Big Boy Bed

Well, it was finally time to start the transition from crib to big boy bed for my nearly 3 year old. He could climb out of the crib, as he had done it many times, but he was well behaved enough to know not to do it. I wanted to make the transition before my husband goes back to working regular hours and has to get up at 5am. Selfish, I know, but you do what you've got to do. Jackson initially did great, almost too great. The first two nights he didn't get up once. He still wasn't sure about the whole thing and he'd still ask us to get him out of the bed, so I'm not sure he thought he was allowed to get himself out. Now, he climbs out multiple times a night and even early in the morning. My solution to the issue:

The "OK to Wake" Alarm Clock. This clock is an alarm clock and night light. We don't use the night light, so I can't say how that works, but we like the other features.  This clock lights up green when it's ok for the child to wake up and get out of bed. We set the time for wake up to be 7am. This worked great for the first few days, but Jackson still got up multiple times after we put him down for bed. He would typically wake up close to 7am, so he didn't have to sit long before the light came on. This morning was a major battle. He got out of bed close to 15 times after going down for the night, then he woke at 6:30am and got out of bed and came to our room (as a side note, I was up but I use this time to get ready for work so it's my preference for him to be in bed until 7am). I took him back to bed and reminded him to wait for the light to come on. He got up 4 more times before the light came on. I was totally exhausted from some allergy medication I took last night and just did not want to deal with him getting up and taking him back to bed. I know this is all part of the "parenting gig" I signed up for when I had children, but this part is so hard. When Jackson gets up we try to the the Super Nanny thing and not talk to him but then he gets upset I'm not to him and I'm afraid he'll be screaming so loud he'll wake Hayden up. I keep trying to "cherish" this time with him and think that these moments of struggle with my toddler are fleeting and it won't be long before he's in high school. I love him so much, but he knows my buttons and pushes them on a regular basis. Hopefully week three will be better than week two and we will just keep going. 

A friend of mine asked me the other day how I handle two children so close in age and I told her there's no way to prepare for it. You just do it. You'll drive yourself crazy if you think about it too much. There are great days and difficult ones, but you get through and as long as everyone is somewhat happy and alive at the end of the day you've done a great job. 

Put on Your Big Girl Panties....

The past few months have been full of change, some great, some not so great.  Josh quit working at Lexus in May and went into real estate.  I was confident that God had ordained these steps we were taking.  When I would ask for yet another confirmation, He was there to assure me that everything would be okay and give me another dose of peace.  By the way, I've needed a "peace drip" over these past few months. Josh and I felt like his career in real estate was going to thrive and become this incredible business opportunity. Initially things went great and he was very busy. There were quite a few people who were interested in selling/purchasing property and Josh was ready to help. Some friends from church purchased their first house and we were so excited to be a part of it. Josh's parent's sold their home and purchased a new one. We really felt like things were going great, we even talked about Josh having a real estate business and his dad and brother could work with him. In July, money concerns became a topic of conversation. I was working part-time, so it was nice to have that supplementing Josh's commission, but we knew that money would soon become a much bigger issue. It seemed like as quickly as his business began to take off, it began to come to a close. I knew Josh was feeling discouraged, God has placed it on the hearts of men to provide for their family and Josh was beginning to feel the stress of that responsibility weighing heavily on his shoulders. Our first reaction was to question God. I know it's not the right thing to do, but I had no one else to go to. Josh was just as discouraged, if not more so, than me and I didn't want to make him feel more upset. God and I had some heated conversations, some desperate conversations and there was the occasional "I trust you" conversation. I didn't know what God was doing, I didn't know how it was going to work out, but I finally (after some wrestling within myself) decided to trust Him. I began to feel the confidence I felt initially that He had ordered our steps and we were where we were because it's where God wanted us to be. Josh began looking for jobs and actually got 3 job offers. He will be going back to work at Scottsdale Lexus next week and we are so thankful for this job. Sometimes Josh still questions leaving Lexus of Chandler. I truly feel that God wanted Josh out of there for a reason. I don't know why, but as these past few months have passed, I know he needed to be away from there. Even as we know Josh will be going back to Scottsdale Lexus and we are still waiting for an official start date, I know God has it all under control. Even though these past months have been difficult and there have been many tears, I know that I love Josh so much more as we've been through this. I'm so grateful that our children have really developed an incredible relationship with Josh because he's been home to play with them more than he had been. I remember when Josh came home and told me he was giving his two week notice at Lexus and after the shock wore off,  I thought that blessing after blessing would be poured out on us, financial blessings to be more specific. I know God is in control and it's difficult to think about Josh going back to a regular day job and not seeing him as much, I'm putting on my big girl panties and I'm confident that I am a child of the King and He knows what we need. He hears my cries and sees every tear. My friends, this amazing God I serve knows what He's doing and He sees each of us right where we are. I'm excited to see the new things He will do in our lives as Josh goes back to Lexus.