Last weekend we took a trip down to Bandon to visit Grammy and Kelly! Brielle and Ronan were excited to meet the new member of their family - Emmett! He's a cute, little rescue dog. He wasn't used to being around kids, but he slowly warmed up to them.
For Valentine's Day, I decided to break Ronan's little heart by throwing him a weaning party. We've been nursing less, talking about stopping, and even reading a children's book about weaning in preparation for this day. Instead of calling it a "goodbye dup" party, we actually called it "Ronan's 'big boy' party" - a celebration to mark his transition from a nursing toddler to a "big boy". We decorated the house with streamers, balloons, and photos of Ronan doing big boy things.
I held Ronan as we looked at each photo and talked about how proud we are of him. Then we headed upstairs for "last dup".
He was fine. He finished, stated, "all done dup", and headed downstairs. A big boy present was waiting for him - his own Taekwondo uniform!
Then...he happily did a puzzle. He's asked about dup a couple times in the past week, but with a half-smile on his face as if he didn't seriously think it would happen. He never cried or protested. He just continues to be a really easy, cooperative, sweet kid.
No party is complete without Grammy's cupcakes...
We then moved into a Valentine's Day celebration. Brielle gave Grammy and Kelly a card she made for them at school.
Grammy and Kelly gave the kids Valentine's gifts to open.
One reason I decided to have the big boy party on Valentine's Day was because Kraig and I had reservations to stay at a beach hotel that night. I hoped that breaking the dupping cycle that first night would be helpful. Thank you to Grammy and Kelly for watching the kids so we could enjoy a coastal getaway (5 minutes away). We somehow manage to have great "weather luck" when we visit Bandon, but we really didn't expect it to be this nice in February.
OK - I can't help myself, so here come some Bandon beach photos...
You just can't beat this view from the hotel room...
The next morning we took a walk on the beach.
I collected some beach rocks for my rock tumbler. Kraig's shadow helped me locate some good ones.
Back at the house, we relaxed on the deck by the lake, soaking up some sunshine. The kids have come to love going out on the boat. Ronan seemed excited about it at first, but then he absolutely refused to put on a life jacket for some reason. We watched as Brielle and Daddy headed out on their own.
But when they returned, Ronan suddenly decided that wearing the jacket was worth it and hopped into the boat for a long ride around the lake.
Ronan tried on his new dobok. It was a little big on him, but it's the smallest size available (size 0000).
Brielle, Kraig, and I recently tested for our purple belts. With Grammy's help, we were finally able to take a family photo with our new belts.
Hopefully someday Ronan will want to join us for our classes. So far he seems very interested.
We had an absolutely wonderful weekend with Grammy and Kelly!
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