Why Are We Up?

Tomorrow is my brothers birthday, and that's awesome. it's weird because he's three years older than me, and his old age always seems like such a far off time for me, but it's really not.  Pretty soon I'll be old and wrinkly like him, too.

For some reason we're still awake and Bethany is watching Dexter on her phone and I'm blogging.  We're sleep deprived parents, what the hell are we thinking? I'll be kicking myself when I'm up with the kids at 6:45 again. Because now that I think of it, that's what happened this morning, but I seem to have blocked that from my memory. It's too horrible to dwell upon.

I'm getting really good at giving the kids baths by myself lately. That's all. 

The Nap War

It's a battle every day to get Evelyn to take a nap.  I imagine this is something other parents of 2 1/2 year olds have to deal with, making this not a truly remarkable revelation, but still, it's frustrating and confusing. I understand that she likes to play with her toys, as I do this same sort of thing, albeit in a much more adult way, when it's time for me to go to bed.  I like to play with my phone at night before bed, and sometimes I need to be told to put it down and go to sleep. Evie is that way, but deals with it like a two year old would deal with almost everything, and that's crying and screaming. And not to mention, she's a bear when it's time to wake up. I guess she just doesn't have the ability to see what going for a nap is all about. On every other aspect of being two and half, she's a dream to me. She's funny, she listens (mostly) and she's considerate. When it comes to nap time, forget all that. You'd think I was asking her to go do something awful. It's a nap, kid. You're going to be begging for them when you're older.

That being said, I just laid both kids down for their naps and now I have a decision to make.  I could lay on the couch like a lazy bones.  I could go do a chore of some sort. There's always something to be done around here. Or I could play video games. I haven't played any games in weeks. I could watch a TV show or movie, which I guess is part of laying on the couch like a lazy bones. I don't know. I feel sort of lazy today. It's Monday which is sort of like my Saturday.

Ah, screw it.  I'm playing PS3. See ya later, dudes. 

Weekend Update

I guess I should do a weekend update.  This week, Miles really started walking a lot, so that's a new wrinkle. He was able to crawl really fast and climb up stuff and pull everything off of tables already, so it's not that different I guess. But now he can fall in different ways, I guess.  Pretty cool to see him walking at 10 months. Evie didn't walk until she was 17 months.  In the grand scheme of life, that's not that big of a difference but at this stage that's a huge difference.

As I write this, it's one in the morning on Sunday, the 26th. Earlier "today" on Saturday afternoon, I got home from work and there's no better feeling than when your kids are excited to see you. Evie was eager to show me the clothes basket of diapers. My work schedule makes it so I go to sleep on Saturday afternoon so I can go back to work at night. I asked Evie if she would take me to bed for my nap, so she led me by the finger to my room and made me get into the bed.  I asked her to turn on the fan so she went over and tried to figure it out. I helped her use the remote (yes, a remote controlled fan which is awesome and also 14 years old). She then wanted to climb into bed with me and snuggle and take a nap with me.  It was so nice. It's the best thing. I love her so much. Miles came in there and was climbing all over me, too. He was chasing the cat around the bed and I was just trying keep him from falling off. Then he tackled Evie's head.  I dunno, I'm rambling now, but it was nice to see my kids for five minutes earlier. Made my day.

It would be nice if I used the computer during the week to write more blog posts, but I kind of keep it hooked up with the HDMI cable and the TV for streaming purposes. I think I would really like to change that. I say that often, but maybe I'll try harder this week. Thanks! 

Championship Birthday Spectacular!

Alright so this week was a bit of weird week.  The kids got sick, so I naturally assumed I would get sick as well, but I didn't.  I don't know know where they got the illness from, because we didn't really go anywhere.  Miles' was exceptionally bad because it settled in his chest.  His breathing became quite labored and wheezy by Wednesday afternoon, so we decided to take him to the doctors.  They gave him a treatment of Albuterol, and sent us off with the machine to give him more treatments at home over the next few days. Most of the time he did just fine having the mask up to his face for a few minutes, minus a few squirms here and there.

Evie got a little sick, too.  Her's wasn't as bad, just a runny nose, bit of a cough, couple sneezes.  She hasn't seemed to minded too much. It's hard because she doesn't' really tell us if she's feeling sick, we just have to read the symptoms ourselves and react. Like the other night when Bethany was home with her at night alone while I was at work, she gave her chest rub, ibuprofen and all that and got her back to sleep. Read and react!

Today is a particular predicament for me.  Today is my lovely wife Bethany's birthday. The predicament is today is also the NFC Championship game which involves my beloved 49ers against the hated Seahawks. I want to make my wife's birthday the best it can be, but I also want to give 100% to my favorite teams quest to get back to the Super Bowl. I feel bad about it, but I suppose I'll have to make it work. I told Bethany that if there was a baby-wearing/cloth diaper/crunchy mom convention on my birthday that I would go to it with her.  I hope that is some sort of consolation.

So that's the update for right now. Go Niners and sorry Bethany. 

Kids Do the Darnedest Things

So I just took my Jeopardy online test and man...not too good.  I mean, I think I did better than last year, but I'm sure it wasn't better than most/I ain't getting on the show.  It was fun to try, and if I make it, it'll be surprised and happy, but I don't think it's going to happen.  I've been watching Jeopardy! for years and I do pretty well when yelling answers to the screen.  I think I would do really good at regular Jeopardy, but when double Jeopardy! hits I tend to do a little worse.  The point here is I tried, and probably failed, and that's okay.  I had fun reading the answers to Bethany, who answered a few.  Whether they were correct or not is a different story. Anyway, I took the test, and if I end up on the show, I'll let you know.

I should mention that I cursed us by writing a blog about how great Evie sleeps at night.  After that post went up, all she has done is wake up in the middle of the night two nights in a row.  She's been waking up and just crying and wanting to be held.  It's the saddest thing, but it's also super annoying.  It's annoying because as a parent, you have to have a reasonable expectation that things are going to go one way or another.  I expect Miles to get up multiple times a night, so I don't get upset about it.  I don't expect Evie to do it, so I get mad at her for doing these things.  What I need to do is let go of my expectations of what's going to happen on a night to night basis and understand that it's completely possible that Evie will wake up and want to stay awake every night I go to sleep, because it's a possibility. That's a hard bit of info to adjust to, though.

Anyway, we gotta give the kids a bath tonight.  Here's to hoping that this helps the kids pass out and STAY PASSED OUT.

The Night Time

I was talking with Bethany the other day about Miles and his inability to sleep though the night. Evie was such a different baby in this regard. Miles is a nursing baby and Evie was a formula baby. We would fill up Evie's belly with formula and wrap her up in the swaddle (until she was 8 months old) and she would almost always sleep through the night. Her sleeping though the night continued after we ditched the swaddle, and after we ditched the bottles. It was real nice, I have to say. We didn't know how good we had it. I said it before and I'll say it again, if there were more babies like Evie was, there would be a lot more babies. Miles on the other hand was rolling over in his swaddle from like, one month on, and has never slept for longer than six hours at night...and he only did that like, once or twice. He usually wakes up every couple hours, anywhere between every two to four. We haven't had a full, unbroken night of sleep in months. We're not cracking. We're not fed up with this world. We deal okay, but we're tired a lot.  It's become normal now, but it's never cool to get up two or three times a night and get the kid so he can nurse. Boohoo, poor us. Not cool, Miles. Miles, you are the opposite of cool, okay?

Like I said, someday, hopefully soon, all these shenanigans will stop. Someday he will be a big kid and sleep through the night. Honestly that day can't come soon enough. I wish where was a switch I could flip that would get him to sleep like his sister always has, but that's just now how it works. I mean, there's nothing I can really do about it except bitch about it on a blog, so I just deal with it. I'm not upset, per se.  I just can't frickin' wait to sleep through the night again someday.  Oh well. Until that day comes, I'll be getting up and bumping into shit on the dark, groggy walk to their room to get him. I do this as a team player. She's the one that has to nurse him, why should she have to do all the work? I can help somehow, and that somehow is bringing him in and taking him back. He's cute, so that helps make it okay, too.

Another difference between the kids waking up is that Evie would wake up, but she would just lose her pacifier somewhere in her crib, so I would stumble over there, pop the paci back in her mouth and she would just fall back asleep.  This does not work at all with Miles.  I haven't tried all that often, because the few times I've tried, it didn't work. So I just pick him up and bring him to his mama. He usually falls back asleep after hittin' the boob for a little bit and then we do the cycle again in a couple hours. This is our life.

If you need me, I'll be over here not sleeping very well.

Leaving the House is the Worst

Leaving the house just seems like so much more of an ordeal than it used to be.  It's gotten progressively more and more difficult as the kids have grown bigger and the outside temperature has fallen. In the summer, we lived in the old apartment, which meant leaving the house didn't involve stairs. Evie isn't good at stairs because she's sort of new to the concept.  So leaving the new house has the added element of Evie getting upset about the stairs.  She'll go down them, but it's like she's stepping into a cold pool or something, she has to go slow and hang on the rail for dear life.  I'm happy she's cautious, because she's less likely to fall and hurt herself, but c'mon kid, just go down the stairs.  In the summer/fall, when it was warmer out, I didn't have to put coats on the kids.  That is a chore, just putting coats on the kids.  And if it's exceptionally cold out, I don't want Evie or Miles in a bulky coat in their car seat.  It's not safe.  So then I have to rush Evie out to the car and get her in and cover her up with the outer part of her coat so she's not cold.  She's really good at telling me how cold she is.

 "I cold I cold I cold."
 "Yes, Evie, just a minute."

Not to mention putting Miles' coat on.  Squirmy little baby arms are hard to put in the coat.  And he doesn't want a hat or his hood on so he tries to rip it off to no end.  And I have to carry him to the car, and of course, Evie doesn't like the stairs or whatever so she insists on being carried (sometimes) so I have to pick up both kids, open and close the door, lock the door and try not to drop anything...like a kid.  I can only put one kid in the car at a time, so Evie has to go second because Miles can't stand around waiting like that because he's just a baby.  So she has to stand out in the cold while I strap Miles in.  I get her in and I'm finally ready to go.  I like to take the kids to the grocery store because I look like superdad, and I think the kids enjoy riding in the carts and stuff.  Like at Kroger, they have those carts with the plastic cars attached. The kids seem to get a kick out of riding in there, which is nice. Plus they look cute.

What's the worst is when I can't find a parking spot close to the door, like for example this past Friday when I took the kids to Trader Joe's.  The parking lot is too damn small, so there's no good spots on a busy Friday morning.  Sometimes Evie is good and walks while holding my hand.  Sometimes I have to carry her if she's cold...Like this past Friday. Then when I'm done, I can usually take the cart out to the car with the groceries in it, but when I get home, I don't have a cart to haul it inside. So what I've been doing lately is bring the kids in first, set them up with toys and run out, grab everything quick and run back inside. It used to be a lot easier when Miles was smaller and he rode in the car seat that came out of the car.  But now that he's in a convertible seat, it's just so much more complicated. I can't wait for winter to be over so I can leave the house and skip a few of these stupid steps. Or maybe I should just strap a handle to Miles' back or something so I can carry him at my side with one hand, ya know?  

A lot of the times it's just feels like it's not worth taking the kids out. But I enjoy it all, I really do.  Even though I just wrote a whole post about how much it sucks to take the kids out because it's a lot of work, I really do cherish the moments. Enough people have told me to cherish these moments because before you know it, they're 30 and you will wish you could go back. So I don't take it for granted. I try not to, at least. But I wish I could just say "get in, kids" and they would just hop in the car and buckle up and off we'd go. I know that day is coming, but not really anytime soon. Until then, I'll suffer haha.