Transportation Fair (May) 2012

Every May there is a "Transportation Fair" in Goose egg park.  Last year we were unable to attend because it was down pouring!  This year it was super hot, but both boys had fun!  So this was Luke's first Transportation Fair and Jack's 3rd.  They had fun pretend-driving all of the vehicles and walking through the rescue vehicles!

My friend Miranda's son Zander joined us too.  They had fun in the cop car and Jack's pretend "I've been naughty face" is pretty funny!

Grandpa's 65th Birthday!

Dad turned 65 in early May.  I decided to make him a cake to mark the big number!  I got the idea from Pinterest and thought the cake turned out adorably!  Totally his type of cake because his spends most of his time on the golf course!

Brilliant Move!

Last weekend, we ventured to IKEA to purchase a bunk bed for Jack and his new room in the basement!  Jay spent most of Sunday afternoon assembling it.  Jack spent his first night in his new bed last Sunday night and it's been a WHOLE restful week since!  He's done an amazing job down in the basement, staying in his bed til morning 5 of 6 nights!  He feels like such a big boy being down there by himself.  There are a few catches, of course.  1) One of us needs to stay downstairs watching TV until he's sleeping.  (This usually isn't a problem for Jay, but last night, he went to the RAC to run, and I was stuck staying up later than I would have liked.)  2) The bathroom light has to stay on in the hallway.  Both "catches" are doable--we're sleeping much better, so who cares!

Because Luke isn't being interrupted in the night by Jack coming to bed later than him, and/or waking in the night, he's done much better this week too!  They're not waking each other, which means they're not waking us!  Success!  Who knew moving Jack to the basement would revolutionize our sleep!  And I was so certain my "baby" couldn't be down there......

Here are a few photographs to document the project:

Jack is so proud and excited!

Jay's still surprisingly calm after hour two has passed! (He said it was relatively easy to put together--just time consuming!)

They played up there all evening.  Luke wanted to jump off the top, and Jack just didn't want to get down!

Sleepless Nights

God fools you with the first child.  Our first started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks.  He was a good sleeper until the second one came along 3 and a half years later.  Now, neither of them sleep.  And this full time working mommy is exhausted!  Luke didn't sleep through the night for the first time until well after 6 months.  I'd say he's 100% slept through the night less than 10 times in his entire life.  We go through waves.  We may get a few decent nights and I think, "FINALLY."  And then, we're back to sleepless nights.  And when I say, "WE," I mean, "ME!"

Jack started becoming a pain-in-the-ass sleeper when Luke came on the scene.  He pulls every antic in the book at bedtime.  "I need a drink.  You forgot my Zyrtec.  I forgot to brush my teeth.  Oh yeah, I need to bring my bird book to Kari's tomorrow." You know, the usual 4-5 year old antics.  We're at our wits ends.  This week we went to desperate measures.  Jack and I moved to the basement.  I cannot sleep through Luke's wailing or even whimpering in the night, so Jay said "he'd handle it."  He said that because he was sick of my constant bitching!

So began the "crying-it-out" experiment.  (This isn't the first time we've cried it out, but somehow with me in the basement, it's easier!)  Luke screamed the first night for two solid hours.  The second night an hour and now we're down to some whimpering in the night.  While Jack and I were camping out in the extra bedroom in the basement, we talked about how "cool" and "brave" it would be to have a bedroom down there.  Last night, he slept down there alone (!) and I made an appearance back in my own bed.  Luke woke and whimpered, but I kept it parked in bed, and Jack came up to his "dog bed" scared at about 3:30.  We think it's small progress, but progress nonetheless.

After much discussion, and I mean A LOT of discussion, we're almost convinced to move both boys downstairs.  The two bedrooms up and the two down is the thing I despise most about this house, but them sharing a room upstairs just isn't working, so "Operation Move the Kids to the Basement" is soon to be underway.  We're enticing Jack with cool bunk beds.  And Luke, well, he surely won't know the difference.  He can cry and whimper down there, right?

Easter 2012

This year we went to Jay's aunt's for a potluck on the Saturday before Easter.  It was for both sides of their family, so it was a big affair.  There were lots of kids and she hid lots of Easter eggs for the kids.  Jack had a great time running around, playing baseball and sneaking candy.

We spent the night in Northfield at Mom and Dad's that evening and went to early church with them on Easter Sunday.  We had a low key Easter as the guys golfed, the gals laid around and the little ones had an Easter Egg Hunt!  Jack did get to go with the guys to the golf course for the first 5 holes.  He's still talking about the golf cart!

Dying Easter Eggs!

Easter Bunny Comes Early!

Easter Sunday!