Long Overdue

Here are some pictures from Memorial Day weekend.  We spent the entire weekend at the lake in Michigan, our first time there this year.  Logan had a blast, and it was very relaxing for both Todd and I.  Trips to the lake this year are proving to be much less stressful than last, as we are letting Logan sleep in our bed, either alone for naps or with us at night.  This is a MUCH easier arrangement than the Pack-n-Play that he HATED last summer.  And even though I'm totally not into co-sleeping, this seems to be the best arrangement for the time being since we are limited on space at the cottage.  Logan seems to understand that it only happens when we are there, and that he doesn't get to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed at home, so I'd say that counts as a success!

Relaxing on the boat

Papa even lets him drive!

A little unsure about the water at this point

Anyone need another beer?

Chug!  Chug!  Chug!

Swings

Playing beanbags with Daddy at Mya and Stella's birthday party

A little quality time with Jax and Emmy - look at Jax's outfit and then pay attention to Logan's in the next few pictures!

Back at the lake - more beanbags

Shooting some hoops - one of my favorite action shots of Logan

Cousins Lilly and Liam with Logan

Almost!

My current favorite picture of my little goofball

Another boat ride - so serious!

View of Silver Lake from the front of the boat

Todd on the jet ski

Relaxing with Uncle Troy and Stacy

Check out the intensity on his face.  This kid means business!

Summer Goals

I've been meaning to jot down a list of things I want to accomplish this summer, and I thought what better what to do it than to tell other people who can help to hold me accountable?  So here is my To-Do List for the summer (in no particular order):

1.  Decorate and transition Logan to his big boy bedroom.  Prepare the nursery for the new baby, who has yet to be named (maybe this should be a goal, too?).
2.  Organize all of my photos on the computer by date and holiday.  Upload pictures to Shutterfly and videos to YouTube.
3.  De-clutter the entire house (we did this last year when we put our house on the market, but we have managed to accumulate just as much new clutter as what we packed away last April).
4.  Clean out my closet and make some space for Todd's clothes so Todd can clean out his closet and we can give Logan some space in his new closet.

I'm keeping it simple and trying not to make my list unattainable.  So there you have it - but really my #1 goal for the summer is to enjoy every minute that I can with Logan since I know these will be our last days with just him!

Growing Up

I feel as though my little boy has done some intense growing up in the past week or so.

We spent the better part of last week with my family in Hilton Head, and it was wonderful getting to see so many of my family members spend time with an enjoyable little boy that they don't get to see all that often.  Among the participants in the trip were Todd, Logan, and I, my sister and her hubby, my parents, my grandparents, my aunt & uncle & three cousins (one of whom got married while we were there - the main purpose of our trip), my mom's aunt & cousin & her little girl, and another one of my mom's cousins and her hubby.  A grand total of 20 people!  My parents and sister get to see Logan a fair amount, though definitely not enough if you ask any of us.  The remainder of the family members haven't seen Logan since last July at my sister's wedding in Maryland.  At that point, Logan was only 9 months old and not even walking yet.  He has changed so much, and boy were they pleasantly surprised! I have never fielded so many compliments about someone in my life, and my heart melted just a little with each and every one.  I'm so proud to call this little boy my son - he is a complete joy to be around and quite the comedian!

Todd got to spend an unusually large amount of time with Logan this week as well, since he's usually sleeping for the better part of the day and really only gets a few hours each weekday and some time on the weekends to really enjoy Logan.  He took to his daddy responsibilities so well, and I don't think anyone would have ever believed that he wasn't a stay-at-home dad - he was that wonderful!  It gave me some much needed relaxation time (though I found it hard not to think about my school and classroom 24-7 while I was there, but that's another story altogether) and a chance to sit back and actually watch Logan enjoying himself.  I took tons of pictures that are still on my camera, but I will be posting some of them soon, along with more specific details of our trip.

Todd and I both found ourselves constantly commenting on how much we felt like Logan was growing up in the week we were in Hilton Head. He slept in a big boy bed the whole week, for naps and at night.  I slept with him at night, but he did some time by himself for naps.  I expected him to come home and refuse to sleep in his crib, which luckily did not happen, as we are not quite ready for the big boy bed transition yet (though his bedding did arrive while we were gone).  Logan learned several of our extended family members' names throughout the week and can still remember most of them if we show him a picture.  The number of new vocabulary words he learned amazes me, and I couldn't even begin to count them.  Just to name a few: elevator, hotel, sand, bucket, crab, and beach.  He still asks if we're going to the beach every time we put him in the car - so cute!  He also started stringing longer groups of words together, sometimes four or five words at a time, and I'm thinking we'll be hearing some complete sentences by the end of the summer.  He is starting to use words like hold and feel, often in phrases containing the word it, such as asking to "hold it" or "feel it."  He says things like "turn around," "one time," and "one more" consistently and in the right context.  He suddenly knows the difference between one of something and two of something, and will tell you how many there are.  He told us every time we walked into our hotel room that there were "two beds!"  I think this is particularly amusing because when he counts, he completely skips the number two, yet can always pick out when an object appears in pairs.  Weird!

To get to my point and make a long story even longer, I feel like I suddenly have a full-fledged two year-old on my hands!  I know he won't be two for another few months, but I just can't think of him as a one year-old anymore.  He's changed so much since his first birthday and is much more like a two year-old now than a one year-old, temper tantrums and all.  It's been only three days that I've been home with him alone this summer due to our vacation, but I can already tell that this is going to be the best summer of my life.  My little boy is growing up, and I'm so glad I get to be the one to watch him do it!

Big boy bed, here we come!

I've been planning to transition Logan to his "big boy" room this summer.  I knew I didn't want two cribs, and because he's not the greatest sleeper, I want to make sure the whole transition to a new room, new type of bed, etc. is complete before the new baby arrives so I'm (hopefully) not waking up with two crying little ones at night.  I have mixed emotions about this whole process - I'm excited to give Logan a new room, but sad he won't need his nursery anymore.  I don't know how I feel about using his nursery for the new baby yet because I still think of it as Logan's room.  I know he's going to feel that way too.

Anyway, this weekend we ventured to the lake for the first time this summer.  I was very stressed about this trip because Logan never slept well there last year.  He slept in a pack-n-play in my in-laws' bedroom (not enough space for it in our room) and woke up several times each night, usually ending up in bed with us.  I rarely felt like I got any rest at the lake and dreaded making the trip more often than not because of our sleeping issues.  This year we decided to just say "screw it" and let Logan sleep with us, hopefully avoiding the middle of the night wakings and cryings.  This was Logan's first experience sleeping in an actual "big boy" bed for naptime, and I was curious about how he would do on his own.  I was pleasantly surprised!  He took great naps and slept really well both nights!  He was a little apprehensive at first and uneasy when first waking up because I'm sure he didn't really know where he was.  We had to lay down with him to get him to fall asleep, but then we could get back up and leave him sleeping in there alone.  We would put him on my side of the bed by the wall so he didn't fall out of bed, and when he woke up, he'd just sit up and cry a little until we went in to get him.  But by Sunday's nap, he was a pro.  In fact, when I went in to check on him toward the end of his nap, I found him on his way out the door, rested and ready to play!  And now he has discovered that he likes sleeping with covers on - tonight he even asked me to cover him up with a blanket when I put him to bed!  He's growing up so fast!

At this point, I'm wondering if the transition to his new room is going to be a little bit easier than I originally thought.  I know being at home and moving to a new room is pretty different from sleeping somewhere else in a different room, but only time will tell how my little man will adjust.

As for his room, I knew I didn't want a themed room because I want him to be able to keep the same bedding for a while without getting tired of the theme or growing out of it.  I'm finding that it is almost impossible to find kids' bedding that is not themed.  I've looked mostly online, and I want something that is brightly colored, probably striped, that doesn't look babyish but doesn't look like a teenager's bed either.  We'll be getting him a full-sized bed so it can double as our guest bed, so I thought it would be pretty easy to find something, but I'm having a pretty hard time finding what I like (that we can actually afford).  I've found exactly one bedding set that I even sort of like (see it here) - it's got a subtle sports theme, but it's really just a set of sheets and a pillow that we can get rid of later if we get tired of the theme.  Plus, boys like sports even when they're older.  I haven't ordered it yet because I'm waiting to start on his room until after we get back from Hilton Head next week and I'm not working anymore.  I'm getting really excited, and I can't wait to post pictures when it's finished.  Hang in there, though, it's going to be a long process!

Update:  When I went to the Macy's website to link the picture of the bedding, I found out it was on super sale with a free shipping promo!  I went ahead and ordered it, and saved $130.00!  I'm so excited - the big boy room is officially in the works!

Staying Put

Most of you know that we have had our house for sale for a LONG time - about a year and two weeks now.  I honestly can't remember back to a time when our house wasn't for sale.  Checking email, searching for houses, and cleaning for showings have become routine for us in the past year.  It's been a year of intense ups and downs, and even a few heartbreaks.  But I think we've become stronger people because of it.  We have agreed to keep trying to sell our house for another month - we're giving it until the 4th of July. At that point, we feel that it will be getting too close to the time that the baby will be born for us to be dealing with selling a house.  We plan to make our current guest room Logan's "big boy" room, and I want that transition to be complete by the time we have to bring a new baby home.  I also don't want to be bothered with cleaning and having to leave for showings with a newborn and a two year old at home.  So, in another month we will most likely be taking our house off the market - unsold.  Surprisingly, I am very okay with this.  I've had some moments of heavy-duty stress over the past few weeks, thinking about ending the school year, getting ready for a substitute to start next school year for me, selling our house, and buying a new one.  I will be happy to have a few of those stressors out of my life, even if it means we're not getting exactly what we wanted.  I know that taking an entire semester off work in the fall will really push our family to financial limits, and this would not be possible with a new house.  I'm starting to see now that this whole process is just a blessing in disguise and God's way of showing me that time with my boys will always be more important than having a bigger, newer home.  It will be a tight squeeze for us, but I know we can make it work.  I'm actually looking forward to a learning experience that is going to help me re-examine what's really important in my life.  We will need to do some cleaning out of our "stuff" to make room for the baby, and we will definitely have to prioritize our spending - two things that we desperately need to do but are not motivated to do without feeling like we have to.  I plan on using the next several months as an opportunity to make little improvements to our current house (we do plan to try to put it back on the market again next spring), our growing family, and our lifestyle.  I'm amazed that a situation that has seemed like such a pain throughout this whole process is now giving me a sense of calm and hope.  (Disclaimer:  I am hormonal, so my feelings about this situation will most likely change by tomorrow, if not sooner!)

And now, just for fun, here is a picture of my little Logan the day we put our house up for sale last year. He couldn't even stand up by himself, and now he's almost two!

I'm Back!

Well, technically it's not me that's back, it's my background.  I noticed today that it was gone.  Then I noticed that it had been like that for a long time, I just hadn't noticed until now.  (Yes, I know I used the word noticed A LOT in that sentence!)  But anyway, I hope it's back for you - I can see it, and I think it just makes my blog a teensy bit more fun to look at.  Now I guess I'll have to post something for people to actually read, huh?

Before I Was a Mom...

Thanks to a great friend for letting me borrow this poem!


Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry about whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew I could love someone so much.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.