What a Sweetheart...

LBB got a coupon from Build A Bear Workshop today to get a free Animal for his birthday. :) So, we took a little trip to the closest Build A Bear (about 40 minutes away), and let him pick out a new friend for his Bearemy. He chose a very sweet, very adorable little white bear that has been named "Blizzard."

This evening, after we got home from the mall and grocery shopping, LBB, Dear Sweet Hubby, Bearemy, Blizzard, and I cuddled up on the couch to read a bedtime story. LBB smiled at his bears and read them a bedtime story as well...and then it was off to bed.

Here comes the sweet part. :)

We made a makeshift bed for the two bears out of a toy bin, and showed LBB how we put Bearemy and Blizzard to bed. We told him "Tuck them in now," and what did LBB do? He tucked them in. Ever so gently and full of love. And then we said "Give them kisses goodnight."

And the sweet little boy leaned forward and gave Bearemy and Blizzard the sweetest little kisses on their cheeks.

Sigh.

I love that LBB so so so much. :)

IKEA Lovelies

We stopped into IKEA the other day on Dear Sweet Hubby's day off...everytime we step into this wonderful store I fall in love with about 10 different rooms. And everytime we leave, I am happy that we live in a semi-small space and that there is a store like this out there that kind of tailors to that!

So, here's a few of my favorites...ideas that we took pictures of so we can implement them into our apartment as time goes on. :)

Love this idea of putting some cabinets at the top of the ceiling in the kids room...so much more storage of things that they don't need on a regular basis! (But I'd definitely do white doors.)

Crazy thing about this room...it's almost exactly what I've been planning for LBB's room when we redo it...with a few small changes. One thing I've decided is that lots of storage is a must for little ones!!!!

Sigh...isn't this bedroom just dreamy? I've got some convincing to do. ;)

Love this little art center...I don't really have a place for it anywhere in the house, but I so wish I did!

See the chair on the left? Dear Sweet Hubby has one like it. See the chair on the right? LBB is going to have one someday. :) Matching chairs for my two guys.

And IKEA doesn't have any of these is stock...just go to their website and type in "cutest baby in the entire universe." Go ahead. I'll wait. :) What did it say? "0 matches for "cutest baby in the entire universe." That's because we've already got him. :)

This is my dream house, by the way. All windows. Gorgeous lighting. Sigh.

Love love love this!

And especially love all these shelves! Dear Sweet Hubby has been trying to get me to do this in our house, and I keep ho-humming about it. But now I'm convinced. :) Now to figure out how to do it.

I love these shelves!

That's all! What a fun trip! I just adore IKEA.

Cooking for a Picky Toddler

I'm convinced it is nearly impossible.

One minute he loves a certain food, the next minute he doesn't even want to touch it. I've been surfing the web, perusing cooking for kids blogs, and trying new recipes here and there...but some days the meal I make is a bust and all he wants are Mini-Beef Raviolis. Ugh.

Definitely not the most healthy of choices! But, there have been a few meals here and there that he likes. :) For lunch yesterday, I made Pizza Breadsticks (I just mixed some chopped up pepperoni and mozzarella cheese into pizza dough) and he loved that. Then last night I made "Bangers and Mash." He ate all the sausage but would barely take a bite of taters. Sigh. It's all a hit or miss kind of thing. :)

So, my question for you is this: Any tried and true recipes that please your kids? I want to change it up from the normal mac n cheese type stuff (not that it's bad, I just want a little variety since we eat the same meals!)

And we like to call this...

...LBB's pucker sound.

He was enjoying a bowl of applesauce at lunch today, when I tried showing him how we say "Mmmmmmmm" after we eat something we like. What LBB took from my demonstration was a very unique, very adorable, pucker sound. He covers his bottom lip with his top and sucks air in really fast to make a sound that now follows every bite of anything he eats that he likes.

He finished his applesauce, but not until a pucker sound was made...after every bite.

Then at snacktime, while he was munching on his Sesame Street crackers and I was making dinner, I heard a sweet little pucker...after every cracker.

That boy makes me laugh so much! Everyday at lunch it is something new...for a few days after Thanksgiving, he was adament that we had a "toast" (clinking our glasses together) before each sip. Yesterday, he decided that he would pull his bib around his head in a sort of lion's mane kind of get-up that was followed by a peal of laughter. And then today with the pucker noise. :)

Oh! And one last thing...LBB had his first sippy of whole milk today! Our plan is to have him completely off formula (we bought his last can and it is almost gone) by his first birthday, so we wanted to get him used to the milk before the formula was all gone. So far, so good! At lunch he took a few sips and only drank about 3 ounces of it...but at dinner, he drank the whole sippy! Yay! I also decided to get some Chocolate Ovaltine as a nice treat for him...especially since it has 12 vitamins/minerals and is 20% or so of his daily iron, so it makes me a little less worrisome that he is getting all his nutrients. (And with no caffeine you can't go wrong.) :) He hasn't had any yet because I want to make sure that he gets used to the milk taste...but I know he will love it when he gets it...he's a chocolate fiend. Well, any sweets for that matter....

One week...

...until my LBB turns 1.

Wow.

I still can't believe it. Only 1 week...that's 7 days. 168 hours. (Well, even less as I write this.) 10080 minutes. Until my little guy celebrates his first birthday. :)

I'm happy about it...who wouldn't be?!?! But, there is that little part of me that already misses those days of cuddling and napping and just lots of snuggling. Now it's move, move, move...LBB is a very active little man, and there isn't a waking moment that he isn't on the go. Such a funny little man! And it's funny...there are some days that I wake up, go pick my sweet little wonderful boy up out of his crib, and am convinced that he grew up a little overnight. Thankfully, I'm not crazy. Dear Sweet Hubby will say something before I even mention it to him. :)

And speaking of on the go...LBB is this close to walking! Yesterday he walked about 6 feet across the room before he plopped down. He's walked a few feet here and there, but he is standing a lot more on his own now, which is a big improvement! I don't think he'll be walking by his first birthday (although I originally had), but I would put a little money down saying he will be by Christmas. :) It seems the only time he wants to walk is when there is trouble to be had. LOL.

*yawn* I think I'm going to end this post here...LBB had a pretty bad head bump yesterday(he's a-ok though, so no worry now!), so, following the nurse's instructions, I slept on the couch and he in his playpen. However, when LBB sees someone, he will not go back to sleep. Translation: This Momma is running on 3 1/2 hours of sleep or so...and my brain is letting me know it! Have a good day everyone! Tomorrow I plan on posting...but don't hold me to it. ;)

BabyLegs

I just have to share one of my new favorite things. :)

They are called BabyLegs (click here for the website) and are amazing. LBB has recently discovered that he is getting quite strong, and that diaper changes can get a lot more interesting when he puts up a fight...so this Mommy finally made the decision to pick up a pair of these little adorable BabyLegs that I'd been eyeing for a while.

And I am oh so glad I did! They are lifesavers! They take that extra, difficult step of pants with a wiggly baby who needs his diaper changed! And, I've been looking at the website...you can use them for an extra layer under pants. Use them to make a short sleeved shirt long sleeved. Use them on babies, use them on toddlers. Use them for potty training (look at the picture on the website...ingenious!)

I am so in love with these adorable little things! I'm going to order a few more pairs over time because Target only carries the print we got LBB. There are a few pairs that I love on the website. They are the FROST , GOAL , and TRAIN. Aren't these all just adorable?

OK...I just had to share them. :) They are a definite must-have for us now. (And secretly I'm hoping that at some point we have a girl so I can pick up some of the ruffly little ones. ;) But that's just between you and I. Shhhhh!)

Our Family Snowman

Dear Sweet Hubby was in charge of building. LBB and Mommy were in charge of assemble his face. And Cat #2 was apparently in charge of acting like a freak and being extremely scared of the large, white, round frozen man standing outside our patio door. :)

What fun it was building our first snowman...LBB kept watching Dear Sweet Hubby as if he was trying to figure out why Daddy was rolling giant balls of snow around the yard. He did have fun helping me go through the freezer and fridge to discover things that would be good for our friendly snowman...we wanted things that would be fairly bird and squirrel friendly, so we chose strawberries for eyes. A carrot for a nose (of course.) And peas for a smile.

One thing this Mommy did learn was that a "snowman building kit" is a necessity. I am going to assemble a freezer bag with goodies to decorate a snowman with. So, I'm making a mental list of things to add to the bag, and then we will always have it handy. :)

The thing I love about our snowman is that there is so much love in him...even LBB got into the act at the end a little by patting the snowman's base. :) Such a sweetheart.