Lately...

 

 

Hi friends! The new year is off to a hectic start over here, how about you? I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up with this blog and the primary reason being one very cute, very demanding little 14 month old. She has always required a lot of attention, but this is next level. Ever has reached the separation anxiety phase, and oh boy, is this a good one. (In fact, as I sit here writing this she is on my lap nursing). Baby girl does not let me out of her sight. If I'm at work or out of the house for some reason she does fine when she's left with someone she's familiar with. But if I'm home, it's game over. I am not allowed to do anything without her. It's sweet and also frustrating, but since this is almost the exact age and situation we went through with Oren (see, proof!) I know it will soon pass. In the meantime I'm just doing my best to enjoy her wanting to be attached to me every minute of every day. I mean, there are definitely worse things ;)

She is growing by leaps and bounds, too! She is a dancing machine. She gives us a million kisses and hugs a day. She says ma, dad, yeah, no, wow and a few other adorable words and sounds. She understands so much more than she can say too. You can just see her little brain working when you're talking to her. If you ask her to, she can point out her hair, belly, toes, nose and tongue. And if you ask her to bring you something she almost always returns with the correct item. She's also got quite an ornery streak in her as well. She loves undoing freshly folded laundry and giggling hysterically over it when you catch her flinging folded shirts and pants backwards over her head. She loves running away from you laughing when you try to chase her down for a diaper change. And a favorite game is sneaking into the bathroom and throwing my hand towels into the toilet. She basically cracks herself up all day long and no one is funnier to Ever than Ever herself. I think this is a good quality.

Surprisingly, despite the separation anxiety she has been also simultaneously weaning herself off of co-sleeping. I'm not sure how that even works either, don't worry. When people would ask me how long I planned to co-sleep with the baby this time I'd say, "We're on the eighteen year plan" (#last baby.) But seriously, I was/am in NO hurry to be done with our night long cuddle sessions. Plus she's still waking up once a night to nurse and the convenience of co-sleeping just cannot be beat. But a couple of weeks ago she started doing this thing where she would continuously crawl out of bed as we tried to settle into sleep. Even though she was visibly tired, she just refused to lay down. After chasing her down and trying to re-settle her a few times with no luck I finally resorted to the crib. And wouldn't you know it, she settled right down and fell asleep. So now I'd say 4/7 nights a week if she won't settle down in bed with me to sleep I ask her if she wants to go to her crib and she'll nod yes. I'll take her in there, tuck in her in and sing to her until she falls asleep. Not a whine or cry out of her! Granted, I have to stay in there with her until she falls asleep, but it's like literally five minutes. It just reinforces my parenting philosophy that everything will happen in it's own time and there's no need to rush or force stressful transitions onto our kiddos. They know when they're ready...even if we're not. ;)

Speaking of not ready...Oren lost a tooth! I say lost, but really it was forcefully removed due to a huge gum abscess and infection at the root. (Why is it always, always OREN?!) It was rather traumatizing for everyone. Including the dentist whom he bit. It was the worst. Until, the next night when I realized a big chunk of the tooth directly next to the former tooth, now gaping hole in his perfect smile, was also now missing. Somehow it broke off during the course of the day and we were back in the dentist's office the following morning to have THAT tooth repaired. He cheered up once he found five dollars under his pillow from the tooth fairy but I do not wish to repeat any of that experience ever again. My poor buddy and his poor gap toothed smile. :(

In really, really, really good news though...we found Lincoln a new home! If you saw on facebook, we've been trying to re-home him for a few months now and hadn't been having any luck. Shortly after Ever was born he started acting out. Though he was never mean to her directly, he was hell bent on destroying all of her things. It was clear he jealous and wanted to assert his dominance in the household. We held out hope for a really long time that it would get better. Instead it just seemed to get worse. (She's 14 months now and the issues were still ongoing). But with the help of my friend/co-worker he is now living the good life as the only pet and companion to a sweet woman who's older cat died awhile ago. That picture up there at the top is one she sent of him curled up snoozing at her place. Fingers crossed things continue to go well over there and that he is hopefully much happier now!

And lastly in this episode of what's new with the Booths -- Josh and I celebrated nine years of marriage on the 6th of this month! We went to brunch Saturday at Trentina for a little celebration and it was perfection. And we've got a little Mexican getaway to look forward to here soon, so we're doing our best to acknowledge that accomplishment and make time for each other despite everything else we always have going on. Next year is the big one-zero and I'm already full of ideas on how we're going to celebrate that milestone in a big way. I already can't wait, and I also can't believe how fast these years are going. I guess time flies when you're having fun, right Josh? ;)

We also managed to (after months of slowly chipping away at it) finish re-doing our master bedroom. Remember this post from, oh, JULY??!! Well, I am overjoyed to report that once one final little lamp arrives that I've got on order that room is done. DONE! I'll be posting those pictures hopefully this weekend. It only took us 6 months, what's one more week, right?

So that's what's up lately. How about you guys? January treating you well so far?