We've made the move.

We finally made the move! To new beds that is. I have been wanting to move Audrey from the crib to a bed for a little over a month now, because John was about 18 months old when we moved him into a toddler bed and it went so smoothly because i felt for us it was the perfect age to make the transition. However, before we could move Audrey into the toddler bed we had to get a new bed for John because he was still occupying the toddler bed. Well last week we found a great deal on a full bed, so we went and got it and made the transitions that night.
I was unsure how Audrey would make the change, I had let her nap in John's bed in the past, but this was going to be all night. Now before you get worried about her being upstairs, now with the freedom of being able to get in and out of bed, let me calm you down by telling you that one she sleeps with the door closed, so she couldn't get out of the room or near the stairs even if she wanted, and if she did she does go up and down the stairs on her own all the time anyway, and 2 she sleeps with her room completely dark so chances that she even gets out of bed are slim to non because she couldn't see.
Now that that's out of the way, once we moved the bed into Audrey's room and and put her bedding on it we couldn't keep her out of it. She was so excited about having her own bed. She went to bed that night with the biggest smile on her face, we gave kisses, said prayers, turned off the lights and that was that. We never heard from her again til morning, and so had every night gone since. I am one lucky mama:)
John was not as excited about the change at first, he did not like the that his little sister was taking his bed. However, once he saw how big his new bed was it turned his frown upside down. He loves that his bed is now big enough for mom or dad to climb in and snug with him. Or anyone for that matter, the first question he has asked almost everybody that has walked in our door the past few days is " do you want to go snug in my new bed?" And now that he has his new bedding he's on cloud nine.Have I ever mentioned that my boy LOVES Toy Story? Now that the move has been made, I'm relieved that it went so smoothly, and a little saddened that I no longer have a need for a crib. I love babies, and I'm sad that mine are growing up so fast. But I love the age that they are at, and I'm looking forward to the fun we can have now that they are getting older, and have no plans of adding another to the mix anytime soon. So the crib will come down, and be put away for the time being, and I am going to enjoy kissing these two little rascals goodnight, before they get to old for goodnight kisses from mom.

A Whole Lot of Learning

So much has been going on the last week I'm not really sure where to start. John is at the age, where everything we do through out the day is a learning experience. We have been spending a half hour a day Monday-Friday specifically working on educational material. The last few days he has been practicing his cutting skills.
as well as learning to write his name and alphabet. And I'm proud to admit he wrote his name for the first time the other day with out tracing it! We have also been working on life skills. For example I have recently started letting him help me in the kitchen.
I'll let him do some mixing, and have him set the table, and help clear it once we are done, or I'll have him help put the dishes away. I believe it's important that he learn his way around the kitchen. There may come a time when he's out on his own, mom wont be cooking for him every night, and if he's not yet married I want to be confident that he can cook and clean for himself, whether he does or not we will see. Or even when he is married I would like to think that he'll be the type of man to help out around the house. Chances are he and his future wife will both be working outside the house, and if that's the case then I believe he should share in the house hold responsibilities. Your welcome future daughter in law :)
It seems a switch has gone off recently in Audrey's little mind too. Just with in the last few days she has really started talking more clearly, and trying to use more words. I'm happy to see that her vocabulary is finally starting to progress, but I'm fearful once she starts there will be no stopping her. It wont be long before I start searching for a universal remote that has a mute button that works on children. She has also recently learned to jump. . John got a trampoline for his birthday, that we have set up in his bedroom. Until recently Audrey would get in and bounce a little, or sit in there and want John to jump so she could bounce around. Just the other day though she actually jumped up in the air herself, and of course landed on her bottom, but she was still very excited about her accomplishment, and now that's all she wants to do. I have to admit though, she has a very good teacher.











Audrey also started using a spoon this week. She has been self feeding with her fingers and even a fork for some time now. But the spoon proved to bit a bit more tricky, until recently. Just the other day she ate a entire bowl of cereal on her own.

Overall we have had a very productive week. We even moved everyone one into new beds, but I will save that for another post. So today we let go of our schedule and just had some fun. John & Audrey had a friend come play for a few hours, and nothing makes them happier.

It's working for us!

Once again, I will start the post with It's been a while! I don't know why I haven't kept up with my blog, because I do enjoying it when I do keep up, and also enjoy being able to look back at old post, to see how far we have come or even to simply remember things I might otherwise forget. So I am going to give this a try again, and try to post at least once a week:)
Recently I decided to put myself and the children on a daily schedule, I broke our day down into half hour increments from the time we wake up right up till dinner. I did it because I felt we needed some organization in our daily life because we were waisting to much time, and the kids where spending a LOT of time fighting, and I can only take so much of that. we have only been doing this for a few days, 4 to be exact but I already love it! It does need some tweaking but for the most part it's working out amazingly.
What has it done for us? Well it has helped set aside time to spend time in prayer and do devotionals that I sadly have to admit I was not doing well with before. I also included a devotional time for the children right after breakfast, we spend a half hour singing some children bible songs, reading from John's Bible story book, and then saying prayers for the day.
I also slotted time to spend one on one with each of the children. During this time we work on something educational for example John and I work on his letters and numbers, and he has been learning to write his name!
My time with Audrey we spend looking at flashcards of animals saying what they are and making animal sounds, or we might work on a puzzle . I have also incorporated "room time" where the kids spend a half hour in their own rooms playing...and it's working. They both play quietly in their room and mom gets to cook dinner in peace! What more could I ask for:)
I also had been having a hard time figuring out a good nap schedule for Audrey. At this age she should be down to 1 nap a day, and at this age John was doing just that, going down around 2 pm. Taking and hour and a half nap and was ready to go again.Well that was just not working out for her, so with paying more attention to our days I realized that Audrey is ready for a nap by 10 am even though she's only been up for a few hours. So I let her go down at 10 and she actually sleeps for almost 2 hours every time, and then takes another cat nap about forty five mins to an hour, late afternoon and still goes to bed at 7:30, and if that's what works for her, then that's what works for us. On days where a morning nap just doesn't work out because of errands, then I put her down right after lunch around 12:30sh and the other day she napped for 3 hours! SCORE!
So if you are a stay at home mom who like myself doesn't understand where half the day goes, and it stressed out by the end of it I would HIGHLY recommend doing some research on setting up a schedule for you and your children. It's working for us!