currently. v.1

wendy over at This Amazing Day and randolin at Harvesting Kale co-host this "currently" link up every thursday. every week, they set up a new set of prompts to follow to describe how you currently feel. since i've been a little m.i.a. from the blogging game for a couple months, i decided to join in this week. the next part of the "our wedding" series will be up in the next couple days!

currently, i am...

missing my car! while braving an outing with our partially potty trained toddler, charles's car broke down yesterday. so i've really only had to share my car for one day but i felt so cooped up today! i didn't even have any plans to go anywhere but the fact that i couldn't was enough to make me feel claustrophobic.

craving a bunch of new stuff for our house. since we've had to many ongoing projects, it actually feel like i get new stuff because when we get a room ready, we get to unpack the boxes for that room that have been hanging out in our garage. so it's like shopping our own stuff! buuuuuut that feeling does where off and it would be nice to get a few new things.

anticipating the satisfaction of having a fully potty trained kiddo. while jc has been doing GREAT with peeing in the potty, we are holding off on night training him and he still has yet to go number #2 (sorry non-parental readers!) in the potty. jc is still in his crib so we are going to wait until the changes of wearing underwear all day seems less new before we transition him into a toddler bed. then we can work on night training. as far as the #2 situation, this kid is SO stubborn. he will hold it all day until naptime or bedtime (when he will be put in a diaper) to go. he'll tell us he needs to go, we'll go sit on the potty and nothing happens. we'll sit quietly, read books, talk, listen to music, play on the ipad and still nothing. i even bought him a bunch of matchbox cars that now live in a vase on top of the toilet as an incentive. told him that he can't have one until he goes #2 in the potty. still nothing. i guess he'll just do it when he wants to!

thinking about going on our first family trip to disneyland in october! my mom is trying to get this whole thing planned and i really hope it happens. charles and i have been to disneyland tons of times but jc has not been. i think he's just old enough that he'll have a good time. i am definitely nervous about hundred different things because i over think everything but i am trying to just focus on the good stuff.

singing this:


you're welcome. i HIGHLY recommend you view the original review "un-songified" because it is also one of the funniest things i've ever seen.

again, check out wendy's blog or randolin's blog to link up your post too!

life lately

looking at all these pictures makes me realize that the last month has been a blur. look i actually brushed my hair a couple times! to say we've been busy would be an understatement. after we purchased our new house, we had a month to do any renovations that we wanted to do before we moved in. so charles immediately went to work and even took a week off from work so he could devote all of his time to the new house. and even with hours of slave labor from friends and family, we STILL didn't finish everything. with a march 23rd deadline, we had to move in with rooms half-painted, floors halfway finished, and no baseboards anywhere. so of course, all of these things have been making moving even more difficult than it is normally. i didn't realize that was possible. so we've been unpacking at a snail's pace, living among the boxes. so many boxes in fact, jc learned a new word, "box". the only thing i can say is that jc really doesn't seem to mind it. he spent our first night, sleeping in his pack-n-play because he crib wasn't put together. i managed to make a space just barely big enough in his room for his pack-n-play. and he went to bed just like it was any other night. he gets excited when he goes to sleep and then wakes up and something different is put up or he finds now new-to-him toys because they've been in a box for two weeks. i love him so much.

and on top of allllll of that, we are getting married in a month! we are seriously getting down to the wire. my bridal shower is this weekend and i cannot even express how happy i am that my wonderful sister and mother planned the whole thing and all i have to do is show up. charles has to work and everyone i would ask to babysit will be at the shower so jc will be my date to my bridal shower. i think he'll be the life of the party.

i so badly don't want to disappear for the next month but it seriously took me eight hours to finish this blog post. i started at 5, then got distracted with a phone call with my sister about the shower, then had to make dinner, then had to clean up dinner, then had to clean up paint brushes and trays from earlier, then had to get jc ready for bed, then take a shower and THEN i could work on this post. time is so precious lately, i can't spend hours online everyday. i am going to try my hardest to keep the blog updated with new wedding events and big house news. but i probably won't have so much "filler" i guess. which hey, your google reader is probably pretty full anyway, huh?

hope everyone has a great easter weekend!

jc and i vlog for the first time!

i am alive!! i have made it through the worst of the moving process and we have internet!!! instead of blogging about all the moving updates, i just wanted to do something fun. so jc and i vlogged!

thrifting makes me happy

i should clarify, when i actually find stuff that i like, thrifting makes me happy. this doesn't always happen, in fact more often than not, i don't find anything i like. but i got lucky a couple weeks ago, didn't have the toddler with me so i was able to look around a little more sans shopping cart (i feel like a shopping cart can be the biggest hindrance to finding good stuff while shopping in a little tiny thrift store, with little tiny narrow aisles). i decided to peruse the book section that i usually pass over and found some awesome little golden books. and discovered that i am in LOVE with the illustrations! so cute!










the ones that were originally made in the forties and fifties are my favorite. it doesn't hurt that the dog in Scamp looks just like my dog. or that the bird on the back of the Birds book looks JUST like my tattoo!




i didn't ask for a "little golden book illustrated bird" tattoo when i got this three years ago but apparently that's what i wanted! these books were about $1.50 each so a pretty good deal for some cute books. i seriously want to buy more and do crafty things with them. i don't know what i would do exactly, maybe something like this or just framing them. i don't know but my brain is spinning with ideas.

i'm linking up with stephanie for little bits of happiness and mandy for high on thrifting thursday.

jc at twenty-one months

check out previous monthly updates here

here we are again! another month closer to two. i don't even want to think about it. i can't believe my little guy is approaching this birthday so fast. it's been easy to distract myself with our impending home purchase and wedding, but it's coming no matter what. i guess i better get to pinning some second birthday ideas, eh?

this month has been SO much better in toddlerland. the tantrums have been to a minimum and happy-go-lucky jc has been in full effect. i know the grumpy, grouchy jc usually comes around when he's sick or teething and he's been very healthy all month. but that still means NO NEW TEETH! i swear, i'm going to have to get dentures for this kid. no molars yet. no canines yet. i'm not sure if i should be worried about this or not. i can definitely feel them under his gums (at the risk of getting bit) but there are no signs of them cutting through yet.




another reason that i've been a little concerned with his teeth is jc's speech, or lack thereof. again, i don't know if i'm just being a worry wart first time mom but i feel like jc should be talking more. and charles who is usually mr. cool-doesn't-worry-about-anything has expressed the same concern. i wonder if his lack of teeth may be limiting sounds he can make? and therefore, words he can say? i don't know. i tried really hard to compile a list of all the words jc can say and i got about 40-45 words. he's put two words together a couple times, usually "bye bye daddy" or "bye bye puppy". i guess it's a fair amount of words but he just doesn't say them very frequently. i guess i kinda thought he would take to talking the same way he took to walking. once you start, you keep going and get better at it and do it all the time. but he seems to learn a couple new words every couple weeks but then he won't use them consistently. i'll ask him to say a word that i know he can say and he will refuse. get mad even. i don't know if this is just being a toddler, testing his limits and whatnot but it is SO frustrating. i've been trying to play dumb more often to make him actually say what he wants instead of just pointing and grunting but he will get SO frustrated with me. if i push it too much, it turns into a full on tantrum. so if anyone's got any pointers or can assure me that this is normal or even tell me that it isn't so i don't feel crazy, i would love any and all of it!

jc has also been exhibiting a sort of split personality at times. sometimes it seems like his separation anxiety that i thought was a thing of the past is in full swing. other times, he is happy and friendly with people we just met. i think that if he thinks we are leaving (even if we aren't), that's when the separation anxiety kicks in. if he's pretty confident that, yes we are in a new place with new people but my parents are staying here with me, he is super happy and friendly. he will offer you the toy he is playing with and fist bumps if he really likes you. kisses and hugs if he loves you.

some of his favorites this month include the books Good Night California and anything elmo related, CHEESEBURGERS (all caps is necessary because this is the kid who wouldn't eat meat at all), park trips, turning anything into a drum, and just hanging out in his little tikes cozy coupe.




here are some 21 month milestones via babycenter. again, jc was born almost two months premature but i'm going to compare his stats to his actual age anyway. because that's how i roll.

mastered skills (most kids can do):

can walk up stairs - yes, as long as he can hold onto something. he definitely prefers to try to walk up them rather than crawl.

able to set simple goals (e.g. deciding to put a toy in a certain place) - yes. in fact, he spends most of the day trying to place a menagerie of toys in mr. potato head's butt (if your kid has a mr. potato head, you know what i'm talking about). and it's only certain toys and if they fall out, god help us all.

emerging skills (half of kids can do):

throws a ball overhand - yes, all day everyday

kicks ball forward - yes, all day everyday

stacks six blocks - it might be cheating because we don't have regular blocks, just mega blocks that connect together but i've seen him stack at least ten blocks

advanced skills (a few kids can do):

names simple pictures in a book - this is one of his favorite things to do

can walk down stairs - same as with walking up stairs. it's not perfect but if he can hold onto something, he will prefer to walk down rather than climb down.

week in iphone photos

what a week! we had the oscars (that only i was into), a mobile notary came to the house so we could sign some escrow paperwork (no keys yet but hopefully VERY soon!), charles and i headed out with some friends to a king's game, and jc was just his normal, adorable self. couldn't really ask for a better week.











follow me on instagram? my username is melissajenkinslinking up with a good life and life rearranged.

a couple weeks in iphone photos

why do i keep doing this to myself? i seriously just spent way too long going through all my iphone pictures. i need to do this every week, not every other week. if you follow me on instagram (my username is melissajenkins) you've already seen all these but hey, they are just as good the second time around. highlights include jc coming out of his teething/being sick all day everyday funk, a girl's night out with my mama, valentine's day, and jc's first sleepover with his bff damian. so much fun! and now i'm going to enjoy some more oscar's preshow before jc wakes up from his nap. have a good rest of your weekend!

linking up with a good life and life rearranged.

our love story, part two

photo by Stina Reffit Photography

so here we are for part two! you can catch part one here in case ya missed it. oh and you'll want to see the awesomesauce picture of charles and i before our FRESHMAN homecoming dance. it's all kinds of embarrassing.

again, this is from our wedding website so the tone is a little different than i normally like to keep it over here. hope you enjoy part two!

High school came and went. We moved into together the spring after we graduated, in March 2005. We lived in a tiny one bedroom duplex in a shady neighborhood. But it was amazing, because it was our place. Our first place together. We had always talked about how awesome it would be to be "grown ups" and live together. To go to sleep and wake up in the same place. And we finally had it.

We lived in that house for a couple years until we met one-third of the super friends, Garrett and Jessica. Within a couple months of knowing each other, we promptly decided that we needed to become roommates and move in together. And so it was. We moved into a four bedroom home with our new best friends. There were a lot of good times in that house. We like to refer to it as our "college years" even though only one of us was actively enrolled in school. But you get the idea.

um, yes i am lil jon. best halloween evar btw.

After living there for a couple more years, we decided it was once again time to move on our own. We moved into the house that Charles had lived in since he was three years old. This was the house that we would start to build our family. We just didn't know that part yet.

After a year of just hanging around, without much direction in our lives except working our nine to fives, the biggest change to our lives happened. On November 9th, 2009 we found out we were pregnant.

It wasn't part of our "plan" but sometimes life doesn't follow your plan. We knew this was supposed to happen ths way. This was for a reason. We were beyond excited to welcome a new member to our little family.

A couple months before we were expecting our new addition, we went on a babymoon, or one last trip before the baby comes. We traveled by car (Charles's '91 BMW, of course) north Interstate 5 through Northern California, Oregon, Washington and up to Vancouver, British Columbia and then back down the coast. One of our first stops was to Crater Lake. We had been told by many that it was worth the trip and they were right. It was breathtakingly beautiful. 

It was May 1st, 2010. There was several feet of snow atop this mountain with a lake in the middle of it. We were dressed for summer weather. After getting in a fight because Charles wanted to trek a little further in the snow and Melissa getting mad because "I'm 30 weeks pregnant! I'm not going to hike around in the snow!", Charles managed to talk Melissa into going a little further away from the rest of the tourists. That is where Charles got on one knee and proposed. In the snow with Crater Lake as the backdrop. The words he said are not remembered because of the anxiety going through Charles's brain and Melissa's absolute shock but they were special. And life changing.

On June 1st, 2010 a month to the date of our engagement, we welcomed John Charles the Third. He has made our lives whole. He fits so perfectly in our family and we are so thankful everyday that he is here.

jc at twenty months

check out previous monthly posts here

so cue the mommy guilt but i totally skipped out on jc's nineteen month post. i don't know what happened but before i knew it, it was the end of january and his twenty month birthday was like five days away. so i told myself that i would make it a priority to do his twenty month post right away, on time even, but then that didn't happen either. so here we are, nine days after his twenty month birthday. so jc, if you ever read this, mommy loved you just as much during your nineteenth month of life as ever.

sorry for the lame iphone picture but this has been what is holding up this post. jc is still sick and now i'm sick so an iphone picture is what we are going to have to work with!

speaking of being sick, it has been a pretty rough couple of weeks around these parts. jc had a low fever for a few days with no other symptoms but he was MISERABLE. he finally got over it for a couple days and then BAM he got a cold. so we've been nursing this cold for the past few days and it finally seems like we are on the other side of the hill. but now i'm sick so we're a bunch of mouth breathers over here. you think that having your kid at home and not in daycare will help keep them healthy but i swear someone sneezes across the aisle at target and jc is sick.

minus the sickness, jc has been turning into the most rambunctious little toddler. i really can't believe that he will be two in less than four months. it is boggling my mind. he loves to get into everything and is constantly doing something. he's been doing so much better with the other little boy that i watch twice a week. they are doing a very good job of sharing (germs especially) and respecting each other's space which is so much more than you can ask for with a 20 month old and a 14 month old. there is still the occasional fight over a toy but for the most part, they play very well together.

one big leap we've experienced is jc's use of the word "no". while this can be a very frustrating time with him saying "no" to EVERYTHING but it actually helps when i offer him choices, especially at meal times. lately it's been horrible because apparently sick jc simultaneously wants nothing and everything. but under normal circumstances, this word can be very useful. i'm still waiting for this "burst of language" that's supposed to happen around this time. i know it will help a lot with jc's frustrations if he can actually tell me what he wants. it will help with my frustrations too.

right now jc likes garbage trucks, dogs (cats are still his favorite though), pretending to crash his matchbox cars together and trying to put on mommy and daddy's shoes. his favorite books right now are the very hungry caterpillar and a yo gabba gabba book called "it's nice to be nice". his favorite foods are yogurt, cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit snacks and crackers. sleep schedule is still the same, one nap in the middle of the day that lasts about 2-3 hours. we still only have eight teeth. no canines or molars. i was actually really hoping that these illnesses were signs of teething but no such luck. i've been risking my poor fingers everyday checking to see if there's any new chompers in there with no avail.

i saw this idea over at suzanne's blog so i'm going to copy it because that's how i roll. sometimes i feel stuck trying to write about new things jc is doing every month because i forget about all the little things. i'm going to compare jc to the twenty month milestones even though he was almost two months premature. so here are some twenty month milestones according to babycenter and how jc is stacking up:

mastered skills (most kids can do)

Feeds doll - jc LOVES to feed his teddy bear and other lucky stuffed animals

Takes off own clothes - he can take his zipped up jacket off and his socks off. and his pants have magically been off a couple times after his nap.

Dumps an object in imitation, such as throwing garbage away - he likes to put garbage in the garbage can, if that's what this means. i even gave him an empty fruit snack box to play with the other day and he took it straight to the recycling can. al gore would be so proud.

emerging skills (half of kids can do)

Learns words at a rate of ten or more a day - when it comes to understanding them, this is probably true but saying them out loud? definitely not.

Can walk up stairs (but probably not down) - he walked (not crawled) up one step at our friend's house the other day all by himself. stairS, i'm not so sure.

advanced skills (a few kids can do)

May start exploring genitals - bahahahahaha i guess you could say jc is baby genius in this area heh

Draws a straight line - not on purpose

Names several body parts - he can say "nose" but cannot say any other words that identify body parts. but if you ask him he can point to his hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, arm, elbow, hand, fingers, belly, booty, weiner (we are real scientific over here), thighs, legs, knee, foot and toes.

iphone photo dump

i apologize for the photo dump that is about to follow. i really need to start doing this every week becaaaaause, it's a lotta pictures.

i will tell you what, i feel like i gained ten pounds just organizing this pictures because my couch is pictured in about 90% of these photos. i have been LAZY! it didn't help that jc was sick for about a week and i was literally trapped under him on the couch for most of the time on those days. but even right now i'm feeling antsy like i need to get out from under this laptop and go do something. so here's our photos from the last couple weeks via my iphone.























i'll be linking up with a good life and life rearranged.

wordless(ish) wednesday: the world through jc's eyes

charles and i have joked many a time about getting a helmet cam and strapping it to jc's head just so we could see how he sees the world. we also joked about doing this to the cat and the dog but that's beside the point. jc got his little mitts on the flip cam the other day. and the result is this hilarious video of him running through the house, trying to evade my takeover of said flip cam. he actually took a bunch of one second videos but because my man has mad video editing skillz, we have one forty second video.



{Linking up with The Paper Mama, a little king and i, and then, she snapped, Supermom, Live & Love Outloud, 5 Minutes for Mom, jenni from the blog and Baby Baby Lemon. Whew, that's a lot of linking up.}

our week (or so) in iphone photos

this has been one of those weeks where it felt like i did a bunch of stuff but i don't really think a whole lot got done. everyone in the house is sick so we are all tired and grumpy. i'm always reading all these blog posts about sick kiddos who get all cuddly and want to watch movies all day. ummmm, how come jc is not this way? he just gets SUPER whiny, likes to throw himself on the floor for no apparent reason and is just generally unhappy. i would give my pinky toe to have him just cuddle with me. oh well, he is at the end of his cold (i hope) so hopefully he'll be back to his normal self soon. until then, jc's bedtime routine will involve j&j vapor bath, baby vaporub, extra stories and his humidifier.

there were some highlights this week though. i have been trying my hardest to keep up with my get organized resolution. i feel the time ticking to moving time so i'm trying to just get rid of all the junk we've accumulated after living here for the past three years. jc and his bestie really tested my patience with their mess making but you have to pick your battles. jc wasn't trying to bite damian or pull his hair. they were playing together nicely. i really couldn't ask for more than that. i had to take lucy back to the vet for a two week follow up appointment. i know i mentioned on twitter, but i don't think i did on the blog; our cat had stones in her bladder. it was looking like we were in store for a very expensive surgery but luckily, with some special food, all of her stones are gone!! so exciting! jc has started taking me on these adventure walks. i just let him lead the way and we go where ever he wants to go. it's really a lot of fun to just walk along side him and check out our neighborhood from his perspective. we FINALLY got jc's hair cut! after two failed attempts i was convinced i was going to have a little hippy baby forever. but he watched his dad get his hair cut and then proceeded to shock everyone by sitting like a perfect angel while he got his hair cut. my jaw was on the floor. today we went to a birthday party at a taekwondo studio. it was so cute, all the kids got to wear white belts and got karate kid-style headbands to take home. the older kids got to learn some sweet moves and the little kids just got to run amok in a room with a padded floor. it ended with jc passing out in the ten minute car ride home.


















next week i hope to work on my "learn to sew" and "read more books" resolutions. hope everyone's having a great weekend! linking up with a good life and life rearranged.