Weekend in Milwaukee

Two weekends ago we went to Milwaukee for a short 3-day visit!  We were supposed to go visit over Labor Day weekend, but our flights got cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey.  We are grateful that we were able to find a time to reschedule.  We always love going to visit our second home.  The weather was PERFECT (a nice break from the heat and humidity)!  Grandma Horn "GG" even came down from her cottage for the weekend.  Perry had a BLAST exploring the house, looking for the cat, playing with new toys, and going on walks with her grandparents.  We even made a trip to the Milwaukee zoo!  It was such a wonderful weekend, and we can't wait to go back at Christmas! 

Here are some pictures from our trip...

The flight on the way there was definitely not the most enjoyable thing I've ever experienced.  It's no joke flying with a toddler!  She was pretty fussy the whole way, but we had lots of snacks, random toys, and iPhone games to keep her occupied for a couple minutes at a time.  We just rotated activities and took turns holding her.  At least we were in the very back row, so we couldn't have disturbed too many people. :)

And of course she fell asleep the SECOND we landed!!! #ironic

Excuse the quality of these last few pictures...I took pictures of the pictures on my phone...

The return flight was much more successful than the way there!  But seriously...those seats are tiny...no room to move!!  Perry was a trooper!

15-month update

Perry Frances is 15 months old! 

We had Perry's 15-month checkup earlier this week, so here are her official stats:

Some random things about Perry at 15 months (and random photos from the last month)...

* She loves to dance! Anytime she hears music she likes (especially Andy Grammar), she dances her little heart out!  She goes up to our old record player (which is kind of like a buffet), holds onto the handle, and goes wild!! #cantstopwontstop

* She loves giving kisses and high fives! She puckers her little lips, and it's the cutest! We went to the zoo in Milwaukee recently and fed the goats. When it was time to leave, we said "say bye-bye to the goats", and she leaned in for a kiss. Hilarious!

* She loves being tickled and wrestling on the couch with daddy.

* She claps and or says "ya" (yay) when she does something she is proud of or when a book is done.

* She loves being outside, swinging, reading books, animals, putting things in and out of buckets, and SHOES. 

* Ever since she was a year old, she's been having 2 bottles a day (morning and night). The only way she would drink cow's milk is if we warmed it up in a bottle, so we just kept spoiling her because why not? We finally decided it was time to quit the bottles, so we stopped cold turkey this week. We still offer her cold milk from a sippy cup a couple times a day, but she usually won't drink it. The doctor said it's ok as long as she's getting dairy through yogurt or cheese.

* She's a great sleeper! She's down to one nap a day. If we are out and about in the mornings, she will usually doze for 10 minutes or so in the car. This week she has been napping for 3 hours in the afternoon. Yes, THREE WHOLE HOURS. She'll go down between 12:30-1 and sleep until 3:30-4. Her new bedtime is around 8, and she'll usually sleep until 7, give or take 30 minutes.

* She knows where her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose are! If we say "Where are your eyes?", she cocks her head to the side, points to the side of her face, and says "eyeeeee". Or she will jab her finger into our eye, which isn't quite as cute. ;)

* Speaking of saying words, she is constantly babbling and has been learning and saying lots of new words these last couple months!  She says "mama", "dada", "ba" (ball), "wa wa" (water), "uh" (up), "nigh nigh" (goodnight), "hi", "uh oh", "owl", and "apple". Apple is kind of random. If she sees anything red and circular (a tomato, a strawberry, a red ball, and recently a picture of a crab at the doctor's office), she calls it "apple". :)  She also uses the "all done" sign when she's done eating.

Perry is wild, adventurous, and fearless.  She is beautiful, smart, and observant.  She is joyful, hilarious, and happy.  Perry is our little explorer.  We couldn't be more proud to be her parents!

A new beginning as a stay-at-home mom!

I officially became a stay-at-home mom this week!!! 

This decision marks the end of a roller coaster journey for me ever since going back to work when Perry was 12 weeks old.  I always knew (or thought) that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.  But I learned that you often don't really know until you try.  John and I had many long and hard discussions about our finances, and we came up with a plan for me to work until February 2018.  Fortunately, Apache allowed me to go back part-time after Perry was born (28 hours a week).  It really wasn't so bad, and I quickly grew to appreciate the balance I had found as a part-time working mom.  Sure, some days felt very long to be away from Perry, but I really thought "I got this".  It became harder and harder to go to work as time went on.  Perry was getting older, more attached, and had a bigger personality.  It was more time consuming to prepare for daycare each day, wake her up, the logistics of getting to and from school/work.  Our weekends were filled with errands, laundry, cleaning, and all of the things we felt like we couldn't get done during the week.  We weren't able to fully enjoy the time we had together as a family because we had "things to do".  Some parents can do it all and make it look easy.  But not me.  I was fully prepared to work until February 2018, but my company made me go back full-time in July of this year, and I gave up pretty quickly.  I didn't want to spend 11 hours away from her every day.  It's not that I couldn't do it, it's just that I didn't want to.  Time goes by so quickly, and I couldn't justify going to my job every day for a little extra money.  Truthfully, I would have kept working if I could have maintained a part-time schedule.  But that wasn't an option.  I might consider finding a different part-time opportunity in the future, but for now I'm going to enjoy time with my baby, who is growing way too fast!  So here I am!  A stay-at-home mom! :)

My coworkers had a Happy Hour for me on the day before my last day.  Lots of people came (including my favorite "boss friend" in the world, Valerie, who is currently on maternity leave), and I felt very loved and appreciated!  My best work friend, Ashley, brought me flowers on my last day and a Nordstrom gift card from the team.  How nice?!  These people are seriously some of the best.  I will miss them so much - Valerie, Ashley, and Sandra (our Admin) specifically.  We shared so many laughs and good conversations, and we shared in some of the happiest and toughest times in our lives.  When you spend so much time with people, you tend to know each others' business. ;)  Love these people!

I can't end this post without giving a shout out to Perry's wonderful teachers at Memorial Lutheran School!  Perry started going to school there in January of this year.  She quickly grew to love and become very attached to her first teacher, Miss Kristalynn!  She loved my baby, and we sure loved her!  Perry was only in Miss Tamara's class for the last 6 weeks, but she was the sweetest and most gentle teacher, and we loved her!  They bought Perry a Toys-R-Us gift card on her last day, and I know they don't do that for every child.  Perry was a teacher's pet. :)  Thank you to these wonderful ladies for taking care of my baby!  Despite the story the following pictures tell, Perry LOVED her teachers and liked going to school.  These pictures were taken when I picked her up.  When we get there in the afternoons, she doesn't want us to put her down - hence, the crying.  Haha!

Miss Kristalynn - Perry's favorite!

Miss Tamara

I'm so excited for this next chapter and can't wait to spend my days with my little bestie!!!

Football

College football only means one thing - FALL IS HERE!!!!  FA LA LA LA LAAAAAA!!!

Who wore it better - Tigers or Aggies?!

We can't forget about the NFL - GO, PACK, GO!  I guess we need to get her some Texans gear.

Happy FALL, y'all!!!

Hurricane Harvey

Harvey came and went, but our city and state will not forget him anytime soon!  Harvey caused unimaginable devastation.  The last I heard, over 135,000 homes, buildings, and schools were damaged or destroyed.  Families are displaced, some who lost everything.  Every.Single.Thing.  But I won't focus on the sad stuff.  What's been so amazing is to witness the outpouring of love people are showing each other and our city.  People are coming out of the woodworks helping, and even saving, complete strangers.  Water rescues, home demo, meal delivery, laundry, you name it. 

I stole this from a blog I read, but it's so good:

“We are thankful that thousands of years ago, God poured out something stronger than flood waters. He covered us with the shed blood of Jesus Christ and commissioned us to, above all else, love our neighbors well.”

My parents, unfortunately, took on an inch or two of water throughout the house.  Under normal circumstances, that would be heartbreaking.  While it is most definitely not a fun situation (to put it lightly), we cannot help but feel so very thankful that they are safe, that most of their belongings were salvageable, and that it wasn't much worse.  This is a picture of my parents' street, driveway, and front yard that the neighbor took before the water reached their house.

Meanwhile, the Loddes were stuck at home and found creative ways to stay busy!  In an effort to keep this post lighthearted, here is a series of pictures to show how we kept ourselves entertained.


The night before the storm came, we went out for Mexican food.  Perry tried a lime, and wasn't a fan! :)

For the next few days, we mainly just played inside, read lots of books (Perry is really into books these days), played with baby dolls and Easter eggs (two favorites of Perry's lately), snuggled, and watched countless hours of news coverage...

We FaceTimed with my family while they were cooped up at my sisters' house.  Perry and Rhett loved looking at each other on FaceTime!

We took lots of mommy-and-me selfies...

We experimented with bigger bows, and I'm obsessed!  I don't know why we hadn't done this sooner!  I guess I thought her hair was too short and fine to hold them in.

We went on a couple of short walks in the rain around the neighborhood to check things out...

We had Happy Hour at our neighbors' houses on Monday and Tuesday, who each have young kids/babies.  The only picture I got of this is of Perry and her friend Alexandria playing...

Once the sun came out , the water started to subside in some areas, and places started to open again, we ventured out of the house a couple times for tacos and a Target run...

We helped demo my parents' house...

My parents stayed with us for a couple nights while they were "homeless", and Perry loved the attention...

We celebrated Uncle Peter's birthday with steaks, birthday cake, and a terrible Aggie loss...

Hurricane Week came to an end, and back to work we went.  It is very strange to be back in a normal routine, knowing that there are so many people who need help and have nowhere to live.  I drove around a nearby neighborhood that was demolished to deliver boxes and supplies, and it broke my heart to see house after house after house with piles of debris in the front yard.  Their lives were turned upside down by this storm.  All we can do it be there to help our neighbors and friends.  And pray.  We love you, Houston!