Schooooool's out for summer

It honestly feels like just yesterday I was writing this post, detailing how Davis's first day of preschool went. I had just found out about the miscarriage only 1 week before he started school, so I was certainly not "into" the first day of school like I normally would have been. I remember telling myself that morning that I really needed to get pictures of him before I dropped him off, despite my burning desire to do nothing but hide in bed, and the picture taking process proved to be a huge disaster in the end. I remember lots of yelling and crying (from both of us), and then cursing myself for getting his first day started off on such a horrible note.

So yesterday, on his last day of the school year, I had a game plan to make the morning go a lot more smoothly. And it worked! I strategically had Wade get him dressed as soon as he woke up, and then after he had given Davis breakfast but before he left for work, he was on "make Davis smile or at least stand still" duty while I snapped a few pics. Are any of them frame-worthy? Nope. But Davis didn't cry and I didn't yell, so, VICTORY!

For the sake of comparison, here's a picture from the first day versus a picture from the last day:

Such a big guy now, right? (And let's ignore his swollen Dumbo ear in the bottom picture... Mama forgot the bug spray when we played outside on Wednesday afternoon and a mosquito must have attacked his ear.) Anyway, it was a great school year for him, and those Thursday morning breaks have been a HUGE help to me. Now, if we can just figure out how to survive for the next 3 months...

16 weeks

Today, my friends, I am 16 weeks pregnant!

Every day, week, month that this pregnancy goes on is celebrated in my book, but I get especially excited about meeting the "every 4 weeks" milestones. I am also excited to have a little something to show for it, even if 95% of the time it just looks like a beer belly. I didn't do any monthly "surveys" when I was pregnant with Davis, and I was thinking I'd like to do one this time around, but I decided to make up my own questions. So, here you go!

How far along am I? 16 weeks

Loving: having my energy and appetite back, nesting (is it too early to call it that? is it really just my usual OCD tendencies?), elastic waistbands, baths

Not loving: toddlers and dogs who climb on my stomach, hormone-induced rage episodes, my skin, the constant pressure on my bladder

Favorite foods: trail mix, waffles, pimento cheese, cookies, fraps (can those count as food?)

Looking forward to: finding out the sex next month, turning 30 while being pregnant (only because this was on my 30 | 30 list), hopefully feeling him/her move soon

Anxious about: the anatomy scan, moving Davis to a big boy room, taking care of another human, deciding on a name

And now if you'll excuse me, today is the last day of preschool for Davis thanks to summer vacation, so I need to spend the remainder of the day in mourning over my loss of precious free time... I'll be back with another bump-date in 4 weeks!

Marriage & cockroaches

On Monday night, I casually strolled into our garage to throw something away in the recycling bin. As I turned around to come back inside, I stopped dead in my tracks when I found myself face-to-face with a very large, very disgusting cockroach. Being the rational female that I am, I then began yelling for my husband to come rescue me.

He hopped up from the couch and hurried into the garage, where he immediately started chuckling to himself when he realized the predicament I was in that was causing me to scream with such urgency. Generally when I stumble upon a bug, it's more of a pitiful whimper and less of a scream... but to me, most bugs are not as disgusting (or as large) as cockroaches, so the scream was necessary.

I explained to him that I was scared to come back inside because I would have to walk by it, and I was 100% sure walking by it would prompt it to start scurrying around and/or fly at me. Wade assured me that it was safe to come inside, and promised me that the cockroach would do neither of those things. I argued with him that cockroaches definitely can and will fly, as one landed on my foot as a child (and apparently scarred me for life). He gave me the "silly wife, you don't know what you're talking about" look, so I decided to trust him and cautiously sprinted back inside to safety. And what did that cockroach do? He SCURRIED. (And I screamed again.)

Once I was safely away from the garage, Wade asked me to hand him a broom so he could take care of the beast. I went back to my spot on the couch and he returned shortly thereafter. "Did you get him?!" I asked. "I tried, but he flew away and hid behind the work bench..." he replied. Oh, so what you were saying, dear husband, is that I was right? That my bug instincts were better than yours? That you, who hails from the Cockroach Capital of the World (the Houston area), were less informed about the creepy ways of cockroaches than I was?

So I guess there are 2 morals to this story:

1. Cockroaches are disgusting (it can't be said enough).

2. Even if you are generally the more knowledgable spouse on a particular subject (ie: bugs), you should still listen to your other half! It could save lives. (Perhaps I'm being a tad dramatic there, but cockroaches are serious business.)

via

Davis goes to the dentist

Yesterday Davis added another "first" to his life experience list: first trip to the dentist!

I know a lot of people think it's a little pointless to take them this early, but his pediatrician recommended going at 2, so off we went. I was a little worried about how he would do, but they won him over right off the bat with their extensive toy collection - and by extensive, I mean this place could double as a toy store on the weekends.

Seriously, I made a mental note to myself to try sneaking into this place on those days this summer when it is hotter than Hades outside and we need a free indoor activity. Think they'd notice if we hung out in the waiting room for an hour or so and then peaced out...?

Anyway, while we were waiting for the doctor, Davis decided to climb right up in the chair himself. They already told me they weren't actually going to have him sit there during the appointment, so obviously I had to capitalize on the photo op while I had my chance. (Also, this picture is further proof that my child is part-giraffe.)

The appointment itself was totally painless and mostly just involved trying different tactics to trick Davis into opening his mouth for the dentist. She was able to see enough to give him an A+ for his first visit and confirm that his 2 year molars have come in (any attempts I made to confirm that myself resulted in being bitten). So, yay for that!

After giving him a goodie bag, letting him practice his brushing skillz on their stuffed animals (who are kind of terrifying, if you ask me), and letting him pick out a prize, we were on our way!

Seriously, I know he won't feel this way as he gets older, but yesterday I can say with certainty that he actually had fun at his appointment. (I, on the other hand, had a dentist appointment just last week, and it was not quite the blast and a half for me that it was for Davis.) Thank God for pediatric doctors!

Weekend lessons

Uh, so, this is one of those weekends where I didn't give any thought to what Monday's blog post might be about until around 8:30 on Sunday evening. For once, I was so busy enjoying my weekend and getting things done that I didn't waste time thinking about how to document it... what a novel idea! This must have been what life was like for me prior to the summer of 2007 when I started blogging...

Anywho, today I will go ahead and share a few lessons learned over the weekend with you in the midst of all that busyness...

1. We need to get Davis to make more friends so we can have 2 birthday parties to attend every Saturday. Sure, we might go into debt trying to provide gifts for all those parties, but it might be worth it to have so much free entertainment outside the house that leads to good naps and good nighttime sleep for our little tornado.

2. When your parents become grandparents, they see any opportunity to watch your children as a fun form of revenge against you for all the terrible things you did to them growing up. This is the only reason I can think of that my sweet father would offer to babysit our child on Sunday night and then (supposedly, though he can be an exaggerator) feed him "two hot dogs, four cheese strings, a bag of chocolate chip cookies, a bag of Cheetos, peas and carrots, and a Coke" for dinner.

3. A poor night of sleep on Saturday means you are much more likely to nod off during church on Sunday morning. You can imagine the shame I felt when the pastor called out the "back row dwellers" (ie: the people that like to "hide" in the back rows) during the sermon as I was busy trying to keep my eyes open in my seat just 3 or 4 rows from the last one. Oopsies.

4. Not being able to help your twin sister when she is having a tough time is the pits. Those babies sure are giving her (and her husband) a run for their money these days, especially this past weekend, and it is frustrating to not have magic advice or to be able to at least pop over and give them a chance to nap!

5. If you have really crappy vision, ordering glasses online is most likely not an option for you. So much for avoiding a trip to an actual store... I'm thinking taking a 2-year old with me would make that a super fun experience!

6. Not all children like ice cream and cupcakes. Last week, we gave him a chocolate chip cookie, which he promptly dipped IN SALAD DRESSING and then ate it. But on Friday night when we bought him a scoop of chocolate ice cream, he WOULD NOT TOUCH IT (see below for proof). On Saturday at birthday party #2, I set a cupcake in front of him and he shook his head emphatically in protest. I'm no longer 100% certain he is my child.

That, my friends, is a melting scoop of chocolate ice cream. INSERT SAD FACE HERE.

 Did you learn any good lessons this weekend? Feel free to share your wisdom with me!

Dollar billz, y'all

In response to Wednesday's thrilling post about my new chore schedule, I received a comment from someone asking if I wouldn't mind doing a post about our budget some day. It just so happens I don't mind, and on the off chance that anyone else out there is interested in hearing about how the Blogivers do their budget, today I am here with more riveting reading material for you! Obviously I am not going to include actual numbers and I am going to try to avoid getting too specific, but I thought some general guidelines might be helpful for anyone out there who doesn't currently have a system (or is looking to tweak one they do have). So, here goes nothing!

Step 1: Determine our spending categories, & estimate how much we need to/can afford to spend on each of those categories.

One of the first things we did when we were engaged was sit down and list out all of our monthly expenses. (Did we sound like a hip engaged couple or what?!) We started with the necessities, then moved on to the luxuries, then moved on to savings. Over the years these categories have obviously evolved, but at the current moment, here is our list:

When setting our budget, we started by assigning an estimated amount to each category, then matching that up with our income and adjusting from there. Because even though one of us (ME) might wish budgeting $100+ for clothes each month could be considered a necessity, it's easier to give up that dream when you realize you have actual bills to pay!

Step 2: Choose a program to plug in these categories and keep track of our spending.

I know a lot of people use things like Quicken or maybe even the spending summaries their banks might offer, but we just use Excel. For one thing, it's free, and for another, I like that we can customize and manipulate our little system any way we'd like. (For example, if I buy a gift card for someone at Starbucks, my bank would probably automatically file that under "eating out," but it would be more accurate for me to put it under "gifts.")

Step 3: Keep track of our spending throughout the month.

So in our handy dandy Excel spreadsheet, we have it set up to tally all the category totals as the month goes on. In order to do this, we manually enter every single penny we spend into that spreadsheet - every receipt, every bill, every automatic payment. Yes, it can be a pain in the butt, but I try to stay on top of it on a daily or every other day basis and it honestly probably takes me less than 5 minutes per day. This allows us to see how much we have left to spend in each category for the rest of the month, and also gives us accountability for our spending habits!

Step 4: Evaluate our spending habits at the end of the month. 

On or around the last day of every month, we sit down and match up what we spent with what we have budgeted. If we find we are consistently going over or under in one category, then we can adjust as needed. This is also a chance for us to have "come to Jesus" moments when needed - for example, though we enjoyed having cable for awhile, we were able to quickly realize after Davis was born and we went down to one income that we just couldn't afford it, so it got the boot!

A favorite trick:

For many of those categories, we realized we weren't spending a consistent amount on a monthly basis, but rather having to spend a little one month and a lot the next. (Example: we need to buy dog food [$45] for Tucker on a monthly basis, but we only need to buy flea meds [$100] for him every 6 months.) We decided we wanted to have a way to create a "surplus" in those categories when needed, so we did our best to estimate how much we would spend on those things annually, then divided that up into monthly chunks. Then we went in and created savings accounts for those categories so that anything we didn't spend one month could still be carried over to the next. A little hard to explain, but this has worked great for us.

And that's about it! It took a lot of editing to try to get this post simplified to my liking, so hopefully it was relatively easy to follow. If you have any questions about something I might have left out, feel free to ask!

Happy Friday, and may your weekends be filled with much more exciting material than this post.

30 out of 30

As of a few days ago, Amanda and I have nailed down the celebration plans for our upcoming birthday weekend at the end of the month. 

When I originally put this as a task on my list, I envisioned a big party or an out-of-town getaway or just something exciting to commemorate 3 decades of life together... but that was before I knew what life would look like for us in May of 2013. When one of you has just given birth to twins, and the other one has a 2-year old plus a bun in the oven, sometimes the bar has to be set a little (or a lot) lower than originally intended.

So, a low-key weekend together with our little families at one of our homes it is! But there will be pedicures (without children), and there will be shopping (also without children), and there will be eating in a restaurant (for sure without children), and there will be desserts (children optional)... so it is guaranteed to be a good time.

And just like that, my 30 | 30 list has officially been completed.

BOOM.

Git 'er done

Now that I'm not constantly crippled with nausea or exhaustion, I'm running out of good excuses for not keeping up with the daily chores that need to be done around our house. After grumbling my way through the day on Monday about how badly I needed to do XYZ but how much I just didn't feel like doing X, Y, or Z, I finally got my rear in gear and developed a plan of action to stay more on top of things without having to tackle it all in one day. Behold my new daily chore list!

Of course there are plenty of other tasks I do that didn't make the list because either I just don't need reminders to do them (ie: making the bed) or they are done on an irregular basis (ie: washing dishes and unloading the dishwasher). If you have been to my house or know me at all, you know that things generally stay pretty tidy around here and I don't have a problem making sure everything is picked up... but when it comes down to actually cleaning, I lack motivation like most people! So hopefully this handy dandy new list will help me stay on track.

Wish me luck!

Follow-up to the SOS

In response to my "PLEASE TELL ME I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO DOESN'T ENJOY SPENDING ALL DAY WITH MY TODDLER" post, I received a lot of encouragement and also some helpful advice. My favorite idea came from my friend Brittnie, who got the idea from a mentor mom in a parenting class she took recently. I loved the idea so much that I wanted to share it with anyone else who might be in my shoes, in case you might find it as helpful as I did:

"Playing with your kids is hard and not always fun or even something you want to do. When they are driving you crazy or begging you to play x game for the millionth time, tell them you will sit and play for ten minutes and then you will need to go and do ____ (fill in the blank). So for those ten minutes, you give them your FULL 100% attention, playing and engaging, but when that ten minutes is up, you remind them what you need to do now and that you will be back in a bit."

Basically the idea is that those 10 focused minutes might feel like 10 hours to your child, and by being really intentional with them for that specific amount of time, they will hopefully be less needy at other times and therefore go easier on you the rest of the day.

I decided to try it out yesterday whenever we had a couple of hours of down time between going to the park, eating lunch, napping, etc., and I really think it worked! Once an hour, I would set a timer on my phone, sit on the floor with him, and do whatever he wanted me to do for those 10 minutes. If my phone dinged to let me know I had a text message or email, I ignored it. If I thought of something I need to go do downstairs, I made a mental note to do it later. And as soon as those 10 minutes were up and I told him Mommy needed to go take care of a few other things, he went back to playing happily by himself. If he started tugging on my sleeve shortly thereafter asking me to do something, I explained to him that I was in the middle of something and would play with him again in just a little bit. And he actually listened! And I didn't feel so guilty for telling him "not right now."

Yes, ideally I would be the kind of Mom who could give her child hours of focused time every single day without feeling burdened by it. I realize 10 minutes doesn't really sound like that much. But it was so much less daunting for me to commit to that small amount of time rather than try to guilt myself into playing with him for an hour or so, all the while keeping one eye on my phone or on the t.v. So, we'll call it a win. I'm going to try to keep it up, and hopefully it will make both Davis and me a little happier on those days when we don't have many activities going on outside the house. Wish us luck!

The day after

Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday, whether you were being celebrated, celebrating someone else, remembering a loved one, or dreaming of the day when you will get to be celebrated. I know it was a day of mixed emotions for a lot of people, but I really do hope that everyone felt loved and someone was able to put a smile on each of your faces.

Overall, I had a pretty great weekend. We got to spend time with friends at a couple of birthday parties, I finally got the chance to see Silver Linings Playbook (loved it!), I was able to sleep in on Saturday, and I even got spoiled with a few treats along the way:

I am grateful that Davis made me a mama 2 years ago, and looking forward to another little one making me a mama twice over in the fall! Though the overuse of this statement often makes me cringe, it's true: I am blessed.

Have a great week!