No, we didn’t move him to a zoo (though sometimes I wonder if that’s where he belongs with the way he climbs and hangs all over everything!)
This long weekend was spent around the house. We cleaned out the “spare room” / our old room / Dean’s new room and set it up.
I have to admit… I’m pretty jealous about a certain someones room – he’s got the coolest and biggest and coziest room in the house!!
We built his cabinets, washed the floors, installed curtains, put up wall decals, moved his toy box into his room and even added a fun reading nook in the closet with a curtain and glow in the dark stars.
There are a few things that we need to finish up – organizing the top of his closet, putting some cushions and pillows into his “fort”, putting some Star Wars art into frames and hanging it on the wall and moving his handmade art from his old bedroom into his new bedroom.
He’s loving his room though! The transition went very smoothly. We kept him part of the entire process and we hyped it up for the past month that he would be moving to Mommy and Daddy’s old room. He helped us build the cabinets and arrange his toys and even move his clothes from the wardrobe in his old room to his new room. He loved helping sweep and use the screw driver and even helping Daddy with the drill.
“Helping” mommy build his cabinet
The first night, I was a bit worried about how he would do in his new room. I was hoping to move him in before nap so that nap would be a trial, but the room wasn’t ready in time. We moved his bed to his new room around 6pm. After playing in there and spending a bit of extra downtime in there before leaving him to go to sleep, I was expecting some complaints or whining… But he surprised me and I didn’t hear a peep!
In the morning I heard him waking up and could hear him freeze for a moment, likely mid-stretch judging by the rustling. I held my breathe while waiting for him to get upset about his new surroundings, but instead I heard “*gasp* OH!! New room!!” and him scurry off his bed to go play.
He’s been in there three nights now and he’s done great with the transition. He enjoys having his toys in there but he also isn’t quite a fan of playing solo in an empty room. I’ve spent some time sitting on his bed, reading or playing on my laptop on my own, while he’s played happily on the floor by himself.
Today I went through his toys and cut back the number of things we have in his room. I’m hoping to get the final touches done in his room before baby is born, but we will have to wait and see if that happens – I’m out of order for a while after throwing out my back yesterday.
I was pretty excited for my 5-day-long-weekend that started on Thursday night.
Mom’s Night Out with a couple of great ladies on Thursday night.
Mom and Dean Date Day to the Aquarium on Friday.
Swimming, household errands/cleaning and outside play on Saturday.
Family Day on Sunday.
Date Day while D is at daycare on Monday.
Maybe hit up some kind of Canada Day festival on Tuesday.
A fun and busy weekend to celebrate my last long weekend for a while – Starting next week I am working five day weeks for 4 weeks so I won’t have that extra day home with Dean for a month (though I have the ability to bring him with me to work on Mondays while I nanny the two siblings I used to care for before having Dean, which I may take advantage of once or twice)
Thursday’s dinner was wonderful – We got to enjoy a two hour long dinner and gab about everything and anything. Of course, as is the case with most MNO, it was mostly focused around our children. But the adult conversation with someone other than our husbands was nice!
Dean and I did get a chance to go check out the Aquarium on Friday. They’ve done a ton of expansions and updates – It is very fancy there now, though the exhibits are all the same, or at least very similar, aside from the toddler area which was relocated and expanded a bit. Dean loved checking out the dolphin show (which has been our “must see” regular for the past few visits) and he liked playing in the toddler “Clown Fish Cove” with the rock pillows and boat.
I bought a stroller board for our City Select to make longer day trips more accessible as he’s starting to get to the point where he wants the independence of not sitting in the stroller, but he can’t quite understand that it’s not okay to take off in the middle of downtown while it’s a crowded sidewalk of people rushing back to their offices after lunch. Seriously, I love this thing – I’ll do a review at a later date, keep your eyes peeled!
We came home but due to a 30 minute snooze on the way home, he had no interest in a real nap. (Insert warning bells that I didn’t clue into) He was a bit cranky in the afternoon so we hung around the house and played outside for the evening before a slightly-early bedtime.
On Saturday morning, we packed up and went for a swim at the pool. Dean starts swimming lessons next weekend (July 6th) and so we thought we would take him on our own this weekend. He’s a fish – he loves the water! When we arrived, we learned that there was a free drop-in with ride on cars, scooters and bikes. They had a few slides and a tunnel. And then on the other side of the gym, they had some sports (toddler sized basketball hoops and hockey nets with sticks) set up for free play, too. Dean ran around for half an hour before we went for a swim. He picked up on how to use a scooter very quickly – It was a matter of seconds before he took off on his own, without any help!
Swimming was fun, as usual! Dean splashed, kicked and dunked for close to an hour before we dried off, changed and grabbed some lunch on the way home.
He was extra tired [warning bells!] and napped well. Then he and I went on an adventure to the mall play area and Lego store (and so I could pick up my Parent Perks bag that I won!) while Jason and my Mother-in-Law, Pam, painted our new room. He was a bit sensitive towards the end of our adventure after a few collisions in the play area [ding ding ding] so we came home, had dinner and then he went for another slightly-early bedtime.
On our mall adventure
Sunday morning he woke a few times [ding, ding?], early, and Jason got him back to sleep. Then around 7am, he was raging and only Mommy-Snuggles would do. His temperature was a bit high so we gave him some Advil (after finding out we didn’t have any Tylenol after our last bought of illness) and sent Daddy to the grocery store for more medicine and our weekly grocery shop.
We spent the day alternating between Advil and Tylenol to keep his temperature down (though it would only drop to 38.5C at the lowest) and we stayed home to rest. There was lots of TV time (more than I am willing to admit…) and we doubled up on naps as he was worn out by 10am.
He was eating a decent amount, drinking lots and was overall healthy-seeming, aside from his fever and being pretty lazy. He went to bed fine, but woke up around 10pm with a temperature of 40.5C and was super cranky. We snuggled up on the couch and watched more Elmo. We tried to give him some medicine but he didn’t want it. Then he threw up all over the both of us. We decided to take him into the ER as his fever hadn’t been responding to the medication since before dinner and it climbed higher. He refused medicine, wouldn’t drink and was shivering even though we tried to lower his fever by doing skin-to-skin and mild-temp water, light clothing and such.
The ER at Surrey Memorial Hospital went through a massive overhaul a while back. They have a new Paediatrics ER, which means faster and more efficient service. The nurses and staff in the children’s ER are more geared towards children and their needs. The triage nurse and the nurse in the ward were terrific. They were great at helping Dean stay happy and calm while they checked him out. They were very patient and thorough with Jason and I while asking us the standard questions of what led to our visit and past medical history. Dean was pretty patient, though he kept asking to “go-go” but he was content sitting on my lap and watching TV in the waiting area. We spent a couple hours there before the doctor made it to us. His bedside manner sucked and he wasn’t at all interested in keeping Dean calm. He had us (read : Jason, since I couldn’t bring myself to pin him while he was screaming) hold Dean still so he could check his ears and such. After a quick exam, he decided that it seemed to be just a common, run of the mill fever. His temperature went down with the medicine they gave Dean shortly after we arrived. We are assuming that the chewables we got that morning weren’t as effective as liquid so we switched back after our visit to the ER.
Mommy Snuggles
I spent the night in Dean’s room, thankful for his double bed. He woke a few times but was quick to get back to sleep. We all slept in until close to 9am on Monday. The day consisted of more Elmo, Thomas and Super Why on the TV, tons of Elmo clips on the iPad via YouTube and many, many hours snuggled in Mom’s arms. He did get up to play for about 15-20 minutes a few times throughout the day, but would crash shortly after. He ended up napping twice during the day, which made bedtime a bit later than normal but also helped keep my sanity. I used his nap times to get some stuff done around the house – laundry, gardening and helping Jason finish getting the fan and closet doors back on in the spare-room-soon-to-be-our-room. After he went to bed, I got to work on the bedroom move. I moved the dressers, bedside table and box springs over but ended up having to get my husband to help me move the mattress (turns out a King Sized mattress is hard to fit through a door on your own – especially at six months pregnant!) Our room is now set up and we spent our first night in it. There are a few finishing touches that need to be completed; we need to get curtains and put some photos up on the walls and figure out a solution to the fact that our bedroom only has one outlet and it’s located at the centre of the headboard… Convenient, right?
New room!
Dean woke a few times overnight and finally at 2:30am, we just brought him into our bed with us. He was pretty good after then, aside from the half-of-a-dozen times I had to remove his limbs from around my neck. Dean was still hot to the touch but the thermometer read a half-decent temperature so we continued with the Tylenol and kept him dressed lightly. He woke up around normal time and started demanding attention. One nice thing about him being in a big bed with a gate on his door, is that when he wakes up, it gives us a little bit of wake-up time so we can let him play solo for fifteen minutes before getting up and having to start the day. With him in our bed? Not so much… Until we pulled out the iPad.
We got up and made some pancakes. He was still quite only-Mommy-snuggles-will-do, which while I love the snuggles, I just needed a bit of elbow room this morning so he had to accept snuggles from Daddy instead. Before breakfast, he watched TV. During breakfast, more TV. After breakfast? Yeah, you guessed it. TV again. His poor brain is going to be mush soon, if we keep this up! He was up and moving a fair bit this morning but went down for a morning nap again. He’s still sleeping, which I should probably go wake him soon so he will nap again this afternoon but not too late to mess up bedtime… We may head out in the backyard when he wakes up to get him a bit of fresh air and maybe some water table fun. Before coming in to watch more TV, of course.
Tomorrow, hopefully, he will be much better. I can’t really take time off work, due to my hours for maternity leave being really close to not qualifying. And I am hoping that he will be okay for daycare tomorrow. He’s healthy enough, aside from the tiredness. But he’s needy so may not be able to attend. My Father-in-Law is retired so if Dean isn’t too clingy, he may come over to babysit. Or else Jason will have to take the day off, after having the past two days off already, during a busy time at work. Yikes!
I’m definitely looking forward to being a SAHM so that childcare during sickness doesn’t become an issue or even a question of who will be staying home. I also hate leaving him when he’s sick – Mommy-guilt to the max, for sure! Two more months and I won’t have the guilt of leaving him for another child in the morning… Except for a month after that, when Baby Applesauce starts crying and I have to ditch him…
How was your long weekend? Are you enjoying some Canada Day activities today? (Or at least enjoying some sunshine? I’m enjoying it from the couch this weekend…)
We moved into our house, from the apartment, last August. There’s a lot of renovations that are needed around here, and a lot of things we would like to do but don’t need to be done.
Our plan was to do it slowly. And that’s exactly what’s happened!
When we moved in, we began cleaning the kitchen and found that the paint was peeling everywhere and that the walls were half-painted with random brush strokes all over the place. We decided to paint the kitchen first. But then learned that it was oil based paint… If you’ve ever had to paint over top of oil based paint, you’ll know my sorrow. It doesn’t hold. And the oil based paint just peels off. So you’re forced to sand the paint, to make it rougher, for the paint to absorb. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?
Wrong.
There was paint in the cupboards, under the cupboards, all over the doors, behind appliances, on the ceiling… EVERYWHERE. So I ended up having to take a hand sander to every single surface in the kitchen before I could even paint.
It took over 60 hours of work and the help of my in-laws and husband, and a HUGE amount of elbow grease, but we got it all sanded and painted. And it looked gorgeous. However, we didn’t get the doors done due to moving in, me starting work and Dean becoming more mobile all at once. We’ve been living without cupboards in our kitchen for ten months now.
I’m hoping to get a chance to get them sanded and painted this summer so we can reinstall the doors on the cupboards. I can only imagine what a newly-crawling, newly-exploring baby would get into with the cupboard doors off around next Spring…
We also are doing some musical-rooms in the house. Right now the smallest room is empty, Dean is in the medium room and we are in the Master Bedroom. We’re going to move into the smallest room, Dean is going to move into the Master Bedroom and Baby Applesauce is going to take Dean’s room.
Both the Master Bedroom and (currently) spare room will need painting and baseboards put in. And the closet doors all need a bit of “child proofing” as they hang on rails and could be pushed in easily.
On top of that, we need to do some organization around the living room to make room for Baby Applesauces baby-stuff. The swing, playpen and all the glorious other stuff that will flood the house… It needs somewhere to go, amongst all the things Dean has already…
Thank God we moved from our 860 square foot, one bedroom and den apartment to our 1300 square foot, three bedroom and huge yard house.
I’m excited for the changes going on around here but I am not sure how I feel about all this work! From what I’ve read, I may have to pawn off the sanding to my husband as oil based paints aren’t healthy to be breathing in. Latex paint isn’t a big deal in a ventilated room, plus I will be wearing a mask.
Four months to get this all done before baby arrives… Yikes!
With Baby Applesauce (*see below if you don’t understand the nickname) on the way, I’ve started to rearrange the house to make way for baby things, like a swing, bouncer and playpen in the living room.
Unfortunately, and I felt terrible for it, Dean’s gigantic train set was the first to feel my wrath. While he was tucked away in his big bed for a nap one day after a family outing to IKEA, I took apart the massive train track that was taking over a 25 square foot area of prime real estate. I saved some of it (I’m not that much of a monster!) and made a smaller, more manageable size track. I built our new TROFAST storage unit and arranged the buckets in a way that would make sense for little hands to pull them in and out and off the rails. Then I arranged his toys into bins with similar objects – all the trains into one bin, cars and trucks and things that go into another, musical instruments in another bin and so on.
You’re probably snickering at the moment. “Does she really think a 21 month old is going to keep his toys sorted?!” Snicker away, but my son has done a better job at putting his toys away into the right bins than my husband has!
We equipped his corner with a car mat, also purchased at IKEA, so it’s a bit more cozy. It’s not a push carpet but it beats sitting on the hardwood floor and it’s fun to drive cars along the roads.
Yes, his toys still end up all over the house some days. And other days, there’s only one or two trains laying on the kitchen floor, out to get me when I head to the fridge in the dark to grab a snack before bedtime. I’ve found that with the help of a bucket, and now his new wagon that he got this past weekend, getting him to help gather his toys to bring to the corner is so much easier.
I feel a little less twitchy when there aren’t toys from one corner of the house to the other. It’s wonderful being able to slide into bed and not find yourself putting Duplo blocks out from under your butt. Or going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and no tripping over a Tickle Me Elmo doll that starts laughing at your clumsiness coupled with your child’s attempts of taking you out.
Dean’s Play Area
Eventually we will move some of his toys into his bedroom (which is currently ours – more about the bedroom musical chairs another day though) but not until he is older. He has a bin of Mega Blocks in his room for mornings that he wakes up early and we have the small chance of lounging in bed for ten minutes, now that he sleeps in his big bed and can climb down to go play when he wakes up. And we will sometimes leave a few toys set up in the morning for him to find when he gets up. But we’ll be keeping the main source of toys in the living room for a few years to come. We like having him close by while he plays and I don’t think he would play very well in his room on his own, being that he is so social.
Once he gets the biggest bedroom of the house, though, I may set up a small toy corner in there for him, with a large train track and some other toys. It’s a huge room – and we are also thinking of getting him a single bed which will free up even more room. I’m not against him playing solo in his room – It’s great for his independence and for my sanity, but for the most part, we’d like him to play in the living room so we can chat and play with him, too.
Show me your play area! Post a photo or link in the comments below – I’d love to see it!
* The story of Baby Applesauce :
A few days ago, I asked Dean what we should call the baby and he thought long and hard about a name. “Uuummmmmm…. Baby Applesauce!” was his response. So from this day forth, until Baby 2.0 has a name, they will be known as Baby Applesauce.
Crushed Cheerios 