Life Lately | February

Hey guys! March always feels like the first month of spring and while I'm not going to talk about the weather beyond this sentence (I know I'm beating the absolute shit out of this dead horse), I am delighted to be here!

Honestly, February was not bad. I went really hard for some home projects and started chiseling away at a long to-do list on the weekends. I have a few things to finish up this month, but I do think it's making the cold months fly right on by and frankly a nice antidote to the winter blues. Accomplishments make endorphins, I think! 

I don't have any before pictures but basically it was the builder grade beige, slapped over lemon yellow, most recently painted to sell the house before we bought it 7 years ago. We haven't touched it, so it was accented with really lovely dings and smudges and a few remnants of Duke's permanent marker stage. Now it's charcoal gray. Cheers!

There's a couple bathrooms I'd like to paint along with some obviously needed touch up here on the stairs this month but if we get any nice days over the weekends, it'll have to wait. I'm very much using house projects to fill my time only until I can go outside again. 

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In other news, my sister had a baby at the end of February! We haven't met her yet, but let the records show that I guessed her name correctly (it's Isla :)). We knew it started with an "I" so Ryan guessed Isabella and then I waffled on if Ivy might be a contender. Baby names are so fun - I loved imagining baby names when I was a kid and still like talking about them today. Duke was our frontrunner pretty early and we never even discussed girl names, so I feel like there's a whole world of names to ruminate on which I love when other people are having babies. 

Anyway! We saw Grandma Deb a couple days before the baby came and she brought our new favorite game: Alphabet Go Fish. Duke and I love games and while he's very numbers oriented, he has some work to do on recognizing letters, so this is extra fun. We play it most nights and it feels like such a testament that making learning fun makes learning also easy. Just a week or so and he's getting so good at recognizing letters. The upper case vs lower case still trips him up, especially with an upper case I looks just like a lower case L and that's understandable. We're working on it! 

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I  talked about this in a links post earlier in February, so I won't double up too much, but we spent a few days at Disney World in February and it was quite an experience. Epcot, by far was my favorite park, mostly because the world showcase. It was raining while we were there, but if it weren't, I feel like I could have walked around those little countries forever. 

Here's Duke rooting around secret doors in Morocco. The door burst open and boy did that knock his little socks right off. 

And escaping the drizzles on an indoor ride that is frankly antique. Ryan commented that nothing has changed since his last visit 15-odd years ago, which I thought was interesting. Some of the rides did feel a little dated and this one in particular was centered on a character that precedes me. BUT I will say that Disney is spotlessly clean. Like, no trash anywhere, everything spic-and-span and if things are old, they don't look worn down at all. Visually, I found Disney to be stunning. 

I think things stay the same because so many people like the nostalgia, you know? You go to Disney, you ride It's a Small World and eat Dole Whip. It's the rules. And then 20 years later, you bring your kids and it all feels the same. 

Oh and fireworks over Epcot - yes please! We could see them from our hotel room and I watched them from bed every night we were there. 

Also in Florida, but not at Disney -- Duke lived for the hotel pools. There were literally 6 of them and all different configurations. We spent most of our time at the lazy river, but this pirate ship was also a winner. 

Also, thumbs up is his go-to pose for pictures. 

Okay and last vacation pic -- our first time on a plane all together as a family. Duke's first time ever! It lived up to expectations except when his little ears needed to pop. He was a champ about it, but he told me his teeth felt really long which I thought was an interesting perception of pressure change. 

Thumbs up! 

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Overall, good month but glad it's over. Ready for spring!