Sensory for 2

I decided to make some playdough today for Saffryn. We tried playdough with her a while ago and she did not care about it at all. So I decided to try again and have her help make it! Well once I got the flour out and had her start stirring I realized it was going to quickly turn into THIS !!! So I picked up the playdough and made it myself...and you guessed it...got flour out for the kids to play with. Pierce made a beeline straight for it, which I was not expecting. They both had a blast!!! Then we got to play with playdough afterward! What a fun and eventful morning!!!

Let the adventure begin!

Can you tell he was enjoying himself!

The playdough I made

Haha!

Had to have a flour face shot!

They were LOVING it!

She was covered in it.

Teehee! Such a busy boy who doesn't want to miss anything!

We had such a fun morning.

Two is Better Than One

Busy Boy

Here is how the cool boys wear their clothes...

Or maybe just the boys who are too busy to sit still and have their pants buttoned up! I LOVE having a busy busy boy!!!!

Fun

The kids are finally playing together on their own! This is so great!!! The video is blurry in spots, but at least you can still hear them having fun.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was very low key for us. We stayed home!!! It was just our little family of 4 (5 including Crash)...and we had a great time. Of course we missed our family, but it was nice to be home and not have any schedules to follow.

Christmas Eve we did some shopping, went to church, went out to eat and then came home to watch movies and eat snacks! After the kids went to bed we put out the gifts we had wrapped...and of course Santa came :)

Christmas morning Saffryn woke up and ran to Pierce's room where Pierce and I were playing. She was excited and actually remembered that it was a special day. We got Daddy who was still sleeping and came into the living room to see what was there. Saffryn ran straight to her pile of presents and she went ooohhh. Then she wanted to open them and play with everything! Pierce was the funniest little boy he stayed really far away during the gift opening and just played with this old pink hacky sack of Saffryn's. He literally stayed there for almost an hour. So I opened his gifts...hehe. He eventually warmed up and started exploring the gifts and goodies.

We spent the rest of the day playing with toys, eating snacks, went outside and just spent time together! It was really fun. Both of the kids were fighting off colds which was a major bummer though.

It is now the second day after Christmas and all the decorations and toys are put away...I KNOW...what a scrooge I am! I usually leave the decorations up until after New Years but with Dan being home I decided to just tackle it now and be done with it.

We are sitting by the tree opening gifts while he is sitting over there playing by himself...hahah!

He loves that old hacky sack...who would have figured?

I had planned to have a cute pj photo of her...but this is the outfit she chose: a top on backwards and underwear inside out :-/

Surrounded by toys! We are all so spoiled!!!!

Dan got the kids a remote control car...they both loved it! Pierce was always trying to chase after it.

He made it! Having fun together!

Pierce in his new hat getting ready to go outside!

Pierce and Momma

Safffryn in her new hat...trying to get a picture of her is SO hard!

Hat hair!

Daddy and baby

Well that was our quiet and relaxing Christmas this year! Looking forward to 2012 and all that it brings us!

Is It Spring Yet?

This weekend we got to play outside! It was so nice outside!!! The only problem is it gave me a serious itch for spring...uh oh. This may be a long winter for me...Oh well! Enjoy a few pictures!!!

Playing in his bouncer outside. He likes being outside, too!

She picked out her outfit today...hehe!

Loves playing on her bike...aaahhh spring come quickly!!!

Such a happy boy!

Love her!

Defeats and Victories

Well to sum up my first week of sleep training Pierce I think I will use one word. FAIL. HAHA! I knew it was going to be hard...but it was even harder than I was expecting. I knew it would be an adjustment for both of us, but I figured it would get easier as the week went on...but instead it became almost impossible. The first time I used the method it took about 25 minutes to put him to sleep which I was pretty encouraged about. But he woke up almost every hour that night and by 3am was not going to sleep without nursing. Well the next day he took about 25 minutes to go to sleep using the method so I thought...ok I can do this. Well he slept a little longer that night but when he woke up he was screaming at me for almost two hours. Rocking him was not comforting him, putting him in his crib was not working either. It was really stressful.  That was basically the rest of the week for me. I was completely stressed and exhausted. He REALLY fought me on this method.

BUT the most frustrating (to me) part was Dan put him to sleep a couple of nights and it took him seriously 2 minutes to put him to sleep using the method. He did not fight him at all. Then we had planned for Dan to wake up with him during the weekend and put him back to sleep and wouldn't you know he slept through the night. UGH. What am I doing wrong??? So the bottom line is he can put himself to sleep...he just wont for me. I don't know why but that really upset me. It made me feel like I am doing everything wrong. But after talking to Dan and my Mom and MIL I felt a bit better. The reason he is fighting me is because I am very comforting to him and he doesn't want me to put him down. Dan does not have the same relationship with him right now so it is not as hard for Pierce to be put down by him. So after thinking about it and digesting it some more we decided not to push the sleep training to much right now. When Dan is home he is going to put him to sleep and get Pierce used to going to sleep without me. When/if (remember he is mr. inconsistent) Pierce wakes up at night I will nurse him and put him back to sleep because this is the easiest and fastest way for both of us to go back to sleep. Eventually we will have Dan wake up with him at night and put him to sleep and test to see if he is actually hungry or just wants the comfort momma brings him. We are very very slowly going to transition him out of rocking/nursing him to sleep. Apparently neither one of us is ready for a full on cold turkey approach.

It is hard to admit defeat. But right now I have to...we are not ready...well I guess I am not ready. Pierce is ready (for Dan) and Dan is ready...but I just cannot seem to fight and win this battle right now.

I am sick of second guessing myself. The weird thing is when I was a teacher or a nanny I didn't do this to myself. Of course I was conscientious and thoughtful about what I was doing with the children but I didn't over think EVERYTHING. But I do now that I am a parent. I would not have thought twice about rocking a 7 month old to sleep for bed/naps while I was nannying or in a childcare center so why am I so worried about it now??? In both a nanny setting and a classroom setting I remember rocking 15-18 month olds to sleep and not even blinking an eye about it. And yes they naturally grew out of being rocked and it was pretty fluid (and I am sure they are well adjusted loved children now)...why oh why am I second guessing it now with my sweet baby boy????

Anyway...can you tell I am torn about this subject. Did anyone ever tell you being a parent is hard? No...no one. Well let me be the first...LOL!

Before I wrap this jumbley blog post up we do have a victory...Pierce took a bottle this weekend!!! This is such great news! This means I can more easily get a break and Dan gets a chance to continue to bond and grow closer to him. And of course this is one step closer to eventually not needing momma at night time and possibly sleeping consistently through the night. You know what is so funny...he took the bottle and sucked it down like he had been doing it his whole life. I cannot figure this kid out. He is so not like Saffryn (or me) at all!

Until next time....