The kiddos are after us. Somehow Baby Bear and the Empress have decided to completely refuse to sleep in a way that's human.
About two weeks ago, Baby Bear decided he was going to be afraid of just about everything. He's been staying awake and calling out to one or the other of us until about 10pm.
The Empress, on the other hand, has decided to start waking us up at 5am, 5:30am, 6am etc. until we're just so bleary eyed we might as well be up.
This is a problem.
This means I don't get to chat with SM at all. Ever.
It also means we don't get any "brain-dead" time in the evenings either.
*sigh*
please phase, be over, at least ONE of you
until next time...
sleep tight
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
The classic debate.. the country or the ocean?
The family went to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend, to beautiful and wonderful Jubilee Farms in Carnation, WA. What a gorgeous day for a trip to the country. All the leaves are changing - for a second I even felt like I was back in the Midwest! - there were tractors, horses, turkeys, piglets and of course, pumpkins and squash as far as the eye could see.
The Little Mans' best part of the day? See the animals and picking out pumpkins. The worst part of his day? When he WASN'T doing those things.
classic...
The Empress was animal crazy. The fake piggie snorts are enough to keep you smiling all day. I didn't think we were going to get her away from the horses, luckily the "Say Bye Bye Horsey" trick still works on a toddler.
I was asking the Little Man, while we were driving home, which he would rather do: live in the country and grow pumpkins? or live by the ocean and surf?
answer: BOTH!
Weird.
Guess that explains why we live in the city. His Mom & Dad can't decide where to live either - so we just live in the middle of all of it and enjoy it as much as we can. The sad reality of that is, we hardly ever make the time to "get away" to the country, or the ocean, or - for that matter - the mountains. We live in an area that is absolutely filled with things to go see, but we always seem to be looking at them from the distance, on our way to whatever event happens to be going on right then. I thought about it again last night while we were watching the (sad sad) Seahawks game on our big ol' HDTV. How Seattle did shine last night! (the city, not the team)...
They had shots sweeping down from the islands, coming in from Bainbridge, flying over the Space Needle, watching the ferries, and of course, the beautiful Football and Baseball Stadiums all lit up in Sodo.
I sure love this town, and lucky for us, we'll always have a great view of what it, and the surrounding areas have to offer.
We'll just have to try to make more time to appreciate it when we can.
until next time...
lovin' it here.... even in the rain
The Little Mans' best part of the day? See the animals and picking out pumpkins. The worst part of his day? When he WASN'T doing those things.
classic...
The Empress was animal crazy. The fake piggie snorts are enough to keep you smiling all day. I didn't think we were going to get her away from the horses, luckily the "Say Bye Bye Horsey" trick still works on a toddler.
I was asking the Little Man, while we were driving home, which he would rather do: live in the country and grow pumpkins? or live by the ocean and surf?
answer: BOTH!
Weird.
Guess that explains why we live in the city. His Mom & Dad can't decide where to live either - so we just live in the middle of all of it and enjoy it as much as we can. The sad reality of that is, we hardly ever make the time to "get away" to the country, or the ocean, or - for that matter - the mountains. We live in an area that is absolutely filled with things to go see, but we always seem to be looking at them from the distance, on our way to whatever event happens to be going on right then. I thought about it again last night while we were watching the (sad sad) Seahawks game on our big ol' HDTV. How Seattle did shine last night! (the city, not the team)...
They had shots sweeping down from the islands, coming in from Bainbridge, flying over the Space Needle, watching the ferries, and of course, the beautiful Football and Baseball Stadiums all lit up in Sodo.
I sure love this town, and lucky for us, we'll always have a great view of what it, and the surrounding areas have to offer.
We'll just have to try to make more time to appreciate it when we can.
until next time...
lovin' it here.... even in the rain
Thursday, October 11, 2007
How do they know when they're supposed to behave?
These little creatures who live with me, who were made from bits and pieces of me, amaze me every day. Especially since we have two now, it's like a socioloty experiment every day. Luckily the Little Man takes good care of his little Empress, as long as she's not trying to take one of his comic books that is.
What interests me most, at the moment, is how they act when we're down to one parent. Both SM and I have been traveling a bit lately. He's the one out of town at the moment, and the kids have been phenomenal.
It's like they have some sort of radar that says: OK - one of the parent's is gone, if we drive this one mad there's no one to turn to. Better not push it.
They're eating dinner properly - it's a rare occurrence. One time SM was gone, I took the kids out to dinner. By myself. They didn't do one bad thing. The Empress watched the other kids, who were running around like their hair was on fire, and the Little Man just sat down at the table in the play area and read a book. I almost had a heart attack (ok, I just cried a little cuz they were so great, but still...)!
They took baths and got ready for bed without a fight. The Little Man even negotiated his bath for tomorrow without too much hassle and then just hung out in the bathroom with us while the Empress bathed. They got their pjs on together and then we hung out and watched a little Curious George. (sidenote: SM has the Empress doing a monkey imitation that is HI-larious! so we got a little of that before bed too) :O)
The morning was a weird one, we were running late. The Little Man had a trip to the symphony today and was on the verge of panic when he saw the "nice" clothes I got out for him, but we talked it through. He wore jeans today for the first time since he was like 3 mos. old (stunning fear of all buttons, snaps and zippers) and a lovely Gram-given sweater. THEN there was near-crisis surrounding not having time to eat breakfast. After I talked with him about it though, he was perfectly fine, put on his shoes (on the right feet) and even helped the Empress with her cereal bar wrapper.
/end ramble
It's strange... but I really think they have some sort of sixth-sense that tells them when the environment is not "normal" it results in "abnormal" (good) behavior.
I wonder if it's the opposite for single parents. Do the kid(s) understand that when there are more parents/caretakers/family members present they switch to "abnormal" behavior? Or are they totally aware of the fact that they're "down one" to start with and end up with pretty good behavior normally. Or am I just a well-off white mom whose situation is so far from a single-mom's situation that there's no connection whatsoever?
I suppose it's a little bit of everything, as usual.
until next time...
how's your sociology experiment going?
What interests me most, at the moment, is how they act when we're down to one parent. Both SM and I have been traveling a bit lately. He's the one out of town at the moment, and the kids have been phenomenal.
It's like they have some sort of radar that says: OK - one of the parent's is gone, if we drive this one mad there's no one to turn to. Better not push it.
They're eating dinner properly - it's a rare occurrence. One time SM was gone, I took the kids out to dinner. By myself. They didn't do one bad thing. The Empress watched the other kids, who were running around like their hair was on fire, and the Little Man just sat down at the table in the play area and read a book. I almost had a heart attack (ok, I just cried a little cuz they were so great, but still...)!
They took baths and got ready for bed without a fight. The Little Man even negotiated his bath for tomorrow without too much hassle and then just hung out in the bathroom with us while the Empress bathed. They got their pjs on together and then we hung out and watched a little Curious George. (sidenote: SM has the Empress doing a monkey imitation that is HI-larious! so we got a little of that before bed too) :O)
The morning was a weird one, we were running late. The Little Man had a trip to the symphony today and was on the verge of panic when he saw the "nice" clothes I got out for him, but we talked it through. He wore jeans today for the first time since he was like 3 mos. old (stunning fear of all buttons, snaps and zippers) and a lovely Gram-given sweater. THEN there was near-crisis surrounding not having time to eat breakfast. After I talked with him about it though, he was perfectly fine, put on his shoes (on the right feet) and even helped the Empress with her cereal bar wrapper.
/end ramble
It's strange... but I really think they have some sort of sixth-sense that tells them when the environment is not "normal" it results in "abnormal" (good) behavior.
I wonder if it's the opposite for single parents. Do the kid(s) understand that when there are more parents/caretakers/family members present they switch to "abnormal" behavior? Or are they totally aware of the fact that they're "down one" to start with and end up with pretty good behavior normally. Or am I just a well-off white mom whose situation is so far from a single-mom's situation that there's no connection whatsoever?
I suppose it's a little bit of everything, as usual.
until next time...
how's your sociology experiment going?
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
The drama surrounding the end of Farmer's Market Season
Last Friday, as we were driving home from school (Me driving Roxie and Milo) we took our normal wee-waddy-way home to avoid the backups, and drove by the parking lot where our local Farmer's Market was happily situated every Friday afternoon throughout the spring and summer.
I love the Farmer's Market.
I long to be just like Jennifer Garner holding my little bundle(s) of joie while I pick and choose my fruits and vegetables (that my chef will cook with) and armloads of beautiful flowers to (have my maid) decorate my beach-side abode. /dream
Every week I'd exclaim tidings of happiness at seeing the mayhem surrounding the Farmer's Market. Not only was it a magical ideal of things I wish I'd someday do, but it also signified the beloved "FRIDAY" - favorite day of the week in our house.
We stopped a few times.
We even walked down once or twice.
And then it was gone.......
Milo could hear and sense my sadness.
me: Milo, the Farmer's Market is gone!
Milo: But Mommy, where did the Farmer's Market go? When will it come back?
me: *sigh* Oh Milo, it won't be back again for a very long time. Not until next year. Oh well, we'll go again in the Spring.
Moments later..
Milo: *sniff *sniff *whimper
me: Milo! Are you crying?!?! What are you doing?!? Are you crying?!?!?
Milo: *sniff *whimper *whimper
me: OH NO! Milo, it's OK! Why are you crying?? Is it the Farmer's Market?
Milo: [full out sobbing]I WANNA GO TO THE FARMER'S MARKET!!!!!!!!!!!
By now we're home and I'm parking the car. I see one of Milo's old daycare friends, who is going to school across the street from our house, getting into his car with his Mom.
me: Milo, look it's your friend! Let's get out and say hi.
Milo: [still full out sobbing] NOOOOO I DON'T WANT TO, I just want to go straight inside..........
yikes
Luckily the other Mom reminded me that there are 2 other Farmer's Markets still functioning, one of which functions year-round.
After trying to explain that ours might be gone, but there are others that we can visit (TODAY?!?!?, no, not today) on a different day of the week, the crisis was finally under control and he was able to "face" hangin' out with his friend for a few minutes before he went home and we went inside.
sheesh
I figure I have 3 more days to come up with a plan.
Otherwise... Armageddon! (yes, ben affleck movie pun intended)
until next time...
send our love to the farmers
:o)
I love the Farmer's Market.
I long to be just like Jennifer Garner holding my little bundle(s) of joie while I pick and choose my fruits and vegetables (that my chef will cook with) and armloads of beautiful flowers to (have my maid) decorate my beach-side abode. /dream
Every week I'd exclaim tidings of happiness at seeing the mayhem surrounding the Farmer's Market. Not only was it a magical ideal of things I wish I'd someday do, but it also signified the beloved "FRIDAY" - favorite day of the week in our house.
We stopped a few times.
We even walked down once or twice.
And then it was gone.......
Milo could hear and sense my sadness.
me: Milo, the Farmer's Market is gone!
Milo: But Mommy, where did the Farmer's Market go? When will it come back?
me: *sigh* Oh Milo, it won't be back again for a very long time. Not until next year. Oh well, we'll go again in the Spring.
Moments later..
Milo: *sniff *sniff *whimper
me: Milo! Are you crying?!?! What are you doing?!? Are you crying?!?!?
Milo: *sniff *whimper *whimper
me: OH NO! Milo, it's OK! Why are you crying?? Is it the Farmer's Market?
Milo: [full out sobbing]I WANNA GO TO THE FARMER'S MARKET!!!!!!!!!!!
By now we're home and I'm parking the car. I see one of Milo's old daycare friends, who is going to school across the street from our house, getting into his car with his Mom.
me: Milo, look it's your friend! Let's get out and say hi.
Milo: [still full out sobbing] NOOOOO I DON'T WANT TO, I just want to go straight inside..........
yikes
Luckily the other Mom reminded me that there are 2 other Farmer's Markets still functioning, one of which functions year-round.
After trying to explain that ours might be gone, but there are others that we can visit (TODAY?!?!?, no, not today) on a different day of the week, the crisis was finally under control and he was able to "face" hangin' out with his friend for a few minutes before he went home and we went inside.
sheesh
I figure I have 3 more days to come up with a plan.
Otherwise... Armageddon! (yes, ben affleck movie pun intended)
until next time...
send our love to the farmers
:o)
Monday, October 8, 2007
The last-minute babysit - why is it so strange?
This weekend we had nothing planned. Of course, that didn't fly.
We ended up having friends over Saturday and I cooked a big (for me) meal and I haven't done that in a really long time. We even babysat for a friend/neighbor while she went to a nearby appointment while her Hubby was out of town.
I know babysitting for friends is totally normal for just about everyone else in the world, but we hardly ever do any emergency (or non-emergency for that matter) babysitting for friends/neighbors. Nor do we request it. I wonder why that is.
Is it because when you live in the city you're not really supposed to get to know your neighbors? Is it because we, as parents, are all so afraid of the dangers "hovering" over our children that we don't think we can trust anyone, not even our friends? Is it because we (as upper middle class folk) are just too worried about imposing on our friends/neighbors that we can't imagine being so bold as to ask the favor of quick child care while we do something basic but important that doesn't allow children?
I thought we all knew that it literally "Takes a Village" to raise our children. We're moving into these communities where we can walk to dinner/playground/coffee etc. and hopefully get to know our neighbors on the way, except we're not really getting to know them. We're still just as disconnected as before, it just doesn't seem that way on the surface.
How do we change this? Do we just barrel ahead on our own and start the trend?
We kinda did this weekend. We had friends over, babysat, hosted dinner for folks at no notice.
love it
until next time....
babysit for your friends/neighbors, it might be fun!
We ended up having friends over Saturday and I cooked a big (for me) meal and I haven't done that in a really long time. We even babysat for a friend/neighbor while she went to a nearby appointment while her Hubby was out of town.
I know babysitting for friends is totally normal for just about everyone else in the world, but we hardly ever do any emergency (or non-emergency for that matter) babysitting for friends/neighbors. Nor do we request it. I wonder why that is.
Is it because when you live in the city you're not really supposed to get to know your neighbors? Is it because we, as parents, are all so afraid of the dangers "hovering" over our children that we don't think we can trust anyone, not even our friends? Is it because we (as upper middle class folk) are just too worried about imposing on our friends/neighbors that we can't imagine being so bold as to ask the favor of quick child care while we do something basic but important that doesn't allow children?
I thought we all knew that it literally "Takes a Village" to raise our children. We're moving into these communities where we can walk to dinner/playground/coffee etc. and hopefully get to know our neighbors on the way, except we're not really getting to know them. We're still just as disconnected as before, it just doesn't seem that way on the surface.
How do we change this? Do we just barrel ahead on our own and start the trend?
We kinda did this weekend. We had friends over, babysat, hosted dinner for folks at no notice.
love it
until next time....
babysit for your friends/neighbors, it might be fun!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Pilates Plug, and a quick update
I started doing Pilates a few months ago. In the grand and hopefully not futile attempt to get my body back and maybe improve my abs along the way, I started with 1day/week and then moved to 2days/week. I found a place I really like: Conscious Body Pilates.
My body is already starting to change. Granted - a little aerobic exercise added into the mix would help ALOT, but setting aside 2 hours a week is near impossible as it is. Luckily I'm seeing changes, enjoying the classes, and have SM's FULL support.
That's a start.
The update: yesterday when I picked up Roxie from school (instead of crying and running at me like she normally does) she looked at me, smiled, and kept playing with her toy! I've never been so thrilled to be ignored. I know, I'll regret that soon enough and will be crying (to you) about how my baby doesn't need me anymore blah blah blah.... But for now, it's wonderful. We took our time leaving. She didn't whine (except when she wanted her take-home snack). We kept our routine intact even though we had guests for dinner. And this morning, she didn't wake up 'til 6:45am. WOOOOOT!
until next time...
sleep well
My body is already starting to change. Granted - a little aerobic exercise added into the mix would help ALOT, but setting aside 2 hours a week is near impossible as it is. Luckily I'm seeing changes, enjoying the classes, and have SM's FULL support.
That's a start.
The update: yesterday when I picked up Roxie from school (instead of crying and running at me like she normally does) she looked at me, smiled, and kept playing with her toy! I've never been so thrilled to be ignored. I know, I'll regret that soon enough and will be crying (to you) about how my baby doesn't need me anymore blah blah blah.... But for now, it's wonderful. We took our time leaving. She didn't whine (except when she wanted her take-home snack). We kept our routine intact even though we had guests for dinner. And this morning, she didn't wake up 'til 6:45am. WOOOOOT!
until next time...
sleep well
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Ooops, the change didn't take...
SM and I got creative over the weekend and decided to muck around with Roxie's life a little bit.
After me being out of town, having a babysitter, an overnight stay with GMa and GDad and "Parent's Night Out" at daycare, we rolled Roxie's crib into Milo's room so they could sleep in the same room together. Milo loved the idea. He loves having her in there with her and not being all alone (he's afraid of the dark - I gotta buy this stuff: "Boo - Be - Gone!" - thanks to cool mom picks... again!). sorry... sidetracked
So it was a brilliant idea that backfired completely.
The first night she woke up at 5:30am, the second she woke up at 5am. We admitted defeat, put her back in her own room, and that's when she drew blood.
She woke up and screamed from 11:30pm - til - 1am. Literally. Screaming, crying, ripping out hair and not taking any names. Well... she screamed "MAMA" alot, but you know what I mean. Then, she woke up again a 5am screaming (yes, 4 hours later) and never went back to sleep.
*sigh*
SM and I were asleep so early last night we missed "Heroes".
Roxie had her normal routine last night. She slept 'til 6am. For now, that's all we can hope for. That and 15 more minutes a day.
please oh please
until next time...
thanks again TiVo - I can watch Heroes tonight!
;o)
After me being out of town, having a babysitter, an overnight stay with GMa and GDad and "Parent's Night Out" at daycare, we rolled Roxie's crib into Milo's room so they could sleep in the same room together. Milo loved the idea. He loves having her in there with her and not being all alone (he's afraid of the dark - I gotta buy this stuff: "Boo - Be - Gone!" - thanks to cool mom picks... again!). sorry... sidetracked
So it was a brilliant idea that backfired completely.
The first night she woke up at 5:30am, the second she woke up at 5am. We admitted defeat, put her back in her own room, and that's when she drew blood.
She woke up and screamed from 11:30pm - til - 1am. Literally. Screaming, crying, ripping out hair and not taking any names. Well... she screamed "MAMA" alot, but you know what I mean. Then, she woke up again a 5am screaming (yes, 4 hours later) and never went back to sleep.
*sigh*
SM and I were asleep so early last night we missed "Heroes".
Roxie had her normal routine last night. She slept 'til 6am. For now, that's all we can hope for. That and 15 more minutes a day.
please oh please
until next time...
thanks again TiVo - I can watch Heroes tonight!
;o)
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