I used to have in my mind the visions of brushing teeth, quietly reading, singing and then sweet kisses goodnight. Now while this scenario is true, my vision of perfect bedtime ends there, however my reality does not.
Ethan has been waking up crying hysterically, he sits up in his crib and just cries his little eyes out. I try rubbing/patting his back, to no avail, I've tried the cry-it-out method (which is torturous). Nothing works, well of course nursing and sleeping in Mommy's tired arms does, but what works for him is not working for me. This is a stage...it will pass. I have to tell myself this, I need to make it through the night.
Then when one is sleeping the other decides to wake. At almost three years old I would have thought Skylar would be a breeze by now, sleeping from 8:30pm to 8:30am. There I go again, off in la-la land. My child has decided to punish me by waking up several times during the night screaming for me. Please, please, please, I must get some sleep.
My Record last week, 7 times in one night, yes that's right SEVEN. I spent more time out of bed than I did in bed. And if this wasn't bad enough, there lay the hubby snoring away in slumber land with not a care in the world. In my next life I want to come back as a man, I want to know this thing they call relaxation, sleep and oh yeah that other thing called time-to-myself.
As I finish this up, I listen to the beautiful sound of my children sleeping. I breath in this moment for I know that this feeling of bedtime triumph will last about as long as it takes me to close my eyes and get comfy before the first cry shatters my dreams.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Packing Frenzy
In two and a half short weeks I will be walking out of the plane into the African sunshine. The time of departure is almost upon us. Now while there are many things I am looking forward to, such as the kids seeing G and G Stroebel and their Aunt and Uncle and all of that great stuff. I too am looking forward to the sunshine, the beach and some much needed R&R. Oh-and the great chocolate!
We, the husband and myself, have taken the trip many times, once with a nine month old which was smooth, however this time around might prove to be a little more challenging. There will be two little people, one of which will probably want to talk to everyone and share the contents of her purse with everyone on board (she does that now, we are out someplace with the bag in tow and sure enough, she pops it open and spills it's guts to anyone who will listen) and then the other little person who can't sit still and squirms all over the place in an attempt to get down and keep perfecting his new found talent, yes the boy is finally crawling. Now, it's a flight from here to JFK (in the middle of the night) to arrive at 6am and then spend the entire day waiting for our grueling 18 hour flight at 5:30pm. YIKES! It's going to be a rough one, with not a lot of sleep that's for sure. I feel sorry for any unsuspecting narrow-minded individual who may dare to give me the evil eye when I nurse my child in a public place. An overprotective Mamma with no sleep is not a Mamma you want to cross.
Now is the packing issue. I know that two kids is enough, just them, now I have to take along enough clothes for a three week trip for four of us and try to squeeze it all into a reasonable amount of luggage so we aren't swallowed alive by our suitcases. I'm thinking a pair of short, couple tanks, a swimming costume (or swimsuit as we say in America) and a pair of sandals. Done. But what if we go out to eat, or if it's cold, or if Ethan throws up on me...see...this is the problem. I can pack light if I didn't have any what-ifs floating around in my head. So in the end no matter how much I try to prepare for this trip, I will end up packing too much, we'll be exhausted lugging it around and when it's time to come home we will have bought so much stuff there that we'll have no room to add the new stuff to the old stuff that we shouldn't have taken to begin with. The joys of packing.
The pleasure of the trip will outweigh the pain of the process though.
We, the husband and myself, have taken the trip many times, once with a nine month old which was smooth, however this time around might prove to be a little more challenging. There will be two little people, one of which will probably want to talk to everyone and share the contents of her purse with everyone on board (she does that now, we are out someplace with the bag in tow and sure enough, she pops it open and spills it's guts to anyone who will listen) and then the other little person who can't sit still and squirms all over the place in an attempt to get down and keep perfecting his new found talent, yes the boy is finally crawling. Now, it's a flight from here to JFK (in the middle of the night) to arrive at 6am and then spend the entire day waiting for our grueling 18 hour flight at 5:30pm. YIKES! It's going to be a rough one, with not a lot of sleep that's for sure. I feel sorry for any unsuspecting narrow-minded individual who may dare to give me the evil eye when I nurse my child in a public place. An overprotective Mamma with no sleep is not a Mamma you want to cross.
Now is the packing issue. I know that two kids is enough, just them, now I have to take along enough clothes for a three week trip for four of us and try to squeeze it all into a reasonable amount of luggage so we aren't swallowed alive by our suitcases. I'm thinking a pair of short, couple tanks, a swimming costume (or swimsuit as we say in America) and a pair of sandals. Done. But what if we go out to eat, or if it's cold, or if Ethan throws up on me...see...this is the problem. I can pack light if I didn't have any what-ifs floating around in my head. So in the end no matter how much I try to prepare for this trip, I will end up packing too much, we'll be exhausted lugging it around and when it's time to come home we will have bought so much stuff there that we'll have no room to add the new stuff to the old stuff that we shouldn't have taken to begin with. The joys of packing.
The pleasure of the trip will outweigh the pain of the process though.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Am I Immune?? To Everything??
I have this pen on my desk from a hotel with a catchy little phrase that says "wake up on the bright side". I'm not sure if this pen found it's way into my life to remind me of something or if it's simply just a pen I found lying around (or...stole from another co-workers desk). But I'm not sure I like it's in-your-face-be-happy-stop-complaining-about-yesterday kind of presence. Yes folks I'm not feeling in the"wake up on the bright side" kind of mood. Is it obvious?
Last week was a week from hell. I was put to the ultimate test in every way possible, work, wife, mommy, person who I would like to run of the road...you know what I mean. EVERYTHING!
Hubby woke up Sunday feeling grim, Super Bowl Sunday and the Packers didn't make it, if I were him I wouldn't feel so good either. As the day progressed he got worse, and by worse I mean more whiney, well and sick too I suppose. Monday morning he slugged through work and came home miserable, by Tuesday he was at the doctors office first thing in the morning...WHOA...back up! YES, the doctors office. I have been married to this man for almost 10 years and the only time he ever went to the doctor was disguised (for insurance purposes) as his brother for a strep test. I believe he got there and chickened out though, so I'm not sure this counts either. So later in the day I get a call, it's the flu. The man has the flu!! I have to admit that he did look like death warmed over, but all of us woman know that when our men have the slightest icky feeling the entire world will come to an end. Well to cut a long story short, and to get back to me and my misery over the whole thing, since really it's all about me isn't it? He calls to say he has the flu, I need to take the kids in right away. Ethan just coming off RSV and too little to go onto Tamiflu and Skylar who is sickness prone, I rush them off the only doctors appointment I can get for the day. Of course, it's extemely inconvenient with the work situation, but I go off get my kids from daycare, do the doc office, come to find out both kids don't have flu but both have nasty ear-infections. I bundle them back up, come back to work with the brood in tow, since hubby has been told to stay away from all of us. I work. I leave work to venture home and pick up prescriptions on the way, and of course I hit traffic. Poor baby girl in the back saying "Mommy I have to pee-pee"...nowhere to stop..."Mommy I pee-peed on my seat". Really??? Why can't I just have the flu? Seems easier already.
That folks is just one day, actually just a couple hours. I slept on the floor for three days, each ache and pain suggesting I might be coming down with the flu, hope, that maybe I too can rest. But NO, no me. Fit as a fiddle as my Grandpa would say. I have to admit while I am glad I avoided the nasty flu bug in order to care of (ever so lovingly I would like to add) my family, it was completely exhausting. I suppose as Mothers we are immune to such things as the flu, so that our families can be sick and there is someone to take care of them. Immunity Shimmunity.
I am happy to say that the family is all well and the hubby is back on kitty scooping and trash-taking-out duties.
Oh and I am sleeping in my bed again, oh how I love my bed!
Last week was a week from hell. I was put to the ultimate test in every way possible, work, wife, mommy, person who I would like to run of the road...you know what I mean. EVERYTHING!
Hubby woke up Sunday feeling grim, Super Bowl Sunday and the Packers didn't make it, if I were him I wouldn't feel so good either. As the day progressed he got worse, and by worse I mean more whiney, well and sick too I suppose. Monday morning he slugged through work and came home miserable, by Tuesday he was at the doctors office first thing in the morning...WHOA...back up! YES, the doctors office. I have been married to this man for almost 10 years and the only time he ever went to the doctor was disguised (for insurance purposes) as his brother for a strep test. I believe he got there and chickened out though, so I'm not sure this counts either. So later in the day I get a call, it's the flu. The man has the flu!! I have to admit that he did look like death warmed over, but all of us woman know that when our men have the slightest icky feeling the entire world will come to an end. Well to cut a long story short, and to get back to me and my misery over the whole thing, since really it's all about me isn't it? He calls to say he has the flu, I need to take the kids in right away. Ethan just coming off RSV and too little to go onto Tamiflu and Skylar who is sickness prone, I rush them off the only doctors appointment I can get for the day. Of course, it's extemely inconvenient with the work situation, but I go off get my kids from daycare, do the doc office, come to find out both kids don't have flu but both have nasty ear-infections. I bundle them back up, come back to work with the brood in tow, since hubby has been told to stay away from all of us. I work. I leave work to venture home and pick up prescriptions on the way, and of course I hit traffic. Poor baby girl in the back saying "Mommy I have to pee-pee"...nowhere to stop..."Mommy I pee-peed on my seat". Really??? Why can't I just have the flu? Seems easier already.
That folks is just one day, actually just a couple hours. I slept on the floor for three days, each ache and pain suggesting I might be coming down with the flu, hope, that maybe I too can rest. But NO, no me. Fit as a fiddle as my Grandpa would say. I have to admit while I am glad I avoided the nasty flu bug in order to care of (ever so lovingly I would like to add) my family, it was completely exhausting. I suppose as Mothers we are immune to such things as the flu, so that our families can be sick and there is someone to take care of them. Immunity Shimmunity.
I am happy to say that the family is all well and the hubby is back on kitty scooping and trash-taking-out duties.
Oh and I am sleeping in my bed again, oh how I love my bed!
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