Morning surprise

I walked into Ashton's room this morning to get him up and out of his crib. I do this incredibly frequently (as in, every day) so I knew from the second I opened his door that something was amiss. And it didn't take long to figure out.

Minus Ashton, the scene looked like this.

There are three distinct things in this picture that were in his crib last night when I put him to bed that were not in his crib this morning. Let's zoom in, shall we?

The blanket doesn't bother me. But you guys are smart: if his pajama pants and his diaper were on the floor, and there was no magic fairy that changed him in the middle of the night...

I approached his crib cautiously. How long had he been naked from the waist down? Was there a #1 or #2 waiting for me? Was Ashton even going to be there in light of the carnage on the floor?? So many unknowns.

As a quick aside, Ashton likes to sleep on his front with his butt up in the air. Kind of like this:

(That's not Ashton OR our dog, but the only picture I could find to illustrate his position.) Anyway, I approached his crib from the rear and found him like this, sans pants and diaper. Suffice it to say, I was treated to quite the view. Good morning to me. And then, my darling two and a half year old popped right up and said proudly, "Ashton take off diaper!!" I tried to ask him why he did it and when he did it but he didn't give me much of a reply, which was fine. All I really cared about is that there was not a huge mess to clean up and a kid to throw in the tub. He continued to show me he had taken off his pants and his diaper, smiled and said he wanted to see Daddy, presumably to brag some more about his heroic feat.

Crisis averted, this time. I will be sticking to one-piece pajamas. That's all.

(p.s. if you did not see the series of viral photographs of the toddler that naps every day with his puppy (from which the above one was taken) I highly encourage you to take a peek for your daily dose of omg-that's-so-cute-it-almost-hurts.)

Bored.

Have you heard the latest update? It's cold here. What else? Oh, it's cold here. Did I also mention...it's cold here? I woke up to these very large frost crystals on the window the other morning...

Which were kind of pretty I guess. But *siiiiigh*, this is such a tough time of year. We spend a lot of time at home where nothing really happens and this blog is suffering as a result. I'm sure I don't need to point that out. So I figured if we are bored, it's only fair to pass it on and let you be bored too. This is how bad it gets around here:

1) We make hats out of pipe cleaners and a colander.

2) We practice putting our shoes on in various yoga poses. We've agreed that downward-facing dog is the toughest.

3) We take long baths with bubbles. Honestly, Ashton was in the tub for nearly 45 minutes the other day. Why? Because what else are we doing??

4) We watch a little too much TV. This temporarily alleviates the boredom but causes dry eyes due to complete cessation of all blinking activity (otherwise known as "Mickey Mesmerization Syndrome").

5) We practice our math (video). Ashton can actually count all the way to 13. I realize that in this clip, I started recording late, he misses a couple numbers and the order is not entirely sequential, so this is not exactly what you call "hard evidence". Perhaps if I get bored enough I'll chase him around and see if I can get a better one. For now, just take my word for it. We count a lot. A lot. A lot.

6) We whine at the view out of our front window.

Yes, there's a lot of whining. Mostly by me. There's only so many times you can play trains or cook muffins. While I'm on muffins, and baking in general, Ashton loves to help and mix and will do it all day long. But he never eats the fruits of his labor. I go to all this trouble to find egg-free recipes and he takes one look, shakes his head and says, "No, uh uh, no thank you Mommy." Originally I thought he just didn't like "bits" in his baked goods, so I made his cookies without chocolate chips and his muffins without blueberries. But it seems he's just not into the carbs. For most, that would be a good thing as we all tend to put on a bit of pudge this time of year. But Ashton is the opposite, he's growing leaner by the day. I guess that comes with growing up, growing taller, and asserting a firm "NO" to basically every food except cereal. But I miss the chubby fingers and thighs, funny how I'm already nostalgic about the early life of my two and a half year old. Good thing I have another one coming soon! I'm certain I'll look back on this post a couple months from now and WISH Ashton and I had the luxury of being bored. But for now, *siiiiiigh*. Send new toys. 

Bumpdate - 32 weeks

Well we're roughly 8 weeks out folks. Some days this baby can't come soon enough, and some days I'm glad it's going to be in there another couple of months because what-in-the-HECK-am-I-going-to-do-with-two? And two in diapers!! ACK!

Okay I'll save the freak out for later. I still have 8 weeks after all and there are lots of positives to focus on.

First, I've had an almost easier pregnancy this time than I had with Ashton. My weight gain is about the same (right now I'm +27 pounds as of my appointment yesterday, my OB expects I'll put on a couple more but should be roughly +30 in the end, my goal) but I've been less achy and have had far less discomfort. Going into my pregnancy with Ashton, I was running every day and getting lots of exercise walking around the city because I worked downtown. I was in good firm shape and the "growing process" was a bit painful with him. This time around? Well don't you know, everything is just already stretched out. I am not sore at all! Knock on wood.

Second, I'm told the baby is head down and facing back, which is good news for D-Day (D for Delivery). The funniest thing I will never forget: we took an all-day baby class at my hospital, Newton-Wellesley, before Ashton was born. Our teacher was describing the labor process, and she said with your first baby, the birth canal is basically this:

A dense, overgrown trail that the baby has to bulldoze down through  - an arduous process that can make first deliveries long and difficult. But due to this baby's efforts, any subsequent babies are treated to a birth canal that looks like this:

It's just an open road. The sun is shining, the pavement is smooth and there are signs that say "EXIT THIS WAY". Babies traveling this route enjoy a much higher speed limit and it's often easier-going for the mom as well. Here's hoping.

Third, I love the stretchy clothes. The best thing about pregnancy is not having to wonder about whether you look fat, because, well, you do. It's a virtual certainty. But it's a comfortable fat because of the elastic waistbands and long ruched tops. Amen sister!

Fourth, watching Ashton gradually get it - that a baby is coming. He knows Mommy is big because there's a baby in her tummy and when it is big enough, it will be ready to come out. Not today, but soon. Our speech therapist brought me a few books specifically about a little boy becoming a big brother, how different babies are from big kids, etc. We sit down to read them and Ashton is completely fixated on the pictures. I can tell the wheels are turning and it's easy to see that he's really learning in those moments. I watch his eyes and face and can't imagine having another child that I could possibly love and adore as much as I love and adore him. But I know it will happen - it's crazy! 

I'll post again at 36 weeks and answer all your burning questions about the nursery, whether we have names picked out, etc. but for now, all is well! And because I love a good before-and-after/comparison photo/whatever, I'll leave you with my roughly 32-week selfies (I really hate that word) from both pregnancies. Voila!

You know, that's the first time I've put those side-by-side. I think my Ashton photo was taken more like 30-31 weeks (at this stage that makes a difference) but I really am bigger with this one. Oh well, refer to #3 above. 

Skating and scootering

Mother Nature threw us a bone yesterday. It was 45 degrees, sunny, and dry. Even though it was a bit windy, we woke up knowing that we would be doing something outside. Thank god. It's been a long winter and it's only mid-January. We've been able to take a handful of walks around the neighborhood, but they've required boots and other snow gear and well, it's just not been nearly enough.

I originally thought, let's take Ashton skiing! But didn't get it together to buy the gear we'd need and plus that's really more of a day trip. Then I thought, sledding! But Saturday had been rainy and warm and the only snow left was in the dirty banks on the side of the road. I knew about the little ice rink in Harvard Square, in front of the Charles Hotel, and had heard it was great for small children because they provided milk crates. The picture on their website was super cute:

So off we went! The rink in real life:

They weren't lying about the milk crates. Perfect :) The little hut behind the rink had skates and helmets to rent and the boys laced up...

Took in the scene...

and hit the ice! Um, literally. As expected, Ashton had no idea how to skate haha. So Jason pushed him around, held his hands, guided the milk crate...you get the idea. It looked a lot like this.

Phew. Break. There were lots of breaks.

Then time for the real milk crate action.

All told, ice time was about 22 minutes total :) But afterwards, we got our picture taken,

Ashton pondered his future at the Winter Olympics,

And we went for some hot chocolate, because that's just what you do after you go ice skating.

But the story does not end there, dear readers. After naptime, we were still in gold-star weather territory so we took Ashton down to the tennis courts to ride his scooter. He is much more adept at this than skating and smiled basically the whole time. 

Here's the last video.

So, to sum up, we basically spent our Sunday exercising our toddler. It worked; he slept til 9 AM this morning ;)

Oh P.S. on Diapergate 2014: a two-day investigation yielded no positive results. As in, the fate of that desiccant packet from Friday night is unknown and probably always will be. I've decided to get on with my life.  

Um, poison control? What happens if...

Ashton's napping and it is a rainy, gross Saturday afternoon. So let me tell you what I have going on today. Mainly, I'm watching Ashton's diaper output. Fun! Here's why.

Ashton loves eating the freeze dried strawberries out of the Special K red berries. I was alerted to the fact that Trader Joe's sells these on their own in snack bags, so instead of continuing to waste boxes of leftover flakes (or force-feed them to myself), off we went last night after work. Delightfully, they were $3.49 a bag and I bought three. Now, Ashton is no dummy. He knew exactly what I had bought and asked me and asked me for "staw-beh-wees" on our way back to the car. So when we got there, I ripped open a bag, poured some in his snack cup, handed it back to him and off we went to the indoor playspace for an hour. It was 5 pm and it was dark.

When we got home about 6:15 pm, I unloaded the groceries and took a look at the strawberry bag for the first time. A nice little text box on the back told me:

I was like, oh my god. I dumped the rest of the bag out into a bowl - no packet. Ashton was watching Mickey so I ran out to my car, hoping to find it on the floor or next to his carseat, sure that if the packet had made it into his snack cup, he would not have eaten it. No packet. Naturally, I started to panic. I called the pediatrician's answering service and asked for a callback. Then I checked Google to see what people said about if you ate one of these things. I couldn't focus on the search results so I called poison control. The nice man instantly told me that if Ashton had indeed eaten it, it was nontoxic and no more harmful than eating beach sand. The worst that would happen would be a stomachache and the reason they say don't eat it because it is a choking hazard. Didn't I hear Ashton cough at some point in the back seat on the way to the playspace? I did - I had offered him water.

I hung up the phone, still sobbing my eyes out obviously. I opened another bag of strawberries and sure enough located the packet they were talking about.

Could Ashton REALLY have eaten this? I offered it to him to see what he would do with it as there was strawberry dust all over it.

He instantly put it in his mouth, smiled and said, "Eat this! Staw-beh-wee!"

Well I fished it back out immediately. I did not need him eating two of these things! I called Jason at work despite the fact that Ashton was behaving as normal, eating his dinner, and pushing his shopping cart around. There was nothing he could really do anyway but sometimes you just have to call your husband in hysterics. You know?

So nothing has happened since then. Jason tried to find the packet in my car and could not. So, unless that one particular bag of strawberries did not happen to have a packet, it's in Ashton's body somewhere. Hence, the diaper watching. Weeeeeee. Stay tuned.

Back into the groove

After 16 days off, I have welcomed the return of our routine since the new year hit. There are exactly 9 weeks until my due date (March 12) and I intend to enjoy the last bit of what I know to be our "normalcy" before everything changes once again! We have been keeping busy with our usual activities by...

Playing trains

Cooking

 Playing outside in the snow or just going for walks

Given the cold snap, any time the temp goes above 25 degrees it might as well be July. Some sledding last Friday didn't end well.

Don't you love the burst feature on the new iPhone cameras? Haha.

Let's see what else do we do. Oh, well, we eat...(true confession: sometimes Ashton will eat only corn chips and sour cream for dinner and I call it mexican night)

We cry

    

We push things around

And we hang out with Dad.

Ashton probably hangs out with Mom (ahem, ME) a lot more than he hangs out with Dad, but Dad is not as good at taking pictures as Mom so there is far less documentation of said hang outs. Just for the official record.

Anyway, besides all that, we spend our time at the indoor playspace, "cook" in Ashton's new "kitchen", etc. The days, let me tell you, tick on by. I do need to figure out a way to encourage some independent play because whenever we are home, Ashton really needs to be entertained and it is not only exhausting but I get nothing done. If I try to do the dishes he will pull at my arm or leg and drag me towards his toys saying "Mommy COMMMMMME!" If I don't go, he whines and cries. Right now it's easy for me to drop what I'm doing and just go play. How do you tell a 2 year old that you'd rather clean up than open the playdough for the 17th time in two hours? You don't. But in a couple of months when it's not the dishes I'm tending to but a newborn, it won't be that simple. He's not going to have my full attention whenever he wants it so I best start preparing him. I just don't know how.

In other news, I'm happy to report that December 31 was the last night Ashton got a bottle before bed. I stuck to my new year's resolution and the night of January 1, I went about his bedtime routine like normal and he only asked for it once, accepting my answer that he was too big for a bottle and Mommy didn't have one for him. And we haven't missed it any night since then. Finally, something that was EASY! Bottles down, paci's...not so much. I think I've mentioned that along with potty training, I'm not ready to touch that yet.

The Flonase is really helping with the drool situation. Actually, I think it is a combination of Ashton being more aware of it plus the allergy/inflammation relief, but either way I am going to stay this course and not pursue getting his adenoids out right now. He hasn't worn a bib in a pretty long time, at least not consistently.

Two other big boy things: we are phasing out of the highchair. He often prefers to sit at the new kitchen peninsula on the stool. I only put him in the highchair for the messy things but he really resists. And he now sleeps under a blanket. This seems silly but now when I put him to bed, instead of him just rolling over in his crib, he'll say "Blanket please" and I lay it over him. He looks up and says either "thank you Mommy" or "Cozy!" And I'll say "Yes, you are warm and cozy" and he responds, "Ashton warm and cozy". I swear, sometimes he puts his head down and sighs with contentment. But this is important because now for most of the night he will stay under it/in the same spot, which is a step towards being able to transition from crib to toddler bed. Before, he was doing acrobatics in his sleep and there was just no way I could see him not having four walls to prevent him from falling out. So we're on our way with that.

I'll leave you with a video about cookies ("EAT THEM!") and one with an apple ("BIG BITE!"). But I'm not offended if you don't watch them. Nothing really happens ;) 

Christmas 2013!

Happy New Year! As some of you know, I get a very long time off from work this time of year. I have been on Christmas vacation since December 20 and when I'm not in a work routine, I typically take an overall computer break. Hence, no new blog posts for you. But that is about to change! Without further ado, I give you...Christmas 2013.

It all actually began on December 24th. We did our own little mini Christmas at home before heading to Long Island to see Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Chris, Aunt Lizzy and cousin Owen later that morning. Ashton got his long awaited kitchen :)

He opened some "food" and utensils...

And Jason was feasting on some Corn a la Christmas in no time.

After we finished the lovely meal Ashton whipped up (which included a whole lemon, hamburger bun and cookies), we packed up and headed down to Long Island. It was a great day to travel, we arrived late afternoon and then after dinner, the boys were visited by Grandpa dressed in a Santa suit Jolly Old Saint Nick himself!

Ho ho ho! He brought them each a present and then returned to his reindeer for his very busy night ahead. Ashton was spellbound, Owen cried.

After changing into his Christmas jammies, it was time for stories with Grandma.

Visions of sugarplums, 12 hours later and...wowww!!! Taking it all in on Christmas morning...

And then, as they say, all hell broke loose. Haha not really. But there was a LOT of presents, toys, and two happy little boys :) 

As for me, Santa brought some nice new RayBans:

And much happiness to our little family :)

We had a really wonderful holiday (in the time I was off, Ashton and I also made a trip up to VT) and I was all ready to get back into my work routine today only to get sent home at 11 am due to the snowstorm. Bentley is closed tomorrow as well so it looks like my vacation will be lasting a little longer! I'm sure I'll have lots of mostly white pictures to post tomorrow - I'll try and be better about blogging now that it's a nice fresh new year. See you soon!