Messy Play

It's true! I LOVE a good mess! Now to clarify, I don't particularly love a messy kitchen sink, or loads and loads of dirty laundry. However, I do LOVE to do fun messy things in my classroom and with Harrison! Today's example of a fun mess,

Finger painting outside!

 *Note to other toddler Moms, this was the best idea I've had yet! He got to be as messy as he wanted and all it took was 2 min with the water hose to clean up!
                                      

I just love this sweet little messy face.

(Another advantage to painting outside, he can run around the yard while I put everything away)

Messy boy checking on the garden. 

I've got a few more messy play ideas on the list for this summer, I'll be sure to share them as we go!

Meet Henry!

Henry is the newest member to the Cowan family!

He is a very sweet and extra fluffy Golden Retriever who has won this little boys heart!  

Sweet puppy kisses! 

Harrison likes to take the food out of his bowl and try to feed it to him one little piece at a time :))

I have a feeling these two will be the best of friends! 

Potty Training Day 1

Let me start out by saying that I have very low expectations of this actually working. However, I wanted to blog about it for a few reasons, 1) I don't want to forget these crazy days. 2) I figured a few fellow moms out there could use a good laugh :)
So, with that being said here is a run down of our first attempt at potty training.


Once H turned 1 we started sitting him on the potty before bath time every night. Occasionally he would go, and we would make a huge deal out of it but it was never consistent. In the past few weeks he has started telling us when he has already gone and needs a new diaper. *Hint hint mom*, huh? :)
This morning when talking with my mom she informed me that the almanac says this week is a good time to attempt potty training so I thought what the heck, lets give it a shot! I have had a few moms tell me that they had great success with the bare bottoms potty training method so I thought I'd give it a try too. (You can buy the book on bare bottom potty training, or you can google it and save yourself money and a trip to the book store. I googled it. In a nutshell, your kiddo wears nothing from the waist down. Apparently this helps them realize when they need to go. You offer them lots to drink throughout the day, stopping drinks around 5 PM.)
 We were off to a great start, 2 for 2 first thing this morning. Not too bad I thought to myself. However, I was quickly humbled with 3 back to back accidents. By this time it was nap time, H was grouchy and very tired of me taking him to the potty every 15 minutes so I stuck a diaper back on him and down for a nap he went. When he woke 2 hours later he was barely wet, we went to the potty, success again! The rest of the afternoon consisted of several little puddles here and there and a few successful trips to the potty. This momma was frazzled! I called it quits at 6:00. Dinner, bath and a diaper for him it was and I went for a run!
I suppose it wasn't too bad for our first attempt. I think we had 5 or 6 successful trips to the potty. I lost count of our not so successful trips (aka accidents on the floor). If nothing else comes from todays training, we have super clean floors! Heres to another wild and crazy day tomorrow!

The Color Run

The Color Run Nashville 2013

Family Style!

Ready to run!

After the race, we let Harrison toss our color pack :)

He decided to try to eat a little of it too! 

Dancin' to the music!

Color toss!!

Huggs for Momma!

Playing Ball with Daddy

The cutest color runner around! 

A Snowy Sunday

The Nap Time Review

The other night at dinner my handy husband pointed out that I have not blogged in quite a while. He asked "How come you don't blog any more". My response,  "I don't have time.". Which is quite true. The days of blogging while Harrison was swinging in his swing, or jumping in the Jumperoo are long gone. Most afternoons around the house are now filled with sounds of cars rolling across the floor, blocks crashing, magnets click clacking on the fridge and the all to familar questions like "what's in your mouth?" or "how did you get on top of the kitchen table?" Haha!
Although our lives are now hectic and loud, I still love it!

Here's a quick review of what's been going on since November :)

* We had a WONDERFUL Christmas together this year! Harrison was able to enjoy opening his gifts this time around.

*We have welcomed a new member to our family, sweet Archer Keith was born on 12-12-12 and is pretty stinking cute if I may say so myself :)

*Mahlon (also know as Handy Husband) has been putting his carpentry skills to good us helping his brother build a home for he and his fiancé.

*His help in this building project has been put on hold while he runs all over the state for work (thanks to last weeks tornados and strong winds).

*Harrison is 17 months old today. Holy geeze!

*I am trying to convince Mahlon we need chickens :). I really don't want chickens per say, just farm fresh eggs. So, if you or anyone you know has farm fresh eggs my husband would appreciate you selling us some :)

* I saw this ridiculous diet on Pinterest where you give up one thing each month and thought I'd give it a shot.  January was sweets-major fail! But, this month is fried foods, I think I can do it :)

*My totally awesome friend Lauren had a sweet new baby girl and she is absolutely precious and perfect! And she gives me baby fever. That is until my sweet toddler starts to have a screaming fit, then the fever breaks :)

Well, that's all of the update for now- I hear a sweet little "momma....momma!!!" coming from the other room. This Nap Time Review is over ;)

Outgrown

While I was rocking Harrison to sleep tonight I realized something very frightening. We have *almost* outgrown the glider. :( We were both turned sideways scrunched into the back corner so we would have as much room as possible. As he was drifting off to sleep, (legs dangling off the side) I started thinking back to all the things he has outgrown in the past {nearly} 15 months. The first thing that I can remember him outgrowing was the baby bath. I'm pretty sure we only used the net that attaches to the top of the bath about 5 times before it was "outgrown". Then it was the swing, the play mat, the bouncy seat, the bumbo seat, the bassinet, the car seat carrier, the second (larger) baby bath, bottles, and tons and tons of clothes along the way. Depressing? Slightly! Although it makes me pretty sad to pack all these things away, I know that it is a necessity in order to make room for all the new "toddler" accessories that are beginning to take over our home!
Crazy to think that in only a few short months we have gone from

this tiny cuddly newborn 

to this rambunctious ALWAYS on the go toddler! 

I can't imagine all that we will "outgrow" in the next year. 

Here's to growing up!