On sleeping

Hot topic with the new moms and new babies: how does he sleep? I must have been asked this a million times during Patrick's first year. And for a while, I bought into all the hype. The no-cry, cry-it-out, sleep-tight, night-night propaganda that just adds to the stress. And don't get me started on the Sears pediatricians, who I mostly love but their chapter on sleep just did me in on their obvious preference for co-sleeping.

(And hey! If it works for you, rock on. But it didn't work for me and it totally didn't work for Patrick.)

We had a great routine going for a couple of months. But it's changing. The part where he sleeps until 6am, loving that. But I don't know what that means yet for his nap schedule. Will he still need two naps? If only one, at what time? Yesterday he napped from 10ish to after 1pm. So no afternoon nap, but pretty cranky by six. And I definitely want to keep his bedtime stable. I'd rather wake up at 5am than have Patrick up until 9pm. I guess we'll just have to play around with it.

Memory, it's not just for Cats

The husband and I are a bit snippy this evening.

Him: because my timing for bringing up grievances sucks. Right after he said he needed some space because of a bad mood.

Me: because I left the soiled daycare diapers in the plastic bag on the floor IN FRONT OF the downstairs diaper pail (placing them in the diaper pail after daycare is his job) waiting for him to take care of them. Now I need to do the laundry. Guess who gets to take care of them because forgetful is also grumpy tonight?

Husband bring so many wonderful qualities to our marriage and home. Patience. Forgiveness. Fun. He's a great cook, very open-minded, and always willing to listen. He's fantastic with my family. A wonderful parent. He combines generosity with a frugality that works for our finances. A tiger in the...you get the picture.

A mind like a steel trap. Not so much.

Come on-a my house

We hosted a little party tonight!

Nothing too spectacular. The girlfriends with kids and husbands, minus the beautiful Lisa who was out playing wine party. Lucky for us, if we couldn't have her, we could have her cute boy and husband. AND she sent her bacon guacamole, who quickly became the most popular guest at the party.

I always stress the parties. Will people actually show up? (I did have one birthday party where nobody came) Will the kids like the toys? (They always like the toys) Will there be enough wine? (Just barely) Will my dogs behave? (They really did fantastic with all the kids, none of whom live with big dogs)

So it was lovely. I especially liked watching Patrick around all the daddies. We are blessed with an amazing group of Dads. It just goes to show how fantastic our taste in men is. Patrick was particularly enamored with Nathe tonight, even insisting on being held by him on the way home from admiring home improvement projects down the street.

But we pushed his bedtime by 1 hour and 20 minutes. Once the crowd left, he hit meltdown. I skipped the teeth brushing and went straight for the pajamas. 10 minutes of nursing later, he's out for the count.

So while you all might laugh at me for my 5:15am wake-up calls, my baby was asleep within 20 minutes of you leaving my house! I'll remember that it must count for something, even as the rest of you are sleeping in until 6am at least, you lazy buggers.

I would just like to note that my friend Becky is jealous of our weather. It's still in the 100's in Texas. You know, Texas, where summer AND Republicans actually exist.

My man had a choice the other day.

His goal: getting lucky with the wife.
His choices: watch Battlestar Galactica for several hours after wife comes home from 12 hour shift, puts baby to bed, walks doggies, and cleans up. Then, at 10pm when she says 'night, baby' he makes his moves.

OR...

make a nice simple dinner for wife to eat after putting baby to bed, sit down and talk with her about lots of interesting topic, keep the TV OFF, help with kitchen clean-up, and make your move at a reasonable hour.

My man is smart man....and a goal-0riented one.

Kevin decided to buy some frosting to go on the graham crackers. I don't know if he's divinely inspired to shower droplets of sugar goodness into my life, or demon spawn who will maliciously undo all the lovely "Wow! You are looking so skinny!" comments that my vain, self-absorbed heart devours, insatiably.

By the time my post-work/nursing/dinner dog walk ended, it was dark. Sniff. And it smelled, just slightly, of non-summer. Of Autumn.

On vacation with my Mom, who is awesome even though she gives me lots of driving advice. We've discussed the different between bad advice, good advice, and NECESSARY advice. 

It's about 100 degrees here. Today we visited my brother and his swimming pool. He's got lots of hot young people that live in his apartment complex, and many of them came to the pool so I could ogle them. Lucky me!

And of the lovely pregnant ladies in my family is having a GIRL! We need us some girls, and we are all looking forward to fun baby-girl shopping. Watch out Mrs. J! The pink is inevitable, and resistance is futile (right, Lena?)

Parenting lessons

Lesson One: For Dads

Do not put the baby to sleep wearing only a tee-shirt and diaper. By the time you leave for work and Mommy is all alone, the baby will have woken up. And removed the diaper. And pooped. And gotten poop all over the crib. And himself. Naturally, he will want to nurse Right Now. When this happens, it makes Mommy so tired that she will never want to have sex again.

Lesson Two: For Moms
Do not drive all over creation doing a variety of activities that sound really fun but involve downtown parking, pushing crying children uphill in a stroller, dragging children out of the park "because we are now going to the farmer's market (damnit)" over many hours. The children might survive, but you will be very cranky.

small blessings

Monday was horrid at work. No emergencies, thank goodness, but lots of people out sick (or whatever) or doing work education. So I got to be in charge. Nobody was jealous. I haven't had that challenging of a day in a very long time.

But Tuesday was a delight! Lots of staff, I wasn't in charge, and my day started with a lovely delivery. My charge nurse bought me a Starbucks giftcard out of her own monies in sympathy for my Monday. Then she sent me home at 11:00! I got to enjoy all the lovely sunshine with Patrick and Kevin at the pool!

Patrick Napping

My little boy is definately not a baby anymore. He's running right into toddlerhood, and dragging me along with him. Patrick's day is a non-stop reminder of how much he is learning, and how much he wants to learn. He sits on the dishwasher door and hands me silverwear (one at a time). Mom taught him to hand her his milk cup instead of throwing it on the floor.

And that boy is Testing is Mommy.

We have two prime examples in our household. One, he sits by the dog dishes in the utility room, peeking at me. When he catches my eye, his hand drifts into the dog food. And Patrick watches me, is this the time I won't stop him? Two, he likes to stand up in his high chair. This is my tough one, because the look he gives me is so conspiritorial, a small half-grin as if he knows that I want to laugh at him So Bad! but I can't or else Kevin will be very unhappy with me. So we play the game, he stands up, I tell him to sit down, he sits down.

But he still takes two naps a day! I wonder how long it will last.

Mom is up this weekend. She's such a riot to watch with Patrick. They just PLAY! No restrictions. It's so wonderful to hear them together. It's nice to have that break, like being able to go to the grocery store by myself, or walk the dogs, or "get stuff done." In fact, as soon as he wakes up, we'll walk down to the Proctor Arts Festival. Kevin is at work, so the puppies will stay at home. I feel terrible guilt about this, despite the 45 minute walk they've already had this morning. I love my girls, but their lives just aren't the same.

Yes, I hear you saying, such poor neglected dogs.