The Kavanaugh Report

37 weeks! And, I've made it to full term. I'm really hoping Nora decides to stay in for a little while longer though. There are so many things that I want to get done before she is born -- finish our meal plans for this month, meal plan for next month, get the nursery essentials set up, clear the camera cards, sort/purge and rotate Henry's toys, clean the house, and pack a hospital bag.  Some of these things are attainable, and some I've had to let go of. I have been getting some work done but I'm pretty much on the work-for-15-minutes, sit-for-15-minutes schedule.  Otherwise, I'm feeling so-so. Minnesota went from winter to summer in about six days. With temperatures in the upper 80's pretty much overnight, I've been swollen, slow and sore. I've also had a bunch of pretty painful contractions. Thankfully, they are doing their job and at my OB appointment yesterday I was 2 cm dilated. I know this doesn't really tell you when labor will

Any long time reader of this blog knows that I love using Montessori principles in my home. However, I've also been pretty honest about how overwhelming taking the plunge into Montessori can be. While I really believe it's amazing for children and families, it can be really different from mainstream parenting. And, traditional Montessori training programs are expensive and time consuming; something most families simply cannot afford.  Thankfully, there's a great, affordable option available for families looking to learn about how to use Montessori at home -- Montessori at Home! eBook and Printables Bundle by John Bowman. This wonderful eBook is PACKED with information about how to start using Montessori ideas at home for children ages 3 to 6. The eBook doesn't just include information about traditional Montessori work, but how to use these principals in everyday life. How can we encourage independence at mealtimes? How should we handle the use of technology? Wh

Henry is very interested in the sounds each letter makes and what letter words start with. I've been encouraging this interest in variety of ways through our tot school trays, but I wanted another option for him. A DIY Montessori sound object box was perfect since it combined small language objects {another favorite for Henry} and letter sounds. This post contains affiliate links at no cost to you. The Montessori sound object box is a work where children can place small objects in the box that corresponds with the object's beginning sound. It could be one object or several depending on how many you have available.  In my case, I found the box with 25 compartments at a thrift store for $4. So, I decided to DIY the project. It was super simple! I just used acrylic paint to paint each letter into its compartment. Since X doesn't technically have its own beginning sound, I decided it would be alright for it to share with Y. {And, yes I realized with these pictur

I've made it to the last month! There's less than a month until my due date. This is all crazy to me. Morgan and I started trying for this baby 2.5 years ago, and to think that Nora could be here in a matter of weeks is mind-blowing. I'm starting to get impatient with the anticipation while at the same time being completely afraid of our lack of preparation. I know people are thinking she is going to come early after ending up in the hospital twice with contractions, but I honestly think she's going to be late. I think we may have a little drama queen on our hands.  Since our second trip to L&D, I've actually been feeling OK. I've only had a few hard contractions and that's about it. I am feeling slow and tired all the time. But that's not shocking since between bathroom trips and heartburn, I'm barely sleeping. And completely out of breath. I don't think Nora has dropped at all yet because I still feel like she is sitting on my lu

Letter K week was our last week in our old tot school room. It felt great to finally be done in that space and move up to bigger and better things! Our first tray was a key matching tray. We did very similar work last time we did the letter K too. It was still a hit with Henry although he is definitely moving past simple matching. The second tray was a word matching work. Here Henry was supposed to find the word that matched the K object pictured. This is much more of a challenge for him because he likes to just look at the first letter of each word -- which isn't much help if they all start with K. Once he found the word, he could clip one of the bears (including a koala) to the correct match.  The third tray was a sort of hide-and-seek sheet with a bunch of random letters on it. If the children placed the beads on only the letter K then they would make a surprise -- a capital K. This was a big hit with several of the children and I think I'll be doing this mo

After our initial scare , I was really hoping to avoid another trip to Labor and Delivery with this pregnancy. However, Nora seems determined to make her presence known and we spent the nicest day of the year in a windowless hospital room.  I woke up feeling a little sick and tired but that seems to be my normal right now so I didn't think much of it. I will also fully admit that I was a little extra crabby too. Henry and I had some things to get at Target that morning, so we were just running errands. I noticed a few contractions that morning but I've been getting Braxton Hicks more frequently lately and wasn't concerned.  When we got home, right around 10:45, however, I noticed a big change. The contractions were suddenly much more painful and coming really regularly. I tried all the "tricks" to get them to stop -- tons of water, ate some food, laid down, etc. Nothing worked to slow them. By 1:00 p.m. I was on the phone with my OB and by 2:00 p.m. we

When I first started to learn about Montessori, I was completely overwhelmed. I wasn't sure where to start or how I could incorporate Montessori ideas into my home. For a time, I stalked blogs without making changes just because I really had no idea where to start.  Then, one day I bit the bullet with a shelf in our sunroom. It had been filled with bins of toys. I cleared away the bins, picked a few toys and placed them on the self. We've never looked back.  This isn't necessarily how I would set up a shelf today, but it was a very important first step. Seeing it in action gave me the motivation and the courage to spread Montessori ideas throughout our house.  I know there are those of you who would love to incorporate Montessori  ideas into your home. But, I also know how absolutely overwhelming it can be. Baskets, shelves, wood, glass, toys?!? There are so many questions about what is necessary and what is not. So, where can you start?  Here ar

I can't believe we are at this point! 35 weeks pregnant -- 35 days until my due date. That feels really really soon. It also means we need to get our butts in baby-preparation gear.  I was just reading over the post I wrote for 35/35 with Henry and I was struck by how prepared we were. His nursery was almost completely done. I was just finishing up preparations. I seemed relaxed. This time, well. We finally moved tot school out of the nursery space and into its {for real this time} permanent home. I bough a rug for the baby. I've washed a few things. But, yeah. We have a long way to go. And, I have a feeling we will never quite be at the point that we were for Henry. Instead of nice nursery pictures -- enjoy some random bathroom selfies and the mess that is the nursery. But, hey, we still have 35 or so days to go. And some seriously strong nesting urges...so, you never know what can be accomplished. 

On Mother's Day, Morgan and I did a little DIY maternity shoot. We sufficiently bribed an otherwise really crabby Henry and I think we did a decent job! Morgan got me a tripod and camera remote for my birthday and they worked wonderfully to capture some family shots.  I have to stop myself from sharing all 200+ pictures we took, because I seriously love them all. We never really took nice maternity pictures with Henry, and I'm so glad we took the time to do it this time. Set up was easy, just a blank wall and some cute outfits. Pinterest was a big help in deciding the pictures we wanted to take. Seriously, I love them all! And, I can't wait for Nora's arrival!  {Also, I apologize for the generous use of watermarks in these photos. I recently found out that some of my pregnancy-related pictures were being stolen and passed off as someone else's. So, watermarks on these pics it is. Sad that some creepers have to ruin it fo