Look at What Mommy Found...

.... while we were packing up Brady's closet:

Home is Where the Heart Is.

It is incredibly bittersweet for me to announce that we are in the middle of packing this week. That's right! We bought our first house a mere 45 minutes north of here!! It will be closer to our church, our families and will be just as far as we are now from Jeff's office. We're really excited about moving out to the "Burbs", but it definitely has been an emotional past week for me as I started reflecting on leaving our quaint area of Dallas. This is where we started our married life and started our little family. Of course, all of our memories will be going with us on our journey but it's harder than I thought it would be to close this chapter of our lives.

In the meantime, we will be trading off time with each of our parents for the next two weeks before we get into our house. We'll be around and I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories along the way. We have many transitions coming up along with the move... B. starts 'school' on Thursday, he's maybe dropping a nap, we got rid of the pacifier and I've taken on my first design job post-HKS. Lots going on means lots of opportunities for me to get anxious or stressed out! I'm looking at this as God teaching me how to give up control - daily. I'll let you know how that all works out!!!

In the meantime, here are some goodbye pictures from our little duplex. Now it's all torn up and in such disorganized chaos that my heart races every time I walk into the door!

My Gym

Brady had his first "My Gym" experience this afternoon. Sweet Summer Spooner organized a 'free play' time at the My Gym in Frisco where we each ended up paying only $6 to play for a whole hour! Brady absolutely loved it. He was totally unsure about the ball pit at first, but then Miss Sydney showed him how to play. In fact, Sydney had a great time showing B. the ropes around the gym. She bounced him on the trampoline, threw the ball with him and showed him how to work the slide. We had so much fun with our friends at gym, and we look forward to making more trips there in the future!

Sweet Sixteen.

B. turned SIXTEEN months on Friday. Wow!! I can't believe it but am loving EVERY second of it at the same time. Every SINGLE day we're doing something new at the Leach Household - and that is why this is my favorite age. I've heard many people say that eighteen months - two years is the best and I can totally see why as we are rapidly approaching that age span. He's becoming less of a baby boy and more of a little boy with every passing day. It is SUCH a joy to watch him grow up right before our eyes and we are completely blessed to be parents.

I have not updated with new 'tricks' in a while simply because there are too many to count, but I'll try to keep a record here of new things we're doing, trying, loving... etc.

1. 'Words' that he says (And I use 'words' extremely loosely) -
'dada' - daddy
'mama' - momma (and all of a sudden it's dog too)
'dah' - dog
'ba ba' - ball
'ma mo' - elmo
'bo bo' - bo bo (His new lovie)

2. He is all of a sudden fighting the changing table - or being changed at all. He hates it. He kicks, screams, hits, everything. I've tried changing him on the floor, on our bed, on the couch... just to see if it's the changing table itself, but no such luck. I think he has control issues. (Hmm, where does he get that from?)

3. His new love is containers. He loves to take something out of one container and put it into another container. Example - laundry. He loves helping mommy put laundry in the dryer - and we're now working on taking it out of the dryer and walking it to the bed. The only issue with this is that he wants to then get on the bed and wrestle.

4. He gives TONS of kisses. If he's been with you for five minutes or more he'll give you lots of kisses - open mouth kisses!

5. He has motions to the following songs: (I'm trying to get some of these on video...)
The Wheels on the Bus
Happy and You Know It
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Bumblebee Song
5 Little Monkeys
Patty Cake

6. He is pretty much a food disposal. He eats everything in sight... I am convinced that he would eat all day long if we let him. He drinks 3 sippy cups full of milk a day (more or less). He loves juice of any kind. He had his first taste of a snow cone in Florida... and he LOVES popsicles and fudgesicles.

7. B. has really picked up on his dance moves lately. He's started swinging his arms along with bouncing up and down... but when he sees you watching him he stops abruptly.

8. What a flirt this boy is!! He shys away from you one second and then the next he is trying to get your attention. His favorite game in this 'area' is peek a boo.

9. He is still taking two good naps a day. The Doc said to keep them as long as I can and I plan to. Although when Mother's Day Out starts, I'm pretty sure that will knock his naps down... we'll see how that all plays out. I'm not sure I'm ready for a change in our routine!

10. Last but certainly not least, the Little Man and Georgia are INSEPERABLE. They chase each other all around the house and Georgia only sleeps when B. sleeps. She's always where he is and he's always where she is. It's the cutest thing to watch... it absolutely melts my heart and I'm so grateful that they get along so well.

Punching Ball

The night we left for Destin was kind of chaotic. I had already dropped Georgia off and Jeff had come home around 5 to pick up my car to go get the U-Haul. I was frantically trying to finish packing up the stuff I had just used for dinner and bath time all the while trying to keep B. occupied. Needless to say, it's kind of a tough task. He definitely knew something was going on and kept getting into everything - or at least trying to.

Finally, I remembered I had a stash of dollar-store 'toys' and tried to find something new to keep him occupied. In the basket, I found this package of 'punching balls'. The only reason I thought this might work is because he loves balloons - and Georgia wasn't here to bark at him. It took him all of two seconds to figure out how the rubberband worked on the side of the balloon and he. loved. it. I managed to put down the trash bag for a few seconds to get a few videos of him around the house. Enjoy!

Let's Talk Destin.

Okay - so you've seen the pictures (the last ones are posted below) but MANY people have emailed me and asked me how it was. If you know me well at all, you probably know I'm a pretty laid-back person... it takes a lot to get me worked up - usually. This trip was a HUGE exception to that rule. I was a complete wreck about it. In fact, the week before we left, I called Joanna after a trip to the grocery store and asked her to 'talk me down'. She asked me what it was exactly that was making me anxious - the drive or the trip. My answer was both!

So I promptly emailed my mommy friends and asked for road trip suggestions. The drive was going to be a nightmare in my mind and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. Many of you have asked what I ended up doing, so here's what ended up in "mommy's bag of tricks":

1. The DVD Player - Almost everyone responded with the suggestion of taking a DVD player. Sweet Lindsay let us borrow theirs along with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD. I really wanted to get a new Handy Manny Video, but the Hubbs wasn't convinced, and I'm so glad he wasn't. The DVD player lasted for exactly 4 minutes before he wanted something else. He'd point to Mickey, try to push the buttons and then he was done. Although this sounds like it works well for most people, it didn't do anything for us.

2. SNACKS - Of course we loaded up with snacks. All of the gerber gear and goldfish, of course... then we got the suggestion of DumDums and pretzel rods. These both worked like magic. I ended up with a whole bunch of DumDums left and we got the Honey Wheat Pretzel Rods. They were fabulous and weren't too messy. (I was sitting with him in the back to watch the DumDum so it didn't get messy). Joanna had Saltine Crackers for Piercey Boy... and I carried a LOT of Juice boxes and crystal light packets to pour into his sippy cup.

3. MagnaDoodle - Jenn Russ suggested a magnadoodle because her boys love it. This worked pretty well in the car. B. didn't always use it 'properly' but it did work to keep him occupied for a longer period of time.

4. Bucket Of Toys - I read online to get a rubbermaid container and pack it with toys and take a few out at a time to rotate them. Well, it didn't take B. long to figure out where the bucket was and he'd keep pointing and whining until he saw all of his options. :) We were prepared with all sorts of toys - books, musical toys, banging toys, rattles, etc. It was pretty hilarious. Joanna and I couldn't move by the end of the trip because we were drowning in blocks, cars, books, etc.

5. Stickers - Jenn also suggested stickers and I have to say that this was the BEST solution for B. I think we spent a full hour with the stickers. I got a big package in the dollar aisle at Target and then a little marker pad to put them on that was just his size. He would point to a sticker, I'd take it off and put it on his hand, his foot or his leg - he'd try to get it off and then he'd put it on his paper. This worked like magic, and he loved it! Best part - EASY clean up!! Another thing I tried along with this was the color wonder markers... he liked those pretty good too.

So how was the drive? you ask. Well, my answer to that is - It could have been worse. It definitely wasn't the nightmare that I thought it would be. We drove through the night on the way there, and it did take B. two and a half hours to go to sleep, but after he was asleep, he was out. We had a few fussy periods after stopping for gas with both Pierce and Brady, but nothing we couldn't handle. The drive back was what we were dreading and it really wasn't terrible. We ended up with an hour and a half nap in the morning and about 30 minutes in the afternoon. Joanna and I had given up making them happy the last hour of the trip... they were both tired and ready to get out of their car seats and there was only so much we could do. We put on Wee Sing Bible Songs and just went with it.

As far as the actual trip went - it definitely wasn't near as hard as I thought it would have been. The Hubbs was a huge help, of course, and we just took turns doing nap duty... so we'd each get some Beach Time each day. (Unfortunately Joanna and I ended up with Rainy Beach Time one day and we tried to wait it out in the bottom of the parking garage only to end up with another storm rolling through and getting our books wet!)

B. was pretty low maintenance when we'd get out to the pool or the beach, it was just lugging all of their stuff out there for just an hour or so of playtime that was hard. Justin and Joanna brought a baby pool that we took out to the beach with us, filled up with ocean water and sat in front of our umbrella - and the boys loved it! B. even figured out how to get in and out by himself. We had a 'neat sheet' - which was totally worth the $7 we spent on it.... I'd totally recommend it for anyone going to the beach. Lots of $1 sand/water toys and sunscreen. No terrible sunburns this time... everyone (except the little boys) just had a few 'pink' spots at some point during the trip.

P.S. The Spray-On Baby Sunscreen is the BEST invention ever!

For a trip that Brady won't ever remember, the Hubbs and I would debate vacationing with kiddos until they are old enough to truly enjoy it... because we now definitely need a vacation!

Brady and Jeff picking out a lobster...

Beach Life - A Little More