Toddler Bed

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Jenn

M is successfully sleeping in her toddler bed. Last weekend R had a three day weekend and I took Monday off and decided this would be the weekend to make the transition. I thought for sure it would be my most sleep deprived weekend since the infant days and pictured myself taking her back to her room/bed several times during the night. We decided on the cold turkey approach. We moved her crib to the guest room (baby #2’s room) and put the toddler bed in it’s place. We decided not to go to a twin size bed. I think this was partly because I didn’t feel like she absolutely needed to leave the crib, I just wanted to get that transition made well before baby #2.  She wasn’t even remotely interested in climbing out. I think a twin bed would have been too much for her. And we got a great deal on the second hand toddler bed!

We made a big deal about the new big girl bed and really talked it up. Surprisingly enough the whole thing was no big deal. I’m having trouble remembering already, but I think she slept all night all three nights that weekend. The second morning she did wake up on the floor but assured me she had just fallen out and didn’t sleep there all night. One morning this past week I did find her curled up sleeping almost across the room on the floor with no blankets. She’s not really digging being covered up, so we’re putting her in extra warm PJs. We got a hard frost here last night – whatever that means!

We got the rest of her “big girl” room setup this week too. We swapped her changing table with the big bookshelf from the guest room, got her a new chair to replace the glider and a bigger dresser, both of which were moved to the new baby’s room.  It’s pretty tight in the new baby’s room with the queen size bed, but it works for now.  Thank you to Grandma Jane for the perfectly sized quilt for her toddler bed – she loves it!

M hasn’t really seemed to miss the changing table and we’ve taken to changing her on her bed or on the floor.  I wonder when we’ll feel like it’s time to do the intensive potty training weekend? I don’t think we’re there yet. Not that many dry diapers and only the one #2 on the potty, which was a fluke I think. We’ll see. Would LOVE to have that done before Baby #2.

Today R mowed the lawn for *hopefully* the last time this season. But not before he raked the whole yard. While we have many beautiful leaves to peep in the neighborhood, ours seem to be late to turn this year, so there will be much more raking to be done.  He also trimmed back the day lilies along the driveway and I pulled all the plants and stakes out of the three raised bed gardens. M was sad to see those go and wanted to keep watering the garden. I think this is the first year she’ll really start to understand the seasons and get a kick out winter and snow. She’s loving looking at the pretty leaves with us.

Posted in Miss M., Toddlers | 2 Comments

Whites, Yellows, Ducks and Frogs

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Jenn

Looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of neutral colors around here in the coming months. At least I’m not a big fan of pink anyhow!  Yesterday we tried one last time to determine the gender of baby #2 but the baby was in a tricky position yet again. Insurance will not pay for another ultrasound unless there is another issue warranting one. I’m taking it as a sign to loosen up about life, and I really do feel ok with it being a surprise. I’m actually starting to get excited about it being a surprise. I mean, I can’t think of a bigger surprise – except maybe finding out you were pregnant if you weren’t really planning to be. But now we’ll have to agree on two names! I’ll have to go through M’s clothes to see how much of her stuff is gender neutral. The season is completely opposite, so we’ll probably need to get weather appropriate 0-3 month clothes anyway (M was born in the middle of the summer and this one will be middle of winter). Last night M and I celebrated a healthy baby brother or sister by getting baby #2 a nice pack of long sleeve white onesies. I think it’s better that this is happening with our second kid, because now we know that it doesn’t really matter what they are wearing, you’re way to busy making sure they are breathing/eating/sleeping. All of our “stuff” is gender neutral, as we aren’t big fans of pink and we anticipated having a second child. Well, I hope this isn’t a sign that this child will be defiant and difficult, throwing me for a loop it’s whole life!

Posted in Babies, Motherhood | 2 Comments

Counting Video & Granola

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Jenn

This video is a little old.  Now she can count to 20, if you don’t count 13 and 14. But come on, 13 is an unlucky number. That’s totally why she skips it. We discourage her from jumping on the couch and offer the couch cushion on the floor as an alternative. When she first started this she would count to 10, then fall, stiff as a board, flat on her face on the cushion. In this video I was having a hard time getting her to recreate that.

I’m excited that the woman who ran the Whole Food Cooking online seminar that I did earlier this year has posted her granola recipe on her public blog.  I make this about every two weeks and it lasts me two weeks. You just might see it show up in a jar as a Christmas present this year too (did I mention we’re scaling back this year). Her new session starts Monday, 10/1/12.

Posted in Miss M., Recipes, Whole Food Eating | 1 Comment

Firetruck

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Jenn

R and M went to the local fire station to have her car seat turned forward and inspected. She was really excited about going and seeing the fire trucks.  She asked me if she could sit in one and I told her probably not. Her awesome dad made it happen and I got this super cute text message while in a meeting and couldn’t contain myself.

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The Routine

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Jenn

Well, we’re back in the swing of things. While the grind can be tiring, I do love a good routine and it feels like we’ve got a good thing going. And oh man, we’re adding another baby to this mix when it feels like we’ve just gotten the hang of this first one? It’ll be great!Anyhow, the routine. I do love it. I know you’re probably not too interested, if you’re even reading, but I do like being able to go back and look at this stuff.  On weekdays, R is up at the ungodly hour of 5am. He’s in and out of the shower and practically ready to go by the time he wakes me at 5:30 or 5:45am. I love not being the first one up. M was doing a great job of sleeping until he’s out of the shower and sometimes until I’m out at 6am. But as of the last week or so she’s up around 5:30am, asking to come snuggle in our bed.  Snuggling is usually tossing and turning or reading a book.  That’s all fun and games until it’s the weekend.

After that R helps a little if he can in the morning getting her dressed and applying sunscreen, depending on what time she gets up, and he’s out the door very soon after 6am. That leaves me and my girl all alone for our morning routine. She eats pretty much the same thing for breakfast everyday – a whole wheat pancake (no butter or syrup – I can’t believe I get away with that!), blueberries and a turkey sausage patty (which she usually hardly touches, but packs up to eat at lunchtime).  She eats while I get ready (and pick up house) and then we brush our teeth together, give Izzie a kiss and a treat and head out the door at around 7am.  I work from 8am – 3pm, but usually leave around 3:30pm. I sometimes run errands and I sometimes pick her up right after work and take her with me.  I try to make it there before 3:45pm or well after, as that’s the time they go outside.  She DOES NOT like to go home with me if she’s on the playground with her friends when I get there, so it’s better just to avoid that whole fiasco.I like our afternoon/evening routine too.  She enjoys running errands with me and she enjoys standing on her stool in the kitchen or playing in her kitchen while I make dinner and pack the lunches for the next day.  She enjoys watering the garden with R and is really into feeding the dog her dinner (the dog’s dinner that is).  We usually try to eat by 5:30pm or so. We try to eat together as a family, or at least her and I if Ryan’s teaching, gigging or working late. Now that she sits at the table in the booster seat, dinner feels more inclusive.  We usually start her out with what we’re having, with a side of cucumbers, tomatoes, sliced peppers or berries. When we’re both home, we try to squeeze in a walk around the block before bedtime, but it’s usually tight.  The bedtime routine used to start around 7pm, but now that we’re back to getting up early, we’ve moved the bedtime routine start time to 6:30pm.  She gets a bath every night. It’s part of the routine, and she really needs it with all that sunscreen she wears.  So, potty, bath, potty, teeth brushing and flossing (usually), one book, a song or whole body relaxation meditation (with me) and crib time.

Once she’s in bed, I’m usually doing dishes, finishing up lunches and chores (house, dog, cat, etc).  R’s usually doing lesson plans or other school work.  We try to be in bed by 10pm, and if I had my way I’d be in bed reading by 9pm and lights out by 9:30pm!  I bet that will get easier as it gets darker earlier.  We’re not really watching any TV these days, but if we do it’s last night’s DVRed episode of the Daily Show.  I usually last about 3 pages in my book before falling asleep. Then we get up and do it all over again.  Sometimes I feel like I just spend today prepping for tomorrow and just when I’m getting sick of that, the weekend is here with a nice reprieve from the routine. I do savor my weekends.  I get laundry out of the way mostly on Friday nights to try to free up the full days to relax more.  We’ve been doing a lot of housework and yard work every weekend since the house is for sale. I’m looking forward to not having that be such a priority and as Fall and Winter settle in, so will we.  I’m about 21 weeks pregnant now. I’ve busted out the maternity clothes in the last week or so and I’ve been lucky enough to get several hand me downs so feel like I have a nice wardrobe going. I’m having more back pain then I remember having the first time around, but I assume it’s because of the lifting of a 24.6lb kiddo and all the bending over to do things like bath her or take her in and out of the crib. I’m getting the sciatica pain, and lots of numbness in my left lower leg and the top of my left foot, particularly near my pointer and big toe. Lots of small projects on my brain, and looking forward to taking them on while I’m feeling relatively well.

Posted in Motherhood, Toddlers | 1 Comment

Pinterest Wins

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Jenn

I scan through Pinterest every couple of days.  It’s like a good magazine.  I look further in to things where the photos capture my attention and I overlook most of the fashion and makeup stuff.  Lots of people pin all day and I wonder how much of it they really try or ever look at again. I’m as guilty as anyone. (Although I did make this happen!)  A few weeks ago, I decided I would finally look back at the recipes I’d pinned and use them for some inspiration in my meal planning.  I made linguine with slow cooked zucchini, basil and cream. This was a huge hit and also pretty easy for a weeknight.  You need time to slice all the zucchini and half an hour to cook the zucchini, but all in all a pretty easy meal that makes lots of leftovers.  I also tried these Bird’s Nest Breakfast Cups and they were great. They were easy, yummy and seem easy to customize.  They’ve already made it off my virtual board and on to a 3 x 5 card for my recipe box. I’m so old school. I’ve pinned some crafty type things for Christmas presents this year, as I try to scale it back financially in preparation for baby #2.  I should probably start looking at those soon to see how realistic they are. Oh, and who wants to volunteer to make me this??

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Booster Seat

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Jenn

I think M has been ready to get out of her high chair and in to a booster seat for some time now. I was being lazy about getting her one and as luck would have it someone offered us their old one last weekend! She loves it and is doing great sitting in her big girl seat.

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Go Gators

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Jenn

Some old college town friends just moved up to New England and we reunited with them to watch the first Gator game at our house.  Their kids did a great job entertaining M while we cheered on our Gators and got caught up.  The kids look super bored in this photo, but they had a great time together playing quietly in M’s room for the entire first half of the game!

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Tanglewood

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Jenn

A few weeks ago we packed up the kiddo and headed off to Tanglewood in the Berkshires for a great concert by the Boston Symphony. We got lawn seats – did you know they are FREE for kids 17 and younger! There were tons of kids there and M did a relatively good job of staying quiet and still.  She did take a walk or two with her dad to get up closer and see the instruments. For several days afterwards she would tell me this whole story every time we got in the car about how you have to be quiet when the music comes on. I realized that it was because the blanket we sat on that afternoon was still in the backseat and it was reminding her.  So cute.

The trip was well timed, as it was during our second Open House. M and her dad spent the morning outside doing yard work while I was inside scrubbing and hiding clutter.  She’s such a good helper.

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Ice Pack

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Jenn

When M gets a scratch or scape at home, she always asks for ice.  They do this at school, and it’s what she’s used to, even if it’s not really needed. I used to just give her a sandwich bag with some ice, wrapped in a towel. And she’d just want to play with it. I found this super cute old fashioned ice pack and she couldn’t wait to try it out. So, she threw herself on the ground and faked a boo-boo.  What a drama queen!

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