Keeping Quiet...

First of all, I have to say thank you to everyone that said just nice things after my post yesterday. Your prayers are working- I've experienced a decrease in contractions over the past day, which is saying something!

Today I'm touching on the Quiet Time boxes that we came up with for Keegan.

He turned four on April 25, and soon after started putzing during his nap time, waking his brother up (He and Bennett now share a room, but that's a different post for a different day), and it was negatively affecting everyone in our home. I tried explaining to Keegan that EVERYONE needs a little bit of quiet time during the day, including Mom and/or Dad. He wasn't buying it.

I searched a little on Pinterest for alternatives to nap time, and stumbled upon the idea of Quiet Boxes. The whole goal being that these boxes are SOLELY for quiet time, so they stay special, and you can rotate them out. I've found that keeping them exclusively for Quiet Time is the key to them doing the trick. We've used them for (almost) 4 weeks now, and he's not sick of them yet, so I'll take it!

I explained the idea to Keegan, and he conceptually had a hard time understanding it. We went to Walmart with a vague list, and ended up just perusing the aisles and throwing anything that seemed like he could be creative with into the cart.

The first thing for the Quiet Times that I bought was from Amazon. I picked up this preschool Dry Erase workbook by Leap Frog, along with some Crayola Dry Erase markers.

 Typically when I let him use this, I give him a damp Microfiber Towel to go with it so he can wipe up on his own. He LOVES this. Also, I only let him use this when he's on the dark blue cot for quiet time. I just can't say that he's mature enough to use the markers on normal sheets :)

 

We bought two Matchbox cars that are exclusive to this box. It's ONLY during quiet time, so they don't lose their novelty. Also, I bought foam sheets and cut out all sorts of shapes. He'll make patterns, stack, etc.

 

Keegan picked out this Avengers book, and the wooden car. I threw in the popsicle sticks and the mini clothes pins. Somehow he can stay creative for SO long with stuff like this.

 

 

I used the hole punch and punched holes in a number of the red plastic cups. I threw in any pipe cleaners, and Keegan picked out the buttons and the curly looking paper clips. He makes SO MUCH STUFF out of this box, and sometimes comes up with his own little games with everything.

 

 

This is Keegan's FAVORITE Quiet Box. We found the idea for sponge blocks on Pinterest before we went to Walmart and that child was on a mission to find as many stinkin' sponges as he could! He is precious, because when I show him the box, he claps his hands and pretty much shoo's me out of the room so he can play.

 

 

 This is Keegan's 2nd favorite Quiet Box. Keegan LOVES Angry Birds, so he loves to stack the cups to build towers, and then will sometimes arrange the pom-poms like the piggies and try to knock them over. So fun. Again, I just threw the left over paper clips in this box.

 

 

Currently we have a twin mattress down in the baby's nursery so that when I do go into labor, we have an available bed for my mom, or whoever can get there in the middle of the night before this baby pops out :) Normally Keegan has Quiet Time on our little blue cot (also in the nursery).

 

 

And you know, Keegan has slept EVERY SINGLE DAY since we introduced these Quiet Boxes. It's like we gave him permission to not HAVE to sleep, but now he suddenly is making the decision to sleep on his own and not because we're "making" him. I'm not sure how long this will last, and I know that soon enough he'll totally outgrow naps. But I'll take naps until Kingergarten if that's what we get :)

 

 



The End of an Era, and the Start of Another

I haven't blogged in over a year. I've been a busy momma, and about ready to become much busier. We found out mid-adoption this fall, that we were unexpectedly pregnant with our third son, who is due July 7. This news quickly halted our adoption, as we are limited on bedroom space in our home currently.

I mourned the daughter that we didn't yet know, and that we now have to wait longer to meet. After about 15 weeks of pregnancy my morning sickness subsided, I had come to terms with delaying our adoption process, and I started to get excited to meet my last baby boy.

This has been the strangest pregnancy. I rejoice that I am able to be pregnant, and am blessed enough to get to experience being a momma to THREE unique and amazing little boys. I get to see them as individuals, and to watch them come into their own roles as brothers; there is nothing like it...

... As Keegan would say, "This is a beautiful picture of me, Bennett and Optimus!"

 

 

I get to see my husband grow as a husband and father and it's incredible; and now I get to watch him with ANOTHER boy. It's so exciting. When we first married, I imagined he'd be an incredible father, but just how incredible of a father he's grown into is so far beyond anything I'd imagined. I've felt overwhelmed when I realize that my kids have that actual example of a selfless, Christ-like father. I'm tearing up just typing that. 

 

Is it obvious that they are both absolutely obsessed with that dad of theirs?!



However, this pregnancy has been the most bittersweet experience I can recall in my life. There's something so strange about being twenty eight, and knowing full well that this will be my last biological baby unless by some crazy act of God we have another in the future. This has (by far) been my most uncomfortable pregnancy, but knowing that it is my last has sustained me, and has forced me to try to enjoy the pains and the uncomfortableness and the forced rest.

Somehow, through the bittersweet-ness of it all, I'm finding myself ready; ready to move on from the "newborn" stage of our family, and to actively participate in the raising of our boys into school age and beyond. I'm ready to adopt our daughter someday; and in the meantime we will continue to pray for her, and our prayer will remain constant. That God would protect her and comfort her, and that He would lead her to our family "however and whenever and wherever she is."

I found myself in the hospital overnight last Monday with pre-term contractions. We had fervently prayed for a full term baby this time (Bennett was healthy when he was born at 35 weeks, but he was HARD. The newborn stage lasted much longer, and we were so much more exhausted). After about 7 hours of off and on contractions, they finally subsided and I was kept over night to be monitored. I was sent home at 7:00AM, and my mom was on my doorstep at 7:30 ready to help. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be sitting here almost 36 weeks pregnant had she not come and stayed with us on a twin mattress on the floor of the nursery all week helping. I've learned during this pregnancy to accept help- something I struggled with tremendously during my other two pregnancies. I've learned that accepting help is sometimes the most mature decision you can make. This pregnancy has matured me as a mom, a daughter and a person by forcing me to recognize that so much is out of my control, and I truly can't do it all on my own. I am so thankful for this last surprise pregnancy, and my last surprise baby boy. I cannot wait to meet him, and to smell his baby smell, and to feel him outside of the womb and to recognize his small gestures that I've felt in my belly for what feels like so long.

36 Weeks (tomorrow) pregnant... Now that's a belly... 

"By wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." Proverbs 24:3

My sweet husband and boys are really the most rare and beautiful treasures. How crazy that they are mine. Will you pray with us that this baby stays put for at least one more week? We sure would like him to make it to "full term"...

Hopefully now that we are in these final stages, and I am no longer working outside of the home, I can spend a little more time updating the blog and documenting these days that I don't ever want to forget; because time is fleeting and I've learned too quickly that babies don't keep.