Good days

I have 20 minutes before the bus drops off SkyWalker. Both girls are napping and it is lovely. We had a pumpkin painting playdate this morning and because we were home/Chewie was fed enough/active enough/the planets were aligned enough/ she actually took a decent morning nap. Which will hopefully also mean a decent afternoon nap and then a decent night. We were thrown off when we had to postpone lunch so we could bring new pants to SkyWalker at school. And they were barely wet! He could have made it. They don't even smell like pee! 

The Princess was social and talking and having a great time this morning. She has been very clingy lately so that was really nice to see. And she must have actually gotten tired because she is sleeping! Yay! I decided to start getting her up at night and having her pee like we do with SkyWalker. Yes, I am deliberately interrupting her night time sleep so she will nap. Sounds funny, huh? Actually, she should get used to getting up to pee at night. I barely woke her up, just put her on the potty, she peed, and then she was right back to sleep. And her diaper this morning was not very wet at all. So there are multiple reasons.

SkyWalker was having a problem with a classmate but now they seem to be friends. It's so hard relying on a 5 year old for information. I wish I could bug him when he goes to school so I can hear/see things firsthand. 

Chewie woke me up at 5 this morning, which was annoying, but it forced me to get out of bed. I am SO glad I did. It is beyond funny that I, who used to sleep until noon, am now a morning person. Or at least really want to be. Instead of going back to bed, I stayed up, ate my first breakfast, had a cup of tea, used the computer, wiped down the toilet, swept, got dressed, and enjoyed the silence of no children. I woke the girls up at 7:30 feeling prepared for the day. And despite the school trip, it's been a good day. I will probably be falling asleep during Flash Forward tonight, but it is worth it. I hope it's easier for me to get up so early when we change the clocks. It's hard when it's so damn dark out. Hopefully the girls will adjust okay since I generally wake up them in the morning anyway. 

And now, I run to the bus stop/mailbox.

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Summin' up

I don't know why it's so hard to update here. Oh... yeah...

But that's okay, because the 3 people that read this probably know it all already.

I've been big into the lists now:

1. I quit my job back in August. An amicable split that benefits both parties. Although weird at first, this not working at all thing is lovely. Particularly because I have no idea how I would have done it and taken care of 3 kids. So it's all good. Someday I'll go back... maybe. ;-)

2. We might just hibernate for the winter. I'm cutting back on the playdate activity. I'm seriously paranoid about swine flu--I know that people can die from regular flu too--but I have a 4 1/2 month old baby and a toddler who has had THREE surgeries. I did not get her the swine flu vaccine. I did get her the regular flu vaccine so I'm not worrying about that. SkyWalker got the swine flu one because he's in school. Did I put that here already? I don't remember. Anyway, forgive my paranoia--I have delicate little ones. 

3. Chewie is 4 1/2 months old. I'm trying to hold out until 6 months for cereal. I know lots of moms do it right at 4 months, but I would rather wait. She doesn't seem to really need it. On a good day I feed her every 4 hours and then the dream feed at night. On a bad day it's more often but I think that's more my own reaction to bad naps... She needs the right combination of feeds and activity time or she's victim to the 45 minute nap syndrome. Usually if her first nap is 45 mins we're screwed for the rest of the day, but today I fed her and fed her and fed her and managed to get her to nap for over 2 hours for her second nap, so she wasn't quite as overtired as she would normally be. EASY* is not as easy when you have older siblings. Anyway, I don't want to do cereal until I really have to, so I'm holding out. 

4. I have a new quest--couple friends. Yes, I have become Lily on HIMYM. I've done a good job making mom friends and friends for my kids but we have no couple friends. Part of that is that my husband has no friends--or rather, the one friend he does have is just so busy that we never do anything. I'm not sure how one goes about making couple friends. I'm quite sure I will get no help from my husband.

5. I'm an Aunt! My brother and his wife finally quit playing around and had their baby almost a week late. Ridiculous. ;-) All is well and I'm quite sure she will be bigger than Chewie is when we go down there for Thanksgiving. I feel very far away. 

6. Chewie rolled over! From her tummy to her back. Let the games begin!

*EASY -- Eat. Activity. Sleep. You. I'm a Baby Whisperer. I don't feed to sleep. I structure my baby's day according to the same routine of eating, activity and then sleeping. The You flew out the window as soon as I had more than one child. It's much harder when an older sibling makes you go to gymnastics and storytime. But she doesn't need my boob to fall asleep. Or rocking or any other kind of prop. She falls asleep on her own. When she's had a horrible napping day and I'm feeding her extra I might let her sleep-eat for 10 minutes or so, but that's as close as I ever get to feeding to sleep. Except at 3 am. Anytime after bedtime there is no activity, it's just straight back to bed. But luckily there really aren't too many wake up nights anymore, and when she does wake up she *usually* puts herself back to sleep (one of the benefits of EASY).

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What Month is it?

Really need to work on that brain-blog hook up. Or vox needs to play nicely with my iPod touch. 

1. SkyWalker loves school. Loves the bus. There's supposedly a bully on it, but he wants to ride everyday and gets annoyed if we have to pick him up for doc visits. He's reading to us at bedtime and is so much better behaved. I think it's a combination of him not being bored anymore and me not having to deal with it all day long. Craziness at 5 pm is much easier to handle when you haven't been dealing with it since 7 am!

2. The Princess misses him a lot but is doing really well without him. She's doing better on the potty since he is not home to distract her. She is so good about entertaining herself. And she makes much fewer and smaller messes than he does... She's definitely getting her 2 year molars and one of them is a bit bloody and has a big flap of gum. This does not please her. But I would say for 90% of the day she is happy and pleasant and funny and a joy to be around. She is "farting" with "my mouth" on my arm right now--blowing raspberries is farting in her mind.

3. Chewie is happy and done with her screaming. I think she's going through a growth spurt right now, but for the most part she sleeps all night. She does not like to nap when we go out. She doesn't scream and cry, she just doesn't sleep. It's not a problem until we get home and then she's overtired. Because of this I need to stay home at least 2 days a week. We have storytime on Weds and gymnastics on Fridays so I *really* need to force myself to stay home on Tues/Thurs. Luckily my every other Thursday preschool group is cool with always doing it at my house. It is so hard juggling the needs of a toddler with the needs of an infant. 

4. I started running again--sticking with week 2 although at a faster speed. I hope to get up to week 3 soon. 

5. I've been thinking a lot about the type of parent I want to be. This deserves a bigger post. But in short: my big problem has always been wanting SkyWalker to listen--which really means I want instant obedience. But now that he's in school I'm starting to feel differently. Do I really want him to just automatically do what's he's told--whatever he's told? No. I want him to make good choices and decisions. I'm focusing on him but really this extends to all my kids. So I have been trying very hard to not just bark commands and give orders but instead to treat my kids with a little more respect than that and try to help them understand WHY I'm telling them to do things. Instead of shouting "get in your seat" I'm saying "please get in your seat so we can eat dinner now." And I'm trying to pick my battles--there are some things that are really important--don't touch the stove, hold my hand in the parking lot, don't run away, etc. And there are some things that are not important--going to wash hands, putting away toys, etc. I want to raise smart thinking adults--not sheep who follow orders. I want to be a parent, not a drill sergeant. This is only remotely related, but I'm also trying not to focus on little things just because everyone else does. My son can say "More milk" in a nice respectful tone. Does he really have to say please? He's saying it with his tone. I'd rather have that than have him say please but in a rude way. My husband can make the words "Excuse me" sound like "Get the hell out of my way" just with his tone of voice--I'd rather him say "move" but say it nicely. But society has hammered the please and thank you in our brains and we think we have to go along. So I'm trying to really focus on my kids and listen to them and not do things just because someone else decides it's a good idea.

6. Pediatrician visit yesterday: SkyWalker is now 35 pounds, 42 inches. Chewie is 12 lbs, 5 oz and 24 1/2 inches. The Princess did not get weighed since it was not her checkup. 

7. I need to click on the arrow to see what happens with Elmo next.

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