It’s been a rather anti-climatic morning, without Samuel here. Baby Allan chewed on his new plastic blocks, and loved (and chewed) on his new German Shephard puppy dog (stuffed!). And he tried to eat the paper on the one present we gave to him. We only opened the one present, because it was his church clothes. The rest we’ll open later this afternoon. Now we’re off to get ready for church services.

Merry Christmas to all!! More later…

It’s been a mostly relaxing day around here. Except for the contagious excitement of the three year old! He was literally jumping up and down all around the house today. He’s a pretty active kid, given to jumping on a regular basis, but today’s jumping was WAY more than usual. He left at 4:30 to go to his dad’s house, and the house suddenly felt very empty and very, very quiet! Until the baby woke up – then it was L O U D again!

It’s 10 p.m. and we are going to watch “Christmas Vacation” while wrapping the kids’ presents. No, they aren’t wrapped yet. With GOOD reason! Samuel is almost 4 this year, and he’s two things – a snoop and a curious, curious boy. So, we hid the presents in the trunk of the car. That way, he couldn’t accidentally find them by snooping, and he couldn’t unwrap them when my back was turned. (More on THAT later). It would have made no difference WHO the presents were for – he would have wanted to unwrap them – so best to have NO presents under the tree. It will make it all that much more exciting for him when he comes home on Monday morning. I plan to meet him outside, so Allan can have the video camera on inside, and be ready to catch his first reaction to the gifts Santa left, and all the presents he has to open. Everything under the tree will be for him, since we will have our Christmas tomorrow without him.

So, a couple of days ago, Samuel decided to open the two presents that WERE available to him. My aunt had sent a gift for each of the boys, and I had them up on the counter under the 2-foot tree we started out with this year. (Samuel was not impressed with the 2-foot tree on the counter, so we decided to borrow a 5 foot artificial tree from the folks – he was WAY more impressed with THAT). Anyway, we were all three napping the other day, and I forgot to put the gate up that keeps him out of the living room if he wakes up before me. (No comments please! He can get out of his room, to the bathroom, and down the hall to our room. He doesn’t need to go anywhere else in the house without parental supervision – as the rest of this story will make clear!!) So, he woke up before me, and I didn’t hear the creaking of the door (we don’t spray it with wd-40 on purpose). The temptation was too great, and he used his time-out chair to get to the presents on the counter. Then he opened them – both. And gave the baby his toy. And put the stickers on his toy car. And tried to hide it all when I finally heard him and woke up to find him holding stuff behind his back in his bedroom. With wrapping paper all over the floor and the torn boxes strewn about. Sigh… Mama was NOT pleased, and he served an extended time-out on his chair. I got the “I’m not happy with you right now” from him, and he got it right back from me. “I’m not happy with you either, buddy”. I was bummed because I wanted pictures of the baby holding the present, and attempting to open it. OH WELL!!! It will make for a “cute” Samuel story in years to come. For now, the toy car is put up, as are the books that came with each present, and he’ll get them back on Monday.

And with that, I’ll close. Allan is ready to wrap the presents that the baby will open in about 15 hours. I’m off to hang with Chevy Chase and the gang, while we have our wrapping party. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

I need to find a new topic of conversation, I know… but most of my “issues” in life revolve around the topic of sleep! Either I’m not getting enough, the baby is not getting enough, Samuel is not getting enough, or all of the above! Lately, it’s the latter. Baby is staying up till all hours of the night, Samuel is NOT napping without huge hassles, and is staying up late due to baby staying up, and I’m burning the candle at both ends.

My body is in revolt. I woke up yesterday barely able to move, with a sinus/migraine headache, and lots of nausea. I spent a good portion of the day in bed, and the rest of it on the couch, trying to get through. I had about 3 hours where I felt decent around mid-afternoon, and then it went back downhill after that. I seriously contemplated going to the ER last night around 10 p.m., but decided to blast my body with some additional medication first. Thankfully the Tylenol worked, and I slept last night, waking to feel about 50% better. Still not 100% great, but certainly better than yesterday!

As if this all weren’t enough, we’ve got a new “sleep” issue. Lately Samuel has decided that he would rather sleep on the FLOOR at the foot of our bed, in our bedroom – rather than in his comfy bed in his room. We find him there in the middle of the night, with his blanket, his pillow, and his “Bob” the tiger stuffed animal. It’s not really an annoyance, other than I would hate to step on him accidentally, which has almost happened a couple of times. But, that aside – WHY is he doing this? He says he gets scared in his room, and when asked what he’s scared of, he replies, “The dinosaur”. There aren’t any dinosaurs in his room, that WE know of, so it’s a bit confusing. I’m inclined to just let him sleep there when he feels the need to do so, but it can’t be good for him, can it? Is it a bad idea to let him sleep on the floor? If he’s so scared, why doesn’t he wake one of us up?

Anyone else ever deal with this kind of thing before?

Humility – my new best friend.

Lately, things with Samuel have been a bit “tough”. He is getting closer to turning 4, and he is bound and determined to become independent RIGHT NOW! Every day, he pushes my buttons and finds new ways to make himself a contender for the “Most Annoyingly Independent, Charmingly Spastic and Crazy Cute, Drive My Mama Up a Wall, Three Year Old” award. Lately, I’ve found my patience running thin, and there has been a bit more yelling (from both him AND me) than I’d like to have in my home. Well, honestly, I’d rather have NO yelling, so it’s been a bit more than a bit more… it’s just been too much. I am struggling with finding the right kinds of discipline for him, and being OK with those choices.

Last week, we had the Mommy/Son clash from you-know-where. He has been having extreme difficulty with naptime, for a variety of reasons. First, there is the “I’m not tired, even though I’m yawning and fussing a lot” reason. That’s numero uno with three year olds. Secondly, there is the fact that Mommy can NOT get both boys synchronized, so they nap at the same time. I try, but to no avail, so far. So, Baby goes to sleep too early, and wakes up right when Samuel should go down. Or Baby goes to sleep about a half hour early, and Samuel wakes him up when he goes to bed. Or Samuel goes to sleep, and Baby is still up, but then goes to sleep, but is fussy, so wakes Samuel up. Or any mixture of the above scenarios, times 10, per day.

So, I’m a bit frustrated at nap time. And Samuel knows it. He pushes and pushes, checking on my limits and the boundaries in the situation. And, last week, he pushed one too many times, and found a new limit. Mom turned into a Screaming Banshee… and within 30 seconds, all three of us were crying/yelling/screaming. (Poor Baby Allan – he was just hungry!) It wasn’t a happy few minutes. And it was certainly the kind of tantrum I’d hoped to avoid at all costs – and I’m talking about the Mama tantrum!

Amazingly enough, Samuel took a nap that day. But, I wasn’t as happy about it as I would have been under other circumstances. I want him to nap, but I’d really rather not scream at him to get it to happen. It’s such a tough thing for me – finding the right balance between healthy discipline without turning into a scary mom. It was the first time I felt so at my wits end, (thankfully it hasn’t happened before to that extent!), but I often feel uncomfortable with discipline in general. Samuel seems to need us to be harder on him right now, but I don’t like it. And I think he is smart enough to sense my confusion and uncertainty. I wish I could be 100% convinced that how I’m disciplining him is the “right way”, but I’m not even close. Hubby is sure – with no doubts – and I envy that.

About humility. I need to work on a plan of action for discipline, and be ready to stick with it – and I also need to work on my anger. Lately Samuel has started reacting angrily to me when we clash on something, and he has this funny little “ggrrrrr” thing he does. Only, it’s not so funny, because as hubby pointed out the other night – he got it from me. Ouch!! I didn’t realize how much I “grrrrr” when I’m frustrated. But I need to stop.

So, here’s to 2006 and working on patience and ridding myself of needless anger. And to better naptimes!

I think he’s down for the night, finally… but I also thought that at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., and 1 a.m. We’ll see if 2 a.m. is the magic sleeping hour tonight. We were just starting to get confident and happy about Allan’s night-time sleeping habits, so he decided to throw us a curveball. He HAD been going to bed earlier (like 10 p.m. or so), but we’re back to the after midnight thing again. I’m guessing it’s a “teething” thing, since that’s always my excuse when he acts fussy or has a hard time sleeping. It’s an easy answer that helps to keep me from going insane with annoyance over the screeching sounds he makes. And can he ever screech! I’m not sure which parent he inherited that from, or if it’s his own little special gift, but WOWEE!

I was spoiled when Samuel was this age, because he was such an easy, laid-back, non-fussy baby, who rarely had sleeping issues or difficulties. He went to bed early, between 7 and 8 p.m. (!!!), and slept until 7 or 8 a.m. And he did that starting around 3 months old. I knew it was easy at the time, and I expected if I ever had any more children that it wouldn’t be the same. I was right. I have to remember this when I start to get frustrated, because overall Allan is a GOOD baby. He’s not really what I would call a “fussy” baby, and he is often in a happy, joyful mood. He just has his father’s nocturnal/sleeping habits, AND he has a great set of lungs to use to let us know all about his personal frustration with our ideas of putting him to bed before midnight. Silly parents… thinking 8 or 9 p.m. would be a reasonable time for Baby to go to bed. HA!

So, I’m still awake at 2 a.m., and wondering how I will manage to get up in the morning when Samuel wakes up at 7 a.m. Because that boy is nothing if not predictable…and he’s a “morning person”. Lucky me – I have a night owl and an early bird. And me? I just want more sleep – whenever I can get it!

I made a decision recently that trying to “mask” my children’s names on my blog was rather silly, since they both have websites devoted to them and their pictures and antics. (Email me if you’d like the links to those sites).

So, in case you haven’t caught it, 3 year old is Samuel, and baby is Allan. (Allan III, if you want to get formal!) Obviously that makes Hubby’s name Allan, too.

I will probably still refer to the baby as Baby or Baby Allan, since that is what we call him here at home. I keep thinking we’ll come up with a nickname for him, to give him his own little identity apart from his Dad and Grandpa, but so far, no nickname has stuck well. Samuel and I called him Baby AB for awhile, (and still do) but Hubby doesn’t prefer that. He’d actually prefer NO nickname… seeing as how Allan III is his namesake, and it was his idea for the III thing. But, Hubby says he’s cool if we call him something else occasionally, as long as it’s not “late for dinner”. (Insert groans here…. I’m sorry, I had to do it, in honor of my grandfather who LOVED that joke. He’s been gone for over 10 years, but today is his birthday, and I’ve been thinking about him and his antics).

So, I’m off to tend to my boys… and tell silly jokes all day in honor of Grandpa Wasser.

My three year old son and I were sitting on the couch talking about who knows what the other day, with hubby. Somehow the topic of weddings came up. Samuel knows about weddings, since he’s had the opportunity to be two in the last two years. (That’s a post for another time!) So, he was talking about weddings and church buildings, and getting married. I asked him if he was going to have a wedding, and if he was going to get married.

His response… “Uh YES, Mommy… I get married in church.”

So, of course I said, “Well, who are you going to marry?”

It was a classic moment. He looked at me like I was from outer space, and said almost incredulously, “YOU, Mommy.” Like duh, was his attitude, and he jabbed at me with his finger to make the point even stronger.

I chuckled and glanced at Hubby who grinned too, and said “His first love”.

We went on to have the “But Mommy is already married to Daddy” conversation, but it didn’t deter my little sweetheart. He is SURE I’ll be ready to marry him when it’s time.

So, I think I’ve got the scrapbookin’ bug! My sister has had it for quite awhile now – since her first son was born six years ago. I’ve had the desire for awhile, but life and circumstances have kept me from really getting INTO it before now. Well, I spent a little time with my sis last month, and she got me going! I was able to finish 3 2-page layouts in just a couple of afternoons, and I came home from that trip energized to do more. And then I got online to do some shopping for supplies, and I found “Digital Scrapbooking”. I knew it existed, but WOW has it turned into a BIG BUSINESS in the last year or so. I can’t believe the number of websites there are out there selling Digital Scrappin supplies. For the last month, I’ve been researching, perusing, studying, etc… and I’ve been having a blast! But, I haven’t put anything together in that time – paper or digital.

Until today.

I found a website with a great message board, that offers all kinds of challenges and encouragement for creating your own layouts. I started with one Layout Challenge, and then did another…and another. All in all, I’ve completed SIX digital layouts today! Yes, I went a bit overboard, but woohoo, was it FUN!

Here are a couple of the layouts I did today:

I can’t wait to do more!