There will be no more bouncing in this house

Its amazing the habits we create with our infants. Take Nairi for example. She has classic infant sleep behavior. She wakes up many times a night and the only way to get her back to sleep is to nurse and rock ( which I am happy to do) and then when that fails to bounce her to sleep on the exercise ball. No problem with an infant but she is getting bigger and heavier and will be 10 months old in 3 days. I think its time to get rid of the ball. So I deflated it and I'm stashing it in the basement in a hard to get to place so I am not tempted to re inflate it in the middle of the night. Last night was night 1... We were awake for over an hour with her rocking, nursing etc. Finally after both of us ( Mike and I 's) attempts were futile I plopped her in her crib and lay down on the twin bed in her room and closed my eyes and ignored her. First she talked to herself and then she actually LAID DOWN AND WENT TO SLEEP. She does not take any paci's or blankets or soothing objects but Mike and I so 3 cheers to furthering our sleep deprived state of being. The goal is that she will realize that if she lies down in her crib she can actually fall asleep on her own.

After 6 years

...of my wife complaining, I finally agreed that we needed a king size bed.  Mostly because the queen size bed has started showing it's age.  She sent me a couple of links to platform beds (and even DIY ones).  I thought it was a great idea and a way to save money by not having to buy the box springs (2 on a king size).

Since a King Size bed is 76x80", there was NO way that I could create it as one piece.  Not to mention how heavy that would be.  So, I created 2 separate pieces and screwed them together.  I also created a base for it to sit on that would raise it 6" off the ground, so total to top of mattress would be 18" (as requested).  She felt our current bed was too high.

 Here is the structure of the platform.  Made out of 2x4s.  I made 2 of them.

 Then I screwed them together.  Can't tell you how much I love my workshop.  I was able to fit this in there and still have room to work around it!!

Here is the final product.  I had to add legs around the perimeter because it was sagging at the edge.  Guess the structure it sits on wasn't quite big enough.

 Here are the 2 pieces with trim work.

Without them mattress and before the legs were put on.  See how it is sagging?  It didn't sag a lot, but would have caused the mattress to be uncomfortable sooner than later.

After almost 6 years we have some framed family photos

Mike and I will celebrate 6 years of marriage in May. Basically since Keira was born I have wanted to frame some black and white pics but at our other house due to the smallness of our house and the slopedness (is that a word?) of our capes walls there was very little wall space. Finally I can say we tackled this project. We want to do lots more so this is more of a starting point.
Step 1- Hire nice photographer to take beautiful pictures of your children. Or if you are cheap take them yourself, enlarge them and print them in black and white on photo paper.
Step 2 Print some random words/sayings to break up the cuteness factor.


Step 3- Buy lots of nice frames on clearance at AC Moore

Step 4 Hire handy man aka husband to hang them for you making sure there is plenty of levelness all around

Step 5 Enjoy ( it only took 5.5 years in the making)

Happy 71st Birthday to Grandpa

Pigtails!

Enough hair for pigtails at nine months old!

virus

ahhh nothing says winter in New England like a nice ole virus! Saturday Israel threw up for the first time in his life ( he spit up tons as a baby but spit up and throw up are two completely different things) We thought maybe he had the stomach flu but he just threw up that once and has been more sick with cold symptoms like coughing and runny nose and body aches. Nairi has the cold and a fever and Keira has a cold. All around they are not that fun to be around....... But I really shouldn't complain because they have been really healthy for all of fall and winter so far. And we are hearty folks and can handle the cold, the grayness, and the sickness of January and February right? RIGHT???

The playing in the snow aftermath

Finally some decent snow!

Fun times

Im going to be walking soon! Better watch out!!

Being 2

Its hard when your mind is away ahead of your motor skills. He wanted so badly to open this band aid and apply it to his imaginary boo boo but he couldn't get it open and he wouldn't let me help him. Finally he let me open it but he wanted to put it on his finger himself and wasn't able too. Tantrums all around.

This is what boys do with toys

Break them. The wheel broke off of one of Israel's trucks yesterday. Since then he has proceeded to break/ take apart the wheels to several other of his trucks. Then he can be seen trying to put them back together. I love the way his mind works. He is trying to figure out how everything works but breaking lots of things in the process. He did the same thing last week to one of my clothes drying racks. Took it apart and broke it. He was proud of himself. "Look Mama!" Like it was meant to be taken apart.

A sweeter Keira

When she isn't causing trouble or bothering her brother she can usually be found looking through books or begging me to read to her. I can't wait till she can read as I think she will amuse herself for hours with books like I did as a kid.

Time out

Keira ( she has an apple in her mouth hence the funny face) in her home away from home ( aka time out spot) This time she was in time out for kicking her brother. She is bossy and wants to control the world and when the world ( mainly Israel) doesn't listen she gets angry and does mean things like take toys away, kick or push.