Sad for Gage

Just a few weeks back, Gage's preschool teacher that he loved just up and left.  No warning, no head ups, just was out for a few days and when I inquired, they said she wasn't coming back.  Apparently, no one knew what had happened and to this day there hasn't been much said.  As much as we think our kids are flexible and as hard as it is at this age to tell what's really going on in their heads...this change affected Gage.  He seemed to act different all around.  He was acting out more at home, was a little more withdrawn and seemed to be more sensitive.  I couldn't figure out if it was a stage or what the stressor was.  I talked to his teacher (the other one in the class who knows him best) to see if she had noted any changes and she said that she, too saw many of the kids acting out and just generally having a hard time with it. Again, these are 3 year olds, so what could be a phase for some of them, could actually be them acting out again stressors as well.

In any case, she told me there was another one of his buddies that was having a particularly tough time as well and that because they played together all the time, they seemed to be acting out together.  Btw, my kid is THE WORST when it comes to peer pressure.  He is always acting like someone- I assume this is relatively normal in the preschool population.  She said that she hoped they could get through it together.  Insert kicker.

Sam, Gage's aforementioned BFF, up and left too.  I went to pick Gage up from school Thursday and he proceeded to tell me that Sam was in a different class.  I figured he meant that Sam was in a different class that day because it was a snow day and more than likely their numbers were down.  However, when I went to look for his cubby, that Gage said he couldn't find, sure enough, it was gone.  His portfolio- gone, too.  Oh no!  I thought, not a chance.  His teacher had just mentioned him last week and Gage has just said he played with him last week.  On Friday, I inquired about Gage's bestie and sure enough I find out he's moved classes.  When I asked, I definitely got a sketchy answer so there's far more to the story than I know, or probably will ever know, but for now, I'm just really sad for Gage.  His teacher that he really liked left and now Sam, the one kid I know he played with every day and one of the more well behaved of the class.  Gage has one friend left that he talks about often so I'm hoping he'll stick around.  I just feel really bad for Gage and it's hard to know how much he knows and really understands.  I mean he told me right away that Sam was no longer in class with him so I know that he understood that, but to have a conversation about it, is different.  I just hope it doesn't affect him too much and he still enjoys school.  There's been a lot of changes in my little dude's life in the last 6 months.....a new bro, a new class at school, potty training, losing a teacher and now a good friend.  Geez!  I know kids tend to bounce back easy, I just feel sad for him.  And in the midst of one of his fits or tantrums, I have to remember maybe there's more going on.

Don't forget to set your clocks ahead!  Grrr....I dislike you, Daylight Savings Time!

And then he slept...

I haven't posted too much on here about Ezra's sleeping habits, or lack thereof.  Probably b/c I'm too busy trying to get him to sleep that I don't have time.  In fact, I don't really post much of what Ezra's up to these days on here and I'm really going to start trying to make a better effort.  Not because you guys really care, but because one day, I will.  I've enjoyed looking back and reading up on what Gage was doing at this same point in his life and some of it I had completely forgotten about.  I can see that he wasn't as good a sleeper as I remember and that he's hated green beans from the beginning.  I posted each and every little thing about Gage because I could and because everything was that much cooler the first time around.

So prior to this last week Ezra has been 'that baby'.  The baby who doesn't like to sleep unless you hold him.  I guess Gage was that baby early on but he never had a rough transition to sleeping in his crib.  We put him there and he liked it and that was it.  Sure we had to do a little sleep training here and there but that was mostly to get him to fall asleep, not all.night.long. We knew E was high maintenance from the beginning but it had gotten to a ridiculous point.  He no longer wanted to sleep AT ALL, even at night unless one of us was holding him. This made me nervous to sleep with him, but sometimes it was the only way.  I asked around at school, thinking I had forgotten something from Gage and all of the other girls that had babies 2 months before Ezra happily reported their babies were sleeping perfectly and mostly through the night.  We had gone through several rounds of putting him down and letting him cry over the last few weeks but I think that lack of consistency was the key.  We had been lazy with a bedtime routine but had tried hard over the last week.  After the weekend at Nana's last week, things just seemed to have gotten worse.  In any case, something happened Monday night (after being up every 45 mins. the night before) and he slept.  Sure, it took him about a half hour to go down and he woke up once, but HE slept.  Better than he had ever slept before. It was glorious.  Tuesday night it happened again- I swore I wouldn't get too excited but on Wed. night, I figured 3 in a row could no longer be a fluke.  So there you have it, the week that Ezra started sleeping....2/11/13.  He was just shy of 5 months old..........

FFwd to Fri. night.  The sleeping ceased.....the 'hold me' reappeared.  Sat. night, it was bad- he went from sleeping a stretch of 6-7 hours early in the week to 2.5 hrs.  It was exhausting again, at least we could be happy that during the week when we had to work he slept.  Then today, I found the culprit.  My sweet 2 days short of 5 month old baby is sprouting his 1st little tooth- 5.5 months earlier than Gage did.  It might be a long road....

2012- A Look back and A Look ahead

So here it is, the 1st day of January 2013 (when this post was started) and I realize that I have posted twice in the last month!  I can't even believe it myself, I'm not sure I have ever been a more pathetic blogger.  I am determined not to quit though and to pick up where I left off and forge ahead.  My life has been crazy lately, but at some point, things have to calm down again, right?

When thinking about 2013, I have big hopes and when thinking about it in a blogging sense, I have a few goals, I'm sure not ones that I will meet, but perhaps, at least strive for if I write them out.
a) 20 mins a day I will take the time to write, I mean really, 20 mins, I should be able to handle that.
b) 20 mins a day I will take the time to read- I would love for this to be a book- but for now I think blogs count.  I think I already meet this goal, as most of what I do when I nurse/pump is read
c)  I so wanted to take part in a Project 365 this year, but I knew it was an unreasonable goal on my part.  I wanted to make my very own blog that was just pictures of my beautiful family.  I did, in fact, even take a few today, however, I just know there's no way I'll be able to post pictures every day, I just don't have the time right now.  However, my goal is a Project 52 instead and that at least once a week I will post pictures from that week to show you how life is going in my neck of the woods and how my boys are growing at breakneck speed.

As far as 2012 is concerned, although cliche, one of my very favorite blog posts to read this time of year is a year in review.  I think it's so awesome to go back and recap an entire year and reflect, both for the reader and the writer.  Personally, I like to take this time to enjoy watching my family grow and to remember all the more significant moments in our lives.  Last year, I remember this posting taking me FOREVER as I linked up to several posts and copied several pictures over and I just don't see myself having that time this year.  Instead, I will review briefly month by month the highlights and when I have time (if ever) will go back and link up pictures.  I'm sure this won't be super exciting for the average individual to read, but this post is more for me and to recap what is important to us.  Now hold on, this is sure to take me a few days...(ha, so I started this process and have it written in print that this year I would by no means do what I did last year, but instead pick one significant event from each month or do pictures.  However, I really do like how last year's turned out...

Without further ado, January brought news of little Ezra, although I didn't share it with the blog until much later.  It also snowed the ONLY snow of 2012 for only a few hours.  I entered lots of photo challenges and Gage got a hand me down tool bench.


In February, it seemed there were lots of birthdays and I worked a lot.  Gage had his 1st real injury- chipping both his front teeth- and he had his 1st weekend with Nana WITHOUT Mommy and Daddy and we were childless for a few days.


In March, Gage read an entire book to himself, I told all of you guys I was pregnant and started my weekly updates, Gage started to tell us he loved us on a daily basis, we went to the St. Patrick's Day parade (which is one of Gage's favorite pastimes) and Gage's imagination started to run wild.


In April, I continued to grow, Gage had an awesome time at his 1st Easter Egg Hunt, he had his 1st lollipop and the O's started their best season in years.  We once again enjoyed Ticonderoga Farms, this time with friends and we enjoyed a nice, restful Spring Break.  All in all, pretty uneventful.


May, as usual, brought warmer weather and a trip to the Outer Banks.  I blogged 4 times total ALL month, one WW post, one birthday post, one letter to Gage and one quick update.  I spent most of my free time this month starting to study for the Praxis test AGAIN, that this time I failed by one point.  We found out we were having another BOY!



June, whew!  This is where my school year comes to an end each year and I get to be a stay at home Mom for a few months.  My favorite time of year.  I usually have time to blog a bit more but with studying this year I only blogged 6 times this month.  This month brought our annual trip to the OBX, a much needed break from studying, the actual Praxis test and Gage's fear of public potties.  Thank God that didn't last long.



July, usually my favorite month of the year.  A complete month off from my job.  However, this year, July was damn HOT and I was REALLY pregnant.  Gage and I had an awesome time, just the 2 of us, going to music class, chilling at the pool, hitting up the library and doing all kinds of SAHM stuff.  We also went to the 4th of July parade, that I might not brave again b/c of the heat.  I was super productive and blogged more than I have/had all year.  Gage moved into his big boy bed and I made letters for his room. (something I still haven't done for Ezra's)  Gage's potty training moved forward, I had time to enter some photo challenges and I reflected on Friday the 13th.  I actually had time to read a book and reviewed it!  Pretty sure it was the last book I read....I say, 6 months later.  We spent Luke's birthday at Dutch Wonderland, a place that was pretty much heaven to Gage and did a guest post on another blog, Great Expectations.  My belly continued to grow....



In August, we started to get ready to be parents of two.  I anticipated each day could be my last with Gage as my only child.  I started to get ready for going back to work for just a few weeks and had to make tons of sub plans.  We went back to the beach for our annual end of the summer trip and celebrated our 5th year anniversary in Baltimore/Annapolis.  The O's got DC excited again and I did a couple of reviews.  Gage and I reflected on our summer and I reached full term.


In September, I started back to school, but only for a few weeks when my sweet baby boy, Ezra made me a Mommy for the 2nd time.  This is when our lives changed forever as we knew it and everything has been a blur since then.  The O's were awesome!  and entertained me all night long the night I was in labor.  There were tons of birthdays and we finally got Gage's big boy room finished and Ezra's nursery started.  Sloane, our niece was born just one week after Ezra and I remembered things I had forgotten with Gage.


October brought changes and getting used to being a Mommy of 2.  I blogged a lot this month because I was at home on leave.  The O's went to the postseason and Ezra was hospitalized for a weekend.  We had a few follow up visits and all seemed to be well.  We went pumpkin picking, had a horrible late season hurricane and Gage had an awesome time trick or treating as Iron Man.  I celebrated 3 years at We're In For It (renamed We Asked For It).



In November, I went back to work :( and Luke got to stay home with Ezra. We celebrated Gage's 3rd birthday (which I never had time to blog about, because I went back to work).  President Obama took a 2nd term and I attempted 30 days of Thanks.  Gage officially became potty trained and I took both boys to the doctor together and lived to tell about it.  Ezra had his 1st OBX trip and celebrated his 1st Thanksgiving.


In December, 2012 came to a close and I blogged two times, that's right, count them TWO times.  I found life back at work and with 2 kids was a little crazier than I thought.  I had good intentions, it just never happened.  I celebrated my 32nd birthday and we spent the holidays at Nana and Grandiddy's house.  Ezra celebrated his 1st Christmas and New Year's Eve.  He outweighed Gage at the same age and one of the most unthinkable things happened at an elementary school in Connecticut.


That's it folks!  2012 in review.  Looking back, I realize it was a pretty uneventful year except for my pregnancy and the birth of Ezra.  We are very lucky to have the life we do and are blessed with two beautiful sons.  I'd love to spend the time to link up to all of my old posts, but I think I'm just going to post this for now.  I'd rather have it up, then not and I'll try to link it later if I have the time.  Goodbye 2012....here's to 2013!  Hopefully another great year!

Gage's Big Boy Room/ Baby It's Nursery

This post has been in the works for quite a while....since June to be exact.  We started working on Gage's big boy room at the beginning of the summer.  We bought him a big boy bed and he decided on superheros as his theme. We knew it would take a while to evolve, but we didn't quite know how long.  It hasn't exactly been 3 months in the making, but blogging about it has taken that long.  Plus we did pieces of Gage's room at a time.  We found the furniture, then the bedding.  Then we found prints for his room and I worked on redoing his letters.  Then we finally found curtains that we liked and finally a border and we still are painting shelves, looking for a rug and Luke wants to get black fan blades to match everything else....so yes, actually, maybe it is taking 3 months....but we are getting there, darn it!  Anyway, here is the 'big reveal' so to speak.  And it's not even done yet....but done enough we can show it off.

We found these on Etsy and we think they're pretty sweet, they set the colors for the rest of the room.

Yeah, the Hokie bird pillow is kinda out of place

Picked this up in Annapolis while on our Anniversary trip- Gage now LOVES money.

Had one of these as a kid and loved it, Gage had way too many stuffed animals laying around, so it works.  And maybe we can pretend it's a spider web??

We also have gotten most of the baby's room together, being that we have 6 days and all.  We chose the bedding long ago and really loved the dinosaurs.  Why I don't have a picture of the quilt right now I'm not sure, but there will be more to come.  As you can see the curtains and wall hangings are done, but my Mom has bought us other goodies to go in the room that won't be here 'til the baby comes.  Plus the wall letters revealing his name won't be around 'til next week either.  So for now, here's a sneak peek, I guess.

The Big Boy Bed....

Yes, I have read all the posts and heard all the stories and wasn't gullible enough to think we wouldn't have our fair share of issues, but all went well for the 1st week of Gage's big boy bed.  BTW, we are still in the process of redecorating his room so until then, I won't be sharing any pictures.  Anyway, we had gone to buy and pick out Gage a big boy bed weeks ago, but due to taking the time to get his crib and the other baby furniture out of his room, we hadn't had time to get it all together in his room until last Sunday.  He was soo super excited about it talked about it every night for a week.  He still talks about it and is very proud.  He slept in his big boy bed both at night and for naps every day for 7 days, until today.....

Today, I think he finally realized he could get up and run around and wasn't confined during nap time.  He went down for a late nap today (not sure if we pushed him past his limit) but he refused to sleep. Instead he jumped on his bed, looked out his window, played fetch with his Nuk and plugged and unplugged his night light.  We made him stay in his room for over an hour and a half and NOTHING.  I just got home from being gone over night, maybe he was excited to see me, but either way, it was definitely a change for us.  We're not used to this, at all. I feel for those people who deal with this all the time.  Because he didn't have a nap, we knew it was early bedtime for him, which usually he complies with.  We put him down as early as 6pm some nights he doesn't nap and he goes right to sleep.  Needless to say it's 715pm and he's still jumping on his bed and looking out his window.  This is not going to be easy. We held off as long as we could, thank God we didn't do it earlier, but it was time and now it's time for us apparently to be driven crazy.  We have threatened the crib and he is happy to comply. What do you think? Do we take a step backwards, will one night in the crib change his mind?  Oh, the fun of toddlers!

The Boogeyman

I'm sitting here at 720pm listening to my poor baby cry himself to sleep, as he's done every night for about a week now.  He's starting to get scared of things and everything in his room freaks him out.  For a few nights he cried about the 'cat' that was looking at him and it took us forever to realize that his lion towel was hanging on the back of the door and he wanted us to put it away.  Then there was the 'cat in the closet'.  Ace and Jasper, our 2 real cats, used to hang out in his closet and occasionally one would get shut in there at night.  So it appears he remembered that as well.  Then it was all the animals that sit on his shelves and in the rocking chair that we had to take down and put away. This has always been the case at Nana's house, but she has so many that are new to him it was understandable.  These animals have been in his room his whole life.  Tonight when I went to check on him, he turned himself around the opposite way in his crib so he couldn't see 'the cat', although it's not there anymore.  He also wanted me to leave the door open- a new request.

It's just funny to me that there comes a time that a child is scared of everyday things for no reason.  I wonder if it's the same time they start to get a vivid imagination, are reading more books and learning about new things and therefore their little brains are trying to keep up.  Thankfully he's not scared of the dark yet (although he does have a night light) and hopefully it's just a phase.  It's sad to know he's scared, but I'm not sure there's but so much I can do. Especially when he just wants me to keep coming back and it seems to be a way to prolong bed time.  Any suggestions?