A Blanket Cape

The other day I was feeling a little bit chilled and a little bit down. It was the kind of day when you want to curl up with a blanket and a hot drink and a book and ignore that the world exists. Well, that's a little hard to do when you are busy taking care of two little ones. All I managed was wrapping a blanket around my shoulders before I had to continue with my day.  However I quickly found that keeping a blanket on my shoulders takes a hand to hold it there, and an extra hand is something that a mom rarely has. So I decided to turn my blanket into a cape. Temporarily, of course. It worked really well and I was very pleased with myself, so I thought I would share it with you!

To make a blanket cape you need one big comfy blanket and some kind of pin or broach. A big safety pin would probably work, but something pretty is preferable. Hold the blanket lengthwise behind your back.

Grab the top inch or two of the blanket at a point just beyond your shoulders.

And flip that bit of the blanket backwards, away from you.

Bring your hands together in front of you.  The fold you made in the blanket is now kind of like a collar around your neck.

Secure the two sides together with the broach or pin.

Now you can feel cozy and still have both hands free!  And you can feel epic too, because you're wearing a cape.

Mommy Moments: Accomplishments

Being a mother gives you an incredible opportunity to push yourself and achieve things you never thought you could do.

I just read Fox in Socks out loud without making any mistakes.

I'm so proud of myself.

Mommy Moments: Little Pleasures

Motherhood is full of little pleasures.

For example, there is something incredibly amusing and satisfying about making a baby do the actions to the Y.M.C.A.

It makes me happy.

Bedtime Battles: Update

Well, we've been trying Steven's new bedtime routine for two weeks now, so I thought it was time for an update.

After a few days of putting him back to bed every minute for well over an hour, we began to notice a change. He would come out a few times, then wait ten minutes or so, then try coming out again. This would repeat several times before he would finally fall asleep. This was encouraging, since it gave us the chance to get a couple things done in our evening, and also suggested that maybe he was starting to get the idea.

We also made an adjustment to our routine to intercept him at his door when he tried getting up. We found that he was enjoying the chase around the house after he got out of his room. He started crying a lot more once we wouldn't let him leave his room, but pretty quickly he started trying to get up less frequently.

There was a slow improvement over the next few days, with some days better than others. Then last Saturday he only got up once! We were in shock! And very excited. (Though we didn't have any delusion that our problems were over.) The next night he got up around 6 times. The next night he didn't get up at all.

Then tonight it took an hour and a half to get him to sleep. I'm not all that surprised. I guessed there would be setbacks along the way. At least there were still enough gaps between having to put him back to bed that I was able to take care of Kenneth and get a couple things done.

So the story continues, but I'm glad that we don't have to dread bedtime anymore!

Garden 2017: Prologue

I am starting to think about my garden for this year. Is it a little early? Maybe, but I am very excited to be living in a house that actually has gardens! I am also getting a good look at these gardens for the first time. It was dark out when we came for our viewing, and there has been snow on the ground every since we moved in! But it is melting now, and it's fun to see what was hiding underneath.

I'll be posting a lot about my garden this summer, but I thought I would start off with some "before" pictures, so you can watch with me as the garden transforms.

It will be an interesting year, because for the most part I have no idea what is in the gardens! That will limit my ability to plan ahead, but it will be fun to find out what everything is.

There is a garden along the front of the property with a couple hydrangeas, a couple rose bushes, and some things I can't identify, but I'm guessing they're all perennials.

The back yard has a pear tree surrounded by roses. It looks like I get to try my hand at pruning!

There is some garden space along the back of the yard. I heard there are some tulips back there. I'm guessing there are also more perennials.

There is a garden along the side of the yard too. There are a couple bushes and what appears to be empty space. Is it empty? We'll find out!

There is one raised garden bed in the back corner of the yard containing several plants consisting of tall, fuzzy stalks with buds on them. I have no idea what they are! Does anyone have any guesses?

My first task will be weeding and pruning and getting ready for spring. I'll keep you posted!

Are you excited for the gardening season to start? What is your favourite thing to grow?

Baby Gear: Mountain Buggy Duet

Apparently having children means you need a lot of gear. That may be true, but for the sake of our pocketbook and house space we have always tried to limit the amount of child equipment we have, only getting things that are absolutely necessary or particularly helpful. For those who are interested, I am occasionally going to write about some of the different baby gear that we have and especially enjoy.

Mountain Buggy Duet Stroller

Along with cribs and high chairs, strollers are right up there as an essential piece of equipment when you have a little one. When Steven was born we made do, first with a garage sale find from my parents, then with another umbrella stroller that we found for free. But when we were getting ready for kid #2 we knew that we wanted a double stroller.

Beyond being able to seat two kids, the most important factor for us was a stroller that could handle uneven terrain well. After some research we decided on the Mountain Buggy Duet. It's a pretty expensive stroller, but we were able to find a used one for a good price, and my family bought it for us as a gift when Kenneth was born.

We've been using this stroller for 4 months now, and I am very happy with it. It's good quality and easy to maneuver. One of my favourite things about it is that the handle height is adjustable. I also appreciate that the seats can fully recline, so we could take Kenneth out in it right away without having to buy one of the bassinet or car seat attachments. The only downside I've found is that it is quite large and heavy for lifting in and out of the car, but that would be true of pretty much any double stroller, and I don't have to do it very often. Because we are a one car family and Jesse usually has the car for work, the stroller kind of is my car! We got a rain cover with it, and that has let me take the kids out in all kinds of weather.

Of course, the ultimate test of a stroller for us is how it does off the road. The Duet handles grass, dirt, and other uneven terrain quite well. We even took it hiking up an old service road.  Usually when we go hiking we use baby carrier packs, but it is nice to have the option of using the stroller when it is an easier trail.

We are glad that we found a stroller that suits the needs of our family, and we're looking forward to lots more family adventures.

Bedtime Battles

When people talk about the "terrible twos", I used to be kind of skeptical. My general opinion was that it couldn't really be that bad, and that people were probally overreacting.

Steven is two now.

It's challenging.

Actually he began to insist on his autonomy a couple of months ago, but now he officially has the number of birthdays to match it. And boy is he trying our patience.

The primary source of frustration currently is bedtime. He just won't stay in bed, and now that he can open doors he won't stay in his room either. Trying to get him to stay in his room has become a struggle of epic proportions.

Up until recently our tactics in dealing with this have been rather haphazard. At first we generally tried being stern. "Go back to bed," we would tell him in a firm voice. That worked... the first couple times. Then he realized that even though we told him to go back to bed, nothing was forcing him to. We had to get continually more firm (and sometimes even angry), and after a while even that wouldn't work. Once when I told him to go back to bed and he smiled and continued walking right past me, I knew I had to try something different.

Next I tried sitting beside his bed. Then I could stop him from getting out in the first place. It did stop him from getting out of bed, but only if I stayed until he fell asleep. That would sometimes take hours. And I don't have hours of extra time in my day. If I was alone with the kids it was especially challenging. Sometimes the baby would start crying right as Steven was about to fall asleep or I'd have to leave to room for some other reason and then we would have to start all over again.

My next idea: Get him a new nightlight. I began to wonder if the old light we'd been leaving on for him was too bright and was encouraging him to stay awake. Also, we had gift card money from Christmas presents. So I got him a night light that shines stars on the ceiling. He absolutely loves it. The problem? He keeps coming out to get us so we can see the stars.

I think our main problem so far has been consistency - we kept trying different things. I'd do something, Jesse would do something else, I'd start one approach, then have to change mid-evening because Kenneth needed my attention. So this week we finally sat down and devised a plan. It is something that we can follow no matter who is home or whatever else is going on, so we should be able to be consistent with it. I have no idea if it will work, but we're going to stick with it for at least a week and see if any progress has been made.

Here's the plan: We go through his bedtime routine, which ends with us leaving him tucked into his bed with his star nightlight. The first time he comes out we take him back to bed, make sure he doesn't need anything, remind him that it's bedtime, and warn him that if he leaves his room again we will have to take the star nightlight away. The second time he comes out we take the star nightlight away, tuck him back in, and tell him it is time to go to sleep. Then every time he comes out after that we silently take his hand, walk him back to bed, and put a blanket over him, without giving him any attention or interaction. This happens again and again until he falls asleep. The theory is that eventually he will get the message that getting up really isn't exciting and won't get him more attention and he'll learn to just stay in bed and go to sleep.

The first night we tried this, he was in and out of bed for almost three hours. The second night it was two hours. That's where we are right now. It's tiring, but currently it's taking just as long as any of the other ways we were trying to get him to sleep, and it does let me do other things in my evening, even if what I'm doing is interrupted every minute or so to put him back to bed.

So we'll see what happens! He is pretty stubborn, so it may take a while, but Jesse and I are pretty stubborn too, and we're ready to give this a solid try. I'll let you know how it goes!