September 24, 2010

It's my birthday and tonight we are going out to Red Robin to celebrate. Then Janet will be flying into town with JJ and we will do some activities and visiting with them this weekend. Should be fun!

So yesterday, I drank 1/2 of a green tea from Starbucks. Not that that in and of itself is anything to write about but I haven't had any caffiene for months and that tea must have oodles of caffiene in it because I was super jittery and wired. I couldn't believe it. Then I went to a happy hour gathering of other fine accountants and I had 1/2 a glass of sprite/citron vodka. It was yummy. And I was buzzed. I wondered if I was going to have to wait to drive for a while. Which I decided to do. After about 40 minutes, the effects of my 1/2 shot of vodka that was in my drink wore off and I was able to safely maneuver my automobile. Today, I'm tired. I think it was all the caffiene and alcohol, it's hard on my old body I guess.

Oh, and you can vote for me now in the next presidential election. Sweet!

Day Out with Thomas

Today the whole family went to "Day Out with Thomas." We got to ride on the train pulled by Thomas the Tank Engine himself. Calvin got to meet Sir Topham Hatt and gave him 5. It was at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.

We left the house before 9am and went to the parking area. We were on the bus by 9:20 and heading over to see the infamous Toot Toot. We were thankful that we got there as early as we did, the people multiplied like crazy as the day went on.

So silly me, I thought we'd go, ride the train at our scheduled 10am time, and then get home around 11:30am. Oh no. We were gone for almost 5 hours. Also silly me, since we were only going to be gone for 2 hours, I didn't take a stroller. So I carried Code the whole time we were gone. Granted, I had a baby bjorn but still, he's almost 20 pounds. Pack or not, that gets tiresome. And I'm sore now. Not only my entire upper body but my stinking foot as well. I wore tennis shoes but my foot sure loves to be a pain in my foot.

A whole new kind of crazy.

So this morning I checked our voice mail at home, which I rarely do, and there was 5 messages. Wow, we never have that many messages. The first one was from Stephanie, Dylan's mom. She sounded drunk and went on and on and on saying things that I won't repeat in a public forum. What I will say is that what I heard was a type of crazy I've never heard, (and I know some crazy) and my children will never spend time alone with that family.

Labor Day weekend

So it's Labor Day evening. We aborted the potty training mission, decided he's not ready. He's physically ready but he keeps telling us he's a baby. So we'll give him a littl e more time.

Cody is sleeping. I swear when I put him down tonight, he looked at me for 1/2 second and then was promptly asleep. What a dreamy sleeper. I love it!

Codeman is also teething. He was enjoying his mommy's favorite beverage today: ice water. (If I can't have coke, it's water. A Coke sounds good right now!) He's such a happy guy, he was a giggle monster today. We're still working on the napping part of sleep training, he believes in 5 30 minute naps per day rather than 3 longer naps -- but he's doing great at night and I can't complain about that. Another week and he should be weened from night feeding and then I will be able to sleep - I hope!

I was going to take Cal to the library today but it was closed. So on our way back home, I stopped in a consignment shop that opened a few blocks away. I found a pair of shoes that actually fit Cal's chubber little feet, so I'm calling that one a success! Oh, and I got a tee shirt and a sweat shirt. He's going to need long sleeved shirts this winter, last winter's stuff doesn't fit. I know that's how it's supposed to be but a mom can hope for 2 things: not needing new clothes all the time and their little boys staying little boys.

When we got home, we all (me and the boys) took a nap. When I got up I decided to trim the bushes out front. I've been wanting to do that nasty chore for about 3 years now. I figured the time had come. It's looking nice now, I'm glad I did it. However, it's hard and dangerous work. My hands are swollen, and I'm scratched up from the devil bush on every limb. Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. I did!

Mission: Sleep training

Friday night I began sleep training Codeman. He didn't cry initially but subsequently woke up about every hour. He never got hysterical (which Big C did) but he'd cry off and on throughout the night. I held out. Mostly. I held out until 5am and then I nursed him. At which point he slept until after 8am. I didn't sleep well at all. I am also used to sleeping with the little snugglesaurus so sleeping alone was a challenge for me as well.

Last night, he fussed for a few minutes and that was it. I got up and nursed him at my scheduled 3am time. I also got up and nursed him at 6:30. Both times, he went back to sleep with no problem. I still didn't sleep well and kept checking on him. It's a lot easier to check on the baby when he's in bed with you. But I made it through night two. Whew!

I'm hoping that my personal anxiety is a little less tonight and I get some real sleep. Time to feed the wild ones.

I wish everyone a very happy labor day!

Potty training for one, Sleep training for two

Potty training went ok today. He peed himself initially. We changed his clothes and then about 2 hours later I sat him on the potty chair and gave him my old 10-key to play with while he sat there. Then I remembered someone telling me as a teenager that if you put someones hand in warm water when they are sleeping, that they'll pee the bed. So I employed that tactic. It eventually worked and he peed a bit in his potty chair. Then he was watching Barney and he peed. A lot. All over the floor in front of the tv. So we changed clothes again. Then he came in Codes room with me because I was cleaning it out in preparation for tonight's crying it out and he found the Elmo potty book. So he was pushing the buttons on the potty book and went and sat down on the potty chair and POOPED!! All by himself. He comes running out of the bathroom and says BIG POOP! And it was. It was a big poop. After that he had one more accident before going to bed. Not terrible for the first day I think.

So now, as I'm typing this, I'm sleep training Code. He initially went down without a fuss but he was getting close to being asleep so I guess that was a fluke. I set him down, gave him a pacifier and he went right out. About 45 minutes later, he started to cry. I went to check on him. He wasn't entirely pleased when I didn't pick him up to cuddle. I went back 10 minutes later, same thing. I went back 15 minutes later, same thing. Then he seemed to fall asleep. But that only lasted about 10 minutes. He's not full blown crying - yet, but he's crying and stopping and crying and stopping. Now we're getting close to the dream feed time and I'm not sure what to do. I hate this part. I'm still weening him from night feeding but the books say to respond to their crying the same way, EVERY TIME. I'm afraid it's going to get too late and then run into hungry time. All in all, he's not hysterical so that's good, and he's definitely trying to fall asleep. He usually sleeps for about an hour, then would wake up and I would cuddle him back to sleep and he'd sleep until either midnight or make it all the way to 4am. So he just needs to get over this cuddle hump and we should be good. I was planning to feed him at 11pm and then go to bed myself. I am holding out hope that my plan will still work.

On a side note, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon. When I'm getting ready to leave the house, and I'm almost ready to walk out the door, for some reason it seems that there's a time warp. I will look at the clock at 7:30 but I get in my car and it's 8:00. The time warp can vary from 15 minutes to 40 minutes. I know I really just need to pay attention to what I'm doing but this happens to me every day and it's starting to make me think it's not JUST me.

Naked? Moi?

So tonight, Big G came inside from his after dinner break and looks at Cal and says "why are you naked?" Cal points to the pile of clothes on the floor and says "clothes off." Well, I suppose that IS why he's naked, because his clothes were off. Perhaps next time we'll ask why he took his clothes off in the kitchen for no apparent reason.

And now it's bathtime. And hey, Cal got ready -- all by himself!

Potty training to commence in 36 hours. Wish us luck!