Our PB&J Adventure Book

Happy 3

Three years of hope, hearts & our little rainbow!

Dapper Disney Days
April brought about yet another Disneyland trip. Again?! Yes, it's starting to become a pattern to include a Disneyland visit for each month of year two. We're making it a point to visit the parks more frequently, but for shorter durations this year. Last year, a majority of our trips were for extended amounts of time since Ben was still so young. In between pumping, infant nap times, feedings and more, our year 1 trips had to be on the longer side. This year? Toddler Ben is much more flexible scheduling wise so it makes for easier short, but sweet Disney trips.
This particular visit happened to be a "first" for our little family. We attended our very 1st Spring Dapper Day! You can read all about our fun day getting our most dapper style together HERE.
It was another magical visit in the books and we're already looking forward to the next visit... which just happens to be right in month 17. Here's to hoping our frequent Disney pattern continues!

Elmo Party!
Another fun happening in April? The first time Ben got to attend a special event with me! We had the honor of attending a special mommy and me brunch celebrating Sesame Street and their official sponsor Blue Lizard Sun for the launch of their new sunscreen collaboration! We learned all about staying safe in the sun, had some yummy eats, and best of all? A special guest appearance by Elmo himself!
There's not enough words to describe my utter gratitude for these amazing opportunities we get to take part in. Next to Disney, Ben absolutely loves Sesame Street, so getting to be part of such a fun event, with my little guy by my side was quite exceptional.

Easter Benny
We got to celebrate our 2nd Easter all together as a family. Boy oh boy was this year much different than the last! For starters, Ben was able to egg hunt (with assistance) on his own! We participated in our neighborhood's Spring Festival, which included a fun egg hunt for kiddos. Honestly, it was more like a free for all, but still fun nonetheless!
Ben also got to spend time with family and loved ones for all the Easter festivities!

Milestones and Mr. Independent
And we have a walker! My past monthly updates feel like they've been leading up to this moment and we're happy to report that Ben has taken off on his own two feet! Whereas last month he began taking his few cautious steps on his own, the last week of month 16 saw him literally take off, almost sprinting on his own legs. It's crazy, he pretty much just took off independently and hasn't really stopped going ever since. We can't wait to see the updates we'll have on him next month! I'm sure it'll involve lots of tired parents chasing after their toddler who won't stop running away from them!
We've also noticed our baby isn't so much a baby anymore but a Mr. Independent! Ben is in a total imitation phase where he likes to mimic everything we're doing, including at mealtime. We had to get our little guy his own utensils since he loves eating with a spoon and fork on his own now. Ben also discovered his creativity and loves drawing, coloring (on our furniture, too) and getting crafty, just like his mama.
One of our favorite things this month watching Ben discover his newest obsession: Cars. Anything and everything auto/plane/train related is what our son is totally into. PB and I have horrible eyesight but our son? He can spot the tiniest speck of a plane far up in the sky! Ben loves watching cars drive by on our walks, you just have to see this kid's face light up when we walk though a parking lot! It's priceless.
Overall, this month made us realize that our once tiny newborn is far from that little helpless squish. Ben is a full fledged toddler and we can't hardly believe it at times. He's so full of wonder, discovery and imagination. There have been more than one occasion this month, heck even within the last week where PB and I will just look at each other and say "Gosh, where did the time go?" or just a flat our "why are you so big now, Ben?!?" We've realzied that time is just moving so fast and all these beautiful moments with our little miracle are just so extremely precious.

Month 17 and beyond!
So as we close our 16 months and say hello to month 17 we are thankful for the moments and memories we've had up until now. And now we're looking forward to all the wonders to be had next month. Here we goooo!

A month of firsts
Our March can be summed up into one word: Firsts. Yes, a whole bunch of firsts happened within our March aka Ben's 15 months. Some of the firsts we encountered were good, others bad... but in all the "firsts" have accumulated into another month of memories and joy!

First flu
March kicked off much the way our prior February began, with another trek back to the happiest place on Earth! Since our weekend was short, we decided to fly down from the Bay Area to SoCal, which marked Ben's 3rd airplane trip. Ben is becoming quite the lover of moving objects, be it cars, trains and of course, airplanes. So our little guy was more than excited to be on an actual plane for our trip down!

As a mama and passenger in general, we all know how icky and germy planes can be. One of the first things I do when we sit down on a plane is bust out my anti bacterial wet wipes and scrub down every inch of our seat, table, windows and pretty much any surface Ben might get a hold of. All of that prep though didn't seem to help with whatever might have been in the air, heck it could have even been something before our flight, because our poor little guy ended up catching the FLU!
That's right... Ben caught his first flu. The morning we were supposed to head to Anaheim from my sister's place in L.A, Ben began to throw up. We chalked it up to possibly being something not sitting right in his tummy, so we decided to just rest for the day in our hotel room in Anaheim. Our little guy seemed to perk up a bit that evening, but took a turn for the worse the following day. After getting some air outside of the hotel around Downtown Disney, we noticed Ben looked flushed. Low and behold his temperature skyrocketed to a fever so we rushed him to Urgent Care per advice from our at home on call nurse. Sure enough, the Dr. ran a flu swab on Ben and confirmed that our little guy had the flu.

I've touched upon our flu encounter in another blog post, so if you want to read more about "Getting Sick at Disney" along with our thoughts on battling the flu, read all about that HERE.
Long story short, Ben was protected by his existing flu shot. This meant that even though he caught a strain of the flu, his shot protected him from more serious complications like a hospitalization (or worse). Another plus was because he was diagnosed so early with his flu, he was able to take Tamiflu to help ease his symptoms. This drastically cut down on recovery time, he was feeling back to himself in just a few days as opposed to the 2 weeks it could have dragged on to be.
Overall, we're thankful that we had taken the necessary precautions advised by our Dr. to protect Ben from a worse outcome with his Flu. We're also thankful that our own flu shots kept both PB and I from getting sick as well. If you aren't a believer in flu shots... let me tell you that they work... Fully contagious Ben spent each night breathing next to me while he slept... heck, he even sneezed in my face a few times and this mama escaped without even a sniffle!

When your child gets sick its probably one of the worst feelings in the world. You feel so helpless when they're in pain or discomfort. But I'm thankful our little Ben kicked this flu like the little champ that he is!

First haircut
The weekend after Ben battled the flu and started to feel better, we decided that our family needed to get out and just do something fun. That something fun? Getting Ben his very first haircut! My family has always had a tradition of waiting until after the 1st birthday to give a child their first haircut. With Ben we happily waited to continue this tradition and also because Ben didn't have enough hair to cut until this month, lol! So we took our little guy to a local barber shop, complete with Cars seats and all. Ben was nervous, as were we, but his hair stylist was great and we ended up with the most dapper haircut for our little man. I say little man because this kid seemed to have aged years after getting his new do!

Not a first Disney trip, but a first Disney redo
So remember how I mentioned Ben got the Flu? Well we ended up cutting that Disneyland trip short, ehh, more like it was canceled entirely at the start of March. It was all good though because our main priority was making sure Ben was okay. We agreed that once Ben was 100% again we'd head back to Disneyland for our "redo" trip. This particular trip happened two weeks later and held so much magic and fun in store for our family!

First dad and me day
Everything always happens for a reason and I like to think that things always will work out in the end. Case in point, as sad as it was to cancel our first Disney trip, we were able to come back and redo the trip two weeks later, but that's not the only wonderful turn of events. The most magical opportunity presented itself for this Disney mama with an invite to celebrate the Mary Poppins Returns Blu-ray release at the parks. You can read about that *Practically Perfect* day HERE. While this Disney mama was away at her event, PB and Ben were left ALONE together at the parks for hours. This was huge for our little family since it'd mark the first time Ben and PB would spend this amount of time together without mama AND all while at the happiest place on earth! There was nervousness, anxiety and some fear... but Ben and PB rocked their "dad and me" time together like champs!

First steps
Now here's something that honestly just needed a good dose of Disney magic to happen... Ben's 1st steps! As crazy as it seems, Ben took some of his first wobbly walk steps at Disneyland! It could have been watching all the other kiddos run around and play, it could have been all the distractions, or just plain Disney magic, but whatever it was, we can say that Ben was motivated to walk at Disneyland. Granted, he was still "drunk baby" walking while holding onto our fingers or one hand. But it's leaps (&steps) more than he's ever done while back at home.

So where are we now? As I type this Ben has officially taken a few steps ON HIS OWN!!! YAY! We've always known this little guy could do it, he's got everything he's need to physically, but there was just some kind of mental block up until it just happened at Disney. There aren't enough words to describe the joy, the RELIEF, and the happiness that washes over you as a parent when your child finally achieves that huge new milestone of walking!
This is such an exciting time for us as parents because we're seeing him realize he has a whole new world of possibilities ahead of him. You can just see the wheels turning in his head... and this mama and dada know they our stock in baby proofing just went up tenfold, LOL!

This also goes to show just how flexible those "guidelines" are for our children. You know, those written "supposed to/should be doing" schedules that somewhat get drilled  into your head as a parent. Ben has proven to us that no timeline will ever contain him or his greatness, lol! He likes to roll on his own timing and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Spring forward!!!
We're closing out our March with a whole of of new memories, milestones and most of all: magic! Here's to April and all the new adventures that await! Until next time, thank you for reading! 💜

Starting off with a dose of MAGIC
The very first day of month fourteen literally began with a hefty dose of magic for our family! We made our 2nd Disneyland trip of the year for the most wonderful of reasons. In a crazy turn of events, we were invited by Disney Family to experience all the fun at Disney California Adventure Park's Lunar New Year event. Read about DCA's Lunar New Year HERE.
This was such a short but sweet trip. We literally were only in the parks a total of 24 hours! We drove down from the Bay Area late Friday night, got to the parks the next afternoon, then back home the very next day. Despite the shortness of the trip, it's always so good to be able to be back at the parks.

Hearts & Love
February was also a month of LOVE. We celebrated our 2nd Valentine's Day with our Ben. As the years have passed our versions of romantic Valentine's celebrations have definitely become way more low key. Now that we're parents, to a toddler no less, Valentine's day took a back seat to the reality of everyday parenthood. We made the best of a Thursday night Valentine with a nice home cooked meal, a sweet surprise of flowers, and just spending some quality time together as a family.
Curious George meets the Enegizer Bunny
We're another month into being parents to a toddler which means another month of growth and learning. Ben is much like Curious George, he literally wants to know about anything and everything! We joke that he has the mind of a little engineer already just like his daddy! He wants to know how everything works. He's so curious about his surroundings. If there's a button, he'll press it (favorite activity), if theres a screw, he'll want to unscrew it. If there's a knob, he'll want to open it. Let's just say our stock in baby proofing materials has gone up tenfold!
With all this curiosity also comes new mobility adventures for our Ben. This kid won't stop moving. Another way to describe him: an Enegizer Bunny. If you let him roam free, he can crawl clear across the room in seconds. He's also learned how to climb up on everything to get what he wants, which is both impressive, and scary at the same time!

Ben is also turning into a little grown up right before our eyes. It's really quite amazing to say the least. Watching him problem solve in situations, learning how to self feed, vocalizing his needs and wants? It's been crazy to see all the development literally happening with each day that passes.

One step at a time
Ben is now well into one year and two months old, and one thing he hasn't done yet? WALK. This boy can crawl like Speedy Gonzales around the room, pull himself up and climb over things, pretty much stand on his own.... but the one thing he hasn't managed to do is take those fateful first steps on his own.
Last year when we were in the thick of being newly minted parents I obsessed about everything. I followed every growth chart, milestone tracker and learning program for our little one to make sure he was "on track" with everything. When he hit 4 months and his cousins and same aged counterparts were rolling over, Ben wasn't. Our pediatrician assured us that Ben was fine and that he might just be "lazy" (said in the nicest way possible, lol) and that he had all the growth and physical ability to do so, but just didn't want to. Then in the very last month of the typical timeline, he finally rolled over.... then never stopped moving.

What I remember clearly from those days was the anxiety and the fear things not happening in these preset "timelines". As a parent, you get sucked into all the apps and the sources telling you what "normal" should be, but what I've personally learned in the last 14 months or so? Every child does things on their own time. Chances are more than not, they'll do what they need to do eventually!

So with Ben still not taking his first steps yet at this point in the game, we're not too worried. We know our little guy will get there... just on his own timing. And for the record, most children tend to take their first steps and walk between months 12-15... we've still got a month left to go! LOL. Our little Ben is getting there, we see it get closer each day, so hopefully by next month he'll take those giant leaps forward!

Onward!
So here's to looking toward another full month of memories and fun ahead. Much like our February, we'll be kicking off month 15 with another magical trip to our happy place. We're ready for a whole month of new adventures, memories and growth! So until then, from our little family to yours, thank you for reading!💜