Lifesong

1:32 pm {Monday}

Eleven Months

When Christian turned five, Avery turned eleven months. I CANNOT believe my baby will be a year in less than a month. How did this happen? And without even asking me?? Crazy baby.

As is tradition in our house, somewhere around eleven months you graduate to big kid pajamas. You know how baby pj's have the feet still in them and they zip up the front? But then at eleven months you start wearing things like this, that look all big girl.

Oh it's just the cutest. These are actually Ansley's pj's, and I can still picture her wearing them. Avery had just gotten out of the tub, so that's why her hair looks a little funny and matted down. Usually, you can see her little wispies coming from both sides of her head. I think they are the beginnings of curls, but sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about.

Sometimes I do.

I guess we'll see.

On with the facts:

You say "Dada" and know what that means, you babble "Mamamamama" (but don't seem to associate it with me just yet), "Dittee" and "dye-dye" (bye bye).

You wave and say dye dye at the same time. SO cute.

You crawl, all over the house. Baby gates are a must. You love to climb the stairs, with someone behind you of course. You pull up to stand on everything, and have stood unassisted for a few seconds at a time.

You sleep on your belly almost all of the time.

You sleep great at night, from 8 pm to usually 8 am.

You are a better napper than you used to be, and almost every day sleep for at least an hour. Once in a blue moon, angels sing and you have a good two hour plus nap. You are always happier because of it.

You have become VERY attached to your stuffed bunny, which was a gift from Mimi when you were born. You seriously love this bunny. You must have it for naps and bedtime.

You have this cute way of showing us what you want by holding your arm straight out with your hand down and making a little grunting sound. I'll try to get a picture of it, because it's so you right now.

You nurse two times a day, in the morning and before bed.

You are loving milk. You can down a sippy cup a day. (We introduce milk a little before one to get our babies adjusted to being weaned.)

You are a huge eater. You eat a lot, and often. Most times, if you are grumpy, you can bet it's because you are hungry.

You have four teeth.

You cry and get your feelings hurt if anyone tells you "no."

But you love to imitate the sounds of "eh, eh" that we make when you are getting into something you aren't supposed to.

You get into everything. And if there is something you want that you can't have, you are a pitiful puddle of tears. So sad.

You laugh at your siblings a lot. Way more than you laugh at Mommy or Daddy.

You look like you might possibly have curls. You have some serious curls going on on the back of your head.

You are so adorable, and we love you so!

Christian's Fifth Birthday

To celebrate Christian's birthday, we thought it would be fun to go for a weekend getaway to the mountains and stay in a cabin. The last time we went, Christian kept calling it a loggy house and we thought that was so cute. I guess when you are five, though, you no longer say that.

On Friday before we left, we got our first snow of the season. And I use snow pretty lightly, since it was. But the kids were very excited to get out and play in it.

Five year olds also say things like "you're dressing me like a baby!" when I insist that he wear his hat. Man, I didn't know five was the new cranky pants. But as you can see, in the end, Mama won. Mostly because those ears get cold.

John got home early and we headed out. It was a bit of a hectic trip, mostly because.....well, okay, ALL because The Baby screamed most of the way. And when I say screamed I mean bloody murder. Ew, there's that phrase again that I really don't like but it accurately depicts our time together in the car, so I must include it. It turns out, The Baby was hungry and had apparently been neglected in the food department. So sad.

Fortunately, after stopping at Applewood Farmhouse Grill, all was fine. They serve up these apple fritters with apple butter, and ooooooohh-wee! They were tasty lil suckers. Avery ate two of them, she was so happy to have food. The rest of us ate, well, a few more than two. They were really, really good.

We headed back to the cabin and put the baby down and enjoyed hanging out in the hot tub together. Ansley and Christian always love this part of our cabin stay.

The next morning, per Christian's request, we headed to breakfast at The Pancake Pantry.

He ordered Bears in the Snow, which is really just another name for Sugar in the Mouth.

We walked around in Gatlinburg, and it was pretty chilly, but we found a rock store, and if you didn't know Christian LOVES rocks so he was very excited to pick out some rocks. He got a bag full and was very happy.

I can't document everything, though. I do have my limits. I was probably too cold to pull out my camera. Or I was too hot, it's hard to say. You know when you've been walking around in frigid weather, and then you go in a warm store and all of a sudden you're all who turned the heat on? Get this jacket off of me I'm about to melt? You know how you do that? Maybe it's just me, but I have a thing with temperatures, and OH how I hate being hot when it's 25 degrees outside.

We raced go-karts (those pictures are in Project 365.)

We debated going to the Titanic museum. We drove there, and they were doing an ice sculpture competition. That was free, so we walked around.

A chair made out of ice. Pretty cool huh?

We discussed going here, because Christian was really pulled in by the whole boat idea, but we just weren't sure if it would be something they would really enjoy, and tickets are roughly a nice dinner out. A piece.

Clearly we needed some food to help us think more logically, so we got a late lunch, and picked up a bunch of brochures about things to do for that afternoon.

But for a family of five, things get pretty expensive, and we just weren't really sure that our kids would get into any of them. So we got a great idea, and pitched it to the kids. They were super excited!

Our plan? Go rent a movie, grab an easy dinner + brownies and ice cream from the store, and go back to the cabin to open some presents, watch a movie, hang out in the hot tub and eat ice cream. They loved the idea, and while yes it was definitely a much cheaper option, I think we all enjoyed it just as much as an expensive show.

Christian got to open a present when we got home. Star Wars Legos, of course.

They enjoyed playing with Legos while we got dinner ready, and Avery crawled around and explored.

We all ate brownies and ice cream and sang an early happy birthday to The Birthday Boy. We watched some of the movie (Free Willy 2 - it was cute!) while eating, then we put Avery down, finished up the movie and enjoyed the hot tub again.

The kids stayed up until after 10 pm both nights we were there, because we are awesome parents like that.

Christian woke up to his birthday streamers. Just because you're at a cabin doesn't mean you can break tradition. This is one of their favorite traditions, because they always talk about it for weeks beforehand.

Freshly Five, with his new Star Wars Operation game.

Birthday donuts, of course! Another popular birthday tradition around here.

Watching Christian open his presents.

Christian got a Nerf dart gun (and Ansley got one too, since it's always more fun to shoot each other. Did I just say that?) so they had a sneak attack from the loft in the cabin.

We headed home mid-morning. Christian requested spaghetti and chocolate cake for his birthday meal.

So, I made him homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

And we ended the weekend celebration by singing happy birthday to our sweet boy, and enjoying chocolate cake.

We love our sweet boy! I am looking forward to your fifth year!

Twelve on Twelve : : Edition Let's Try Again

I tried this idea last year, but then I had a baby and it didn't pan out.

So I thought I'd give it another try. We will see how it goes.

I'm still doing my photo a day, but I found it rather fun to document a whole day in pictures. I couldn't do it every day, but once a month, I THINK I can handle!

So here we go.

1. I went to bed last night and then woke up this morning with a headache. Boo! But last night I didn't take Excedrin because I thought it would keep me up; this morning I was all over the Excedrin.

2. The temperatures are dropping here, and we are heading to the mountains this weekend, so we all headed to the mall today for jackets for the girls. I couldn't find one for Ansley, but I got a super cute one for Avery at GAP Kids for $7!

3. I also got all these tarts from Yankee Candle. The kids enjoyed stacking them. I have the Scentsy warmer, which uses a light bulb to melt wax and make your house smell good, and I really like the idea of the light bulb instead of the wick and the smoke. So I figured wax is wax, right? We'll see if the Yankee tarts work just like the Scentsy wax. I'm hoping so.

4. And I couldn't resist this on clearance for $4! I've been DYING to find something like this because I think it will help with mealtime preparation. There's a lot to do to make plates for three kids + one adult twice a day, and three kids + two adults once a day. So I got this for silverware and napkins to make table setting time a little easier.

5. When we got home from the mall, my Blurb book for 2011 was sitting on my front porch. We always love looking through these!

6. I had a little time while Avery napped to work on her album. I'm using the Project Life album to document her first year.

7. Salisbury steak for dinner. It is one of my all time favorite meals!

8. Avery eating dinner. It's really nice that she can feed herself now - it makes meal times a little easier!

9. I loved this sign that I got several weeks ago for the playroom. But then we didn't really have a place to hang it for the playroom, so I was going to return it. It's called "Family Rules" and has a great list of rules. The kids love it so much that I think I'm going to have to find a place for it. They are always reminding us of the "rules."

10. After dinner Ansley and I went shopping for Christian's birthday.

11. Ice cream!

12. Just before the kids were going to bed, it started snowing! We were all very excited!

And that's our day, January 12, 2012, in pictures.

What did you do today?

 

Nap Drama

Avery has always been my no napper baby. She gives me Nap Drama every day. It's always a toss up as to whether or not she will sleep, scream through her nap, or sleep for a brief time, then wake up screaming. You can always count on some screaming being involved.

Here she is, crying after her nap. No matter how many times I tell her a well rested baby is a happy baby, she doesn't seem to believe me. Often laughs in my face.

How would you say that word, by the way? Often? Off-ten? Or off-en? I came across this article called "The Top 10 Words You Mispronounce that Make You Look Like an Idiot." Of course I don't want to look like an idiot, so I had to read it, but I was pretty sure I pronounce things correctly.

Turns out, no. Often got me. At least I think it did. You know how sometimes when you have to come up with how you say a word on the spot you kind of panic and can't really decide if you say off-ten or off-en? That's what happened to me. I panicked in the moment.

It's off-en, by the way. The "t" is silent. Who knew? Well I guess the guy writing the article.

Don't worry, sensitive readers. She was happy in no time! She is also my Snacky Baby, so once she has 1) Her Bunny and 2) a snack and 3) her sippy cup she's all set for happiness. It's funny, my other two kids have never been snackers. But this girl seems hungry all the time. She also loves water from her sippy cup, but doesn't seem to love milk. (My other two, if you don't know them, have a deep, undying love for milk to this day.)

I guess Avery's afraid she's going to miss out on moments like this, when the Dittee is still and she can attack. I mean, lovingly pet her. Avery has QUITE a fascination with Dittee, much to the Dittee's dismay. But at naptime, she climbed up on Ansley's lap (don't tell Ansley it's really that throw that's enticing the Dittee) and slept there for quite awhile.

You can bet as soon as Avery's up the Dittee runs off. In case you haven't noticed, Dittee is the new carlo. It's very catchy.

That's the nap time wrap up. Matter of fact, the screaming has begun since I've been writing this. Off to rescue my poor baby!

The Five-Year Interview

This is one of my favorite birthday traditions. I started doing this when Ansley was four - a series of set questions that I ask my kids every year on their birthday (and I add a few more each year it seems). I always enjoy comparing their answers from the year before.

Christian turns five this Sunday, so we sat down this week to have a chat. This boy cracks me up!

M(ama): What do you want to be when you grow up?

C(hristian): (l o n g pause) I don't know. Maybe own pet stores, like PetSmart and take care of all the kittens.

M: What is your favorite thing God made?

C: My family (ohhhh, me, too, buddy. Me, too.)

M: What is your favorite activity?

C: (without any pause) Painting.

M: What is your favorite animal?

C: Cat. And dog.

M: What is your favorite bug?

C: I sorta like a butterfly.

M: What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?

C: Golf. (He's never been.)

M: What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?

C: Maybe pottery.

M: Do you want to be a Dad?

C: Yes.

M: Will you marry?

C: Yes.

M: Who?

C: I don't know her name.

M: How many kids will you have?

C: (shrugs shoulders) Three.

M: Who is your favorite friend?

C: Maybe Parker.

M: Who is your second favorite friend?

C: Maybe Jackson.

M: What is your favorite color?

C: Blue.

M: What do you dislike?

C: What? I don't know what that means.

M: What do you not like?

C: Creepy bugs.

M: What is your favorite song?

C: I like to make up songs. (Yes, you do. All the time.) I do like the Star Wars song.

M: How old is Daddy?

C: I think nine.

M: How old is Mommy?

C: You are four. No, I mean eight.

M: What is your favorite day?

C: The day when Daddy is home. (Love this answer!)

M: What is your favorite snack?

C: The cookies you make.

M: What is your favorite place to go?

C: DISNEY WORLD! (Ouch. We have never been.)

M: What is your favorite thing about Ansley?

C: She plays with me.

M: What is your favorite thing about Avery?

C: She says my name. (Ummm, no. Unless your name is Dittee.)

M: What is your favorite thing about Daddy?

C: You already asked me this.

M: I asked you what your favorite thing to DO with Daddy was. Now I'm asking your favorite thing about Daddy.

C: Oh. That he helps me put up the Christmas tree. He paints with me.

M: What is your favorite thing about Mommy?

C: You take me places.

M: What is your favorite memory from this past year?

C: The beach!

M: What will be the best thing about being five?

C: The cabin! (We are going to a cabin in the mountains for his birthday.) And cake!

M: What would you rather be, a carrot or a fish?

C: A fish.

M: Why?

C: Because carrots are funny. It would be funny to be a carrot. Fishes go under water. I would avoid the hooks that would capture me. (You go on with lots of different thoughts, but my hand hurts.)

M: What does Daddy do all day?

C: Work

M: What does Mommy do all day?

C: Teaches school. But that's not all day.

M: What is your favorite thing in the whole world?

C: God.

M: Who is Jesus?

C: God's son.

M: What did He do?

C: He died on the cross for our sins. With nails. Do you think that hurts? Did that hurt God too because Jesus IS God. And when Jesus was born on Christmas does that really mean God was born too? And......(Christian you often have lots to say and I do love listening, it was just hard to keep up writing.)

M: What is your favorite subject?

C: Math.

M: What is your least favorite subject?

C: When you have to write and trace the letters.

M: What are you most looking forward to?

C: The strings coming down from my door. (He means streamers.)

M: What is your favorite restaurant?

C: Bonefish Grill.

You are a super sweet, sensitive, talkative, stubborn, Star Wars and Lego lovin' boy, and we are so thankful for you!

I can't wait to see what Year Five has in store!

Love,

Mama

3:22 pm

How my baby fell asleep today. In case you can't see, that's her bunny (see photo below) underneath her.

A Baby and Her Bunny

This girl is having some serious Bunny Love. When she wakes up from her nap, she starts pointing and whimpering for it, and once I give it to her, oh how she loves that bunny! In a way only an eleven month old can love, of course, with wallowing and slobbering and much smooshing.

It's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

The Great Playroom Makeover

As you probably know if you've been reading here for awhile, our playroom is my nemesis. It is a CONSTANT struggle around here, and I am at battle with myself between letting kids be kids versus helping them to be responsible for their messes and keep things clean. It has not always been so, but I have become a big believer that organization, structure, and order equals less stress and more enjoyment for the whole family.

I read this recently and it has stuck with me: if I came into your home and asked you for a safety pin, would you be able to get me one? How about if I needed a receipt for shoes you purchased two months ago? Both of those might be tricky, right? But what if I needed a fork? Could you find one of those? Of course, right? And the reason is because forks have a home, everyone knows where they go, and everyone puts them where they go.

That has stuck with me. I am SO DONE with clutter, chaos and unorganization. 2012 is going to be the year I get organized. For reals.

So we started with the playroom.

Embarassing? Yes. Real life? Absolutely. I'd like to say this was on a particularly rough day after weeks and weeks of neglect. And while that may be partly true, this was honestly the way our playroom looked a lot of the time. The kids play here A LOT, and it is just messy and disastrous. And see all those little things all over the floor? I knew that couldn't happen because we now have a crawling baby.

So I analyzed the way my children play, brainstormed on some ideas, and then started in.

The biggest problems in the playroom: no organization, with no specific places to put anything, so oftentimes it ended up on the floor; and poor utilization of storage and keeping most often used toys in a neat and organized way.

First, we pulled everything out and had three bins: donate, trash, and keep. If the kids didn't play with it, it went to the donate pile. (With the exception of, for example, the kitchen in the above picture. The kids never play with it, but it's very possible that Avery will, so it went to the attic.) If it was junk to begin with or broken, into the trash pile. And then the things that really get a lot of use, we kept. By doing this, we were able to get rid of a TON of stuff. I mean, seriously. It was crazy how much is accumulated in eight years of parenting and three kids.

I would have taken a picture of this stage, but I was buried beneath toys. I couldn't even crawl out to grab my camera.

Then we determined that there were only two most often used toy groups in the playroom: the Calico Critters items, and Legos. So we wanted to make sure those were easily accessible and up off the floor, since they both contain small pieces.

We also decided that the closet in our playroom was totally useless. See?

The shelves were in the middle of the closet, which were totally inaccessible. There was only one shelf across that the kids could actually put stuff on on the left side. Wasted space.

And on the right side, there were no shelves! Totally crazy. We were kinda shocked that we have gone five years without doing something about it!

And the left side was my feeble attempt at organization - stuffed animals in baskets, and a totally jumbled shelf.

Do you want to see the other side of the playroom? Sure, let's all cringe together.

Yikes.

Something needed to be done.

Then, like I mentioned, we moved the play kitchen to the attic because it is never played with. We also moved the workbench out, because it was also never played with either. (So sad.)

Then we installed some wire shelves for the closet. (We purchased them from Lowe's for about $100.)

Ahhhhhhhhhh! Angels singing. This enabled us to get rid of all the eye clutter (like the opposite of eye candy, right?) from the tops of the storage units in the playroom. All the Little People items (which my kids still love!), American Girl items, trucks, games, Geo Trax, car tracks, and puzzles now go in here, on their own shelves where they can easily be put away after playing with them.

A close up? Why sure.

Here's a close up. So organized!

Here's a before and after, because I always love looking at before and after pictures, especially when it makes me this happy!

Years ago, John had built the white cabinets that hold bins for toys. Since we had three of them, we decided to divide up the room with the cabinets and use one storage unit for each child, since we have three children. It worked out perfectly! We also had poster size pictures I had hung up of Ansley and Christian that were in need of updating. But since we divided up the cabinets, we thought it would be cute to put two posters, one baby, one older, above the cabinet of each child to designate their area. So I ordered some more posters, and we purged toys and lots of junk, getting each child down to three bins, since that was what the area would hold.

Then, we needed a solution for the Calico Critters and the Legos. They needed to be up off the floor. John had made a table for Ansley several years ago for her Calico Critters, but she has expanded her collection since then, so it was too small. As a result, they would pull it off the table and onto the floor and then little pieces would be everywhere.

We looked at several stores, trying to find what we needed. I am always so impressed when I read blogs or hear from friends of how they found this perfect table at Goodwill for $5 and they just repainted it and it was perfect.

We are not those people.

Generally, when we need something, John builds it.

So, we headed to Home Depot (actually we spent a LOT of time there during this redo!) to get the supplies. John is very talented in this area, so he whipped these out in a few hours. They turned out great, and were EXACTLY what we needed!

Here are the tables, ready to be stained. I can't remember why we had a naked baby crawling around, but I'm sure it had something to do with ummm we were too busy cleaning and purging to get her dressed. Or something like that.

We didn't want to get rid of the table John had originally made for Ansley, so we moved it under the window. You can see it in the above picture, and we use it for larger baby toys.

Then we stained the tables. Right in the playroom. We put the baby down for bed, and the kids helped with this part. They love to help, but sometimes when stain is involved, it can get crazy. It was actually fun, though, and the kids ooohhhed and ahhhhhed over their new tables. We had to give them overnight to dry, then we slapped a coat of polyurethane on top.

Last, I have always wanted to hang the kids artwork in the playroom, I've just never done it. So we grabbed some matching frames from Target, and put Ansley's artwork on one side, and Christian's on the other side. (As Avery gets older and draws, we will change some out for her, too.)

And are you ready? Drum roll............

I'm seriously SO thrilled with the way this turned out.

Okay, here goes:

Wowza!

Can you believe it?

Aren't the two tables John made beautiful? I love them! The first table is for Legos, and they can spread them out and play away. The second table is for Calico Critters. Then you can see Ansley's storage area with her pictures and all her toys fit in her bins. You can see part of Christian's storage area, with his pictures as well. The artwork above the sofa is Ansley's, and it makes me smile when I see it.

Here's another view, just because it's so pur-ty.

Here's a close up of the tables. These have been GREAT! And the kids have played and played with their favorite toys for hours, with none of the mess. Fabulous!

Here's the other side of the playroom, with Christian's artwork above the loveseat, and his section of the playroom for toy storage.

The only part that I didn't take a picture of is where I'm standing to take the picture above, and that's Avery's area. She has her own cabinet, as well as two posters, but I only have one poster, so I will have to wait and show that. It doesn't take away from the overall effect of the playroom though.

So, that's it! The Great Playroom Makeover of 2011. (We did all this when John was off forever at the end of 2011.)

A quick look at the before and after.

And the best part is that in just over two weeks now, the playroom has stayed just like this. Part of that is due to consistency in asking the kids to make sure it's picked up at the end of each day. But the reason it's so much easier to clean up is because everything has a place, so it never gets to the point of looking like the photo on the left. It has also been great because we are able to play as a family in there, whereas before, we wouldn't even want to go in there because it was so messy!

One room down.......the rest of the house to go!

 

This and That

I have a few goals (I like that better than resolutions. I never keep resolutions. But goals? I can do goals.) in the new year. I am trying to blog more, that's one. And my second one is to become more organized. I have some specific things to tackle around each of these, but those are the very general goals.

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting one for us because my Mom's house has sold (again, remember the first one fell through) and she has purchased one here! That is right down the street. We are so excited to have Mimi in the same town. She will be moving in TWO WEEKS. I can't even imagine what it will be like to have her here, but we are very excited about all the possibilities. I know my Mom will love being so close to her grandkids and having regular interaction with them. The kids are very excited, too!

Onto some fun things that Avery is discovering. No, she hasn't discovered the beauty of naps. I sure wish she would! But, she is at such an adorable and fun stage, and I find it so hard to believe that she is almost one!

This is Avery's sign for "all done!" I don't know if it's the actual sign for it, but it's what we've taught all of our babies, and it works. It's SO cute. This girl is an eater, and seems to be hungry most of her life. I never really did snacks at all (except for a bedtime one) with my other two, but this girl gets a mid-morning snack and an afternoon snack. The girl loves her food.

This cracks me up. My little monkey girl, with her foot on the table. Normally feet aren't allowed on the table, but when you are almost eleven months and your feet don't often touch the ground, it's allowed.

She is really getting the hang of her sippy cup. She loves it, and pretty much wants to carry it around with her all day. It's funny! Well, I'm sure it's funny now, when it has milk in it and starts souring, then it's not as funny. We are just over a month away from being a full blown big girl and no longer nursing. (sniff, sniff)

A pretty typical day around here. We've kinda abandoned the school room temporarily. We get school done wherever, whenever we can. Ansley worked on her vocabulary work, Christian playing with Legos (you just can't see them) and Avery playing with Christian. You can see her sippy cup is never far from reach.

I have started Project 365 again (for 2012) - you can follow along on the sidebar link called Kalamazoo. Not really, it's called Project 365: 2012. I really love doing the photo-a-day, and I REALLY love looking back at all the memories one year holds. This is my fifth year doing this, and it has been such a blessing for me!

I think that's all for now. Playroom pictures still to come! So far, so good! We have a clean, organized playroom at the end of every day.

One goal for 2012: check!