houses

progress / no progress

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Progress:  A little over three months ago, we moved in with Ryan’s parents. Dexter was 12 (ish) months old so I figured it was time to wean him off of his bottle.  Oh, how he loved his bottle. During the transition of moving, I decided it was too much change and I didn’t want to push it. I kept putting it off and putting it off until about three weeks ago. We had a couple of rough and inconsistent days, then he got sick, really sick, and I just wanted him to drink to stay hydrated.  I didn’t care what he was drinking out of.  As soon as he was better, it was full steam ahead.  A rough few nights later, he totally adapted to the soft spout sippy cups and has not had a bottle for over two weeks now.  Success!

Nuk 10 oz learning cup

No progress:  Theo peed in the potty 3-4 months ago, too.  He has days and weeks of doing well, and then nothing.  Just a couple of weeks ago he declared that he wanted to wear underwears in the car.  I let him.  He did awesome. He did this a few days in a row and had no accidents.  Then he flipped the switch and turned it off.  That’s what he does.  Days of underwears then weeks of refusal to wear them.  I don’t know about this kid. Obviously he has the control to hold it and the ability to tell me when he has to go.  I think he’s just lazy.

Progress / No Progress:  Theo has been throwing the world’s worst tantrums all day every day (only a slight exaggeration) for the last couple of weeks, and they have been especially horrific the past 3 days.  So bad that I have cried the last two days.  I could go on for hours but let’s just say I feel pretty worthless and ineffective as a mother.  I have felt like his behavior is somehow a reflection of my parenting.  Without making myself cry again, let me just say that the point of this paragraph is the “progress” part, which happened tonight, sometime between tantrums.  He let me look inside his mouth (I’ve been trying for a month but he wouldn’t let me) and I found what I was looking for.  A two year molar that is all the way through, 2 that are about 3/4 of the way through, and 1 that is about 1/4 of the way through.  That makes me feel like maybe the teeth have SOMETHING to do with his terrible-ness, and it’s not just his age that is making him so terrible.  I feel terrible saying that he has been terrible.  But he has been… terrible. 
post S’mores bath – he’s cute when you give him chocolate
Progress: Dexter is talking more and more. He says short sentences.  They are very simple, usually beginning with “I want” and ending with “bottle,” “food,” “that,” “ball,” or whatever other object he sees.  But it’s a start!  He even knows some of his colors.  He’s fairly consistent pointing out blue, pink, and green already!  Theo picked up on colors really early too, so this must be something that we/our babysitter incorporate into casual conversation without even realizing it.  Exciting! I love it when they surprise me with their learning. 
Friday night, we visited the park near our new house!

Saturday night, post S’mores bath
Progress / No Progress:  I’m two weeks into my new job and I still love the company and the people but I’m in a weird spot with my actual position/work.  I’m still training.  But I’ve watched people do the same things over and over and over.  I’m kind of to the point where I cannot watch another person do the same thing again. I’m not going to learn anything else that way. I have to do it on my own.  I talked to my supervisor about it.  She agreed that I should try some things on my own; I did.  I couldn’t remember how to do stuff, so I had to ask for help fifty times.  I felt dumb.  It’s hard, going from being one of the smartest people at work to being, indisputably, the absolute dumbest.  
Progress, sorta:  Last weekend we emptied one of our storage units.  The smaller of the two.  We had hoped to be in our house by the end of August but that didn’t happen.  We still have to finalize our flooring plans and get it done before we move in.  The new goal is by the end of September.  I do think it is realistic. I hope I’m not wrong.  The boys’ bathroom is coming along really nicely.  I can’t wait to post some pictures.  The bathroom is going to be black, white, and gray.  I am torn between choosing a really colorful shower curtain to pull color from, like this: 
Or going straight up b&w, with something like this (which I really, really love, but wonder if it’s too blah for little kids):
What do you think?  Opinions, people!
xo,
~C~

we’ve had the sickies and other randomness.

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Last weekend, Dexter had a fever that crept up to a scary 103.8.  Luckily we were able to manage it with medicine and tepid baths, but I won’t lie.  It really was scary.  It only lasted about 48 hours.  This weekend, it’s been Theo’s turn.  He has had the exact same symptoms and hopefully is on the mend now.  Thank goodness for a best friend who is an ER nurse with peds experience.  She has saved me a trip to the ER more than once.

We finally got a tile saw so Ryan’s dad has been working on the boys’ bathtub. I need to get over to the house and take some pictures.  I also painted a wall red in our bedroom.  I’m not loving it yet, but I think it will look a lot better once we get some furniture and curtains in there.  It took so many coats that I dread the day I have to cover it up.  The biggest hold up right now is… us.  We’ve yet to figure out our flooring.

We were thinking about having carpet in the bedrooms.  Initially, because we thought it would be cheaper and because it would go down fast.  Upon doing some research, we learned that it’s not cheaper.  Faster yes. Cheaper no.  So no we’re going back and forth between whether we wanted carpet because it would be nice for variety or if we only wanted it because we thought it would be cheaper and faster.  Sure, it feels nice under your feet.  But after having a house with all hardwood floors (with a puking baby and puking cats present), we know how nice it is to clean up a mess with a clorox wipe and be done with it.  I have no interest in finding dried chunks of cat puke on the carpet when I get home from work.  Kids puke.  Potty training kids pee and poop.  I think we are leaning towards having hard floors throughout the house.

Decisions, decisions.

Everyone wants to know when we think we are going to move in.  We. Don’t. Know.  I wish we did.  All I can say is … as soon as possible. As soon as reasonable.  We have to get the boys’ bathtub finished and we have to get some flooring down throughout the home.  We can do the kitchen after we get moved in.

Week two of work is under way.  Still loving it and appreciating that I made the change, even if the timing was not optimal.

I think it is safe to mention it here – I am going to be an AUNTIE again!  My sister is over halfway through her pregnancy and we should know if I’ll be having a niece or nephew within the next few days.  This is exciting news!

I will get some new pictures of the house up very soon.

xo,
~C~

am i totally crazy for this?

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

One of our non-negotiables when looking for a house was that it would have four bedrooms.  All my close family and best friends live out of state so it’s always been important to me that my guests have a nice place to lay their heads at night when they are visiting.


We bought a house with three bedrooms.  

It seemed natural at first that the older child would have the bigger of the bedrooms – we’re talking about 30 square feet bigger – but that didn’t feel right.  They’re only 14 months apart anyway.  After thinking about it, we’ve decided to see how it goes, letting the boys share a room.  The room is about 13.5′ x 13.5′ and has plenty of room for two cute toddlers.  I guess my instinct is telling me that they play wherever the other one is, they go to bed at the same time, they get up at the same time…so why not?  Does this seem like a disaster in the making? 

Since we bought a house with just three bedrooms, this seems like a simple solution until the boys are older and express a desire for their own space.  There are some possibilities for a fourth bedroom either in the basement or unfinished attic space later on down the road.  

The only thing I worry about is bedtime.  When we move, we are giving Theo’s crib to Dexter and getting rid of Dexter’s.  Cold turkey.  Theo will have a new house, a new room, and a new bed.  Oh, and he’ll be sharing his new room with his little brother.  Too much at once?  Anyway, I anticipate putting them in bed and then Theo getting out of bed 500 times while he is getting used to his new freedom.  Maybe I’ll be wrong, I hope I am, but that’s what I worry about the most.  

With them both being boys, playing with the same toys, and being so close in age, it just seemed like a good idea.  We shall see…I’ll have to keep you posted on that one.  

Here are a few pictures of recent progress, starting with Dexter’s crib bedding (from Amazon, last year’s Kimberly Grant Zoom Zoom collection) and the new twin bedding I picked out for Theo (currently at Target).



The base colors – light gray and blue (with one row of tape, getting ready for stripes.

A couple of visitors came by to supervise our work. 


They approved.
They had fun playing with the used painter’s tape.
Momma working on those stripes.
Finally – finished paint job and the old carpet is gone.
Momma working on the master bedroom.
Going to paint those window walls some other color – just haven’t figure out which one yet. The color of the walls is a light aqua shade.  So pretty!  I’m thinking maaaybe red.  Too much?

If you google “red and aqua bedroom,” there are so many inspirational images…oh my.  Here’s one that I love.



Just realized I was ALL over the place with this. So here’s the recap… am I crazy for making/letting the boys share a room?  And is red/aqua awesome or what? 

xo,
~C~