Changes and excitement

No new baby in the Stensland family yet.  But the expected little boy has sure got this Momma "nesting" and so we've gotten a lot of projects done in the past month or so.  We've also tackled the potty training hurdle with Tate.  He'll be 2 and a half come mid-March and since I wanted to try to get at least one child out of diapers before bringing a new diaper wearing baby into the home, we attempted the "one day potty training" method, with some tweaks here and there.

(Disclaimer- lots of talk of potty and poop in the next paragraphs)

On a Friday that I had the day off from work, I took Tate out of his diaper in the morning and let him run around bottomless or with his swimming trunks on (his choice).  Unfortunately, according to the plan, we weren't suppose to leave the home all day and it was just suppose to be Tate and I one on one all day.  I had an Ob-gyn appointment late morning, so we packed up, went to the appointment and ran a few errands.  By the time we were back home mid-afternoon, nap time was over and we were back to no diapers and potty training.  The time we were away from home, we didn't have any successful potties, but I didn't have unrealistic expectations either.  The rest of the evening went well, many successful potties.  And after he went, we'd put a sticker on his potty sheet and shout "I'm the best!"

Saturday we did the same thing, stripped the diapers, told him that we were throwing away all the diapers and that we don't pee in our underpants, which a phrase Tate repeats quite often these days.  Saturday was super successful, lots of pee and even some poop in that little potty chair.  That's been about ten days ago and we've had a few accidents and some trouble with pooping on the potty, but we're on the right track.  Yay for Tate! (We say that a lot too)

Potty training trunks

Onto the projects:  

We moved Tate into his new "big boy" room shortly after his 2nd birthday back in September, but just recently got the decorating done.  We kept the crib in the baby room and got some new furniture for Tate's bedroom, painted a navy stripe on Tate's wall (the same height as his height when he was born 21.5 inches, just for memories) and hung up some pictures and decor.  Tate loved his new paint, he kept asking me, "Is that my name?"  Not sure why he thought paint and name were synonymous, but all the same, funny to me. 

Tate's room

Tate's room too

Another project we conquered was installing new closet systems.  All three of our bedrooms previously had one long bar for hanging clothes and 2 shelves above it.  Since all three bedrooms will be occupied, Aaron and I have to share a closet now, so we needed to make the best use of the room available.  I did a little research on Lowe's website and got some Rubbermaid closet systems.  Aaron, my father in law, Mike and my Dad all got together on a Saturday to put these together for me.  Mom, Molly and I were in charge of keeping Tate out of the way and spackling/painting the closets as fast as possible to keep the guys moving.  So happy to have these done and a bit more organization.  Aaron and I have the best parents in the world!

Master closet (not my kind of master, but it must do)

Baby closet

Tate's closet

With the help of my Mom and sister, we repainted the baby's room, hung the pictures, shelves and cleaned up ready for baby.

Baby room

New glider put together by Aaron and Cami

 And finally, took down the super dated cream colored draperies in the living room and installed the new curtain rods and drapes.  Crappy picture, but I love them!

New curtains