Life in the hutch

I love to watch the littles sleeping.  They are so peaceful and cuddly…

What I can’t get over is how they approach sleep in such different ways!  Goose is our little sleeper.  She was a great napper from the start, slept through the night at an early age , and continues to nap every day.  We tried to change her routine and drop her down to one nap when she went to daycare, but she would have nothing to do with it and napped despite us.  Even in a room full of her rambunctious playmates, she would nap.  Other than when we have messed things up for her, she has missed one nap.  One. EVER.

I am pretty sure that her first sentence, at about a year was “Mommy, book then sleepy” as she dragged me up the stairs to her room.  When she wakes in the night, she just sings her songs until she gets back to sleep, covering herself up with the blankets before she drifts off.

When she wakes in the morning, she plays some more.  Some days there are songs, or animated conversations with Baby and Olivia, the dolls that keep her company, and sometimes her brother crawls into her crib and they play together.  Most days she is just happily reading alone when we go to get her.  “I don’t want to get up”, she says.  We reach in to get her, but she flops down and feigns sleep.  Like her father, Goose loves her sleep.

Woo, on the other hand, was my problem sleeper.  I am convinced that we spoiled him as a newborn, and he thought that you needed to be held to sleep.  That was all we did for the first two months, cuddle him and hold him while he slept.  When Willy went back to work there were things that needed doing, so I tried to put him down to sleep.  It didn’t work.  I tried many a thing to get him to nap, but he fought sleep.  Many a time he would be falling asleep and shake his head to wake himself up, like someone who has the nods in a meeting.  The only thing that really worked was rocking for a long time, then setting him in the crib and hoping it stuck.  For more than 35 minutes.  We did this for a year, when he was physically too big (at 32 lbs) to continue doing this.

He magically started napping at this point, and one day even napped for over three hours. I remember the day well, as I checked his breathing every three minutes for the last half of that nap. I was sure there was something wrong with him, what baby sleeps for three hours, in a row?!  The bliss was short-lived.  He gave up his at home naps entirely three days after his baby sister came home from the hospital.  I was not ready for them to end, but they did.

We were lucky to have him sleep through the night at an early age too. There were even a few months where he slept for twelve straight hours, until the teething messed all that up. He needed attention when he woke in the night, still does. I remember hours of cuddles and songs until he was back in a deep sleep.  The big boy bed helped here, as we could get into bed with him.  This often led to him sleeping on top of me, with his face pressed against mine. Not the most comfortable solution, but it worked.

Unfortunately, moving him to a bed moved sleep avoidance to a whole new level. We’ve finally gotten to a nice routine where he will stay in bed most nights, but it evolves and we have to figure out a new routine.  We move are considering moving Goose to her big girl bed this weekend.  She is ready and wants it, as do we.  Wonder what changes this will bring.

These almost made it to the 365 on the day that they were taken.

This was going to be the week that I got back on top of things. Life has been CRAZY on a personal level for the last month or so, with many trips to visit family, many things to not get done at home, a new photography course to take, and an occasional trip to the cottage.  Willy and I have literally not spoken about anything of significance (other than which lil has – or has not pooped lately) for over a week.  My head has been spinning, but I figured that it would relax this week.

So sure was I that it was this week, that I started on a new project, writing a course for the local college!! I am kinda pumped about this one, even though it is somewhat intimidating. Following the meeting to set this up, I began to notice that work is starting to look somewhat busy for the next six weeks or so, what with that awesome conference we are hosting and a few projects coming due.  Admiring myself for recognizing and admitting that this is a problem, I spoke with N (aka the super awesome wonderful woman who loves our lil peeps three four days a week) and arranged to have her care for the lils one extra day a week until December.  Perfect, right?

There is this wrench in the plans, you see.  This weekend, the lils got sick.  This isn’t the slightly runny nose, “ok to go to daycare” sick, it’s the croupy, sad and whiny, hacking up a lung, OH MY GOD look at the colour of that mucous sick that keeps them home to infect their parents.

It is the first day of my back on track week and I am already behind.  I got in the office for a little over three hours today. This is not helping the running around with my head cut off that was planned for the day.  I haven’t even taken advantage of that extra day, and I am already behind!!  I am sure with all the runny nosed kisses and licks (yes, licks!) that I will get sickSo much for getting back on top of things!

This Thanksgiving weekend Willy and I headed with the lils to my Mom’s cottage for the weekend. It was a beautiful weekend and we did lots of fun things together, as well as close up the cottage for the season.  I had some time to reflect on what I am thankful of the most this year:

-My family.  Willy who is a great husband and a fabulous dad.  He makes me a better person.  My lil peeps.  They are the sunshines in my life and I love them to pieces.

– My health, and that of my husband and children.

– My extended family.  Fractured though it is, I am so happy that they are in my life, and my family’s life.

– My job.  I love what I do, and there were many times over the last year when it looked like we might have to close our doors.  The future is still uncertain, but we are still doing our thing.

– Good friends, who have been so patient and supportive lately.  Means SO much.

Time Out

Woo had expressed an interest in going to my father-in-law’s funeral service and we felt that it was important to include him. The funeral was yesterday, and the service was beautiful. While Woo did sit and pay attention to some of the it, but it was long, and he is three.  I spent some of it crawling after him, keeping him quiet and preoccupied, and trying to appease him until the organ started playing again.

I think that he did get something out of it, despite his fidgeting.  He got to see others grieving, to hear again what a wonderful man his grandfather was, and know that others will miss him too.  I was surprised that I was glad to have him there too.  In one of the moments when he was sitting quietly between Willy and I, he sensed that I was crying.  Turning to look up at me, he gave me a concerned look.  He then wiped my tears away with his hands, and threw his arm around my neck in the tightest, longest hug.  It was such a wonderful, sweet gesture from a little boy trying to make his Mama feel better.  I am so glad he came.

Willy has been away for much of the last week, and it has been a long week without him.  So long that I am pretty sure that there were a couple of extra days in there somewhere.  He travels frequently enough that I am used to being home with the lils, and know that I will appreciate him even more when he gets home.  He spoils me, and I SUCK at being a single parent.  Some evidence to support this:

There are currently eleven loads of laundry filling the two couches in my family room.  They just keep piling up, and I do not have time to fold them.  When I get the lils dressed I just reach in to the pile and pull out their clothes for the day.  Same with pajamas at night. I actually gave serious consideration to just putting Goose in disposable diapers on more than one occasion this week, because the diapers were too buried in the piles.

Our meal selection has been terrible this week.  I just throw stuff on the table, and hope that they eat it. If they don’t, I just offer something else, or ask them to tell me what they will eat.  There have been at least two occasions this week where we have all eaten different meals because I didn’t have the energy and ability to make meals and combat the “I don’t want to eat that” so I gave in, plenty.

I have not bathed either of them.  Not once.

There was a toysplosion in pretty much every room of the house.  I stopped bothering to pick the toys up and haven’t even thought to ask them too.  It is MUCH easier to just move to another room and play there.

Woo has taken to reminding me to do things that I really should be remembering.  This includes things that I really should be remembering, like feeding the cat, bringing the diaper bag to daycare, and giving him his puffer.  You know, the medicine that helps him breath, that he takes every day?!  I would not remember these things, if not for his reminder.  That is too much to ask from my THREE year old.

We have been late to day care everyday this week, even the days that I don’t have to get ready for work.  Getting their breakfast on the table, feeding the cat, getting them dressed, in the car and buckled in, and finally leaving seems to take four times as long as it should.  This doesn’t take into account the return trips to pick up the things that we forgot.

All of these things have made me appreciate Willy all the more for all of the wonderful help and support that he is at home.  They actually make me feel that I am the one that supports him around here.  They also increase the admiration that I have for all the single parents that I know.  They are all so together and on top of things.  I can’t begin to imagine how they do it!!

I have  a post up at Kids in the Capital today, talking about my weekend adventure with Goose, to Mud Lake!