Back at it!

If you cannot tell by my lack of blogging I am back to work. It has been an adjustment for both Toby and mommy.  Toby started his first day of daycare September 30.  I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment to have some skin tags removed, so I sent him to daycare with intentions of cleaning house and visiting the doctor. This also allowed me the flexibility to go to daycare at any point if need be.  You see, he had only ever had one bottle in his life and had never before been around that many kids.

Well, he did great on his first day.  They were impressed at how happy and content he was.  My appointment, however, got cancelled because the doctor was sick. 

October 1, I went back to work. I was greeted with doughnuts from one of my co-workers and flowers from my boss.

It has taken a little while to find a new schedule and a new norm, but we are getting there!

Decorating the new space

Last year this time we had torn the back porch off the house, torn down the garage and were working on putting a basement onto the house to start the addition!  What a difference a year makes! 

I have finally started to do some things on the inside to make our new space feel more like a home.  After we had family pictures done, I went an bought frames to hang on the wall.  Lance helped me hang a curtain rod over the picture window and I put a couple pictures on the the living room walls. 

The picture below is the west wall of our living room.  On the left/south side of the room we have our laundry/mud/shoe room which is the garage access.

On the east living room wall, near the kitchen, I have hung three frames.  These are enterchangable art frames that can hang either horizontal or vertical, depending on the art on display.  It is my hopes to keep these in season with different hand and foot print art from my Pinterest inspriation.  The current photos are the beginnings of the foot print ghosts for Halloween.

In the laundry room, I had Lance hang a coat rack at waist height.  Each kid gets 2 sets of hooks.  The hope is this is where backpacks, coats, and shoes land to make the morning rush a little easier. 

New Kids Furniture

While I was off work, I notice something.  The kids always laid on the floor to color and crayons/markers were always on the floor.  I was always nervous that a marker was going to stain the carpet or crayons were going to get embedded in the carpet.  So I found this table and chair set.  It is a nice finish and matches the furniture in our living room.  The kids LOVE having it upstairs!  Now I rarely find a marker or crayon on the floor!

Along with the table, I purchased a matching book shelf.  The kids have lots of books, but are only allowed to "play" with the carboard books.  Well the toy box had quite a loot of books, so we decided get the book shelf as well.  It's funny how much more they look at/play with books, now that they are more assessable.  It is also interesting how I traded crayons/markers for books scattered around the room!

 

While I was doing my online shopping, I also ordered Toby a floor gym/mat for tummy time (we had borrowed Carla's before).  It is funny, now when I lay him out for tummy time it is usually a few minutes and he decides it's nap time.  When he lays on his back he enjoys kicking/tugging at the toys on the cross brackets. 

Momma and the kids are all enjoying their new furniture/toys!

Just a Swingin'

Lance and I were working around the house and in the garage over the weekend. The girls were playing with a piece of chain. I saw them take it and proceeded to quietly watch their minds at work. 

Jenna took the chain and went over to the pine tree. I could just see the little gears turning. She put each clevis on a limb of the tree and tried to sit in it. BOOM she ended up on the ground. She had two issues with her first attempt at a tree swing. First, she is only 3 foot tall and was trying to do it herself. Second, she was using a drooping pine tree limb.  Nevertheless, I let her keep going to see what else her little mind would create. 

That chain kept them occupied for a good 30 minutes, before I stepped in to help them. I asked Jenna if she wanted help and her face lit up!  We took the chain over to the magnolia tree and mommy made a swing for the girls with the chain they were using. 

 

The had lots of fun with it. Daddy tried to 1-up mom's chain swing with a 2x4 and rope, but the battery for the saw didn't have enough charge to notch it out.  

No worries, the kids have a swing set.  It is just located on the other side of the house.  Regardless, it is very neat to watch their little minds at work!  

Toby Two Month Well Child

Toby turned two months old on 9/20/13.  I took pictures of him on the 20th but wanted to wait and post them until he had his well child visit yesterday.  Toby has been cooing like crazy and is starting to have "conversations."  He has started smiling though I haven't done real well capturing it on camera yet.

We are blessed that he has been sleeping 7-9 hours of a night.  He is a pretty happy baby most of the time and he definately lights up when he sees his big sisters.

We didn't exactly have a "well-child" to take to the well child visit.  In fact they discussed not giving him his shots as he has the respiratory crud that has been going around and has been rather wheezy.  They were worried that the shots might cause him a fever which would make the respiratory crud turn into something more.  I convinced them that this was my last week off work and if he was going to get sick, it would be best to do it while mommy was not working and could watch out for the symptoms.  I also had them look at his big toe.  Turns out he has an ingrown toe nail.  Poor guy!

Mr. Toby now weighs 14 pounds 7 ounces and is 25 1/4 inches long.  That means that he has grown 5 pounds and 3 1/4 inches in two months!  He is off the charts on height and he is in the 95 percentile for weight!  He is definately my BIG little man.  However, he is still wearing his 0-3 month clothes.  He has jumped into 3-6 month pants only because I didn't buy him any 0-3 month pants because I was expecting the weather to turn about the time he outgrew his 0-3 month clothes.