The Wall

We've hit a wall. A sleep wall. Or, more accurately, a non-sleep wall. The same thing happened when Peter was about the age Cooper is now. They just. Won't. Sleep.

I always thought the "cry-it-out" method was barbaric. Why would anyone let their child cry them self to sleep? Wouldn't that intrinsic parental instinct kick in and send them running to their baby to comfort them?

This was my philosophy until Peter was 10-months old. I would nurse him to sleep and when that didn't work Bryan would hold and pat him to sleep. Sometimes he also had to rock while holding and patting. It was a rather athletic maneuver. Peter has always been tall and strong. It got to the point that Peter would fight so hard that Bryan could barely hold him, let alone lull him to sleep. And that was when we hit the wall with Peter. We agreed that we would let him go to sleep on his own. It was torture. We would do a nice little bedtime routine, say family prayers, put him down in his bed, tell him that we loved him, and walk out. Cue crying. We couldn't tell if he was just upset or if something terrible had happened in the 5 seconds since we'd left the room. Our solution was to set up a video camera in Peter's room and wire it through our apartment so that we could watch him from the living room.

The first night it took him six hours to go to sleep. Six. I talked to other moms at the same time trying to get suggestions about what we could try and heard things like, "Oh, well it's hard at first. That first night he cried for fifteen minutes, but then he calmed down and settled to sleep after twenty more minutes or so." Yeah, that sounds really hard. During that six hours we discovered something. Peter can act. He would cry for a minute, then stop and wait. This went on for a while. By the end he really did just drop off to sleep. But, six hours people!

We're at that point with Cooper. Truth be told, we've been there for some time, we just didn't want to admit it. Neither of us likes this method. Bryan told me the other night that he doesn't want to damage Cooper. I asked him if Peter was damaged. He said no, but he didn't remember Peter crying it out. I reminded him. I don't want to damage him either. And Cooper's problem isn't the same as Peter's. Cooper will sleep beautifully, as long as he's being held. The minute we put him in his bed he wakes up screaming. I would hold him day and night if I could. I realize that childhood is fleeting and that before I know it he'll be too big to hold. I'm choking up a little as I type this. I want to savor being able to snuggle him. But I also know that I need to be able to function the next day. Those nights that I hold Cooper I wake up hardly able to move and my patience is not what it needs to be.

So this week we've tried letting Cooper go to sleep on his own. We do a bedtime routine, make sure he's drowsy, and lie him down. We don't even make it out the door before the screaming starts. And Cooper's screams are angry and insistent. He will have none of this. We go in to try to comfort him, but that just exacerbates the situation. I realize that some people would tell us to just soldier on, but tonight we couldn't take it anymore. Bryan has been holding him in our room the whole time I've been writing, during which he's been sound asleep. Bryan just came out, which means that Cooper is now in his bed, crying.

There has to be a better way.

What I Did on My Christmas Vacation

Bryan and Peter built a snowman.


We opened some presents...


...and began using said presents.


Peter turned three and wanted sushi for his birthday lunch. We obliged.


He opened some birthday presents...


...and enjoyed a volcano cake that Bryan made...


...and wore his new helmet far more than he actually rode his birthday bike.


The final adventure of the break was a last-minute visit from my parents and my brother Jordan. I was preoccupied with spending time with them and therefore have no photographic evidence of their stay. They came to visit with my grandpa, whose health was failing. It was a good thing that they made the trek (which involved driving through Vegas on New Year's Eve) because my grandpa passed away yesterday.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I only asked for three things for Christmas:

1. Thread and patterns for sewing. (No, I don't really sew, but I'm trying to learn.)
2. A book light*
3. A replacement photo album for an old one I have that's falling apart.

After we finished opening presents on Christmas morning Bryan apologized that I hadn't gotten any of the things I'd asked for. I said it was okay, I liked the things that I'd gotten. But he let me know that one of my presents hadn't arrived in time for Christmas and was en route. It came today.

I opened the box that arrived and found this:
And this:
My first thought was, "Oh my goodness. Did Bryan get me scrapbooks? Has he met me?!" I may be alienating a few friends here, but I don't scrapbook. At all. In fact, when I started this blog Bryan told me it was another form of scrap booking and he earned a rather vicious look from me. No offense, I'm just not into it.

Anyway, I pulled them out of the box and looked at Bryan quizzically. You know that thing you do when you've been given a gift that you really don't want, but you want to appear gracious. Picture that look on my face. He quickly said that he'd found these photo albums online and knew that I wanted to replace the one I had, so he'd gotten them. Now I'm thinking, "Okay, so they're not scrapbooks. They're photo albums. I can just slip my pictures into those handy little plastic sleeves and be done with them. That was sweet of him."

Upon further inspection however I discovered that they are actually hard covers with lots of photo paper on which you can print your pictures after you have artistically arranged them on your computer and added text and maybe fun backgrounds.

What does that sound like to you? A scrapbook? Yeah, me too.

When I (very sweetly) told Bryan what they really were he felt bad. At least it's for digital scrap booking, and that's kind of like playing around in Photoshop, which is fun, and doesn't require fancy scissors, hole-punches of various shapes and sizes, or stickers. I figure I'll use them somehow. Maybe to print my blog from last year. Hmmm...

My favorite part is that Peter was convinced that one of the albums was for him. He kept looking at the book and saying, "Oh Daddy, thank you for my photo album."

*Thanks to my Dad for my after Christmas present of a book light. I love it!

Singing, Dancing, Carpet Picking...

Yeah, it's in his blood. The singing and dancing, not the digging in the carpet for stuff.

Eight

I was actually tagged with this by two different people way back in the beginning of November. I know that I'm a little late in doing it, but I thought a post with lists of eight things each would be the perfect way to end 2008. So Beth and Ashley, thanks for the tag!

1. 8 TV shows I watch

1. Chuck
2. Heroes
3. The Office
4. Samantha Who
5. Burn Notice
6. Friends (on DVD)
7. I'm thinking about checking out The Mentalist
8. 30 Rock

2. 8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Happy Sumo
2. Goodwood
3. Costa Vida
4. Old Spaghetti Factory
5. Kneader's
6. California Pizza Kitchen
7. Tucano's
8. Mimi's Cafe

3. 8 Things that Happened Yesterday

1. I took a nap.
2. We went to the library and got a new library card.
3. I cleaned the kitchen. Twice.
4. Peter announced he wasn't going to ride his new birthday bike anymore because he kept falling off.
5. Peter rode his bike.
6. I took down the Christmas decorations.
7. Bryan and I made odd, though still edible, taco soup.
8. The boys and I read books.

4. 8 Things I’m looking forward to

1. Peter being potty-trained
2. Sleeping through the night
3. Meeting my niece. (I borrowed yours Beth. My niece is coming in February!)
4. Finding homes for the last few items that need to be unpacked
5. Spring
6. Summer
7. Having our own home.
8. Eating sugar-free goodies again. (Artificial sweeteners upset Cooper's stomach, so while he's nursing I have to avoid treats. It's worth it.)

5. 8 Things on my Wish List

1. A house
2. Watermelon (This is always on my wish list.)
3. A cure to food allergies so that Peter could eat at friends homes, and school when the time comes, without having his Epi-Pen nearby.
4. To not live in Utah. (No offense Utah, but I really miss California.)
5. Endless energy and creativity so that my boys have the intellectual stimulation they need to build their brains.
6. Endless patience (I’m stealing this one too.)
7. New clothes that don't have holes in them. (We're working on this one.)
8. Friends that I can actually hangout with. Facebook and blogs are great, but I need some real interaction.

6. 8 Things I Love

1. Bryan, Peter, Cooper and the rest of my family
2. Music
3. The library and reading
4. Learning
5. The scriptures and the Ensign
6. Warm weather
7. Laughing
8. Watermelon

7. 8 Things I Can’t Stand

1. Peas
2. That I can't reset my internal clock and become a morning person.
3. Drivers that don't watch for pedestrians in crosswalks.
4. Poor grammar
5. Rachel Ray (I don't know why. I'm sure she's a very nice person, I just can't watch her for more than a few minutes at a time.)
6. Drivers that don't use the turn signal.
7. That Bryan and I live so far away from our families.
8. Parents that have abdicated their responsibilities to their children and don't teach them.

8. 8 People I’m Tagging

1. Amanda
2. Ian. That's right, I'm tagging you separately. You can both answer these on your blog.
3. Gretel
4. Mom
5. Janet
6. Krystal
7. Derrik
8. Becky

And what better way to end than with the King of Eight from Sesame Street.

Happy 2009!

Paranoid

This might sound crazy, but I have a request. If anyone that reads this has a link to my blog, would you please make sure that my last name is not included? My first name? Fine. The title of my blog? Great! But my last name? I'd rather not.

Thanks for indulging my paranoia.

Watch Me

Awesome.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

During our Christmas Eve dinner we were explaining to Peter what Christmas is about, something we've been doing for the past month. Over our potato soup and wheat bread the following exchange took place:

Me: Jesus was born in humble circumstances.

Peter: No! He was born in Bethlehem.

Good to know he's been paying attention.

The Night Before Christmas

At our house on Christmas Eve we have a very simple dinner of soup and bread. It's a tradition that we started after we'd been married for a few years. Instead of a big fancy meal we eat our soup and talk about the Savior. This helps us focus on why we're celebrating Christmas. It also reminds us that there are many people throughout the world that don't have the luxuries that we have and would be thankful for a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. This meal is one of my favorite things about Christmas.

Are You Being Served?

So it's almost 10 at night. I was about to turn off the computer when someone pounded on the front door and rang the doorbell. We don't get many visitors this late at night. I asked Bryan to answer it. Turns out it was a man from the constable's office. He was looking for one of the guys that used to live here. We told him that we moved in a few weeks ago and didn't know the former tenants but recommended that he call the management company. He thanked us and left.

Seriously, what kind of stuff went on here before we moved in?