Baby on the loose!

Or should I say toddler on the loose cause that's what's happening around here!

Up until he turned 13 months old, Jackson wasn't very efficiently mobile.  That is, he could stand but usually needed help getting to a standing position-- and he hadn't truly figured out crawling.  He primarily got around by scooting/rolling.  And then he turned 13 months old and something in him clicked. 

He loves crawling around & in and out of his little car!

Emptying the kitchen drawers & cabinets is a new favorite activity!

His mobility has pretty much exploded in the last month (He's 14 months today, actually).  He can now crawl (full speed ahead too-- he's quick!)  and is pulling himself up and cruising along the furniture like a pro.  We have broken out the baby gates and put covers over the electrical outlets. 

He's even getting brave enough to hold on with one hand while standing and I've even tricked him into standing alone for a couple seconds.  I don't think it'll be much longer now before he is running through the house!

My little "jail bird"  Haha we have to use baby gates to keep him contained to the living room now!

Oh and one last exciting thing?  He's finally got enough hair for a bedhead! 

Haha love it-- when it's freshly washed he has little curls back there.  I'm holding off on cutting it though til I can get a good size lock to save.

Polar Vortex, nap transitions, & stomach bugs!

Whoo so this year has gotten off to an interesting start.

First of all we got a bit of a snowstorm here, not a ton but enough to cancel school after only one day back from Christmas break.  Then that was followed by a HUGE drop in temperature ("Polar Vortex" as some news person meteorologist called it).  I'm talking subzero, record lows, for most of the country.  Here the windchills got to be as much as 20 below zero (Fahrenheit).  So that in turn canceled school Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Today (Wednesday) it got a bit warmer, more seasonable for our area in the 20s.  But school was still canceled because many in the county had problems with frozen pipes and old boiler heaters which could NOT compete with that kind of cold.  So we got another glorious day off!

View out our front window

I've had so much fun though being home with my baby boy!

The only downside to this whole thing is that we also dealt with a stomach bug in this house!  Jackson woke us up at 4am on Tuesday by throwing up in our bed  (changing sheets at that ungodly hour while consoling a sleepy sick baby was no fun).  He then continued to throw up a few more times until the last time at 8:30am shortly after waking up for the day.   He didn't have a fever (thank goodness).  He was able to keep down some juice and then later that day was able to nurse some too.  Today he's been feeling better, except he still doesn't have much of an appetite.  But last night was MY turn to get it.  Around bedtime I was starting to feel a little blah but then around midnight I woke up and proceeded to lose all of MY dinner.  No fun at all!  After today I have felt ok, not 100% but functioning. 

My sick boy watching Toy Story from his wagon lol

Another thing on our days off we have been trying is seeing if Jackson is ready to transition to one nap from two.  I had been wondering because he was seeming to get tired later in the morning, and then fighting his afternoon nap.  He also hasn't been sleeping great at night so I didn't know if that had something to do with it or not.  We tried it yesterday and it went OK... he started getting tired around 11, I kept him up as long as I could, till about 11:45 when he went down for about an hour and 45 minutes.  NOT long enough for that being the only nap of the day.  So I knew the evening would be rough.  He started getting tired again around 4:30/5 but we tried to power through until bedtime.  Finally at 6:30 he was falling asleep on Brew after dinner (which is rare, he has to be DEAD tired to just fall asleep like that) so I put him to bed, a little worried about whether he'd think it was another nap but he slept decently well (woke up about the same amount of times as usual) and he woke up a little earlier than normal the next day.   Sooo, that said I'm not convinced he is ready yet.  Four hours of awake time really seems like his max he can handle, and unless that changes soon or he starts taking a three plus hour nap, I don't think it'll work.  We don't want to have to put him to bed at 6 or 6:30 every night, so the next week or two we are going to just try and pay attention to his cues and reset his schedule to what he needs and see what happens!  He has been on this napping schedule for several months now so we'll see how it goes!

Reflecting on 2013 and looking to 2014...

I can't believe 2013 is almost over...

This was the first year that I was "mommy" the whole year.  Last new year's Jackson was just 6 weeks old, and throughout the year I've enjoyed watching him grow and learn- hitting his milestones and developing his little personality. 

New Year's Day 2013- and 6 weeks old!

We celebrated Jackson's "first" holidays of Valentine's Day, Easter, 4th of July, and Halloween.  We went on our first family vacation as a family of three (with my parents and brother also) to the beach.  And I planned for and we celebrated Jackson's first birthday!

Valentine's Day 2013

 

Easter 2013

4th of July 2013

Halloween 2013

Those are just some of the highlights-- we had a couple "bumps" this year, first of all being that our bad financial decisions caught up with us!  We had to make some big cuts and learn how to budget our money better.  We are still learning but things are looking better.  We also muddled our way through our first year of parenthood and came out on the other side no worse for the wear! 

My little goofball just before his first birthday

This year I do have a few "resolutions" (or goals) for the next year.  I split them into a few different categories, and I hope that I can stick to them- at least I'm going to try as hard as I can!

Personal 

• Pray more - use my notes on my iphone to keep my prayers organzied but I do need to do this more often!
• Read more- it's been soooo long since I've been able to start and finish a book that I just wanted to read for fun.  I'm talking since before Jackson was born, maybe even before I was pregnant!  I have several ebooks on my Kindle I haven't read yet so I want to get into those.  I also want to read the bible more as well.
• Be more disciplined about picking up after myself/cleaning house-  Seriously I'm horrible at this.  Here's what happens as far as my household chores go... I let them slide, I only do the bare minimum on a daily basis, then I'm left with an entire day packed full of cleaning... as in 6 loads of laundry, clean clothes piled up, dishes overtaking the sink, clutter on the floor, countertops covered, etc.  I know if I just MAKE myself put things away when I'm done with them, that I'll have half as much cleaning to do when I do "deep clean".  This is going to be a hard one for me but I'm trying to make it a goal to load the dishwasher, pick up Jackson's toys, and work on something laundry related (whether it's washing/drying a load or putting clothes away) every day.  

Family

• Spend more time alone with my husband- we have been on TWO dates since I had Jackson.  That's two times we went out and did something together without him.  Usually if we go out to eat or something we just bring him because he is such a good baby going out and such and it's easier than getting a babysitter.  But as much as we love our little guy I know it's important for us to get time with just each other.  So I'm setting a goal to have at least one "date night/day" a month.  I know financially we will have to have several date nights in but instead of putting Jackson to bed and doing our own thing (which is what we usually do, and nothing wrong with that- we both enjoy our "me" time too) but on a date night in we will have a late dinner together, play a card game, or SOMETHING to just talk and reconnect.  
• Sleep train Jackson-  As of now and pretty much since he was 5 months old Jackson sleeps anywhere from 2-5 hours in his crib until he first wakes, then he sleeps the rest of the night with us.  It really has worked out well, we all get enough sleep this way and Jackson has never had to "cry it out" as it has been often suggested to me that he does.  It hasn't hurt our marriage or "alone" time or any of that-- basically this arrangement works and has been working so we haven't been motivated to change it.  BUT sometime this year we hope to conceive baby #2 and two things I would like to happen before I get pregnant (or as close to as possible) is that I would like Jackson to be weaned and sleeping in his own room all night.  It won't be good for his sleep if he's in bed with us with a newborn waking up every two hours and I also don't think that tandem nursing is for me.  Jackson has cut down on frequency of breastfeeding so I don't think weaning will be a problem.  As for sleeping in his room all night, I know that it is probably going to involve a good deal of crying at first but I am ok with that now that he is older.  I believe he understands that we aren't abandoning him or anything.  And he is ABLE to fall asleep on his own at the beginning of the night, so I know he CAN put himself back to sleep too.  I'm not necessarily going to night wean, at least right away, but I think if I can get him sleeping in his room through the night that he will naturally night wean.  He only nurses at night now because he falls asleep fastest like that (so for comfort) and because for the second half of the night I'm right there and he has easy access.  We have been putting it off for a while now because of my own laziness.  It's just EASIER to get him, nurse him, and have him in our bed the rest of the night.  I'm setting a "deadline" though for myself to start this process before he turns 18mo.  So by May 1 we need to get this ball rolling (if not before!)
• Stop preventing pregnancy-  Sometime this year :)

Financial

• Get our emergency fund together (and check off that first Baby Step!)
• Start our debt snowball (this will be possible after we get our tax return)
• Sell one of our vehicles- things have worked out so that we CAN still keep the Jeep and save some money each month, that said we technically have three cars right now (though one is still being worked on) so we obviously don't need three.  We are hoping to either sell the Jeep and get out of the payment OR sell our other car and use the cash for our debt snowball.  We will probably list both here in another month or so and see what goes quickest!
• Pray about my job situation-  I am going to be applying for full time teaching positions this year again.  We are also considering me possibly going back to subbing (as much as I HATE to) because I was making more money subbing than I am teaching preschool right now.  So I don't have any specific goals here but I wanted to spend more time praying about it- praying that if it's God's will that I will get a contracted position (which even though I'd rather not work full time it would be a huge financial blessing to us and we would be able to get out of debt MUCH faster), and if not then that I am able to make the right call as to whether I should go back to subbing or continue teaching where I am now.

 

  Whew! ok yeah so that is quite a bit but hopefully it's not too much!  As always I'll keep updating on everything on here! :)

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Jackson's Second Christmas...

Yep this wasn't baby's first Christmas!  This was baby's first fun Christmas though!  lol  This was my tiny 5 week old boy last year...

Christmas 2012

I say this is his first fun Christmas because even though he still doesn't totally "get it", he had so much fun unwrapping presents and playing with his new toys.  We had so much fun this year.  Here's some of my favorite moments...

Really getting unto unwrapping presents at Grammy & Pap's!  (He had some good practice at his birthday party last month)

Family pic after Christmas Eve service at church

All tuckered out at great-grandma & great-grandpa's.  Cannot believe he stayed awake until almost 11pm!

Santa brought Jackson a wagon!!!

Unwrapping presents from mommy & daddy

Facetiming with my cousin!

Grandpa & his two grandsons :)  (My nephew Parker is on the left and he is 8 months old- and the same size as Jackson lol)

Unwrapping presents with great-aunt Darla!

Attempting to duplicate last year's photo in front of my aunt's pretty tree... Jackson wasn't really happy about that lol!

Here's a video of our holiday-- Some pictures and also footage of Jackson opening his gifts from Santa and us on Christmas morning!


We had a great Christmas and what's even better is I get another whole week off work to spend at home with my little guy!  I'm so blessed and my heart is full!

Sick baby :(

Well my sweet boy has his first actual bout of sickness.  The worst he has ever had has been a bit of a stuffy nose, and the highest fever he's ever had was 99 from his last round of shots.  We've really lucked out in that department (I'm sure the fact that he doesn't have to go to daycare and that he is breastfed has helped a ton!).  But our time has come and my baby is sick.

It started a couple days ago, he started getting a bit of a cough.  Then starting yesterday he started running a bit of a fever, then today he woke up this morning burning up-- took his temp and it was 100.9.  He's been having a deep cough too, I'm not sure if he has a virus/croup or an upper respiratory infection.  We had to miss his last swim lesson today (him not feeling well plus I didn't want to make other babies sick!)

Watching Sesame Street with Daddy this morning-  caught them in the exact same pose at the same time and thought it was just too cute!

I know that typically it is best to let low-grade fevers run their course.  It is your body's way of fighting off/killing whatever virus you have.  So that's what we did for the first part of the day.  He only slept a half an hour for his morning nap (very unlike him), and when he only went down for a half an hour at first this afternoon I decided enough was enough.  He was completely miserable and couldn't sleep, so I gave him some tylenol to reduce his fever and sure enough he was able to then sleep an additional 2 hours.  The tylenol also helped him feel better this evening-- we went to Subway for dinner and got the few groceries we need for the next couple weeks and also the last couple Christmas gifts on our list and he seemed to be feeling ok.  Until the Tylenol wore off then he started burning up again.
 

Finally sleeping after Tylenol and nursing.  We spent a lot of today doing this...

So now my little guy is asleep for the night- in our bed because he would only fall asleep with me laying beside him- with another dose of Tylenol is in him so hopefully he'll get some sleep.  Poor guy.  I hate seeing him feeling so badly.  I can't imagine what parents of kids that are really sick or sick frequently go through because this is hard enough!

Hoping we see an improvement tomorrow-- if not, it's off to the doctor for us on Monday!  Hoping and praying that he is better before Christmas!

Car selling annoyances!

Hey everyone!  So if you caught one of my previous posts, we are on a journey to become debt free.  We are using Dave Ramsay's steps to Financial Freedom as our guide!

We haven't made much progress, other than we are getting better (still not great) at budgeting and are constantly finding ways to try and save a little money.  However we really aren't able to save any sort of substantial amount every month.  So last summer we decided the best thing to do would be to sell our Jeep.  We still are making payments on it each month.  My parents gave us an old car they had (that needs some work, hubby has been working on it off and on but it's jacked up in our garage right now lol)- it's a 1987 Chrysler Lebaron.  Yeah- old enough we could get antique plates for it if we wanted! lol.  Anyway they gave us that vehicle so we were going to sell the Jeep, then keep the Malibu we have (already paid off) and then Brew would drive the Chrysler to and from work as our second vehicle.   In the meantime we would save up our emergency fund and then start saving for a minivan to buy in cash with the $315/mo we WOULDN'T have to pay for the Jeep. 

Well best laid plans.... we have listed that Jeep continuously in the local bulletin board and on facebook and craigslist for the last 6 months.  We've lowered the price every couple months because we truly only are looking to get what we owe out of it (which is less than what it books for).  But we have had no such luck.  A few have called and seemed interested but then when it came down to it they ended up passing on it.  I guess because it is a bit of a gas guzzler and it doesn't have a 3rd row seat (which seems to be what people are looking for).  So after 6 months of this I'm just OVER IT.  I'm frustrated with not going anywhere on this debt-free journey, and still constantly struggling to pay bills every month and not having any left over for "fun stuff".  Several months the credit card payments don't get the minimum payment made.  I've had to hoard away any little bits of extra to buy Christmas gifts this year even.  So yeah I'm just done messing around with it.

So we are now trying to come up with some other options.  We are considering now trading in BOTH the Jeep and the Malibu for a used minivan.  Calculating best I could we could afford up to $7,000 and keep the payment below $200/mo.  I know, I know, another car loan is NOT the direction we wanted to go at this point.  BUT sometimes you have to take a step back before you can take two steps forward.  And honestly?  We don't have another option except to wait the almost two years we have remaining on the Jeep loan to get it paid off.  I don't want to do that not only because I don't want to wait two more years to get rolling on becoming debt free-- but I want to (hopefully) get pregnant with baby number 2 before then (if I wait until the Jeep is paid off, Jackson would be over three years old and probably closer to 4 before I would actually have a baby and I was hoping for them to be a little closer in age than that).  Right now we can't save any money for my maternity leave so we really can't afford to get pregnant. (And therefore we are still preventing it at this point).  So this is my best idea so far.  This way, we could have $100 extra a month to start saving.  When we get our tax return we should have our emergency fund then we can start our debt snowball (and just add the vehicle payment into the snowball).  And if I should get pregnant in that time period we can put the debt snowball on hold until I can save for the hopefully 3 months off I want to take from work (or as much as we can). 

As of now that's the only real option I can see... if anyone has any experience or ideas though be sure to let me know!!!  I just know we can't keep doing what we are doing because I'm super tired of struggling every month.  We have already cut cable, I meal plan and have a very small grocery budget (about $250 every month and that INCLUDES diapers and other toiletries), we seldom to never eat out, etc.  We have had to do all those things just to make it each month- let alone save anything. 

So please pray for us that we make the right decisions and that God presents the opportunity/option for us that He wants for us!

Christmas photo shoot

It was kind of a fail...

It was a dreary day outside so we didn't have much natural light (besides the window is behind the tree anyway).  My camera settings were all screwed up from when my brother borrowed it, of course I didn't think about that until I was actually trying to take the pics, and also I had a wriggly toddler that was more interested in looking at (and eating) the ornaments than he was smiling for a picture...

I did get a few decent ones, but I'm thinking I'm going to try to get some more (better) ones soon!

oooh a Jingle bell ornament!

Would've been a good one if the lighting wasn't so funky-- I tried my best to fix it with Picasa but it still looks weird.

Again with the lighting-- but I love his sweet smile here!

Playing with the ribbon lol

laughing!

Silly kid...

This one is the best of him-- but it was kind of blurry

And now trying to bail...

Shaking the ornament

Mmmm tasty!

lol no flash indoor shots usually turn out blurry of a wiggly lil boy

Ha he knows he's cute!

And this one is probably my favorite!!!