Musical Beds

Among the many transitions going on in our household over the past weeks is our sleeping arrangements.

One Month Ago: Carter in crib, Ben in bassinet in our room, guests in twin bed in nursery

Now: Carter in big boy (toddler) bed, Ben in bassinet in nursery, mommy or daddy usually end up in twin bed in the nursery by the end of the night, guests on couch

Near Future: Carter in big boy bed, Ben in crib in nursery, mommy and daddy in their room (sleeping 8+ hours a night), guests on twin bed in Carter's room.

I didn't want to buy a second crib, but Carter wasn't ready for the big boy bed transition when Ben was born so we have been playing musical beds over the past weeks. I found Carter's toddler bed on clearance for $45 at Bed, Bath & Beyond and it is perfect. The second crib mattress was another generous hand-me-down from our favorite nephews.

The first step towards our end result was transitioning Carter to his big boy bed! We put the bed together the day before Ben was born and it has just been hanging out in his room. Occasionally he would go play in it, read books in it, or even pretend to go night-night in it. I didn't want to push the transition, but the other morning, Ben woke up a bit scrunched up in the bassinet. Somehow he had shifted diagonally and his head and feet were touching the edges. Perhaps a delirious mommy or daddy put him down crooked in the middle of the night? In any case, that day, we switched places between Carter's crib and his big boy bed in his room and he took his nap in his big boy bed. That was last Wednesday. So far we have only had one napless day. :) He has done great and we are so proud of him.

Here are some pictures of our transition process. Warning - there was a little bribing/rewarding involved.

I made a reward poster for Carter. He got to put a sticker on his poster each time he took a night night in his big boy bed. He also had to stay in his big boy bed until mommy or daddy came to get him. I didn't want Carter to start getting out of bed on his own and mommy and daddy continuously having to put him back to bed, and so far, this has worked. I am sure I will hear the choo choo trains running on the track during night night time at some point, but so far, so good.



After 5 stickers, he would get a prize.
Here he is the morning of the 5th sticker. (We had to break out the fleece Christmas pjs because it was dropping to the 30's overnight) I only had time to take one picture before he sleepily fell over backwards. Thankfully the pillows cushioned the fall - even though it was only a few inches.



He wasted no time tearing into his big boy bed reward.



And here he is pretty excited over the prize.



He has really been enjoying his kitchen lately. In fact, he has been bringing me cereal, beans, eggplant, etc. to "eat" as I write this post. Yesterday he spent a good bit of the day studying all of his new food and filling up grocery bags with all of his new food.

Next on the list, moving crib to nursery, and Ben to crib. Here's hoping the next transition goes as smoothly...

Carter - 28 Months

Today marks Carter's 28 month birthday. Here are just a few ways he has grown over the past month.

This age has its trying moments, but overall, Carter is just a joy to be around. He loves to give his mommy and daddy hugs and kisses - and he especially loves the double hug (as do we). He cracks me up multiple times a day. Often times at dinner Adam and I have to cover our laughter to not encourage whatever silly thing he has just said or done. His teachers at school refer to him as mr. happy-go-lucky and I think that fits him just perfectly.

One of my favorite Carter pictures of the month...he was 'helping' with the laundry and ended up with this silly t-shirt hat on his head which he wore for quite a while...



Words:
"ah-goo" whenever Ben is awake
"Ben Calm Down"
"...are you?" for whatever he is looking for - "Mama car are you?" as we look for it in the parking lot
Lots of opposites - inside/outside, upstairs/downstairs, open/close
he is repeating lots of what we say - and we are trying to work on his pronunciation of words. He still needs his mommy and daddy translator. :)

Carter is now sleeping in his big boy (toddler) bed. More to come on that in a separate post.

He is still doing great at school. Most days when we leave he always wants to give his teachers a hug to tell them bye bye. He has started doing hand motions to songs that he is learning at school. I have no idea what these songs are - need to ask the teachers. He started pushing a bit. We are thinking he learned this at school. When it started we thought it was just a game. But then it happened a few more times and we decided it wasn't a good game. So we have implemented a "thinking spot" for when he disobeys.

He is still a fantastic Ben helper. He will bring me a diaper when it is time to change Ben; he likes to put Ben's paci in his mouth, or even his finger (as he has seen mommy and daddy do), he likes to help push Ben's stroller, and yes, he still ALWAYS wants Ben to be awake. Even when mommy tries so hard for Ben to take a good nap.



He has learned how to jump this month - there is actually a little bit of air between his sneakers and the ground when he jumps.



We are starting to see the first of his imaginative play. Especially with some animal figurines and his kitchen.

The beautiful fall weather has allowed for lots of afternoon walks to the school playground and lots of afternoon play in our front yard with the neighbors.

As always...looking forward to what the next month brings. :)

Ah-Goo

A few sweet noises for a Saturday morning. The cooing and smiles are just the best. Carter is a big fan of trying to get Ben to say ahh-goo. Maybe we should try to get him to say War Eagle today!

Random Update

Advance warning - this is a very jumbled post with lots of random stuff - but I felt like sharing - so here goes.

First, I want to take a minute to brag on our big brother. Carter really has been fantastic. One morning this week, Adam was in the shower, I was drying my hair, Carter was reading books in his room, and Ben was chillin' in his bassinet in his room. I went to check on the boys, and Carter was standing at the bassinet and holding a paci in Ben's mouth. What a sweetheart. Whenever it is time to change Ben's diaper, Carter always brings me a diaper for Ben. And he is very particular about which diaper Ben wears - sometimes it must be Cookie Monster, other times only Elmo will do. Unfortunately he also decided to share his recent illness with his little brother.

Carter had a pretty bad head cold this past week, that I thought sounded croup like one night. But he was still taking nice deep breaths, so we avoided a trip to the doctor, as I was afraid they were going to put him on steriods again, which was not fun the first time. Now Ben is pretty congested. He didn't sleep in his bassinet at all Thursday or Friday night because he just had too much congestion. Poor guy. Thankfully, I think both boys are starting to turn the corner.

Here is a recent Ben picture, just because I am sure that is really why you decided to check our blog.



We enjoyed a great visit from Gram this weekend. It was a short visit, but we packed a lot in, and she helped tremendously. Friday night Adam had to work late, and I was at my breaking point. I had very little sleep Thursday night because of Ben's cold, and my throat was pretty scratchy by the end of Friday. With both boys not feeling well, and mama working on just a couple of hours of sleep, I was spent. Thankfully Gram stepped right in. She brought a roast for dinner, held a crying Ben while I bathed Carter, and then put Carter to bed while I tried to comfort Ben. Couldn't have done that night without her.

She brought Carter several new books - and read a certain Elmo book with Carter over 50 times without a doubt. Carter loves his Gram time! This morning, before she got on the road, she had a small Halloween goody bag for him with his favorite - STICKERS! He immediately started saying - "open stickers please" I told him we could open the sticker after Gram left, and he then said "bye Gram". He does love his Gram and his stickers. :)



In a moment of desperation on Friday, I broke down and purchased a swing for Ben. I was anti-swing with Carter. When we were pregnant with Carter we were living in less than 600 square feet, and all of the baby stuff just seemed so big (and expensive!), so we decided we could do without a swing. I finally caved. And I am so glad I did. We have it set up in the dining room and have actually had a few meals together as a family recently with both mommy and daddy eating at the same time while Ben swings away. I had a good coupon and some good store credit and it was worth every penny that I had to spend.



With another kiddo here to take adorable pictures of, I decided I wanted to improve my photography skills so I signed up for an online photo class called "Momtography". Isn't that a cute title? It is teaching me how to use the manual mode of our Nikon D40 camera. Our "homework" this week was to play around with aperture, which affects how much light the camera lets in on a particular picture which then affects how blurry or focused the background is. (or at least that is my very limited understanding of it for now) I like the blurry background look, especially when I am taking pictures of our little ones, so I was excited to figure out how to take these 2 pictures and achieve different results only by changing the aperture settings.



We took a walk through the neighborhood last weekend to enjoy the nice weather and to get landscaping ideas for our front yard for the spring. I decided that I want to change out the pictures in our dining room for the fall. Here are 3 of the pictures that will be hanging soon. Now, I need to find 5 more fallish things to shoot to change out the rest of the summery flowers.



OK, I guess that is all for now. Thanks for reading, those of you that made it to the end. :)

Sunday Smiles...

Ben is starting to respond to our smiles and all of the ridiculous noises we make at him...



Happy Sunday!

Maymont Fun

We have had several fun excursions lately and I am way behind on blogging. Surprise surprise. Going to begin the catch up process....NOW.

We visited Maymont - a fantastic city park complete with a Children's Farm, Japanese and Italian gardens, and more. This park used to belong to the Dooleys, a very wealthy Richmond family during the times of Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. The mansion and surrounding property were left to the city upon their death and has remained mostly intact. It truly is a gem of the city and we should visit more often.

On the day we did visit, we stopped first at the children's farm...



Carter enjoyed feeding the goats...



And then ran to show Daddy his slimy goat licked hands...



We saw lots of other animals...but opted against trying to feed them.



Next up, the Japanese gardens - which were beautiful. And so peaceful (minus the screaming children running all around - including Carter.)



We stopped at this gazebo that overlooked a pond filled with GINORMOUS goldfish for a picnic.



Ben even woke up for a bit to enjoy the surroundings...



Carter is taking more and more time to explore his surroundings these days. We are seeing the first of his imaginative play develop as he stops to explore and chat with anything and everything in his path.



After a LONG hike back up to the top of the two really big hills we leisurely strolled down, we were all thoroughly pooped. Ben enjoyed the ride down in the stroller with infant carseat attached. On the way up, I carried Ben in the bjorn, the carseat was on top of the stroller, and Carter chilled in the stroller. Whew. It was a wonderful day with wonderful weather. Looking forward to our next visit.

A Few Daddy Moments...

Here is Daddy on Monday morning. Ready to walk out the door to get to work in time for a meeting.



Ben decided he needed to stick around a bit longer. At least long enough for him to change his shirt.

And here is what Daddy typically wears around the house these days.



We found out last Monday that he has shingles and he has one spot on his neck, so he has been wearing every shirt with a collar in his closet, and wearing them fully buttoned, to protect Ben from getting chicken pox. When the buttons don't quite come up high enough, he adds this bandana for extra protection.

And here is Daddy and his boys this morning in bed.



Ben actually had a good night last night. I put him to bed at 8, fed and put him down at midnight, and fed and put him down at 4. When Ben woke back up at 6, I decided to let Daddy have some snuggle time with Ben. Carter decided to snuggle too after he woke up.

Trucks and Tractors Galore

Take one open parking lot. Fill it with all of the big trucks and tractors that little boys love. Then, let those little kids touch, climb on, and "drive" all that big machinery. That is the recipe for the Touch-a-Truck event at the raceway last weekend. Carter and I went for a couple of hours last Saturday morning and had a ball.

There were farm tractors and construction tractors, police cars and fire trucks, big rigs and service trucks. There was even a helicopter. It was quite a sight, as you can see.

Ben - 1 Month Check Up

Just a quick post to report on Ben's official 1 Month stats:

Weight: 10 lb 13 oz (60th percentile)
Height: 22 in (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15 3/4 in (90th percentile)

Everything checked out just fine. We have a healthy and growing baby boy for which we are very thankful.

"Let Me Do It" - Aunt Susan

Aunt Susan came for a visit this past weekend to meet her new nephew.



It was so much fun to have her here and she was a tremendous help.

Time to clean the kitchen - "let me do it"
Ben is crying and I head upstairs to rock him - "you get to do this every day, let me do it"
Carter needs a diaper change - "let aunt susan do it" (or "poo-in" as Carter endearingly calls her.)
Time to fix dinner - you got it, Susan has already planned the meal as well as a yummy yummy dessert.
She even forced Adam and I to go on a lunch date, just the two of us. We took her up on it and visited Buzz n Neds for some ribs. Not the most romantic location, but ribs are tough to eat and enjoy when you have a newborn and a toddler at the table so it was just perfect - and DELICIOUS!

We also played lots of puzzles with Carter. Did some holiday planning for Little Bittle Designs. Worked on a bit of sleep training for Ben. We were just very sad to see her go. Thankfully, she will be coming back next month for Thanksgiving and bringing her family with her!

Susan, thanks for coming to visit and for all that you did.

a lucky gal

Plenty of people have told me that these are the hardest days. It will get easier. Etc. And I have tried to believe them. And I am starting to think they might be right. But one thing I know for sure is that there is no way I would have made it through the past 4 weeks without Adam.

On Saturday he asked me what I wanted to do for me on Sunday before he went back to work for the week. I mentioned that I might like to go to the coffee shop by myself and finish some thank you notes, I wanted to put up some Halloween decorations, and that a nap would be nice. I got to all three things on my wish list for the day. And my nap was a two hour coma like nap where I thought it was morning when I woke. Here is a picture of Carter assisting with the Halloween decorations. You should here him say, Halloween, it sounds a bit like, Ha-Ween with the emphasis on "ween".



Yesterday afternoon Ben was in a fussy state. Looking back on the day, I think he was just tired because his naps were short. When Adam got home, he took a turn with Ben and let me enjoy some time with Carter. He walked Ben outside for an hour or so while I enjoyed bath time and story time with Carter.

He does more than his fair share during the night time. I take care of the feeding and Adam takes care of the swaddling and putting Ben back to sleep. He is a much better swaddler than I am. But I am working on it!

One day last week he took the boys for a walk so I could get some stuff done around the house. When they got home, Carter walked in with flowers for me from our local flower shop. Melted my heart.

Even though Ben is feeding great, I have been in some pain during the feedings this time around. Adam has been a wonderful encourager. But he also is a great listener when I need to vent. And he is right there with me when I am in pain trying to help however he can.

Last Friday night we had planned to see a movie in our neighborhood that a local shop projects on a big white brick wall. Well, I was pooped. I seriously didn't think I had it in me to walk the 2 blocks to the movie spot and sit and enjoy the show. Instead of cancelling our plans, Adam put Ben in the Bjorn, and took both boys to the movie. I crashed on the couch within minutes of them leaving.



More than anything he is just there for me when I need him.

So, thanks Adam, for all that you do, as my husband and as the boys' daddy.

Ben - 1 Month

The first month with Ben has gone by much quicker than I remember with Carter. Perhaps it is because we were awake so much more with Carter - especially during the middle of the night. Or perhaps it is because Carter is still keeping us on our toes so the time just goes by quickly. But I really can't believe that he is already 1 month old.



Here are a few highlights from his first month...

Weight:
Birth - 7 lb 15 oz
Day 3 - 7 lb 11 oz
Day 8 - 8 lb 2 oz
Day 14 - 8 lb 11 oz
Day 21 - 9 lb 8 oz
Day 26 - 10 lb 1/2 oz
1 Month - 10 lb 11 oz

Believe it or not, all of those weight measurements were taken at a doctor's office. Whew. Here's hoping our 2nd month won't be quite as eventful in the doctor department. Overall, Ben has been really healthy. But he did end up with a pretty bad case of thrush, which then spread to mama, and then we had some feeding difficulties so we visited a lactation consultant. I am very thankful to report that all of the above seem to be behind us!

We actually go on October 7th for his official 1 month check-up so I will have another weight check then! Since I am nursing Ben I have really enjoyed the frequent weight checks to give me comfort that he is eating enough.

So far Ben has been a really good night sleeper. At the beginning we had to set an alarm to make sure he was getting enough food during the night. He would sleep from 9-2 and then 2-7. And, he would go back to sleep fairly easily after feeding. This was COMPLETELY different from Carter. Not only did Carter have his days and nights mixed up but it took a long time for him to settle down after feedings. For the past week or two, Ben has been going down between 8 and 10, feeds around 1 or 2, and then either 4 or 5, or sometimes he stretches out until 6. All in all, not too bad for a one month old. I am thankful!

We have been struggling a bit in the nap department. On Thursday he took 1 ten minute nap, 1 twenty minute nap, and 1 thirty minute nap. That made for a very tired baby by the end of the day. It is frustrating to spend 20-30 minutes getting him calm and asleep only for a 10 minute nap. But, day by day we are trying new things and hopefully we will find a trick that helps him stretch out his naps a bit more.

We have had a couple of smiles and they are pretty darn cute. Haven't had the camera with me when they happened, but don't worry, I will capture one of them soon and be sure to share it with you.

He continues to get the hiccups several times a day. He had them frequently in my tummy too. Poor guy. He doesn't like them one bit.

We sure are enjoying our new little man and look forward to coos and many more smiles and month 2!