Coasting

Things are really good around here. 

Sienna is at water's edge, and her friend, Mason, is standing behind her.

It's been a long, hard 8 months, but in January, we made Noah cry it out through his nighttime wakings. After night 12 (Can you believe we lasted 12 nights?? It was excruciating.), he showed progress. Now he sleeps from 7 pm to 7 am and usually wakes up only once a night. I can also put him down awake instead of bouncing him around forever until he falls asleep. LIFE. CHANGING.

With all this amazing sleep I'm getting, I am literally a new person. I actually love being a mom and feel like I can handle my load. I also love my kids. I couldn't really say that most days for the past 8 months.

 Now Noah is a few days away from being 9 months. And sometimes I love him so much I want to squeeze him until he pops. Look at this little, lounging, sand-covered, furry morsel.

I'm also suddenly feeling like babyhood is fleeting (instead of feeling like it will never end). For example, look at this leggy lady. She is a giant compared to Baby Noah. And in 2 months she will be 3!

Every time we go to the beach, she gets in the water with her clothes on, no matter how cold it is.

I also want to squeeze her until she pops.

We Did Some Valentine-y Things

Another holiday revolving around food? Yes, please! We made sugar cookies.

 And ate them all (early in the month).

 We made chocolate sugar cookies. And gave them all away (on Valentine's Day).

 We had a pink-plated breakfast.

 With heart shaped everything.

Two of my Valentines:

A certain visiting bearded Valentine...

 Don't forget your heart hat.

And a card from dad.

As well as a few decorations ...

and my Mr. Noah.

Nonsensical Items of Intrigue

*The Bachelor. It's real, people. Don't doubt it. Ben is real and the girls are real and I am obsessed. I have succumbed to trash TV. And I can't stop being intrigued.

*Crafting. It has brought me a little V-day joy. Pictures to come.

*Baking as therapy. It's really the best thing I've got going right now. I'll sometimes try to include Sienna, but always glad when she loses interest. Because baking on my own is just kind of therapeutic.

*Katy Perry. The girl is kinda trashy, but she's had about seven #1 hits in the past year. And that don't just happen to anyone. TGIF!

*Last weekend was my Christmas gift realized: a date to the ballet Don Quixote with my own Man of La Mancha aka Adam Ware. Aside from the ballet being quite intriguing, surprising and Kitri an extraordinary dancer, my favorite part of the evening was when we had just gotten to the Seattle Center and Adam, looking nifty in his new suit, said, "Sometimes it's nice to escape the grunge of Seattle. Oh, nope. There's jeans." Shortly followed by a man who can only be described as having just hiked in straight from his cabin on Mt. Rainier wearing lots of fur items including a large fur headpiece; he was arm in arm with a female counterpart donning a fur pelt. The Fur Family had arrived in their own version of best to see the ballet. Seattle! The people! Intriguing to say the least.

*I watched A Streetcar Named Desire recently because I wanted to understand the Modern Family reference. "Stelllllaaaaaa!" Remember? Well, let me tell you something, that movie is jacked. But I enjoyed every messed up moment. When old movies are scandalous, that's when you know they are scandalous! Because back then people had morals. But who can really uphold morals when Marlon Brando is around? Hmm? Tell me.

*Watching Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire within several months of each other made me realize something: Sienna reminds me of a pale-skinned, blue-eyed Vivien Leigh. It explains so much. One side drama, the other side poisonous sweetness. Her cunning ways are evident when I am flustered at her and she straps on a plastic smile, gets right up under my face and asks, "Are you happy mom?"

*Adele's hair. Can someone please explain?

*Glee. Is anyone still watching?

*The Office. Is anyone still watching?

*We are watching both, though sometimes I don't know why. However, Glee's recent MJ episode was one of their best episodes yet!

*Parks and Rec is the biz. Tom Haverford! Ron Swanson! Andy! I could go on. I love the whole cast.

*Now, back to The Bachelor. Where are all my short haired homegirls? Hmm? Only long-haired beauties need apply, Chris Harrison? Huh? I am offended, but mostly it just affirms my belief that short-haired girls are wise. And real. Except all those girls dating Ben are real. They really are. Everything about that show is real. Oh, wait, spray tans not real. Everything else, real.

This Time With Words

Brown Eyed Boy

Having a little boy is pretty special. Now I think I understand how Adam feels toward Sienna: protective. Maybe it makes more sense for a father to feel protective toward his daughter. Men have been in the "protector" role since the beginning of time. But I feel like I'm more pragmatic with Sienna and more protective with Noah, and it's not because Sienna bullies him constantly. It's because I know that someday he will hold the weight of the world on his shoulders.

These tiny little baby shoulders!

Guys have it hard!

They have to put up with women, for one.

They have to be practical about choosing a college degree that makes enough money to support a wife and kids.

They have to be tough (or at least pretend to be).

So, for now, I need to be protective of his space.

And his play time.

Make plenty of time to giggle.

And nibble his cheeks.

And let him jump to his hearts' content.

The Sabbath is for Sprinting

Since Adam is now the ward executive secretary, Sundays are mine to conquer. Which is fine; he and I both agreed that he got the short end of the stick on this one. He has to be at church from 6 am until about 3 or 4 pm. Without so much as the fishy snacks from my diaper bag to keep him sustained. 

So, to get the kids up and ready for church is all me ... which, as I said, is fine ... but for some reason it feels like a monumental sprint from about 7:30 am until about 2 pm (again, Adam's day is longer and less fun). It's because on Sunday we have to step it up a bit. We have to leave by 8:45 am to make it to 9 o'clock church. On a normal day we'd leave the house after Noah's nap, usually around 11 am. On Sundays we need to smell a little better than normal. On a regular day, I don't wear deodorant let alone perfume. On Sundays we wear tights. Getting tights on a 2-year-old and a 29-year-old is a job only for the nibble-fingered (that's me). On Sundays, we bother with socks and shoes for the baby. On a normal day, the baby would be in a sleeper. (Today the baby was kept in a sleeper. For I actually do not believe in socks and shoes for babies. May there be many more Sundays with Noah in a sleeper.) On Sundays we do our hair. You know what happens on normal days: hair-doing is optional. On Sundays we put on make-up. That's another optional task on a normal day. On Sundays we pack extra snacks and sometimes meals. On a normal day, we'd be at the store busting open some crackers before we even pay for them. 

At church, we do get a lovely break from Miss Purpley Dress. But Mr. Wiggle Bottoms is mine to wrassle. He won't take a morning nap in my arms anymore, so he just bounces from here to there with overtired energy. On the way home, he sometimes crashes. 

But he comes right back awake for lunchtime after changing out of our church clothes (happily he stayed in that fantastic little all-around-practical sleeper). At this point Sienna is bouncing off the walls with overtired, overstimulated energy. Food is served, three different meals for three different people with three different preferences (Noah got a sweet potato-chicken soup-cauliflower mash, Sienna got mac and cheese, I got an enchilada). Then Noah goes down for the long-awaited nap. Sienna winds down for maybe nap. And I lie down on the couch to close my eyes because my head feels like a balloon from a 2- week cold that is getting worse. Aaaand Noah awakes! Because he sometimes is a very crappy day sleeper. And my semi-sprint resumes because I have to entertain Mr. Crankers (who needs to sleep longer to get rid of the crankies) and start dinner for the missionaries.

Maybe tomorrow will be more restful.

Scenes from the Potty Train

I started the week hoping to TOOT TOOT Sienna right out of Diaperville and into Panty Land. Two pees in Froggy Potty, one poop in undies, six pees on the kitchen linoleum, and one pee in Adam's carpeted closet sent me running at mock speed right back to Diaperville. Why would we ever leave this beautiful, convenient place? It's just not going to happen right now. We are going to give it a couple months and revisit it at a more pleasant time of year. We'll dip our toe into the grown-up world of Panty Land when she seems more at ease to visit there and even stay indefinitely.

A look back at a most exhausting week:

Monday morning, juice box in hand. We are ready to go!

 

Froggy Potty's bowl is really a cowboy hat, right mom?

 

The shoe game is always fun. Put on mom's shoes in her closet and walk them out to the front room and line them up.

 

Dolly takes a dump.


Watching "Maria" (Sound of Music) while sitting on a garbage bag covered by a towel on the couch.


Baking bread. Cuz what else are we going to do sitting at home all day as close to the kitchen floor as possible? She had this to say about the dough ball forming in the bread machine: "It's not poop, it's just bread." And then! The first victorious pee! Clapping and congratulations and celebrations ensue.
 

We walk down the street to Chuck's Hop Shop, The Land of A Thousand Beers, for ice cream! She is so full of juice and hot chocolate at this point that I know she won't get far on that scoop of strawberry ice cream.

 

Noah and I are merely puppets in this show. 

And I believe this is day four. We're winding down. And I'm having a panic attack that she's surely about to pee all over the fur in my new TOMS.

 

And the final activity before it all goes to shiz. She's putting her animals in the shaving cream cuz we're pretending it's snow (or I had initially instigated it for finger painting), then she decides to finally get into it for finger painting ... it's all over her hands and shirt ... and then she pees on the floor. AND WE'RE DONE. Because cleaning that up involved her getting her hands all over me, thus having to clean up shaving cream and pee and it was dinner time and that's just the worst possible time of day no matter what is happening.

The end. See you later, panties!