Transitioning Lyla to a toddler bed

I had no intention of transitioning Lyla to a toddler bed anytime soon ... until she figured out how to climb out of her crib and made the decision for me! It was nap time and I was painting one of the walls in our downstairs entry room. It had been 20 minutes or so since laying her down when all of the sudden I heard a "Hi momma! Hi momma! Hi momma". It was both adorable seeing the joy in her face and terrifying knowing what would come next. I just started saying noooooo nooooo out loud because I was so shocked/in disbelief and it totally hurt her feelings and made her cry. haha I felt terrible about it. I gently carried her back up to her crib telling her it was night night time and quickly grabbed the baby monitor to bring back downstairs with me. I watched it for a solid 20 minutes until she looked like she was fast asleep, set it down, and began painting again ... a few minutes later I heard a thud and some whimpering. I ran up there as fast as I could (she was totally fine, just didn't land gracefully) and I knew her time in her crib was up.

When Nic got home from work that night he took down the side of the crib and put up the toddler rail (a first for us because Liam never climbed out of his crib before we transitioned him to a big boy bed anyway). She has loved it from the moment those bars came off (FREEDOM!!! ... for her, not for me. haha).

Her first night in her toddler bed, sweet girl ...

The first night she tanked in my arms because she had skipped her nap after her shenanigans that day. It wasn't until the next day that we got a real feel for how she would do.

It has been learning curve ... many nap times skipped since, dresser drawers emptied, reading books, knocking on her door, flicking her light on and off, playing with the buttons on her sound machine, and anything else she can possibly get into, she's tried. 

With the advice of a friend who had twins that she had a similar transition experience with, recommended adding a childproof handle on the door knob so she couldn't come out 100 times, shifting her bed down so she can't reach her light switch, hiding the sound machine under her bed, and moving everything but her bed out of her room. It's sad seeing it so empty in there but we shifted everything to her closet for now and it has helped so much.

I think this was her way of boycotting those changes by falling asleep on her floor instead of her bed ...

It has happened a handful of times and she does well when I go in there and move her to her bed. So sweet holding on to her bunny ...

Naps in general have become harder. Some days she takes one and wakes up miserable, only to fall asleep again in my arms on the couch ... other days she doesn't take one at all. 

But our favorite time together since this big change is reading books in her bed that I can now climb into with her. She loves scooting into my lap with her sippy cup of milk and her puppy books. We read together and I sing her a song and then tuck her in with a kiss and an "I love you". She may be even more of a toddler in her new bed but she'll always be my baby.

Wagner Farms & a Haunted House

My mom introduced us to the cutest local farm that sells pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors, produce, homemade breads, jelly, honey, and so much more! They had the cutest old fashioned wagons to pull your pumpkins around in ... in my case, my two favorite pumpkins!

A sandbox with a digger tractor and shovels 3 times the size of Lyla. Didn't stop her!

And metal tractors to ride on. For the most part, the kids cared less about the pumpkins and did not want to leave the sandbox or share this tractor at first ...

Then they took turns and reminded each other they were SUPER close and ready for their next turn whenever the other was ready to get off and let them have one. ;)

Miss independent showed us all how it's done with this wagon full of pumpkins ...

The cutest smile in the world!!!

Couldn't leave out the nose picking one ...

We definitely paid more than the typical pumpkin patch but were grateful for an opportunity to give back to our local community of farmers. 

Later that day we built this fun haunted house kit from Costco! We love doing the gingerbread ones at Christmas so much and I was so excited to see a Halloween version! It came with the most fun accessories like gravestones to draw on and the traditional candy corns/pumpkins! She ate 90% of the candy before it even made it onto the house ... in fact, that was her contribution in total! haha

Liam preferred sucking on the end of the frosting tube! haha No, I did not take a single bite of this house after that. 

My creative boy loved doing this ...

Okay, I take it back ... apparently Lyla put one candy leaf on the roof! Way to share the candy love Lyla girl. ;)

We discovered half of a missing roof at the very beginning of decorating ... it was post car tantrum the day we bought the kit when I had to tell Liam we were saving it for the weekend and not building it that day. Good thing frosting fixes everything! Just made it that much spookier and built some character in the destroyer. haha

Their finished haunted house!

Faces covered in candy and frosting and so much fun!

Liam's First Soccer Season

If I were to sum up Liam's first soccer season into a few words it would be these ... entertaining and learning experience! There was never a dull moment during each game and more laughs than I can count. A few of those moments ... Liam lost his shoe in the middle of a game (it came completely off his foot!), the little girl on his team wore a full snow suit so she wouldn't get cold, the ball was often kicked in the wrong direction scoring a goal for the opposite team, on several occasions when he got tired from running Liam would wander around the field just chatting away with one of his teammates, tripping each other on accident because of clumsy unsteady feet, and so many more. haha I loved that it was only Saturday mornings for a 15 minute practice, 45 minute game, and 6 weeks long so it ended right as the weather started to get really cold but it was also about the time Liam was finally starting to get the hang of it and participate more. For that reason I wish it would have been just a couple weeks longer than it was. There is always next season, he'll be that much more ready! He was one of the older ones on his team of 3 & 4 year olds since his birthday is on October and they gave us the option to move him up to the 5 year old team but this turned out to be the perfect age group for his first time playing a team sport. His cute team ...

There ranged from 4 to 12 kids there on any given Saturday so sometimes he had to rotate in and out during the game (which was great because it gave his little legs a break from running) and other times he had to play every minute of the game in order to have enough players on the field.

Kicking a goal during practice!

Ya ya had the best seat in the place with constant snacks flowing ...

And a show to entertain her and keep her from running away or from running onto the field when she got really bored haha ...

I think this particular moment was Liam's favorite of the whole season ... when one of his coaches gave him his medal and pin. HE WAS BEAMING, it was the cutest thing to watch!

After staring at it for a minute he looked over at his dad with this look on his face ... 

He had special visitors (grandparents) there to support him a couple of the Saturdays and I know he loved that they came to watch him!

Besides the medal, he was also SO happy about this celebratory cupcake! Ya ya was pissed she didn't get one. haha

I'm so glad we started him with soccer. He really loves to punch and kick and pretend he is a super hero so we considered karate for a minute but chose a team sport over individual and that's where the learning experience came in! He learned to pass the ball to his teammates and practice sharing, he learned to encourage and support others with a cheer for the other team at the end of each game, he learned that sometimes we fall down or get hurt and we have to brush ourselves off and try again, and he learned that practice makes improvement. So many things he wouldn't necessarily experience from an individual sport. I'm excited to see what he'll pick next and proud of my little soccer star!  

Boo's & Boom's of September

Hi!!

I currently have 8 drafts of posts I want to share ... so many things and so little time! Lyla naps about 30% of the time now and when I do get down time, I usually spend it with Nic, getting lost on Pinterest with fun house projects swimming in my mind, or in the case of this month, making our Halloween costumes (which I can hardly wait to wear for the first time next weekend! I love a good family theme and I got everyone to agree on one this year!).

October is flying by which makes me so sad because these have been some of the best weeks of the year! I am thankful that our family is healthy and we can enjoy our favorite fall activities because September wasn't always the luckiest month for us this year. Ear infections, the flu for everyone all in one week, colds, etc. We stayed home a lot of the month and I never once pulled out my big camera, just my phone for a few pictures here and there.

One of my favorite bloggers used to do a post on the boo's (bad things that happen) & boom's (things to celebrate) in her family's life and our month of September fit perfectly into this theme so I wanted to give it a try ...

B O O ' S    O F   S E P T E M B E R

I've heard great things about the supplement tumeric and am willing to give anything a try for my headaches at this point but I bought the powder version from Costco because it was cheaper thinking I could just mix it into green smoothies and not only does it have an incredibly strong taste but it dies anything it touches STRAIGHT ORANGE! I was worried about our teeth so I had plans to return it to Costco. The day I attempted the return line was out the door and I absolutely wasn't waiting in it with 2 children so I bought the capsule kind and brought it back home to return another day. As I was carrying in the groceries, Lyla came along and knocked the pile of groceries over and a box of applesauce crushed the container on my kitchen floor. It died my floor, my door, my walls, my baseboards, my hands. There were tears, lots of scrubbing, painting of the wall, door, and trim, and a container that never got returned ...

The sickness I mentioned above combined with no sleep and trips to and from preschool made for ROUGH car rides. I got the genius idea of bringing along her blankie and melted over these sweet and silly faces she gave me ...

But most of the time it was screaming or this (only to get home and have her not transfer well resulting in a 10 minute nap for the day) ...

Then Liam got sick too and fell asleep in the car with her, poor babies. I sat in my parked car in the garage for 30 minutes to give me them some rest after a loooooong day.

One of a couple trips to the doctor for the month ... this one was for her 2 year wellness visit and we were back the next week for her 3rd ear infection this year ...

Man she's cute!!!

Kids are so hard to get to slow down, even when they are sick, but I did soak in extra snuggle time when they would get tired enough and give in ...

Then there was the week of the family flu ... I have no pictures from that week but I'll never forget it and I'm sure it won't be the last time I experience it either. Liam started throwing up Tuesday night at 9 pm and it happened every 10 to 30 minutes all the way until 4:30 am the next morning. I felt so awful for him, it was so sad to see him so sick. Lyla got it the very next morning. I had it by Thursday night and Nic got it Friday. It's so hard to take care of kids while being sick yourself but we survived and am so thankful to be saying goodbye to that part of September and back to school season!

B O O M ' S    O F    S E P T E M B E R

A little girl at church has a birthday the week before Lyla's and had a tragic event happen in her family so they wanted to make it extra special. They filled the nursery with streamers, balloons, and cupcakes, and Lyla came out beaming as if she were the birthday girl!

Seeing her joy as we set up her baby doll party ...

Being silly with my little momma! haha

Giving her one of her favorite things on her birthday ... a ride down the drive way in daddy's "beep beep"!

Feeling well enough to visit the park and enjoy the last little bit of nice weather ...

Taking her baby and puppy for a walk!

Knockin' 'em back!

Decorating for Halloween a little early with the kids ...

Having a piano in my home ...

Hanging family pictures on our walls ...

Lyla's pony tail ... will by my favorite FOREVER!!!

This cutie and his love for his glow-in-the-dark ghost sweatshirt ...

Having 2 toy rooms at home to play in together and to store everything ... HEAVEN!

Giggling at each other with silly Instagram filters on our faces ...

Bath time!