Bread

Because we didn't feel as though we had enough to do (sense the sarcasm?), we took on a new project. Well, I don't think I can actually call it a project because we're intending for it to be a permanent change in our lifestyle. But it certainly requires more work on our part.

We have stopped buying bread and we are now making our own. I've always been interested in getting a bread machine, but I don't really like the way it bakes the bread. So we bought one at Goodwill (and amazingly, it works GREAT!) and are using it for the mixing and kneading cycles only. This does take a lot of the work out of making our own bread, as we can just throw all the ingredients in and let it go until it's done rising and it comes time to stick it in the oven. So far, we have done French, white and rye bread. We are looking for reasonably priced wheat flour, so if you know where I could get some, I'm open to suggestions.

Why are we doing this? Well, as a family we go through at least two loaves a week. And if we want decent tasting bread, it's costing us $4-$5 per loaf. I was a little surprised to realize that we were spending around $40 a month on bread alone. So we decided we'd make the initial investment of the bread machine ($8 at Goodwill) and then with the cost of ingredients for each loaf....well, we're saving about $25 a month. Which doesn't seem like ALL that much to begin with, but it's $300 a year that we can use on other things. Plus, homemade bread is just really yummy! I did have a little bit of fun and took a trip to Target to purchase some more baking items (a few loaf pans, pyrex measuring cups instead of my plastic ones that are just about to crack all the way through, things like that).

So that's our new thing and it feels really great to find unique ways to save a little money. And who knows? The homemade stuff just might be a little healthier than store bought!

I'm falling apart

I'm not sure how it happened, but I injured my left shoulder 2-3 weeks ago. It began as feeling slightly bruised around my shoulder blade, so I figured I would try to limit my use of my left arm (try taking care of two little boys with one arm!) and give it time. I've given it plenty of time and it's turned into feeling more like a torn muscle, taking away a lot of my range of motion, even into my hand. So that stinks.
The worst part has been sleeping through the pain though. Nathan is sleeping through the night consistently, but I am not. I can't get comfortable and then the pain is waking me up numerous times throughout the night. I finally took some Tylenol PM, but then I couldn't wake up in the morning! Good thing it was a Saturday and John was home. I'm still hoping I can encourage healing with some old fashioned heat and ice, but I should probably think about heading to the doctor soon.

Maybe it's from the shoulder pain or the lack of good sleep (or hey, both!), but I've completely lost control of the apartment. I know that's totally unrealistic to think that a home with two very young boys is going to be sparkling clean, but I would love to not have to step over small piles of things as I walk across the room. Our office is really bad and I even bought another small bookcase to give us more storage, but it doesn't work if I can't get around to putting stuff ON the bookcase. The problem is all this preschool stuff that gets sent home with Aiden. I knew there was going to be more paperwork and art involved, but my goodness! Clutter is definitely a source of stress, even more so for us organizational types.

I have slowly started to get rid of things that we just aren't using and I've rearranged Aiden's closet to accommodate more things, especially as we are packing away more baby items. I refuse to get rid of anything yet.....just in case. I do believe that as soon as you get rid of everything baby-related, a surprise will happen. I'm not in a great place for a surprise right now, so we'll just take the safe route and keep everything for now. :^)

Another load of dishes is calling my name. I have plenty of pictures from our family trip to the pumpkin patch, but I'll probably just wait and combine those with Halloween pictures after Friday. If I don't post until then, have a safe Halloween!

Recalls

I was browsing the news headlines on Yahoo! last night and came across a news story about a crib recall. The name of the company sounded familiar, so I checked it out. It's our crib. The crib that my baby was sleeping soundly in at that moment. Now, Aiden slept in that crib until he was 2 1/2 without incident and we've had no problems with it, but there's something about a recall (especially when it has caused deaths) that sends a bit of panic through a mom. I filled out the recall form for replacement parts and they should arrive in the mail very soon. Until then, I'll be propping the side so that it can't be lowered. Even though it feels extremely sturdy at this time, I want to be sure it stays that way until we can replace the spring pegs.
In case any of you with babies want to check out the recall page to see if your crib is affected, here's the link:
http://www.cribrecallcenter.com/

My poor baby

Aiden has ended up with the flu from his flu shot. His nose stuffed up Thursday evening, he started running a fever yesterday afternoon, and when he hadn't woken up by 11am this morning, I went in to find him bright red from the fever and laying in his bed exactly where he had thrown up. Poor kid. He hadn't made a sound or else I would have checked on him much earlier.
So, after a warm bath, we set him up on the couch with a pillow and blanket, lots of crackers and Sprite, and some Thomas videos. I'm almost out of Children's Tylenol, so I'll be taking a trip to the store later. It's been almost 24 hours since the fever started and while it didn't get super high until this morning, I'm hoping that I won't have to medicate him to keep it down much longer. Having a sick little kid is stressful, but mostly because I can't do anything to make it go away and he doesn't understand why he feels so bad. All I can do is try my best to make him comfortable and know that he'll be feeling back to his normal self in a few days.

For a small sleep update, Nathan is now going to bed like a pro and sleeping all night. I think he might be a little angry, as he greets me every morning with a very stinky diaper. :^)
I'm very much enjoying getting a full night of sleep, although I am still getting used to falling asleep without him cuddled up next to me. I also still REALLY have to nurse him by the time he wakes up in the morning. It's quite painful, but my body will adjust eventually. I feel much more awake every day and John hasn't been a bad mood all week!

Well, my little sicky has gotten up and is attempting to play with his train tracks, so I should check on him. We've had a few fun things that have happened over the past week or so and I would love to catch you all up on them, but it will have to wait. More later!

Crazy!

Last night was our 2nd night of putting Nathan to sleep in his crib and I was anxious about it all day. As bedtime approached, I got really nervous and prepared to deal with a very angry 9 month old. With Aiden, we had decided to make John the designated bedtime person, since Aiden was aware that he could get milk from me and not daddy. Since Nathan is also aware of that, we decided to continue with that plan.

We got the boys dressed for bed, read a few books, and then put Aiden in bed. Our plan was to put them in bed at the same time, but I hadn't yet nursed Nathan, so I took him out of the room to do that before putting him in bed. Aiden became very upset when we took Nathan out of the room. He started yelling, "No!! The baby needs to go to bed in my room!!". Strange, but I'm glad that he's excited about it and not hating Nathan for taking over his space.
After nursing Nathan, I handed him over to John so he could put him in his crib. John put him to bed, turned out the light, and left the room. Nathan began to complain (but not cry) and Aiden began talking to him. Once Aiden started talking to him, Nathan got quiet and we heard nothing from either one of the boys. There wasn't a peep from that room until Nathan woke up at 5:30am to nurse.

I should be absolutely ecstatic, but I don't believe that it actually happened. There's no way that a baby who has nursed to sleep and co-slept for his entire life (as short as it may be) could do that on his 2nd night. I still believe that it was a fluke and we'll be dealing with a screamer tonight. But I must say that I've been feeling pretty well rested today and it's nice. I'm not even close to being caught up on sleep, but it's a start. It still took me a very long time to fall asleep last night and I even had to dig out my body pillow that I used while I was pregnant in order to get comfortable. I guess I'm the one learning to fall asleep on my own!

I'll definitely keep you updated on our progress. It will be interesting to see how he does tonight. :^)

Check-ups!

This morning we had checkups for both boys. Aiden's 3 year and Nathan's 9 month. It was an amazingly good appointment. The pediatrician spent a full hour with us and we discussed everything from sleep issues to behavior to potty training to discipline....I am so pleased that we switched doctors. Hannah, thanks so much for recommending him. He is a wonderful doctor.

Both kiddos got shots today. There aren't typically any shots for 9 month checkups, but Nathan is a little off the usual schedule from his previous pediatrician, so there was some catching up to do. Plus, they both got the flu shot, so that increased our total combined shots for the day to five. Yippee. Aiden cried more than Nathan did! Aiden didn't even flinch for his first shot, but he decided to watch her do the the 2nd one and that upset him greatly. Poor kid!

Aiden's stats for his 3 year checkup are as follows:
Weight: 34 lbs (72nd perc) - This is the exact same weight that he was a full year ago. He was just a real chub last year for still being in the 72nd percentile this year!
Height: 38 1/4 (64th perc)

Nathan's stats (We have a long, lean little boy!):

Birth:
Height: 20 1/2 inches
Weight: 7 lbs, 2 oz

9 months:
Height: 29 inches (67th perc)
Weight: 18 lbs, 15 oz (18th perc)

For a sleep update, our first night went better than I expected. He still woke up every 2 hours, but I didn't bring him into our bed until 3:30am. I was very ready to nurse him at that point! I know that as he sleeps in his own bed more and more, I won't need to nurse him as often and my nighttime milk supply will decrease. The only problem was that I couldn't relax enough to fall asleep until 1:30am! So I didn't get much time to sleep on my own before he needed to be nursed. Yesterday was a very emotionally draining day for me and I felt very tense as I tried to go to bed. Maybe tonight would be a great night for a long, hot bubble bath! I hope that by the end of the week, I will be able to post about great progress concerning bedtime!

The on-going sleep issue

We've finally hit the point where I just don't know how to deal with getting Nathan to stay asleep in his crib. He's got such a strong personality that all the slow, detailed, trying to coerce them into staying in their cribs stuff isn't working. Maybe the strong personality types are better suited for Ferber....I don't know. I know I'm not suited for dealing with Ferber, that's for sure!

We've been so unbelievably sleep deprived for the past few weeks that it's really digging into our daily lives. We're almost constantly somewhat sick and today was awful. Neither John nor I really ever woke up all day. Today was such a blur and it's all because I was half asleep for it! Nathan is getting worse at night and I think he's hit the point that Aiden hit at 11 months. He enjoys sleeping in our bed and nursing, but our movement is waking him up and him waking up is keeping us up. John put his foot down this morning and insisted that Nathan be moved into Aiden's room tonight. I've cried off and on all day because of this (plus there are issues with my mother that came up this weekend and I've got a lot of anger and frustration to deal with right now). But I'm lost and so tired, so since John has been so gracious at letting me try different techniques, I will let him try now.

Nathan and Aiden are currently in their room - Nathan is asleep, Aiden is going to sleep. I know Nathan will wake up at some point and probably very soon, and that's when the real challenge will begin. I'm nervous and worried and I hate myself for not being able to teach him self-soothing on my own. This really stinks, but I said a little prayer as I put his crib together and I'm hoping this might go a little easier than I'm anticipating. We do have Nathan's 9 month checkup in the morning and maybe I can get a little insight from his pediatrician on how to make the most of this process. I'll update tomorrow (hopefully), but for now, I'm off to bed. We'll see how long I get to stay there.

Being gracious or just getting stepped on

I have to start by saying that we love our apartment. It's beautiful, the management is great, the maintenance team is prompt and efficient, we have no complaints (the neighbor issue has gotten better). But we are having one slight problem with our reserved parking spot. People keep parking in it. It's not the same car every time and I have no idea who it is each time, or else I would definitely speak to them about it. As a resident with a covered, reserved space, we have the legal right to tow anyone who parks in our spot. I've wanted to do this quite a few times, but John has always talked me out of it, saying that we should give the person a warning (typically a written note reminding them that covered spots are reserved and could result in them getting towed) and then if they haven't moved in 24 hours, we call the towing company. The person has always been gone 24 hours later, so we hadn't towed anyone. And then....it happened again. And again. And again. And again. It happened tonight for the 5th time in about a month and that was the last straw.
It was a different car still, although I actually believe it was the same car as last weekend. So we had them towed. Part of me feels bad, because I know it's very costly to get your car back from the towing company (sorry again to Brady and Carrie for last January). But I have hit my limit. Our parking spot is already on the complete opposite side of the building from our apartment and I have two small children that I have to corral. I can't spend a bunch of time looking for an open uncovered space, that might be two or three times the distance away from our apartment as our normal spot. I'm so done with dealing with inconsiderate people!

I don't know if there are just that many rude people out there or if for some reason, our parking spot causes confusion. It's an end spot, that is next to two or three uncovered spots. I don't know if people assume that it's free for the taking, but it's pretty obvious that you're covered once you park. I guess I shouldn't waste my time trying to figure out why people can't just abide by the rules and leave my spot alone.
I am planning on speaking with the management and asking if we can either be assigned a different spot or could they PLEASE put up another towing sign, preferably right above our parking spot. I wish I could describe exactly how amazingly frustrating it is to come home and have a car sitting in your spot, YET AGAIN. I don't know if the management can or will do anything, but I really hope they do. Or I may just have to put up my own sign.

A story of coffee

John and I have been waking up rather exhausted lately and the mornings when I need to drive him to work seem to be even worse. This morning was no exception and even the boys seemed to be more tired than usual. I ended up dressing Nathan was he was still asleep, which is typical of a newborn, not an 8 month old!

So I drop John off at work and as I'm leaving, I see two Intel workers holding coffee cups from the espresso stand. I decide that it's a good morning to get some Starbucks for myself. I get myself to the drive-thru and Aiden yells, "Yay, coffee!!!". Let me pause here and assure all of you that I do NOT buy him coffee! :^)
The drive-thru was fairly busy and I decided to use that time to grab my wallet and have it ready. I reach into my purse and.....there's nothing. No wallet, no money. Not to mention no driver's license! Luckily, I was still far back in line and no one was behind me, so I could easily get out of the drive-thru. As I'm pulling away from the drive-thru, Aiden shrieks, "NO MOMMY! COFFEE!!!". I calmly tell him that I don't have any money with me and let's just hope that mommy doesn't get pulled over.

I drive out to the light and there's a cop right there. Of course. Now, logically, I know that if I just drive normally, I shouldn't get pulled over. But what if someone rear-ends me? All of this is running through my head as I sit at the light, but we make it through without incident.

I pull into our parking spot at home and go to get Aiden out. I open his door and he says, "But where's my coffee?". I love that I wasn't able to get the coffee I wanted and I have a small child who is determined to remind me of that for the rest of the day! :^D

Aiden is THREE!

Aiden had a fantastic birthday on Friday! He celebrated turning three years old while spending time with family, opening fun presents, and eating yummy cake! This was the first year where he understood what happens on birthdays and he had a lot of fun singing 'Happy Birthday', blowing out the candles, and opening gifts. Whether or not he understood that it was HIS birthday is another thing, but I'm sure he'll have it all down next year.

He woke up on his birthday to find a new IKEA table and chair set waiting for him in the living room. He threw his arms in the air and yelled, "OH! What is that?? A TABLE!!". I wished him "Happy birthday Aiden!" and he responded with, "Happy birthday mommy!". At least he's polite!
After dinner, we headed to grandma's house to have a party!! We celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Laura and Kevin, Aunt Carrie Marie and Uncle Brady, Great Aunt Lorna and Great Uncle Price, Cousin Josiah, and Great Grandparents from both the Minthorne and Martin sides. A small gathering, but it was so very nice to have everyone together for the first time in quite a while.
Aiden received some very nice gifts from everyone and Nathan certainly had fun playing in the wrapping. He was also quite pleased to have so many people pay attention to him!
After most of the guests left, we stuck around for a little while to chat and let Aiden play with his new toys. We got home with two exhausted little boys that night!

It's hard to believe that it's been three years since Aiden entered our lives. I barely remember life without him and as I baked his birthday cake on Friday, I cried. He's so grown up - going to school and really beginning to have full conversations with me. Asking questions about the world around him and making observations about life. I'm sure when we watch him graduate and get married and start his own family, these days will feel like they just happened. But I know that time will come all too fast and so I'll enjoy his little Thomas the Tank Engine self with all of his tantrums, complaints, and fighting with his brother. I'm not sure I'll miss the potty training though. :^)
NOTE: Click on any photo to enlarge and if you click on the title of this post, it will open a full photo album of his birthday. Enjoy!