1. What is the name if your blog? Alan and Crystal
2. What do you love most about blogging? Sharing things that happen and being able to look back and re-read things or when I need to know something. 3. Why did you start blogging? So our family and friends would know what was going on with us. 4. What is something you’d want to tell someone just starting out in the blog world? To blog whatever you want to talk about. My blog has hopped all over the place before. I don't think all blogs need to have one specific topic that they talk about.
5. Biggest blogging learning experience you’ve had? People do actually read your blog and enjoy it :)
I mentioned yesterday was "Cook with a kid" day. I decided that Madison and I would make some toddler friendly muffins since I had 2 bananas that were going bad soon.
Apron on first!
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large bananas, mashed
4.5 oz jar baby food squash
2 carrots, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup all=purpose flour
1/2 cup oat bran(I just used regular oats)
1 tspn bakin soda
1 tspn pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tspn salt
Preheat oven to 375. In bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in mashed bananas, squash, carrots and eggs. Stir in the flour, oat bran, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt until just combined. Crazy me started reading another recipe and ended up dumping everything into the bowl and then letting Madison mix it around. It still worked out.
Spoon batter into lined muffin cups. Bake 15-20 mins. Cool for 10 minutes before eating. Store at room temperature for 2 days or freeze.
She did not like the muffins but she did at least try them. I like them. They are similar to banana nut bread.
How I made this easy.. I put out all the ingredients and items I needed on the counter while she was napping. I stood her in a chair so she was able to reach the bowl. I poured the ingredients into the measuring cup or just held her hand and helped her shake when adding the salt or spices. I let her pour all the ingredients into the bowl and she loved doing that. I gave her the potato masher to mix it all around. I did not let her near the stove! I think we will try to bake once a week or every couple of weeks. :)
-I have been unmotivated this week. I think all those weeks party planning have caught up! I've taken a couple of naps and my cleaning is lacking!
-Madison is absolutely loving school! She comes home talking about the things they've done or singing songs. She's usually soaking wet from sweating when I get her, which means she's having lots of fun! She wakes up talking about going to school. I am so glad we put her in this year and regret not putting her in last year! Those 3 hours do fly by but I am now able to grocery shop and go to the library alone. I also spent all 3 hours in Target just walking around(and finally spending my birthday gift card) on Tuesday. I dropped Madison off at school and I was able to get a weeks worth of groceries and be back home within an hour!! It usually takes me an hour alone at the store when I have her. Most days I do come back home and clean or just catch up on trashy tv. I have also seen an improvement in my mood toward her, even though I still need to work on that a good bit. I've noticed that the 4-6pm lull has gone away and I feel more energized and willing to play with her instead of cleaning while she plays. It's been all kinds of good-for both of us!
-I am a huge to-do list maker. On Mondays I make a list of things that need to be done that week. I had mine mostly done by Wednesday night this week. It keeps me sane and makes me feel better when I can mark things off.
-Today is "cook with a child" day. I vow to get in the kitchen with Madison and make a treat with her. I need to do this more often. I will blog what we made :)
Growing Baby-At about 10.5 to 11.8 inches and about 12.7 to 20.8 ounces, baby's not just getting bigger, she's getting even cuter. Her face is fully formed now -- she just needs a little extra fat to fill it out. She's listening to your voice and your heartbeat -- and even to loud sounds like cars honking and dogs barking.
How big is your baby?
Symptoms-hips, back and feet really hurting. A lot of tightness in belly and still some Braxton Hicks a few times a day.
Weight- 117.4 lbs
Total weight gain/loss: +4.7lbs
Belly measures- 33"
Craving- nothing really.
Bought- Riley4 pair of pants and 3 pair of shorts, 2 pair of maternity shorts and Madison 8 shirts and 9 pair of undies.. Time to start potty training!
Done-nothing this week.
Looking forward to-started potty train Madison today. VERY nervous about this process. Hoping to have her out of diapers completely by the time Riley gets here!
Other thoughts- She still seems to sleep every 2 hours. She loves music. During songs, she's constantly rolling around. She also curls in a ball a lot, which at this point is pretty painful.
The day started out with a bang. We woke up to the a/c not working. Alan made a call and had someone out here around 10:30. Which was also the time we both had planned on taking cupcakes to Madison's school to celebrate. A birthday party without air on Saturday would not have been fun, so I told him I would go to the school and bring Madison back home after. I took cupcakes and fruit to their snack time at school and sat there while they ate and chatted with her teachers.
When I left close to 10:45 or so, I brought Madison with me. Our air got fixed and our plans changed slightly. With some rearranging of some things, we left to have a late lunch around 2. We ate at a local meat and veggie place and Madison ate her weight in veggies! They then sang to her and brought her peach cobbler. She loved the attention! This is where she also sat there and counted to 10 on her own. Alan and I just looked at each other and said "Did she just count to 10?!"
We then headed to the Children's Museum which is about 30 minutes away. We had never taken her to that one and she had a good bit of fun! They gave her a Birthday button and she was off to play!
She loved the light peg wall!
After the Museum, we decided to go downtown and get her a cake pop at a local bakery.
See what she picked out at the Museum? That's my tomboy!
This is her saying "No, Daddy" when Alan asked her for a bite
After we got back, we dropped Madison off with Alan's mom so she could spend the night and let us get ready for the party! I think Madison had a great day! She loved when people sing "Happy Birthday" to her. She had a great time playing on the slide at the Museum and eating that cake pop(before she dropped it). Another great birthday for her and memories for us!
This post contains videos of the concert. If you want to see them and you receive email blog updates, click here
I bought tickets to see MUSE back in April. Back before I knew I was pregnant, which seems like an eternity ago! I confirmed with Alan that he could take off half a day Tuesday and all of Wednesday well in advance and told him I'd made surprise plans for our anniversary. I asked my mom if she would mind watching Madison that night since the concert was near her house. I also booked us a hotel room near the venue.
We decided to let Madison go to school Tuesday and pick her up at normal time and leave straight from there. We got to my mom's around 2 and visited a bit and then left to go check into our hotel by 3:30. We had a little bit of time so we took a nap! (you know you're parents when...) After our nap, we headed toward the concert venue to park and walk to get something to eat. We found a local BBQ place, ate and then walked to the concert. Cage the Elephant opened for them and they were pretty good. I knew one of their songs but their other songs were pretty decent!
There was a bit of an intermission and then MUSE came on. They really put on a great show complete with lights and lots of animation and video. Here are some videos of the concert. Be aware that there are strobes and lots of flashing lights in the videos.
The opening before they started the first song.
"Madness"
"Supermassive Black Hole"
I think we were back in the room by 11:30 or so and we both crashed! We slept until 10:00 Wednesday morning! We both felt refreshed! We missed breakfast so stopped to get a bite before picking Madison up. We got to my mom's right around 12:30 and visited a bit. Madison had the best time! She was asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car!
We made a stop by a local consignment shop and a few baby shops and then headed to IKEA, where we toyed with the idea of moving Madison to a toddler bed and giving Riley her crib. After lots of debating, we decided that none of us were ready for that step just yet and that we will just get Riley her own crib :) We did score Madison a cute circus tent and nesting cups for her birthday and hopefully Alan the pillow he's been searching high and low for. I could spend all day and a ton of money in IKEA. Thank goodness the closest one is 2 hours away! We made it home by 7:30 and Madison was ready for bed! We had a great time together and look forward to the next few days of Madison's birthday and her party! Happy early 7th anniversary, babe! I love you more than words!
Happy 2nd Birthday to our girl! It's been a pretty amazing year. You have blossomed into this tiny little person with a huge personality. You are so smart, funny and loving! You are a sponge when it comes to saying things and your memory is crazy! We hope this year has been fun for you and can't wait to see what this next year brings! We love you so much!
We had some huge milestones this month!
First time forward facing
First Haircut
Started Weekday School
First ferris wheel ride
Doesn't everyone eat cheese in the pool?
Meeting Geoffrey at Toys R Us.
A Target must.
Who is this girl that looks 5 years old?!
(Sorry so blurry, my phone couldn't focus in the dark.)
That's some good sleeping!
Last day of gymnastics
First 6 word sentence
Counting
She wanted all of her bows in her hair and then fell in love with the reverse camera on my phone.
"Baby Sister"(Riley's ultrasound picture)
Her Daddy and almost every other person in her life will love this :)
