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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Day 180- me and my night owl

Jackson's hanging out with me on the couch watching Thomas again- it's the only thing that gets him to sit and calm.  I gated him into his room and listened to him scream for 7 minutes while I took a phone call from a very awesome friend who is willing to come and dog sit this weekend.  She also has offered to come do a late night with me if this continues, I'm lucky to have such awesome people here.
I've also gotten a lot of sleep advice, which I really appreciate.  I've consulted my August Moms group and found that there are MANY August toddlers doing this right now, which leads me to believe that my instinct is correct, it's a developmental stage.  I can't do the screaming or the crying, he can't do the lonely thing right now and there is way too much going on in the next 10 days to try and tackle this right now.  We are going to visit family this weekend and next weekend and I have the last week of summer school next week.  None of those conditions are good for addressing sleep issues as they often bring them about.  So lets add one more thing to the major goals for July in my world of parenting.  July is going to be a busy blog month!  Jackson will start potty training (or potty learning for those who are politically correct about it), Jackson's sleep issues need addressed (or hopefully he'll have given them up by then), Vivienne needs to move to sleeping flat (the pack n play in my room if Jackson still isn't sleeping well or the crib if he's doing better), Vivienne needs to start napping on her own, and Vivienne will start baby led weaning at the end of the month. So just thinking about all of that makes me exhausted!  But, like all things, we will take things one at a time, with patience and humor and it's OK if it all doesn't get done by August, but I have faith in them :)

Today we had a pretty low key afternoon since we were all lacking sleep.  Jackson took a good nap and right toward the end of it, I finally got Vivienne to sleep.  He, of course, woke up a bear and then woke her up.  We had about 20 minutes of rotating screaming babies fighting for my attention, but a promise of the playground and we got over it.  We headed to JRES playground today with Miss Kristina and wore ourselves out (or so I thought).  Then we headed home and had a good dinner.  Jackson got his hair cut (sorry Mamaw) but he was a hot sweaty mess with all the hair he had.  Then Jackson helped Dada in the garden while I put Ms. Vivienne to sleep.  I took over the bedtime routine and he almost gave in, but after half an hour he realized what was happening and "mama chair please!" started. Me in the room is a disaster since he wants to perform, whether I'm paying attention or not.  Then I left him gated in the room after telling him it was time for bed and I would check on him, I thought his screaming was going to wake up Vivienne again, so now we are back to the couch.  It's slow working, but it does work with little effect on the baby. Oh well, I have a feeling he will be so worn out from this weekend with family that nights won't be too much of an issue.
  •  I worked hard for this
  • Hey Mama 
  • Silly girl 
  • happy lady 
  •  Wait Mama!
  •  Woah
  • no mom 
  •  Slide!
  •  Out of control hair
  • It tickles! 
  • Bye hair 
  • Ummm, you're making me sit here a long time Dada 
  • Here we go again...


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Day 179- The party continues

Here are today's pictures, I'm dealing with a toddler who took a very long nap and now refuses to sleep despite super heavy eyelids










Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Day 178-Park

I remembered why we don't go to City Park when I took him today.  It's so frustrating because there is a lot he can do there, but the trashy people, the cussing, the screaming at kids, the smoking, the out of control kids, etc makes it not so much fun.  Fortunately, Jackson was pretty oblivious to all of this, but poor Vivienne was so quiet and shocked by all of it.  Fortunately, she was hanging in the Ergo and felt safe, but she didn't smile the whole time we were there.  Maybe she could feel my tension.  Jackson has a big bruise on his forehead from getting kicked in the face by a kid who wasn't paying attention, but was climbing on top of the tunnel on the 2-5 year old play area :(  He didn't even cry and I saw the contact, but since he didn't react I didn't think he got hurt.  So frustrating.  Oh well, Third Ward playground is nice and Jenning's new pre-school play are is great for him too, I think we'll head there tomorrow.
I'm pretty proud of myself tonight.  I had both kids, in bed and asleep, garbage out, rooms picked up, floor swept, dishes done, and diapers in the washing machine by 9:10.  Thank you Lion King.  Since I got all of that done today, we can spend extra time at the playground tomorrow.

I realized today that I'm treating Vivienne much more like a baby longer than I did with Jackson.  She has a much cuddlier personality, so it's easier to see her as a baby than it was with him at this age.  It's crazy how different they are!
 Cuddle nap, my favorite time of day
Playing on the train slide 
weeeee 
Mama, why do all the people here suck? Take me back to my sheltered playground 
Train's turn 
 He was too scared to go down this slide, but had fun playing in it
 Loving her jumparoo
Screeching! 
Silly mama

Monday, June 25, 2012

Day 177- Sitting Up

Vivienne is starting to get this sitting up thing down.  She can sit for less than a minute at a time, but she is starting to get some balance.  Both kids took great naps today, but they are both still up now.  We have 2 very busy weekends coming up so I'm looking forward to getting them back on a good routine after that.
 Getting her set in place
Look at me mama! 
Watching the lion king for a morning rest 
 My seat!
 My ah ah! (mine-itis is here!)
She stole him back  
 Trains on the window sill
You really want to take this monkey back? I'm one craaaaaazy lady 
Legs- paper?  
So excited to be sitting 
 not excited to model this for a friend trying to figure out sizing
Do NOT interrupt an artistic genius- you got that mother? 
Naptime

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Day 176- Mr. Sandman- where did you go?

So Jackson is still up, having a party.  This will be very short as we continue to do whatever we can to get him to go to sleep.  One good thing about winter is the shorter days mean it feels like bedtime earlier.
 Vivienne excited to play with Jackson
 Playing with blocks
 She was not happy to share her quilt
Jackson was unphased 
Some time with Dada and her bunny 
fighting for space on the couch 
pushing from both sides 
Vivienne for the win 
Starting over- I thought i won mom, this sucks :( 
Talking it out 
We can share! 
more blocks 
 another moby induced nap
 keys!
little playground time 
 c'mon baby, play on the slide
using her muscles 
Playing with trains by the window