Today is a brand new day. I slept like an absolute rock last night, a third trimester miracle. Little man woke up at quarter to seven. We made scrambled eggs together and he babbled to me while he ate breakfast and I unloaded the dishwasher. I dropped him off at school, took the long way to my favorite local coffee shop, and currently find myself utterly surprised that I'm able to take a momentary breather and get some thoughts down.
January has been a wild month for our family. I have been absolutely slammed with work - closing out the company books and trudging knee deep into our financial statement audit. It's nearly consumed me - I have found myself spending my days, nights, and weekends crunching numbers and sending gobs of spreadsheets and documents to the auditors. While it's a ton of work and can be quite stressful, at the end of the day I do enjoy it. It's an official end to the year and I can close it out and look ahead to the next. It's also a reminder of how much I truly love what I do and the amazing organization I work for. I catch myself reflecting at this time each year on how grateful I am to work with such wonderful, driven people who push me and challenge me, yet give me space to do what I do best. Tomorrow marks my three-year anniversary. What a gift this career has been.
In between the hours spent working and time with the family, D and I have been squeezing in smaller, yet still important things. Like taxes. Ugh. Every year I try to get those suckers knocked out as soon as feasibly possible. I love being surprised but not when it comes to taxes, so I try to get them completed as soon as the new year rolls around to see if we owe or not. This year it was a bit of a challenge. And by a 'bit of a challenge' I mean it took me weeks to finish them. Not because I was waiting on documents (thank heavens that these days you can get almost everything online!) but because with selling a house, purchasing a new house, moving across state lines, Dustin starting a new job, expanding his finance business, and other adventures like childcare costs, home office deductions, investment income, etc I was one Turbo Tax question away from shutting it down and forking over the money to have someone else do them for us. But alas, last night we received our last outstanding document and I was able to hit the submit button. What a relief! We celebrated with ice cream in bed and D treated me to the most fantastic foot rub. Oh pregnancy, you are so humbling.
In addition to the accounting madness that has been taking place we officially moved Forester over to his big boy room. I had ordered his bed a couple of weeks ago while we had a snow day and we picked up a rug and some other room essentials while on a quick weekend trip we took to Michigan mid-month. By Friday we had, for the most part, pulled it all together - at least enough for Forester to try his first night in a new room and a new bed. It was the first time we really baby proofed something. Typically we're around so if he's getting into something he shouldn't be, we can steer him in a new direction. But we realized that if he gets out of bed he has free reign. Did I mention he also knows how to open his bedroom door? We plugged all the outlets, were sure to close the baby gate at the top of the stairwell, hid the wiring to his monitor so he couldn't pull it off the wall and removed anything we didn't want him playing with solo.
Admission: I was a hot mess. Friday night we laid him down, kissed him on the forehead and closed the door behind us, praying he'd just stay put. By the time we walked down the hall to our room and clicked on the monitor he was already up and about, exploring his new space. I panicked. We don't use a nightlight so his room was pitch black - what if he gets lost and can't find his bed, or doesn't know the room and gets scared, or hurts himself tripping on or running into something, or what if he forgets how to climb back in bed? I had so much anxiety watching him wander aimlessly that I even shed a few tears. My sweet husband just chuckled at my hormonal breakdown, hugged me around the neck, and assured me he'd be just fine. It was really tough for me to watch my baby transforming into an independent little boy. That first night he wandered around for about 45 minutes before climbing back into bed and sleeping until 6am Saturday morning. Saturday night was a little better. He got out of bed only once but almost immediately got right back in and crashed until 7am. Sunday night was the first night he stayed in bed, that is until we heard a loud thump around 11pm followed by the most pitiful cry. Baby boy fell out. We both rushed in and gave him a hug - he was so startled. But when we laid him back down he didn't move a muscle. Last night was perfection - we laid him down at his 7pm bedtime and he didn't budge until this morning. I think it's fair to say he's getting more and more comfortable each night. He loves having the freedom of playing in his room, then crawling into his bed. It still shocks me that at 15 months he's so stinking independent, but that's what we want for him. It's my heart that I need to work on. Letting him grow can be so tough.
[Celebrating the transition to his big boy room with his first bowl of ice cream! Usually we just share ours with him, but we felt he deserved his own serving. Are you surprised he practically licked the bowl?]
With the audit well on its way, our taxes complete, and the transition of Forester to his new room, I finally feel like I can take a moment to breathe, get reorganized, and focus on some other exciting things.
D and I are really looking forward to this spring. With each passing day my belly grows a little more and our anticipation and excitement grow with it. With Forester moved out of the nursery I can start to get reorganized, clean a bit, and have everything ready to go for baby #2. We recently visited our favorite growers supply and feed store this weekend to learn more about backyard chickens. For years now I've wanted chickens (fresh eggs are such a game-changer) but had postponed while we were in the city. While technically we could've had them at our old house, I really want them to have space to roam around and didn't want to take up a large portion of the already small backyard we had. Dustin has been looking into chicken coop plans, deciding if he'd want to build his own coop or if it's more sensible to purchase one that is ready to assemble. We decided last night we still want to read and learn more - maybe with a new baby, spring pullets aren't on the priority list, but perhaps this summer we'll make it happen. Either way Forester proved to us he was ready to get outside and get busy - during our visit to the store he hauled two watering pails around for nearly an hour. I can't wait to have him helping me in the garden this spring!
The other exciting news is that in 16 days our trim carpenter is coming to the house to begin fixing up our living room. I have a really tough time with patience and home renovation - I always want the space we live in to be warm and welcoming and comfortable. Our poor living room has been at the top of the list to transform since we purchased our home last October. We're finally ready to make a move and begin working on the space. We're taking apart the existing mantle and fireplace trim, giving it a bit of an update, and adding two large built-ins, one on either side. It'll frame in the room a bit more, give us storage for toys and movies and games, allow me to add some decoration to the shelves, and give us a place for the television - I can't stand a television over the fireplace. Once Brandon wraps the painters will come in to finish off the built-ins and paint the first floor, something that's been driving me a bit crazy since we moved. I've been postponing hanging curtains and pictures until the paint is done, so needless to say our first floor has been quite bare. We're pushing to try to get this project completed before our second little one arrives in early April. This is the one big reno project D and I agreed on for 2017, so we're quite excited about getting it started.
Can you believe tomorrow is the first of February? Cheers to celebrating two other mommas at their baby showers, visiting with friends, getting my last prenatal massage, and celebrating V-day with the love of my life. Happy Tuesday friends. Go grab some coffee and take a break - you deserve it!
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