I think it finally worked

I think the sleep situation with Nick may finally be working. I mean we have seen signs of progress before now but suddenly last night things clicked. The doctor said it would take 3 to 5 nights of crying HELL before it worked and tonight is night five. She said we would have to commit to the crying plan and not cave in (which we always had done because he broke our hearts) and suffer for a maximum of 5 nights. It took Nick four nights. This might mean that my little angel is "advanced" and smarter than the rest of the "average" babies. Ok. I was so just kidding there.

WE GOT SLEEP!!! About 5 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep. I woke up feeling so refreshed and happy and I was a much better Mommy because I could actually think.

Tonight it was amazing, I fed Nick, put him in the bath and then dressed him. We read a book and I laid him in the crib. He rolled onto his side and I left the room. HE NEVER FUSSED or CRIED or WHINED . . . NOTHING!!!!! I know I am yelling but I am amazed. I really believed I would live with bedtime drama my whole life. He just calmly went to sleep all by himself which allowed me to clean up after dinner. I just saved about 45 minutes to an hour of rocking, or patting or breastfeeding. Not that I don't enjoy those things but it seemed like the bedtime rituals were getting more and more elaborate and extreme. He needed a whole slew of criteria met before he could get to sleep . . . but now he just rolled over and went to sleep.

And it was absolute and complete hell getting to this point. But it was soooooo worth it. Nick took 2 naps today, each 1.5 hours. And that is exactly what he should be doing. He woke up happy and rested and was pleasant to be around because . . . . (wait for it). . . . the kid got some freakin' sleep for once!!

Whew. On to the next drama which I am certain is just around the corner. Isn't that how this parenting thing is? One drama after another?

Fun times

We had an old friend and his daughters visit us this past weekend and had so much fun. We went to Explora which was a ton of fun. Here is AJ riding a bike on a tight rope. They had so many hands on things for the kids it was incredible. We were there when it was very busy but that didn't take away from the oodles of fun that we had. The kids played with lasers and built dams in a fake "river" and we experimented with sound waves and gravity. . . it just goes on and on. Lots of fun. It was the perfect outing for people with kids of any age (and people who have husbands that act like children).

The following day we went to Hoots and had a hoot. Alright. Cheesy I know but I couldn't resist.

Here are some blurred pics of the fun. Lucas was the small kid in a huge warehouse filled with big kids so either AJ or one of the girls visiting shadowed Lucas but he has so much fun. You can see him in the blurry picture going down the huge yellow slide with one of the girls holding him. And once again this is the perfect spot for kids of ALL ages (note the smiling husband).

Your eyes ain't lying

The little one pulled himself up in the bathtub the other day and I figured it was a freak incident. But today he pulled himself up to play at the table with Lucas. So maybe it isn't so freakish.

Update

Well the crying lasted for close to two hours which felt like an eternity. He just woke up for a snack and I put him back down awake and left again. Which killed me. He whimpered and tried to grab onto me and then started crying again, which made me cry again. But I was tough and I left him and closed the door. He cried for maybe 30 seconds and fell asleep . . . ALL BY HIMSELF!!!

Did you get that?

ALL BY HIMSELF PEOPLE!!! I am so proud of the little guy. He CAN do this and I AM NOT a bad Mommy for making him learn this. Maybe this will actually work out. Maybe I will get more than 3 whole hours of sleep in a row. Maybe I won't have to buy that king sized bed after all.

Oh and since I am typing. . . here is a brief overview of my recent battle with appliances:

• My vacuum stopped sucking. So I had to get a new one. . . a bagless one with a HEPA filter. Say it with me now. . .Oooooooooo, Ahhhhhhhhh. It works really well and sucks up so much cat hair, way more than my old P.O.S. ever did. Thanks Amy for the recommendation. . . I got a model similar to the one you suggested and I love it.
• My 3 year old refrigerator stopped chilling. On Christmas Eve. That was nice. I had just finished loading up on all the food I would need for house guests (nearly 2 weeks worth of food) on Tuesday. And Wednesday I noticed the top shelf of the frige wasn't cold. Today a repair man came and fixed some sort of electronic circuit thingie and whaalaa. It works again. But we did loose some food. But at least I didn't have to plunk down another $1800 bucks for a refrigerator. . .
• About 3 days after moving into this house we hooked up the washing machine which is located in our garage. I promptly started a load of wash and went into the house to finish dinner. . . it was around 5 o'clock. At around 10:30 that night I heard water running in the garage so I investigated and found the washer POURING water into the garage. I'm not talking about a sizable leak. I'm describing an entire pipe forcibly pushing large amounts of water into the garage with each passing second. This had been going on since I started the machine. Needless to say everything in the garage that was in contact with the floor was completely wet. It was awful. But we fixed the problem. Thankfully it was a relatively easy fix. Stupid machines.

Overall Christmas great. We are so lucky to have a roof over our heads, food on our table and clothes on our backs. I was reminded the other day at playgroup how lucky I am when I heard a mother discussing her husband being laid off. She said they might have their home foreclosed on. Her children are around the same age as mine and I just feel so very terrible for her and her family. So my Christmas was great.

Crying

He is in there crying again. AJ is in there with him trying to help him calm down but he just keeps escalating. It is such a weird thing to have to listen to your baby cry, trying to learn to put himself to sleep. I hate every single split second of this. The doctors have REPEATEDLY assured me that this is the time to do this and that crying like this will in no way injure, harm or do damage to him in any way shape or form. But it doesn't feel like they are telling the truth. The doctors all (all 4 of them) have told me that the crying is the only way he is going to learn this valuable life skill. I remember Lucas crying when we did this to him. I buried my head under a pillow and cried right along with him. Right now I just feel like throwing up.

Mommy has a Potty Mouth and other things

I need to stop swearing pronto. PRONTO. Today my innocent little boy said "Gas Ass" while AJ was changing his diaper. He has been saying gas for a while now but not the A word. I say the A word and for some reason have expected him to completely ignore the bad language and focus on the appropriate innocent little boy language.

Lucas also decided to come up behind me, while I was sitting on the ground changing Nick's diaper, and pulled the back of my pants away from me to see if I had a poopy diaper. Then when he saw that I did not have any poop down there he declared that it must be gas.

AJ was so funny today. We were walking into a Sears store and I was pushing the double stroller while AJ went ahead to open the doors and I got stuck behind a very slow elderly woman with a cane. Instead of physically holding the doors open for everyone AJ hits the handicap button and the doors swung open automatically. The woman looked up at AJ and thanked him as she plodded through the doors. AJ puffed up like he just performed some heroic act buy PUSHING A FREAKING BUTTON.

We saw a big huge semi truck going down the freeway and on every side of the trailer were the words "Jesus Christ is Lord not a swear word". A picture of the truck is here. This was the only thing on the truck so I asked AJ what he thought was in the truck and without missing a beat he replied "Faith". HAHAHA. So funny.

"AJJJJJJJJJJJ"

Lucas has decided to call his Daddy "AJ" instead of Daddy. It is the funniest thing EVER!! We have been trying to hide our amusement from Lucas but it is hard. He is in bed right now fighting to stay awake so he is calling out in his cute little 2 year old voice "AJ, AJJJJJJ, AJ!" So AJ refuses to respond to anything but Daddy so he pretends to not hear the cute little boy calling "AJ! AAAAA JJJJJJJJ" whenever he wants attention. HA HA.

I have decided that I don't know crap about teaching a kid to fall asleep by himself. Those books I have read? Worthless. Every single one. Worthless. We are back to sleepless nights, a baby who needs his Mommy each time he wakes up at night and a total of one hour of napping a day.

This sucks.

That baby should be napping WAYYYYY more than one hour a day. So what to do? I don't know. I guess I just need to go with my gut which usually turns out ok. I am so frustrated and so very very very tired. I hate resenting my kid but lately I have been. I wish I got a break from being a Mommy. I saw some pictures of myself pre-kids when my boobs were pointing up, my eyes looked rested and alert, my hair was brushed and clean, my belly was flat and my ass was smaller. What happened to that person?

Once I get Nick to start sleeping during the night and for naps life will be better again. I am just so grumpy on 5 scattered hours of sleep. For 6 months straight.

It's not all bad though. Like tonight watching Nick trying to suck down noodles was hysterical. He was so cute. And Lucas calling "AJ. . . ." is the best thing ever. So I know it will improve. I just need sleep to get there.

Near miss

This afternoon I had what AJ in the safety world would call a near miss. I was following a large SUV through an intersection - our light had just turned green and I was the second car through when I heard someone accelerating and peeling out. Then I heard tires squealing (braking) and looked to my left where I saw a full sized Chevy pickup driven by a teenager come sliding to a stop. He ended up about 5 feet away from the van door. On the interior of the van door was a sleeping Nicholas. When I made eye contact with the asshole behind the wheel he was grinning ear to ear. As if it was some sort of joke. This was a very busy intersection with probably 30 cars around to witness this whole thing. The dude ended up stopped quite literally in the middle of the intersection.

Within 5 minutes as I drove home in a state of relief/shock ANOTHER pickup next to me driven by ANOTHER teenager (high school had just let out) drifted about half way into my lane because the asshole behind the wheel was holding his phone up on top of his steering wheel so that he could text while driving. So I laid on the horn and used some incredibly colorful language to describe him to Lucas, which I immediately regretted doing now that Lucas is learning words so fast.

SO. I came home and moved Nick's car seat into the center of the car where it should have been the entire time. We had it close to the door because it is easier to get him in and out that way. Not to be overly dramatic but . . . HOLY CRAP!!

Getting Bigger

Lucas has begun combining words and I am so happy. Today he said "light on please"!!! He even said please. He said screwdriver, light bulb, house, home, new, buy, snow and salt. He also said "baby night night" , "daddy go work", "no poop - gas", and many more. It is so cool. All of a sudden too. It is like one day he woke up and decided to try to talk more. The kid is also now trying to outsmart us, which I knew was coming but today it was confirmed. He was helping AJ around the house and AJ let him have a screwdriver, which I promptly took away and had a "discussion" with AJ about. So the compromise was that Lucas sit on the ground and use the screwdriver. He decided to unscrew his vacuum cleaner and put it back together. When he was done he got onto his hands and knees and CRAWLED around the floor with the screwdriver . . . because he wasn't walking or running like we told him not to do, he was CRAWLING.

Also today I was sweeping the kitchen floor (for the third time this week and keep in mind it is Tuesday) making a pile in the center of the room to get with a dustpan. After Lucas deliberately walked through my pile 2 times I sternly told him to not do that again. He smiled at me and then JUMPED IN A CIRCLE around my pile. Little shit. Then when he got bored with that he got down onto his belly and put his face to my pile of debris and blew on my pile. So I taught him to hold the dustpan. Clearly the kid was bored. Bored kids need work. I have decided that when he starts being a little brat he is getting work. I have plenty of work around here for him to do so he might as well get to it. Picking up laundry, toys and books for starters. He could vacuum, dust and hold my dustpan. I am getting very creative when it comes to child labor.

This morning the kids were eating snow out of a cup that I gave them. Snow is apparently a really big deal. And eating it can go on for an hour or more. Well anyway. . .they were sitting on the couch together and Nick got pissed that Lucas was getting all the snow so he took the cup from Lucas. It was really funny. I truly didn't think a 6 month old could fight back but he did. Here are pictures.




Here is a picture of Lucas playing with salt. We were fixing dinner and turned around and Lucas had dumped salt onto his plate and was playing with it. He was so sweet. I mean, he could have dumped it onto the floor or the table. But he quietly entertained himself with salt neatly contained on his plate. Am I becoming one of those moms who think their kid is cute even when they misbehave? Well anyway he was cute.



This is Nick's idea of eating a banana. He was all pissy before dinner because he was hungry and nobody was feeding him yet so I popped open a banana and gave it to him. And it worked. I got to eat my meal in peace. Then once is food cooled down (I pureed our meal for him) he ate that too. I love the expression on his face.

dirty fingers!

Lucas got his fingers dirty. . . willingly! He was so proud of himself. And he made a pretty cool finger painting in the process.

Here is Nick, drinking from his sippy cup. I put cold water in it and he loves gumming the rubbery tip because it makes his mouth feel better I guess.

Christmas Lights at the Botanical Gardens

Yeah yeah, I know a blog is supposed to be me writing and not mostly pictures but too bad. I am not that interesting so the pictures are filler. We went to the botanical gardens tonight to see the River of Lights that they have. It cost $7 per adult and our kids were free. First thing we did was buy hot chocolate because we still haven't found our thermos. We had so much fun. There were a LOT of people there. A LOT. The line to get into the parking lot was at least a mile down the street in both directions. While we were in line we saw this little girl who was about 3 years old in her stroller and her parents had her so bundled up that she couldn't see (her hat kept falling over her eyes) and she couldn't move her legs or arms because she had so many layers and blankets shoved in around her. I wanted to take a picture but it would have been rude.

Here is Lucas keeping his hands warm on his hot cocoa and taking a sip.



This dinosaur was Lucas's favorite. The mouth moved open and closed.

Here are father and son admiring the dinosaur.

Here is a botanical arrangement.

Here was my favorite, a giant centipede. This was at least 7 feet long.

My second favorite, a vinegaroon. By the way all of these are blurry because shooting lights at night without a tripod is difficult.

A spider with a turtle behind it.

These elephants "moved" and Lucas loved it.

A prairie dog.

A scorpion

This was a sinking submarine and in the background under the purple canopy was a very talented band who were playing Christmas music. You could hear them as you walked through the gardens. Also there were carolers in a couple places who were singing. They were really good too.

I finally found my way down to the centipede and had AJ take my picture. Nick LOVED the lights and refused to go to sleep. We didn't take the double stroller because it would have been too hard to maneuver with all the people around. As it was we should have put Lucas into the kid backpack to carry him around.

These butterflies were hung in a tree and they were all different colors. . . very cool. I inadvertently walked right up to the tree to get this picture and interrupted about 6 different people who were standing back with their cameras trying to capture the entire tree in their shot. Opps.

A coyote.

It looks like either a Yucca or a Sotol. It think Yucca. I heard someone else say Sotol. And there is a roadrunner in the front.

A giant stained glass turtle. This thing was a big as me or bigger.

A preying mantis.

There was a forest of these sunflowers and I made AJ stand under one so you could get an idea of size.

This was a honey bee hive. It came up to my shoulders.

Lotta Pictures

Who's been hittin' the egg nog early?

Lucas taking extra care to place the ornaments all on the exact same branch.

Nick and Mom.

All I've got

This is all I've got for today. More messy food photos. Except these take you from mess to clean.