Play Planet

 My favorite thing to do is watch my kids run around somewhere and having fun. It brings me indescribable joy, for real. Taking them to a new place to explore is great, but just watching them run around the park on a random warm, winter day will do it, too. We recently visited Play Planet in Parkersburg, which is a huge indoor playground, similar to the ones at Burger King and The Center for Children and Families, only way bigger. I mentioned it to Quinn one day, and I wasn't sure he would want to go. He has told me he's too big for Playgroup (although, he has since changed his mind), so it seemed like it could be a bust. He insisted he wanted to check it out, though, so we made the trip. I'm glad we did because they ran around and played for over two and a half hours! Quinn seemed content to explore on his own, but Ash's separation anxiety got him upset when he couldn't keep up with Quinn. Quinn was pretty good about including him after I made him aware, and I was proud of him for that. He is a very good big brother...most of the time. 

Well worth the $12/kid!

Ash's developmental leap has him clinging to me and feeling emotions much more intensely. I'm struggling with his constant need to question my every move, especially because, more often than not, I tell him where I'm going. "Hey Ash, I'm going upstairs for a minute, okay?" "Okay." Two minutes later, as he comes up the stairs, "Mom? Are you up here?" "Yes. Just like I told you I would be." Ugh. I think it has a lot to do with his growing imagination. He often tells me about dreams he has involving "bad guys," and he even cried when we went to get into the car to go to school this week, which he hasn't done since the first week. He usually loves going to school. We talked it out, though, and he was fine by the time we got there. He just made me promise to be the first there for pickup, which I did. 

Quinn doesn't struggle with that anymore, but he just typically doesn't like going anywhere. At least not until we get there. I saw a meme that describes him perfectly: 

"Don't invite me places. I was born by caesarean. I didn't want to come out then and I certainly don't want to now." 

Beanie Cole Turned 4!

 

Beanie Cole, aka Bean, aka Ash, aka Asher turned 4! His birthday did not go as planned when his early morning vomiting ruined our plans for the trampoline park. That had to be put on hold, and the fate of his party planned for the following evening was undecided. Finding a convenient time for it was already a hassle because of a basketball tournament, so I really didn’t want to reschedule it. His stomach bug was short lived, and he never spiked a fever, so we went ahead with the plan, but I made sure to let everyone know about the risk. As far as I know, no one else became sick, thankfully. 

That poor kid was so bummed we couldn’t go to the trampoline park on his birthday, but he did get to open his gifts from us. He said he really liked everything he got, so that was good. 

Brain rot toys are some of his fave. I don’t understand them, but he likes them. 

Later, he had fun playing with Brother in a fort they made in the kitchen

All of that fun wore him out, though, and he took a rare afternoon nap. 

I spent the entire next day preparing for the party, sanitizing all commonly touched surfaces and our bathrooms. Ash wanted me to get food from Pizza Hut for his party, and I made his cake according to his specifications—a yellow cake with white icing, chocolate sprinkles, and Ronaldo 😂. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it was delicious!

He makes the best reaction faces 

We did finally make it to the trampoline park the next weekend, but after all of the anticipation, the experience wasn’t what we hoped for. Ash’s separation anxiety has recently escalated, and he struggled to go off on his own, even with Quinn by his side. Philip and I jumped with them on his birthday celebration last year, but when we went to the one at the beach, they didn’t really care that we were there, so I figured they would be fine jumping by themselves, while we just watched and followed them around. That was true for Quinn. He had a fantastic time. Ash made it for about half of our 90 minute session before having a meltdown. I was hoping he would take a break to calm down and then rejoin the fun, but he dint really recover for more than a few minutes. We, collectively, decided he was done, and let Quinn go until he tired of it, too. Ash said he was hungry, but I don’t think that was his only problem. I actually considered buying a ticket for myself to jump with him, but then I didn’t think that would help and would be a waste of money. He seemed fine after we left. 

We hit the food court at the mall after the trampoline park, and then the Photo Booth on the way out 

🍕🍟🍪📸. 

I’m hoping this phase doesn’t last much longer because my patience is growing very thin. He’s not a super whiny kid, so I try to just breathe through it, but his sudden need to be stuck up my butt again can get overwhelming. The night before his trampoline park adventure, we attended the K Pop Demon Hunters themed dance at The Center for Children and Families. I asked the boys if they wanted to go, Quinn said no, Ash said yes. Quinn changed his mind after some convincing, and he had a great time! He found a pack of boys to play alien invasion with, while Ash clung to my leg like a leech. It wasn’t long ago when Quinn was attached to me like a third appendage. I credit school with giving him the ability to separate from me easily. Hopefully Ash will gain those same skills once he starts Pre-K in the fall. 

It was “comfy clothes” day at school for Quinn that day, so he wanted to wear his soft flannel pants. I could tell he was nervous about wearing them because he asked me more than once that morning if I thought other kids would be wearing pajamas. I told him they would, most kids like doing that. He rarely wants to participate in theme days though. Monkey see, monkey do, so Ash ended up wearing his that day, too ❤️🖤

Life Lesson: don't buy a mattress online

I’ve been waking up with lower back pain for several years at this point, but it was finding the receipt that confirmed our mattress is 13 years old that put an itch into my brain about wanting to get a new one. Philip did some research (as he does), we took sleep surveys about our positional needs (we’re both mainly side sleepers), and decided to go with a Helix based on their rave reviews. We anxiously awaited the shipping updates, and it only took about a week for two giant boxes to arrive on our porch. One had the mattress and the other had the topper, each rolled up and vacuum sealed inside. Before we could set them up, we had to do some rearranging. The boys were sleeping on twin sized floor beds, side by side, with an approximate six inch gap between, which seemed to be my designated spot 🙄. After measuring, I discovered that our king didn’t take up anymore room than the two of theirs, and it remedied the crack problem, so I was happy to relocate our old bed to Ash’s room. Three or four nights a week I would end up in there when one of them (mostly Ash) would wake me up, so at least this way I would have an actual spot to lay that didn’t involve sleeping on a cold ass metal bed rail. 

After we got our old bed situated in Ash’s room, Philip unleashed our new mattress in our room. We decided to downsize with our new bed, because now that we aren’t sharing it with two other little people, we often felt like we were sleeping miles away from each other. We decided to go with a queen, which meant we also had to buy a new bed frame and bed clothes. You may remember me saying before that we had a duvet cover instead of a traditional comforter, and while it may be considered to be more luxurious, I hated changing that duvet cover with a passion. The idea of a new mattress was exciting enough, but unburdening myself from that chore was equally thrilling! Of course, with Snowmagedon on the way at the end of January, none of these things arrived at the same time, so we only had a mattress for the first couple of days. 

Once out of the package and given sufficient time to fluff, the Helix Sunset, their softest mattress available, seemed comfortable enough, but one night was enough to prove otherwise. The next morning, we both agreed sleeping on that mattress was akin to sleeping on a slab of concrete. We could’ve just moved our kitchen table upstairs and had a similar slumbering experience. Helix has a 100 day satisfaction or your money back guarantee, BUT they require you to keep it at least 30 days before they’ll start a return. So, for 30 days, we were just counting down, wishing we would’ve saved ourselves some money and just bought a sheet of plywood, which is surely softer than that insanely expensive POS mattress 😂. I already struggle with sleep, if anything at all wakes me up (someone coughs, ice slides on the roof, that godforsaken train blows the damn whistle at 2 am 🤬), I can’t go back to sleep. The firmness only intensified that issue because I was waking up due to being uncomfortable. I actually only made it three entire nights on it. I’m so thankful our old mattress is in the room right next to ours, because it may contribute to my back pain, but at least it’s comfortable! I prefer not to sleep with the kids but even that was better than suffering on the Helix mattress. Philip wears his watch to bed, which tracks his sleep score, and while sleeping on that mattress, it plummeted from a norm of 90's into the 70's! So we didn't just imagine this issue, there is technology to back up our claims 😂. 

The Helix mattress is the most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever slept in, and we used to travel a lot pre-kids. I’ve encountered many mattresses and I can’t remember hating one more 😂. Every morning, Philip and I agreed that it was not getting any better and having the requirement to keep it for 30 days is bullshit. 

the amount of times I've come upstairs to find this sleeping in our new bed is ridiculous

Philip had his first ever out of state work trip and he went to Texas for 3 days. The snow pushed our bed frame arrival back until the day after he left. If there's one thing I'm terrible at, it's following 2D directions to create 3D objects, so constructing most things in our house is a task left for Philip. I was anxious to get the new bed all put together, despite the fact that I already hated the mattress, so I gave it a go. My book club group chat was doing a photo an hour challenge, so I jokingly told them I'm not allowed to put furniture together whenever I sent my hourly update with the bed rails included. I sent Philip a photo, too, whenever I finished, and the he said, "Good job. Did you have to redo any of it?" 😅. The answer was, yes, one piece 😂😂. 

Speaking of photos, my husband and I couldn't be more different in that regard. He traveled to a place he has never been and joined people he's only met online (he works remote), and he took 2 videos and 13 photos, 7 of which were various views from the plane to show the boys, who haven't flown yet. I, on the other hand, stayed home and took 18 videos and 44 photos, 11 of which were of my brother's cat 😂. He was being super funny getting inside of the tote I took to their house with me. Now, the book club hourly photo challenge certainly increased my count, and most of the photos didn't make the keep pile, but still. 

This is Wickett. He's a box thief.

Even though I took my tote back, he wasn't deterred from finding himself a new seat

This is why I took 18 videos. They had a blast breaking jumping over the masking tape line

Fortunately, it didn’t take us long to do what we should’ve done to begin with, which was go to an actual store and try out the mattress before buying. Actually, it was Day 4 when we went shopping, which was the first weekend day we possibly could. Philip hadn't even been home for 24 hours when we hit the road to shop 😂. Our second new mattress arrived 3 weeks later, and while I was concerned about the potential for hating it, too, the bar was pretty low. The second new mattress, a Serta Sealy, was far superior and about half the price!

The only redeeming quality of the Helix is the return process, because it's very lenient. In bigger areas, they partner with organizations, where they pick up and donate your used mattress, but we don't have anything like that here. While that put the effort on us to get rid of it, they afforded us three options: 

1. donate it to a local organization

2. give it to a community member

3. destroy it

We chose option 2, and all that was required was a form to be filled out and photos showing the mattress being loaded onto a vehicle. I was happy to give it to someone who could use it, rather than throwing it away (you all know I don't throw useful things away). I just hope the recipient doesn't injure her back sleeping on it 😂.

Why We Stopped Paying to Be Underwhelmed

We recently did something that used to be a norm, but now I could probably count on my hands how many times we do it in a year: ate out at a sit down restaurant.

We are an ingredients household, for the most part, and have been for several years. Way before it was a trend. I don't even follow things like that, so it's the luck of the algorithm that I even know that's a thing. Anyway, we do have some pre-packaged things that the kids eat, but Philip and I rarely eat any of that (I would love it if the kids didn't eat that stuff either, but we can't win them all). We stock so many staples that pretty much anything that we want to eat is available to make.  This system is certainly made easier by our lifestyle--one parent who stays at home, one parent who works remote (so no travel time), and no kids in sports (yet), so we are able to to make it work. But I have a whole list of other reasons why we don't eat out very often: 

1. Prior to this stage of life (children being 6.5 and 4), eating at restaurants with kids wasn’t fun. We occasionally go to Chinese, and that usually goes okay because of the instant gratification of the buffet, but actually having to order and wait equated to impatience and whining, which isn’t fun for anyone. 
2. I'm decent at cooking and Philip is pretty phenomenal and we can make just about anything we would choose to order at a restaurant, at home, andddd it will likely taste better. 
3. It will also have less calories because we’re not deep-frying anything here because I absolutely hate the smell. You could argue that that is a reason it won’t taste better than at a restaurant, but we don’t really eat foods that would taste better deep fried on the regular, so I guess it doesn’t matter. 
4. Eating out is super stupid expensive! We ate at two sit down restaurants, costing us $150 between the two, and one only was kinda worth it. 

Last month, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings when they were packed, so we had to wait quite a while on our food, but it wasn’t the worst. The boys did okay during the wait, and Quinn even tasted my parmesan garlic chicken sandwich, said he liked it, and ate half 🤯. Now, this was, of course, after saying he didn’t like his own food that HE CHOSE 🙄. So there’s reason number five: 

5. Children will choose to order foods that they eat every friggin day but then won’t eat it because the fries are too potatoey, or the chicken tenders aren't the right shape of chicken, or the breading has a crunchy end, or any other nonsense they can think of.  Money wasted.

However, despite Quinn reneging on his order, the experience was mostly positive because he tried something new, and they both sat patiently and didn’t act like wild animals. Quinn liked the garlic parm sauce so much that I bought a bottle of it and he will now eat it on chicken 🙌🏻. Anything that lengthens the list of foods Quinn will eat is a win in my book. 

A few weeks later, our outing lead us to Olive Garden, which used to be a favorite. I loved their lasagna and Alfredo, so the tour of Italy is usually my pick, and it’s Philip’s, too. He ordered it, but I had just had some creamy pasta the day before, so I went with just straight lasagna. Quinn got a second meal he didn’t like for the same reason as before (nonsense), and Ash got a pizza that was too cheesy 🙄. If not for the breadsticks, they would’ve starved. Olive Garden salad used to set the bar for me, their dressing was my absolute favorite. My tastes have changed though, and while it was good, I’ll take Ken’s Zesty Italian over it any day. I rolled my eyes about Ash’s reason for not eating his pizza, but I also complained about my lasagna having too much cheese 😂. That is in stark contrast to the man beside us who answered, “As much as humanly possible,” when asked if he’d like freshly grated parmesan on his food. My answer to that was, “No, thank you,” which I feel as though the servers always have a hard time accepting 😂. The amount of marinara sauce makes or breaks it for me, and there definitely wasn’t enough for my liking. I could've asked for more, but I didn't bother. I brought half of my lasagna home and ate it the next day with my own additional sauce. Truthfully, the lasagna that we make tops Olive Garden's. It's a pain in the ass to make, but it's worth it!

If I ever had any FOMO surrounding dining out, it has been quelled. Our recent experiences gave us an adequate reminder of why we don’t do that more often. I do have Wendy’s every couple of weeks because burgers are my favorite food in the entire world and Wendy’s does burgers right by me 🤤. We also love Sam’s Club cafe pizza and brownie sundae. And I have to make an exception to hang with my book club, and that sometimes involves a restaurant, but that's a worthy cause 🙂. If Defelice Pizza was in town, I'd definitely have it more often. I miss when Garfield’s existed at the mall. I loved that place. Aside from those, I’m not really that interested in frequenting any big chain establishments. The prices alone make me wonder how half of these subpar places are still in business!

Who needs restaurants when I can have a blueberry pie stuffed waffle right at home?

I can turn my sourdough bread into pizza anytime I want. 

Book Club besties 🫶🏻

Mother/Son Valentine Dance 2026

I wasn't sure if the boys and I would be attending the 6th annual Mother/Son dance hosted my N.M. Parks and Rec. We didn't make it long last year, mostly because the timing is bad for us. It starts at 7:30pm and bedtime is 8:00 at our house. I don't really have a problem with extending bedtime to accommodate special events, but 1. they truly just can't hang long, and 2. staying up later doesn't equal sleeping in longer the next morning, and then they're just grumpy all day 😑. We did it anyway, though. I asked the boys if they wanted to go, before buying tickets, and Quinn said no, but Ash said yes. Obviously, I couldn't just buy a ticket for Ash, because I knew Quinn would change his mind. A few days later, he asked if he could still go, and I told him I already bought him a ticket. He was excited and started talking about what he was going to wear. I told him that events like this are special, and it would be nice if he would agree to wear dress clothes. He was all for it and ended up wanting to buy a suit 😂. Finding one to fit him wasn't easy because he's so thin, pants lengths are difficult to get right. Philip and I measured him and I chose the one that hit the most sizing categories. We got lucky with one that fit perfectly!

As soon as he got it, that's all he wanted to wear. I'm not surprised that it ended up being like another costume to him. 

He even wore it to Sam's Club the weekend before the dance, but after that I told him he needed to let me wash it and then keep it clean. He was free to pretend play with it after the dance. 

He got new dress shoes for the occasion, too, which he felt completed his sweatpants/t-shirt outfit 😂

Strep almost kept us from going, both boys ended up with it the week of. Quinn started it and Ash got it next. They were both medicated for long enough before the dance to not be considered contagious, so we were still able to go. 

Ash told Quinn he looked like Boss Baby, and I told him he looked like his bodyguard 😂

Ash did not want to wear any fancy clothes, so he got a long sleeve black shirt to match his black sweatpants, and from far away, you could barely tell. I'm just happy he wore socks. He can always be counted on to have either zero, but not more than one sock on at any given time we need to leave the house. He may continue to only have that many once we’ve left, despite me telling him to wear them, if I don't remember to check 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

I'm in a much better place mentally and physically this year than I was last, so shopping for a dress wasn't as painful a task as before. My dress wasn't super fancy, and I was still a little nervous about feeling underdressed, but the other moms seemed to tone it down this year, too, and no one really looked like they were going to their second chance prom. 

😍😍😍

Our official photo from Frannie Herrick

Last year vs. This year

Our biggest transformation was my hair and our ability to better coordinate outfits 

I've still been working out, and this week is number 4/5 of Beta round of Focus T25. If I could stop eating garbage, I'd be making a lot more weight loss progress, but I am getting much stronger. 

Ash even joins me occasionally 😃

Im not sure if I’ve ever wanted a holiday to be over more than this Valentine’s Day 😂. Well, probably Christmas 🙄, but this was a very close second. No one wanted to make a Valentine box. No one wanted to pick out or sign their Valentines. I’m in camp Valentine’s Day Is A Stupid Consumer Holiday, so I really didn’t care, but unless they were going to skip school the days of their parties (they weren't), not doing them wasn’t an option. So we did them, but no one was happy about it 😂. 

They both painted an oatmeal container, colored pictures of their chosen superheroes, and then cut them out and glued them on the containers.

On Valentine's Day, I heard the boys get up and go downstairs around 6:15am, but it didn't take long for Ash to come tell me that there was candy on the table, as if I wasn't the one who left it there 🤦🏻‍♀️. I didn't realize until he came a second time that they were waiting for me to come down before they ate it, or I would've told them to do it and leave me alone 😂. And Quinn is wearing that ninja suit in the pic because that's what he slept in 😆.

Philip made me the best homemade caramel ice cream and chocolate chip cookie ever 🤤

I bought them a sleep training clock because waking me up at the butt crack of down started to be Asher's norm. It goes red at bedtime-8:00pm and turns green at 6:45am, which is when my alarm is set on school days. It turns white at 6:25, which means "soon." I told them they're allowed to get up and go downstairs together whenever it turns white, but they're not allowed to get me unless there's a very good reason. Valentine's Day candy does not meet that requirement 😂.

This morning, I volunteered in Quinn's classroom and I made a craft with the kids. It was supposed to be for Valentine's Day, but we couldn't get it scheduled until this week. I had so much fun and the kids did, too, especially mine 🥰. He seems to really enjoy whenever I go in. I love doing it but I’m always so nervous and don’t sleep well the night before 🫠. I properly worry about all of the things that could go wrong on the days leading up to it, but there never seems to be a cap. It has gone extremely well both times.  I told his teacher I'll plan to come back in and do a spring activity, so hopefully I can chill next time. The kids really loved making slime before, so we may do something else like that. Today we took photos with my Fujifilm Instax mini camera, and the kids decorated popsicle stick frames. I was excited to share my love of photography with them. If I'm going by my interests, maybe next time I should have them plant something. They already work on reading, that will cover most of my favorite hobbies 😂. 

Hey, Big Boy!

Our days of diapers (well, pull-ups at this point) are finally (finally!) over. I was beginning to think Ash was never going to poop in the potty. He’s been peeing in his urinal for months, but he was highly unmotivated to poop in the toilet, despite being offered everything under the sun as a reward for doing so. Anytime he mentioned a new toy or a fun experience, I would offer it as a potty prize. You want a new costume? Absolutely, just poop in the potty! A visit to the trampoline park? Sounds fun! We’ll go today if you poop in the potty. Nothing worked. And then, one day, he just did it on his own, out of the blue. Yay, right? Well, yes, but then I decided that was that, he was there, no going back. So when he pooped in his pants later that same day and then again the next day, I was beyond frustrated. I handled it all wrong, letting my anger take control, shaming him in my tone, even if my words didn’t quite say it. He cried and I felt like an asshole. Philip and I had a conversation about it and he helped me see the error in my approach (which didn’t work, by the way. Ash didn’t stop doing it, he just tried harder to hide it 😩) and I backed off of my all or nothing stance and let him lead. 

I wanted so badly to help Ash achieve his potty milestone, but mostly I was just a complete pain the ass to him. I reminded him approximately 783 times a day that if he needed to poop, he needed to do it in the potty. I set a timer for every 45 minutes and told him to go pee, and then I would ask him every time if he needed to poop. I don’t think any of that was super important, what it really boiled down to was waiting for him to be ready. Some of the most frustrating moments as a parent happen during situations where we have no control. We can’t make them eat, sleep, or use the bathroom. We can manipulate the situation—by giving them the foods we want them to have, or turning out the lights, closing the door, etc., or by sitting them on the potty, but we can’t actually make them do any of those things. And they won’t do them until they’re ready, and we just have to accept it. All kids are different and they all do things on their own timeline, despite our biggest efforts, sometimes. 

Ash may not have been previously motivated with bribes, but he is now. We started out with choosing from a prize box, which I filled with an eclectic assortment of junk that I collected at Lucky Duck on dollar day. For example, I found a gold chalice (his favorite color is gold), which he calls a trophy, and it is now a prized possession. Other winners have been a tube of different colored crepe paper, which the boys strung all over the house, and rainbow tinted safety glasses. Incentivized pooping has lead to him announcing he has to poop about 14 times a day (half of the times he actually does), so the prize box is no longer feasible, and we have reduced the reward to only candy.  If he asks if he can have candy at 8am and I say no, he suddenly has to poop. He produces poop for candy, almost like a party trick. He has never pooped this much before in his life. 

Quinn and Ash helped Dad make homemade birthday cake flavored marshmallows, which were a nice potty prize. They're really good!

He's even teaching his superhero toys how to use the urinal 😂. I hear him cheering them on. He also cheers himself on. I've heard him say, "Come on, Asher, you can do it."  😂 😂 😂

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This picture may not say much to you, but it shows significant growth. We have been going to Story Time at the library since Asher was born. Until a few weeks ago, he has always sat on my lap. Even though Iris usually goes with us, and she sits on a mat on the floor, as do pretty much all of the other kids, he always climbs up to me. I'm not sure what prompted it, but one day, he grabbed a mat and parked himself on the floor between my feet. Granted, he was still touching me, but progress was made! I was so excited to capture this moment. 

Ash's 4th birthday is fast approaching, but I just keep looking at him and thinking about how little he still is. Sometimes, he’s so cute I can’t stand it. He’s also a really well behaved little boy (most of the time) and I'm lucky that he's mine. While I’m a tad bit sad for him to be growing up, I am not sad to be leaving the diaper phase behind 😂. Life is easier as they get older. 

Something changed in Quinn's brain over Christmas break. I'm not sure if some synapses finally bridged that help with emotional control, or if maybe Philip and I finally wore down his stubbornness with our consistency in not giving into his bullshit (wishful thinking), or if getting an iPad for Christmas finally gave us the leverage we needed to better guide his behavior. Probably the latter. Whatever it was, I fully welcome it because life has been so much more peaceful! The past three years of challenging behaviors have been some of the hardest of my life. We've all learned a lot from them, that's for sure. 

He looks so cute here. Too bad the story behind the grin doesn't match the sweetness. He had just looked up at me from his screen and said, "Hey Mom, I farted." I swear 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

He may be having some brain rot from that screen, but he is learning one valuable lesson from it: time management. We put a screen limit on his account, and once he reaches it, he's done for the day. I try to give him some warnings when I think he's blowing through it quickly, but he rarely heeds them. Oh well. 

Doing homework with Quinn was a nightmare, so Philip took over that task, but once I stopped doing it, Quinn started asking to do it with me again. I'm happy to do it with him if he's going to be cooperative. He doesn't pull the crap with his dad like he does with me. I was dreading that entire week of snow packets, but he completed them without incident. It's been such a pleasant change!

Another transformation came in the form of bravery and endearment. The other day, out of the blue, Quinn came to tell me that he was going to go upstairs and take a bath by himself. The same child who, twenty minutes earlier, had asked me to accompany him to his room to find a belt. I went up after I heard the water running for a few minutes to remind him not to overflow the tub, and to wash all of his parts. I asked if he needed anything, and he said he didn't, so I left. He stayed in the bathroom alone for approximately 3.5 minutes, but he accomplished his task 😂. It's a start! 

There are multiple times a day when Quinn seeks me out for a spontaneous hug. He can be so stubborn, so I am grateful for these tender moments when I get them from him. He is not usually the kid who calms down from a hug, and while he's not one to refuse a hug, it hasn't previously been a source of connection for us. I often ask myself if that's because of me and my past inability to properly emote, and I don't have an answer for that. I hope that's not the case. I want to be motherly to my children, and I feel like that's a standard mothering move. They're both so different. Ash is a kid who calms down from a hug, or a boo boo kiss, or a reminder to take a deep breath. Maybe it's just his age, but I hope so much that he doesn't outgrow it. I also hope this new serene state of Quinn's is here to stay. 

3/4th of my heart in one photo 🫶🏻

67 Day

 I didn't really plan to make half birthdays a thing, but Quinn has cared whether or not he was more than halfway through his year since he was four. We even jokingly told Ash that he was three and three quarters, and he brags to people about it any chance he gets. Quinn's half birthday was approaching on January 10th, so it felt like the stars aligned when, two days before, during my Lucky Duck trip, I found a half birthday banner decoration. I was excited to surprise him on that Saturday morning with the decoration and donuts for breakfast, and he was psyched to wake to up them. This was an extra special half birthday because he was officially halfway from 6, halfway to 7. 

We didn't really have any other plans for the day (that we remembered), so went about our morning at a leisurely pace, working out, showering, and I even made an early lunch. I was excited to make a pasta recipe that we had had a few years ago and forgotten about. It is made with fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, parmesan cheese, and garlic cloves. It was delicious. While I was in the middle of prepping it, I remembered that Philip had mentioned that our nephew, Austin, had a wrestling match that day, and we had talked about going. We made a hasty plan to go to it, in Williamstown, and to then head down to Parkersburg to take the boys bowling for their first time. We had talked before about doing it at some point, so this felt like a good time to make it happen since we wouldn't be far away. We got to the wrestling match late, thanks to the drive, but we did get to see Austin's final match, which he won in like 2.5 seconds 💪🏻 🤼. It was fun to watch and I'm glad we went, but I wished I hadn't eaten that pasta before going. I love the taste of fresh garlic, but I don't love the lingering stench. Especially if you chop it without wearing gloves 🫠. When you walk into a middle school gym filled with sweaty, prepubescent boys, you shouldn't be the stinkiest one there, but I was. I apologized to Carly and Emma, but they're family, so they tolerate me. However, there was another little girl whom I didn't know, whose space I invaded in order to have a seat, and I couldn't blame her if she was offended. Lesson learned. Again, I think. I feel like this isn't the first time this has happened to me, just in a different setting. 

Anyway, after watching Austin kick butt, we made our way to Emerson Lanes. We weren't sure if we'd be able to get a lane, but they had a few available. They boys did a great job! Mostly. Ash was overly confident but he wasn't quite strong enough to get the ball all of the way down to the pins by himself, and we had to get a worker to rescue it once when it stopped halfway down the lane. I told him he had to wait on me or his dad to take his turn, but he kept trying to go it alone 🤦🏻‍♀️. Quinn was excited when his score equaled 6-7 on his 9th frame. 

Philip and I used to bowl all of the time when we had a bowling alley in town, and we used to be pretty decent at it. We haven't been in years, but I reallllly wanted to beat him. I was disappointed that I didn't 😂. 

I at least broke 100. Quinn and Ash had bumpers, we did not. 

We ended our trip at the Walmart in Parkersburg because we needed groceries, but it’s always fun to find the gems that other Walmarts get way sooner than ours ever does. I’m a sucker for a new product to try and I follow a ridiculous amount of FB pages where they post new food finds. I didn’t need two different kinds of Cheerios, but I got them anyway. I rarely shop in person at Walmart because I’m not a masochist, but when I do go into ours, I always stalk the shelves for things I’ve seen online. I had been looking for Banana Caramel Cheerios forever, and I found those in Parkersburg. I also found Confetti Cheerios. Two days later, the Walmart app notified me that Cocoa Loops were in stock in town, so I got yet another box of cereal to try. I literally don’t even eat cereal, pretty much ever 😂. The boys eat it occasionally but they both thought the Cocoa Loops were gross. They were wrong, they’re fine, but they won’t eat them, so I guess that’s on me now. I loved cereal as a kid, they’re a couple of weirdos. Oh, and both flavors of Cheerios were good, but the Confetti ones were better.