The Water Table

You know when you bring home your first baby, there's that moment where both parents are home and you can bask in the joy of your new baby while at home. Soaking it all in, easing yourself back into the daily routine of life. Well, that doesn't happen with your second child. The minute you get home, you have to hit the ground running because you have the first child who still needs/desires/craves your attention. We knew it would be a hard transition for Anderson so we really tried to do our best with making sure he got the attention he needed in the first few weeks of Lauren being born. We didn't want to shock him with a new member of the family and suddenly drop off in the attention that was given to him. In fact, I think we played with him more because we were so conscious of him.

The 2nd day we were home with Lauren, Anderson and I made a trip to Target because we needed some premie diapers and clothes for Lauren. All the newborn sized clothes were way too big for her! While there, I decided to pick up a water table for Anderson to play with. The kid loves being outside and playing with water so I thought this would be perfect for him to play with. I'll have to say that I have never been so right about something. This was probably the perfect gift for him and us. He could spend hours outside playing with this water table. Filling up cups and buckets, dumping the water out on plants, himself, us, etc... And the nice thing is that he could play with this by himself as we looked on, sitting exhausted in a chair in the shade with baby Lauren.

Here are some pics of his first time with the water table.

Bringing Home Baby

We only stayed at the hospital one night. We were pretty eager to get home since we didn't want to be away from Anderson too long. And since Lauren was doing fine and we weren't first time parents anymore, we were ready to check out and get back to our life. Or get our new life started.
We were pretty worried how Anderson would take this new change. Before, he would freak out if we held or even played with other kids, so we were prepared for worst. We had tried the usual recommendations - holding a baby doll so he got used to us carrying a baby. But our boy was too smart for that. He knew it was fake and didn't seem to really care. We crossed our fingers, put the little lady in her car seat (she looked so tiny in it!) and headed home.

Anderson had met Lauren at the hospital but bringing her home is a whole different deal. Surprisingly, he seemed quite smitten by her and he seemed to take to his new role as big brother really well. And he still has. He loves making her laugh, loves it when I ask him to watch her and in general, really loves her. Of course he's swatted at her a few times but that was expected. Here are some pictures of them a few days after we had brought her home.

Coming Off the Rails

Before we put Anderson in his twin bed, we decided it would be best to do the transition in baby steps. So we took off the front part of his convertible crib and turned it into a toddler bed. We knew the transition wasn't going to be easy, but we didn't know it would be difficult. At first, during the day, Anderson loved being able to climb into his own bed at any given time. He would even bring books and sit in his bed and read. It was a much different story at bedtime. The little boy that would happily say "night-night" to his mommy and talk/play in his crib before going to sleep now cried when I turned off the lights and had to be coaxed into getting in his bed. The first couple of nights, we stayed with him in his room, thinking he just needed awhile to get used to his new environment, even though everything was the same except the front rail was off. We created a mound/hill of pillows so that if he rolled off, it would be a soft landing. And he rolled off many many times. Every night actually. In fact, one morning, I couldn't open the door to his room and only when I looked down on the floor did I see that it was Anderson on the floor:


I let him be and waited a couple minutes until he moved and was then able to open the door. This kid moves a lot when he sleeps!

So after a few nights staying with him, we decided that it was enough. He could sleep on his own. Well, he didn't want to. He would come out of his room, wanting to play, making his way in his little blanket sleeper and we would dutifully lead him back to his bed. Then it became a game to him. He would peek outside the door, and then take off! Running either to you or in the other direction. Usually, we would end up giving up after 45 minutes of this game. Not only were we tired of playing it, but he was SO riled up from it and he couldn't calm down. So, we gave in, stayed in his room with him, usually holding his hand and pretending to sleep.

Then, we got the baby gate. Every night, we put up the gate at his doorway so he can't get out anymore. The first night was rough. He stood at the gate for about 30 minutes and cried while we hid out of view. He eventually gave up and fell asleep on his mound of pillows. The next night, it was 10 min. of crying and then he climbed back into his bed and fell asleep.

Now, he's in his twin bed and the gate is still up. He still cries at the gate for about 5 minutes, then decides to climb back into his bed with a book, reads, and then falls asleep. But it seems as though it's getting better. He no longer screams at when I put down the last book and tell him it's time to go to sleep. He whines a little but that's about it. He gets into bed with his bear and hippo and waits for mommy to climb in with him and sing him some songs. It's still hard to hear his cry but I know he's fine. I know it's just an adjustment period. I know he will eventually go to sleep when he's ready. As soon as we feel like he might be asleep, we peek in there ever so carefully, cover him with a blanket and wonder how our little baby grew up so fast.

Oh, sorry there aren't any pictures of the finished bed quite yet. It's just that when there is actually time to take pictures of things, he's usually sleeping in it!

Art Mockup

Ok, I was able to do a mock-up on Powerpoint of the artwork I posted below. What do you think? In looking at it, I wish the name was larger, but with it being such a long name, it could only be so big without it needing to go into 2 lines. I think that's my only gripe about it now. But, for 30 mins. worth of work, and I'll try printing it on a quality color laser printer on cardstock, it's not bad, right? And to think that I could easily change the name on top and/or colors of the letters if someone wanted a specific color scheme!

Project: Farmhouse Bed Part III

Like I said earlier, Wilson was able to put in a few hours this weekend to finish up the bed for Anderson.

Welcome to my workshop!

Checking to see if it's level....looks good!

Headboard and footboard complete and level. You can see from this picture that the headboard is really high. This is when we decided to trim off 5 inches from the headboard to make it more proportional.

There, looks better huh? Side rails are up and attached! Bed is complete! There are two pieces of trim attached to the side rails that will hide the rails but I wasn't able to get a picture of it before Wilson took it down. But rest assured that the side rails (what the bed actually sits on) won't be visible.



All that's left is some priming and painting. We're planning to paint the bed a navy blue, much like the Pottery Barn Kids bed. And here are the sheets that I picked up this weekend to make the duvet. As you can see, it's mostly white with multi-colored stripes that will brighten up his room. (What is it with me and stripes??) I was thinking about using some red piping along the edge of the duvet to give it a little more design aspect. I'm hoping I can pull it off!

Project: Farmhouse Bed Part II

Sneak peek! Since there has been interest in Anderson's bed, Wilson has agreed to let me post a few pictures of the progress he's made thus far. To estimate how much work has gone into this, I'd say...maybe 5 hours tops. This doesn't include the amount of time spent at Home Depot, debating what kind of wood to get with a 1.5 year old who doesn't want to sit in the car and wants to be chased around the store. And once you catch him, he just giggles and says "Funny!" And will only sit in the cart if he has strawberry panda cookies (which, by the way, are REALLY good).

So first, it looked like this: a pile of wood (that's not all of it. Some are to the side since they've already been cut and I got into the picture taking a little late)


Then, following the cut list that Knock Off Wood provides, he cut all/most of the wood according to the specified dimensions using a T to make sure the cuts were straight. Making straight cuts is really important. Good thing we got those sawhorses the day after Thanksgiving for $10! And to think that I actually rolled my eyes when Wilson said he NEEDED sawhorses.


Next, to give the wood a soft feel, we decided it best to sand the furniture at two different points. (Yes we as I pop in on the project very often and want to be consulted at every point) Once when the wood was still in pieces as that would be the easiest way to sand. We used 120 ct sandpaper and actually purchased a sander to do the job. We got the cheapest orbital sander that Lowes offers. Hopefully it won't be a one time use. I'm crossing my fingers that it will be used for the upcoming entertainment center that will be built if this bed turns out as expected. Here's Wilson with the first round of sanding with the 120 ct sandpaper. All those dots you see in the picture are saw dust. I gave Wilson a mask, but he didn't use it :(



Done! I think he only did the pieces for the headboard and the footboard since those were to be built first. I don't think he did any of the railings yet. Anyway, on to building of the headboard and footboard! In these pics, Wilson is using a finisher to put the nails slightly deeper into the wood and he'll later cover them with wood putty and sand it so you don't see any nails.




The headboard and footboard are almost complete. This is what they look like now:

Headboard:


Footboard:


Wilson just needs to attach the other posts to each of them and then they are done! I think it's looking pretty good so far! Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to work on it since due to the fact that he is now sick. And if you look at the pictures, you'll see that he is only wearing shorts and a t-shirt with flip-flops while working in the garage with the doors open. Hmmm.....maybe not the best choice of clothes in cold weather. Cold meaning mid-50s and you're already starting to feel under the weather.

He just informed me that he's hoping to finish up this bed this weekend! Which means that I get to go pick out some paint for the bed! He also said that this time, he'll wear sweatpants and maybe, just maybe, a long sleeved shirt.

(He just popped in to see what I was doing and wanted to note that he is wearing TWO t-shirts while building the bed for extra warmth. yeah.)

Project: Farmhouse Bed Part I

Just so you know, I'm not the only one in this house working on getting the kids' rooms ready. Wilson is also hard at work. Literally. Have you all heard of the Knock Off Wood? If not, you need to go. She provides plans on how to build knock off versions of furniture, mostly from Pottery Barn and a fraction of the cost! So when I saw plans for this twin sized farmhouse bed, I brought it to Wilson, hoping and praying he'd want to take on this project. After all, he's the one who would have to build it. Here is what it looks like (in queen size form):

Plans and sketch for the twin size bed:

And we're planning on painting it a navy blue to look like this Pottery Barn Kids Bed which is currently on sale for $599!

I promised Wilson that I wouldn't post any pictures of the process until it was all finished AND it looked good. He's currently halfway done with the headboard and footboard and we're keeping track of how much money we're spending on materials to compare it to the Pottery Barn Bed. So far, it's a lot cheaper :)

I've been sneaking into the garage at various intervals of the building process, taking pics to document everything. I cannot wait to see how this turns out. And according to Wilson, the plans are very easy to follow. If this turns out, there are going to be a lot more projects for him in the future!

Bath Time Fun

Even though Anderson doesn't have a whole lot of hair, he has some. And one day we decided it would be fun to spike it up into a pseudo-mohawk. Then we made funny faces. Then we grabbed the camera. Isn't this boy just darling. I love his little face.

Anderson and I made a few Valentine's Day cards this year. It consisted of some construction paper folded in half, Anderson drawing on the paper and helping me glue hearts onto the front. Inside, it said Happy Valentine's Day! and this picture of him giving you a kiss.


Time to scrub up! Wash-a wash-a wash-a (as I say each time we wash hands or soap up)!

And just to show he's not all smiles and giggles throughout the day, he definitely has his moments too.

The Playground

One of the things we've been doing this year as taking Anderson to the playground. Boy, does this kid love it. I think it took him a little bit to warm up to things (as is usually the case) but he was ready to take on the slide all by himself, going backwards down it to be safer. Probably a product of us trying to teach him to go down the stairs by crawling down instead of trying to walk down it. I think he's big enough to go down while in a sitting position now but he seems to be more comfortable going down this way. I can get him to go down the normal way but have to remind him that he can just sit and go down. (These photos could be edited/cropped a little better but I just wanted to get these up while I had time)

We're also trying to teach him to climb up the stairs himself by holding on to the railing.

"Come on! You can do it!"

One of my favorite pics from this series. It shows that he's still little and small but is ready for big kid things. Plus I love the bright orange in these pictures.

He is cautious at some things though. Especially the bridge. He's always VERY careful.

Oh, and this kid LOVES the swings. LOVES the swings.

So that's one of our days at the park. We do try to take him often because he seems to love it so much but it's hard since some days it is cold and rainy. But when the weather's nice, we do try to make a trip out there. It's fun to see the little kid run around and be, well, a little kid.

Goofing Off

Of course the best times as a parent is when it is just mommy, daddy and baby goofing off, laughing and having fun. This is when all parties are just cracking up at everybody else. Rarely do we ever have the state of mind to break out the camera to capture this precious moment but this time we did. And I love the face of this little guy as you can tell he is just having such a great time with mommy and daddy, cracking himself up and thinking his parents are complete goof balls. In this instance, we were sitting on the couch, with Anderson sitting on my lap having a giggle fest. And please excuse the dirty shirt the little man is sporting. I believe this was right after dinner and he is a toddler after all.