Martha Metzler.com

YAY!! It’s Valentine’s Week and because I love yall, Bud created a special Valentine just for you.

That’s right! In true cliche military fashion, I’m pretty sure we conceived this wonderful, nauseous-causing blessing the day Sam came home from war times. Why did I just say war times? I don’t know, it sounded more old fashioned. Our nugget is due in August and I’m so excited to see Bud as a big brother.

So there ya have it! That’s why my posts have been a bit lacking in depth because I’ve been neck deep in Mr. Bathroom all day for the last 2 months. We are so excited and know what a blessing this is and hopefully the second trimester will bring some respite from the sickness and exhaustion and I can start making dumb jokes on here again.

Yall rock and I wish I could email you all individually since I suck at responding to comments, but please know that I get a leap of joy everytime I see a comment pop up and I’m so grateful for you!

Have I mentioned that I love this age?! Bud is just so much fun, he’s constantly learning and repeating words, using his imagination, and actually holding his attention span for longer than 2 seconds! So we’ve been playing a lot, mostly indoors because ya know, rain, freezing temps and such. Which has caused me to use my creativity in making the house fun.

Yall got any fresh ideas?!

Here’s what we’ve been up to. I hope yall have had a good week so far!

Tent in the living room = hours of entertainment

Even though it was raining and freezing, we went to see some tanks outside of Sam’s office last weekend. Bud is so lucky to live near post because he gets to see all kinds of cool stuff.

Have I mentioned Bud is obsessed with geese? Well there were TONS in a field the other day and Sam swerved off the road and grabbed Bud out of the car and they both just took off running after them. It was hilarious. I love having a husband who will do anything to see his son happy.

Crazyass Gruncle came to visit last week for the day and this happened most of the day which of course inevitably meant Bud threw up his entire dinner. I think Gruncle needs to be reminded of gravity and children’s’ stomachs but who wants to conquer that lesson?

Finger paint + folded TP roll like a heart = Valentine’s Craft!

We had our redeployment ball last week and yall, I got my hair did. First, I immediately regretted it as soon as I wrote the check. I looked like a 1990s prom queen. SO MUCH HAIRSPRAY. So I fixed it as soon as I got home, and only had to wash it 5 times to get all the spray out. This was the fixed do.

Dear PNW, you have stolen my freckles, my sun-bleached hair, and any source of color in my skin. I didn’t realize how pale I had gotten until these pictures. I’d go the tanning bed but I don’t feel like dying early and all that.

I mean…….. I married such a hottie. I love that he still gives me butterflies. And yeah, I smooched him pretty good that night.

Daddy is on a work trip for a couple weeks so on our way back from the airport to cheer us (me) up, we stopped at Krispy Kreme because the HOT NOW sign was on! If you don’t know what this means, please call me. I have some really important things to teach you.

Since Sam is gone, Roy has decided I need to be kept company. This usually means me laying in a weird position while Roy splays himself comfortably across my chest.

Have I mentioned the cold and rain? Yesterday I decided to make a racetrack through the living and dining rooms and Bud LOVED it!

Just because I think it’s hilarious

We prayed for a smooth transition when Sam got home. We prayed that Bud would know who his daddy is. No one has a playbook for that transition but man, I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.

I can’t describe how my soul floats when I see these two together. Bud loves his Dada so much. In fact, the other day Sam told Bud that he loved him and out of nowhere Bud looks up and says, “I love you”. YALL! He’s never said that before and we both felt tears in our eyes and a song in our heart.

These two….. my heart.

Hey Mari Robinson you win!!!! I’ve turned your email to Treat.com. If you could email me your address I’ll get that gift card to you and let me know if you want Starbucks or Target!

Holla at ya girl at marthabmetz@gmail.com.

My friends over at Leapfrog have out done themselves yet again. After they gifted Bud with a LeapPad2 which has saved us on several cross-country flights and long car rides, they sent him two different Ebooks.

The first is the Learn to Read Fairy Tales. Bud loves this one. It’s engaging, and educational. The older Bud gets, he gets more and more aware of how to play games and I love watching his little brain work. He is growing his vocabulary more and more and these two ebooks are perfect fun ways to give him a break from Mama’s boring flash cards and gives him a chance to really test his knowledge.

The second is the Learn to Read Adventure Stories and I think this is Bud’s favorite because of the fun sounds and pictures. He gets so excited about using the LeapPad because of these games and we use is sparingly so it hasn’t lost its appeal yet.

I feel like this LeapPad2 and the eBook will be something we will use for years to come because its so diverse age-wise. Thanks again LeapFrog for great products that don’t make me feel guilty!

*Disclaimer: LeapFrog gave us the eBooks but all opinions are my own.

Yall, I love me some Valentine’s Day. I don’t necessarily love the whole, “I’m going to pronounce my love on this one Hallmark day instead of making out with your hot face every day” but, I love conversation hearts, I love boxes of chocolates that are the size of torso, and I love the adorable little Valentine’s Day cards that you get in elementary school.

Last year I dressed Bud up and this year I plan on doing the same thing. We’re going to dress up and give out little Valentine’s cards to the 10 people we know in Washington.

This adorable company called Treat that sells personalized Valentine’s cards contacted me about their products. They make personalized greeting cards that are so cute. Their are really stinkin’ adorable. Well, all their cards are actually! The designs are creative, you can personalize them with your cute selves and whatever text you want OR they have a huge message library when you want to say something other than, “Errr, you look hot today.”

Treat is offering my readers 5 free cards! WOO! So leave your name, and email in the comments section! And as a Love Day treat from me, I’ll include a $15 gift card to either Starbucks or Target, your choice!!  I’ll randomly pick a winner on February 3rd.

Because for real, these are adorable right?! And who doesn’t want 5 free cards to send to 5 special people because real mail is just the best.

A couple weekends ago we went to the Tacoma Glass Museum.  This is one of those places that everyone kept telling us we have to go to while we live here. So, we did. They have an awesome building downtown so we had high expectations.

While the galleries were pretty cool, there weren’t many exhibits and we were literally done touring the museum in 10 minutes. And that was with a toddler that wanted to stop and point at everything. They did have a very cool room where you can watch them make glass and I think that was everyone’s favorite mainly because there was fire.

Watching glass being made

While we’re glad we went because we could cross it off our bucket list of things to do here, I don’t think it was worth the money. It’s $10 each person with the military discount and it was such a short exhibit.

Bud kept wanting to stand in the reflection which was pretty adorable. Until we kept yelling, “STAY AWAY FROM THE LIGHT CAROL ANN!”

There is an awesome bridge but guess what, you don’t have to pay to go across that soooo…… we’ll probably just walk across that next time instead of going in.

And if you’re taking kids, the nice thing is right outside the museum is the harbor so Bud loved looking at the boats.

This is my husband’s “If you take one more picture I’m leaving” face. Come to think of it, I think they are both giving me that look. 

All in all, we’re glad we went because we can say we did it but I doubt we’ll do a repeat performance!

Yall- this is the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. Seriously.

It’s everybody’s duty to give the reason for the world to dance.

This little wild boy of mine has been melting my heart since day one. I feel like every day he learns new things and his vocabulary, his actions, even his facial expressions are just growing in leaps and bounds. It’s so fascinating and exhilarating to see him grow up. I’ve been taking little notes of the little things that I don’t want to forget so I can remember them as he gets older and makes me drop him off a block away from the movie theatre to save face.

Oh Bud, let me count the ways…

the way i find you in the living room pouring over a book

the way you lounge back into my chest and cross your leg like an old man

that time that i turned my head for one second and you decided you wanted to some face art

how you have decided that you want to go down slides all by yourself, so proud!

the way you love to cuddle your dog

your imagination is developing like crazy and the children’s museum is one of your favorite places!

your bed head….. oh your bed head

i let you lick the beaters the other day for the first time when i was making a cake, and you would have thought i gave you the key to narnia

You are our wild child, sensitive soul, and big adventure wrapped up in one adorable package. We adore you Bud!

So it’s been really cold and dreary here in the PNW (pause for my shock face) so Bud and I have been trying to be super creative during the day in order to not lose our ever-loving minds. Well, the other day that meant making our own neon green slime! I tried to tell him about Nickelodeon and the awesome-ness that was “You can’t do that on television” and their slime but he didn’t care. He just wanted me to hurry up and make the gooey stuff for him to throw everywhere.

I grabbed a bowl, liquid starch (Sta-Flo is what I used), and clear glue (I used Elmers clear glue). I used 2 bottles of clear glue and about a cup of liquid starch. I just had to guess at the amounts until it was the consistency I wanted. I added some green food coloring and there ya had it! It entertained Bud for awhile and I’m not sure who had more fun squeezing it in their hands. The only disadvantage was that after a couple of hours it just kinda turned into a mess. It wasn’t slime anymore. I read another recipe that said to add water too, so I think I’ll do that next time and hopefully that’ll help it last like slime longer.

And oh yeah, don’t wear clothes that you have to wear out that day because slime will inevitably get on them!