Happy Father's Day!

Supposedly kids all go through phases where they prefer one parent over the other. One area that has stayed consistent for Benjamin is bed time. For Valentine's Day this last year, Benjamin's gift to Joshua was a new bedtime book called I Love My Daddy Because... 

Benjamin has been pretty insistent that Daddy reads him the "Daddy Book" at bedtime. In the event that Daddy is not around and Momma tries to read it? Not the same. He gets this look on his face and shakes his head at me like, "Nice try, Momma." The book is so well loved it's getting worn down a bit and Benjamin knows it by heart. Each page shows a daddy and baby animal of some kind and Benjamin and Josh do the animal sounds together. At this point, Ben starts making the animal sound on the next page before Josh is even finished reading the sentence on the current page. So for Father's Day I re-created the book with the same text, using pictures of Josh and Ben. A few of my favorites are as follows...

I love my Daddy because he takes naps with me.

 He makes me laugh.

He plays hide-and-seek with me. 

All said and done, the book is about 40 pages of Daddy and baby activities (he reads me stories, he sings me songs, he teaches me to be brave, etc.). I had a lot of fun sorting through pictures of my two best gentleman together. I am so proud of our little family and feel so incredibly lucky to have found this man who is so amazing. Even as I'm typing this with Ben on my lap, he periodically points to the screen at the pictures and says, "that's Daddy! love Daddy!" It's very sweet and makes me a little misty.

So, Happy Father's Day, Papa Bear! We love you more than I can say.

The Last Year...

Life has been extraordinarily busy. Spent weeks gearing up for Sasquatch, went and had a fantastic time and we're just now starting to feel recovered. I haven't even entirely unpacked my suitcase yet. More on the festival later. Last night we went to see one of my favorite bands, The Mountain Goats and had the most incredible time! The show was AMAZING. One of my favorites we've seen. This morning, while driving to work and wishing I was either a.) still at home sleeping or b.) dead I got to thinking about all the amazing bands we've seen in the last year. Some of my favorites?

Bright Eyes

David Bazan

Death Cab for Cutie

Flogging Molly

Foo Fighters

Iron & Wine

Jenny & Johnny

Modest Mouse

People Eating People

Rise Against

Sharon Van Etten

The Bouncing Souls

The Decemberists

The Head and the Heart

Weezer

I've always loved going to shows and feel so, so, so lucky that my man friend not only shares my passion for live music, but always seems to find a way to make going to shows and festivals happen. I think have seen more bands in the last year than the previous 10 combined. It has been so fantabulous. So, on that note. I still feel like absolute death from shaking my bootie into the wee hours of the morning and getting about 3-ish hours of sleep, but it was worth it! Looking forward to having the weekend to relax and recover and SLEEP

Who Rocks the Potty?

I got pooped on last night. Again. Literally. Poor Benjamin. Bless his little heart. We have been working on potty training for a while now and although he will tell us when he is going, and knows what the potty chair is for, he still prefers to go in his diaper... and on me, apparently. This is the second time I've been pooped on this month!

Benjamin loves Elmo. I mean really, that kid LOVES "Melmo" So when I saw this potty chair at Kmart, I scooped it up... until I saw the price tag. Almost $30! So I put it back. The very next week we were back at Kmart for something else and I saw the same potty chair with a little red tag on it. So I looked a little closer. Then I looked again. Then I put it in the cart. It was marked down to $4.99! Heck yes! Ever since we got it, it's been sitting in our bathroom. Benjamin will sit on it, but will not go potty on it. Ah, parenting.

Gearing Up for Sasquatch!

Holy Hannah! This month has FLOWN by and we're less than a week away from Sasquatch! We have been ridiculously excited about this. I requested my time off from work all the way back in December and Josh bought the tickets right when they went on sale. During our long car rides to Seattle and back we've made lists of everything we need to bring (of course I have NO idea what happened to the lists!) And now we're down to the wire and totally unprepared! Well, I guess not totally... we did buy a couple of things for camping (now I just need to find where I stashed them!). So this weekend will be eventful. Laundry, packing, shopping, getting the house ready for the housesitter, moving a ton of stuff... As much as I'm looking forward to our mini-vacation, I'm a little stressed out about getting everything ready in time. That being said, I am so stoked to cross another bushel of bands off of my bucket list! The lineup is pretty incredible. I'm sure we will come home happy and exhausted, and maybe a little bit sunburned (that reminds me- I better remember the sunblock!). Even more so than the live music, I think I'm most excited to get to spend some quality time with my best friend. With both of us working full time, even though we see each other every day... I feel like I never see him sometimes! With as busy as things are leading up to our departure, and as busy as we'll be as soon as we get home, it will be really nice to have a few days of down time.