Week + Weekender

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Whoa..talk about a wonderful and crazy week! The amazing weather hardly makes it feel like the weekend is winding down and having my mom here with us makes it even better! I didn’t get to do a recap of the week on Friday because I posted Wes’s first birthday (which I think is way more important) so let’s see what I can remember. Apologies in advance for the excessive photos 😉

Monday: From all that I can remember (eek) I got my workout done in the morning and we walked the neighborhood in the afternoon- making sure to hit the playground before returning home. Chicken caesar salads for dinner!

PS: No joke, I was doing the second week of 22 Minute Hard Corps this week and could already see the changes! My core is much stronger and my arms and butt are getting more definition! (I think I might chat about this later this week since it might also be due to some hormonal changes…man, you just never know! But these workouts feel GOOD!)

Tuesday: My mom flew in! We haven’t seen her (or my dad…but he stayed home. boo) in just over 6 months. It really is 100% no fun to live so far away from family. I crave moments where I can just have mom and dad come over for dinner or to watch Wes for an afternoon. But…it is what it is right now.

We headed straight to Costco from the airport to stock up on essentials, made homemade chicken tenders for dinner, then called it an early night. Not without a glass of wine first!

Wednesday: We considered Wednesday our ‘transition’ day. It was nice for just the three of us (me, my mom and Wes) to hang out and get into the rhythm of a slightly different weekday now that grandma was in town! We did manage to get out of the house and run a couple of errands which was nice. Lots of snacks and maybe even a couple of presents for Wes!

We had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and hit the hay. Wes really took to grandma so fast and has been super bubbly which has been great!

Thursday: Wes has his one year appointment at 10am, but woke up so early in the morning that he was already down for a nap by 9am and I had to wake him to put him in the car to go. I hate doing that, but I knew that it was still early enough in the day that he would get a good afternoon nap in anyways.

He wasn’t too happy at the appointment and wanted me to hold him the whole time. I didn’t mind at all since I rarely get those good cuddles, but I didn’t like seeing him saddish.

We headed to the Tim Horton’s drive through on the way home for a couple of coffees and picked up a timbit for Wes since it was his birthday eve. No shocker- he gobbled it in two bites!

He was still pretty clingy the rest of the day and snuggled with grandma throughout the afternoon. Heart=melted.

Tyler picked up a pizza on the way home from work for him and my mom and I was out the door by 5:30 to attend a winemaker’s dinner at Pampas Brazilian Steakhouse (more on that later this week!)

Friday: My baby turned ONE! We celebrated just as the sun came up with balloons in his crib and he LOVED them. Poor Tyler’s alarm still hadn’t gone off yet and we were making so much noise. Whoops!

We had pancakes for his birthday breakfast (my idea, obviously) and Wes hung out with grandma to play. They even facetimed grandpa for the Happy Birthday song!

I think we walked over to the shopping center to pick up a couple of things too. It must’ve happened, because there’s photo evidence!

After his morning nap, I attempted to take his one year photos and was so excited for him to wear some new garb! Luckily, I have come across so many great small shops lately that I was able to assemble something rather last minute. I absolutely loved each piece 🙂

wesleyarlo12months

The leggings are from Baby H Designs (she made the leggings/hat Wes wore when he came home from the hospital), moccs from Posh Panda, and bow tie from Will & Co

After a somewhat successful photo session, all clothing was removed so he could enjoy his very first cupcake! I would have preferred it to be something I made myself (I am anti-any-baked-good-from-a-store-since-homemade-is-better) but I thought this was too cute to pass up when I stopped by Crave.

IMG_4688 from Jen Linton on Vimeo.

We had to take a quick bath after that because it was a bit messy and Reggie was losing his mind over all the potential frosting to lick. We opted to all stay shirtless after the fact (plus, it was warm out) and I whipped up these amazingly delicious baked chimichangas for dinner. Best part? We had leftovers which were easily wrapped up and thrown in the freezer! Edited to add: I just remembered that Wes ZONKED for nearly three hours after noshing on the cupcake. It was a great little break for me and my mom, but it made for a less fun night of trying to get him to bed…almost 9pm!

Saturday: Even though Wes went to bed so late on Friday night, he was up at 6am on Saturday. No fun for this mama because my eyes just felt heavy as bricks! I made sure to get both our breakfasts ready before getting him from his room and we hung out in the living room for a while. On one hand, early mornings are no fun because who wants to get out of bed, but on the other hand, I absolutely love those quiet morning hours with Wes when it’s just me and him….and maybe one or two of the doggies who make it out of the bedroom.

The little guy is getting more adventurous in his eating and was asking for a lot of my mom’s cereal. So cereal he got! Afterwards, he was back to sleep for almost another 3 hours! Although I didn’t want him to miss out on the gorgeous weather, I knew he needed the sleep and it was nice for us all to be able to do our own thing for a little bit.

After his nap, we spent a long time hanging out on the patio! When it’s this nice out, it’s a sin not to sit outside and enjoy it! He really loved the fresh air and looking out 🙂

Once Tyler got to a point in his renovations where he could take a break, we had cake! Well, technically only Wes had the cake. No party this year for the birthday boy (1. Because he won’t remember it, 2. Because we have no family around to come and my girlfriends all live so FAR AWAY, and 3. Because umm…isn’t cake enough??!) I sort of feel bad about it, but so long as he’s happy that’s all that matters. He really enjoyed the cake even though he really didn’t understand the concept 😉

Also, I really need to dress nice for some photos, but can’t see the point when we’re just in the house! Besides, DOG. HAIR.

Timing worked in our favor this time and he was in bed at a relatively normal time! We had lasagna for dinner and watched Ride Along 2 before getting in bed.

Sunday: I heard Wes stirring in his crib at 6am and of course he went back to sleep but I couldn’t. I laid in bed for a few minutes before getting up to start coffee, make waffles for everyone, and fix my BAE breakfast.

At 8:30 I decided to put Wes in the stroller and walk to the library to return some books and maybe stroll around the neighborhood for a bit. I was walking one of our usual loops and just before we got back to the house, he had fallen asleep. Since Layla is a barking beast when we get to the front door, I opted to keep walking throughout the neighborhood until Wes woke up. Cut to one hour later and I finally decided to just throw in the towel because my fitbit died haha.

I had him bundled in the stroller because there was still a tiny nip in the air, but by the time we were back at the house it was practically HOT out. I changed Wes and we hung out on the patio for a couple of hours..and even managed to have a picnic lunch.

I even braved to snag a few photos in our backyard. It worked out pretty decent- the grass is (dead) nice and dry from the warm weather, and there was no dog poo! I should probably mow it sometime soon, but we’re never back there. Oops.

Layla is such a great pup with Wes. He loves her so much and is always grabbing for her and hugging her and even just laying on her and she takes it all like a champ.

We came inside for a bit because it was getting a bit too warm and I took the dogs for a long walk. After coming home, Wes went down for a nap, I worked out, and finished up the laundry.

Then it was a nice naked afternoon of crawling, climbing, babbling, and giggling.

Tyler made burgers on the BBQ for dinner and we all got to sleep pretty early after all that sun, exercise, and renovations (for Tyler).

It looks like there is still more sunny weather ahead this week, so we will be having many more outdoor adventures. I can’t wait!

From the Weekend

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi friends! I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! Ours was filled with lots of sunshine and smiles, so I’m sad to see it come to an end. Stupid weekends and going by so fast! No fair 😉

Friday: Pancakes to start the day. I threw Wes in the forward facing carrier while I whipped these up so that he wouldn’t start the day on a grumpy note. PS: It worked!

Once breakfast was digested, we headed downstairs so i could squeeze in my workout while Wes jumped in the jumperoo. He ended up falling asleep in it when I only had my cool down left, so I was able to easily transfer him to his crib then hop in the shower and get ready for the day.

I headed over to the store really quick since I had some clothes on hold for Wes from when we went there the day before and their registers weren’t working. After Wes woke up and had lunch, we all got dressed and headed out to run a few errands.

Then it was time to see the Easter bunny! I was shocked that no malls in the area do the Easter bunny like they do Santa, but Alison texted me a few days before saying he was going to be at Bass Pro (of all places!). The photo was free and all we had to do was wait in a line for about 30 minutes. Not too shabby.

No smiles, but no tears either. I call it a win. We lucked out and caught a couple of snaps with Wes once we got home. I didn’t want to take him out of his cute Easter outfit!

We had a FILLING lasagna dinner then watched some TV downstairs before calling it a night.

Woof, I’m full just looking at that photo!

Saturday: I opted to start of the holiday weekend with a yummy and healthy breakfast- Shakeology! I just mixed this one with almond milk and it hit the spot. Not to mention, it kept me satisfied for hours. (Food RARELY does that for me!)

We had a great, lazy morning before we hit the road! The Canmore dream home opened and we wanted to take a sneak peak. We stopped for a little fuel- gas for the car and coffee for the mom 😉

On the way up, Wes got a bit antsy for some snacks then promptly fell asleep mid-nosh.

Our intentions were to just go to Canmore and have lunch there, but since Wes was sleeping we decided to go further on to Banff for a lunch at Park Distillery. The menu looked great and we thought we picked winners, but unfortunately Tyler’s fish was not cooked at all. Even worse, the waitress wasn’t even that great about it. She didn’t charge us, but she also didn’t seem very sympathetic at all. Just….nothing. It bothered both of us that she just couldn’t seem to be bothered by the situation.

At least it didn’t phase Wes! He was happily munching on all the food I brought him, plus some grapes from my salad.

We walked around for a bit before heading back to Canmore to check out the house then back home!

Once we were home, I stayed in with Wes while Tyler went out to run some pre-Easter errands. The little crawling machine was having so much fun with a sleepy Layla. Then even more fun when he got naked and played peekaboo with one of his favorite blankies.

Wes went down really easy..mostly because he had a eventful day out of the house + he was expending so much energy all afternoon! Phew.

We had turkey meatballs for dinner then watched the first Star Wars movie. I fell asleep before it was over and ended up having one of the best sleeps in a while! Love when that happens.

Sunday: Yay for Easter! I was a klutz and left Wes’s basket in his closet before he went down, so I wasn’t able to put it all together until he woke up! Not that an 11 month old is going to know, but I still felt bad! haha.

Tyler even picked up some flowers, chocolate and PROSECCO for me. YASSS

He had also picked up cinnamon buns the day before (is it snooty for me to say I only really prefer the homemade ones? Doesn’t mean I didn’t eat one!) and I bought him some Easter egg fudge while we were up in Banff. Ummmmm delicious.

We enjoyed eggs benedicts for breakfast. I could eat it every darn day.

I wanted to take some Easter photos of Wes, but the little bugger is too quick for my camera! He finally (sorta) fits into a pair of knit shorties that Tyler’s grandmother made.

Tyler spent a good portion of the day tending to a smoked chicken which turned out FANTASTIC. The flavor was just so so so good. I contributed our favorite potato salad and then we cooked some veggies.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back- I walked the dogs to the library to return a book, then finished off with a big loop around the neighborhood. We tackled some house stuff. And of course, we played with this sweet little guy- who was more interested in the dogs than us.

That’s it from our end! How was your weekend??

Wesley Arlo- 10 months

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

That one year mark keeps creeping closer and closer and I don’t like it one bit. Well, I do love watching him develop and learn new tricks, but I miss my teeny tiny little baby. I can’t believe it has been ten whole months! Double digits.

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He wasn’t in the happiest of moods while I tried to snap his 10 month photos this morning, but I think I got a few.

He weighs about 23 pounds (home scale) and wears 18-24 month clothes. He’s got three teeth- both bottom front and his top right. Size 5 diapers. And really big socks so his circulation isn’t cut off…#cankleproblems.

Eats: He still breastfeeds every morning, but he hardly gets anything so it’s almost immediately supplemented with solids. 3 meals a day: his favorite breakfast is peanut butter toast and a half a banana (Every day. That’s a lot of bananas!) he gets cheese and fruit and veggies and a meat (if we have any leftovers) and some cheerios, and dinner is somewhat the same as lunch. He’ll polish off a squeeze pouch if he’s not satisfied with the solids we’ve given him. 3 bottles a day: between 4-8 oz in each. He’s a really easy eater. I have him cauliflower and broccoli and pickles and pork and he’ll just pick them up and eat them like it wasn’t a big deal.

Sleep: We’ve finally started letting him put himself to sleep. Most of the time it works, but there are occasions where we’ve had to go in and soothe him. On a typical day, he will nap twice, ranging from 45min-80 min, and will sleep through the night for 12-13 hours.

In the past month, he has really tried to get on his knees to crawl. So far, he’s pretty much mastered the roll and will get from one side of the room to the other in a flash.

He’s learned to clap his hands and can even give me a high five when I ask for it! Of course, I always ask for his left hand, so that’s the only hand he’ll use 😉

He babbles a lot and only really says ‘dada dada’ which is totally unfair considering *I* should be the favorite parent, right??

He loves shaking his toys and has a favorite book that I’ve check (and re-checked) out of the library. It’s about a puppy and the last page is a lot of WOOF WOOF WOOFs and when I read it he laughs so hard. Speaking of laughs, he’s ticklish! I love getting right into his underarms and he’s SO CLOSE to making a belly laugh I cannot even stand the cuteness of it.

He loves to play with the blinds. I blame this on the fact that I’m always looking out of them for the mail person each morning. He loves his reflection and high fiving himself in the mirror. He LOVE LOVE LOVES his car (remember to check out my Instagram for #WesOnWheels) and will cry when I take him off.

He’s getting a lot better at actually petting the dogs rather than smacking them. Layla could care less so long as she’s nearby, but I think Reggie appreciates the more gentle approach.

He loves his baths and splashes so hard that it looks like I also took a bath with him. I put him in a laundry basket in the tub and keep the basket in the bathroom when we’re not giving him a bath so it makes for a makeshift playpen when he has separation anxiety and I have to pee 😉

He’s an overall amazing little boy. He does like to have me close by or in sight at all times which can get a bit tiring. Big boy=big whines. You know that clip from Dumb and Dumber when Lloyd asks if they want to hear the most annoying sound in the world? Well, that would be Wes’s constant whining. I’m not complaining though, because we have it pretty darn easy.

Weekender

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi there, ho there friends! How was your weekend? Ours was great. Not a lot happened and it went by FAST. Backin’ it up….

Friday: Well the day can’t start off that bad when you’ve had 10.5 hours sleep! I had a little extra pep in my step throughout the day and it felt glorious. We had pancakes for breakfast, took a walk in the afternoon, enjoyed burgers for dinner, watched a bit of TV and hit the hay.

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WAIT, THERE’S MORE—> I was feeling overly ambitious and whipped up a batch of Rocky Road Cookie Bars while Wes napped. Combine the smell of those babies (the cookie bars, not the actual baby) in the oven with an hour of wonderfully fresh air afterwards on our walk and I was in heaven!

#nomsohard

Saturday: If you’ve been reading for a while, then you can probably guess how Saturday went. Home Depot and Costco. THRILLING. We bought so much meat, we’re in meat debt. Except we’re not really in debt because you can’t pay by credit card at Costco. So that means we’re meat…rich?

Oddly enough, the only photo from the day is a combo of my favorite beer + my favorite human.

I took the dogs for a super long walk through murder town. It’s what I refer the neighboring community as since there was a murder there last summer. It’s not dangerous in the least bit, but I’m paranoid city and opted to jog off and on. I don’t know why I told you that, it’s a better community than the one I live in and they have better walkways.

Tyler made pizza for dinner and if I wasn’t beer-full, I would’ve probably eaten the whole thing. It’s so good. I’d invite you over to try some, but that means we’d have to clean the house and BAHAHAHA not happening.

Sunday: I’d like to rename it BAEday. It has a good ring to it PLUS bacon and eggs are the bomb dot com.

Besides the usual laundry, workout, walk, blah blah blah, I also made a slow cooker pot roast.

That’s pretty much it from this end…Ok there’s more but I don’t feel like typing it right now. Time to catch up on Mindy Project and paint the ol’ digits.

How was your weekend?

Weekender

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi friends! Hope you had a great weekend! We’ve had some pretty quality family time over here, so no complaints. Although….I could have gone for a little more sleep….

Friday: In typical Friday fashion, I started the day with a batch of protein pancakes and about a gallon of coffee to help get the sleepies out of my eyes. I cut up my pancakes because I had to feed Wes at the same time and with his grabby arms this makes it way easier.

Oh, and it was Wes’s 9 month birthday! I did his monthly recap which you can read here.

After his morning nap we headed over to the doctor for his checkup. He did great, but was just a bit chilly!

On the way home, we swung by the grocery store to pick up a few necessities (one of which may have been Ben & Jerrys).

We had leftover pot roast for dinner once Tyler got home then headed over to Costco to stock up. The trip wasn’t too long, so we got home in time for Wes to have his bottle, but the kid was on CRACK and preferred to roll around and babble until he finally went down at 8:45! At that point, I was ready to go to bed myself, but we watched a couple episodes of Homeland.

Saturday: I didn’t wake up until 8am (HOO-FREAKIN-RAY). I got dressed and had some breakfast before Wes got up. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but man alive does it feel fantastic to have brushed teeth and a washed face in the morning. I quickly fed Wes then headed out the door to get to my hair appointment. Ummm…remind me never to go this long between appointments!

I got a lob cut and had the color brightened up a bit. It feels so great to have a fresh haircut I can’t even describe it. And the girl talk, HOT coffee and me time were the best!

The afternoon consisted of lunch, a trip to Home Depot, and taking the dogs for a walk.

We ordered pizza for dinner, finished Homeland and BOOM..out like lights.

Sunday: I woke up a walking zombie. Boo. Wes had another wakeup in the middle of the night which actually didn’t last too long, but I couldn’t get back to sleep. I think the worst thing in the world is when you WANT to sleep but your stupid brain won’t shut off.

I think about 4 hours later getting up I actually WOKE up so I made some BAE.