The Best Laid Plans

Something happened the other day that didn't get documented on this here blog.

TT turned 3 on Saturday the 15th.

Turning 3 is a BIG deal for him.  It marked his graduation from Early Intervention (a birth to 3 program) and his entrance into preschool.

TT was very much looking forward to having a Mickey Mouse party.  Him and I would sit at the computer and look at "Mickey Party" as he would say.  He loved looking at the cakes, and decorations, and all that fun Mickey stuff.

I ordered him a Mickey Mouse birthday shirt off etsy.  I paid a little extra to have it shipped express to arrive in time for his party on the 15th.  Husband and I were totally psyched, we could celebrate his birthday on his birthday.  

Pirate Mickey - it doesn't get better in his eyes.

TT's last day of play-school, through Early Intervention, was the Thursday before his birthday (he only went once a week).  I had planned on making Mickey Mouse cupcakes.  They were going to be super cute - with Oreos with ears and red shorts.  I made the cupcakes on Tuesday with plans to frost them on Wednesday.

By 6pm Wednesday night the schools were closed on Thursday due to the snow.  ggrrr!!!

No last day of play-school for TT.  (And how am I going to get my Girl Scout cookies now.)

That was OK, we still had his party coming in a couple of days.

And then.... they started calling for MORE snow on Saturday (the 15th and party day).

TT started looking really green around the gills.  He had sick eyes.

Husband had been sick for the last week.

Then I seemed to lose all strength and motivation.

Husband and I talked and decided to move TT's party to next weekend.

Saturday, his birthday; started with me taking myself to urgent care.  I hadn't slept the night before my throat hurt so bad.

What a crummy birthday it was turning out to be for TT.

I wasn't going to let my boy down - granted he didn't even realize it was his birthday and his party had been moved, but still.

So after taking the first round of antibiotics and some pain pills I decided I was making him a Mickey cake.  My boy was having some sort of celebration to mark the day.  Husband got his one present out of the basement and set-up while he was napping.  It was a play kitchen.  We had plans to get him food and stuff to go with it while he was at play-school on Thursday, but yup the snow stopped that.

I made one of his favorites for dinner.  But he didn't eat much, he wasn't feeling well.

He did however enjoy his cake.

Nursery

While cleaning, better yet organizing, TT's room today it occurred to me that I never shared pictures of his "nursery" completed.  Although I am not even really sure it was ever a nursery; he slept in our room until he was a little over 6 months old.

That being said, we will be turning into a "big boy" room sooner rather than later as it is time to convert his crib into a toddler bed.  This means we need to do some re-arranging and toddler-proofing (toddlers can get into way more stuff than babies, I never understood why they call it baby-proofing) before the big change over.

Sleepy baby place.
The rainbow blanket was my brothers.
The ABC chart was RR's handed down from Nana.

TT's giant T above his bed.
I made this with extra material I had from making my cousin's baby a blanket.

Cozy nursing and reading nook.
The purple blanket is from the hospital.
The white blanket my aunt made.
The sun is another hand-me-down from RR, from my aunt.

It took me way too long to pick out these curtains.

Toys - glorious toys.
The Scooby Doo Mystery Machine, stolen from RR, is one of his favorite toys.
RR had the same monkey piano  until our dog ate it.  

Wall hangings - the blanket I made him that he doesn't like
and the monkey blanket Husband picked out for him that he also doesn't like.
Rosary beads courtesy of Nana, according to her you can never have enough.

And the cow jumped over the moon.  RR made him these candles.

So many stuffed animals, most of which are from RR.
(stuffed in the Moses basket TT slept in for about a week)
The hanging monkey was a first birthday gift (from yet another aunt).

Changing area (clearly I need to wash diapers).

Getting Ready

I'm having a Tupperware Party on Friday.  TT decided to help me take inventory of my current Tupperware stock this afternoon.

The Witching Hour

No, this is not a post about Halloween.  So if that's what you came here for, I suggest you move along.  Just kidding!!! That was a really really bad seasonal joke. Anyhow....

The Big Boy has put us through just about every sleep disorder: nightmares, night-terrors and sleepwalking.  Have you heard the story about the time he slept-walked out of the house and into the car?

So you would think I am a professional at dealing with sleep disorders by now.  Sadly, I am not.

TT has been having night-terrors 5 out of 7 nights a week, for the better part of a month now.

And it is just now, that I am learning to accept these for what they are.

Like clock work TT "wakes-up" at 11pm and proceeds to scream and cry until midnight, and there is no consoling him.  You see, night-terrors are a partial sleep disorder; the child appears to be awake - eyes open, moving around; but they are in fact asleep.

And Husband and I have been doing everything wrong when these episodes occur.  We should just be checking on him and letting him be; because the more you interfere with the night-terror the worse you make it.  Instead we are going in and rubbing his back, putting his blankets back on, *gasp* bringing him back to bed with us (where the night-terror really gets out of control).  It's so hard to just let him be during these episodes however.  It's natural for a parent to want to hold and comfort their child when they are distressed; it's like the treatment goes against every thing you feel.

After another night of too little sleep, for mom and dad; because of the night-terrors I decided to refresh my night-terror knowledge; and tonight I am going to try and wake him 15 minutes before the witching hour.  Doing this nightly for a week should solve the problem for the time being for us.  Ah, another thing that goes against you parenting instincts - waking a sleeping child.

But maybe, just maybe we'll actually get a full nights sleep (sometime soon).

20 Months!!

TT likes chili.  Actually he LOVES chili.  

Some how it happened.  I was just going along, minding my business, being super crazy busy and dealing with business like always (gah, the car broke down again)... and TT turned 20 months!!

20 months!!

That's 4 months away from being 2.  Two whole years!!!  Gah!!!  I better go check for grey hairs now.

Ok, ok, I'm back.  Did you miss me?

So what is TT up to now that he's 20 months?  Everything.

He's till nursing.

He's eating everything insight.  But we recently learned he doesn't like apple pie.  How can he not like apple pie.  Especially mine.  I make a killer apple pie.  I may have to tempt him with it ala mode.

He has just learned how to walk backwards, and has started learning how to climb on the couch.

Right now he favorite game is to chase after balls.  He then picks them up, sometimes with his teeth, and runs around the house with it in his mouth.

Speaking of teeth, he sure has caught up on teeth... I think we're just waiting on his 4 canines (and then 2 year molars but let's not get ahead of ourselves).  Notice I said "think"... because he won't let me in his mouth to see.

TT is getting so tall.  Crazy tall.  Typically he's wearing a size 3T on the bottom and a 2T on top.

Because he is getting so tall we need to think about converting his bed to a toddler bed; a step we (me and daddy) are so not ready for.

And speaking of sleep, he is currently transitioning from two naps to one nap a day.  This is going to take a while I can tell you.

All in all, getting so big.

And now... what you've been waiting for... pictures!!!

Apples = good.
Apple pie = bad.
I don't get this.  But no complaints.

Tackling his big brother.
I fear my furniture when they get bigger.

Playing.  He loves playing in his tents.

Showing off his pumpkin shirt.

Playing... with ALL the toys.

Running around with the ball in his mouth.  Silly baby.

Sleepy big guy.

Modeling his Halloween costume.
Yes, we need to break the nook addiction.

Modeling his too small pants.  

Old is New Again

The other day I posted about his TT and RR are starting to play together.

This has had more benefits that you can imagine.

Like I can say "RR go play with your brother while I make dinner/fold the laundry/sweep the floor/do other chore I would rather not be doing."  And off they go to play, sometimes with tears because someone got to rough or someone destroyed some layout - but generally they are good.

Playing with his little brother is really expanding RR's imagination . the one I thought he was loosing as he got older.  The crib becomes a pirate ship, the play tents are a carnival game, the possibilities are endless.

And then there are the toys.  The toys that RR discarded years ago as he got older and his tastes changed.  All of a sudden these toys are new to him again.  It's like a trip to the attic is better than a trip to the store, all of a sudden we have all these great "new" toys and they have TONS of pieces... no collections to build up.  Piles and piles of trains, a handful of play tents and tunnles, Duplo Legos (in both castle and Thomas sets) toys toys and more toys.

I'm so glad I kept them all (well, most of them at least).

Slowing Down

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the pain?"
"Listen doctor, I've experienced natural child birth; that's a 10.  Don't get me wrong this hurts, a lot.  But in comparison it's probably only a 5."

And with that the doctor recommended alternating Tylenol and Motrin and icing my separated nasal cavity every few hours.

What had started out as an idyllic Saturday morning; laying in bed with the boys and Husband.  Cuddling and snuggling, goofing around a little; had turned into TT crashing the back of his head into my nose and separating the cartilage from the bone.

We spent nearly 4 hours hours in the, normally very quiet, emergency room.  Clearly the ER's advertising on TV was paying off by the number of people they were seeing that morning.

But it could have been worse; and thankfully it wasn't.

We were due at my step-dad's Uncle's house for a family gathering later that afternoon.  Clearly I was in no shape to go.

And then the day got worse.  Details of which I will not go into now... but no one has passed and no one has been injured, no jobs have been lost. There are some things in life you dread, yesterday was one of those days.  But I will fight on.

In the meantime I am taking care of nose, and trying not to over do it (as I have a tendency to do).  I am resting, icing my nose, playing with the boys (although I will admit I am a little nervous when TT is around my face), making banana bread and taking cat naps.

Tomorrow is Monday.  Tomorrow is a new day.  Tomorrow I start aggressively looking for help.  In the meantime... resting up and being thankful for my family.

7 Years Ago

He's always had a sense of style, hasn't he?

This is RR chilling in his "pool" back when he was 18 months old.

Bald, wasn't he?

Bed Boy

I'm sure you've seen it, mom and dad walking along pushing baby in the stroller.  Baby is snoozing happily, and mom and dad are free to talk, shop and even get a cup of coffee; almost as if baby wasn't here.

You've heard the stories from other parents and you've probably even told the story yourself "baby wouldn't sleep unless they were in the car."

Or you're a family bed type of family, and baby will happily nestle down curled in your arm and sleep away.

Even perhaps you've had the baby who wouldn't sleep unless they were being held.

And we've all heard the funny stories about the baby that feel asleep in their dinner, or on the couch, or curled up next to the dog on the floor.

But did you know there is another type of baby, er toddler, out there.  The "I will sleep in my bed and only in my bed" baby.  Meet TT, he is that baby, er toddler.  Yes, I suppose at 18 months of age he is officially a toddler.  

TT will not sleep in the stroller.  Husband and I have gone to great lengths, walking over an hour, in hopes he would fall asleep.

Sleeping in the car is a rare occurrence for him.  We can leave a place simply because he is overtired and proceed to drive an hour, and he will not fall asleep.  Up until he was about 9 months old he hated riding in the car.  Riding in the car used to a traumatizing experience, for all of us.  He still really doesn't sleep in the car, but at least he doesn't cry the whole time still.

Bringing him into bed with us is an invitation to have a party.  I miss the days I could nurse him and he would drift back off to sleep.  Take this morning for instance, he woke at 5:15 hungry, so I brought him into our bed where he nursed a little and played a lot.  So I took him back into his room, nursed him in the rocking chair and put him back in his crib; where he promptly fell asleep.  Little bugger.

Back in the day (because you know he's getting so old), Husband used to put him in the carrier and TT would sleep soundly during Mass.  That is so not happening anymore.  Taking TT to Mass is like wrestling a greased pig.

He is so not the kid that will fall asleep anywhere.  He likes, insists rather, in sleeping in his bed, thank you very much.  Which is good in a sense, but the rigidity of this habit does wear a little thin.  But hey, at least he's sleeping.  Right?