toddler boys

farewell to three.

January 12, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

I’ve been clinging to some Moosh time as of late. Big time. I know our time is coming to a close as a family of three. And it’s making me super emotional. Super emotional for my first baby. And for what bringing a second baby into the family means.

It means less one-on-one time with Moosh.

It means less undivided Moosh attention.

It means I can no longer drop everything and just stare at Moosh.

OK, you get it. It means less ‘just Moosh.’ And it’s heartbreaking for me. Absolutely heartbreaking.

YES, I’m excited for Baby Girl to make her arrival. But I’m also sad that I no longer have just my baby boy to wrap his arms around me. And even as I type this out, I keep having conflicting feelings, which consist mostly of “OK, I don’t want this one-on-one time to end,” to “GET this CHILD out of me NOW so I can meet her!”

The pregnancy struggle (and hormones) are super real, y’all. Real real.

So, for now, I’ll soak up the extra snuggles and all the extra kisses he’s willing to give me; I’ll soak up the nap times where he spoons me (yes, HE spoons ME); I’ll soak up the early bedtimes and the indulgences of sleeping in ‘mommies bed;’ and I’ll give him all the extra attention he so wants and deserves! ♥

‘Cause nothing lasts forever.

PS. My bags are packed. my house is clean. the nesting is complete. let’s do this, little lady. ♥

Life Lately | January 2016

January 5, 2016 by Rachel 2 Comments

Life has been crazy busy lately. But we haven’t actually done anything lately. Seriously. Here’s the long + short of what we’ve been up to as of late:

Nesting. I’ve been mega-nesting as of late. Like, when I’m not nesting, and I’m trying to do something else productive (like sleep), I’m THINKING about nesting. It’s fantastic. But also, I’m not able to tackle the things I want to accomplish as quickly as I would like (because, belly). But I’ve successfully gotten a ton done.
Food, food, food. I’m not eating a lot (because, belly), but I’ve been eating well! And I’ve been keeping it down! Hooray! And, obviously, at this point I’m enjoying every second of it. And I’m not eating crappy like I did with Ari, either. I’m eating really delicious, mostly healthy foods!
My sister-in-law had an impromptu visit from Colorado last week and we ended up spending a really awesome 24-hours with her, including a trip out to our fave local Chinese spot for some dinner. It’s the little things in life, like food and family, that make life interesting! LOL!
My SIL visited! Well, I kinda let you know about that in the last bulletpoint, but leave me alone! LOL. But seriously, it was a great visit. She ended up getting stranded at Cleveland-Hopkins airport in an effort to get back to Denver from Florida, and she just decided to stay for a couple of days, sans kiddos! Moosh seriously loved every single second of having her here. He completely manipulated her time and attention – Ha! When he woke up and she wasn’t here, he said, “where’s my friend Ashy?” ♥

Fire trucks. Ari got to meet up with his friend Kayden (and my close friend Kristi) to see some fire trucks up-close and personal! In a “private showing,” of sorts, these kids climbed in and out of the fire trucks and even got to go on a quick ‘ride’ around the block! Moosh. was. ECSTATIC. Seriously. I’ve never seen this kid happier than riding in this fire truck.

Pregnancy. Guys, I’m over it. Like big time over it. I’m so over it that I can’t even put together a “pregnancy update” post. Cause here’s what’s new with this pregnancy:
- I’m about ready to pop. Nope, still not as big as I was with Ari; but more uncomfortable than I was with him pregnant at 41 weeks.
- My boobs leak everywhere, always. I think I’ve gone through an entire package of nursing pads before this child has even come. Having pumped nonstop for 12 months with Moosh, I feel awfully guilty that this colostrum cannot be ‘saved’ for Baby Girl.
- Heartburn. I had heartburn, like, twice when I was pregnant with Moosh. With this child I seem to have it all day every day. If you’ve never had heartburn it feels like your chest is on fire and you may vomit at any moment. Every burp you feel coming leaves you to wonder if it’s going to come back up. For me, it doesn’t seem to matter what I eat, when I eat, or how little I eat; I will have heartburn. Suuuuper.
- Lots of movement. I thought Moosh moved a lot in the womb; but that was nothing compared to what this girl is putting me through!
- Contractions. They are coming and going, infrequently. I’m nearly 38 weeks (Thursday), so it’s bound to happen eventually, right?? Only a couple of times have I actually thought “Oh, this might be it.” But nope.
Staying on the homefront. I’m too miserable and too uneasy to ‘go’ far from home. If it’s not Target, a trip to see Kristi, or the doctor, I’m not doing it. Sorry, friends! You can blame me for being antisocial, but to be honest, even if you were around me, you wouldn’t want to be. I’m just not fun. In fact, we skipped out on seeing my favorite comedian of all time, Tommy Johnagin, because I don’t really want to travel too far from home. I know. Lame.

Until this new baby comes, this will be our life. Nesting, resting, and staying close to home.

… and I wouldn’t have it any other way! ♥ ♥ ♥

Christmas 2015 // that’s a wrap!

December 30, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

Guys – my holiday hangover is still in full-force. … and I didn’t even partake in any ‘party’ festivities, so to speak! Ha! But seriously, something about celebrating Christmas leaves everyone in a post-Christmas lull. For me, it’s a mix between that and pregnancy exhaustion. But I’ll blame it on the holidays. 😉

Christmas Eve-Eve //

Well thanks to my ‘schedule clearing up,’ we were able to attend Chad’s families Christmas Eve-Eve party! Unfortunately, Chad was still working, so Ari and I went at it alone. And let me tell you… any shyness that Moosh use to have? it’s GONE. Big time. GONE. He was the life of the party… and he knew it. And he loved it! And for once, I didn’t have to chase him around, because he was a “big boy” enough to play semi-independently with the other kiddo!

Christmas Eve //

Chad worked Christmas Eve until about 3:30PM or so, so Ari and I met up with my friend Kristi and her kids at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

It was amazing to see Ari ‘ooh‘ and ‘ahh‘ over Kristi’s baby girl. He’s been around her since she was born, but he has never ever taken interest in any babies. Well, perhaps it’s because he’s finally come to terms with the fact that Baby Girl will be here before he knows it!

After that little playdate we honestly did nada! We had zero plans, so PJs at 5pm was absolutely in order. In fact, Ari and I may have actually been in PJs before Chad got home! Ha!

And we finally had our first experience with the “Santa is coming!” jitters! I know this is the first of many years to come, but it was so funny trying to get him to relax and go to bed knowing Santa was ‘looming’ around the corner! Eventually, we all fell asleep. [thank goodness!]

Christmas Day //

We woke up at about 7:30-8ish. I was exhausted, but totally excited to see the look on Ari’s face! He came downstairs slowly and exclaimed “Santa came!”

It took a while to open presents because he would rip the paper off the present and then he would beg us to open it and to start playing with it right away! Ha! So it was a process of “open this,” “no, we’ll play with that when we get through all the presents,” to “OK Ari next present.” Tear it open and repeat!

After assessing the Santa/presents situation, we tried to take a nap — Ha! That was a short-lived dream. 🙂 We ‘awoke’ to my father-in-laws visit with us to celebrate Christmas! We relaxed until it was time to go to dinner. See? We were doing a mega-ultra-relaxed Christmas celebration.

And a sorry to my Jewish friends, but we totally had plans to steal your Christmas and go to our favorite local Chinese restaurant. In our defense, though, I’m fairly certain that NONE of the people that were eating at this restaurant were Jewish; but the restaurant was very busy. We ate and ate and ate. Went home and played some more. A pretty perfect Christmas day!

December 26th //

We. slept. in! Thank goodness. We all needed it. And after breakfast, we took Moosh to Cafe O’Play for their 1-Year Anniversary celebration!

Chad, my father-in-law, Moosh, and I met up with Ari’s girlfriend, Veronique, and her mommy for a fun playdate! And they totally soaked up every second together!

And before we knew it, it was time to go home and all take a big family nap! We seriously did SO much of this over the holiday break. Naps, naps, naps. You would think we would all be extremely well-rested, but that’s definitely not the case!

soliciting parenting advice //

December 9, 2015 by Rachel Leave a Comment

It’s rare that I send out a mass SOS to my fellow moms + dads. In fact, I’m trying to recall a time over the last three years in which I actually begged for advice and can’t… but here I go…

About a month ago Moosh requested to watch Jumanji — a movie he’s seen several times before. We were settling in for a movie night in my bed and so I turned it on. We got 5 minutes in and he freaked out and said he was scared, so I turned it off. Mind you, this is before anything actually happens. Robin Williams character simply opens the game and the game piece moves. That’s it. Sure, it’s not the least frightening thing in the world, but it’s also not the scariest thing he’s ever seen.

And since that night, he’s refused to sleep in his own bed. Because, Jumanji. Don’t get me wrong — we’ve tried. At first we were really fighting him on it. We would put him to bed and it would take 60+ minutes of lying down with him, relaxing, and letting him fall asleep. Only to find that 10 minutes later he was screaming to open the door. Then we would try and put him back to bed, which worked for a few minutes, before he would get out yet again. After several nights in a row like this, we began to just ‘give in’ to him from the start.

I know, I know… first mistake.

But this is both a parenting fail AND a parenting win. Because we are tired, too. And we weren’t getting anywhere with putting him in his own bed. And we all desperately needed sleep. And it turns out that a lot of ‘parenting‘ is making concessions for things you were ‘certain‘ you were never going to do. And sometimes the answer is the path of least resistance. Scratch that — the answer is almost ALWAYS the path of least resistance.

Well, fast forward 4 weeks… and the occasional co-sleeping has become habitual co-sleeping. I even lie down with him at nap time on the weekends to get him to nap. In my bed. The whole time.

Here’s what’s running through my head:

This is just a phase. Let’s get it out of the way before Baby Girl is born.
This isn’t going to last forever. Soon enough he’ll be asserting his independence and he won’t ever want to sleep in bed with us. I should just embrace it.
Gosh, I’d love to be productive on a Saturday afternoon instead of lying around in bed with him for 3 hours.
Okay. I’d really like to go to bed later than 8pm every night of the week. And to actually spend some time with my husband having adult conversation, even if it is just for an hour each night.
Some kids are sick and ours is healthy and so I should just snuggle him all night every night.

Look, I never said it was a rational train of thought… just that I keep jumping back and forth between ‘just a phase,’ and ‘dear lord make this stop.’ Because, truthfully, part of me loves it. But part of me just can’t take it anymore. And sometimes I feel both of those things at the very same time.

So tell me, friends. What do you suggest? Should we ride it out?

Here’s what we’ve tried:

First, telling him that (obviously) Jumanji is pretend and nothing is going to get him.
Using “go away” spray at night.
Telling him if he sleeps in his room, when he wakes up in the morning he can just get out of bed and play with his toys.
Using a nightlight.

We’re open to suggestions. I’m exhausted. And last-trimester pregnancy is making me even more tired (and cranky). So I need as much sleep as I can get, but I also miss my husband. I miss just that one hour a night we need to spend with just each other. So help. Please.

what to get a toddler for the holidays //

December 2, 2015 by Rachel 1 Comment

One thing I’ve learned about babies and toddlers is that you can totally go overboard with gifts. And well, everything. They get very over stimulated very quickly. At birthday parties, we’ve learned not to open every gift. In fact, we only open about 3. The rest? We put in storage to be opened later [and if I’m being completely honest, we put them into hiding so we can “regift” them — to him! — for Christmas just a few months later!].

The times he seems most uninterested in gifts is when he is overwhelmed. So this year, out of necessity and sanity, we are only giving him a select number of gifts for Christmas.

Matchbox Cars. All of the fancy toys in the world don’t compare to silly Matchbox Cars. I’ve learned that boys just love driving cars all over the place. So getting a giant box of cars is going to make his freaking day.
Fake Power Tools. He was obsessed with this Home Depot drill his friend K had, so he ended up picking out a Home Depot Leaf Blower with his Toys R Us birthday gift card. 🙂 It’s so funny cause he thinks it actually works to blow things. [hint: it doesn’t]
Action Figures. Especially the Marvel Titan series. Bonus? If I get roped into playing, it’s like Barbies, but with boys. Inexpensive. Sturdy. Fun.
Ants in the Pants. I was surprised to learn that he’s playing games like this at the sitters house. And actually focusing; like sitting down and actually listening/following directions! So I picked up this game [which, admittedly, was my favorite preschool game as a kid] on Black Friday!
Candy canes. Because, candy. And it’s a crowd-pleaser.
Green Toys Dump Truck. Not only is it eco-friendly, but this dude suddenly became obsessed with dump trucks. When we go to friends houses, he immediately passes up the fancy toys and goes straight to the big trucks.
Amazon Fire Tablet. Before you get all judgy about being ‘that mom’ that gives her kid a tablet, let me clarify: Ari has been using Chad’s old iPad for like a year now. Chad upgraded a while back and then pretty much it became Ari’s iPad. It had movies and preschool games on it. Aaaand it hasn’t been holding a charge for a few months so we haven’t used it in a long time. So the other day Amazon had the Kindle Fire on sale for $30 (!!!!!!) so guess who is getting a tablet [WITH a very childproof case]? Yep. Moosh. Really, they are great to have on hand for learning games and movies for road trips.

Looking at this list now, it looks like a lot. But I swear it’s easy to go overboard. And really + truly, we haven’t spent much at all on gifts. We’ve acquired them when we find them on sale and let them pile up over the months before Christmas!

What are your go-to toddler boy gifts!?