Quick NYC Trip

Over Labor Day weekend, Ollie and I ran off to NYC with my parents. I was pretty paranoid about going to such a large, hectic place with a rowdy, energetic 3 year old, but Ollie has a gift of surprising me when I least expect it. 

 Our sweet friend, Anna, met us the first day and took us around. Look at her and Ollie: Best buds!

Typical tourists! Walking the Brooklyn Bridge was really fun though. What a view! Ollie napped halfway across in his stroller- that's why he looks so happy in that picture.

Fire trucks on every corner! Ollie was in heaven!!

There was a pool on top of our hotel, which seemed really awesome but was so incredibly cold!! We were in there a whole 5 minutes before retreating to the room for a hot bath! 

We bought bus passes and rode them around a lot the last two days. Funny story, we were going up the west side of Central Park towards the Museum of Natural History. Ollie and I were sitting towards the back and to our left in the apartments I see an old lady in the window butt-naked!! I have no idea what she was doing....watering plants? Who knows. Others on the bus saw her too, and we all shared a good laugh. 

At FOA Schwartz, Ollie really wanted a NYC Sanitation truck! Ha! That kid. So we picked up a pack that included other important NYC vehicles.  

I finally ate at Shake Shack and was not disappointed! I still dream about that cheese sauce!

Top of the Rock!! I looked for Jimmy Fallon so hard but never found him!

 Ollie and I bought a beautiful cut out book that we read quite often. We talk about where we went, and the one place we didn't get to (Grand Central!! That'll be our first stop next time.) He still talks about how much fun it was. One thing that made me laugh the entire weekend was how often he said "Mom, something stinks!" Almost every 15 minutes. 

Until next time NYC! 

A little song to read along with.

 

 My favorite day of the summer. I pulled Ollie to the pool on our new wagon attached to my bike! He thinks he's a big deal in it. We were all alone! No one in site. Those goggles on my head had been in the lost and found for ages, so I went ahead and claimed them. We were all over the pool looking for frogs, then played a little football, followed by underwater kissing! It was perfect! I hope Ollie remembers times like these with me forever.

Ollie has definitely inherited his love for the water from his mama. He's fearless. So fearless that we are constantly nervous he's going to hurt himself badly. Last summer and early this year, he used a puddle jumper when at the pool. You could tell early on he was going to be a natural in the pool!

Just a few weeks into the season, he told me he was ready to practice swimming, and it was more like he already knew what to do. Yes, practice!! not learn how to swim because some how he already knew. He jumped in and kicked right to me and we haven't looked back. I can tell he's getting stronger and stronger every time we go to the pool (btw we have an amazing neighborhood pool- just look at those views). 

Way to go, Ollie. I'm so proud of you!!

I say this constantly, but 3 really is the age. Ollie is already a cool kid. But it seems like every day, he gets cooler and cooler! 

And he's growing up so much. He's officially a big kid now. The one thing that was holding us back were the night time pull ups I made him wear. Two weeks ago he started begging me to let him wear underwear to bed. I said he couldn't until I found the mattress cover for his bed. Actually, I knew where it was, I just really didn't think he was ready, and I really, really didn't want to clean up a night time accident. But I finally gave in (like I always do with that little guy), and he hasn't had an accident at all. Why do I always doubt times like these? Or maybe I'm just trying to hold on to the last little bits of baby left in him. But I don't know if there's any baby left. 

Ollie has been super loving the last couple days. He ran off to Florida with my parents for a week. A whole week. All by himself. He's so brave. So since he's been back, he's constantly "I love you so much" and "You're the sweetest mommy!" That ones my favorite. I hope he always feels this way.
I really love this picture. Everybody looks so happy. Oh to be little again and constantly happy. To play in the rain again and not care! They were playing for almost an hour. Also, Lex has some serious skateboard skills.

New Chapter

 It has been a wild, wild last couple of months. We left our home of 6 years and moved to grandma's (she was in Florida). Grandma decided she wanted to come home, so we packed up again and moved into Austin's parents. There was a huge ordeal with our builder, and it looked like we weren't even going to purchase the home. We decided to stick with it, and thank goodness we did. We closed May 6th! It's in an amazing neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. We're about to make some serious memories!! Get ready. My new goal is to update this more often. I'd like to say weekly, but let's not get carried away. 

So here's to new, wonderful chapters in our life. Cheers!

We have a 3 year old!

Ollie Bryant turned 3 Sunday, March 30th. If you ask him when is his birthday, he will reply "March thirty!" It was a beautiful day outside. Spring is really here, and don't I know it. Ollie inherited seasonal allergies from yours truly. Sorry kid. Let me tell you a little bit about 3 year old Ollie:

• He prefers doughnuts over cake. Added bonus if they have sprinkles.
• Currently obsessed with anything involving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I'm really impressed with his moves. He always goes for the eyes. Leonardo is his favorite. (Btw Donatello is mine!)
• Can't say Ninja Turtles- they are Enja Turtles!
• Drink of choice: chocolate milk.
• Favorite thing to do on an iPhone: Clean up.
• Worst habit: biting his nails.
• Favorite song: There is this really pretty song called Woodland by The Paper Kites. Ollie heard it in the car and requests it when we are going to sleep or driving around. 
• Any boo-boo he gets, he blames it on a tiger or lion biting him!
• He loves to go comando!
• Will jump off anything, no matter how high. (This is also a bad habit if you ask me)
• Super athletic. Can dribble like a pro. Wants you to pitch him the baseball (no tee necessary). 

Those are some of the highlights. Ollie Bryant, this mama loves you so much! You are amazingly stubborn, super competitive, and hot headed (so unlike your father and me). Where do you get that from!! I have some ideas. But you are also quick to apologize, incredibly loving, full of energy and life! You're a super cool kid, and everyone loves to be around you. Happy birthday, bud!

Kinda Homeless

So we are a little homeless these days. Our house of 6 years sold right after the new year. It was the strangest Christmas I have ever had. No decorating. Lots of packing. Opening up gifts in the saddest living room. We were completely moved out Dec. 27th. 

We moved into my grandmother's home (she is in Florida for the winter). We were so lucky to have that space available. It's a little tight there though. We are using 2 of the 3 bedrooms to store our stuff that wouldn't fit into storage. Little Ollie sleeps in the living room under his tent that holds his crib mattress. The entire situation isn't bad but I'm so over it. I'm ready to be in our own space again. I'm ready to put our new home together. Sometimes I wake up at 3am thinking about what I want and where. Thank goodness for Pinterest!!

Ollie seems to be at the perfect age for moving. It was fairly easy during the move. Not asking a lot of questions. Not getting upset. He broke mine and Austin's heart the night we walked through the last time. We told him to say "bye" to his room. He got on the floor and hugged and kissed it. Of course, I cried. Austin brought "the white house" for me (us) November 2007. We got married next door to it, made so many memories in it, put so much work in it, started a family in it. Ollie is, however, very excited about his new home. Right after it was framed, he picked out his room (and has never changed his mind and switched). We go over a couple times a week to look at the progress. Hopefully only 6 weeks left.

We're taking a little staycation this week at Austin's parents house. It's been a nice change. We have more room and a bathtub (there's only a shower at my grandmother's-poor Ollie). The weather was so nice this past weekend. The boys gave Hydi a bath, and I sat outside trying to get some freckles and worked on finishing the final pumpkin beers my father-in-law still has.

^^Austin took this picture, and it is seriously my favorite picture ever!!^^

Ok ok, so one last thing. So even though we have places to stay, we're constantly bouncing around. Almost everyday when I pick Ollie up, he will ask me where we are staying  tonight. "Mom are we going to Jojo's or Granny's?" Like I said, homeless!

V-day

Celebrating holidays with babies is so much fun. More fun than I expected. I have never been a huge Valentine's day fan. But with Ollie around (and now that he's older) I want to make these days special. And it's so much fun for me. We didn't do anything crazy this year. No baking or card making. We are living at my grandmother's house waiting for ours to be finished- hopefully in March- so getting creative is hard to do when you're living out of suitcases and the bare essentials. But we did put together some V-day cards for the very special people in Ollie's life!!

Ollie is really into all things super heroes now! He has one Avengers shirt that he never wants to take off. Any time they are on tv, we must watch! I love this phase right now. He's such a boy! And he loves tattoos. So I found Superman Tattoo Valentines!! 

He's learning to write his name! A little scared to do the E's. He's such a smart kid. I love how he learns something new every day.

Ta-da!! Oh yes, and I picked the Henry Cavill Man of Steel cards.Win-win. Happy Valentine's Day, Oliver. I was dropping him off this morning, he usually cries when I leave him, but today he wanted me to leave so he could eat all his candy! 

Snow day!

The last 3 days have been quite silly! A lot of work skipping. A lot of waiting for the storm to hit. Finally saying "Screw this! Let's go to Target!!" Getting back from Target and watching the yucky, gross rain turn into beautiful snow flakes!! It's the first snow we have had this winter. Alabama winters are so strange. In a couple days, it will be in the 60s!

We waited a couple hours then stepped out into this!! I love when it's cold enough to snow but not so miserable that you don't want to get out in it. We hung out a while mostly walking the yard and letting Hydi (our pup) run around.

Ollie has started to cooperate more when I take pictures of him. He will pause and give me his cheesiest grin! I love it.

 This turned out blurry, but I really like it. It was almost dark out. No one was driving down the road. It was so peaceful and so quiet and with the snow falling......so perfect.

We woke up this morning and snow was everywhere but melting fast. We slowly drove over to my parents, had a snowball fight, built a snow bear (a dirty snow bear!), and finished off with driving our power wheel all around. Ollie doesn't get the concept of snow angels! He just laid there and looked silly.

Happy snow day!

Introductions

So this is me. I'm Tawnie. I was going through my phone trying to find a decent picture of myself and this is the best I could do. It's my new go-to for profile pics and what not!

So I want to start a blog. I have a 3 year old son (and hopefully more to come). I was crappy about putting together a baby book- do people even do baby books anymore?- so I thought this would be perfect. 

What's my little guy look like?

Oliver "Ollie" Bryant. Born March 30th, 2011. This was the first day we met.

And this is what he looks like now. Almost 3. He has fantastic hair! Super smart. Very strong willed but also very loving. So this is it. The adventures of Ollie Bryant to begin!