Saturday
Saturday morning kicked off on a MUCH better note than I was anticipating. On Friday night, right before bed, I told Ryan we were beginning night one of sleep training for Rhett. I’ve been up with him three times a night for months and months and since he recently achieved the “I can put my paci back in my own mouth” milestone, it was go-time. I know talking about baby sleep isn’t everyone’s cup of tea so I am planning to share a lot more about what we’re doing for sleep training in an upcoming Rhett update, so stay tuned if that is of interest.
Long story short: Rhett blew me away and I am officially seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Please oh please let this last!!
Once everyone was up for the day, our family spent the morning around the house, playing, cooking, eating breakfast and working out. I got my garage workout in (a Burn Boot Camp leg workout) when Rhett went down for his first nap of the day while Ryan hung out with the big kids.
By the time my workout was done and I was showered and ready for the day, Rhett was awake and the temperatures outside warmed up enough that we decided it wasn’t too frigid and bundled up for a morning walk with Sadie. Well it was part walk, part drive, since Chase and Ryder wanted to take turns driving their Power Wheels Jeep.
Rhett periodically got a buddy next to him in the stroller when someone wanted a snack break, but I don’t think he noticed.
After a pit-stop at the park, we arrived back home and dug into lunch before Rhett was ready for his nap. Ryan had a big garage clean out project on his to-do list and I wanted to go through some of my clothes and the boys’ things to donate or take to consignment. It wasn’t a glamourous afternoon but it was a productive one and Chase and Ryder seemed thoroughly entertained hunting for worms in our yard and playing with some of the garage toys Ryan uncovered after months in hiding.
Some last-minute plans on Saturday evening took us out to Inizio, a new pizza place that recently opened in our area. We met up our friends Carrie and Nick and their two kids (some of our boys’ best friends) and ate our pizzas outside on the lawn area behind the restaurant. For any locals, you should definitely put Inizio’s on your must-try list. The pizza was SO good and the closest thing to our beloved Alino’s we’ve found. (Alino’s is our favorite local spot but it’s a bit of a drive for us.)
Post-pizza, we were feelin’ ice cream (shocker, I know) and met up with my father-in-law in Birkdale Village for ice cream.
Of course some lawn races with Ryan had to happen!
Birkdale Village has turf in the middle of the square and something about turf always makes our boys want to race and run their little hearts out.
We ended up arriving home past the kids’ bedtime so we did an express bed time routine and did our best to get everyone to sleep at a reasonable time.
Sunday
Sunday morning began much like Saturday! We had another decent night of sleep training with Rhett (hooray!) and Ryder cracked me up when he wanted to “help” me when I needed to pump in the morning after missing our usual nighttime feedings.
Ryder is the cutest little guy lately because if he ever sees me doing basically anything at the kitchen counter, he sprints for his cooking stand and says, “I will help you, Mom! You need help! I am Helper Man!” Even though his “help” means tasks take at least twice as long, seeing him get so into the jobs I give him and seems so proud of his efforts is just the sweetest.
In the late morning on Sunday, our family divided up because Ryan was called in to play in a soccer game again. (He just started as an alternate for a team in a men’s league and I am getting the sneaking suspicion he will be needed a lot more often than not.) Ryan’s dad kindly offered to take the big boys along to watch Ryan play since the fields are located near a park. Unfortunately the fields were also 45 minutes away and the drive plus the game and the drive home didn’t sound overly appealing to me with a baby in the mix so Rhett and I opted to stay home. It was admittedly really nice to have some quite time to work during Rhett’s nap on Sunday and I was grateful for a little bit of time to myself, too. I even started watching Bridgerton while I spent some time going through my emails and updating two old recipe blog posts. I know I’m behind the times with that show but better late than never!
Eventually everyone was back home in the mid-afternoon and we grilled out since I had some chicken marinating in the fridge and the boys wanted burgers. After an early dinner we did bath time followed by family movie night with popcorn on the stovetop! The best!
Our weekend concluded with early bedtimes for everyone and then Ryan and I read until we could no longer keep our eyes open. I’m about halfway through The Masterpiece, another Fiona Davis novel, and really enjoying it a lot so far.
Aaand now it’s time for me to sign off and get this Monday rollin’! I hope you all have a great week!
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Hey Julie! Is Ryan involved in the sleep training process or are you the point-person for that? I noticed you said you were going to start the sleep training process- does he help/how do you divide up those duties?
Thank you!!
Hi! I initially said “I” because I’m definitely the one who reads about baby sleep and formulates a sleep training plan of some sort but we do tackle it together! It basically involves someone going in to check on Rhett/replace his pacifier if he throws it out of range and Ryan is definitely involved in all of that! I’ll for sure share more in my upcoming post so let me know if you have any specific questions you’d like addressed.
OMG Bridgerton was the best!!!! Cross between a sultry drama and the Crown. You will love it! The music was great too! Listen for all the classical covers!
Enjoy your week!
Yes! The music reminds me a lot of Vitamin String Quartet! (Maybe it is them? I haven’t Googled!) Ryan and I play that station on Pandora in our house all the time and love the classical covers. So pretty!
I am SO glad there is going to be a season 2! And I am convinced that Simon will be named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man alive this year – the actor who plays him that is! The entire cast is perfection.
I’m a first time mom with. 4.5 month old and we are hitting regression hard! Have you always kept a day/nap routine with each of the boys? I haven’t and we also developed all the ‘bad’ habits in survival mode. So now we are trying to break the habits and get into sleep training soon. I feel a solid day schedule would probably help our LO at night too It’s kind of the perfect storm for us: our boy is growing out of his Merlin suit (21# 😳), starting to teeth, and sleep regressing all at once.
Oh my gosh that is a LOT for your little one and YOU to handle all at once! I feel for you!! I do think babies tend to thrive off of a schedule but that’s not always feasible so it can be hard to implement without being rigid about it. Chase was absolutely on a schedule and was a fantastic napper but we admittedly haven’t had Rhett on any kind of schedule and it’s been tough. However, I’m now paying a lot more attention to his wake windows and it’s helping a LOT for naps! Basically I make sure he’s been awake for 1.5-2 hours before attempting a nap for him and it’s been a game changer, along with keeping his room much darker and using the noise machine. Baby sleep is HARD. I’m actually working on an update about Rhett with a big section about sleep that will go up on the blog soon, so if there’s anything specific you’d like to see addressed, please let me know!
I highly suggest following nuturebynaps on instagram. They are all things parenting. They have this instagram feature on Monday nights where you can comment on their moment for mom picture (I think they post around 8PM EST) and ask anything. They give great advice!
We are struggling these days. We couldn’t sleep train our baby until his reflex let up (finally at 9 months) but he now wakes multiple times to eat :(. He will not take a pacifier and I don’t know how to sleep train without just letting him cry. I know we need to do it soon but now sure how to implement with my 3 year old in the next room…ugh. Glad Rhett is doing well and if you have any advice for non-paci loving kiddos, I am all ears!
So glad Rhett is sleeping better and I’m looking forward to your sleep training update! Would you recommend the Magic Sleepsuit?! We have tried the Ollie and some Halo fleece ones on our youngest (almost 5 months) and he isn’t a huge fan of either.
Crazy question……..How do you do stovetop popcorn??? I’ve always heard of people doing it but never know how. We don’t have a popper anymore and want to stay away from the microwave popcorn.
THANKS!!
Hi! I think you’ve posted about the chair/stool you use in the kitchen before,the one that Ryder is on in the picture, but can you link to that? My son is always wanting to be up at the counter to help but not in a high chair or anything where he has to sit if he is helping.