Wednesday, November 30, 2016

sleep success


i found a secret to getting brette back to
sleeping in her bed AND staying there.
 
(this is when you start dancing, clapping,
drinking, giving hand shakes and high fives.)
 
she's literally been killing me basically since
we took her rail off her crib and gave her freedom.
it started out kind of cute and funny:
we'd put her to bed and then find her asleep,
curled up next to our door.
no big deal.
we would pick her up and take her back to bed.
done.
then she started bringing blankets, pillows,
stuffed animals and made her home in the hallway.
we laughed.
more to carry, but we still put her back in bed every night.
pretty soon she didn't even let us tuck her in bed.
she just grabbed her stuff and headed for the hallway.
we didn't fight her on it, but we always suggested she
sleep in her own bed.
she wasn't having it.
after awhile she would wake up when we were carrying her back in
her room and start crying.
 so eventually, brette spent all night,
every night camped out in front of reid's door.
then came the knocking.
she would knock at our door and want us to lay with her.
so ronnie or i would sleep with her for 10 minutes every night.
after that came the nightly visits.
have you every had a child stand over your bed and
lightly touch you?
it. is. terrifying.
she would sneak in our room and wake me up like a ninja.
she wanted to sleep with us.
the first time she did it, i thought she was scared, so
i told her ok, but only for 5 minutes.
then it happened again the next night and the next.
sometimes she'd come in several times a night.
i finally didn't let her in the bed at all and took her straight
back to her pallet on the floor in the hallway.
she realized that if she went to ronnie's side of the bed he
would let her in AND let her stay for the rest of the night.
i woke up a few mornings to ronnie and brette cuddling and i
would be so pissed because i knew the next night would
be so much harder - - for me and brette.
not ronnie because
he sleeps through everything.
i laid down the law with mr. ronaldo and told him if he
wanted to continue to sleep in our bed then he had to stick
to his guns and not let brette sleep with us.
i threw in some cuss words and added physical threats so
he knew i wasn't kidding.
this is what happens when you don't get enough sleep.
(i'm pretty sure this is his fault somehow anyway.)
we decided something had to change so we decided to buy
brette new bed in hopes that she would get excited and
want to go back to sleeping in her room.
we got rid of the crib and bought her a daybed.
i let her pick her own sheets and blankets.
we made a big deal about it and i was hopeful.
but here was no change.
she would be so excited about the bed - - excited to play on it.
but if you asked her where she was going to sleep,
she would always say, in the hallway.
we tried a sticker chart and bribes.
she didn't give one F about stickers or
ice cream or fun outings.
she wanted in our bed and that was it.
she cried that we made her sleep in her room.
she begged to sleep in the hallway.
and instead of creeping into our room at night,
she stood at our door and yelled for me, scaring me
half to death at least three times a night.
what. the. hell.
i was so done.
i considered locking her in there and letting her
figure it out, because that sounded so much easier.
but i was worried that 1) i would scar her for life and
2) she would need to go potty and be forced to wet the bed.
[ps- brette has done so awesome without diapers at night.
we stopped using them in september and have only had
two accidents, both in the first month.]
back to what to do...
i didn't have any ideas.
i was getting up with her about every two hours.
all she wanted in life was to sleep with us.
and now that she was back in her room, i
had to actually lay with her to get her settled, unlike
the hallway where i would lay her down and leave.
it sucked so much.
i was creeping out of her room praying to god, she didn't
hear me and wake up or i'd have to start all over again.
it was ridiculous.
i was so tired.
it was like having a newborn, but one that you
want to kill because YOU ARE THREE YEARS OLD!
 
ok, so let me get to the good news.
one night brette was crying at our doorway before it was even 10:00.
oh lord.
i knew we were in for a long night.
ronnie and i weren't in bed yet so leia wasn't kenneled.
when i went to put brette back in bed, leia came with me.
she hopped up on brette's bed and curled up.
brette loved it.
she asked if leia could sleep with her.
um, yes.
i felt like a light bulb went off.
all she wants is to sleep with someone.
she doesn't want to be alone at night.
give her the damn dog.
of course!
that was it!
i didn't know for sure if it would work, but that night
she got up once at 1:00 to pee and then went back to bed.
no crying.
she didn't ask me to lay with her.
nothing.
she just got back in bed with leia and went to sleep.
wahoo!
the next night, i didn't see her at all.
and since we started this she has been sleeping until
about 6am every morning with no visits to our room.
i don't care if i have to wash her sheets all the time or
bathe the dog more than i normally would.
this is so totally worth it.
sometimes after 6:00 she'll come in our room
and lay with ronnie on the weekends.
or i'll find her playing in her room when reid
and i get up at 7:00.
sometimes she wakes me up and i put cartoons
on for her downstairs.
i know 6:00 is early to get up, but
i'm not even mad because at least
she's sleeping through the night again.
 
so there's my recommendation:
give your kid a dog to sleep with and
hope for the best.
 
 
 






Sunday, November 27, 2016

ready, set, holidays!

we've been busy.
here's the rundown.

we had family pictures taken the sunday before thanksgiving.
it was a last minute thing that i had been meaning to do 
since reid turned one in july.
i guess a christmas card looming over my head finally
gave me the motivation i needed.
it was chilly, but sunny and right at sunset.
it made for gorgeous photos.
i've only seen these three, but i'll get the rest of them
in a week or two.
i can't wait.




thanksgiving was easy, which is so nice to say.
we made our way to my parent's house late morning
and hung around all day eating, drinking and 
catching up with family.
i actually had the girls looking super cute, but
5 minutes after arrive at mimi's brette had on 
dress-up play clothes and we didn't even get a picture together.
wah wah.




and then finally today.
my bff, kass, called and asked if we would meet them
downtown kansas city at union station so i could 
take pictures of her family for their christmas card.
we had nothing going on and it sounded like such a fun
thing to do for the holidays - so  we packed up the girls
and headed out.
we walked around union station and took lots of fun pictures.



then we took the sky link over to crown center.
they had a gingerbread santa house and somehow
we got there early and santa was already on duty.
we walked right in and got our picture taken.
no line.
best. thing. ever.
although, reid didn't think so.
she was scared of poor ol' santa.
but i had to do it.
i needed the photo. 




after, i talked everyone into having lunch at frisco's.
i had never been, but i knew a little train delivered
your food so i thought the girls would love it.
and they did.
they thought it was so cool.
unfortunately the food the train brought was 
not very good.
live and learn.
choo choo.





we had such a fun day and
decided we want to do it every year.
i just love the holidays.
they're busy and crazy and fun.
just the way i like it.


Tuesday, November 22, 2016

thanksgiving prep

and just like that,
we're two days away from thanksgiving and
then the holidays will be in full swing. 
we're heading down to my parent's on thursday so 
it's nice not to have to pack to stay or madly start
preparing my house for guests.
i'm taking corn and baking a pecan pie and that
basically completes my list of to-do's.
i love easy holidays.
brette, reid and my parents actually already had one
thanksgiving dinner at brette's school.
of course it was the week i had to work and no one
could come in to help cover, so i had to miss it.
my parents were impressed and brette looked so cute.
i'm already looking forward to next year, so
i can see it for myself.
THIS is why i'm a stay-at-home mom, so it
feels like really bad luck that i missed it.


(notice on brette's headdress it lists what she's thankful for? 
apples and ice cream! who knew.)

and another little fun thing, right before thanksgiving,
we had some house guests for one night last weekend.
margie and todd drove in for a chiefs game and
stayed with us.
we met up with shannon and drew the next day for brunch
and tried to get in as much conversation as possible before
marge had to leave.


but luckily, she'll be back in a month to visit the new glover baby,
who is only 3 weeks away from arrival.
it's going to be a fun december.
i need to start decorating and shopping and baking,
but i'm not starting any of that until next weekend.
black friday, here i come!

have a wonderful thanksgiving!
i hope you eat a ton.




Thursday, November 17, 2016

so are the days of our lives


i have been working all week long.
working, as in:
three 10 hour days.
two 8 hour days.
and of course, its my saturday to work too.
tack on another 4 hours.
f i f t y  h o u r s.
i haven't worked a full week in 
probably three years, let alone 
more than forty hours.
i'm tired.
brette's been sleeping like shit.
(i want to pull my hair out.)
i've been getting up by 5:30 and
i'm not back home until after 6:00.
i'm over it and i can't wait for
next week when things are back to normal.

you want to know the worst part?
it's hasn't even been that hard.
my parents stayed up here to watch 
the girls since i don't have full-time childcare, so
it's not like i've been running the kids around
and trying to figure out dinners.
THAT would have made things 800 times worse.
and it makes me extra appreciative of
the last three years i've had at home.
i can't imagine trying to work full time
eight weeks after having a baby. 
it's hard enough to leave my three year old and
one year old as it is.
i guess i like my kids after all.
sometimes i forget that.

okay, i'm off to bed. 
tomorrow is another 10 hour day.
blah. 



Monday, November 14, 2016

where the wind comes sweeping down the plain

holy lord.
it's half way through november and
i've posted once.
we've been a little busy around here
with reid being sick, working extra hours
and going on a quick getaway to oklahoma.
that's right.
we packed up our things, picked up the
turnbow's and headed out west.
kind of.
we headed to pawhuska to see the pioneer woman's
new store, the mercantile.
it was so fun to get out of town, even if it's just for a night.
we decided to all ride together, because we decided 
the amount of fun you have
on a road trip directly correlates with 
the number of people you have in a car.
(we learned quickly this is not true when almost
half the people in the car are children.)
not that i could say one bad word about willa, linsday and
turnbow's little girl,
she's only 8 months old and goes back and forth between 
sleeping or cooing in her car seat.

meanwhile, my two hooligans in the back are screaming
like a bunch of banshees.
begging for food, drinks, movies and acting
like they've never ridden in a car before.
we arrived in bartlesville at 9:45, not a moment too soon.
 thankfully even reid had given in by then.

brette however, was still partying in the backseat.
she whined or watched youtube clips of 
the Troll movie the whole way there.
sweet. 
thankfully, both my girls passed out pretty much as soon as they
hit the pillow and we made it until about 5:30 the next
morning before they started stirring again.
a whole TWO HOURS earlier than i anticipated.
those mother effers.
we started our day early and were showered, dressed,
ready and repacked before 8am.
turnbow's had a rough night.
they didn't have a pack-n-play for willa and she
was not happy sleeping in a big girl bed.
they spent most of the night walking her around
the room and getting her settled.
we made for a cheery bunch.
breakfast helped.
we found a little diner on our way to pawhuska and
after biscuits and gravy, pancakes, eggs and coffee,
everyone felt better.
the sun was out, it was a brisk fall morning and we had arrived!
we knew there would be a line to get in, so the boys dropped
us off and went to find parking while linds and i got our spot on the sidewalk.
i think the waiting went really fast.
i was busy chasing reid and taking pictures.
oh and i won a free plate because i answered 
a pioneer woman trivia question correctly.
(a little something they do to keep guests happy while waiting outside.)
i. am. awesome.

i know we were in the door in under an hour.
of course, this line just accessed the bakery and general store.
if you wanted in the restaurant, that was another line and
it was over a three hour wait.
i just couldn't do that to my girls.
they would have had meltdowns.
i couldn't BELIEVE we were visiting the pioneer woman's store
and not eating.
it seems sacrilegious. 
(linds and i have decided a second trip is in order: girls only and no children.
we'll have all the time in the world to stand in line, because if you're going to go
visit the pioneer woman, your should at least let her feed you.)


but the general store was cool.
filled with stuff that i would love to have, but didn't buy.
i did pick up her book, a tshirt and a bassett hound puppy for reid.
if you're familiar with ree, then you know her love for bassett hounds.

while we were shopping we saw her daughter, paige, walk through the store.
it was like linds and i had seen a celebrity.
we get excited easily.
after shopping we went upstairs to let the girls run free for a bit.
we scored seats on some amazing leather furniture and i spotted
another pioneer friend, hyacinth - - which a creepily took a picture of from afar.



i was feeling pretty good about seeing TWO of them,
when out walked her oldest son, bryce.
i guess this is a small town where they all just hang out with 
each other and 300 admirers.
AND THEN REE WALKED OUT.
there is no guarantee that you'll get to see anyone.
let alone, the actual pioneer woman.
since we were literally right there by her, i hopped up and
joined the line that was forming to say hello.
she signed my book, met my little redhead, took a picture and 
my trip to pawhuska was complete.
(ps- i did not tell her my daughter's name was reid. all of sudden i realized introducing my redheaded baby named reid, to a celebrity redhead named ree made me look like a crazy stalker.)
oh and her youngest son came out to say hello while i was waiting to see her.
so now i pretty much know the whole family.
bff's for sure.


we decided to head out to get some lunch and start making our way
back to kansas city.
our gps said we would arrive around 5:00.
oh god, i prayed these girls would sleep.
but no, we never got all three down at one time and
by the time we hit olathe, reid had enough.
four hours in a car seat after doing it the day before was too much.
my poor baby barely made it back to lee's summit.
i felt horrible for her and i felt bad for everyone in the car that
had to live through that.
i was happy to be home and learned a valuable 
lesson about traveling with one year olds:
never do it.
they're not babies anymore where they can just go to sleep and
they're not old enough to color or play games or watch a movie.
all they want to do it get up.
so miserable. 

but honestly, besides a few tense moments in the car,
we had a lovely time and i'd do it again in a heartbeat.




Friday, November 4, 2016

the ups and downs with reid

a little ditty on reid.

first, the good news.
she said "mama!"
oh yeah.
of course it was AFTER she said:
dada
louie
leia
brette
baby
drink
book
and 
ROCK.
who says rock before mama?
ridiculous.
but i love it when babies start to pick up
on the language.
it's this magical time where they can talk,
but not talk back.
i'm telling you, i really really love it.
and i kinda wish it stayed like this forever.
all too soon they are a never ending chatter box
filled with so many words and questions, you 
wonder why you thought it was so important to teach
them these things at all.
oh hey, brette.


and the second update on reid,
the one that is not so good.
as you know she had been running a temp
since sunday and i was blaming it all on her teeth.
then she sprouted a "pimple" on her chin
monday night.
hmmmm,
by wednesday morning she has another one and 
i noticed a few on her tongue.
real freaking great.
i called the pediatrician and they got us in that afternoon.
Hand, Foot and Mouth disease.
yep, this disgusting virus has hit reid hard.
she had five days of fever (which is now thankfully gone)
she has been sleeping two naps a day along with 13-14 hour nights.
and she has five blisters on her chin, a few on her tongue and two in her throat.
my poor baby.
thankfully, she has not had any on her hands or her feet and
i'm just hoping we can contain this and get it cleared up fast.
the doctor said it can last up to two weeks, but once her fevers is
gone then she's no longer contagious. 
i've been super freak about brette and our house.
i've been disinfecting and cleaning everything.
brette has either been in school or at my parents to try
to help her avoid catching the same thing.
so far, no one else shows any signs.

(this is tuesday night, just one blister on her chin)

(this morning, she has seven on her lips and chin)

my poor little chicken looks and feels rough,
but i'm hoping she's going to turn a corner this weekend.




Tuesday, November 1, 2016

halloween



halloween is one of my favorite holidays now that
 i have small children to make it fun again.
brette told me she was going to be Buzz Lightyear, literally
since last halloween when she saw someone else with the costume.
she brought it up all year long...
december? march? july? 
she always said: buzz for halloween!
i had it all worked out. 
brette would be buzz and reid would be jessie, another lovable redhead.
perfect.
until sometime in september when brette changed her
mind and decided she'd rather be a ballerina.
then she wanted to be a super hero ballerina.
and then back to plain ballerina.
i told her once i bought her costume, that was it.
no changes.
and then she went and picked out a gymnastics outfit, but
still called herself a ballerina.
we just went with it.
whatever makes her happy.
i picked up a traditional ballerina leotard for reid,
along with some flower crowns and legwarmers and
called it a finished.

on saturday morning we went downtown lee's summit where
they have a costume parade and contest.
all the local shops give out candy and the streets are shut down,
so it's totally safe and super sweet to see all the littles in costume.
we didn't go last year since reid AND brette were still so young,
but i'm pretty sure this will be an annual event.







my parents dropped brette off to me at work around 10am so i could take her 
to school for an hour for their halloween party.
even though brette isn't normally at school on mondays, i still 
wanted her to get to go to her party.
i was sweating balls, but i think the kids had fun.
AND i might have had to regulate on some kid that
gave brette a dirty look and took her pumpkin.
um, no.
oh and i was the only mother in costume.
awesome.
but besides that - totally fun.



halloween fell on a monday, one of the two days i have to work,
so of course, i missed out on getting the girls dressed, which i hate.
 but after work, i met my parents and ronnie with the girls at my 
brother's old neighborhood.
i've never seen another neighborhood do such a good job
with making halloween awesome.
EVERYONE decorates.
and not just a pumpkin and a mum on their front porch (like me)
but there are lights, gravestones, ghosts, fire sticks, spiderwebs.
it's so cool and so kid friendly.
reid has been running a temperature for the last few days 
because of teething, so i was worried she'd hate life, but 
she actually did a great job of walking
around and keeping up with brette that went door to door.
and i was so surprised by brette! 
since she didn't have madeline and eden with her this year, 
i thought she might be too scared to go up to people, but
she was loud and proud with her "trick or treat!" and "thank you!"
i mean, someone still had to go with her, but 
at least she did her own talking.



once it started getting dark, we hit the road.
a three year old only needs so much candy (and her mom too).
which, yes, we ate for breakfast.
i'm excited to see what brette and reid will pick out for next year!
i'm already pumped.
hope you had a happy halloween!