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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Teeth. UGH.

Gavin's top two front teeth are just dangling there driving the whole house crazy. They will not pop through, yet they're right there. I feel like if I rubbed there long enough, it would happen. I prefer to not get bit, though. We actually took Gavin to the pediatrician today because we thought he might have another ear infection. Turns out, it's just a ridiculous amount of drainage caused by teething. His poor cheeks are always a nice rosy red, he chews/bites on everything (yes, everything- yay.) and his sleeping? Oy.

I slept well last night, though, since he refused to nurse. Not being able to breathe doesn't make nursing as relaxing as usual, it seems. So, I was able to sleep all night while Jony tended to the poor little guy. He, as Jeffrey did, always relaxes and does better with daddy. Even though he's choosing not to nurse, he just couldn't calm down while I was holding him. So pitiful.

Let's cross our fingers these two teeth come through asap. It's so sad that these are only teeth #3 and 4. We have a long road ahead of us...sigh.

Monday, January 21, 2013

The carpet is gone!

YAY! We're currently down to the foundation in the living/dining room. The tile in the entryway and kitchen will be gone tomorrow. I'm so thrilled to get rid of all that ugliness. We'll still have some of the carpet in the bedrooms and hallway, but it'll be gone soon enough, as well.

It's pretty tricky with a crawler to not have any real floor space. We saved a square of the carpet so that Gavin has a little fenced in area to play, but he's not a huge fan. I'm hoping we can get a lot done tonight so that we can let him free a little bit. I don't want him crawling on the cold and rough cement.

Meanwhile, my head and Pinterest are super busy with how we're going to re-decorate the rooms. I may want to paint, and we definitely want to do a different furniture set-up. Our house may look totally different in a week!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Year of Organization

One of our big goals for 2013 is to get our house in better shape. Our January goal is the garage. Not the most fun area to start in, but it's crucial since we need a place to put all the junk that we'll be taking out of the house. So far, we've rearranged, thrown away all the trash that was everywhere, placed the chest freezer and swept. We still need to really organize the hardware/tool closet, as it is a disaster! We won't be able to completely finish it this month since a big chunk of the garage is for the "get rid of" stuff, as well as our new flooring (yay!). So, we'll be starting and ending in the garage.

Embarrassing, but here's our before:

And our after (for now):




Saturday, January 5, 2013

2012, in review

It was a great year's a year that added to our family. It was also a super busy year! Looking back...

January: finished Jeffrey's big boy room
February: Jeffrey moved into his new room and twin bed
March:finished Gavin's nursery
April: spent a very pregnant Easter at the farm, had a false labor experience, and enjoyed lots of activities as a family of three for the last time
May: the incredible experience of giving birth to Gavin in my own bedroom' potty training really got started when Jeffrey refused diapers, and I turned 26 as a mom of two.
June: Jeffrey started swim lessons on his own, and we all went to Dallas for the LLL conference
July: Gavin started rolling, we went to the farm for the 4th of July, and loved watching the Olympics
August: I was a bridesmaid in a wedding in Dallas, celebrated our 4th anniversary, and Jeffrey had his back problems
September: Gavin started sitting, Jeffrey started MDO, Jony turned 27, and we took a major road trip to Florida for Nana's 100th birthday
October: the boys' first viruses, Gavin started solids and crawling, and we had a Peter Pan Halloween
November: Jeffrey turned three!!
December: Gavin started pulling up and cruising, we had a great first Christmas with our smallest, and Gavin threw up and got an ear infection

Thursday, January 3, 2013

8 Months!

My child is freaking old. I look at him, and I see more toddler than baby. So, yes, our house is a LOT crazier now. Sharing and gentle hands are in full effect.

He is super mobile and has no issues getting anywhere. Not to mention, he is FAST! His favorite spots include his favorite cabinet (although he has found the tupperware cabinet, joy!), his bathtub in the boys' bathroom and Jeffrey's room, especially if he's in there. He's so in love with Jeffrey that the poor boy (Jeffrey) has to take breaks so that he can play by himself when he wants to, haha. Luckily, most of the time, Jeffrey is just as infatuated with him. They love wrestling and making noises at each other. That is, until Jeffrey roars like a dinosaur too loud and scares poor Gavin. Gavin is obsessed with the dishwasher and will cross any obstacle at lightning speeds to climb onto it. It makes doing dishes pretty tricky. He's just getting over a bad ear infection that made the week between Christmas and New Years pretty miserable. One night involved vomiting quite a few times, one night involved a HUGE poopy diaper followed by what seemed like a million more, and the rest just involved ridiculous amounts of screaming. There was also some biting while nursing in there, which was awesome. He's getting back to normal now, luckily, as we are exhausted. We even did a trip to Urgent Care early Saturday morning (think 2:30am) just so that we could get the ball rolling on some antibiotics. Of course, now we're pretty sure that they're messing with his tummy and his booty is sore from all the wiping. Poor kid is not loving 2013 thus far. He's still our huge chunk that loves to eat and will put away anything we give him. He even ate lettuce last night! I'm anxious to see if being 8 months yields the same results for Gavin as it did for Jeffrey (aka- walking)...

Gavin's 8 Month Stats:
-20lbs, unsure about length
-making the transition between 6 and 9 month clothes, depending on the brand
-2 teeth
-super fast crawler
-stands unassisted for about 2-3 seconds, can stand with one hand for an unlimited amount of time; when getting down to crawl, he has a more controlled descent than just falling now
-signs milk (although I think it may just mean mama at this point- still adorable)
-blabbering "mamamama" and "babababa"
-makes a kissy noise and LOVES it
-Favorite food: yogurt melts
-loves the Tegu wheels, puzzles (eating them, primarily), the dishwasher, taking baths and the singing fridge farm thing
-strongly dislikes diaper changes and getting dressed, as well as being put into the car (he's fine once we start driving)

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year!

Phew. Time sure has flown. I'll have to come back and do some updates from December. Time just got away from me, and since I have to use the desktop now to have access to a keyboard (which is in our bedroom), it's not very convenient. I have a tablet now (yay!) to replace the old clunky laptop, but I haven't gotten the keyboard to go with it yet. Soon.

It's hard to believe that it's already 2013. The year that my boys turn 4 and 1. The year of our 5th anniversary. It's going to be a pretty low-key year, but we have lots of plans for it. Our biggest venture is working more diligently towards saving for a down payment on a new house. So, we worked a few hours on tweaking our budget and made some changes (cancelled cable, dropping Jony's cell since he has a work phone, etc), and I'm happy with how it looks. As of now, we should be completely ready to drop at least 10% in 2ish years.

Along with that, we're moving towards a more business-like approach with how we run the house. We've set yearly, monthly and weekly goals that we discuss in a weekly meeting. It's been working well to sit together and discuss the week's agenda and figure out what we can do during that week to accomplish our goals, both short and long term.

One of those goals is healthier eating- moving towards a more real/natural diet. This involves a lot more meal planning so that we don't have the urge to just go out to eat when we don't know what to make. We got a chest freezer for Christmas that we've been wanting, so I plan on filling that up with some pre-made meals, which should help.

We're also going to do some major work on our house this year since there will be no babies and no vacations. We're replacing our floors, potentially the ceilings and then doing a lot of organizing and decorating in between. January's goal is the garage, since we need that cleaned and organized to put all the junk that we'll take out of the actual house! I'm hoping to keep it all updated on here, but we'll see.

2012 was a fantastic year; it brought us Gavin and a lot of good times. I'm really looking forward to a relaxed and productive 2013, though.