on her way

reid was not having it.

brette growing up without her?

not in this house.

as soon as brette made her way into her big girl bed,

reid was like, oh yeah?

well, i'm going to start crawling.

and that little stinker did it first for my parents on monday.

[May 16th]

of course she would.

why save anything for dear ol' mamma

who is here literally all. the. time.

whatevs.

she did it for me that night though and everyday since.

it's so exciting. 
i love a little crawling peanut.

but i also realized these girls are working together.

they're trying to kill me.

i now have one child in and out of her room too busy to nap

and up super early in the morning.

and the other one can now get into everything.

doesn't that like fun?

 

 

 

(literally the first morning brette went into reid's room

at 5:50am and woke her up.

the second morning she was standing over me

at 6:00am and scared the crap out of me. good times.)

 

 

caged

 

the thing that i've been dreading, happened.

brette started consistently climbing out of her crib.

she walked into our room this morning at 6:30 like it ain't no thang.

oh geez.

normally, i ignore her until at least 7:00.

i guess this. is. happening.

so we decided it was time to turn her crib into a daybed.

i'm not thrilled.

she hasn't napped all weekend, but - - fingers crossed - -

seems to go down fine at night.

(probably because she's so tired from not napping.)

but i'm waiting for her to show up at 3am and

then my life will be over.

i literally just got reid sleeping through the night so

if i start having to get up with my 2 year old i might die.

it's not fair!

she is super excited about it though and will invite anyone

to "come look at her big girl bed."

we I put a rail up so she won't fall out,

but she can easily get around that anytime she pleases.

i'm just worried that her naps will suffer and

i'll end up with a grouchy little girl.

so far, nothing i've tried will keep her in bed with her eyes closed.

she gets out toys,

she tried on clothes,

she reads books,

she rearranges her closet.

anything but sleep.

i think one day she will figure out to go in the playroom and

then i'm pretty sure i'll have to wave my white flag.

but for now, i'm not giving up!

i have hope that she will get used to this new

found freedom and still choose to lay down and fall asleep.

we shall see.

i'll keep you posted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

lion or lamb?

 

 

so brette is a little lamb.

or is she a lion?

i think she's both.

i'm mean, sure she's super sweet full of hugs and kisses and giggles.

but there is also a temper brewing.

and a mouth.

oh her mouth.

she's just keeps talking.

 

i feel like when trying to deal with her behavior

consistency is key,

but i can't make up my mind on how to deal

with her so i keep trying new things,

which is probably more confusing for her.

i go back and forth between time out and

positive parenting.

jaime let me borrow a book a few years ago about

positive parenting which i know had a lot of good ideas,

but at the time, i had a sweet little baby.

i read it, but i didn't USE it.

she didn't talk back, not listen or hit.

now that these are the things we're dealing with

i try to go back and use the methods suggested.

but there are things that i believe in that i would like

to instill in her too.

learn to be empathetic AND say you're sorry.

learn better listening skills and how to follow directions.

i know she's young, but

these are the things i'm working toward.

 

i know to get down on her level.

i let her know i understand the way she's feeling.

i talk to her about how to deal with it.

i know to give her two options so she feels like

she has the power and independence to make her own choices.

and i know to give her lots of love.

but  s o m e t i m e s  i feel like this doesn't work.

she's not listening - she doesn't want to talk it out.

i feel like maybe if i just hold her and

love on her she will calm down enough so we can talk,

but there have been times that she doesn't want to be held.

and then i will pull her out of the situation to breathe.

to collect ourselves.

a little time out, if you will.

but this always makes her start crying.

so now instead of mad, she's upset.

but she didn't want held and she's didn't want to talk,

 so what's left???

we've actually started something new.

hit a pillow if she's mad.

snuggle her favorite stuffed animal if she's upset.

but then this morning she said,

i think i need to hit my puppy dogs.

oh geez.

i am always second guessing myself.

no one want to have "that kid."

she needs boundaries, but what is 

appropriate for a two/three year old?

ahhhh.

its hard.  

feel free to send suggestions of what worked

or didn't work for you.

 

it takes a village.

 

mother's day gift ideas

if i HAD to buy myself something

for mother's day i know if would love any of this.

so i thought maybe these would work for that special

female in your life.

my go-to is always etsy.

original. fun. and so very cute.

 

you never have enough tea towels.

at least not in my family.

and i must have a soft spot for family recipes

because how amazing are these?

 

or, i find this one rather appropriate.

 

 

pair this with some actual recipe cards, maybe add a mug (like this one),

 

and a few kitchen items,

pull it all together in a basket and wah la..

you just got gifted.

 

 

i'm also always down for clothing or shoes.

summer is near and i really want a pair of saltwater sandals.

AND you can even buy a pair for your kid too.

can you get any cuter than matching your offspring on mother's day?

no. no, you can't.

i personally love the green ones!

 

and since i spend most of my time around the house or

running errands, cute tees are always a hit.

 

this 

 

or this.

or really ANY shirt from here.

 

and if you have a mama that loves

a good glass of wine,

well, look no further.

you can actually have a wine delivered to her door every month.

it's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

 

i'm not really a jewelry person.

i rarely wear it.

i might put on an extra ring or if

i'm feeling extra fancy i'll have on a necklace.

but i know there are lots of you ladies out there

that love love love you some jewelry.

here are two of my favorite ideas for mother's day.

first, the birthstones of your kids.

not my style, but i get the sentiment.

i actually like these because they're stackable and

therefore easy to add if you have more kids.

now this little necklace i can get behind.

it's probably the sweetest thing ever.

no mom can resist.

you actually get a picture they drew or,

i personally love, their signature option.

i might have to send this link to ronnie when

the girls are a little bit older.

 

 

 

and when in doubt,

you can never go wrong with flowers.

and it just so happens that groupon

has an amazing proflowers deal.

literally 50% off.

check. it. out.

 

 

 

i hope this helps.

and i hope you have a lovely mother's day.

celebrate you.

celebrate your mom.

celebrate your grandma.

celebrate your mamma friends.

 

and for all those male readers i have,

(do i actually have any?)

it all started with a mom,

so do it up right.

 

 

too bad ronnie's not follower.

 

 

 

 

 

weekend recap

not a whole lot going on over here in these parts.

ronnie spends every free moment outside trying

to get our siding and trim done in time for the painters.

i feel bad, but not enough to let him stop.

i just want it over with.

he did get another tiny project done for me:

paint the ugly mirror in our downstairs bathroom.

i hated to wood tone of this mirror but loved

the little shelf feature.

a year and a half later... it's painted and re-hung.

(now if only the bathroom was done too. meh.)

 

i did actually let ronnie have a few breaks.

we went on a little family walk around the neighborhood.

and we went out for ice cream.

reid's first time - - she loved it.

 

 

 

i also managed to escape the girls for a few hours

and actually got my hair professionally done.

it's been YEARS since i went to a salon and

it was such a treat.

expensive, yes, but totally worth it.

 

while waiting on ronnie to finish the outside,

i've been keeping busy with the details.

first, i took the girls to look at paint colors.
brette wanted pink and purple.

but really, it's SO HARD to choose.

i've never redone the outside of a house.

i'm drawn toward darker colors, which surprises me,

but i think it might look really

crisp and clean against the white trim.

right now, we're leaning toward this:

with black shutters.

we might do a black door too.

not sure yet.
i'm also toying with the idea of doing more of a blue tone.
i saved this to my phone a few weeks ago.
i wish i knew what color it was.

 

and for the inside i have fallen in love

with a new shelving unit i saw on pioneer woman.

 

it's industrial,

it's big.

it has a ladder!

ree drummond has it.

and it's perfect for this wall:



 

 

it's also expensive and ronnie pretty

much told me i was dreaming.

excepted instead of dreaming he said

something i won't write here.

dang it!

i'm still trying to persuade him and i even told him

he could count it for mother's day, birthday and christmas.

i'm not sure if it's working, but

i still have hope.

 

also, reid is still working hard toward crawling.

she does this. a lot.

but she won't actually take off and go.

i'm probably going to regret the day she is mobile

because i'm sure brette will go crazy trying to keep her

out of her things, but i just love milestones so much that

i don't care.

 

hope you had a lovely weekend

enjoying the last of these cool temps.

spring is upon us.

 

milk drunk and tit-faced

 

i knew it was coming,

but for some reason i didn't put two and two together.

reid is NINE months old.

that means its time for me to start weaning.

yesssssssss.

...

noooooooo.

i go back and forth.

i'm totally ready to never nurse again,

but i'm not quite ready to let go of my little baby.

if you remember with brette,

i started weaning at seven months and

was completely done by the time she was eleven months.

i had a deadline for kassie's wedding in mexico

and so i stuck to my schedule like a nazi.

it was easy.

it went smooth.

brette never bucked the system.

so i'm taking the same approach again.

we're going to move at a snails pace and

slowly ease her out of it.

i'm going to start this weekend - may 1st and

i want to be completely done by july 15th.

that gives me eleven weeks.

and it will also give me an extra week to start

mixing breast milk with whole milk and get

her completely switched over by her birthday.

my goal:

3 sippy cups of whole milk per day.

no bottle, no boob by july 22nd.

 

lets. do. this.

 

so in true type A fashion,

let's go over my schedule and

plan of attack.

right now reid nurses 6 times a day:

5:00 am

7:00am

10:00am (morning nap)

2:00pm(afternoon nap)

5:00pm

8:00pm

 

my goal is to take one feeding away every two weeks.

it's also my goal to get her down to 3 milk feedings a day instead of 6.

at first, when i cut a feeding i won't replace it with a bottle.

i'm going to offer more people food and snacks instead.

i think i'll start with the 7am one.

my plan is to offer her breakfast right away.

next, i'll most likely take away the 5pm one because

she eats dinner at 6 and i can offer her a snack

when she wakes up from her afternoon nap.

after that, it gets a little harder.

i nurse reid to sleep, so she will have to transition to a bottle or

i'm contemplating giving her a bottle while she's still downstairs

in more of a social setting and then laying her down so

she outgrows needing a bottle before bed.

that's a month away, so i'll worry more about that then,

but i know i have an uphill battle waiting for me in june.

i also have to get ronnie on board.

weaning, for us, means dad gets to take over a lot of the baby work.

i'll probably start getting brette more and more while

ronnie takes over reid.

i think it's easy on everyone when transitioning off the boob,

to take me out of the equation.

just for a bit.

until she's used to her new normal.

i really hope this is as easy as i remember.

for some reason i'm nervous.

 

okay, wish us luck!

 

 

 

 

party time

our weekend was a little busy.

on friday my mom, madeline, eden

brette and reid met me at the bank and we

had a little "girls night out" dinner.

it was fun and brette always loves having her besties around.

ronnie took advantage of a free night and met up with "the guys."

they all went to the royals game,

but being the idiot he is, he drank way too much beer

and was a hot mess when he got home.

idiot.

 

saturday i put ronnie to work finishing up some

things around the house:

wash deck furniture,

hang a newly painted mirror,

mow the yard and

 bring up some tables and chairs for the basement.

(i hosted a baby shower on sunday and these things needed done)

meanwhile, the girls and i went to paige's first birthday.

shannon is so crafty and does such a good job

with all her decorations and details.

it was a true pinterest party - completely adorable.

and hello, i got to spend all afternoon with my friends.

loved it.

 

 

 

when i got home the girls slept for a little bit

and then we met up with my parents and brother for

a little dinner at costa vida on the patio.

it was so nice outside the girls ran and ran and ran.

just look at reid, sipping on ronnie's drink.

such a big girl.

 

 

sunday was kassie's baby shower at my house.

i packed up ronnie and the girls first thing that morning

and sent them to my parent's house for the day.

i needed every minute to get ready.

i went grocery shopping, i cleaned, decorated and got food prepped.

luckily, dana and shannon were co-hosting with me

so they showed up early to help out while i managed

to get myself in the shower and dressed.

we did a fiesta theme since it:

1- paid homage to kassie's wedding in mexico

2- gives kassie an excuse to eat mexican food- her favorite.

3 - let us try something a little different than we've done for other showers.

(we're becoming professional shower hostesses with all these new babies.)

 

weren't the invites adorable?

 

it was super cute little party and i think kassie had a good time.

 

 (nacho bar)

 

(cactus cookies, mini cupcakes and "ready to pop...corn" favors)

 

 

 

and how funny are dana and i?

we traded places.

last april vs. this april

what a difference a year makes.

 

and that was our weekend.

busy, but so. much. fun.

and i really do love hosting stuff at my house.

it drives ronnie crazy because i make him

do so much stuff, but

it's one of my favorite things.

i'm already excited for the girls' birthdays this summer.

i better start planning!