Buttcrack of Dawn Smoothies

Every morning, very early in the morning, Ivan comes marching into our room clutching at least five books. "Hi, Mama!! Hi Dada!! Goooood morning!" He climbs up into our bed and wants to read all of the books.

Ivan has two settings: intense and asleep. There's no easing into the day: when he's up, we're all up. We have books to read, waffles to eat, and trucks to play with. And lately, we have smoothies to make too.

I recently got a Vitamix blender and it has been a dream. Our old blender was such a hassle; it didn't blend properly and ended up leaving me frustrated. The Vitamix, on the other hand is a beast. It blends smoothies to absolute silky perfection and I've already found this purchase to be well worth it for smoothie-making alone.

Smoothies are also the way I manage to get veggies into Ivan's mouth without a fight. I add a generous handful of spinach or kale for added vitamins and he is none the wiser. We usually sit at the kitchen table and Ivan tells me what he dreamt the night before - "There was a robot! We went to Home Depot!" and then he wants us to say cheers and drink our smoothies with bendy straws. It's the best way I can think of to wake up. Even if it is at 6 am.

Buttcrack of Dawn Smoothies

-1 1/2 cups of mixed frozen fruit (we use the organic antioxidant mix from Costco)
-1 banana
-1 big handful of green, leafy veggies (we use kale or spinach)
-1 tablespoon of almond butter
-1 dash of cinnamon

Blend on low for about 15 seconds in the Vitamix. Pour into glass. Insert bendy straw. Say cheers!

Max eat play dough.

The hubz picks up Ivan from school and he tells me all kinds of funny stories about the other kids and how they interact with each other. Yesterday, he found Ivan in his classroom completely lost in thought, staring away and intently looking at something. He thought he was just spacing out, so he asked him, "Ivan, what are you thinking about?" Ivan says, "Max. Eat. Play Dough." Just like that. Hubz looks over and sure enough, there was Max, devouring an entire container of play dough. This cracked me up for a good five minutes and also made me proud that this kid is seriously talking in full-on sentences now and with such keen observations like "Dude. That kid is eating an entire jar of play dough."

TWO (!!!)

How is it possible that over TWO years have gone by without another blog post. I am the world's worst blogger.

My son turned two on August 3rd and the past two years have been such a crazy, wild ride. It's hard to believe that in the previous picture my son was a genderless avocado-sized ball of cells and now he's a wild, funny, gigantic BOY. It's cliche for sure, but time does indeed fly.

These days, Ivan is talking up a storm. He thinks everything is funny. "Mama Funny. Dada Funny. Rice Funny. Beans Funny. Molly Funny" and he is as active as ever - running, climbing, jumping, dancing - I thought I was exhausted before. Mama Funny.

I love that he is quick to ask for hugs, "Mama UP. Mama HUG." and how when he says "I love you," it sounds like "I You" which I think is pretty perfect. I you.

At night we say goodnight to all of the things in his room. Goodnight giraffe, goodnight animals, goodnight Guys, goodnight baby Ivan (a framed picture of Ivan's ultrasound), and then he says goodnight to all of his friends at school.

It's not as easy for me to say goodbye to baby Ivan though. I miss his newness, the way he'd fit in the crook of my arm, how we'd sit in his room and I would sing "You are my Sunshine" to him in the middle of the night. I remember how David would get up with me for midnight feedings and we'd watch VH1 Classic videos with sleepy eyes and we'd laugh because it was better than crying. I remember thinking how there was no way we'd make it through those colicky nights where Ivan wouldn't stop crying and David would march around the living room shhh-ing or how we'd turn on the blowdryer for white noise. It's all kind of a funny blur and it seems like forever ago and also like yesterday all at the same time.

But now my two year old is growing up and I'm sad that the baby days seem like one giant blur. I'm afraid I'll forget the wonderful, little things so I'm going to vow to try to not be such a slacker blogger. But let's be real, my track record hasn't been that great.