The dawn of a new era

Tonight, I will sit on my couch with a nice bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream and watch the Biggest Loser finale.

Tomorrow, DirecTV will arrive at high noon to promptly disconnect my cable box, haul it away and the TV will go to the basement. I already feel better!

A few months ago, I talked to a friend who said that she and her husband had gotten rid of their TV. As she spoke about how difficult it was at first, but how they got used to it over time, and how much more reading and studying they were doing, I was thinking, "There is no way I could ever do that". Fast forward to yesterday. Jacob and Grace woke up around 7:45 and watched their usual 30 minute show (Fresh Beat Band) before breakfast. After they were fed, I had a bowl of cereal and watched the 6 AM news which records on my DVR every morning. After I was finished eating, I shut off the TV and the meltdown began. Jacob wasn't even WATCHING the news, but our Samsung DLP TV chimes when it turns off (obnoxious!) and as soon as he heard the bells toll he was wailing. In the next couple of hours, Grace asked me no less than 4 times for "Mickey?", "Jack?" or "DoraBoots!" (all one word). Everytime I said no there were tears. I was starting to get slightly irritated. They ended the day with a tubby, some milk and a Backyardigans episode. I believe they are starting to think, that if it is there, it should be on regardless of whether or not anyone is actually watching it.

Until Jacob was two, the TV was never on in our house and then he started gagging himself. You know that trick infants/toddlers pull when they realize if they stick their finger down their throat and gag that they get your attention? Well, Jacob was AWFUL with that and would usually do it to the point of puking. We tried to force a pacifier on him (he had never taken one before and refused to start), but that didn't work so I resorted to using the TV as a distraction method. He still only watched one or two shows a day, but that has gradually increased over time and now they can watch up to 4 shows in one day. I am fed up. I have decided to pull the plug. LITERALLY.

After going back and forth all day yesterday on whether or not I could actually do it (I admit, I myself am a TV junkie at night) I decided to bite the bullet and I called DirecTV. I told the CSR what I wanted to do and he responded by attempting to upgrade me to an HD receiver . After telling him that the point of getting RID of the TV is so we don't WATCH it, he scheduled an appointment for a service tech to come to the house tomorrow.

I figure if there is ever a time to attempt this it is now. Summer is right around the corner. We'll be outside more, going on day trips to the Cape, the beach, etc. Not to mention I will have a NEWBORN....AGAIN... in LESS THAN TWO MONTHS!!! I think the three kids will keep me busy enough where I will be happy to fall into bed and unwind with a good book instead of a one hour drama or reality show.

We've decided if things get a little hairy in the Winter we'll revisit our plan then, but for now I already feel better about my decision. Not to mention, I have polled a few people regarding their decision to ditch the TV and all of them said it was the best decision they ever made! Two people even told me they did it for one year on a trial basis and it has been 14 months and 2 years already for them and they haven't looked back! I am already reorganizing my living room furniture in my head since our 46" TV and the stand it sits on take up so much space. Our living area will increase by about 30%!

Wish me luck!

More Party Planning....

Well, we have officially decided to host Grace's second birthday party BEFORE baby #3 makes an appearance. The big day is June 25th which gives me a month to get this thing thrown together and that is being generous. More than likely, I only have two weeks before I start getting super uncomfortable and lose all of my energy to plan parties or do anything other than sit with the kids out back in their kiddie pool. School ends for Jacob on 6/10 so I am hoping to get most of my stuff done the last couple of weeks of school and then relax until the day of. Hopefully, I can keep the house clean that long.....

We have also decided to convert her Abby Cadabby party to an Elmo and Abby party. Do you know how hard it is to find Abby Cadabby anything these days? Everything is Sesame Street themed (the entire cast) or Elmo related. I am still planning on using my Abby stuff I have already purchased, but I am starting to throw in Elmo stuff as well. Not to mention 60% of Grace's invited guests are little boys and I feel bad sending them home with Abby Cadabby favors. Now they can choose between Abby and Elmo if they want. :)

For starters here are the invites I am ordering:



In addition to that, I am skipping cupcakes/cake and deciding to be different this year. We spent a boatload on cupcakes and wrappers/toppers for Jacob's birthday and made sure there were enough cupcakes for a "one cupcake per guest ratio" and we had a whole dozen left over! Big waste of food and money! This time we are doing those giant sugar cookies shaped like Elmo's face (you know the ones!) and hoodsie cups. The cookies will be in cellophane bags tied with ribbon so you can take yours and eat it at the party or take it home. Just don't leave it behind for me to consume before it goes bad (which is what happened with most of the leftover cupcakes)! Here is a picture to give you an idea:



It's not set in stone yet, but we have our fingers crossed!! Elmo might make an appearance at Grace's birthday party!!! We were trying to decide what to do for entertainment purposes and Grace is still a little too young to enjoy a bouncy house and since this is HER party I wanted to do something she would enjoy. We will probably do a pinata, but other than that, most birthday party games are out of her league (think pin the tail on the donkey).

Last year, we set up her water table, kiddie pool and beach ball sprinkler and the kids had a blast! This year they have all their new yard toys as well so I know the kids will have fun regardless, but we drove by a Friendly's restaurant the other day which had a "Grand Re-Opening" and they had someone out front dressed in an Elmo costume waving to the cars and my kids FLIPPED OUT. I thought, how awesome would it be if I could find a costume shop to rent Elmo from and have Uncle Josh or Uncle Andy be Elmo for a half hour?! Sure enough, I found an Elmo costume for rent in our town! Just waiting to hear about availability, but the cost of the rental is LESS THAN HALF the cost of a bouncy house or anything similar and is right up my kids' alley! They will go nuts when they see him and we'll be able to get pictures too! Ian says I might be more excited than the kids.

As for food, I am keeping it simple this year. Hamburgers/hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad and chips. Luckily, our parties are pretty small and consist of immediate family and our closest friends so we won't need to buy too much and we can keep it intimate enough where I should be able to drag my cankles around and spend some time with everybody. I am a little sad that this is Grace's last birthday party that will be all about her, but there is NO WAY I am planning two separate parties in July for the next 10 years. I plan to enjoy this one and make it all about her.

An Update with Pictures

I haven't posted any pictures of the kids in awhile. Mainly because this is how we have spent the last 6-8 weeks:





Have you ever seen anything more pitiful?! It started the week after Jacob started preschool and I was sure it was the beginning of the end. After all, he spends three days a week running around with 14 other 3 and 4 year olds and we all know what germ magnets toddlers are. I guess that is what happens when kids start school. Fortunately, this first illness (above) was the worst. Jacob was vomiting, but only 3 times in two hours and then he was done. Grace was lethargic and seemed sick, but after 3 hours of lying on the couch both kids were bouncing off the walls. Since then we have seemed to get cold after cold, but as of right now everyone is healthy and we hope it stays that way.

Last month, during one of our one or two days of health, we took a trip down to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI. Our library has museum and zoo passes so we checked one out and headed down for the day. It was a balmy 75 degrees, but overcast so we didn't need any sunblock at all! It was a perfect day for the zoo! Grace talked about the elephants all week leading up to our trip so we were happy to see they were out and the kids had a blast.







In between all of this rain, we have managed to get the kids out in the yard for some playtime. They are loving all their new backyard toys and hopefully the warm weather is right around the corner and we can break out their water table, beach ball sprinkler and kiddie pool!







In pregnancy news, I have officially hit 27 weeks and my third trimester! It is so nice to make it here for a second time and is definitely cause for celebration, but we still have a long way to go. My last appointment with the MFM is this Wednesday and then I am being released back to my OB. I am seen bi-weekly by her for the remainder of the pregnancy and go in weekly for my progesterone shot with the nurse. There is some concern surrounding my incision/baby/c-section date. We were originally tossing around 36w3d which is when we delivered Grace (and also happens to be 7/22 which is her birthday!), but there is some concern that:

a. This baby is a boy and boys tend to be less mature at birth than girls. Since Grace was a girl, and needed no intervention, they want to make sure they don't attempt to take him too soon and have him end up in the special care nursery due to underdeveloped lungs. Most likely, I will be having another amnio this time around which is disappointing since we delivered Grace regardless of the results (immature) and she was fine. The whole amnio procedure makes me nervous!

b. My classical incision is still a rupture risk so we don't want to wait too long to deliver because

c. Boys tend to be larger than girls at birth and Grace was 7.7 lbs at 36w3d and thisclose to busting out of my uterus. My uterus was "paper thin" at her delivery, translucent and dangerously close to rupture. It was repaired by my OB at that delivery and stitched thicker to hold up to a future pregnancy, but we need to be careful.

All things considered, my OB is going to consult with the MFM and they will make a decision together. Obviously, we want the baby born safe and healthy, but I have to say that I will gladly take 36w and a few days in the nursery, if need be, over a 24w micro-preemie any day.

Grace's Fairy Party

Well, as usual we are 2 months out from Grace's party, but I am already looking for ideas. I always seem to pick a theme way ahead of time and then regret not waiting until later on to get a feel for what the kids are loving at the moment. This is one reason my kids' rooms are not based around character themes since their tastes change all the time. For Jacob's second birthday party, we did a Wonder Pets theme since he absolutely LOVED them at the time, but less than a year later he was on to Diego and Mickey and NEVER watches the Wonder Pets. If I had done his big boy room around a Wonder Pets theme that would be old news by now.

Needless to say, Grace LOVES Abby Cadabby and all things Sesame Street, but seems to really like Minnie and Dora these days. I am sure she'll love whatever it is that graces the cake plates at her party, but when I saw these little buckets at Target in the $1 section I knew they would be perfect to put favors in:



Since they were only $1 each and she loves Sesame Street I figured we would just stick with the Abby party theme. Since she will be sharing any future birthday parties with her baby brother we can do the Dora and Diego and Mickey and Minnie parties then!

Just when I was starting to doubt my Abby Cadabby decision I was cruising through Gymboree one day and came across this outfit from their Fairy Fashionable line from last Summer:





It was a 2T (PERFECT!!) and the entire outfit was less than $10 and since Abby is a "fairy in training" I thought it was adorable and perfect for her fairy party! That sealed the deal!

I am probably going to go with an invite from Etsy (as usual) and I really like this one or this one.

I am still trying to decide whether to do cupcakes or a cake and considering how busy and exhausted I was for Jacob's party in March I think I will be skipping the DIY this year and ordering out like I did for his party. It was much easier (although much more expensive) to have someone else do the cupcakes, but considering I will be almost 33 weeks at this party it will probably be a necessity. As usual, there are a ton of cool cupcake toppers and party supplies on Etsy for an Abby Cadabby party and I am sure Grace will have a blast! I am so happy that at least two of my three kids have a Summer birthday so we can have some fun outdoors and BBQ for their birthday parties!

A whole bunch of nothing....

....is pretty much what this post is going to be. We have a lot going on around here and very little time. Unfortunately, the blog has fallen victim to this, but I have plenty of stuff going on to blog about.

Let's start with preschool! Jacob is doing great! He "moves a lot" and is "very active" (his teacher's words, not mine!), but we already knew that. He is starting to recognize the routine, but has trouble listening and following directions so we are slowly but surely getting there. I have a feeling he'll catch on by year-end and then have the Summer off to get all out of sorts before starting again in September. That should be fun! He has only had one bad report and it was the day I sent him to school after keeping him home for a day due to a nasty cold. He still had a runny nose and wasn't feeling well so we just chalked it up to him feeling under the weather. He also had a minor "incident" in the motor room on Friday and fell off a toddler size trampoline. The school nurse called, but just to let me know what had happened in case any bumps popped up later and nothing did.

As for the state of the pregnancy, I am currently 23 weeks and feeling great. I was a little anxious at my appointment on Tuesday because as of my last Level II ultrasound my cervix was measuring 3.8 cm. That is still great in a normal pregnancy and even better for high risk, but with Grace's cerclage my cervix never went below 4 cm so I was a little nervous that maybe the last cerclage had damaged my cervix and this one might not hold up as much. My doctor reassured me that everything looks fine and as long as I am not having any pain or contractions I am good! I am a little less than 2 weeks away from where I was when I delivered Jacob. At this point with him my cervix was already less than 2.5 cm so I am doing pretty good all things considered!

My fingers have been swelling and I can't get my e-ring on anymore, but my wedding band still fits (thankfully)! I don't know why, but when I am out running errands with two toddlers and very visibly pregnant with a third baby I like to know that people don't think I am some crazy, single person who runs around getting knocked up. Not like it matters what people think, but that ring makes me feel much better! My ankles have started throbbing and I am sure cankles are on the way. They arrived around 33 weeks with Grace and it would just be my luck for them to arrive in the 2nd trimester this time around.

Since I will be very large and uncomfortable in July, we are planning Grace's 2nd birthday party for the end of June so that we don't have to worry about throwing something together last minute once baby is here. It looks like there is a 95% chance that this baby is going to arrive on Grace's actual birthday and since this will be the last party she has that is all about her I want to make it special. We are doing an Abby Cadabby theme and I have a few cute ideas to share in another post soon!

As for baby boy, he still does not have a name! Oddly enough, we have pretty much scratched all 4 names on our "final list" and started all over. Naming a boy is SO HARD. We had so many girl names picked out that we will never get to use and no boy names to name this poor child with. I am just hoping to have one within 24 hours of birth. Jacob was nameless for awhile after birth (and rightfully so since we hadn't even gotten that far in the pregnancy) and that stupid woman with the clipboard was in our room every hour on the hour wanting us to fill out the form for the birth certificate. I felt rushed and honestly I still feel as though Jacob was forced on me. He is a Jacob now and that is all that matters, but I constantly wonder what his name would have been if we had more time!

I guess that is all from here. We have been very busy cleaning house and are trying to organize a yard sale for next month to get rid of all the crap that has accumulated in our basement over the past 5 years. We are hoping to earn some cash to buy a few baby things and clean this house out. Soon we will need room for 5!

Grace's Room - Final Plan

You may remember my post back in October about our plans to makeover Grace's room. Shortly after posting that, we realized we may be pregnant with baby #3 sooner than we had expected which was surprisingly good news considering my fertility struggles.

We decided to hold off on that makeover until we found out for sure just in case I got pregnant and found out it was a boy. Grace is currently in the bigger of the two rooms and we would need to swap rooms if the baby was a boy. Jacob's current room is simply too small for two kids. Well, it's a good thing we waited! Sure enough I got pregnant in November and here we are now at 21 weeks pregnant and it is a boy! The color palette and fabrics I had selected before were based off a line I had found at Target that had accessories in the same color. Well, Target no longer has any of that and the colors are very hard to match so we have decided to go in a different direction.

Grace's toddler bed has been assembled for about a month now, but we decided to wait until the room is finished and all set up to move her into it. With the swapping of the two rooms there is just too much junk cluttering up her room and we are afraid of what she will get into at night when we're all asleep!

The current plan is based again on a color palette. One of the newer trends in color is aqua and I fell in love with a few aqua/yellow nursery pictures I found while cruising the web looking for ideas. I decided to go with the aqua, but use pink as more of the main accent color and maybe throw in a few other bright colors to spruce it up a bit. I went WAY outside the box with this room. My entire house is pretty much all neutral colors, but if you are ever going to go bold a kid's room is the place to do it! I again avoided themes, licensed bedding, etc. and I am going more with something she can grow with. I was originally going to go with bird/butterfly decor, but so far all I can find that I really like is birds. There isn't much out there with butterflies.

Here are my ideas:

Paint Color: Benjamin Moore Bird's Egg (2051-60)



We were originally trying to decide between this and BM Robin's Nest (618), but the Robin's Nest was just too green for my taste. I prefer an aqua closer to the blue family that looks more like the color of a robin's egg. I saw a few pictures online of rooms that had used Robin's Nest and LOVED them, but it must be the lighting in our house because I bought both colors in sample sizes and painted them on the wall and the Robin's Nest was too green in Grace's room.

Furniture:
Ikea Hemnes 3 Drawer Dresser
Da Vinci Sleigh Toddler Bed in White
Target Do-Your-Room Medium Bookshelf





We only need to buy the dresser since Grace already has the toddler bed and bookshelf. Target no longer carries the bookshelf, but I was able to find a picture online in a Google image search. We were originally going to go with the Hemnes 8 drawer, but it is over 63" long and that dresser would swallow Grace's tiny room. I wanted a low dresser so we decided on the 3 drawer which is only 43". She doesn't need more than that space-wise right now anyway and at only $199 you can't beat the price. When Grace needs to update to twin bed furniture in the future we'll think long term.

Decor:

This is where I had to get creative. I am trying to find things that will grow with her and everything available right now seems to be birds or flowers. I have a couple of friends who have used birds and have seen some blogs where birdhouses were used for decor. I have decided to go that route, but purchase unfinished birdhouses and paint them myself! I couldn't find anything online that I liked enough to purchase so I figure I will buy them and paint them myself with whatever acrylic paint color I want! I am thinking maybe some pinks and yellows.

I am also hoping to incorporate some lanterns in one corner of the room to add a pop of color and possibly a wall decal of a flowering cherry blossom branch with birds. Once I do this and add a mirror above her dresser there will literally be no wall/floor space left! She has an oversized beanbag from PBK which I am considering re-covering in a coordinating color and I am running out of places to put it without tripping over something! I am also buying the same cheap stick lamp that I bought Jacob in blue in either pink or yellow for Grace. It was $14 on sale and works great. I also like the look of the silver stick and the bright shade.





As far as bedding goes I am just going to get some mismatched odds and ends since she will only be using this for a few years. I am thinking a hot pink chamois blanket for warmth and some cute sheets for her mattress will help tie the colors in the room together. Right now PBK has a new Penelope line out and the crib sheets they have match perfectly!

Jacob turns THREE!

This past Saturday, I threw together the poorest planned birthday party we have ever thrown. I blame the pregnancy, but I just could not get it together. Usually I have these things planned out months in advance, but I have just been so tired and so sick that a party was the last thing on my mind.

Those of you who know me know I live for my kids' parties and it is all about the details. On Friday afternoon, I still had no clue what we were going to eat, what I was going to do about cupcakes and what I was going to bag for favors. All I had was the cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers and favor bags. That's it.

I must say it all came together pretty quickly and everything panned out okay. In my opinion, there is nothing worse than a Winter birthday party. Our Gambrel is only a little over 1500 sq ft total so when you have 8 kids running around the downstairs it can get pretty hectic. I am pretty sure this is the last party we'll have at home. We have looked into a few local indoor options and think that next year when Jacob turns four it will be a good year to venture out. The options we had this year were rather expensive considering you had to pick one of their themes and couldn't bring your own food/cake in. The toys at this place for Jacob's age group are mostly things like Step2 playhouses and cozy coupes and we have all that stuff at home so paying a couple hundred bucks, plus extra for food for the adults, didn't seem worth it.

This year we went with the Toy Story theme and the party was all things Buzz and Woody. Jacob was up at the crack of dawn (6 AM) and started yelling, "Party! Party!". We tried to convince him to go back to sleep, but no such luck. Jacob usually sleeps in until at least 7 and doesn't go down for a nap until 1:30 or 2. His party was scheduled to start at 12:30 and he got up so early we attempted to put him down at 10:30 for a short nap and he ended up sleeping until noon! We were good to go!

Here are a few pics of the day. Jacob received so many nice gifts, many Toy Story related, and really seemed to enjoy himself. This is the first year he had any interest in opening gifts and he actually ate the pizza we had for lunch! He never eats pizza!! He also blew out the candle for the first time so it was a banner year!













Can I also mention that I was pregnant for Jacob's first AND third birthdays?! Grace is turning two most likely THE VERY DAY we are tentatively scheduled to have this baby and seeing as I, a.) have to deliver early b.) was hospitalized with her around 30 weeks and c.) have hideously disgusting, throbbing cankles around week 33, I am planning her party already and throwing it a month early. I cannot get stuck in the rut I was for Jacob's party! Not to mention this is the last party Grace will ever have that is all about her. Since she and baby-who-does-not-yet-have-a-definite-name will have the same birthday they will be having a joint party!