First world problems

First world problems! Nursery edition.  We didn't have a nursery for Dawson. This is new territory.  We were living in a little itty bitty 1 bedroom condo style apartment in a high rise building when he was born. To say things were cramped would be a huge understatement, but we made it work until he was 6 months old.  

We bought our house in November of 2012 and thought we had a great set up for having kids.  I still think we do, but we have a couple of obstacles in trying to figure out the nursery.  We have one bedroom (currently Dawson's room) on one end of the house, the stairwell & his bathroom, then another bedroom in our hallway and then our master suite. We have a tiny bedroom downstairs that is our guest bedroom/office.  It flows nicely, but trying to figure out what placement for the kids and us noise crying wise is a bit challenging.  I'm very excited to get to have a nursery this time, but I anticipate the baby will be in our room a lot at first.

 Dawson's current bedroom shares a wall with our laundry room and is directly over the guest room.  It's also the furthest from the most noise in the house, and our bedroom.  We put him in there when we moved because we figured he would be disturbed less (little man was not an awesome sleeper.)  The other bedroom upstairs shares a wall with the hallway, and our bathroom.  Here's where it gets tricky.  Now, I love our house, and the builder did an excellent job.. BUT I could happily shoot him for not insulating the wall between our shower and the other bedroom upstairs.  It sounds like Niagara Falls when you are standing in that room and someone is taking a shower.  It's the ONLY wall in the house they seemed to neglect, as our house is an Earth Advantage Energy Saver certified home.  Dawson used to wake as a baby if you even cracked a knuckle.  To say it was annoying and obnoxious is an understatement.  How the heck am I going to get a baby to sleep in this room and still be able to shower?! Gah.  We made the decision to move Dawson to that room.  It's bigger, and he sleeps like the dead once he is out.  I'm hoping this doesn't backfire and that he's excited for a new room.  The transition might be rough.   We will see I guess, because it looks like next weekend we will be disassembling his room and moving it! 

Let the taping and painting begin! 

We decided to paint a wall (just like in his current room) and he got some new furniture from IKEA.  He even got to help Grandma K and me pick out a paint color. He's obsessed with planets, so we are painting the wall blue and putting planets up on it.  I'm going to look for some curtains to match, because his don't seem to block enough light for him to sleep.  We are going to move some of his toys upstairs and see how that works out.  It would be nice if he could play in his own room when I'm having a rough morning, or need to shower.  Then all that's left is to paint the wall in the nursery, Dawson's current room, and put the crib together.  Luckily we have used a closet system for Dawson's clothes and we just bought some more to put in his new closet.  A lot of his stuff is getting left behind for the baby and I am hoping he doesn't feel resentful.  Again, first world problems.  So many kids don't even have their own room, but how do you explain that to a three year old? 

Has anyone else moved their child for a second, third, fourth child to come?  Please tell me I'm not crazy! 

Meals for the week of 12/9

It's that time again.. I went grocery shopping today.  All by myself.  It was glorious.  I don't remember the last time I enjoyed grocery shopping! As soon as I thought that, I realized how lame it is. I really need to get out more.

Meals this week (and beyond):

Dinners 

Ham and egg cups with hash browns

Tilapia & butter & garlic veggies

Flank steak & sweet potato gnocchi with apples

Spicy mango coconut shrimp, rice, & broccoli

Homemade chicken garlic pizza

Sesame chicken, veggies, & rice

Clam chowder & rolls

Rosemary chicken breast, green beans, & mashed potatoes

Frozen homemade sheppard's pie

Lunch

Chicken salad sandwiches & pear

Pb&j, raisins & pea pods

Crackers & cheese & grapes

Corn dog & yogurt

Leftovers from dinners

Turkey slices, cheese stick, grapes

Macaroni and cheese, pea pods, and applesauce

Apples, cream cheese, and graham crackers

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs with cheese

Cereal with strawberries

Yogurt & fruit

Waffle & applesauce

Pancakes and sausage

Smoothies and toast

English muffins with jam 

I don't know if I mentioned this, but we don't grocery shop on much of a schedule.  It tends to be every 10-15 days with a few random trips for whatever staples we run out of.  I try to make the food we have last in the house, although I have been accused of being a food hoarder.  I feel more secure somehow with a full pantry and fridge.  

We had the ham and egg breakfast cups tonight and they were really delicious.  I would like to try them with more toppings.  Tonight we had them with avocado, cheese, and chopped tomatoes.  I did bake mine longer than 15 minutes, closer to 25.  Wonderful idea though, and it will be added to our rotation! 

Meals for this week (11/18)

  

Everyone that knows me knows I am probably one of the least organized people ever.  My house is almost always cluttered, but clean.  I WANT to be organized, I am just not very good at it.

One thing I do stay organized with are meals for the week (or more.)  Joe gets paid every 2 weeks and since Dawson was born we backed up our once a week shopping to every 2 weeks.  Our budget every two weeks is $150-$175.  I make a list of meals on the back of my grocery list, usually 7-9 dinners and a few easy peasy "uh oh" meals for those days that either get really busy or I forget :) 

This weeks meals look like this

Breakfasts:

Scrambled eggs & fruit

Cereal 

Yogurt and fruit

Homemade Muffins (still to be determined what kind!)

Toast & fruit

Waffles & frozen fruit

Lunch:

Tuna sandwiches & fruit or yogurt

Turkey & cheese sticks with ritz crackers & applesauce

Leftovers from dinner

Mac and cheese with ham & fruit

English muffins (made with various toppings)

Chicken quesadilla & fruit

Dinner:

Chicken burgers & baked beans

Cornbread waffles & chili

Pork tenderloin & apple-filled acorn squash

Crockpot Pepper steak & egg noodles (homemade freezer meal)

Flank steak stir fry

Tacos

Chicken cordon bleu & salad

Pesto Tilapia, pasta or quinoa, & frozen veggies in butter garlic sauce

For breakfast and lunch we seem to "wing it" a lot but I am trying to make that a bit more organized so Dawson will know what to expect.  I recently discovered as we were eating at IHOP that he makes a decision much faster if he has a picture of it to look at.  I may start cutting pictures from magazines to make a visual menu for him.  We shall see :)