Why did we have a kid?

The last couple weeks have been rather difficult.  I partially blame myself - I jinxed us; I'll blame the rest on the irrationality of two year olds. 

A couple of weeks ago it was a day like any other day.  That glorious hour called nap time was quickly approaching, so I finished reading The Little Blue Truck for the billionth time while Alex drank his milk, we sang a song, Alex climbed into bed, cuddled up with his beloved blankie, sucked his thumb, and was on his way to sleep just like that.  "Dang, he is so stinkin' cute!"  I thought to myself.  "It is fabulous how he will go to sleep, just like that, without any fight.  We must be doing something right as parents!  Our kid is awesome!"

And truly our kid is pretty awesome.  Especially considering we'd taken the front rail off of his crib a couple months ago, and he transitioned like a champ.  We had endured a few minutes of fits on rare occasions, but for the most part it had been smooth sailing!

Oh how naive I was to assume it would last!

The following night I was out tutoring when I get a text from Matt, "Holy crap, our boy will not go to bed."  20 minutes later: "When you get home I may still be in Alex's room, he has been freaking out all night as soon as I leave."  Half an hour later I returned home to find Matt doing the dishes.  "Alex just barely went to sleep."  It was about 9:20.  Alex usually goes to sleep at 8:00.  Weird.  I foolishly wrote it off as an isolated incident.

The following day Matt tried to put him down for a nap.  Alex, for whatever reason, had decided that no how, no way was he going to stay in bed.  Matt would shut the door and walk downstairs, 30 seconds later we would hear the door open and there was Alex peaking around the corner, his finger to his lips quietly whispering "Shhhh!" to himself, and then smiling.  Stinker!  Matt kept returning him to bed, and after numerous failed attempts, sat in the hall holding the door closed to prevent Alex from opening it.  You can imagine how well that went over.  Once again it was over an hour until Alex FINALLY went to sleep.

I decided that surely the problem was simply that Matt was putting him to bed.  Maybe Alex just wanted to continue playing with Daddy; after all, Alex had gone to bed just fine for me.  So that night I put him to bed, fully expecting things to go as normal.  Boy was I wrong!  "WAAAAHHHH!!!!  MOOOOOMMMMM!!!!. . . .[thump, thump, thump, door opening]" and there stands my child, grinning from ear to ear.  After more failed attempts to keep him in bed, we finally gave up and put the rail back on the crib. . . then endured a good 45 minutes of crying.

This pattern has continued every night for the last two weeks.  Thankfully it has slowly gotten a little better, but Alex has also randomly decided that he needs to wake up at 3, 4 or 5am at least once or twice and refuses to go back to sleep.  He also no longer wants to go to nursery by himself.  Fantastic. . .

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my child!  He's still a good boy for the most part.  But as I lay there night after night listening to him screaming at 4am, I can't help but think, "Why did we want to have children?  What on earth is up with our little boy?!  JUST GO TO SLEEP!!  Is he afraid of the dark?  Does he just think it's funny to get out of bed?  He's getting a new molar, is he in pain?  Is he just trying to kill off his parents??"  Perhaps its a little of everything.

And thus it's been pretty awesome around our house these last couple weeks!  Lots of screaming, lots of battles, lots of exhaustion, lots of having absolutely no idea what is wrong.  That's the funny thing about being a parent: one minute you feel like you've finally started to figure it out, you've got everything under control, and your child seems happy, healthy, and well adjusted; the next minute everything is chaos and you haven't a clue what to do about it.  Unfortunately I'm fairly sure that this cycle is never ending.

In the mean time it's a good thing kids are so darn cute!!  There are many, MANY moments that parenthood completely sucks; but thankfully there are also many, MANY moments when kids make you laugh, and it's in those moments that you find the reassurance that having kids is most definitely worth it, that they truly make you a better person, and that the level of love and joy in your life is magnified by having them!

"Cheese!"

So here's to not only having, but enjoying kids!!

Is that a bulge in the ceiling?

When Alex came into this world, we were woefully unprepared.  We decided to wait to buy all of those baby essentials until Matt had refinished all the hardwood floors.  Wednesday night Matt finally finished applying the last coat of polyurethane on the floors after several long weeks of sanding, cleaning, and staining.  Thursday night I ended up in the hospital and Alex came two days later.  Crib, dresser/changing table, car seat, and stroller were all purchased that weekend.  Family came over that Saturday to finish painting, put up molding, assemble the furniture, and give the entire house a good cleaning in preparation for Alex's homecoming.

It was a bit stressful.

Not wanting to repeat that experience, I vowed a couple weeks back to start working on Alex's new room - get everything done and Alex moved over within a month.  Matt has been studying for his Professional Engineering Exam in April, and refinishing the third bedroom gave me something to do while he was busy.  After all, how hard would it be?  Scrap off the hideous flowered wallpaper, sand, clean, texture the ceiling, paint, put up molding, and ta da!  New room for my little boy.

If I've learned anything from the numerous home remodel projects over the last two years, it's that things never go as planned.  And for the most part I was prepared for that.  But holy cow this room has been a beast!

I'm fairly sure the wallpaper was superglued on in some spots.

Grandma had installed shelving on one wall, and combine that with her love for pictures EVERYWHERE, and what appears to be someone's complete inability to install a curtain rod, there were what seemed to be 1,000,000 holes to patch.

After several bad paint jobs over the last 50 years and the many many holes that I patched, I decided to break out the disk sander and sand every inch of the walls.  Might as well do it right and get them smooth the first time, right?

I have learned the importance of prep work when it comes to painting.  I cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned some more, making sure everything was completely dust free before priming.

I am the world's slowest texture-er.  Spent a couple days texturing the ceiling, taking time to tape the cracks so that they won't reappear.  Prime and paint the ceiling.  FINALLY something is finished!!

First coat of paint carefully applied to the walls - for some random reason there's a fairly even band of little air bubbles about 4.5' from the floor on every wall. . .there are also still bumps in the walls despite my best sanding efforts, might as well make it perfect and sand those out too while I'm at it.

More sanding. . .more cleaning. . .more priming. . .more painting. . .

More air bubbles. . . screw it!  Not nearly as bad as the first time, and most people wouldn't notice.  I was so careful!  I blame it on a bad initial paint job, the paint would just peel right off under the bubbles exposing the sheetrock.  Whatever!  Good enough!  Second coat of paint.

Rigging up the laser level from Matt's work so that I can tape a nice stripe around the room. . .I'm glad I was finally able to put my Steel Manual to good use after all these years!

Brown stripe complete!  Walls finally complete!  YAY! 

Paint the closet - oh how I despise painting closets, but done!

Matt cuts the molding, I paint the molding, Matt begins nailing the molding in place while I sit on the floor shopping online for curtains.  Yes my friends, this room is almost complete!  We can move Alex in here this weekend!  This will be awesome!  It looks amazing!

But wait. . .

Is it just in my head, or is there a bulge in the ceiling?  Why is it that as I sit here on the floor looking up, the light doesn't cast an even circle on the ceiling?  Is it just shadows playing with my eyes, or is the ceiling visibly not even anymore?  That can't possibly be.  We are ALMOST DONE!  The ceiling is textured and painted.  We had the perfect amount of paint for the ceiling, there's nothing left over. . .but I ask Matt just to get a second opinion.  He pushes up on the ceiling and his thumb goes straight through.

CRAPPITY CRAP CRAP!!! . . .only that's the censored version.  Matt continues to pick at the bulge and discovers that for whatever reason the sheetrock is only about 1/8" thick in that part.  I stand on a chair and push up on another part of the ceiling.  The whole ceiling flexes slightly.  Not something you really want to happen.  I promise the ceiling wasn't moving when I textured it.  Perhaps the weight of the plaster and paint is pulling it down?   

Look how beautiful Alex's new room was coming along: 

And now there's a nice little hole in the ceiling that unfortunately needs to get much, MUCH larger. .  .

And so there will be more sheetrocking, more plastering, more sanding, more cleaning, more texturing, more priming, more painting in the weeks to come, . . .and then maybe, just maybe the room will be done. 

And here I thought we were getting a head start!

My word of advice to all of you: find a way to make lots of money so you can afford to hire someone to do all of your home improvement projects for you!  Yes, it will cost you four times as much as if you had done the work yourself, but sometimes it's definitely worth it!

I am now going to go watch the latest episode of Downton Abbey, eat mass amounts of chocolate, and try not to think about how much of the ceiling is actually damaged. . .

Boy or Girl?

Hello!  I hope lots of fun was had and lots of chocolate consumed over the holiday season!  Now the Christmas tree is packed away and it is time to return back to normal life again.  I don't know about you, but January for me is typically met with a bit of relief that the holidays are over, a bit of regret at the mass amounts of junk food consumed and the extra pounds that found a new residence on my hips (thankfully I'm pregnant this year so I can sort of use that as an excuse for those extra 5 pounds. . .right?), and a bit of gloom at the many dark, cold, and (if you live in Utah) smoggy days that lie ahead of us. 

But at least this year I had one huge thing to look forward to.  Matt and I went in for the ultrasound on Friday!  And guess what?

Yep, we're having another little boy!!  We're pretty excited!  Thankfully everything looked normal, and we still expect him to make an appearance around May 31st!  Oh I can almost already see the trouble that Alex and his little brother will get into in a couple years.  It will be awesome :)! 

As far as the future of this blog goes, we will see.  I definitely want to continue learning more about photography and I really liked feeling obligated to blog once a week for the simple fact that it forced me to take pictures and document what we did last year.  But let's be honest, I really don't have anything interesting to say most weeks and I don't want to subject you to the trivial mundane details of my life.  I also want to focus on expanding my etsy business, continue tutoring, and I really need to finish the third bedroom so that it's ready when baby #2 gets here.  That being said, I aim to update this blog every couple weeks or so, give you the highlights of our activities and house projects, and anything else I find interesting along the way.  :) 

Week 52: A Year in Review

Another year is ending.  It's been a good year - full of laughs, tears, hard work, overall craziness, and fun.

I fulfilled some of my resolutions/goals for the year - start and maintain a blog, complete my photography class, try my hand at tutoring, start an etsy business.  Some goals I did ok on - eat at least 3 fruits/veggies per day (pathetic I can't hardly meet that one, I know. . .), 100% visiting teaching, exercise at least 3 times a week, find new activities to do with our son.  Others I failed miserably at - take a picture every day, try at least 2 new recipes a month.  But hey, there's always next year, right? 

 

We still didn't finish the countless little things left to do in the kitchen,

but we did gut the basement and build it up again into a comfortable living space.

Alex went from a crawling, babbling baby boy with only two front teeth,

to a handsome boy who runs around tearing apart the house, demanding juice in fractured sentences. . .and yes, we do believe in good oral hygiene at our house. . . 

We had our struggles with infertility, ventured into the world of adoption, only to be completely surprised to find out that we were expecting.  Being pregnant while taking care of a very active toddler has been. . .challenging to say the least.  I honestly have no idea how women with multiple kids handle being pregnant.  Thank goodness my wonderful husband has been amazing as always and patiently stood by my side, even during those bad hormonal moments when I get mad at him for no particular reason, or when I turn into the Hulk because I haven't eaten anything in the past four hours and I NEED FOOD RIGHT THIS SECOND OR I WILL DIE!! . . .yeah, I'm not the best pregnant woman. . . 

Matt also gave me the best Christmas present ever this year!  He had a scrap piece of granite left over from our kitchen squared up so it will fit in our freezer and bought me some ice cream paddles.  Yeah that's right, I now have the tools to make ColdStone style ice cream at home.  It's pretty awesome!  I have the best husband ever!

Anyway, here's to the New Year!  A clean slate.  A chance to recommit to do a little more and work a little harder.  Here's to being better husbands and wives, parents, sons and daughters, neighbors, and friends.  Here's to strengthening old relationships and hopefully forging new ones.  Here's to creating lasting memories with those that we love most in the coming year.  Here's to finding the courage to take the road less traveled, to do those things that are hard, to stepping outside our comfort zone and maybe not always finding success, but hopefully self esteem, fulfillment, and happiness.  Here's to expanding our minds and improving our bodies.  Here's to becoming a little better physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  Here's to a good 2014!!

Happy New Year and happy photographing!    

Week 51: Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas.

What?!  How did that happen already?

It seemed to come abnormally fast this year.  And since I still have a few neighbor gifts to deliver, I better hurry up before it's too late!  But I will leave you with this:

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911161814001&cid=HPWE121813271

 I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!!

Happy Photographing!

Week 50: Curtains!

Check it out, my latest project.  I finished them today!

Now to finish Christmas presents, make neighbor gifts, tutor, post more items on Etsy, clean the house, finish laundry, keep Alex and baby girl happy, and then maybe one day I can make some throw pillows for the couch.

Happy Photographing!!
    

Week 49: Etsy Store

Hey guess what?  I finally set up my etsy shop!!  There is one whole item up for sale!  Go me!!  Hopefully I'll have more items posted by the end of the week.  Feel free to check it out. . .not that there is much there yet, but there will be soon :) : http://www.etsy.com/shop/ZestyOrangePeel?ref=shop_sugg

I also opened a facebook page.  It doesn't really have anything on it yet either, but hey, we are slowly making progress!

Other than that, I'm not sure I have much else to post.  I didn't even take any pictures this week because I'm a slacker like that.  I finally feel mostly human again - no longer nauseous or completely exhausted - and I've been trying to catch up on all of the house projects and Christmas projects that have been on my list for the last several weeks.  My latest project - more curtains for the downstairs.  Perhaps next week I'll post pictures. . .they will be awesome!

Oh, one other thing!  Matt and I watched a documentary on Nova the other night called "A Walk to Beautiful".  For anyone who is into documentaries - women especially, check it out!  I loved it! The lives of some of the women featured in the show are unbelievable.  It makes all of my problems seem. . .very manageable in comparison. . .and rather pathetic.  I am so incredibly grateful for everything I've been blessed with in my life - a loving husband, supportive family, access to good doctors, a nice house, plenty of food, etc!  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/a-walk-to-beautiful.html

Ok, this post kind of stinks, but Alex is destroying the house and the little girl I tend is getting hungry.  I will try to come up with something more interesting next week!

Happy photographing!