Back into the swing of things!
We made it back to Texas and started our “Fall semester.” At least that is how I am thinking about things.
This “semester” we are doing swimming, gymnastics, toddler time at the library, homeschool, and something called MomLife at a non denominational christian church here in Waco. For me, as a mom, I like to get out once a day. The best time is between 10-12. This works well for me and Blakely but Bronson does get sleepy at that time. He will take a 45 minute nap on the go but we probably could be better with letting him sleep. After we get out for the day, we come home, eat lunch, do home school and then some screen time. I try and stick to one hour and make it a learning show. That means, either Daniel tiger, sesame street, tumble leaf, or something along those lines. Sometimes when I know I need some extra time I will let her watch a Disney show. After that, we do some sort of activity which is something around the house or she helps me cook dinner.
Bronson will hopefully take a longer nap when Blakely is doing screen time so I have a moment to relax or get stuff done that needs to get done. It’s been working well!
Blakely is getting taller! She now fits in 4T clothes. Her hair is getting longer, it’s so fun to see her grow. She is a spunky little girl. She loves to learn and wants to be involved. She is a social butterfly and loves to play with friends. Swimming is going well and she can make it across the pool by herself. That looks like rolling over on her back to take a breath but that is ok! My nerves as a mom have benefited from having her in swimming. I recommend it! Gymnastics is good as well. I feel kids 2-5 will benefit from swimming and gymnastics the most as it helps them move and understand their body.
Homeschool is still going strong! There are some days she isn’t very into it but most of the time she likes the 1 on 1 time with Mom and the activities we learn. It’s so satisfying when we pass a sign out and about and she says “Hey, it’s the letter A” or another letter that we are studying. There is another lesson plan called “learning to read in 100 lessons or less” that I want her to do as well. Catching her reading (looking at the pictures in a book) by herself is also a really satisfying mom moment.
Bronson is a dream baby! Oh… my heart sings every time I pick him up. His front two teeth finally popped through and his smile is even cuter. He is so close to crawling. He can sit up by himself, spin on his belly, and do a sort of army crawl. He is also very outspoken. Meaning, he is usually making some sort of noise. When he gets tired he just kind of sings one note until he drifts off to sleep.
A few things to note about Bronson. He likes to purr. He does this trill thing in his mouth that sounds like a purr. I do it back to him and he smiles. Not sure what we are communicating but from his reaction, it’s a good thing!
Also, Bronson is such a smiley guy, he will smile in his sleep. It makes me so happy.
When we got back from AZ I was really nervous we would have to sleep train. I go into flight or fight mode when I hear by babies cry so sleep training is really difficult for me. But what is the alternative!!!?!!?!? Well, we put him in a different room in a crib as he was rolling around and he would wake up about every 10 minutes, 3xs in a row, then finally fall to sleep. After about 3 days of that (and a lot of mental preparation for sleep training) I asked Ben to go and bounce him back to sleep as I knew he wasn’t hungry. Ben comes in 3 minutes later with a baby asleep in the crib. I asked, “what did you do?” and he just laid Bronson on his stomach and he went right to sleep. Since then, I nurse him till he is sleepy then flop him on his stomach. To this day, it’s still working!
What we are dealing with now is him walking up about every 4 hours. Mama needs some better sleep. So… we will figure that one out. But oh how we love our Bronson boy and are so blessed to have him in our family.
Im still in the Young Women’s at church, and Ben is the secretary for the Elders quorum. The weather finally cooled down, and we are preppeing for the holidays. Here are some fun things we did this month.
Austin and General Conference
We went and spend the weekend in Austin with Jen and Candace. Our first stop was Barton springs! Blakely didn’t love the cool water but Bronson didn’t seem to mind so much!
It felt so good to get in the cold water.
MomLife
So Momlife is interesting and also amazing. It was $30 for the whole semester! The women of this church are so kind and giving. The child care is amazing and the lessons they give on parenting are good to hear. A few other moms from the ward go with me and Blakely has a fun crew to play with afterward.
We also love playing with friends!
The weather finally cooled down and we are thinking about Halloween! I think I will do a Frozen themed party for the kids party and found a kids Elsa outfit off the marketplace. Not bad for $15!
Everything Breaking
So we had this random week where everything broke. First it started with the battery in our car breaking. I walked the kids to the local Harbor Freight and got a charger but it didn’t work. Ben ordered a battery from Walmart and had it delivered to our house. He installed it and it worked! Well, it was the next day that our AC stopped working. Well, September is still really hot for Texas. It was pretty miserable. I am surprised how well I kept it together. It was like 90 in our house at night… The last thing that broke (which made the heat situation worse) was our ice machine! Ugh… it was rough. We ended up having to get another compressor but it’s working now! PHew!
More to come!
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