1 month

We survived the first month!  I don't know if it is just being more confident the 2nd time through or if Ella is actually easier than Colton but it hasn't been nearly as bad as I feared.  The hardest part has just been getting the hang of nursing since I mostly pumped with Colton.  The cluster feeding at night is killing me, but she sleeps 2-3 hr stretches so I'm not as sleep deprived as I expected.  Thank god Rich has awesome paternity leave because Colton thinks 5am is an acceptable wakeup time and I'm sure I'd be a zombie if I didn't have that extra hour or so after Ella's 5/6 feeding.  So far it does not appear that she has reflux and I think we are out of the woods as far as onset of symptoms go, so yay!   At one month Ella is 8.9lbs and 22 inches long.

Big Boy Room!

I am jinxing myself by even daring to type this now, but if I don't I'll forget and never get around to it.   Tonight we finally bit the bullet and move Colton into his new room.  Right now is he sleeping...only 40 minutes since I first shut the door. Fingers crossed he stays that way, but even if he wakes up every hours I'm still calling it progress.   I tried to follow Ferber like we did with initial sleep training, but it is a little more difficult when you know they are probably scared and actually need you.  He started crying for me shortly after I left and I could see him on the monitor sitting there looking around, so I decided on 3 minutes for the first check, which as with sleep training, made him more upset.  I gave it 6 minutes until the next check, when I sort of tossed the book recommendations out the window and just stayed with him until he calmed down.  I didn't pick him up or get in the bed with him though, just sort of bent over the side and cuddled him.  Once he was settled enough (and just starting to get a little talkative/silly) I made my exit.   He did ask to go in his crib a few times during that period, which really made me question things, because he'd probably be fine in his crib for a few more months, but overall I think we'll be okay and I don't feel like I'm forcing something awful on him.

I am pretty happy with how his room turned out though, and he loves the cars & trucks!

Little memories: "Don't move"

Random tidbit of the day:

Colton was playing on the floor and suddenly something obviously disrupted him and was on his leg.  He furiously brushed it off, stood up, and ran to the kitchen for a "nap-in".   I handed him a tissue as an alternative and upon returning to the scene he thoroughly wiped the floor, looked at the tissue, and waved a finger saying "Don't move ant!" as he carried it over to me.

It's a.....

GIRL!!!!  So very excited to be expecting a little girl.  Of course we would have been thrilled with another boy, and that certainly would have made many things easier, but now we will have the best of both worlds!

We did the reveal on Saturday, and after a little more effort than I had imagined was needed in finding a big box, it went really well.  Our neighbor did a great job putting it all together and I think we got some cute pictures.

Valentine's Day!

So I will give credit where it is due, and confess I actually saw this idea for re-using toilet paper on the Sprout Network.   I used a paper towel tube cut in half and added a little tape for support, because younger kids aren't going to hold it together to keep the heart shape in tact.  For some reason one half held its shape on its own, the other didn't.

Materials:
Paper towel or toilet paper tubes
Tape if needed
Finger or craft paint
disposable plate or paint tray
Glitter
Paper, preferrably cardstock weight
lots of paper towels for cleanup

I was surprised Colton did as well as he did with this.  I figured he'd smear it around and if I got lucky something in there might resemble a heart.   He had a blast!  He loved stamping the hearts and did a pretty good job.   If you are doing this with older kids (or hell, yourself!) check for air bubbles on the tube before stamping, because that will fill in part of your heart when the stamping is done, but I just let Colton go to town until the paper was over saturated in parts.

 

 

He was having so much fun that I cut a second piece of paper in half and made Valentine's for the grandparents too!  The paint does take quite a while to dry, so that left plenty of time to add glitter.

 

 

 

 

Colton has a secret...

As you can see we found out shortly before Christmas that we are expecting baby #2!!  Our 3rd attempt at FET was successful and we are thrilled.  This shirt is how I told Rich.   I tested in the morning and we weren't sure about the results but figured it was still too early.  Naturally I was too impatient to wait until the next day so I tested again when Colton went down for his morning nap and it was clearly positive!  So I grabbed some felt real fast and threw together this shirt and sent Colton into Rich's office when he woke up.

Who thought "No" could be so sweet?

A few weeks ago Colton finally added No to his vocabulary.  But it isn't that whiny toddler "Na-O!" that you would expect.  Instead, we get this quiet little "no-no-no-no".  It is absolutely adorable.