Daylight savings dread

I used to rejoice over the "fall back." I used to sleep until 11 or 12 on weekends, and sometimes lay about watching movies on tv until late afternoon. Now I dread this weekend more than I can say. Why? Let's start with the fact that my kids both woke up today at 6 am on the dot. Margaret had to get up anyway to head to her grandparents' house, but Henry waking up at 6 or 6:30 is not terribly uncommon. So that means on Sunday morning I'll likely start hearing him wake up at 5 or 5:30. No. way. Please cross your fingers for me that some magic will occur to make the child sleep later.

For the record, with two nightowl parents, where did this kid get the early riser gene? Who snuck that in?

Disney and death

Since we watch a lot of Disney movies in our house lately, I'm often reminded about how it seems that every Disney movie involves some loss of a parent. I was just listening to a recent interview of David Cronenberg on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He directs some pretty scary or disturbing films, and he said he believes that the greatest fear of children is the separation from a parent. He said this in the context of his own childhood fears, and while we worry about what children should see on tv, we end up showing them movies that feature the very thing they are most afraid of. I guess that's why I haven't let Margaret watch Bambi or Finding Nemo yet.

Just something to think about. Obviously, she's watched all the princess movies that involve dead or absent parents and she's not scarred yet.

Potty training

OK, if you don't want to read about poop, go ahead and skip this one...

Last Monday, Margaret pooped on the potty for the second time ever. Hooray!! She had spent the night at her grandparents house and they had talked about how expensive diapers were, so they offered to pay her every time she used the potty. OK, I'll bite. I'm not above bribery at this point, since nothing else I've tried has been very successful. So I told her that if she pooped on the potty, I'd give her five dollars. She was really impressed at that offer, and later that day she pooped! Right after announcing her success with the appropriate celebrating (and the poop dance from Daddy), she proclaimed, "now I can get five dollars!" Only she wants to be paid in quarters. So I raided Wes' quarter stash (it's not as exciting as it sounds) and paid her in quarters and she put it in her piggy bank.

Since then, she's pooped on the potty 3 times, and in her panties 3 times, and in a pull-up 3 times. This is a lot less than she would normally be pooping, but she seems to be doing it at least once every day (she did skip one day). At least she's semi-motivated. I promised to buy her some princess panties if she uses the potty all day long (we'll worry about nighttime later), so when I tell her it's time to use the potty, I remind her of princess panty option when she resists. The $5 per poop option expires on Halloween, so she'll either be using the potty full time by then, or we might end up back in pull-ups. Arg. I guess I could keep it up forever, except that I'd go broke paying for every poop, especially once she gets it. I did get a roll of quarters from the bank yesterday.

I am not feeling terribly confident about today, since we have two activities planned. I want her to wear panties even when we go out, but I'm a little nervous about a day like this when we have an activity planned in the late afternoon, when she usually poops. I guess I'm taking the risk that she'll poop in her panties while we're out and just bring some extra clothes. I'm not the first parent to have this happen, right?

Someday I'll look back on all of this and laugh...

My child is a prodigy!

OK, not really, but I have noticed in the last 3 days that whenever Henry wants me to pick him up or nurse him, he says, "ih-ma" or "eh-ma-ma." He doesn't do it at all when he's just happily babbling to himself or "commenting" on something his sister is doing. Just when he's unhappy and/or wants me. So I've decided to tell myself that this is his first word. Margaret didn't say mama until she was one, after she said dada and "gee-gee" for doggie. So I claim this "ih-ma" as Henry's first word, MAMA.

***of course, his mama just burned the rice-a-roni while she was typing this post, so if Henry is a prodigy, it's clear he didn't get it from me.

tiny celebration

I went to Target yesterday and found a black t-shirt on the clearance rack that was just the right length (completely covers my belly), and it was priced $3.98. What a bargain! To make it even better, when I got home, I looked at the receipt and it actually rang up at $1.98! I'm wearing it today and it fits great and is super comfy. Hooray!

Sleep!!! For the love of God!!

So Henry's been having some sleep issues. He kept us up a LOT while we were on vacation, and I decided that was from teething, since he had gotten a top front tooth a week earlier. Plus he suddenly got red chapped cheeks while we were there, probably exacerbated by the dry air up there combined with his sudden increase in drooling like a bulldog. Sure enough, 3 little teeth, one front tooth and two eye teeth. Margaret had a bad time with her eye teeth too, so I wasn't surprised. Tired, but not surprised.

BUT the teeth are out (well mostly), and he's STILL waking up a zillion times at night. Last night he would wake up and sit up, which made it even harder to get him back to sleep (usually when he wakes up he lies back down like he wants to go back to sleep, so I figure we're just helping him by rubbing his back, etc.). Wes rocked him back to sleep once, but I ended up nursing him back down 2 more times (once after trying to rub his back and shush him for almost an hour). I'm a zombie today. I think I will be nightweaning him soon. I think he's probably confused as to whether or not he's allowed to nurse at night now and it would be more effective to either nurse him every time he woke up or not at all. Right now, I try not to nurse him if something else will work first, but then I cave in and nurse him when I run out of options or am too tired to stay up any longer. I think we just need to buckle down and do it though. He's almost 8 months old, so I'm right in the middle of the age when my ped thinks he should absolutely be nightweaned and the LLL thinks he's too young, so I figure it's as good a time as any. I'm freaking tired!!!! And poor Wes is also exhausted and he has a long commute to work. It scares me to imagine him driving that long without enough sleep. So if anyone has any suggestions on nightweaning an almost 8-month-old, I'll be happy to take them.

Catching up

We've been out of town, and catching up on my life has taken another week. So if I have time, I'll try to post about everything today or tomorrow.

First, our trip was great. We went to visit relatives I haven't seen since I was pregnant with Margaret. I got to meet my cousin's son who is 2 and a half. M loved him! We also got to spend time with my grandma. And we got nearly the entire extended family to come over for dinner one day, so I saw cousins I haven't laid eyes on since we were kids. It was fun to get see them again. We had a great time.

The kids did really well on the airplane, too, especially Margaret. My mom traveled with me and the kids, and Wes came a day later (and had to leave early to go back to work). We did bring the DVD player, but the battery was drained for the trip there (because I'm a doofus and forgot to turn it off before I put it away). She read books with mom and looked out the window. Luckily, our plane landed early on both legs (yes, we had a layover each way, but it worked out ok). Henry was a little fussy because he hates to sleep anywhere but in his bed, so he only got a tiny nap in my arms, even though we woke them up at 4 am to go to the airport (well, Henry woke himself up at 3 am, but that's a whole other story). The trip back was even less fun for him, since we were traveling in the afternoon, but although he was a little fussy, I don't think it was enough to bother the other passengers.

Unfortunately for my mom, she slipped on the treacherous stairs at my aunt's house while holding Henry and fell, spraining her ankle. Mostly it scared the bejeezus out of her because she was holding the baby. But she did what everyone holding a baby does if they fall...she cushioned him with her body and probably got hurt worse. Henry was perfectly fine. So we ended up needing a wheelchair and help for her to get around the airport. So we had two kids and a handicapped woman. Luckily, she can still walk, but she needed a cane and was pretty slow. She said it's feeling better now, though.

Poor Wes had a miserable flight back when bad weather got his connecting flight canceled and he was stuck in the airport. We had better luck on our way back, even though they lost my bag. However, the carseat and my mom's bag arrived fine, and since my bag was ridiculously heavy, I didn't mind that the airline folks had the pleasure of delivering it to my house!