To School!

The busy season is winding down, thankfully, although my semester is nearly over so I have many projects to finish, most involving statistics and math. Statistics I get, math, meh.

But! Nathan and Evan are now both in school. Evan goes to the Gloucester High School's daycare on Tuesday and Thursday, my school days. He seems to be having a fun time, there's some other cute babies there, and it's a small little group of babies with a good ratio of caretakers to kids. One day I picked him up at the end of the day and he was wailing because he was tired and his nose was running and WIPING HIS NOSE IS AKIN TO TORTURE AND THIS STRANGE LADY DID IT - so I'm pretty sure I just lowered the future Gloucester teen birth rate by a good amount. DOIN' MY PART.

Nathan is going to Head Start preschool in the mornings. Nothin' like bein' so poor you qualify for free preschool, but honestly it's wonderful. His first day was Thursday, I totally forgot to mention to his teacher that he was wearing underpants and not a diaper (most kids are diapered still) and...

He peed on the slide. Kid's first day, and he peed on the playground slide. I'm a terrible mom.

He seemed no worse for the wear, as 2 year olds don't really yet understand the social non-acceptance of peeing one's pants, and his next day of school he had pizza and a field trip and he was so excited to be back. He's warming up just fine, and I love getting to the classroom to pick him up and seeing him mouth "that's my mommy!" when he sees me through the window.

Speaking of cutest goddamn thing EVER, Nathan started skating - the Cape Ann Skating Club takes kids starting at 2.5, and Mike had previously found toddler skates at Savers for $6.99. He LOVES IT. His first lesson he just fell all over the place, but now he's actually able to move his little feet across the ice and even reach down and pick up items off the ice by himself.



I missed today's lesson because I am super sick, but he was a huge fan of the Zamboni and kept asking to see Zambonis at home. We told him he had to wait until tonight when the Bruins game is on. He also has a tiny hot wheels Zamboni he spent the afternoon cleaning the coffee table with.

And that's why we don't eat our young. Because yes, he's two and terrible and whines about everything and NEEDS CANDY NOW MOM and pushes his brother but holy crap, he's just so CUTE and he learns something every day and he's so earnest and so helpful and sweet. I couldn't be more proud of the kid, honestly.

Let's Go Bananas!

Baby version 2.0: Approximately 50% pudgier than version 1.0. Upgrades include 3x more arm folds, plus an extra chin for holding leftover milk.

(They were both nearly 4 months old when these pictures were taken.)

We Bought Him a Real Bed. I Swear.

Someone didn't want to go to sleep the other night, so he snuck out of bed and read and talked to his plastic horses until he passed out on the mat.

Giving a Two Year Old a Big-Kid Room.

At Nathan's birthday party, my mom gave us the curtains made from the vintage cowboy material she found months ago. And they look AMAZING. I'm used to cheap IKEA curtains, and these blow those out of the water. Plus they're very heavy, so they do wonders at blocking out the light.



I'd been looking for the perfect set of bunkbeds with no luck for awhile, so I settled on the KURA bed from Ikea:



It's a fort bed at first, then it can flip over into a short loft bed like aboe and has the perfect space for a mattress on the floor underneath. This means the boys can use them as bunk beds at a younger age since it's easier to climb and not as tall as a regular set of bunk beds.

The blue paneling, however, was a huge turnoff. I remembered reading about how people painted those panels with chalkboard paint and hey, that's one thing I have in spades! So I did it up:



It was really easy, it only took about an hour in total, since the panels dried really quickly. Of course, putting the bed together was a two day long process especially because Nathan "helped" me, and by "help" I mean misplace half the screws. But he had such a fun time trying to help me out with the bed.



Here's the view from the hallway.



And a better view of the bed. I did buy the blue bed tent, and it's up now.

He really likes his new bed and new room, but was pretty pissed when we put the crib back up in his old room. Not such a big fan of sharing, that one. He got over it pretty quick when we redirected him back to FORT AWESOME BED. WITH DINOSAURS IN IT.

He Didn't Even Throw Him On The Floor. Bonus.

Let's Play a Rousing Game of 'Which Baby is This?'

HINT: They are not the same baby.

Baby crying? I can fix that.

MEE MEE

So, it's been awhile. Yep.

We've recently come across the first instance of Nathan using a word in his own language to describe something, and us actually understanding it. He does not say airplane. He says MEEMEE.

Nathan: Meemee! *points to airplane in sky*
KT: Actually, that's an airplane. Plane.
Nathan: MEEMEE!
KT: Still a plane.
Nathan: MEEMEEEEEEE! *plaintive wail as airplane dissapears from sky*

He also says bapple for apple, which has gotten us into the terrible habit of calling them bapples in our regular conversations to each other in front of him. As in, "Did Nathan enjoy his bapple for lunch?". OH GOD OUR KID'S GOING TO NEED SPEECH THERAPY BECAUSE WE'RE HORRIBLE PARENTS.



Also, Nathan was a dragon for Halloween. I'll post about that later. You know, like in January or whatever.

I Made it With Love! And Cursing.

Oh hey, I haven't updated in a very long time. I am now a full-time student, taking 5 classes this semester, so I've been doing all kinds of classwork and going to bed before the 10 O'clock news. Ok, the 9 O'clock news.

But before class really started, I tackled one more thing I really wanted to get done before the winter/new baby. Nathan's been so into trucks, and trains, and basically anything that emits potent diesel fumes, that I decided to suck it up and get him a train table. Only, I didn't really dig anything I found on Craigslist or even could purchase new. People were tending to charge a lot for them, and it would've taken a lot of coordination to bring one home.

So I thought hey, I'll just make one. None of the plans I found for free really called to me, and I hate you know, doing any sort of logical planning. So I kind of made one up as I went along.



Basically, 1x4s in a box shape, with 1x6 legs and 1x3 braces across it (meaning the lip would extend 1 inch up so trains wouldn't fall off easily). This was the first attempt, but I quickly realized this wouldn't hold up to toddler climbing, and I needed to make it sturdier.



The two added crossbeams are actually from an IKEA bedframe. I cut a few inches off the ends and they were perfect 1x3s. I wish I'd known earlier, could've saved like $3 by buying fewer 1x3s! And the L-shaped legs make it super sturdy, I can't shake it at all at this point. It's one solid piece.



Closeup of the sanded edges. This took awhile, even with a power sander my brother left here awhile ago. But it came out really good!



The finished product. I'm sort of miffed that I dropped $12 on Minwax Polyshades and it wasn't nearly as dark as it was supposed to be. I wanted it as dark as his bed, chair, and bureau are, but it wasn't any darker than the light colored stain I already owned from a previous project. The sample at the store lied! Eventually I may stain it darker, but honestly I'm just happy it's done.



Nathan is glad too. He's been playing with it a lot since I showed it to him, and I've had fun making the track configurations. I hope someday he appreciates all the work and cursing and broken drill bits I put into this thing (two drill bits, but who's counting). In the end, it only cost about $75 between the wood, stain, and green spray paint for the top and it could be done in a leisurely weekend. Not that I'm telling you to try it. You might just wanna buy one off Craigslist. But I'm super happy the way it turned out.

Nathan's Big Boy Bed

I remember my brother having this bed growing up. Apparently it originally hails from UMass Lowell (or at that time, Lowell State College). It's utilitarian, but it's also free and it works perfectly as a little boy's bed and matches the dresser I have for him.

FWSHSH

That's the sound Nathan is making as he blows bubbles. He's actually managed to figure out the bubble wand, how to stick it into the jar, and he can blow bubbles. I mean, most of the time he's just making a mess and/or ingesting trace amounts of bubble solution, but it's so goddamn cute.



Of course, right after that he spilled the entire bottle on the coffee table and floor. Hey, at least it's just soap!

Big Boy Room

OK, so I have a terrible summer cold. Awful. Sinuses feel like there's tiny fire ants breeding inside them. So why when I'm super sick do I want to get redecorating done? I don't know. Probably because I'm crazy.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm losing my awesome lavender guest room. It's OK. Nathan's cool big-boy room will be worth it.

Here's the cloth that will be used for the curtains:



And here's the rocking chair that will be in his room:



I'm trying to find a color to replace the purple that will match well with the chair and the fabric. I'm thinking a really light blue or really light khaki - almost white. I've gone the route of having too much color on the wall and regretted it (not in our bedroom though which I STILL LOVE). His current nursery is half baarely blue, half light blue, and it looks great.

Maybe one of these colors:





Or something super super light blueish or green. Who knows. I really like the khaki color with the fabric, but I also have to find him a twin-sized comforter set that would coordinate as well, and I think the best option there is to get something near a burlap color.

I guess this is why I have four more months to figure this out!

Boys.

When Nathan hears the trash truck, he climbs onto the armchair in the living room so he can see out the window and watches it until it's gone so far past that you can barely hear it.



It's pretty cute. What a boy thing to do. Firetrucks, construction equipment, trash trucks... this kid LOVES THEM. How does this boyness get ingrained? I never taught him fire trucks were cool!

We found out yesterday we're having another boy. I'm mildly surprised, the whole time I seriously thought we were having a girl, but I guess I was wrong. Don't get me wrong I'm totally happy to have two boys. Nathan is so much fun and having two boys close in age will be really cool. I mean, until they're 16, but that's a long way off.

So it looks like we'll be putting Nathan in the guest room, my awesome lavender guest room, and putting the baby in Nathan's nursery. When they're both old enough to sleep through the night, like 2 and 4, we'll put them together in the same room again. My aim is to find some great mid-centuryish wooden bunkbeds - I'm kicking myself because I JUST SAW A SET at a yard sale up in Rowley but I didn't grab them because I didn't know what we were having. There could be a set up at my parents' cabin in NH - tucked away in their storage trailer, it belonged to the original owners. But, we don't know if all the pieces are there, and it hasn't been touched in 24 years.

A Most Helpful Baby

I am loving Nathan's newfound sense of altruism. We brought him to my parents' cabin in NH for a few days over the holiday weekend - he brought a box of cereal in from the car all by himself. Today he brought in a package of toilet paper as I was unloading groceries. Usually I have to leave the groceries and take him in by himself, so this saves me quite a bit of effort.

Mike has even taught him to follow basic commands. Like today, Mike pointed at the cup of ice water he'd accidentally left across the room. With a little prodding, Nathan actually picked it up and brought it to him- without even spilling any, bonus! He can also be told to clean things off the floor and place them in the trash.

This is why we had kids, right? To make them do our bidding?

Tiny Copilot.

So Nathan still faces backwards in his carseat past his first birthday (My friend Christa wrote up some great reasons why).



He doesn't really mind either way, but the entertaining part is how he interacts with us. Say, if we order fast food. It doesn't happen a lot, but somehow when it does, HE KNOWS WHAT'S GOING ON. After we've been handed our chicken nuggets and fries, his tiny hand shoots up over the back of his seat, begging for handouts. He literally does the "gimme" hand gesture which I swear we have never taught him. He could've been in a deep slumber, and all of a sudden he's HEY GUYS I SMELL FOOD MIND IF I EAT HALF OF IT? It's like he's been taking notes from the dog.

Mike also says that when he's travelling with Nathan (this happens a lot when he's bike hunting, so that Nathan will nap and I can get some alone time), he'll point to the dome light and gesticulate wildly until it is turned on or off for him. Apparently dome lights are a thrill a minute, who knew.

He's taken his demotion to backwards-facing quite well, and really doesn't make too much of a peep back there. I'm glad I did it, even though he keeps eating all my dang chicken nuggets.

I'll use any excuse to redecorate.

So as most of you now know, I'm 3 months pregnant with our second child. I'm due on Christmas day.

This means Nathan and Thing 2 will be just about 2 years apart. We won't know the sex for at least another month.

So I'm starting to gather stuff for Nathan's new, little-boy room. Just based on space issues alone, it seems like they'll be in separate rooms. The new baby will be taking his crib, and he'll be moving to a big-kid bed that my brother and my dad once had. Months ago, my mom bought about a dozen yards of great heavy blue fabric with vintage cowboys and covered wagons on it.Hopefully we can turn it into curtains and pillows, and find him a matching comforter.

Today on etsy I picked these up:





There are so many more items I've got favorited, and we'll be hitting up yard sales all summer.

Pacific Northwest!

So last week we took a trip to Portland, OR with the baby. We had a lot of fun and the food was awesome.



Our first day, we went to the Multnomah County Fair. Nathan got into the petting zoo a little, but was a bit wary of the bigger, more horned animals



But omg, the piglets. Did he ever love the piglets.



WHAT ARE THESE I WANT THEM.

We also went to the Portland Children's museum, which he really had a blast at.



He was a great ER receptionist, except for all those dying people he put on hold and never got to.



There was also a little spot with a house "under construction" with plexiglass "holes" in the floor. It was really hard for Mike to get this picture because Nathan would try to hide every time he saw Mike with the camera.

So basically, all we did was take pictures of Nathan on our vacation. We took a walking tour of Portland's seedy underbelly, ate some excellent food, and had a bunch of fun. That'll be it for big vacations for awhile, flying with the baby was really not much fun.

Cruel to be Kind.

It's no secret that Nathan's had a terrible time sleeping for the past month or so. We struggled to get him to sleep in his crib every night, and more often than not he'd wake up between 12 and 3, and refuse to go back to sleep until he passed out on my chest hours later. We were all pretty miserable, and the lack of sleep was making us all very, very cranky. He wouldn't even nap in his crib.

We had originally tried a number of sleep methods at around 10 months old. Some older, more experienced parents all told us that even though crying it out sucked and sounded horrible, it was the only thing that truly helped their kids sleep through the night and sleep well. By the time we resorted to it, we were in dire straits - but it truly did work. It took over a week, but only the first two or three nights were awful. And he slept like a dream for months and months.

So we finally got to the point where we knew we'd have to do it again. The night before we left on vacation last week, he was so exhausted and it was 5:30 and we had to get up at 7... so we stuck him in his crib. And eventually, he did go to sleep. Last night after our flight got in, we did the same. Within 15 minutes, he was out. Naptime today, he was out in 10. Tonight, he was out before I could even unload the washing machine.

Are we out of the woods yet? No, but god, the sleep has been nice, and during the day he is a lot happier. The lack of sleep was hurting him, too. I know there's a lot of parents who think crying it out is terrible, and cruel, but a miserable kid who isn't sleeping is bad news for the kid, too. We make our choices. I have to be the parent and make the decisions for him. It's not always easy. And on that note, I'm going to sleep...

Things No One Will Tell You About Parenting

The other day, Nathan had his first real bug. He looked fine besides being a little tired, until we decided to go to a local sub shop for lunch, where I bought him a chocolate milk because hey, chocolate milk is awesome, and doubly so if you're a small kid.

Yeah, until we got home and he was clinging to me, and then PUKED ALL OVER ME AND MY SHIRT. Pasta salad, sub roll, and chocolate milk. Stunning.

So because I'm the type of person who cannot stand the sight and smell of puke, I had to strip off my shirt while gagging, and run into the bathroom to puke in the toilet. All the while, Mike is laughing and telling me I sound like the guy from Crank Yankers. Always the helpful spouse.

It took a full 24 hours for me to get up the nerve to clean up the mess on the living room rug (plus, I had to hold the baby that entire time since he felt so very yucky). I had to clean all the blankets on the couch and all of our clothes plus some towels. Yeah, I retched while doing the laundry, too. I am a wuss.

Poor kid. He just sat listlessly on the couch for hours, and made me sit next to him. I was happy to oblige, because I know how nasty feeling sick can be.

Nice Day to Dry Diapers

Seriously! It was so pretty today! I am a cheapskate, so I cloth diaper the baby and use the dryer as little as possible. And why not, when it gets you outside in the sun?



Nathan had a blast opening and closing the screen door.





Fettuccine Alfredoface!