It's almost impossible for me to believe that my sweet firstborn baby will be TWO next month! And shortly after his birthday, we will be greeting his new little brother, Kellen James. We are so excited about the many changes in the Moser Household. Here are just a few of our family updates:
This week, we began our Basement Finishing Project. (And by "we", I mean our amazing contractor and his crew. Nick and I have been making lots of decisions, but have not actively been swinging a hammer.) Within 15 working days, we will have a brand-new guest bedroom, full bathroom and a family room downstairs in our basement. We are so excited because we love having family come to visit us in Madison and we felt it was essential we have a dedicated guest bedroom if at all possible. I'm especially excited because we'll be transforming the basement family room into our main playroom space! Toys, begone (at least from my living room)!
I've also caught the "nesting bug" that goes around to every mommy before a new baby arrives. This week we decided to take better advantage of our mudroom space. Currently it serves as a room between our house and garage. It houses our washer and dryer, hangers, hanging clothes that I am procrastinating on taking upstairs to our closets, and buckets of shoes. It does not have a convenient place for coats, hats, gloves, bags and a more organized system for shoes. I persuaded Nick into getting me an early birthday and Mother's Day gift. We decided to add cubbies and a bench to that room for easier storage and quicker transitions in and out of the house. I'm so excited for our new furniture to arrive this week! I'm hoping Nick will assemble next weekend so we can start enjoying our transformed space. Pictures to come!
Another January task has been looking into preschool programs for Luke for this fall. He'll be just 2.5 at the end of August, but I thought it would be so beneficial for his verbal development and social skills to join a classroom where he's asked to follow directions from a teacher and interact with other kids his age. I'm excited for him to have this special experience, especially since his world is going to change this spring when his baby brother arrives. Looking into preschools has proven to be overwhelming. Nick and I have had to decide between a Christian preschool experience or a highly academic preschool experience. We had to consider the affordability for our family. Most importantly though, I want to choose the best environment for Luke to learn through exploration. The competitiveness has been the most overwhelming to me; we're feeling the pressure to get our applications in promptly, else we risk the program filling up too quickly and Luke missing out. Because it can be so easy to fall into the competitive spirit, I've decided to let God take the lead and show us the best program for Luke. If a school is full by the time we make the decision to apply, we have our answer.
Finally, a few updates on my sweet nearly-two-year-old! Luke has been holding my hands frequently lately. I've treasured these moments, as I look down at his tiny hand clutching mine. I've been teaching him to walk in parking lots (holding my hand!) since I have a feeling I'll have my arms full with Kellen very soon. Even on sidewalks, Luke is frustrated if I don't offer my hand. It's going to be so hard when he decides he's big enough to get by without holding my hand.
Luke's been talking so much more, still primarily one word at a time (not two word phrases). Some of his new words are "boon" (balloon), "biaper" (diaper), dog, up and down. I know he says lots more, but those are the ones that come to my mind! He's also started calling his milk "no no"... but I think I may be at fault for this one, since I'm always saying "no, no, we can't thrown our milk". Oops. Lesson learned...
We've started gently introducing the idea of going potty on the toilet. Just before Christmas we got a small potty for Luke's bathroom and would talk about the potty. Since we've been back from Indiana, he's gone potty on his new potty twice. We cheered him on the whole time! I know that potty training is a hard task, but I'm trying to introduce it in a gently and without pressure. I'm sure more updates will come on the potty in the coming months (or years...?).
This month is flying by, as will our entire winter and early spring. I've started planning Luke's birthday party and we can't wait to have friends over to enjoy our new playroom when it's finished in a few weeks!
