The Big Girl Bed & The Paci Fairy

This painful experience started out very innocently... we thought since baby #2 would be arriving in 5 short months and Norah would be turning 2 in a blink of an eye, that we should have the paci fairy pay us a visit and just get it over with. The sooner the better right? I mean that just gives Norah more time to forget all about the paci before her new little brother or sister has one.

While we were devising our scheme for paci removal we had a brilliant idea! Let's give Norah a big girl bed at the same time!! She loves sleeping on her cot for naps at daycare and maybe it will be so exciting to have a new big girl bed that she will not miss her paci quite as much! We thought this was such a fantastic idea that we could not imagine why no one else had thought to do it this way (at least no one we knew).

We took Norah on a trip to Ikea one Saturday morning and had a fun day eating lunch together and playing with all the kids there. Norah played on all the beds and was really excited to get one of her own! She helped pick one out along with cute new heart bed linens. We got home and Dad assembled the bed in the living room while Norah and I watched a movie (well, 15 minutes of it). After it was all put together she couldn't wait to try it out!

We had been talking to Norah about the paci fairy making a visit for a few days, so later that night when we asked her to gather all of her pacis up and put them in the beautiful glittery box for the paci fairy she was very excited and didn't hesitate a bit! We put the box on her dresser so she could see it from her new bed and told her the paci fairy would take the box and leave a present for her while she was sleeping. That night she went to bed like an angel... no crying, no fussing, not even a request for an extra kiss! We were so happy! I thought to myself that this is too good to be true, and I was right.

The first night was the only good night. By day two we were having 2-3 hours of "cry it out" sessions each for early morning wake-ups, naps and bedtime. These sessions all ended with one of us intervening, because instead of fading away to sleep, the crying fits would get louder and more anger-filled as time went on. We started asking our friends and family for advice on day 4 and everyone said we should stick with it; it's too late to go back now!

Well on night 13 of this horrid experiment we decided we should bring back the crib because she seemed to be fine without the paci. She only asked for it maybe twice and both times she was excited and happy that the paci fairy took her pacis in exchange for a very cool present (a bassinet for her baby doll). So we asked her if she wanted her crib back and she said yes with a big nod of assurance. Daddy did all the work of disassembling both the crib and her big girl bed so he could fit them through the doorways and as soon as he started reassembling the crib in her room she threw a fit saying "No Crib!! No Crib!! Norah Big Girl Bed!!" So I asked her if she wanted her big girl bed back and she adamantly said yes and the crying stopped.

After the beds were put back and all was settled, we decided to tell Norah that we found a paci that the paci fairy accidentally left behind (thank God we saved them!). This was our only hope of getting our lives back. We were all extremely sleep deprived and frustrated, and sleep deprivation is not pretty in a toddler or a pregnant mother of a toddler.

This all started on June 4th. It is now July 8th. We still have troubles at bedtime if Mom's not there to sing to her and kiss her goodnight, and we have new reasons to scream bloody murder when falling asleep or waking up... like her foot is not covered, or the monkey blanket is not over her shoulder, or her baby blanket is not right next to her face. She is still not getting quite enough sleep, but it is getting better.  I can see a dim light at the end of the tunnel that someday I will have restful slumber once again. But by then I am sure I will be losing sleep over something else entirely different.

To have children is to run the most exhausting, frustrating, emotional, patience-testing marathon that you cannot even begin to imagine. It happens to also be the most fun, exciting, rewarding, joyful, make your heart-a-flutter and hilarious marathon out there. So here's to sleep! May we meet again in 20-25 years!

A few shots of her new bed and just how much she loves it...

Happy girl smiling for the camera :)

Reading to Monkey & Bear

"Big Gueeze!!!" (Big Squeeze)

Whining

Whining some more

Monkey & Bear Love

Love ~ Renee

Exhaustion!

If I could only choose one word, that is the word I would use to describe my life over the past few months! You may have noticed that my last post was around Easter, and that just happens to be when my first trimester fatigue had set in. Yes, you heard right! We are expecting baby #2 in November!! Boy is that fatigue amplified when you have a toddler to run after in addition to working full time with a long commute...

For about 8 weeks I felt as if I had been heavily drugged and then run over by a truck, all the while Miss Norah and I had to stick to our usual routine. That routine consists of me waking at 5:45 AM to get ready in 30 min flat, waking my sweet tired girl at 6:20 to get her ready (which is not as easy as it sounds), and getting out the door by 6:45 to the minute in order for me to drop her at daycare and catch the very last train downtown  by 7:30. That's right, I get up at 5:45 and just barely make it to work by 8:20! By the time I get on the train I feel like I have run a marathon already.

In the afternoon when the clock hits 4:10 I rush out the door to catch the train back home to pick up Norah who, by the time I reach her, has been at daycare for almost 11 hours. This makes me ill just thinking about it! We get home just before 6, I make her dinner, we eat and then quickly jump into the bath for some tearful scream-filled fun (washing her hair is torture I guess, but she always either has food, sand or sunscreen in it and sometimes all three). After the bath we get ready for bed and read books before we cuddle and finally lay down by 7:30.

By this time I so tried I can barely move! Colin comes home around 7 (he works a long 12 hour shift from 6-6) and makes us dinner so that we can eat after Norah goes down and then veg out for 30 minutes before we head off to bed ourselves!

This has always been our routine, and thank God it is only for 3 days out of the week since Colin is home on Thursdays and Fridays. Being pregnant and keeping up this crazed way of living has really worn me out and forced me to try to come up with a better way, so I have decided to alter my work schedule just a smidge. I now have slightly shorter days Monday - Wednesday and a huge looong day on Thursdays to make up for my short days. This is the first week I am trying it out and so far it is fabulous (although I have not hit Thursday yet)!! This post in and of itself is evidence... notice how I've had enough energy to type out this whine-fest and actually dig up some photos to share? Also, Norah is much less crabby when I pick her up just an hour earlier, and we have time to lollygag and even play at night! Life is grand again.

Now that my first trimester fatigue has passed, we have a new challenging adventure... the Big Girl Bed!!  That is a topic all of it's own, so stay tuned for the next post, which I promise will not take me 3 months to get to :)

Here are some random iPhone shots Colin has taken over the past few months, because I have not even picked up my camera at all in that time... and photography is my favorite hobby!

Love ~ Renee

Happy Easter!

We had such a fun Easter weekend and hope you all did too! The Easter Bunny stopped by and left a trail of chocolate eggs to Norah's Easter basket which was hiding in her favorite hide and seek spot. Miss Norah was full of smiles and giggles gathering the eggs up on her way downstairs, but when she found the gorgeous basket full of fun toys and candy that the Easter Bunny worked so hard on, she couldn't have cared less! She was too busy collecting her trail of eggs :)  She did however thoroughly enjoy her giant hollow chocolate bunny. Later on we went to Nona and Grandpa L's house for an Easter egg hunt and had a blast!

Love ~ Renee

Announcing the Newest Members of Endless Fun!

That's right! It was love at first sight :) We took Norah to the Children's Museum and they won us over after the first visit. How could we not become members after having endless hours of fun with Miss Munchkin who did NOT want to leave!? What a perfect afternoon on a cold or rainy day, and you know we have plenty of those!

The first time she slid down the slide sitting up the entire way!

Making the tadpoles swim

Ice Fishing in her beaver costume

Daddy Kisses

And here are a couple iPhone shots...

Posing for the camera in her birdie costume

Looking out the giant window at all the cars going by

Love ~ Renee

Dying Easter Eggs with Gram

Last weekend we dyed Easter eggs with Gram! Norah had so much fun dropping the eggs into each bowl of color... and with each drop came a crack, and with each crack came a "Norah, please be gentle". She tried using the wire egg holder that came with the kit, but instead she found it easier to dive right in with her hands and in the end, after washing them multiple times, she was upset that she still had one purple hand and one orangey-red hand. Although after she saw how dirty Gram's hands were she was a-ok with it (because she was just like Gram)!


Gram also brought over a cute puzzle, a book about baby bunnies and a fuzzy white bunny that Norah fell in love with at first sight! She carries bunny around with her everywhere and cannot get enough bunny hugs and kisses :)

Love ~ Renee

The one and only awe-inspiring Krysta Manthe

What could make a girl happier than doing a photo shoot with the one and only Miss Krysta Manthe!? Winning one!! Yes, I am entering yet another photography related giveaway, but you can't blame me for wanting to enter this one... in celebration of her new site http://www.krystamanthe.com/ Krysta is giving away one shoot, and this is my entry :) Who wouldn't want to spend an afternoon with this fabulous girl and walk away with some of her amazing work! Be sure to check out her photo diary on the new site!

Here are a few photos from the shoot we had with Krysta last summer (do you see why we need more!?):

Love ~ Renee

"Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep... Yeady?"

Head for cover... we've had a word explosion! Out of the blue, Norah is talking all kinds of funny :) She seems to have an odd pattern of adding an a if the word ends with a k and substiuting y for r. 

When she is waiting for dinner, she repeatedly says "Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep... Yeady!?" (no, we don't only use the microwave to cook our meals!) She now says "Milka" instead of "Mum" (milk) and "Booka" (book). Best of all, she learned how to say her name "Noyah". She always says this with the proudest of smiles! She also threw some chanting into the mix; after I told her I would get her more of something, she proceeded to chant "I get more! I get more! I get more!".

Oh how I love love love this girl!

(Valentine's Day)

Love ~ Renee