Changes

I'll start this off with talking about the kiddos. We are coming to a new phase in our lives being parents.....preschool. It's like picking out a child care provider, but a little more complicated. It's researching all of the different schools out there and then looking at your child and their personality and deciding which one is going to provide the most benefit for them. For Peytonn, he is a very active kid, there is no way that he could sit all morning long and attempt to learn and listen. I realize that one day he is going to have to learn how to do that, but right now in his life, that is just not him. So, we chose a school that is child led and more of a play learning than structured learning. It is a very good school in our area and usually has a long wait list. I put him on the wait list today for the fall semester and I hope to be able to get him into the 7 week summer class to allow him some transition time. In the Fall, he will be going 4 days per week from 8:15am-11:15am. This allows me to take him and pick him up mid day and take him to the babysitter. Then he can eat lunch with the other kids and still take his afternoon nap. This seemed like the least restrictive and most consistent to the schedule he follows already.

As for Bennett, he is growing so fast and learning so much. He can say "mama," "dada," "more," "all done," uh oh," and "nana" for banana. He is talking much more than Peytonn did at his age. Peytonn was a very late talker and really didn't call me "mama" consistently until about age 2. Bennett is walking very steady now and even runs a little when he gets excited. He is excellent at climbing the stairs and basically anything he can get his leg up on. The kid will eat just about anything that I put on his tray and he even eats more than his big brother does.

We've also had a trying month dealing with a recurring fever. It started around New Year's and has lasted pretty much the entire month, off and on. At one point, it got up to 103.6 degrees. I was finally fed up with whatever was causing this and took him to urgent care this past Wednesday. His temp was 102.2 degrees, he weighed in at 23lbs 5oz, they tested him for strep, and gave us a prescription for Amoxicillin and sent us on our way. The next day the nurse called and said that his strep test was negative but continue with the antibiotics for 7 days. On Friday, Bennett broke out in hives all over his chest, tummy, and back. So, I called the nurse back and they said to stop the antibiotics and just do Benadryl. Finally today the hives have gone away and he seems fine. After all of this, I still think he is teething. After a month, Peytonn has not gotten sick or had a fever at any time and he used to get fevers in the 102's when he was teething. So, after all of that, who really knows what is going on or what the cause of the recurrent fevers are.

So, that pretty much sums up our lives this past month.

A yummy snack for the kids

Since my children adore every kind of Cheerios there are, I decided to look for a recipe that used Cheerios. This also helps use up those half eaten, stuffed in the back of the pantry boxes. I found this recipe: Honey & Nut Cheerios Squares

I used half regular Cheerios and half Multi-grain Cheerios. I also used Natural creamy peanut butter.They are really yummy and the kids like them.

New Furniture

I blogged earlier about looking for new furniture. I dreaded doing this by myself with two children. So, I bribed a friend with a home cooked meal and she came along with me to help me corral the children and pick out something good.

We went to every furniture store in town and at the end of the day went back to the first one. This store had the most selection and the best prices. We ended up getting a chocolate brown sectional couch and a new king size mattress. They were delivered on Tuesday of this week and I just love them.
The boys definitely tested out the couch pretty well at the store and it will be easy to clean if milk gets spilled on it, etc. The back cushions are sewn to the back so my child can no longer rip them off and if the dog gets on the couch (which drives me crazy!) I won't have to vacuum it, just brush it off. Also, it comes in pieces so I could decide how big it was going to be.

The bed is super comfy but weighs about the equivalent of a semi. No joke! It has a pillow top and its HUGE! As you can see from the picture, with the pillows on it comes awfully close to the top of the headboard. I literally have to jump to get up into it. However, the dog can no longer get on our bed.....super plus!! :)

Pulverized

Is how I felt when I woke up this morning. I started Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred yesterday and now my entire body aches. It's painful but a feeling that only means good things. Thankfully, the workouts are only 20 minutes long and there are three levels of difficulty. (Obviously I am on level 1 and it kicked my butt) I have started Weight Watchers again and I hope to be a little slimmer before my hubby comes home for a visit next month. I would also like to be slimmer before having another baby. (which will be at least another 11 months before we start trying) I already know chasing around two little ones can be tiring, but with a third I will need all of the energy that I can get.

Speaking of two little ones, yesterday I moved Bennett into Peytonn's room, so they are now roomies. I turned Bennett's old room back into an office and sewing room, which will allow us more storage for miscellaneous items. It seems like we are busting at the seams already in our house. It would be so much better if we had a basement where we could store things. I desperately need to finish going through the baby clothes and get rid of some more. I have already gotten rid of two containers worth of 0-12 month stuff to friends who were having boys. But I still feel like we have a ton of stuff left. It also seems like the boys are getting closer in sizes. Peytonn just moved up to 3T clothes and I have been taking the 24month/2T clothes out of his closet and setting them aside. But now, Bennett has completely outgrown all 12 month clothes and has moved to 18 month stuff. I feel like putting Peytonn's 24 month stuff in storage will be pointless if Bennett is going to start wearing them in the next 6 months or so. But then again, it will make things more organized and less cluttered. I also need to put Bennett's outgrown clothes into the storage container and clean out his closet so I can move his clothes to his new room.

I was nervous about how bedtime was going to go last night with the two of them in the same room. Usually Bennett goes to bed around 7pm and Peytonn goes to bed at 7:30pm. Finally, around 8pm they both were snoozing and I had to wake Bennett up at 7am this morning. He didn't wake up once last night, which is rare. It's also nice to only have one baby monitor now instead of two.

I also changed our bedroom furniture around. It has been the same since we moved into our house 2 years ago. It was time for a change. Our bedroom is quite large and we have a king size bed, so I wanted to play around with the arrangement. I ended up putting the bed at an angle in one of the corners of the room, which really opens up the other side of the room and makes it look even bigger. It would look really nice to get a chase lounge chair to put in the empty corner of the room and have a sitting area (or clothes collector). We plan to get a new mattress when the hubby is home and I am super excited about that (so is my back!). I really want something I can just sink into and relax, instead of tossing and turning a million times to find a comfortable position. We would also like to get a new couch for the living room. The one we have in there currently my husband bought when we met (so 6 years ago) and it has been beaten up. Its time for a new couch down there! I have been good about saving money since the hubby has been gone and I am proud to say that we can pay cash for both the new mattress and the couch! These two items are things we have waited a long time to replace.

I am going to try and take pictures of the new rearranged rooms once I get them all organized. Maybe some of you can give me some designing/decorating pointers or suggestions. :)

I've learned to smile.....

I am one of those people that finds significant meaning in the lyrics of songs. There are so many that I can relate to my life or an emotion that I feel. One in particular and one of my favorites are songs from the country group Sugarland. There is one verse that always strikes me everytime that I hear it. It says, "I've learned to smile even when I was falling down."

I guess that is just where I am right now on this emotional rollercoaster called deployment. I've learned that no matter how hard things are here at home trying to be everything to everyone and just how much I want my hubby home, I can't change things. I can't bring him home any sooner, nor can I make this situation any better than it already is. I often have days where I feel like I do nothing but fall down, just nothing seems to go my way. But what else can I do but just smile, laugh, or cry and move on to the next moment.

We are so close to having him home for a visit and yet it feels like it is so far away. I am trying so hard to just hold my emotions and sanity together for that instant that I see him. For that instant when he wraps his arms around me and all of my fears and frustrations and stress just melt away. I very much need that moment of normalcy, the weight lifted off my shoulders for a split second. All to realize that it is only temporary, that its all going to return in a short period of time and remain that way for months to come.

I am so thankful that we have the strong marriage that we do. Without that solid foundation, this experience would be even more devastating and destroying than it already is. I have learned so much about myself and my heart than I ever thought possible. I mean, I never ever expected to run a house, raise two young children, and work full time all on my own and still be alive at the end of each day. There are days I am disappointed in myself and other days that I am amazed at what I have accomplished. My heart has never ached so much in my life and yet been so joyful at hearing someone's voice on the other end of the telephone. It's seeing your child display so many traits of his daddy and continue to talk about his daddy on a daily basis like he just saw him a minute ago. It truly melts my heart to see him talking on his play phone to his daddy, telling him about his day and who he played with. I cannot wait to see my children reunited with their daddy once again. He is such a good dad and I know he misses his boys so much. I think we are all ready for this experience to come to an end.

It's here!

Our new carseat came in the mail yesterday!! Which was super, super fast shipping. I got free shipping from Amazon on Thursday and it was at my doorstep Saturday morning. So here it is:This is how it looked when I pulled it out of the box. The upper headrest comes in the box, but not on the carseat. I have to say, I absolutely adore the colors. They are even better in person than on the website. It comes with an infant insert and headrest which is pictured here. However, the insert and headrest have only been tested with a child on the first shoulder slot for the harness, so once your child is up to the second slot you can no longer use the insert or the headrest. I tried B in the carseat to see how he fit.
He loved it!! Now in this picture, I still have the infant insert in the carseat and his shoulders were even with the second shoulder harness slot. Meaning, I can't use the insert. So I take the insert out and put him back in the carseat. Then, his shoulders were even with the first shoulder harness slots. I decided since he isn't an infant and he didn't really need the extra body support, he didn't really need the insert and so I left it out and left him on the first shoulder slots.
Also, you don't need to use the headrest as long as the child/infant is between 5-22lbs and their head is 1 inch below the top of the seat. (I always hated that rule b/c I don't always have a ruler handy and you can't measure from the top of the head and the seat. It's like this weird angle calculation. Sorry, don't have time for that!) Luckily, on this seat there is a tag at the top of the seat that has a thick red line on it. This is the line that determines if you need the headrest or not. B's head is slightly below the red line but with his hair its hard to tell for sure. I decided to go ahead and put the headrest on for safety sake.
I actually like this seat so much that I put it in the van instead of the truck. I took out the Britax Marathon and put that in the truck instead. I really like how the TrueFit has the side impact protection (Marathon does not) and how deep the seat it. Once I installed the seat, it gave B so much more leg room rear facing than the Marathon did. The install wasn't too bad. The LATCH anchors came in the forward facing position so I had to rethread them to go rearfacing, but besides that it was a piece of cake.

All in all, I adore this seat and it gives B plenty of growing room in it. He may actually make it to 2 years old comfortably in this seat before I have to turn him forward. I would definitely recommend this seat to anyone and the colors are very vibrant. Even the babe likes it! :)

The great carseat search

I am in the market for another carseat. We currently have 3 carseats and you think that would be plenty, but we need another one for dad's truck. It is getting old having to switch the carseats back and forth from my van to the truck every time I want to drive the truck. I also have a 20% off coupon right now for Babies R Us/Toys R Us and thought I would use that to save some money.

Here are the stipulations:
--It must have a weight limit of 65lbs
--It must be a convertible seat so that B can be rear facing
--It cannot cost more than $200
--It must have good safety ratings and comfy for the kids

In my van, we currently have P in a Graco Nautilus and B is still rear facing in his Britax Marathon. In the truck, we have a Graco MyRide 65 for P. I would like to find a carseat that I can put B in rear facing in the truck. I'm not a fan of the 40lb weight limit seats, I think they are a waste of money b/c my kids will be harnessed until they outgrow their seats. B is still rear facing b/c it is safer and they actually recommend that your child remain rear facing as long as possible or they hit the maximum height and weight limits of the seat. Our ped recommended 2 years old.

I have looked at and heard really good things about the True Fit seat from The First Years. It has a weight limit of 65lbs, you dont have to rethread the straps to adjust the height on them (this is a big perk!!!), and the price isnt too bad at $199.

I also looked at the Combi Coccoro and I adore the color choices, however, the weight limit is only 40lbs. :(

I've already had an Evenflo Triumph Advanced and I hated everything about that seat. Not to mention I could never get a really solid install in the truck with it.

Anyone have any suggestions or experiences??


**Well, I jumped the gun a bit. I found the True Fit on Amazon is a good color and the price was cheaper than the BRU even with the coupon and it was free shipping. I got it all for $157!!! That is a great price for this seat and it will last until B is out of a carseat. Woot! This is the one that I ordered: