Big Girl Bed

I love this milestone!  I don’t know what it is about moving the baby out of their crib and into a big bed that makes me so excited!  We moved Ryder when he turned 2 so we followed suit with Maisy.  It’s always a little nerve wracking because you just don’t know if they’re ready until you actually do it, but we went for it and all went well!

We had to take the crib apart to get that out of her room before we could put the bed together!  I say WE as if I had anything to do with it, have I mentioned how much I love my husband?!  Oh wait, he did have one little helper! 

 

Okay so maybe it would have gone a little faster if the “helper” did a little less “helping” but…after hours of taking things apart and putting things together, he couldn’t wait to be the first to lay on the bed!

It wasn’t long before the crazies came in ready to test out the bed…and by that I mean jump on it!

And then it was officially time to spend her first night ever in her first big girl bed.  She wasn’t scared, until brother said “Don’t be scared Maisy!”.  Then she realized that yeah, this is a little scary.  She wanted me to stay and lay with her, and got upset when I left.  So I sent Daddy, aka the Maisy Whisperer, in to talk to his girl and after a few minutes I heard “okay daddy, night night, I love you so much” over the monitor, her bedroom door shut, and that was that!

     

Night 1 was a success.  Night 2 brother wanted to sleep with her, so I found them like this when I went in to wake them up!

Little cuties!  So glad our big girl loves her big girl bed :)

Bye-Bye Paaaa

That would be baby talk for Goodbye Pacifier!!! 

Last Wednesday I came home from dropping Ryder off at Awana and when I came in the door Alan told me Maisy had something to tell me.  She told me her first little story!

Maisy: Paaaaaaaa (paci)

walking toward the window

Maisy:  Beee-Beeee (Beasley)

pointing out the window

Maisy: Chewwwww

Mommy: What!  You threw your Paci out the window and Beasley chewed it up???

Maisy: MmmHmmm … All Gone!

And just like that, her paci is all gone.  She has not had one since!

Bye Bye Paaaaa!

This Little Momma is Walking!!

My mom suggested I put shoes on Maisy because she thought it’d make her more stable so she’d walk better.  I rolled my eyes.  Vicki agreed with my Mom.  So I packed a pair of shoes for Nana’s today with a “I’m telling you guys she’s going to hate having shoes on her feet, everything online says to let babies learn to walk barefoot now, you’ll see” look on my face, and guess what…these Grandma’s actually know what they’re talking about!  We picked her up today, she had shoes on her feet, wasn’t screaming about it, and she was WALKING!  Imagine that!  (okay okay I’m sorry for rolling my eyes.)

Oh my goodness she is such a Daddy’s girl, can you tell?!?!  On top of being a Daddy’s girl, we realized today that she is a little Momma!  We got her baby doll out and she was being so nurturing!  Patting her, rocking her, kissing her…it brought tears to my eyes…all I kept saying was “awwwww she’s a Mommy!  Look babe, she wants to be a Mommy!”  Then I hear Daddy hugging her saying “you’re going to be a good big sister, yes you are…”  ummmm, wait, wait, wait, wait, I don’t know about all that!  ha.

What Is That??

Maisy – What is that grumpy face for??

Why have you had that grumpy face on all week??

Oh wait…what is that I just felt in your mouth??

Could it be??  Could it really be???  A TOOTH!!!!  It finally came through!

Maisy you are 11 months old and your first tooth just cut through your gums today…HOORAY!

      

Now we’re happy :)  This is the face I get when I say “Maisy let me see your teeth!”

 

It’s A Boy!!

Contrary to what the world may believe…I really did give birth to a baby BOY 3 years ago!  Yes I know everyone reading this already knows that. 

But the lady at the gas station who sees Ryder in a shirt that says “Big Brother” and snidely comments to the person she’s with “BROTHER?!?!  Pah!” did not know.

The kids at the playground the other day saying “Let the little girl go down the slide first”, they did not know.

The worker at the Great Wolf Lodge souvenir store who checked us out when we bought Ryder’s dump truck saying “Can she carry it or does she need a bag” as she handed his DUMP TRUCK to him…she did not know.

His Doctor who he sees on a fairly regular basis that walked into the room and said “Hey Ryder, how’s our girl doing??” He SHOULD have known, but nope.

And to every other person we come in contact with every.single.time we go out in public…even though he is dressed in all boy clothes, and talks about all boy things, they just didn’t know…that HE IS A BOY!!!!!

I guess it’s fair to say we’ve heard the “girl” comment one too many times and realized that it’s not fair to him, how confusing must that be for people to be constantly calling him a girl when he knows he’s a boy?!  And how annoying for us to always have to correct people.  His hair has always been his “thing” so this decision did not come easy for us (and all of our attachment issues).  But the time has come…

   

We saved his first pony tail we ever cut…so this time we’re donating to locks of love! 

Yup, he’s definitely all BOY now.  In fact, from this point on, I don’t think he’ll ever be referred to as a girl again!  I thought me & Daddy would both cry seeing it all get cut off…but look at him!  He looks SO handsome, we were both so happy with how it came out.  I can’t stop looking at all his features that were hiding under all that hair.  His ears, his eyes, his eyelashes, the shape of his head…it’s all so new! 

His cousins Angel & Alyssa came into Aunt Dee’s shop while we were there, so he had a blast pretending to be the worker after his haircut was done.  He washed Alyssa’s and Angel’s hair plus swept up for Aunt Dee!

 

Oh he looks so handsome, we’re going to miss his long hair…Now our motto can’t be “Long Hair Don’t Care” anymore, ha. 

If this post is traumatizing and you’re in tears right now because Ryder doesn’t have long hair anymore, you might not want to watch this clip. 

So Maisy was wearing a brown shirt the other day, we were in the grocery store and she was in the cart chewing on my keys.  The checkout lady says “Oh no, he’s driving already?  I better stay off the road if he’s going to be driving”.  REALLY??????  FOR REAL?????? 

Maisy’s on the Go!

There’s no stopping her now!

She’s not up on hands and knees yet, but it sure isn’t preventing her from getting around.  She is army crawling all over the house, coming to find us if we leave her in a room by herself, and having crawling races with big brother…in their Church clothes…oh well.

After just a week of crawling around and she already has the guys chasing after her!  We should have known this was coming.  We got a very special visit this weekend from our friends James & Erica and their 4 kids.  The only pictures I took were of Little James being glued to Maisy, he’s going to be a very sweet, attentive boyfriend someday! 

And now the fun begins, chasing two little ones around! 

She Rolled Over!

I finally witnessed Maisy girl rolling over!  She is 15 weeks old and has now rolled from her tummy to back :)  When I laid her down in bed tonight on her tummy, she put her butt up in the air and over she went. I rolled her back on her tummy, patted her back then as I was leaving the room I heard her flop over again!  I went back over to her and she looked at me with the biggest grin on her face.  Like "gotcha mom"!  Silly girl.  Luckily the last time I rolled her over she nestled in and closed her eyes to go night-night.  I couldn't take a picture because even a major milestone isn't worth interrupting our bedtime routine!  So here is just a random picture of my sweet baby girl. Hopefully soon I can get a picture or video of her new trick :)

Big Things Are Happening!

We got a Walmart!!  Yup, that’s right, I’m writing on the blog about a Walmart opening in our town because that’s BIG, right?!  No more 1 hour trips to civilization…it has come to us and today was the big opening.  You could ask anyone in a 30 mile radius what day the Walmart was opening and every single person knew, I’m telling you, it’s a big deal.  So big that Me, Angela, CJ, Ryder, Maisy, and Callie made plans to meet there this morning.  Sorry, no pictures, we were too busy throwing random crap into our carts that we don’t need, because that’s what Walmart does to you.  But atleast we have one now!
In other big news…look at this:

Now look closer:

That would be TWO stickers on the #2 section!  Only one more poop on the potty and Ryder gets a potty prize!  He’s doing great with the pee thing, as you can see we’re on lap 2 around the Potty Chart for going #1.  Still not ready to be in underwear, but we’re getting there!
There’s more big news…lastnight Maisy slept from 9 – 5:15!!  That was soooo nice!  Of course I was up watching the clock wondering when she’d finally wake up, but maybe if she does it again tonight I’ll actually get some sleep.  I’ll throw a couple pictures of Ryder & Maisy laying in her bed in here because they’re just too cute:



We joined the YMCA!  I’m really excited about it and we’ve had fun this week trying out a bunch of different things they offer.  This evening Me & Ryder dropped Maisy off at their daycare and hit the pool.  I apologize that Ryder shuts his eyes in every single picture I take of him now, I guess he’s anticipating my flash.

I have to apologize for not elaborating on the brace that Ryder had on lefty a few posts back, I was so excited about our library trip that I didn’t give the proper explanation that I should have known would be required from our oh-so-faithful blog readers!
 
This is a new splint that Abby (his Occupational Therapist) ordered for Ryder.  It has a supination strap on it, I had to go look up a good explanation of its purpose: Helps decrease abnormal tone and increase joint range of motion in persons with neurological disorders. The strap supplies the dynamic force needed for forearm supination. Applies a prolonged, gentle pull that places the upper extremity. Got all that?  On that note, Ryder saw his Physiatrist (rehab doctor) the other day and we’ve decided to move forward with getting some Botox injections in his left arm and leg.  We’re going to schedule it in conjunction with his next casting, so sometime in the spring.  In the meantime I’ll be doing lots of research to make sure it’s definitely something I want to follow through with, they keep pushing it as a treatment that would be great for Ryder and I keep turning it down based on the fact that he would have to be put to sleep again.  Obviously they know what is best for Ryder, look how far he has come already, so I agreed to atleast schedule it.  The best explanation I can give for the botox is that it temporarily paralyzes nerves, so injecting it into his arm and leg would make those nerves stop being spastic, he would then loosen up and they would better be able to work with his arm and leg and get better signals to his brain about the correct way to move.  Currently the nerves aren’t getting the right signals so they just kind of freeze which makes him clench his fist and not be able to turn his arm over, etc.  I want to do more research on side effects and how well it really works, but for now that’s the big news.
And…that’s all I’ve got! 

Keeping Busy

Maternity leave is supposed to be all about resting, healing, and spending one on one time with your newborn…right?!  Maybe when I was on maternity leave with Ryder that was the case, but this time is WAY different.  It’s all about how much stuff we can cram in so that one second of this time off work doesn’t go to waste!  Some days I’ve taken Ryder to Nana’s so that Me & Little Miss can have our bonding time and he can get a change of scenery, but on the days he’s home we’ve found ways to have fun. 

We do so many treasure hunts throughout the day, it’s his absolute favorite thing to do.  His treasures have started to become pretty lame, but he doesn’t care, as long as there’s something waiting there at that X he’s thrilled!

The other day on Team Umi Zoomi they had “Just Because I Love You Day” so me & Ryder decided to join in.  We did things all day and said it was for Just Because I Love You Day… like baking Daddy these yummy sugar cookies!

  

 

And yes, of course you can have chips before dinner, just because I love you!

Wawa is mine & Ryder’s favorite place to go, so we’ve made lots of morning trips there to get Mommy some yummy coffee and get Ryder his special juice.

Maisy is not a fan of her carseat, so we take the chance of her screaming…but somehow getting our favorite drinks makes it worth it to us!

I decide to use this time off to do something productive…

That’s right, we’ve started working on potty training…again!  Since Ryder decided to completely boycott the potty for the past 3 months after he was doing so good, I had to get creative to get him excited about it again.  Every time he goes potty he gets to put a sticker on the chart to work up to certain prizes.  As you can see he has been doing great with going #1!  We’re back at square one going another lap around the potty chart because he still isn’t telling me when he has to go, I’m still asking all the time and bringing him to the potty.  Hopefully if we stick with it he’ll start remembering to ask to go.  No stickers yet for #2 on the potty though!

One prize Ryder got from the Potty Chart was a trip to the library!  This was his very first time ever going and we had so much fun!

I also made him a potty grab bag for Nana’s house, so when he goes potty all day long he gets to pick a treat at the end of the day.  Ryder loves getting prizes so I think all this extra incentive should kick the potty training into gear (Gotta love those $1 bins at Target!). 

Maisy pretty much just goes with the flow, whatever that is!  She makes it known in the car sometimes that she’s not happy, but other than that she likes all the action her big brother brings into her life.  Something BIG that’s going on in her life is that she moved out (of Mommy & Daddy’s room that is) and is sleeping in her crib in her room now!  She made the transition so easy, didn’t phase her at all!

So as you can see, we’re keeping busy around here!  I’m trying not to think about the fact that I only have 1 week left off work…I’m sure we’ll find a way to make it fun!