Caiden goes to pre-school

Last Thursday was Caiden's first day of pre-school. It's a program called Young Childrens' World (YCW) at our church. Caiden will be attending on Thursdays from 9am-2pm. There are 11 two-year-olds in his class with two teachers. There is a Biblical theme and school theme each week along with the letter of the week and color of the month. They also attend Chapel and music class each week.

This is one of his teachers and some of his name tags from around the room.

On his first day, Caiden seemed a little apprehensive at first. I think it was because there were lots of patents and children and many children were crying, so he wasn't sure what to do. They said he did great, though, and even napped!  My mom made him two super-cute nap mat covers to take.

 And Caiden wanted to demonstrate how to use it!

Here he is on the first day before leaving the house. We didn't have his backpack yet, so we had to make to with an Elmo bag.

I'll take another picture with him with his backpack and lunch box tomorrow!

Caleb's Calming Nursery

I am SO excited to finally share Caleb's nursery photos.  I was waiting until we had one last project complete. We have put a lot of hard work into it and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Please note that the "we" includes my husband, mom and step dad. Thank you to all of them for helping me with all the different projects.

I used Pinterest quite a bit in the planning of this nursery! You can see my inspiration post here.  I didn't really have a true feeling of what I wanted until I found the fabric.  I love all the different shades of green with some mint, aqua and even some yellow. The biggest challenge in this room was the large size of the room itself. I really hate to complain about a large room, but it's quite big for a nursery. Previously we had used the room as a guest room with a queen-sized bed filling up the space.

First up, the view as you enter:

The alphabet cards were my first purchase (you can read the post about them here) and we painted several pieces of furniture that we already owned (read about it here).

I ended up changing what I planned on doing with the alphabet and put them on two painted canvases instead of a bunch of different ones.

 

I was so excited to find this mobile at Ross for $8.99!! It matches the room perfectly!

I love the bed skirt my mom made! It's great too because it attaches to the spring frame under the mattress so it doesn't get messed up when you change the sheet! A bumper would have been awesome in these fabrics, but I decided against it. I had one made for Caiden and only put it in his crib once (to take pictures).

 

Now, here's the window wall:

 

 

 

My mom made the pennant banner, floor pillow and super cute caterpillar. The table lamp was a great find at TJ Maxx. I'm leaving the wall space above the dresser plain for now. I'm hoping to find some cute things in Canton some day!

  

 

 

Then turning to the other wall:

I LOVE my cozy corner! My mom made the pillow and changer cover and the blanket was a gift from my sweet friend Sarah.

I finally found a floor lamp at Ikea! I have a feeling the boys will destroy it though, being paper and all- good thing it was inexpensive!

I ordered his name vinyl from  Just Wright Vinyl Decor on Etsy and she was awesome to work with on this custom order! The frame around it was the last project we were working on. I really want a double frame around it, but we were having difficulties with it. Maybe we'll get it up eventually!


Here's looking back towards the door:

The letters above the closet door are from the banner from my shower!

A few other accents:

I'm quite proud of this DIY project. I got the idea from one of my favorite bloggers at Positively Splendid. You can see her tutorial here. The only thing I did differently was use paint instead of vinyl strips for the white stripes.

I painted this frame to display his birth announcement and decoupaged some fabric on the "C" (both from Hobby Lobby)

 

 

I love how this little area turned out too! The basket is a painted hanging planter and I covered some cardboard with fabric to fill in the bottom because the toys were falling through :)  The prints were made by my wonderful friend Ashlee and I mounted them on painted canvases.

So there you have it. I love his room and hope he does too!

Here's most of my resources:

• Crib: DaVanci Kalani
• Changer/Dresser Combo: Da Vinci Kalani
• Bookshelf, nightstand and 4-drawer dresser: upcycled DIY
• Rug: Garden Ridge
• Table lamp: TJ Maxx
• Floor lamp: Ikea
• Paper Lanterns: Luna Bazaar, World Market
• Diaper basket: World Market
• Fabric: Heather Bailey Garden District
• Spanish Alphabet Cards: Children Inspire Design
• Wall planter basket: Garden Ridge
• Name & scripture vinyl: Just Wright Vinyl Decor

Since my mom made several projects, I'm not sure which tutorials she actually used, but these are the ones I referred her to.

• Pennant tutorial
• Floor pillow tutorial
• Bed skirt tutorial
• Changing pad tutorial

Fun with Nana & Papa

On Labor Day Weekend, Nana & Papa came to visit. We were so excited to see them because my mom hadn't been here since Caleb was born, and Geno hadn't even met him yet. We had a fun time playing choo choos, working around the house and doing some crafts. They even watched the boys for us one night so Eric and I could go on a date!  Imagine that! We had a nice dinner and watched the airplanes at the airport park. Unfortunately we had to cut the weekend short because we had been sick the previous week and were generous enough to share it with Nana & Papa. We were all heartbroken to see them leave!

My mom got some more pictures but I'm waiting for her to upload them! Here's a few I got:

Nana loves to snuggle and smooch on her babies!

Papa likes to play rough and lots of tickling!

  

We can't wait to make a trip uo to KC so we can spend some more time with them!

Caleb- 3 months

-Weight: 12lb 4 oz.
-Length:?
-Diapers: size 1

-Clothes: 0-3months, most still fit him well. I'm about to start washing up the 3-6 month clothes

- Sleeping: During the day, he can have about 1 1/2-2 hours of awake time before he naps, so (roughly) he's napping at 9, 11:30, 3, and 6. sometimes they are catnaps but i try to get him 45 minutes to an hour. At night, we just moved him in his room recently, but he's still not in his crib. He's sleeping in a RockNPlay Sleeper which keeps him cozy and inclined. he's usually down by about 8:30pm and will sleep usually about 3-4 hours then wake to eat. He'll go back to sleep again for another hour or two then wake again. He's up for the day around 7am.

-Eating: He's nursing every 3 hours.

-Brotherhood: Caleb has become interested in Caiden. Whenever he hears his voice he'll turn his head that direction, and he doesn't seem to mind how loud Caiden can be. Caiden is still so sweet, he even put a couple of trains in Caleb's lap one day for him to "play" with.
 When I was taking Caleb's 3 months pics, Caiden wanted his taken too!

-Milestones:

• He's more generous with his smiles now
• His neck is getting really strong, and he likes to hold it up and look over our shoulder when we hold him.
• He talks quite a bit now when he's happy 
• He's also started to bat at his toys hanging from the play gym.

-Other:

• he really wants his hand in his mouth and he gets really frustrated when he can't get it.

Here's Caleb as he's growing:

Here's a look at what he's been up to this month:

And the comparison to big brother: