Being a Mom is gross

The past couple days have been gross.

I  haven't taken a shower since Wednesday morning, and, as I am typing this, it is Friday night.  I picked Finnley up early from daycare Wednesday afternoon, drove her straight to the pediatrician's office, and have been going 100mph in opposite directions ever since.  Thankfully, I got my hair done last week so my normally oily hair is looking quite good on day 3 (with some help from Suave dry shampoo--which I love).  (And, yes, I have taken a bird bath this week, I promise.)

Finnley pooped everywhere this afternoon, including all over her clothes, her blanket, and her swing.  This was after she pooped all over me as I was taking her temperature.  Yes, you are picturing it correctly: she literally pooped out the thermometer.

Speaking of poop, we got Grayson his big boy potty today.  He is starting to really show interest in potty training, so we decided to give it a go.  We aren't going full-force yet--we want him to get used to the potty without putting any pressure on him.  Anyway, tonight, before bed, we asked him if he wanted to sit on his potty.  He said he did and started taking off his diaper.  Well, it just so happened he had pooped in his diaper, and he sat down on his potty before we could wipe him off.  So, there was poop spread all over the seat.  And then, he stood up, walked about two steps, and peed all over the pants he had just taken off and the floor.  About that time, I remembered that I need to disinfect his bath toys since he pooped in the tub yesterday.

We have cleaned up and sucked out more snot this week than I care to think about.

Our house is an absolute disaster.  I don't know how it gets so out of control so quickly.  I hate the hardwood floors.  I mean, I love the way they look when they are clean.  But, normally, they are covered in dog hair and Grayson crumbs.  And, thanks to our swampy sodded back yard, our floor is currently covered in about 100 muddy paw prints.

Grayson licked an air freshener today.  Then he gagged.  Multiple times.

Our son likes to make himself gag...usually until he throws something up.  Then he cries.  It's really not funny, but I can't help but laugh.

On a clean note, we have washed, dried, and folded 5 loads of laundry, and ran the dishwasher 4 times in 3 days.


And this, my friends, is why I would never survive as a stay-at-home mom, no matter how badly I think I want to be one.  I just don't know how they do it!

I am 2 months old! by Finnley

Sorry for the delay in this post!  

I am 2 months old!

There are some things you should know about me:

I love my swaddle, except I only like it when I can have one arm out of it.  I like to have my hand close to my face.

I like when Mommy sings to me or Daddy makes silly noises at me.

I am learning to use my hands! I love to stare at my hand.  It is the coolest thing!  :)

I like to sit in my Bumbo chair sometimes. It makes me feel like such a big girl!
I especially like to sit in it and watch Mommy and Daddy get ready in the bathroom. I also like to sit and watch TV and to watch my silly Big Brother play (but only if Mommy sits right next to me). :)

I am a very happy baby, and I love to smile and laugh. Everyone says I have the prettiest smile.

I love taking baths! I would sit in the bathtub all day if I could.
But, Mommy says I'll get all wrinkly and cold if I did...and I don't want that to happen.

I am growing quickly!
I weigh 10 pounds and 6 ounces and am 22.75 inches long.  I wear 0-3 month sized shirts (but they are still a little big for me) and some of my newborn outfits still fit, I eat 4-5 ounces of milk 5-6 times a day, and I am sleeping for at least 8 hours at a time every night!

I love spending time outdoors.

I like to take rides in the car, as long as they aren't too long. 

I like to go shopping with Mommy and Daddy.  It's so much fun looking around and seeing everything and everyone around me!

My most favorite time of day is when Mommy and Daddy pick me up from school.

I love my Big Brother. I love when my he gives me hugs and kisses.  He doesn't like to hear me cry, so he will bring me my foo-foo or my lovie.

I can hold my head up nice and strong! 

I love when Mommy and Daddy hold me so I can see the world around me.

As you can see, I am having so much fun! Thank you for reading about me! I love you all!

Thursday Randomness

It's been a quiet morning around here this morning. Finnley is a little under the weather and couldn't go to school today, so we have been spending some time cuddling on the bed/couch, watching reality TV, and napping.  It's times like now that I especially wish that I was able to open my own treatment center for people with disabilities and not have to send the kids to daycare.  One day.  One day.

Anyway, Finnley has been sleeping in her swing, so I have used my time to try to get this family organized!  I have said it before, but having two kids that are only 17 months apart is much more chaotic than we anticipated it being.  Whew, I'm tired!  :)  This morning, I was able to make a list of learning activities that we could do with the kids, printed out our weekly family schedule, and made a grocery list.  Woohoo!  This is so unlike me.  HA!  I found the Mommy Tracked website and immediately fell in love! They have tons of printables and tips for every Mommy, including stay-at-home Moms and Moms who work out of the home!  You can find a list of there printables here and the weekly schedule we use here.  I have the weekly schedule hanging on our fridge along with our monthly calendar from Anything But Perfect.  Having both lets me organize the meals and activities for each week, along with being able to see what is coming up later in the month.

I also printed out some of our favorite Weight Watchers recipes.  I forgot how yummy some of the food on Weight Watchers can be!  Here are some of the foods we have made so far this week:

Buffalo Chicken Pizzas: 3 points per serving

1 serving(s) pizza cheese, 1/4 cup    1 serving(s) Boboli Pizza crust, 1/6 of pizza    1 serving(s) honey    1 serving(s) mild wing sauce    1 serving(s) dijon mustard    1 serving(s) chicken breast strips    1 serving(s) tomato sauce    Instructions Preheat the oven to 425°F. Combine the hot pepper sauce, mustard, and honey in a small bowl. Toss the chicken and half of the hot pepper sauce mixture in a medium bowl; let marinate 15 minutes. Arrange the roll halves, cut-side up, on a baking sheet. Spray a nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken, turning once, until browned and just cooked through, 3–4 minutes. Stir in the remaining hot pepper sauce mixture and the tomato sauce. Spoon the chicken and sauce evenly onto the 4 roll halves, then sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until heated through and the cheese melts, 10–12 minutes. Yields 1 piece per serving.  Yummy Turkey Burgers with Chili Fries: 8 points per serving 2 large uncooked potato(es), cut into thin strips    2 large egg white(s)    3/4 Tbsp Durkee ground cumin, or other brand    1/2 tsp table salt    1/2 tsp chili powder    1/4 tsp black pepper, (optional)    1 pound(s) uncooked ground turkey breast    1/2 tsp table salt    1/4 tsp black pepper    1 serving(s) Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns    1 serving(s) Kroger Fat Free American Singles    Instructions Preheat oven to 425°F. Coat a nonstick baking sheet and broiler rack with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, egg whites, cumin, salt, chili powder and pepper; toss to coat. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake until potatoes are barely tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl lightly combine turkey, onion, egg, parsley, garlic, tarragon, salt and pepper. Form into 4 burgers. Increase oven temperature to broil. Broil fries until crispy, about 10 minutes. At the same time, broil burgers until brown, about 5 minutes on each side. Place on rolls and serve immediately. Breakfast Bars: 2 points each

	1 1/2 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats
	3 large banana(s)
	1 cup(s) unsweetened applesauce
	1/4 cup(s) raisins
	2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

• Pretty much just throw everything together, mix it up pretty well, throw it on a baking sheet at 350 for about 35 minutes and then go to town! 

 Sorry for the crazy formatting!  I don't know how to fix it!

I've also had lots of fun with finding new foods that are low in points that I can have lots of!  :)

**On a side note, if you are interested in starting Weight Watchers or are currently following the plan and you want some other of my favorite foods or want to swap ideas, please let me know!**

And, if you are a Memphis Mommy, then GET EXCITED!  Carter's has come to Memphis!!  YAY!  I signed up for their email coupons last month when we went to Tunica to their outlet store.  I love that they are not just about 10 minutes away!  :)

I plan on having Finnley's 2 month post up this week.  She actually turned 2 months on Tuesday, but I haven't had a chance to write the post, thanks to her feeling icky for a couple days.  Hopefully I can get it done today!

Well, my sweet princess is stirring in her swing, letting me know she is ready to eat.  As always, thanks for checking in on us!  We love you all!

Mommy 101

**I am by no means an expert parent, nor do I claim to be.  In the short time of my "mommyhood", though, I have found that asking other parents questions is one of the BEST ways to learn tricks of the trade. This is simply by way of dispersing information that I have found helpful.**

I have gotten several questions in the past couple days (both here and on Facebook) about getting Finnley to sleep through the night, and it got me thinking: what are some things that I wish I had known before I became a mom?  What were the questions that I most asked other moms?  So, I thought a little Mommy 101 post might be helpful today.  Oh, and please remember, this may not work for everyone, but it's what worked for us.

How did you get your kids to sleep through the night?

We have been very blessed in this department.  Our kids are both great sleepers: Finnley was born that way, but Grayson was much harder.  When Grayson was 6 weeks old, the doctor told us that he weighed enough that he could sleep at least 7 hours without needing to eat.  Therefore, he was big enough that it was time to start teaching him that he didn't need to eat in the middle of the night anymore.  Honestly, I wasn't ready for this step.  I didn't want to hear my baby wake up screaming in the middle of the night.  I mean, maybe he didn't need to eat in the middle of the night, but, if he was hungry, then I wasn't going to just let him cry.  But, that's the thing: I didn't understand that he really wasn't hungry...he was just waking up out of habit. 

• First: I had been writing down every little thing Grayson did all day long for weeks so that I could start getting him on a schedule.  Becuase of this tracking, I knew that the best time to put Grayson down for the night was when he was tired but not so tired he fought sleep.  For Grayson, this time was about 6:15pm-6:30pm.  Yes, that seems early but remember: sleep brings on sleep. Anyway, we started the teaching process on the weekend.  (And, if you decide to follow what we did, I recommend starting this during a week when you don't have anything big going on...trust me, you WILL lose sleep during this process, but it will be so worth it.  Just don't start on a week when there is no way you can function on little to no sleep).  The first night, whenever Grayson woke up crying, we went into his room every 5 minutes, loved on him, shushed him, and then left the room.  NO picking him up, NO rocking him...just letting him know we were still there and that we loved him.  As I said, we went in every 5 minutes until he stopped crying.  The next night, we went in every 10 minutes whenever he woke up crying.  The third night (and every night after), we went in every 15 minutes.  By the fourth night, he was able to put himself back to sleep much easier.  In fact, there were several nights where he woke up, whimpered, and went right back to sleep. 
• Second: Along with sleep training, we also changed his feeding schedule.  Because we put him down every night around 6:30pm, he could only technically go until 1:30am (7 hours later) without eating!  That wouldn't work for sleeping through night!  So, we would still give him his feeding before bed, then I would go into his room around 10:00pm or so and dream feed him.  (At this time, he was usually eating around every 4 hours).  I wouldn't give him a full feeding, but just enough that he wouldn't wake up thinking he was hungry.  **Let me back up just a little: along with telling us that Grayson was big enough that he could go 7 hours, the doctor also told us that we needed to be careful not to overfeed him.  The most he should have been eating was 30 ounces each day.  SO, I didn't give him a full feeding because I didn't want to go over that 30 ounce mark.** Then, he could sleep until 5:00am the next morning without eating.  If he woke up, we would go in the room, just like I described above.  In the morning, I would give him another partial feeding (just enough that he would go back to sleep for a few hours).  Every few days, I would give him less foruula at night and feed him a little later each morning.  Before we knew it, he was sleeping from 6:30pm to 6:30am every day!!

Please don't get me wrong.  This was HARD.  It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.  I hated laying in bed or sitting outside of his room listening to him cry.  He was so little!  But, believe me, it was sooo worth it.  He now sleeps for almost 12 hours every night!

Finnley has been different.  She has been able to pretty much self-soothe herself since the day she came home.  I think this is due a lot to the fact that she has had to cry while we stop Grayson from doing something he's not supposed to, or feed him, or something.  Also, I think she just has a different temperment.  She is much more easy-going than Grayson.  With Finnley, we haven't had to let her cry it out.  She only wakes up in the middle of the night if she is gassy or if she has turned in her crib so that her head is against the rail.  BUT, we have done the dream feed.  And, at 2 months old, she is consistently sleeping 8-9 hours solid each night. 

Do you feel guilty not breastfeeding?

This is one of the most common questions that people ask me, especially many of the staff members that I work with.  And, honestly, yes I did.  There are so many images and statements bombarding new moms about the importance of breastfeeding and how it is best for the child.  And, yes, that is true.  As a result, I felt an intense feeling of failure when I stopped breastfeeding Grayson.  It was like I was failing as a mom!  Here I was, stressing over the fact that I wasn't producing enough milk, that I was having to pump while I was driving down the road between clients, and that my son just wasn't getting enough to eat!  But, I couldn't continue.  It just was too much.  I had to make myself realize that I was not a bad mom--Grayson could tell that I was stressed and it affected both of us.  Feeding my son formula made both of us more happy, and made our family life happier.  That was worth it to me. 

With Finnley, I breasfed for 4 weeks, and then I couldn't continue thanks to her reflux and a sudden drastic drop in my milk supply.  Finnley was miserable because she wasn't getting enough to eat, and I was miserable because she was literally eating 24/7.  Now that she is on half AR and half Gentlease (and some medication) she is a totally different kid.

So, no, I don't feel guilty.

How are you losing the baby weight?

I am doing Weight Watchers online.  It worked after my second pregnancy, and I am hoping it will work again after this pregnancy!  Don't expect your body to ever be the same, though.  I was lucky enough to get back to my pre-baby weight very quickly after Grayson without doing a thing---but I still had a poochy stomach, fat legs, and none of my clothes fit the way they had before I got pregnant.  Babies stretch and pull our insides and outsides in more ways than we realize.  But, I wouldn't trade my two angels for a perfect bikini body anyway.

How do you discipline your kids?

This is a tough question for me.  After all, I have a doctorate degree in behavior.  I live, breathe, and sleep behavior modification thanks to being on-call for my job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Behavior is a part of my life.  BUT, that doesn't mean that our kids behave perfectly.  In fact, Grayson has been labeled as one of the "trouble-makers" at his school.  Yes, Grayson is the bad kid, the handfull, the problem child.  UGH.  At almost 19 months, some of the behaviors we have seen are typical...they are just a bit to the extreme.  Grayson hits, takes toys, throws tantrums, bites, and is aggressive to other kids, his teachers, and us. In the past few months, I have learned that there is no magic discipline trick when it comes to your own child.  You just have to do what works for him.  In our house, time-out has been effective.  When Grayson misbehaves, we warn him once, telling him "No, you don't ________.  If you ______ again, you will have to go to time-out."  If he does the behavior again, we count to 3, then immediately tell him he is going to time-out.  Because he is so little and doesn't quite understand the concept of having to sit still, we put him in his crib.  I don't love that we use his crib as the time-out spot, but it's what we have to do for now.  Once he is just a little bit older, we will have a time-out chair that he will sit in.  We don't say anything to him, put him in his crib, and immediately walk out of the room.  He stays in time-out for 2 minutes, and, once he is calm, we walk in, tell him why he went to time-out and that we love him.  That's it.  So far, it has proven to be effective at calming him down and helping him to learn that there are consequences for his behavior.  It also helps that this is the same technique that use at his school.  It doesn't always stop the behavior from happening again, but we know that we must be consistent. 

I also do a lot of ignoring.  Grayson has this new squeeling behavior.  He will scream at the top of his lung in a high-pitched, ear piercing scream.  It is soooooooooooooo annoying.  And he LOVES to do it in public...especially in stores and restaurants.  At home, if he does this (or something similar) I ignore.  Yes, it gets louder and even more annoying.  When he stops and tries to get my attention appropriately, then I give him tons of praise.  This way, he will learn that Mommy will not talk to him, no matter how loud he screams.  It has worked quite well.  Of course, I can't ignore in the grocery store.  So, when he does it there, we either try to redirect him (asking him questions but saying nothing about his screaming) or we immediately leave.  Either way, no attention is given for his screaming.

Believe me, he still has his bad days, but I think that just comes with having a toddler.  Oh, and teamwork is imperative.  Mommy and Daddy MUST be on the same page, no matter what type of discipline you choose to use.

How do you and your husband stay connected?

This is the hardest thing about having kids.  And, David and I haven't done a very good job of making our relationship a priority since having Finnley.  In all honesty, we have just been in survival mode for the last eight weeks.  But, now that we have started in a routine (and I am not falling asleep on the couch anymore as often), we use the time after the kids go to bed as "our time."  Usually, this means making dinner together, crawling into our bed, turning on our DVR, and just spending time together.  We also try to make the most of the little moments: driving together in the car, talking on the phone, etc.  And, we remember that we have to have time to ourselves, too.  David does things by himself while I have the kids, and vice versa.  We realize that, in order to keep our sanity, we just need to be away sometimes.  Another thing that helps is that my mother-in-law and my parents are very eager to watch the kids if David and I need to have a night out together.  And alcohol.  Lots and lots of alcohol.  HA!  Just kidding.


Those are the most commonly asked questions I hear.  I hope my answers are helpful!!  Please feel free to ask anymore if you have them.  Like I said, asking other moms is THE BEST way that I have learned to get the never-ending questions I have answered. 

P.S.  This book is also a lifesaver:

It's available in paperback and on the Nook.  I can't tell you how many times I have used it (especially when I am awake worrying in the middle of the night.)

A day of firsts

Today is Finnley's first day of school. 
She wasn't really sure what to think of Mama waking her up this morning, getting her all dressed, and sticking her in the carseat:

Of course, in typical Esther fashion, I had a terrible time leaving her and even cried as I was walking out the door.  Don't get me wrong, we LOVE her school and everyone there--they took (and still do take) AMAZING care of Grayson.  It was just really hard leaving my baby.  :(

Today, Grayson wore his new clothes for the first time:

Oh my goodness, he looks like such a big boy!  He is wearing his new shoes, too!  :)

Today is my first day staring Weight Watchers.  I started the program a year ago after we lost Baby Bledsoe, and was really happy with the results.  I wasn't on it long, though, because I became pregnant with Finnley after about 2 months.  I am hoping that I will have even better results this time around.  We shall see.

It's busy in our cove today.  There are 6 lots total (including ours), and they all have been sold!  Here is the house belonging to our first neighbor:

And, as I'm typing this, they are bulldozing the lot next to ours.  If all goes according to schedule, we will have 5 new houses in our cove by the end of August!  Yay for meeting new people!

We love you all!

What the.....

Last Saturday, we woke up to this in Grayson's crib:

Yes, that's blood.
And we freaked out.  We looked all over him to see if we could figure out where it came from: it wasn't from his nose, it wasn't from his mouth, it wasn't from his ears, and it wasn't from his diaper.  He seemed to be acting fine, but we just couldn't get over that the blood had to come from somewhere.


So, I called the on-call number for our doctor to see if we should take him to the ER or if we could take him into the office when they opened.  The nurse didn't seem like it was a big deal, but said if we wanted peace of mind for the weekend that we could bring him in that morning.

I rushed right there.

Dr. Catherine looked all over Grayson and couldn't find anything.  The only thing she could determine was that he had thrown up in the middle of the night and the red was due to some juice he had had on Friday afternoon.  Then....

she just happened to notice a spot on Grayson's cheek.  It turns out, he had bitten a chunk out of the side of his mouth in his sleep.

THANK GOODNESS it wasn't anything more serious.  I was sure it was from his ears and was NOT happy about it.

Oh, and this morning, more blood.  He tripped and bit his bottom lip.  Again, blood everywhere.

I hope Bloody Saturdays aren't a trend.

Thanks for checking in on us!  We love you all!

Life goes on

Once again, my mind this week has been on sweet Baby Bledsoe, our Angel Baby. One of my dear friends found out last week that her little baby also went to Heaven, and those all-too-familiar feelings came rushing back to me. I struggled to find the words to comfort her, which struck me as odd. I mean, I knew exactly the thoughts that were going through her head, the exact ache in her heart that is constantly there, and the guilt that no mother of an Angel Baby wants to admit feeling. Why then, was I having such a hard time?

Truthfully there are no words to say. There is nothing that can bring comfort in that time. The only thing that heals is time. And time does heal...eventually. Because life does go on. Time moves on. The hurt lessens, the memories fade, and new heartaches come along that we focus on. I still think if our Angel every day. Every. Single. Day. And my heart still aches every day. Every. Single. Day. But, it doesn't make me cry anymore. It doesn't knock the breath out of me anymore.

It does still bring me to my knees, though. I thank God for those 12 weeks that we had with our little one. Those 12 weeks were full of a roller coaster of fear, surprise, joy, anxiety, sadness, and worry. Those 12 weeks forever changed our family, and the relationship between David and I. I dream now of what our baby is experiencing in Heaven...I find myself jealous that he or she is in the arms of Jesus while I am here in this world full of sin and hate. I can't wait to hold my baby, and I thank Jesus for holding him or her until I can.

I like to think that our baby and my friend's baby are buddies in Heaven, just as we are in Earth. And, I told her that the other day. In fact, I said that Jesus must have His hands full...and He does. He is holding our precious Angels.

So, time does move on. And I'm thankful for that. I know my friend will be, too...eventually.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I am loving these breakfast cookies!

They are super yummy and easy for me to grab in the morning as I am running out the door with both kids. I have only tried the Apple Cinnamon, but I am definitely planning on trying the other flavors!

I am loving that this girl is sleeping through the night!

I love that Grayson is using his new stepstool to stand on at the sink.  And, I love that he is such a Daddy's boy.  :)

I am loving these recent Pins on Pinterest:

These are apples, marshmallows, and peanut butter...how cute!!

I love the thought of using old barn doors as our headboard.

I am definitely going to send these to school for Grayson's class.

Grayson loves the tool set Grandma and PapPap gave him..I would love to make him a workshop!

I am loving this season of Real Housewives of Orange County...

and Project Runway: All Stars.

Reality TV is definitely one of my guilty pleasures!

That's what I'm loving this Wednesday!  What are YOU loving?

What we've been up to...

This is going to be quite the rambling mess of a post. Just a warning!


Tuesday, we took Finnley to the chiropractor. David had mentioned at work one night that she had horrible reflux and one of his co-workers mentioned that chiropractic medicine as a treatment. So, David and I did some research, made the call, and took her in to Dr. Tammy. I had been to a chiropractor before, but a pediatric chiropractor is totally different that anything that I expected. Basically, she did an exam and stated that Finn’s C1 was out of place. She adjusted her (pretty much gave her little neck a baby massage), checked some reflexes, and told us that we needed to work on having Finn look the other way because she turns her head to the right so much. I’m telling you, the results have been fantastic, even after just one adjustment. Every feeding since her appointment has gone so well! She doesn’t cough and choke through eating, and she is so much less congested after eating. She also has slept like a rock the past 2 nighta: almost 7 straight hours between feedings. On Tuesday night, she was so tired that she wouldn’t take her dream feed when David tried to give it to her. David also mentioned that she is much less fussy during the day. We took her this morning and will go again next week, so we will see if all this has just been a fluke, or if the results will get even better. Dr. Tammy did mention that, since she’s so little, it might not take many adjustments before we can take her off her Prevacid completely. YAY!

We are in the process of Project Drop-the-FooFoo. Since Finnley has been born, Grayson has become obsessed with having his foofoo in his mouth any time he is home. He is fine at school without it, and he doesn’t ask for it if he doesn’t see it, but he will often go into his room, grab one out of his bed, and walk around with it. So, we are doing away with his free access to them. We gathered up all his foofoo’s yesterday while he is at school and gave him one at bedtime. We debated getting rid of them all together, but I want to wait to see how this goes first. The poor kid has been through so many changes in the past 2 months that I don’t want to do too much to upset him anymore.

Grayson is growing up too fast! He is ready to start potty-training, and I just don’t know where to start. Do any of you mom’s have any suggestions? Should we teach him to stand up or sit down to pee? Should we use the big potty or get him a little one of his own? How did ya’ll start the process?

I started back to work this week, and it has been more of an adjustment than I had anticipated. Currently, David is working weekends, so he is helping watch her until she starts daycare on March 5th (which I am not looking forward to). It’s great that he is able to stay home during the week. Since my job is so flexible, we actually had this schedule for the first 4 months of Grayson’s life! This is how our weeks usually look:
Mondays: David sleeps in AM; I get both kids up and ready, then take Grayson to school and then hang at home with Finn until David gets up around 1pm. Then I go to work until about 6pm. David picks up Grayson in the afternoon and has both kids by himself until I get home.
Tuesdays: David sleeps in AM; I get both kids up and ready, then take Grayson to school and then hang at home with Finn until David gets up around noon. Then I go to work until about 6pm.
Wednesdays and Thursdays: I get Grayson up and ready, then take him to school. I work until 4:30pm or so while David gets Finn up and ready and hangs at home with her. He picks up Grayson in the afternoon and has both kids by himself until I get home.
Fridays: I get Grayson up and ready, then take him to school. I work until around 2pm while David gets Finn up and ready and hangs at home with her. I pick up Grayson from school and have both kids by myself while David naps before work. He usually gets up around 6:30pm or so and we have family time until we put the kids to bed.
Saturdays and Sundays: I get both kids up and ready and hang at home with them all day while David sleeps until around 3:00pm or so. Then we have family time.
Once Finn starts daycare, we will go back to our typical routine of me dropping off in the morning and David picking them up. While I hate that Finn is going to daycare at only 2 months old (Grayson didn’t start until he was 6 months!), I am definitely looking forward to having a much easier routine.

I just realized I have never posted about the dining room table that my dad made for us:

Isn’t it AWESOME?!? He MADE it! We love it, and it is just what we wanted. Now, we just have to find chairs to go around it.

Dad also made Grayson a step-stool:

I keep telling Dad that he needs to go into business, but, so far, he hasn’t listened.

I need to get back to straightening the house and organizing the office…blogging was a great procrastination tool! Thanks for checking in on us! As always, we love you all!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Here's what I'm loving this Wednesday!  :)

I am loving my iPad!

I use it for so many different things! I have a baby timer on it so we can keep track of everything Finnley; we have stories and games on it to keep Grayson occupied when we have to wait somewhere, and to do his flashcards with him; I downloaded the Nook app, so I don’t have to carry around both my Nook and my iPad; I can hook it up to the radio in my car and listen to iTunes; and I can watch Netflix on it. I love it!

(I was soooo heartbroken when I dropped it last week and broke both top corners and cracked a little of the screen.)

I am loving this book:

David recommended that I read it because I can relate very closely to the situation the author finds herself in. It sounds stupid to say, but I am finding myself at a loss for a BFF! Now, I have my far-away BFF, but she lives too far away to be the girl that I can call when I want to go for drinks, or catch a movie, or just come over and hang out. I have only read about 1/3 of the book so far, but I am loving how she recounts each of her “girl dates!”


I am loving my Erin Condren life planner:

I am definitely one of those people who have to have everything organized (at least when it comes to my schedule). I used to carry around a work planner and a family planner, but I don’t have to with my life planner! Plus, I love that I was able to get it personalized!

I am loving that the weather has been nice enough this week (well, besides today) that we have been able to go on walks every afternoon.

Grayson LOVES pulling the wagon over the “bumpies” (sewer covers) and just laughs and laughs every time he does.


I am loving coming home to these faces:

and this face:

and this face:

And I am loving my new followers! Hoping for many more!

What are YOU loving this Wednesday?