All the Sun For You

A mom, two boys, a husband, and a whole lot of adventure!

Category Archives: Big Boy Room!


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Ready!

Bryson can be born now – I’m ready!  I spent the day yesterday boiling a few new bottles (Med.ela Calm.a and Lan.sinoh Momm.a) and all of my breast pump parts.  Man alive, I have a TON of breast pump parts!  I pumped after every feeding with Matthew, and wanted clean parts each time so that I wasn’t washing parts all day.  Now, I have quite the collection.  It is handy having lots of clean parts ready for use, but it takes a lot of work to sterilize them all and then keep them organized.  I’m not looking forward to the counter space they’ll take up!

Two pots going at all times - it was a hot kitchen!

Two pots going at all times – it was a hot kitchen!

I also did all of Bryson’s laundry!  It was already washed and ready to go, but I wanted them all to smell fresh for him (since it’s been a year and 3 months of storage), so I got my two tubs of 0-3 months clothes out from the basement and washed them all in Dre.ft.  Folding them wasn’t much fun, but it was fun going through all of them, remembering Matthew in them, and marveling that we’ll have a tiny baby again before we know it.  Of course, my babies are not as tiny as one would expect – so the clothes actually look bigger than you’d expect for a newborn.  I’m anxious to see what this little boy weighs in two weeks!

I moved Matthew’s clothes out of the nursery and into his new room.  WOW – that felt weird.  We are finalizing things these final two weeks and Matthew doesn’t even miss his old room.  He naps in there still (it’s nice and dark) and he enjoys that, but that is all.  When we tell him to go to his room (not NEW room, just HIS room), he runs for the blue room with much excitement.  This is great!  He is sleeping just great each night (I haven’t had to go in at night in several days) and is falling asleep more quickly now.  It still takes a good 30 minutes to get him to sleep, but that’s better than 60.

After getting Matthew’s clothes out of the room, I was able to move Bryson’s clothes in last night.  The room is pretty torn up with moving Matthew’s stuff out (lots of empty space on the walls), but it is 100% functional for Bryson, which is great.  What a relief!

I still want these two weeks with Matthew, but I feel better knowing that we TRULY are ready for Bryson if he decides to come early.  Whew!


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The Monday Snapshot – Big Boy Bed!

Well… we did it!  We didn’t even plan it – it just happened.

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Let me explain.

My friend, Denise, came over with her daughter who Matthew thinks is his girlfriend.  He LOVES showing off for her so immediately took her into his “new room” to show her his bed.  He climbed up on the bed and they played and laughed with his stuffed animals.  Upon seeing this, I turned to B and asked, “do you think we should let him try sleeping in here tonight?”  He said we should give it a go so we did.

Just like that!

It took me a full hour to get Matthew to settle down for bed last night.  He kept sitting up when I’d try to escape and point to the bed and say, “sit down, sit down.”  What can you say to that besides yes?  I mean, really!  He finally drifted off and I escaped at 10:15.  He woke up at 1 “something” and I went in immediately.  He has bed rails up, but he could get down if he tried or was pushing himself around in bed in his sleep (which he does do), so I was ready to go in instantly (I didn’t sleep well last night.  SO NERVOUS!).  I ran in, laid down next to Matthew and calmed him, and that was it.  Or maybe it wasn’t, because I thought I was awake but came back to bed at 2:12 – so I may have been in there longer than I think.  HA!

Matthew then stirred again at 4 but was settled before I could get out of bed.  He woke up at 6:15 (an hour earlier than normal) and we got him up for the day!  The new room is a lot brighter than his current room due to the arched window up above the main window.  We did put blackout curtains over the blinds that were there, but that top window lets so much light in that if he stirs in the AM hours and notices the light, he’ll be up for the day (until he gets used to it, that is).

This is a terrible picture, but here are the curtains and print hung up! Those curtains to block the light well!

This is a terrible picture, but here are the curtains and print hung up! Those curtains to block the light well!

We started bed time a little later today because Matthew napped super late due to an “almost nap strike.”  He only slept 8 hours total last night, so I insisted he nap and tried 3 times to put him down (he is still napping in his crib due to the light).  I started singing to Matthew tonight at 9:20 and was out of there at 9:48 – a total of 28 minutes!  Last night took an hour.  We’re making progress!

This is not at all how we planned to do this.  We planned to start him out in his new crib for naps starting today and let him sleep in the crib at night for a few weeks, but he seemed so enamored with his new room (which isn’t even finished yet!) that we figured we should do it at night when it’s dark.  So we totally changed our plan and it’s working.  I know that this is working as it is because we’ve had the bed setup for weeks and we’ve been letting him play in his new room since then – so he really likes it.  I just don’t think it would be going this well if we’d converted his crib to the toddler bed or full bed – because it would have been totally foreign to him.  But who knows!

And who knows what tonight will bring.  I may be eating my words tomorrow!

This is my contribution to the Monday Snapshot over at PAIL Bloggers.  For more cute kids, click here!


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Out of Control

This room of Matthew’s has gotten out of control.  I mean – 100% out of control.  What started out as a simple plan is now quite elaborate and there’s more work to do each and every day.  I’m supposed to be winding down, but I’m not.  We’re not.  We both have added things to the list of things to do.

B wants the room to be “cool and fun” for Matthew.  I agree.  I think children’s rooms are supposed to be their safe places, their happy places.  I want Matthew to like spending time in there, and that leads me down this path of infinite possibilities.  And B too.

For instance, I put the framed print from my sister up on the shelf in his room and asked B what he thought.  He said that it’s not the right place and that he’d like to put pine trees up there.  BRILLIANT IDEA!  So now we need to get fake (or real) pine trees for that space.  NOT IN THE PLAN.

Another example.  B bought me a polar.oid printer (for Mother’s Day) to create small prints from the photos on my phone, and then said that it would be nice for Matthew to have a pin or magnet board in his room to put them on.  I loved that idea, so I spent tons of time on Etsy trying to find the perfect thing.  I didn’t find it – which led me to PBK (which you all know that I have a love/hate relationship with PBK).  I found what I thought was perfect, took B there last night to show him, he liked the idea, so I bought them.  NOT IN THE PLAN.  Upon coming home and putting them where I wanted them, B says, “that’s not what I had in mind, I want him to be able to reach it.  I’ll find him a magnetic easel but keep these.”  An easel is NOT IN THE PLAN.

Then there are all the animals on the walls of Matthew’s old room that he loves – and B said that he thinks we should find different ones for his new room.  Again, I LOVE the idea and have found lots of options, but they’re NOT IN THE PLAN.

It’s not just B.  I mentioned getting Matthew some Curious George sheets from PBK because he loves CG.  We both know that this does NOT go with the outdoor theme, but we don’t really care.  B thought it was a great idea so now we’re considering it.  NOT IN THE PLAN.  I got a bedside book shelf that we both think is perfect, but it was NOT IN THE PLAN.  Oh – and along with those fun magnetic boards comes a need for fun, cool magnets.  I’ve been busy on Etsy.  Again, NOT IN THE PLAN.

What I find so strange is that prior to being a stay at home mom, I was a project manager.  I was a good one.  I was excellent at managing scope and budgets, and kicking things out because they were NOT IN THE PLAN.  But when it comes to my own projects, the sky is the limit and I sort of don’t care.  It’s become a real problem.  The same thing happened with our nursery – and that room doesn’t hold a candle to what this room is going to end up being.

So yeah – the room is coming together but the project gets longer and longer because of our new ideas (my latest idea today was to buy a bona fide hiking sign from a campground sign vendor (yes, there really is one of those) – and B agreed).  I’m out of control.  And the worst part is – I have no interest in getting back into control.

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, now you know!

 

 


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Big Changes Coming for Matthew!

I have spent the last few days working on Matthew’s new room!  We weren’t sure what we would do – move him into the new room or give BB2 the new room.  After much thought, we decided to go with our original plan of putting BB2 in the current nursery and moving Matthew to the front room.

This means that I get to plan and decorate a new room = FUN!

I will track progress and changes on this page, a page that used to contain my plan before all of the bedding options became, well, no longer options.  Sigh.  We started with a “Great Camp Out” them but modified it slightly.

I am keeping the same theme, but making it more “wilderness” focused than just camping.  This was B’s idea and I like it a great deal!  There will still be a camping feel, and my sister already gave us a beautiful framed print for his new room with a camper in it, but we’ve broadened the idea.

I love Etsy – I mean – I love, Love, LOVE Etsy!  I used Etsy for all of the nursery decorations and for Matthew’s first birthday, so it made sense to go there for Matthew’s new room.  I started with a pretty flat idea, but it expanded as I found more and more things.

We are now settled on this:

trees

The trees are fabric wall decals, the signs will be customized to say “BEAR (or) CURIOSITY CREEK” pointing left, “ADVENTURE PASS,” and “CANOES” pointing right with a canoe hand-painted on it – and the signs will be nailed/screwed onto the big tree.  The bear is a wood cut-out and will be attached to the wall.  We really want to add some depth to the room.  We LOVE our nursery, but it is a bit “flat.”

Here is the print my sister matted and framed for us.  It’s wonderful (and also from Etsy)!

room print

Once I know what we’re looking at for remaining wall space (I have lots of newborn photos in that room to figure out what to do with – which my photographer warned me would happen when I decked out that whole wall!), I’ll be choosing amongst these remaining prints:

il_570xN_234781455      il_570xN_235592012il_570xN_234458806      il_570xN_234035580

B is working on coming up with a plan for putting a tent in the room.  We’re only going to have a bed in there since the closet has drawers already installed – no need for a big chest or dresser, thank goodness!  This leaves room for fun stuff, like toy shelves, tents, etc!  I am partial to this little teepee!

x-a-teepee-to-call-your-own

For now, I’m thinking of going with this bedding set from PB Kids (just the comforter, not the sheets).  Not my first choice, but it’s the best thing out there right now and they have black-out drapes to match.  I really hate PB Kids with a passion because I think they charge way too much for things, but when they have what you want, what are you going to do?

Madras

I am super excited and will get the room cleaned up this weekend while B is out-of-town.  A neighbor will help get the bed off the frame (we’ll put the mattress on the floor for now for Matthew’s transition to the big bed next month) and I’m moving the dresser out and hoping our friends come to get it.  If not – it’s going on freecycle!  Then it’s just me and my imagination, working on measurements and getting things ordered!  It sounds like I can have this all wrapped up within a couple of weeks if I get on it now.

So excited!

Oh, and I’m hoping B agrees to paint the walls a nice light blue.  Our entire house is brown and khaki – and it’s time to make some much-needed changes!