The Little Miss has finally figured out how to slither out of her toddler bed by herself. She's been in her big girl bed for a couple of months, but has, till now, lacked the confidence to leave it herself. Which was cool by me, because I wasn't quite as ready as Mr. Me to do away with the crib. But that's all gone now and she's mobile, baby.
With her new found skilz she has decided that when she wakes up in the middle of the night she needs to tootle on into our room, pat me on the ass and say "mama" loudly until I pick her up and plop her between her dad and I.
Then she curls up and goes back to sleep.
This has happened 4 nights in a row now at 3:10AM. I realize that stricter parenting could make this stop, but 3:10AM is a particularly weak time of day for me. Every morning I resolve to fix it tomorrow night, and every night I reach over and pick her up and tuck her in so we can GO TO SLEEP ALREADY. So, much to my disgruntlement, she sleeps half the night with us, the middle bar to our capital H (feet must be on mom, head and patting hands on dad).
This morning was particularly awesome because the Little Man had a night terror about 4:45, so he wanted in too. So I slept sandwiched between the two little moochers until 6:45, when I think someone kicked me in the head? stomach? both simultaneously? and I decided to get up.
I managed to sneak out from between them and into the bathroom for a shower without disturbing them. Or so I thought. As it turns out, I woke the Little Miss, who in turn screamed for me and woke her brother,. He patted her on the head and sang her songs -"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Rock-a-bye Baby" and the Transformer's Theme Song - until she went back to sleep. I'm so SO mad I missed it.
Cut to this afternoon, on the swing set out back. I was pushing the Little Man on his swing, and trying to simultaneously play catch with the Little Miss. It was sort of working - catch with the Little Miss doesn't require much movement on my part - but the Little Man was in a whiny mood anyway and went into Full Scale Whine-o-rama when he realized he did not have my undivided attention. He whined that I was pushing too hard. Then not hard enough. Then too high. I finally told him that I wouldn't play with him any more because the whining was making my ears bleed, and immediately there was whine-induced fake crying. Upon seeing his (fake - did I mention he was so faking it?) dismay, his little sis dropped her ball, walked over to him and patted his back and muttered at him, trying to console him.
They are SO UNBELIEVABLY CUTE together I almost can't stand it. It causes huge goofy smiles to spread across my face every time I see them being so sweet to each other. Then I remember they likely won't be able to stand each other in a few short years, and that I'll be able to drag out gooey stories like this and watch them stare at me in shock and horror.
And then the smiles spread from ear to ear.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Wa-hooie!
There has been a lot of good things going on the last week. A refreshing change from the Charlie Brown sentiments that too often make up the posts here, eh?
For starters - our house plans are done. In case you didn't catch that: OUR HOUSE PLANS ARE DONE! The dance I did as I leaped from my chair when Yahoo revealed the final sketches was likely not attractive, but it was done with gusto! I can completely walk through the thing in my head - I've dreamt about it a couple of times. It will fit our family just perfectly, and it's exactly what I was looking for.
Huzzah! Now on to finding a builder.
Then, yesterday I found out my friend Rita's book is available for pre-sale! She has worked her ass off for over TWO YEARS on this book, and it's been amazing to hear in snippets what all she's gone through to make this childhood dream of hers come true. (You could read about her journey to publishing here.) The book - Sleep is for the Weak - is a compilation of blog posts from a rock star roster of mommybloggers, and I can't wait to read it. It's amazing to see someone work and sweat and strain and finally achieve a childhood dream. Rita, you are now officially one of my honest-to-God heroes.
Buy it.
And finally, just this afternoon, I helped the Little Man to catch his very first fish! We were at a local community farmstead which has fishing available for the kids. "Fishing" consists of a tin bucket of 4 fat worms and the rental of a bamboo stick with a line and a hook that you can dip in their pond filled with Sunfish for the bargain price of $3. It's very sophisticated.
Of course, my son thinks it's awesome. He threw over his first horse ride on a horse named for his sister for the bucket of damn dirty worms. I will give him credit for gusto - he reaches right in there for the worms without a grumble, just a few comments on any extra-ordinary squirming as he's trying to hand them to me so I can skewer them on the hook. *shudder* The fourth worm won us our prize from the pond, though much to my relief it managed to wiggle itself off the hook and back into the pond right after I shot the photos. I try not to be too girly of a mom, but I'd just as soon not touch worms, fish, snakes and most bugs if I can get away with it.
My proud fisherman (the fish, it's a bigun)
It's so nice that there's so much going right to think about when other areas of my life are not going quite the way I'd prefer.
For starters - our house plans are done. In case you didn't catch that: OUR HOUSE PLANS ARE DONE! The dance I did as I leaped from my chair when Yahoo revealed the final sketches was likely not attractive, but it was done with gusto! I can completely walk through the thing in my head - I've dreamt about it a couple of times. It will fit our family just perfectly, and it's exactly what I was looking for.
Huzzah! Now on to finding a builder.
Then, yesterday I found out my friend Rita's book is available for pre-sale! She has worked her ass off for over TWO YEARS on this book, and it's been amazing to hear in snippets what all she's gone through to make this childhood dream of hers come true. (You could read about her journey to publishing here.) The book - Sleep is for the Weak - is a compilation of blog posts from a rock star roster of mommybloggers, and I can't wait to read it. It's amazing to see someone work and sweat and strain and finally achieve a childhood dream. Rita, you are now officially one of my honest-to-God heroes.
Buy it.
And finally, just this afternoon, I helped the Little Man to catch his very first fish! We were at a local community farmstead which has fishing available for the kids. "Fishing" consists of a tin bucket of 4 fat worms and the rental of a bamboo stick with a line and a hook that you can dip in their pond filled with Sunfish for the bargain price of $3. It's very sophisticated.
Of course, my son thinks it's awesome. He threw over his first horse ride on a horse named for his sister for the bucket of damn dirty worms. I will give him credit for gusto - he reaches right in there for the worms without a grumble, just a few comments on any extra-ordinary squirming as he's trying to hand them to me so I can skewer them on the hook. *shudder* The fourth worm won us our prize from the pond, though much to my relief it managed to wiggle itself off the hook and back into the pond right after I shot the photos. I try not to be too girly of a mom, but I'd just as soon not touch worms, fish, snakes and most bugs if I can get away with it.
My proud fisherman (the fish, it's a bigun)
It's so nice that there's so much going right to think about when other areas of my life are not going quite the way I'd prefer.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Living With Bugs Bunny
I was trying to explain my son's personality to a co-worker, and the best I could come up with was he was like living with Bugs Bunny.
My Little Man is a trickster. He loves to play jokes - to hop in your seat right before you sit down, and to tell you the opposite answer to the question you asked, and to steal something (usually food) right out from under your nose. He is quick - physically and mentally - and has a very active and well-used imagination. This combined with the endless amounts of energy this busy little boy possesses gives you - Bugs Bunny.
Case in point: Yesterday morning I asked him to go downstairs to our fridge and get me an iced coffee (I love me some Caribou Iced Coffee, though apparently they don't think so much of it as it has no home on their site). Pretty soon I hear his little voice, bursting with laughter, say
"Mom-my, I've got your coff-ee."
"Great - where is it?"
"It's behind my ba-ack." (giggle giggle)
"OK, well give it to me."
"Here it is!" And he busts out laughing as he brings forth a Gatorade.
"It's a Gatorade!" This he barely gets out as he's laughing hysterically.
I chuckled at him and told him to take it back and bring me my coffee.
He disappears back down the stairs, and proceeds to repeat his little joke with a bottle of water, a different flavor of Gatorade, a pop, and a gallon of milk. (He did complain bitterly about having to haul the gallon of milk back down two flights of stairs. The price of comedy is steep.)
Can't you just see this child leading Elmer Fudd on a wild goose chase all over the forest?
My Little Man is a trickster. He loves to play jokes - to hop in your seat right before you sit down, and to tell you the opposite answer to the question you asked, and to steal something (usually food) right out from under your nose. He is quick - physically and mentally - and has a very active and well-used imagination. This combined with the endless amounts of energy this busy little boy possesses gives you - Bugs Bunny.
Case in point: Yesterday morning I asked him to go downstairs to our fridge and get me an iced coffee (I love me some Caribou Iced Coffee, though apparently they don't think so much of it as it has no home on their site). Pretty soon I hear his little voice, bursting with laughter, say
"Mom-my, I've got your coff-ee."
"Great - where is it?"
"It's behind my ba-ack." (giggle giggle)
"OK, well give it to me."
"Here it is!" And he busts out laughing as he brings forth a Gatorade.
"It's a Gatorade!" This he barely gets out as he's laughing hysterically.
I chuckled at him and told him to take it back and bring me my coffee.
He disappears back down the stairs, and proceeds to repeat his little joke with a bottle of water, a different flavor of Gatorade, a pop, and a gallon of milk. (He did complain bitterly about having to haul the gallon of milk back down two flights of stairs. The price of comedy is steep.)
Can't you just see this child leading Elmer Fudd on a wild goose chase all over the forest?
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Some Things
No one thing to write about, just a bunch of little ones.
My report on the house is that there's NOTHING TO REPORT. The house plan lady has gone AWOL since Wed when we were supposed to see new sketches. The zoning department has not received the letter which kicks off the next part of the process, though it was sent over a week ago. This all pisses me off, but I'm trying to take a Zen approach and pretend like it doesn't.
I'm also making little progress on all the little projects we need to finish to get the current house ready to sell, which ALSO pisses me off. I think the fault lies somewhere between me being inefficient with time and Mr. Me's obsession with World of Warcraft. Probably doesn't help that we're both sitting here on laptops this evening instead of doing our chores.
The Little Man is doing extremely well at preschool, and has been pretty good lately in general, knock on wood. He's growing up pretty fast; in his mind it's even faster. He got up this morning and was stark naked but for a pull-up. I could have sworn that he had PJs on when he went to bed, but my mind, it does play tricks. When I asked him about it he said "I sleep naked now, Mom. I'm almost 5." I'm really having to get good control over my laugh reflexes around him these days.
The Little Miss is a pacifier addict. She LOVES them. She will find a stash of them and sit for 15 or 20 minutes, holding as many as she can in her pudgy little hands and rotate them through her mouth, happy as can be. We literally have about 50 of them in the house, but I can never find any because she ratholes them. I've started to catch on to some of her hotspots, and will periodically raid the big one behind her bed to snag 6 or 7. There's normally one or two in her little push car and among her stuffed animals as well, but lately she's started to try more exotic locations like the fridge and the canned goods shelves. (I'll have to remember these things when she's a teenager and I suspect she's hiding something . . .)
Since she's going on 18 months, I'm trying to slow down the paci use. I really would prefer that she didn't look like Bugs Bunny at age 5, so we now have a rule that she can only have a paci at naptime or bedtime. Man, it's hard. She screams like she's being murdered when I take them away, and I have to be constantly vigilant because she pops up with one from a hidey-holes about every 30 minutes. She's slowly getting used to it, and getting easier to distract. Maybe I'll be able to transition her off of them easier than I thought. Then again, maybe I'll have to invent the Patch for Paci.
My report on the house is that there's NOTHING TO REPORT. The house plan lady has gone AWOL since Wed when we were supposed to see new sketches. The zoning department has not received the letter which kicks off the next part of the process, though it was sent over a week ago. This all pisses me off, but I'm trying to take a Zen approach and pretend like it doesn't.
I'm also making little progress on all the little projects we need to finish to get the current house ready to sell, which ALSO pisses me off. I think the fault lies somewhere between me being inefficient with time and Mr. Me's obsession with World of Warcraft. Probably doesn't help that we're both sitting here on laptops this evening instead of doing our chores.
The Little Man is doing extremely well at preschool, and has been pretty good lately in general, knock on wood. He's growing up pretty fast; in his mind it's even faster. He got up this morning and was stark naked but for a pull-up. I could have sworn that he had PJs on when he went to bed, but my mind, it does play tricks. When I asked him about it he said "I sleep naked now, Mom. I'm almost 5." I'm really having to get good control over my laugh reflexes around him these days.
The Little Miss is a pacifier addict. She LOVES them. She will find a stash of them and sit for 15 or 20 minutes, holding as many as she can in her pudgy little hands and rotate them through her mouth, happy as can be. We literally have about 50 of them in the house, but I can never find any because she ratholes them. I've started to catch on to some of her hotspots, and will periodically raid the big one behind her bed to snag 6 or 7. There's normally one or two in her little push car and among her stuffed animals as well, but lately she's started to try more exotic locations like the fridge and the canned goods shelves. (I'll have to remember these things when she's a teenager and I suspect she's hiding something . . .)
Since she's going on 18 months, I'm trying to slow down the paci use. I really would prefer that she didn't look like Bugs Bunny at age 5, so we now have a rule that she can only have a paci at naptime or bedtime. Man, it's hard. She screams like she's being murdered when I take them away, and I have to be constantly vigilant because she pops up with one from a hidey-holes about every 30 minutes. She's slowly getting used to it, and getting easier to distract. Maybe I'll be able to transition her off of them easier than I thought. Then again, maybe I'll have to invent the Patch for Paci.
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