My tiniest obsession.

I don't blog much about my tiniest obsession, sweet baby Soren. Mostly because he's not that exciting yet, just tiny, chubby and cute! Currently he sleeps in a pack and play that is sidecar to our bed. I'm excited to set up the third bedroom as his room once we move to South Carolina in January though. Whether or not I'll actually put him to sleep there is still up in the air.

Here are some ideas I have for his future room. He'll be in it for three years so no nursery nonsense. Instead I went with a color scheme of greys, blues and lime greens.

January can not come soon enough because my mind is overflowing with ideas. Today I just couldn't take it anymore and made just one thing. I got the idea browsing one of my favorite blogs, see the full tut here, and felt like this process would be perfect for that phrase floating around everywhere, "Boy, a noise with dirt on it." 

I used scrapbook letter stickers because that's what I had on hand.

I also cleaned up the letter with a white paint pen.

So many of his outfits have this same color scheme. I see a future art project once he outgrows them!

Top 5 reasons I love living in base.

This is our first time living in base housing. We've always lived off base to be closer to stores and restaurants, you know the things that childless couples do! Not to mention pocket that extra BAH (that's the money we're allotted for housing for all you non military folk). When we first moved to Quantico we lived in a cute little townhouse off base right near the downtown of a neighboring city, Fredericksburg. I think Enolah was two or three months old when I told Sam we had to move on base. He has always had the mindset that when he gets of work he doesn't want to still be by work (or something like that). But working 30 mins from work is fine and dandy when you can stay up late spending time together and it's just the two of you. Living so far away Sam was missing out on time with Enolah awake and I was missing out on getting a break.

So without further ado my top 5 reasons I love living on base:

1. Being so close (walking distance) to other military mom friends and their kids!
2. Having such a large home.
3. All of the amenities, gym, grocery and convenience stores, pool, parks, etc.
4. The safety.
5. All of the free activities provided for kids around base.

I think so many people are quick to complain about living on base because they dwell on the bad and do not appreciate all the good! After 7 years of living on my own in apartments in various towns, believe me we got it good here!

Today we thoroughly enjoyed one of the daily activities they have available to the kids here. Story time at the base library.

Walking to storytime past "her daddy's."

Being a good girl and listening to the story.

Today the band played along with the story!

A little boy who slept through the noise.

Snack time.

So pooped she fell asleep mid pretzel. 

A day of firsts.

Or more of an evening of firsts. This morning was like any other day but Enolah had 3:30 date with her friend to the movies. Her very first movie! She's never even sat through a movie at home so I was glad to hear she not only sat threw but enjoyed watching Finding Nemo in 3D.

We had dinner at our neighbors house (an almost daily occurrence these days) and Soren decided to finally get his almost 14 pound body to roll over. Of course I missed it the first time around helping Enolah potty but he performed an encore just for Mommy.

Walking to the theater.

Super excited.

She didn't think she needed these "sunglasses"

Around here these days.

Happy Veteran's Day to my mister and all who have served. Your sacrifice is forever appreciated.

What's going on around here these days. Well the kids are keeping me very busy. Soren is spending hours at a time awake now which has been fun. My days consist of play with the kids, clean, work, craft and repeat. The nonstop pattern is making the days with Sam away fly by. Speaking of crafting I've been on a quest. A quilting and crocheting quest. Blankets for the baby and our bed. More on that later when I make significant enough progress to post about! Until then enjoy some pictures of my two monsters.

Late afternoon stroll.

Morning snuggles.

Finally, no more little potty!

Life, according to Enolah.

I'm sure all of us who have kids see them doing something new or funny and are quick to text Dad, said family member or post a status about it right? I know I am. Well the thing is, Enolah is always doing something new or funny that I want to remember to either share with her or use to embarrass her later in life. I hope to use this series of posts to document those moments for myself and to share with our family who do not get to spend time with her.

Enolah is my two year and 5 month old toddler and this is life, according to her.

In her hurricane gear with her daddy mission cup.

1. Carnivals are too scary.
2- in reference to the broccoli she's having for dinner: "It's a tree, it's a tree mommy" "where?" "in my mouth."
3- Super is the best descriptive word in existence. Suitable for phrases such as, super tiny, super hiding, super silly, super bouncing, super silly, super mad, super happy, etc.
4- The eagle, globe and anchor emblem is "Daddy's mission"
5- shirts are not necessary when the urge to dance strikes. "I want to dance mommy, take my shirt off"

First ever cotton candy at the scary carnival.

All hallows eve.

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween and while this was Enolah's third Halloween it was the first one where she really understood costumes, being spooky and the whole trick or treating bit.

We spent the morning at a base event for kids where she got to color, play games and trick or treat around the offices. She dressed up as a pirate. I told her she'd get to go again at night time and for that she decided to be a butterfly. She's a girl who knows what she wants! It was 50 degrees so baby Soren spent the night snuggled in the carrier.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Learning a bunch with buttons.

Enolah is at such a fun age right now, well most of the time she's fun and often times she's quite a challenge. Any who her little brain is a sponge. I have noticed several people who homeschool start activities around this age (2 and a half). We're not planning to homeschool but I still wanted to do a couple learning activities with her each week. This morning I was feeling inspired and googled "homeschool activities for toddlers" to get an idea of what you could do at this age and noticed a lot of age appropriate activities included colors, shapes, sorting or a mixture of the three. Usually with premade purchased kits. Well I don't have any of these kits but again I was feeling inspired so I rummaged through my craft room and the kitchen and devised two fun activities with buttons!

What you'll need:

- a bag or several different colored buttons
- an old egg carton
- a camera
- a color printer.

Sorting by colors- I took an egg crate and put one of each color button in a space. Then I gave her a bowl full of all the buttons and told her to put the yellow with yellow, green with green and so on. You get it.

Intense concentration.

She's got the idea and doing great!

Shape stencils: Next I took the buttons and arranged them into different shapes on a white piece of paper. I took a picture of each shape, uploaded them to my computer and printed them out. Again I gave her the of buttons and said to make the same shape. An orange triangle, blue square, etc. 

Something to note, when you go to print them out print a test one to check for scale. I made the blue square too big and she said the buttons "didn't fit" so she found a color button that did and ended up making a yellow square.

Again with the concentration. 

There you have it. A fun learning activity for your toddler. You probably have these items laying around too! I plan on making this next, after a trip to the craft store unless I can find some spare wood laying around in the garage.