And she sleeps...

I am very pleased to report that my EIGHTEEN MONTH OLD finally sleeps. She has been sleeping good, UNINTERRUPTED, 12-13 hour nights now for a little over a week. She has dropped that weird 5-6am bottle that helped her not wake up as a grumpy little troll all by herself. That makes us both bottle-free and sleeping like real people for the first time in her life. I just wanted you all to know that. It only took a year of her crying it out, getting back on track, getting screwed up everytime she got sick or the time changed, getting back on track, randomly waking up at 2am to cry, etc. Something has finally clicked and she has realized that nighttime is for sleeping and that 5am snack is unneccessary. It really does make me wonder if she needed that snack though, since it's taken her so long to sleep this well. Anyway, I'm sure some expert would say that "no, she's just been in a bad habit and it's all your fault." Whatever. We're on track now. Now I have to be a productive human being because I'm getting the sleep that I have been SO desperately craving ever since I was pregnant with darling, dear Katie.

Seven Quick Takes (Vol 10)

Oh, where to begin....

1. Katie is the queen of kisses. At eighteen months old, she kisses everyone and everything. It's really too cute. I think it's because she has the urge to bite a lot, and then changes her mind because she knows that the kisses are more acceptable behavior. I do believe the sweetest ones she gives me, though, are the ones I get when I'm trimming her toenails. Yes, dear readers, trimming her toenails. I have her sitting on my lap facing forward and I'm leaning over her shoulder snipping away at the teeny nails, and she turns her head and plants a big one right on my cheek. I love it.

2. Maddy has outgrown her last pair of jeans this week. I find this frustrating because I really hoped that pair would get her to shorts weather. They fit fine the other day, and then today she sat down and they popped unsnapped. Darn. I picked her up a pair at Walmart in the size she wears most everywhere else and they're too big. Double darn.

3. On a lighter note, I bought a mop. When I was picking it out, Maddy asked me what it was. (A sure sign that I don't clean nearly enough.)

4. Billy, my dear husband, could use some prayer. His psoriasis has flared and he is very uncomfortable right now. (By the way, I just learned the other day on another blog that the "DH" I'm seeing in all these women's blogs stands for dear husband. I knew they were referring to their husband, but I had no idea that's what it meant. I think it's a little much. They're not dear all the time.)

5. I actually sat down and had some Bible time with Maddy the other day. This was big for us, because honestly, I'm horrible at just making the time to read it myself. I sat down to read a bit, then she came along and started interrupting and asking questions. I started to get irritated and then realized, well instead of just reading, I guess I could act upon what it said. So she flipped and randomly asked me what things said and we went through a couple of Psalms. If I said "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord", she'd go "Woo HOO!". She acted out a few verses and we had fun together.

6. Katie wakes up grumpy from her nap almost EVERY DAY. By this I mean, about once every two weeks or so, she'll take a good long nap and wake up happy. The rest of the time, she wakes up crying and an emotionally fragile wreck. We usually grab a snack and put something on TV that brings her joy and I hold and coddle and pet until she can get a grip on herself. This usually takes at least 30 minutes.

7. All of you out there with kids who have normal poopy habits, thank your God right now. It's something so easy to take for granted, but we're going into year four of Maddy's issues and while she goes regularly now, we still run into her trying to hold it, etc. (Of course, it's really hard to hold it when you're on 3 teaspoons of Miralax a DAY. Therefore I have to wash out panties quite regularly. I refuse to put her back in pull-ups because then, she thinks it's all good and not a problem to have little accidents on the way to the potty.)

Feel free to check out the everyone else's quick takes over at http://conversiondiary.com.

Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 9)

1. We saw the Parthenon when we visited Nashville. I have to say, that big ol' Athena was pretty impressive. I've been a mythology nut since I was about ten, so seeing her was pretty cool. I was a little bothered by her face, though. It didn't go so well with her body. What do you think?


2. Maddy is in the "knock knock joke" phase. Need I say more?


3. I have learned to make homemade mac and cheese (as in no box and no orange cheesey powder). I wish I hadn't. I don't make it often but when I do, I eat ginormous amounts of it. The sauce is about a million times better than the boxed stuff and I just lap it up.


4. Katie has reached the point where she thinks she's speaking understandable English, but those of us who live with her beg to differ. So I end up with her in the high chair pointing randomly around the kitchen screaming something that sounds like "oooooo" and getting more frustrated by the minute that I don't understand. This happened today and when I got her out of the high chair, I discovered a heinous, large pOOp that was burning her bottom up. In my defense, when I asked her to say poop, it sounded nothing like what she had been saying in her high chair.



5. I am going to read a Joshilyn Jackson book. I have a link to her blog on my blog and I think she is hilarious. It's not often that I read something and laugh out loud, but she makes me. My favorite quote from her post yesterday is, in reference to her cat, "Boggart is hell’s twinkie and he has DEMONS where the cream filling should go." Is that not funny?



6. Have I mentioned that I tend to avoid Christian fiction? I have trouble reading any book that isn't written well. I have read Christian fiction that is well-written, but not very often. I have to say that Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers is a good one. And, of course, anything C.S. Lewis has ever done is great, including his science fiction.



7. My oldest has a lot of OCD tendencies. One of her most recent adventures in anal retentiveness involved her stuffed animals. She has quite a lot of stuffed animals, large and small. She has two plastic bins in her closet, one for the large ones and one for the small. After telling her repeatedly the other night to straighten up her room, I walked into her closet and just tossed them into whichever bin they happened to land in. Right before bed, she noticed this and lost it....to the point that I realized she wouldn't even be able to sleep with them in the wrong places. So after threatening to make her go to bed without redoing them, I let her put it to rights while I put her sister down. She finally climbed into bed and I noticed a couple of small stuffed animals that had not been put away, I grabbed them and tossed them into her closet. She proceeded to want to get out of bed to check and make sure that I put them in the right place. I assured her that I had and then looked her in the eye and said, "Mommy does not LIE. If I told you I put it in the right place, I did." She has trust issues, too.

Keep on keepin' on

So we saw a hepatologist in Nashville at Vanderbilt just to get a relationship started with them since when my husband needs a transplant, that's the place we'll go. He has Hepatitis C and has had it for years. (Pay attention, kiddies, don't ever experiment with drugs.) Billy sees his gastroenterologist here but we just wanted to meet the doctor in Nashville and get them on board with monitoring him. It went well. We're looking at a transplant in ten years or so, depending on the progression of the virus. The doctor in Nashville basically just said live as healthfully as possible, lose a few pounds, exercise regularly and make some dietary changes. Our goal is to get him off his prescription meds for blood pressure and diabetes, and it's totally doable if he starts a good exercise program. Also, of course, no alcohol, tobacco, etc. Anything you put into your body that God didn't make is processed through your liver so the fewer drugs you take, the less stress you put on your liver. All in all, we praise God that things went well. Everytime he has an appointment and they go over all the symptoms he could have and the only thing that is bothering him is fatigue, I'm so grateful. He could be facing jaundice, fluid retention, chills, fever, and fuzzy thinking, just to name a few. We can work around fatigue. Anyway, there's my update. Thanks for the prayers! It was an encouraging trip. To quote the doctor, he said to my husband, "You still have some tread left on you." And that's good enough for me.

Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 8)

1. I started a teeny cross stitch project last night. It will have my wedding date and my husband's and my name on it with a wreath of flowers. I thought it would make my husband happy when I finished it because I am SO not crafty. So far it says," they lived happily". I'd have to say it's pretty accurate.


2. My mom bought Maddy, my three year old, a pretty little jewelry box yesterday at Target, the kind that's heart-shaped and has the little ballerina that spins when you open it. I wondered what Maddy would keep in it. Her potty prize button collection? Her Hello Kitty little girl jewelry? Or two rocks? I bet you can guess which one she chose.


3. Maddy slept in today. My husband was already in the bathroom getting ready for work when Maddy busted into our bedroom. She usually climbs into bed for a snuggle and a little PBS before we start our day, but today she chose to fling open the bathroom door on a very naked, very startled Daddy. He screamed like a little girl. I love it when this happens.


4. Is anyone else horrified by those Kidzbop CD commercials? They play on Nickelodeon and show tweens singing current hits. For example, three 9-10 year old girls singing and dancing to "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls. Inappropriate anyone? And I wonder what they do about the line in that song that says "I want to have boobies"? We're sticking with Choo Choo Soul, thank you very much.


5. I love facebook. There, I said it. I read on so many blogs how much people hate facebook, but it has actually helped me be closer to the people in my life. Especially my church family. So many people you know at church, you may not know well enough to call regularly (and who has time?) but on facebook I can get all the little updates and know if someone needs prayer, has a sick kid, etc. Then when I DO see them in person, I'm better informed. I think it's great.


6. I shaved my legs last night. I don't mean, took a quick shower and ran a razor haphazardly over them. I took a real bath, exfoliated the heck out of them with a scrub meant for feet, and really did a good job. I even lotioned after. (And it had nothing to do with s*x. I just needed a little pampering. I think it had been two weeks since I'd shaved. I know, ew.)

7. We go to Nashville next week to get my husband in the system at Vanderbilt so that when the time comes for a liver transplant, he already has a file started. We're not apprehensive about this trip, but prayer over his liver in general would be nice. His last report from the doctor said we'd probably be looking at a transplant in about 10 years. Mommy that I am, I'm doing the math in my head thinking, "Okay, a thirteen year old and an eleven year old. I hope I'll be able to help him and my kids through this when/if it happens." And of course, since I lost my father at a young age, I'm praying that God will let us keep him at least until they're grown.

Maddy's version

So tonight on the way home from church, Maddy tells me she knows "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". I asked her to tell it to me. This is how it went.

"Once upon a time, there were three bears and a little girl named Goldilocks. The end."

Then she said she also knew "Little Red Riding Hood". This one is even better.

"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Little Red Riding Hood and a wolf came and blowed her down. The end." (It took me a while to understand the word blowed. She still pronounces her l's as w's.)

I love this kid.

Loser

So, I've discovered that I'm a much better blog-reader than blog-writer, but does anybody really care? I don't think the blog police are going to come get me. I just wish I was better at throwing random things about the kids on here because I'm going to forget all their crazy little ways. For example, the other night at 3am Katie asked me for Benadryl. Yes, the child that can't talk let me know exactly what she wanted. She was pinching her nose, which usually just means that she needs it cleaned, and pointing at her room door over and over. Finally I said, "Do you want medicine?" and she did this little maniac giggle that always means yes. So since we've had colds pretty much non-stop this winter, who am I to question the kid that knows better than anyone else what's going on in her little sinuses? I gave her a hit of Benadryl and she went right back down. No more drama. And Maddy, where do I even begin? She went to a princess birthday party over the weekend and came home with a "princess" voice. I can't even describe it. She speaks much more properly and ends everything with this lilt in her voice. (Let me add that she has seen NO princess movies. She can't handle anything intense.) And she also starting referring to me as "Princess Mommy". At least she's not elitist. She even called her daddy "Princess Daddy", my mama "Princess Nanny" and Katie was "Princess Katie". I like that she didn't take it all to mean that SHE was somehow more special than everyone else. Equal opportunity royalty, gotta love that.