Comments and Strawberries

I have (well with the help of my dear friend, Lindsey).. I have fixed the comments section on my blog. So feel free to comment away! :)

It got up to 90 degrees here today. It's going to be another hot summer and it's quickly approaching. We waited until the sun started to go down to go on our evening walk tonight which was nice. Tim, Leah, and I walked down to the neighborhood park and let her play on the playground for about an hour and then we walked home. Baby Chase is not happy in there right now. I'm having some braxton hicks contractions, which are not worrisome, just annoying, so I'm drinking about a gallon of water and relaxing (and peeing) for the rest of the night.

Leah's put all of her strawberries ("bawbewwies") from dinner into one of her "play kitchen" pots and is saying "hot hot hot" and pretending to touch them then bring her hand away. It's too funny.

"I'm not sleepy yet!"

This was my FAVORITE childhood bedtime story. I can't tell you how many times my mom and dad read this to me "again! again!" When I had Leah, my mom passed down the precious "Sleepy Squirrel" book to read to her. Since she's graduated into her "big girl bed" and we've replaced songs with stories... this has become a bedtime MUST! As soon as she gets her jammies on and her hair dried, she runs over to her rocking chair and grabs the book saying "SKIRL SKIRL!" (squirrel). And so it begins... I read it to her "again! again!" usually 2 or 3 times and then it's off to bed and lights out. I just think it's pretty hilarious that she's taken a liking to the same book that I did growing up. She makes sure to point out all of Little Maple's tub toys.. "ball. turtle. boat. whale!" and on the last page, Little Maple is sleeping in her big girl bed with her blanky and she LOVES that Maple's blanky matches her own. She says "banky banky! banky too!" It's the cutest thing, I just want to gobble her up!


And here I am with my 28 week baby belly.... This boy NEVER stops moving! My stomach looks like there is an alien taking over. He gets the hiccups every time I eat or drink something. I know I said I wanted to take this pregnancy slow, but I'm so over it!! Only 80 days to go......

We're on our way...

To financial freedom! We still have a long ways to go but this morning Tim and I paid off our first loan that we got together as a couple (consolidated all of our pre-marriage debts and also bought our first vehicle). It was about $26,000 to begin with and today it's GONE! We still have a ways to go before we are totally debt-free but that was a huge step and now that it's gone we can focus on getting rid of the rest! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders! I just thank God that we are still so young and made our financial mistakes early in life. Everything has been such a learning experience and I feel so blessed.



On a lighter note, yesterday we found a cute little pond in a neighborhood a few minutes away where there were lots of ducks! We took Leah and a loaf of stale bread and let her go at it! She was running around chasing them, saying "wack wack wack!" (quack quack). She was trying to pet them and pick them up too haha. They took the bread right out of her hands and she thought it was the funniest thing (until she got nipped, but she got over it). We just enjoy being outdoors and exploring new things! It's getting warmer (supposed to be in the upper 80's next week) and spring is definately among us.

Big Girl Bed Extravaganza!

Well the other night Tim was at work and I was feeling very brave so I decided to attempt... drumroll please... the BIG GIRL BED! I moved the crib to the other side of the room, put her toddler bed where her crib used to be, switched the mattresses and blankets so they were all the same ones that she had in her crib, and even rigged the crib bumper on there to make it as crib-like as possible.
Leah went wild as I was rearranging her room so I had to wait about an hour before attempting the bath and bedtime routine. I wanted her to be as tired as possible. When it was time for bed, I replaced rocking/singing to her with reading stories, which she was up for (again! again!). And then when I told her it was time for ni-ni she walked over to her crib and looked at me with this very puzzled look as to why I was standing over at her toddler bed and not putting her in her crib. She stood there for a minute and then came over and crawled into her new bed. I told her "time to sleep in your big girl bed!" and she patted the edge of it motioning for me to lay down and said "you too mama?" HAHA so I laid down with her for a few minutes and then told her goodnight and shut the door and held my breath.

She fell right asleep!!!! I didn't hear anything and so about a half hour later I went in to peek on her and she was sound asleep! SHOCK!

She stayed in bed all night until about 3am and then she realized she could get up and come in my room. I hear "HI MAMA! FROG? RIBBIT! MILK? MORE MILK?" LOL I chuckled and told her "no baby, time for ni-ni" and took her back and laid her down in her bed. She came out a couple more times and I just took her back to bed (and again held my breath...). She went back to SLEEP!

SIGH.

I just couldn't believe that it was that easy! If you know us, then you know Leah has been a HORRIBLE sleeper from birth up until we did sleep-training (aka cry it out, hold your breath, wear ear plugs, argue with your husband about whether or not you should pick her up, etc etc...) at about 15 months. Alas, she finally slept through the night so you can see why I was terrified to change it up any. But much to my surpirse, she proved me wrong. She successfully napped there yesterday and slept all night last night! What a relief!

Here are some pictures to mark the occassion.... enjoy :) XOXO, Sarah


The set-up!


Confused at first...


8:30PM SOUND ASLEEP!! (she sleeps diagonally like me....LOL)

Bedtime Big Girl

Since the day we brought Leah home from the hospital (or whenever we figured out she needed a schedule.. ie 4 months).. she has had the same bedtime routine every night. At around 7:30 we give her a bath. After bath, she lays down on her towel in her room and gets a lotion massage, brush teeth, brush hair, diaper, jammies. Then I sit with her in the rocking chair and sing her approx 3 songs while she had a bottle (up until 1 year) or sippy cup of water and snuggles her blanky. I put her in her crib while she was still awake so she would get used to soothing herself to sleep, which she does very well I might add (pat on back, Me!). ANYWAYS the point of my story is that she no longer wants me to rock her and sing to her anymore! After her bath and lotion, she stands up and I'll go sit on the rocker to wait for her but she goes right to her crib and says "UP Mama, Bed, Ni Ni!" To which I give her a pouty face and say, "you don't want to snuggles with mama?" And she replies "BED NI NI!" And then goes around her room and collects her animals ("ah gator" (alligator) "baby" "cars!" "dis! dis!" (whatever THIS may be that specific night) and heads back to her bed asking me to put her in.

SIGH.

Well, I guess she is no longer my BABY. She's now my big girl who doesn't want mommy to rock her anymore. SAD FACE!

Well touche! I guess it's time to get rid of the crib and move on to her toddler bed! I thought she wasn't ready yet but apparently I was wrong!

Here's some cute pictures of my big girl...


She wasn't feeling great this particular day. So what makes everything better...? POPSICLES!

My antisocial girl "playing" with other kids at the park.

This pregnancy is flying by. 27 weeks here. Yes, my hair is darker but don't get used to it. My hair is growing like wildfire this pregnancy and I can't keep up with the roots being blonde! This is a little dark for my taste but it should lighten up...


Out visiting the "hawsies"

what dreams are made of...

Sometimes i wonder what on earth kids dream about. Last night. Leah was talking in her sleep. She said, "Bubby! (our dog) Ribbit Ribbit!"

We went on our daily walk the other morning and Leah insisted on taking her wagon, even though she didn't want to ride in it. She went down the street collecting all of the 'super shoppers' (little coupon newspapers) from everyone's driveway, saying "uh oh! dropped it!" (as in, uh oh! someone dropped it!). She had about 25 in her wagon by the time we got to the park. On the way home, I tried explaining to her that they belonged to the other people and we "throwed it" back in front of everyone's house. It was pretty entertaining. She was still a little concerned that they were on the ground and wanted to go back and pick them up.

she melts my heart...

okay so i'm not cut out for this blogging every day thing.. i mean seriously, who has time for that??

On a lighter note... today I have been deep cleaning my house. The dogs are at the groomer and Tim's working so it's nice and peaceful here today with just me and Leah. I set her up in the living room with her toys and snacks and put Barney on (of course) so I could get some things done like vacuuming and scrubbing the bathroom... Well I was wondering why it was so quiet (that's never good...) so I ran out to check on her and this is what I find:

The picture is blurry because I was laughing/crying. The sight was SO precious. I mean it's an hour before nap time so I didn't think she would be tired. But there she is... falling out of her chair fast asleep. I snapped the picture really quickly and then scooped her up and put her down in her bed for nap. She looked up at me and said "mama? more juice peas." i said "okay baby i'll get you some more juice, ni ni, i love you" she closed her eyes and said in her own little voice "i luh you" and then she was out. Maybe if I wasn't pregnant this wouldn't have made me cry but it was just too sweet. I love that girl!
Here's a Valentine's Day picture for you all. XOXO!