It's been five months since I have been #winning surviving the parent game of balancing two. People always say going from one to two kids is hard, but man it is even harder than I could have imagined. I was ready for having a newborn again (sleepless nights, postpartum healing, etc.) but the energy you have to have in order to keep up with your oldest child is unreal.

Ryan (our oldest who is three) is all.boy.and.then.some. He's the sweetest kid with the biggest mischievous streak. I call him (and his teachers) Dennis the Menace. He knows how to turn on the charm. He also doesn't care if you have a new baby...his mommy better have all the energy to keep up with him no matter what. Just had a baby? So what. Mommy, you didn't sleep? You asked for it!

Despite the warnings, there are a few things that I still had to learn on my own (especially being a #boymom). And now I am sharing with you. 

1. Despite all efforts, your oldest (depending on their age) will regress. We were almost 100% potty trained and then we took the giant leap back and have been on the struggle bus ever since.
2. Your SuperMom skills could win you a gold medal at the Olympics. No lie, you will learn to be in two places at once, shower in five seconds, sooth a baby while reading/turning pages of a book for your toddler with your foot and block all sense of smell so you won't know how awful you smell since you haven't showered in a week.
3. Recovery is even harder... Because you can't stop moving and lay on a couch. While one baby sleeps the toddler is ready to play American Ninja Warrior with you.
4. No, your kids won't nap at the same time. Or, at least mine won't.
5. Gourmet meals will consist of.... Ha! What gourmet meals? If I didn't have time to shower... then I certainly don't have time to play Rachel Ray.
6. Coffee is the new aphrodisiac. Lots and lots of coffee.
7. Baby weight is the devil. You put in the work and got it off the first time around. The second time it's laughing at you while eating a tub of Ben and Jerry's watching a traffic accident. It ain't going anywhere.

Just being real.

14 months and another kid later...

You read the title right...

It has been over 14 months since I wrote my last blog post and their has been major change/additions in our household. So what's changed?

1. My previous blog, "The Adventures of Love and Marriage," has been reinvented as "Drink Wine and Raise Boys."
2. And, if you haven't caught on to the plural in "boys," then you are missing the biggest change... we had another baby! And..... it's a BOY!

Just after my last blog post, we found out that I was expecting. As exhaustion set in from another pregnancy and chasing a toddler around the house, I decided to step back from blogging for a while and concentrate on our growing family. Now that our newest baby boy is five months old and life seems a bit more settled (although always chaotic), I am back and ready to plug in. 

On February 23, 2017, we were absolutely blessed to have Reid Thomas Schwartz come into our crazy world. Ryan has surprised us over how well he has adapted to his new role and is truly the best big brother.

After Reid was born and I decided to jump back in to blogging, it was only fitting to reinvent the blog as raising two boys has become the biggest challenge and the most hilarious time of my life. I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

From losing the baby weight, to Ryan's three-year-old (yes he's THREE now) antics and adapting to raising two tiny humans - this ride is going to be quite the story to share with you.

Enjoy!

Friday Favorites | Toddler Survival Guide for Road Trips

Thanks to Katie and Heather for the link-up!

Today at 4:30pm, I get to put my out-of-office message on and kick back for over seven days and get some much needed R&R.  Sun, sand, beach, and outlet malls are calling my name.  

In order to get to our cottage we rented at OBX, we do have to endure a 4.5hr car ride with our toddler that is deep into the "terrible twos."  Granted, a 4.5hr ride is much more doable than when we lived in TN, and had 15hr rides... but if you are a mom or dad and have a toddler, even a 10 minute drive to the grocery store can seem too long.

How to entertain a 2-year-old at the beach

We are t-minus four days out from our annual family vacation at OBX in North Carolina. That also means I am four days away from an endless amount of bad food and pina coladas...and not even feeling guilty about it.

Guilty pleasures.


This time last year, Ryan was almost 1 1/2 and there were no toddler meltdowns. He wasn't very entertained by the sand buckets yet and was iffy about the water. He more or less cared about naps and stealing golf balls from putt putt.

This year, we have to come even more prepared to entertain a busy body.

So what's being packed for our 2-year-old toddler?

I bought stock in Lysol

I would love to jump back on the blog and tell you that life lately has been smooth sailing.  If I did, then it wouldn't be describing the Schwartz house.

I bought stock in Lysol (actually I didn't...if I had money to waste, then I totally would and probably should). But, I did buy tons of Lysol wipes and spray and have been sanitizing every square inch of my home.

Why?  Ha! Let's see:

1. Ryan ended up with the flu
2. Same day Ryan ended up with the flu, I had to be tested for it but I just had something that was exactly like it except for fever
3. Ryan's lasted 5 days... mine - 2 weeks and counting
4. Oh and I broke out in an allergic reaction (to who knows what)  this weekend and looked like a character on The Walking Dead 

Toddler + Medicine = World War III

Dear Mary Poppins,

I would like to know the reason/science/method for "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down..." While I am sure you are very hands-on and kids love you, you have never met my kid. 

A spoon full of sugar does not help the medicine go down.  Neither do syringes, enticing him with sugar/sweets, approaching him like its fun, shooting it in the back of his throat, letting him play "doctor" and do it himself, feeding every single stuffed animal the meds so that he sees its a-okay.... NOTHING.  I thought I could rely on Google to provide solutions that work... nope.

Heck, I even took someone's advice to shoot it towards the back/side of their mouth and blow in their face... I wish I could have caught that on camera.  

Life lately

So, it's safe to say I broke my resolution to blog more consistently already. I never expected 2016 to start off with a huge explosion of life drama.  If you remember anything about my last post, within a month, my grandfather was diagnosed with progressive cancer, my mother-in-law's Lyme's Disease illness got much worse and she isn't doing well and my dad had a heart attack.  Right after I wrote that post, I then got a call that my dad's sister had a stroke.

I think my drama filled life would out perform any NBC, ABC, or CBS drama on TV right now. 

On top of that, my new job (since moving to Wilmington, NC, in October) has been excellent but very, very busy.  Balancing that fast-paced career and continuing my love for blogging has been a challenge this year.

A lot on my plate is an understatement.  

But, the blog is not going away... I am just continually learning to balance my time...always a work in progress.

Now, let's focus on the positives though... because there have been plenty.  And, I am sure you want to catch up, right?

Here have been some snapshots of the happy moments recently and I am going to try to caption them in three words or less, since I am sure you are over reading all of my text :)

Currently...

It has been a while since I did my last "Currently" post so I figured you were just chomping at the bit to know what has made my "Currently" list.

Current Book:

I am re-reading the Fifty Shades books because I have needed some down time in the evenings that is not intellectually stimulating. I read the books almost four years ago while on my honeymoon. (Great honeymoon read by the way.) I recently watched the movie and forgot a lot about the first book and barely remembered what happened in the others so I picked them back up.  I'm almost finished with the last book.

Weekend Recap | Operation "Toddler Bed"

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

The weekend came and went way too fast, just like any other weekend.  The only difference is that we were having monsoon rains all day yesterday with extreme cold (extreme for NC), so there was a little cabin fever.

And let me tell you, cabin fever is very hard when you have a toddler that needs to run around.  So, what did we do?  We distracted him with Operation "Toddler Bed."

Weekend Recap | Already broke my resolution

Is it sad that I already broke one of my New Year's resolutions?  I think so.  

The whole " I am going to do a more consistent job at blogging" thing I spoke about on my last post definitely didn't happen last week.  Obviously.  I could pretend that it was because I was busy coming up with great ideas for posts or that I did something extremely fun.  But, I would be lying.

In reality, I was busy working.  Since I work a full-time job during business hours, it is very hard to come home after a day of work to cook, clean, take care of Ryan, workout, and then blog.  Sometimes I do great, while others are a complete dud.  Last week was a dud week.  Shoot, yesterday was a dud day.  Last week and yesterday were filled with meetings after meetings after meetings, so I came home drained and needed to unplug.

What did I do while I was unplugged?  Not too much, although we did take Ryan to his very first birthday party he was invited to and drove down to Myrtle Beach for some outlet shopping fun.

New Years Resolutions

I want to give a shout out to Amanda @ RunningwithSpoons for the link up.

Its #thinkingoutloud Thursday!

Tomorrow, will be 2016... say whaaa?  The way time is flying, the next time I blink, I will be 80 years old, with a walker, stocking falling, and in a nursing home because Ryan is tired of changing my Depends.

Wrapping up 2015 has got me thinking about my New Year resolutions. Of course, I am like 80% of the population that only lasts about four weeks with my resolutions, but hey, at least I last four weeks.

The last few years I have mostly made resolutions to lose a few lbs or to make sure I exercise 4-5 times a week.  Then, life gets involved, laughs at my resolutions shoves it right back in my face.  This year, I am going to change up my resolutions, make them obtainable, and see how far it gets me.  I am not saying I am throwing in the towel on exercise...not at all.  But, life can get hectic.  There are weeks that I can knock out five workouts with no issues, then, the next week things are crazy and I am lucky to get two workouts in.  At that point, I have failed my resolution...instead, I am going to workout as much as I can, eat as healthy as I can, and not beat myself up about it.  No resolution...just accountability,

So, what are my resolutions? 

Jingle all the way

Santa and the grandparents came to our house over Christmas, and when your child is the only one and is the only grandchild, they get spoiled.  And when I say spoiled, I mean there is no way I am going to find room in my house for everything he got.

However, I will take the clutter any day of the week because it was so much fun watching Ryan's pure joy and excitement opening up his gifts.  And let us not forget, he just had a birthday two days before Christmas...  Just add those gifts to your mental picture.

To top it off, Ryan was just as excited about collecting all of the bows from the presents and attaching them to my head.  (Isn't he so thoughtful!)

When Ryan woke up Christmas morning, he let us know he was ready to do business when he came downstairs looking like this:

Hat backwards and all, he was ready to tear the house up.  (He insisted he wear his hat and insisted he wear it backwards.)

And, as you can tell from the above picture, Santa left him his very own Dyson vacuum that is battery operated and actually sucks up dirt a little bit!  Ryan was absolutely ecstatic since he squeals with joy when it is time for mama to vacuum.  This time, he gets to help.  (I might have been as equally excited as he was.  He has literally vacuumed my house every single day since he got this.  (And he even insists he store his vacuum right beside mama's.)

His GiGi (my mom) even got him his very own art table and chair with some "special markers" that only work on certain coloring paper!  Thank you GiGi for ensuring Ryan does not mark up our walls.  I will forever be indebted to you.

 Ryan also got his very own Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey figurines and a Wilson carrying case for all of his Chuggington trains for his train table.

I also need to warn you that Ryan has gotten his license and you must steer clear of the road.

That's right!  He is full-on driving in his new truck.  Ryan shouted, "Big truck" when he saw this beauty outside waiting for him.  He drove for hours, but when I tried to hitch a ride, he was not amused and quickly let me know he was not driving his mama around the block.

Christmas at the Schwartz house could not have gone any better.  With Russell's parents there, my mom, and my sister, it was so full of laughter.

What was my favorite part of the day?  #Twinning with my son that night :)

XOXO,
Sherri

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Since I will be sending the next two days surrounded by family (I hope you are too), I wanted wish everyone a wonderful holiday!  I hope you get to spend it surrounded by the ones you love watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation :) (because that's what I'll be doing!).

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

xoxo,

Sherri

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my beautiful baby boy!

Learning to live with my husband...again

One of the hardest parts of getting married, for people who have never lived together, is learning to live with each other.  Learning their behaviors, tendencies, cleaning habits, or lack of cleaning habits is frustrating.  You look at your husband, who has left his dirty socks on the floor next to the dirty clothes hamper, like a little kid, and wonder if they will ever grow up.

Weekend Recap | Let it Go

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

This weekend went by exactly as I expected it would.  It involved running store to store getting all of my Christmas shopping done, chasing a crazy toddler around stores while people looked at me like I was a bad parent, and then wrapping all of the presents (and thinking about wrapping my son and giving him away as a "present" too).

Just kidding about the very last part of that... maybe...

I would have taken a TON of pictures capturing our weekend experiences but every single time I pulled my phone out, Ryan wanted me to play the song "Let it Go" on my phone.  So obviously there are very little pictures to show you from the weekend.  Except this one:

And, this is the only one that made the cut because he was just so darn proud to find a horsey he could ride.

After that, no pictures were allowed because my phone was too busy playing "Let it Go."  I guess Ryan finally jumped on the Frozen bandwagon.  Confusing thing is, he has never seen the movie but he knows the song.  Daycare must be playing it during music time because all I know is, he came home one day and started belting out "Leee itttt goooooo."

It's a catchy tune too, because I found myself singing "Let it Go" in my head the whole time I was in the stores chasing down a toddler that refused to get in the shopping cart and thought he could run sprints down aisles.

I had to bribe him with some random snack treats I found down an aisle in order for him to semi behave.  I say semi very loosely here.

So, how was your weekend?!

XOXO,
Sherri

Weekend Recap | Starting a new routine

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

This weekend was just what the doctor ordered.  A lot of R&R.  I started my new job last week, which is going well, but it definitely has me re-thinking my schedule a little bit.

I have to fight a lot of traffic in my morning and evening commutes, I am barely making it to daycare in time to pick Ryan up before I get fined, and then have to come home and cook a meal.  It's getting harder and harder to get Ryan to bed on schedule and has me considering some changes.

What changes you might ask?  Well, right now I am starting to cook (or freeze) all of my meals for the week on Sundays so that I don't have to do anything but warm it up when I get home or open the crock pot lid.

We shall see how that goes...

If that doesn't help, which I know it should, then I am back to the drawing board...

Now, to reflect on my weekend in pictures:

Tis the season

The Christmas season is my favorite time of year.  I love the meaning of Christmas and the way my house looks all decorated is so warm and cozy.  Now that Ryan is older, I am love watching him get so excited over Christmas as well.

Ryan was born two days before Christmas, 12/23/13, so naturally, he is my best Christmas present ever.  Obviously, that year, he really didn't enjoy Christmas.  His favorite part was being swaddled and sleeping.  Last year, with Ryan being one, I thought he would get into it a little more.  But, he didn't care about the tree or lights...just the boxes from presents.

Friday Favorites | 11.13.15

Thanks to Katie and Heather for the link-up!

Happy Friday!  I literally had a shock yesterday when I finally realized Christmas is next month, my child turns 2, and I haven't even started planning his birthday.  

So, let's just say my mind has officially switched over to birthday planning mode!  While we haven't quite made friends in Wilmington, NC, yet and Ryan is just starting daycare, the guest list will be quite small, but that doesn't mean Ryan shouldn't have a party!  We have family coming in to celebrate his birthday and Christmas (since they are just 2 short days apart).  Operation "Ohhh-twooodles" has begun! (Can't you guess it will be a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday?!)

Let's look back at some favorites from the week, shall we?

Remembering those who have served

Today is a day about remembering and honoring those who have served in our armed forces.  These brave men and women put our country first, served on the front lines, and left their families behind to protect us.

They are braver than I am.  They are more selfless than I am.  They are better than I am.

Both of my grandfathers served in the armed forces and growing up, I always felt privileged to be in their presence.  They were, and are, my heroes.  Now, in present time, I have a cousin, who I have grown up with, getting ready to leave for Japan for a two-year station.

And, there are countless others who I have come across in my life who I am honored to know.  For the first four years after college, I was a sales rep for ADS, Inc., providing solutions for the military.  My customers were the United States Navy EOD and Navy divers on the west coast.  Talking to them every day on the phone, they became friends and I still keep in touch with several.  I also worked with hundreds of prior military members at ADS, Inc.  They were some of the best people I have ever worked with.  

I am recounting all of this because this Veterans Day hits a little closer to home.