i(Phone) Spy: Months Thirteen - Fifteen - Brynn

On February 18th our sweet Boo Boo turned a whopping 15 months old.  Enjoy just a snippet of the entertainment she has provided us over the last 3 months.  Oh, how we love you tiny 'Zilla!

I know this is blurry, but welcome to my world.  This kid has 2 speeds- run like he!! and just chilling (see below).

We have affectionately taken to calling her Linus because she's so obsessed with this blanket.  Based on this above, I'm glad she's taken a shining to one with breath-ability.

I look this deep in reflection when I eat Great Harvest's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins too.

Sweet, sleepy girl.  (Still a thumb sucker- thanks Ryan genes!)

This child and the park.  Holy Moly.  The combination of the two is the cause of at least 50% of the gray hairs I've sprouted recently.  Fearless child + small spaces are a dangerous equation.

I'll cover this more in the words update but her adoration of the blanket is trumped only by her love of books.

Just getting her workout in.  She's efficient because it only required 0.5 seconds of her Mama's back being turned to get into this position.

Yeah, yeah- you hang out at the park.  I'm going to go try to climb on that bike that isn't mine.

My baby summed up in a picture.  (This expression looks identical to some of Ryan's childhood pictures that I'm too lazy to dig up at the moment.)

Brynn's teachers somehow managed to wrangle her wild mane into her first antenna pony.

Donuts went over well.

"Cacka.  Now."

Sweets require an enormous amount of concentration.

There's not a picture in the world that does justice to the adorable factor of this child's belly.  That won't stop me from trying though.

Brynnie's second speed.  Netflix and chill.  Minus the Netflix and inappropriate connotation of the "chill" part.

Was not buying what sister was selling, clearly.

These pants barely fit now and they were rolled on the bottom.  (Tear emoji).

Oh, why hello!  Don't mind me.  Just practicing my wall-scaling for when I inevitably am cast in MI:20.

Can I get some help around here, please?  Some of us want to bathe.  Not just take pictures.

Coffee & Hearts

As noted in my previous post, our Valentine's Day didn't necessarily ooze romance, but there was definitely not shortage of love and togetherness.  On Friday afternoon, despite staying home with me in potty training bootcamp all day, Emery and I headed up to school to partake in her class party.

I didn't take too many pictures because I was mainly sitting in awe of how her teachers handle it every day.  I strongly believe the phrase "like herding cats" was born out of a class of toddlers.  They're pretty noisy cats, too.  That being said- they were adorbs handing eachother Valentine's and I'm glad I got the chance to go.

Fast forward to Sunday, which was actually the day of St. Valentine... When the Daddy asked me what I wanted to do, to absolutely no one on the planet's surprise, I said I wanted to get some treats at Starbucks.  So that is precisely what we did.  I'm a simple lady.  

We capped the evening off with a DELICIOUS meal of coconut shrimp prepared by none other than the Daddy.  He put so much thought into selecting a meal and finding a recipe.  If you know Em, you know she's really into shrimp these days (as am I).  It was so adorably touching of him to do that... and they were AH-MAZING.  Muchas gracias to the Prince in these 3 women's lives- we love you more than the Bux!

I hope you all had an equally wonderful day full of the people who make your heart smile.

The Potty Training Diaries

Confession time.  I am a terrible mother. Why, you ask?  Because, despite purchasing a toddler potty for Emery when Brynn was like 4 weeks old (she's now 15 months, so you do the math), I've never really made a concentrated effort to do the whole potty training thing.

First, I held off because I had a newborn on my hands.  After that, I delayed because work was insane and I was struggling to muster the energy.  Then, I held off because we accidentally bought a house.  Next, I held off because we accidentally sold our house earlier than expected.  Then, it was the holidays.  Then, we moved into the apartment.  I think you see where this is going.  Bottom line is that I do not think I'll be crowned Mother of the Year for 2015 or 2016.  I kind of hope that Mothering is one of those things where you get a trophy just for participating- like AYSO soccer.

In an effort not to double fail her, I am going to document the achievement of this milestone though.  Because I'm a parent and that's part of our doctrine, right?

Emery was highly familiar with the toilet and used it on her terms.  There were plenty of successes but we still weren't batting 1,000, which is pretty important in this particular aspect of life.  Early this year Ryan and I resolved that we needed to do the ol' go-pantsless-for-an-entire-weekend-and-pray with-all-our-might-that-other-parents-were-correct methodology.  The problem was finding a weekend that we could make it happen.

As fate would have it, the weekend of February 12th, between my Friday off and Ryan's day off for President's Day, we realized we had a 4 day stretch of weekend and penciled it in.  I mean, really, what is more romantic for Valentine's Day than hanging out on a plastic tarp in your living room?  Nothing.

Potty Training boot camp commenced at approximately 9:15 am on Friday February 12th.  Around 10:32 am Emery let me know that "her pants is wet, Mommay."  Thankfully our little love was a quick study because after that she really only had 1 more accident THE ENTIRE WEEKEND.  We were both so ridiculously proud of her.

The following week at school she averaged 1 accident per day until Thursday when Daddy had the bright idea to bribe incentivize her with ice cream if she had no accidents.  The Martin/Boarman love o' food is strong with this one because as soon as I walked in the door (and I do mean AS SOON AS) to school to pick her up that evening, she started pointing at her pants, reminding me they were the same ones I put her in that morning and demanding ice cream.

And- voila!  Since then, I don't think she's had a single accident.  That isn't to say that there won't be another accident on the horizon, but I am pretty pumped to be able to say that Emery is potty trained (and to cut our monthly Amazon diaper shipment in half).  We are so proud of you, love bug!  Now, let's just work on letting your roommates (read: Daddy and I) utilize the restroom in peace, huh?

Just having a little panty picnic.

Denver Won. I'm Pretty Sure.

We are just barely into the third month of 2016 and I have already failed myself.  I let a full month slip by without any posts.  DOH!  I had an extra day from the universe and everything.  Mah bad, guys.

So, I debated whether or not I should even include this event as a post but ultimately decided to because:

1) I have photographic evidence of its occurrence on my phone, which is rare.
2) This is an event I have typically documented in some form or fashion, so why break tradition now?
3) It is an event we attended with other adults which is kind of like capturing a unicorn for us these days.
4) It's the culmination of a VERY long season in our home and that is definitely worthy of documentation.

So, there you have it.  On Sunday February 7th, Jendan was kind enough to host the usual suspects at their house for the Super Bowl.  It's without question an occasion I give approximately 0.5 flips about, but some how these two manage to make it fun.  So fun that I took only 5 pictures.  All of which are included below because when you only have 5, why choose?

The events were much the same as prior years in that there were lots of prop bets, too many delicious calories consumed, we contributed many cans to recycling bins and the men wound up playing video games while the women watched Bey rock it at half time.

Muchas gracias to the gracious host/hostess with the most/mostess as well as all other participants for getting us out of the house apartment.  Even though we never see you- we still love you oodles!

Austin advising Shawna on squares.  And coin toss strategies.  #relationshipgoals

I realized I should take some pictures.

I realized I should zoom in.

Em realized she likes bounce houses.

Ryan realized his inner child is hard to keep inner.  I got bored with taking pictures.  The end.