Turned a corner….

   After 14 LONG months of crazy sleeping schedules in our house I am happy to say we have finally turned a corner!   It has been quite a journey for all of us but night-time in our house has become….dare I say…..routine and easy!  Who would have ever thought that I would refer to Noah’s sleeping schedule as "easy"!  Noah has been a difficult sleeper from the beginning….not wanting to sleep alone in the crib or bassinet….so he slept in our bed.  It was the only way a desperate mommy and daddy could get some sleep.  Low and behold we actually have enjoyed having him so close to us at night and our many months of patience and nurturing has PAID off bigtime in the past month. 

 

For the past month Noah has been making some big progress in his sleeping routine and becoming more independent.  I was reluctant to blog about it as to not jinx it!  I figure it has been long enough now that I can write about it now.   These days we start the getting ready for bedtime around 8:00 with stories and teethbrushing (sometimes this is an interesting challenge).  Then daddy leaves the room and mommy lays down and sings songs with Noah until he falls asleep.  He is usually asleep around 8:20 or so…and then mommy and daddy have FREE TIME until we go to bed.   Gary and I have not had "free adult time" since Noah has been born because he wouldn’t sleep without us, so this is a VERY exciting change.  IT has been very nice just being able to work on craft projects or just sit with Gary and watch TV (yay for new the new TV season!). 

 

  The BEST part of all the change is that Noah is sleeping generally without waking from 8:30-6:00 or later!  WOW!  Up until a month ago I was still getting up twice (at least) at night with him.  Not only is he sleeping all night but he still takes 2 naps during the day.  Also, he is sleeping very well in his own little space.  We placed a toddler bed mattress next to our bed to get him used to being in his own space.  He has done so well and I think he enjoys having room to flop around.  He is becoming such a big boy!  Our next step will be to move him into his little room (not the upstairs room) next to our room.  That is a few months off but we feel good about the steps forward he is making at this point!

 

Here are some pics of him in his very own sleeping space!

Happy Birthday to you…..

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear sister today!!!   I love you and hope you have a great day!!  Hugs from me and Noah!!! 

Our RED weekend!

There was a lot of red things going on at our house this weekend!

 

First: Game Day!  Noah and daddy were all dressed in their red game day clothes ("Scarlet" is the appropriate term for the OSU red).  GO BUCKS!

 

Second: We went for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and had some delicious cheesecake.  Mine was raspberry-lemon cheesecake and Gary’s was chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake.  YUMMY.

 

Third: We went to a local farm today to pick some apples.  It was my first time at an apple orchard and we had so much fun showing Noah how to pick them from the trees.  We samples a couple as we picked and they were so good.  Noah enjoyed sitting amongst the fallen apples and finding the tiny baby apples that were just his size!  We ended up with a huge bag of apples for only $10! 

 

We let Noah pick some apples himself and look what he chose.  YUCK!  Of all the pretty red apples he chose the yucky stinky rotten one.

 

At the farm we also visited their veggie/fruit tent.  They had the most beautiful array of fresh veggies and fall goodies!

 

We stopped on the way home to pick up some dry corn stalks to use for fall decor by our front door.  They were a lot bigger than we thought they would be as stuffed them in the car!  Luckily the corn stalks make it home in once piece only leaving a little mess in the car.  Noah had fun playing with them from his carseat!

 

Here is our bounty of apples…look how cute the mini apples are that we found.  They are just the right size for little hands!

 

Finally!  We are in the midst of re-doing Noah’s bedroom.  We had painted it yellow when we first moved in this house not knowing a little guy would eventually be occupying it.  So, we decided on a good ol’ Red, White, and Blue room for him with vintage sports decor.  I am planning on doing some crafty things to the walls and furniture…but for now the entire room needs to be painted RED!  Gary was a huge help today taking care of all things Noah while I got busy putting on the first coat of RED paint!  It is going to be so cute!  All the furniture will be painted blue and then some accents of white.  I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!  I have a lot of painting to do this week!!

 

Here are the room before pics:

 

I had to move everything out of the bedroom into the loft while I painted.  Needless to say the loft is a no-play zone right now!

 

After the first coat…..it is so warm and "boyish" now compared to the yellow!  More "after" pics to come this week!

 

Trash day!

Once again it was a great trash day!  Noah and I drove around this morning and found some great stuff!

 

The BEST find was the popping mower!  Noah loves it and it is in perfect condition.  It has balls that pop when he pushes it!

 

We found 13 soft interlocking kid’s mats.  In this picture I had just washed them!  Good as new!

 

A diaper genie in perfect condition

 

2 fantastic wooden chairs with the price tag still on them!  I am going to use these as my next crafty paint project!

What we did this week….

We visited a couple new parks this week that are near our house.  At one of the parks there was a little girl Noah’s age that wanted to just come sit on my lap, well Noah didn’t like that AT ALL.  He came over to the girl and pushed her off his momma and grunted and growled at her!  It was hilarious.  I have never seen him do anythink like that before.  Then he proceeded to steal her brush she was carrying around and throw it down out of reach.  Of course I showed him that we need to be kind to others (especially girls) and we picked up the brush and handed it back (all the while he was still growling at her!).

 

At the park: finding a nice seat, exploring the brush, bringing hand fulls of berries to mommy, navigating the scary BIG step.

 

The girl at the playground that he didn’t care for…here he has just thrown her brush and was picking it up for her.  Yes, he was growling.

 

  We visited our little town’s Farmer’s Market.  We bought some yummy corn and some fresh mozzarella cheese.  YUM!

 

Another park….this is the park right by our house located literally in the parking lot of our local library!  Very convenient!  We visit the library and then hit the park!  He did go down the slide himself!  What a big boy!

 

He thinks I don’t see him eating something he shouldn’t (a fallen black walnut from a tree).  So sneaky!

 

Oh look mommy, a leaf…I must taste it.  Hmmmm, tastes like chicken!

 

My little helper.  He pulled all the newspapers down from the table so I asked him to put them in the box to recycle….he did most of them and decided that it wasn’t fun anymore.

 

He is doing FANTASIC sleeping in his own "little space" (a mattress next to our bed).  Here he is half on-half off our bed and his bed during his nap.

 

PLEASE VOTE FOR NOAH!

I entered a picture of Noah in a photo contest that lasts a week.  I need all of you to vote for Noah!!! 

 

Go to: http://www.photowow.com/contest/vote.aspx?pc_member_id_baby=779BBBA6EDC3EAC0

and vote for him with a high star!!

 

Thanks!!

Storm Stats….

I just gone done watching the news coverage about the wind storm damage on Ohio’s electric lines.  I was amazed at the amount of damage!  There are STILL 300 people in the Columbus area without power (those poor people have been a week and a half now without power!).    As of today….1,300 downed lines have been fixed, 475 transformers have been replaced, 354 electric poles have been replaced, 250,000 people now have power thanks to ALOT of overtime hours put in by the electric fix-it men and women from around the country.  Thank you to all who have worked around the clock to bring the lights back on in Ohio.

Football hold….

Gary used to hold Noah in the "football hold" when he was very tiny.  It was Noah’s favorite way to be held and it almost always made him stop fussing and crying.  Gary tried it this weekend, just for old time’s sake.  I think that will be the last time for the football hold!  Noah wasn’t loving it quite as much as he used to!

 

Then and now….my how they grow!

 

Some other cute "then and now’s"

 

Bathtime

 

Ohio State first game of the season

 

Naptime

 

Daisy time

 

Hanging out with Grandpa

 

Hanging out with daddy

 

Snuggles with mommy

Why yes, I can feed myself!

The time has come for us (Gary and I) to start letting Noah try and feed himself.  We have been avoiding this process to save our carpet and walls from certain disaster.  However, Noah is getting older now and I am afraid if we don’t start letting him learn to feed himself we will be spoon feeding him in college!  So, I went to the store and bought a plate/fork/spoon set especially for little ones that suctions to the table.  I decided that lunch today would be the perfect opportunity to let Noah feed himself.  The dogs must have known what was going to happen because they were quick to find the perfect seating to watch (and EAT) the "Noah feed himself" show! 

 

What is this thing you call "spoon"?

 

Oh I see!  I can use it to move my food around my plate!

 

He tried so hard to hit his mouth!

 

Finally, he hit the target!

 

He even gave mommy a bite!  Reluctantly, I ate it. 

 

The "after" lunch look.  The berry applesauce was so fun to squish through fingers!  He actually did quite well and alot of it made it to his mouth.

 

Hey look Mommy, the suction plate that is SUPPOSED to stay on the tray comes up!  Now the fun begins!  The dogs scored some corn and pasta as it came tumbling out of the plate.

 

Crafty Mommy!

  I have been feeling the need to be crafty lately.  My niece’s 12th birthday is coming up and I thought it would be nice to find and old chair and hand-paint it just for her new room.  I wanted to paint it with lots of colors and details and I wanted to make it special just for her.  I found an awesome old chair at a thrift store for $12!!  I got to work sanding it and then painted it with 4 coats of white paint.  I spent the last 2 weeks hand-painting and decorating it!  I ended up using strips of beautifully colorful scrapbooking paper for the edge of the seat (see picture).  I think it turned out just great!  I can’t wait to get started on my next project.

 

Chair before and after!

 

The process…

 

I also made her a picture board for her room.  I found and old picture board on one of my "trash" days and completely stripped it down and recovered it in some new fabric and ribbon.  Here is the before and after:

 

Here is a picture of Emily opening up her birthday gift yesterday:

 

I also made her some cupcakes for her birthday party yesterday.  She loves pink so I made some pink and green flowers!  YUMMY!