Success! (for now)

After 2 1/2 weeks of many prayers, pleading, crossing fingers, tip-toeing, holding our breath, hours and hours of work, anger management techniques and experimenting with every sleeping technique under the moon (including finally having to bolt the bed to the wall).... Logan is finally staying in bed!!!!

WAHOOOO!

Can you tell how ecstatic I am? The precious & productive after-bed-time hours have been reclaimed and I now have a little more sanity to my name!

For the past 3 nights, we have had to return Logan to bed ZERO times (as compared to previously 20, 30, 40, 50 , 60 times in one night). I'm sure more bed time bumps will come down the road, but this is one milestone I am SOOO thankful to be over. A mountain has been climbed... for now!

always accessorizing

And I had to add this because I thought it was so hilarious... last Sunday I took pictures of each Primary class so I could make flash cards for myself to learn names of all the kids I don't know in our newly formed ward.

Proof that girls and boys are NOT the same...

(mostly) SWEET VALIANT GIRLS

VS.



CRAZY, LOTS-OF-UNBRIDLED-ENERGY, VALIANT BOYS

I love Primary. :-)

(PS: If you read that last comment as sarcastic, it wasn't. Against all odds, I really do love our Primary!)

So far...

Life is never dull with Logan.

So far today:

Logan wakes up at 5:15 am, WIDE AWAKE. We try to put him back to bed. Yeah right.

Because I can't function at 5 am, (ok, I can't really function until 8 am :-) I go out to lay on the couch while he watches Sesame Street, Curious George, Super Why, and even part of "the kids movie" (Polar Express).

5:30 - 8 am: Doze off and on to make sure Lo doesn't kill himself.

8 am: I wake up just a split second before a huge drumstick falls from the sky and hits me in the face. Fat, bruised lip. (I think he threw the drumstick in the air because it was the part in Polar Express where all the Elves throw their hats in the air...is it sad that I know that movie that well?)

8:05 am: I sneak a bite of Lemon cake before breakfast and Logan sees me and insists on Lemon cake too. :-)

8:10 am: Logan breaks a glass on the floor while eating breakfast. 9 am: Logan gets into Ben's things and loses one of the lenses to Ben's sun glasses. (NOT good. Sorry hun.)

11 am: Take a shower finally. When I get out, Logan has fallen asleep on the couch. When I pick him up, I see a chocolate chip he was sitting on melted nicely into our sofa.

11:05 am: Logan takes an early nap? No such luck. He wakes right back up.

11:30 am: Logan actually asks to go potty (a first!) and does so with success.

1:oo pm: While out running errands, Logan steps in mud and while getting in the car, smears it on the seat in front of him (not on purpose).

2:50 pm: Lo picks a book to read before nap time called "David Gets in Trouble". How fitting. :-)

And now he's down for nap. Hooray! Oh wait, he's waking up again. Gotta go :-)

Miscellany

Ben had a headache tonight and hit the sack early, so here I am pondering whether to organize my new purse, or to update the blog. You see what I chose. :-)

There have been lots of happenings as of recent, and there's no way to connect them all , so I'll just list it out for simplicity's sake:

1. As of a few weeks ago, I am officially done with work! This job has been so flexible and a blessing to have over the past 2.5 years, but I am just ready to be done now that #2 is on the way. Wahoo. That's 6 more hours a week to spend with Logan before his world gets rudely interrupted. :-)

2. Our ward was dissolved way back in November and so Ben and I were released (along with the entire ward) and were sad and relieved at the same time to be "done" with our callings. But, as always, Heavenly Father knows best and has something else up His sleeve because it was just 3 weeks later that our new ward was completely reorganized and we were both (not on purpose) called back to the same callings (Primary and Young Mens). I cried for days knowing what a struggle this was for our family for the past two years, but it only took one trip to the temple for me to know this is where I'm supposed to be right now. Things have been busy, chaotic, yet calm and collected for the past four weeks. What a blessing.

3. Pregnancy is going great now. Night sickness went away 6 weeks earlier than last time and it has been bliss! I'm actually starting to see boy#2 move my belly around. That's crazy. I actually forget half of the time that I'm prego.

Me at 23 weeks

4. Update on Logan's transition to big boy bed: it's hell! Ok, well it's not that bad, but definitely one of the worst stages we've gone through with Logan. He's always been a good sleeper and all of that has gone out the window. He was really good for the first week, and then the honeymoon phase ended and the excitement of the holidays and company in town threw him for a loop. Now he just gets out of bed many, many, many times before falling asleep, laughing and enjoying the game the whole time. This stage of autonomy has brought out the mean and ugly in me and I hate it. Can't I just control Logan forever? Oh right... that was Satan's plan. :-)

We've tried it all: time outs, taking monkey away, taking blanky away, taking his bed away and leaving the mattress on the ground, putting a baby gate between his room and the toy room, taping the light switches down, moving a big cabinet to block the pathway from his room to the toy room, patiently putting him back into bed over, and over, and over, sitting next to his bed in the dark with him. Nothing has worked. I'm afraid time will have to take care of this one.

So first thing tomorrow, I'm headed to the library to see what the child development experts say. Here's to hoping, crossed fingers and lots of prayers.

5. On a more positive note I set new goals for this year. And for the past few years I've tried to adopt a saying or motto to live by for the year. One year it was, "Simplify everything" and last year it was, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

I really didn't follow that adage very well last year, so I'm adopting that same motto this year and trying again, especially now that we've cut out my small income. This means assessing true needs vs. wants and realizing that joy, satisfaction and therapy don't come from purchasing or having new things. Thriftiness is the new black.

Us partying on New Years Eve at the Nelsons.

6. Logan sang his first primary song all the way through, randomly, without any prompts today. As you can see, he was enjoying breaking out in song much more than eating dinner. Luckily, he actually performed it again when I asked him to so I could tape it! I was so proud of him and so thankful for nursery!



7. Here are some random pics of this weekend. Ben's sister, Maegan, and her husband Nick were here visiting. Our weekend of fun proved just how much we miss them! Thanks again for coming to visit!

Logan loved getting to play with Abby Dabba again. Here she is reading to him in Logan's bed.

Nick and Maegs on New Years. Sweet shirt, Nick.


Here are the kiddos all lined up watching Snow White.