Visit to Flora

The first weekend in April, we made our first trip with Luke to Flora to show him off to family and friends.  It was a gorgeous weekend, one of the first nice ones of the year.  We also attended my cousin Shannon's wedding.  The kids did relatively well during the wedding and reception.  Here are some pictures from our trip:

Life's always better with Uncle Derek :)

She loves sitting on the porch swing at my parents house.  Oh, and she loves hanging out with Grandpa Perry when he plays his guitar. 

All ready for the wedding!

Mr. and Mrs. Prentice :)

Four generations on the Reed side.

Meredith "dancing" with mommy's cousin, Shannon.

Four generations on the Perry side.

My little angel!  He was amazing during the wedding/reception and slept the entire 2.5+ hour trip from Flora to Bloomington.  I couldn't ask for a better baby.

Toddler Years

We have officially hit a milestone....not a good one, though.  The terrible 2's are alive and kicking in the Prentice household.  We thought Meredith hit them a few months ago, but that must just have been a preview, because this is the real deal now.  It's kind of like when a woman has false labor.  You think you're in labor, but then later when you are really in labor, you know the difference.  Well, we know the difference now!

If you look at Meredith the wrong way, she ends up throwing her body on the floor in a fit of rage.  It's quite frustrating, to say the least.  Especially when we are outside and she has the potential to seriously injure herself doing that on the concrete.  At the same time she is going through this phase, she is also excelling in other areas.

One of Meredith's favorite activities nowadays is coloring.  She loves to sit for 20-30 minutes at a time and just color on the floor.  She is getting pretty good at it, too.  I'm finding it's a very educational activity, since she learns names of objects/shapes in the pictures and also can tell you what nearly any color is when you ask her.  She is also getting good at coloring objects and kind of staying within the lines:

We have also started potty training Meredith.  It's going okay.  We're not as intentional as we need to be, by taking her to the bathroom every hour for instance, so it may take a while.  I just find it hard to be consistent while also having a newborn underfoot.  However, she had her first pee in the potty on April 10th.  It took probably 15 minutes of her sitting there by Chad to do it, but she did!  I was so surprised.  Then, this past weekend, she went another 3-4 times (all with Chad, may I add) and had one accident while in the bathroom.  Not too bad for just a few days of trying.  We're not really sure if she understands the concept, since it takes her so long to go, but it's a start.  She just came up to me as I'm writing this blog and said "I poop" and sure enough, she did.  So, she's definitely ready to be potty trained!

Meredith's vocabulary is also surprising us everyday.  She is starting to put words together to make phrases.  I went out to eat dinner with friends earlier in the week and she told Daddy, "Mommy eat friends".  Some of her phrases are funny!  She has finally learned the word "grandma".  She has been able to say "grandpa" for probably two months now.  I'm sure her grandmas are very happy now.

If It Wasn't for Bad Luck, I'd Have No Luck At All

There is no doubt about it...I need patience!!!  Just ask Chad :)  I learned quickly after becoming a mom that I can't have everything run by my perfect schedule.  It's just not possible.  However, sticking to my type-A personality to-do lists and goals has become even more of a challenge since Luke's arrival.  I just need to let some things go (e.g., spotlessness of the house and a schedule).  This past week, God has given me a good lesson in patience, which of course I failed miserably.

It started on my birthday.  Wouldn't ya know....my 30th birthday, that is!  It wasn't exactly a day I was looking forward to, starting a new decade of age and all.  But, it turned out worse than I could have imagined.  Normally Luke wakes up twice in the night and even sometimes just once, though rare.  Well, on my birthday, he woke up at 12:30 a.m., 3:30 a.m., and 5:30 a.m.  Whew!  I wasn't exactly perky when I woke up...or, did I ever go back to sleep?  I can't remember.  Then, Chad ended up having lunch plans at work and wasn't able to come home like he normally does so we could have lunch together.  So, I was very much looking forward to Bunco night with my lady friends.  So, fast-forward to 4:30 p.m.  Since Chad wasn't able to do lunch, he was going to make me a dessert that evening to celebrate my birthday.  I decided to just have him pick up some ice cream at the grocery store on the way home.  As he walks down to put it in our basement freezer, I hear an "uh oh".  Our basement was slowly flooding from the previous night's rain!!!  Are you kidding me?  We just got a new sump pump three years ago.  There go my Bunco plans.  So, we ended up having Little Caesar's pizza that night while I watch the kids and Chad cleaned the basement.  Not exactly the plans I had in mind.

This takes us to Friday.  Surely it has to be better, right?  Well, I already had the kids packed in the van when Chad got home, because I wanted to go to the mall to make a return.  I HAD to get out of the house!  I had also packed up the second-hand double stroller I had just purchased from a friend and was really excited to use it.  But, just my luck, I couldn't figure out how to get it open once we got there, so we decided to stop struggling with it in the parking lot of Kohl's and just come home.  So, we spent our evening as a repeat of Thursday night...Chad was still plugging away in the basement and able to get a new sump pump in while I watched the kids.

Okay, now we're to Saturday.  By the time the basement was finally cleaned up for good, it was noon.  I was going to try the Kohl's trip again, so I took Meredith with me.  She threw a fit in the parking lot of Kohl's and put up a fight getting into the cart once in the store.  Terrible 2's, anyone?  I decided to let her hold my keys as a distraction and it worked!  She was calm.  I made my return, purchased a replacement item, and made my purchase.  Just as the cashier scanned my card, the computer blacked out.  Never have I seen that happen!  Long story short, I had to move to a new register and the system messed up, so it wouldn't print me a receipt.  I was told to wait for a manager to come to fix the problem.  After 15 minutes, I left without waiting for a receipt.  Then, as Meredith and I are walking out, I hear a car alarm but don't think too much of it.  That is, until I realize it's getting louder as we walk to the van.  Yep, it was my van.  Who knows how long it had been going off, since Meredith probably pushed the button sometime while waiting in Kohl's for the receipt.

After all of this, I woke up today (Sunday) and decided up front it was going to be a good day.  I have had such a bad attitude and no patience lately with little things (refer to everything mentioned above!), that it does no good.  The "woe is me" attitude needed to change.  So, since only going to church twice since Luke was born, I went this morning and God spoke to me so powerfully.  It was about family conflict and action steps I could take to change my family dynamic.  I took from the sermon that I need to not use harsh words with my children (hard for me right now with two under two, one of which is a toddler that is learning how to push mommy and daddy's buttons), let go of things (stop nagging!), and bless my family (build them up and be positive, instead of spewing my negativity).  I will say that today has been an AWESOME day!

Goodbye 20s, Hello 30s!

I can't believe that I'm 30 today!!  Where has the time gone?  I'm sure this is what my parents are asking themselves today, also.  Though I've kind of had a hard time wrapping my mind around being in my 30s, I decided to list all the GREAT things that happened to me while in my 20s.  If my 30s are as great as my 20s were, then I'm in for an awesome decade.

• Moved out of my hometown (2003).  I left the only home I'd ever known, which my parents still live in, to move up to Normal to attend ISU.
• Graduated from ISU (2005).
• Began my first professional job (2005).
• Graduated from ISU again, with my MBA (2007).
• Met the love of my life! (2007)
• Got married to the love of my life! (2009)
• Went on a breath-taking European honeymoon (and flew on a plane for the first time, from Chicago to Rome!) (2009).
• Became a homeowner (2009).
• Became a mommy (2011).
• Became a stay-at-home mommy (2011).
• Gave birth to my second child (2013).

Can you tell a trend here?....I always joke with Chad that all my amazing life experiences (including my own birth in 1983, getting my license in 1999, and graduating high school in 2001) happen on odd years.  Kind of weird if you ask me.

Well, here's to my 30s!  It's amazing to think that by the time I hit 40, Meredith will be 11 and Luke will be 10.  Crazy!

Easter

This past weekend we celebrated Easter in Macomb with Chad's family.  It was one of the coldest Easter weekends that I can remember.  I was very chilly wearing open-toed shoes to church!

My father-in-law came over on Thursday to pick up Meredith and keep her for a few days, before Chad, Luke, and I went over on Saturday.  It was very bittersweet.  Though it was a much needed break for me (I never realized how easy it is to care for a newborn until I was left with just one child), but very emotional at the same time.  At four months old, Meredith spent the majority of the day with my parents while we were out late at a wedding, but other than this, we've never been away from her that long.  Even while I was in the hospital recently, we at least saw her several times each day.  I was feeding Luke and wasn't able to see her off, but the waterworks started for me when Chad came back in and told me she was such a big girl and said "Bye, Daddy" and waved as they drove off.

And, she really was a big girl in Macomb.  She got out of the crib over there!  She still hasn't made it out of her regular crib and we think it's because the one at Grandma and Grandpa's house doesn't sit quite as low.  Guess it's time to start thinking about a toddler bed.

Well, she did really great and enjoyed her time with the Grandparents.  We had a chance to introduce Luke to the Great-Grandparents:

Prentice Family

Ross Family

Meredith also had her first Easter Egg Hunt at Chad's Aunt Dorcas' home.  She was a pro and easily figured out the point soon after grabbing the first egg.

Let the hunt begin!

On the move...

Such a pro at finding eggs!

"Look how many I got!"

Jett and Meredith after the hunt.

We also celebrated our birthdays.  Chad and I have April birthdays within a week of each other.  I won't mention the number, but this is a BIG milestone birthday for me this year.  Meredith helped me blow out my candles.