Oh My Garden!

Tomorrow is our 12 wedding anniversary and Wednesday will make 18 years together. I’ve spent more than half of my life with Philip, isn’t that crazy? It’s been a great life so far and having Quinn has only made it that much better! It’s so fun watching your spouse turn into a parent. They’re so cute together. There’s no one I would rather navigate this parenting journey with than him 🙂.  It’s helpful that we know each other so well because he can tell when I really need a break without me having to ask. Like one day last week when Quinn had screamed at me for the 700th time and I did not share my calm. Instead I lost my shit for a second and raised my voice at him. Philip decided it might be a good idea for Quinn to help him outside. It was a good idea 😆. A couple of days later Quinn spent the majority of the day wanting me to hold him. He didn’t have a fever or any other symptoms aside from whininess. He may have been teething, I’m not sure. After carrying him around all day I was touched out. Even on our evening walk I got annoyed with Sophie for constantly brushing up against my leg. I was just like, “Everyone stop touching me.” It felt as though all of my kids were intentionally getting on my nerves that day, even though none of our kids have the capacity to intentionally get on my nerves (yet). Don’t get me wrong, I love naptime cuddles and it would be easy to feel like a bedtime wizard with the magic touch, being the only one who is “allowed” to rock Quinn to sleep. However, it can be overwhelming sometimes when he’s tired but he doesn’t wanna sleep and instead wants to flop from side to side while laying on you. Philip can’t take over because it wouldn’t do any good. Oh, and you know how forensic scientists use teeth for identification purposes? Babies do too. I get a full dental exam at least once a day by Quinn, who, in his sleepy state, has to verify it is indeed me who’s rocking him to sleep. He also has to know that I’m giving him my full attention. For real, if both of my hands aren’t on him, like because one of them is holding my phone, he will wake up. No kidding. That’s ok because he deserves my full attention but sometimes I would like to be able to check a quick text. Lots of times though there’s nothing I’d rather do than rock him to sleep. I’m very aware of how quickly time passes and I’m going to miss that some day. He had his one year checkup and he is progressing on a normal growth pattern. He’s become quite an adventurous eater, willing to try almost anything I feed him. Because of this I’ve decided it’s time to get my shit together and start eating healthier again. I don’t want him surviving off of Pop-Tarts and French fries. Especially because now that I’m not breast feeding anymore (hallelujah!!), my metabolism is going to slow down. This quarantine has done nothing good for my mid-section. I’m feeling like a busted can of biscuits at the moment and it’s not a good feeling. I used to give my mom so much shit for wearing “mom jeans” because I thought wearing pants clear up to your belly button was ridiculous and extremely uncomfortable. Now that I’ve got some extra cushion, I’m thankful they’re trendy again so I can keep it all tucked in 😂😂. This is perfect timing to get back on track though as all of the goodness of my garden is starting to ripen! I can’t tell you how much I love being able to feed Quinn fresh foods that I’ve grown. He lovessssssss cucumbers. He eats them almost every day. We had so many come on at once and now our plants are done but I’m getting ready to plant another round for fall harvest. I had originally started tomato seeds but I think I transplanted too soon and they didn’t survive the frost that wouldn’t go away in May. I waited too long to shop for plants and if not for our neighbors who had extra plants and were kind enough to share, we wouldn’t have much of a garden this year. We have a mixture of tomato varieties and they’re starting to ripen. I’m excited to introduce some tomatoes to Quinn’s cucumber salad in the next couple of days. We have blackberries ripening in the back yard, too. I actually don’t like blackberries all that much but Philip does and I hope Quinn does, too. He picked one last week when he was meandering around the deck railing. He took a bite but spit it out. I got him to take a second one but it didn’t stay in his mouth either so we’ll see how he feels about them when they get a little riper. 

Speaking of things he spit out, Chris came to drop off his birthday gift and in true Chris fashion, snagged an onion from our garden on the way in and started eating it. Quinn was curious so she gave him a piece. This was his reaction: 

😂😂😂 oh man I love her! 

I’ve decided to become a gardening guru. It only took until the mid-season of year 4 to decide to finally learn something but better late than never *l🤷🏻‍♀️🤪. I’m learning about the plants I have and the plants I want to start next year. 

I FINALLY finished Quinn’s garden shed. Well, the outside anyway. I may paint the inside at some point but I’ve got some other projects started that I have to finish first. Michelle called me out on it so I figured I had better get it done so I could post a pic 😂. She was like, “Did I miss Quinn’s garden shed?” I’m glad you’re holding me accountable girl! 😉. Here ya go:

BEFORE

AFTER

Umm so the door is a little crooked because we need hinges but it’s fine for now 😉

He has his own flower garden, even though there’s only one flower in it right now. 

I made curtains from a shower liner 

I used foam tiles over garden pavers for the floor and hung up all of his garden tools 🙂 

😊😊😊

I think he likes it 🙂

In the spirit of eating healthier, one of my (kind of) recent hobbies has been trying new foods through the Hello Fresh service. We had this once before and really liked it but decided to take a break for while. Since we’re not eating out, this is a way to try new foods that feel like they come from a restaurant because they have you do fancy things I wouldn’t normally do, like squeeze fresh lime juice on things and fry up some carrot curls 🤷🏻‍♀️😂. It’s always nice to mix it with some new recipes and learn new ways of cooking foods. Here’s some food porn for your enjoyment. 

Chicken fajitas 

Spicy honey chicken 

Crispy cheddar chicken

Mexican chicken and rice bowls 

Easy cheesy black beans tacos. Quinn loved these!

Creamy dill chicken

Chicken over garlic Parmesan spaghetti

Lemon chive chicken 

Philip always makes Quinn his own little dish of whatever we’re eating 😆

So we eat a lot of chicken. I didn’t realize how much until I started naming the dishes 🤷🏻‍♀️   


No post is complete without pics of my girls, too. 

He loves her so much. She likes him alright 🤣

Poor Soph, the middle child who still thinks she’s the baby ❤️ 

Motherhood: Month 11.5

Well, Quinn had his last “first” holiday last Saturday and his first birthday on Friday. That’s just unbelievable. This past year has flown by and our lives have changed so much. He’s brought so much joy, it’s indescribable. I feel so lucky to be his mother!

People have asked me how it feels to have a one year old and it makes me sad that he’s not a baby anymore but he’s so fun now. The next inevitable question is, “time for another one?” Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t but why can’t anyone ever just be satisfied with how things are? Why are we always rushing to the next thing? When you start dating someone all anyone wants to know is when you’re getting married (even when you meet your future husband when you’re super young!) When you do finally get married, they want to know when you’re having a baby. For the record, that’s the most annoying question ever and people should really stop asking it, you never know what issues someone might be dealing with. If you finally have a baby, everyone wants to know when the next one is coming 🙄. Can we stop this cycle already? Geezzzzzzzz.

Anyway, my goal was to pump and feed him breast milk until his first birthday. We started transitioning to whole milk a couple of weeks ago when I began mixing his bottles half whole milk and half breast milk. He’s done well with the change and using whole milk allowed me to build up a surplus of breast milk so I chose Freedom Day, the 4th of July, to emancipate myself from my pump. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it all day because I was too uncomfortable and ended up pumping late that night. However, I’ve only pumped a couple of times since and I’m waiting for the milk to reabsorb or to pee it out or to do whatever it is that breast milk does when it does not get expressed. I can attest that it is not a fun process for anyone who has never produced breast milk. If you have any tips for…I dont know, soaking it up or whatever the correct terminology is, other than using cabbage leaves for soreness, throw em at me. I’m very pleased to have reached my goal and the inconvenience was definitely worth it give my boy a healthy start, but I. AM. SO. OVER. IT. 🤪

Quinn develops more and more personality all the time, most of it good and some of it we hope is a passing phase, such as his life of grand theft. He escaped his room while I was pumping a couple of weeks ago, ventured to our bedroom, where Philip was napping, and nabbed his dad’s cell phone off the nightstand. He then pushed it as he crawled back into his room and you should’ve seen his face when I discovered what he had in his hand. He was SO proud 🤦🏻‍♀️😂. That’s the biggest offense he’s committed but petty theft is also on his record as he fled with his cousin Haleigh’s bag of M&M’s one day when Lori was watching him while I worked. He didn’t eat any but he also didn’t return them when asked, a skill he has mastered, but only demonstrates when he wants to. He recently started putting things in his mouth, getting my attention to alert me to it, and then “running” away when told to give it to me. What a fun game 🙄. He can go pretty fast in his bear crawl. It’s actually amusing to watch him when it’s not something he will choke on that you’re chasing him for. He’ll be walking on his own any day now. His Nana got him a big truck to push. He had a couple of push toys but the truck works really well because he can push it one way, crash, and then walk around the side to the other end and go back the way he came. He did that forever the other day. It really helps wear him out 😂. Yesterday he took 4 independent steps when he let go of the ottoman and was coming to me but I kept moving further away from him. It’s coming and someone help me when it does!

I can’t imagine what it will be like when he can move even quicker than now. Anytime he spots a “forbidden” cabinet open he makes a direct line to it to try to get his hands on anything he’s not allowed to have. If you get it closed before he gets there, he screams manically. The screaming is another phase we hope will pass. He’s been very unreasonable lately. I’m going to say that I’m being funny, just for the people who may not be sure (🙄😉). He’s still teething so I’m hoping that is the source of the howler monkey stage. He now has 5 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom with one more on the way. 

He got several new toys for his birthday and I gotta say, I’m pretty excited about them. I was bored playing with his old stuff all of the time 😂. We had to cancel his birthday party due to the recent outbreak of COVID in town. It was going to be at the park but we didn’t think it would be a responsible move to bring a big group of people together. I canceled my shelter reservation and then two days later the health department closed the parks for the next two weeks. So even if I hadn’t canceled myself, it would have been canceled for me. We still did a fun photo shoot, with a smash cake included that I made for him. We intentionally did it right before bath time but he didn’t get nearly messy as I expected, honestly. Philip cut 2 pieces from the back of it before he started so we could eat them and then helped Quinn get started by feeding him a couple of bites with a fork. Well then he wanted to just use his fork 🤦🏻‍♀️. I eventually took it from him because I was afraid he would fall with the fork in his hand. He messed in it a bit and took some bites but he didn’t get crazy. 

I had already made the decorations so I hung them on a (wrinkly) sheet for his photo shoot. Philip taught me how to edit the wrinkles out 😉. 

I hate being wasteful so I wanted to decorate his cake with something he could use afterward. I found some finger puppets on Buy Buy Baby for super cheap 🙂. 

Look at our big boy standing by himself 😉. 

❤️❤️❤️. My wish for him on his birthday and every day is to always know how loved he is! 

Now that you’ve all followed me through my first year of parenthood, I think I’ll take my blog back to it’s roots and start writing about my hobbies again. There will always be some Quinn reports because he’s the biggest part of my life now but I don’t want to forget who am I outside of being a mother to these 3 💜💜💙