Two Years: Unforgettable

Two years ago, sweet William Michael entered our lives.

His first moments brought so much joy into our hearts, our lives and our relationship. I don't think we thought it could ever get better. But it has. As he has grown and developed, I think we have both fallen in love with him more than when we first met him at 8:18pm on Thursday, March 31, 2011.

He still looks like this newborn boy to me…when he is asleep at least. I know he has changed by leaps and bounds but the resemblance he bears to these first photos always makes me smile.

Happy birthday my son. May you have a wonderful second birthday (and Easter) with our family.

Big Boy Bed Update

William has now slept in his bed for five nights and three naps.

Naptime has been successful: two hour naps, not hard to fall asleep, etc. Well, yesterday he stayed in his room for 90 minutes reading and chatting. He wasn't upset until 90 minutes passed and was banging on the door. I went to try and relax him and when I opened the door he was lying on the floor with a blanket. I think if I let him go for a few minutes he would have fallen asleep. But we had an Open House so we had to leave home. I hope he remembers how tired he was yesterday without a nap!

Nighttime has been great. The first two nights were off and on but no screaming. The third night I patted his back when he woke up and then slept through until morning. The past two nights have been his normal sleep pattern although he is waking up about an hour earlier. I am okay with this.

I am grateful that he made a smooth transition which made it "easier" for mom and dad. Good timing for us and him. Success!

Transition to a Big Boy Bed

This past Saturday (1/26), we assembled William's twin bed in his big boy room (or big boy room until we move). William was very excited to help with Daddy's tools and it only took us about an hour to remove the full bed and bed frame and assemble the twin bed. Ok, by we I mean my husband since I can't lift anything being 27 weeks pregnant.

Two weeks ago we had reconfigured the furniture in this same room because I sold an Ikea armoire through my local buy/sell page. Since the house is on the market, we moved things around to make the room look larger and it looks even better now with only William's furniture.

Last night (1/29) I decided to try and put William to sleep for the night in his bed. My husband and I have been spending time with him in the room setting it up, reading books and getting dressed to introduce him to his big boy room so the baby can have the other room. Well, it went MUCH better than I expected. I think my husband was pretty surprised to see him asleep in the bed.

This was all bittersweet for me. I wish I had thrown a last night in the crib celebration (only partly kidding) because now I hope he stays in the bed for good. Why switch him now? Well, I really didn't want to deal with a new house, new room, new bed and new baby all at once. Seemed like too much for our little boy. So, I just put him down for his first nap and managed to take a picture with my phone (sans flash of course). I hope he has sweet dreams!

20 Weeks -- Already?!

Well, I am halfway through my pregnancy with our second blessing of a child. Actually, as of today I am 21 weeks, but who's counting?! A few days ago all three of us went to a radiologist for the 20w ultrasound and I wanted to share a few of the images that were given to us. 

sweet little face

see here for my post with a similar picture of William at 20w

The technician spent an hour taking measurements and looking at all of the bones and organs she could see. We saw the stomach since the baby is already swallowing and the kidneys. I was happy she pointed out things like that to us.

William was well behaved, but it is different having a toddler in the room. He was however excited to see "his baby." I was tempted to find out the gender, but, no, we are not finding out the gender again :)

Hi Momma, Daddy and big brother!

Fourteen Months

Today William is 14 months old! I feel like he has gone through so many changes since the beginning of May that it deserved a blog post. By the way, every month I write a letter to him in my journal which then goes into his baby book. I have been vigilant about keeping up with this because it is a nice summary of major activities for the month (1st vacation, sleeping through the night, etc) and I also talk about developmental steps (words, climbing, etc).

Unfortunately, May was a month of illness for our little guy. At the beginning of the month he developed bronchiolitis which meant nebulizer breathing treatments, an antibiotic and a steroid. Just last week he had a fever of 103+ degrees for three days (peaked at 103.9) and then he developed a rash all over his upper body that took five days to vanish as mysteriously as it showed up.

We went on a five-day vacation to Hilton Head, South Caroline for AUntie Blair's wedding and made an overnight stop in Charleston to see the Larsons. Their daughter Brynnleigh was born the day before William so it was fun to see them play together.

Despite being pretty sick twice this month, we are back to our "normal schedule." I am now waking him from his morning nap after one hour since he was waking at 5:30am for the day which is just too early for me (and him, even if he doesn't realize it). Now he is waking up at 6:45am, napping 9:30-10:30am and then again after lunch from 1:30-3:30/4:30pm and going to bed just before 8pm.

Pretty much all of his summer clothes are 18m (it helps that The Children's Place does 12-18m so they fit now and still will in August), except bottoms are still 12m because he has a little waist. He is in a size 4 shoe and I just bought him a 4.5W from Stride Rite.

William can say several words clearly: Momma, Dat, Nana, shoe, cat, ba-ba, ball, tractor, truck and car. He says "side" for outside which is his favorite place. He also makes animal sounds of a cow, pig, sheep, dog, and goat. There are several follow direction actions he understands even thought he can't say the words. My favorites are: Get your shoes; Let's go outside (he goes to the door); Bring Momma the _____; Give me kisses; Let's watch Sesame Street (goes to the TV); Let's go upstairs/downstairs; I need help with clothes (goes to the laundry room). When you tell him to share, he hands over whatever he is holding. We taught him this for toys, but it has worked well for cell phones and keys too. One of his favorite actions of mine is when he walks up to me when I'm sitting on the floor, puts his legs over mine to sit on my lap and then gives me a big hug :)

He just mastered climbing down the stairs on his own, sliding/stepping down on his belly. This is nice since we have never installed a gate at the top of the stairs, only the bottom. Believe it or not, he never tried to go down without supervision, and now if he tries to, hopefully he will go down the "right way" and not get hurt.

Happy fourteen months little boy!

March 31

Tomorrow my baby boy will turn one.

I cannot believe that he is already one years old and how many changes this little 20 (or so) pound body has gone through. He has been walking since mid-February so it has seemed that he turned into a toddler the moment he started walking all the time, but I cherish the snuggle moments that remind me of when he was more of a baby.

As I write this post, he is sitting with me at the table eating a waffle, green grapes and craisins, his breakfast of choice today, and kicking his left foot and giving me a big smile while I sing "Happy Birthday" so he isn't scared by the song tomorrow. And lets be serious, I like his reaction.

Enjoying blueberry pancakes, his all-time favorite breakfast

William prefers books to toys lately, which I am not discouraging. He loves to chase our cat ("Jay"), baskets and boxes, anything that can carry other things. Oh and trucks, he already says "tucks" and "tees" when looking outside. He is definitely his Daddy's boy. He gets excited looking out the window and waving to anything that moves. He loves the loud noises that come from our neighbor's house who is a landscaper (the mowers, weed wackers, etc). He loves taking walks in the wagon that his Daddy used to ride in.

He also loves hummus, yogurt and strawberries, I think he'd eat them all day if I let him. He has started spoon feeding himself pretty well when I give him the opportunity. He is a hit when we are out in public as he waves and talks to everyone we see. It is so much fun to go out with him and sometimes we'll see a playground and just stop and play for awhile.

Tomorrow we are having a party for him with close family and friends and his playgroup buddies, so about 25 adults and 10 one-year olds. Hopefully one day he will appreciate all the thought and craftiness I put into his little red wagon 1st birthday, but for now, I just want him to have fun, eat cake for the first time and play.

Oh and always stay my little boy…..

I Miss Sophie

Am I the only adult who feels bad that Woody and Buzz Lightyear end up in the bottom of Andy's toybox and the closet when he "gets too big" for them in Toy Story? I didn't think so. We now have that ex-favorite toy in our house and it makes me sad to say that it is Sophie. If you have never heard of Sophie and are a parent, please excuse me, but what planet are you on (just kidding…sort of)? No I did not buy William a $30 "chew toy," but someone else did and after seeing how much he loved it, I'd be happy to spend the money for future children. So here's a breakdown of Sophie's benefits:

Sophie was a our always a hit toy. She came in the car, was a staple in the diaper bag/purse/daddy's coat pocket in the summer and fall…

…and then she wasn't. Right now William is going through his toybox and pulling out practically every single toy except Sophie. This makes me sad. He is getting so big and wants toys that are more engaging and exciting, and I suppose he is too young to remember all the fun adventures Sophie took with him. This Momma is sad :(

By the way, did you read the article in the WSJ about William's beloved giraffe? I'm two days behind so I hadn't read it before this post.

Deals of the Week

(edited on Sunday, 3/4)
I got a few good deals this week that I wanted to share! The first were at the grocery store. I go to Harris Teeter and am a member of their e-VIC program so I get additional unmarked deals emailed to me every few days. This week I got Hot House tomatoes on the vine for $0.99/lb (normally $2.99/lb) and full size Aquafresh toothpaste for $0.97 each, a savings of $5.36 since I bought two.

Today I went to the Montgomery County Moms of Multiples Consignment sale and got a few cute things for William although unfortunately overall I was underwhelmed by the selection. Unlike this trip to a consignment store. William's new things are in his room right now and he is asleep so I can't get a picture, but will try tomorrow!

The highlights were two pairs of shoes: a pair of brown Teva sandals for $2 (average retail $30) and a pair of NEW brown casual/dress shoes from the Children's Place for $5 (shoes start at $19.95). I also got a cute navy blue bucket hat with embroidered green alligators dinosaurs for the summer for $1 and a few other pieces of clothing including new Baby Gap overalls. Oh, and can't forget four Dr Brown's 8oz bottles for $1.50!

I was pleased with what I purchased for $21! Two more sales coming up this month thanks to TotSwap!

Triple the Fun (+1)

Last week while we were playing with our favorite triplets, I finally got some cute pictures of them all together! My friend Holly recently moved out of my town :( so we don't see them weekly as we used to. We made it up to their new place last week and had a fun afternoon on a beautiful day.

Not only did we get to see the big girls, but I also got lots of cuddle time with their new baby sister!

Of course I was sad to see them move, especially when her husband bakes a homemade cheesecake with oreo crust and I can't go over and share it with her after the babies go to bed, but I'm happy they have more space for their growing (and active) family.

Pitter Patter

You know how people say stuff about the pitter patter of little feet when you have a baby? Of course you don't really hear that sound until they start walking, which was Sunday for us! We have a walker! At less than 11 months old, William decided he was ready. It started with two steps at a time a coupe weeks ago and then on Thursday night he took four. And kept taking four, Until Sunday evening when he did six, then seven and sometimes he still does four, but that's alright :)

Look momma, I'm not holding on!

You know what's funny is I remember how excited I was when he started sitting on his own so all the photos of him weren't taken lying down. Now he is standing and it is hard to get him to sit!

Consignment Delight {baby boy deals}

Just after Christmas I traveled to see my family in Connecticut. While there, mom and I went to Once Upon a Child where she has purchased great toys and clothes for William in the past. I went straight for the 12m clearance (50% off) section. William has plenty of 9m clothes and knew he needed some bottoms in the next size since some of his 9m stuff is getting tight.

I got a lot of great pieces. I'm so excited that I wanted to share because many people don't think about consignment for kids clothes. My question is always, "why not?"

First I went to the pants because I decided that if I found better jeans than the $5 ones I just gpt him at Kohls I would be happy. Well, I got a pair of jersey lines jeand from Childrens Place and a pair from Old Navy. Also found green maude pants with original Gymboree tags and gray cords from Old Navy.

You see those prices? Do you see the stars? I got them for 50% off listed price! Moving on….

All boys need cute overalls. Right now William has four pairs that fit, two of which are corduroy OshKosh and were $1 at a consignment sale in the spring of 2011 (go me!). Anyway, I picked up two pairs from Gap (khaki and striped on the left), a pair from OshKosh and black cprduroy ones from Gymboree. Same deal, 50% off list price. The polo shirts, both from Gap were a whopping $2.25 each! I also picked up a $5 bathing suit (only thing not on sale).

Getting killer deals on like-new baby boy clothes makes me feel good and gives me more money to spend on other things. Like new clothes for myself :)