Jansen Happenings

Hi. My name is Ashley Jansen and I have a blog-a blog I have been neglecting for a few weeks now. But I am back with the most random of posts. Just silly stuff I don't want to forget. You know....those little stories that make up life.

Miss Emery Kayt's dream came true....she got to have a sleep over at Grandma Susie's. But not just any old sleep over...a COUSIN sleep over. Over the last few holidays, Em has caught on that the older girl cousins will have sleep overs together and she has been begging for one. She missed us 0% and I think would have stayed their forever with her cousins. I was a little disappointed with the not being missed business but man am I thankful for the little girls and big girls in Em's life. 

I got to have a special little girl day with Em. She LOVES a Girl Day. What is a Girl Day? It is just a day that her and I do something. Anything. This could be going to Wal-mart with each other or this case going to a baby shower together. Every time she declares that "this day is just a Girl's Day isn't it Mommy" it makes me want to have a hundred more girl days. How did I get so lucky to be this sweetie's Momma?

And while we were out doing all the girly things, Douglas texted me this picture. I guess you could say Aug was busy doing all the boy things ha!

Doug turned the big 2-8 this week and we had a mid-week celebration with family. Em swore he wanted a cake and cupcakes, but I knew otherwise. I asked Doug what dessert he wanted me to make and I figured he would answer with one of my usuals. Nope. He showed me a picture of a French Silk Pie instead. Pioneer Woman to the rescue! The only thing not homemade was the crust because ain't nobody have time for that. I had never made homemade whip topping....lets just say I will never ever buy it again. This stuff was good!!

These little leprechauns loved celebrating their Daddy. Auggie sang his version of "Happy Birthday" all weekend and Em drew four little robot looking people in Doug's card. And you should hear her try to say leprechaun.....

Friday we celebrated Doug's birthday with leftover pizza for him, scrambled eggs for the kids and a pan of cinnamon rolls (for me) with green candles in them. Not thinking about the cinnamon rolls being hot, I melted the bottom half of each candle into the delicious center of each roll. OOPS!

The rest of the night was spent taking Auggie's crib apart and gearing up towards the first night in a "Big Boy" bed. Oh...and we watched Moana.

Times sure have changed from how we used to celebrate Doug's birthday......

So let's talk about Aug and his big boy bed. The back story is that Emery has always been the best sleeper. From early on, Douglas did her bedtime routine and always laid her down awake. When the time came, he took away her bottle and she transitioned SO easily to her new room and twin bed. Some might call him the Dad of the Year for all of this.

Auggie is a completely different story and it is all my fault. I have ALWAYS rocked Auggie until he was sound asleep and then held him even longer. We have always just melted together. Up until this past weekend I was still giving him a bottle of milk when I rocked him. If he wakes up in the night (which is not very often) I have fallen into the habit of just putting him in bed with me. The boy cannot fall asleep on this own. But he can climb out of his bed. 

I created this monster. (and I really don't regret it at all.....)

But Douglas has been on me to start laying him down awake and we also figured that him being able to jump out of bed was not safe. So instead of slowly changing his routine we went for it 100%. No bottle, no rocking, no crib. I was prepared for the worst....

But my Big Boy did SOOOO good! There were some tears the first night, but not too many and not for too long. I sat in front of his bed in the dark and he eventually just laid down and started to snore. I only had to go back into his room once that first night to put him back in bed. He sadly kept saying "Rock...rock...rock...." and as much as that hurt my mom-heart I didn't give in. Saturday he took a two hour nap with no problems and did just as good Saturday night and Sunday.

We are in no way fully transitioned because I am sitting in his room while he falls asleep. But that doesn't take long so my hope is to slowly transition to me out of the room here soon. The best part of all of this? The big smile on Aug's face in the morning and listening to him answer "big boy" when we asked him where he slept!

Nana took us out to eat on Saturday and then rode along on our Wal Mart run. The kids are always going to want Nana to go along....Em got to pick out Moana cereal (best new movie out!) and they both got a sucker. Can you say spoiled??

So that is our life lately. Nothing too crazy planned for this week except maybe enjoying these extra hours of sun. Hope you enjoy them too!