Laundry Day

I finally got around to doing laundry today! Hooray!! I think I'm going to love having main floor laundry. That is, if we can get the wash machine to stop leaking. It leaked a whole bunch on Friday when I was doing my first load in it since we moved, but Andy replaced the clamp on the drain hose and it had been working fine. On the second load today though I noticed that the paper towel that he put under the drain hose (so we could spot a leak) was wet. There wasn't much water on the floor, but there was some. I tightened the screw on the drain hose clamp a little more and have another load in there now. We'll see how that goes...

I got a new laundry cart for doing laundry. I used to just sort my laundry all over the floor (because our old laundry room was in the basement.) This thing is so cool though, it's got 4 compartments and I think I'm just going to keep it in my closet then roll it out to the laundry room whenever I feel like doing laundry. The 4 compartments each come out too so I could just carry one load out at a time if I wanted to. Here's a picture. I got it at Wal-Mart for like 30 bucks I think.
I was also excited to find out today that our car insurance will be $60 less (per 6 month period) because of moving out of the huge metropolis! Hooray!

That's about all I know for now. Ira is back to napping regularly and without much of a fuss. I think he really did just need to get settled into our new house. Take care and God bless!

P.S. The load in the wash is done and no leaks!!

Naptime Battles: Ira: 3 vs. Me: 2

Before I address the title of this blog, I wanted to give everyone a brief update on our move. Everything went very well! Both houses closed with no problem and we moved last Friday and some of Saturday. Now the long process of remodeling/redecorating begins. That's okay with me though, and Andy too, we both LOVE it. It's become somewhat of a hobby for us I guess you could say. It was almost boring at our old house since we finished everything. So we are excited to start anew with this new home! So far we've replaced the knobs on the cabinets and closets, added blinds to Ira's room, replaced the kitchen faucet (out of necessity - see future paragraph), and ripped a cabinet down in the kitchen in preparation for the over-the-range microwave. Oh, and yesterday Ira and I raked all the spikey seed pods (anyone know what kind of tree they're from? They look like miniature puffer fish) into piles. We haven't done a ton, but it's starting to feel more and more like home. Here's some pictures from moving day:

The wonderful snow was a slight hindrance on moving day.

Getting ready to go into our new house. The guy holding the door is one of the movers, not my husband!

Andy carrying me over the threshold. :-)

Luckily, we've had some beautiful days since then. We've gotten to enjoy our awesomely huge backyard several days since we moved. Here's my view from my kitchen window. The big trees you see line the back of our property and the tree in the coner of the photo is the back corner of our yard. It's hugemongous - the yard that is. Andy thinks we're gonna need a riding mower and I tend to agree with him there!

Anyways, back to the title of my post. We've been struggling with happy nappytime here at our household. Ira didn't take a nap at all on Monday (but then fell asleep 5 minutes into our drive and slept for close to two hours. Tuesday, he also did not really take a nap. I think part of it had to do with the fact that we were at a hotel. But he spent the better part of 2 hours screaming, kicking the walls, and whenever I came in to try to quiet him down, he either hit me in the face, threw his binky (which he then lost), pulled my hair, or said "Go out Mommy!" Needless to say, I was completely exhausted by the time he finally fell asleep. I laid down as well, and just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard Ira wake up. Seriously, 20 minutes does NOT count as a nap!! Wednesday, he slept just fine at naptime, but Thursday again, no happy nappy. Thursday he got his pillow out of it's case and also unzipped it out of the protector, so before he could go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner he had to put his pillow back in the case (yeah right!) So, he had to pay me with some of his toys for me to put it back in. Today, we put up light blocking blinds in his room (which we had intended to do ASAP but just finally got to it today.) I laid down with him for awhile for naptime, but he wasn't going to sleep, so I left his room. That was like 30 min. ago and I haven't heard a peep since! I just peeked in and he's asleep!!!! Hooray! Some had speculated that he was ready to give up his naps, but I just don't think he is quite yet. He was so grumpy those evenings that he didn't nap (except for yesterday because he was at Grandma and Grandpa's and he's NEVER grumpy there - they don't believe that he really ever is because they never see him like that.) Alas, I think Ira's finally adjusting to the move and hopefully naptime will continue improve.

In other news, we had to go without a kitchen faucet all this week. Last Sunday night it blew up and sent water flying all over the kitchen. Andy offered to fix it, but it was pretty stinkin' late, so we just went to bed and said we (being Andy) would fix it Friday (today). This is a picture of the new faucet and sprayer (hooray!!) The garbage disposal and drain pipes are out right now because Andy's cleaning them because they reek of old potatoes. He also found a straw in the drain pipe. Also notice and appreciate the harvest gold linoleum. Although we treasure it, it will soon be gone hopefully!

Here are pics of the old knobs (bathroom, hall closets, bedroom closets)
And here are the new ones

Well, I think I'll sign off. If I haven't bored you to tears, I'm amazed and if I have, why the heck are you still reading?! Take care and God bless!!

Sniffle...My little one is growing up!

I can't believe how stinking big Ira is getting. It's like every day something happens that makes me realize that he is no longer my little baby boy. Not that I'm not proud to see the little boy he's growing up to be, and he'll always be my baby, but seriously, he's just growing up so fast. What's prompting all this sentimentality you might ask? Well, Ira got his hair cut today.

Fortunately for us, my little sister cuts hair and does a fabulous job, so I never have any concerns of whether it's going to look alright, but tonight before she cut it, she said, "You know, his curls may be growing out" Seriously, I knew that curls do often do that, but I didn't realize it'd be happening now when he's only 2! Andy and I had already had this discussion about how long/short we wanted his hair and had agreed that we don't want it too short because we still want him to have some curl but then when Mandy (my sis) said about the curls possibly growing out it set me off crying... CRYING! Can you believe that? I mean, I'll admit, I cry almost every time that she cuts his hair short (it does grow really stinkin fast so we have her cut it shortish then let his curls grow back) because he hardly seems like Ira when he doesn't have a long shaggy mess of rumpled/curly hair. I feel like it's a part of his personality. My father-in-law teases me about it, which is fair, I know, it's only hair, but STILL! So anyways, Andy and I talked again and decided to have her cut it short but not too short. I love how it turned out and I haven't even cried since she cut it, but he just looks so so big with his little boy haircut.

Before haircut (taken on Christmas)

Big boy haircut

Side view

For those of you who haven't checked out from boredom yet, I'm almost finished. Tomorrow we pack for our big move. I can't believe it's already here (and yet it seemed like it would never get here too.) I'm so curious what Ira will think of it all. We've talked a lot about it trying to prepare him for it, but the whole experience will just be interesting with him involved. I'm hoping I'm not stupidly unstressed about the whole thing. I'll let you know tomorrow after we've packed how I feel.

Oh, and for all my thousands of devoted fans out there: the diarrhea smoothie worked GREAT! Ira hasn't had the scoots since he drank it! I'd say that worked!!!

Well, take care and if you get a chance pray for us as we start on this new adventure!

God bless!

Day 1

So, this is what a blog is like hmm.... I thought this might be a good way to keep people a little more up to date with our day-to-day happenings. I will try to faithfully update this when I get time. We move on Friday and might not have the internet for a few days after the move. I'll try to keep you all posted.

Today I chose to start a blog because I am so excited about the way that Ira was playing this morning. (I know, a stupid reason to start a blog but read on...) I am very passionate about trying to raise Ira right. I obsess over his sleep and what he eats (not so much now as when he was little bitty). And my hubby would tell you I worry way to much about everything. Hence the title of my blog. I'm trying to not worry so much and put my trust in God.

Okay, so this morning Ira and I decide to play with his Fisher Price Little People (to be referred to as "guys" from now on because that's what he calls them.) His "guys" are quite a motley crew. Some are new, some are consignment sale finds. Here's what we've got: a garage with two guys, a tow truck, and a car; a huge nativity set (that I can't bear to put away and so we will continue to play with it, also it has lots of animals and people that we like to play with); a farm, and Noah's Ark complete with essentially 2 sets of animals (because some were missing and Fisher Price graciously sent me a replacement pack of animals hence the 3 zebras, 4 elephants etc...) We also have a huge Little Tykes pink barbie dollhouse that someone down the street was giving away and a fence that my Grandpa made. Oh, and we can't forget "Berto" with his skid-loader and Farmer Jed with his semi truck and trailer. You wouldn't necessarily think that this motley crew would be much fun to play with but Ira sure loves them!!

This morning he was sitting in the fence with the ark and about 2 dozen animals feeding them hay, fish, and apples. Then Mama Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus decided to go home (to the pink Barbie house.) Joseph put Baby Jesus to bed upstairs and then people (and animals because that's what we have the most of) started coming over. The elephants woke up baby Jesus, but it was okay because his eyes were open (says Ira). Joseph brought baby Jesus downstairs and immediately everyone started crowding around the baby to look at him. Farmer Jed kept going and getting more guests for the house who knocked and were greeted by Mama Mary. After coming in, they immediately joined the circle of guests looking at Baby Jesus. It was the cutest thing! And seriously, Ira came up with all of this himself! I am so proud of how imaginative my baby boy is getting!!

Onto an entirely different subject altogether, we're struggling with kicking the flu here at our house. Andy and I both had a touch of it early last week that lingered for several days until leaving completely on Saturday. Ira had diarrhea on Saturday morning/early afternoon then was fine Sat. night and Sun. This morning though, he had "the scoots" again (as Andy would call them.) Hopeful for a cure, I turned to the internet for advice on what to feed Ira to help his digestive system get back in shape. I found that you're supposed to follow the "BRATTY" diet. Bananas Rice Applesauce Toast Tea (decaffeinated) and Yogurt (plain with live cultures.) Ira doesn't have the biggest sweet tooth, so I wasn't sure how to incorporate a lot of these things into something he'll eat. He does love smoothies though, so I concocted this recipe for lunch:

I like to call it Diarrhea Smoothies (I think the name is funny!)
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 cup applesauce
1 cup cooked rice
1 1/2 bananas
4 packets of splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
Blend up in the blender and Enjoy!

I must say, I was surprised at how great it actually tasted. Don't worry about the rice. It blends up pretty smoothly and ends up the texture of coconut or what I would picture tapioca being like. The best part, Ira LOVED it!! I'll let you know what it did for his digestive tract in my next post.

We're counting down the days until we move on Friday. I'm thinking of putting a book together for Ira about the move with pictures and some journaling. We'll see how much time I have.

Thanks for reading. I'll let you get back to your day now!