Quick Updates

It has been almost a month since my last post but I figured you would all understand!  We moved into our new home and slightly less than 2 weeks later we left for vacation, having just returned yesterday I thought it appropriate to post a little something here to keep you all updated.

I had set a goal to have everything setup here in the new place before we left for NC to visit my family; I didn't quite meet that goal.  I still have a few things to put away (more like figure out where I want to put them, mostly things like Christmas decorations, etc.) and to hang all the pictures on the wall.  Y's room is the only room that is completely done, in all the other rooms I still have pictures to hang.  In fact there is nothing on any other walls except the mirror I purchased to hang above the fireplace.  I still get excited thinking of the deal I got on that mirror - 50% off at Garden Ridge because they are moving from one location to another.  It looks great hanging there and I really can't wait to get everything else finished so that I can post pictures for all of you guys to see.

Y is now sleeping in a toddler bed.  A few nights after moving into her new room she quickly figured out how to escape from her crib.  We have had a really difficult time getting her to adjust even though her room is almost exactly the same as before (just almost twice as big).  One morning I woke up to find her laying in my arms and when I asked B what time he had brought her into our bed he replied, "I didn't, I thought you did it."  That is how we figured out she could climb out of the crib.  Honestly the struggle we've had with getting her to sleep in her room has been the only downside of moving.  The past month has been hard on her, I mean we move to a new place then 2 weeks later we go on vacation to a place she probably doesn't remember and then we come back here...I feel for her.  But anyway, as for the toddler bed we really lucked out.  Her crib is a convertible crib so we had to order the special guard rail in order to convert it to a toddler bed (yes they sell rails at Walmart for $20 but I didn't wanna take a chance and buy that one and ruin my beautiful crib).  The only place to order it is at Babies R Us and I had inquired about one earlier in the summer and was told that it would take 10-12 weeks to deliver because it was a special order.  So I called in a panic right before we left for vacation, thinking that would knock 2 weeks off since we'd be away anyway, and they informed me that they now stock them in their warehouse so it would take 7-10 business days for it to arrive.  So it was waiting for us on Saturday after we returned from vacation.  I put it together that same night and it was pure hassle trying to get her to sleep in it because she was beyond tired and hadn't really had a good night sleep since before we moved.  I finally got her to bed only to discover that sometime during the night she had crawled into bed with us.  Tonight it took between 35 and 40 times of her getting out of bed only to have me put her back in bed before she actually fell asleep.  We'll see if she sleeps there through the night...

As for our vacation, it was great!  I loved spending time with my family and seeing how much my nieces and nephews have grown.  We went to Virginia to go to the beach and I gained a huge appreciation for the Outer Banks of NC!  I had been there before but never really had much to compare it to so when we went to the beach in Virginia we really learned the difference between them.  So on Friday we took a 1 day trip to the Outer Banks and really enjoyed it, it was B's first time going there and he kept commenting on how beautiful it was.  We definitely want to go back and stay longer next time.

Well that's a quick run down but I will be back soon with pictures of vacation and the condo once everything is set up.

18 Wonderful Months!

On March 4th our precious daughter turned 18 months!!! I think the most exciting part for me is that she can now go into nursery at church and I don't have to chase her around anymore, but more on that later. It was my intention to type up this post days ago but I really never got around to it, but better late than never is my motto!

So here goes...at 18 months our little monkey has turned into a parrot, literally! She will repeat EVERYTHING that comes out of our mouths and I have already found myself having to watch what I say. Now I never say anything really vulgar but there are somethings I say that I really don't want my 18 month old saying. Mostly just words like "shoot" and "crap" and "dang it." You know, all those words that we Mormons use instead of saying the "real" words. Anyway, back to the story. Whenever I pick her up to lay her on the changing table to dress her or change her diaper I always say, "up, up and away" and no quicker than I get it out she is giving her little rendition of what I just said. She repeats "wash hands" and just about every other word we say. She's getting really good with naming her body parts and I even got her to say "mouth" and "boca" (which is espanol for mouth). She turns absolutely anything into a telephone. Sometimes I will see her walking around the living room with a piece of paper held up to her ear while she's talking. I honestly have no idea where she got that from because I pretty much always use speakerphone...it's just easier. She loves to play with my iPod Touch and her favorite app is this stupid and simple app called the Wooo! Button. All it is, is a button on the screen that has "Wooo!!" on it and every time you press it you hear the scream WOOOO!! She absolutely LOVES it and laughs hysterically every time she presses the button...it is really entertaining. She also likes the Itsy Bitsy Spider app which sings the song and allows her to press the different characters and they move, etc.

She has graduated at the top of her baby boot camp class!!! She sleeps throughout the night, takes 2-2.5 hour naps, plays in her crib after she wakes up and sometimes she will even let us know when she is ready for bed. One night last week we were sitting and watching American Idol and she grabbed my hand and B's hand and led us to her bedroom to let us know she was ready for bed. I will admit that I sneak into her room every night before I go to bed myself and just watch her and tell her how much mommy loves her. I can still picture her as a tiny baby (actually, she was never a tiny baby but you get my point) sleeping peacefully in her crib and I honestly miss those middle of the night feedings sometimes, when I got to hold her and snuggle her close to me. I used to wonder how I would know when it was time for us to have another baby and people would tell me, "you'll just know." Well I completely understand that now. Even 3 months ago there is no way I would have said that I wanted to deal with the midnight feedings and the sleepless nights and everything else that goes with being the mother of a newborn but I'm at a totally different place right now. The ideas that I dreaded a few months ago, don't seem so horrible anymore and in fact I find myself excited for the day I get to experience them again. So ladies (and any gentlemen who read) I think we're approaching that time when we board the roller coaster of pregnancy again. We're not there yet but we are definitely approaching that gate and I can't wait to throw my hands in the air and scream at the top of my lungs!

On that note, here are a few pictures:

She insisted on picking each sprinkle off the cupcake and eating it individually before she would even think of eating any other part of the cupcake.

She is still not a fan of getting her hands dirty while she eats, but as you can tell she made a slight exception on this day. Although you can also tell that she is working diligently to get it all off her hands.

Some pictures that I snapped after church today.

If nothing else proves it, this look solidifies the fact that she is definitely MY child. This is one of my looks if I've ever seen it. Only 18 months old and she already knows her mother so well! I LOVE IT!!! haha

This stage is proving to be my favorite stage of all, thus far. She's our little clown and she gets more hilarious by the day. I can't wait until she starts making those hilarious statements that little kids always make! Motherhood is AWESOME and these have truly been the best 18 months of my life thus far because I've shared them with my wonderful husband and the perfect blend of our DNA...we got some good genes!

Chronicles of Baby Bootcamp

For any of you that aren't quite sure what Baby Boot Camp is, I'll try to explain. I'm sure you have all know that when someone joins the military they first go away to basic training, which is often called boot camp. Well just as the military using basic training/boot camp to train the soldiers, moms can use baby boot camp to train their baby. It's called boot camp because it's not a pleasant experience from mother or baby and is a pretty touch regimen.

I wanted to use baby boot camp to accomplish three goals:

1. Teach Y to fall asleep unassisted. We stopped rocking her to sleep long ago but we still remained in the room until she fell asleep, I wanted to end this dependency.
2. Teach Y to sleep through the night, or at least not wake up screaming in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
3. Extend Y's nap time, her naps would only last about 30 minutes and she would wake up still being sleepy.

The three goals often go hand-in-hand and if you fix one then it is said that the other two will fix themselves...this was not the case for us at all!

We started Baby Boot Camp as soon as we returned from celebrating Christmas in Canada. That was two weeks ago, we started at nap time on Tues., Dec. 29th. Nap time didn't go so well at all, she only cried for about 10 minutes but she only slept for 15 minutes before waking up and screaming her head off. We surrendered and I decided to give it another try at bedtime. So when it was time for bed, I gave her her milk and she sat with B while I read her a bedtime story. We then put her in bed, she cried for 5 minutes after which I went in to check on her briefly. When I left she screamed even louder - fortunately I had my iPod touch to keep me distracted and I surfed the internet. After another 15 minutes I went in again, calmed her down and left. She continued to cry for another 10 minutes and then she was asleep - 30 minutes for the first night wasn't bad at all!!! I felt confident that this was going to be easy. but received a reality check when she woke several times that night. I started out just letting her cry but I was pretty weak and gave in. The next day nap time was fairly easy, she only cried for 5 minutes and only 15 minutes at bedtime. Over the next few days nap time became a breeze with bedtime becoming fairly easy as well. But the night waking was still an issue, and I mean a HUGE issue. She would wake at night screaming for hours at a time until I cracked. Meanwhile, B and I were having some disagreements on the whole baby boot camp thing. I felt it was a necessary evil for my own sleep needs and sanity. He felt it was cruel and we were punishing her when she had in fact done nothing wrong.

At this point I felt we have successfully accomplished goal #1 but the night wakings were getting more and more challenging and the nap was still only at 30 minutes. I was seriously at my wits end but the progress with goal #1 is honestly what made me stick with it. So now after two full weeks of boot camp Y is able to soothe herself to sleep and at least for the past couple of nights she has slept through the night until 8am! I have definitely enjoyed having the nights of uninterrupted sleep! I still don't wanna say that goal #2 is completely accomplished until she has done it for at least a week or more and goal #3 isn't even close to being resolved. I now put her down for 2 afternoon naps so she is at least getting an hour of nap time each day - still not where I want her to be but we're taking baby steps I guess.

Overall I have to say that though there were so many times when I just wanted to call it quits I am so glad that I stuck it out and stayed with it. I am much happier and so is Y! I think B is just happier now that she doesn't seem to cry herself to sleep or wake up crying.