Busy Busy

A great friend of mine just wrote about how she hasn’t written much lately because life has been busy and it reminded me that I have this page.

It’s been over a year since my last post. At that time I was preparing for Jack’s arrival, Kinley was about to turn 2 years old, we were in renovations on our master bedroom and bathroom in our house.

So much has happened since then. Jack arrived happy and healthy. I got into the swing of things pretty quickly with two. They napped at the same time in the afternoon so it made my life so nice. He recently turned 1 and has 2 teeth with another about to pop through. He’s crawling everywhere and cruising along furniture but he’s terrified to try and walk. Which is pretty funny considering he has no fears crawling up the slide to the top or climbing through the fireplace.

Kinley turned 3 years old 2 months ago and a few weeks ago she had her first day of preschool! She is going 5 days a week for 2.5 hours a day. Her first day was amazing. She walked right into her classroom and when we said goodbye she looked at us and said “Bye Mommy, Bye, Bye!” She had no fears. She loves going to school. It’s amazing to see her grow and do new things.

In other news John moved to Oregon in May to begin a new job out there. He’s been home twice since then to visit which has been nice but we won’t see him again until Thanksgiving. It’s been hard having him gone but the kids and I adjusted fast and now we have a new routine which is nice.

I’m still minimizing our belongings. I started the Kon Mari method in the spring and have been applying that process over the last few months. My house feels like a home now. It’s amazing how free you feel when you love every piece that’s in your home. Because I have gotten rid of so much stuff, it’s easier to maintain and keep things where they belong. I recently Kon Maried the kids playroom and they enjoy playing in there so much more. Before they were overwhelmed by toys. Now they have a select few and they love it. We’re planning on keeping them to a minimum with toys. I believe that it widens their imagination to use the toys they do have.

Overall life is going great. The kids are both happy and healthy and learning new things daily. John and I are both healthy and working hard to make sure we have everything we need.

Minimizing before baby #2’s arrival

This weekend i’m doing the great clean out of our house before baby #2 arrives in September.  John and I have been together for almost 7 years and in that time we’ve accumulated so much stuff.  A lot of it is really nice furniture, kitchen supplies, clothes, toys for Kinley and baby items that #2 will use but most of it is just STUFF.  Stuff we don’t need. Stuff that just takes up space.  Stuff that just gets moved from one place to another because it doesn’t have a home and isn’t used much if ever.  I’m getting rid of all excess stuff.

I have a grand plan of dividing things into 3 piles; Garbage, Donate and Sell.  If it doesn’t go into one of those piles it needs to be put away properly into a “home” so it isn’t just getting shuffled around anymore.  Maybe this is all part of the “nesting phase” of pregnancy or me just getting tired of having stuff everywhere.  Either way it’s time to let things go and be free.

Bedtime Cuddles

The other night Kinley refused to go to bed which is very unusual for her. Normally she dive bombs for her crib and lays down immediately and after I shut her door John and I can hear her singing or talking to herself for 15-20 minutes before she passes out. This was not the case on Sunday. She did not want to go to bed. She laid down fast but as soon as her door shut she started crying.

I let her cry for a few minutes but she was not calming down so I went back in to see what was wrong. As soon as she saw me she stopped crying and wanted to be picked up. I held her close and rocked her and she was perfectly content. Within 2 minutes she was fast asleep in my arms. We sat there together in the chair in her room for a while. I didn’t want the moment to end because I don’t know when she will want me to rock her to sleep again or if she ever will.

Off to the Races

Kinley started walking regularly last week. In the last week she has started walking faster and faster. Well now she is running. Sort of. She has started moving her legs really fast. He body sometimes can’t keep up so there have been quite a few face plants. She is very good about catching herself though. If I open the dishwasher she comes running. There’s just something about her needing to get in there that sends her in a tizzy so I have to be super quick about loading or unloading it. Doesn’t always happen and it has to be saved for later. Stanley is also loving Kinley’s new found freedom. He follows her around and I found the two of them curled up in Stanley’s dog bed the other day. It was so sweet and he was loving the cuddles.

Dada

Kinley finally said it. Next week she will be 18 months old and has had a vocabulary that consists of mama, nana, uh oh, and nei (no) for quite a while. But dada is new. She was in the kitchen trying to break into the cabinet with the pots and pans when john walked into the laundry room and shit the door. She looked at the door and said “dada?” I jumped for joy and yelled to him “did you hear that?!” He said yes but continued on his way. I was too excited. Kinley went back to trying to get in the cabinet.

The Nanny

With my sister leaving to go on her worlds adventures and my Mom working in overdrive for tax season, we finally had to make the big leap to get a nanny. We started the process back in early November. Scouring care.com for good matches. I interviewed 3 people and one seemed like a great fit. She came and shadowed Cassie once a week in December so Kinley could get used to her and so she could get used to Kinley and her routine. Monday was her first full day here by herself with Kinley. I hated leaving Kinley. It was the first time I’ve ever left her with a non family member. She’s been left with my best friend and my 12 year old neighbor before but those two are family too! This was really truly the first time leaving her with someone I didn’t know everything about. The baby brings her 8 month old son with her when she comes. It is important to John and I for her to have the social interaction. She was so used to it at my friends house with her son who is 6 months younger than Kinley and her daughter who is 4 years older. Kinley lives her little friends and shared and played so nicely with them that I didn’t want her forgetting what that was like. The past two days when I get home she eagerly greets me. I love that she has missed me but can tell she has had a lot of fun. The nanny gives me a run down of the day’s activities and what she ate. So far I’m very happy with how it’s going. I love not having to load Kinley in the car every morning and am very lucky John and I can afford in home child care for her. I do miss the security of leaving her with family but I am happy that she is still in good hands now and that Stanley is happy he has 2 new friends to play with and be home with him.

Selfishly Stealing Sick Snuggles

Kinley woke up Friday with a fever and a horribly stuffy nose. She’s been sleeping 14 hours straight at night every night since and still takes a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day. She doesn’t want to play or eat. All she wants is to snuggle and be held and I love it. I will gladly forgo housework and any other responsibilities to soak up all the cuddles. Once Kinley became mobile she was little Ms. Independent. I would get the occasional hug but not ones that lasted more than 20 seconds. Since she’s been sick I get cuddles that last 20 minutes. She just lays into me and is perfectly content being with just me, ignoring the world going on around us. Just cuddling with her Mommy. It makes me feel so loved and even though I hate that she doesn’t feel well, I cherish these moments and will remember them forever.

Hearts are beating

Kinley’s hole in her heart has closed on its own! She had a follow up appointment today with her cardiologist. The ultrasound tech took a lot longer on the echo then he normally does so the worrying began. Kinley sat quietly throughout the entire echo. Except for when she let out shrieks of laughter watching Tom and Jerry on the TV next to the exam table. When we were put in an exam room the waiting began. First a medical student came in and spent a good five minutes listening to her heart. The worrying deepened. He asked a million questions. I thought they should have all the answers in her chart. They started asking questions that they had asked before her open heart surgery. Has she been turning blue, has she been out of breath, does she sweat a lot, does she snore. I thought maybe her patch was starting to come undone. After all the patch wasn’t sealed completely and that is why she still had the leaking though that hole. After what seemed like eternity the doctor walked in. Not Kinley’s normal doctor but a new older doctor. First words out of his mouth were that the VSD had closed around the patch and there was no more leaking. Relief set in. Then he said that her murmur was gone and she would no longer need antibiotics before surgeries or going to the dentist. I was so happy and still am. Best of all she won’t need to have another open heart surgery to fix it. Kinley is my little miracle. She amazes me in every way with everything she does. She healed herself.

Why the laundry will wait until tomorrow

Tonight as I started putting Kinley’s clothes away in her room she decided she had to help me. She pulled herself up on the side of the laundry basket and started pulling out all of her clothes and throwing them on the floor. When the basket was empty she put a few items back in and proceeded to pull them out again. to her it was great fun. I started to pick up the scattered clothes and fold them to put them away when she crawled over to me and pulled herself up holding onto my pants and stared at me with her gorgeous blue eyes. I sat down on the floor and she immediately pulled herself up onto my lap and snuggled in. We sat there for a while just gazing at each other. I noticed her eyes starting to get heavy so I put her pajamas on her and gave her a night time bottle and she held onto me as she drifted off to sleep. I laid her in her crib and walked out of her room. her clean clothes are still scattered on the floor right where she left them. Night time snuggles is way more important than laundry. That is why the laundry will wait until tomorrow.

Bedtime or Night Club or Gymnastics?

Bedtime has now become dance party time. I lay her down in her crib and she lays there until I walk out of her room. Then I watch her on the baby monitor immediately stand up and start to dance in her crib. She will just keep shaking her hiney and bobbing her head around for a good 20 minutes before deciding that the party is over. Then she lays down and does gymnastics. Rolling around, trying to stand on her head, crawling from side to side in her crib. And then you blink and she is passed out, face down in her crib.