Disneyland

We had a great time at Disneyland. The Carosel was Mary's favorite ride. We went on it twice and she'd scream every time we got off. So we moved on to other rides. We went on Priates of the Caribean and she was a little scared but did well. And at the end where you see the Parot, she was excited. I had baught her a Tinkerbell balloon and it turns out that she doesn't like Tinkerbell. She said "No" so I traded it for a Mickey Balloon.She was happy with that balloon. We met Mary Poppins but Mary got all shy when it was time to take a picture. We love Mary Poppins though.
We also got to pet some goats. That was pretty fun. Mary loves all animals including pygmy goats.

We had a pretty good time. Next we'll try Legoland (where she can actually go on a lot of rides.) and Sea World. And we'll need to go to some Aquariums. Keep you updated.

We did it!

So her room is a little messy. But as you can see, we got her a big girl bed! Grandma and I decided that a bunk bed would be best especially with one on the way. They can share it when they get older. We kept her crib in her room just in case she wanted to use it. But she didn't.

On monday we went to IKEA and found a bed for her. We got the bedding at Target. (They have some great stuff.) We built it on tuesday and put the bedding on it and she never gave her crib a second thought. She slept through the night on the first night and through her nap the next day. Pretty cool.

Here's a picture of the bedding we got. I think it's called Garden Party.

So that's the scoop. Mary loves her new bed and I'm so excited that she's learning to sleep in a big girl bed. She still gets up sometimes and opens the door and comes out to see if it's really bed time. But she's getting better at that.

Sleeping well

I think we finally got Mary sleeping through the night. Her schedule is 7:30pm to 6:00am. Not my favorite schedule. But, Mary seems to do well with it. She's an early bird, that's for sure. Sometimes she has off nights but for the past couple of weeks she's basically been sleeping through the night. Last night she just wok up once for a few seconds and then was fine. It's weird having a kid sleep through the night when you're so used to them not. At first I was a little worried because she wasn't waking up. But that's a good thing. But sine I'm pregnant 8 hours sleep for me isn't enough really. But I take naps and sleep on the weekends with Rich's help.

Our new car...minivan

Hey so we baught a new car. Or actually a minivan. I actually baught a minivan! I actually found one I liked. We got it at a great discount because it's a 2008 and they wanted to move them. We got leather seats and a dvd player. It has power sliding doors and fog lights. :) It's the gls trim with all the packages. Anyhoo. We both love it and it'll be great with 2 kids. So far it drives well and feels good!

http://www.hyundaiusa.com/vehicle/entourage/gallery/photofullshot.aspx

We found out that the poor camry needs a new transmission and the head gasket seals are blown so oil leaks into the cylinders and it'll burn oil when you turn it on. It'll be about $4000 to repair and the car's worth like $6000. So we'll be donating it to Kars4Kids. We'll get a small tax write off and then the charity will get more use out of it than us.

It's a New Car!

So our poor Toyota is dying. It's a 2002 Toyota Camry with about 130,000 miles on it and it needs a new transmission and intake manifold. We just put a new carburetor in it and new tires. It's sort of a money pit. 

I was driving along a main road and the car stopped in the middle of the street. The engine was on and vroom vroom but no go. It was like the car was in 

neutral. I had Mary with me and I finally got the car to a side road. I called AAA and Enterprise rent a car, and then went home. 

We're still discussing whether we should buy a new or used car and what kind of deals are out there right now. Rich wanted to fix the Camry and drive that, but I'm thinking it's a money pit. And it'll always be in the shop. I wanted a more reliable car.

So if we get a more reliable car then rich says he likes minivans. I wanted an SUV. But I did see this new minivan from VW. I like VW. I might go for this one. Or an SUV from like Hyundai or something.

So it'll be my job to test drive cars and narrow them down and then Rich has drive it to make sure he fits. When we figure it out we'll let you know. Good luck I say!

Bedtime!

Ok so we changed the bed thing again in Mary's room. We put the side back on her bed and turned it back into a crib. You can't really see it in this picture but the mattress is actually still on the floor. We didn't put the springs back in and took out the bumper so it'd be harder to climb out.

Then we started a different kind of sleep training. One for Mary now that we know what she wants from us in the middle of the night. We put her down at bed time and let her scream. At first if she woke up in the middle of the night we'd sit with her til she fell asleep again. Then that stopped working so she would keep herself awake so we wouldn't leave. Smarty pants.

So then now we let her scream for a few minutes every time she wakes up and if it's longer than 5 min we check on her. Pick her up and check her diaper and say "we love you" then put her back down. Then she screams till she falls asleep and we don't go back in there.

Last night it worked and she woke up at 930, 10:30, 3:30, and 6:30. She went down at 8pm. And she put herself back to sleep every time but at 10:30 where she cried for a little bit and it turns out she had a poopy. So Rich changed her and then she went back to sleep. Other than that we didn't have to go in there all night! How about that. Her voice is a little horse right now from screaming, but she really only screamed for like 2 min at a time.

I hope this means that she'll begin sleeping through the night. Because with the new little one on the way. I'm not rocking 2 kids to sleep, that's for sure.

From Christmas Time

We celebrated Christmas eve at my mom's house and we had Christmas at Rich's parent's house. Mary had a good time and unwrapped some presents. But by present 5 she was pretty overwhelmed and tired. At this point she still wasn't sleeping through the night (more on that later) and she hadn't slept well Christmas eve. But as you can see, she was a little excited about the new toys.

She got an Elmo Live! and a ball popper. Those were her two favorite toys. We got some Pooh movies and lots of clothes for when she gets a little older. We had a great time and we'll hope to be seeing the family again later in the year.