As we rang in a new decade, I made a short list of my top 10 moments from 2019:
- We bought and remodeled a house.
- Chase and I celebrated 10 years of marriage.
- I spent a weekend in Charleston, SC with my best college girlfriends.
- A whirlwind of a trip to NYC, 18 hours to be exact, to surprise my best friend at her engagement.
- We spent a weekend in Stonewall, CO with no cell service, no sense of time, and no distractions.
- I ran the SeaWheeze half marathon in Vancouver, BC. Chief’s first flight, first time out of the country, and first time to the beach.
- I competed in my first CrossFit competition and walked away with 3rd place.
- My favorite boy turned 3.
- I left my oil & gas job of 6 years to hang with my Chief.
- Experiencing Christmas with a 3 year old.
We rang in 2020 with homemade pizzas cuddled around our new fire pit. It was the most perfect way to kick off a new year.
One of my big goals for 2020 was to engage more with Chief. Finding things to do from October through December is easy – pumpkin patches to visit, the weather is nice for park play dates or trips to the zoo, and then during the holidays there is always something happening. But January – March? That’s a dead zone my friends. I’ve had to make more of an effort to keep his little brain stimulated and keep him engaged. We make a point to go to story time or music time at the library, we play with the train table at Barnes & Noble, we visit pet stores to look at the fish, and recently we’ve started doing “activities.”
I follow a couple of accounts on Instagram – @dayswithgrey and @busytoddler, to get inspiration/ideas. Sometimes I’ll take their ideas verbatim, and other times I’ll take concepts they’ve suggested and tailor an activity that I know will hold Chief’s attention. We’ve really cut down on screen time and everyday he looks forward to his “activity.”
Chief visited Red Lobster. You would’ve thought he went to Disneyland. He has been asking for a year to go to “Red Lobsters.” We’ve never been as a family, we don’t even talk about it, but he’s noticed the sign when we’re driving down the Interstate. He’d ask “What’s that Red Lobsters sign?” We told him it was a restaurant that was in fact named, Red Lobster. Since then, when we asked him where he wanted to go to dinner he’d enthusiastically reply “Red Lobsters!” Well, one evening I had a hair appointment and Chase took Chief on a dude date to “Red Lobsters.” Top 5 day of his little life.
Chief came down with a terrible stomach bug. I’ll tell you what the Dr. called it in a moment, but let me set the scene. Chief threw up off an on for about a week – he would go 24 hours between episodes so as soon as I thought he was over it, it would start back up again. In between bouts of sickness, he acted fine! He wasn’t eating like he normally would, but he was playing, being wild, jumping off the couches – typical 3 year old things. Then on his 4th day of illness he came down with a fever that we couldn’t get to break. We took him to the doctor who diagnosed him with, are you ready for this?
CORONAVIRUS!!!! What!? The doctor was as cool as a cucumber dishing out that diagnosis. She explained there are many strains of Coronavirus and the strain Chief had was not the strain in China. I mean, I accept that explanation but can we PUH-LEASE not call it Coronavirus then?! I don’t want to explain to school/friends that the reason Chief hasn’t been around is because of Coronavirus. Guaranteed someone would call the CDC on me.
He’s really into building. He’s always loved construction sites & construction vehicles, but recently it’s reached a whole new level. He walks around with his toy tool-kit and a legit hard hat doing jobs around the house. Sometimes the cable needs to be fixed, a cabinet door handle is loose, a chair leg needs to be tightened – he comes up with all sorts of jobs for himself. Even when he’s building lego towers they require his tool-kit and hard hat. That little handyman is earning his keep around here.
He “built” a vacuum. He got this idea in his head that he wanted to build a vacuum with a long, clear hose so he could vacuum up his craft pom-poms and watch them go up the tube. We thought he would forget about it, but after 3 days of consistent badgering we made a trip to Home Depot. $30 later we had all the supplies needed to build a contraption that would hook onto our current vacuum. He played with it for hours.
Things Chief Said:
- “Jackpot Baby!” When he does something he’s really proud of.
- “So long, Suckaaaass!” He usually yells this when he’s peddling his bike full speed away from me.
- “All-Swee.” This is the Chief version of “also.” He’ll say “Mom, I can have paint in the shower? I allswee need shaving cream.”
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