Sleep Issues

Micah has been getting more teeth, which might be the reason it has been so hard to get him to go to sleep at night again. This teething thing goes on for a really long time! I can't imagine what it feels like for bones to push through skin from the inside out. We have been giving him Hylands teething tablets, which I've heard work really well. He actually really likes them, and even asks for them right before bed. Last night it took Micah one hour to finally fall asleep even though he was exhausted all evening. We started getting him ready for bed early because he was looking extremely tired, so by 7:30 he was all ready for bed. I put him in his crib and he laid right down, but the second I try to leave the room he stood up and screamed at the edge of the bed. If I would go in there and rub his head or his back and sing to him, he would lay right down again. But it takes him a really long time to fall asleep (he must get that from me). And I don't want to stand there for an hour rubbing his back and singing to him because I really want him to be able to fall asleep on his own. Dave is usually the one who puts Micah to bed, and for a while Micah was doing great. But over the past couple of weeks, he has been crying incessantly when we try to leave the room.

We do the same routine every night: change, read a book, brush teeth, go to bed. Last night Dave went to play soccer, so I had to put Micah to bed. I let him cry for a while, but he was not getting any quieter and not calming down at all, so I went in there after about 15 minutes and held him and rocked him, but it seems like it only makes him a little more hyper when I do that. He thinks about things, like the train going by and says "cuh cuh" (not quite able to do the CH sound yet!), or he says "kee kaaaah, ma ma ma" (meow) and jumps his body around when he does the meow sound. Or if he hears the garage door, he says "Da da" with a smile on his face in a really cute voice. Or he thinks about his balls and asks for a "Ba?" and wants me to let him down so he can get one. Oh, to have the racing mind of a toddler!

The other night when Dave was at worship practice and I put Micah to bed, I thought I had it all figured out! He went right to sleep when I put him down around 7:30. However, he had only had a 5 minute nap during the day - he fell asleep in the car only 3 minutes from home, stayed asleep when I took him from the car seat to his crib, but woke up minutes after I left his room. So I guess if I don't let him nap during the day at all, he would go to sleep no problem!

Does anyone have any tips on what to do differently, or how to help a 15 month old fall asleep?

Anyone want a cat?

Did you know slugs can be this big? They can, only in the northwest.

We have decided to start letting our small dog (aka our obese gray cat) outdoors. We got our two cats about 5 years ago, shortly after we got married. We never had them de-clawed because 1. How cruel is that?! and 2. We figured that once we moved into a house we would let them outside. For some reason, in the 3 years we lived in the apartment we never had any trouble with Luigi using his litter box. Oh, wait. Scratch that. We never had any problem with Luigi using the CARPET as his litter box. He did use our bath mats on occasion. So we nixed that issue by hanging our bath mats over the tub. However, now that he can't use the bath mats, he has found other places, places that are not so easy to clean, like the corners of our dining room carpet and he has torn them up and made them stink to high heaven. So, needless to say, we are not too happy with him. And now that we have a REAL child our cats don't hold the same status as they once did! So if anyone wants an overly large unsociable, inactive cat who pees everywhere, please let me know! We'd be happy to ship him off to you!

The only reason we hadn't let them out of the house since we moved here over two years ago is because we live on a fairly busy street and there are coyotes in the wetlands across the street. We wouldn't want anything THAT bad to happen to him. However, we ARE getting really tired of cleaning up his messes, so we have started letting him out in the backyard.

Just to be fair, he actually is a really cute cat (in a massive sort of way) and he does purr really, really loudly when he wants attention. Like a squeak-purr. Lately he's been laying on Dave when he's in bed. I think he must know we've been talking of getting rid of him.

Not the White Christmas I was dreaming of

I have some cute pictures from before Christmas, but I still want to share them. Micah was trying to be ever so helpful while I was baking, so he brought me the powdered sugar from the cupboard. Little did I know, the bag was already open! And within his reach! As you can see below, he got it all over the floor and himself, and later I found it was all over the back of my right leg, along with a tiny white hand print on the front of my leg. I think maybe we were listening to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas".

I'm happy to say that I have cut back on the baked goods and have been much healthier lately! I am still keeping the idea of Hawaii in the back of my mind and I am not wanting to scare away our family. So I have still been running lately. The friend I go running with in the mornings and I took a little hiatus from our early morning jogs during the holidays, but we started up again on Wednesday and now plan to go every Wed and Friday mornings. It's a good 3 mile jog, but I did go 4 miles once by myself. I would love to work my way up to running farther and possibly run a half marathon sometime (there's one coming up in a May in Tacoma), but I haven't committed yet. A marathoner-friend told me if I sign up I'm committed and I would be driven to work towards that goal. It's a good idea. But still something I'm afraid of!

I think I can ...

I love all these balls and I really want to be able to take them with me wherever I go. Hmm...

I think I can do it.

Let's see here...

Okay, let's regroup a little.

Yes, I think I have got it! If I hold the big one right up next to my head, I can bend down and get that one last fourth ball....

Look at me!! I'm a pro!

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! So sorry I haven't been adding anything for a while. We had a fabulous Christmas in north-eastern Seattle with Dave's sister's family, his parents and his brother. We stayed overnight on Christmas Eve and had a fun morning with an overload of gifts. Micah did well, sleeping in his own room, waking up a little early but going back to sleep on Daddy for a little while. He was up and ready to go by 7:30 - just the time that Mike and Danielle had told their boys to wait until they could come out of their rooms on Christmas morning.

It was a little obscene how many gifts were there! I guess it might be the same thing in most families if you compiled ALL of your family get-togethers into ONE huge combined family gathering. My out-of-town family sent gifts, Mike's out-of-town family sent gifts, Dave's family (of which there is really only one side) had their gifts there, and Santa brought not only stocking stuffers, but huge SACKS full of gifts for the kids. Dave and I are probably not going to go overboard with the whole Santa thing. We're thinking our kids will get the bigger gifts from us and some smaller gifts from Santa. But our nephews get the majority of their gifts from Santa and just a couple things from their parents.

Christmas this year was the year of doubles, too. Mike got two of the same GPS systems, Danielle got two pairs of silver hoop earrings, Dave got two drills, and Joen got two popcorn poppers. It was kind of strange, but I guess when you know what you want and tell more than one person, this is what happens. That's why we get gift receipts.

We had a fun New Year celebration. We dropped Micah off and Nana and Papa's for the evening and left while he was almost asleep. We went to a friend's house to hang out and eat and play games. There were only 4 couples and one of the couples cut out a little early because the wife had to work at Starbucks the next day. The rest of us stayed and played Guitar Hero 2 (super fun!), we played a newlywed-type game (all of us have been married about the same amount of time, 5-6 years), and watched the pitiful fireworks at the Space Needle (the 8 minute show turned out to be mmm... 2 minutes)! And then we were all tired and ready to go to bed after midnight hit. Such is the life of parents of young children, right?