Weaning off the pacifier

I have been thinking about weaning Aaron off binky when he turns 2. He asks for the binky every time before he goes down for a nap. He's been quite attached to the binky since day 1 he was at the NICU. I guess it might be a tough habit to break.

I put him down for a nap as usual today and then I saw him waking up after a couple hours without a binky in his mouth.  I didn't think anything of it as he might have just dropped the binky on the ground or something. Then when I went into his room I noticed the binky was actually on his dresser, which means I didn't even give it to him in the first place. How amazing that he didn't ask for it and went down for a nap normally. I guess I should start not giving him the binky from now on and see how it goes. I hope it won't be too painful for both of us. ;)

guilty!

First Easter Egg Hunt

Update - Aaron has been crying right before going to sleep in his own room. He wouldn't want us to leave him there alone and wouldn't stop crying until I give him the binky. I think he must be scared and needed some sort of security, so I gave in and let him have the binky at night. Daddy has been taking it back out before going to bed so he doesn't have it all night long.  Amazingly, Aaron is already getting more comfortable sleeping alone and hasn't used the binky at night! I love how kids adapt to new things/environment so quickly. 

Auntie Melissa was so kind to invite us over to her place for Easter Egg Hunt. Aaron had such a blast running around the house and the backyard. He was actually kind of interested in hunting for the Easter eggs for awhile before moving on to playing with the water. I can't believe how wet he got by the time we left Melissa's house. I guess that's what kids do right? I guess I need to start bringing a change of clothes for Aaron in case he gets wet/dirty (which seems to happen more and more often as he grows). 

Sleeping alone for the first time

I was planning to setup the pack'n play in Aaron's room and put his crib in our room before we move in, however, the movers put Aaron's crib into his room and packed our room full of boxes that we can't even get through. I guess Aaron has to start sleeping in his own room tonight. I am foreseeing a very unhappy toddler crying before bed and in the middle of the night.

I wonder how many nights will it take him to get used to his own room, on top of living in a complete new place. I really don't think letting him sleep by himself in a new place is a good idea, but oh well I guess he can eventually get used to it, right? ;)

At least he seems happy reading bedtime stories with daddy in his room. Let's see how the sleeping go...

The Big Move

2 days is what we've got for packing up and moving everything to our new home. Our new place is located in the Willow Glen/Cambrian area which is a better school zone for Aaron. Even though this is not a single family home as we preferred, it will be a nice little home for us for the next few years until we find our dream home closer to Palo Alto.

Finally made some good progress in the kitchen, piling up all the boxes and have them ready to go when the movers come. I have no idea how and why I have accumulated all these stuff over the years. I guess I have officially become a hoarder and I need help *LOL* I can't seem to throw away or give away anything, everything seems to have a purpose (somedays). What's wrong with me? I seriously need to stop buying more junk that I think I "might" need to use. It's painful every time we move and apparently we have been moving around quite a bit.

So before we junk up the new place, here are some pictures of how it looks like -

Closing today

We finally closed on the new townhome that we've been waiting for on Friday.  I can't believe it has been taking more than 2 months to close a home in CA, but I guess we are home owners once again. We've been wanting to buy our own home since Aaron was born as he didn't have his own room and there was not much space for him to roam around.

This new home we are moving into has a better floor plan so that Aaron can play on both floors. We are planning to move him into his own room and setup a play room for him on the first floor. I hope he will enjoy our new home and adapt to all the changes quickly. Now the challenge is to finish packing up everything and move in 2 days! Wish us luck.

School keeps Aaron busy

Since Aaron started going to the mommy-and-me preschool, his schedule is pack all week. Going to school 2 days a week, Gymboree 2-3 days a week plus miscellaneous activities at the library are keeping both momma and baby busy busy busy. We don't even have extra time to see friends or to go to the museum like we used to, not to mention how I want to sign him up for swim lessons and music class. I thought I was going to take it easy and let Aaron have a stress free and easy childhood, how did that turn out to be so packed with activities every day? Am I doing the right thing to keep him busy? Or is he doing too much? I wish someone could tell me am I doing things right for Aaron sometimes as I have no idea how to raise a kid at all. It's frustrating to muddle things through but who doesn't do that with their first kid?

Terrible 2?

The older Aaron gets, the more he's driving me insane sometimes as he's having his own mind on doing or not doing the things I want him to do (usually drinking his milk or eating his meal properly).  I am not sure if he's not hungry or he's just not in the mood of eating/drinking most of the time because I can never starve him like other people have told me to or whatnot.  It just seems like this little guy is never hungry and doesn't need any food.  He's quite weird that he doesn't even snack much when I observed how other kids just couldn't wait to finish their snacks at school.

He made me so mad yesterday when he wouldn't drink his milk at all after waking up from his nap. He just wouldn't drink it no matter how hard I tried. I let him look at his books, play with toys, and even watch some of his favorite videos on youtube. Nothing seemed to work and I just had to put him in timeout.  He got so upset and just stayed on the ground for the entire time (probably 20 minutes) until daddy came home to rescue him.

The more I have to deal with these frustrating situations, the less patience I have.  Sometimes I even doubt that if I am qualify to be a mother when I cannot even control my temper that well. I get so flustered whenever Aaron is not listening to me. I feel so lost and I can't help but yell at him. I definitely don't think yelling is going to solve anything as he doesn't seem to respond to yelling very well either. I then found out that he might not have been feeling that well yesterday when he woke up with snotty nose this morning. Now I feel so bad that I yelled at him and couldn't have been more patient with him.

I've always known that I am not the most patient person in the world, but being a mother and working non-stop brought out the worst of me. I get frustrated and lose my temper easily on a daily basis.  I am starting to not feel great about being a mother the way I am. I don't think it's healthy for me nor my baby with my mental state. I know I need to change as it's going to be more and more difficult to take care of Aaron when he's growing into this little person that has his own will.  I think this might be God's plan for me to improve myself in something that I've always lack of. I hope I can overcome my temper issues with God's greatest gift (Aaron) someday.