Love Dare 26: Love Is Responsible

Welcome new and returning readers! Today's post is a special post.  We are going to be talking about the love dare.  Specifically, day number 26 of the love dare.  New to the love dare?  Well stop by Taush.O here. You can find week 1 here.

Look at this cute couple.  They were so in love and care free.  They thought marriage was going to be a breeze.  And, isn't that man just dreamy?(hint to you love dare...ers, that is us. 5 years ago)

Well, we learned that marriage is NOT a breeze.  I'm going to end the wind analogy there, because I probably shouldn't compare it to a tornado. 

 

I think part of what makes marriage so hard is that no matter what, each of us has our own ideas of how it will be.  Of how easy our spouse would make it.  My hubby does make my life easier, but it takes a lot of work for that to happen.  That is where today's dare comes from.

LOVE IS RESPONSIBLE

As husbands and wives, we have certain things our spouses need from us.  Duties that we must take, and promises that we have made.  We are responsible for the work that goes into growing our marriage Into something beautiful.

Another thing we are responsible for in our marriage?  Our actions.  Specifically the mistakes that we have made.

Honestly, I asked to do this specific dare.  Why? because of that part of it right there.  It is something I have been working on.  It may come easy to you, but it has been hard for me.  I am so stubborn, and try to convince myself that I don't make mistakes.  That I am always right.  When I am not right?  Heck no can I ever tell my Husband.  That is were dare 26 comes in:

Not to interrupt this serious moment, but I made that printable myself, and it rocks.

I feel like this is one of the most essential parts of not just a happy marriage, but a happy self.  Sometimes we get so caught up in what we feel the other person does wrong.  We want it to be all their fault.  What I have found through my struggle, is that more often than not, it isn't.

Once I started praying for myself earnestly, It became easier to not only realize where I went wrong, but inform my hubby that I was wrong.  He doesn't walk all over me, but when I am wrong, now I can admit it.

I have had a bit of a head start on this dare because I have been working on it for months, not just the day. but I can tell you that by being responsible with my actions and words, and coming forth when I've made a mistake, I am so much happier.  It has made possible fights, short/nonexistent, and  My love for this man has grown more than I thought possible.

And I still find him oh so dreamy.

 The next dare is covered by Nicole, found here

18 Months

     I Still have a couple more trips to write about, but taking a break to post about this big boy, and later tonight, the Love Dare.    

 Today was our 18 month check up, which means shots.  Bryan took it like a champ.  Poor kid looked at me like a traitor.  But a banana chip later, we are best buds again.

Bryan is growing perfectly along his growth chart.  Wears size 4 diapers, 18 month cloths, and size 6/7 shoes(depending on how wide they are)

He is still only saying Me, Mama, and More, but I can get him to mimic most sounds.  He is really into mimicking actions as well.

Favorites-Food:Yogurt and craisins, Animals:cat's, Toys:Cars, Music:Mini Pancakes and It's Raining Tacos, from Parry Grip, and Best Day of My Life from American Authors. Movie: Horton Hears a Who.  Other:He loves to play the piano, especially when I sit down to play.  He has also recently gotten into going through and smelling all of my Scentsy stuff.

Told you he likes cats

      I love my snuggly mamas boy.  Everything about him is perfection.  The big "good morning" grin I get, and the silly songs we sing.  All the smooches.  There are lots of smooches.  Sometimes, I get them for no reason at all.

Later, I will be posting about the blogger love dare,  Put together by the Wonderful Tausha at Taush.O.  40 bloggers, taking on the Love Dare from the movie Fireproof.  If you haven't watched it, you should.  I will be taking on Day 26.  If you want to start from the beginning, Tausha has a list right here.

Los Angeles

Last week, my sister went on vacation, so like a good sister, I stayed behind with her two youngest for an entire week.  In all honesty, she did give me an out a couple days before she left.  I told her "no", that it was ok, I could do it.  What I really thought was "Heck no woman!"  I had been looking forward to spending the week with those two pumpkins for months.  But now that I am not chasing after 3 crazies, back to your regular scheduled programming.

Way back weeks ago, I said that we did some traveling, well here it is.

Los Angeles

outside the consulate, waiting for daddy and Grandma

We wanted to pack in as many things to see as we could because, well, who knows if Abuela will have another chance?

Though, I don't know if it is because I've been there before, that I'm old at heart, or some other reason, I found everything so underwhelming.  Hollywood blvd, was just sorta blah.  and NOTHING but night club, after night club, after night club.  There was the museum for L. Ron Hubbard.  AKA "Sneaky Scientology Recruitment Building".  I don't have anything against Scientology, it just made me laugh because I did not expect it at all.  Though it really was a cool to learn about all the amazing things L. Ron Hubbard did with his life.

Santa Monica, however, was very whelming(Anyone? No...*back to the nerd closet*)

The beach was just B-E-A-utiful.  So much cleaner and altogether nicer than Santa Cruz.  And the water was gorgeous and perfect for a hot day.

The Hubby playing volleyball with his mommy

Bryan just loves the sand.  What he doesn't love?  Sharing his toys with Daddy.

There were so many street performers on the pier.  One even took our request for a song so Bryan could dance. He loved it.  We gave him a dollar to put in the mans box, which he walked up to it, looked at the dollar then ran away with it.  This kid knows whats up. (We still gave the man the money.  We are not teases)

Chocolate ice cream for the win

What is my favorite thing about our trip?  We met so many different people there.  It was such a wonderful experience.  And such wonderful warm people too.

Abuela

     The past two weeks, we have had a lot of fun visiting with the Hubby's mom.  Seeing as she lives in a completely different country, It is not something we can do often.  It was actually the first time Bryan has met her other than through the computer screen.
     Bryan had a lot of fun following her around the kitchen and playing with her.

 He helped her make masaco. (a dish made of fried and mashed plantains.)

 She even taught me to make some things. (Like stuffed eggplant.)

She brought B lots of gifts

Including 2 bikes that he LOVES. 

 And an awesome Batman towel poncho.  That doesn't fit me. I tried assume...

It was such a blessing she was able to visit.  I learned so much about cooking, Spanish(I now think in Spanglish), and the culture that my husband grew up in.

I was able to be spoiled and spend more time with my family.

We traveled a little (more posts about those)

My favorite thing though, was watching her and Bryan play and get to know each other. 

On To The Park

     Last week, we had the fun experience of going to the zoo and the park with my sister and some friends.  I am pretty sure it was Bryan's first time playing on a jungle gym.  It took him a little to warm up to it and to playing with friends, but eventually he got it.

 He couldn't figure out where all the people were coming from on the slide.  Definitely did not like going down it himself.  He may have done a flip on the way down.

 One of our good friends just moved back in the area, So he decided to tag along.  We have decided that Bryan takes more to men, than to women.  Warmed up pretty quickly To "Uncle Danny".

 Once Bryan discovered this tray of gold fish, it was all over.  Ate them double handed as fast as he could.  Pretty sure we owe this kid a giant bag of gold fish for the many times we have gotten together and stolen his fish.

 Funny store about the kid above. His mom and I were chatting it up when he comes up and asks her "Where's George?" Confused she asks "Who is George?"  Who was George?  Well we found out he was talking about Bryan of course.  His mom has corrected him a couple times about what his name really is, but he insists, "No, his name is George"  He is too cute.  You call Bryan whatever you want buddy.

Our little play date was so fun.  Hope to have lots more in the future.

We have a special guest at our house the next couple weeks, so LOTS of pictures to come.

17 Month Update and A little bit on sleep training.

I think I need to update my blog layout.  I feel like it is way too narrow.

Anyway, Bryan is officially 17 months, and growing in amazing ways.

Cloths:18 months, size 6 shoe(size 7 width) and size 4 diaper

Words: More, No, Yeah, MeMe(mommy) Though he tries to copy any sounds we make

Favorites:Movie-Horton Hears A Who. 

Food- Cheese and gram crackers

Songs:Pat-a-Cake(He loves to do the hand motions)

Games:"Jump on Mommy's bed" and"Where is Mommy's Boy"(I sit on the floor and say"Where's my Mommy's boy?" and he runs into my arms.  Doesn't sound like a game, but he sure does treat it like one)

Sleep: He is now, for the most part, sleeping through the night.  In his own bed.

Lets talk about sleep.  Bryan did not get to this point naturally.  We also did not use the traditional "Cry It Out" method.  We didn't rock him all night either.  I feel like we did a good medium of the two

(Just to be clear, we don't have any negative opinion on people that do chose those two methods, It was just something that wasn't for us.)

It started when I was ripped from my sleep, by excruciating pain of being bit...in the milk.  after that, it was a slow trail to sleep.

• We started by weaning him off night nursing.  Which means, daddy gets to help.
• Then we started putting him back in his own bed till 4, then a week later, moving it to 6.  He was already starting the night off in his crib, but was allowed in our bed after 12.  Still holding him to sleep.
• The last step was to get him to go to sleep by himself.

If he woke up, we give him a hug, kiss, then lay him back down.  We don't leave the room until he is asleep.  In the beginning, we had to sit with him and pat his back through the bars.  Then slowly get farther away. until we are sitting across the room.

This part took the longest, but it was rewarding.  We went from waking every 2 hours, to now he may only wake up once, if at all.

We also don't have to lay him down constantly anymore.  He still cries a little bit, but when he wakes up, all I have to do is give him a hug and kiss, then he lays himself down.  Still cries a little, but not for hours, just minutes.

So that is how I relearned what sleep is.  Now enjoy some pictures of my sweetie pie.

cheeks!

just some cousins dancing to Annie

Apparently, dogs make a comfy chair.

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