Another Brain Dump

This post has no real purpose other than to unload some of the random thoughts swimming around in my head and just general stuff going on that I want to document in some way.


1. We have so much stuff to do before this next baby comes and I just hope we can manage to get most, if not all, of it done. There are some big shifts and changes that have to happen within our four walls to get prepared for this baby. We have a three bedroom house with a living room, separate kitchen (eat-in), hallway and little mudroom/office/we-don't-know-what-it-is room. This extra room is right off our side entrance that we use all the time. I work from home and my office is set up in our third bedroom. So we have to fix up this extra room as an office/mudroom and then fix up the third bedroom as the nursery. The problem is that the extra room is not in great shape and we have to rip up linoleum floors and put down something else (probably a laminate) and then the baseboards all need to be redone as well as paint, new lighting and then possibly building a set of desks for me and Michael. Whew! It is a lot to tackle and we are ready to get it started.


2. Michael is going to be gone for a week in February for training for his job. He will be out of state and it will be his first time to fly and he is going by himself. We are all excited for the future job possibilities that this training will provide but honestly we are all kind of dreading that week. He will be so sad to leave Jonah for that long (and me I guess) and I will be sad to not have his help with Jonah all week. I am trying to look on the positive side of it all, that Jonah and I will have more one-one-one time together but I know that he will miss his Daddy and not really understand what's going on. I am hoping that Skype will help us but it's going to be hard to explain to a 2.5 year old why Daddy is not coming home that first night. I am kind of tearing up just thinking about it now! Please say a prayer for travel mercies and for time to go by quickly for all of us that week.


3. We should find out what we are having in March! I am so ready to just know so I can rule out looking at girl stuff or vice versa. LOL. Michael says it's a girl and I think it's another boy. My father-in-law has never been wrong in his predictions of gender in the past and he thinks it's a girl too. We will see!


4. Lately I've been feeling like the walls of this house are closing in on us and I know it's just because we have so much stuff/junk especially after Christmas! I am home everyday too so maybe that is why I feel that way but I have got to start purging or storing some of this stuff or I am going to lose it! I am hoping to start on the closets this weekend and just get rid of stuff. Surely I am not nesting already!!!


5. I am at that stage of a pregnancy where you aren't big enough to really wear maternity clothes but none of your regular clothes (especially jeans) fit anymore. I feel huge already! I am not a "pretty prego" to begin with. I swell, my hair does weird stuff, my hips and thighs get bigger as the belly grows, etc. I promise I have not really changed my eating habits as far as portions and frequency of eating and my thighs and hips have just decided to venture South and East on their own since we announced we were expecting. What is up with that?!!

6. I need to start buying boxes of diapers yesterday.

7. We are really thinking of putting a small twin size bed in the nursery along with the crib so that one of us (me) can just sleep in there with the baby. We did not do this with Jonah and wished we had. Our room is too small for a crib or pack-n-play to be in there too so this is our solution. I just wonder if it will really help or not at night.

8. I think I will go pin some closet organization ideas now.

Jonah is 2.5!

I cannot believe my little man is 2.5 now! Time is really flying now and we are on our way to the big 3! It feels like yesterday and forever ago all at the same time that he was born and we brought him home. I am sure this feeling will not change.

Jonah turned 2.5 on Monday, January 21st. I am just now getting around to blogging about it though.:( There are so many things he is doing now and he is getting so independent. I will try to get them all logged here in some sort of organized fashion.

Eating:
Jonah is still a pretty good eater but he is on the picky side too. He will eat ham, hotdogs, bologna, chicken nuggets but he does not like much ground beef. He just recently started eating scrambled eggs again. He still loves his fruit the best. He loves drinking his milk (2%) and will drink plain water really well too. We never give him coke or much caffeine to drink at all. He loves grilled cheese sandwiches and just last night he ate his own big ham sandwich and loved it. He also loves snacky chips and goldfishes a lot. He eats oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast. I don't worry too much about giving him sugar in the morning because he definitely runs it off by lunch. His favorite special treats are suckers and M&Ms if he goes on the potty chair. We are trying to incorporate more veggies at supper and sometimes he will eat them and sometimes he will take a couple of bites and then he's done. At least he tries most everything we ask him to. I am going to work on trying some recipes that disguise the veggies within the meal.

Sleeping:
Jonah has moved his bedtime to around 9:00 most nights. He is in the bed after stories by 9 each night but sometimes it takes him till 9:30 to go to sleep on his own. We have had issues with him calling out to one of us to come "wock him" and sometimes we do but most of the time it's just a ploy to delay sleeping because he doesn't go to sleep when we rock him. So we have gone back to ignoring any requests from his room and telling him each night to be quiet and go to sleep or he will get in trouble. Only once has Michael had to get stern with him about hollering out to us from his crib. He sleeps good with maybe just a couple of cries during the night but most of the time it is in his sleep or he is cold. He gets up at 7:00 most mornings too. He still takes a good nap of 1.5 - 2 hours every afternoon. He really needs some kind of nap but could probably get away with just an hour nap and go to bed a little earlier.

Playing:
Jonah still plays really well by himself but has started wanting us to play with him more. He asks us to play with him on his train table usually. I think he will do well with having a playmate in his future. He still loves to do puzzles and look at his books. He has started to want to interact and play with us without toys more. He loves to wrestle with his Daddy and for Mommy to chase him. He loves to be chased and loves to just run around. He does this mostly when we are at church (big buildings) or outside when the weather is nice. He also has recently started playing on technology on his Nana's Kindle Fire. She has several toddler apps that he loves to play but we try to keep those to certain blocks of time so he is sure to play with actual toys and get some movement in too. He calls is "Nana's reader", so cute!!

Personality:
Such a big personality for such a little guy. We can understand almost all of what he says and he is really talking in good sentences. Like he will say (a lot) "I do it" or "I do it myself". He is still timid in new situations and sticks close to us when we go places, which I like. I am glad he doesn't want to jump ship when we are out and about in parking lots and stores. He is actually a really big talker around us but when we go out in public he is quieter. He knows that he has to whisper in church, which I think is amazing that he is already doing that. I figured we had a while to go before behaving in church would be expected. Now we just have to work on sitting still in church LOL. He is still a big lover. He gives us lots of hugs and kisses and doesn't mind it. He tells us he "woves us". Daddy has gotten lots of unsolicited love though. I usually have to beg for it. LOL Jonah is usually a happy kid and glad to be doing whatever we are doing for the day. He is particular about how things should go though in his normal routine. If we do something one way one time that is how he wants it done every time and he lets you know. He is definitely a typical 2 year old in he is always testing what is acceptable. He does say "please" and "thank you" without having to always be prompted and he is learning that we don't tell Mommy and Daddy "NO" we say "no thank you" but even then we still have to do whatever it is. His big thing right now is finding us somewhere in the house and asking "what you doing Daddy?". So cute! Or he will ask "what's that?" a lot.

Behavior:
Like I said he is typical 2 year old. One day he will be very obedient and the next day he is testing all his boundaries again. He is very independent and wants to do most everything he can himself. I just hope that carries over into potty training soon. He does have a tempter that flares at times but we usually try to use time-out to let him calm down. Thankfully he is not a throw-himself-on-the-floor-screaming kind of toddler. He just cries and gets a little loud and sometimes he will stomp but that's about it. Once he repeatedly defies a command a couple of times that we know he heard and understood he does get a diaper spanking (not hard) and sit in time-out. Usually that is all it takes and he is good to go. We have learned the hard way that when he gets too hungry (hangry) there is nothing much that will work discipline-wise until he gets full. So we try to not let him get to hungry. Some kids it's if they get too tired but for him it's hunger that brings out the beast. LOL We try to not punish him for bad behavior choices too much when we know hunger is the cause and just take care of getting him fed. He is usually back to his normal self once he is full again.

New skills or things Jonah has learned:

-knows all his letters when he sees them but not really what order they go in
-learning some numbers by sight but he can count to 10 really well. He just skips seven a lot.
-really good hand/eye coordination
-started to try singing more (Jesus loves me mostly)
-trying to spout out whole sentences on his own
-going in the potty chair before his bath most nights but not any times in between
-really good at helping us by fetching something we ask for and bringing it right to us
-helps with putting away laundry with Mommy
-he can do more for himself physically like climbing into his booster chair
-he figures out how things work really quickly
-his memory is really good and he can recall specific things he saw or did from several days ago.

I cannot think of anything else to add but I think this should be enough. LOL

We just love our little man and are so proud of the little kid he is turning into. He has lots of new things coming his way this year and I know he will handle them like a champ!

Valentines Hutch

Hello! I have my favorite white hutch all decked out for Valentines Day already! After I took down the Christmas stuff it just seemed like the next logical thing to do. I am loving having one spot to decorate for each season/holiday.


I have to admit that I've never decorated for Valentines Day in years past. I just never had much stuff on hand and no where really to put any of it. But now that we have little man I love getting in the spirit of each season.


Without further ado, here is the Valentines Day hutch! You can read about how I fixed up this old hutch HERE.

I love getting out the old wedding pictures (circa 2004) and displaying them. Yes that is a rainbow in the background of the picture. We were married in June 2004 and a pop-up thunderstorm came during our ceremony and was over by the end of it. This was taken during our reception when the rain cleared out and left us with a rainbow. So glad we were able to capture that moment! They say rainbows are a sign of good luck and I'd have to say we've had a lot of luck (i.e. blessings) in our married life.

 One of my bridal portraits taken by my wonderful and talented cousin.

Sources (that I can remember):
Heart banner: Target dollar spot
Tin Mail boxes: Target dollar spot
Striped plates and Be Mine plate: Target
Mason jars: Already had
White candle pillars: yardsale find
Candy: Dollar General
Felt heart bags: Dollar General last year
Valentines printable (free): HERE


Linking up to these lovely blogs:

Big News!

We have some big news to share!

WE ARE EXPECTING BABY #2!!

We got to see and hear the heartbeat last Friday so we are letting the cat out of the bag. I am feeling great so far just more tired than usual. I have not been sick, thankfully. I am already outgrowing my regular jeans and I'm only 10 weeks along!

We are so excited to start this new adventure and expand our little family!

Thank you for praying for us. We will be praying for a healthy pregnancy and child.....and that it will sleep better than Jonah did. :) (Feel free to pray for this as well, LOL)

Here is our first glimpse at our little bundle that is due August 5th, 2013!

Thankful for God's immense blessings!!

Firetrucks!

On Christmas Eve, Michael and I were both off work so we decided to take Jonah to Michael's work. I can't really tell you where that is because it is a large military base and he works on the base's firetrucks. The big bosses were gone that day so we went out there to show Jonah the firetrucks. He is obsessed with all vehicles right now.

Jonah loved seeing the trucks and his favorite part was the big bell on the front of one of the engines. I am sure the guys were regretting showing him how to do that....he rang it several times before we left. He also loved sitting in the driver's seat but then he would always go right back to that bell.

Jonah is absolutely enthralled by the fact that his Daddy works on firetrucks! I hope he always thinks his Dad is so cool. :)

Next up I will be sharing some big news. :)

Our Christmas 2012 {In One Big Post}

I am behind on posting about Christmas but better late than never I guess. We had a great Christmas and lots of quality time spent together. The Saturday before Christmas we did most of our celebrating with family. That morning we went to the Cheatham side and had finger foods and opened presents. Here are pics from that.

Then later that evening (after Jonah's nap) we went to my parents house (my Uncle and Grandmother came too) and did supper and presents. It was great to have the whole family together at both places. I don't have a lot of pictures from Mom & Dad's because I was busy helping Jonah open his gifts. I will have to get the pictures from my Dad's camera.

On Christmas Eve we spent time together as a family (Michael and I were both off) and then we went to my Grandmother's house for supper. Jonah got more gifts there too.

Finally it was Christmas morning and Jonah was pretty excited to see what Santa Clause had brought him.

Jonah got a train table, farm set, golf clubs, and remote control backhoe from Santa. He got a ride-on (not electronic) four-wheeler, books and Thomas movies from Mommy & Daddy.

I got an IPod Nano and lots of other goodies and Michael got a new golf bag.

We were blessed and hope that Santa was good to everyone else too.