Mid-week assortment of randomness

We've been busy y'all. And I am still learning how to balance life. First of all, let me say that I am not complaining. I am just being honest about balance being something I still need to work on. You moms that work two jobs (let's face it, whether you work outside of the home or not, being a Mama counts for at least one job!) may be rolling your eyes at me, and that's ok. Sure, I do have more time at home and with Gray than if I was outside of the home working. But it also means more gets on the to-do list and more pressure that I put on myself to do and teach certain things to Gray, spend time with him, make sure all the laundry and dishes stay caught up, etc. etc. I go to the Y almost every day (and sometimes feel guilty about that), tutor two to three days a week and watch Mason and Landon one afternoon a week (Lindsey and I trade time so we don't have to pay for child care). Assuming he takes a decent nap everyday, it honestly leaves very little one-on-one time with Gray. Paul and I feel strongly about me being a stay at home mom for several reasons and although some things have to be done in order to pay the bills, I want to be careful that I'm balancing things the right way.

Anywho...

Monday morning started with a frantic call from my friend Ashley that her nanny was sick and she was desperate for someone to keep Selah. We live about one mile from each other and I didn't have any plans that couldn't be dropped. So I braved it with two 14 month olds for the day. The morning started off great. Selah hadn't been here in a while so she was super entertained by new-to-her toys and books. I got Gray down for a nap and by nothing short of a miracle I got Selah to sleep without any tears being shed. Only problem was that she was downstairs so she wouldn't wake up Gray, which meant I was trapped upstairs...which meant I didn't get to eat lunch while they were sleeping. Neither of them napped very long and things took a turn for the worse when they got up. They were both fussy and clingy and honestly, there were moments that I thought pulling my hair out sounded like a better idea. At 3:30 I finally decided I was going to eat lunch whether they liked it or not. And at 4:00 I decided we were getting in the car. I didn't know where we were going but we were going somewhere. It was no joke y'all. When I keep kids that are older or younger than Gray, things are much easier but two the same age give me a run for my money, literally.

Gray has needed some new shoes for weeks. He went barefoot about 95% of the time until he started walking and even then only wore shoes outside, at the Y and at church. We have tons of shoes starting in size 5 but didn't have any 3s or 4s. I found his 3s at Target for 12 bucks and that was even a little more that I wanted to spend. They didn't hold up great but good enough for the few months he wore them. Besides them being too small now, I made the mistake of letting him wear them with no socks (who wants to wear socks in the summertime?!). Y'all, his feet are RIPE!!!!! They smell worse than his Daddy's feet after he's been on the soccer field all day. I am not even kidding. So the shoe hunt was on. I went back to Target and they had nothing. I spent over two hours looking for shoes on Saturday and another hour on Sunday, all with no luck. Size 4 shoes must be very popular. The ones I did find in his size were $40-$50!!!! Who knew?!?! I had NO idea how expensive baby shoes were. I wanted a pair of somewhat cute shoes that would go on easily with no laces (cause ain't nobody got time for that) that could be play shoes and suitable for church (cause I was definitely not going to buy more than one pair). I finally settled on a pair of really cute Converse Allstars from Shoe Carnival that had laces for looks but were slip-ons. Gray was being a hot mess when I was in there so when I found them on the clearance rack and saw they were size 4, I grabbed them and went. Can I stop here to tell you that they were still 20 bucks on the CLEARANCE rack?! What the heck? I got home and put them on Gray and he walked right out of them. I thought they looked pretty big so I compared them to some of his other hand-me-down shoes and dang if they weren't sized like a 6. So back we went yesterday to return them. Of course they didn't have any smaller ones and the cheapest shoe they had in his size was $38!!!! I know we are on a tighter budget than most people, but I seriously can't get over the prices of these baby shoes. I even checked several consignment stores and they either had nothing in his size or all of them were summer shoes. The Fall consignment sales are coming up in a few weeks but I really couldn't wait that long. So we ended up with some grey velcro Sperry's from Journey's Kidz store at the mall. They were the cheapest velcro shoe in his size that I could find in Winston and they were still almost 30 bucks. I think my blood pressure was higher than it peaks during Body Pump at the Y. Remember how at the beginning of this I said I wasn't complaining? Well this is me complaining. But I am over it now and am very, very thankful we have been blessed with hand-me-downs and probably won't ever have to buy Gray another pair of shoes.

I finally finished Gray's first year Shutterfly book and have been patiently waiting on a 30 or 40% off coupon so I can order it. It is 110 pages and that's after I was forced to consolidate and delete several pages. I've started his second year book but have been very slack about it and need to catch up. We have a lot less pictures since he is always on the go but I do want to document places and things we've done in each year of his life while he is so young.

I'm pretty sure I've said this the last several years but I am really starting to love Fall more and more. I'm so excited about outside Fall activities with Gray, especially taking him back to the pumpkin patch. He has the cutest hand-me-down owl costume this year and I can hardly wait to see his cute self in it. I've also found some new pumpkin recipes that I can't wait to try out. I know I'll be craving the beach again come December but for now I say bring on the Fall!

Paul has been very busy with soccer. The official season opened up with a tournament and his team had to play Mt. Tabor first, who happened to be coming in at the number one seed and was predicted to be the best team this year. My mom watched Gray so I could go. The game was so intense. It was tied at the end so since it was a tournament game, they did overtime. After overtime it was still tied so they did penalty kicks and Reagan ended up losing. They have won every game they've played since then and are off to a great start so far. I am a proud coach's wife. But let's face it, he could lose every game and I'd still be proud.

Our sweet boy has not caught a break in the teething department since he was 5 months old. These last 8 have been way worse than his first 8. He's in pain, his nose has been running for months, his poops are loose and burning his bottom, he's not sleeping quite as good as normal and he is super cranky off and on. And if he'd eat steak with those 16 chompers it might make me feel a tad better. We are still working on getting him to eat meat and veggies but most days he wins. Today though, he did not throw his green beans and instead dipped them in his peanut butter and ate a little. It's progress people!

I am SO excited about a long weekend with my little family. We normally go to Paul's parents for Labor Day but have decided not to spend this one traveling. We haven't had a weekend "off" where we've all been home in about 6 weeks and I can hardly wait! So happy Friday eve, y'all!