Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Breaking the curse

In an effort to break this terrible toddler bed curse, we finally got Layla's bed frame done and put together! It looks great and her room is slowly coming together (yaaaay!!).

Layla decided that she hated the rail we put on the bed. After sleeping on the floor for a few days, she got used to not feeling like she was in a crib and the rail didn't allow her to get in and out by herself. Because I was scared she'd fall out (even though she barely moves when she's sleeping) I grabbed anything soft that I could find in her room and put them on the floor. This includes a few pillows, quilt and a HUGE stuffed monkey (thanks Dad and Cindy!).

It has been a few days and she hasn't fallen out, but she does get out of bed. On Sunday night I went in to check on her and I couldn't open the door...sure enough she was laying up against it. LOL. But as long as she doesn't leave her room, I don't really care where she sleeps.

Yesterday during nap, I decided to get a quick shot of L sleeping...something I've never been able to easily do. Ever since she was a baby she'd wake up as soon as I got the first picture in. So this time I decided to crack her door open and take the picture from in the hallway.


 Look how sweet and innocent she looks! And in case you are wondering, yes...that is a toddler sleep sack she is wearing. LOL. Her body temp has to be at least 230 degrees or she won't sleep...so when I put her to bed she is normally in a long sleeved shirt and pants, socks and a sleep sack. On top of that she MUST be covered with at least 3 small blankets. D-I-V-A. But only during the day, at night she sleeps fine in just normal PJs. Silly girl.

Anyway...so I got that top picture in and as soon as the shutter closed her eyes open. I jumped back into the hallway thinking "if she doesn't see me, maybe she'll go back to sleep". HA! I should know her better by now...I peeked around the corner and she's staring at the door like "What the HECK?!". I can't believe she even heard the camera, she sleeps with a sound spa on high...it sounds like there is a waterfall at the foot of her bed. 


What I didn't get a picture/video of was the screaming that took place after I took the picture above. I decided to just walk into her room (camera still around my neck) and lay down with her for a second. As soon as I stepped foot into the room she put her hand out and screamed "NOOOOOOO CAMIIIIIIII" that means "no camera" or "no pictures please" in Layla's language. This is crazy to me. It takes me at LEAST 20 minutes to wake up from a slumber, it takes Layla 20 milla seconds to wake up and gain enough composure to tell me not to take any more pictures of me...this must be Bryan's fault somehow. Haha.

And for the record, this will be the last picture you probably ever see of L sleeping because I will NOT risk waking her up an hour early from nap or bedtime EVER AGAIN. ;o)

Friday, February 24, 2012

Toddler Bed Curse

Enough of the screaming, enough of the crying...we are ready for a big girl bed. Layla has been HORRIBLE at nap time for the past 2 months. I can count the number of times on my fingers that she's actually taken a nap since we started potty training.

I'm fine with her not taking a nap, but she's not getting any down time. I've tried EVERYTHING and this week I decided enough was enough, I was throwing her mattress on the floor and calling it a "big girl bed". Sure enough, she started staying on the mattress and seemed really excited about her "Simba bed". Whatever works right?!

This is one of the last pictures I took of Layla's crib. Please note all the books (3), pillow (1), babies (3), blankets (4) and "lovies" (3)...and their is one McDonald's toy Smurf ("Mousie") in there too.


Bryan's parents came for a visit last week and actually brought the bunk bed's that Bryan and his brother shared. We are using one of them as Layla's big girl bed but we had to sand, prime and paint it. It is still a work in progress...only 1 coat left, then some drying time and Layla will officially have her big girl bed (sob). 

But having that little crib mattress on the floor looked so weird so we decided to let her take a test drive on her mattress. And this is where the curse begins. Yesterday we took the crib down and put all the "baby stuff" away, including the rocker that was in her room. We brought up the new twin mattress, laid it on the floor and I made the bed. The whole time we were making a big HUGE deal about it and Layla seemed really excited. 

As soon as I got the bed made she jumped in and wanted covered up. Awesome! She loves it! She just laid there and looked at us like she was really thinking about something...and then we realized she was PEEING. This kid hasn't had an accident in the house in I don't know how long but apparently she felt the need to mark her territory. So I take the bed apart and wash ALL the sheets, blankets...etc. 

She did great last night, slept all night in her bed and called me when it was time to get up. I was so proud of her! Apparently things like potty training and "big girl" beds come naturally to Layla, but eating is an issue?! LOL. Anyway, she went down for nap like a champ and even SLEPT! Holy cow...it's a miracle! 

I laid down with her for a few minutes to play after nap. How amazing it was to just lay in the same bed and play as she woke up. All of a sudden I smelt pee but I just thought her diaper was full from actually napping. Nope...I was sitting in a pile of pee. Apparently her diaper had come off during nap and she peed all over. Great...sheets off, blankets and such BACK in the wash and Layla got a bath at 3:30 in the afternoon. 

We all know Bryan and I practice top parenting skills everyday. Today, we let Layla jump on her bed. I know we are going to pay greatly for this...but I'm going to go ahead and blame this one on Bryan. Anyway, here is a video of Layla jumping on her mattress and reason #3 (starting at about minute 1:15) why we might need to hire a priest and get some holy water up in here:




The look she gives me at the end is priceless and I really wish it would have been in focus! But it is a good thing it wasn't...it's kind of like the movie "The Ring". If you look directly at it, the curse might come to your house! LOL

Barton's Visit

Grandma and "Paw Paw" Barton came for a visit last week. We had a really fun time with them and love when they come (and bring Annie of course!). Layla loved being babied by Grandma, here she is getting her lunch fed to her:


She even got to feed Annie a little bit:

Little baby getting her milk:

Paw Paw brought Layla a VERY special treat...a chocolate bear! She ate the ears, feet and hands while she sat on Paw Paw's lap. She's been taking bits on and off this week but we still have lots of bear left! 

Thanks for coming to visit Grandma and Paw Paw! See you soon!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Pez time!

Here is L enjoying her first Pez experience:




Note to self: Sick toddler + sugar = HOT MESS! But Layla and I have been stuck in the house staring at each other all day (Daddy had to work late) so what else was I going to do?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Fablous Foyer here we come!

I have a problem, I can not finish a project before I start another one. It is TERRIBLE. My focus right now should be on L's room redo but I can't control myself, our foyer was just begging to be started. I blame this on a steal of a deal table that I found at Marshall's.


I found the table for less than $90 (there's a scratch on the back but who cares?!) and had to get it. But now I had a great table, crappy lamp and NOTHING else. Pretty impressive front entrance, right? So after looking at this for a week I decided it was time to get stuff done. One Sunday I just jumped up and started measuring. We were doing faux wainscoting!

I started with where I wanted the chair rail to be. We already have one in our dining room (we also plan on doing wainscoting in there) so I used that as my guide. Measuring from the floor, my first tape line was to determine where the chair rail would be- about 30 inches from the floor. After taping the "chair rail" around the foyer, I started on the boxes. I decided how many boxes I wanted on each wall, then determined how far away I wanted them from the chair rail, baseboard and each other. I decided after looking at several other blogger's tutorials that 4 inches was a good number...and just went with it! 
Taping- DONE! Just having things taped looked better than before...maybe we should have just left up that beautiful blue stuff. Ha!

Now it was time for a trip to Home Depot. We needed a Miter saw and trim! Thankfully we were able to find the same chair rail material that's in the dining room and then just used piece of flat wood trim that we liked for the boxes. Neither of these were primed so we saved some dough there (plus I am a freak and LOVE priming and painting). Here's a quick pic of our materials:


Time to get down to business. Bryan took over from here because I don't go near machinery. He took all the measurements he needed (SO easy since he just had to measure the tape) and went to his work room to cut the materials. He made all cuts at a 45 degree angle and fitted them on the floor of his work room before brining them up to make sure they all had nice clean fits.

Next up- putting the trim on the walls! Now stop. Hammer time. Haha...I crack myself up. Using my tape as a guide, Bryan used 2 1/2 inch trim nails and hammered the trim to the walls making sure to hit the studs for maximum "stayness". Yep, I just invented a word. Also...a nail gun would be easier but we like to do things the hard way. Here was our first completed wall:
Eeek! Such a huge difference. The corner to the left is the start of our living room. Eventually we will continue the "wainscoting" there and into the dining room. For now, that chair rail is just cut at a 45 degree angle and will hang out as is.

We ran into a bit of a problem when we started to do the next wall:  


First issue with pocket door: we have a wall with no studs. Second issue with a pocket door: there's a pocket door. I have a feeling it would be no longer in use after using 2 1/2 inch nails to attach a chair rail to that side of the wall. And this is why I have my husband...because you better believe I would have just nailed those suckers up, caulked and painted the whole thing and one day realize "hey, I can't pull out the pocket door!".

So we decided to use some Power Grab adhesive ($8 at Home Depot) to "glue" the trim to the wall then the 2 1/2 inch nails further along the wall where the studs started back up. We had to "tape" the trim to the walls for 24 hours while the adhesive set, but I think this turned out to be a pretty good solution.
 Then we ran into problem #2 on the other end of the foyer. We are not continuing the chair rail down the hallway so we have another dead end.


Again, my genius husband crafted this cute little teeny tiny piece to fit snugly into the crack for a nice finished look. Pretty good right?!

 
After using a nail punch to get the nail heads further in the trim, we used wood putty to fill in the holes and lightly sanded down any excess after it dried. Then it was time to caulk along the edges of all wood and fill in any gaps. This helps things look nice and crisp after the trim is painted (aka- no gaps or cracks along the wall).  

 
We used a tube of Alex Plus and it went on very easily. Just applied at a 45 degree angle with the caulking gun doing a "line" at a time...caulking then pressing the white stuff into the cracks with a wet finger. Have LOTS of wet and dry paper towels with you so you aren't running back and forth to the sink. We also used a wet paper towel to wipe up any spills and "oopses". 
Finally we can prime and paint! Using a latex primer (because that's what we had) I primed all the trim. I used painters tape so I wouldn't get any on the existing trim and baseboard...but I didn't bother with the walls since they are getting a fresh coat of paint as well. 


Bryan didn't trust me to keep paint off the wood floors so he used masking tape to secure a drop cloth. Instead of taping the floor...he taped the baseboard. Guess I didn't need that blue painters tape...baseboard will now need to be sanded, primed and repainted. Me to Bryan after discovering this: "I'm going to KILL YOU". Bryan to me "At least there's no paint on the FLOOR". 


In his defense, all of the trim in this entire house needs redone. The trim itself is in great shape, even after 30 years! But the contractor that updated the house before we bought it painted right on the wood...no primer. So we get the job of sanding, priming and painting ALL of the doors, closet doors, trim and baseboards in the entire house. We'll be doing this room by room as we go. Talk about a lot of work! 

After 2 coats of primer and 1 coat of paint on the trim, and 2 coats of paint on the walls, our faux wainscoting is finished! We couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!


I think the first thing you notice in the before/afters is the wainscoting...second thing is my crooked lampshade. Ha! That lamp and the candle sticks will be getting a fresh coat of paint...along with the top part of the walls. I'm really thinking a light gray will look gorgeous in this room but I'm waiting to find a rug that I fall in love with to coordinate. 

Although I'd love to cross a line through this room on our to do list, I'm not going to rush the paint color decision. For now, I'll just sit back and enjoy the faux wainscoting transformation!





 

Super Bowl Weekend

Last weekend was SO much fun! I had a session Saturday morning (I'm getting busier and busier with photography!) and then we just hung out as a family for the rest of the day. On Sunday we had church in the morning and then a pool party in the afternoon! Layla had so much fun in the pool with Daddy


After the pool, it was time to head across the parking lot to our friend's house for the Super Bowl! We let Layla drive over there...she did pretty good! 

I didn't do a single load of laundry that weekend (felt SO good) so on Monday I realized I didn't have any clean socks for Layla. I looked through her dirty clothes basket and there were only a few pairs in there! Where did all her socks go?! Oh wait, I know...

Yep, there were 8 pair of socks behind her bed! Haha!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Potty Training - 1 Month later

I am happy to report that we have potty champion!! Layla is doing AMAZING, I'm so proud of her. A month ago I would have never thought that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Layla is now going on the potty 100% of the time at home (still in diaper during nap and bedtime) with no accidents! In public, she will tell us when she needs to go but we are working on our fear of the "loud potties" (aka- automatic flushers). The only time we have accidents is when we are in the car...and she typically has a Pull-Up or diaper on for that reason. I was sick of taking the car seat out, taking it apart, washing all the stuff and putting it all back together. But if that's the worst thing, I'll take it!

We are still struggling with naps because she typically poops during nap. I'm kind of hoping she will just grow out of this or start to hate sitting in her own poop...but no luck so far. She did poop on the potty today though and she kept saying "yuck! yuck!!!" while she was going. LOL. And she took a 3 hour nap! I wish we could get this thing worked out, she's not ready to drop nap yet but she's not quiet good enough to poop on demand. Ha! But surprisingly I haven't had to deal with a single poopy mess in her underwear.

All in all, I think Layla has been one of the easy kids to train. Or maybe I'm just that good...haha.

This is probably my last potty post since it is becoming a non event in this house (YAY!!). But I will recap on some things that I've learned though this experience...things that I want Layla to know when she starts potty training her children:

1. If I would have known that potty training would interfere with nap time, I would have waited until you were 5 to start.

2. You must own at least 25 pairs of underwear if you are going cold turkey like we did.

3. Socks can soak up A LOT of pee.

4. Pull-ups are not that absorbent and are not to be used as back ups in the car.

5. Your car seat comes apart and you can wash everything from the cover to the padding in the washer.

6. It takes 24 hours for padding from car seat to dry...you won't be leaving anytime soon after #4.

7. The word "potty" sounds a lot like "pirate".

8. Use a potty doll and practice for a few days "training" the doll before you get started. Use water for pee, and chocolate chips for poop.

9. Don't leave chocolate chips in the potty, dogs will get them.

10. Having your carpets professionally cleaned is expensive, just buy a carpet cleaner and clean up messes as you go.

11. Apple juice goes though a toddler in 3 minutes and 46 seconds.

12. I can read "Apples on Top" 5 times in a row...if you aren't ready to poop on the potty, you aren't going to go.

13. Finding Nemo is a LIFE saver when you are trying to get a toddler to sit still on the potty for the first few days.

14. You will know where EVERY. SINGLE. BATHROOM. in the city is located and that it takes 1 minute, 23 seconds to get to the Mejier bathroom from the back of the store. Or 4 minutes if I let you walk.

15. Automatic ("loud") potties were invented people that do not have children.

16. No matter how much pee you are covered in, no matter how many times you have to wash that 25 pairs of underwear, through all the screaming and tears, packages of Oreos and episodes of Wow Wow Wubbzy...I promise you that BOTH of you will get through this, but your life will never be the same.


Fact: 2 year olds do not like to share

Layla has started using the phrase "NO MIIIIINE" a lot more lately. We are really working on manners and she's been doing great the last few days...until Daddy decided it was a good idea to go get ice cream.



I think we are the only parents that take their child out at 7:45 to get an ice cream cone. In our defense she took an amazing nap today and probably won't sleep until 11. LOL. Someone obviously needs to tell this child how awesome we are so we can at least get one small lick of her ice cream!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Pony tails and temper tantrums

It has been yet another challenging week at the Barton household. A week full of no naps, early mornings and more screaming and crying then I've ever witnessed in my life. This is starting to become Layla's "normal" expression:


She was mad at me in the above picture because she wanted to drink apple juice and watch "why kin keen". Anyone want to take a guess what that translates to in English? Lion King. ;o)

My concession prize for putting up with the attitude this week was PIGTAILS! And honestly...I'll take it! She looks so stinking cute with her hair up. It doesn't matter if she's screaming, crying, rolling all over the floor...if her hair is in pigtails, I can't help but smile. This is a big step for Layla...next phase is "Operation Bows". I'm giving her a week of getting used to the pig tails and then we'll try something different. I'm honestly scared to do anything different since she seems to actually like having pig tails "on".

I needed Layla's help getting ready for a session not 5 minutes after I took the above picture. She was still carrying on so I had to bribe her with her favorite thing..."chalky"...guesses anyone? That's toddler for chocolate. I'm getting good at this...almost fluent in toddler actually. Here are a few pictures of happy L:

Taking her first bite of chocolate chip:


I didn't wipe the tear from her cheek...I think it is so cute!

Pigtails!! Now what to do with that mess in the back of her head...haha

Are we almost done? PS- that is snot on her shirt

In the middle of asking for "moooooooore chalky" 

And now, Layla would like to show everyone what a lion says: