Looking Back

I was just re-reading my blogs from the last year. My how things have changed! Will I ever blog again? Hmmm - I guess I just did :-)

Central Coast Vacation

We were able to get away for a few days and take a little vacation back up to the lovely central coast of California. We had so much fun visiting my parents, seeing friends, visiting West Cliff, and attending our old church. It was nice to be back up there after almost 4 months. We wish it could have been longer! It was especially nice to head back up to the fog and cool weather after enduring a Southern California heat wave! We really can't complain too much - Southern California weather has been very kind to us since we moved back down. It's really eased us back into the heat and we sure are enjoying having air conditioning!

Kalin LOVED being with his Grammie and Grampie again! Our first day there he was full of non-stop energy - talking, jumping, asking Grampie to fly the remote control helicopters, etc. I was glad that both of my parents were home that day because after doing a night time drive and getting in just before 2am, Kalin still woke up before 6! He spent a lot of time outside with his Grampie that day! That first evening we went out to Phil's Fish Market - a yummy restaurant right out by the ocean. After we ate we walked the little path down to the beach so we could catch our first glimpse in almost 4 months of the Monterey Bay. It was lovely - and a little bit chilly - which, to us, is also lovely.

The next day we headed into Santa Cruz to visit our friends the Meyers. Luke and Kalin got to run around on West Cliff, watch the sea lions, eat kefir pops, and help pick plums and cherries! What a fun time we had seeing our friends again and catching up!

Kalin, my mom and I took a trip out to visit my aunt and uncle, my Grandpa and my cousin's little girl. The kids had LOADS of fun "helping" plant corn. I think they're favorite part was when my mom was watering with the hose. They both got completely soaked!

On Sunday we were able to visit our former church. We got to witness the dedication of our friend's children - a 3 year old and an almost 3 month old. I was really excited that we happened to be there on the Sunday of that dedication ceremony. It was also good to visit with other people in the church - many of whom hadn't realized that we'd moved! I guess we left rather quickly and word didn't get around. I got to talk to many of the ladies from my bible study group. I had to mention several times that, yes, I am expecting again. I could tell by their glances while we were talking that they were trying to figure out if I was pregnant or just gaining weight! Ah, the awkward stages of pregnancy :-)

It was a wonderful trip and we look forward to the next time we're able to travel up there. We'll be a family of four by then!

New Smile

I was looking through our pictures taken just this month and realized that Kalin has this same goofy smile in about 75% of them...I miss his big toothy smiles!

Sleep?

I started this blog about 21 months ago with a post about getting Kalin to sleep through the night. After 9+ months of little to no sleep we had finally reached our limit and, realizing that things weren't getting any better (in fact they had gone into a downward spiral from bad to worse), the time had come to teach him to put himself to sleep. We were blessed with successful results right from the start. It seemed like Kalin was ready for this step and from that day forward (with the exception of a couple of "sick" nights) we enjoyed blissful, peaceful nights.

Until now...

I'm not sure if this all started with the move or with the end of the pacifier stage or both - or if it's just coincidence. It's possible that this is just a stage that he would have gone through regardless. Since moving Kalin to his toddler bed he's been really good about not getting out of bed by himself. In fact, he would just lay there and talk to himself or to his stuffed animals until we came to get him - even if we didn't come for over an hour. It was nice to be the one calling the shots on when he got up. But there have been a few instances since we moved and since we stopped the pacifiers where he would wake up crying in the middle of the night or in the middle of his nap. We wouldn't always hear him in the middle of night for awhile and always felt bad that he had gotten so upset. So we started telling him that if he was scared or upset that he could get out of bed and come get us. It took about a month of telling him this until he finally decided to try it out. And now it seems to be his favorite thing to do. We had intended on this to be a way to keep him from being scared and having to cry for us but he seems to be using it as a way just to see us in the middle of night. Actually, we really have no idea why he's doing it and once again, just like back when he was an infant, we're faced with the questions and possible reasons for this lack of sleep. His reasoning and verbal skills aren't advanced enough to tell us why he's coming into our room in the middle of the night. He just keeps standing there saying, "I awake?". It started out with just one or two occurences a night - but recently it's gotten a little ridiculous to the point that, last Sunday, I'm not sure any of us slept from 3:15am until we finally just got up for good at 6. This has definitely meant earlier mornings for Kasey and I. For all we know this has been a normal wake-up pattern for Kalin and he's just now involving us in it.

I've read several different things online about random nighttime wakings at this age and the one that seems to make the most sense is that they start to dream more and they can have a hard time distinguishing between dream and reality. It's possible that is what is going on - it's also possible that he's just testing this new novelty of getting out of bed whenever he wants. This also seems like a good possibility since he'll get up a mere 10 minutes after we've put him back to bed. Either way I hope this phase is short lived. I was looking forward to fully appreciating sleeping through the night before the new baby comes.

Most of the advice online is to take them back to bed without interacting too much - basically, don't talk to them. Which sounds like a good idea except he asks us to pray with him every time we take him back to bed and it just seems too harsh to say "No, I'm not going to pray with you." But maybe he's just using it as a stall tactic or a way to get us to interact with him. I don't know. I guess we'll just try a few different tactics over the next few nights and hope and pray that this passes and Kalin understands that he needs to stay in bed, unless he's really scared or upset - oh, and how about not getting up anytime before 6 - that would be great.

It's a Girl!

Our ultrasound this past Thursday went well! It took way longer than it should have because this little girl was being stubborn. She refused to roll over so the tech could get a good look at her spine. We were in the ultrasound room for a good hour! The tech tried all the usual tricks but the baby wouldn't budge! Eventually she had me get up and go to the bathroom (to give the baby more room to move) and jump around a little. That seemed to work although it still took a little bit of persuasion on the tech's part to get her to roll over completely.

Profile

One Foot (don't worry, she has two. This is just a shot of one)

This apparently means it's a girl.

I love the spine pictures.

Picture Post

Watching Toy Story (a.k.a. "Woody") and waiting patiently for me to bring him his pizza.

He loves his cousin, Hannah. He kept saying over and over, "I love Hannah!"


He has a blast playing with his cousin, Hailee.


I love that it looks like they're posing for a photoshoot.

Playing on the stairs.

New haircut! The little goober doesn't let us take very good pictures of him anymore. Remember when he was a baby and he would just happily sit there and smile for me all day long? Well now we have to resort to holding his head still to get a decent shot. A HUGE thanks to the person at Supercuts who cut his hair. She was quick and efficient and sooo great with Kalin. I believe that it was the least stressful haircut he has had.

He loves lining up all of his cars - whether it be on the cedar chest, in his closet or under his bed. This is how he puts them to sleep.

Enjoying the water misters at Aunt Kami and Uncle Jerry's house.

In other news: Our 20 week ultrasound is scheduled for next Thursday!! Hooray! I'm not sure Kalin really understands when we ask him if he wants a little brother or sister and his answer changes daily. However, when we ask him what his new brother or sister's name should be he generally answers, "Kalin". Hmm...I think that might get a little confusing.

No Pacifier

The time has come!! Kalin is spending his first night, practically since birth, without a pacifier! Hooray!!! I am SOOOOOO excited. This has been a long time coming and, quite frankly, I've been nervous about it. I had no idea if it would turn into a big ordeal with tears and tantrums or if he would just accept it. So far, he's just accepted it. I've been warning him for months that this time was going to come but it wasn't until this week that I knew the time was very close at hand.

Let me explain how I knew this.

About 6 months ago he was going to bed with a total of 4 pacifiers and I thought, "This is ridiculous! He's 2 now and I really want to get him off of these. How are we going to wean him off of them if he's used to having such a large supply!". The answer: Slowly. Just like he was weaned off of nursing over a 6 month period we weaned him off of his pacifiers. When the first one broke I said, "I'm not replacing it!". So he was down to 3. Within a week, a second one broke and once again I refused to replace it. And he was down to two. The last two hung on for about 5 months. This past week "green ba (he calls them ba's and I don't know why)" broke leaving just one behind, "blue ba". I told him all week that once "blue ba" broke there would be no more. A couple of days ago I noticed that a hole was starting to form in "blue ba" and I actually got scared. "Am I really ready for this?" Well, ready or not, I knew that it was necessary. As it happened, his first time sleeping without the pacifier came about by accident. We were visiting my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's church today and decided to hang with them at their house for the afternoon. This meant that Kalin would have to go down for a nap at their house and I hadn't packed his pacifier! I told Kasey, "If this nap goes well for him without his pacifier then I'm not going to give it to him tonight either." He didn't even ask for it when we put him down for his nap!! This was really odd for him because whenever we would mention nap time or bedtime he would immediately ask for his "ba". So when we got home tonight I hid his pacifier so he wouldn't see it and he didn't ask for it until the very end of our bedtime routine. He was already in bed all covered up and surrounded by his stuffed animals and he said "Ba?". And I responded in a cheery and matter-of-fact voice, "Ba is broken. Remember how you slept without it during your nap today? Here, how about if you hug Russell (the name that Kasey gave the sheep) instead." Then we prayed, kissed him and left the room. There was no crying and no tantrums and I am so relieved.

This may seem like a silly thing to devote such a long post to when a simple, "Kalin doesn't use pacifiers anymore." would have sufficed. But this is actually a big milestone in my thinking and I am so happy that it has gone smoothly. I had three very specific goals for Kalin this year:

1. Learn to jump - He accomplished that one shortly after his second birthday.

2. Get rid of pacifiers - I can now cross that one off my list (and many people who know me know how much I love to cross things off of lists!)

3. Potty-training - in progress.