Check-up: 4 years

Today, August 30, 2018, Dan and I celebrate four years of marriage!

Ahhh, what lil babies we were.

Four years feels really insignificant to me because it seems so tiny compared to how much life has actually happened in four years. But, whatever, yay! Four years!!

As always, we are doing our little relationship check-up every 6 months and answer the same set of questions. Back in February, I edited the questions slightly to focus more on our role as parents since that title pretty much rules our lives now.

See our previous check-ups here:
6 months
1 year
18 months
2 years
2 1/2 years
3 years
3 1/2 years

we always answer separately so similarities are coincidental.

4 years:

1) What is your favorite memory of the last six months?

Dan: Kip's first birthday.
Steph: Celebrating Kippy's first birthday!

2) What is your favorite part of parenthood so far?

Dan: Watching Kippy explore and discover new things.
Steph: Witnessing Kip develop from a little baby who did nothing into a little boy with interests and opinion. Changes every single day!

3) Something you weren't expecting about parenthood.

Dan: How quickly the day passes when I spend it with Kippy.
Steph: Always feeling tired. The more sleep we manage the more tired I am.

4) Something you were pleasantly surprised by about parenthood.

Dan: How fun it is to see how excited Kippy is to see us in the morning.
Steph: No matter how exhausted I am, I'm still so excited to wake up and see Kippy in the morning.

5)  Something you learned about your partner after becoming a parent.

Dan: Steph is at least twice as fast at changing Kip's diaper and clothes compared to me.
Steph: Dan has always been an excellent "team" player but parenthood is really a partnership and he REALLY contributes much more than I expected and I'm really proud of him and how many new skills he has learned this past year in his role of Daddy.

6) Something to work on as a parent and a partner.

Dan: That I would take more initiative in helping to meal plan and prep.
Steph: Vocalizing my gratitude and encouragement for each of my guys and to always support a positive self-worth in each of them.

7) Something to look forward to.

Dan: Kippy walking, Kippy talking, and Christmas!
Steph: Kip learning to walk and being able to participate in more fun adventures with him

8) Favorite thing about your partner right now.

Dan: Her resiliency.
Steph: His constant and committed devotion to this family and the ways in which he shows us his love.

Day-venture with Daddy and Kip

Last week Dan and I took Kip on our summer adventure. Mandy and I did something similar back here.

We wanted to visit the zoo as part of our summer bucket list and it ended up being an ideal day for this adventure. After Kip's naps and lunch we drove over to the Prospect Park Zoo.

The last time Dan and I were here was during our homey-moon. We were a little underwhelmed by this zoo at the time since it is small and the seals are pretty much the best part. But, for a kid Kip's age, this zoo is perfect. It doesn't take a full day to explore, it's not super crowded, and it's just the right amount of stimulation for a one-year-old. We got there right before the seals were being fed so we watched a bit of their tricks and then wandered around the indoor exhibits.

Kip loved pointing at things and seemed generally excited and happy to be out exploring.

We got some dip-n-dots to share, which he loved.

And squeezed into the photo booth. Heehe.

We got Kippy a tiny little stuffed seal to remember his first zoo trip and then we headed outside the zoo into Prospect Park for a carousel ride, or two.

I took Kip first.

And then Daddy and Kip took a spin.

It was a really wonderful day, just the three of us. Lovely fall-like weather but still warm. Kip was in a great mood and we all had a lot of fun. Looking forward to more adventure days with my guys.

Weekending it - Beach Style

After a few fallish days, the heat is back!

LONG LIVE SUMMER!!!!

This weekend was so nice that Mandy generously offered to stay and watch Kip so that Dan and I could take our anniversary beach day tradition a little early. We had planned to go this coming Friday but the weather looked iffy so it made sense to take advantage of the blues skies while we had them. Big thanks to Mandy for her idea and her generosity to hangout with Kippy for the day.

We visited Asbury Park in New Jersey earlier this summer but we didn't do the beach so Dan and I made plans to come back for our anniversary beach day. It was perfect! Sunny skies, cool breeze, clean sand, and lovely water.

Dan and I hungout on the beach for about an hour, snoozed without worrying about where Kip was crawling off to, collected our traditional jar of sand and some shells, waded in the water, made our heart in the sand, and then headed to the boardwalk for lunch and a treat.

In years past we've done overnight weekend trips to the Jersey shore to celebrate our anniversary.

Homey-moon in Cape May 2014
Wildwood 2015
Atlantic City 2016
South Beach 2017

Last year, Kip was only a few weeks old on our anniversary and I didn't want to leave him for long so we just did a quick trip over to Staten Island for like two hours. This year we didn't want to do the overnight so we compromised with a full day and it ended up being just perfect. Saved on the cost of the hotel stay, did everything we wanted to without getting bored, and still went far enough away that it felt like vacation.

Celebrating four years of marriage this week. Only four! This past year as new parents really made our newlywed days feel like at least a decade ago! This beach day was well deserved.

Bottle Babe

When I was scrolling through photos for Kip's birthday I realized I had SO many more photos of Kip with his bottle than I do of him nursing.

Excuse me while I go cry about where the last year went.

Jane's Carousel

Over Kippy's birthday weekend I mentioned we took him to ride on Jane's Carousel in Dumbo under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Kippy had been on one carousel before when Mandy and I took him to the Seaglass Carousel in Battery Park but this was his first "traditional" carousel. He was VERY interested in the horses. As we were waiting in line he was excitedly pointing and babbling. Auntie Jessy took these beautiful photos with her fancy iPhone with the portrait mode. I love them. Thanks Auntie Jess.

Weekending it!

We had a pretty mellow weekend. The weather has been so humid and rainy here and then it suddenly felt like fall. I hate the abrupt shift like that but I was grateful for a break in the humidity.

On Saturday we drove over to a new park in a fancy neighborhood. They built a really fun playground underneath the elevated subway tracks in Carroll Gardens and we wanted to check it out. Being as Kip can't walk yet and we didn't prepare for water play, he just went on the swing for a bit and then the slide a few times. We will be back!!

Next summer will be a blast park hopping around all the fancy school yards in Downtown Brooklyn.

Saturday night, Dan, Mandy, and I went into the city together to see Mean Girls on Broadway!!!

It was Dan's birthday present to Mandy and me and it was epic. We all loved it. The music was great, acting was stellar, and the script was funny. It was pretty true to the movie and had everyone's favorite lines from the film.

It's was our first time leaving Kip with a non-family babysitter for the evening. Fortunately, he had no clue since he was asleep the whole time!

On Sunday all we did was church. Dan had to serve early so Kip had access to all the toys, all to himself. And then refused to nap during the service so I was exhausted by noon.

The weather was crummy all day so after church we just did grocery shopping and hanging out.

Today feels like fall again. Sigh. BUT, I caught Kip's first independent steps!!! Love that I was able to see the first ones. Happy Monday!!!

Toyland

I'm really glad I shared Kippy's favorite "baby" toys last week because I knew he was going to get overwhelmed with new toys for his birthday. #firstchildproblems

It's kind of insane the number of toys he has now. So many presents to unwrap that we had him open them all over the course of several days. He got to play with each and every one and then a few got put away in the closet to pull-out on rainy days or to swap out other toys. Mandy put all his baby toys he was too old for into storage, we pulled some older items to pass along to the church nursery, and others are going to Mandy's place to play with when we visit her. I'm adamant that the apartment will not be overrun with toys so we have several methods to store things away.

Now, onto the presents.

Marmee and Poppa (my parents) got Kip an IKEA play kitchen and loads of fun plastic foods. Mandy picked everything out for him and I'm most excited about this toy. Mandy and I LOVED to play house as kids and would have killed for this selection of play food. Kip is pretty into it too although he doesn't yet know how to really utilize it's full features. No worries, Mandy and I will play with it plenty until he's ready.

Grandma and Grandpa (Dan's parents) got Kip a fun push/ride-on toy. Kip wanted to play with it before we had even assembled it! It's a perfect little walker toy for him since he isn't walking independently yet but it also has a small spot to put a little stuffed toy. He enjoys filling it with other small things at the moment. They also got him a VTech dump truck which he LOVES as well and a cute outfit set.



Auntie Jess got Kip a play kitchen sink that you put water in and the faucet works so you can actually wash the dishes!! Kip played with this at a friend's house and I really liked that it could be a super fun novelty toy to pull out when the weather gets bad. He liked it all on it's own but with the water inside I imagine he could play with it in the bathroom for extra fun. And she also gifted him lots of pairs of cute Toms shoes to grow into.

Auntie Mandy. Oh boy. I honestly lost track of everything Auntie Mandy got Kip. She literally has an Amazon wish list she made called "World's Best Aunt" that she has all kinds of things on it that she wants for him. You guys, I can't control her. She got him a little hedgehog toy for fine motor development and color recognition, he got a little mini cash register with more fine motor tasks, he got a little Crayola light-up tablet that lets him "finger paint" without paints, stuff for his kitchen set, basically his entire wardrobe, and other stuff I can't think of because it was so much.

Aunt Judy and Aunt Kandi sent a huge box from Kansas that arrived this week filled with more presents. He got a fun little tool workbench with lots of things to push and move, a Little People zoo train, puzzle, book and matching stuffed toy, several other interactive toys, and clothes!

Dan's boss got him a little red firetruck. Oh, yeah and Dan and I got him stuff. We didn't need to, obviously, but I picked up some things from Toys R Us closeout. He got some mega blocks, which are clearly a winner for Dan. We also got a few o-ball cars and some small traditional wood blocks.

Who wants to come over and play???