Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Ethan and Grandma

Christmas In July

Rumble And Learn Driver



I LOVE Christmas!  Love it, love it, love it!  The shopping, the music, the decorations, family and friends.  It's wonderful.  Oh, and let's not forget the food.

I started a list of things that I wanted to get for the boys in February.  Whenever I go to the store I browse through the toy section and look at all the trucks, cars, little people, books, and games.  Well, I went to Babies R Us to get a video monitor.  I was browsing through the toys section.  Babies R Us and Toys R Us are side by side and you can walk from one store into the other without going outside.  Anyway,  the Fisher-Price infant toys were buy one get one free.  So Ethan has two presents.  I hope I can resist the urge to open them before Chrismas!



Storybook Rhymes

Yummy!

We decided to start Ethan on infant cereal.  I wanted to wait until he was five months old like I did with Aaron but his digestive system had other plans.  When he was about 4.5 months old he had diarrhea (cha cha cha) and the pediatrician suggested that I give him some rice cereal to slow him down.  I didn't like the idea but hey he needed something.  He didn't really take to it at all.  The poopy problem cleared up and I put the rice cereal away.

After he turned five months, I brought out the oatmeal cereal.  I mixed it with some formula and more of it ended up on his bib that in his stomach.  That's to be expected though.  Each day I give him a few spoonfuls.  It's very runny and he seems to be getting some of it in his little body.  He spends most of the time laughing and sucking his fingers. He's adorable!  I plan to wait 'til he's six months old to introduce sweet potatoes.  Can't wait to see how that goes!

One things for sure, I'm not nearly as stressed out about starting solids with Ethan as I was with Aaron.  I studied books, magazines and websites about introducing solids to infants.  I wanted to make sure I did it exactly right.  I didn't want to make any mistakes.  After I started Aaron on solids I worried about whether or not he was eating too much or too little.  Should he be eating one meal or two?  In hindsight it was ridiculous!

There's a big bone of contention amongst moms these days when it comes to solid foods.  There's the camp that thinks giving your baby any type of solids before six months is a kin to child abuse and then there's us normal folk, LOL.  I'm only slightly kidding.  I remember some heated exchanges on The Bump between moms that started solids at four months and those that wait 'til six months.  It's amazing what women can use to club each other over the heads with.

Wordless Wednesday

Shhhhhh! Baby Sleeping! (Wordless Wednesday)

Wordless Wednesday

The Big Boy Room

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are planning to create The Big Boy Room. I'm still not finished clearing all of the junk out of the room but it's sooo hard to get anything done with two little ones around.

My sister agreed to let us store at her house the furniture that was mine during my single days. I really like the furniture and don't want to just drop it off at goodwill. Since she has extra space she can either store it for us or use in one of her spare rooms. It's a full size bed with a mattress that's practically brand new, a six-drawer dresser, two night stands, two lamps and two framed pictures. I wish we had another bedroom:(

I'm pretty sure we decided on paint. I couldn't figure out how to upload the paint swatches so you'll have to wait to see the finished product. The walls are going to be a Sterling Silver by Olympic Paints. It's a medium shade of grey-blue. I'd love to add a stripe 3/4 of the way up the wall. I hope that's not a lot of work for us (I mean Mark). The stripe will be a dark blue called Dragonfly also by Olympic Paints. I'd also like to add a grey stripe called Vintage Gray by Valspar. We of course aren't going to start painting until the furniture is moved.

I want the room to be well decorated but still childish and able to withstand two boys. There's a website http://babyroombio.weebly.com/boy-toddler.html that has help inspire my creativity. I'm not going to copy any of the rooms but it's nice to see what other people have done with children's rooms.

After debating between dinosaurs, airplanes and sports, we decided the theme will be sports. I found sports print sheets at Target for a nice price. I also found wall hooks and artwork at Target. I practically live at Target. I love that place! This is what one of the pictures that's going to be on the wall looks like.

The crib that Aaron is sleeping in is a convertible crib. I have spent a lot, probably too much time trying to decide whether on not to leave Aaron in his crib and buy a new one for Ethan. I surveyed moms on facebook, Thebump and at our playgroup. I was hoping to get some insight on when/how/why moms moved their kids to a bed. The responses were as varied as the moms and children themselves. Some kept kids in cribs until a certain age. Some parents moved a child when he/she started trying to climb out of the crib. Others moved the older child when a younger sibling came along. Basically, talking to other parents didn't help much.

We had a few scenarios to contemplate:
1.  Leave Aaron in his crib and buy Ethan a crib.
2.  Buy a toddler bed for Aaron and give the crib to Ethan
3.  Buy twin bunk beds.  Set up one twin bed or Aaron and store the other one for use in the future. Ethan would be in the crib.  When Ethan is ready to give up the crib he will get the other twin bed.  When both boys are old enough for bunk beds then we would stack the beds.

We chose option number 3.  I hope and pray that Aaron makes the transition smoothly.  I really don't want to mess up a good thing.  The "good thing" being Aaron's ability to sleep through the night.

As I write this I am having second thoughts.  Maybe I should buy a second crib?

Gimme an 'E'

Ethan, our second child, was born January 2010. A mere 19.5 months after Aaron was born.

Ethan was born by repeat c-section. He was just as cute, healthy and adorable as could be. He is also a really easy baby. The only bumps along the road so far have been gassiness and very mild reflux. He found his fingers early and easily. Laughing, giggling, and smiling are his favorite hobbies. I can't wait to see how he grows!

When we brought Ethan home from the hospital, I was just as nervous as when we brought Aaron home. This time, however, it wasn't because I was a new mommy, it was because I was a mommy to two little ones.