Taking the New Toy Out For a Spin

So because I was sans computer this week, I forgot to blog about Evi's newest acquisition. . . . .a TOOTH. That's right, Tuesday morning about 2 am that little bugger came poking through. Then Tuesday and Wednesday night it decided to "lay low" in preparation for last night's BIG SHOW.

Oh, aren't those "teething nights" just the best? Good times. No. . .wait. . . GREAT TIMES!! I love a screaming child inconsolable by food, rocking and toys. That's my idea of paradise.

And how is she commemorating the occasion? By eating Raya's food, of course. AWESOME!!! See, she has no interest in putting any human food in her mouth at all. Rice puffs? Nope, they stay in her hand. Eggs? Nope, she just whips them around her tray smearing them everywhere. But dog food? STRAIGHT TO THE MOUTH!! So fast so that by the time I turn around, she's already in the kitchen, dumped the food on the ground, has a piece of food in each hand, has already put one piece in her mouth and has already pulled it out to examine it once again. She's a fast little bugger.

Man, I'm so in love with this girl I don't even know what to do with myself.

Post Thanksgiving Wrap-up

I really don't have anything to blog. I was going to blog about how my baby *ALMOST* has this night time sleeping thing down. We had like FIVE days in a row where she went down without me rocking her, and only woke up once for a night time feeding. But then the moment I start to get smug, I get slapped with some reality. She was awake (and crying) for hours last night. It wasn't a good night.

We are trying to "Ferberize" her. It seemed to be going well. I learned several things in just the first few pages of the book.

#1) My baby was sleeping too much during the day. I didn't think that was possible, but turns out it is. Less sleep during the day means more continuous sleep at night

#2) I think I was feeding her too much right before bed. So now we have solid food about 6 pm and then we get most of our dinner at 7:30 BEFORE the bath. It gives her time to get all the burps out and then she's ready to go down after her bath.

#3) I should let her put herself to sleep in the same way she needs to go to sleep at night. So if I have to rock her to sleep every night, then I'm going to have to rock her to sleep at 1 am when she wakes herself up from the REM sleep. However, If I let her put herself to sleep in her crib with a "transitional item" she will be able to put herself to sleep at 1 am when I'm not there.

#4) And finally, I need to get her in her own room. I didn't read this in the book. I'm just really realizing it's not working with her being in the room with us.

So those are the moments of clarity I've had this past week. Oh, and one more not related to sleeping schedules of my baby: If your brother leaves a pan of oil where your dog can find it and eat it, you should expect your dog to throw up many times for the next 12 hours. Maybe 7 times. Maybe it's greasy and has chunks of pineapple in it because someone gave pieces of pineapple to your dog and she gobbled them up. Oh, and olives too. There must always be olives in your dog's puke.

Ahh, good times. If you were wondering about my Thanksgiving, it was lovely. Thank you for asking. We went over to the House that MaxKyle is living in, and we had quite the feast. My mom for some reason decided that she needed to make 3 different kinds of pies, and she needed to make 2 of each. That means 6 pies. And there were only 13 of us eating. So if you do the math, that means each of us got about 1/2 of a whole pie. There was a ridiculous amount of pie left over. No worries, I took care of it over the next couple of days.

What else? What else? Evi is really cute these days. She sits up and is nearly crawling. She even almost pulled herself up on our coffee table the other day. She loves to eat rice and she loves to suck on ice cubes. She loves to bang her spoon on her high chair tray. She loves to smile and coo at her mom and dad. She hates it when mom leaves the room and she screams to get her to come back. (I actually HATE that. I think it's really annoying and is putting her on the pathway to being a spoiled little beast). She has her 6 month check up today and I think she's going to hate me after she gets her shots.

So that's it. I really don't have anything else going on. I'm very worried about buying Christmas gifts. I have no idea what to get everyone. At least Evi is taken care of: She's getting bath toys. I think she'll love them.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!!

Dude, that Mountain Dew is Jacked UP!!!

It has been the craziest 36 hours. Sunday night Mom made a spaghetti dinner and it was pretty good. However about 9 pm that night I started to feel funny. I just felt "woozy" all night and I didn't know what was going on. I figured it out at about 3 am. I was sick.

Here are the reasons I think I was sick with the flu:
1. I had a fever
2. I had cold sweats
3. I was vomiting

Here are the reasons I think it might've just been some food poisoning:
1. I was vomiting, VIOLENTLY
2. I had diarrhea
3. It's gone now

So now you have a picture of what my night looked like. My poor husband. First listening to me vomit and then having to smell me as I crawled back into bed with him. (Some of you will say, "why not poor you?" Well, I'm getting there. ) So I got vomit on my daughter's head. She heard me and woke up and I tried to pull her out of her crib but I was too weak to get her up all the way, but not too weak to smear vomit on the back of her head. So poor EVERYONE!!

Anyway I wasn't feeling too well. The morning was bad. I was shaky, weak, continually nauseated. I could barely stand up to go pee. So I DEFINITELY didn't feel good enough going to church and I asked Marcelo to stay home with me. I know, it was selfish of me. But because he stayed home, he watched the baby for me while I got some much needed sleep. (Thanks Angel Loaf!!)

Even with the naps, the whole morning and most of the afternoon I had a SPLITTING headache. The vomiting had stopped by then so I decided to go get a caffeinated soda to drink. I chose to get a Mountain Dew because I've been told that Mountain Dew has the highest level of caffeine of all the caffeinated beverages. And I needed the caffeine for the headache.

I know. How many sins can I commit on Sunday? Let's count them up, shall we?
1. Not going to church
2. Asking ANOTHER person to also miss church
3. Buying a soda
4. The soda is a MOUNTAIN DEW!!

So I'm walking home from the Taco Bell (where I purchase my SIN SODA) and I'm taking small sips of the drink. And it's horrible. It has a nasty aftertaste that tastes like a lemon Halls cough drop. Very medicinal. No joke. I'm thinking to myself "Who likes this drink? This tastes like ass. Ass soda. I hate this stuff. No wonder I never drink it" I had already decided then that I would give the rest of my soda to MaxKyle, because he loves soda and I know it had probably been a couple hours since he had had some, so he would be jonesing for it big time.

So when I get home, I had probably finished 1/3rd of it. I talked about how horrible the soda was and then offered it to MaxKyle. He JUMPED at it. I got him another straw, and he started drinking. And then he stopped. "There is something wrong with that Mountain Dew". Ha!!! I knew I wasn't crazy! Marcelo also confirmed the same thing MK said: There was a horrible aftertaste to my drink. MaxKyle said that someone at the Taco Bell was playing some joke on me. Whatever the case, It confirmed to me one thing: If you buy a Sin Soda on Sunday, as a punishment your Mountain Dew will taste like Halls medicine.

Moving on. As we prepared for bed, we had to do a little bedtime shuffle. Jules and her friend Kristen (who is only in town until tomorrow) are sleeping on the twin bed in the second bedroom. That means my mom is on the couch. This becomes a problem when Marcelo needs to wake up early and do some drafting homework. But he just kicks her to my bed, so she still can sleep.

But that wasn't the worst part of it. See, Marcelo and I silently decided last night that we should start making Evi try to sleep more at night again. She's back in the habit of waking up at 2, 4 and 6 and then finally getting up at 8:30. And she's playing at those times. We were being kind to her for a while because she was sick. But we are done with that. Because last night she was up at 10:30, 11:30, 2:30, 3:30 6:00 and then at 8:30 for good. I know, I know. She must be stopped.

So last night we silently made a pact to just let her cry. The first time she woke up wasn't so bad: I got a burp out of her and she went back down again. But the 11:30 time? Oh man!!! She screamed for more then an hour.

My mom later told me that she heard her from the other room and she felt awful!! She said she thought that maybe through my sickness I couldn't hear her or I couldn't get up and get her. And she was worried that my baby was going to be permanently scarred from being left to scream. (And my baby WAS screaming. Freaking screaming for her life! She was PISSED that she was being left alone. Turns out my baby is a little crap-head) So in the middle of the night my mom got out the computer and started to look up the book "Solve Your Child's Sleep problems" so she could see what it said about crying it out.

She only did this for herself. She didn't tell me she did this until the next morning. But she said she was really worried that we were just letting our child scream until she hear Marcelo's voice in there comforting the baby. So she at least knew that we were soothing and being attentive to the baby's needs and not just letting her suffer unknowingly.

And the final straw? At 3:30 am the smoke alarm RIGHT over our bed started going off. Was there any smoke around? NOOOOO!!! Why then is this horrible beeping machine going off right above my head? Nearly in my ear?UGGH!!! The perfect end to the perfect day. Here's to a million more just like it!

Oh, just so you know, the Sin Soda totally worked. My headache started letting up after I drank it. So I guess there was SOME good that came from it.

Jealous?

Marcelo has the gift. The gift of putting our baby to bed. He's done it 3 times already just today. There is something about his singing that knocks her right out. It's a combo of being off key and a falsetto/vibrato that I can most accurately compare to the 1930's version of Snow White. You know all breathy and warbling. Let's just say it does the trick every time.

He's awesome. The third time that he did it, he came out and said "Does it make you upset? That I can put her to sleep when you can't?"

Does it make me UPSET? Are you kidding me? Upset that you can now take a very active role in the raising of our child? The fact that you can provide me with much needed relief when she's been screaming for 45 minutes? The fact that you now have a "thing" with your daughter and it makes you a better father? Am I upset about all of this. HELL YES I AM!!!

Kidding, of course. I love the fact that he can do this and help me out. So I just have one word for all of you. . . Jealous?

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.

. . . Now I'm a believer

I love Reagan. I mean, I love lots of people, but Reagan ranks right up there with Judd and wedding cake. If I had to choose between the three of them I don't think I could. I think my dream day would be sitting down in Judd's living room with Reagan on the brown couch, me on the red lounger and Judd on the main red couch, all of us watching our girls run around, and a big plater of wedding cake for us to eat. I would love that.

So back to my point. I got to spend 3 amazing days with Reagan. Her husband was out of town for a conference and she invited me out to her house to spend 3 days and 2 nights of heaven. There were cookies and panini's on garlic bread (with Jalapeño jelly) and spinach dip and trips to the gym and fusion classes.

It. Was. Heaven.

We had the best time. But the absolute best thing that came out of it was my child's nighttime habits. See, When I saw my pediatrician on the 8th, I asked him about when my child should be sleeping thought the night. He said that some kids already are. That made me feel badly. And he said that if she was getting up to eat, that was fine, but if she was getting up to just play around, then that was NOT good.

Well, that very night she got up and was just cooing and playing and being 100% cute. She sucks in her father and he plays with her at all hours of the night. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized that she was waking up 3-4 times in the night and that this just wouldn't do anymore. She didn't need that much food, and she was just playing (with her father of course) most of those times. I decided then and there that we have to stop this.

See, for a while, I didn't care if she woke up in the night. I mean, I'm a stay at home mom, what do I need to worry about? I can sleep during the day if I need to, right? And I really didn't care If she didn't sleep through the night. But Reagan said something that really stuck with me. She said that kids NEED a schedule and that they want it. I had to agree with her. All those kids that are trained to sleep instantly upon hitting the crib always seem to be happier. Like they know what's coming and their lives are a little less chaotic.

Anyway, Saturday night I decided to try it out. It was horrible. She screamed for an hour. And I learned one thing: Marcelo is TONS weaker then me. He was the one sabotaging the plan. He would come and stand over her crib with his arms folded and then look at me and say, "should I bring her to you?" HA!! What a wuss!! The next day I felt like crap because she was slightly hoarse. And I decided I couldn't do it. I didn't want her screaming all the time and I just couldn't. So Sunday I didn't let her cry. And she was up at 2, 4, 6 and the finally at 8 am.

When Reagan heard this she was not having it. She said that this was the time to get her on schedule because Marcelo wouldn't be there to fight it. I won't tell you all the ins and outs of that first night. But let me just say that 4:45 found me sleeping on the floor, bawling my eyes out, listening to my baby scream for the next hour and 45 minutes. I finally took pity on her and fed her at 6 am after which she slept just fine. Well. That was the worst day. She was TOTALLY hoarse the next day. Not just a little bit, her voice was GONE. I felt horrible, but knew this was the only way.

But every day since then has been so much easier!! And last night she only had to cry for 5 minutes, and she put herself to sleep! And I'm bundling her. She LOVES it!! It's her "sign". Once I pin her arms to her sides, she looks up at me with those doe eyes and she's ready to sleep. Oh, I love my girl when she's my little comatose caterpillar.

So, I'm a believer. She gets one feeding around 2 am (sometimes it's 1, sometimes it's later) but that's the last one. If she wakes up after that, she's all alone. I'll bind her again and stick in the "chupa" and let her go. And it's working!! Oh man, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And my baby will be happier for it. Well, that's what I keep telling myself when I hear her screaming.

Oh, and we gave her some food for the first time yesterday. Sweet potatoes. She makes a horrible face when she sees the spoon coming. I need to get it on film. Tomorrow we are going to try bananas and see if she likes those any more. But right now I think that her thrust reflex hasn't let up yet. Hence the fact that the food doesn't want to go down.

Anyway, I'm a believer of good sleep!! I wish I would've done this months ago. Thanks Reagan for being a good friend and making me do it!!