Mr. and Mrs. McCoy!

Over the weekend, we travelled to Sandpoint, ID to witness the wedding of two of our favorite people - Jamie and Collin!  This wedding felt like it was a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time coming as these two have been together for 11 years!  I have to say, I really admire their whole approach to marriage.  They were in absolutely no rush to get to the alter.  They truly have been enjoying their time together (and separately) along the way!

 

However - the time was right, and we had such a blast celebrating their special day! 

 

They chose to get married in Sandpoint as they just recently bought property there.  They have future plans to design and build a vacation home, so it made sense to get married in a place that was so special to them.

 

The weather was perfect and their group of friends and family are amazingly fun.  The "big" celebration will take place next month in Seattle, but I think they forgot to tell their guests that.  Together, I think we drank enough for three times the amount of people.  As per usual, Jamie and Collin threw a great party and ensured that all had a fabulous time.

 

 

Meanwhile, back at home, Ben was enjoying his time with a rotating group of babysitters!

 

My mom took the morning shift:

 

My friend Lisa took the afternoon shift, which included a walk to the park :)

 

Rachel and Peter took the evening and overnight shift :)  I had hoped Ben would sleep at least until 7 am for them.....but no.  But Peter was of course happy to join Ben at the crack of dawn for coffee, milk and a book about the potty.

Meal Planning: Week of August 19th

Review from last week:

The spaghetti squash and meatballs was GOODDDDDDDDDD.  Like, if you have enough meat and sauce, it's kind of hard to notice or care that your noodles aren't actually pasta.  We will be doing this more often.

 

The crab-stuffed halibut was amazing as well, and the prosciutto garlic green beans along with it were the perfect compliment. I also recreated a red grape/black grape/blueberry mint salad that our friends Denali and Kyle brought over a few weeks back.  I'm pretty sure this is the only way I want to eat grapes now.

 

 

 

Sadly, the olives that I had for my chicken paillard had gone bad (sob), so we just had grilled chicken with green beans and salad instead.

 

 

And finally, we decided to have meatball pizza and caprese salad instead of "turf and turf". 

 

Now for next week!

You know those weeks where you just don't feel like cooking OR grocery shopping?  I'm having one of those.  It must be because we did a pretty good job of making meals over the past several nights :)  Luckily, we have a freezer full of various meat and enough of the right ingredients where I'm hoping to only need to do a light grocery run and minimal cooking.  We also have 2 planned evenings out, and another night where Greg plans to golf after work, (aka cereal for dinner) and I'm totally fine with it.

Monday:  Grilled chicken and salad.  Boring but an easy go-to :)

Tuesday:  Golf/Cheerios

Wednesday:  Dinner at Becca and Jess's new house!

Thursday: Paleo Lettuce Wraps

Friday:  Party at the Cougans!

And I'm lazy, so I don't want to plan for next weekend.  We have a birthday party on Saturday and a planned boating day on Sunday, so we will see where the day(s) take us :)

 

Meal Planning: Week of August 12th

I forgot to plan ahead, but over the weekend Greg and I threw together a few ideas about what we would cook this week.

Monday:  Spaghetti (squash) and meatballs!  When Greg's family was here, Marcia made her famous spaghetti sauce and meatballs.  We had extra, so we froze it and get to enjoy it tonight!

Tuesday: Crab stuffed halibut.  This is a Greg speciality, so all I know is that it involves cream cheese and seasonings (a pinch of this and a dash of that).  I will be making garlic green beans to go along with it.

Wednesday:  "Turf and turf".  Fillets and chicken with a salad.  We actually had this last Friday night, and Ben ate an ENTIRE chicken breast.  I'm pretty sure that he is going through a growth spurt, because it seems like he is eating quite a bit more than he usually does.

Thursday: Chicken Piallard.  I know I make this a lot, but it's one of those recipes where you don't need too many ingredients.  We always have capers, lemon juice, garlic, shallots and arugula on hand, along with frozen chicken breasts - so this recipe usually just involves my purchasing fresh Italian parsley and olives and we are good to go!

Friday: Something quick and easy.  On Saturday morning, Greg and I will be leaving for a whirlwind trip to Sandpoint, ID for Jamie and Collin's wedding!  We will leave around 8 am, attend their wedding at 5pm, and then head back home first thing Sunday morning.  It will actually be our first time together away from Ben!  But back to meal planning - after working on Friday and packing that evening, I would rather grab take out and spend that evening snuggling with Ben and not worry about cooking :)

Nothing cures the Monday morning blues like a case of the giggles

"This is a Show"

 

I meant to post this awhile back when I recorded it.  Ben's thing for the past month or so has been to point to things and say "This?  This?".

Yesterday, this evolved into him pointing at the TV while it was on and saying, "This is a show".  A little startled at my ability to understand him clearly, I looked at him and said, "Yes, this is a show....".  To which he nodded and responded very matter-of-factly,

"This is a showwwww".

(For the record, the show was Sex and the City).

Also, we started speech therapy this week.  During our first visit with his therapist, Katie, Ben signed "please" and said "shoes" (while pointing at a picture of shoes).

The other day, while Ben was sucking on his fingers (I'm thinking he has some back molars coming in), Greg asked Ben if he was sucking his thumb.  Ben said what sounded like "sucking thumb". 

This morning, while fascinated with my bracelet, he said "This is mama's...." to which I filled in "bracelet".  He responded with, "This is mama's bracwe;lktnt".  I'm counting it.

So, apparently we are going to move straight into full sentences? I totally cannot wait to hear more of what is going on in his little brain :)  Apparently he is interested in SATC, trucks and bling.  I like it.

22 Months Old

Ben is 22 months old.  Since I am writing this a little late, his birthday is NEXT MONTH, which came (almost) as shockingly fast as his first birthday did.

I feel like I can officially say that this is a REALLY fun age.  His second year of life has not nearly been as easy as things were for us when he wasn't mobile - however - seeing your child's personality develop is worth all of the chasing, wiping down, whining, wrangling and frustration that occurs with a toddler.  (And wine certainly helps, too).

Ben is every bit as funny, friendly, social, and loving as I had hoped my child would be.  Ben LOVES to laugh.  He will do anything to make us laugh and encourages us to do anything that will make him laugh.  Our days involve no fewer than 5 rounds of "Where's Ben?" with him either hiding his eyes with his hands, or him hiding in his closet and opening and closing the door.  He usually will initiate this game when we are sitting in the chair in his room.  After a round or two, I will sneak up so that I'm RIGHT outside the closet so that when he opens it, it scares him - which absolutely delights him.

He loves to be tickled, chased, and to "fly like airplanes" (arms out to the side).  He loves to be outside - playing with the hose, chasing Maxwell (while screaming the most high-pitched screech at him possible), playing in his water table, walking up and down the driveway (and around our neighborhood), and playing inside one of our cars.

If we would take Ben to a park every day (which lately, it feels like we are doing!) he would be in heaven.  He loves slides and swings.  There usually is a meltdown of some sort when it's "time to go bye bye". 

The other morning we met Becca and Owen for a walk around Greenlake and a trip to the park!

"Mommy's Little Angel" and Sweet Baby Owen

He still loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider, as well as The Wheels on the Bus, Humpty Dumpty (a game involving him sitting on my legs and falling) and Old McDonald - which we play with his barn/animal set.

I feel like Ben is getting better with his obsession with our phones and the iPad.  I mean, he still is obsessed with them, but will often hand them over to us much easier when we ask for them.  Lately, Ben will grab my phone, laugh at/show me the picture of him on my screen, put it up to his ear and say "Hi! Bye." and then give it to me.  Adorable.

When we are out at the grocery store, Ben seems to look for opportunities to wave at people.  He does this short, close to his body wave, almost as if he is not fully committing to waving at someone.  Like, if they wave back, then cool - but if they don't see him, then he won't feel stupid ;)  And he absolutely loves when we check out - screens and buttons and scanners, holla!

It's amazing how short a toddler's attention span is.  Here is a quick peek into my day.  We go from happy, to sad, to running around like a maniac over the course of 60 seconds.

My mom brought over a magnetic board and a bunch of magnetic letters and shapes for Ben.  The first thing he did when she gave him the container of letters was to put them all down his shirt - which he still does to this day every time we give them to him.

His next task is usually to dump them all over the floor, pull out his motorcycle, and run them over - over and over again.

Ben is OBSESSED with trucks of all kinds. One morning on an errand, we timed it perfectly and we were outside at the exact time the Garbage Truck was driving up the street. It stopped 15 feet away from us, picked up a garbage can, and dumped it into the back. Ben was mesmerized. Now, whenever he hears a truck of any kind he will run to the window or door (babbling like crazy) and point so that we can try to catch a glimpse!

Most of our evenings, as we are settling down for the night, involve an exchange with Siri like this:

 

Ben is growing like a weed, still.  He is 29+ lbs, in size 7 shoes, and fully in size 2T/24 months.  His understanding of everything is growing so quickly, too!  While verbally, (at least in English) our conversations are still a bit one-sided, Ben clearly understands most of what we say to him.  Simple questions are almost always answered with a nod or shake of the head (and sometimes also a "yeah!" or "NO MAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", too) - which makes our daily routines a LOT easier than before.  Physically, he is such a runner/climber/jumper that it amazes me that he isn't completely exhausted by 6pm, (because we definitely are).

Finally, we taught Ben how to "say" I love you - by pointing to his eye, his chest and then at someone else.  I seriously melt now when he will come up to me, out of the blue, make sure I am looking at him, and do this.  It's usually followed by a big hug - arms stretched out, clinging onto my shoulders, with his head leaned against me.  These are the moments that I would often think about when he was a newborn.  How someday, I hoped he would understand even a fraction of the amount of love I felt for him.  And I truly believe he does.

Meal Planning: Week of August 5th

This week is a little light in terms of recipes. 

Monday: Honey Sesame Chicken and salad.

Tuesday: Yoga night - so Greg and Ben will be on their own to make something.  I'm sure they will dine on meatballs or something manly like that.

Wednesday: Pizza chicken and caprese salad.

Thursday: I have plans with Callie Thursday evening, so again the boys are on their own.

Friday: Greg and I both have been craving Spaghetti Factory, and Friday seems like a good night for that!

Saturday: BLT Chopped Salad with Corn, Feta, and Avocado - and BBQ chicken!

Sunday: Blackened Salmon Caesar Salad.