Yesterday

After my 9-12 study sesh yesterday morning, I spent the greater part of the afternoon trying to get Sawyer to take a nap. He had been refusing to sleep in his crib all week and had been climbing onto our bed when it was nap time or bed time so I laid down with him on our bed.  I had too much to do so a nap for me was out of the question, but I closed my eyes so he would think I was sleeping and do the same. Let me just say, it is extremely difficult to fake like you're sleeping and not crack a smile when you  suddenly feel slobbery little lips plant a kiss on your own lips, little fingers poking your closed eyelids, and then a nose pressed up against yours and when you sneakily take a peek you see two big blue eyes staring back at you and a goofy, smiling face a few centimeters from your own. This went on from 12:30 until 3 pm! He would NOT sleep. I left him a few times and while I will give him the credit that he did not ever try to get out of our bed, he just did everything else he could think while on it. He stood up to look out the window, laid down and hung his head off the side of the bed, switched and hung his legs of the side and swung them, made a cave out of our blankets and hid inside it. Finally at 3 I gave up and we watched Toy Story downstairs until Matt got off of work. 

Afterwards we went and ran some errand and sure enough Soyboy decided that then at 5 o'clock it was a nice time for a nap.

 What a stinkbug.

 Matt stayed in the car with him while I ran into a few different stores looking for toddler bedding. We decided with his refusal to sleep in his crib all week that it was a good time to make the switch and convert it to a toddler bed. I had no idea though how hard it was going to be to find toddler bedding, but maybe my requirement were too high. I wanted something cute with tractors or trucks and that was less then $40. That combined with how hard toddler size bedding is to find in the first place made it pretty impossible. Finally I settled for a Cars themed bed set at Walmart. I also got some tractor wrapping paper  and other birthday essentials like a #2 birthday candle. 

 Who needs presents when he can make a toy of a tube of wrapping paper? While Matt worked on turning Sawyer's crib into a toddler bed, I put Sawyer outside on his picnic bench and cut his hair. It was getting way too long and he was getting rats nests in it when he'd wake up in the morning. He doesn't like me combing his hair anyway so he was due for a short cut! He actually held still this time and I was able to cut it with my scissors instead of having to use the clippers. 

Upstairs he got to see his big boy bed for the first time complete with his new bedspread and very own pillow! He is pretty good at masking his excitement about things (as if he's telling himself to hold his smile in at all costs) but we could tell he was happy about having his very own bed. 

After a bath he went to bed at about 8:30 and climbed right in.  Below he is waving goodbye to Matt and I. That was our cue to leave and turn out the lights.

We had set up the baby monitor again just to make sure he stayed in the bed and didn't wander around his room, but he didn't even try to get out at all. He tossed and turned for a while and ended up going to sleep with his head at the other end of the bed, but all in all the big boy bed was a success! He even slept in all the way until eight this morning. Bonus! 

Tomorrow he will turn 2 years old. I feel like the only other milestone we have is potty training and then all that is baby about our boy will be gone and he will have turned into a KID.  

Gulp. 

Falling for Fall

I am so happy right now in this time of my life. Happy with our family of three, happy with where we live, happy that I'm able to go to school and am close to getting into a nursing program, happy with our new bible study group, and happy that it's fall! 

At the moment Sawyer is down for a nap, I just finished making mashed butternut squash and dark chocolate hot chocolate (YUM!), the last load of laundry is going and Taylor Swift is playing. Yep, pretty sure it's impossible to be unhappy while listening to Taylor Swift. Unless of course it's Valentines day and you are sitting in a tub crying while listening to one of her sad songs. Ummmmm...not that I've ever done that before or anything. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, super happy and so looking forward to a few things coming up: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Sawyer's 2nd birthday!  I love that he is born in October, which was already my favorite month to begin with, but now it is even more so. We are taking him on the Horseshoe Bend train to go pick out pumpkins. I envision it being a perfect autumn day where its cool enough to have to break out the jackets in the closet and we can look at all the leaves changing colors as we zip by on the train. 

I can't help it, but I am swooning over Fall! It's been over five years since I've lived in a place with an actual fall season. Utah had a beyond beautiful autumn season, but Idaho comes in a close second. I am bursting at the seams to start wearing leggings, boots, sweaters and jackets and begin making every pumpkin recipe possible! Last year at this time I was obsessed with making Pumpkin Cinnamon Latte's, but I may have overdone it on those which means I need a new warm holiday drink recipe (hint, hint Ashley!). 

I made these Baked Apples the other day from Rookie Cookie's recipe blog. Wow! How have I never had these before?? I've officially declared them a new holiday tradition in our house. 

Did I mention how much I love this little man? He had a few weeks of indescribable tantrum throwing where I thought I was going to lose it, but then those moments of "You make me so mad I could scream" are then replaced with the "I love you so much I just want to squeeze you" when he does something cute a little while later. Having only one child has opened my eyes to the amount of patience and perseverance you need to be a parent.
Buckets of it.
 I'm not a perfect parent by a long shot and have lost my patience numerous times, something I am constantly working on. When we were camping and I was trying to lay Sawyer down for a nap, without even the slightest success, I was nearly at my breaking point when Matt came into the tent to relieve me. I went over to where my mom, Grandma, Aunt Linda and sister were all sitting and as soon as I sat down just broke down in tears about how I felt like I was such a horrible parent. Next thing I know my mom and my sister Megan (who is pregnant with her first) are bawling right along with me! It turned into a huge cry fest and soon we were laughing through our tears at how ridiculous we must look! All I wanted to know was this: why was I having such a hard time with a not even two-year-old when I have friends who have 3 and 4 kids whose postings on their blogs or Facebook make it sounds like their lives are all rainbows and sunshine everyday?
Unanimously, everyone said "They're lying!"
Phew, what a relief! It would be so much nicer if everyone would be open and honest about the struggles of parenthood instead of masking them. It seems to me the people who make it sound like their lives are perfect usually have the bigger problems to hide. With that being said, it blows my mind how many people have numerous children when they are not fit to be parents in the first place. For my Human Growth & Development class I had to read a few chapters on child abuse and it was heartbreaking. I realize working in a hospital I will have to be on the look out for signs of child abuse so it's crucial to be able to recognize the signs because its devastating how often it happens and yet goes unreported. For another class we have to do a sociology project outside the classroom so I'm going to be visiting the "Women's and Children's Alliance" in downtown Boise and then hopefully volunteering there. They help women and children in the area who are victims of abuse and provide shelter for them, education and counseling, and have been doing that for over 100 years now. I am preparing myself that it will most likely be an emotionally disturbing experience when I see the faces of the women and children there and hear their stories, but stepping out of my comfort zone is the first step I need to take to be able to make a difference. 

As far as life lately, we have been enjoying the brisk cold that's been moving in during the evening and lasting 'til morning and then the sun shining in the afternoons. We've experience our first sickness of the season, well Sawyer has anyway, by some miracle Matt and I escaped getting his cold. He's feeling better now and just in time to play with his cousin Jett who is coming to visit this week. We have plans of taking them to the indoor play place Jabberz in Nampa, possibly the zoo and I'm sure there will be lots of playing with trains and tractors together. To ensure we have lots of play time, I need to get my increasing pile of homework and laundry done beforehand which means I should be doing that instead of blogging. Oopsie. Alright, Taylor Swift and I have a few more songs to sing together while I finish folding all the laundry before Sawyer gets up. 

Happy Fall!

Sticks and Stones

Over Labor Day weekend we were able to go to the Wickham Family Campout that has been an on-going tradition every Labor Day weekend since I was a little kid and even when my mom was a little kid. It's my Grandpa Hansen's side of the family and I have thousands of fun memories from going over the years. It was one of the only times of the year I would get to see my 2nd cousins and I would look forward to it all summer long. We would play in the mud, splash in the creek, boulder over the rocks, find the best walking sticks and roasting sticks, poke around in the fire with our sticks (to my Great Grandpa Al's dismay) and eat a TON of candy, marshmallows, and other non healthy, but delicious food. I was looking forward to the day when I could take Sawyer and introduce him to the wonderful world of camping. He had a blast! He was already covered in dirt the first few hours and just caked it on even more so after that, ate suckers and cookies galore, played with cousins, and ran around like crazy. And despite our grumpiness in the morning Matt and I both had fun too, during the day anyway. Our early morning grumpiness was because both nights we spent there in our tent were extremely long and sleepless due to the fact that Sawyer had two night terrors and just downright would NOT close his peepers! Besides the sleepless nights, we had a lot of fun during the day doing things like:

Hanging out around the campfire.

Relaxing with family. 

Eating lots of cookies. 

Playing trucks and tractors with Myla. 

Watching the "Minute to Win-It" games on stage!

Kissing snakes, well actually only Sam did that. 

The rest of settled for just looking at them. 

Visited more with family as well as ate more cookies. 

Found an excellent walking stick and tried it out. 

Played a game of shut the door, open the door, shut the door, open the door, climb up the steps, down the steps, in the trailer. 

Played excavator in the dirt and rocks. 

And lastly were entertained with songs and skits on stage and many, many impromptu dance numbers performed by Myla and Sawyer. 

EFL (English as a first language)

Sawyer has been saying new words almost every day. *Sigh of relief*  His newest one? Choklet (chocolate) which is not surprising considering he is the offspring of two admitted chocoholics. Here is some other vocab he says now:

guck (truck)
tractor
caw (car)
rock
ball
water
melk (milk)
doggie
woof-woof
kitty
moww (meow)
phant (elephant) and blows his lips to mimic the sound of an elephant
duck
blanket
bucket

This boy is all about trucks, tractors, forklifts and bulldozers too (which just so happens to be the title of a book my friend Kim gave me for his baby shower and one that we read A LOT)

This next video is of Sawyer watching his ultimate favorite You Tube video on my laptop. Now whenever he sees a computer, he points to it and demands we watch the tractors. For anyone interested, like perhaps my nephew Jett, here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhhXXsxSfE

This weeks have gone by super fast and been super busy ever since the semester began, which is a good thing (because I can't wait for Christmas!!!) and a bad thing (hence, my lack of blogging).  We did go camping over Labor Day weekend and I have lots of photos to post from that soon.