Big Girl Bed Update #1

Well, we followed through on this post.

Night #1:
Sammy takes close to 2 hours to stop playing and go to sleep. She plays with every toy in her toybox. She reads almost every book in her bookcase (and there are a LOT). She tries on several outfits from her dresser. At one point I go in there and there are about 30 books on the floor and she's got a sweater on and is asking for help snapping up her jeans...like she's about to go out or something. I fear I've made a terrible mistake. The feeling is confirmed when she falls out of bed not once, not twice, but SIX separate times during the night. When I get up the next morning, I'm so tired that I think I will throw up. Ironically, Presley sleeps through the night for the first time in weeks.

Night #2:
Sammy is silent and falls asleep right away. Wakes up 30 minutes later in a tizzy that requires several potty trips, water breaks and other fake outs designed to prolong going back to bed. After that though? Silence until 645am. Presley also sleeps through the night. Sadly, I don't and am up a million times making sure Sam isn't falling out of her crib or close to it. How does one go about sleep training themselves?

Night #3:
Sammy goes down without a peep and sleeps straight through till 630am.

Dare I say it? Could it be this easy?

HA! Now I've gone and done it...jinxed us.

Wordless Wednesday (Same Outfit, Different Girl Edition)

Samara - 2.5 months
Presley - 6.5 months

Dinner Time

I'm curious. What's dinner time like for you? Who cooks? Where do you eat?

Around our house, dinner time is the most chaotic time of day. Everyone is hungry, tired, wanting attention and cranky. I am usually in charge of dinner since we eat at 5ish and Shawn doesn't get home until 445 or so. I typically try to prep whatever I can during calmer times of the day so that it's easier to get on the table later. Despite it being chaotic, we always leave what we're busy with and head to the kitchen table as a family to eat together. We've done this ever since Shawn and I became a family of 2, pre-kids. It's a chance to unwind and connect as a family after doing our own thing throughout the day. This works for us but maybe not for others. I'd love to hear what your dinner routine is!

Big Girl Bed

The time has come. Some might think we've waited too long. Some might think we're rushing it. Either way, tonight's the night. Today we take the front rail of Sammy's crib to turn it into a toddler bed. I'm not going to lie. I'll probably cry. To think that my little girl doesn't need a crib anymore breaks my heart a bit. I'm also not going to lie about how terrified I am that this is going to ruin her sleep (and mine!). I have visions of her trying on every item of clothing in her dresser and closet, reading every book in her bookcase and playing with every toy in her toybox.

Any advice? How do you make them stay in their bed? How do you enforce bedtime when they're no longer in baby jail?

p.s. - I'm totally posting this so that I go through with it...unlike the other dozen or so times I've chickened out.

Picture Catch Up (from May, oops!)

Friday Night Leftovers

• I cut myself off of Facebook for a week. I found I was on it WAY too much. Presley's birth club has a group on there and I'd catch myself ignoring the girls while having conversations on that board. It was hard at first because it was such a habit to check in every time I had a spare minute. I'm really hoping that the break did what I wanted it to...keep my priorities in order. I love Facebook for what it is...but it is not nor will ever be nor should ever be more important than my family!

• Samara had quite the injury earlier this week. She grabbed my curling iron (I was right beside her and yes, I feel awful about it). It was fairly traumatic for both of us. It blistered quite badly and now the challenge is to keep her from picking at it. She likes to inform me while she's picking, "NO picking! No pick!"...at least I know when she's picking.

• Bedtimes for Sammy suck lately now that it's light out so late. Do I keep fighting it or just let her go to bed later? Or is it time to drop the afternoon nap?

• Just this week, Samara has started being completely terrified of loud vehicles when we're out walking. She will climb up us if we're not quick enough to pick her up. She is absolutely petrified. She has also developed a fear of certain men. We'll be at the grocery store and she needs to be held NOW. I have no idea where this came from because she's generally been a fearless child so far.

• That's a lot of bullets about Sammy this week. So...

• Why is it when Presley spits up and I have her in the wrap facing outwards (so I can't see her face), nobody feels the need to tell me? This has happened a couple of times at a playgroup...with other moms! Do they not notice? Are they strangely embarrassed for me?

• For more leftovers, head over here.
  

7 months!!

Presley is 7 months today. Nope, that's no typo. SO hard to believe. I want to soak up every minute of her baby-ness because it's slipping through my fingers.

At 7 months, Presley is not interested in crawling. I've seen her combat crawl a few times but it's few and far between. She is not getting up on all fours. I have yet to see her belly get off the floor. If she sees something she wants, she uses another method to get it. Rolling! She is darn quick too! She has gotten a lot more stable when sitting in the last month. She falls back less often and when she does, she kind of crumbles over so that her head doesn't bonk the floor. Her favorite thing? Standing. I'd say she is better at standing than she is at sitting. She cruised her first piece of furniture last week and yesterday actually let go of a friend's coffee table so she could use both hands on a toy and stayed balanced for a couple of seconds!

Her favorite toys are any her sister will let her play with. Ha! Kidding, sort of. She loves Sophie the Giraffe and is really into a Leapfrog learning table we have. She also really likes any kind of teether.

Her favorite activities are being in the Beco, baths, going for walks/runs, dancing with mama, hanging out in her Exersaucer, swinging at the park and going grocery shopping in the cart.

Her favorite foods...well, this is hard because so far she has eaten everything we've given her with great enthusiasm. We're one month into solids and she's been a dream eater. She's had rice cereal, oat cereal, barley cereal, prunes, bananas, apples, pears, squash, yams, green beans, carrots, chicken and avocado. She is getting the hang out of drinking water from a sippy cup as well. She sometimes needs us to tip the cup back for her to get anything and I'm not positive that she's sucking so much as chewing the water out, but she gets it either way!

Sleeping...I always hesitate to talk about this because it never fails that we have a string of bad nights after posting! She sleeps an average of 11 hours a night with one wake up to feed about 9 hours in. About once every week she teases me and sleeps the whole night with no feeds. She puts herself to sleep at night and for naps. She is napping around 4 hours a day and we're just looking at going from 3 naps down to 2, eliminating the early evening nap.

Presley weighs 15 lbs 9 oz. This puts her at the 25th percentile. She measures 25.75 inches long She wears 3-6 month clothing with quite a few things (dresses) still 0-3 months. Her shoes are size 2. She is in size 2 diapers.

Things I never want to forget:
- what a happy baby she is. She smiles at strangers and I'm always hearing how her smile brightened someone's day.
- how Presley reserves her heartiest belly laughs for her sister. Shawn and I can get some cute giggles but Samara barely tries and has her sister in stitches.
-how good she smells. Can you imagine if they were able to bottle a baby's smell? You couldn't keep it on the shelf. Yes, the lotions and shampoos come close but not quite the real thing.

Wordless Wednesday (Father's Day Present Edition)

It's Official!

Today is the First Day of Summer. My calendar says so. Mother Nature is in agreement. After yesterday's post, I thought I'd turn the tables on you. What are your plans for summer? What's one thing you really hope to do before the days turn short again?

Summer Bucket List

Finally...some warm weather our way! To celebrate, I thought I'd share my summer bucket list for our family. I've seen quite a few of these lists on other blogs I follow. No, it doesn't mean I'm dying at the end of summer (hopefully!), it's just a list of things that would be fun to do before the summer is through.

In no particular order:

• take the girls swimming at an outdoor pool
• the zoo
• the museum
• the art gallery
  
• make banana boats and enjoy them on the deck. Never had banana boats? You are missing out. Stay tuned for when we actually cross this item off the list, I'll document with instructions and pictures.
• have a bonfire
• find 10 new parks to try out
• take Presley for her first splash park experience
• have a picnic at the lake
• take the girls to see the mountains
• see a waterfall
  
• go for a drink on a patio with my husband
• visit the farmer's market
• go to a fair
• watch a parade
• go out for ice cream
• have new friends over for a BBQ
  

Friday Night Leftovers

• We got groceries last night and the crazies were sure out in full force. There was a man there yelling and swearing at the top of his lungs to his wife while everyone stared open mouthed in shock. A cashier told him to please watch his language and he replied with a friendly, "mind your own f-ing business, you f-ing b*tch"...wow, just wow.

• I love me some real peanut butter. No, not that fake stuff. The real stuff. The jar where the label says 100% roasted peanuts. The end. No salt, no sugar...just peanuts.

• When does baby brain go away? I made oatmeal raisin cookies last weekend and couldn't figure out why they were flattening like pancakes. The usual culprit is not enough flour so I reread the recipe and then got to the part where it said 2 cups of oatmeal. Ooohhh...right. Oatmeal cookies need oatmeal!

• Presley, at not quite 7 months, cruised her first piece of furniture yesterday. Another early walker on our hands?
  

• We had a table at a community garage sale last weekend. The high? We got rid of quite a bit of stuff. The low? While Shawn's attention was on 2 other customers, another customer tossed him a toonie and took off with a Baby Bjorn. It was definitely NOT only $2. Jerk!

• Presley barfed on my face the other morning. So not a highlight of the week and yet I'm mentioning it so everyone can enjoy it.

• Want more leftovers? Head here!
  

Thankful on Thursday

Today I'm thankful for beautiful little girls that get up at the crack of dawn now that it's summer. This way I get to spend the most time possible with them having fun playing, snuggling and teaching them new things.

How's that for a positive spin on things?!

Wordless Wednesday (Look What Sam Can Do Edition)

Crib Time

The girls really like hanging out together in a crib (doesn't matter whose) after they wake up from their afternoon nap. It's quite possibly the sweetest thing and will melt your heart. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Bombs Away!

F bombs, that is. WHAT? Yes. The eff word. The F word. F bomb. F*ck. Said properly. In context. If she rams into something, stubs her toe, gets frustrated...she lets loose a, "ohhhhh, f*ck!".

HOW did this happen, you might be asking yourself. I will not claim complete innocence on Shawn and I's behalf. We don't swear at her (obviously) but have most likely been talking to each other, telling stories, jokes, recounting tales from the day and used it without noticing that little ears were paying attention. Combine that with a little birthday party experience where an adorable 2 year old swore like a little sailor for 4 hours and you've got the makings for Samara's first swearing experience.

What have we done about it? Well, the first few times I was in denial. She had been reading some stories about frogs lately and I was convincing myself she was saying frog incorrectly. After numerous times, I could no longer ignore it. I admit it was funny. For a few times. Then it was kind of horrifying when I pictured her swearing at her great grandma over the dinner table at Thanksgiving.

She doesn't know what she's saying is bad. She doesn't say it and then look over at us for a reaction. So, we've been trying not to draw extra attention to it so as not to encourage the behavior. Instead, we've been acting like morons and stumbling into things, stubbing our toes on purpose and whatnot, shouting, " OHHHH FUDGE!". It seems to have helped. She changed f*ck to fudge fairly quickly. Thankfully. We're going on 10 days or so with no F bombs being dropped. And no "fudges" either so hopefully it was just a phase.

We're in the clear. I think. Until she learns her next swear!

Friday Night Leftovers

• I really hate it when you're reading a book and there are glaring typos. Who dropped the ball? Can I have their job? Getting paid to read books sounds like a dream!

• I went for a facial and pedicure last weekend. The esthetician asked me what I did all day since I didn't go to work. Hmmm...

• Most of you guessed correctly the lie from this post. I don't play the lottery...which means I'll never win. I've accepted that. Instead I'll put the money I would've used gambling into a high rate of return investment. You know...when I actually have extra money to do that!

• This means that my statement about Samara dropping F bombs is sadly true. I will post more on how this happened and what we're doing about it next week. I figure the F word deserves its own post, right?!
  

• Have you checked out my new page at the top? I've been busy working on lots of tutus and sock monkeys lately. Like my Facebook page for a chance to win free giveaways!
• Hungry for more leftovers? Head here.

• Speaking of leftovers, what do you call the last meal of the day: dinner or supper?
  

Thankful on Thursday

• Shawn is home, yay! We survived. Actually, it was easy. We had our moments and we sure missed him but we managed just fine.
  

• I'm OH SO thankful that a 2 year old is only 2 for a year. I can do this. I can last the year of horrendous tantrums over nothing, the nonstop screaming and testing boundaries. 11 months or so to go. *(Please no one post that it gets worse, PLEASE)*

• The library. I have 8 deliciously addictive books waiting for me to read and I paid nothing for them.

• The most scrumptious lemon loaf and a cup of tea for my morning snack.

• Good friends. Some I've never even met in real life. Others I only get to see a couple of times a year. Meeting in person and distance don't matter though when you've found people you truly connect with.

• You. Thanks for stopping by the blog regularly and commenting. Makes my day to receive comments!

• What are you thankful for today?
  

Wordless Wednesday (Colouring Edition)

Rainy Day

Today we have nothing planned. This doesn't typically happen. And definitely not on a day where Daddy isn't coming home to entertain us at 4:45pm. So, I'm looking for ideas. I'll go through my usual bag of tricks but some days that only lasts until 8:03am! What do you do on a rainy day?

Guess the lie...

One of these things isn't true, guess which one!

1. Samara has started screaming. ALL.THE.TIME. It happens when she's happy, mad, frustrated, excited and sad.
   
2. I'm solo parenting for most of the week.
3. Samara's latest word starts with F and rhymes with puck, truck, luck and buck.
4. I'm buying a "new to me" van and that makes me feel about a bazillion years old.
   
5. I regularly play the lottery and think it's a logical way to make extra cash.
   

Friday Night Leftovers

• This is blog post #666. I can't mention that and not link to this song.

• I brought up a tub of clothes from the basement for Samara and all the tank tops are too small. Dropped the ball on that! Hopefully Presley will get some use out of them...if I don't drop the ball again.

• I get quite a few questions on what method we used for potty training. Go here for more information.

• I've been feeling unmotivated with my workouts lately. A friend mentioned this link. Can you say ripped?! If I can get a body like that, I'm up for those workouts!

• Breakfast for dinner tonight, yum! French toast and back bacon.

• Oops. I just realized I mentioned working out and then bacon. It's all about balance, right?!
  

• For more leftovers, go here.
  

May Books

One of my goals for 2011 is to read different genres of books and not stick with my usual genre (chick lit). For past lists, head here, here, here and here. So, I try. And some books...well, I just can't do it. My friend, Catherine, recently posted on Facebook that life is too short to force yourself to finish books you don't really enjoy. And isn't that the truth?! So I'll still try to branch out because I've found myself pleasantly surprised to love books I never thought I would. But, if I can't get into something...I'm giving up!

So Much for That by Lionel Shriver 4 stars out of 5

Enriched with three medical subplots that also explore the human costs of American health care, So Much for That follows the profound transformation of a marriage, for which grave illness proves an unexpected opportunity for tenderness, renewed intimacy, and dry humor. In defiance of her dark subject matter, Shriver writes a page-turner that presses the question: How much is one life worth?

This was really dark and depressing view of what the US health care system can be like for many. The characters were full of annoying and frustrating traits and while it did irritate me at times, it made them very real. Typical of Lionel Shriver, there were a few shocking turns as well.

One Hundred Names for Love by Diane Ackerman4 stars out of 5

One day Ackerman's husband, Paul West, an exceptionally gifted wordsmith and intellectual, suffered a terrible stroke. When he regained awareness he was afflicted with aphasia—loss of language—and could utter only a single syllable: "mem." The standard therapies yielded little result but frustration. Diane soon found, however, that by harnessing their deep knowledge of each other and her scientific understanding of language and the brain she could guide Paul back to the world of words. This triumphant book is both a humane and revealing addition to the medical literature on stroke and aphasia and an exquisitely written love story: a magnificent addition to literature, period.

I enjoyed this. It was heartwarming and terrifying all at once. There was a lot of information about stroke recovery but it was done in a way that wasn't "textbook-ish" or overwhelming.

33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners by Jonathan Franklin3 stars out of 5

Based on more than 110 interviews with the miners, their families, and the rescue team, Franklin's account combines an expert eye for detail and dialogue with the remarkable human interest story of these miners struggling to survive in a savage environment.

Very interesting. Sadly I was living under a rock when this happened (also known as being pregnant and having a toddler) and knew little to nothing of this as it was happening so most of what I read was completely new to me.

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
4 stars out of 5

One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds.

A typical Picoult. I really enjoyed it and it never hurts to have a nice ending!

How to be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson 3 stars out of 5

From the founding editor of The Idler, the celebrated magazine about the freedom and fine art of doing nothing, comes not simply a book, but an antidote to our work-obsessed culture. In How to Be Idle, Tom Hodgkinson presents his learned yet whimsical argument for a new universal standard of living: being happy doing nothing. He covers a whole spectrum of issues affecting the modern idler—sleep, work, pleasure, relationships—while reflecting on the writing of such famous apologists for it as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Nietzsche—all of whom have admitted to doing their very best work in bed.

This was quite charming and witty. He goes into the lost art of napping, long lunches, sleeping in and essentially doing nothing. It was funny and made me long for the days where doing nothing (especially sleeping in) was actually possible!

Mommy Tracked by Whitney Gaskell2 stars out of 5

A wise new story of four women coping with the challenges of motherhood, men, and each other.

It's funny because before I started branching out and reading different genres of books this year, this would have been the EXACT book I would always go for. And yet it took me forever to read and I had to push myself to finish it. It was okay, worth finishing but all the characters annoyed me in some way or another.

What are you reading/watching right now?