Happy 21 months Rowan!

21 months??! Say it ain't so! Time is flying and this girl is blossoming into such a precious little girl! I literally feel so emotional thinking she will be 2 soon! I feel like I was literally JUST pregnant! I miss her baby days at times, though this phase of her life is so wonderful! 2nd birthday plans are already underway!

Age: 21 months, (19.5 months adjusted age)

Weight and clothing size: 

Rowan is almost 31 pounds. Wearing size 5 diapers, size 5 shoes, and 3T in clothing.

Eating:

Rowan now apparently doesn't like meat, sigh. She will eat spaghetti (she likes to talk to it, LOL), fruit all the live long day, most veggies and anything carbs. She sometimes doesn't mind breaded chicken, and recently tried an oreo, which she joyfully freaked out about (who wouldn't?!)

Rowan can:

-open doors. Looks like we need those knob covers!
-in addition to her previous words, she now says amen, boo and buh bye
-color with a slight purpose now instead of the table, LOL! She loves anything art. 
-Likes to "helpful" by trying to sweep
-Rowan is getting pretty good at throwing and kicking!
-Identifies shapes and most colors. In her shape sorter, she is actually matching the shapes and pushing them in!
-can do certain puzzles! She is a smarty!
-does hand motions to songs like "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider". So dang freaking cute!
-Starting to dance more when songs come on. She's not a big dancer (weird because I LOVE to dance) but she is getting into it!

Rowan loves:

-The song "Walking On a Dream" by Empire Of The Sun We discovered the song trying to find a Baby Einstein video. The song is SUPER catchy and I totally love it too! I never heard of this band, but they are wonderfully weird and random. Check them out! Rowan LOVES it, watches the video with rapt attention and sways to the beat, LOLOLOL!

- OH MY WERD. This girl loves bubbles! If you want to see her nearly have a brain aneurysm from excitement, just blow bubbles! She loves them so much!!!

-loves anything with shapes and music. 

-loves the card section at Target! She likes to look at every card, and I am teaching her to put it back by herself. While this is cute, tantrums ensue if we have to leave. Le sigh.

-Loves to wave at everyone who will look at her. She also likes to walk right up to people and get in their face. It happens mainly at my gym when parents are sitting or at restaurants when we are walking to our table. I always apologize but people are super great about it and love on her lol.  

Rowan doesn't like: 

-holding hands. Since she hates being tied down to the stroller and cart, we hold hands with her but boy its a fight!!!

-If she is being redirected and doesn't want to go, she will squat and won't move a muscle! I'm pretty sure she has the strongest legs because of this, Oy! This is a concern because she will be in a wedding as the flower girl. I am terrified she won't walk LOL!! 

-throws fits when we have to leave something she's enjoying. A basic, constant main example is leaving the store. We will allow her to explore and for the most part, she is quite behaved. However, if we have to move or go, she screams and gets all crazy. For all the past parents I gave stink eye to, just know karma is now getting me!!!!

-on that note, the fit throwing is in full swing. Luckily it doesn't happen a TON but when it does it sure isn't fun. LORD JESUS take the wheel! 

-she doesn't really enjoy going to nursery. She will cry the minute we leave, but eventually calms down as we never get called back. I feel really bad, I hope she grows out of it!

 Sleeping schedule:

Sleep is still decent. Sleeps usually from 7:30-6:30 on school days, when we are home or on the weekends usually to 7:30 or 8! Takes a midday nap from 11-1:30/2. I am always thankful. I know toddlers who still aren't sleeping! If I am tired, its usually because it's my own dang fault!

 New happenings this month:

-She celebrated her second NYE! We get together with my sister and friend Amy's families. It's very fun! She obviously went to bed before actual midnight but still very fun! 

-We did a wine country trip with Rowan and my mom! We went to Windsor and Healdsburg. If you are California native, please do yourself a favor and go! TEN TIMES better than Napa!!! I am going to post on our trip, but it was sure interesting! We had some bumps in our little trip, but it was still very fun! 

-We started back at teaching (BOO) and our regular routine. I was in tears going back! The working mom guilt is so real!

My obligatory Rowan dump:

A very Disney Christmas: recap and tips

Yes, Christmas happened forever ago. However, I couldn't pass up blogging about this!
Disneyland is pure magic at Christmastime. The decorations, parades, music...it just feels wonderful. However, every single person thinks that way too, which makes Disneyland practically unbearable with the massive crowds. It gets especially worse the week of Christmas, as we all know.

And that's when we decided to go, HAHA.

Partly we had no choice. Our winter break started then, and we couldn't take time off, mainly because we have to keep our days in case girl baby gets sick. We mentally prepared ourselves that it was just going to be crazy.

So...how was it? It was actually fun! Of course, we had bumps in the road, but we still had fun!

The ride down:

The first part of our trip was a bit disastrous. While trying to grab lunch on the fly, our car battery died while in Lodi. Thankfully, we were around the corner from Chevy, but it set us back a good hour and a half. I was trying to not freak out (I'm a control freak bahaha) and kept reminding myself this could have happened in the middle of nowhere. I'm so thankful it happened right at the beginning. Once we were all fixed up, we bolted. We stopped in Coalinga for dinner, at Harris Ranch. Literally this place is in the middle of nowhere. It was nice, clean, and the food was decent. It gave a chance for Rowan to stretch her legs, which is huge. While the food was great, it was just a bit pricey for my liking. We ate quickly and got back on the road.

 I am pretty lucky Rowan is a decent car baby. She will watch Baby Einstein and she is happy. The drive was looong but we made it safely to our hotel and went straight to bed. 

The hotel:

I get lots of questions from people in regards to where we stay. If we can, we try to stay at our timeshare, Worldmark by Wyndham. However, if it's booked, we stay at the Super 8 near Disneyland. I am not a total hotel snob, but I was leery about it the first time we booked our stay. Turns out the rooms are pretty nice, CLEAN and does their job. This was our second time staying and didn't disappoint. For reviews, click here.

Actual Disneyland:

We went to the park Saturday-Monday. Honestly, Saturday and Sunday were GLORIOUS! We made it a point to get to the main gate by 7:45. I personally wanted to leave earlier, which caused bickering among hubby and I. Is it just us, or does everyone bicker with their spouse on vacation?! LMAO! Sadly, the morning is our worst because we have different ideas. Luckily we get over ourselves quickly! Going back to going early... everyone seems to go early, and it can be a little irritating when you  see the whole world flooding towards the gate. HOWEVER....don't let that scare you. Once you get in, the crowds disperse and it's empty. Y'all, it's worth getting there early. We did SO MUCH each of the days! We even went on Haunted Mansion 3x in a row because of the low crowds! Of course, it peaks around 4. Saturday and Sunday weren't bad at all, but Monday became psycho with all the Christmas crowds flooding the park. Thankfully we left that afternoon.

What we did:

Okay, the obvious, going on every ride we could! We utilized the rider switch pass as much as we could. The one big thing on this trip, is that Rowan pretty much hates the stroller. Now that she is an accomplished walker, all she wants to do is walk (why, dear Jesus, why did I stress about her walking!?!? LOL). I will admit it sucks being in the stroller, so we really focused on rides that she could do. If you didn't already know this, toddlers can pretty much do any ride, besides Indiana, Star Tours and Space Mountain. Rowan absolutely loved the carousel, Dumbo and especially small world. She had me in tears because her joy was so precious! Since the afternoon was the worst each day, we took it upon ourselves to do a show, or a parade. The Christmas parade is way too precious and Rowan loved it! I started bawling because Mickey caught Rowan's joyful screams, pointed and actually spoke to her from his float! I about died! The next day, we caught a showing of the Disney Junior show in California adventure. While all the kids enjoyed it, I'm pretty sure us parents were singing along just as loud as the kids! I highly recommend that show if your kid loves Disney junior. This was Rowan's face the entire time:

I think Rowan didn't even know what to do, lol! She  got especially screamy and shook like a leaf when Mickey and Friends came on!

What we ate:

Disneyland is quite costly with their food, but it is also super good! We were pretty disciplined about bringing our own food for lunch, and eating breakfast in our room. We saved so much doing that! Now, I know everyone knows this, it isn't new. However, if this is your plan, truly stick with it! We saved so much money that way. We of course treated ourselves with hot chocolate, frosted sugar cookies, churros and popcorn. Restaurant wise, we like the Pizza Port right near Space Mountain. It has decent choices and the food isn't half bad. We also tried out Carnation Cafe, which was pretty decent! I LOVED how they fixed Rowan's plate!

We also ate off site once, at California Pizza Kitchen. We also saved money that way, as it seems  a litle cheaper than in the park! While in California Adventures, we like eating at the Cocina Cucamonga right next to wharf area. We didn't eat there this trip, but worth a stop if you want Mexican.

A shout out...
While in the park, we stupidly left our backpack on the bench in DCA (in front of the Little Mermaid). While it thankfully didn't have our wallets, it sure did have our Disney pins (which are like gold). I was sad and  but MORE annoyed at ourselves. We reported it missing and 2 days later, we get a call from Disneyland! They found and immediately shipped it free. Cheers for Disneyland!

The drive home:

My biggest regret of the whole trip was my constant worry about the weather. Specifically, I was worried if the weather got bad on the drive home, they would shut down the grapevine. For my non-Ca peeps, the grapevine is a MAJOR ROUTE between North/Central California to the South. If it ever gets shutdown, there are alternate routes, but your drive increases by hours (4-5+ hours for us) and basically all hell breaks loose. Back in October, we nearly got caught on a horrific mudslide on the grapevine, so I am a bit traumatized. Anyway, we weren't supposed to leave till Tuesday. Weather reports said Tuesday was supposed to be all day rainy and crazy. So, I begged to leave early. Hubby was actually pretty upset about it, and we lost some money on the hotel. However, I had a feeling that we should leave and I am thankful we ended up leaving early.  We left around 5:30 that night, which is insane. The drive home was fine, a bit long, but uneventful. Traffic actually wasn't bad for LA and we got home around 1:00 am. I just wished I didn't worry so much about it. Lessons learned!

Tips that were helpful to remember:

-PACK PACK PACK extra clothes!!!!!! 
I can't stress that enough! I planned 2 outfits a day for Rowan, but for some reason, it didn't seem like enough. You never know what can happen.

-Plan for the weather.
 We knew there would be a chance for rain, so we stocked up on appropriate jackets and a stroller rain cover  for Rowan. It did actually rain while we were there!

Wipes, wipes and more wipes...
     enough said. You can't pack too many!! Also, this goes for diapers too!

-Don't forget baggies, plastic baggies (for poopy diapers), and knives (for cutting). 
This is big if you buy food and store it in your room. Every night I would pack our lunches. If you are cutting up anything, a knife is useful. I have been on a trip or two where I don't have cutting utensils and I feel helpless! AND DUH don't take it with you to the park and if you are flying in, obviously don't take a knife.

-Sanitizer, all purpose cleaner, santizing wipes- 
Now this is only if you are a germaphobe like me. When we get to hotels, I sanitize and wipe down everything. Don't forget the paper towels too! I also carry those wipes and hand sanitizer in the park, Major lifesavers!

Baby wearing is essential
People give me a hard time for  still wearing Rowan. I LOVE it though, I'm addicted! I use the Lillebaby carrier in black and gray and it is wonderful! It was a nice break for Rowan and she even slept almost a good two hours in it! She is a chunkette and this carrier gives me tremendous support! Carriers can make life easier and we always have one on hand!

Utilize the baby centers:
I am in love with how amazing they are. They are located in both parks  and are a perfect place to go for a break or a diaper change in a clean space.

Plan a medicine kit:
I always have one on me for trips. Ours has neosporin, bandaids, advil, tylenol, motrin, a thermometer, pedialyte packets and hair ties. We also pack the nebulizer with the appropriate treatments. This kit is so useful!

Be advised..
Thanks to the idiots, oops I am mean terrorists that have ruined things for everyone, Disney has upped its security. I am actually quite thankful for that. Due to that, check in at security is now a little longer because they randomly select people to go through metal detectors and now really check bags thoroughly. Honestly, I am thankful!

If you read this, I am high fiving you!! Despite the small bumps, I am so glad we went! And of course, a recap post wouldn't be the same without a photo dump!

Christmas with a toddler: The Christmas recap

Welp, the holidays are very much done and over with. I am a major fan of the holidays, so in a sense, January is a major let down for me. With that being said, I definitely want to recap the holidays. I know I can be long winded with my posts, so my goal is to keep this concise, HAHA!!

Holidays with a toddler can be stressful. I was worried how Rowan would do with the decorations, the tree and all of the events. However, my daughter is very visual, and she immensely enjoyed everything!  

The Christmas Tree:

I know many people of young kids don't put up a tree, or hardly do any ornaments. Without trying to sound rude, the thought of not decorating irked me. My mom (who has been running her own preschool for 12 years) has a house full of decorations, and every kid who has been in her school has had to learn that they don't mess with the tree or decorations that are hung. I wanted to follow that with Rowan, and she did just fine! She LOVED the tree! We had a habit every morning we would do a countdown and turn on the tree lights. Every time we did it, her face would light up and she would gasp. CUTEST THING EVER!

Christmas Traditions we did with Rowan:

As a family, we are starting to build our little traditions. Every year we do Christmas cookies with our Finney cousins, which is so fun! Rowan is still pretty little to help, but she did what she could! We usually do a pasta dinner or pizza, plus a Christmas movie. It was so fun! We also go to see lights every year which is always fun! We also went to  Breakfast with Santa, which is an event Elk Grove puts on. $5 gets you a pancake breakfast complete with you taking photos of your child with Santa. Truly a genius idea! We saved so much instead of going to the mall. Rowan shockingly wasn't afraid of Santa! We will definitely be adding this to our repertoire of Christmas traditions. We also participated in Mimi's Annual Preschool Christmas party, which was so fun! My mom is so cute with this tradition! We had a yummy brunch with Rowan's mates, along with a gift exchange!

A very Disney Christmas:
A HUGE thing we did was go to Disneyland! We went December 18-21st, right when it starts to get insane.  This section deserves its own post, so I will keep it brief. We had a marvelous time! We had some trouble on our way (car battery died in Lodi) but once we got going, we didn't stop! We spend a a glorious time in the park. Of course, it wasn't perfect. Like most couples, hubby and I bickered every morning because we always left later than I would like. And naturally, a crazy busy park with a toddler isn't always easy. However, we made the most of it! My biggest regret was my constant worry about the weather. We ended up leaving a day early (my idea not hubby's) because we had heard the weather was supposed to be insane on the grapevine, and I was worried about it getting shut down. I just wish I hadn't worried so much about it, but I am a huge worrywart. However, we still had fun AND made it home safely, which was important.

Christmas Eve Eve:
Christmas Eve is very tricky for us, and sometimes very stressful. Both sides of our families celebrate Christmas Eve, because on the next day, my sister and sister in law celebrate with their other sides. Thankfully this year was pretty smooth in celebrations, and on the 23rd we celebrated with my family. However, that afternoon, Rowan randomly broke out in a 103 fever with no symptoms. Since my sister's house is basically my second house, we still did our celebrations, but poor Rowan was simply miserable, even with meds. I was so disappointed, because I wanted her to enjoy herself. I felt so bad for her! However, that's how life goes! We managed to still have a good time with our family! My sister made a yummy ham dinner, and we brought ice cream cake! Before presents, Ben (my brother in law) read the birth of Jesus from the book of Matthew. Such a beautiful reminder of the real reason for the season! We sure got spoiled by our precious family!

Christmas Eve:
On actual Christmas Eve, we spent it with our Potter side. Miraculously, Rowan's fever literally disappeared as fast as it came! Thank God! We brought dessert over and had a very yummy turkey dinner. Rowan wore her pretty Christmas dress and stole the show with our Potter family! We also got spoiled by our family! The Potter family has a tradition of playing the card game 31 and of course, they played a good couple of rounds! I used to play but since having baby, someone has to entertain her! However, she joined in on the fun too! Rowan conked out in the car for sure! We did make sure to leave Santa cookies and milk before Rowan went to bed!

Christmas morning:
Christmas morning began with our "tree lighting" countdown, with Rowan's same reaction, LOL! We had so much fun passing out gifts (complete with Christmas music in the background) and watching her open them.  Hubby totally outdid himself in gifts and gave me way too much. So thankful for him! We have a tradition of big Christmas breakfast, so we had a ham and potato egg casserole. I also made orange breakfast rolls, per hubby's request. After our delicious meal, Rowan played for awhile and then took a really long nap, much to our delight, LOL! We have another tradition of watching at least 2-3 Christmas movies, so we fired up Home Alone. I hadn't seen that since I was little! After Rowan woke up, we ordered in dinner. Our traditional Christmas dinner is either Chinese or pizza. We did pizza this year and it was yummy! Rowan went to bed around 7:30, and we ended our night with junk food and Elf. What a perfect way to end the night!

If you stayed with me, wow, thank you!!  I couldn't have asked for a better holiday with the ones that I love! Only 354 days till Christmas, LOL!!!

Happy 20 months Rowan!

I am in serious denial that in 4 short months my little muggle will be two years old. I don't even want say it out loud! I'm already planning her 2nd birthday and I am kinda sad about it.
 This month has been so unbelievably fun because...the holidays. I knew this year would be different because my girl baby was older, and sure enough it has been great!

Age: 20 months, (18.5 months adjusted age)

Weight and clothing size: 

Rowan is about 30 pounds. Wearing size 5 diapers, size 5 shoes, and 3T in clothing.

Eating:

Rowan enjoys my turkey sausage and egg scramble. She is getting better at eating her foods, though texture can really weird her out. She tasted mushrooms which she hated! She also isn't enjoying eggs (besides my scramble) like she used to. She is still eating her meats as long as its flavorful (makes sense!)

Rowan can:

-run. GULP.
-say "minnie". It is the darnest cutest thing ever! Sounds like "mah-nin-knee", Also says my nephew's name, Sam. Sounds like "nimi-nam" LOL.
-Start to really follow simple commands. For example, I will ask her to go get me her shoes, she will do it. Amazing how much they can do!
-Likes to help me with laundry, LOL! She will hand me clothes to put in the wash.
-Rowan loves to eat with her forks and spoons, though the food doesn't always make into her mouth!

-If Rowan is sitting in a taller-ish chair, couch, etc. she is learning how to carefully lower herself without falling.

Rowan loves:

-Minnie Mouse. She loves the show "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and has taken a major shine to Minnie. She says her name now (as mentioned earlier) and her face lights up when she sees her!

- loves to brush her teeth. She will squeal, sit still and open her mouth, ready to go. I love her!

-Her Melissa and Doug animal puzzle book. This book was a hand me down, and she is OBSESSED with the animal magnets! We have magnets EVERYWHERE in the house!

-the Christmas tree. We had a tree with all the trimmings. I still wanted to decorate my tree. I know a lot of people forgo trees or do the bare minimum but I just didn't want to. Rowan thankfully never messed with the tree. However, she LOVED it! Every morning we had a routine where I would countdown and turn on the tree lights. Everyday she would gasp and have a look on her face that would make me want to cry. SO friggin' precious!!!!!!!

-

Rowan doesn't like: 

-being in the stroller or the shopping cart. She would much rather prefer to run everywhere. It can make being in public difficult at times. Most of the time its okay if she's distracted or eating snacks, LOL!
-Getting her "hair done". Rowan has beautiful, goldish brown hair. She also can master the most perfect bedhead. However, I like to put it up in a pony or piggies, and BOY does she hate it! SHe will fight and scream!

-when doors or gates are shut! Sis just doesn't like being shut in! She will get upset and then go knock on the door. It's pretty funny!

 Sleeping schedule:

Sleep is still decent. She was doing two naps until recently. She is now down to one, and I am sad! I don't want to complain as I know some toddlers who barely nap at all!


 New happenings this month:
 Holy crap, where do I start?

-We had a great Thanksgiving with NO health drama! 

-We had Breakfast with Santa. Our does this event where you pay $5 for a pancake breakfast and visit with Santa! It's a brilliant idea, and I am foreseeing this being a part of our Christmas traditions. To my shock, she wasn't afraid of Santa! We also continued with our tradition of making Christmas cookies with our Finney cousins. 

-We also crazily went to Disneyland, right in the peak of madness. However, it WASN'T that bad. I will post on this later. I was a bit stressed about this trip, primarily because of the grapevine and potential closures. For my non California peeps, the grapevine is a major freeway connecting us Northerners to LA. When it closes, basically all hell breaks loose. We ended up leaving a day early due to potential bad weather. However, it was still very much fun and amazing!

-Oh lawdy, Christmas! It was great!!! We celebrated with my family on the 23rd and Rowan weirdly had a bad fever, which royally sucked. She was miserable! Thankfully the day after she recovered and it was great! Christmas is much different with a toddler, she enjoyed it so much!

My obligatory Rowan dump: