toddler boys

Weekend Wrap Up //

June 9, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

I mentioned yesterday that I got really sick on Friday afternoon. Truthfully, I was feeling a bit ‘off’ on Friday morning. I thought it was from just lack of sleep. Turns out, I had a ‘bug’ of sorts.

I took both kids upstairs to my bed and turned on the TV. I thought if I could just get Ari to relax and watch a movie and get Remy to nap, I would be OK. But Ari wouldn’t stop talking. And Remy wouldn’t stop screaming. So I called in the big guns — Chad. I kindly asked begged him to come home early from work so I could dry-heave in silence.

He obliged. Thank G-O-D. Seriously. If I could have told Ari to shut up, I would have. But he would have told me “We don’t say that! That’s a bad word!” Truth, kid. Truth!

So I spent from 1pm Friday through Saturday morning in bed. And even then, I wasn’t feeling 100%. So I woke up late. I handed Remy off to Chad for a little while. And then when I finally woke up, we all headed over to Home Depot for their kids’ workshop.

Ari usually makes Chad do all of the work for him, but this time he actually used the hammer himself!

It was adorable. Straight up… adorable!

And then we napped. Cause, exhaustion.

Post-nap we gathered the kids and went to a graduation party. I still wasn’t 100%, but I was feeling OK-ish enough to go.

PS. I totally didn’t believe my husband that Bob Seger was at this party. He was at another party with us (3 years ago) and I was like “haha, yeah. Ok.” and he said the same thing this time. And I was convinced he was messing with me. I thought “OK. It’s just a dude with the *name* Bob Seger, right?” But no. It’s the actual Bob Seger. I guess the first time I just didn’t know I was meeting Bob Seger. Cool, right? Well, my mom thinks so. 😛

Regardless, Ari wore himself out. Completely.

And we were all asleep by 8:30. #MomLife

Sunday we didn’t do a darn thing. Except, of course, go to Earth Fare.

We love Earth Fare. We especially love Earth Fare when they have BOGO deals. And Remy loves to be worn at Earth Fare.

We did the BOGO deals hard, friends. HARD. And then we passed out (well, everyone else did. I, on the other hand, made meatballs at midnight and cleaned the whole house.).

Regardless of illness, it was a glorious weekend. Truly, glorious.

And yes, I realize that it’s now Thursday and I’m posting my weekend wrapup. But, hey,… life, ya’ll. Life.

Kid-Friendly Kitchen Crafts!

April 14, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

When I found out I was going to be a mom, I had visions of what Motherhood would be. You know, not just rainbows and butterflies. Or even meltdowns and panic attacks. Honestly, I had visions and dreams of coloring, painting, and other crafts! You know, typical kid stuff, right??

Wrong. Oh-so-wrong! It turns out boys are … different, to say the least! OK, OK. Before you want to punch me, hear me out. I totally was all about the “it’s nurture, not nature” side of the debate. Buuuut, try as I might to have a gender-neutral child, the rough and tumble is totally built into this kids’ DNA.

But my rough and tumbly kid still likes to do ‘craffffs.’ Yep. He’s definitely a crafty kid! However, I have to carefully plan our crafty projects because he’s still a boy. He has a fairly short attention span, so I keep him ‘tied down’ for the absolute shortest period of time possible. And the way that I do that is by choosing to do Kid-Friendly Kitchen Crafts!

Why? Because they not only produce delicious results, but they can also be prepped ahead of time and are done on a surface that can be cleaned easily — the kitchen counter! 😛

Ari’s Mimi (my mom) recently bought Ari a Star Wars apron for when we do crafts and he was so excited to put it to good use!

Our first adventure in kitchen crafts was the ever-so-popular Unicorn Bark! I saw this on Facebook a while back and I knew Ari would love to try his hand at making it!

Like so many kids activities, there was a lot of Mommy prep for a fairly short kitchen craft! I purchased four different colors of pastel colored melting chocolates from the local craft store (I prefer Pat Catan’s!) and a 6-flavor pack of brightly-colored sprinkles. That’s it.

I melted the chocolates according to the directions on the bag (which means slowly and steadily). And I had Ari waiting patiently to do his part. He had his mini-baking sheet ready for the melted chocolates! I greased the baking sheets (besides Ari’s mini-baking sheet, I had a regular sized baking sheet) with coconut oil. As soon as the chocolates were melted, I hurried and dropped dollops of color randomly and sporadically on the baking sheet. Once the baking sheet was covered, Ari used a spoon to drag the colors and swirl them together.

Once the colors were swirled together to his liking, we went crazy with the sprinkles! Post-sprinkles we shoved the baking sheets into the freezer for about an hour to harden the chocolate. The result? This glamorous looking gem!

Totally cute and totally fun! Ari absolutely loved doing this kitchen craft and we are still reaping the deliciously edible benefits!

Another one of our favorite, easy, and slightly more messy kitchen crafts is homemade pizza. For this kitchen craft I purchase some ready-made pizza dough. My personal favorite is from Corbo’s Bakery in Little Italy. I picked up a couple of them recently and then let Ari play around with one.

I spread some flour on the kitchen counter and told Ari to just spread it out. He did a great job and, most importantly, he had SO much fun! I was impressed at how quickly he learned to pound on the dough and roll it out! It was awesome!

Our pizza was lopsided and delicious! We topped it with some Trader Joe’s Pizza Sauce, Basil, and Organic Mozzarella Cheese! Yum, yum, yum! It was so delicious that I somehow forgot to snap a picture of that lopsided monstrosity. Ha!

Of all the different types of crafts we have available, kitchen crafts will always be my favorite. Next week I have a ‘slow’ week at work and I plan on getting Ari in the kitchen with me every single day. I’ll be sure to update you with our future kitchen endeavors! 🙂

life update

March 24, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Since Remy Bea was born (you know… TWO months ago), life has been a roller coaster, which I’ve talked about. Extensively. Like, extensively. And this here blog has suffered the wrath of long days and nights… By the time I have a few moments to myself to sit down at my computer, I just stare at a blank screen — sometimes for an hour or more — just trying to put words into sentences. But I promise — we have actually had a life over these last 8 weeks — we have actually had fun!

Lavish Salon + Cleats // Fundraisers For My Cousin

My cousin’s 9-year old daughter has been hospitalized for over 7 months now, awaiting surgery to have her pancreas completely removed. Friends of hers arranged two benefit fundraisers for the family and their expenses.

The first fundraiser was at Lavish Color Salon on Valentine’s Day. 100% of the proceeds + tips went directly to my cousin and her family. Haircuts, makeup, nail polish changes, basket raffles, and pictures with Elsa + Olaf were aplenty!

Ari l-o-v-e-d Elsa! At first he was a bit standoffish; but after he warmed up to her, he literally chased her around the salon.

The second fundraiser was at Cleats Restaurant in Chardon. They shut down the restaurant because the turnout was so huge! It was packed! It was wonderful to see such a great turnout for such a wonderful cause! And it happened to be such an amazingly beautiful day.

NOTE: Just before I went to post this I noticed that Gia was featured in a video from The Today Show!

Therapy dogs bring joy, happiness back to kids at children’s h…“Gia had been so sick every single minute of the day. Months and months went by with us not seeing a smile on her face or joy in her eyes, and the first experience of seeing our little Gia back was when she and Drummer got together.”

Posted by Today Show on Wednesday, March 23, 2016

{if you feel so inclined to donate, or just to read the story of Gia, please go here.}

The Akron Art Museum // Tots Create

It’s no secret that I freaking love the Akron Art Museum. It’s a wonderful asset to our community (no, I’m not [yet] a member and have literally zero skin in this game). Their Free Thursdays are the bomb dot com. But they also host amazeballs events, including Creative play dates for tots!

This is me: “You mean my kid can make a mess at YOUR place and I don’t have to freak?? DEAL.”

In the last month we’ve gone to two Tots Create events with Ari’s friend Veronique (and her mom, Betül). He has had so much fun — and released so much creative energy!

The Library // Story Time + Cooking Demos

Sigh – the library! Such a hidden gem! Our childrens section of our library here in Cuyahoga Falls has just gone through a major renovation. It is amazing! Ari loves the ‘puters [aka computers], which are kid-friendly in their bright colors and fun mouse! I’m impressed at how easily Ari has caught on to using a computer!

In addition to the computers, he has absolutely loved story time. Story time, at this age, consists of a ‘warm up’ song to get them singing and moving, before settling in for a series of short stories. It’s wonderful and engaging!

Another local library does other events like cooking demonstrations! Chad has taken Ari to a couple of these demos and events! I’m not certain if Ari has taken much away from it (I’ve not gone with them — Mama needs a break once in awhile!), but it’s awesome that these are offered, nonetheless!

The Parks // SOAR + More

I’m not certain if I’ve mentioned this before [though I’m certain I have at one point in my blogs life…], but we have a park in our backyard. Literally. Behind our property line is a park, complete with a toddler wading pool + playground! Unfortunately the playground is a bit out of Ari’s league at this point. It’s a ‘bigger kids’ type of playground.

But about 10 minutes from where we live is SOAR — an amazing wheelchair accessible playground, which happens to also be equally accessible to kids of all ages! Ari loves it — and I love it! Win-win!

We’re so grateful to have had a few really nice days to get outta the house and enjoy some sunshine!

Arts + Crafts // Creativity at Home

Not only have we had several playdates with friends + their kids over the last 6 weeks, but we’ve also managed to get in our share of crafts at home! Much in part to some help from Mimi, Ari has gotten all kindsa crafty!

I, on the other hand, prefer (at this point, at least) to use the Target easy-‘assembly’ craft-type things. Easier. Less-messy. More mom-of-a-newborn friendly. 😛

SO MUCH MORE //

We’ve been hitting up places like Cafe O’Play, The Lego Store, and local coffee shops with friends to pass the time. As hard as the days are, it oftentimes helps to have a ‘change of scenery’ — for all of us!

Mama’s Night Out // Paint Nite + CIFF Preview Party

I’ve had one semi-successful “night out” without Remy Bea. I went to a Paint Nite event with a dear friend. It’s, like, my 10th paint + wine night in the last 3 years. The one I recently went to was…. disappointing, to say the least. But I did get out for a night and get creative!

My first painting for Miss Remy Bea. ?? #latergram #paintnite #akron #RemyBea

A photo posted by Rachel (@itsahero) on Mar 23, 2016 at 6:51am PDT

I also had the chance to attend the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) preview party at the Akron Civic Theatre!

I will never get tired of this view. @akroncivic #ciff40 #akroncivic #wksu #ciff

A photo posted by Rachel (@itsahero) on Mar 16, 2016 at 3:24pm PDT

I actually brought Remy Bea with me to this event. Not only did I see previews for a ton of movies I want to see, but Remy Bea was a huge hit with the crowd!

So yeah… life has been every emotion under the sun: Fun. Exhausting. Creative. Hilarious. So exciting. Miserable. And mostly just oh so full of life! ♥ I may be exhausted, friends; but my heart is happy.

finding my mommy zen.

February 19, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

I realized last night that from the sounds of my rants lately, it would appear that I hate everything and everyone and that nothing good or happy has been going on. Well, the new baby struggles are real and I cope by just putting it all out there and sharing my experiences. Buuuut there have been a lot of awesome experiences, too.

For every toddler fit that exhausts me; for every colicky moment with Remy; for every spilled meal; there are handfuls of little moments that fill my heart with happiness and purpose.

For instance, yesterday we bounced between a lot of those tough moments and moments of ‘mommy zen.’ Ari ate a huge breakfast and a big healthy lunch; I cleaned the entire kitchen, bathroom and living room, including the dishes and vacuuming; every person in our household had at least one shower/bath; Ari napped while I made Rice Krispy treats; I had a hot cup of coffee; and Ari asked for bed at 7:30pm.

So yeah, not everything is perfect. But some things are — and that helps.

And I’m celebrating!

Also? Today there was sunshine. And coffee (thanks to a dear old friend for sending me a virtual gift card/hug the other day to lift my spirits!). Hip, hip, hooray! The makings of a perfect Friday, if I do say so myself!

But let’s be real… this is really what my zen looks like…

Yep. A sleeping baby.

xo and happy weekend!

it still takes a village

February 18, 2016 by Rachel 1 Comment

I thought I could do it. I mean, I’ve dealt with a newborn before, right? Wrong. Oh, so wrong.

Thankfully, I had Chad home for two weeks to help with the transition of our family of three to four. And then when he went back to work, my mom came up from Kentucky to stay with us for a week. And then when she left, my dad came up for three days. And then he left and my world came crashing down.

Truth be told, it’s been unravelling for a while, I’m certain. But I’ve had this idea that I am adjusting much more easily because this isn’t my first rodeo.

And then it all came to a head yesterday.

Remy has been screaming nonstop. We think it’s colic. Hooray…. somehow we’re ‘blessed’ with two colicky babies. Isn’t that, like, illegal? It should be. In addition, Ari is being less than cooperative at most moments; so I feel as if every interaction I have with him is telling him “no” and putting him in a time out.

I thought getting back into work would help me; but I got wiped out. I thought I could do it all. I really did. But apparently my body and my mind just aren’t ready yet.

Thankfully, I have my village.

I have my incredibly understanding and supportive husband. And my parents. And a very awesome group of Mommy friends. Because it really and truly takes a village. I talked about this after Ari was born, but it stands true for a second baby, too.

So thank you to my village. But my in-person village and my social media village. Both awesome. Both important. In the meantime, I’m going to refocus on getting the hang of this mom-of-two thing. And I’m going to focus on trying to get into a routine at home… with cleaning, cooking, naps, sleep, etc. That’s what we need right now, and that’s what I need right now.

lessons learned in parenting 2 kids for only 2 weeks. AKA i know NOTHING.

February 10, 2016 by Rachel 1 Comment

I’d be lying if I said adjusting to two children has been… easy. ‘Cause it hasn’t. I feel pushed and pulled in so many different directions. And I’ve mentioned to so many Mommy-friends that I feel super busy, but I’m not actually ‘doing’ anything. [and then those friends gently remind me that I’m keeping an infant AND a toddler alive, fed, and healthy…]

But seriously. It seems like I have these moments where everything is going well… and then Remy Bea starts to wail and at that very moment, Ari starts screaming about something from the other room that he ‘needs’ right this second. And I feel torn. My immediate concern, of course, is feeding Remy Bea [since I’m the only person able to do so]; but I also feel so guilty for not being available for Ari when he ‘needs’ me.

In short, that part def sucks.

Oh – and Chad went back to work Monday. I’m SO happy [and lucky!] to have had him home for two whole weeks to help us get adjusted. At the same time, with him getting back into his routine, we’re starting to find our own routine at home during the day. Luckily, my mom came in from Kentucky to help us for this week. Thank goodness, because it certainly has had its challenging moments.

And then there’s the errands…

This is where I’m super happy to have my mom in town. I had to run like 2 errands with both kids… and of course, it was an epic failure. Remy Bea was screaming; Ari was being a mega-jerk whilst picking his nose in public; and I was just like “HI JUST GIVE ME MY PRESCRIPTION BEFORE I MURDER SOMEONE.”

But I’m celebrating the small victories… like keeping both kids alive. And making dinner before Chad got home from work [like, actually making dinner, ya’ll…]. And having clean dishes and clean laundry [but don’t ask me to vacuum].

I don’t think it’s harder, per se, because being a new parent to one child sucks probably a little bit more… but it’s been way different than I expected. We shall see what this week of transitions brings!

Also? Please send wine… this being torn in two, three, four and more different directions at once is no joke.