In Bed

I just cracked open Little E’s door to see him peacefully sleeping in his bed. That’s right, his bed. I vowed that I’d leave him in the crib until he was 4, but my resolve is waivering. In our teeny-tiny house with teeny-tiny bedrooms, the extra space taken up by the crib is HUGE. Our goal has been to get the two boys into a room together, but that can’t happen until we say good-bye to the crib.

We hope to say goodbye soon.

It’s funny because our Bump was in a bed at 2 years and 1 day, because he wanted to be. We had a mattress on the floor of his room for sometime – he napped there. And finally we just went for it. There was no pressure from soon-to-be-born Little E. We had a bassinet for him. But it’s just how it happened.

This weekend, we set up the bed rail on the day bed – making it really nothing more than a glorified crib. Well, a crib he can climb out of. E went for the crib every time. I couldn’t keep him in the bed. And now last night, he decides he wants the bed – as he battles what we would discover what was bronchiatis and is hyped up on albuterol – he wants to sleep in his bed. And all day today, it was bed, bed, bed. And now there he is in his codeine induced sleep (thanks doc for the cough medicine) and I can hardly believe it. A month ago, he still had his bottle and now there he is in a big boy bed.

Next thing you know, he’ll be using the toilet. And since I pulled the potty chair down yesterday, he has sat on it a number of times. I even found toilet paper in the bottom of it!

A part of me can’t believe that my little baby is becoming a boy. As he formulates his vocabulary, I marvel at the things that come out of his mouth. Pumpkin Patch. Cool it. Rain. Rain. Down Down. Casey bone. Tub toys. It’s just the little things that we see and know the light it on in his world. He swings on the big boy swing now sometimes. He can eat his food with minimal assistance from me. He pulls the milk jug out of the fridge when he desires a drink. And he follows his brother with love and affection, trying to do everything he can do. And many times, he does it.

So I watch the little man lying propped up in his new big boy bed and know that it won’t be long before he’ll be passing another milestone, making my heart soar and breaking it all in one felled swoop.

 

The Little Things

Sometimes there are little things that just make you smile. I love to see my boys playing on their own, unaware that I am watching and listening to them. Sometimes Bump is playing with Little E and Little E doesn’t even know it. I love watching them sleep – all snugged up in their beds. Little E wants to run around shirtless these days. I’m not sure why. He beats his chest. It’s cute.

Bump is quite enamored with the human body, too. He talks about losing his teeth all the time. And although we haven’t taken a stance on the tooth fairy yet, he talks about her, too. I’m not sure he quite understand her role in things, but it’s out there.

And every day, he’s a different NASCAR driver. Maybe every hour. He woke up this morning as Kyle Busch. Later he was Carl Edwards. And then Montoya (Juan Pablo). He’s disappointed I don’t recognize the change. I have to look hard to see what little car he’s holding.

It’s good to find a good book. I pulled one off of the “New Arrivals”. There must be a Christian section to that shelf, because this is the second one I’ve found in the same area. Anyway, I’m lucky it’s by an author who has other books. I’ve been reading a bit more these days – fiction mostly, but have been clueless as to authors. So far, the Lord has provided.

And I found a great sandwich. Actually Chris from Notes in the Trenches posted it on one of her other blogs. Tomato, Fresh Mozerella on French with Olive Oil drizzled on. The pile of tomatoes in our fridge has diappeared. I can’t get enough of it. Good stuff.

So life goes on. Once I believed in drama. Today I believe in God. I see my life as extremely dull and boring. But what else could it be? I live in the little things. And that enough. That’s better than enough.

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 12

Dusting.

Once upon a time, when I had a 1 bedroom apartment and just me making it dirty, I dusted and cleaned every Saturday. It took me about 90 minutes.

Today I hit the living room for some cleaning – as well as trying to decorate the newly rearranged space. Dusting is not just the entertainment center and a few end tables anymore. I’ve got the mantle, the windows, two book shelves a china cupboard – way too much furniture. No wonder I never dust. Plus the baseboards were pretty bad in some spots and the windows (dog).

Tomorrow we are going to try to find a chair for the living room and hopefully put to bed most of the work to make that space much more cozy and fun. The old entertainment center works so well on the porch and really makes it look better out there – plus all the extra storage neatens up the place some, too.

I am ready for the weekend!

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 11

Things have been coming to a head here with me pushing a few things and feeling like I don’t have enough hours during the day to spend with the boys. Today we juggled a few things and it came down to exercise or cleaning….I chose exercise. Wouldn’t you?

I did sort through some more drawers and closets today, but not for at least 30 minutes. I’ll try again tomorrow – hopefully I’ll get that wall painted and the porch furniture wiped down!

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 10

I spent some time going through my closet and weeding out clothes that I don’t wear, and won’t wear. Some sentimental favorites went into the donation pile. I also pulled some blankets out of our linen closet. You see, once you become a sewer, and one with children, blankets multiply in your house.

I also set my sites on the screen porch. My intention was to vacuum and then wipe down the furniture. I finished the vacuuming (that’s some yucky stuff), but needed to clean the beater bar because I also wanted to do the downstairs. I had a little problem with getting the thing back together. Like 30 minutes later, I finally had it. I was soaking wet with sweat, but it worked. And Little E was waking up from his nap (early), so that ended today’s cleaning challenge.

I feel pretty good about how things are going so far, but I must admit that I feel a lot of pressure to do these tasks, simply because I feel like I spend all day doing things, and not playing with the boys as much. But, I also look at it as maybe the only time this year that I truly focus on cleaning things and at the end of the 4 weeks, I’ll have made progress to being able to maintain a cleaner house.

If nothing else, my blogging is up

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 7, 8 and 9

Day 7 – Sunday

And then there was rest. But does a mother ever really rest? Not that I did anything specific that I can remember, but I’m sure there was laundry and dinner and dishes.

Day 8 – Monday
I really didn’t feel like doing anything today. Nothing. Nada. But I managed to take down and wash some curtains that really needed washing and then put them back up. I also took advantage of the absence of my computer and cleaned the keyboard. I took every key off (not all at once), blew air underneath and then wiped out with a windex-laced q-tip. It was a little furry under there. And, it took me well over 30 minutes to do it.

Day 9 – Tuesday
Another blah day. I wanted to do a few things on the computer. Instead, I wiped down most of the dining area of our kitchen – walls, molding, doors, doorframes. And then the most repulsive of jobs – cleaning the 3 windows in that room. One and two weren’t too bad. But window three was really yucky. I swear there were at least 6 spiders with webs in it. Plus it’s in a bad spot for run off and the sill gets chock full of dirt. I have a date with the three screens from these windows that need a full hose down from the outside.

And can you believe that a spider (or two) has built a web in the window I so carefully cleaned last week?

Ant Update
We didn’t get to bomb the house this weekend due to a scheduling conflict – the realization that we needed to be out of the house for 4 hours and had no where to go. We’ve made a plan for this weekend to finally get it done.

I have seen quite a few bodies in the little terro trap I put in the pantry. But there are none in the ones behind the microwave and under the sink. Today I had a few sitings under the counter where I store my food processors, crock pot and rice cooker. Again, I’m not sure what they’re after under there. It’s not really an ant paradise.

But, by Saturday it won’t matter. We should be bug free for some 4-6 weeks after that.

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 5

Well, today’s project really was more of a home improvement thing rather than cleaning. But since it’s part of getting my kitchen in ship shape, I thought I’d tackle it head on.

Painting…

There’s a spot on our kitchen wall where our cabinets were before we pulled out the bank over the top of the stove 3 years ago. We’ve not repainted it, although the area and the adjacent cabinet/molding have been primed. I’ve had the three cans of paint sitting in the bathroom for the better part of the last 6 months trying to urge Gil to finish it up along with the flooring. But today, I wanted it done.

I started with the cabinet. I finished that and then did a little touch up here and there. Next was the molding – no big deal. Then came the wall – the yellow Solaria paint….it was a bust. The can had been left open and the paint was mostly hard inside. What was left was too thin to work with – I tried. So I hung my head, cleaned up my space and headed on to fingerpainting with Bump.

That’s my last project for the week. I’ll be posting about the Cleaning Challenge this weekend, but am not taking on any formal projects…

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 4

The Fridge….

I’m actually pretty good about keeping the fridge clean. I have a tendency to wipe it out when it’s empty – like on the day before I go grocery shopping – or even the morning before I go. But I’m absolutely Type A about the organization of it. It helps me keep a feel for what’s there so we can use it before it goes bad. Even my husband isn’t quite sure where stuff goes….

Since we’ve gotten back from the trip, I haven’t really got it to the place I wanted it to be, mostly because of all the fresh produce we’ve been getting via farm stands (Note: Our CSA has closed its doors this year due to some pretty catastrophic stuff happening there.) I took everything out, wiped down all the shelves, and threw out a few things that needed to go. And then I put everything in the Shelly way.

What’s the Shelly Way:

Top Shelf: Drinks – Milk, water filter pitcher, juice and other; Bigger sized leftover container – usually salad
Middle Shelf: Left side is dairy – yogurt, sour cream, ricotta cheese, extra butter and shredded cheese. Right side is usually grapes, strawberries, and other left overs.
Bottom Shelf: Left side is extra produce these days. Right side is leftovers.
Vegetable Crisper
Fruit Crisper
Door – Top shelf has eggs on one side with deli meats and cheese and the opened bags of shredded cheese, also hot dogs. Other side has butter and yeast. I have stick butter and garlic in the little bin up top.
Middle Shelf has mayo, salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, hot sauce, syrups, lemon/lime juice
Bottom Shelf has salsa, pickles, jellies and jams, soy sauce, other randoms stuff that gets less use but has long shelf life.

And that’s my fridge.

I also took a few minutes to shore up the freezer. I recently wiped it out, so I just did a little touch up on the door shelves that have coffee and rice in them. And I was done.

I’m still doing all my regular stuff, too and today that includes: 2-3 loads of laundry, vacuuming of downstairs, picking up toys, cleaning up kitchen, making hummus, making meals for the kids, making a big meal for dinner, reading books and exploring with boys, baths and bedtime for little boys, walking the dog and other random stuff that pops up.

Oh, my glamorous life!

 

Cleaning Challenge – Day 2

I’m hard pressed to believed that I’m still in it. Really, cleaning is the thing I hate most. My philosophy is, if it doesn’t have mold on it, it’s fine. Other than vacuuming, cooking, laundry and occasional bathroom wipe down, I’m totally not a cleaner. Too many better things to do.

So while I had the upstairs bathrooms in my sites for today, I made a shift this morning in the midst of a pile of ants on the counter. What the heck are they after? (No, we haven’t bug bombed yet. I’m told this weekend, maybe.) Maybe I just need to wipe down everything in the kitchen area.

I did. I also cleaned the window over the kitchen sink, which to my recollection has never been thoroughly wiped down. Then I did the counters, backsplash and cabinets along with a few big wall spots and switchplates. This took more than an hour, which is okay.

Doing the kitchen in stages will definitely help me get through it and concentrate on one thing at a time.

I have one question for my readers. Would you keep a toaster that has crumbs thickly stuck to the bottom inside of the toaster? I slide out the tray, turned it upside down, but the bottom part of the toaster is still caked thick with crumbs. I’m thinking about opening it up to try and clean it. Would you? We really don’t use it much, but I’m just worried that it’s too much of a fire hazard.

Now I have all my ingredients set out for tonight’s dinner – ziti bake. But first, we have a thunderstorm moving through and I have a dog in a panic that needs to be dealt with and a little boy who needs to come out of his crib.

I don’t know how some mom’s make their day seem so exciting – not that looking at my semi-sparkling kitchen isn’t exciting….

 

The Birthday Boy

It’s been a month since we sang the song, since we paraded around the yard looking for the hidden treasure of his birthday gifts, since we wore silly hats and blew up balloons.

My little boy is four. Is he ever.

It seems like only yesterday that I was frantically trying to nurse him, staying up what seemed all night. He grew to have this little personality and funny faces. He walked, then ran, then talked and hasn’t stopped since. Always shy, he’s now bold and friendly.

I look at him and see the little man inside of him. As his pants get too short and his shirts too tight, I cry a little. He is now big enough to ride roller coasters at Busch Gardens. Amazing.

He talks like he’s 7, with big words and expressions. He loves the alphabet and numbers. Colors and shapes are his friends. He climbs trees, swings on his tire swing and rides his two wheeler with training wheels.

He is a special boy. He and I are close. We talk and laugh all the time. He is learning to be a good big brother. Sharing has come hard. He plays with his little brother and makes him laugh. He shows him how to do things.

There is so much more, more than I can explain, more than I put to words. He puts smiles on my face and tears in my eyes.

Thank you Lord for my beautiful little boy and the 4 years we’ve shared so far.