Change is a good thing

If you don't like your life the way it is, then change it. The theme around here lately is CHANGE. I wanted to do a little blog about each thing, but they are piling up, so I'm just going to data dump on you all the new and exciting stuff happening in the Ring household.

Caelan celebrated his 4-month birthday! Stats: 95 percentile in height, and 75 in weight. That's what happens when you exclusively nurse all day and all night for months! Developmental milestones: Smiling, cooing, giggling, grasping for things, found his toes, and is trying to sit up in his car seat. Not interested in rolling over yet.

Also, some happy news --this sleep-deprived mom is no longer nursing every 3 hours in the night! Hallelujah! Patrick and I were losing our marbles with having to sustain feedings every 2 hours for the first 3 months, and then every 3 hours this last month. So, we decided to make him cry it out when he hit 4 months. Every time he got up, Patrick faithfully would get up and rock him back to sleep, often hearing him cry for 20-30 minutes straight. Seventy-two hours later, he is now going five hour stretches, and I only need to get up once in the night!


Caelan is enjoying his longer sleep time in his crib because big brother Micah is officially sleeping in his big-boy fire engine bed. We successfully made the switch! One day, he talked about his bed and he asked to sleep in it. The next day we put it together and without fuss, he laid down and slept. With only a few times of finding Micah downstairs playing with his toys at 3 a.m. (and all the lights turned on in the house) he has chosen not to exercise his new found freedom and often sleeps through the night. Also, he is getting used to life a little more without his pacifier. Still a daily battle, but it's getting better!


I cut my hair. Like short. Real short. I'm not brave enough to post a picture yet, but I do want to let you know that I like it. It's a trendy mom's cut and despite what the hairdressers tell you, it IS easier to style than long hair. It takes me two minutes! The bad news is that my husband HATES short hair, and he lets me know pretty regularly that he can't wait until I grow it back.

I joined the gym! I am desperately trying to say goodbye to the baby weight, and so long farewell to the tummy bulge. I work out three times a week so far, and I'm really enjoying it. What's even better is that Micah and Caelan do really well in the nursery. No one has paged me yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to post pictures of a more buff, slimmer, toner-abs, me!

Patrick and I are doing our bible study again one night a week. This time we chose the book 9 Things a Leader Must Do by Henry Cloud. We're really enjoying it! It's nice to learn new stuff, but the real cool part is coming together and like we did when we first met---we share our ideas, dreams, and goals with each other again.

There are other cool things "brewing" that I will share soon, but we're definitely meeting our goals so far for 2009.