Marcelo is my name: Sabotage is my game

My husband is great. Sometimes I just sit and think I am the luckiest woman around. He's funny and handy and is willing to work. HARD. He has never been afraid to come to a strange country and start over from the beginning and make a life here. I mean people grow up here and are doing worse then he is.

But that's not the point of my post. Sometimes there are things that he does that make me want to rip his face off with a potato peeler. One is that he doesn't think I know what I'm talking about. Like with our kids. He will disregard what I'm saying and think that he has the answers. It really REALLY bugs me.

So you all have voiced your opinion to how great it is to have your baby sleep at night. I agree. I wasn't naive to think that I wouldn't ever have to listen to my kid scream again. I know that kids get sick and routines are broken and then you have to go back and start over again. Plus, I don't think she's 100% trained. I mean, I think she's just done good as a fluke. I didn't think that it was all over.

Good thing I wasn't counting on that. Cause it wasn't over.

Last night was bad. I couldn't get a burp out of her, but I put her down anyway. Well, a few hours later she woke up screaming. I immediately knew it was a burp, so I took mercy on her and picked her up. She thanked me by throwing up all over me. And then she wouldn't take the pacifier, and I knew this was going to be a bad night.

Well, she put herself to sleep after 5 minutes, and then she woke up 10 minutes later. And then she would go back to sleep and wake up 5 min later.She did this for about an hour. Marcelo was in the room and was listening to her every time she would start to scream. And he wasn't sleeping at all. After doing this awake/asleep thing for 1 hour, she finally woke up for good. And she was PISSED.

And I told Marcelo that I would be back to console her in 5 minutes. And then I told him I would be back in 10 minutes. At 15 minutes, I was in bed listening to her scream and Marcelo had HAD IT. At 15 min I got up to console her (when I "console" her, I rub her belly a little and stick her pacifier back in. No picking up, no talking. Just so you know what I'm saying when I say "console"). So she immediately spits it out and I say to Marcelo "I'm going away for 20 min. I'll be back then.

Well, either he didn't hear me, or he chose not to. I am sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, her voice changes. I'm confused for a second, and then realize that she's moving!! I jump up and right then I meet Marcelo coming around the corner WITH HER IN HIS ARMS!!! I was so mad and I whisper-shrieked "YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO PICK HER UP!! YOU ARE RUINING IT! THERE IS A PLAN, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" To which he replies "I think you need to feed her." I whisper-shrieked again "NO, I DON'T!! SHE'S FINE!! SHE CAN GO AT LEAST 5 HOURS ON THE AMOUNT OF FOOD I JUST GAVE HER. LOOK AT THE CLOCK. DO THE MATH. IT'S ONLY BEEN 3 HOURS."

He stopped talking to me after that. I went back, put her back in the crib, started the 20 minutes over again, and Marcelo slept on the couch where it was harder to hear her. He didn't have to wait too long. She only cried for the 20 minutes and then I consoled her, and then sometime during the next 25 minutes she finally cried herself to sleep. I don't know when it was. I fell asleep myself. And she slept until 5:45. IT WORKS!!! Yeah for the method!

He was ashamed this morning about not listening to me. He was especially chagrined when we went to church and told the story to our Sunday School Teacher Development class. And after the class, the teachers were all like "Oh yeah, you've GOT to do it." to which Marcelo admitted that he HATES to hear her cry and was looking for anyway to get her to shut up. So from now on he gets to can it when it comes to suggestions on her sleeping schedule.

Ok, one more story about Marcelo before I go. This story also involves our Sunday School Teacher Development class. See last week we introduced ourselves for the class, but we had to introduce our SPOUSE instead of ourselves. Well, he said some REALLY nice things about me. He said that I'm smart and a hard worker. And he said that we met met after our missions and have been married for 4 years.

I was a little surprised to hear him say that. I mean, maybe he meant to say that we met AGAIN after our missions, or that we started dating after we had met on our missions. I didn't think that he could've made that basic of a grammar mistake after so long here in the U.S. So when it was my turn to introduce him, I started off by saying, "Oh, he made a slight grammar error: we met ON our missions." And everyone thought it was funny that he had made that "mistake."

Well, later on that day, I brought it up to him. I said, "That's strange that you said that about us meeting after our missions. Did you mean to say that?" And he was like " Yeah, I tell everyone who asks that we met after our missions at a mission reunion. I don't want people to know we met on our missions"

I was absolutely FLOORED!! And I was like "Marcelo we were GOOD missionaries!! We didn't do anything besides MEET on our missions. There were no Emergency Transfers or secret rendezvous behind the mission office" (however, that kinda sounds fun now that I type it!) "we were good missionaries! Weren't you a good missionary?"

And he said he was. And I know I was. So I said we have nothing to be ashamed about. I asked him if he was ashamed of how we met, and he said no, but that it just sounded bad that we met there. I'm shocked that we haven't talked about this before. I mean, we've only been together 5 and a half years. Don't you think that it would've come up before now?

Finally I told him that if (and when) our kids ask, I'm going to tell them the truth. So he'd better stop lying to everyone else right now. But now that YOU all know the truth he can't pull one over on ya'll. And if he does, be sure to call him on it, ok? Thanks.