Mischievous Monkey

This morning started with my chiropractor appointment.  I'm hoping my proactive approach will prevent a breach baby this time.  So far so good but my appointment ended with a bang, literally.  While scheduling my follow up appointment Isaac disappeared and made his way into one of the cabinets and broke a mug.  My little mischievous monkey!.  In all fairness the mug already had the handle broken, he just decided to take it a step further.  From the moment he woke this morning he was wound tight and full of energy!

I decided the next item on our agenda should be a brunch date with my wee man.

Isaac isn't a big fan of high chairs these days.  He tolerates sitting long enough to eat and then he wants up to run around and explore.  It's become a challenge to keep him entertained when a situation calls to sit still.  Today he played with the lid on his cup and straw for all of five minutes.  I pointed out items for him to color.  That didn't last long either.  At this point I thought it would be forever before our food showed up and I wondered if I was capable of keeping a meltdown away.  Then I pulled out my found and we played with an alphabet application.  That seemed to do the trick and then brunch arrived!

Isaac had his favorite, blueberry pancakes.  He went straight for the whipped cream!

Then he dug into the blueberries and syrup. I love my blueberry monster.

It was a winner all the way around.  :)  With full tummies we set out to finish a host of errands.  After two stops Isaac was tuckered out in the backseat.

I had two more stops to make that I couldn't put off so I sat outside one store in the parking lot and let Isaac finish his nap.  It was a good time for me to catch up on email and he was simply too peaceful to disturb.

Timeout Solution

Isaac has been testing his boundaries more and more lately and climbing on everything.  He loves to climb in papa's chair and play on the computer which I've been fine with until he took it to another level.  The past couple of days he's decided it would be fun to climb in the office chair and then climb on the desk and crawl around on it.  Uh, no....on multiple levels.  Well, the calm way of removing him from the situation and explaining it's not safe was not registering even after the millionth time.

A brilliant friend who's also a nanny and quite skilled in handling mischievous toddlers suggested an alternate method.  Isaac isn't old enough for timeouts on a chair and he certainly isn't going to sit still on a step.  Instead, I pulled out the pack-n-play.  It's nice and secure, he can't climb out of it and I simply place it where he can't reach anything.  Brilliant!  This is my new secret weapon for toddler mishaps.

Timeouts are only for one minute and he doesn't like being confined.  I set a timer and when it goes off I let him know he's all finished and then reiterate what he did wrong and follow it up with hugs and kisses.  It's only day one but so far so good.

After lunch I let Isaac enjoy a treat and pick out a mini cupcake.

He enjoyed his cupcake....a lot!

He struggled a bit accepting he could only have one cupcake even though he could clearly see more cupcakes were available.  Every little guy deserves a little treat every now and then but in moderation.  We're still working on that one and I have a feeling we'll be working on that one for awhile.  :)

Property Survey

Spring is right around the corner and we're preparing for a list of spring "to do" projects.  Today we had a property survey completed which we needed to have done before the fencing companies can provide quotes for a new fence.  Isaac loves to spend time outside but it's a challenge to let him explore safely and boy is he getting quick.

It was educational since we still haven't met the neighbors to the left of us.  On the other side there is a tree and a strip of shrubs that split our driveway with our neighbors and neither one of knew who owned what.  So...today we learned we own the tree, they own the shrubs.  :)

The neighbors fence is on the property line but we hope to have our new fence join theirs.

We also own the hollies despite the neighbors having them trimmed this past year.  They certainly will need to be pruned a bit since the fence line will be so close to them but at least we know their ours now.

So excited to be getting a fence.  Especially with a baby on the way and even upon arrival it will be nice for Isaac to explore and play in a confined yard.  There are a few more steps to take before we get there but at least we're making progress.  :)

A St. Patrick's Day Playdate

In the spirit of St. Patricks Day I decided to host a playdate for Isaac.  It's always fun to get into a theme and celebrate some Irish heritage at the same time.  :)

Just a few decorations to get into the spirit and set the stage for some green fun....

And of course some festive snacks.  I kept things simple with a rainbow fruit tray and of course some mini cupcakes.  :)

The kiddos played and the mama's got a chance to chat and catch up.  It so much fun to have a house full of kiddos running around.  Isaac did a great job sharing and was a gracious little host.

Boy Time

Papa took the wee man out for a bit today to run errands especially since I was still painting the kitchen.  Isaac enjoyed his snacks while papa gave him a tour of the hardware store.  :)