Easter 2016

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter this year! We were able to have our Easter fun spaced out over a couple of days to prolong the celebrating. ;)

We colored eggs on Saturday. I was actually really nervous about dyeing eggs with Nathan this year - mostly because we have carpet in our dining area. Since we're renting, I'm slightly terrified of doing anything to ruin the carpet. But we kept it simple and it went really well, and I think Nathan enjoyed it too.

The whisk trick is probably the most brilliant idea for toddlers and egg dyeing! It totally allowed him to do it all by himself!

Since Nathan's first Easter we've been getting him a new church book to take to church, so Sunday morning the boys got new church books and the matching ties and hats (well, Nathan got a new hat, Spencer's was already made, I just needed to make Nathan one to match) that I made. They'll probably get candy next weekend, now that everything is on clearance :) And it was so nice to have John home with us - he had canceled all his extra meetings for that morning, yay!

Spencer was so excited to taste his :)

Once we got everyone ready for church, I tried to get a cute picture of the boys in their matching outfits. Even after bribing Nathan with M&M's to wear his hat and sit still for the picture, these were the best I could get ;)

"Alright, let's get outta here"

Even though none of them turned out the way I wanted - I still kind of love them. They perfectly sum up my life right now with these little mischief makers. 

Church was crazy as usual - though it was soooo nice to have my Dad to sit with us and help with the boys. Spencer spit up all over his white shirt (and my Dad's suit...sorry Dad...) before church even started (so he spent most of church in the spare outfit I had in the diaper bag, which happened to be pajamas), Nathan decided he needed to pee right in the middle of the Sacrament so we're running out of the chapel in the middle of everything to get to the bathroom and Spencer had a stinky diaper that I changed in record-breaking time to be back in the chapel by the time I needed to go up for choir. And that was just the first hour. Whew! :) 

We got to facetime with family and we had our traditional waffle dinner and it was a pretty good day!

For Monday's FHE I had such grand plans to do that resurrection egg lesson where you tell the Easter story with items in 12 plastic Easter eggs, but I never got around to putting it together because Spencer decided to sleep only 30 minutes for his afternoon nap - so it didn't happen. We still managed to talk about Jesus and the Easter story, but I'm not really sure how much got through to Nathan...

We pulled out our gospel art book and showed him this picture of Christ in Gethsemane:

Me: "Nathan, who is this?"

Nathan: "Jesus!"

"That's right!, What is Jesus doing in this picture?"

"He's looking at trees!"

"Um, yes, there is a tree in this picture. But what is He doing with his hands?"

*Nathan clasps his hands together*

Me: "Is Jesus praying?"

Nathan: "Yes! But he forgot to close his eyes for the prayer!"

*He clasps his hands again and closes his eyes*

I proceed to give the 10 second version of the story of the atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection, all while Nathan is trying to drive his cars into Spencer's head. We finish up with a prayer, that ended up with us all laughing because while John is trying to say the prayer, Spencer is trying to crawl on me and whack me with a wooden spoon, and Nathan is laying on top of me (I'm on my stomach) and grabbing me around the shoulders and trying to pull me over. We end up in a giggling heap by the time we get to "amen". 

Ah well. We tried. Happy Easter! ;)

Potty Training: The Part in Which No One is Completely Sure What Happened

Warning: We're talking about potty training peeps. Words like pee and potty will be present in this post.

Confession: I love diapers.

Sure, potty training is great and all, but diapers are so easy. Going to the store? Not a problem. 2 hour car trip to Nana's? Just go in your diaper! No crazed looks and the dreaded phrase, "Mommy! I have to go potty right now!" right in the middle of...well...anything.

So. I've been procrastinating the whole potty training business. In my defense, Spencer has been teething and subsequently waking a bajillion times a night and in my sleep deprived state, I am so not in the mood to be cleaning up accidents (because every time I think of potty training, I truly just envision little puddles all over my apartment. And the place is mostly carpet).

But Nathan is showing signs of being ready. He knows when he needs to pee, and he can hold it until we get a diaper on him. He has also developed the habit of standing there and telling me when he's peeing into his diaper. So I have been halfheartedly been making a plan to actually get the ball rolling on this one. We still have tons of trains from our Big Thomas the Tank Engine Craigslist Purchase, so we have plenty of potty prizes to motivate and inspire, but they have been hanging out in Nana's garage. In recent weeks as Nathan is getting ready for his bath, we have been asking him if he wants to pee in his Lightning McQueen potty that has been sitting in the bathroom for months now. His answer is usually "no! pee in diaper!" - he then pees in his diaper before getting into the tub.

But Nana brought up all the trains from her garage a couple of weeks ago, so now I am fully armed with my bribes motivation. In the last week or so I have been telling Nathan before his bath that if he pees in the potty, he will get a new train. He seemed intrigued by the idea, but still refused. I figured I needed to actually go get a train from my stash and show it to him to provide sufficient motivation and I mentioned that to John.

And so tonight, John went and grabbed a train from the bag and brought it into the bathroom as Nathan was getting out of the bathtub. It was Gordon (the train, I mean, from the Thomas series). And Nathan was SO excited at the idea of having and playing with Gordon. We told him "If you pee in the potty, you can have Gordon!". He was thrilled. He sat on the potty for a second, then jumped up and said "Gordon please!". Hmm. We checked the potty - nothing was there. "If you pee in the potty, you can have Gordon!" "Okay!" He sits back down again. Nothing happens. "Gordon please!"

After a few minutes of this he finally seemed to get the idea that he needed to actually pee. So he sat there on his potty for several minutes. I told him he didn't have to go right now, we could wait until tomorrow. "No. Gordon please" And so we waited. And waited. It seemed that he was going to sit there until he peed and got his Gordon.

I did not anticipate this level of determination.

After about 10 minutes of  alternating between sitting there and then jumping up to check, I went and got him a cup of water to speed things up a bit. And still we waited. He spilled a little bit of water on himself and we got him dried off.  After another 5-7 minutes he got this look of excitement on his face.

"Did you pee in the potty?"
"No!"
"What? Let me see."

We checked the potty and there was something in there! I smelled it - it smelled like pee. (Okay, I smelled it because he had spilled water everywhere earlier, geez)

"Look Nathan! Did you pee in the potty?!"
"No!"
"Are you sure?"

I called for John. John came in and asked him again.

"Did you pee in the potty?"
"Yeah!"

Um, what? We debated whether or not it was really pee (I know, the conversations you have as a parent). He had spilled water, the McQueen potty was purchased secondhand, maybe it's the residual smell, yeah, but she had bleached it before selling it to us, and the pee-smell is really strong.

And so, amid utter confusion, we gave him Gordon.

Better luck next time?

Almost an Artist

We actually did this a couple of weeks ago, aaaaannnnnd I’m just now getting around to telling you about it.

I have been trying to come up with things to do with Nathan during the day, though I think it’s more to keep me entertained than him, because he really does seem quite content to pull everything from every accessible shelf and drawer and spread them throughout the apartment and to walk around carrying random objects he has acquired from his path of destruction. He just wants me to watch him do it. So I’m usually sitting on the floor monitoring the mess ;) Any time I try to get something done while he’s ‘working’ he immediately wants in on whatever it is I’m doing. Once I sit back down on the floor to watch him, he’s back to business. It can get kinda boring to be honest.

So I thought we’d try an art project!

I kept it pretty simple, I had some fingerpaints on hand, but instead of doing some full-on fingerpainting (I think he’d just try to eat it) I put three different colors into a gallon sized baggie and taped the bag to a piece of white paper, and then taped that to the floor. I added the paper because our flooring is really dark.

Then I brought Little Man over and we tried to paint.

It lasted all of 15 seconds.
Isn’t he so adorable?! That face!!
He did get pretty into it though
Then he just wanted to grab my camera…

We had tried it in the morning, so I left it taped there for most of the day, hoping he’d be interested enough to go back and try again. Mm…not so much. He went back maybe…once on his own? I went over there a couple of times and he would follow me. We did manage to mix up the colors and it looked pretty cool. Then later he came by with a wooden spoon and started whacking the bag and created a couple of holes. Out of which the paint started to leak. Then art class was over.

Oh well. We’ll try again when he’s older. ;)

Some Cuteness Catch Up

So I might actually have something to post later that does NOT involve the Little Man. Amazing, I know.

But this is my blog and I can post whatever I want, so for now here are more pictures of my Little Man. I just love him. :)

He hasn’t actually gotten a real haircut yet, but at least once a month I have to trim the hair over his ears. It’s too bad he can’t sit still for more that TWO SECONDS, otherwise I might have done a good job. Oh well.

Yeah, I know it’s bad. I didn’t even get all the hair that goes over his ears on the other side. I’ll try again later…
Getting a little dramatic about the haircut. I think he gets that from his Uncle Jason. ;)
I know this picture came out blurry, but he actually turned to the camera and smiled! And I think it’s cute.

We discovered he fits perfectly inside a Huggies box, with room for his dinosaur even! So we went into space the other day.
“Wait, we’re actually going into space?!”
“Oh. I was actually going to be really excited about that.”
Checking his gear and controls… ;)
“Get ready dinosaur, it’s gonna be a wild ride! Here, hold this joystick for me.”

We also took him to the pool for the first time! I didn’t take my camera with me, since I was planning on getting in the water myself, but we snapped a few pictures of Nathan in his swimming gear before we headed over.

He wasn’t a huge fan of the hat, and the pool is indoors, so we didn’t make him wear it.

He loved it! Once he figured out the splashing, he had a ball. It was so funny to watch him, since he’d splash looking down at his hands with his eyes and mouth wide open. Then sputter as all that water got into his face and mouth. He loved it though!

And that’s about it for now! :)

The Sleep Saga, Part 4

I know! You didn’t think there was anymore to the sleep saga, did you?

I didn’t either. But there is more.

Phooey.

The good news is that up until 2 1/2 weeks ago, Nathan was actually sleeping really well, give or take the occasional crazy night or bad nap day.

Then he turned 8 months. And his nocturnal alter ego kicked in. Actually, it’s called the “8 month sleep regression”. I’m not making this up. It’s a thing. Google it. I did, and it even auto-finished my search for me. Wasn’t that nice?

Anyway, this sleep regression can actually happen at 8, 9 or 10 months (So should I be thankful we’re getting it over with now??) and is *generally* caused by the brain development and growth spurts typical for this age. So the little people just have a hard time sleeping at this age.

Um, WHY did no one warn me about this?! It was most definitely not in my favorite sleep book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. Oh well. I guess I’m prepared for the next child.

(Note: That next child is not happening any time soon. And said next child had better be a good sleeper.)

But I suppose that this sleep regression thing is partially our fault. Since we had no idea what was going to be happening, we started weaning the Little Man off the woombie. I was really sad about this. I love love love the baby straight jacket woombie. But Little Man was rolling over onto his tummy more (though not in his sleep yet), and quite honestly, he was already in the biggest size available and would soon outgrow it. Little chunkers. It was time.

That first night we decided to go cold turkey and stuck him in his crib with both arms free. It was a disaster. It was a the-baby-has-been-screaming-for-over-an-hour-and-mom-is-a-complete-basketcase-we-are-never-doing-this-again type disaster. We have tried swaddling just one arm, but if you know why we got the woombie in the first place, you’ll know that that wasn’t working.

So back into the woombie he went, and we brainstormed another plan. I found a sewing pattern for a wearable blanket HERE. And I thought that I could close off one arm hole and create my own one-armed woombie for this transition. So that’s what I did. We have gone from the ‘baby blue giraffe’ to the ‘one-armed bandit’.

It is actually working really well for the transition. Though he will probably stay one-armed for several more weeks before we try to brave both arms free.

He didn’t want any more photos. He wanted out of the crib already, Mom!

So for the most part, the transition to one arm has gone really well. But mix that in with the 8 month sleep regression and it’s not so great. For 2 1/2 weeks Nathan screamed for at least an hour before going to sleep for the night. Sometimes it would happen right away, sometimes it would happen after he’d been asleep for 30-45 minutes (that was the worst – you think you’re home free and then 30 minutes later…it begins…) I couldn’t go in most of the time, as that would actually make it worse. He really just wanted to hang out with me the whole time. We tried all sorts of things. John would put him down for bed (that actually worked a few nights). I put him down to bed (usually didn’t work). We gave him a bottle right before putting him down (that helped somewhat). And then we’d let him cry (hated it, but most effective). But that usually took a good two hours before he’d go to sleep. Oof.

But we might be finally getting out of that phase. For the past three nights Nathan has gone to sleep without freaking out. And it’s been soooooooo wonderful. But then he decided to cry for an hour and a half before going to sleep for his morning nap today. And then only slept for 40 minutes. I’m going to lose my mind.

But before I do that, here are some cute pictures of Little Man and his phone while I was supposed to be folding the laundry.

"Wait, who are you texting?” “Taylor.” “Oh, okay…wait, is Taylor a boy or a girl?” “Does it matter?” “No, no, of course n- unless it’s a girl! ;)
He had been totally kicking back with his phone on the pillow but he started wiggling around by the time I got my camera out. This one is pretty good too though. ;)

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Wish me luck!

Mommy Misadventures

Naked-Baby-at-Church Edition

As we spent Thanksgiving with my parents this past weekend, we attended church at their ward. It’s a lovely ward. And if you’ve seen the Nathan at church, you’ll probably know that the fact that he’s a little man does not stop me from dressing him up. Especially on Sunday. He’s pretty stylin’ at church. This past Sunday was no different. Little Man was looking quite dapper in his button up dress shirt, sweater vest, and newsboy cap – and pants, of course.

(And I just remembered I have a picture of said outfit from about a month ago – with a bow tie even!)

Adorable, right?! I know. I can’t even stand it. As he gets older, this might get dangerous. I don’t know if I could ever refuse him anything while he’s wearing such cute clothes.

Well, church was going along just swimmingly – we’d made it to Relief Society (the third and last hour) when a diaper change became necessary. I scooped Nathan up and off we went to the restroom to take care of it. I got the pants and diaper off no problem…when he decided to pee!! AH! In my effort to block the stream, I only made it worse. Using a wipe does not help, FYI. It still just drips everywhere. I should also note that he hardly ever pees without his diaper on – except right when we stick him in the bathtub. Drives me crazy! ;) *ahem* Anyway…

In case you were wondering (though you probably weren’t) in this situation boys are much harder. I’ve had parents of girls argue that girls are just as bad – because it’s ‘pressurized’ but I would counter that with the argument that at least with girls, you know what direction to expect. With boys – you have NO IDEA!

By the time he was finished, Little Man had peed on every single article of clothing he was wearing (except the hat – it got left in class), the changing table in the bathroom, the changing pad, the clean diaper I was going to use and the walls. Yep. The walls. This is with me trying to block him. Yeah. I know.

All I had with me in the restroom were the diapers, wipes, and changing pad. So after wiping everything down and getting a clean diaper on him, I pulled all of his wet clothes off.

While he laughed.

I kid you not. He laughed!! He hardly ever actually laughs. But he did while I cleaned up his mess and got his nasty clothes under control. Little stinker. ;)

But I had no replacement clothes with me. I had something in the diaper bag, but that was over in the classroom. So after I got all of his clothes into a wad, I carried my diaper-only-clad child down the hall and back to the classroom. But not before standing outside the door and just giggling at my naked baby, who was completely unperturbed by the turn of events.

After I walked in (still trying to smother my giggles) I could see heads turn and then turn again as they realized Nathan was in just a diaper. I ended up leaving him that way for the rest of church, because the heat in the building was up really high and all I had as extra was a fleece sleeper. Nathan was already really warm because he’s cutting teeth (!!!) and probably enjoyed cooling off without clothes on.

Note to self: Pack a better variety of extra clothes in the diaper bag. And maybe some paper towels.

An October Update

So I suppose I should be blogging more than just monthly pictures of Nathan. But it turns out that I really only just have more pictures of the little man.

You don’t mind, do you? ;)

We had General Conference earlier this month – and it was wonderful, as usual. It was Nathan’s first General Conference and will probably be the ONLY Conference for many, many, many years that he will sit so quietly and be so attentive.
His stuffed dinosaur joined us.
Is this not the sweetest picture you’ve ever seen?
He was fascinated by those people speaking from that box over there…

And per tradition, we had conference waffles (as opposed to normal Sunday waffles) topped with ice cream and fruit. YUM. I love tradition.

And we’ve had lots of adventures in the world of eating rice cereal. Like a dinner date with dinosaur.
He likes to use the rice cereal as a face mask. Helps with the complexion, he says.
“Tastes good too!”
Rice Cereal: The latest and greatest in baby hair styling products. (His Baby GQ face)

He has developed a keen interest in his board books and insists upon holding them (when not trapped in his baby straight jacket woombie) He loves being read to as well. But it is difficult when he gets to turn the pages…

I have also finally finished our Halloween costumes for this year!! (Random side note: I feel like the most common question I have gotten most recently from people without kids is “what is the best thing about having a baby?” Does anyone else feel like it is impossible to quantify the ‘best’ thing about it?! There is SO MUCH to having a baby good and crazy that I find it really hard to answer that question. So now I just say ‘planning the family Halloween costumes’ ;)

I’ve already mentioned on facebook that we are going to be Mary Poppins Jolly Holiday and while I already have some pictures of all of us, you only get a sneak peek for now of our little penguin – who is thoroughly unimpressed ;)

And besides the big event of moving the little man from his swing to crib (nighttime is actually going really well – naptime, not so much. I’m going crazy) that’s pretty much it for now. Thanks for stopping by!