A Team Week 104: More Firsts

This week, Avery experienced another first in life: his first trip to the dentist.  On Wednesday, Avery, Asher and I headed to Kerber Smiles in Kenosha for Avery's first dental check-up and Asher's routine visit.  With being on my own and both boys going at the same time I had no idea how everything would go, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Asher was a very big boy as usual and Avery did great as well.  He sat on my lap while the dentist looked in his mouth and counted all of his teeth (he is currently cutting two of his 2-year molars and the other two are just below the surface).  He seemed slightly afraid at first, but when he saw big brother sitting in the chair all by himself like a big boy, Avery stepped up to the challenge and happily allowed the dentist to do what she needed to do.  When it was all over, both boys were thrilled to receive their new toothbrushes and balloons!

Playing at the dentist while we wait to get called in.

My big boy!

After our trip to the dentist, we all headed over to El Sarape to meet Daddy for a special family lunch.

This kid lucked out as he barely ate any lunch but was still allowed to eat some chocolate pudding!

On Wednesday night, we attempt another milestone event by sending Asher to Awana for the first time.  He was really excited to try it out, but when we got to church and he didn't recognize anyone there he got really nervous.  I ended up staying with him the entire time in hopes that he would have a great time and be willing to come back next week on his own.  Well, he did have a great time, but when I asked him the next week if he wanted to go back without Mommy or Daddy, he responded, "no, I will just have fun with you at home."  I guess that is one milestone that he is not quite ready for.

When the weekend came Asher experienced another first, albeit an unwelcome one.  He got his first bee sting.  Eric and I were happy to see that he didn't seem to have any allergic reactions to it, but Asher was obviously still pretty upset about it.

Eric showing Asher what a bee (& its stinger) looks like through a magnifying glass.

This weekend, I also finally got around to cleaning up Asher's room and taking pictures of it to blog on (per my last post).  Asher was quite interested in what I was doing and wanted to get in on the action.

While I cleaned up inside, Eric finished our fence outside!

The last day of the week started off with a wonderful lazy morning in bed.  Asher slept in later than usual and Avery was extra cute and snuggly.

When Avery was done snuggling, he was very playful.  We would ask him "Avery, who's the boss?" and he would respond "Dada".  Then I would say, "No, Mama's the boss!" and he would giggle and firmly respond, "No Dada!".  This went back and forth for quite awhile and at one point when asked who the boss was, he pointed to himself!

Video: Who'e the Boss?

Once Asher woke up, we enjoyed another family first: a family bike ride to Meijer.  Often, the boys will take a Sunday bike ride to Meijer while I enjoy some quiet time at home, but this weekend I decided to join them.

Enjoy a fruit cup outside Meijer

Finally, a first that I was not very excited about: Asher went the entire weekend with no nap!  On Saturday he stayed quiet in his room for about an hour without falling asleep and asked if he could be done.  I let him stay up and told him that if he got grumpy he would have to go to bed early.  He did okay that evening, but Sunday was another story.  When nap time came I was determined that he would sleep, but he won the war.  He never slept and the result was a very grumpy boy and possibly an even grumpier Momma.  Thankfully I had a half of a blizzard in the freezer from the night before, so while I forced Asher to stay in his room for a while, I tried to savor a few minutes to myself while I devoured my ice cream!

Video: Who's the Boss Round 2

Big Boy Room...Finally!

Back when I was very pregnant with Avery in 2014, Eric and I worked hard to transform our guest room into a Big Boy Room for Asher.  It took me forever to figure out what type of theme I wanted to go with for the room since there was nothing in particular that Asher was really crazy about.  I perused the internet for bedding that I liked and found something that I loved at Land of Nod.  It was adorable and reminded me of Maine (get a preview here) and the love that Eric and his family have for it with it's buoys.  Unfortunately it was more than I cared to spend on a quilt for a two year old, but when Eric's mom offered to buy it for Asher's birthday I agreed and got to work on the rest of the room.

Since the bedding was red, white and blue I decided to go with navy and white stripes for Asher's room.  It was a BIG change from the previous beige that the guest room had been and I was nervous that it would be too much for the room, but I gave it a shot anyway and was pretty happy with the result!

Me painting the room at almost 8 months pregnant!  Don't worry it was No VOC paint! ;)

The base coat.  It made me nervous...such a different look!

To put the stripes on I went with the tried and true method of painting the base coat, putting the tape down outside of the lines and then painting over the tape with the base coat color.  

 Once this dried we painted over with the stripe color and got perfect crisps lines.  It worked awesome once we found the right tape.  The first painters tape I bought was terrible and started falling off the wall soon after we put it up!   This picture shows the process BEFORE the tape was removed.

Crisp lines after.  Only 3 walls to go!

Once the walls were finished, we just had to put in the furniture and the decorations.  For the furniture, we got a big boy bed for Asher from IKEA, a dresser that Eric's parents had in storage which we painted white and put new hardware on, and some lockers that used to be in Eric's brother's room, which we painted red.  For the decorations I found some cute nautical things at Hobby Lobby, a rug and nautical lamp at Target and then some other props that I had purchased for Asher's "Maine Event" 2nd birthday party and some that I already had around the house.  Finally I found this piece of "art" at the church rummage sale which I immediately had vision for.  While I felt a little bad at the thought of painting over Jesus, I also felt it would make a great door sign for Asher's room.

The "artwork" I found at the church rummage sale.  I thought it was a little funny that the nautical wheel said "My Pilot" rather than "My Captain".  Apparently there are still Maritime pilots, but it still seemed odd to me as captain is much more common.

So that is the back story.  I had planned to post about this room two years ago, but never got around to finishing it at the level that I wanted to share the final pics.  This summer I finally took the time to get it completely finished so here it is:

Asher's Bedding and Life-preserver pillow (Land of Nod), Bed (IKEA), rug (Target), scratch-off state map (Uncle Rob), fishing buoys (made from white lantern balls half painted red, fishing net (Hobby Lobby).

Nautical Buddy Storage (Target)

Dresser (Eric's parents with new paint job & new hardware), bulletin boards (square cork from JoAnn Fabrics with red fabric over), laundry basket (Hobby Lobby

Shelves (IKEA), nautical handwork (Hobby Lobby).

Lockers (Eric's brother), bookshelf (my brother)

The Jesus artwork made new.

Close-up of the bobbers, fish net and scratch-off map with frame from Hobby Lobby.

Curtains (Bed, Bath & Beyond), buoys (Hobby Lobby)

As close as I could find to a modern & nautical fan (Menards)

A Team Extras

When I am blogging I frequently forget to include little pictures or stories that had wanted to share earlier.  To remedy that I am have created an "Extras" post of these tidbits to share.  It is random and in no real order, but enjoy...

First, I saw this little meme one day while perusing Facebook.  I couldn't help but laugh as it is a PERFECT depiction of our boys Every.Single.Day.

_________________________________________________

I also saw this shirt online.  Love it!  I can see it would probably be a perfect shirt for our littlest trouble maker in the next couple of years!

_________________________________________________

These are a few old pictures from my friend Britni of our adorable kiddos playing together last winter.  Man do we miss having them in Kenosha!

Love this Crew!

_________________________________________________

And here is a total flashback to my pregnancy with Avery and his newborn shots.  My BIG belly, My BIG baby!

_________________________________________________

These days Asher is a growing like a weed and has been quickly putting his baby/toddler looks, words and actions behind him.  He is becoming more and more independent by the second, and as I recently saw all of the back to school pictures popping up on Facebook, I could barely hold back the tears as I realized that that will be us next year. (..and no, we still do not know where he will be attending school, but have been working to figure that out).  Despite his maturing mind, body, words and actions, there are still a few things that he says that still make us laugh.  First, instead of "other" he ALWAYS says "yudder" and instead of "use" he says "oose".  He also loves to talk lately and sometimes never stops, but sometimes he mouth moves faster than his brain.  When this happens he with either stall with something like "because, because, because" or he will simply just say "guys I have something to tell you..." and then follow with a long pause as he figures out what that something is.  

Asher is no longer a toddler, but still has his melt down moments or moments of extreme anger (sometimes for reason and others not).  Although we are often caught off guard by this, sometimes he will give us a warning and say "I will scream (or cry) if you ____ (fill in the blank)".

With his growing independence, Asher likes to do things that he sees Eric and I do.  He gets dressed by himself and likes to get things from the cabinets on his own, but the biggest example of this is cutting things!  He loves to cut things with scissors and our house frequently looks like it was snowed on my tiny scraps of paper.  He also loves to cut things with a knife.  While he would love to use a sharp knife he knows that is not allowed and will settle for a butter knife.  Be warned though that if you ever give him a sandwich or apple and cut it up for him you WILL get screamed at!

_________________________________________________

Last Winter during a trip to Meijer together, Asher and Eric purchased a bottle of Ninja Turtle hand soap so that Asher would have his own special soap after going potty.  In April, Asher said to me: "Mom, I don't want you to use my soap!!...cause I don't want you to have ninja power!"

_________________________________________________

Also in April, Avery was not feeling well (again).  When I went into his room to get him one morning I was greeted with the word, "poo".  I looked down to see him rubbing his fingers together and looked more closely to find them covered in "poo". (which he had pulled out of his diaper) :(

_________________________________________________

One day Asher looked at me and said, "Mommy, you're fat."  To which I replied (with a sad face) "Buddy that's not very nice".  Asher's responded with "...I mean really big."

_________________________________________________

One day this Spring, the boys' daycare provider told me that Avery gave her a "first".   She had put him down for a nap that day and checked on him a few minutes later to find that he was sleeping.  Then a while later, she heard him upstairs so she went to check on him again.  This time she found that Avery was COMPLETELY naked!  He had taken off all of his clothes, including his diaper, and then peed, leaving Christina with a wet boy and room to clean up.  (Sorry).

_________________________________________________

This was a conversation that Eric and I had via iMessage in June.  Still makes me chuckle.

_________________________________________________

In June, we were on our way to our nephew's birthday party when we heard the sound of a phone ring over the radio.  Avery promptly answered , "Hewwo?"

_________________________________________________

Summer pictures that got lost in the chaos.

_________________________________________________

This was the Mother's Day card that Eric picked out for me this year.  Kind of perfect for our little family.

_________________________________________________

In May I started walking in the mornings before work.  One day soon after I received this letter in the mailbox from my cute little neighbor Marge.  My favorite part: "I did see Tracy walking around the block on morning.  No white dog.  No wagon.  No Migrin boys with her.  Such speed!"  Lol!

_________________________________________________

Another meme that makes me laugh as it closely depicts life in our house.

_________________________________________________

...and another...  (seriously!  how do such little people make So.Much.Laundry?!)

_________________________________________________

In July, when Avery saw the cookie monster on my birthday cake candle, he pointed and said "Papa". For anyone that knows my Dad (aka Cookie Monster) that's pretty funny!

_________________________________________________

Again, this made me laugh.  Seems like something Eric would do...although to be fair he has brought me to Hobby Lobby before just to make me smile! :)

_________________________________________________

July, 2016...Bedtime in the Migrin household:

Me (after I've put Asher back to bed several times): Buddy if I have to come back in here I am taking your books away
Asher: But what if it gets too noisy in here, then will you come?
Me: It's late, it won't get too noisy
Asher: but what if I hear Wee-ooo, wee-ooo?

Me: we live by the fire station, you hear that all the time.
Asher: but will you come? I will be scared
Me: It's not scary. Just think about being a firefighter when you grow up
Asher: why would I do that?
Me: It's a cool job maybe you would like to work as a firefighter someday.
Asher: But I don't want to work when I am bigger
Me: me neither Buddy, me neither.

_________________________________________________

I saw this meme just days after we returned from our vacation.  If you've read those posts, you know that this was perfect! 

_________________________________________________

When our daycare was closed after our vacation this summer, Eric's dad came out to help us with the boys.  On the first day that he watched them, he said that he had put Avery down for a nap and then saw on the monitor that he had gotten out of bed.  When Eric's dad went in to check on him he was greeted by Avery standing at the door and holding out his dirty diaper in his hands for Gramps to take care of!

_________________________________________________

Labor Day Weekend pictures that got forgotten.

Video: Fishing at the Cottage

_________________________________________________

At dinner one night a couple of weeks ago, Eric and I were talking about work. Asher chimes in and says, "when I'm bigger, I'm going to do a different kind of work!"...good call buddy...good call

_________________________________________________

Asher drew this picture of our family a couple of weeks ago.  It was the first time that we had actual 'bodies'.  We still look a bit like War of the World aliens, but it's progress!

From Left to Right: Daddy, Asher, "tiny" Avery & Mommy "with a pretty dress on"  <3