Plum tuckered out

He put up a good fight-nearly 3 hours-playing in his room instead of napping. Things were quiet for a little bit so I went to check on him. This is what I found:

Why is it so fun to toss clean, folded clothes all over the floor???

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Strawberry Bliss

We had a fantastic weekend together! On Saturday we played around the house in the morning then went to a “Pick your own berries” Strawberry Farm. We came home with more than we can eat, but had a great together. These are the years of building fond family-time memories with Belle. The kind we’ll talk about for years to come-like how Bear kept picking the white ones-and Lamb will ask “Was I alive?” (I’m famous in my family for asking that very question!) I have to say these are the most delicious strawberries I have EVER tasted. If you’re like us and can’t grow your own fruits and veggies, try to find local farms that will let you come pick your produce. We have apple, peach, and strawberry farms that we have frequented. It really is a lot of fun and it’s amazing how much better they taste.After the farm we took a drive through a state park. The road winds around the mountains with breathtaking views. Here’s a few pics from our day.(Yes, that’s a bruise on her cheek. Maybe someday I’ll get the nerve to tell you about that! I’ll tell you this much-baby in chair up on table + well meaning brother=boom, baby and chair on floor)

Finally the true reality!!

Ok, so I finally updated my Blogroll. What? You thought those were the only blogs I read?? HA! They’re addictive!! That’s why the smart techy folks invented things like Vienna, Google Reader, Bloglines, etc. They make life sooo much easier!

Exhaustion

The exhaustion of this week has settled in. J is on his last night of a week of night shifts. He has to leave just as my least favorite part of the night begins. I know I need a total attitude adjustment, but I’ve come to dread the time between 7 and 9:30. And none of our kids resist bedtime. I just prefer to be a total lazy butt and sit on the sofa. Of course I don’t. I find some way to distract Bear and Belle while I head upstairs to bathe, feed, and put Lamb to bed. Then I go downstairs and snuggle with Bear a few minutes and then go back upstairs to put him to bed. Then it’s back downstairs to spend a little time alone with Belle. Finally sometime between 9 and 9:30 I go upstairs one more time to put Belle to bed.I haven’t gotten the kitchen cleaned before bed since Sunday night. Belle has a cough and has had a coughing fit at 12:00 the last two nights that has lasted an hour each time. She somehow stays asleep through most of it, but I can’t sleep through it. I should probably just go to bed now, but it feels so lame to go to bed at 9:30!!The brighter side is that J has the whole weekend off. We’re trying to come up with something fun to do together. We considered the beach but it looks like it will be too cool this weekend. Maybe a tour through some caverns in a nearby national park. Maybe just some sleep!

Good News

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’ll risk repeating myself to give a little background to the story. Bear has had ear infections since he was 6 months old. We tried every antibiotic but could never completely clear up his ears. The thing is, he’s such an easy going kid, I never even knew he had ear troubles. We first discovered the problem at his 6 month check-up. I was completely shocked. I’d always been told that you’ll know your baby has an ear infection by the piercing scream like no other you’ve ever heard. Not my little guy! He be-bops through life with a smile no matter what!He had tubes placed in his ears at 15 months because the fluid never totally went away and his hearing was quite low. They do this test that measures the movement of the tempanic membrane and his would be completely flat when it should be a nice little mountain. Unfortunately the tube in his left ear came out within 6 months of the surgery. This fall he started getting infections again. We saw a new ENT here in VA and it seemed his hearing was improving. There was movement in his right ear, but not his left. Hearing tests around age 2 are pratically worthless because they’ve mastered the “I know you want me to look over there when you talk but you can’t make me do it!” thing. We decided to wait and see if he could clear up on his own since most kids will by age 26 months.I took him back to the ENT today. His ears are mostly clear of fluid. The right tube is out now, but it’s been a year since the surgery so that’s not surprising. His right tempanic membrane vibrated perfectly, the left was a little off-it moved, but had some negative pressure. Basically he goes around feeling like his left ear needs to pop all the time. Sounds fun, huh?Anyway, because the movement was strong enough we will not need to repeat the surgery at this point. It also means that he is hearing in both ears. I do still worry some about his speech. He’s definitely behind, but it’s hard to know when to worry. He’s adding new words every day, but he rarely uses more than 2 words together except in phrases like “There it is!” He has words where he makes these strange sounds that aren’t “normal” that worry me. He pulls his tongue back in his mouth and kind of swallows the word. Does that make any sense at all???I’m trying to be patient with him and continue praying for my little guy. He is such a precious little gift. We’ll go back to see the dr in Aug to check on him again. Hopefully it will bring even more good news.He started singing along to some of the songs in High School Musical today. Basically he just says the last word of the phrase, but he did it several times in two different songs. He really likes “Head in the Game” if you’ve seen the movie. I need to find a basketball goal for him, he’d totally love it!

Happy Mother’s Day!

I hope that you all had a great time enjoying your families today. I think that is the most important part of days like these. We started our day with crepes made by my dear husband followed by a picnic lunch at a nearby lake and ended with delicious hamburgers. Hmmm that’s a lot o food!Here are some highlights of our day together.I’m really hoping none of them touched the poison ivy there in the backgroud…My present: a bracelet lovingly crafted by Belle at school and new canisters!An arrangement I made from rhododendrons I cut from the garden.

Singing a lullaby is easy! To sing a lullaby is fun!

When I started sleep training Lamb, I told Belle about her bedtime routine and how I sing her songs while she eats her bottle. Belle decided to write a lullaby for Lamb to help her sing. The tune is a bit repetitive but the lyrics are straight from her heart. BTW, if she asks, yes I sing this to Lamb…sometimes.Tonight do you feel like a lullaby?They are so cute that I want to sing one to youOh my! Look at you!I feel like you can do itSinging a lullaby is easyTo sing a lullaby is funSinging a lullaby is so cool that it will help your baby sleep betterYou feel in your heart that it helps you go to sleepYou will feel better when you wake up in the morningAnd after your nap you will feel better too.Your lullaby and you will be free to play all dayAnd then take your nap with a lullabyAnd then being free to play all dayAnd when you are free playing all day you feel like a movie star!So, if you sing your lullaby you will go to sleepAnd then you will be free to goAnd even when it rains you can still use my lullabyAnd when it rains on my song you can still sleep through the time that it is rainingAnd then you will good and healthyyyyyyyyy!Does it get any sweeter than that?

Playing catch-up

Here’s a few things I’ve wanted to blog about but hadn’t found the time.One morning when Belle came downstairs I said to her, “Good Morning, Sleepyhead Belle!”She replied, “ I wasn’t sleeping, my legs didn’t want to come downstairs. But I made my legs come down.”****Bear is obsessed with eating dry cereal so I always keep several boxes on hand. One time I treated the kids to Cinnamon Toast Crunch. He held up a piece of the cereal and said “Nigh, nigh!” I guess it looked like a pillow…****Belle’s class studied bugs and insects a couple of weeks ago. The next week there were caterpillars everywhere. We collected one in a jar for her to take to school. She and G gave her some leaves and grass to munch and a piece of mulch to climb. I poked holes in the lid of an old baby food jar and it was done!Meet Princess Rainbow:(She’s that little black and brown blur near the bottom left of the jar)Belle asked me yesterday if she I thought she knew she was a caterpillar.****Belle decided she wanted to help clean dishes the other day. I gladly pulled up a chair and set her up with a fresh sponge. She was so cute and diligent washing the cookie sheet and spatula from lunch. She had so much fun that she wanted to continue with filling the dishwasher stuff. It took at least 10 times longer than it would have taken me and we wasted a ton of water while she scrubbed each and every dish-but she had a great time! She told me “This is really fun!” I stood close by placing the items in the dishwasher and shooting pictures. I talked to my mom later and told her about it. She said there was a time when I thought doing dishes was fun too…where has that excitement over the tiniest of things gone? And how is my baby is growing up so fast!Here’s Lamb (and I) looking on:****I got Bear a Spiderman backpack at Target on Sunday. He truly loves it. He wears it everywhere we go and gets the cutest looks from everyone. He looks like the tiniest Kindergartener with it on.****Lamb is sleeping better. She still wakes sometimes in the night but she’s getting better at putting herself back to sleep. It only took 20 or 30 minutes last night. She rarely cries when I put her down for naps or bedtime. Her attitude is improving. Now I just have to figure out how to introduce other foods besides jarred fruits and veggies…Any thoughts?****Our Azalea bushes are blooming and they are simply spectacular. I’ll leave you with this photo of one of God’s beautiful creations for today.

Bring on the ice cream

I’ve reached my limit with the nighttime wakings/feedings and generally not getting enough sleep. My parents saw a segment on the Today show of a book (you can see the actual clip by clicking “launch” on that video on the right side of the web page), The SleepEasy Solution, and immediately thought of me. Wonderful parents that they are, they ordered the book the same day to be sent to my house. I read through it as quickly as I could and began Little Lamb’s sleep training last night.She started napping well a few weeks ago and I immediately saw an improvement in her daytime demeanor. But, because her nighttime sleep was still shaky, she’s been extremely sensitive to the slightest change in her schedule. I’ve read several sleeping books over the years and have had success with the techniques, but this one is the most plan-oriented (I love me a good plan!) and also addresses the nighttime feeding/habitual hunger issue. I highly recommend this book if you ever find yourself in this kind of situation.So why the ice cream title? Well, I don’t like hearing my babies cry like this. I mean, a little here and there for a nap has never been a challenge for me. It’s during the night that I struggle. My own selfish desires for sleep, along with my husband’s long hours and precious little sleep, along with fear of waking the older kids…well, I tend to cave in too easily and go for the easiest solution for the moment not the best solution for long term. I’ve done it with all the kids at one point or another. It’s no fun to correct it, but at least it doesn’t last too long. Here’s my favorite distraction right now: one smallish bowl filled almost to capacity with Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, lots of chocolate sauce, and one sugar cone broken in pieces and stirred up. It’s sooo delicious.It takes the edge off the fact that she cried 57 minutes at bedtime last night, 58 minutes starting at 1:05 am this morning, 28 minutes protesting her third nap (a short little nap to bridge the time from nap #2 and bed time), and 39 minutes at bedtime tonight. But who’s counting, right???**If you’re wondering what’s so different about this book from all the others-they address the emotional side for the parents more than any other book I’ve read, but they are honest about saying You don’t think it will work? You don’t think you can hear them cry like that? Well, what you’re doing right now isn’t working! They also have lots of great ideas for older kids.

28 month cuteness

My sweet little boy amazes me every day with his cuteness. There is no possible way to comprehend the kind of joy your kids will bring to your heart until you have kids of your own. Now at 28 months here are just a few of the things I love about him.• when he dances he shakes his little hips and rolls his arms in circles• he dips EVERYTHING in ketchup-or the water in his cup if there’s no ketchup handy• finally discovered the point and tell game where I have to name everything and everyone over and over• the hairs across his forehead fly up when he says foot• he dotes on his baby sister with so much love• he’s learning Knock, knock jokes from Belle that sound like this:K, K…who’s there?…car…car who?…K, K…who’s there?…guy…guy who?…K, K…who’s there?…car…car who?• all numbers are either 2 or 8 and all letters are B, natch• he gallops everywhere he goes• the way he says George (of Curious George)• he loves to wear hats, esp. Belle’s winter hats in 80 degree weather• he’s obsessed with cleaning up messes and has practically used an entire pack of napkins in one week• he kisses me on both cheeks like he’s European• his favorite book is Are You My Mother? esp. the Snort• he’s started trying to ride everyone like a “Hey” (Horse)-even Lamb and the cat aren’t safe from this new trick!I hug and kiss and tickle him every chance I get. He’s changing so quickly these days, he reminds me to stop and take it all in.