Paci Passing

On many nights, our nighttime ritual goes like this:  Luke climbs into our big jacuzzi bath and plays for a little while.  Then I hop in, clean Luke up, wash his hair, and pass him on to Jeff.  Jeff gets Luke ready for bed, brushes his teeth, gives him his vitamin (if I forgot to do it earlier), finds his pacifier, gets ready for bed himself, and then reads to Luke or watches a little television with him while I have a moment (and it's often the only moment I have all day) to myself.  Jeff even locks the door to the bathroom on the way out, so I can have about 5-10 minutes of uninterrupted Calgon time.  What a great dad!

Well, as you can imagine, Luke does not go gently into the good night.  Within a few minutes he's usually clawing at the bathroom door, yelling for me  (I'm very glad he hasn't learned to say "Hurry up!"--I know that's coming soon.  Sigh.).  And while I'm usually 95% available for Luke the rest of the time, I know he's in good hands with Jeff.  So I repeatedly yell from the other side of the door ideas for Luke  ("Go read a book with Daddy!" or "Go play with Daddy!" or "Mommy is in time out!"), because I sometimes really just need a minute to myself. 

Except last night I think Luke got closer to cracking the code.  And I just happened to have my iPod handy, so I snapped the pics that will follow in a minute.

I was brushing my teeth, and I looked back to see Luke passing his paci (what he calls his pacifier--actually, he calls it a "pat-ty") underneath the bathroom door.  Hilarious!  And ingenious!  He knew it would get my attention, and for a minute it did.  Then I remembered that I actually had Jeff to cover for me, and I went back to my five minutes of alone time. 

Toddlers are so good at manipulation.  I didn't give in, though, and instead I just took pictures.  Okay, confession:  I did move the paci a little closer to Luke's reach so I could get a better picture.  :)

Bedding Crisis Averted, Fundraiser Begun

Well, I think I solved our bedding dilemma.  In case you missed the last blog post, we're transitioning Luke's room into a "big boy" room, and we're doing it fairly quickly, because my new baby nephew Austin is going to take a turn at loving our pirate bedding for a while.  While I've got to make the decision quickly, the timing is perfect.  I've learned that infant bedding far outlasts the infant stage of childhood, and I'm thrilled that my sister can get a couple more years' use of the fairly costly set. 

When I last posted I was frantically searching for girl crib bedding to coordinate with the toddler bedding I had picked out for Luke, lest I have to shop for bedding again in the foreseeable future.  And I was doing it all for my hypothetical little girl, who is but a glimmer of potential at this point.  Again:  I'm not pregnant.

In case you didn't realize it, there is a whole industry looking to sell more things to unwitting new parents than they will ever need.  We realized when we were shopping for new car seats that our friends, who had purchased the 32 lb carriers instead of the 22 lb carrier we purchased (and paid more for--grrr), had a good six months left before they had to begin the search.  That has bugged me, and it has made me more savvy in the baby/kid shopping department.

But rest assured!! 

Last night I found the most amazing website.  It's by a company called Carousel Designs.  Click here to check out their website.  It's so beautiful.  You pick out the colors and fabrics you want, and you drag them and drop them into their model bed.  You even select the wall color, floor texture/color, and furniture color so your bedding designs look more real.  Delicious!! 

I realized I could go with whatever toddler bedding I want for Luke, and, should a baby girl ever grace our household, I can customize my own beautiful bedding to coordinate with Luke's toddler bedding--but to be as girly, soft, and sweet as I want it to be.  So, crisis averted.  It's expensive, though, so I may have to start naming her baby rights now to get the money.  Haha.  I'm just excited that there's this option I didn't realize existed.

On the other hand, if we have a boy one day, we can simply click a button and order the same adorable set as Luke's toddler bedding, but in a crib set. 

Hmmm...seems a lot easier.  :)

The Bedding Dilemma? Challenge? Conundrum?

We transitioned Luke's crib to a toddler bed about six months ago.  He doesn't sleep in it, though.  He sleeps with us.  I love it, too, mostly.  He's a cuddler, which is something Jeff has never been, and I rather like having him curl up with me to sleep.  Someday (college? Ha!) he'll have to sleep in his own bed, but for now his room is so far away, I sleep better when he's with me, etc., etc. (I have a ton of reasons why I prefer attachment parenting...).

His room is still his room, however, and we need it to look nice.  Plus, every once in a while he surprises us and tells us he wants to sleep in his bed.  So, it's about time we replace his crib bedding with toddler bedding.  He deserves that.  Plus, his sweet little cousin Austin is scheduled to arrive in a month (Wow!), and we've agreed that Luke's bedding will soon be loved by his younger cousin while he moves on to a big boy setup. 

I've been sad about the change--though my sister tells me we'll get the bedding back (Great...what am I supposed to do with it then?!), and I've never been totally, 100% in love with it--primarily because it's the bedding we chose for Luke's first room.  I'll get over it, though, because I love to decorate more than I love to be sentimental.  So the challenge is on to find a suitable replacement. 

But wait, that's not all.  I can't just go shopping.  I have to get coordinating. 

Because we only have a three-bedroom house, and because we love it when we have visitors (and because I just painted the guest bedroom), we only have one bedroom designated for children. 

First, let me clarify:  I am not pregnant.  I had a miscarriage in April, and that has been a tremendous setback for us, but that's another blog post I can't seem to get myself to write......

Anyway, I had Luke's new room all designed in my head, when I realized that it would be futile to not anticipate the arrival of any future sibling Luke may have. Because they'll have to share the room. 

I love the new bedding I picked out.  Unlike the current pirate bedding, which only mostly coordinates with the rest of our house, the new dinosaur bedding would be a beautiful, harmonious, perfect match.  It's masculine, it's adorable, but it's no good for a little girl.  And let's face it:  as soon as I get the room settled into a boy room, it would happen that I would get pregnant and find out we're having a girl. 

So, it's back to the drawing board.  Stay tuned.  I'll post pics when I make a decision.  :)

Oh, wait. I'll add a pic of Luke's room when he first moved in, for posterity's sake.  Here you go!

The Schwertner Family Puerto Rico: 2011

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