New Hair

I finally decided to take the plunge. For the past 6 months (or longer!!) Ive been trying to grow my hair out. Mostly because my dear husband would love to see me with long hair. I even permed it in an attempt to get through the awkward in between stage. Well, my hair was fried and super dry by the end of the perm and a few colors later, so I made a big decision. Time to cut it off!! Yup! Ive had short hair before, and although its been probably 5 years since Ive had it this short, Im so glad I made the decision!! I love love love it, I pretty much have the best stylist in the world! Not to mention she's my friend from when I started working in the salon & spa world!!

Are you ready to see it? Here are a few pictures!

Before Hair (this was just last weekend!!)

 AND NOW!!!

Weekend away, and a 2 year old boy

Oh my, its been almost a week since I last posted!!

Where have I been you wonder? Out of town actually. We have had some family visiting from England and when they were heading out of town for a few days with my parents to visit some other family I thought we'd take up the offer and go with them! It was just Eli and I, poor Andy had to stay home and have the whole quiet house to himself for 2 nights. He was lucky if you ask me!

Eli did great, and loved seeing family. I love seeing him with my extended family. He loves them so much, and just gets what he wants! Lucky boy. He got to stay up late as well (which Im paying for today, with a very bratty/crabby 2 year old!!) and eat a lot of junk.

Off we went for 2 nights (thursday-saturday).

It was also a pleasure to spend time with our family from England, its been forever since we saw them, and so the visit was great! Id love to go visit them sometime, maybe one day!

Once we got back on Saturday, we were both exhausted and just relaxed. I was able to go out with my best friend for some drinks in the evening, and the quiet girl time was much appreciated! Nothing like a few long island ice teas and your best friend to make you feel happy!

Sunday was a busy day as well. Church in the morning, and then I cleaned in the afternoon. Not so bad all things considered though.

Then today. Oh today.... how Im glad its over! Eli was a crabby, 2 year old today, and he was either one extreme or the other! One moment he was happy as could be, the next he was screaming his head off. We went to the mall to get a few things done, and Eli wanted to ride the glass elevator. So after riding it up and down 5 or 6 times I told him he had one more time and we were done. Finally when we stepped out of the elevator he lost it, and was clearly not ready to be done. Too bad for me we were on the opposite end from where we parked. I had to carry my screaming 2 year old through the whole mall. I know now how those other mothers feel that I once stared at. When we arrived at our vehicle I placed him down to open the door and when I turned around he was GONE!! I stepped back to look behind my vehicle and a young woman walked past and said "he went that way." "UGH!!!!!!" I actually, replied. Once I saw him I followed him down and what did he do. The little boy ran even faster!! Then when I picked him up, he wound up and hit me! I told him we dont hit, and he continued to hit me, over and over and over. It honestly took everything in me not to hit him back! I was so angry. Words cannot express how angry I was, however I did keep my cool. When we got home he had lunch and went straight to bed. I know that the reason he acted out like this is because he is exhausted from the weekend and staying up too late. However, that does not make it okay to hit and run away in a parking lot.

So theres the update!! I love being a mom of a 2 year old, but it does have its days!!

Here are a few pictures from our time away!!

 Walking down the beach with his great aunty!! I love this picture!!

 Shoulder ride with Papa!!

 Eating chips!!

 Playing with playdoh! Apparently, it looks like something must've been gross!!

Would you believe Eli took this picture of me?

Window of opportunity

When it comes to potty training, Ive heard a few things. Ive heard that for most kids there is a window of opportunity and once you pass that window up then it may be waay harder than before.

Im wondering if this is my window. As you probably know, Eli pretty much pooped trained himself when he was less than 18 months old. He did this on his own, without any encouragement or pushing from us!! You can imagine how surprised we were!! But its great, he sometimes has accidents in his diaper due to busyness or being distracted, but generally he'll come and tell me when he has to go, and off we go to the potty! Its great! I also attribute him poop training himself to the cloth diapers. Thats another story though!

So Ive brought out his little car's potty and have it hanging around, Eli is very busy but generally if he is being busy while butt naked he'll stop to go to the potty! This last week I was asking him quite often, and when he was naked (like I said!) he'd take himself to his little potty! This morning, Eli and I took a shower together, and as I was getting ready he was booking it around the bedrooms naked as can be, and next thing I know he comes running into the bathroom puts his potty seat up, sits down and pees!!! Then 5 minutes later he does it again! I was so shocked & proud!! He is not even 2.5, man, he is only 25 months old! Weather or not its true, I've heard boys can be harder to potty train than girls, so maybe I need to scoop up my chance and take a few days to do this for real!

He is definitely interested in wearing big boy underwear because when he gets dressed he asks for "undies". 

The hardest part is that because he is so busy, staying in the house for 2 or 3 days is almost unrealistic! He gets very bored and needs some sort of outside stimulation! But I suppose 2 or 3 days is nothing in the grand scheme of things!

So lets hear your potty training tips, and what worked for you!! I need some feedback, because I dont want to pass up this window of opportunity and regret being lazy! I think if anything its me thats not ready for him to be potty trained!!

Hello, this is my 2 year old Eli

My dear son has been showing me his 2 year old side lately! The past few days actually, more than anything.

Where do I start? Maybe with the horrible sleep he had on Wednesday night which I suspect may be the real issue. So lets start there.

Wednesday night I went to go check on Eli and he had fallen asleep on the floor. He was on his stomach but close to the bed so I picked him up and put him into bed. Bad idea. He woke up and was ready to rumble. Basically in his mind he had had a small power nap and was ready for the night! He didn't go to sleep until after midnight.

Yesterday he was exhausted because he hadn't slept well, which I can't blame him. I was in a mood too because I hadn't slept well because he kept us up.

Now today however is a different story. He slept great last night, and woke up around 7:30am. We had breakfast, and started our day. He didn't want to take his sleep sack off, or have his diaper changed, okay fine. I didnt push it. He wanted to play with Andy's drill, okay I got the mini drill so he could see it and "fix" things. The battery wasn't on it, and Eli was right P.O'd about that! He told me I needed to fix it, and get the battery. He then had a tantrum about that. We got ready for the day and headed off to the bank. As we stood in line he told me he needed to used the bathroom. So off we went to the bathroom. He didn't go. Back in line. He was touching everything, and not listening. When I told him that if he didnt listen to me he couldnt have a cookie at save on foods, he crossed his arms and turned his back to me!! But he didn't put his face in the floor (Thank you, Lord!!) in the middle of the bank. So the list goes on about the upsets at save on, and then we got home where Eli decided he wanted chips before lunch. Not happening! He proceeded to scream his head off, and thrash on the floor.

I know that he is 2 years old, but oh boy is he ever teaching me patience! Some days are so awesome and other days are lets just say challenging. But Im glad to say that I honestly start laughing when he throws tantrums like this because what good does yelling do? Like I said,  Im really learning patience these days!! Thanks Eli.

 This is how it starts!! Up on the tippy toes, body tenses up, and the whine. Isn't he cute??

Maybe I should be a plumber!!

Go ahead and laugh, but Im so thankful for a handy husband! Honestly, the handy men in my life mean so much to me... but especially my husband!!

For those of you that know us well you'll know that my dear husband is a plumber. He is also a jack of all trades as well! He worked doing landscaping, he did dry walling for some time, and the list can go on!

We're doing lots of work in our house and one of the things we're both antsy to get done is our basement. We want to make it more enjoyable for us, and right now its just an empty space that is being wasted. One of the reason's its being wasted is because the electrical outlets dont work down there. It can be a good thing when you have a 2 year old playing down there, you know he's safe and wont hurt himself!  But you cant do anything down there because there is no power! Well my brother in law is an electrician and came over on a whim (and last minute!!!) to help figure out the issue!! They figured it out and did it! There is power in the basement! Andy came home this afternoon and went straight downstairs to put in some new electrical boxes! He is so handy! I love it!! Now to do some drywalling, and new carpet and we're good to go down there for a hang out area!!

So after supper, andy went upstairs to go shower and I cleaned my house. Vacumned, and then to wash the floors. Before that I had gone to get groceries, and cleaned the fridge out. Bare with me, this is an important part of the story! While cleaning out the fridge I dumped some pureed vegetable soup in the toilet and continued cleaning. Then while I was vacumning I noticed I forgot to flush the toilet when I dumped the soup. So I flushed the toilet and it started doing its thing.... except it didnt go down it started coming up. "Oh no! Please, stop, dont overflow! Nooo, please no! ANDY!!!!!" My dear plumbing husband was in the shower and there was no point in yelling for him! "Eli, stay out of here, please!!" Then I ran upstairs into the bathroom "Andy, the toilet is clogged, wheres the plunger?!" "Downstairs." So I run downstairs, grab the plunger and go to plunge. except one problem. The toilet is overflowing already, and if I stick the plunger in it will overflow more. Really?! I then ran upstairs again and said "Andy, the toilet is overflowing everywhere, I need your help!!" He said "Shut the water off, and plunge it, Im coming downstairs." So I did that, and proceeded to stick the plunger in causing more water to overflow all over the place, but the toilet did unclog. I was completely stressed out, and then my dear husband helped to lighten the mood by saying "Well, you could be a plumber!! You did the exact 2 things a plumber does. 1) Turn the water off, and 2 unclog the toilet! Good job, Karla!" We had to laugh, and it helped to lighten the mood. At least it was just soup, and not other things over flowing the toilet bowl!

So, like I said Im so thankful for a handy husband who can walk me through how to unclog the toilet, fix electrical issues (with some help from our BIL) and last night he even finished one more step of the cabinets, by installing the toe kick!! I love my man!!

Too Long

Alright, Im sorry its been a week since I posted last!

Things have been good, and in fact its been a very relaxing week. Very quiet and not too much on the go! Its been nice.

Eli has done wonderful in his big boy bed! Im so proud of him! The transition has had its ups and downs, but so far things are pretty good. The hardest part, or maybe I should say the most challenging part has been nap times. One day he will fall asleep without messing around in his room too much, and other days (like Friday!) he farted around for a good 2 hours before finally falling asleep. I tried everything to get him to stay in bed, and sleep. At one point I heard him slamming around, went upstairs and he wasnt in bed, and I couldnt see him in his room. "Eli, get out of the closet." The closet door slowly opened and out walked Eli. I had to laugh! But all in all he has done good. Bed time he goes down very easy, and says to us "Stay bed??" In the morning he will either knock on his door if he cant open it, or slowly make his way into our room, and sheepishly check if we're awake. So beautiful!

This evening my brother in law and I bottled our red wine, which was actually the Cabernet Savignon. Ya see, here's the thing. Since we know nothing about wine we accidentally put the wrong labels on the first batch of wine!! The first batch was Chardonnay!! Oops. At any rate, we had a nice supper and then bottled our wine and relaxed for the rest of the night! My little sister (who isnt so little anymore!) drove me home and what do you think the chances are of us running into a check stop. Not very high. In the 7 years Ive been driving, Ive never ran into a check stop, and tonight was the night we did! Well luckily for us we hadn't been drinking. You probably have a hard time believing that we were bottling 31 bottles of wine and didn't drink. Katherine didn't drink, she tried one sip, and I had maybe 4 sips of wine, but that was it. Not even a full glass!! Kind of ironic and funny I think!!


Thats the just if our weekend. Like I said our week was fairly quiet. We spent alot of time outside (when it was nice and not raining!!) and sure enjoyed it! I dont mind the rain so much because it sure makes us slow down, and relax!!

Ill post some pictures of the last week or so, and our wine soon!!

Its a hit!

The big boy bed has been a hit!! He really hasnt had any issues! When we put him down he will generally get up and pull at the door and then once he hears one of us coming upstairs he runs back into bed and thinks he's in trouble!! Its kind of cute, because we've never indicated that if he gets out of bed he'll be in trouble, but back he runs. It reminds me of being a kid, and I know exactly what he's feeling!!

His sleep hasnt been interrupted in any way, shape, or form! In fact, both nights he slept in later than usual! His nap time yesterday was incredible, over 3 hours!! Makes me so happy, I cannot even express! I had alot of people caution me and tell me not to do it, that if he wasnt officially climbing out to leave him in the crib. This caused me to be extremely anxious, but one thing Ive learned is that I need to trust my "mom gut". When it comes down to it, I know whats best for my child, even though Ive never done this before. Eli is the trial and error kid I suppose... mind you Im sure child #2 will be as well!!

Andy is doing his motorcycle training course this weekend, so Eli and I are spending lots of time together. Im really enjoying it! We got groceries this morning after sleeping in, then came home, set up his swimming pool and he played in the water for a bit! He was so happy to be in the water splashing around!!

A funny thing happened yesterday as Eli and I were getting ready to go to my parents place. One of Eli's favorite lines is "Papa, fights fire!!" When I told Eli we were going to visit Papa & Grandma, I said "Does Papa fight fires, Eli?" He said, "No." I asked "Oh, what does Papa do then?" He proceeded to make a siren noise like a fire truck. Had to laugh, kind of neat association he has. 

Here are a few pictures of the past few days, and what we've been up to!