Well, well, well...

It's been awhile again, hasn't it?

And LBB sure looks peaceful in that picture, doesn't he? It is quite opposite though during his awake hours, that is certain. :) During his awake time, he is pulling dvd's off the shelf, throwing books on the floor, chasing the kitties, climbing over the furniture, asking to go for walks around the apartment building, and avoiding his toys in general.

So, there's my excuse...I've been chasing a busy toddler around all day. :) A busy toddler, who, incidentally, is now a toddler who sleeps in a toddler bed! We made the decision a little over a week ago to switch him over...he'd been attempting to climb out of his crib, with no successes. So I decided we would do a trial run of his crib conversion, and he did amazing the first day and night. Then, for a few afternoon naps after that, we had some major struggles, so yesterday I pulled out his playyard and put him in there for afternoon nap. Guess who is sleeping soundly in his toddler bed right now for naptime? :) Yep...apparently he didn't have any desire to sleep in the playyard again, so he is snuggled up with his Bearemy and GiGi blanket.

I'm amazed at how well he did transitioning...and I'm even more amazed at how parenthood changes with something that is seemingly simple. Now, we can read his bedtime stories, with him in bed. We can say his prayers with him tucked in and comfy. And we can give him a little kiss when we check on him at night. It is quite the amazing feeling. :)

I have loads of other fun things to share with you, but I think I'm going to share those for a later post...I've got a little bit of free afternoon time that I haven't had in the past few days, so I am going to go do something fun. Or maybe constructive. I don't know...it's just nice to have a little quiet time. :)

The King of Clean

I have a new helper in my morning chores. :)

The other day while I was sweeping up the hallway, LBB went into the hall closet and pulled out the swiffer. And quickly went to work "cleaning." He swiffered his bedroom. Swiffered the hallway. Swiffered the kitchen. And even attempted to swiffer Cat 2. Granted, I don't put the swiffer pad on (can you imagine how many I'd go through?!?!?), but LBB is very excited to help clean up the house.

It's now a morning routine...I pull out the broom and hand LBB the swiffer. And Dear Sweet Hubby is off today, and seeing that the swiffer was very big for LBB, shortened it up for him. Now, LBB has a LBB-sized swiffer that he can use to his hearts content. He spent this morning helping around the house, and is keeping his swiffer in the hallway for easy accesibility. :) You never know when you might have a mess that needs swiffering.

Now...if I can only get a guarantee that he'll be like this when he is 15. Hmmmm.

Simplicity

We are ever so vigilantly working on achieving it. :)

And mostly, we are focusing on simplicity in LBB's room right now. We are redoing his room in a month or so, getting lots of awesome storage (see HERE and HERE), and making it very fun and playful.

BUT

In the meantime, aside from working on making the decor and textiles for his room, everyday we do a little "tackling" of his stuff. It was a hard decision, but we finally got to the point where we realized that LBB had way too many toys. I don't mind having most of them...but some of the toys got "purged". Our criteria:

• The toy needs to have a good amount of creative play that LBB is responsible for. So many toys have the bells and whistles, and all your little one needs to do is push a button. Cool? Yes. Play-inspiring? Not so much.
• LBB needs to have played with it at some point in time to even be considered for keeping. That seems pretty obvious, but among all the toys from gifts and such, there were some that just sat there...played with once when it came out of the package and left by the wayside. Of course, as soon as said toy is put in the box to go away, LBB decides to play with it. It's a catch-22. We've come to realize that he only plays with it because he saw it. Give it a week and it will be collecting dust again.
• It needs to be well made. That goes without saying, doesn't it? But there are some toys that just aren't as great of quality. We are slowly seeing an increase in the amount of wooden toys we've been getting and high quality plastic toys.
• It needs to fit his developmental stage. Right now LBB loves cars. Blocks. Trains. And animals. So we've got lots of those. And we definitely keep the ones that help him learn.

Now...we're not going all crazy and getting rid of everything. LBB has enough Little People to create an army. Enough Hot Wheels to create his own car dealership. And enough building blocks to build the next Taj Mahal. :) It is crazy, though, how many toys we have managed to take out of his room. A lot were toys he outgrew and we are going to save for when God blesses us with another little one (but we are definitely starting out with less toys with the next one. LBB got spoiled.) A lot of toys were ones that were just...well...duds.

So, we've come from having toys all over his room to actually being able to see the wall. It's a nice feeling, and everyday it seems a little more cleared up in there. I know as soon as we get the storage furniture for his room, we will be in 7th heaven organizationally wise!

A Woeful Tale of Fish :)

When you find out that you are going to have child, your world changes immediately, and in a very good way. You know that there isn't anything you wouldn't do for your child...

...and then you fast forward to a year and a half later, when your little one shows a keen interest in something. And what do you do? Why, you nurture that interest in every way, shape and form, of course.

LBB loves fish. I believe I've mentioned that before...but just in case I haven't, let me elaborate. It's not a passing fad. Not a ho-hum kind of love. He flat out adores fish. He loves watching them. Talking to them. Showing them to people. So, of course, as soon as we moved into our apartment, we got him a fish.

LBB's fish was named Allis. A cute little goldfish that was a wonderful first pet. :) She seemed slightly lonely (meaning, she was getting a tad...boring and lethargic), so we went and got her a friend. Days after getting her the friend, she took a trip to fishie heaven, and her friend, Shelby, continued about his merry way. Until he decided to take a trip to fishie heaven as well. Sigh.

So, along came Google. One of those big eyed goldfish (the actual name is Black Moor Goldfish, if I'm not mistaken) who looked extremely goofy but are always fun to watch. LBB loved Google. Even learned how to say his name...about a week before Google decided it was time for him to go to fishie heaven as well.

This was pretty recently, and LBB still likes to walk around the house says Goo-ga. We quickly went and got TWO new fish, convinced that the reason behind our fish issue was lack of companionship. Into our home we welcomed Thing 1 and Thing 2 (LBB's room is going to be Dr. Seuss themed...it fit.) They were such fun fish. Active. Playful. Very good friends. And LBB adored them. He was learning how to feed them and loved to show them to Daddy every day that he came home. Then Thing 1 got this funky red around his nose and a white cottony growth.

After a little research, I not only came away with what was wrong with Thing 1, but that our whole tank set-up was completely wrong. You know how you always see goldfish in a bowl? Well, here we were keeping them in a nice little 1.5 gallon tank with a heater, but no filter, and thinking it was ok. Yep. It's not.

Apparently, goldfish are known to be some of the most fickle fish to keep. Not to mention dirtiest. So, without going into the details...it turns out we were essentialy "killing" our poor little fish.

So, we went and got a bigger tank with the whole setup, took the advice of the pet store clerk, and put Thing 1 and Thing 2 in their new tank immediately.

The pet store clerk was wrong.

They seemed to love their new home. LBB spent the rest of the evening watching them swim around and explore their new digs. He didn't want to go to bed, but, I put him to sleep, we said goodnight to Thing 1 and Thing 2, and LBB fell asleep watching his fish swim around. Later I checked on LBB and the fish, and all seemed fine. And then when Dear Sweet Hubby got home, I went to go show him how happy the fish were...and they were both dead. :(

I cried all night. Who would've thought that two little fish could affect a grown woman so much? Well, when they're your little guy's fish that he adored, it doesn't come as a surprise. :)

Now...to get back to what I was saying at the very beginning, I could easily say "No more fish!" Drop the tank off at goodwill. Go about our merry way sans fish. But no. As a mommy you know that that won't do. :) You do whatever you can for your little ones. So once again, I spent the afternoon rinsing rocks, cleaning plants, washing decorations, and scrubbing the tank. After LBB wakes up, I'll be putting water in and treating it. Installing a new filter cartridge. All that fun fish tank stuff.

But this time, we're doing it RIGHT. We are waiting 3 to 4 days to let the tank cycle through. Bringing the water to the pet store to have it tested.

And NOT getting anymore goldfish!

Something different this time. LBB will love it...he's been pointing to the fish tank, so I know he is wanting his fish back. Soon enough, little man. Soon enough. :)