Three's A Crowd

     As the time for our new little mister to arrive gets closer and closer (4 weeks now!!) we're trying to work on getting our first little mister to develop some big boy habits. One of those is sleeping in a 'big boy bed.' We really didn't want to buy another crib, and we're thinking that getting this over with now will be easier than with a newborn added to the mix.

Doesn't this bed look so cute and comfy?

     Easier said than done....Cooper, who is a great sleeper at night and nap-time, has turned into a clingy little maniac when we try to put him in his big bed at night.  Naive us thought that it was going to be quite simple to transition, but boy were we wrong. The first week we tried it using just a mattress on the floor. He did great at falling asleep with one of us in the room, but then at night he'd wake up and if we were gone he'd cry until we came back. As the week progressed, he got to where he wouldn't stay asleep very well, constantly checking to see if we were still there, and after an hour and 1/2 one night wound up in our bed because that's the only way he would go to sleep. I know... we lost the battle...but oh we slept good that night.

"I've got what I need!"

     After our defeat we decided to put him back into his crib, get a bed frame and reboot the situation. That was over a week ago; as of now we have the bed up, but have lacked the courage to try again. I think we're a little scared....trying to put off the inevitable discomfort of the situation for as long as possible. And now, to exacerbate the problem, Cooper has begun to wake up during the night in his crib some...great.

     I have to include the other issue that makes this extra difficult for us. Cooper apparently has a very sensitive gag reflex, so if we let him cry it out for too long he throws up in his bed. I know...weird and so inconvenient. This can happen if he wakes up in the middle of the night, or even if we put him to bed 30 min before he's ready. He has to be ready or we're in trouble.

     The other night he woke up about midnight crying. I let him cry for about 5 min then heard a sound that didn't sound good. I went to check on him and sure enough he'd spit up a bit. So I wound up putting him in his big bed and slept with him until he drifted off. Then I left, and left the doors to his and our room open. A couple of hours later I heard 'Mama' and opened my eyes to see him at my bedside. So I pulled him up there with us and cuddled before we both drifted off. The rest of that night he'd sleep good for a little while and then start kicking rapidly and whining. The next morning Dalton said he thought he was having bad dreams. Poor little guy. : ( Results: I didn't feel bad bringing him to bed with us, we didn't get the greatest night's sleep, and both Dalton and I had to protect ourselves from little feet.

     This brings us to last night, but before I get there I have to tell another trick that Cooper uses to avoid going to bed. We just sit and laugh when he does this! Here's how it goes:

"Cooper it's bedtime," we say as we head to his room

"Uh oh," says Cooper and begins to look around the house for things out of place that he can clean up. Then he proceeds to walk around picking up toys and putting them away, finding dirty socks and taking them to the laundry room, putting books on shelves, etc.

It is the funniest thing!! We just sit and watch him work. Then we try again.

"Cooper, come give us a hug. It's time for bed," we call from the darkened bedroom where we are stifling giggles.

He starts our way, stops, and says "Uh oh," as he has somehow found something else out of place...sometimes a piece of trash the size of a quarter that needs to be thrown away.

This is really great in a way because we clean up the house before bed every night, but we all know the real purpose is delayed bedtime.

     Back to last night: After a couple of rounds of clean up, we put Cooper in his bed and headed out. He was quiet for a little while and then we heard the crying begin. Why? We'd put him to bed before he was ready. We listened on the monitor for that awful throw up sound, hoping it wouldn't come but somehow knowing that it would, until we heard it.

     Rolling our eyes at each other we headed to his room just in time to see him finish throwing up. Dalton grabbed Cooper and rinsed him in the tub while I gathered all the dirty things, including horsey and Pluto, and put them in the washer. This is the second time horsey has had a bath this week, by the way. Cooper's not too comfortable with him in the washer, but last night he had no choice.

     After the cleanup was finished we sat in his room planning our next move. Option 1: put him in the crib and risk throwup #2 Option 2: put him in the big bed and one of us sleep with him (this wasn't a great option because we don't have a box spring or many slats right now, so it's a backache waiting to happen) Option 3: take him to bed with us. So what did we choose? Well, per Dalton's request we tried Option 1, but after standing outside his door listening to the piercing screams, we knew he was a time bomb waiting to go off, so we went back in. I suggested option 2, with Dalton sleeping with him...I used my baby belly as a valid excuse for me not to sleep in the saggy bed... but he declined and off to bed the three of us went.

 "Yes, I won!"

"Come on Mama, I'll make room for you."

     I had the giggles by this time for several reasons.

One: When Cooper gets upset it helps to distract him by asking him if he hears something, but for some reason I always bring up the roosters. I say "Cooper be quiet and see if you can hear the roosters," while putting him down, or "Cooper you better be still or the roosters are going to get you," while changing his diaper. I really don't say it that much but Dalton happened to be there both times so last night he asked me "What is the deal with you and the roosters?" After that I couldn't stop the giggles. If Cooper had bad dreams last night I'm sure it was of roosters attacking him.

Two: The fact that we are being ruled by a not quite 2 year old. Just the look on Dalton's face (who is very anti Cooper sleeping with us) as he follows Cooper to our bed is enough to send me laughing. Especially when Cooper gets into bed, pulls the covers up to his neck and gives us this big "I've got you right where I want you" grin. Then Dalton and I crawl in and touch feet to show that we love each other.

Three: Dalton's comments when we got into bed. "Cooper, how come your feet always gravitate to places they shouldn't?" and "The next bed we get is going to be King sized...I'm not making fun of anyone else for having a King size again." Just picturing us in bed protecting ourselves (well, I'm actually protecting little brother from Coop's kicks) while Cooper thrashes in the middle...I'm cracking up again.

     I know that those things are probably not very funny to everyone else. but to us, at this point in our lives, they are giggle-starters for me.

     Question: Where do we go from here? Well, we're thinking that we must go cold turkey and get the crib out of his room. For one, it's really crowded in his room with all the beds. Also, the baby's room just won't be quite right until the crib is in there. And then, of course, as long as the crib is in his room we're going to use it as a crutch when we feel weak. (Which apparently is often)

     The Plan: After removing the crib, start putting Cooper in his big bed and slowly wean ourselves away from the bed and room until  he's ok sleeping alone. (I did read some material in support of this) We obviously can't use the 'cry it out' method but I'm thinking a little crying each time is fine. I'm also going to be ok with leaving the doors open so our little bed bug can come in with us if he sleeps most of the night in his bed.

     The Update: I'll post an update in a few weeks to let you know the progress of our plan. Hopefully I'll have good news to report....and not a picture of a new crib that we've bought for Cooper.

I've been trying to think of some scripture to put on the walls of the boys' rooms. I may have found one for Cooper......

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8

   

Intruder!

     Being back in the chicken business is great, but it also brings that constant threat of 'varmints' trying to break in and kill them. With our last batch of chickens it took roughly 5 months for the attacks to begin, and since we haven't had chickens lately, we figured it would take a while for them to attract interested nocturnals. Wrong!
     Saturday night we went to town for a birthday dinner with Dalton's family. (Happy Birthday Merann!) The chickens were penned in their chicken pen/yard, but not locked in their chicken house, and when we pulled up that night about 10, I noticed some white in the chicken yard. Now chickens are about like me....when it gets dark I go to sleep and don't usually get up in the middle of the night and frolic around. As a result, my danger alarm started going off and Dalton went to check out the situation. I put Cooper to bed and then watched out the back door.
    Minutes later, after a lot of flashlight shining around the pen, I heard a shot. That confirmed it...there was an intruder in the house. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see what it was and how many casualties we had. Dalton came back a little while later and I was waiting at the door for the update. Bad news was that there was a ringtail in the chicken house; good news was that all of the chickens were alive. Yeah!!

The ringtail..kinda cute if it wouldn't have been in my chicken pen

    I haven't been the biggest fan of white chickens before...I just prefer the pretty colored ones...but that night I was glad that we have white chickens because they are easier to see at night.
     As a result of the invasion, Dalton worked on patching the chicken pen again on Sunday. The thing about this little ringtail (I'd never seen one before) is that its body is about the size of a squirrel...which is a lot smaller than a coon body. So he had to fill cracks and spaces that normally we wouldn't have thought to fill. After the patching I'm confident that we've done all that we can to protect these birds. If something happens to them now, it's just the will of God.

 Dalton doing the dirty work

Always the helper, Cooper tried to help Daddy

     While he was patching, Dalton went ahead and raked out a lot of the muddy/dirty hay that was in the pen. The pen looks much better now. Cooper also wanted to help...though his idea of helping was trying to herd the chickens around the pen and pasture. We let him have a little fun and then made him back off...we wouldn't want him to make them too nervous and hurt our egg production (which by the way is about 4 a day..woohoo). And of course the horses were hovering to see if we had any treats for them. Cooper made sure they got a little pat on the nose anyway.

 "Get along little doggies..I mean chickens"

 "Scaring the chickens..who me??"

"Hey big guy, wanna give me a lift?"

     Little Girl was watching from a perch on top of the chicken house. She finally got down with a little help from me.

"Meow...I'm ready to get down now."

     Looking forward to heaven...

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 11:6

Garden Season has Officially Begun

   
     Well, as of Wednesday, we have a garden! Dalton worked hard getting the ground ready last weekend so we could plant our potatoes, lettuce and broccoli. We put off planting them until mid-week because of the really cold temps in the weekend.
     We had church Wed. night, so it was up to Cooper and I to get things planted that day while Dalton was working.

Potatoes on the right, lettuce and broccoli on the left 

     Cooper really wanted to help with the planting so he was in charge of bringing me the potato pieces and dropping them in the holes. He did a pretty good job, except that he wanted to drop more than one piece in each hole.

Lettuce

     When we finished the row of potatoes we moved on the the lettuce and broccoli plants that I'd picked up from the store. I've never tried lettuce or broccoli so we'll see if they make it. It does look pretty great to see freshly plowed dirt with green plants sticking out of the ground.
     Once Cooper's job of handing me potatoes was finished he started walking on the row of potatoes (hopefully he didn't pack the dirt down too much), until I gave him another job of digging a hole in another part of the garden. That occupied him while I planted the other plants. Just about the time I finished he got bored and headed back my way. He's not too aware of the plants and had to be told to watch his step a few times. He has a tendency to tromp right across the plants.
     While he was 'working' the ground, Little Girl decided to come play with him. She likes to creep up on him and jump on him with a fake attack. Usually he takes the bait and chases her across the yard, but this day he kept on working.

Little Girl is preparing to attack

She leaps, fake attacks and then leaps away

" What just happened?"

     A few posts ago I wrote about planting seeds. Well, our work has paid off and the seeds are sprouting now! It's so neat to go look at the plants each day and see which ones have sprouted and how much they've grown.

     Now it's just a matter of keeping them growing until it's time to put them in the ground next month. Planting time is looking to fall right about baby time, so it will be interesting to see how all of that goes.

Green Bean Sprout

Squash Sprout

     On another front, now that we have chickens again we get to go check on them and let them out in the evenings. Cooper likes this chore, especially when there are eggs. I have a mini pail that I let him carry one egg in. So far we haven't broken one, but I know it's probably a matter of time. More good news..the roosters seem to be friendly and haven't made an aggressive move towards us yet.

     It's Saturday afternoon as I write this, and it's been raining all day. I'm glad the plants are getting good, God-sent water. And after today it's supposed to warm up and be very pleasant. Hopefully it helps our new garden get a good start growing.

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." Genesis 8:22

Fixing Fence - A story in pictures

     You have to love Texas. The ground was covered in snow yesterday morning, and today it's 77 degrees outside! Dalton was fixing fence not far from the house and when he came home for lunch he invited us to tag along while he finished up after lunch. Not ones to turn down a ride in the Kubota, we got our shoes on and loaded up. It wasn't the most eventful outing, but I got some good pictures, so I figured I'd let those do the talking. I know you've been waiting for a post without the lengthy writing! I promise I try to keep it short but then I just can't stop myself. But I will stop myself today....captions only.

     First a few snow pictures:

 Checking on the chickens in the snow

Snowing Sunday night

     Fast forward to today: 

Ready to work? 

 Do I have to get out?

This is my idea of working!

 Daddy fixing a hole in the fence

 Where's Cooper? Hiding in the shade.

 Go get Daddy, I found another hole for him.

 I think I can handle this one. 

I'm working hard Mama!

 Moving to the next spot

 Daddy's putting Cooper to work

 I'm almost there!

 Hey Dad, let me borrow this tool.

 I think this is what you do.

Yep, I think I've about fixed it. 

     You can see by his little red cheeks that it got pretty warm out there in the sun. We finally waited in the shade of a cedar tree for Daddy to finish, then headed home. Cooper was in bed and asleep within 10 minutes...workin' wore him out. 

"Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." Ephesians 6:6

Surprise Valentine's Present for Me

     On the way to town the other evening Dalton said to me, with a very mischievous grin "You're getting a surprise!." To which I replied, "I don't like surprises, tell me what it is please." Then a guessing game ensued with me trying to guess what my surprise was. Of course I started guessing things of the animal variety...

"A puppy?"
"No"
"Chickens?"
"No but that would be a good idea."
"Surely not a horse?"
His reply was a 'you know better than that' look. So I moved on from animals to other things that I would like and he would be excited about having...because it was obvious he was excited about it.

"A storage building!"
"No"
"Garden equipment?"
"No"
"A green house"
"No"
"I'm running out of ideas...."
"Good..that's why it's a surprise!"

I ran through other options in my mind but couldn't figure it out so I stopped thinking about it. My big fear with regard to surprises is that I'll be surprised and not like whatever the surprise is. Then it's just awkward for everyone. Luckily I don't have trouble with enthusiasm, so I haven't had any negative surprise reactions yet. : )

 Fast forward to today. It's been really cold, but Dalton was determined to get things done outside. He added peat moss (to help the pH) and compost stuff to the garden, tilled it and then proceeded to go work on the chicken pen. When he headed that direction I told him not to worry about working on it...."We won't have chickens for at least a month," I said. He didn't listen and headed out to fix the invisible holes that the raccoons had found last fall. I watched him with admiration (I am too chicken, pun intended, to work out in the cold if I don't have to) and Cooper and I hung out in the house.

Finally he came in and relaxed on the couch, watching the Lone Ranger. I was in the process of making a chocolate pie (can't let a good pie crust go to waste), while slowly getting ready for a Valentine dinner/dance we get to attend tonight in Breckenridge. All of sudden, while washing a dish in the sink, Dalton rushed over and said "Go to our room, your surprise is here," and shuffled me off. He put a sock around my eyes as a blindfold and let me to the front door. I started to get nervous then...oh the joy of surprises. Then I heard Popsey's voice and continued outside. When Dalton removed the blindfold I saw my surprise......

Yep, a whole cage of chickens!! Woo hoo! I was super excited, and besides the slight embarrassment of being makeup-less and in my PJ pants (remember I was in the process of getting ready), it was a great moment. We now have 10 chickens and 2 roosters! Kudos to Dalton who managed to keep me off the scent until it was time to reveal...I had no idea.

Already liking their new home

Dalton wasn't too enthused about the roosters but I say, as long as they aren't mean, the more the merrier. Now we can hatch out babies if we want and raise more chickens. Is there room in my dining area for seedlings, our 'office things' and an incubator?? We shall see. ; )

Strutting his stuff for the hens

They drove the chickens down to the barn while I put on some 'real' pants. I managed to get a little makeup on too...whew. About that time Cooper woke up so he got to go meet the chickens too. There's quite a variety, and the roosters are really pretty. It was so nice for Popsey and Mere Mere to deliver them for us too. I'm glad they got to share in the excitement.

 Mere Mere and Popsey with the flock

Dalton voiced his concerns about the roosters being loud and just as I was about to give an excuse for them they both started to crow (thanks guys). It was pretty funny. Let's just hope they don't crow in the middle of the night! Cooper was NOT happy with the crows. He was near one when he crowed and Cooper cried. He's a hen man. They seemed friendly enough though, so we'll see if they stay that way.

Admiring the hens

 Cooper's checking to make sure they have food and water

 Popsey wrangling a chicken that escaped

Coop helping find just the right tool

So, thank you Dalton for the great Valentine's present! It's a gift that will keep on giving...in fact they had an egg already in the cage when they arrived...quality chickens. Who needs chocolate and jewelry when you can have animals?

Look closely and you can see Egg # 1in Popsey's hand

"Be joyful always; pray continuously; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1Thess 5:16-17