Today marks the first complete, but still not including nap times, day without a single miss going potty. We have been doing full time undies for almost 3 weeks now, minus sleep time. We have 1 miss a day and it typically happens between 7am and 9am. Doesn't seem to matter what we do we just seem to have our accident during that time. Oddly enough Cap rarely has an accident away from home. I think being away from our home will be good to hopefully get out of our 1 miss a day habit. Just thought I would post the fun news! I LOVE doing full time undies. It makes going potty 10 times faster! Have a good one!
Farewell
This will be my last post at my home, the "farmhouse", in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Cap and I head out early tomorrow morning to catch a plane out of Charlotte. We will spend the next two weeks in Texas than swing over to Colorado for 9 days before heading to Kitale, Kenya.
I can tell the difference in Cap being out of schedule and with a crazy nothing house with no drawers to explore or things tho take out of cabinets. I have refused to go outside the past 3 days as I have been freezing here!! Yesterday as I was driving, there was snow in the mountains above, tiny flakes falling down, smoke coming out of chimney's, and then a guy mowing his lawn. It was just funny. So, all that to say Cap is going to LOVE Texas. Lots of sunshine and warmth. We are coming prepared!
Back to moving:
I wish I had more time to think about it all. We move a lot, but this time it is different. This is the longest consecutive place either one of us has lived in years and years! A lot of big things happened here, the biggest being becoming parents and bring our son home.
This is the place we spent countless nights awake doing feedings and changing diapers. Over there where the couch isn't anymore is where Cap and I spent our first night home so dad could sleep and rest upstairs. That is the window we would stare out and watch the birds and wave to Bryce good-bye in the morning. The sink in the kitchen is where we first bathed you though you were a couple of months old. The pantry is where you would drag every recyclable item out and say "ta, ta, ta"...plastic bottles and empty cans do look and seem like trash I know!
Your handprints are all over the front door signing please and outside over and over with your cute little blue eyes staring at us. Every stick and rock outside has been touched and moved by you! The big dirt pile has a new shape since you discovered it a couple of weeks ago.
Our room is where we set up the crib before you came and I stared and dreamed of what it would be like once you came to be on the outside with us. I folded the 5 outfits you had over and over until you came and then I realized where they "really" should go and live:)
You learned to crawl in the living room and walk in our room. Even the porch is stained with beautiful memories from birth till now. Nursing you watching the birds and wind blow, laying you down while I worked on the flower beds, you sitting up in the grass putting rocks in the pot, and now walking the entire perimeter of the yard and asking to please help you go over the fence so you can investigate more.
We leave this house with many echoes...singing, crying, praising, babbling, talking, blowing bubbles and kisses...many great things have gone on in here indeed. Some will come with us and some will stay behind.
I can leave this place knowing it is time and God has a different direction for us now. I am excited to see what is to come. New people, new grocery stores, new parks and sewing shops to find! I will miss many things about this place, but mostly just the people, well, and the folk music:). Thank you friends for letting us be part of your family and part of your lives. If I could name all the names I would. Thank you. I am thankful we are moving somewhere great so may be you will all come visit!!!! We love you.
trash, trash
Trash is the newest thing Cap is into these days. He has always enjoyed pushing the lid back and forth and watching it rock, but he is seriously a little obsessed with them these days. He picks up anything that might pass as trash and says "ta, ta" and starts with his little walk over to the trash can.
He does the same thing when we are out. Every parking lot is bound to have trash here and there, some places worse than others, he wants to pick every piece up and throw it away. I let him do it to a point, however, and this is gross, I really should be better about washing his hands or something afterwards. Oh well.... Every where we go he WILL notice the trash can, then his search will begin. It is pretty cute. On top of trash cans, we are still obsessed with brooms and vacuums.
I keep wanting to post but have no pictures so I keep delaying a check in. I officially started packing on Sunday. We have been in a purely get rid of and sell mode up till then. It is all coming together and Cap and I will leave for Texas this time next week!! Side note bummer: flight schedule got changed and now we have to leave at 9:30 instead of 11:30 which means we leave the house at 6am since we are a 2 hour drive from the airport. Yuck!!! Not looking forward to that part but I am sure it will be better (by it, the whole wake your baby that early just to be trapped in one box to another) than I am imaging it in my head:)
Will post some pics as soon as I find the camera:)
land of waterfalls
Transylvania County which is down the road from us is called the land of the waterfalls. The county is actually the rainiest county in the U.S. Hard to believe since everyone would most likely say Washington State or somewhere in the Northwest region. It actually has a tropical rainforest climate. Pretty crazy. You know the new movie Hunger Games, well, it was filmed in the area and at Dupont State Park which is where we spent one of our spring break days last week.
It is beautiful! Bryce and I worked at Camp Greenville a few years back which is about 20 minutes away from the first trailhead at this park. We made it our goal that fall to run every trail at this park. We were almost successful in completing our goal. This place has tons of waterfalls, lots of water, awesome trails that don't just take you straight up and straight back down. We have great memories running out there and have taking the boys from Rockmont every summer since we have been here.
We spent the morning hiking and the afternoon playing in the river/rocks/sand. It was perfect. Cap did alright in the carrier. He is a boy on the move and would rather walk and play with sticks, which we did our share of that also:) He ate lots of crackers in the carrier to keep him pacified! Both cameras ran out of batteries so these are the only shots we got. I would LOVE to go back soon but it took us 3 1/2 months to make this trip and it is only an hour away!!! Making time and weather connect is tricky especially if you only have the weekends to work with!
Enjoy!
last pic before the batteries ran out!
blueberry local jam and some p.b. all over his face
Rainy Afternoon Cinnamon Crust
Short nap, afternoon thunderstorms, and a loooong time before bedtime means you gotta get creative with your 1 year old! Cap pretty much only wants to go outside, but it just can't always happen. He is not yet equipped with the proper clothing to play in all weather conditions unfortunately.
Since he has been interested in the paint bottles lately I decided to give that another go. This time we stripped down and did it in the tub with construction paper. He was impressed for several minutes than lost it once again. I don't think I set him up in the best way to succeed with the painting. Bryce did a quick bath with him to clean him up and then we moved on to the kitchen.
I decided to make some Cinnamon Crisp out of homemade pie crust. This was an easy recipe to have Cap help me with...well, I use the term help very loosely:) This was a success! He LOVES to help us do whatever it is we are doing. Since the beginning we have been very intentional about letting him be part of the "life process" as a whole. Not just the fun roller coaster kind of stuff. He is in the part of the preparing for the ride and cleaning up the throw up from way too many roundy rounds!
He likes it too. We make it fun at times and at times it can be just work. I don't clean and do like crazy while he is napping. I wait for a lot of chores to do while he is awake so he can be part of the community/human process.
Here is a list of some of the many things he helps us with: takes things to the trash (his favorite right now), puts things in the recycling crate, walks with us to the big dumpster and recycling area and helps us sort things out, wipes the table, his hands, and his mouth, sometimes even our mouths!, vacuums, shuts the toilet lid, fills the bird feeder, washes dishes, turns light switches on or off, shuts doors, and sometimes helps me load the washing machine, etc.
Back to the Crisp! Simple recipe and easy for him to be involved in. We did lots of playing and figuring out the flour as you will see from the pics. We did it all on the floor since it was an easy place for him to be. He isn't ready to measure things out or anything like that but he is a great mixer! I can also pre-measure things in one bowl and have him transfer from that bowl to the next. That is how he helps put the bird feed in the feeder. He can't lift the whole bag, but he can grab a handful off the ground and add it in that way.
I love a clean house and clean areas. I also am very efficient and completing tasks. Cap has changed that. It is way more important to me to take an extra hour to vacuum and let Cap help than it is to do it myself in half the time. It is better to let him help with the cooking even if every piece of pre-cooked squash has a little nibble off the side then for me to do it on my own and him never see the process of cooking.
Since we only have Cap, I have no idea how this idea would work with other personalities. I do find it extremely important and valuable though. Even though he has been part of most things that happen to make home and life happen since day 1, every week brings new things that he can get his hands into and explore and contribute.
Here is for a good ol' rainy day out east.
I Heart Sunshine
Oh how I love when the sun starts to shine around here and warm the place up out of its slumber. I have fond memories of Yosemite this time of the year, when everyone would finally come out of hiding and you would start seeing familiar faces once again. We tend to hang out indoors a little more when the winter is nippy and the sky is spitting on us.
Of course, my recent findings of Outdoor Kindergartens in some ridiculously cold...COLD country that I can't remember the name of right now, oh and WET I believe, have made me feel a bit silly of my half hibernation state during the winter months. They run their school curriculum completely outside regardless of the weather conditions. Apparently, I needed to be reminded by 4-5 year olds that there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing. I agree.
So anyways, I do heart the sunshine, hence part of the reason my name is wildflower. And yes, my niece and nephew (on the Ball side since Leo is only 9 weeks old) only know me by Aunt Wild and Bryce by Uncle Danger.
Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the weather we have had the last few weeks(minus the first one). It has cooled down a bit, but still can't complain about the weather for being in the mountains this time of year. Cap apparently is going to be one of those really dark tanning kiddos. His little fat cracks on his arms have tan lines already! Pretty cute.
Enjoy!
post script: a great outdoor easy activity is just a bucket of water, a few sticks and rocks, and may be something to add to it every so often like a cup or saucer. you do have to keep your eye out depending on the age of your kiddo, but talk about simple fun! we play in this daily! you will see the pic down below.
more on this baking rainy day adventure later
bucket of rain that lives next to our porch
it is a big hit to this guy
he insist on sitting in this crate and being carried around
so funny
we went down to our other lake and played in the water
thrift REI sun-blocking swim shirt, bought for 99cents
one cute bum
we first went to the creek but it was FREEZING!!!
A Couple of Backtracks
We have been very busy every since my mom left. I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but instead of moving all of our things to Colorado we are now selling everything and starting all over. The cost to move our stuff was more than the actual value of our belongings. So we are (or I am) a little overwhelmed with packing and deciding what goes where. Oh, and something I haven't shared yet is that we are taking a trip to Kenya 9 days after we get to CO. Cap and I go to Texas for 2 weeks, than to Colorado, then to Kenya. So I think that would be part of my "how the heck do I pack" problem. Right now we are just selling away and doing what we can to stay somewhat structured and orderly for my sanity and for our 1 year old who is very curious about the missing table and couch!
A couple of short backtracks now:
Cap's birthday cupcake. He could not have been more uninterested in it! It was chocolate with chocolate icing, but he didn't even try to eat it. He was a little more into the candle we used which was Bryce's when he turned 1. Since Cap loves blueberries we had a blueberry muffin on his actual birthday. Again, not interested. It kind of hurt my feelings he didn't want any of my goodies, HOWEVER, the cupcake wasn't very good honestly, and he had been sick up until his birthday.
Next up, we started teaching Cap "no". We waited until we felt like he would both understand and benefit from learning "no". Instead, we playfully distract when we would prefer him to not be in something or whatever the case might be. We also don't put him in a toy store and expect for him not to touch or play with anything. Everything is new and exciting at this age. Instead of baby proofing a house, we just help him explore and investigate this new world he is living in. Instead of always saying don't do this, don't touch that, no no no, we try and say "This is very hot, we better stay away from it." He listens too. We have oil heaters through the whole house including a gas fireplace and he has never touched them. He knows they are hot or "ha" as Cap says. Same goes for my plants. I have taught him to be gentle from the beginning. I haven't told him not to touch them, but to just be gentle. I want him to feel and touch them! I have several plants inside and 2 pots on the porch with flowers and he has never pulled them and ripped them out.
We felt like the time was right because he was testing us on purpose. He was asking us in his own way who was in charge and what can I get away with doing. So we waited for the right scenario, which involved the outlet by our bed. We told him not to touch it, he looked at us, listened, turned towards the outlet and touched it. We gave him a little pinch between his shoulder and neck. He got a little upset and we said no again. That was kind of it.
We actually looked for times we could say no after that so that we could give him a pinch here and there so he would know what it meant and the consequences for not obeying. I know that probably sounds weird, but he was doing so good there was no need for a no. BUT time happens and eventually we had a few more opportunities to continue to teach him and now he is doing great at obeying. I really thought he was going to be strong willed, but so far I am wrong.
He is so cute! Growing, learning, and taking it all in. Hope this all made sense because there is no time to proofread!
Apparently he did try to take one bite
it didn't last long though, we were on to destroying our food
which he never really does
he was way more into the little boy holding the 1
on to better things, do you see the snot bubble
i forgot how sick he still was and grumpy!
forward facing boy!
loves fire, just like his dad
one bite of muffin...no thanks mom
but I will poke a little at it!
