A Snowy Start to the Weekend

Hello, hello! Monday is here and another weekend came and went a little too fast over here. All day on Friday, we kept our eyes on the weather because the forecast called for snow. Finally, a little after 4 p.m., thick flurries began to fall!

The snowflakes were rather dense and very wet and didn’t stick to the ground at all but that didn’t stop us from bundling up and heading outside. It was Rhett’s first snow ever so we couldn’t let him miss it!

He loved it! Even when thick, wet clumps of snow landed on his face, he looked around wide-eyed and seemed to be soaking it all in. I think we have another outside-lovin’ little guy on our hands!

Saturday

Despite our family’s wishes, we woke up to no snow on the ground on Saturday morning, though the outside temperatures were very cold!! I ended up sneaking in a quick workout in our garage and it felt good to lift some weights. I am still following the 12-week postpartum program I began late last fall through Trainer Paige. If you guys would like a more detailed review of the program, I am happy to share more about it but now that I’m nearing the end of my 12 weeks, I can safely say it’s a program I’d recommend. I would consider it a no-frills approach to postpartum fitness that approaches fitness safely, effectively and intelligently.

I was done with my strength workout in about 30 minutes and grabbed a quick shower before nursing Rhett and settling him down for a nap.

I don’t want to jinx it, but we’ve had a pretty incredible victory with Rhett over the past 72 hours. I was feeling so incredibly defeated last week on the sleep front and began feeling desperate for things to change for the better. At Rhett’s 4-month pediatric visit on Wednesday, I left the doctor’s office feeling confident it was time to drop the swaddle, despite the fact that Rhett seemed to need swaddling to sleep.

I dusted off the old Merlin Magic Sleepsuit that both Chase and Ryder loved when I transitioned them out of the swaddle and gave it a shot at Rhett’s nap time the next morning. I also let Rhett cry for a little longer than I usually would before replacing his pacifier and I think that the combination of these two things somehow worked together to create some kind of baby sleep magic because we’ve now had three days in a row of 2+ hour morning naps (he was only sleeping in 30-minute increments in the morning for the past few months) and slightly better night time sleep, too. Hallelujah!

I’m still up to nurse him several times a night but he is actually going back to sleep after feeding MUCH easier (with one exception) which is a huge victory. I am praying this lasts and also know things could change in a hot second but for right now, I’m feeling grateful for some improved sleep because we needed it over here. I think Rhett was just seriously over being swaddled at this point and I’m just glad the Merlin is workin’ its magic again.

While Rhett napped on Saturday morning, Ryan and I played with Chase and Ryder while they jumped around in the bounce house  — and by “played” I mean we smacked inflated beach balls at them while they tried to jump out of the way which was way too entertaining.

Don’t mind Ryder’s construction worker goggles. Both boys have been very into dress up lately and we never know what outfits they’re going to come out sporting after they’ve raided the costume bin.

When they clearly needed a bounce house break, we did just about every single kid puzzle we own together.

I’m always shocked at just how much use the puzzles in our house get, but our kids are really into them!

Also, please check out creeper Sadie in this pic I snapped of Chase and Ryan during puzzle time:

“I always feel like somebody’s watching meeeee.” 

I cannot believe Sadie is going to be 13 next week. Our sweet little sugar-faced girl!

Eventually Rhett woke up from his nap (Ryan and I kept checking the monitor on repeat and joked that Rhett was making up for 4+ months of awful sleep) and we all bundled up and headed out to take Sadie on a walk around the neighborhood.

Once we made it back home, we spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house, doing random chores, grilling burgers and enjoying family movie night featuring The Grinch because we somehow didn’t watch that one before Christmas this year!

(Rhett’s play mat has quickly morphed into a skyway bridge for Chase and Ryder’s cars.) 

We got all of the boys in bed by 7:30 p.m. and then Ryan and I hung out on the couch and watched a couple of episodes of Schitt’s Creek on Netflix. We are waaay behind the times on discovering that show, I know, but oh my gosh it cracks us up! (I don’t know how the “fold in the cheese” scene comes up between us so often but I swear we quote that one multiple times a week. So funny!)

Sunday

Sunday began a lot like Saturday in our house. It was another cold morning so we hung out in our pajamas for a few hours, read some stories (Chase got the My Father’s Dragon trilogy from my mom for Christmas and it’s a hit!) and eventually made it outside for a family nature walk after Rhett’s nap.

Calling our walk a “nature walk” was how we got the boys to agree to ride in the stroller (most of our walks occur with the boys on their bike or driving their Jeep these days) and we laughed because Ryder spent the whole time looking through his binoculars the wrong way.

We made it home in time for lunch and then Ryan took the boys fishing while I stayed back with Rhett. He took a great nap and I used the free time to work on the computer before I caught up with two of my best friends from elementary school via Zoom.

We rounded out our weekend with dinner, some football, hot chocolate, an early evening bath for the boys, a little laundry and a little reading. I hope you all had a good weekend and appreciate you taking the time to make PBF a part of your day today!