Gametes In Love

This past week-end, S and I had the opportunity to go camping with the kids.

THEN I got signed up for a training seminar for work, which was to go to 5pm on Friday (cruel, right?) so my plans to leave early to help S set up the camp-site went out the window. I wasn’t planning on spending the night, since trying to get S2 down in a pack-n-play in an enclosed tent for the first time in his life was not my idea of a good time. My thinking was we’d set up camp, have dinner and S2 and I would come home. Then after the training, it made no sense. By the time I’d get there, S would’ve already setup with G, and w/ a 7pm bedtime for S2 it was silly for me to drive for 3 hours to see G & S’ pitched tent.

So I opted to stay home the first night alone with S2. And honestly the thought of it sounded like a vacation.

That’s right — vacation. Which makes me laugh, because the first time S had to go away on a business trip and I had to stay home alone with G scared the lights out of me. Now anything that involves only one child seems like a piece of cake. My, my how times have changed!

P.S. Camping ended up not happening. S drove off, got stuck in traffic and lost all desire to go that evening. He attempted the next day, but after reports on how cold it was, we decided not to go. Next time.

S and I haven’t had an un-intertupted night’s sleep since S2 was born. Longer for me if you count all the months I woke up to pee when pregnant. Yes that goes with the territory of having an infant.
But what sux more is that we’re getting hit on two ends: both boys WON’T go down on their own, AND one of them still wakes up twice at night. Ultimately this produces two tired adults, the lucky one of which that puts G down gets nothing accomplished.
For the most part (night waking excluded) we’ve brought this on ourselves.

The story of G
G falls asleep at 10. That’s right. 10. We’ve tried putting him to bed earlier, but that results in him being in his room for the duration, still awake, still talking to you. We’ve tried killing his mid-day nap, which at our last (and only) attempt, resulted in one pissy toddler. There we made the decision that it was better to have a kid that goes to bed late, than one that screams and throws things at you for hours on end. Translation: the no-nap option was even more exhausting than the late-bird option.
If you recall, the day before S2 and I were discharged from the hospital, G got sick and raised a fever of 102+ degrees, which hung on for a few days. We battled this by S dedicating himself solely to G, and me to S2. S slept in G’s room, which was enough to get G to ask that he ‘snuggle wich youuuu’ (I don’t do justice how cute he says it) each night. I remember there was a time, when as a baby I would put g in his crib down for the night, walk out, and he’d fall asleep. Man that was ages ago!

The story of S2
Really, same story, second verse. Snuggle, rock, put down asleep. Tiptoe out door with fear of little monster waking up because you’d have to spend another 30 min for each put-down iteration.

Summary
It sucks! Sleep training for all is on our horizon. I told myself I’d wait until both kids get to their birthday. Actually, longer because we have two trips planned and I don’t necessarily want to redo everything we do now based on room stay accommodations.

I am NOT looking forward to this. I am hopeful, though, that at least if S2 figures out a way to fall asleep on his own at night, it will translate to him putting himself back to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night too.
For G, I don’t know how we’ll do this. He screams whenever we try to leave the room now. Sure I can close his gate, but then he’ll think he’s in time out and I’m worried he’ll grow to despise bedtime even more. If you have experience sleep training an older child, I’m all ears.

So yeah. This is my messed-up-sleep house. Signed,

At fault.

Can you spot the troublemaker?

G has figured out that two triangles make a square. And two squares make a rectange.

meanwhile, S2 has figured out that shapes are delicious (triangles are best)

G and Gappa discussing the details of their week

… and nose picking

Monkey man

My very own 2-headed monster

6am

Belly slides

Tall towers

Long Lego snakes

G’s version of stadium seating

Bedhead

G is now the proud owner of a Wilson Volleyball ball. All through his charms and wiles.

We went to my company’s picnic yesterday. There was blow up house for the kids (which G ignored), water-balloon fight (which G refused to participate in), yummy food (which G had to be bribed to eat), and ice cream (which G was ALL over). But despite all this, it was fun, and today on the way to day-care G declared that he wanted to go to work with me, and I wouldn’t believe me that my office was really quite boring in comparison to his day-time gig. We agreed to trade, and I can go to preschool instead, and he to my job… except I had to drive him to work first. 3 yrs old (almost) and already demanding a personal cheuffer. Hmnf!

Anyway, back to the ball.

One of my colleagues brought a volleyball. It’s a Wilson brand ball, special edition with the red paw-print from Cast Away. Quite frankly G didn’t care what it looked like: just that it was round, and went far when kicked. And kick it he did. ALL. OVER. THE. FIELD. (He actually impressed quite a few of my colleagues, and they were using terms about what he was able to do that I’d never heard before). The family who owned the ball needed to leave before us, but they told us we can hold onto the ball and just return it the following day, since they didn’t have the heart to take it away from G. Today, I brought it in, and the woman said they watched how much G was loving on the ball and decided to let him keep it.

So. New ball for the monkey.

I am left questioning why this approach doesn’t work for me. There was a pretty blue Lotus parked in the parking lot yesterday. If I show it a whole lot of affection, what do you think the chances are the owner would give it to me just because I’m cute? Low? Yeah. I thought so too.

G’s version of This little piggy:

This little piggy went to the market
This little piggy I dunno
This little piggy had roast peas
This little piggy had more peas
This little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home

It’s crazy to think that it’s time to forever retire our infant car-seat. I swear it was a week ago that we brought our wee little boys home in it.

However it’s becoming a monster to lug around with a 19lb munchkin, so it’s about time we move onto the next thing.

This time snuck-up on me so fast. G took forever to get out of the seat. Since he gained weight so slowly, he was about 1 when we moved him into the convertible seat. I was so excited to finally “graduate” away from the bucket seat. Now, this transition seems melancholy in comparison. It’s the “this is my last baby” syndrome, for sure.

S and I spent a couple of mind-numbing days car-sear shopping and stalking friends’ car seat setup. We wasted a perfectly good date night at Babies R Us one evening coming to the conclusion we just can’t fit 2 rear-facing car seats in my car. I drive a Fit, and the only way to get a convertible seat RF behind the driver (because let’s face it, there’s no such thing as “middle” when there’s a convertible seat in that vehicle) is if the driver’s seat is pulled up all the way forward, and it’s not reclined in any way. I just can’t drive like that, and God forbid S tries to drive it — he’s have to have his knees around his ears.

So the next logical thing (past buying a different vehicle) was to consider turning G around and transitioning our search to forward-facing seats. I had, initially, hoped to keep G rear-facing until the recommended 35lbs, but at his rate of snail-paced growth, that was going to be another year from now. S2 on the other hand would be reaching the weight-limit for the carrier within 2 months. Not adding up. Ultimately we chose the Nautilus for G’s next seat. We narrowed down the patterns we liked down to 2, and let G pick out which one he wanted. He chose this one <-

So… let’s take a moment of silence to bid adieu to the seat that represents the age of an era… and a short stroll down memory lane. I’m going to try and find it a good home, since it’s in great condition and has 2 years of life left in it.

S2 coming home

G partying out

My peanuts ain’t peanuts no mo 🙁

Yeah, it turns out some things are not common knowledge, and as a parent I’m finding myself having to state the obvious. You know… things like:

“G please do NOT bounce the ball off your brother’s head.”

I know now why gray hair happens.

My children are genetically engineered to be tummy sleepers.

Milk, it does the body good!

Brotherly hugs

Playtime is so emotional

Yummo grapes

Best part of a week-end.

Yeah, well, today is Tuesday, but it’s the first day of the work-week, so close enough 🙂

Monster Hat

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJQ7Sq1mGIU]

S2’s first swing (at the park)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZWG3m8SVVY]

What an awesome morning looks like. Sorry! It’s dark.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u42Q3iCX9c]

This fortress is for brothers only

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhqm4ZFGGxE]

I am going to loose my ever-loving mind over here. If I thought it was possible for an 8m old to wean, I swear he’d be doing it. He wants nothing to do with me: he wants his sippy, he wants his bottle, but my boobs he could care less about. The only time we can nurse, quite frankly, is if he’s asleep, or on his way to falling asleep.

His nursing sessions during the day? A minute stinkin’ long. And I swear, he is trying to set a personal record for how many times he can latch and un-latch within that minute. He chomps, he tugs his head. IT STINKIN’ SUCKS (or actually, the opposite… it doesn’t)!!! I’ve tried nursing in absolute silence, singing to him, removing all distractions, covering his head, using a nursing cover to focus him on task. NOTHING IS WORKING. At this stage, I’m just grateful he has no teeth just yet. I hate this age, in terms of nursing.

My supply is tanking too, so I’m doing my best to nurse as often as I can. I wait until I’m sure he’s hungry and not “snack”, but it’s just failing. I’m trying to rely on him to nurse so that I can at least keep what I have left, and he’s not down with the program. At this stage, I’m ready to throw in the towel and just pump during the day even on week-ends. It sure won’t help my supply any, but I’m at the end of my rope here. Kid needs to eat. I’m not ready to wean. I just don’t know what else to try.