Sleepy McSleeperton - Here!

Oh. My. Gosh. Big J slept for 5 hours+ last night. I put him down at 7:30, no pacifier, and he did not wake up until after 1am. We both got up at 7am. Oh happy, happy day.

I probably shouldn't be celebrating yet, but I will take even a single night of good sleep as proof that better things are coming.

Paging Sleepy McSleeperton

I've been debating on posting a sleep/ general-Big-J-update. He'll be 5 months old in a few days, so I'll do some gushing then, but for now....

We've regressed since I last posted about Big J's progress (or lack thereof). We spent several weeks crying, screaming, and struggling through cry it out, sleeping in the crib, and breaking off the pacifier. After much discussion, Big Daddy and I decided that we were not improving anything. J had become moody, quiet, a little withdrawn, and hardly ever smiled anymore. He'd give me a little grin in the morning, but was definitely becoming a different baby. I adore my happy, talkative, smiley boy, and it was breaking my heart to see him changing so much. And not for the better. So he's back to bed with us again. And he's sleeping for 3 hour chunks, and he's happy again. He also gets the pacifier, but only when I know he is tired. I struggle with my fear of seeing him with a plug in his mouth at age 4, but it's balanced by the magic of it all. When I know he's really tired, I can pop it in and he'll be asleep in 60 seconds. I temper my guilt over the Great Regression of 2008 with the confidence of knowing this is MY Family, and I feel that I know what works for us. We're not giving up, we're just delaying until he is more ready.

Much of this is also tied into nursing. I'm not ready to wean him, and I know that if I were, he'd be sleeping more soundly in his own crib (it just wouldn't be worth it for him to wake in the middle of the night). Selfish? Perhaps. But leche is the best food for him, and until he hits 6 months, we're sticking to it. We'll reevaluate in another month or so and see what changes have occurred. He very well may be my last baby, and I am in no great hurry for him to grow up even faster than he has in the last 5 months.

A quick update

I've been trying to blog less and do more, and this will continue for the next week or so. I have been busy with my birthday, finishing BBC, writing a lesson for Church, reading Breaking Dawn, and trying to pick up around the house while wrestling two maniacs every day. So here's how everything is going:

1. Birthday - see previous post. My final gift arrived on Saturday (cupcake stuff from Mom). Can't wait to try out some of the fun designs from the Hello, Cupcake book. Depending on how obsessive/ crazy I go for Big J's first birthday, he will likely end up with the crocodile cupcake cake on pg. 87. I don't have time to scan & post a pic, but I will soon.

2. BBC - I'm done with the summer session. I don't own a scale or a tapemeasure, but I can tell you that I am much stronger than when I started. Due to the intense ab exercises, I might actually have functioning ab muscles again. I highly recommend the class to all moms. Saturday classes are still going on, are free, and will meet at Raccoon River park @ Biddle shelter from 10-11am. I'll be there, and hope you will too. Ok, I might skip next Saturday. I really want to go to the Fair or the Farmer's Market.

3. Writing a Lesson for Church - Let's just say I am glad it's over. I sweated and stuttered my way through it, and at the end I wanted to shout "I'm much more articulate in real life."

4. Breaking Dawn - Big Daddy was so good, and bought me 2 of the books on my birthday list. I actually took 3 days to read Breaking Dawn, but that was because I just didn't have an uninterrupted block of time to read it in one go (oh yes, I could do it, too). Net/net: SO good, but I am a little sad that we won't be hearing from Edward and Bella any more. I really hope she continues the series in some way. I want to read more about their world. I heart Stephenie Meyer.

5. Picking up around the house - It's a mess. I have to do a quick sweep through the kitchen and living room as the Elders are coming for dinner tonight. I'm trying 2 new recipes, found on The Pioneer Woman. Love the blog, hope the recipes are just as good. Big Sis is going nuts waiting for school to start. Big J is now eating solid foods (sort of), but still dislikes it intensely. I feed him in the morning now, and it's going a little better, but he never finishes the little bit of food I make him. We'll try green beans tomorrow but I can only imagine how disgusted he'll be. He's also getting a little more vocal, with little hoots and monkey screeches added to his vocal repertoire.

Happy Birthday to Me

Alrighty, so this post comes a few days too late, but I've been immersed in birthday-related madness, so I am excusing myself. Wednesday was the big day, and it was really, really nice.

As always, I had spent days building up plans in my head, deluding myself into thinking that I had perfect children who would cooperate with my every whim, and a job that would send no emails and make no phone calls that day. Yes, a dreamer I am.

Big J and I woke early, and were subsequently ordered by Big Daddy that it was time to open presents. The man has no patience when it comes to gift giving. So he woke Big Sis, and I opened my gifts. Good Stuff! We had a quiet morning consisting of cleaning, conference calls, and some good indoor playtime. We got Thai food for lunch (takeout, of course), and hung out at home until BD got home from school. I made dinner at home, then we took a family walk. It was SO nice out. After we got home, my friend Robyn came by with another gift for me (love it!). The kids wrangled into bed fairly easily. All in all, a good day - marred only by the fact that both my Dads didn't call. I expect people to forget my birthday, but not the immediate family. Dad1 left a message yesterday morning apologizing, using the classic line that he didn't forget, he just got busy and didn't remember later in the day ( I can relate). Dad2 did email, but no call. A little surprising, as the only time I usually talk to him on the phone is on my birthday. Ah well, I guess I consider myself lucky that at least he emailed.

And btw - don't even ask how old I am. Let's just say that I'm glad that "30 is the new 20".

Stop, Thief!

Someone stole/ borrowed/ 'found and kept' my sunglasses at church yesterday. They had fallen out of my bag & gotten hung on the outside of Big Sis' activity bag. I was juggling Big J and asked Big Daddy to put them back in my bag, so they wouldn't get lost. As to be expected, he teased me about someone taking them. So I backed down, and we put the bag on the high shelf in the coat closet exactly where I usually leave her bag.

When I strolled over to the coat closet after picking up Big Sis, the bag and its' contents were right where we left it. Sans sunglasses. I grabbed her bag and rooted inside it. Then I patted around the area of her bag. No shades. I thought maybe Big Daddy was playing a joke on me & he had snuck over & swiped them. But no, that was not the case.

There are many things that lower my expectations of human behavior, but attending church is not usually one them. So if you happen to have "found" a pair of glossy black sunglasses with oversize frames and little rhinestones on the earpieces - they're mine. Sure, I could go to Wal-mart and pick up another pair for $10, but so could you. And how gross is it to wear someone else's sunglasses? I hope you at least took them home and cleaned them with rubbing alcohol before you tried them on. And I also hope that if you intend to keep them that they break the first time you wear them. Thanks for ruining my Sunday!

Things I Have Discovered Since Becoming a Parent

1. Everything should have a drive-thru. OK, maybe not everything, but I think the world would be a more manageable place if there were more drive-thru coffee stands, dry cleaners, and video stores. Two areas I find to be sorely lacking are post offices and grocery stores. Wouldn't a drive-thru post office be awesome? I fantasize about this every time I need to buy stamps or drop off a large package. It's a real pain in the rear to have to tote my kid inside just to walk up to the counter and hand over my package. It takes longer to get him out of the car than it does to complete my errand. A drive-thru market would be so awesome too. It wouldn't have to sell everything, just the basics. Bread, milk, eggs, cheese, lettuce, bananas, apples, orange juice, mints, gum, soda, ice cream. That's about it. I'll bet this would be monstrously popular. Seriously, if Arizona can have drive-thru liquor and ammo shops (no joke, and yes, they sell both items at the same place), and Louisiana can have drive-thru daiquiri stands.... I don't think a drive-thru market is asking too much.

2. Your kids don't care what the label on their shirt says. I love to shop, and now that I have kids, 98.2% of all my shopping relates to them. Much of what I buy is unrelated to brand, but more focused on a precise mix of price divided by cuteness. Believe me, I love it when I can find something at Baby Gap or Gymboree at what I consider to be a 'good' price ($10 or less, depends on what it is). But that's really for me. Big Sis could care less where her clothes come from. As long as there is pink involved, we're all good. It scares me to recall the junior high and high school days of yore when it was critical to wear Guess? jeans with the zipper at the ankle, or have the latest Esprit outfit. I sweat a little when I think about the level of 'I Want' that is going to invade our house in the next 10 years. Being rather shallow myself, I can totally relate to the impulse of NEEDING the latest phone/ handbag/ sneakers/ jeans in order to be cool. Hopefully Big Daddy will be able to temper some of that. He's never cared about what he wears, as long as it's comfortable. (Will I ever be able to break him of his affection for Wrangler jeans??)

3. Cartoons rock, even if they are 65 years old. When we were in Nevada last January, Grandma & Grandpa bought a DVD set of old cartoons for Big Sis. Not Scooby-Doo or Tom & Jerry, oh no, we're talking Betty Boop, Three Stooges, Popeye and Felix the Cat. And she LOVES them! Almost daily, she will ask to watch her Betty Boop. No, they are not PC (they are racist, sexist, and a bunch of other 'ists' that are too big for my vocabulary), but they are also rather simple and innocent. Better than a lot of the violent or disrespectful shows on Disney (she's not allowed to watch The Suite Life - those boys are very sassy!).

4. Sometimes Mama needs a time-out. Big Sis is at the stage where she asks 5,000 questions a day. Sometimes that needs to be doubled to encompass the number of sentences beginning with 'How come...' which issue from her mouth. Usually I can muddle through them, but she also manages to stump me many times a day. I don't want to lie to her, but I often catch myself thinking "Oh man, how do I explain to her why cheese is orange?" We've begun implementing 5 Minutes of Zip It. This is much more for me than for her, as it allows me to relax and think through her line of questioning. After the 5 minutes, I can usually keep going with questions, but I also give her a warning on when the last question will occur - which coincides with 5 Minutes of Zip It, Round II.

5. Sometimes the parenting books are right, but often it's just hot air. There's a lot of advice out there, especially for parents. Books about sleeping, eating, discipline, raising boys, raising girls, money, childcare, vaccines, intelligence, .... etc. First of all, I wish that someone would write a synopsis of each book by category, giving just the topline "solutions" that each has to offer. I mean, if you're in the middle of any of the above, you probably don't have more than 15 free minutes to 'read' (skim) through one of these lengthy tomes. Next, there's nothing wrong with trying advice, but if it fails, it's not your -or your child's- fault. Not every kid falls into the boxes these 'experts' create. It may be rough going right now, but you don't often see teens who suck their thumbs, or 12 year-olds who sleep with their parents, or even 8 year-olds who still wear diapers. Don't be so hard on yourself - things eventually figure themselves out. Even if your boy is still sleeping with you so that the entire household can catch more than 15 minutes of zzz's at a time.

I Hate It When I Do This

I'm slowwwwwwwwly decluttering my space. Seriously slowly. Like one magazine at a time. I have a horrible fascination with magazines, and since I discovered we can leverage otherwise useless airline miles to subscribe, the amount of marginally intelligent printed matter in the house has tripled. Worse yet, I tend to packrat these niblets of interestingness for months at a time, telling myself that I Might Have Overlooked Something. I flipped through a couple last night, cutting and clipping the few articles that caught my eye (workouts I may or may not execute at home). There was a quote in Shape that I clipped, wanting to save it and refer to it later. As I have now lost this quote, I am irritated at myself and frustrated that I can't find it online. Really, who loses a clipping within 20 minutes of scissoring it out?? The magazines are now gone, and here's the gist of the quote:

"Things Turn Out Best For Those Who Make the Best of How Things Turn Out"

Mull it over. Good perspective, especially with 3 more long years of medical school ahead. Every day is not easy to get through, but I feel relief at the end of each day. I wonder what Big Daddy feels? He's the one actually doing the work, but it is a group effort. I am just grateful that the kids won't be fully aware of how much of a struggle it's been.