Happy Birthday Jay!

Jay turned 28 yesterday (the 14th) and Carter and I had fun celebrating him! Sadly, Jay's birthday began with his four hour math class at Chemekata. Poor guy. Then Carter went down for a nap and Jay and I had lunch together. Carter and I got him another remote helicopter (he now has two and loves them). We had cookies and spent some time together as a family. Then Carter went to my dad and Lori's house for the evening and Jay and I went out to dinner. I know I enjoyed his birthday and I hope he did too!

I have been wanting to copy my friend Hollie's "I love you because..." sign and just hadn't done it yet. So with some more ideas from Pinterest, I decided to give it a try for Jay's birthday. I like how it turned out.

Carter had a nice combo of bed head and static electricity while he watched daddy fly his new helicopter.

We love you Jay!! Happy Happy Birthday! You are the best husband a girl could ask for and the best daddy a little boy could ask for. Thanks for loving us, providing for us, making us laugh, protecting us, and having fun with us. You are our biggest blessing!

Sheer Determination

I learned something new about my son last night. That sweet, spunky, and loving little boy has more determination in his little head than I have ever seen in his almost 23 months of life. Last night was night three of bed time in his new bed. The first two nights he cried a bit and needed lots of loves and snuggles but last night topped them both. No tears, no sadness...just sheer determination that he was NOT GOING TO BED. We put him in bed around 8 and Jay read a bunch of books with him. About 8:20 we kissed him goodnight, turned out the light and left him. He chatted a bit in bed and then decided he didn't want to be in his bed anymore. For the next two hours he got out of his bed probably 35 times.

You may be wondering what we did when he continued to disobey and get out of bed. What do you do to a 22 month old with more freedom than he might be ready for at night time?

We started out being nice and just softly telling him he had to stay in bed. We even left the hall light on and his door cracked so he could see a little, which by the way worked the night before. We continued to pick him up and put him in his bed and remind him that he could not get out again, he needed to obey mommy and daddy, etc, etc... Each time we got a little more firm and not quite as nice. We then tried "super nanny" style where we didn't say a word, just plopped him in his bed and walked out. Each and every time with our attempts, seconds after we walked out of his room he was back at the door opening and closing it. He rarely came out to the living room but he would just stand at his door opening and closing it and peeking out into the hall.

After at least 30-45 minutes of this (with one attempt to lay with him) we threatened a spanking. That did nothing because he was up again as soon as we walked out. We then spanked him each time he got up, which caused lots of tears and the slight breaking of mommy's heart. This attempt also did NOTHING! Even when the spanking really hurt and he cried, he still continued to get up. By this time it's been at least two hours and Jay and I are literally at a complete loss as to what to do next. So we gave in and Jay went and laid with him until he fell asleep, thus giving him exactly what he wanted. I am telling you all now that last night was the most frustrating night we have ever had with Carter! He is such an amazing sleeper who has always gone down without needing anything! We could always just lay him in his crib and then he would talk to himself for a few minutes and fall fast asleep. What happened?!?!?!

Lord, please let my good sleeper come back to me! Once he was asleep he slept until 8:20 this morning but it was so incredibly difficult to get him to sleep. We were so close to putting him back in his crib last night! If we didn't have a little girl coming in nine weeks we would not be forcing this so hard. We would just let him stay in his crib a while longer. But, we have no choice. We have to get him used to this before Madelynn comes! He has been amazingly perfect for nap time for over a week so I really didn't think night time would be this difficult.

For all of you moms that have experienced this transition with your toddler, I am up for words of advice and wisdom! Please comment if you have suggestion for me! I'll take all the help I can get in this area.

Update on naptime...

For our own records and for family who care...

We are on day four of naptime in his new big boy bed and every day has been a big success! Every day I have still had to go in twice but more because I was just trying to figure out what the noise was than Carter doing anything he shouldn't be doing. He has been in his bed everytime I have gone in but just rolling around and playing with his stuffed animals. Today when I went to see what the noise was he was opening and closing his curtains, which hang down near the top of his bed. Don't worry, they are just fabric curtains and not blinds with cords or anything.

It seems to take him a little longer to fall asleep in his new bed but he is actually staying in bed and he does fall asleep within 20 to 30 minutes. I am okay with that. His shortest nap so far has been an hour and a half and his longest has been two hours. I am hoping he will start stretching them longer since he was always a 2 1/2 to 3 hour napper in his crib. But I'll take what I can get. I am proud of my boy!

We'll attempt night time in there soon.

New Dinner #2

I attempted my second new meal for my 2012 resolution and loved it. Again, I got this recipe from Pinterest and chose it for tonight because it didn't need a ton of ingredients that I didn't have. Some of the recipes I want to try have so many things in it that I don't have on hand so I know it is going to cost a little to make it.

This is penne pasta with a sun-dried tomato cream sauce. Here is the recipe just in case you want to try it out. I would highly recommend it! We loved it and Carter ate a ton of it as well.

Penne Pasta w/ Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

2 cups penne pasta

8 sun dried tomatoes, chopped (about 1/3 cup)

1 can evaporated milk (it calls for 2% but I accidently bought just the regular and it was great)

2 cups Italian four cheese shredded cheese blend (one 8 ounce package)

1 teaspoon basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Prepare pasta and add chopped tomatoes into boiling water for the last two minutes of boiling time. Drain.

Combine milk, cheese, basil, garlic powder, and pepper in a medium sauce pan and cook on medium until cheese melts, stirring somewhat frequently but doesn't need to be constant. Remove from heat and add pasta to cheese sauce, combine and serve. If you have a larger family than just three like us I might recommend doubling the recipe. We had a little left over but that is just with two adults and a one year old. It didn't make a ton for a family with multiple kids, especially older kids.

Super yummy!

Happy cooking!

29 Weeks

Well, here is my 29 week picture. I have had many comments lately from people saying I look way bigger than what week I am at. I blame it on second pregnancy and being short. Where else is she supposed to go but out since I am just barely over five feet? So today means that I have about ten weeks left since I'll most likely be having a c-section at 39 weeks. Ten weeks...wow! I am incredibly excited to meet this little girl and be a mom of two. I am ready and just hoping the next ten weeks go by quickly.

We haven't even started on her room yet but we did transition Carter to his new room for naps, so we are one step closer to starting on her room. A few more days of napping in his big boy bed, then move him in there at night as well and then we will start transforming Carter's nursery into Madelynn's nursery. I am also waiting to get my sample fabric in the mail from her bedding and then we can go pick out paint. I don't want to pick paint until I have something to match it with. As soon as her room transformation begins I will share it on here. And Carter's room is almost complete and I will post some pictures of it as soon as we finish up a couple more things.

I still feel great for the most part. I am sleeping pretty well but am missing sleeping on my stomach and back. I keep waking up in the night on my back and then switch because I guess it's not great to sleep on your back when pregnant. She moves quite a bit and Jay has been able to feel her many times now. My blood pressure is still great but I am a little nervous that may be changing. I am finding that I am starting to not feel well when I am on my feet too much which is what started happening with Carter when my blood pressure started going up. I have an appointment this week so we will see what happens. I need to start putting myself on like 25% bedrest so that my blood pressure doesn't go up and I don't have to go on medicine and be put on complete bedrest. I am also getting some heartburn in the evenings. I didn't get much with Carter so I never really understood what it was like for some pregnant women but I have had a couple nights where I couldn't believe the amount of pain and discomfort in my chest because of heartburn. Wow. Now I see why some people think they might be having a heart attack and it ends up just being heartburn. Thankfully it isn't happening often and tums do help.

Hopefully it's not too many weeks before I post another picture. I haven't been super great about getting my belly pictures taken this time around. I think it has to do with having an almost two year old to keep up with...and working, Christmas, grad classes, MOPS, church, house, laundry, cooking, etc, etc... I must do better! :)

An addition to the last post...

Carter slept for two hours in his new big boy bed! I only had to go in there two times in the first couple of minutes and then he fell fast asleep. When he woke up, he walked to the door with his tiger, lion, and blankie and opened the door himself happy as a clam. Success!!

A Huge Milestone

Today, right now as I type this to be exact, is our first attempt at having Carter sleep in his big boy bed in his new big boy room. This morning we worked on the curtains, hanging his name above his bed, and mounting his dresser to the wall (only because we are planning on getting him a fishtank for his birthday and it will go on top of his dresser) and cleaning up all of the toys. His bed has been set up for quite a while but we just haven't been brave enough to try him out in there yet. He is such a great sleeper and I am afraid of losing that when he has too much freedom.

Yes, he is still in his jammies even though this is nap time. But hey, it's a Saturday and we are just working around the house and he is comfy. We gave him a drink of milk before bed, laid down with him and told him that he was going to go night night in this bed, kissed him and walked out.

Here he is as we walked out of his room. I'm not going to lie, this is a pretty rough transition for me so far. I was standing in Carter's nursery where the empty wall was after taking down his name and hanging it in his new room, and began to cry. My little man, my first born is growing up and our whole world is changing. It is of course changing in the most amazing way and we can't be more thrilled and thankful to be having a little girl in a couple of months but it is still changing and effecting me in ways I didn't realize it would. I remember back when we began to set up Carter's nursery and get it decorated just how I wanted it. I couldn't believe we were going to be bringing a little boy into our house and that he would be ours. And now, 22 months later, we are moving him out of his nursery and into his big boy room, as I like to call it. It's tough. But so great too.

Right after we left his room, we heard him get out of bed and walk to the door. I opened the door to put him back in bed and he had his Giants hat on that had been hanging on his doorknob. What a funny kid. So Jay and I both took him back to bed, laid down with him again, kissed him and walked out. A couple minutes later we heard him playing with something so I went in there and he had pulled down a fire truck that was sitting on the shelf next to his bed and was playing with it...at least he was still in bed. I took it away, laid him down, kissed him, and walked out. Twenty minutes later I believe he is fast asleep. I have been sitting on the floor in the hallway playing on the computer so that I could tell what he was doing. He chatted for a few minutes like he always does in his crib and now I haven't heard a peep for at least 15 minutes. This may be a successful transition!