African Geography (and other nerdy confessions)

I've been playing this jeopardy game on the iPad a lot at night lately. I know, nerdy. (I've also been reading one of my old estate planning books during nap time. I think that trumps the game for nerdiness). In doing so, I have come to realize something: I have no clue where any African country is. Like, if you gave me a map, I could locate Morocco, Egypt, Madagascar, and South Africa. And Djibouti, but that's just because it's pretty much the funniest country in the world (seriously, it's pronounced juh- booty. You know you just giggled inside).

I guess I can't be too disappointed in myself. I know all my state capitals and central and South American countries/capitals and the majority of Europe. That's not bad considering it's been 8 years since I've had a geography class.

 But at any rate, I've decided to be a more responsible world citizen and learn my countries already. I've got about a third of them down so far... Mostly the big ones. The small ones might take a little longer to learn.

I guess I figure if I blog about it (at 11 pm) maybe it will keep me motivated - I have to finish something I start if I tell others about it, right? Perhaps I'll even get all those crazy Asian countries down too... If I'm feeling particularly ambitious. ;)

Baby Easter Party!

When we bought our house last year, I was so excited to finally have a nice, flat back yard and a deck - an outdoor space we can actually enjoy! I LOVE being outside in the spring! The first several months we lived here we didn't do much outdoors except grill occasionally. Now that Samuel's older and loves being outside as much as I do, though, we have been playing back there almost every day.

When the weather started warming up, I got really pumped up and decided it would be fun to throw an Easter egg hunt in our backyard just for young walkers - you know, the ones like my child who would rather chase butterflies and eat rocks than actually hunt for Easter eggs. So yesterday afternoon I put out about 150 puff and goldfish-filled eggs (in plain view, of course), and whipped up a few springy desserts (it was hard to limit myself to just a few!), brought out some bubbles, put on some kiddo tunes, and Samuel and a few of his baby friends partied it up.

Okay, actually, they just figured out that opening the eggs meant getting food, so then they just sat there and ate. But that's okay. It was still adorbs! Hopefully we can do it again next year! (Maybe then the kids will enjoy it as much as the moms!)

[Excuse the blurry pictures - someone decided to smudge up my lens.]

27.

That number sure is inching closer to 30, isn't it? Eric has been making fun of me now that I'm in my "late 20s" and reminding me that I'll be 30 four months before he will. Thanks, honey. I guess it makes up for the fact that I could rent a car on our honeymoon and he couldn't? :-)

Anyway, my 27th birthday (week) was a pretty fun one! Last year's birthday kind of slipped away without much notice since we were dealing with a new baby/buying a house/getting ready for Eric's graduation. This year, though, I felt like we were really able to celebrate with a week of Christie. Woo-hoo!

The "big" thing we got to do was go on a whole day date alone! My sweet friend Tara offered to babysit Samuel and Eric had the day off. It was sunshiny and warm and pretty much perfect out. So I let Eric sleep in a bit and then we went to Panera for brunch. We went and wandered around Home Depot and talked about different house projects we want to do next year (I know, I do SUCH exciting things for my birthday, right??), and then we went downtown and went on a food tour of the city!

I was a little nervous about doing the food tour. It was kind of pricey and Eric and I can both be a little picky about things. However, it ended up being a fantastic experience and I'm SO glad we did it! We got to walk around downtown, learn a little bit about the history of the area, and try some yummy treats at six different restaurants. The managers/owners/chefs came out at each place too to tell us a little about the restaurants. Maybe I'm a big nerd, but I really really enjoyed it!

We also rented a super cheesy chick flick (Austenland) and Eric watched it with me and didn't fall asleep. So props to him for that. (Seriously, it was sooooooooo cheesy!!)

On Wednesday, the day before my birthday, Eric got off a little early, so he brought me home flowers and these yummy mint chocolate cookies from Dewey's that I love and then grilled me a steak. Mmm. 

On my actual birthday I got my free Starbucks coffee, had lunch with some friends and got some Dewey's cake and ice cream. Samuel was a bit of a disaster all day, but what's new there? Haha. Then we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner when Eric got off since it was 60 cent wing night and we had a gift card.

We topped it off by going out for Cold Stone Friday afternoon (after Eric came home with a nice new necklace and earrings for me since a certain little boy keeps breaking all my jewelry!) and then the food truck festival on Saturday (okay, we probably would have done that anyway. We REALLY love food!)

So, all in all, a pretty good week! the weather was lovely, I got to spend time with my family and some sweet friends. Here's to hoping 27 is a great great year!! 

14 Month Snapshot

My sweet boy is 14 months old! And what a silly thing he is. :-)

I can't keep count of all the crazy things he's done the last few months. He gets into funny habits for a week or so and then suddenly drops it for something new. I know now that he is older, I probably won't be very successful in blogging about him month to month, so I thought I'd try just doing a quick snapshot of what he's doing right now. We'll see how it goes!

Talking: Samuel's very into saying "Uh oh!" to everything. He LOVES cats and will yell "kit daaat!" anytime we see one. He says "ba ba" for banana and "boo boo" for blueberry. He also says "ba ba" for ball, so I kind of have to think in context to figure out what he means. Everything else is "da." Last week at the Y, the nursery workers said he went up to every kid in the room and started talking to them - "da da da da da da." Apparently he had a lot to say, but no one knew what! haha. At least he's social. :-)

He also started signing "more" and "please" last week and does those ALL. THE. TIME. It's cute, but I don't think he really understands what either of them means, which leaves me puzzled half of the time about what he wants!

Eating: Everything. Well, sometimes he gets a little picky and throws things on the floor, but I think it's more an "I'm not hungry" thing. He eats a banana every morning, still LOVES blueberries, goes crazy for yogurt and strawberries and applesauce. He pretty much wants anything that's on my plate too. He is obsessed with milk, and I hate that I can only give him 3 glasses a day. He's recently tried peanut butter (which he loves!), chocolate chips and sugar cookies (thanks, preschool! haha). We don't do much of that at our house, but I figure I can't shield him from sugar forever. We try to stay healthy, though!

Reading: Peek-a-Boo! I love you!; Mr. Brown says Moo; Quack Quack!; the Bible; Being in the Jungle; and, of course, the Foot Book! (He also loves "Where is Bear?" but he tore a few pages out on accident).

Playing: Samuel rides his little yellow motorcycle every morning. He still loves his activity table and any kind of ball. He's really into his blocks right now. He can stack 5-6, but usually only does 2-3 and then knocks them over. That's just more fun, I guess! He also loves his stacking cups and shape blocks and pretty much anything that involves putting one thing into another. Oh, and we've been going to the park every day. He loves the slide, hates the swing, and wants to climb on everything!!

Sleeping: Still sleeping pretty well at night, but naps are a ton of fun to deal with! We've finally cut down to just one nap a day. Last month baby boy decided to start waking up at like 5:45 am and not nap at all, so I knew something was going on... I finally made the executive decision to drop his am nap, and that has at least lessened the problem. He still gets REALLY tired around 11 and I have to force him to stay up til 12:30/1. He often fights going down for his one nap, but usually sleeps anywhere from an hour and a half (normal) to three hours (very abnormal!). He still goes to bed around 8 and, other than some random night time crying that seems to be in his sleep, stays down til 6:30-7:30. It's not ideal, but I'll take it.

Annnnd he's screaming. Guess nap time is over!