The time has come

So I've had almost a year of 2 kids napping at the same time. Considering I just finished battling Ellison to bed and it is 10:30PM, I'm thinking the time has come to cut it out. So it is with great sadness that I say good bye to my friend the afternoon nap. 

But here's the dilemma. She gets so cranky in the afternoons and turns into a child that surely did not come from my womb! If I let her sleep and wake her up within an hour then she is not a happy kid..at all. So it's like I'm stuck with a cranky little one from about 3 until 7:30 or I fight her to get to sleep until 10 at night. The issues, I tell you. They don't write about this stuff in Baby Wise. 

So farewell my dear friend. I will sorely miss you. It's been a great 3.5 years of afternoon silence. My time will now be shared with my little princess Ellison. We have been working on room time and it's time for mom to kick it into high gear. For all of your wonder what is room time, it is a chance for Ellison to play in her room while mom has some mommy time. We've worked on like 30 minutes of room time, but we need to push the time up a little more now that she's older. If not, mama will not be happy and you know what they say about that...nobody else will be either :-). 

A Quiet Spot

For the past few years, I've been wanting to have a container garden. I've tried to create a spot but things just never seemed to work out. The idea has been to create a place outside of my house to do some quiet times and to have a place to share with Ian. There have been quite a few factors keeping me from getting it going: lack of time, kiddos and ummm... I don't have much of a green thumb. In fact I've killed quite a few things with the exception of vinka and ivy :-).

I am pleased to announce that as of last night at 10PM, we put the finishing touches on our deck garden! We have been working on it for over a month and it's been so cool to do it together. Ian and I would get out there after kids are in bed and plant and reorganize the furniture. All along the way we would sit in the rockers with some candles and debrief the day. It's been really cool. 

So what's in our garden you may ask...We have tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, onion chives and lots of flowers too! So, we will be eating lots of salads this summer:-). 

I have to say that a huge factor in finishing this project is once again one of my neighbors. He has a gorgeous deck, I mean it should be in a magazine. So I've been asking him for his help. This year, we asked him to host a container gardening event for the rest of our residents and I was able to learn some cool things from him. In addition to that, he has taken us under his wing and is showing us the way. He even reserved some ferns for us at a local nursery to make sure that we got the healthiest ones. So basically, I've borrowed his green thumb :-). 

And, while we are on the subject of neighbors, I think we've got some of the best. We have so enjoyed living here and making new friends. We've been at this complex for about 2 years now and we've made some great friends along the way. Next week Ian heads to Germany (company soccer tournament) and one of our neighbors is landing in Frankfurt on the same day. How cool is that! So they are going to meet for a meal in Germany.

So wish us luck as we keep try to keep our garden green. I just hope our friend is not moving away any time soon, because we will be heavily relying on his help to keep this thing going.  

Well it's Friday and that means some fun times with the kids! I think Ellison wants to go to storytime at Barnes and Noble. So I better get off of this computer and get our day going.

By the way..Happy Memorial Day to everyone. We are headed to Summerville this weekend to see my family so more chatting next week.  

See you soon,

Beth

Another crazy Saturday

For the past 3 years we have been serving as a CARES team. We live on a complex and plan social events and care for our residents. Today we had a great day doing both of those things. The morning started off pretty early with a 5K with one of our residents. We left at like 6:30AM and started the race at 7:15. I must say that I am happy to have finished in the top 200! I was number 199 and finished up at 33:45. It was so much fun and I got to hang out with one of our neighbors...Beth!

After the race we set up an event for the dogs at our complex. We had a good turnout and the dogs seemed to enjoy the doggie ice cream and pools. We are not dog owners, although Ian would love to own a great Dane, but it seems like we did a decent job of planning in spite of our lack of knowledge on the whole dog thing.

We finished the day up with shopping where we found some fantastic deals. Gotta love the 2.99 rack at Children's Place! And now I'm blogging :-). This really is addictive.

9 Months Today!

Today Jude is 9 months. It is hard to believe that it has already been nine months. Jude is developing right on schedule! He is now starting to eat lots of food on his own. He love waffles for breakfast and had some cheese toast last night (thanks Allison ;-)). He loved every bite of it! The stage 3 foods just don't seem to interest him at all so it looks like we're going from stage 2 to table food. Our wallets are very happy for it. He is still scooting all around now. It looks like he is going to stick with his soilder crawl. He loves to walk when we hold his hands but he is not pulling up yet. He is still a very happy baby, lets us get our sleep through the night and he loves his sister. Not sure how long the love relationship between the 2 of them will last, but I'm praying it's for a long time to come.

Going Home

So we made the big decision to make me part time at work. It was a really tough decision, but one that we are so happy that we made. This is my second week and I'm really enjoying more time with Ellison and Jude. It makes me sad in a sense to think of how quickly the time has just flown by. I want to make the most of every opportunity with them and I am hoping that cutting back will allow me the energy to do that.