Thursday, August 1, 2013

Sleepy Boy

Andrew and I decided that a couple months before our baby girl is due to join our family, we'd switch Jake from the crib to a toddler bed.  I found a great deal on a cute bed that matches his furniture on Craigslist, which we ended up getting a month and a half ago or so.  We brought the bed up to our apartment, and Jake LOVED it.


He loved it so much that we put it in his room and he slept in it that night and for the next 5 nights without any problems.  We took down his crib, and all of a sudden he couldn't stay in his toddler bed anymore.  We decided to keep putting him back in it to try to encourage him to stay out of the crib, especially because it was quite the ordeal to get it taken apart, and it's even worse trying to get it back together.  We don't want to end up with 2 cribs at the same time!  I guess that's one disadvantage to having 2 kids in less than 2 years.

Jake ended up in our bed quite a few nights, just long enough to get settled down.  Once he fell asleep we'd put him back in his bed, and that seemed to work pretty well, but waking up more nights than not to a crying toddler who wants to take over your bed isn't that great- especially because I'd end up getting kicked by Jake on the outside of my belly and our little growing girl on the inside.  What a nightmare!


We figured out that turning off all lights and getting rid of the nightlight (which he was pulling out of the wall to try to get his fingers in the socket- sheesh!) helped him fall asleep more quickly, and stay asleep for longer.  It's been awhile now, and I'd say he's doing pretty well for the most part.  We probably made the transition a little too early, but in the end it seems to be working out well.

We bought a video monitor just before Jake was born, which has provided us with so much entertainment, especially now that he has free roam of his room at night and during nap time.  I can't even tell you how many positions he has found to sleep in!






(you can just see his head in the corner of the monitor, sleeping on his pillow on the floor)



He is continually doing better falling asleep on his bed, and staying on his bed for the entire night.  However, the first couple of weeks we'd find him in the craziest places that I'm not even sure how he got to.  I wish we'd have captured more of those, but I'm grateful to find him in his bed when I check on him before going to sleep myself.





It's great that Jake is enjoying his new bed, and I'm glad we'll have the crib ready for our baby girl when she joins our family in about 2 months.  I can't wait!

Summer Catch-Up

We have had such a fun summer!  I've been a stay-at-home mom for about 4 months now, and I have loved every minute of it!  It certainly isn't exactly what I had expected, but it's definitely what I want to be doing.  I pictured a reverent little Jake playing with one toy, cleaning it up, and then pulling out the next to play happily with me, reading books between games, and picking out books quietly at the library.

Boy was I wrong!  I spend most of my time trying to keep Mr. Crazy alive!  He loves diving head first off of anything he can find.  He tries to push the screens out of our windows and climb on the window sills to escape (we're on the 3rd story!).  He's obsessed with the stove and turns anything he can upside down so he can get to the burners.  He fights any books being read to him, and the only time we can really get a book in is when I have him strapped in his high-chair eating a meal.  His favorite thing to do with his toys is dump them out of the toy box and use the box itself to climb and get to things he's not supposed to have.  He has figured out locking himself in rooms (and has caused me some stress trying to get him out).  He tries to pull the chairs over on top of himself and pulls everything out of all the kitchen cupboards.  Boy is he a handful!




We have had a lot of fun going to the zoo (and even meeting up with Andrew when he's done with work for the day sometimes).


We've spent a lot of afternoons hanging out at Zoombezi Bay, the water park attached to the zoo.


Jake loves playing at the park.





He also enjoys his time with the toys at the library.


And the kid loves bubbles!  He calls them "pa," which comes from us saying "pop, pop, pop" over and over again when he touches them.


Jake and Andrew went to their first Major League Baseball game this summer, too!  We met up with my mom's side of the family and had a blast eating hotdogs (dollar dog night), watching the Indians win, and seeing fireworks afterwards.  Jake LOVES fireworks!  That made the 4th of July a lot more fun, too.






Jake does not like haircuts, and his last one about a week ago was particularly rough for him.  The lady said little boys usually peak in their hatred of haircuts around age 2- so we might still have awhile before he's happy to get a trim.  Poor kid!



He has started liking movies, though.  That makes it easier for me to make dinner without any casualties in the kitchen.  It's also good for when a wave of pregnancy fatigue or just not feeling well hits me.  He is picky about his movies, but he likes Toy Story, Up, Tangled, and Horton Hears a Who.


One of his favorite places to be is the porch.



He also likes climbing below the chairs.




Jake really is our little wild child.  Andrew and I joke that his motto is "find and destroy."  I guess it's good we can at least joke about it :)  He might be quite the handful, but he is also so fun.  Never a dull moment, that's for sure!  We love this little boy to pieces!