Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a busy weekend and for once I actually had plans ALL weekend (that never happens)! Friday I had a YMCA benefit that I went to/worked at. Saturday my sisters and Mom came to visit, we had Ella's 3rd birthday party to go, and an engagement party for Josh and I's friends (I only stopped by for a minute at that party cause I wanted to go home and spend time with my sisters). Sunday after my sisters left, Josh me and the kiddos drove to Newton to have a birthday lunch for Josh's Grandpa then went to the nursing home to visit his Grandma. She has alzheimers and has been going downhill pretty fast, but luckily she was having a good day and recognized all of us and was so happy to see us!!! I am so happy she was having a lucid day, it's been hard to see/hear about her bad days and it seems like the bad ones outnumber the good ones. She is an amazing lady and it's been very hard on the whole family to see her like this. We got home late in the afternoon and we have just been hanging out in our sweats trying to decide what to do for dinner. Sadly the only pics of ALL these activities that I got was from Friday night at the benefit, I was a total slacker with pics! I did take some today of the kiddos though. The weekend went fast and I already miss my family so much, I love when they come visit, they are my best friends!!

YMCA After Hours at District 142 benefit night!

I had made bacon wrapped water chesnuts that night but they were gone FAST!!

This was the band, Road 23, they are a Christian band are they are good!!

ummmm yeah, my sister brought down her carseat and base for Deb to have in her car and we found Pax in it right before we left for Newton...what a dork.

NEW BLOG LAYOUT

Short little post to say thanks to my sister, Amber, for creating my new blog layout and super cute header. I am totally clueless when it comes to that stuff so thankfully my sisters help me out. Thanks sis!!!!!

Potty training

Well I am happy to say that Pax is potty trained!! WOO HOO! I had been putting this off for a while because our pediatrician said that there was no use trying BEFORE we had Harper, and then AFTER we had her I was recovering from c-section, sick with walking pnemonia, bruised a rib and was exhausted!! Needless to say, potty training was the furthest thing from my mind. However, I had given myself a deadline of having it done by the time he was 2 1/2 which would be in April, so I knew I had to start cracking down on it. We had practiced going to the potty a lot and he was good at it, I just was not brave enough to let him only wear underwear, but let's face it pull-ups are just glorified diapers and he would still go in them. My first weekend at attempting this with underwear only was a disaster! After having them on for only an hour he walked OUT of the BATHROOM and peed on the floor!!! I stood there with my mouth hanging open thinking "did I seriously just watch him come out of the bathroom and pee on my carpet?" So those underwear came off, pull-ups went on and I had decided my child wearing diapers forever wasn't a totally bad thing as long as my carpet stayed pee free. The next weekend is when Josh and I went to Vegas and my sister and her fiance (still weird to say that) stayed with the kiddos and Sarah decided to try the underwear thing again. We got home Sunday and she said he had been doing great and the key thing was taking him to the bathroom every 30 min. Soooo, we kept up with it and now 2 weeks later he is potty trained. We still put him in a diaper at night but our daycare lady isn't putting one on him at nap and he has not had a single accident!! He actually has NEVER had an accident while at daycare, which makes me so happy! I really thought this was going to be a lot harder, I have heard so many horror stories about potty training boys, but it has been really easy so I guess we are lucky. He seems like such a big boy now that he is wearing underwear, long gone are the huge bulky diapers that crinkle when he walks and sticks out of his pants.....and speaking of pants, all of his are too big now that he doesn't have a diaper to hold them up, it's hilarious to see his little saggy butt in his jeans. I am so happy to only have one in diapers now!!

Harper is doing well and I am also happy to say that she is sleeping 8 hours at night!!!! Let's have another WOO HOO for that!!! Pax didn't sleep for 8 hours until he was 1, so this is a dream (or a miracle). I wish I could say that I was enjoying her sleeping through the night, however Paxton has been getting up EVERY night for about 2 weeks now because he is scared of the dark and wants us to sleep with him. He has a night light on, and the closet light on, so I dunno how he can be scared of the dark when it's anything BUT dark in his room. It looks like the middle of the day it's so bright in there!!! It has been taking us 2 hours to get him back to sleep each night. This consists of us walking in there and calmly telling him to go to sleep we are right across the hall and there is nothing to be afraid of, well that's what we say the first 30 min. The next 30 min consists of us bribing him with candy, stickers, a pony, ANYTHING if he would just go to sleep. The NEXT 30 min consists of us pulling our hair out in exhaustion and almost crying because he is still up crying. And then we finally just tune him out and fall asleep and at some point he does too. I know it would be easier to just let him sleep with us or us sleep with him, but I am not going down that slippery slope again. So if anyone has any advice on what to about this little "situation" I would appreciate it.

Wow this post turned into a novel!! I have not blogged forever and so please excuse my rambling. I must go to sleep now, I figure I can maybe get a few good hours of sleep in before our night of hell begins all over again. I was going to add pics, but for some reason it's not letting me, so no pics tonight. Will probably have lots after the weekend, I am going back to Manhattan to hang with my sisters...can't wait!!!

Harper 8 weeks

Harper is 2 months old today!! She has changed so much since the day we brought her home. She is such a good baby too! The past week has been a little rough for the poor girl, she has thrush in her mouth which then turned into a bad diaper rash and she has RSV so she is pretty stuffed up and has a bad cough. The doctor doesn't think it's a very severe case of it so we are just waiting for it to run it's course. She has still been in a great mood though, she was even smiling really big at Josh as he was sucking out her nose with the bulb syringe thing....seriously even I would scream if someone used that thing on me!!! Here is what she is doing at 8 weeks of age:

-Weighs a little over 9 lbs, she got weighed at doctors this week but WITH clothes on since it wasn't a well visit so it wasn't quite accurate.

- smiles and coos

-watches her toys on her swing, she lights up when I put her in it and she just stares at them smiling until I turn it on.

-only waking up ONCE to eat in the middle of the night!! Usually 2:30 on the dot!

-still taking quite a few naps during the day

-eats every 2-3 hours during the day

-wearing 3 month clothes (yeah!!!!)

-she LOVES watching Pax

I am still nursing, although the thrush thing has NOT been pleasant for me either, if you don't know what I mean, I hope you NEVER do :) Going back to work has not affected it at all, that was my biggest worry, but so far all is still going well. We have started giving her a little bit of formula at her last feeding before we put her down, Josh will feed her about 2 oz then I take her in the room and nurse her and that seems to have been the key to her sleeping longer during the night. Hey whatever it takes for a few more hours of sleep right???

Here is an update on Paxton as well. He is sick too this week with a sinus infection, he gets these about once a month!! Augmentin, the medicine he takes for it, has been a lifesaver though! He is 80% better within a day of starting it! I just wish we could do something to PREVENT the infection in the first place. He weighs 28 lbs and is ALL BOY!! I swear the kid doesn't walk ever, he just runs, runs, runs. He is going through the "why?" stage and boy howdy it's exhausting. He will point to a picture of an animal and ask what it is, and when I answer he says "why?" HOW DO YOU ANSWER THAT?!?!? I am told this stage never ends so just get used to it :) He has started to be afraid of the dark (takes after his mother, acutally takes after his mother's siblings too!) We now have to have a night light on, and his closet light when he goes to bed at night. We also can't shut his door at night anymore, he flips out! We were leary of this at first cause what's going to stop him from getting out of bed, but so far he has done really well and stays in bed till morning. He loves reading books with us, however his favorite one at the moment is Elmo's 12 days of Christmas and you know how that song goes, it takes forever, and yes I sing it :) He really is a good boy, he just tests us at times. One minute he is a little devil and the next he is snuggling up to me saying "love you Mommy" and those are the moments that make all the running, yelling, toy throwing, mess making days all worth it.

Here are pics of Harper at 8 weeks:

Simple Pleasures

I read a blog called Kelly's Korner by a girl that lives in Arkansas...yes that's right, I read a complete strangers blog, in fact I am quite obsessed with it :) Don't judge me, my sisters do it too!! ANYWAY....today her blog title was simple pleasures and she was telling all her readers to make a blog about their simple pleasures so here are mine, in no special order...

1. watching my kids sleep

2. the smell of coffee

3. a warm house when it's cold outside

4. a great smelling candle

5. relaxing on the couch with a glass of wine while Josh cooks dinner (this happens pretty much every night he has off, it's GREAT!!)

6. a sleeping baby laying on your chest

7. listening to the rain while falling asleep

8. a clean house (I am a bit anal about this, I can't go to sleep if the house is messy)

9. seeing my kids smile

10. dancing with Pax in the kitchen, singing at the top of our lungs

11. grilling out on the deck in the summer

Really I could go on forever because there are so many small things in my life that I am so grateful for. I am learning not to take anything for granted, our life is a gift from God, our CHILDREN are a gift from God and either can be taken away in a moments notice and it's so important to never forget that.

Here are some pictures of my GREATEST pleasures, the kids of course!!