give me a boost



Here is Britton yesterday morning, so proud of her big girl seat!  The hubs and I have been hemming and hawing over getting Britton a booster seat.  We wanted to keep her in a carseat until she reached the weight limit (60 pounds), as it really is the safest route.  But I was fed up with the nibbly bits covering the base and the juice stains on the cover, so I had the hubs get the carseat out of my car so I could wash it on Sunday.  Bad move.

One of the chest clips went missing.  Somehow, from the garage to the kitchen, it just disappeared.  And no one sells replacement clips so we were up the creek, so to speak.  So, I went out to Target and Babies 'R Us, and finally settled on the Graco TurboBooster.  We got the "Keller" for the hubs' truck and the "Posie" (pink flowers) for my car. 

On Sunday night, Britton helped the hubs put the booster seats together, ever so eager to be a part of the process!  She held her hand way over her head and declared, "I get a new seat because I am this big and I'm too big for the little seat!"  We smiled and high-fived her and declared her to be "such a big girl!" 

a girl and her dry erase marker

The first time Britton ever wrote her own name for me was on February 4, 2013.  I kept the paper it was written on, destined for a prime spot in the baby book!  Because I don't spend all day with Britton, and she has two great teachers for eight hours a day during the work week, I don't know how she picks some of this stuff up.  One day she was showing us how she could write some letters on the dry erase board.  A couple of days later, it was entire words.  

And today, she drew her family for Memaw.  On the right of the house is the hubs, me, and Britton, and to the right of us are Sadie and Boomer (Memaw and PawPaw's dog).  To the left of the house are Memaw and PawPaw.  How sweet is that?  The amazing amount of things this girl is learning on a daily basis blows my mind!

    

beauty and the beast that is sleep

Sleep is not a four-letter word in our house yet, but it is getting close. I remember how horrendous those first few months with a newborn were, how nobody's description could adequately warn you about the physical pain of sleeping no more than three hours in a row.  If you were lucky.  It was hard then, and the hubs and I have done everything in our power to return to a normal sleeping household ever since.  We did sleep training with Britton once she hit solids and could sleep all night, and let her cry it out (when five minutes felt like five hours).  We let her learn how to put herself to sleep, because frankly I was tired of rocking her to sleep every night.  There would be a time when she hit the bed awake, and I couldn't provide unlimited rocking and shushing and swinging if I wanted her to figure out how to go from awake to asleep on her own.

Every now and then we run into sleeping issues, and they are always addressed with more sleep training.  The most common issue-makers for us are traveling and sickness.  Well, when Britton went to Disney World two weeks ago AND was sick during her trip, we knew the bumpy journey back to sound sleeping was going to be rough-going.  Honestly, the hubs and I had no idea how hard it would be.

She started off with the typical "getting out of her bed and into ours" routine a couple of times a night.  Annoying, yes, but I could just take her back to her bed and that would usually stop it for the night.  Then she moved on to just wanting to get out of bed.  Not to get into bed with us, not to play, or whatever devious thing she could come up with at 1:30 a.m., but just to be up.  And she flat-out refused to get back into bed.

You have a 3.5 year old?  How do you make her stay in her bed when she can easily get out of bed?  We yelled, we threatened, we took away everything under the sun (except Winnie, never Winnie) and still it was a fight. I didn't want to keep yelling, creating a child who doesn't care if you yell because it's all she hears.  Nope, there had to be a better way. 

The hubs and I waited until the next night to see if it got better.  No, it got worse.  Finally, with no other options, we put an eye hook on her door.  We would have turned the knob around if it wasn't the middle of the night.  But she needed to stay in her room, away from the dangers of wandering around the house unsupervised.  That night she cried for 20 minutes, and I know it was 20 minutes because I watched the clock along with the video monitor.  To say it broke our hears is an understatement. 

But you know what happened after 20 minutes? She got back into bed and went to sleep.  I unhooked the lock in case she needed to use the bathroom, and she stayed in bed all night.  Same thing the next night.  And the next night.



Making a milk mustache!


Now, we have the rule that if she gets out of bed even once, the hook goes into the lock.  No drama, no yelling, no threats.  It is just a consequence that will always be available.  And when she stays in bed, we've given her special treats (cake pops from Starbucks!) and cheered our heads off for her.  If she stays in bed for a whole month, the lock comes off her door. 

It is one solution, and it happened to work for us.  There are probably a ton of other options out there, but we came down to either putting on the lock or yelling every night and I just can't do that to her.  I didn't want her to re-learn staying in bed out of fear that she would be screamed at or spanked if she got out.  No, I just wanted her to learn that this is the rule and we follow our house rules. And so far, it's working great - using a lock that's only been locked for 20 minutes!

Britton's a cutter

It seems to be a rite of passage for kids for as long as kids have been around to cut their hair.  Heck, my officemate's granddaughter recently got a bowl cut because she cut off one of her pigtails.  I remember cutting my doll's hair to the scalp because that was how you didn't have bangs (at least. that's what I thought!).  Jessica and I regularly cut our Barbie's hair off, if only because our mom wouldn't just spring for a Ken doll.  

Britton loves cutting.  She cuts paper, stickers, even fabric squares I have in a shoebox from Memaw's stash.  Cutting, then glueing it back together or in some other way, now that is her thing.  On Saturday morning, she was cutting at her table.  And I wasn't paying attention because I was vacuuming.  She had recently cut the bristles off her paintbrush, and I figured that was as bad as she would get with the cutting.  Never had she even pretended to go for her hair, or Sadie, or her clothes, or something else unfixable.  That is, until Saturday morning, when I should have been paying attention and wasn't...

Because she cut her freaking eyelashes off of her right eye.  Seriously, I can't make this up.  She came up to me and said, "Mommy, I'm not going to cut my eye again."  Well, I freaked out for a second until I saw that she hadn't cut her eye - there was no blood or cut or damage at all.  Then, I slowly realized that she used the word "again" and she doesn't use that word unless she has in fact already done something - something she knew was bad enough that she was preempting me from banning her from ever doing it again.  Upon closer inspection, yes, almost all of her eyelashes were gone.

I may have gone delirious for a minute.  I'm pretty sure the first words out of my mouth were in another language.  I was scared that she could have really hurt herself, hurt her EYE, that I knew I wanted to scare her enough to never try it again.  I got face-to-face, crouching as low as my belly will let me, and had my serious face on.  I have no idea how it occurred to her to cut her eyelashes, but I guarantee you after our talk she won't be doing it ever again!

baby deuce: 28 weeks

My belly really came in this week.  But even more astounding is the fact that in the background of this picture is SUNSHINE!  And snow, sure, but SUNSHINE!  Can you tell it's been snowy and grey for weeks now?

A week ago I had another ultrasound to check on my low-lying placenta.  The ultrasound tech said it looked fine, but the doctor called and said I still have to do my pelvic rest.  Ugh.  They are doing another ultrasound at 30 weeks to re-check, even though there's no real danger anymore since the placenta is not covering the cervix.  The baby is weighing about 2 pounds, 9 ounces now and is right on schedule for growth.  Whew!  My gestational diabetes eating is working!

I've started my nesting, which includes finishing decorating projects around the house, and reorganizing every space I can find.  I have overwhelming desires to clean all the junk out, and the hubs is right there with me.  I think he wants to clear out more than me!  We reorganized the pantry, and I can feel a reorganization of the master closet coming up soon.  I just find clutter so irritating now that I want everything not useful/priceless/practical out of my house.

My second-trimester energy is gone now, and I'm lucky to make it to 9:30 pm without falling asleep on the couch.  Which is horrible timing because I've never been more committed to my quilting, and I quilt at night after Britton goes to bed!  I'm achy all over, and my co-workers are amused that I now waddle around.  My pelvic bones are separating now, which feels like I jumped on a bike without a seat.  And it gets worse the longer I sit at my desk!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Britton gave me my present last night, in the form of getting out of bed five times between 1:00 am and 3:00 am.  Anytime she is sick or travels, we have to re-sleep train her.  This time, she was sick AND traveled, so I expect she has a few more shenanigans up her sleeve.  

So, this morning it appears (at least to her) that we rewarded such bad behavior with gifts!  In actuality, we put out her Valentine gifts before bed last night, unaware of what lay ahead of me. The hubs and I had picked up some jelly flowers, Sweet Tart hearts, a card, and a Dora book.

A "love bug" shirt is a necessity on Valentine's Day!

Britton has been looking forward to Valentine's Day for weeks.  Not because of the holiday, but because of her first dentist appointment!  See my feet below?  Yes, I had to sit in that dentist chair with her, seven-months-pregnant belly hanging out, just so Britton would play along with the hygienist.  She did, letting the perpetually-happy teenager count her teeth, polish them, and even apply fluoride in trays that had to stay in place for a minute.  But by the time the dentist came in, she wasn't playing nice anymore.  They gave up and handed her the treasure box below!

Showing off her "shiny teeth" and treasure box goodies!

Then we went back home with all of Britton's class party Valentines.  I'm not sure why three-year-olds needs to participate, but they get a kick out of exchanging cheap party favors and trinkets.  The Cinderella pencil was a huge hit, as was the stamp pad and assorted stamps.  Sadly, Britton didn't get to participate in the party because it was held while we were at the dentist.  But at least she got to bring her treats home.

Remember, all you need is love. Especially at 1:00 am.  Happy Valentine's Day!

before and after: the living room

For the last week, Britton has been at Disney World with Memaw and PawPaw.  Originally, they were going to take her when we took our cruise.  Fast forward to us moving the cruise, and they didn't want to disappoint Britton by canceling the trip.  So, for the last week, Britton has been frolicking in Florida, the hub spent some time at a conference in Houston, and I was in my house HOME ALONE for three whole days.  It was marvelous.  It was quiet.  At night, it was scary but I just ignored all those little sounds you hear when you're home alone.  I quilted and crafted and planned and took complete advantage of the kid-free time!

One major project was to finish the formal living room.  As you know, we have moved the office (which consists of a desk and computer) into the formal living room since the desk no longer fits in the guest room.  This room was basically empty (except for the Christmas tree at Christmastime), so it worked out.  And if one day I finally treat myself to a baby grand piano, the desk will leave to make room.  I've always wanted built-in bookcases.  My bank account does not.  So when I stumbled upon a tutorial on how to do faux built-in bookcases with IKEA Billy bookcases (check it out here), I was pumped!

Here is the living room before:

The hub assembling the five bookcases.  Yes, FIVE.  I painted the backs a grey very similar to the family room walls (Olympic "Flagstone") and the hardest part by far was getting the backs on.  The redesign is terrible and it took way longer and way more work than it should have!

We put them into place, then called it a night!  The next morning, we ran out to Lowes for trim.  Now, I was completely caught off guard as to how much trim costs.  Luckily, the hubs didn't make fun of me for getting too loud about the outrageous cost of trim in Aisle 19.  Or point out that maybe I should have looked into the total cost of the project before buying five bookcases, but I digress...

And we have casing!  And crown moulding!  And baseboard!  And paintable caulk!  And paint!  Can't you just feel the excitement?

Then the hubs and I headed out for grocery shopping while the paint dried.  Let me tell you - in hindsight, this may have been our last weekend without a kid around.  In three months, kidS.  And my hubs, sick from some random hacking flu combo, spent over 15 hours over 2 days putting these bookcases together because I wanted them.  I owe him, and I owe him BIG.  At least 5 Saturday sleep ins.  Minimum.

I LOVE how they turned out!  They look completely built-in and just make the room.  As you can see, there's more than enough room for more books and photos.

The IKEA chairs to go with the bookcases.  I couldn't find yellow pillow covers so I made some ($5 of clearance fabric for 2 covers - steal!).  I bought the lamp and shade at Lowes and it's better than anything I could find at Target (who, by the way, is getting a little proud of their stuff.  $35 for a lamp without a shade?  Ridiculous, Target.  Ridiculous.). The table between the chairs is the hubs' old nightstand.  The desk is now on the opposite wall across from the chairs.  

And with that, other than the master bathroom (which we wouldn't do ourselves), this house is FINISHED.  DONE.  Yay!

baby deuce: the nursery

We've finally gotten the nursery (mostly) finished!  Unlike the first time I was pregnant, this time we didn't rush into getting the room ready by the 15th week of pregnancy.  We had some finagling to do, room-wise.  This room used to be the guest room, so the guest room got moved to the office.  Then the office got moved to the empty formal living room.  But space-wise, this room works best for the baby room.  

Funny side note:  this room is right across the hall from Britton.  Last week, out of the blue, Britton said to me, "My baby brother is going to wake me up.  With his crying."  Turns out someone at school told her that and reported it back!  I told her she was right, that his crying would sometimes wake her up but that she'd (hopefully) learn to sleep through it.

Here it is!  The main wall color is "Soft Sky" by Benjamin Moore.  The stripes are "Soft Jazz" and "Decorators White," also from Benjamin Moore.  I took the crib bumper into Ace and matched the main bumper color to the wall color, and the darker blue stripe to the gingham accents in the bumper.  The colors ended up being 2 apart from each other on the same paint sample strip!  

Originally I was going to paint stripes all the same size, but Jessica suggested I mix them up, and she was so right on the money!  When my mom was in town visiting, she watched Britton so I could get the stripes finished.

I found these prints on Etsy.  The whale matches the bedding perfectly!  I matted them in navy mats, then spray painted some $5 Wal-Mart frames white. They look tiny in the picture above, but they are actually 11 x 14 each.

This bookcase belonged to the hubs way before I came along.  It was the starting off point for the cherry furniture in the room.  We did white with Britton and wanted something different this time around.  Even though my photos don't do any of the furniture justice, they are all beautiful rich cherry finishes.  I piled up all our model boats in this room!  They will get moved around and some will leave the room, so don't worry - we're not overloading the bookcase with 5 ships!

The bedding is "Jackson" from Pottery Barn Kids.  I ordered just the bumper, crib skirt, and sheet.  I made the quilt instead of ordering one, and it's almost finished!

I also ordered the same year progression photo collage frame that I had ordered for Britton.  This hangs on the left side of the window.  The curtains are from Pottery Barn Kids too and are navy gingham.  They match the whales perfectly.  Britton has lavender gingham curtains, so I see a pattern here!

Let me tell you - a dresser is hard to find!  We were stuck between $200 particleboard and $600 "real" furniture store prices.  The dresser I wanted originally, from IKEA, was too big for the wall.  Luckily, our Delta crib had a matching dresser with great reviews and an even better price.  

It's all wood and ridiculously heavy.  When the hub picked it up, he had to leave the box in the basement because he couldn't get it up two flights of stairs by himself.  Well, I've been home alone the last two nights, and took it upon myself to open the box and move the pieces up to the room in manageable loads.  Then I put it together!  We are putting the changing pad on top so that we don't have to clutter the room with a changing table.  The rocking chair (not yet bought) will go next to it.  And my grandparents' round mirror is going over the dresser - Jessica is giving it to me when I visit in March.

When Jessica and her family came to visit over Christmas, Tim installed a ceiling fan for us!  The room had one ceiling light - a pot light over the closet.  Tim got into the attic and rewired the switch so that the pot light and the ceiling fan could be controlled.  It was a tedious job, and we were so grateful he could do it for us on what was supposed to be his vacation!

the IRS took my master bath

The hubs and I love how Britton's bathroom and the powder room turned out, and we've turned our attention to the master bathroom.  In looking it over and seeing how much we're going to owe the IRS for taxes this year, plus my unpaid maternity leave, we're not going with a full remodel of the master bath.  Financially, it just doesn't make sense, for our wallets or the bottom line of our house price. 

So, with my nesting kicking into full gear around here, I pulled out ideas for a mini-renovation.  By cutting out retiling the floor, tiling the shower, and replacing the huge whirlpool tub, we are saving over 2/3 of the original quote.  Now, we plan on replacing the vanity, pulling the giant wall mirror off the wall and replacing it with two mirrors above the sinks, installing a mini-chandelier above the bathtub, replacing the shower insert doors, and replacing the tiny round toilet with a normal one. 

Do I just dream about these changes?  No!  I stalk websites for ideas and save pictures of all the goodies I find.  Can you believe that the vanity below is under $850, and includes the countertop and sinks?  We have a window over the tub covered in a mauve blind now.  I want to disguise the mauve blind with some French ticking balloon shades (style below in green, but I'd get the navy color).

And below is my beloved Benjamin Moore paint, this time in "Palladian Blue."  Some faux reclaimed wood shelves to match the vanity, a sparkly chandelier, navy towels to match the balloon shade, and new doors to replace our rusty old ones.

We're almost finished with the baby nursery, and spending this weekend on finalizing the formal living room/office.  So after those two rooms are checked off the list, we will move onto our final destination - the master bathroom!

baby deuce: 26 weeks

I admit, I forgot to update at 24 weeks, but really there hasn't been many changes since then.  I haven't gained any weight, I don't think my belly looks much bigger, though my feet definitely do.  I'm hot all the time now, which doesn't help me when it's 5 degrees outside and the office blares the heat.  I can't even go into someone's office when they run a space heater - it's too much for me.  

Smells too.  My eyes burned and I had a hard time breathing when I was stuck in a work meeting next to a woman with too much perfume.  I can smell what kind of coffee co-workers make at the coffee machine.  My sense of smell is off the charts.  Of course, with that comes the return of my sweet musty oatmeal smell.  I don't know where the smell emanates from, nor do I especially want to pinpoint it, but I just have a general smell about me of sweet musty oatmeal.  Luckily, it doesn't seem anyone else can smell it!

I'm still on the gestational diabetes eating plan, and no doubt it has become as boring as you can imagine.  I eat the same meals every day:  sausage and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast; tuna on crackers and sugar-free jello for lunch; greek yogurt for snacks; dinner is what I would normally make, modified to be less carby for me.  But my blood sugar numbers are great, so I can't complain too much.  

We finally got some progress on the nursery!  I'll give a tour once the hubs can get the dresser upstairs.  It's ridiculously heavy and since I can't help him get it up there, he's waiting on his dad's arrival tomorrow to get it up there.  

42 months old

Ahh, the month of love!  Britton is keenly aware of Valentine's Day this year, if only because it is also the day of her first dentist appointment.  Her only knowledge of the dentist office consists entirely of books - "Dora Goes to the Dentist" and "Berenstein Bears and the Dentist" and the like.  Hopefully the real deal doesn't lose the glow!  

Britton has had some kind of growth spurt because her size 5 pants no longer fit!  We went shopping this afternoon for summer clothes, because Memaw and PawPaw are taking Britton to Disney World next week and her summer clothes from last summer in no way fit her.  We managed to find some cute short-sleeve shirts from Kohl's (Target is a bust past size 5T) but NO SHORTS.  Seriously, capris were the shortest pants I could find.  Luckily, Memaw lives not five minutes from a newly opened Carters and was able to snag some shorts (and cute shirts) for us!

Britton is starting to write alphabet letters now and amazes me with what she knows.  She "writes lists" (as she puts it) and will string together the letters she can write.  She is also really into music now, dancing to the music and playing her guitar and singing loudly.  Her newest love is Sadie - she wants to pet her, wrap scarves and necklaces around her, entice her into her room for snuggling.  

We even had two playdates this month!  We have never had a playdate before, but Britton asked if her friend from school could come over and play.  I sent her mom a note and we managed to get a mutual time to play!  Then a girl I work with came over with her 2.5 year old and we all played for hours.  Such great fun for Britton and a nice way to use up a Saturday afternoon!

I may have thought snow was magical before I had to live through so much of it, but Britton really does love the snow!  We sled, we eat the snow and icicles, and tomorrow we are blowing up our new snow tube and getting back out into the slush.  She could live outside, this girl.

Likes:  Sadie, all veggies, reading books, play-doh, helping with the baby's room, playing outside, playdates

Dislikes:  not much