Battles & Blessings

Battles:

• I have been ridiculously tired this week.  It didn't help that I couldn't manage to get an uninterrupted night of sleep from Friday through Wednesday.  Miles still has his normal crazy energy, and for some reason, Dominic has gone entirely bonkers and needs tons of playtime.
• We're trying a new nap routine in an effort to put an end to the screaming that generally precedes each one.  Being consistent has been difficult, especially on days when he starts falling asleep easier than usual.
• We try to get out of the house every day, but the days this week have still seemed rather long.  I'm crazy, but I miss being just a little busier.

Blessings:

• Coffee.  In large quantities.  I want to snuggle with my coffee maker.  Seriously.
• Our return to routine has actually gone far more smoothly than I had dared to hope.
• The nap routine seems to be working, for the most part.  Since Monday, we have only had two difficult nap times - and both resulted in a decent nap.  It's too soon (and I'm too superstitious) to believe that it's going to last, but for the first time ever, I haven't dreaded naptime this week.
• Toddler gym.
• Lunch with Maestro to discuss upcoming projects. :)
• Miles' rash is finally clearing up.  We've been struggling with eczema since the week before Christmas, so this is a big deal.
• Patrick chopped his hair off.  He is so adorable with short hair.  I had forgotten exactly how much I like his short hair. 
• Miles has been so silly and fun this week.  And actually helpful with simple tasks (like taking laundry out of the dryer).  It's exciting.
• Visits with friends who are family, and the promise of visits from family who are also friends.
• Tangled.  The newest Disney movie.  Go see it.  Seriously.

Friday Photos!

Well, it's a week into the New Year, and I'm just getting a year in review posted.  Each of these photos was published on this blog during the month listed.  Enjoy!

Cuteness

Since my brain is still too confuzzled this early morn to write anything more than one coherent sentence, here is a list of current cute things that Miles does to melt the hearts of the world.*

• He's starting to point out body parts - particularly facial features.  The other day, he successfully pointed to my eyes and nose when asked, but when I asked where my mouth was, he pointed to his own.  "That's Miles' mouth," I said.  "Where's Mommy's mouth?"  He grinned, leaned forward, and kissed me on the mouth.  I apparently had a good reaction to it, because this is now standard practice for showing me where Mommy's mouth is. :)
• He blows kisses.  And he's stopped putting them in his ear afterward. :)
• He likes to steal my chair.  Which is hysterical because he cannot climb into it without help.  So, he asks me for help to steal my chair.  Once he's in and seated, he grins and spreads out over the chair so I can't sit down without sitting on him.  Which I pretend to do, much to his delight.**
• For months, he's been waving his entire arm to wave bye-bye.  Now, he opens and closes his little hands.  Most times, it's facing backward, making it look like he's waving bye-bye to himself. :)
• He loves to 'help'.  He will happily throw away trash, take some item from one parent to another, carry a small object around, put things in drawers (or cabinets, or bins, etc.), and will even help get the laundry into and out of the dryer.  Often, his 'helping' results in more work, but it makes him happy, and he's trying. :)
• When he climbs the stairs (with an adult behind him), he pauses about halfway up to look out at the world from that height.  He delights in being as tall - or taller than - any adult left standing on the ground floor.
• He has developed a sudden fascination with our friend Shelby, and will run to him, sit in his lap, and talk to him (very seriously) in gibberish for minutes on end.  
• He has become really good at stringing his signs together to convey more complex questions and requests.  Yesterday, at the Gym, he looked around until he made eye-contact with me (I'd just sat down, a few feet away), pointed at the bouncy house, and signed, "More up, please." (Indicating that he needed help to get up the stairs and into the contraption).
• When Daddy comes home in the evening, Miles regales him with tales from the day.  Last night, he took over my chair and spoke at length.  Within the litany of gibberish, we were able to make out the words, "I bounce!" over and over again.  When we repeated the words back to him, he smiled hugely, bounced in the chair, and said, "I bounce!"

He's doing a million more cute things, lately, but he has just awoken.  Off to more cuteness!  Happy Thursday!

*Holy run-on sentence, Bat Man!

** Yet more proof that parents are weird.

Toddler Gym

So, in my quest to find something, anything to keep Miles occupied and get us out of the house, I stumbled across this wonderful thing:

Toddler Open Gym.

Our local community center (which is literally a 2 min drive away) opens up their gym for two hours twice a week just for kids under 5 to come play.  Even better, they then fill that gym with ride-on toys, push toys, balls of varying sizes, and a massive bounce house.

Having no idea that it would be so cool, but desperately trying to avoid being stuck at home, I took Miles for the first time today.  He ran from one corner of the room to the other, trying out dozens of toys and balls, and crawling in and out of the bounce house.  He interacted with other children,* pushed cars, pulled wagons, bounced balls, put toys away, pulled them back out, and generally just wore himself out.

After an hour and ten minutes, he came to me, waved bye-bye, and laid his head on my chest, utterly exhausted.  Less than ten minutes later, he was yawning as we walked up the stairs at home.  When we sat down to rock, he buried his head in my shirt and was snoring before I had a chance to put him down - and then slept for the next hour and a half.

I'd call that a success.  Totally worth the dollar I spent on it. :)

*Usually long enough to stare at them, hoping they would drop the toy they had so he could play with it.  It's scary how many times it worked.

New Year

Yeah, I realize I'm off by a couple of days, but honestly?  I think it's close enough to still talk about the New Year.  And since I have nothing terribly interesting to tell you about our exciting year so far (we stayed in all weekend, organizing our house and taking turns being lazy), I thought I'd bore you with my New Year's Resolutions.

Let me just state for the record that I think the term "New Year's Resolution" is way overused - most times, when someone asks for your resolutions, you list off a litany of old stand-bys, with no real intention of following through.  I know.  I've done it.

And then, two years ago, I chose to use the new year as an opportunity to really look at myself and evaluate what I liked and didn't like about myself.  For the most part, I make no excuses, and refuse to feel guilty about the choices I make, because I know that they were the best decisions I could have made at the time, with the information I had available to me.  Two years ago, however, when I took that hard look at myself, I found that I had become . . . a Bitch.

Now, not all the time.  And certainly not as terrible as I could have been.  But I had always prided myself on being nice to people, and giving them the benefit of the doubt as often as possible.  And I wasn't doing that anymore.  I tended to see faults before I saw the value in a person.  I had become very judgmental about a lot of things.  And honestly?  I wasn't being nice.  At all.

So, I made my first New Year's Resolution of my adult life.*  I resolved to be nice for an entire year.

Apparently, however, God has a sense of humor, because a month after I had made that resolution, I found out I was pregnant.  What ensued was one of the craziest years of my life - I assistant-directed a musical for community theater, while still assistant-directing the Festival.  I had rehearsals five nights a week, and often on Saturdays.  Saturday evenings were a myriad of events - all of which I was obligated to attend.  Sundays turned into opportunities to promote our Festival, or the musical.  And I was still working 40+ hours a week at the office.  That summer, I also attended impromptu weddings for both my mother (in June) and my sister (in August), along with pre-planned weddings for two different sets of friends.

And through it all, I was hormonal and pregnant.  And trying desperately to be nice, when all I really wanted was ice cream, and a few minutes peace, followed by an opportunity to beat almost everyone upside the head.

Did I mention God has a sense of humor?

Regardless, I lived through the year.  I worked until three days before Miles was born.  And then we were back to performing by the time he was nine days old.  And through it all, I held tight to that resolution.  And I made it.

But after twelve months of being as nice as possible, I decided to take a year off.  I made zero resolutions at the beginning of 2010.  And it felt good. :)

However, 2011 is now here, and I feel I'm ready for a new challenge.  So, after far too much adieu, here are my resolutions for 2011:

• Get organized.  I am so tired of not being able to find a darn thing.  And I'm ready for things to move more smoothly.  I will get organized this year, if it kills me. :)
• Find balance.  Life is a juggling act - work is one baton, marriage another, housekeeping yet another, and on and on.  When Miles was born, I expected him to add a few batons to the mix.  It was more like a million.  And I lost my carefully choreographed routine.  I have spent a year diving to catch the batons I've dropped, each time dropping several more in the process.  It is time to find a way to keep all of those batons in the air - even if that means letting go of a few of the batons I have held on to so stubbornly.  Things will be changing this year, and I will find a new balance that works for all of us.

So, what about you?  What are your resolutions for the year?  Or do you think resolutions are dumb?  What changes are you hoping to see in 2011?

*I have to specify that, because I made all sorts of resolutions as a kid.  Most of them were about writing in my journal daily.  And we all know how that turned out. :)

Routine - 15 months old

I'm using this post for me, today, so read on, if you want, but know that it's nothing interesting. :)

Looking back over the past year, I've realized that I don't have a very clear picture of how far we've come, routine-wise.  I know all of the milestones that Miles has hit, and when, and I have a great collection of photos from the entire year.  What I don't have is any idea what his routine was like at 3 months, 6 months, etc.  So, Future Self, here is Miles' current schedule, in a nutshell.  Note the crazy. :)

Somewhere between 7:15-7:30am -- Miles wakes for the day.  Usually upset, though he's starting to figure out that he can play quietly in his crib until I come get him, so he doesn't start everyday screaming, anymore.  Once he's awake, I get him out of bed, change him, and sometimes even get him dressed for the day, but that entirely depends upon his mood.  We play in his room for a few minutes until he's fully with it.

7:45ish -- Downstairs for breakfast.  I'm a Bad Mommy, so it's usually something like banana slices or toast in the living room.  Even odds as to whether or not the TV is on so I can finish my cup of coffee before the day really gets going.

8:30-10:00am -- Try to get out of the house - specifically, somewhere he can run off some energy.  If we stay at home, I spend this time on the floor with him, trying to wear him out.

10:00-11:00/11:30am -- Return to his room to play with the radio on.  Goal is to get him wound down for his first nap of the day.

11:00/11:30ish -- He goes down for his morning nap.  If I'm lucky, he'll go down without screaming.  I'm not lucky very often.

1:00ish -- Miles wakes from his nap, and we have lunch.

1:30ish -- More playing on the floor.  I try to get out some fun activity for him to do - bucket of beans to play in, collapsible tunnel to crawl through, etc.  This is the other time I try to get him out of the house, if we didn't go out in the morning.  If he's playing by himself, I try to do some housework.

3:00ish -- Snack time.  Again, it's usually in the living room, and taken in spurts as he plays.

3:30/4:00ish -- Whenever Miles starts winding down (or asks for "uhstares"), we go back up to his room to play.

4:00ish -- Miles goes down for his second nap of the day.  Screaming often ensues before sleeping.

5:00ish -- Miles wakes up and we go downstairs.  He plays in the kitchen or watches "Jane and the Dragon" while I make supper.

5:30ish -- Supper, followed by playtime with Daddy.  Mommy sits in her chair, staring at the wall, and gibbering.  Grape throwing could commence and she would never notice.*

Evening is comprised of playing in the living room.  Occasionally, we will all go out somewhere, and twice a week, we have people over.  He usually snacks at some point.

8:30pm -- Bedtime.  This is the one time he usually goes to sleep without much of a fight, provided he has Glow Worm.

And then, we start the whole thing over again.  Note that all times are "-ish", because this kid is nothing if inconsistent.  Seriously, some days he only takes one long nap in the middle of the day, and others, he takes 3 catnaps.  My right eye twitches when I think about his schedule (or lack thereof).  :)

*Please tell me you've seen Overboard with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russel. . .

Battles & Blessings

Battles:

• Traveling with a 15-month-old.  Enough said.
• Screaming tantrums preceding naps on Thursday.
• Getting back into the swing of things, and trying to restore a schedule.

Blessings:

• Spending a ton of time with family we don't get to see nearly often enough.
• Having Patrick home almost all week.
• Time to read.  Heaven.
• Realizing just how well-behaved Dominic is, again.  He's awesome.
• A 65 degree day in late December, resulting in an early morning thunderstorm the next day.  Love.
• Having a son whose worst habit is a resistance to sleep.  Honestly, it could be worse on so many levels.  I just need to remember that.
• Cookie monster backpacks to carry Miles' supplies - just when the diaper bag was starting to wear thin. (Pictures to follow.  Promise.)
• Friends who know us well enough to invite themselves over on New Year's Eve.
• Time to clean and organize.  One day soon, our house may be in order.
• That babbling toddler who just woke up. :)