Fall Festivities

While Fall is no where near over and neither are the festivities I've learned to enjoy since I've had a child.  Summer has been my favorite season ever since I can remember and I still love summer but the other seasons have a whole new meaning now that I have my son.  They mean memories and getting to be a kid again.  Having a reason to do all those things you used to do as a child or you wish you would have gotten to do as a child.  It's no secret that my mom was not mom of the year and I don't have a whole lot of memories from my childhood that involve my mom that are happy ones.  Which is why I think I enjoy so much making memories w/ Gregory and these memories I hope when he is an adult he can remember his Momma being right there w/ him having fun and loving life w/ him! 
So w/ my husband's work schedule it is hard to sneak in the fall festivities and I really want him to get to be a part of these things too.  Gregory's memories need to include his daddy too but it's not always possible but I do what I can!  Family time means so much to me!  Money is good to have and I am so incredibly thankful for Mike's hard work, long hours and missing out on things to make sure we have things covered around here.  But when it comes to having family time I do everything in my power to make it happen it's just not always that easy!  I will say I have purposely cleared Mike's responsiblities around the house a time or two and told him to just play w/ Gregory.  It's so imporitant to me as I'm sure it is to Gregory as well!  I know as he gets older he and dad will do more together.  They may take care of those responsibilities like fixing the car together and get to do those things my husband enjoys like hunting together and I really hope that happens even though that will mean Momma will probably get left out then  :-(  I guess that is where our roles will reverse.... right now it's "Momma, Momma, Momma" b/c I'm always the one sacrificing any alone time b/c of Gregory where one day I'll probably have more alone time than I could ever want.  I'm not the type that likes to be alone anyways!  Gregory makes for nice built in company!  However this Momma yearns for adult time even if Gregory is there w/ me I just really like to have another adult around!

So.........Fall Festivities! 

A tradition I guess we started since having Gregory is going to the pumpkin patch.  Maybe I was missing out on life or just too cool but before Gregory we may have gone once or twice but it was just NOT my thing.  Now I love it and makes for some adorable pictures of my little man!  Every year I suit him up in what I feel is the perfect fall/country boy outfit and we hit the local pumpkin patch.  There is a much larger one about an hour away but it's just not worth it to me.  That place is so much more commericialized therefore pricier and more crowded.  I really like the laid back feel of the local pumpkin patch.  They have a little ride for the kids, bouncie house, pumpkin painting, face painting, a sort of play ground of hay bails, a little old country store, a small area they cook out and serve food, petting zoo, pony rides and of course the pumpkin patch.  No not top of the line but we have so much fun and couldn't ask for a better time!  We invited the usual of grandparents and this year we even had some friends we met up w/ so it was even more fun as Gregory adored playing w/ their little boy that is just a year older than him.

Gregory painting his pumpkin

 

Papaw, Gregory and Daddy....I just had to sneak it in I love these kind of pics!

 

Gregory and our friend's son...Gregory loved having him there!

 

Gregory and Momma feeding a goat!

 

Our little family; Gregory wasn't cooperating w/ pics that well!

 

He had a lot of fun!

 

 

So just a few pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch.  More festivities to come as we have and will continue to do Halloween related stuff and I can't wait to share. 

What traditions do you have or want to have w/ your family?

 

 

 

Inspired by Fall Traditions

The Race Car Bed

Hello, hello!
I hope everyone is doing well...I know I'm doing pretty good myself!  My husband, my son and I were lucky enough to enjoy a three day weekend together!  This rarely happens since even on holiday three day weekends Mike usually ends up having to work on Saturday....so athlo they are two days which is longer than the one day weekend he usually gets it's still no fun that he doesn't get three days.  Well we had a sonogram this morning so he took off work and at my husband's job if you take off Friday or Monday you get off on Saturday!  So we kicked our weekend off Saturday by changing up Gregory's room a little!  We took out his crib and put in his big boy Race Car bed!  I bought this bed a year ago for $20 at a yard sale and have been excited to give it to him ever since.  However my son has never been one to try to climb out of his crib so I didn't have any reason to make the move.  Now w/ a new baby coming along I decided we should do it; I really don't want Gregory to see me take his bed from him and give it to the baby even though his new bed is WAY cooler!  Gregory loves cars...no seriously!  That is all the kid wants to do!  So it's no surpise that he was pretty excited when we pulled that Race Car Bed out of Mimi and Papaw's attic where it has been stored for over a year!  He even was super excited to help Momma clean it...Momma used Clorox wipes while Gregory touched up w/ the baby wipes!  ;-)  It's all the same to him he LOVED it.  On a negative note Daddy put the bed on the porch to be cleaned and well in all the excitement of trying to help clean the bed Gregory fell off the porch and hit Momma's Happy Halloween sign.  :-(

Sorry for the blurry pic I took it w/ my phone.  But you see where he was showing his booboo and asking for kisses!

Anyways...the bed went into his room and he was actually ready and willing to take a nap!  We were running a little late on naptime so I'm sure he was sleepy but that usually doesn't keep him from fighting a nap!  But the bed definitely made it more fun!  He took a great nap!

Notice the pillows and quilt...I made those for Gregory for his 2nd bday to tie his room all together.  His car bed, the brown curtains, the sage green walls..... I couldn't find anything so I had to make his bedset and it worked out great w/ the Mickey Mouse Vehicle fabric I found!  Shown in these posts... Quilt, Applique Pillow and Pillow w/ Pillow Case.  I also put a noodle under the sheet to try to prevent him from falling out of the bed; just a little trick I saw on Pinterest.  This didn't do the trick that night though, he did fall out of his bed that night and I woke up w/ him half off the bed but I watched and w/ a little confusion he climbed right back into the bed! 

That evening we went to a Chili Cook Off where my husband put in some chili and altho we heard his number being talked about A LOT and people even thought he won, sadly he didn't win.  But we had a good time, w/ good ppl and yummy food!  That evening Gregory fell asleep in the car on the way home so going to bed wasn't much of an experiment.  But props to him for sleeping very well all night! 

Sunday we went to church and then I had a 31 Party where I ordered some really exciting stuff...now the not so fun part of waiting for my order to get here!  Monday we had our Sonogram, had lunch with some family, played at the play ground, ran some errands and relaxed before a yummy dinner as a family.  Who could ask for any better of a weekend w/ their family!?  Now I'm a little sad b/c Mike had to leave early this morning to cut grass and he went straight to work after that so I wont see him until 11:30pm tonight.  Really hoping Gregory doesn't give Momma any trouble going to bed tonight as he has done so well going to bed in his big boy bed w/ daddy here!  Guess we will have to wait and see!

Inspired by the Race Car Bed!

Sleep inspired Picture Craft!

   
    The other day my son and I did a little craft together so I figured for a change that I would share a little craft project.  My son; Gregory is 2 1/2 years old and although one might think he was a professional at sleeping through the night unfortunately this is not always the case.  Of course most nights he does really well but then all the sudden we will have a random night that he will wake up once or twice and sometimes nightmarishly more!  I'm not sure why this is but when he does that it tends to almost always start him on a bad habit of waking up numerous times a night for like a week or so.  I've looked into this and it doesn't seem all that uncommon.  Some might think it could be bad dreams; this of course has gone through my mind but I don't think this is always the case.  Of course he has woke up some nights in a horrific cry where I run to him as fast as I can b/c he sounds so scared and w/ out a doubt I believe he has had a nightmare.  Gregory doesn't have the conversation skills to tell me why he is screaming but I guess a momma just knows!?  Other times he wakes up and just says "Momma" or will moan in his way of saying "I'm up come here" so I groan and go to his room and he points down at his bed so I lay him back down and tuck him back in and he will go straight back to sleep.  It's these times that I believe he is being a little high maintenance! 

Okay I got a little off track w/ that back story...moving on!

    My parents (Gregory's Mimi and Papaw) went out of town on a weekend camping trip and I'm not sure how much Gregory realized their distance as much as found a picture of them that they had given him months back.  He clung to this picture....took it everywhere and even to bed one night!!!  The next night he didn't take the picture to bed w/ him but woke up hysterically crying and when I went to him and held him he just didn't want to get back into bed.  I knew there must have been a bad dream or something for him to act that way but this pregnant Momma needs her sleep!  So I thought "the picture!".  I went and got the picture and put it into Gregory's bed and then he did go right into bed and went to sleep.  It was then I decided he really needed one of these pictures in his bed for comfort or whatever other reason he might have; I was going to make this happen!  When my parents returned from their trip I requested an extra b/c I knew they had a few of them.  I also pulled out our family pictures of Gregory, my husband and myself b/c of course he needs to have us close by too right!!!  He picked his favorite!  I ended up putting this project off for about a week as it got swept under the imaginary rug that is my "to do" list; until about a week ago.  Gregory woke up twice one night and I wasn't at all thrilled w/ this b/c there was no shreaking or crying...just wanted to be tucked back in.  The next night Gregory woke up 4.....yes 4 times!!!!  I was so not happy about this and did some research.  The more I thought about it the more I decided that my husband and I were enabling him.  All he was wanting from us was to come into his room tell him to lay back down and we would cover him back up w/ his blanket.  Momma had to make some changes....new rule: we are not to cover him up in the middle of the night anymore...he needs to learn to do this on his own!  But this momma isn't just going to leave it at that and expect Gregory to understand this so I made some changes.  In case it was a hunger thing b/c I read something about that Gregory for sure gets a snack w/ his milk every night before bed...he isn't a big eater so I never really made this a priority...but now it was going to be.  I placed a larger blanket in his crib which I was kind of scared to do in fear that it would smother him but I had to trust that he was old enough to be okay.  [We are changing him into a toddler bed this coming weekend so that was when I had planned to give him a bigger blanket but decided if he was going to need to learn to cover himself I needed to make it easier for him b/c he is OCD about making sure he is covered completely!]   And I needed to get his pictures up in case they provided some extra comfort.  Of course if he wakes up in hysterics I will still run to him; it's the times where he is just waking up to be tucked back in....we would then walk to his door and tell him to lay back down not providing any extra contact.  This I hoped would do the trick!

One to the craft...sorry!

Gregory and I sat down w/ the two pictures and 8 popcycle sticks!

Gregory colored the popcycle sticks with his crayons.  We placed a couple of stickers (his favorite of course are from the movie "Cars"!).  Momma hot glued the popcycle sticks together to form a square to fit the pictures in and taped the pictures to the back.

Our little family...Gregory picked this family picture out of the like 10 we had...of course b/c of the rocket ship he was on!!!

The picture of Mimi and Papaw

I just clipped them to the side of his crib for a temporary fix...he doesn't mess w/ them or anything and it's not going to cause any permanent damage to the crib.  When he moves to the big boy bed this weekend mommy will attach them to the wall above the bed some how!

    Since all these changes have been put into place: the pictures in his bed, the larger blanket and the snack before bed; Gregory hasn't woken up calling out to us, so we haven't had to enforce the don't tuck him in rule!!  I hate that my little man is growing up and Momma needs to learn just as much as he does that he needs to do things on his own like covering himself up but I'm so happy I've been able to make this so much easier for him!

Inspired by Sleep!!

Fall Decore

Not much to share these days.  I'm still waiting to be able to feel the baby moving.  I can't believe I don't feel him yet.  I'm going on 18 weeks with my second pregnancy.  I had always heard you feel movement sooner w/ subsequent pregnancies and I'm just not feeling him!?  I do know he is alive and kicking b/c I have a fetal dopplar and I listen to his heart and movement daily, just ready to be able to feel him inside of me. 

Not so sure I updated w/ our Potty Traning journey.  It was a bust.  We gave Gregory a week and he wasn't catching on and continued to show frustration so we were advised and decided amongst ourselves that it would be best if we dropped the Potty Training.  With a new baby coming Gregory is about to be going through a lot of big changes in his life so we wanted to cause him as little frustration as possible.  Gregory was fine w/ going back to diapers but has asked to use the potty a few times since but we aren't going to jump back into potty training for a while. 

I have decorated for fall!  Here are a few photos:

Not much but bought this for $1 at Target the other day so I put it on my entertainment center.

Sitting inside of my front door is this Mickey pumpkin w/ a maroon metal bucket holding all those flowers behind it.

Here is a display of pumpkins in my kitchen.  All the pumpkins seen here except the ones in the middle were bought at Walmart last year after fall for 75% off!!  Also seen to the right side is the Pedestal Bowl I posted about here!

This is my front door.  The lighting is not great for photos but w/ a few window clings and my scarecrow welcome hanger it's cute at least!  I have bought supplies to make a wreath but haven't gotten to that.


However most of my time these days is just trying to recorganize our house to make room for baby Zachary.  We do plan to add an additional room but we are building it ourselves so it's going to take time to get that done so in the mean time we will make due with the space that we have available to us.  I've got the closet in the extra room aka the playroom where my babysitting kids spend most of their time emptied out so I have a place to put Zachary's clothes and some of his other things.  My next project I hope to get done this week is cleaning out my own closet to put some of the things I took our of Zachary's closet!  At that point I will have cleared my craft area as I have plans to make the boys a few things!  So maybe I can get back into some projects to post soon!?



Inspired by Fall

Gender Reveal

At 16 weeks my husband and I opted to get an elective ultra sound to determine the gender of our baby that I'm carrying.  With my first I knew he was a boy from the moment I found out I was pregnant; I just knew!  This time I was back and forth.  I had a lot of morning sickness which I didn't have with my first so I thought probably a girl.  Then I was sure it was a girl and then I started flip flopping again.  As the ultra sound date grew closer and closer I realized that I really wanted a girl.  I was seeing so many super cute girl things, dresses, bows, tutus, bloomers etc.  I started picturing all this in my mind. 
Then we had the ultra sounds and found out.................

It's a boy!!  Yeah so I was hoping for a girl and there was a little disappointment in that but there is plenty of good things about having another boy.  My son who will be almost 3 when this baby is born will soon have a brother to grow up with.  Play cars, go fishing and hunting w/.....endless things two brothers can do together.  And of course love, cherrish and take care of their momma!!!  So no bows or dresses but a Zachary Paul on the way.  My husband and I did waver from our "Only 2 kids" stance and are thinking that in a few years if we get an itch for another child we could try for another and maybe get a girl?  No pressure to do so but my husband isn't getting snipped like I had planned!  That is probably why he agreed to the third child!!  :-)

So this weekend we did a lot of stuff focusing on the new baby.  Even though we are having another boy and have no need for another baby shower we went and registered for a few things.  It's more for ourselves a kind of "Wish List" if you will that we will purchase off of and if any family were to want to they could too.  Registering also means free goodies and coupons in the mail!!!  I also bought him a little outfit but failed in finding a blanket I wanted to buy for him...hoping to find one this weekend.  We kept pretty much everything from our first son so we don't really need anything but Zachary needs a few of his own things too!

Sunday we had a Gender Reveal Party planned for close family and super close friends.  A little craftiness went into it so figured I would share some stuff we did.  Most ideas picked up from Pinterest of course!

First off I didn't get a picture of the boxes I made so I'll try to explain.  I decorated 2 empty baby wipe boxes.  One saying "Team Girl" and one saying "Team Boy".  Everyone was to write their name on a slip of baby and put it into the box that went w/ the gender they thought the baby was.  Of course 90% of everyone thought girl!!  So we had our son Gregory draw a name out of each box.  The name from the "Team Boy" box was Greg (stepdad) seen above and the name drawn from "Team Girl" is Norma who is my MIL.  They each received a balloon of the color that went w/ their gender guess.  The balloon that expanded was the winner!  As you can see the blue balloon shows it's a boy. 

Here is my husband and I acting it out as our little family. 

I also had my husband sit down w/ these HersHEy bars and color w/ a sharpie the "HE" part to show we were having a "HE".  These were set out after the reveal!

I also brought out this poster that I quickly made up to announce the name of the baby and so everyone could view the ultra sound photos of Zachary.

Anyways.......  so that is what I've been up to since I posted last.  It's been a few days too long so I do apologize for that but at least this time I have pictures to share and in that is some craftiness on my part since I've horribly lacked in this department!!!

Inspired by Zachary Paul

Oh Potty Training!

Enough said!!  So a small backstory....
My son Gregory turned 2 in April.  I've heard and read that the average age for a boy to potty train is 3 now days.  "Okay cool, I'm in no hurry"!  I had very little reason to think Gregory would be ready before his 3rd birthday.  Although very smart and has used the potty many times before bathtime and recently before bedtime b/c he kept wetting through his diaper at night; I still just haven't thought him to be ready for such a big commitment.  Well the two boys I babysit that are right around Gregory's age have been using the potty.  One of them for a little while now and the other started just 3 weeks ago.  This apparently had caught Gregory's attention and he began asking to go potty randomly.  My husband and I had a sit down and agreed that we would get the pullups that I had bought on clearance down and we would give it a try.... I mean the kid is asking to do it so lets see where it goes.  So we began "potty training" on Saturday.  I had heard to take them every 30 minutes that way they figure out they go potty in the toilet.  So this is what we were going w/; sometimes he would pee but sometimes he didn't but he stayed dry except for a small tinkle one time.  This was great for Gregory until about half way through the day.  He became very frustrated that he was having to go to the restroom all the time and not b/c he wanted to but b/c we were making him.  He started whineing whenever we would mention it.  So we realized every 30 minutes was a little much for our guy so we began asking him repeatedly if he needed to go potty until he said yes unless it seemed like it had been a while and then we would just take him but this worked and he continued to say "yes" when he needed to go and he stayed dry. 
Jumping to Sunday........  Gregory on his 2nd day potty training ended up having 4 accidents where the first day he only had the 1.  When mentioning going to the potty he would protest.  "No potty!"
To Monday.......  Gregory continued to protest the potty and would need to be carried into the bathroom and would try to get away when taking his pants off.  Then he began peeing in his pullup.  He was however still going in the potty when taken but even if it had just been 30 minutes since he had gone last he would have still peed in his pullup.  What to do!?!?!?!
At this point I was very frustrated and I'm sure so was Gregory b/c he wasn't even getting potty prizes b/c he kept wetting his pullup!  I put in a call to a seasoned momma and babysitter friend of mine.  This lady babysat me from 2 weeks-12 years and still babysits to this day.  I also talked to some other momma friends who have potty trained.  I know some ppl frown on pullups but I've seen kids train using pullups and easily and w/ little mess when accidents did happen <~ I really like that part!  Before it was all said and done Mike and I decided Gregory just wasn't ready and we would be throwing in the towel.  The more I thought about this the more it bothered me that after just 3 days we had given up on Gregory.  I do not want him to get frustrated and I realize he has started shutting down on us but feel that we should at least give him a chance.... but the way things have been going just isn't going to work. 
So New Plan!  We have decided to go big boy undies cold turkey w/ plastic covers!!!!  Still some mess I'm sure but better than pee and poop all over my house!  Anyways.... we have decided that starting tomorrow morning Gregory will be put into big boy underwear.  Many people swear by this method and I do realize that pullups probably feel a lot like a diaper and heck Gregory called it a diaper even though we always called it a pullup.  The idea is that Gregory will feel the wetness of his pee and be uncomfortable and want to go in the potty instead plus maybe not want to pee on his friend on the underwear (cars characters!).  We have decided to do this until Friday and see how Gregory does...if there is improvement, if he continues to just pee on them or if he worsens.  If by Friday he shows no improvement or is still showing signs of shutting down we will stop.  As I said I didn't plan to potty train him yet anyways so it really doesn't bother me to go back to diapers and altho frustration in children is a part of life I don't want to turn him against the potty all together.  But maybe he will surprise us?!  But either way we will be able to know that we at least gave him half a chance!  I'm so interested to see how he does in the morning when he isn't in a diaper/pullup but in just thin cotton undies!  Maybe at his cognitive level he will realize it's very different from his diapers b/c I don't think that at his level he realized the difference w/ the pullups. 
Wish me luck b/c I'm really going to need it!

Inspired by Potty Training Frustration!

YAY!  It's not even been a week and I'm back! 

So I'm pregnant and feeling huge!  I hope I don't look as big as I feel since I'll just be 15 weeks tomorrow.  But I swear I look 5 months pregnant!  I hear that you show sooner with your second pregnancy...just hoping that if anyone else can see my growth will remember this and not judge me!  However....I cannot stop eating!  During my first trimester I was plagued with morning sickness so I ate what sounded good and forcing myself to eat something just b/c it was healthy was not an option.  My morning sickness finally began to go away a few days ago, really hoping it doesn't return!  So with my new found better feeling self I would love to start eating better and getting active again.  As I said in my last post I had lost 22lbs before I found out I was pregnant; along with a huge change in my diet I had become very active.  When I found out I was pregnant I had planned to stick to that and keep in shape and NOT gain 60lbs like I did when I was pregnant w/ my son.  Well...the morning sickness totally screwed up that whole idea.  If I've happened to not be nauseated I've been exhausted.  The fog may be lifting some but now I have to find the motivation to get up and do something.  As far as eating I'm starving ALL the time.  I'm not exagerating, it's so frustrating.  You know it's bad when you are frustrated that you are having to find something else to eat!  Today after lunch I've had carrots and ranch dressing, grapes, crackers and cheese, some left over chicken, shaved ice!  UGH!!!  You guessed it; I'm starting to feel hunger again.  So I'm going to have to start thinking; hmmmm....what sounds good?
As far as my current favorite pregnancy symptom besides being hungry all the time is having gas.  Sorry for the taboo subject but it's simply ridiculous!  This pregnancy is not going as glamorously as I might have hoped!

Behind me is a 2 year told who has been chasing the dog and getting in trouble over and over for it over the last hour.  The living room looks like a tornado hit it; momma is just waiting for bedtime so I can clean it up!  And get some peace!  Repeated requests for chocolate milk when I don't have any.  Chocolate milk is not something I purchase often.  I bought it b/c it was on manager's special so I guess now he thinks we should have it all the time.  I keep telling him that we dont' have any but he doens't seem to want to accept that answer!

In other news we are going to try for potty training.  I'm pretty scared and thought I'd be putting this off until he was almost 3.  That is apparently the going age for potty training boys these days and I am not a fan of pushing children into potty training.  I've seen too many kids peacefully and smoothly mold into potty training that just did it in "their" own time.  Could it be my son's time?  I definitely didn't think so but as a couple of the boys my son's age that I babysit are using the potty now my son keeps requesting to go potty.  I can't deny that request!  And I guess if he is going to make those requests we need to give it a try.  We decided to start the process this weekend, this will hoping be uneventful!

Well that is whats going on in my life right now!

Inspired by life