush under the water. (Side note:  Mema got Max these plastic things that cover your faucet and make the water go out further for little hands and they are amazing).  Lately, he also likes the tooth paste too.

 

(I totally got the hang of this toothbrush...)

 

(washing hands)

 

 9.)    It’s almost holiday jammies time!  I will never tire of toddler pajamas either. #gimmeallthejammies

(this is his, how dare you woke me from the big bed face)

                      10.)  We have had a few afternoons of weather in the sixties and sunshine.  Max got to spend some unexpected time at the park with his grandparents today and I think you could say he loved it! He also likes running through the leaves!

 

(throwing leaves around like confetti)

 

Last thing - we took this adorable family photo last weekend

and I just can't get over how much I like it :)

(thanks for the remote shutter Grandpa Jim - it's coming in handy!)

 

 

xoxo!