Weekend Update

We had a great weekend, wrapping it up with lots of football watching today! Yesterday Kyle watched the kids all morning so I could get a massage (a gift he got me for Mothers Day) and do a little shopping. It was a nice little break and I had a wonderful, silent morning :) I didn't even turn the radio on when I was driving to Madison, pure silence was heavenly. Then, I was lucky enough for him to watch the kids alone again last night so I could go out with some girlfriends. Overall, it was a great Saturday (for me atleast!) :)

Painting the house is coming to a close, something I'm sure my Dad is happy about since he has been working on it since the end of September. We have two small walls left in the entry way to get the second coat tomorrow, and that's it! The living room wall turned out fantastic, even though it was a challenge to paint. We have a huge vaulted ceiling and we had to also paint over a stairwell (to the basement). Good thing we saved the hardest for last. I will post pictures soon, as it turned out very nice.

Preston has slept much better this weekend. He took all his day naps in his crib, ranging anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and 20  minutes. He is also going to sleep much easier. I am only having to rock him for less than 5 minutes and he is fast asleep, also allowing me to transfer him to his crib without waking up. Hopefully this continues!! Night sleep is continuing to go well too, as he goes to be at 9, wakes up around 1:30, 5:30, and then is up for the day around 8. Last night after the 1:30 feeding I even got him to sleep in his crib for an hour and a half until I had to go in and put him back in the swing. Baby steps!

Reese is really starting to develop quite the funny personality. She says the darndest things, making us laugh multiple times a day. I would have to say that this is by far my favorite age. She is a little sponge, and she is so intuitive about everything go on around her. I just can't get over how well she talks and how big her vocabulary is. Amazes me how fast she is growing up!!

Sleep Obsessed

Notice the title is not sleep deprived. I am actually lucky enough that Preston gives me a decent amount of sleep at night...eating only every 4-5 hours and then going right back to sleep (in his swing). So most days, I feel pretty good and well rested. But it's the daytime sleep that has me in a tizzy right now. I feel like I spend 1/2 of my day getting Preston to sleep, and when he isn't sleeping, I am researching how to get him to sleep better/longer since he is only giving me 20 minute naps every 2 hours. Yes, every two hours I spend around 30  minutes getting him to sleep, leaving me feeling guilty for "ignoring" Reese during these times. And after all the hard work of getting him to sleep, I get 20 minutes of silence before he decides to wake up. UGH. Sometimes, it takes up to an hour to get him to sleep, and then when I put him down, he wakes up. Super frustrating. Recently, I have been having such a rough time having him sleep in his crib during the day, I have tried the swing, and that hasn't been working well either! He is such a stinker. He can be dead asleep in my arms and the minute I lay him down, he wakes up, or he sleeps for 20 minutes and then wakes up. My world is revolving around getting him to sleep (and sleep longer) at this point, and I cannot wait until this phase passes. It is sure exhausting and frustrating. I am excited as I have a massage this Saturday morning, and man, I sure do need it! A. As a break from the kids. B. As stress relief. C.Breastfeeding has my shoulders very tight from holding him and I need the knots worked out!

Movin' on out!

Preston is now officially sleeping at all times in his own bedroom! This is a big step for me as Reese was in our room for 5 months *sigh* (too long!!) I was ready for Preston to go to his own room because he is such a light sleeper and the littlest sound we would make (i.e. roll over in bed) he would wake up. I think he is still adjusting, but doing quite well. He is now sleeping in his crib full time for nap during the day (they range from 20 minutes to 2 hours), but I still can't get him to sleep in his crib at night. Oh well, a little progress is better than none, one step at a time, right? When he takes naps, he will wake up after 20 minutes, but not happy about it. If I go in and help him back to sleep, I can usually get another hour or so of sleep out of him. For some reason though, he just doesn't want to be in there at night. So, he sleeps in the swing still, but at least it is in his own room.

Other big news in our house is that Reese is almost potty trained!!! Friday afternoon we put her in underwear, and she only had one accident right before bed while she was coloring (I think she was too busy to stop and go). Yesterday she did great, and today she only had one accident while we were outside playing. She still isn't going in on her own, but that will come. I am just taking her in every hour and a half to have her try. Cross your fingers we can keep her out of diapers (it would sure help the monthly budget to only have 1 kid in diapers!!) :)

People have been asking me recently how I like being a stay at home mom. Well, each day holds new challenges, but overall, I love it. I consider myself lucky to be able to be home and raise my two kids, when most parents can only get to spend a few hours each night with their kids. We are lucky that Kyle is able to support the family and we can be in a position to do so. Believe me, there are moments I sure do wish I had a "job" outside of the house, but overall, I am loving it. We keep very busy during the week. Monday mornings there is a playgroup at a place called Creekside Place in downtown Evansville where moms get together and the kids get to play. With being in a new town, it is nice to get together with local moms and make some new friends that have kids around the same age as Reese.  Wednesday mornings is story hour at the library, and Friday mornings is arts and crafts at the library as well. Between that and running errands one day a week, we keep quite busy. I am hoping to get Reese into some sort of winter activity (i.e. Swimming or Gymnastics at the YMCA in Janesville), since we won't be able to play outside as much as we can now. We will see how this next year goes, and I may be looking to go back to work next fall (hopefully in a school district using

Happy Halloween!

This year we headed to Brodhead, WI (about 15 in south of Evansville) to trick-or-treat with Kyle's family. Brodhead is about 1/2 way to Kyle's brother and sister-in-laws house, so we met up with them for Halloween this year. Reese loves following the big girls (Maddy-7, Mekenna-5) and had a blast. We had a "food induced" meltdown at the end, but only due to not having eaten any supper-so we ate downtown at a pizza place before heading home. We knew she was tired because throughout the ride she kept saying "I just want to take a nap, Mommy!" :) A successful night it was.
It is also Kyle's birthday today! We will celebrate tonight- he requested twice baked potatoes for dinner, so we will be making those this afternoon!

The butterfly and the cow

 Cousin Mekenna (Tiger) showing Reese how it's done

 Butterfly, Pajama Girl, Tiger

Laundry Room

Next up, the laundry room. Since living here a month, there are a couple of things I would change if I would have built the house, and the laundry room is one of them. Granted, I am happy to have a "room" instead of a "closet" like we did at our old house, but I wish it was wider. They built the room long and narrow, and with the front load washer and dryer it is hard to get around in there when you are doing laundry! I also wish it had a sink, I don't understand why they put in counter tops with no sink. Oh well, those are just some little things. The color we used in here was originally intended for the half bath off the kitchen, but it did not go well with the yellow kitchen wall, so we used it in here. It is Sherwin Williams Cascade Green.

Kitchen

 

Above is the kitchen (probably the room I spend the most time in) the day we moved in (a little messy!). Below is after we finished painting! We chose Sherwin Williams White Raisin (yellow) and were planning on painting the whole kitchen. But once we got started, I really liked the brown wall they already painted so we kept it and just painted 2 walls instead of 3. In the first picture below, on the left hand side, you can see the pocket door to a half bath but it is too small to get a good picture of. We painted that a blue color and it stands out really well against the yellow kitchen wall.

2 months and Preston's Room

Hard to believe he is two months old already, but he is! We had his check up on Tuesday and he weighed in at 12 lbs. 10 oz. (52%tile) and was 24 1/4" (89%tile). He is bigger than Reese was at this age. I looked at her baby book and she was only 11 lbs and some ounces and was only 23" long. I am going to start "sleep training" this little guy soon, as he is a swing sleeper. You will see a nice crib in the pictures below and he will soon be sleeping in it!! It may come with days of "crying it out", but it is time to crack down and get him in the crib and out of our room. We let Reese sleep in our room WAY too long (5 months) and I am not doing that again this time. The only reason I had Preston in the swing was because of his spitting up and what I thought was reflux. I talked to the dr. and he said reflux generally makes the baby very uncomfortable when spitting up, but Preston is a"happy spitter". It just kind of rolls out of his mouth every so often, not causing him discomfort at all. So, as long as he is not in pain with the spitting, we will not treat it. He gave me medicine to try (Zantac), but said it won't reduce the amount of spit up, it just makes it less painful. Well, since he isn't in pain to begin with, I don't want to medicate him if not necessary.

Preston's Room: Before (I didn't think he would like the lace) :)

After. We used Sherwin Williams "Accessible Beige" and his room theme is "Rock and Roll" I still have to buy window treatments (the ones in the picture were left here) and I need to get things hung on the walls.