2014- the year of "intentional"

Here's the thing about January...it's so fresh. And new. And exciting.

Here's the thing about end-of-July...it's so real.

Back in January, I posted about the one-word year...read that here

I was just reading back through old blogs, and sadly enough, to be honest, I kind of forgot about that. And by "kind of" I mean, I did. After all, it's July. That was January.

But there are other cliches too, "better late than never" and "no better time than the present" come to mind. Along with, "if not now, then when? if not you, then who?"

And so, my mid-year (past mid-year but that's just a minor detail) resolution remains the same as my start-of-year P.O.A. Be intentional. In all things. In all moments. At all times.

Certainly challenging, the next best way to change the world or at least, my own small corner of the world.

We Went Camping!

We took Tyler camping for the first time 2 weekends ago. We ventured out to Jester Park, our local (20 minutes from home) campground which we love- the site of our engagement and many other great nights- add our first "family" camping trip and this place definitely goes down in the Hockemeyer Family history book.

We didn't camp at all last year...due to Tyler's pending arrival, we weren't sure going into labor in a tent was ideal. Then once he arrived, we weren't sure having a newborn in a tent was ideal either. Hence we have been super excited to get him in a tent since the weather got nice enough and the calendar's stars aligned.

We weren't sure how he would do...so we planned accordingly, as many new parents do. We hemmed and hawed about going. We (or I) overthought it. Then, we went. Prepared of course...2 cars in case one of us had to abandon camp in the middle of the night (yay only being 20 minutes from home), 2 beers per person (instead of the usual amount we'd take camping) again...we assumed we'd be driving home at 2am.

You can't see him, but Tyler is asleep in there!

So, here's the story...Tyler got tired at his regular bedtime, so we put him to bed at 7pm. In broad daylight. In an insanely (overly?) crowded campground. And he slept until 6:30am when he awoke babbling and smiling at us from across the tent.

The list of things that didn't phase him is actually quite impressive:
- crying/screaming kids- who can blame them? who wants to go to bed when there's a campfire and smores
- next campsite over (10 yards from our tent?!)- cars starting with headlights beaming repeatedly into our tent
- Kevin and I getting in and zipping up about 3 layers of tent before shuffling around to get into our sleeping positions about 2 feet from his bed.
- dog barking really really really loud for a really really really long time at 3am. To which people in the campground were literally yelling at each other back and forth from tents far, far away



Basically, Tyler was the champ that he always is. We were over-prepared and over-thought it. Here's to many, many, many more nights of Hockemeyer family camping!

The view of Saylorville from our campsite

Tyler and I checking out the morning view after his first night in a tent

Tyler's a...Toddler, Temper Tantrums and All!

2 nights ago, Kevin and I were giving Tyler a bath- Kevin the bath part, me waiting nearby for the dry part...our regular bathtime routine. 

Tyler decided it'd be a good idea to try to stand up and move towards the faucet. Kevin decided this wasn't a good idea and asked Tyler to sit down and not stand up. Tyler sat down...and then to display his true unhappiness went to temper tantrum mode by folding his body in half and putting his forehead on the ground. However, what he didn't comprehend ahead of time was that he was sitting in a bathtub. So he proceeded to put his face down directly into the water and boy was that a shock! He sat back up immediately, sputtering and looking at us like WHAT?! just happened to me?!

Today, this move repeated itself when I put his empty bottle in the sink instead of keeping it within his reach...this time on the tile kitchen floor. And yes, he came up crying in pain with a big red spot on the middle of his forehead! 

Let the games begin...

Music Mondays

It's a new song from O.A.R. that Kevin found and sent to me, because he was so sure I'd love it. I obviously love it. 

Tyler- 12 months aka 1 year?!

This doesn't seem possible, but alas, it is...the 12 months old post!

I now fully understand the meaning of "time flying". I also fully understand the point that many parents have made to us along the way in saying "each stage is better than the last." We have LOVED the last 11 months. And we LOVE the current month too. We didn't think it could get any better than snuggly, sleepy newborn Tyler, then laughing and smiling Tyler showed up. But then rolling over Tyler arrived. And shortly thereafter, sitting up and army crawling Tyler graced us with his presence. Next came real crawling and babbling Tyler.

And now? Now we have babbling turning into words, crawling turning into stair climbing, standing turning into almost walking, peek-a-boo playing, vrooom vrooom car sound making, baby Tyler turning into little boy Tyler!

You know what's funny? On Tyler's birthday, I wanted to share a beer with Kevin after dinner to celebrate. We made it to a year! And NOW, now we know EVERYTHING there is to know about taking care of a baby. We are set.

But first, before that beer, I thought I better get cleaned up after the day so I took a shower. Land of best-place-to-think. And you know what I thought? I thought, wow...Tyler isn't a baby anymore. And the real kicker, Kevin and I have NO IDEA how to take care of a 1 year old little boy. And then it dawned on me. We aren't set.

Not even a little bit. Not even at all. But we drank our celebratory beer. And I imagine, with every birthday that comes and goes, we'll drink a celebratory something-or-other and step into the great unknown.

Remember this....4 days old

And the latest...

Hockemeyer Family Summer Vacation, 1st Edition

Last week, we had our first family summer vacation. Kevin took the week off work, taking advantage of the holiday 3 day weekend to kick off our week of fun.

We spent our 4th of July hanging around West Des Moines but ventured out to a local park/trail to take our jogging stroller for a spin. On Saturday, we kicked it into high gear preparing for our stay at my family's lake house in Fremont, Nebraska. We had meals planned and were determined to do as much prep work on Saturday so that while on vacation we could literally be on vacation, while still keeping ourselves and little Tyler alive and kicking with sustenance throughout the day.

Does anyone else notice that Tyler is looking at the camera! Photography skills, honed. 

Sunday we packed up our car and headed out to Fremont- a 2.5 hour drive with a stop on the way through "town" at the only place to stop in town...Walmart! We had planned to stop for some liquid refreshments, what we hadn't planned was that 10 minutes out of West Des Moines I was already making a Walmart list for the things we realized we forgot. And this was only after leaving the house once, getting about .5 miles from home and realizing we forgot the propane camping grill we intended to bring (to continue the theme of vacation, not work like the lake's charcoal grill would require). Public service announcement number 1- due to city ordinanace, we were not allowed to purchase our liquid refreshments until precisely 12:00pm- therefore we wasted a good 15 minutes of time wandering around the Fremont Walmart- PSA, don't make this mistake with a hungry-needing-a-new-diaper-11 month old who is beginning to learn the fine art of protest.

We were greeted at the lake house by the last remaining survivors of the Gerken Family 4th of July celebration. As is customary, we unpacked our belongings, put on our swimsuits and got out to the beach without skipping a beat. And so it began.

We proceeded to have a great lake vacation. Time stood still- lack of cell phone service and wi-fi was glorious- pretty much everything went according to plan. Tyler showed his "enthusiasm" for being on vacation by waking up between 5 and 530am every morning. This was not part of the plan. This should never be the part of any vacation plan. Unfortunately, we tried to reason with him on multiple occasions but he didn't budge. We took naps. Every day? Yes.


The trip- in photos- because there's too much to say.

First time on the sand

First time in the lake! All was well before he started dipping his face in to drink...

Tyler was actually very happy that our friends Rachael & Adam  joined our party for a day along with Aiden and Ellie. 

Loving watermelon

His shirt says it all! 

A better contraption for lake swimming. No drinking possible...

Loving the water

Looking cool

Tyler and I, all smiles on our last night

Kevin and Tyler

Family selfie, take 500. Sorry T.

And on our last day, while packing the car, Tyler was again practicing his protesting abilities. He obviously didn't want to leave. We loved every minute. 

Tyler- 11 Months

Tyler has been 11 months old for a couple of weeks now so it's about time to document his current ups and downs (literally!).

He loves:
-stairs and we basically trust him 90% of the time to go all the way up and all the way down on his own. He knows when he gets to the top to turn his body around and go feet first. Sometimes it takes him a few tries to get his legs over the edge, he looks like he's pulling into a parallel parking spot. Here's a video- and please note, no babies (or Tyler's) were harmed in the making of this video although it looks a bit precarious for a moment or two!

-doors. He's learned how to swing them open and closed and really does not appreciate when we shut them enough to latch and not allow him to continue playing.

-knowing what he wants. He's started this high pitched, dare I say annoying, whine/cry when his parents are messing up his world. It is amazing when it is instantaneously stopped with the mention of whatever he actually wants....for example, I'll say, Tyler do you want milk? and immediately whine/cry/rant done and smile. Or Tyler do you want to eat? and immediately he crawls to his high chair. I know this has been said before but he comprehends so much more than he can say (which is nothing, at this point).

- books. Tyler has loved books for a long time so this isn't new. He still can be easily entertained by one board book for at least 10 minutes, throw 2 or 3 on the floor near him or within his reach on the table or chair and he's golden. He turns pages, flips the book, opens flaps, finds different textures on certain books, etc. We have basically watched his small motor skill develop through page turning- now he turns one at a time- when he first started he would get half the book at once.


-swimming! He went in a small baby pool for the first time this past weekend and he loved it. Never mind the freezing water or the big kids splashing and jumping around him or the sprays of water that ended up all over his face- he pretty much smiled the whole time. Credit to Kevin who doesn't take it easy on Tyler at bath time- getting water in his face is such a common occurrence it appears to not even phase him.

-sleep! Tyler's bed time is anywhere from 6-7pm. He wakes up between 6-7am. He takes a morning nap from 8-10am and an afternoon nap from 12-2pm. These days it's pretty much like clockwork and we love him for it.

-holding on. He's not so interested in standing or walking on his own yet but he gets where he wants to go while holding on to anything sturdy enough to hold him up. He sometimes lets go and accidentally takes tiny steps but for the most part, he's rock solid with holding on and doesn't appear to be interested in other methods yet.

-after all of our (my?!) agony over his eating habits, he is definitely coming into his own. Puffs are one of his all time favorites, they turn his frown upside down immediately upon hearing the container rattling out of the pantry. He also eats toast on his own a lot of mornings. The only thing I can really remember him turning down recently is broccoli on it's own, he eats it when it's in combination with other things but didn't enjoy the broccoli "soup" he had the other night. He plows through pretty much any jar or pouch combination we have including one with beets and blueberries, that actually tasted like beets!

-his new car seats..now that he's not a little guy anymore, we graduated him to the next seat this past weekend. Here's his serious face, first time, mom what are you doing to me look...