Wordless Wednesday

I need a break planning a break!

I'm full out on the search for a Mother's Day Out (MDO) program to send Jeffrey to next year. I never imagined how stressful and cut-throat this would end up being! Mainly, I just want a safe place with caring teachers that has fun activities for him to do. I want him to have a place with good friends that he has a fun time at. However, it's apparently hard to get wee ones into such things! I had a tour last week of one that is local. I liked it a lot, but I would like it to offer more additional activities since we most likely won't have Jeffrey enrolled in anything else (unless we inherit a bunch of money? ha). It's rated very high and looked well upon in the community, though, so I know that it would be a great place for him. I went to an Open House for another one this morning. Overwhelming! Talking to some of the other parents really pushed me over the stress line, which is ridiculous since it's not THAT necessary for him to be in a program. It was a great school, but I'm not sure I'm willing to get up at 3am so that my two year old has somewhere to go on Wednesdays. I'll give them a call the day before registration opens to see how many spots are left, but I'm not counting on anything. I've got one other option that is actually the church I'm a member in, and I've found a local part time Montessori program that I'm waiting on some information about.

We'll see what happens, I suppose! Hopefully, once we're in somewhere, I won't have to worry about it again until it's time for actual school. Plus, he's the only kid I'll have to "fight" for a spot. I just really want to get him in somewhere so that he's adjusted before a potential sibling comes into play, especially since I'll want some one-on-one time with #2, as well.

Yikes.

14 Months!

My 14 month old (absurd, I know) is keeping me all kinds of busy and entertained. He's constantly making me laugh and yawn. He's exhausting, but I love it.

It's getting a bit harder to keep track of all of his new tricks since he's picking stuff up almost every day now, but I shall attempt...14 month stats:

• about 21 lbs 4 oz and 30.5 inches
• wearing primarily 12 month clothes with some 18 month, as well
• sleeping through the night at least half of each week- pretty amazing! When he does get up, he goes back down quickly and it's no more than two wakings
• napping once a day for about 2 hours in early afternoon, late morning
• is getting a bit pickier about what food he wants to eat, but he eats a lot of what he wants
• is pretty good at using a fork and a spoon. It's messy, but he's doing it!
• still at 4 teeth; those two teeth will NOT come through
• walks backwards and on his knees
• "jumps" (he does all of the action, but he doesn't actually leave the ground)
• can point to his eyes, hair, ears, mouth and toes
• new words: shoe, toes, Aly (my niece), baby
• will point people out in pictures and say who they are
• loves to dance (especially to rap)
• climbs onto everything: his chairs, the couch, the bed, the ottoman, in and out of his stroller, etc.
• favorite activity: his sorting toys and blocks

Wordless Wednesday

Transitioning to Milk

Since I'm still breastfeeding, cow's milk has not been anywhere near my list of concerns. We just weren't doing it yet since there was no need. However, the freezer stash is now gone, and I'm just not up to pumping to build it back up. So, milk it is. We went to see West Side Story (which was only so-so, by the way) the other night, so it was to be Jeffrey's first experience with milk. I was pretty nervous, I won't lie. It was not my ideal situation for him to be having it at night for the first time (even though he's had dairy before with zero problems), I didn't know if he's drink it from a sippy, and I actually didn't even know if he'd drink it at all!! During dinner that night, I let him have a few sips from my milk. He liked it. A lot. So, that eased my mind a bit and off we went. The report from my mom was that he did great with it and drank it with zero issues. It was even cold! He's such an easy kid.

Since it went so well, I'm not longer worried about going out and doing stuff at night anymore. Which is good because I've got a busy weekend being a bridesmaid this weekend, so he'll be having some more.

We're nowhere near having it become a regular occurrence in his diet anytime soon, but it's nice to know that we've got a back-up for when mommy can't be home!

Misery

I have the most awful head cold right now. Just one of the many reasons that I hate winter/cold weather. I can't breathe through my nose, and i feel so much sinus pressure. Blah. I could complain about it for awhile, but the worst part is that my little man has it, too. I'm having to carry around a tissue box everywhere we go, and we both have raw noses. Poor little guy doesn't understand what's happening. Thankfully, we're both over the coughing aspect of it. Hopefully, we'll both be 100% soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Child Led Napping

This is what I've been doing for the past 13.5 months. Jeffrey's sleep has always been so all over the place that I just went with it. It made it easy to go out and do whatever I wanted because he'd sleep when/wherever. However, over the past few weeks, it's becoming obvious that he is craving more of a routine/schedule. So, I've started to work on that today. Instead of waiting for him to ask for milk (his way of initiating his nap time; he still nurses to sleep), I took him to his room after lunch, changed him into a nap diaper, and started reading to him. After two pages, he was ready to go down and did so with no issues. Day 1= success. I've been making notes in my head about when he's been getting tired, so I knew that would be a good time (1pm). Hopefully, it continues to go smoothly, and he can get back to his better nighttime sleeping again!

Did i mention that he slept 10 hours STRAIGHT a few days ago? Longest stretch ever!!!

A Toddler's House

Over the past few weeks, we've been cleaning, purging and rearranging our house to accommodate the needs of an adventurous, curious, playful little toddler. We have been able to find (and are still finding) tons of stuff that we can get rid of, and our house is substantially cleaner than it was a month ago. The biggest thing we have done so far is creating Jeffrey's own little corner of the house. It's always where his toys were stored, but we wanted a better option for him. We decided to use our old entertainment center (the Expedit for IKEA) instead of selling it, which turned out to be an amazing idea! Jeffrey can now see and access a good portion of his toys so that he can pick and choose exactly what he wants to play with. I no longer choose a group of toys that he'll have for the week; the decisions are all on him now. Surprisingly, it keeps the house much cleaner. Plus, each toy having its own little spot makes cleaning up each night a breeze. Along with his new play center, we transformed a walk in closet that we have just around the corner from it into a play area for him, as well. It has his toy chest (filled with blankets), the storage unit from Target, and the rest of his toys. No toy is packed away. He has too many right now, but we'll be removing some soon to consign. Oh, and in case you're wondering, all of the toys that make noise (of any kind) are in the closet. Just in case it needs to be closed ;)

What does Jeffrey think of all of this? He LOVES it. It's been a few weeks, and he knows where everything is. It's super easy to tell which toys are his favorites now.

We've also had to move one of our couches since he can climb up on to them so well. It was placed just so so that he would be able to climb onto our kitchen island. No good. His riding toys and his Anywhere chair hang out there now. Just across the room from his play table.

Our house has definitely become a house where a toddler lives.

In case you're curious, here is our new toddler organizational play area:

Unplugged

As I stated for one of our New Years Resolutions, we decided to have an unplugged Thursday every week. Instead, we'll use that time to connect to each other and our family: play time, board games, just talking, etc. Last night was our first one! While Jeffrey was awake, it was pretty easy. We were super productive, though! We did some major cleaning- even in the catastrophe of an office (which is now pretty manageable). We had family dinner, as usual, and then did a bit more cleaning. It probably wasn't the best family time, but we'll have that free time this weekend instead. A lot better than one of just playing with Jeffrey while the other just sits on the computer/TV like what happens more frequently than I would like. After he went to sleep (at his usual time, so it seems we may be recovered from New Years Eve now), we weren't completely unplugged. It still fit into the point of the evening, though! We played Trivial Pursuit, and our version has the DVD for the pie questions. It was a lot of fun, especially because I won ;) I'm glad that we started this, and I look forward to the rest of the years' Unplugged Thursdays!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy New Year!

Hello There, 2011!

I'm struggling with the fact that not only was my baby not born this year, but he was not born last year either. WHAT?!? Thank goodness there is still almost a year until I have to come to terms with this for real (as in he actually turns 2).

2011 should be a pretty low-key year for us, although there will be some exciting stuff happening. Lots of travelling and hoping for another BFP towards the end of the year. We do have some big plans, though, and I've got a few resolutions for myself that I hope to keep.

1) Eat healthier: Super cliche, but we're working on going towards primarily organic/natural foods. We got a membership to Costco, so that should help. We're also looking into getting a freezer chest and buying some local  meat in bulk (also cheaper! leading us to...)

2) Get finances in order: They're not our of order, but we'd like to be saving more each month. We really looked through all of our bills and expenses last month and were able to cut quite a bit. We also each have a budget to stay under each month to keep our spending under control. Also, eating healthier (see #1) means eating more at home which should save money even if the food is more expensive. Eating out a lot has always been the biggest money suck for us.

3) Carve out some me time: I hate spending time away from Jeffrey, but I always end up hitting a wall and needing to get away since I haven't spend enough time on ME. So, I need to find a hobby or something to do just for me. Plus, it's good to have some form of identity separate from your children. I need help with this one, though, so I'm open for suggestions!

4) Get active: Since we cut our expenses by so much, there is some room in the budget to get a membership to our local YMCA. It'll be good for me, by body, and my mindset. Another plus is that there is free childcare there, so it would be some me time. I'm also getting new running shoes to go with the Nike Plus I got for Christmas.

5) Focus on the relationship: This would be about Jony and I's relationship. We're in a rut, so we've decided that we're going to do a date night out once a month (and ACTUALLY do it). Plus, we're starting up an "unplugged" night on Thursdays. No computer, no TV. We'll play games, talk, and just be together. I'm assuming this will also help with intimacy, as well.

I think most of these all overlap in some ways, so it really shouldn't be all of that difficult to maintain. If I keep up with it all, I should see improvements in all aspects of my life, and that makes me happy. Here's to 2011!