Big Boy Bed Transition!

I went back and forth a million times wondering "should I leave Cory in his crib until after baby comes or switch him before baby comes".  Not sure why it was a big deal to me but I guess I just wanted it to be a smooth transition and I have heard that once toddlers get that freedom, many of them go from sleeping great to getting up out of their beds and roaming into the parents room or playing or just not sleeping as well.  Cory slept wonderfully in his crib after he was a bit over a year old.  When I stopped nursing him at night he changed from a not so great sleeper to a great sleeper who always goes down between 8 or 8:30pm and wakes between 6:30 or 7am.  I know that's not sleeping-in much but I am an early bird anyway so it doesn't bother me as long as I am getting solid sleep at night.  Occasionally he will sleep until 7:30 or 8am if he is really tired or had a super busy day or went to bed later.  So in a way I was dreading changing him and he has never tried to climb out of the crib so I had my mind pretty set that I'd wait until he is climbing out or just see how it goes after he turns 3 and if he wants to pick out a bed I would let him.  Although my main reason to switch him now was that I will have the baby getting up at different hours in the night and if I switch Cory after the baby comes, then would I have 2 getting up in the night and what if they need me at the same time or what if they get up at different hours so I get no sleep.  I figured as he is getting taller he may figure out that he could climb out of his crib so did I want to deal with the bed situation after baby is here or do it now. 

Well anyway, after thinking it through I went on and switched him about 3 weeks ago and he has impressed me and surprised me yet again.  It shouldn't have since he has done so well with every other milestone just like he impressed me with potty training within pretty much 2 weeks of me trying and never has accidents anymore so I am just an overly proud Momma of the things he picks up so quickly ;)  John put the bed together a few weeks ago and Cory wanted to start sleeping in his big boy bed and has slept just the same as in his crib. There have only been a time or two that he has gotten out after I laid him down but typically I just lay him down and he stays in his bed and sleeps solid until the morning.  Sometimes when he wakes up he just calls my name like he did in the crib and I go to get him even though he has the freedom now to get out of bed himself.  Sometimes he does get out of bed when he wakes up in the mornings and opens his door and starts saying "Mommy".  I use his monitor still since our bedroom is on the other side of the house but it has been the smoothest transition I could have imagined which makes me so happy!  Okay so now time to see the cool bed he got.  I wanted to skip the toddler bed for several reasons but mainly because I didn't want him to have to transition beds again in a couple years when he's outgrown the toddler bed so I went on and went with a twin bed.  I was going to just get him a basic bed and add a guardrail to it but then I found this bed on a great deal and got it when it went half off the original price and I knew this was the one!  I know some may think beds should just be for sleeping and not playing but as long as he loves his bed and wants to sleep in it, I thought the bed with the slide would be a totally awesome bed for a kid!   It is a twin loft bed but it isn't super high and it has a ladder and the slide which is detachable so it is a bed he will be able to grow with and use for many many years.  If he outgrows the slide part we will just take it off.  There is also a fort underneath the bed where you can play, store toys and the fabric curtain can be taken off as well if we want to turn it into a more grown up bed as he gets bigger but I don't see him outgrowing this anytime soon!  It fits good in his room since he really didn't have a ton of furniture and he won't need a dressor or anything else since his closet is so big.  The slide and back of the bed are against the wall so it fits nicely in the corner and once we break down his crib soon we will have lots more space because we will move the train set to the other side which is currently in the center of the room!

This first photo is from the website I got it from (not Cory's actual room)

momsbunkhouse.com

 

And here is the excited boy in his room with his new bed that he loves!

 

 

And here he is going down the slide:

 

 

Here he is playing in his "clubhouse" under the bed

 

 

I really could go on and on about this bed and how much we love it but I will just say that I don't think he or I could be more pleased.  He loved it at first sight and has gone down the slide a ton and always wants to play in the clubhouse.  And what makes this bed even sweeter is that he is sleeping so wonderfully that it was like we didn't even change anything at night so we have kept the same routine so I am thankful no random wake up calls in the middle of the night from a toddler who has access to get out of bed now.  Hopefully though my bragging on him won't jinx me but so far so good :)  

 

 

 

Nursery Update part 2 - Painting stripes!

So this won't be a tutorial of how to paint stripes just because I am being lazy right now and not wanting to write out the details but all I did was google search "how to paint stripes on the wall" and picked the tutorial that I thought seemed easiest to me and I followed the steps.  I will do a follow up with a before/after post because while I am typing this post my wonderful hubby is in the room painting the stripes ;)  I am just so anxious and excited to pull off the tape and see how it turns out! John put down the base color which was just Behr's powdered snow and the stripes will be Behr's natural gray.  This room started off a dark pink color(from previous owners) which I really didnt like even if I were to have had a girl because it made the room feel so small and the color was just overwhelmingly pink.  So I am sooo happy to be getting this done now even though we have lived here for nearly 3 years...feels so great to be able to use this space that has been wasted for so long.  We pretty much used the spare room as a room to pile all of our junk in or stuff that didn't have a place to go so I have done lots and lots of purging things we dont use and just keeping what we need and it feels great.  Having too much "stuff" just weighs me down sometimes and I prefer openess and less clutter in this 1800 square feet humble abode of ours!  My mentality has truly changed in a lot of ways over the years and I do feel for me "less is best"!  I would much prefer a few things I love and use often then a bunch of stuff that rarely serves a purpose or gets touched.  If I haven't used it since we have lived in this house it either got tossed in the trash or boxed for goodwill/yardsale.  Can't wait to go through the entire house little by little and purdge!

 

Here I am taping off the stripes...I wanted to help somehow since John is doing all the painting so I did the measuring and taping. 

 

 

 

 

I had the best & cutest little helper as well (below)! 

 

So more to come next post with after pictures.  I often forget to take any before pictures but I will have to look for one with the pink on the wall. 

 

Lastly I got all of the clothes organized for the most part.  I hung up the current clothes he will be wearing and boxed up 4 boxes of different size groups and just taped on labels that I made on the computer and laminated and the boxes are on the top shelf in his closet. 

 

 

Lastly here I am at 32 weeks along taken last week. I didn't do an update but not much has changed other than my weight going up!

 

Nursery Part 1 - Theme Grey and Yellow nursery!

I don't think I have posted anything on the nursery yet except that the colors were going to be grey and yellow, so I wanted to give a sneak peak of a few things that I have bought so far and just do an initial post on the progress.  First I must say this has been so fun to pick out everything in my "dream" nursery and I already know I am going to love spending lots of time in this room!  With Cory's nursery, though I loved the monkeys and the fun jungle theme, I didn't actually pick it out since the jungle themed crib set was passed down to me from my sister, so I added some monkey wall decals and anything that I added to the room revolved around what we had already so there really wasn't much planning I had to do to get it ready.  With this one I started from scratch and got to pick out all of my favorite things and the color scheme and make it a modern but playful nursery.  It is no where near complete since John just got the first coat of paint down last weekend and another coat will need to be put on this weekend, then we will paint the light grey stripes the following weekend.  But after that I will get to start putting everything in it's place and organizing and John is also going to paint the furniture so that will be done in the upcoming weeks when the weather gets a little warmer.  Here are a few purchases I have made so far for the room.  We already had all the furniture so that was nice to not have to buy it, only thing is it is all oak colored so we will be painting it to match more with this room.

 

1.  The bedding "Not a Peep" (pic via Land of Nod): 

I bought this set and added a grey zig zag bumber from amazon to go with it since the Land of Nod doesn't sell bumpers.  I know they aren't recommended now but I was always a fan of having a bumper with Cory so his little legs and arms would get stuck in between the crib slats.  I also got the matching changing pad cover in yellow with white polka dots.

 

2. The Rocker chair (via amazon) 

Though I had a glider passed down to me from my sister it was in pretty bad shape so we are just going to sell it for cheap or give it to goodwill.  I found this one and liked the modern look and it is comfortable to sit in though it doesn't look like it would be ;) 

 

 

3.  Floor pouf (via target)  Instead of having an ottoman I got this floor pouf to prop my feet up on and to have something that could be used to sit on as well in the room.

 

4.  Giraffe (via amazon)  Of course we can't forgot the big giraffe that will be in the corner of the room;)  The room will have birds/giraffes in the mix. 

 

5.  The Sungabunny swing (via amazon)  Lastly I purchased this snugabunny swing.  I had actually borrowed a swing from my sister's friend when I had Cory and she needed it back when she got pregnant so I just picked out this one since it had mostly all postive reviews and I like how you can plug it into the wall instead of it only running off batteries.  I think it looks super comfy for Cameron to spend time in! 

 

 

After going through all my stuff from Cory, the only things on my 'items needed' list was a swing, a baby carrier and a monitor.  I already got the swing and will pick up a cheap monitor and my Mom is getting me the baby carrier.  I had a monitor for Cory but will pass that one on to Cameron so I actually just want a super cheap one to keep in Cory's room as well since I still like to hear when he wakes and he calls for me.  As for the baby carrier I have a baby bjorn but when I used it with Cory, it wasn't comfortable for me to wear for long and made my back and shoulders hurt so I thought especially now with having 2 kids I will be using the carrier a lot when I take them out places so I wanted it to be a good one.  So many people have said that the best baby purchase ever was their ergobaby carrier so my Mom got me this organic one at target and I absolutely love it and am so impressed by it already!  I can tell just by trying it on that it is going to have lots of lower back support and won't put the strain on my shoulders so I am looking forward to getting lots of use out of it and to still be able to stay active and do lots of outdoor activities with Cameron and Cory. It can be worn in the front when they are small or the back when baby gets older.  I could even carry Cory in it now on my back since it holds up to 45 pounds.  I love it and wish I had it with Cory when he was younger too and we could have done more family hiking and outdoorsy stuff without our backs hurting. 

 

I feel like we have everything else needed which is great...like stroller, high chair, clothes, bouncer, playtime activity items, breast pump, etc. other than buying the neccessities like diapers/wipes/diaper cream we should be good to go!  Will post more nursery updates as we get stuff done! 

 



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30 Weeks!

Oh wow...I just realized I last posted on Jan 31st....how in the world did a month already go by, it feels like it was just a week ago I wrote that last post.  Since I haven't done a pregnancy post since 25 weeks I thought I'd do one for the 30 week mark.  I was actually 30 weeks last friday and went to my appt. and everything is going smoothly with no issues!  Here's a recent pic.  The belly is definitely growing but this shirt doesn't really show just how big it is! 

 



Symptoms:   Other than a growing belly I haven't had too many pregnancy symptoms which is good.  My face has broken out a little and I have to pee more than normal but other than that I feel pretty great!

Weight Gain: At my 30 week appt I had gained 14 pounds total so far and baby is measuring the right size and not ahead or behind.  

Gender: Boy!  I really can't wait to see what he looks like and if he looks like Cory or totally different.  We were going to do a 30 week ultrasound to see his features now in 3D but we decided to let it be a surprise and not try to see him until he comes in 10 weeks.   

Movement: Lots of movement!  He moves a lot in the evenings especially and when Cory is talking near me he seems to move around quite a bit.  I am excited for Cory to meet his brother.  He knows now and seems to understand that a baby is in my belly and will put his ear there to try and hear him. 

Cory at 2 and a half yrs old!

I haven't posted as much about my little buddy so I wanted to do a post about all the things I am loving about Cory at this age so far and things he is into. 

10 things All About Cory:

1.  He loves trains!  He always wants to play with his train set!  He is really into anything that moves.... cars, any type of truck, firetrucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks, etc.  He also loves dinosaurs and airplanes! 

2.  He loves coins!  He has a piggy bank that he wants to play with all the time and will empty out his coins and put them back in and count them.   He also loves to sort things by color.  He will take his foam letters and line them up by color by himself and will clap afterward. 

3.  He is like a little teddy bear in the mornings, around nap time and in the evenings.  All he wants is cuddle time with Mommy.  We sit in the recliner and watch his favorite show and just cuddle up.  He is also very silly and makes me laugh everyday with some of the things he does.....he is a total ham!

4.  He is the most affectionate little boy and gives me sooo many hugs, kisses and "I love you's" throughout the day that always makes me feel so special to be his Mommy!  He holds my hand when we go out places.

5.  He loves his doggies.  He now really loves playing with Nick and Lucky.  When we are out of the house and come back home before we pull in the driveway Cory is always in the back seat cheering with excitement "Nick and Lucky, Nick and Lucky".  He loves those pups!  Here's Lucky and Nick at a bonfire at our house.

6.  He is the typical boy in that he likes to get dirty.  He likes to play in the mud on a rainy day or splash around in the puddles, he loves searching for bugs, playing with rocks and sticks outside and trying to climb trees.

7.  He loves to run and play sports and be active.  He had a ton of fun in Florida over Christmas playing kick ball with Daddy and Grandpa. Here he is wearing Daddy out :)

8.  He loves books and likes when we sit down in the evenings before bed to read.  He also loves going to storytime at the library each week.

9.  He is not the typical boy in the fact that he can be very cautious.  He won't go downstairs at new places without holding Mommy's hand, he's never tried to climb out of his crib, he doesn't attack new activities aggressively but approaches them carefully until he feels comfortable and knows it is safe...like new playgrounds, etc.  And he can be a bit shy at first meeting new people.

10. He is great with other kiddos. He's pretty good about sharing toys. He has always been very sweet to babies and younger kids and I know he will make a great big brother. I'm sure it will be an adjustment along the way and will be some jealousy at times for my attention but my intuition tells me he will be great when the baby comes along and will be nuturing.  The biggest thing I will do is to let him be a helper because he loves to help out Mommy around the house. He can bring me diapers and just be a part of the daily routine of taking care of Cameron. I will also still spend one on one time with Cory too each day to help.


I feel like I am figuring out my little boy.  Boys were a mystery to me, especially toddler boys since I never had boys in my family.  That is the main reason I saw myself having a girl just because I thought it would be easier and I would know what to expect because I am a girl and understand what goes through our minds.  Boys I had no clue!  I feel like at this stage I am learning new things every day but I have learned how to relate to him and truly connect and have that strong mother-son bond.  I know what makes him happy, what makes him tick, what he is into and I am finding out more and more ways to entertain a toddler boy and of course now couldn't imagine life without him.  His charm and personality is coming out more and he says things that surprise me every day.  He really does pick things up like a sponge, he never ceases to amaze me.  The other day John was complimenting me and he asked Cory his opinion and John said "Is Mommy pretty" and Cory said "No, Mommys beautiful".  I had no idea where he got that but boy did it make this Momma feel great!  Of course he said it more like "bootiful" but it was the sweetest thing.  He is my little pal and I just hope we will always raise him up the right way to be a respectful gentleman who knows how to treat a lady.  Of course I secretly want him to be my "baby" forever though! 

A couple more pics:

 

He can pass out & fall asleep anytime he's tired :)  Here we are with grandma!

 

 He still has some cute curls in his hair :)

 

When I tell him to smile, he says "cheese" and squints his eyes and gives me this cheesy smile :)

 

 

 

 

Memo Station Organization!

I am excited that my favorite organized blogger, Jen, over at IHeart Organizing is doing a link up party to share organization projects people have done to go along with her January Home Office Organization challenge!  This is my first time linking up to another blog and I'm fairly new to blogging but thought I'd share our family's Command Center.  Since we are limited with space I decided to put our set up in the kitchen next to the door leading to the garage.  We don't have a spare room for an office but we do have our small office nook in our living room but I wanted a space that we could keep important mail, documents to be filed, things to do list, address book, etc all in a central location.  Here is a look into our command station set-up.

This first picture shows our system that is working pretty good so far for us. 

 

Our console table pictured below (to the left wall of the command center) is where we hide a few things like receipts, coupons, boxtops etc.  It is also our doggy station for food & water and I just happened to love this posterboard sunburst mirror I saw on pinterest and saw it on Jen's blog and I just had to make my own! 

 



 

The bench holds all my cookbooks and my binder full of our favorite recipes  The far left blue bin is for any loose shoes that make their way in the kitchen.  When we walk in through the garage door often times my 2 yr old son will take his shoes off and leave them laying around in the kitchen so this is where i toss them.  The bench also holds my diaper bag, the middle box is where we store gloves, scarfs, my son's jackets, warm hats, etc. (anything we need before walking out the door). 

 

 

The top right section holds a dry erase board for our monthly calendar.  Anything the family has going on, we update here.  I added some cute washi tape around the edges to make it more appealing than the metal that surrounded it.  I put appointment slips there on the magnets if they are for a later month. 

 

On the little shelf I just found this cute coffee cup that matched my colors and stuck our dry erase markers there.  And just a small clock on the side.

 

 

On the other side of the shelf is this little compartment divider that we keep our address book in the first slot, followed by a pad of paper I usually use to write my grocery list on, and the last slot is where we keep our 2013 planner/agenda.  I found the little paperclip tabs at target in the dollar section and just used that to lable it.

 

To the left of our monthly calendar is our our file compartment that I got at IKEA.  I saw a reader space on Jen's blog that used this one and I thought it would be perfect for incoming mail (which we had a problem of always putting on our kitchen table and cluttering it up).  So I have a folder for my husband's mail and a folder for mine, then a folder for any papers that need "to be filed" in our file cabinet later, and a folder "to take action" for anything that needs to be taken care of right away or bills to be paid, etc.  The top section of the bin is for miscellaneous papers that don't fit in one of the catergories...like we put current magazines up there until they have been read. 

 

 

To the left of our file folders is a dry erase board I found at Office Depot and we use that our "Things To Do" area.  If anything needs to be done, it gets put up there so we don't forget.  To the bottom is just a small coat rack that we use for wallets, keys, purses and we have my son's favorite hat there so I snag it to bundle him up in this cold weather. 

 

After taking these pictures a week ago, I felt like this frame(below) on our console table looked a little bland.  I had a spare file folder that I used to update the matted frame and now it matches the other area.  The difference makes me smile :)

 

Here it is again on the table

 

 

Now to look inside the drawers.  The right drawer just has these 2 little baskets, one for loose coupons and one for our receipts for when we plug them into our monthly budget spreadsheet.  The coupons I file later in my coupon binder but these are for the ones I get randomly off products or in the paper, etc. 

 

The left drawer still needs a little loving but it has a box where I put all of our boxtops in.  We give them to my nephew to take to school.  It also has my small coupon file that I take with me to the grocery store and just has some washi tape and extra paper clip lables in there. 

 

Lastly, on the table itself is this little vase with flowers I got from IKEA.  Even though the flowers are fake they still put me in a better mood to have them there. 

 

 

Speaking of my small office area, here it is in the living room corner.  It works but it makes things so much nicer and neater to have the command station so I dont have piles of papers and things all over the desk. 

 

 

Thanks for looking and I am excited to browse all the projects over at IHeart Organizing! 

 

<3 Kristen

 

25 Weeks!

Woo hoo, excited to already be 25 weeks.  This pregnancy is going by so quickly and I can't wait to meet little Cameron!

 

Symptoms:   Sometimes I forget I am pregnant because I have been so lucky to not have any of the typical pregnancy symptoms or issues.  No pains, sleeping great, feeling good, I really have no complaints!

Weight Gain: At my 24 week appt I had gained 10 pounds total.   Still not showing a lot in my clothes but I can for sure see a pretty big bump when I lift my shirt up.  I am at an odd stage though where I am not really fitting in my regular pants, but all maternity pants are still too big and falling off.  Luckily I have 1 pair of my regular jeans that were larger in size that still fit great and I can still wear about all my normal tops but I have pulled out a few of the cute maternity tops too and I wear those as well.

Gender: I am excited for another boy!  I will have to start doing some nursery post as I get the room ready and I think it is going to turn out so cute!  I hope we (as in John) will paint it next weekend if I can get the room cleared out this week.  It is going to be painted with stripes.  Only thing I have really done is cleaned out some of the room and organized the tons of clothes we have!  I am planning a DIY mobile project that I hope will turn out how I think it will.  The only item I have bought so far is new crib bedding.  . 

Movement:  I am so excited that I now feel lots of movement.  It went from pretty much nothing to a lot in a 2 week period.  When I turned 24 weeks I started feeling some popping flutters in my belly, then I started feeling quite a bit of activity at night when I was still in the recliner.  John can feel it now and you can see movement just looking at my belly which is cool.  At my 24 week appt he had the hiccups and I could hear them on the heartrate monitor.  I can't wait to see him on ultrasound again.