She Escaped, Again...

I was really hoping that Audrey getting out of her crib on Sunday was a one time deal. I don't know why I thought that was possible... She got out Monday night after I put her down for bed, apparently she wasn't ready to go to sleep. But we put her right back in and she fell asleep and that was that.

Last night, I woke up at 1 am to Charlie yelling "Audrey!" as I hear little pitter patter of feet running down the hall. She u-turned and came in our room and I scooped her into bed (I so didn't have the energy to get out of bed and try and put her in her crib). I actually sat in bed for 5 minutes, dying laughing at the picture of her escaping and the sound of her feet, which didn't help matters. Charlie left for the guest room, and after 2 hours of Audrey tossing and turning I had had enough and put her back in her crib. Well 1/2 hour later I hear her feet, AGAIN! So I put her back in bed with me and she actually feel asleep, taking up the majority of the bed, but I didn't care at that point. So needless to say there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on in the Dennison household last night.

Charlie is going to make her bed frame on Saturday (we figure I can do the head board later) so hopefully she will be out of her crib this weekend. We are scared she is bound to fall one of these times and hurt herself, she unfortunately got my klutzy genes and is not overly graceful. I still don't know how she is doing this without making a huge sound, especially at 1 in the morning, she must have been 1/2 asleep right? Until then, we are going to try and shut her door completely and hope that she can't open it. I'm just nervous she is going to get out and then not be able to get back in her crib. Who knows... Wish us luck, it may be a long next couple of nights... I guess maybe it is practice for what is to come in May...

Nursery...

So after much debate on how to decorate Baby #2's nursery (is it sad that that is what we call him??) I finally feel like we are moving in the right direction. I have had a hard time getting excited about decorating a boy's nursery for multiple reasons. The main one being that all things that are "for" boy nurseries are either a) blue & brown, which I love but it is so over done and I want something different or b) Very theme-y, like sports, or trains, or trucks or something and I'm just not into that (I figure when he is old enough to tell me he wants a room with trains we will get a room with trains, til then I get to pick).

So I decided to do gray walls with navy & white fabric and accessories. I picked out a paint color a couple of weeks ago, this gray color:

It is Benjamin Moore AF-705 Cinder from their new Aura paint line. I learned that you can't color match their new AF (Affinity) colors to paint other then the Aura (something about the chemical make up of the paint) so I was lucky that Charlie got a guy that new what he was doing and added colors until it was right. The room got painted yesterday and looks great. It is darker then I had expected, but I love the color.

I ordered the fabric for the room this past week too. A wonderful family friend is making some stuff for the room with fabric I have found since I can't find anything that I like at the stores or online (the same friend did all of Audrey's bedding and curtains that I still love to this day!). I picked this navy & white print for the crib skirt and some pillows. I added this giraffe print to the order at the last minute because I thought it was kind of fun. I'm going to do some pillows with that as well.

I had originally wanted to do the navy & white print for the curtains in the room to give it some interest and personality, but decided against it. It's a small room, and we decided that it would just be way too much. So I got white curtains with grommets at the top this weekend from IKEA that I think will be perfect and will lighten up the room.

Charlie is touching up the paint next weekend and then I get to work on my little project: I'm doing a navy & white grid on the cover of the Murphy bed in the room (if you haven't seen this wall I know you have no clue what I am talking about). As you all may remember from Audrey's room, I love focal walls (her pink & green harlequin pattern is still going strong), and this is going to be the one for this nursery... Pictures to follow, hopefully it turns out the way I plan...

Crib to Bed Transition Decision, done...

Charlie and I woke up this morning to our alarm going off. It seemed strange (who would be breaking in at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning??) and Charlie jumped out of bed to go see what was going on. I saw him head towards Audrey's room, then bolt down the stairs. She was downstairs getting ready to start playing, looking like she did this every morning or something. We still have no idea how she got out without hurting herself or us hearing her and how she made it down the stairs without us hearing her (our house is not big and you can hear everything!).

We laughed about it, but one thing was very clear: she's going into a bed sooner then later. At least this way it was her choice and not ours, right? It is just speeding up the process a bit which is just fine. Now we just need to make her bed. Charlie is making her bed frame and I am going to attempt to do a tufted upholstered headboard (simliar to this one from Serena & Lily below). Charlie says his portion of the project is a piece of cake, I'm not so sure about mine. I'll let you know how it turns out...

Cupcakes...

All day yesterday I was craving cupcakes (well, baby #2, not me right?). I was going to buy one at lunch and then decided for the same price I could go home and make a whole batch of the kind I wanted, perfect. So Audrey and I went to the store, grabbed some white cake mix and some rainbow chip frosting (actually we got 2 of each, just in case). Audrey is loving helping in the kitchen lately and she really loves when the Kitchen-Aide mixer comes out (really a must for every kitchen, I love mine!). She had never had cake batter but quickly learned that she LOVED it and proceeded to put her hand in the bowl and take out handfuls of batter and eat it. Pretty comical and a great way to ruin her dinner but oh well. Don't worry, the cupcakes aren't leaving our house:)


After dinner I thought it would be fun to frost them with her (plus Charlie and I were dying to eat one, and it had to be frosted). Oh it was fun, and messy and I can't believe she went to sleep shortly after with all of the sugar that she put into her little body... She wanted nothing to do with the cupcakes at this point, just took the knife or her finger and put it directly into the frosting and into her mouth. Who can blame her?

Sun Room Transformation...

Those of you that don't know, we have this great sun room off our dining room that has 2 walls of windows and is a great bonus room in our house. The room has been under utilized since we moved in because we really didn't have a use for it (or furniture to fill it). It had only a table & chair set in there forever, which was really a waste of space and redundant as the dining room has the table and chairs that we eat at for all out meals.

So we have been in the process of turning the room into more of a play room/sitting room, and it is working out pretty well. We got a bookcase a month or so ago that is housing books of course but has storage for lots of Audrey's toys as well. Audrey got a wonderful table and chair set from Charlie's parents for Christmas and we set that up in there as well. I absolutely love the set, it is adorable and really well made and sturdy (it is from Land of Nod if anyone is in the market for a set). Audrey is loving having chairs that are her size and enjoys playing at the table with her puzzles and having tea parties with her dad as you can see... There is still work to do, I would ultimately like some kind of storage bench in there, and maybe some upholstered chairs for the adults to sit in, but that will come in due time.

Right now, we have our living room back (or mostly back at least) from all of the toys that had overtaken it. Though I realized last night that in a couple of months we will again have a swing, bouncer, Pack'n'Play and who knows what else take over... I guess I can enjoy the non-kid living room while it lasts, however short lived that is...

Musings on Motherhood - Frustration...

This past week or so has been one of frustration for me, as my little girl is turning into an opinionated toddler before my eyes, and in turn has been trying my patience. It is wonderful to see her becoming more independent and to have an opinion, but at the same time it is making for painful mornings while I negotiate everything from changing her diaper, to putting clothes on to which coat she wants to wear (for the record she prefers her fleece and it has been freezing here, ugh...). She is happy as a clam as long as she is doing what she wants (aren't we all as my mom says), watching Blue's Clues, playing with her ba-ba, hanging in her pj's. But the minute to tell her to do something she doesn't want to do or like, all hell breaks loose (I'm sure you have all watched the snow video, picture this but not funny). She went to Nancy's in her pj's yesterday because I didn't have the energy to fight with her. I guess there are worse things right? Being pregnant is certainly not helping, as my small amount of patience that I normally have is being cut in half.

At the same time she is finally talking more (she walks by a chair and says "chair" instead of us prompting her) which is making life a little easier in the communication department. She is obsessed with her ba-ba, from changing her diaper and wiping her with her wipes (this is the cleanest baby doll in the country I tell ya) to putting her in her stroller, bed or high chair. Hopefully this is good foreshadowing for what is to come...

I'm starting to think more and more about how she will handle the transition of becoming a big sister. I think she is going to like it, or I guess I am hoping. We still haven't approached the topic with her as I don't think she will get it yet. I think when my tummy is bigger it will be easier to start talking about the concept of a baby in my tummy (I still don't get how a toddler gets this concept, I mean I don't get it some days!). I know it is going to be a big change for her in so many ways. We are already discussing how to transition her out of her crib and into a big girl bed. We disagree on the timing, I want to do it before the baby comes so that she doesn't feel like she is giving her crib to the baby and Charlie wants to wait til after because he thinks she is too young (she will be a couple months shy of 2 if we go with my plan). I would love to hear what others did and what worked for them!

I hate the snow...

Charlie and I were watching the videos we have taken over the past month last night and I just had to put this one on here. If you had any doubt I was exaggerating about Audrey not liking the snow, here is your proof. Me, being the good mother, started laughing while shooting, as I did last night when we watched it...

It may appear to be child abuse, but we are really just trying to get her to adjust to living in New England where there is, yes snow in the winter...

Lunch with Aunt Jaime...

When we were home over Christmas we were able to meet up with my BFF Jaime and her mom for lunch, which I was very excited about! I don't get to see Jaime enough as she lives in Chicago and I haven't seen her mom in well over a year so it was good to catch up. After much discussion we ended up at Zingerman's Roadhouse which was good food (though a bit on the overpriced side) and a laid back atmosphere which was perfect.

I wasn't sure how Audrey was going to handle sitting thru lunch since we stopped taking her to restaurants months ago due to her inability to sit still for more then 5 seconds. She ended up being awesome, though she fell asleep on the way there and slept for a good 1/2 hour out in the car with Charlie which probably helped. She even got to eat a hot dog, as if anyone knows Zingerman's, if you are going to let you child eat a hot dog this is the place to do it (all natural, organic, Kosher, etc.).

Jaime is very good to Audrey and always gets her the cutest things (her navy & white Polo dress from this summer and her favorite stripe socks to name a few). This Christmas was no exception. She knows how much Audrey loves purses (she found this out when she got me a purse and Audrey used it more then I did for the first week) and carrying them around. She found an adorable purse and matching dress at babyGap that is just perfect! Audrey knew right what to do when she opened the purse, she started stuffing sugar, Splenda & Equal into it from the table. Perfect, can't leave home without that stuff... Thanks James!

I get to see Jaime (and hopefully her new beau) in February so I am already looking forward to that!

2009...

I'm sitting here in my warm house (because it is 10 degrees outside), and I am thinking how I can't believe that today is New Years Day and it is officially 2009. I'm also thinking how weird to have a Thursday off, since we are both working this week, but I'll take it of course. 2008 flew by, and I am sure 2009 is going to go even quicker. The excitement and nervousness (am I ready for 2 kids??? some days I feel like I can barely handle the 1...) of adding another member to our family will only grow in the following months, followed by utter chaos I'm sure once he makes his arrival. At least I get the summer "off" right?

Since I am not hung over from last night (I won't even say what time we went to bed, we are major winners let me tell you) I have all day to be productive, or as productive as I can be with an 18 month old running around. We are starting the process of getting the nursery ready for the baby, which means clearing out my "office", which means all of that stuff needs to go somewhere. So I am determined to clean house and try and get rid of all of the crap that we (ok more I then we) have. We will see how I do. I need to pick a paint color too, but I have plenty of time for that, Charlie has some demo and wall patching to do first... If anyone has a grey that they love send the color my way!

Happy New Years Everyone! May 2009 bring all of you and your families love, health and happiness...