Flooding, Attempted Burglary, Sleep Deprivation, Baking Fool, Baby Shower, Cloning...

...What do these things have in common?

Answer: Me.

I don't even know where to start.  Since I guarantee, I won't be able to follow some chronological pattern here, I guess I'll just start 'somewhere'. 

At the moment I am waiting for the plumber to come over.  Yes, I have a date with the plumber!  And if all works out the way I envision it, he'll be the hero of the day!  David has been working hard and has been gone for most of the past few weeks, which means that I have been playing 'single mom'.  Now, in and by itself that is okay, but when you're exhausted and at the end of the day, walk through the kitchen into the laundry room and you hear 'slushing' sounds (for a lack of a better word) coming from under your feet, combined with water that seeps out through the grout lines between the (what is supposed to be) firm tile floor...that's a bit freakish.  Long story short: our kitchen and laundry room flooded last night.  Not pretty.  I am filled with anticipation, waiting on the plumber who is going to save my day.

Speaking of freakin' me out: a week and a half ago, someone tried to break in to David's car.  While it was parked ON THE DRIVE WAY!!!!  They tried to pry the back window on the side out, but as luck would have it, safety glass doesn't give much.  It didn't come out, but burst in a million pieces.  Luckily they couldn't get through it, but the fact that it happened on our drive way, right outside my toddler's window totally wigged me out. 

The past few weeks have been marked by severe sleep deprivation that Ryder instilled upon me.  Good thing he's so darn cute, but every night he would wake up at 5am.  It's still dark outside dude!!  That means, it's sleepy time!!  For both you AND mama.  Dark = Sleep.  Yeah, nice idea, but convince a 7-month dudenator of that.  I tried.  Believe me, I tried.  And then I tried.  And I tried some more.  The last 2 nights, he managed to make it through the night, until 6am.  It's better than 5am, but still, neither David, nor I are very thrilled.  As I said, it's a good thing he's so cute.  The charm still makes me forget everything (be it for just a moment...)

[a day later]

It's now a day later.  I had to stop writing because my 'date' arrived...

Update: not pretty.  A pipe broke in the wall.  As I said: not pretty.  AT ALL!  Water in the wall, on the inside in cabinets, on the outside in the stucco, under the tiles on the floor.  We now have a huge dehumidifier and 2 giant fans standing in the kitchen drying everything up.  They are loud enough that I can't hear the TV while sitting on the sofa in the living room.  They make the kitchen smell nasty and it's HOT in the kitchen.  These will continue to live beautifully in the way, in the middle of my kitchen until...well, things are dry.  I did dishes in the bath tub yesterday.  It seriously felt like a camping experience.  The plumber came back today and fixed the problem.  Pipe is fixed, sink is in action again, but now we have to get the damages assessed.  Oh boy...

This past weekend I hosted my friend's baby shower.  It was so much fun!  The theme was an English afternoon tea.  The guests were supposed to bring their favorite tea in a pot, we provided the cups & saucers and the yummy goodies that belong to a tea.  Over the past few weeks I suffered through trying out recipes, but the result turned out great.  Scones with jam, lemon curd and cream, sandwiches, brownies, lox & cream cheese filled cucumbers and...cupcakes. 

Believe it or not, I had never made cupcakes before, but these 'sparkling' cupcakes with a hint of prosecco in them turned out great.  I think we added an inch to all the guests' waists, but hey, it was for a good cause, right?

In other news, I have been preoccupied with my legal status lately.  Being from Europe I have a green card, but last week we (almost) finished my citizenship application.  I had to appear for my interview, which went well and I 'passed the test', so to speak.  I am now waiting for the letter that tells me when I will be sworn in as a US citizen.  It's all very exciting.

Oh yes, and then there is work.

So, Ryder is being cute.  He's still dispensing almost equal the amount of H2O to the Niagara Falls, but other than his 2 bottom teeth...nothing. 

He's so close to crawling, it's not even funny.  I had David lower the mattress in his (Ryder's, not David's) crib yesterday as he now also is starting to pull himself up.  He is also starting to get into the rice puffs.  Yeah!!  I remember with Kai that for a while that would entertain him enough to be in the high chair and not throw an immediate fit because their was no spoon in his mouth.  With Ryder it seems to be the same thing.  The kid likes his food though: 4 oz. of solids for breakfast, 10 oz. for lunch and 12 oz. for dinner.  Plus the copious amounts of milk he drinks (approx. 30 oz./day).

Kai is the real toddler.  He has really gotten into building towers. 

Either with small blocks, big blocks, or his Wedgits (he loves loves loves these).  Every masterpiece is being shown off to mama and papa.  He gets so proud and excited when he finishes it.  And then there is the obsession about wild animals.  We're all about wild animals.  The other day we actually went to the library, picked up books on wild animals and spent the afternoon flipping through them on the ground.  Obviously, the zoo yesterday was once again a success.
Today marks day 3 in the past 3 weeks that he is taking a nap.  I seriously think that he might be dropping his last nap, but I (even more seriously) hope that I am mistaken and that my perseverance will pay off.  He's napping right now.  Thank heavens.  The times that he naps, I often find him like this in his room:

We just started our own "toddler reward program".  I made a list of activities, occasions that had proven to be tantrum inducing challenging, resulting in a very moody, defiant and frustrated toddler.  I am on purpose not elaborating on the frustrations that mommy experienced from this.  Anyways, one of my friend mentioned this working at her house, so I gave it a try: every time he 'helps mama / papa brush Kai's teeth / clip Kai's nails' or shares his toys, plays gently with Ryder, etc. he receives a sticker.  He picks the sticker and puts it on his chart.  We then count the stickers we have and when we reach 20, he gets to pick a toy out of a grab bag.  It has made such a huge difference!!! 

Kai LOVES to help, so whenever he has a chance to help out, he gets excited.  This is making for a much more relaxed toddler, who cooperates more than fights - it's working well for us.

I think at this point the last topic of 'cloning' is self-explanatory.  I'm all for it.  Why don't we start with me?  At this point I would do A LOT to have 2 of me in this house.  It would make all the work so much lighter (by 50% mind you!!). 

Well, that was an update of the past weeks.  Now I (myself, my lonely me) am going back to cleaning and tidying.  If I don't have my kitchen, let me at least have a tidy living room.

Forget Tupperware! Crib Parties Are Taking Over!

You think a 7-month old would have no idea how to party (yet), but my 7-month old, well, what can I say?  He's an exception.

2 nights ago Ryder decided that it was party time.  He was up and ready to rock (his crib).  It was an 'all inclusive' event; he made sure that everyone of the household was included by sending out the invite loudly and clearly.  No one was left out to join in celebrating his newly discovered ability to (as I said) rock the crib.  Very thoughtful.

There was only 1 slight problem: it was 3:30 in the morning...

And rocking it, he was.  After several requests from his side to convince us to join in on the fun and several attempts from my side to make him go back asleep by sending him sleepy vibes through the wall that separates his room from ours, I concluded that my sleepy vibes were just not strong enough (for him).  I went in and found him on all 4's, rocking back and forth so hard that his crib was shaking.  Good thing we had lowered his mattress last week as he otherwise would dive right out.

I changed his diaper and turned on his lullaby CD, hoping that it would lull him back into zzzz-land.  Oh, how I wish... 2 hours later he finally rocked himself into exhaustion and decided it was time to wrap up his crib party and conk out. Just in time to allow mama 20 minutes to regain a small amount of sanity before her alarm clock went off at 6am. 

Come last night: same thing.  PAR-TAY in Ryder's crib people!  Anyone who wanted to join, was (again) verbally invited.  No doubt about that.  And despite it sounding like a heck of a fun party, my preferred place to spend the night remained in my bed, on my pillow.  With my eyes closed.  In silence.  That didn't happen.  For obvious reasons.

Sleep deprivation is setting in, especially given the fact that I work early mornings and at time I find myself wishing he would just get it over with and start crawling.  That way the newness has rubbed off and we can go back to sleep at night.  But do I really want that?  I mean, REALLY?  [sigh]  I don't know.  Him crawling means that I cannot just put him down in the living room, go get a glass of water and return to the living room finding him in pretty much the same place where I left him.  Once the crawling is discovered, there's no turning back and my peaceful time (as I know it now, though really, it ain't always that peaceful) will be gone.  Never to return again.  Until the boys move out.

Truly?  Really? 

All I want at this point...

...is a good night's sleep.

Makes It All Worth It

Yesterday I received an invite from a mommy blogger whose blog I recently discovered.  Mothers' Hideaway hosts a "Make it All Worth It Friday" and even though we've reached the end of Friday here, I still want to take the opportunity to post.  Not to necessarily gain more followers (though feel free to become one if you're not already), but just to put down some of the things I am experiencing right now, which later will (hopefully) make me say "It was worth it".

When I read the story that Mothers' Hideaway posted today I was convinced that she was that one fly on my wall that I haven't been able to catch.  Her story is exactly like mine.  (Except for the fact that Kai doesn't go to school yet).  Other than that: we are living the battles: over food, over naps, over brushing our teeth, over changing our diaper, over watching TV, heck over pretty everything that is important in a toddler's life (or in the life of his parent).

But...it doesn't stop with the toddler.  There is the baby!  Yes, the baby who has me wrapped around his little finger and who manages to also walk the fine line of driving me insane, to then later make me forget about all the things he drove me crazy with earlier.  Case in point: Ryder has been sleeping through the night since he was about 4 months old.  I started sleep training him at 4 months and within a week he got it.  Awesome.  Hardly any tears, no CIO (which I don't believe in), everyone happy.  Especially me.  Believe you me.
And then...2 weeks ago...it all stopped.  He started waking up at 5am every night.  Every.Single.Night.  No soothing, no going back to sleep, unless I nursed him.  And for the sake of everyone's my sanity (as David doesn't seem to notice the baby fussing, or he pretends not to notice, either one) I did that as it means I can go back to sleep within half an hour (instead of being awake for a good hour and half listening to Ryder be awake, thinking he is hungry).  And here we are, 2 weeks later and he's still waking up every night between 4-5 to nurse.  Yeah, he goes back to sleep after that, but still.  I am up and I don't like it one bit.  It makes for a groggy mommy in the morning.  One who feels like she's been hit on the head, or had way too much to drink the previous night (disclaimer: not the case, I know better).
But then, when the sun rises, the morning arrives and the house awakens, so does my  precious little baby.  I open the door, walk into his room and there he is: kicking up a storm, while trying to simultaneously chew on his toes, giggling and having a ball in his crib.  He looks at me and as our eyes meet, his eyes become big and he gets the biggest smile on his face.  Bigger than you could imagine.  The smile that melts my heart.  The smile that says "Oh mommy, you're here!!!  I am soooo happy to see you!!!"
And that's the moment.  The moment where it doesn't matter how often or how long I was up through the night, where it doesn't matter how sleep-deprived I feel.  That's the moment that makes it all worth it.

As I said earlier, there are some battles going on in our house between Kai and the parental unit.  Overall, Kai is the happy, playful sometimes pensive little toddler.  He is awesome and we rightfully call him our "Cool Dude".  One of the major battles at the moment is the diapering / potty training.  In a previous post, I mentioned wanting to start the training.  Well, here's what's up: I have officially removed his changing pad from his room.  Diapering happens in the bathroom from now on.  Over the past months, changing a diaper often ended in him kicking and screaming, as he did NOT want to be changed.  It, at times, sounded like I was torturing the dude, while all I wanted was to wipe the poop business off his little tushy to prevent a rash from developing.
This morning:
Me: "Kai, let's get a clean diaper and get dressed"
[Kai walks to the bathroom]
Kai: "Clean diaper! Clean diaper!"
[I take the diaper off, clean him up and as I am pull out the pull-up diaper:]
Kai: "No, no clean diaper!  No clean diaper!"
[he hates the pull ups]
Me: "it's the only diaper I have.  Do you want a clean diaper?"
Kai: "NO!  No clean diaper!"
Me: "Do you want to run around naked?"
Kai: "YES!"
[Could this be the beginning of him wanting to potty train?!?!  Is this really my lucky day?]

It turns out: no.  It was not my lucky day.

Long story short: he doesn't want to put the pull-ups on, but I continued to ask him for about an hour and a half if he needed to go to the potty.  He doesn't even want to come close to the toilet.  I tried M&M's, did not work.  I suggest he goes and sit on the potty, he screams as loud as a pig being slaughtered.  Seriously.

So, here I am.  I have a can of M&M's standing on the counter in the bathroom.  The training seat is installed, my toddler wants nothing to do with the potty and I am (supposedly) on a diet...with M&M's in the house.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE M&M's!!!  Sigh...  See the dilemma? 

Well, he went to bed for his nap with a diaper on (as soon as I put the diaper on, he peed - sigh).  For now, I am waiting anxiously for the 'It-makes-it-all-worth-it moment' and I hope / pray / heck, I'll beg for it to come.  Soon.  Preferably.

Finally, I want to do a shout out to a couple of blogger-friends who generously awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award:

Thank you to both Beth at Create Your Traditions and Jinnia at Jinnia Low for recognizing and appreciating my blog.  I am so pleased that you enjoy the read and I am honored to have received this award from you.

As I received this award earlier this week as well, I hope it is acceptable that I am going to refer to that post, as it includes the 7 things about me and the people I forwarded it too.

On that note, I am going to take a break and get some Vitamin S: (Sleep).

Happy weekend everyone!

25 Day Challenge - Day 3

The Solution Focus
So, today we are making the choice to see problems as opportunities.  ALLLLLLLLrighty, where do we start?  Well, I guess at 5:20am this morning when both boys decided to rise and shine for the day.  People!  5 friggin' 20!!!  That just ain't right!!  How was I going to see waking up before sunrise as an opportunity?  Huh...  Waking up early = morning nap for Ryder early = early afternoon nap for both boyz = waking up early from nap = being able to make it to the kids' godparents who they absolutely adore.  So there!  Problem turned Opportunity! 


With a husband who is self-employed and me being on 'break' from work for having just had a baby, finances are tight at the moment.  It has forced us to be creative and start thinking about alternative ways of generating income.  Now, whereas all the initiatives that we came up with may take a bit of time to pay off, it has put us in a place of looking for opportunities, rather than focusing on the problem.  I'm not saying that it is easy.  I'm not saying that I am forgetting about where we are.  I'm not saying that I pretend that all is okay.  I am saying that in situations when we are faced with what we consider a problem, we often subconsciously start looking automatically for opportunities of ways out.


This drives home the point that I got to yesterday as well: I think that being conscious of the process is a major thing here.  Be aware.  Think.  Don't just act.  Think before you act.  And think about what we can learn from this situation.  If for no other reason than to learn from the situation and to make sure that this won't happen again.  (For as far as it is in our control.  As I have a suspicion that sometime before the kids go off to college I will be once again be awoken before sunrise.)

Tomorrow's Challenge:

Day 4: From Expectations to Acceptance
Getting on with people is tough, especially when they don't fulfill your expectations!  Instead, if you accept people the way they are without expecting them to be something they're not, you end up less disappointed and frustrated.


Click here for the 'pause - think - act' elements of the challenge.

Hallelujah!!

I have no idea of this was the result of yesterday afternoon's low, or what, but Ryder not only slept through the night for the first time (without any interruptions), but he also slept for nearly 13 hours!!!  HAAAAALLELUJAHHHHHH!!!!!!


At 5am I woke up, terrified, since I hadn't heard him at all.  I don't even want to think about all the things that went through my mind, much less write them down, but use your imagination.  Thank heavens for the video monitor I have.  With one click on the button, I could see that he had (of course) flipped himself on his tummy and that his breathing was moving his torso up and down in a calm and peaceful manner.  Phew.  What a relief.  I turned over and fell back into a sleep that was deeper than any sleep I have had in the past year.  Absolutely heavenly.


Now I am left wondering: was this a coincidence, a mere consequence of having worn himself out yesterday afternoon, or...could it possibly be the result of the cautious sleep training that we started on Wednesday?  I don't know, but I hope to find out soon.  If anything, it was a beautiful early-birthday gift.  Yes, I will be turning a year older on Wednesday, but I will still very much be the thirty-something mom that I am now.

The Boys' Conspiracy

I am convinced: my boys have bonded and were conspiring against me this afternoon.  David booked a shoot to take stills on set of an indie movie, so he is gone from 9-9 and I am playing 'single mommy'.  (Which, by the way is fine, given that Dave is working - it's been quiet).

After a good night (a few wakings due to Ryder getting stuck on the tummy), we spent the morning playing outside and going for a stroll through the neighborhood.  By the way, I've been wondering how long it took Kai before he was able to roll back onto his back without me having to come to the rescue and for the life of me, I do not remember.  But then, I don't remember much these days unless I write it down.  After 2 pregnancies there aren't many functioning cells left over in my brain.  The boys took them all.  Oh well, at least the thought that they will be smart is comforting.  Back to story.  Where was I?  Oh yeah.  Anyone out there who can tell me how long it usually take for kids to learn to roll back onto their backs?  Like Kai, Ryder is a big boy.  27" and 18 lbs. 10 oz. at his 4-month check up.  That means, 18 lbs. 10 oz. for him to push up and roll back with, so it may take him a bit longer, but really, I hope he gets it soon.  For mommy's sanity.

So. A good morning it was, until Kai decided to boycott lunch.  He wasn't having it.  Oh, that's a battle that he won't win.  Simple solution: "if you're not hungry, that's fine.  I'll hold your milk and put it back into the fridge for tonight."  All of a sudden we were hungry and ate our lunch.  Coincidence?  Don't think so.

And so, naptime arrives: Kai goes down fine (or so I think), Ryder is now on the boycott route.  Not having it, while exhausted and yawning.  I didn't have any bribing material for him, so it took an hour.  He's out now.  Just as I sat down to start writing: Kai starts screaming.  Mommy has to lay down with him.  Mommy does.  Kai starts to wrestle.  Mommy leaves.  2 minutes later: screaming.  You'd think the kid chopped a limb off or something.  I rush in, he's standing there, in the middle of the room: pointing at his diaper, which he had pulled loose.  Yeah, I agree, that is indeed the end of the world and absolutely justifies screaming your head off.

Things are quiet now and oh, how blissful my house is right now.  I am about to take my laptop outside and soak up some Vit. S(un).  Sigh...