Sleeping Beauty

For the past 2 months I have been doing a tiny bit of child care in my "spare" time. I never ever wanted to watch other peoples' kids, but my neighbor needed someone to watch her newborn just one day a week and I thought the extra cash would be nice, so Thursdays are our day with Baby Heaton. Weston is always really good when we have an extra little man around and is helpful with binky retrieval and entertainment. Davin, on the other hand, is not a fan of having another needy baby around.

The point is that on Thursdays I just have to plan on getting nothing done and just taking care of kids. It's funny though because every week I seem to manage to get all three kids sleeping at once. It only lasts 10-30 minutes, but I always am in awe that it even happens.

Davin is not a good napper and doesn't usually sleep during the day for longer than an hour. It is SO infuriating. Weston is a superb napper. As an infant I actually worried about him because at 9 months he was still sleeping 16-18 hours a day. He is almost 3 years old and still takes a daily 2 hour nap. Sometimes that is more than Davin gets!

We all need sleep. Some of us more than others. I fall into the "more than others" category. In my pre-kids days I would get cranky if I went more than one night in a row without getting my 9-10 hours. Now I generally get 7-8 and I am always tired. The other thing is that I HATE waking up in the night. It is so annoying, especially if there is no screaming baby to blame.

I had a bad night last night. I went to bed late (for me) at almost 11pm. I then proceeded to wake up 5 different times (only once with Davin) before my alarm went off at 6:30am. I think it's funny how worked up people get about sleep. It is such a big deal. I am a horrible, mean person in the middle of the night. I snap and grumble and blame and sometimes cry because all I want is sleep and I know I'm not going to get it and I'm going to be tired for the rest of my life.

Sigh. I know I'm not the only one who gets this way. My friend told me her agreement with her hubby. There were weeks of getting in fights in the middle of the night about who would get up with the baby and saying not nice things to each other. In the light of day the words didn't mean much and the anger went away, but the sting kind of remained. So they decided "what happens in the middle of the night, stays in the middle of the night."

I really like this motto. I always feel so disgusting and guilty when I wake up after a night where I've ranted under my breath and snapped at Ian because I wasn't sleeping and he can sleep through a train wreck. I never would say crap like that in a normal awake state of mind. Anyway, what do you do to cope with lack of sleep with your family? In the end, the only real solution is to get more sleep, right? I'll work on that.

Not So Lazy Days

Exciting news: this little beauty came in the mail for me last week. Even though I had a fabulous time at my swim meet last month I was pretty sure I had come in at the bottom of my age group in my races. However, according to this fancy schmancy red ribbon, my 1:32.8 time in the 100 back earned me 2nd place among the women age 25-29 who competed in the race. Impressive, right? OK, maybe not, but I was pretty excited.














In other fun happenings at the Bowles household . . . we went and visited with Santa last week. Weston was very excited. We went nice and early to the mall and it was totally worth it. There was no one waiting, so we went right up and Weston got to stare at and sort of chat with Santa. The Santa was kind of creepy, to be honest. His beard was real, which was cool, but he had a badly made fake eye, so one eye was staring off in the opposite direction. Not his fault, of course, but still a little odd for Santa. Luckily I am married to a design genius who photoshopped the pictures for me. They look much more charming now.
Davin was not a huge fan of Santa. I apologize that I didn't get one of just him with Santa. He started crying as soon as I put him on Santa's lap with this look that said "Mom, who the heck is this crazy man with all the white hair and why do I have to sit with him?" He, of course, turned to check out all that white hair right when I took the picture. Oh well. Perhaps next year he will be more cooperative. Weston loved sitting with Santa and told him that he wanted the monster movie (Monsters Inc., check) and a Spiderman camera (real camera, check).
Santa gave Weston a little coloring book about "How I Can Give." It was semi cute and semi lame. He did color the whole thing though while we ate lunch at Carl's Jr. later that day. See's Candy was RIGHT behind Santa, so we detoured there. I got a half pound of chocolates for Ian and I to share while we decorated the Christmas tree and for Christmas Eve.

Here is Weston posing in front of the ginormous fireplace with his new book. Doesn't he look so excited? Christmas should be fun this year.
After playing at the mall for awhile longer and Weston getting kind of sad that he didn't get to see Santa again on our way out (there was a line by then) we headed out to lunch. Sometimes I totally regret going out to lunch with the kids. Carl's Jr. doesn't even have a playplace, but I really wanted a western bacon cheeseburger, so I prepped Weston for the fact that it didn't have a playplace and made him pinkie promise to eat his food. We had such a nice time. Davin was happy and babbling, Weston ate his food and colored his book and I got my fix too. It was a nice day. Check out all this almost 9 month old cuteness!
On Friday night the plan was to go pick out our Christmas tree. We decided to forgo the actual lot since it has gotten so expensive (about $10/foot) and went to Smith's Marketplace instead. We had to drive separately since Ian was bringing our neighbor's truck to transport our tree home. I left earlier with the boys to pick up milk and a birthday present for Weston's friend, Makenzie. It was kind of a madhouse. Finally we went and met up with Ian and picked the first tree we looked at, so I think we were all together for about 5 minutes.

Ian stayed and paid for the tree (and my copy of White Christmas) while I took the EXTREMELY tired boys home to get them to bed. I let Weston stay up until we got the tree up in the stand. It was kind of an ordeal because our tree had a really thick stem and didn't fit in our basic tree stand. Ian ended up running to Walmart at 10pm to get a new stand. The new one is lots better and the tree isn't going to fall over if Weston pushes it.

We ended up staying up until almost midnight to get it up and get lights on it. Ian is my hero and made a box for our tree to sit on. Yay. Saturday morning (after I slept in until 9, thanks hon!) we decorated the tree. Weston LOVED putting ornaments on it. He kept wanting to put them all in the same spot. It was funny. We had a nice time getting it put together. Here is the final product.
Apparently I was incapable of taking a clear picture earlier today, so here is a blurry one of the boys in front of the tree this morning, and yes, that is snow outside. It started snowing around 9:30am and is still going. We haven't had much snow this winter, so it's not depressing . . . yet.

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Dinner Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is such a cute dress and even though I don't have any little girls, I might someday have one. I also have 3 nieces and several friends with adorable girls. :)

Success!

Just so y'all know, I finally found the Playskool Tonka Bounce Back Racer that I wanted to get for Weston for Christmas in stock on Walmart.com this afternoon. Hallelujah! I am done shopping for everyone! I still have to buy lots of baking supplies, but still, mostly done. Want to have a wrapping party, anyone?

Crafty Schmafty

Today was a significantly better day than my last post. I woke up with major back pain from wrapping presents for over an hour last night, but after my shower it eased up. I decided to get started on personalizing our dollar store stockings today. I felt a little nervous about it. I am not particularly crafty. I went to Joanne's and bought felt and some decor. I was trying to do something similar to our stockings at home growing up.

It actually wasn't as tedious and difficult as I had imagined it would be to draw and cut out all the letters. I really had fun doing it. I was trying to decide what else I wanted to do to decorate the stockings. At home, years ago, my Grandpa Snowball, who was an incredibly talented artist, cut out all kinds of cute things to put on our stockings (snowmen, stacks of presents, Christmas lights, etc.). I knew I couldn't even attempt that, so I decided to go with holly. I had bought a few pre-made things at Joanne's, but I did the holly myself. I am very happy with the end result. I think they look very festive and they remind me of home.

I hung them above the fireplace that we made last weekend. Ian and I were discussing where to hang stockings this year (we have never been home for Christmas day and therefore had never hung stockings before) and we decided that it would be fun to create our own little fireplace. Weston mostly just helped tearing paper to make the fire. I think it looks very cozy.
Later this afternoon Weston had a little meltdown when I threw away all the shreds of his latest drawing because they were making a huge mess. I told him he can't tear paper into that small of pieces. He was very sad. This is that exact minute.

Davin-happy as a clam because he had just woken up from a nap.
Weston-my almost 3 year old throwing a little tantrum. Doesn't he look fun? I get this look more often than I should. Ugh.
It was fun to make the stockings and I am very excited to do Christmas at our home and establish our own traditions. I hope that everything comes together and that it can be a memorable 1st official Bowles Christmas. We have some other fun Christmas activities coming up, so stay tuned for Weston's first visit with Santa and the Christmas tree!

I Struggle

Sometimes I am such a loser. I did a lot of shopping yesterday while hauling around my 2 little ones. It was not the best experience. The kids were really good, but the stores were frustrating and it took forever and I didn't even find everything I was looking for. Blah. Anyway, at the end of our LONG shopping outing (Bath and Body Works, Payless, Kohls, Chick-Fil-A, Target) I get all our stuff loaded in the car, get the kids strapped in and go to open my door only to realize I have once again locked my keys in the car with the kids. Ugh. I could talk to Weston through the door, but he couldn't figure out how to unbuckle his carseat.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had forgotten my phone on this outing. Great. So I had to explain that I was a loser to a stranger so I could borrow a phone. Long story short, the boys were fine in the car until the last few minutes before Ian showed up to rescue us. By the time we got the door open they were both crying. They calmed down pretty quick and we made it home. Finally. Weston didn't get down for his nap until 3:15pm.

I ended up having to go back to Kohl's after the kids were in bed since the ONE item we purchased there broke by the end of the night.

The good news is that I am SO close to being done with my Christmas shopping. I have one more thing I am trying to track down for Weston. I might not be able to find it anywhere though before the big day, so I may have to settle for a different gift. Oh well.

My friend introduced my to this awesome blog that sells these lettering signs. They aren't your standard signs. They are very artsy and fun. They are having a giveaway this week, so if you want to win check it out HERE.

I am still working on decorating the house. I just can't seem to muster up the energy and motivation to dust and really do it. Plus, for some reason Davin has been really fussy lately and I can't put him down or leave the room without him freaking out. I'm kind of in a funk right now. I'm hoping listening to some Christmas music and a few chocolate kisses will pull me out of it.

Happy Turkey Day!

This Thanksgiving marked a special occasion--I made my first pie. Ever. I know, you all think I'm such a domestic goddess and yet I've never even made a pie. Well, now I have and you can hang onto your assumptions about my amazingness. Anyway, I was actually really nervous about making pie. Luckily, my sister in law was staying with us and she is a Family Consumer Science (aka Home Ec) major, so she supervised and gave me tips, but I really did do the whole thing myself. It turned out great! It looked fairly pretty and tasted fabulous. I was very proud of myself. Here I am in all my domestic glory.
I also made a green bean casserole for the first time. It was also very tasty. So, I spent all morning cooking and I didn't even remotely have to do the whole dinner. I'm not really looking forward to the day when I will have to do all the cooking and host the big dinner at my house.

We went to my Auntie Barbara's house for Thanksgiving. It was beautiful with TONS of great food. We are so incredibly blessed. It was fun to visit with family and to be together. Here's our little clan.
Weston literally ate half of that roll and that is all. The next day he asked when we were going to have Thanksgiving. I was like, "it was yesterday, remember? You didn't eat anything." He didn't quite get the whole idea of the holiday. Weston was buddies with his cousin, Emily, most of the afternoon. They sat together for dinner. This is the best picture I got of him all night.
Weston got a little hyper after we had been there for a couple hours and decided to clomp around in Daddy's shoes. He thought he was hilarious. It was actually really amusing.
We had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyed having Aunt Aly with us for the last week. She was so helpful with the boys and keeping me company and running errands, etc. I am so excited that it is officially Christmas time. I am in the full swing of listening to Christmas music and in the process of decorating today. Ian is outside putting up lights and last night we watched The Grinch. I love Christmas and am looking forward to this entire month with baking, picking a Christmas tree, wrapping presents, lighting candles, singing my favorite Christmas songs, and the general good will that seems more prevalent at this time of year. I hope everyone is catching the holiday spirit too!

On a final, completely non-holiday note, Weston is almost officially a big kid. He started pooping in the potty several times in a row this past week and keeping his pull up dry. Today he is in underwear and no accidents thus far. I am SO happy that we are nearing the potty training finish line with him. I have no idea what suddenly made it click for him, but I am happy it did.