Sleep Training

Funny how I wanted to write about this subject and here I am, up since 1am (it's now 3am) thanks to good ol' insomnia! Bummer since *I think* we're starting to go on the mend from a month long, nasty winter crudness. It only takes a few minutes of someone being up for me to be up for hours! :( Mommy needs to work on her own sleep training.

Anyway...it's no secret in Arizona that in the wintertime, the sun goes down earlier and stays down longer in the morning. We're gradually changing that as we start heading towards the summer months. In the summer the sun is up between 5-6am and doesn't go down until 7:30-8pm. Wreaks havoc with Nate's sleeping-he doesn't want to go down until later and wakes up earlier, ugh! Well...I hope I just found the answer to our problem.



It is called the Kid Sleep Night-Light Alarm. The idea is to set the time/alarm for when you want the images to change-one image showing the bunny "awake" with the sun, the other showing the bunny "asleep" with the moon. This is to help show kids when it is time to sleep and when it is time to be awake. I'm hoping we can train Nate to look at those images when he wakes up and know that if the bunny in bed is still lit, that means he needs to stay in his room (I don't mind if he's awake, just as long as he stays in his room! Though hopefully it convinces him somehow to go back to sleep) I'd rather not start the summer day at 5:30-6am. The clock can also be set for naptimes.

Thanks to a friend posting this product and it being on sale, I decided to try it out. Majority of reviews were from happy parents of kids of all ages who it had worked for, so I'm trying to be hopeful (though maybe not too excited...because it would just figure that my child could be the 1% it doesn't work for!) Looking forward to receiving it soon and going ahead with using it.

I didn't buy a second one to use with Aaron. #1, he's too young to understand the concept and #2, I'm still pretty happy with the luck we've had using my friend who has helped with sleep training/getting Aaron on a consistent schedule. I'm still working with her as Aaron gets older and all-in-all, he's thriving on his schedule. As long as what we do with my friend continues to work, there's no need for one with him right now. He's doing well taking two naps, in bed by 7:30 and usually sleeping until 7-7:30am. Come around when he turns one things will shift a little bit.

Well, fingers crossed we can be one of the new happy reviewers on Amazon soon! :)

9 Months Old!

Oh my goodness has Aaron ever met some milestones this last month. He has...

--a total now of four teeth! Teething like crazy. On a Motrin drip at nighttime :)

--sits up independently on his own

--as of TODAY, I came in from him waking up from his nap and he was standing in his crib with his arms over the railing,trying to get his chest over! Yes, my dear baby boy was sort of halfway over his crib! I just about had a heart attack. Operation Lower Crib went into immediate effect.


"Look what I can do mommy!"

--trying to feed himself. Not too successful yet.

--doesn't understand the concept of chewing. Or drinking anything out of a sippy cup. How silly!

--can say "mama" and "dada"

--in the midst of his first cold :( Congestion and coughing. Blah for both of us!

--likes to play with his animals in his crib before falling asleep. Heck, first thing he does upon waking is sitting up and starts to play. Oh well, I don't mind if it's soothing to him.

--likes all things Elmo. I never tried much having Nate watch Sesame Street, but I just may with Aaron down the road. Our collection of Elmo dolls and books is starting to grow and I think an Elmo birthday party is on the horizon.

--"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is his favorite song

--just like his brother, has a low weight percentile but is up everywhere else. Our Kucenski boys just want to be lean and tall!

I'm pretty afraid that in another month Aaron will master pulling himself up to more furniture and may be coasting around :( If he can stand in his crib I'm sure this progress isn't far behind. Sweet little Aaron, we love you so! Happy 9 months buddy!





Not quite digging the eating thing...

Valentines Day

This week sure did come and go. Unfortunately hubby is out of town with work and we've been sick the last two weeks with the winter crud going around...but at any rate, the boys and I did celebrate Valentines Day a little bit. I was bummed for Nate that we missed his Valentine party at school and with our Moms Club, but I would have felt worse if he had actually known about it too so I was relieved he didn't know what he was missing :) Bummer though, we always seems to have colds/some sort of infection this time of year.

Anyway, I took the boys out for lunch to California Pizza Kitchen and we opened gifts from mommy and daddy and Nana and Pap-Pap (Heather's parents). The kids loved their gifts.






Nate was excited about his new coloring/painting books,stickers,puzzles and games he got to play. Perfect timing with daddy gone. Aaron got new Elmo books and a small Elmo to complete his collection.

Hubby and I are planning to celebrate Valentines on Sunday night. Nice dinner, I got us some yummy chocolate thanks to the day-after Valentine sale.... ;) Looking forward to it.

Nate's 4th Birthday Party!

Yesterday was Nate's 4th birthday! We were excited to have his birthday party on his actual birthday surrounded by all the family and friends he loves. For weeks Nate and I have been preparing for his Candyland themed party. Poor guy, I think he was beginning to wonder when this fabulous party of his was actually going to happen!

It was a picture perfect weather day for a party at a park. Sunshine with bits of a breeze, high 70's. We arrived pretty early to setup before our guests arrived-we booked a bounce house for the kids (that also came with a SUPER delicious cotton candy maker, I should add! I'm still eating some and lucky for us we have a cotton candy maker at home so I was sure to pack up some sugar for later! ;) )

The bounce house was a major hit with the kids-as soon as they saw that, no one cared about playing on the park equipment (which was actually kinda nice, since it was such a nice day the park was really busy!) An added bonus-knowing the kids were in the bounce house made it easier for the adults to catch up too ;) The kids (and adults too, I think!) enjoyed "Nate's Sweets Shoppe"--filled with different kinds of candy,cookies and cupcakes. We played a musical chair type game where the children got to pick books as prizes. Each child went home with Candyland goodie boxes of Playdough,candy necklaces, colorful straws, stickers, bubbles, toothpaste/toothbrush ;), colorful Goldfish and bags of candy from the bar, if they chose.

Lots of planning going on but it was all worth it knowing that Nate and his guests had a good time. Mommy is a little glad that these events only happen once year ;) Now of course I'll have Aaron's next to look forward to, which really isn't all that far away! :( We hope you enjoy our pictures!

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Valentine Crafts

We love celebrating all the different holidays of the year. Not too surprisingly, then, that we've already begun crafting and decorating for Valentines Day. Typically for the first part of Aaron's afternoon nap I like to do crafts or baking with Nate so we've been busy lately! Thought I'd show off our recent creations.



Our little pink monkey is in the spirit!



Our cool, glowing heart



Kool-Aid frozen hearts



Numbers made with Sweethearts




I can't believe we have a little boy in our midst who is going to turn four years old in a few short weeks! Eeks! We're having Nate's birthday party at the park (our usual, it's so nice outside this time of year!)We got a great deal on a bounce house and invited some of his friends this year, a first. He's at the age now where he appreciates that part especially. Nate is very excited about his birthday and party :)

Nate is back in school and enjoying it. He's been starting to associate it with seeing friends so that's a good thing. I love picking him up-he right away starts to rant off about what he did (we can't even get to the car without him opening his folder to show me his creations of the day) what he had for snack, who he saw, where he went,etc. It's fun to know he's having a good time, playing, learning and seeing friends.

Aaron just graduated from wearing his doc-band this week, yay! However he did discover that he was no longer protected if he rolled into things :( Boo. Now he is crawling pretty fast. He also has his two front, middle teeth! For all we know more could be coming as he's still been off and on with sleeping well. Diet of formula, cereal, baby food and Motrin! Poor guy.

Poor hubby has started traveling frequently now, I'm sorry to say. Good for job security especially but he's gone every other week now, sometimes for the whole week. Yuck. He doesn't particularly enjoy it and neither do we! This past week I have started to meet a friend at the gym at the lovely hour of 5am...the only time I can do it I've found. Too hard to squeeze the time during the day and by the end of the day there's always a thousand excuses. I'm happy to say that I went four straight days! Getting up at 4:30am is difficult...but knowing someone else is relying on me to be there helps greatly. Actually, that is pretty much my biggest motivation! Now that hubby is traveling, that obviously puts a damper in those plans. I think it's going to be hard to go back and forth between getting to sleep in and having to get up. We'll see how it goes, I'm going to try hard to stick with it when Josh IS around. Surprisingly...it's given me some energy once I'm done and it's just nice to have working out done and over with for the day.

Whew. Well there you have it, an update on us all!

Another Comparison Shot

Just thought it'd be fun to post pictures of the boys around the same age (eight months). Whatcha think?

Come and Get Me!

This past week we got Nate's tunnel out to play with-little did we know that Aaron found it to be the greatest toy! Different colors and fun to crawl through. It definately worked out for crawling motivation!









On a side note-I just completed my first half marathon since Aaron was born! My last (and only) one was Fall of 2010. I barely finished in under three hours, but I was happy that I ran until almost mile seven without stopping-a good feat since in training I have only made it up to six miles! I'm registered for another half marathon next month so I hope to improve a little bit more. I'm getting there!

8 Months

And another month passes us by! There's been some changes in the last few weeks...

--The greatest news : when we go back in two weeks to get Aaron's head re-measured, there's a really good chance we will be walking out the door without the doc-band, yay! Poor Aaron will probably enjoy getting to feel his hair and we'll enjoy not having to clean it daily :) Each visit Aaron's head is less flat and more round so there's no reason to think that it will be any different the next time. We should hit the goal we're after soon.

--Totally sitting up on his own. I don't know that I'm super comfortable putting him in a shopping cart yet, but he's definately sitting up for longer periods of time.

--CRAWLING! Ok, not crossing the room in seconds but he's inching his way along. Josh likes to call him "the worm" because he pops his bottom in the air and scoots.

--Loves his nightlight. If he's ever upset, we look at it for a while.

--Likes Elmo. Either the one we got him while in San Diego or the Rockin'/Singing Elmo that the boys got for Christmas.

--Two middle,bottom teeth have popped through the gum now. I think he's done with teething...for the moment!

--Still enjoys anything to do with his big brother. Sitting by him, playing with his toys,hanging in his room....



I'll say it again-he's getting cuter and cuter!

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas with both our families. We're so grateful for all the time we got to spend with everyone and the kids are so excited over all their new toys. We got a box together of old toys for kids at Goodwill-Nate was so cute, he would put things in the "this is for another boy" box.

We're 90% done with the playhouse, yay! We need to get a few more things and then it will be officially done. We love it. For me, I love that it's in the shade some provided by the fruit trees we have-and that we can reach them right by some windows :) Nate's in love.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday-Happy New Year!

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Holiday Fun

We sure have been busy since we got back from San Diego, doing all sorts of Christmas activities. I can't believe Christmas Eve is only two days away-I could sure use another week to wrap, cook, clean...and hubby could use some more time to finish up the playhouse. I'm not sure that it's going to be fully done by Christmas Day :( Oh well, thats what happens when you get busy! On to the pictures...


A little arts and crafts

Our nearest mall hosted a breakfast with Santa. You got to see him, Mrs Claus read a story, had breakfast and then decorated gingerbread cookies. Decorating the cookie was Nate's favorite part!


Longest line of cookie decorators that I've ever seen!




One Saturday Nate went to a holiday class-he sang songs, did crafts and got to meet Frosty! (his new favorite holiday character)



Still in love with his "jingle bell" necklace!




Ok, so Nate is having an off year with Frosty too...though he likes to watch him

A local shopping center had various days of Storytime with Mrs Claus. We did a craft, listened to a few stories/sang songs, had snack and left with a goodie bag. Fun!






Super intrigued by Mrs Claus' glittery,shimmery, bright red lipstick! Wowee!




One night Nate, Aaron, mommy, Nana and Pap-Pap visited a local farm for "Moo-ey Christmas". Animals wore hats, there was a hayride with Christmas lights, s'mores by the fire, hot chocolate...we had a great time.



Chilling on a tractor with Pap-Pap



Spirited animals









Cutie



Getting ready to ride!


Easily entertained




Waiting for the s'mores


This past week Nate, daddy, Grandmother, Granddad, Uncle Ben and cousin Autumn visited a railroad park in Scottsdale. They had a bunch of Christmas lights and both a train and carousel to ride.



Choo-choo!



Bunch of trains


On the train with cousin Autumn



And finally...we again went this year to our local Polar Express event-Santa reads the Polar Express story and then gives each child a bell. There's also snacks and crafts.


Outside the room




Cookie time!


Can't forget little brother




Crafts


Storytime



Always the same expression of wonder :)

Merry Christmas!