"play time"

We've started enforcing a new thing called "play time" at our house. Thanks to this super mom who babysat B one afternoon. Seriously, in a matter of a 30 minute conversation w/ this woman, I think I learned more things from her than I have thus far since being a mom. She had so many great rules and ideas and the way she taught her kids was amazing. And no, she's not old and wise. Well, definitely wise! But she may be my age, if not younger. ?? Anyways...she gave me the idea of this "play time" for her kids she said it especially helped when she had her 2nd child.

She started off every morning after breakfast telling her young (then less than a year old) son that it was "play time". She would take him to his room and put the baby gate up. She would set the timer (starting at 15 minutes) and made him play by himself. At first he cried at the gate and only wanted out. But she knew he could handle crying for 15 minutes. Every day it got better and soon she would say "play time" and he would run off to his room to play. She began increasing the time by 5 minutes as time went on. Soon, the timer would go off after 3o min and he would continue playing on his own. Eventually (he's almost 3 now), she got to the point where she could tell him it was "play time" and she didn't even need to put up the gate.

Basically what this does is it teaches your child to play and entertain his/herself for a certain period of time.
This is something that really helped her when she had her 2nd child. She could tell her son to go to "play time" so that she could get rest herself and/or just concentrate on the baby and not be disturbed.

Well needless to say, I LOVED this idea and began to implement it right away. Yes, B did cry at first, but it really did not take but a few days for him to understand what it meant. Just a few minutes ago, before I sat down to write this, I told him it's "play time" and he went straight to his room and didn't fuss/cry at all. He even loves to "help" me put up the baby gate to his room. He is now almost up to 30 minutes already on playing on his own.
**He still goes to the gate and talks to me to make sure I'm still out her, but regardless I just talk back so he doesn't think I'm not there and that he's alone. Then off he goes back to playing...

One thing I do suggest, if you're reading this and decide to do it, is don't make it a bad thing. Make it sound exciting that they get to have "play time". It's NOT a time out. Even when Breeson would be crying at the door the first few days, I would go to his door, and say excitedly (maybe a little too much!) how it's fun to play with toys and remind him of how much time was left (even if he doesn't understand time yet).
We decided to try this right as he was beginning to start day care (3 days/week), so I was worried that since we weren't doing it consistently every day, he would be thrown off. But so far he hasn't been. We only implement it when we're home - even on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday, it got really quiet and we went to see if he was okay...he had fallen asleep on the floor playing in his room.

If I only knew this before...

Wow - I did it!! An update...

Ok, so since everyone and their mom (or should I say everyone's mom) is posting pic's of their kids in their halloween get-up, guess I would jump on the band wagon. This year I was super lazy (mainly b/c I'm so sick in the evenings and don't feel like shopping or making anything), so 3 days before Halloween, I stopped by Target and got whatever costume was in B's size (eh hem, and on sale!). So, he was a puppy. Which is pretty fitting b/c he loves dogs right now. He got to choose 1 piece of candy - which of course was a sucker.





















While shopping at Target, I found these slippers...

He's a big fan of Elmo right now. Or as B says,
"melmo". I couldn't resist. He loves them too.
He's all over the house in them.





This was super long ago, but I figured I finally put some pic's up. We went to a huge pumpkin patch between Denver and Boulder. There was lots to do there. Fun family day...even with me gagging a lot.

**funny thing: Our pumpkins didn't last long. A squirrel that has a grudge against Jamie, ate the face off of his pumpkin - literally. And then my leaf just withered away.

Pregnancy news. I'm 10 1/2 weeks. Still sick. I'll go a few days without throwing up (sorry if that's TMI), but am constantly nauseas/gaggy in the evenings. Believe me, I'm counting down the days 'til 1st trimester is over with. Although I realize it may not be done with then, but I at least need something to look forward too.

Finally, Breeson started Day Care yesterday. He'll be going regularly 3 days a week. He did cry when I dropped him off yesterday, but that's not surprising since he still cries for babysitters when we first leave. They said he clung to one of the ladies yesterday and wouldn't leave her side. Nap time for them is 2 1/2 hours and they said he only slept for a half hour. :( I'm sure it'll get better in time...

someday...

Someday...I will update our blog. 65% of the time I feel sick and the rest of the time I'm just tired. So until things start to look better, this blog will look about the same. Sorry.
I PRAY I feel better once the 1st trimester is over with. 3 more LONG weeks to go. :(

Changing it up...

Well, it looks like we need to change one of these...

into one of these...


A few Answers to any Questions you may have...

• When's the due date?: May 28, 2011 (Breeson will have just turned 2 - his bday is May 24)

• Was it planned?: no, it was a surprise, but we're excited now.

• How am I feeling?: sick. More sick than with Breeson. I never threw up in the first pregnancy, but with this one, I can barely keep solids/fluids down. And of course I am super nauseas.
  

• How far along am I now?: On Friday, I turned 8 weeks

• Are we going to find out the sex?: NOPE! Nor will we disclose any names we're thinking of.

• Do we have a preference on the sex?: yes, we I really want a girl this time. That's partly the reason we're not finding out the sex. No matter what we have in the end, we'll be happy with, but if I find out we're having a boy, then I'll feel disappointed the rest of the pregnancy. ;)

• Am I showing yet?: I sure hope not.

• How many pregnancy tests did it take before we I believed it to be true?:
  

FALL is here...

I love fall!! I need to change out the summer clothes for the fall/winter clothes, but I keep procrastinating. I did change some of our house decor for some pumpkins and gourds. I just wish I had a cute wreath for the door. I did like some of Ash's ideas on her blog. I thought about buying one, but they were expensive. And most wreaths don't keep if you store them. I couldn't reason myself into buying one for only one year. I keep saying I want to start cooking some fall food (soups, pumpkin stuff, etc.), but I haven't got to that either. I guess you could say...I've been lazy lately. As you can tell by my neglected blog.

We Jamie has been doing a great job on working on our back yard. We transplanted 3 of the rose bushes and re-bricked the patio area. It already looks 10 times better than when we first moved in. Hopefully by the spring we'll have gotten some patio furniture, and seeded some of the bare areas for grass.
Let me just put a disclaimer that patio furniture is expensive!! Who knew? I've been looking on CL, but people are trying to resell theirs for too much, as if it's super nice stuff (and it's not usually). When we get more stuff done, I'll be sure to post pic's.
We've even took a part of the corner lot and made it a compost area so that we can have a vegetable garden next summer. I'm excited about that!

Well, I'm going to try and sell my (huge) Christmas tree on CL. For being an artificial tree, it's beautiful if you've ever seen it. It's pre-lit (white lights) and stands 6 feet tall and 4.5 feet wide on the base. Sadly enough, our house is not big enough. The condo where we lived before had high ceilings and we had more room in our living room. Right now, we're a bit cramped upstairs with a dining room table/chairs, server, love seat, and a dog kennel.
So, we'll get to buy a real tree, but a lot smaller for our living room! Anyways. I don't know why I'm talking about Christmas. I want to enjoy fall right now. I was actually frustrated when I went in Hobby Lobby at the end of August and they had all of the Christmas stuff out already. And while I'm thankful that Hobby Lobby is a Christian based organization, and I love to support them, I wish they would take the holidays in stride. C'mon already, let us enjoy the fall holidays (halloween and thanksgiving), then get us excited for the Christmas season later on. I think it kinda takes away the excitement. Do I stand alone on this??

Speaking of Halloween, I'm not sure what Breeson is going to be this year. I had a great idea, but then it dawned on me that it'll most likely be pretty chilly by the time the end of Oct gets here. So my idea won't work this year. It woulda been funny though!! :)

Something random: because we're so high tech and up to date, we decided to buy a VCR player. Kids, you may be asking yourself, "what is that?". Well, it's a device that plays tapes. And 'what are tapes' exactly? They are the things that came before DVD's!! :)
Our reason for stepping back into time? A sweet lady from our church keeps giving us bags (literally) full of tapes for Breeson. They're Veggies Tales and Pengiuns, and maybe some others. We decided that if we were to re-buy all of them on DVD, it'd be over $150+. So we figured we would just run to the thrift store, buy a $10 VCR and use the tapes. Breeson loves them so far. I'm not sure what he loves more? Playing w/ the VCR or the tapes better!? :)

Fall Foliage

We wanted to see the fall foliage and the changing of the Aspens, so we headed to Nederland. We didn't want to drive too far with a toddler and a dog. It was the first time to visit Nederland. It was okay. I wouldn't mind going back to see more of Brainard Lake on another visit. Today was the perfect weather though; so glad we went.

Otherwise, it was a fun day. It was a bit exhausting chasing after Breeson and trying to train a dog to be on a leash. Sadie has a LOT of work in that department.