Toast 2 Mom

Homeward Bound

A quiet ride home... Tonight, our own beds.

 

See you at 3:00 a.m.

I received a gift from a friend when Sydney was born. It's a wooden painted picture that says, "Party! My crib, 3:00 a.m." Well it has been quite some time since I've had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. for a party with my baby Cheekers. She's a big girl now and has been sleeping through the night long enough to recognize. The other night, however, we had to revisit those good old days. Cheekers had a tummy ache that has resulted in a very bad tushy rash - ouch. Poor baby. I spent 3:00 a.m. to 4:15 a.m. on the floor by her crib to keep her company while she was wide-eyed and whimpery.

When the alarm woke us all up later that morning, I was reminded how those middle of the night meetings can leave Mommy feeling a big groggy during the day. I was also reminded that while my day was a bit hazy, it really wasn't so bad knowing I was able to spend time with my sweet pea during the middle of the night.

It was that same friend of mine who gave me the painted picture that I was recently talking to about how just down right horrible mothers feel during those first couple months after having a baby. You feel drugged, feverish, hazy, forgetful. Some moms (like my friend and myself) feel hopeless, lost, deeply sad and so very alone. It's a period of time that you think will never end, will always feel that way...and you wonder what was I thinking? What my friend and I also discussed was how this period of time is over like that.

POOF, sixteen months goes by, and you now have a walking, talking, independent toddler. Spending one night lying on the floor next to the crib reminds you of all those sleepless, helpless nights. But the thoughts don't seem painful at all now. It's not even a relief that they're over. It's just another reminder of how darn fast those babies grow.

No Nap, No Fun

Lately Sydney has been resisting her nap. Now let me remind you, of my two, she is my sleeper. And my baby, the non-sleeping one, is actually finally starting to take good naps. It's a rare day around here when I'm able to coordinate the two. However recently I've been running them around in the morning and getting successful afternoon naps - aka, quiet time to get some things accomplished. Now, it is appearing that quiet time is going to be short-lived.

The so-so news, Sydney is very good at being independent and entertaining herself for awhile. The bad news is that even though she's not feeling like sleeping, she really needs to be. Her moods are drastically different from a good sleep day to a no sleep day. I find myself wishing I was the one taking the nap!

I'm hoping it's just a little phase and next week she'll be back to that afternoon rest I so wish for me....I mean her! :)

Write a check, find an Oompa Loompa

My ears are always open when my eyes cannot be in front of my girls. The girls have a playroom, which is so nice. It is a perfect place to contain their toys and entertainment. The good news is the playroom is an earshot from the kitchen. The bad news is it is not an eye shot from the kitchen. Because I have to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen, making meals, snacks, drinks, doing all that short order cook stuff us moms do, I have to use my ears a lot to hear exactly what is going on in that playroom.

Obviously I know to come running when I hear screaming or crying. I can also interpret thump sounds, "MOMMMM", grrrrrrrrr noises and crashes. It's the silence that always throws me. Silence should be good, right? Sometimes. I usually do a walk-by the room about every two minutes when it's quiet. Most of the time Sydney is coloring or looking at a book, while Natalie is flipping through a book herself or playing with Clippos.

Most days I am very good at remembering to do the walk-by every two minutes when it's quiet....and sometimes I am human....and get caught up in my tasks and forget to check out silent activities....like today.

It's very rainy and dreary in Austin today. A good day to stay in. We all slept in a little today (8 o'clock)...a RARE treat. The girls and I got up, dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. I decided to make blueberry muffins this morning. I thought I'd let the girls play while I was making the muffins. Sydney got a new coloring book that she wanted to color in this morning. She's really into coloring these days and I like to encourage her. The only trouble is her little sister also enjoys to color. I told Sydney when she's coloring to use the markers one at a time and put them back in the container so little sissy doesn't get them.

As the smell of blueberries began to fragrance the house, I was getting plates and glasses ready. Then I realized I had a bill that needed to be paid today. It was this distraction that resulted in me forgetting the two-minute walk-by. So two more minutes goes by. Ding, muffins ready. Bill paid. Then my ears perked at the silence in the playroom. I was hoping I'd find Sydney coloring her new book and Cheekers Clippo-ing away. Instead an orange marker had fallen on the floor and an Oompa Loompa had appeared -

 
She was certainly a happy Oompa Loompa. The orange marker had found her hands, neck, pants, feet and a chair. Meanwhile Sydney's coloring detail to Ariel's necklace (and therefore missing her sister's own coloring talents) was quite impressive.

Two things I thought about this morning following our little artistic moment - 1) playroom video camera  and 2) whoever invented Crayola washables was a genius!

The First Babysitter

The Hubby and I got our first official babysitter last night. That's not completely true. We have gone out before and left the kids at home. The rare times that this has happened though, we've used family to help us out to have a night off. A couple times we also used a teacher from the daycare. This was our first experience hiring a teenage girl, picking her up at her house, walking through all the babysitter details, providing numbers, showing where the snacks are and how the remote works and then walking out the door and hoping for the best. I am pleased to say the evening went very well...for everyone...and the girl even had some obstacles.

The plan was to leave after putting Cheekers to sleep. Nine times out of ten, when it's bedtime, she goes right to sleep. Nope, not this night. She was sitting up in her bed while we walked out the door. A part of me was ready to call the evening off; but we had not had a night out in a long, long time after a lot of busy, busy stuff going on.

We drove away from the house, and I wasn't sure how far we'd get down the road before having to turn back. We made it all the way downtown, around downtown, some shopping, to dinner, through dinner and no calls.

Despite the fact that I had my phone practically on my lap the entire time, it was a very enjoyable evening. I told Hubby it felt like we weren't out of practice of dining just the two of us at all. He agreed but said it did feel strange to not cut up chicken into pea-size pieces or tip extra big for the massive amounts of rice and Cheerios usually left under the table.

When we got home, there were no sounds of children running around or crying. I asked our sitter how it went. She said it went "great". Syd went to bed without any issues. Unfortunately Cheekers didn't drift off to sleep. In fact she cried and cried hard. It sounds like our sitter has the Midas touch, though. I told her to try a bottle or a pacifier. Those options did not work. (I bet she had some choice words for me when they didn't.) Our sitter decided to read her a book, over and over and over again. Natalie is very into books right now, and apparently our sitter must also be clairvoyant. After several rounds of a bedtime story, Miss Cheeks drifted off to zzz-land. Impressive.

I drove our gal home and thanked her for the great job! Except for the small detail that we blew through big wad of cash for the evening (because family is free!), we're excited for the next night out...

Our Sweet Puppy?

Little Cheekers is now nine months and changing fast! When she's not trying to steal her  sister's toys or eat dirt out of the plants, she's crawling around with items hanging out of her mouth or making growling noises like a Gremlin. We're not sure if we have a busy infant on our hands or a puppy?!

In addition to our cutie pie's special tricks, she's growing up faster than I'd like too. She just started on table foods and loves them. Her favorites so far are peaches and green beans. Her four teeth seem to be enough to "chew" away. She pulls up on everything and seems to be getting close to standing on her own. She loves our kitty-cats and breathes heavily in excitelment when they are brave enough to come around. And the best news update for last....She's sleeping through the night now!  I'm sure I just jinxed this!

Why Do I Open the Door?

My baby still doesn't sleep through the night...yet. In a week she'll be nine months. While our schedule can vary, roughly she goes to sleep at seven o'clock at night. She wakes up first around one o'clock then usually again at five-thirty. To make things more complicated, she's a very light sleeper and we have an old creaky floors and creaky doors house. So when I put her to bed at night, I shut the door and usually don't open it again until she is crying because I don't want to wake her up. This bums me because I would love to watch her sleeping peacefully but she'd hear me and we'd have to start the "go to sleep" process again.

Last night, the evening went as it normally does. I put her down at seven. At one, the crying began. I try to stay asleep and let her "cry it out," but then I think - did she eat enough dinner, what if she pottied out of her diaper, what if her leg is stuck in the crib, could she be cold???? I was hanging tough last night, though, but now she's standing up in her crib. I heard a "bonk" followed by a loud "waahhh". When I went into the room, she immediately calmed (and what parent isn't a sucker for their baby to become calm in their presence?)

I rocked her for awhile, hoping to soothe her back to sleep. Nope she just snuggled in - but with eyes wide open. Well this was a habit I didn't really want either - especially at one in the morning. So I decided to put her back in her crib. That was not her preference. I had to be tough, though. She cried for a good ten minutes but finally went to sleep...and to sleep I went too.

At six o'clock the alarm went off. Huh?! I'm usually way up before my alarm. Was Cheekers still asleep...was she OK? Wow I might actually have time to shave my legs in the shower this morning. I might actually be on time because I'll get dressed without juggling a baby hanging onto my ankles. But... maybe I should just look in on her - see if she's OK. No, no she's fine... she's just tired. Maybe she's growing? I need to shave....but what if something is wrong. I'll just take a quick peek, very quietly.... Creeaaakkk. Oh look she's OK..... Wahhhhhhh.

Sigh..... Guess I'll shave tomorrow.