Too late to jinx

I was considering and then reconsidering the repercussions to posting this here.............post, but it is now too late to jinx it, so.........

Avery slept for over 8 hours straight two nights ago. Like all the way through. Like not waking up at all during that 8 hour period. Nothing. No cries, whimpers, stirring, nothing. Okay, just to make sure that I am clear here, Avery SLEPT FOR 8 HOURS IN A ROW.

This may not be so impressive to some people who have reared these 'magical' babies that 'slept through the night' since they were '6 weeks old'. This is, however, what dreams are made of in my world.

So it went as such, the day was pretty terrible as far as nap times went. Avery slept for a maximum of 40 minutes for each nap, adding up to about 5 or so naps (he is now pretty much down to 3 naps a day) from the time he woke up at............hmm 4 ish? Though he was up so often in the night the night before, that it is hard to believe he (I) got any sleep at all.

I put the little monkey down around 7pm that night and started on Rohan's night time ritual. Not long after stories were read and light was turned out, mama conked out in the Ro-dog's bed with him. Rough night + rough day = conking out with toddler at 7:30 in the pm. I snuck back into my bed around.......11pm and very shortly after that Rohan woke up crying. Colin got him back down, than he woke up again within minutes and the little monkey was brought to mama's sleepy yet loving arms.

The littlest monkey did not stir while Rohan gradually sobbed himself to sleep. Bless/bliss. Many many hours later, at 3am in fact, The littlest monkey finally woke up for a feeding. So, in between the Rohan incident and Avery finally waking up for the first time, mama slept in pure utter unknowing bliss. It turns out that I am not the kind of mom that wakes up periodically to check on infant to make sure he is still sleeping, while getting no sleep for myself. If baby sleeps I sleep, full stop. There was no concern or worry crossing my contended sleepy mind, just a whole lot of sleep mama sleep.

To add to this amazingness, infant did not wake up until he was sick of hearing Rohan, in his loud every day voice, discussing the possibility of mama going downstairs. This folks, was at 6am. I shall repeat for all to see 6 AM! I think that has happened only twice before. This is a major sleep in, plus a full (ish) nights sleep. Good lord I was a bundle of happiness and patience yesterday. So this is what it feels like to be an awesome, well slept, happy mom!

Of course, last night was like any other. I guess it was a one time only thing. Damn. But, at least I got a glimpse of what it could be like in a couple years time right??!!

Kids say the darndest things

Bath time. Rohan is sat in the nice warm bath that he demanded reach his elbows, when all of the sudden, erupting from the water, is a multitude of loud and suspiciously smelly bubbles. I look at Rohan and question the constitution of said bubbles, his reply?
Farts! And where did that fart come from Rohan? Frog Farted. I would like to state here that there was no toy or anything in the bathroom even resembling anything frog like. Rohan just created a frog out of thin air in order to blame him for his fart. My child is pretty much a genius!

Later that night at the dinner table. We are all finished eating except for Rohan who is eating at the same rapid speed that you may imagine a sloth would eat. He starts discussing how he has scare all spooky ting away. He starts banging on his bowl in effort to scare spooky tings away claiming that he is not scared. He then informed me that daddy no scared spooky tings, mama scared spooky tings and Avery scared spooky tings.

He than let me know that boys no scared spooky tings. I asked him why Avery was scared of spooky things since he was a boy. He insisted that Avery was not a boy because he has a teeny tiny little one (penis) while holding his index finger and thumb less than a millimetre apart from each other. What a guy! I love this kid!

Sucka

When Rohan was an infant I would fight with Colin on the soother issue. I found a potential compromise soother that was made of natural rubber. It seemed like the perfect thing to soothe our wee one into sleepy time bliss. He, however, firmly dissagreed with this compromise and displayed such distaste by spitting said soother out, or if we managed to keep it in his mouth, he would gag on the thing.

We had a few regular soothers in the house, but I fought nail and tooth to keep them from Rohan. I don't know what I was fighting against, the healthfulness or the habit?? Who knows, but for whatever reason, I didn't want him using them. He didn't mind the other soothers, but I did, so I would hide them around the house so Colin couldn't find them. Hilarious! In retrospect, it would have probably made my life a little easier, maybe caught some real sleep.............................and yet, I am still in the refusal of soother business!

This time though, our new little infant has discover the pure bliss of thumbsucking. This self soothing amazingness is beautiful to see. He has not fully developed his thumb to mouth motor skills, but he is giving it the ole college try! In fact, when he can arrange it ever so carefully into his mouth, he attempts and often succeeds in getting both thumbs in there for a double dose of self soothing. Heck Yes to self soothing! We will worry about dental bills later....

Untraditional toys

He looks downright dazzled about his toy here don't he?

The man and I are pretty big slack asses when it comes to keeping our children cloaked in fun toys.

Now that Rohan is older and able to express his interest in different activities, we are a bit better at encouraging playtime learn time by providing him with age appropriate toys. On my part, it has mostly been Lego, crafts and puzzles and whatever free stuff people have passed on to me. Colin leans more towards super cool cars and puzzles (in fact he is a puzzle master, a talent he has passed onto his offspring.........but that is for another time).

Generally, however, we have left the toy purchasing to the aunts, uncles and grandparents. So far the little man has won pretty big from his extended family! Even Avery managed to acquire a few fun time toys for Christmas this year, and trust me when I say, it was not from his doting 'rents!

I have a difficult time justifying the purchase of too many infant toys. In the very beginning they can't even see past their nose, but as that expands, they are just so amazed by EVERYTHING that it wouldn't really matter what you are dangling in front of their face. Case in point is the picture above. This is Avery's most favourite 'toy' and once again it was papa that discovered this beaut.

Out very special non-traditional toy for Avery is a pair of taped up ear buds. We dangle these guys above his head and he is literally kicking with pure delight. He loves them, and so do we. They did not cost a cent (well maybe somewhere down the line they may have cost us something, but nothing too terribly exciting) and Avery is absolutely enthralled with them.

The only major downfall of our super cool, new age ear bud baby toy is that it can be back breaking holding them up above Avery's head for so long. Next step..............ear bud mobile? Colin thinks he should attach them to a stick which is in turn attached to a hat, so all he has to do to entertain his child is to wiggle his head! Yup, we are the king and queen of slack ass!

The Other Parental figure

Left-Rohan talking to guy. Mid-feeding guy dry lentils. Right-big guy and lil' guy






Parenting a toddler can be tough. Their most infamous toddler word is NO. They get frustrated and temperamental. They have regular meltdowns when kept out past their bedtime or nap time or when they are hungry or over stimulated.

Toddlers have absolutely no manners, no sense of discretion, zero will power or ability to respect other peoples things. They spit, pinch, yell, hit, throw crap, kick......etc etc. They create battles where no battles should be created. They make the simple tasks into utter nightmares. The words and sentences that can come out of their mouths could make a good ole trucker cringe.

These toddlers crap in their underwear, on the floor, outside on the lawn, in their beds, on the couch, or anywhere else they can fit their unbelievably adorable little bottoms. They will repeat said actions with pee pee as well, in fact they are often able to urinate in even more and often, unfortunately, discrete places.

These toddlers can really be quite a handful, even when there are two loving parents on duty 24/7. For this reason we instilled a new and much more exciting parental figure into our family unit. His name is guy.

Our toddler will listen, with complete rapture, to whatever guy has to say. He will cut the battles short with just a small wink of the knuckle. Ro-Dog will do pretty much anything that guy asks him to. Dinner time? 'dirty, bad' dinner, is now a breeze with guy feeding him. Bed time 'noooooo bed time' has turned magically into 'guy do it' (as in guy is to read him stories).

This most incredible invention of parental guidance was not my idea (I am just not that fun) but the hubby's. With just the simple flick of the pen, our toddler has become a model child. Okay okay, that is pushing it, but it is an amazing image to watch as he looks directly into the eyes of guy and has full on conversations with him.

Next step in toddlers eyes is for Mama to create............girl............to be continued!

Sleep training time!

I was so unbelievably wishy washy with Rohan when he was a baby. I was so shell shocked, I read way too many books and articles and information on attachment parenting. I ignored the calls of the sandman, thinking, assuming, that they only other way is to let him sit in his crib and cry. Not an option.

I spent a year with Rohan sleeping beside me on the futon in the living room. He would wake up at least every two hours. EVERY TWO HOURS for a whole year. I was a little tired by that point. I felt like a bad mom, I wasn't getting any proper sleep and neither was Rohan. On the other hand, I didn't want Rohan to suffer the consequences of any form of negativity, resentment, or just overall maternal hatred that would inevitably arise from any form of sleep discipline. At the same time I constantly heard in the background, anytime I mentioned any amount of exhaustion 'let him cry it out'. I couldn't even bare the sound of his cries for a few minutes, let alone hour (s) at a time. Stress and anxiety were the name of my game at that time.

I finally read a book that made a bit more sense to me (I am sure I have mentioned it before in this here blog). The baby whisperer. I didn't necessarily take all of her advice to heart, but I (for the first time I think since reading all those bloody baby books) took heed and implemented her sleep training advice. It worked really well (eventually) and so I kept her in mind come bambino number two.

As I mentioned (I think) before, I was giving Avery three months of love and sleep, wherever you want time. On my chest in my bed, in the car seat, where ever and whenever he pleased. At the same time, however, I was tracking his sleeping patterns on the Trixie Tracker Site to assess any pattern that may evolve. Lo and behold, a pattern did indeed form!

Now I can spot his nap times like a pro (ish). At the first little squeak I run him up to the bassinet, flip on the U2 lullaby's, pat his enormous diaper and sing totally and utterly off key. In fact, at times, I believe he fakes the sleep in order to shut me up! But it works. At the tender age of three months, Avery is going down for regular naps. Wow! It is STILL a challenge to get Rohan down, tears from me tears from him. Amazing! Does this mean that Bambino # 1 is just not a great sleeper, or that mama was a bit slack when it came to teaching the ole self soothing? A bit of both? Who knows, who cares, it works and mama is happy

Now to stop being so slack at night time.............................oh nursing while sleeping, I just can't seem to live without you!

Super duper family fun times

The big man and I are both at home for the winter. I, on maternity leave, the big man on EI (landscaping is a difficult task in a blizzard!). Given that kind of information you would think that we spent quite a bit of time together, as a family. That is true, sort of.

We are almost always 'together' but separate at the same time. We tend to take on and pass off our parental duties on a continuous basis. The is always one thing or another to do, so we are constantly juggling children, I will make dinner and entertain bambino while The big man plays with the toddler, or I will instill the aid of the young 'un during my meal making while the hubby plays some music to the wee one. Separate but together.

Tonight was different. For a short half hour the four of us sat in the living room and played a super simple, yet pretty entertaining, game that our amazing toddler created. There we sat, three little guitar picks in or hands, seeking the best possible spot we could, to hide them from the one that was hiding their eyes and counting. Hide and seek with guitar picks. Easter come early, without the chocolate or reward, just the game. It was amazing!

This is what I always thought that Christmas should feel like. Excitement, sure, but the beautiful, wonderful, fulfilling feeling of being together with the people you love the most in the world. No bombardment of gifts, wrapping paper or a sense of disappointment filling the room. Just the laughter, the pure unadulterated joy of being together and enjoying each others company. No parenting, controlling, losing control. Just us. Happy. This is what it is supposed to feel like and it is like magic!

Word A La Ro-Dog

Some more funny words from the RO-dOG

dink - drink
hebacoper - helicopter
hind - behind
youse - yours
mees - mine
dood - good
camer - camera
baaaer- sprayer ( the name adopted for his water gun, avoidance of word gun for as long as possible)
movie - smoothie


The trouble with writing a post at night is the mush mind, oh well, to be continued.....................