Slacker

I've been a major blog slacker.  My list of things I wanted to blog about starting getting so long, that I then became exhausted at the thought of blogging.  Sad?  Extremely.  Here's a start...

In April, my third nephew was born out in Colorado.  Little man Teague is adorable and I cannot wait to see him soon on vacation!  The Brannan side of the family now has four little ones…all boys!

In April, our basement flooded because our sump pump wasn't working.  That was fun. Rory wasn't home and I had no clue how to even start getting the water out of the basement.  Shovel was my first thought. Fail.  My mom came to help with the shopvac and later that night my dad fixed the sump. A company took a few days to make it out to the house (erg!) and they tore up the finished part of the basement because there was still moisture. Hopefully soon, we will have new flooring and everything will be back to normal.

In May, Rory and I were in charge of making a gender reveal box for our friends.  It was so hard to know the gender and not be able to tell them for a few days!  They gave us a wardrobe box, Rory finagled a lid to make the reveal more exciting, and together we wrapped it.  We also taped most of the balloons so they would stay in the box for photos.

Murph and Kristin were excited to find out it is a girl!  Deaglan was just excited to finally play with the balloons.  He knew they were in the box at home and kept crying because he couldn't play with the "bubbles."

Deaglan has been keeping busy.  A friend gave him a hand-me-down play kitchen which he enjoys.  It makes the MOST annoying sound but he's happy with it and likes to show off his cooking skills.

Rainy days are tough because he is bored by mid-morning.  So, drastic measures = messy kitchen = coolest mom ever.

Our friends have a large dog, baby, and a few cats.  Something had to give, so they gave us one of their cats.  Hiro is a sweetie and Deaglan loves having a furry friend to follow around and pet.  

Deaglan has also been livin' up the summer days.  He learned how to walk down stairs without holding on.  He helped daddy build his sandbox and he has been able to cool off with some cuties up the street.

My last exciting news is that Deaglan is starting to talk more!  He says some random words and then adds his own gibberish sometimes.  Some of the words he says are bus, bike, baby, bee, bug, milk, no, bush, door and a few other odd ones.  I am sure soon enough he will be chattering non-stop.

For a few years, I have been growing my hair to donate.  I was going to donate to Locks of Love but last minute after some research, I decided to give to Pantene's Beautiful Length program.  

I brought Deaglan with me so he could see that a haircut is not a harmful endeavor but he still managed to freak out most of the time….

Don't mind my goofy after photo! I was able to donate 12 inches and my neck is so thankful not to have a heavy ponytail anymore.

So, for now, we are counting down the days until the OBX and are trying to spend a lot of time outside on these non-humid evenings.  

Thanks for checking in!!

Paper Wreath

About a month ago, I finally painted our family room.  I went neutral with a color called "urban putty."  Very far from the shades of blue we had in our old house.  The neutral is growing on me but I just feel like everything in the room blends into the walls.  The throw pillows are the only pop of color in the room but I am trying not to let that bother me.  

My friend gave me some old, rectangular windows that I thought would be perfect above the couch.  I originally thought I'd put a boxwood wreath in front of the windows to give a little bit of color in the room.  Then, I looked at the price of pre-made wreaths and even just boxwood garland to make my own, and changed my mind because I couldn't justify spending that at the moment.  So, I decided to make a paper wreath.  Yes, something neutral to blend in with my neutral walls...

(I ended up staining the exposed wood with a vinegar/steel wool stain)

I have a few old books from my grandparents and I was excited to find this one because of the turquoise page ends.  I thought the turquoise would show up when the wreath was all bunched together.  I was proven wrong!  I had read a few do-it-yourself tutorials online and most said to use a grapevine wreath and to simply poke the pages through the wreath.  Welllll, my pages were too brittle and kept tearing.

A week later, I finally bought a styrofoam wreath, sat down with my hot glue gun and went to town.

I folded pages in an "S" shape and bent the bottom down to hold the shape.

 

 
I glued layer by layer. I filled in spots here and there as needed. I probably ended up with 3-4 layers.

I twisted a loop screw to the top of the wreath.  I wanted to find a colorful chevron ribbon to tie it with but couldn't find that at the store.  The loop is easily accessible so I can add different ribbon patterns as I please!

 It is a nice accent feature in the room.  I've read that paper wreaths are more of a winter decor but I don't care.  This baby will stay up for the spring & summer…until I get sick of looking at it!  One day, I think it would be fun to add color to the paper but I am not ready to do that yet.

Poops McGhee

I just had to share that Deaglan had his first lollipop the other day at my doctor's office.  He then proceeded to scream, on the top of his lungs, for thirty minutes while I was in with the doctor.  I could hardly talk to her about my symptoms because he was hysterical.  Oh well.  At least he experienced another first, I got medicine, and we all made it out alive.

On to the poop…

As a parent of a newborn or toddler, you talk about poop all the time.  Well, not all the time, but more often than you did pre-baby.  Did they poop enough? Why do they poop so much? What is their poop telling you?  So on, and so on.

Awhile ago, Rory nicknamed Deaglan, Poops McGhee.  He poops. A lot.  Typically on a schedule though.  The other morning, on a whim, I threw him on his potty just to see what would happen.  Sure enough, he surprised me and he went to the bathroom on his toilet.  He kept cracking up whenever we waved bye to the diaper (have a cute video but it won't post!).  I figured this was just a one time thing so I didn't think much into it.  I gave him an M&M and he was tickled pink.  I talked to my mom & she said I potty trained myself at 20 months, so then I started wondering if maybe I passed this skill along to my 18 month old.

The next morning (with a stylish new hairdo), I put him on our toilet because I figured if he is going to learn, I'd rather not have to clean his nasty little toilet.  Well, he got me again and pooped on the big toilet!  Then again later that night and now again this morning. When he is finished, he does sign language for food and makes the "tr" sound, making sure I know that he deserves a treat.

I honestly didn't think he'd take to it, so I am totally unprepared to potty train.  Guess it's time I start my research. How do I potty train when he can't even talk? I've either started something really good or really bad.  Time will tell….Oh and I am sorry future Deaglan for posting these embarrassing photos.

Spring-y Salad

A few days ago, I was not happy waking up to this…

So I decided to make this spring-y salad for lunch. 

I found this dressing on Pinterest and I originally thought I was going to use it for an Asian salad.  Rory and I like to make Asian salads with toppings such as water chestnuts, wasabi peas, asain noodles, etc.  But considering that it was so gloomy outside, I thought I'd try to make the salad more colorful. Strawberries, blueberries, avocado and the specks of poppy were just what I needed to pretend it was spring/summer weather outside.

The dressing was a good mix between sweet & salty.  Next time, I will try it without the seasoning salt just to see if it makes a difference in taste. I try not to add salt if it's unnecessary. Definitely worth trying, though, if you're tired of the same ole' salad dressing!

Hibernation Shenanigans

**As I was about to begin a new blog post, I realized this was in my draft section and was never posted. A few weeks later, here it is.  Oops….**

Can this winter get any colder?  Hibernation has been in full effect for quite a few months now and I am now counting down the days until spring.  I normally enjoy the cold/snow but this winter we've been trapped inside for too long!  

Even though the days are cold & long, we've kept busy with plenty of visitors and friends!

At the end of January, my sister-in-law and nephew came in from Colorado to visit.  Deaglan and Stoy had a good time entertaining each other and goofing off! 

After every meal, they would chase each other under the table while Deaglan undoubtedly pooped.

While they were in town, we went to the B & O Museum.  I was excited because after all of my years in Baltimore, I had never been before.  It is a cute museum and will be even better to go visit when it is warmer out because there was an outdoor play area we didn't venture in to.

Now, Deaglan's new obsession is Thomas the Train.  A few days after we went to the museum, I put on an episode of Thomas and now he is in love.  He grabs the remote controls to the TV and goes up to any adult in the room and does sign language for more and pulls his arm up and down and says "ch ch."  I instigated the situation but whatever.  I still blame the B & O for this new craze.

We drove Katie & Stoy down to Williamsburg.  The boys were troopers in the car!  I love comparing this recent photo to the one of them last summer at the Cape.

   

                 

Deaglan definitely missed having a constant playmate around the few days after Stoy left town.  

Oh, cousin love.

Luckily, Deaglan is fortunate enough to have an uncle that visits about once a week on his way home from work.  Uncle Tom is his buddy!

Other than family members, Deaglan has been making quite a few lady friends recently.  These two adorable girls like to pretend D is a baby.  They will walk around and feed him and give him his water bottle.  He soaks it all in and loves that they cater to his every need. Having all of them look at the camera to pose for a picture was impossible.

Annie is just a smidge older, but it doesn't stop D from cuddling up with a good book.  Why is it that everything little kids do is so cute??

Okay, just a few other random thoughts...

Food and an iPad, what else could a little man need?  Oh, and no pants. Such a man.

I hid a bunch of toys a few months ago and I am so glad I did.  One day, cabin fever set in, so I pulled out a few "oldies" and D was as happy as a clam.

Deaglan started taking it upon himself to paint our bathroom door.  With my blush.  Hey, it keeps him occupied while I get ready.  I assume it'll wipe off…

 We have been spending a one or two mornings a week at the gym.  Deaglan is finally, after many many months, figuring out that the day care isn't a bad place to be.  I spied on him getting some good paint sniffs in as I was picking him up one day.  I guess it's better than eating the paint.

Deaglan is getting ready for summer with some pretty cool sunglasses…

Here's hoping to flip-flop weather soon!!