Check-up: 5 Years

Today Dan and I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary! Such a short time ago but it feels like a lifetime!

We are on our way to Cape May today for a little weekend getaway to the place where we had our Homey-moon five years ago!!! Crossing our fingers for good beach weather!

Today, I'm posting our little relationship check-up. I tried to do this every 6 months but I missed it in February (dang!). But rather than getting upset about it, I changed the rules. I make the rules, so that's okay. Now we'll just do them once a year on our anniversary.

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

We always answer the same set of questions but we do it separately and we don't look at previous answers, so similarities are coincidental.

5 years:

1) What is your favorite memory of the last year?

Dan: Storybook land 
Steph: Going to Storybook Land for the first time. Such a magical family memory.

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

Dan: Watching Kippy play and learn new things 
Steph: Experiencing new things with Kip for the first time.

3) Something you weren't expecting about parenthood.

Dan: How simple things are so enjoyable for Kippy, like just walking around the block
Steph: How truly deeply I now understand the phrase: "the days are long but the years are short."

4) Something you were pleasantly surprised by about parenthood.

Dan: The joyful feeling I get when Kippy gives me a hug before I leave for work in the morning.
Steph: How Kip's personality mirrors our own

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

Dan: How she will get up in the night to comfort Kip and even spend the night in his room, sacrificing a full night's sleep for him
Steph: How willing he is to sacrifice for both Kip and I. No hold backs.

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

Dan: Learn how to cook more meals
Steph: Don't tally just accept that we're both good at different things and that helps balance

7) Something to look forward to.

Dan: Cape May and sleeping in on our trip
Steph: Cape May!

8) Favorite thing about your partner right now.

Dan: Steph's desire to make bucket lists and plan fun adventures for us
Steph: When he snuggles me in the morning to warm me up from the air conditioned room

Weekending it

Fall is in the air today and that makes me sad. It's those first few days of the transition that are the worst. Once fall is here for real, I'll be okay with it but in the last drops of summer I hate it the most. But, the relief from the heat is nice, I guess.

This weekend we headed to Governors Island. Our happy place. We had a blast. The weather was perfect, we got a stroller nap, a picnic, and biking!!

Kip played in the splash pad and we got Popsicles and checked-out the slides.

This place is such a treasure and while the tourism seems to be picking-up, it still has plenty of space for everyone to spread around and it doesn't feel too crowded. When we got back to Brooklyn we went to Shake Shack for burgers and then visited our friend's new pie shop as well.

On Sunday we had church. Dan and I had plans to take Kip on a bike ride along the shore afterwards but when we got home Kip had a fever so we stayed inside and watch Wreck-it Ralph Breaks the internet. Kip fell asleep at 4:30 pm and only woke-up once for medicine and then slept through the night until 7 am. Poor little bubba.

We are hanging out today and will maybe go out for a little walk in the cool weather. Happy Monday!!

Peeks from the Week

Well, it's been a really tantrum filled week and it's sad. Kip has given us fits in the past but these ones go on and on and on. Just waiting for communication to improve so we can help him adjust to disappointments a little better.

On the swing side...Kip has started letting me rock him and snuggle before bed. Ever since he was a newborn he never really liked rocking before we put him to sleep. Now when I say "time for bed, let's rock a little" he will climb up on my lap and happily chill for a few songs before I put him down. So two has some sunshine too!

Monday was really hot so we only went outside for a bit to walk Mama in the back courtyard area.

On Tuesday, Dan took Kip to a friend's house for some play time.

Mimi took Kip to the park on Wednesday, he discovered ants, and did some water play in the bathroom sink.

Thursday Dan took Kip for a bike ride along the shore.

And in the afternoon they went to Fairytale Island which is an open play place in the neighborhood. A friend had a ticket for the day and gave it to Kip. He had a blast but poor Dan was exhausted from the constant tantrums from earlier in the day so they didn't stay long.

We're hoping for low humidity tomorrow so we can head to Governors Island and double crossing our fingers for a tantrum-less day.

Happy Friday!

Kip in the Kitchen

We have so many new toys in the house after Kip's birthday. I need to round-up a post of his favorites but I wanted to do a little throwback to a year-long favorite that will hopefully last for years to come.

Kip got his play kitchen from Marmee and Poppa on his first birthday and I wanted to do a photo dump of him playing at it throughout this past year to see how much he has grown!!

He is SO tall now!!

Mandy and I LOVED our play kitchen when we were little. House, kitchen, restaurant, grocery store...there were so many ways we played with it and so this play kitchen is really nostalgic for us. I can't wait to play all the imaginative games with him as he gets older. I have to say, his play food assortment is pretty stellar and he is starting to get into playing pretend with it more and more.