Hello and I hope that your week if off to a great start. I apologize for the disappearing act but my attention has been focused on this one for the last few days.

Finn and I had an awesome weekend but our days were ALL IN and by the time night rolled around, I just wanted to veg on the couch.

Here are some photos from our weekend! 🙂

The only photo of our Friday that I have is the one above. We took a quick trip to ALDI and I cooked my favorite pizza-inspired spaghetti squash casserole (Finn had three servings!) and we hung out at home. Cooking the casserole was fun because Finn is super into helping me in the kitchen right now. I gave him some mushrooms to help me cut and he was so cute doing it that I ended up ordering him these toddler knives so that he can feel more successful/legit.

We were back in the kitchen on Saturday morning. I baked Finn’s favorite banana muffins and again, he was totally into helping me. As of now, he moves his stool all over the kitchen to go where he wants to go. I can’t decide if I should get a learning tower or if it’s too late and the stool will work. I would LOVE your input on how long your little ones used the learning tower or if you got by with a stool.

We also made a batch of my homemade granola and pulled the sourdough starter out of the fridge and got it fed. Bread baking is happening this week!

It’s a rare occasion that I can willingly and happily get Finn into the stroller these days but he was totally up for it on Saturday morning. He ate some cheese crackers and I got to run four miles…which is no easy feat these days with the heavy stroller + my hilly neighborhood. He wouldn’t let me put a jacket on him but he would let me bundle him in a blanket so it was all a win!

The fresh air did Finn well because he slept for two hours after our run!

I thought we might go out and run some errands on Saturday afternoon but we ended up staying close to home. Finn wanted to play in the back yard with the dogs so took the opportunity to do some yard work. Our evening looked like lots of dog cuddles and Finn telling Zoey that she was his “best friend forever.” He tried to avoid bedtime by telling me he wanted to snuggle Zoey “all night.” Heart melting.

Once he was down I watched the movie Herself on Amazon Prime per my mom’s suggestion. I cried a lot of tears.

We had a big outing on Sunday morning…a trip to IKEA! I moved into my house in August and there is still so much to do. I am on a bit of a tear right now to get things done and decorated so that I feel more settled. We got to IKEA around 11 and I was shocked to see that there was a line around the building to get in. Luckily, it moved quickly and we were in within 25-30 minutes. Once we were in, I totally felt that people were very spaced out.

Finn was a trooper for our three-hour door-to-door excursion. I honestly could not have asked for him to be any sweeter, politer or more well-behaved. Things got real once we got down to the warehouse and I had to pull Finn’s cart and push a freight cart at the same time. My mom said, “wasn’t there someone who could help you.” I told her this is a tradeoff for the low prices, haha.

Finn ended up skipping his nap because our IKEA trip ran a little too far into it but he was in great spirits for the afternoon. We played in the back yard for a couple of hours and then watched Cars 2 while I assembled IKEA furniture. The picture of Zoey above is an adequate image of how we all felt come 7:30p.

I want to roll Monday into this recap because it was a big day for my little guy! We were up early for Finn’s first dentist appointment!!! We went to Carolina Kids Dentistry to visit my friend Dr. Bevin Malley. I was worried that Finn might have a bit of a hard time because he’s not a big fan of anyone or thing messing with or touching his face but he rocked it He also got a great report so I was very relieved!

We met his nanny back at the house and she took Finn and his BFF to a local aquarium while I went to teach yoga. I met my handyman back at the house and he helped me with a punch list that I’ve been working on for him. He’s coming back again tomorrow. I’m really serious about this house stuff right now.

Speaking of…Finn and I made a trip to Target after his swim lesson this evening. I needed to get things like dish soap, toilet paper, mascara, lightbulbs, socks, etc but I also wanted to look for laundry baskets, rugs, curtains and pillows. Y’all, I found these throw pillows that I wanted for the couch and Finn was in seventh heaven to have them in the cart. He set himself up like this and I was cracking up.

And once again…we are all settled in for the night and feeling relaxed. While I was on my home projects mission, I decided to get the dogs a new bed. It was delivered today and they are pretty much obsessed with it. I can’t blame them.

Finn goes back to his dad for a couple of days tomorrow and I will be in major GO mode to get work and personal things done. It is the strangest thing to transition from full-on mommy mode to having Finn away from me and it always takes me a few hours to settle down. I never stop missing him but I am getting better at it. <3

Enjoy the week, friends!

QUESTIONS

I’d love to hear your experiences with learning towers. 

Any suggestions for fun kitchen tools for toddlers?

Have you watched any good movies lately?