Are Toddler’s Ready to Snow Ski?

After my sister took her two boys (5 & 7) skiing last year, I've wanted to teach my boy early too. And it always takes time to plan a good trip, but it takes extra time to plan travel on a budget. Needless to say, we've been counting down to this trip for about 6 months. 

My parents and I shopped bargains and deals until we booked it all for better than fair prices. If you want to know how I book travel, one piece at a time while on a budget, comment below. With enough requests, I'll write a separate post about this.

Day 1: My boy has been so excited about traveling on and airplane with his grandparents, my parents who go by Popaw & Lollee. We have slightly different travel needs than they do, but I found us flight times that seemed perfect for all. Atlanta departure time was 1:05pm and arrival into Denver was 2:15. Just enough time on both ends to be relaxed about our travels. Or so I thought...

I thought my boy would nap on the plane, and if not, I figured he'd definitely sleep in the car. Unfortunately, this little man fell asleep during landing and in the car two times right before we got out to shop and eat. Oh, we had a delayed arrival time which pushed us right onto the interstate for Denver rush hour traffic. Awesome, right? We tried to make the most of it by jumping off the interstate for a wholesale shopping trip, and then scooted up the mountain range to Idaho Springs for a great meal at Tommyknocker Craft Brewery and Pub. I mean, they have an AWESOME Peach IPA, and I didn't even get the name of it.

Transitioning from Crib to Bed

I’ve been told there is no set time to transition my toddler from a baby crib to a regular bed, but let me just tell you… This is an area I didn’t know I had preconceived ideas about, until I did.

Since before #MyBoy turned two, I felt the need to get him out of his crib. This urge to get him into a big boy bed just creeped in and wouldn’t leave. It was probably me worrying about what other people thought more than anything, but I’ll tell you this… you can’t make parenting choices based on other people’s opinions. So, I chose to look for a few signs before transitioning #MyBoy from his crib to a bed, and I feel comfortable with the timing and results.

1. Is he climbing out of his bed? I knew once this happened, we had safety concerns on our hands.
2. Does he get out of bed at naps or bedtime? Once he started showing signs that he was becoming more confident climbing and getting in & out of the crib was approaching, I tested his obedience. Test him in a regular bed (at home or away) during bedtime (naps too). Does he stay in bed without testing authority or does he get up and down, drawing out the bedtime process? I tested this theory during a 3-night weekend away. We were lucky because #MyBoy stayed in the bed when I laid him down for naps and bedtime.
3. Does he get excited when you talk about a big boy bed? If he gets excited when you mention a big boy bed, he may be ready.

As I waited for the safety need to arrive, I enjoyed the phase of having an immobile toddler. In other words, he wasn’t getting out of bed after naps or first thing in the morning without my knowledge. If you’re living it, enjoy it, right?  However, my intuition slowly informed me that it was time for the transition. I confirmed his readiness by testing the three areas mentioned and BOOM! We successfully transitioned him this past weekend.

We live in a 2-bedroom space, but we have extra space in a small 10x8 room. I used the small room as his baby room to designate our 2^nd room as a guest space. Since it was time to transition and we already had a king size bedroom suite in our guest room, we transitioned him straight to a new room at the same time. I am happy to report that this has been a parent win! He is sleeping great in his new space and his old space is the perfect playroom, housing a lot of the toys that use to take up extra living room space.

Now, let me acknowledge that my theory may not work for your 2.5 year old. Ages for making this transition vary from home to home, family to family. There is not always an easy answer. While I was trying to make the best decisions for our family, I read the different blogs & baby-site articles. You may find your answers elsewhere. For instance, CaféMom.com gives 5 signs your toddler is ready for his own bed, and BabySleepSite.com says the average age for making the switch from crib to bed is between 3 and 4 years. Regardless of where or who you get your encouragement, trust your gut. A parent’s intuition will guide you through those choices that don’t need to be perfect. So give yourself a little grace, time to be sad when the time comes to move your toddler from a crib to a big boy bed because it is sad, and then move on. Enjoy the win and the next stage.

Tell me how you knew your child was ready for this transition. 

Celebrating a Special Second

#MYBOY IS TWO COOL

After throwing a killer first birthday for my son last year, we had such a hard time deciding what to do for his second. Who wants an invite? Who will have hurt feelings if they don't get an invite? How many years is the party really for the parents vs the kiddo? Well, we decided it was already time to real it in. We kept it to immediate family and our kiddo's besties, and here's hoping we didn't hurt any of our dear friend's feelings... We love you all!

Since the kid loves water, we did a little slip-n-slide themed party, and the kiddos (young and older) helped him celebrate by getting real wet!!! #PARTOFMEWANTEDINONTHEACTION

 

We are so blessed to have such an amazing circle of family who drove from near and far to celebrate our boy! I feel he is worth your miles, and I hope you enjoyed your time with us as much as we enjoyed our time with you!!!  

It's funny; Rhett has been going through this shy phase. So, if you've seen him act a little clingy towards his mama this summer, I hope you've not taken it personally. Stick around for ten or fifteen minutes and he'll be your best friend. ...and by the way, he's growing into all his toys.  He loves them all, and we appreciate you helping provide him with such a variety!

Before I enter another part of the story from his birthday party, I want to stop and mention some of my favorite things about this kid of mine.  

• He has called me "Mama Mine" for almost a year; it's just recently turning into "Mama" or "Mommy".
• It's pretty sweet to hear him say "Dadeeeee", especially when TBone's out of town and we FaceTime him.
• He calls his puppy, Chevy, "Sheee".
• He is starting to refer to himself in third person, finger pointing at himself and saying "Rhee".
• He loves the outdoors. He wants to be outside ALL DAY LONG. 
• He wants to hunt with his daddy already. "Dee" "Dadeeeee" "Rhee" "Bye Bye"
• Though sometimes a little jealousy creeps in (*wink*wink*), I love how much he loves his Lollee. "LaLaLaLaLaLa"
• He can name all his grandparents and almost all his cousins, though the pronunciation is not perfect, it's sweet to hear him try.
• Overall, he's a pretty good kid, and I could not be more in love with another human being... TBone, except for you!!

All right... since the news has already been shared about us being pregnant and losing the baby, I'm gonna go ahead and share some fun pictures that I was able to capture when we shared our pregnancy news with these party guests. I mean, if you've got a house full of your closest, why not surprise them with an exciting announcement! Right?  

If I may, I'll set the stage. I had everyone surrounding the birthday boy for pictures. I made a few signs to make sure I was acting like myself. After we did candles, I said, "Oh wait, let's get a few more shots with these signs." I pulled out one that said, "Hootie Who, Rhett's Two!" Cute... haha... pics taken. Then, "Oh wait, I have one more!" As I passed this sign across the table for everyone to read, I was trying to capture facial expressions because it was the announcement. It said, "Only Child EXPIRING February 2017".  Check out these priceless photos...

 

  

This was a lot of fun, but weirdly... I got so nervous. I was shaking and strangely worried about the response. Anyway, this announcement is a piece of our story. Though we're extremely disappointed that our son's "only child status" is no longer expiring in February of 2017, I couldn't help but share this part of the day.

Once again, thank you so much for sharing in our day and for loving us through the ups and downs of life. We are continue to pray for two more feet in our family, and would be more than honored for you to pray about this with us! If you want to see more pictures from this birthday event, please visit Photography by TT, and if you were at this party and want to leave a note for his birthday book that wasn't ready, please leave it in the comments below for me to transfer to the book. 

Until next time... 

XOXO,

TT