Sleep Lately...

lets just say it hasn't been fantastic. Or plentiful. Au contraire, in fact. For the past few weeks, Tula has decided she would rather sleep with us. And I have decided that this is not a battle I am willing to fight at 2 am when she crawls in for a few different reasons. 1. I am tired. 2. I am SLEEPING. 3. Mav is tired and sleeping and it would be three times worse if he woke up because if her crying. Then I would really be in for it. and 4. There is a TEENY TINY part of me that secretly loves it when she comes to bed with us. The way she always comes to my side of the bed, reaches and fumbles around for my hand or pillow or blanket or something to pull her up, crawls right over top of me and crawls in the middle. I imagine how cozy that must feel. I REMEMBER how cozy that DOES feel from crawling in with my own parents. And I know that these weeks or months or maybe even years of kids who want to crawl into bed with us and snuggle up and feel all cozy/safe/warm will fly by and that great big king size bed will feel all to big when there are no little babies in there to cuddle us. So, basically, I admit that I let her sleep with us, and I love it, but I DO draw the line with some things. For example, I am fine with her coming to bed with us at 2 am, when we are all already sleeping and went to bed WITHOUT her. I am not cool with the fact that she is seemingly wanting to come into our bed earlier and earlier, which is turning into trying to get in there some nights before we even are in there. Which is not going to happen for so many reasons. Or maybe just one big reason. You know what I mean? I am also NOT COOL with her kicking me and the fact that she has decided she likes to sleep horizontally across the bed. And guess which "side" she likes her feet? You guessed it! Me. So there have been a couple nights of me getting multiple kicks to the head/back/FACE and I am once again, NOT COOL with that that. And the occasional pee accident in our bed, there have been maybe a handful, and those are SO ANNOYING, especially because we don't have a cover on our mattress so as soon as she pees she cries and john and I sort of wake up and in this slumbery fog fumble around trying to remove all bedding as quickly as possible. All of this aside, I love cosleeping with my girl. It has created some of the cuddliest moments and warmest memories for all of us. And I know it gives Tula a deep sense of comfort and trust and security knowing it is an option for her, and that makes me feel like supermom.

Mav is still in his own crib and he loves it in there. he never was big on cosleeping from the beginning. He always liked his space and I think he prefers to put himself to sleep. He has gone almost one week with no bottle and is doing great. Has his little sippy cup before bed and gets one story and then lights out. He goes to bed awake and occasionally but rarely will fuss for a couple minutes before going to sleep. Most of the time we don't hear a peep out of him till morning, usually at least a full 12 hours later. He wakes through the night from time to time, never makes enough noise to warrant me even going in there though. He is down to just one afternoon nap, from about 1 to 4 (as long as Tula stays quiet). Mav is an angel sleeper and go-to-bedder, bless his heart.

In other breaking sleep news, Tula is officially no longer a napper, as of the last two weeks. Oh yes, the days of a nap free toddler in the house are now here. I have to say, I am actually getting quite used to it, and loving it. Here's why: The weeks leading up to Tula giving up her nap were really tough around here. Basically she would go in here room and lay there, quietly for an hour or two and then fall asleep for her usual 2 or 3 hour nap. So if she went in at the usual 2ish time, she was sleeping around, say 3:30ish, and waking around 6:30ish. Now you can imagine how bedtime went an hour and a half later at 8. She was plain and simple, not tired. But we were exhausted and needed our break so that window between about 8 when we started trying to put her down and 10, which was when she went to bed a lot of those nights, was a really bad time for all of us. No one was happy, everyone was tired, and we all just needed some alone time. So after a couple days of trying different things, one day I let her play out back, one day I took her out of the house for a walk to the park, one day we attempted to locked her in her room, I realized she was still needing sleep, or something. It wasn't that she was tired at dinnertime, she was just overwhelmed. So we tried this "quiet time" thing that I have heard so many other mommies talk about and it has been a lifesaving and perfect solution. Basically, it goes like this in our house. The kids get to watch a little tv together before naptime. Then, Tula gets to pick one show (usually Mickey) that she gets to watch "like a big girl" while I go put Mav down. It gives me a chance to have some alone time with him, and she thinks its pretty cool to watch her show by herself too. When Mav is down I have a couple minutes to do my thing and then I go get Tula, she has to shut the tv off and tell me "I no have nap time, I have quiet time?"lol, she goes pee on the potty, we sit on her bed and read a story, and then I leave and tell her she has quiet time now and can come out when she hears Maverick wake up. And it works great! She seems to love it and doesn't fight it at all. And I truly think it is so good for her. She gets to keep her door open, so I can hear her the entire time. She has deep conversations with her Handy Manny toy and his tools, her Barbies, and her dolls. The loves to play at her vanity and I have walked by and seen her pretending to put on make up or brush her hair or whatever. One day, she must have got into a fight with her doll and she threw it outside the dool the proceeded to play for another hour or so in there. Sometimes she doesn't last Mav's whole nap time, but she never (knock on wood) tried to come out the first hour or so and as long as we at least get that much of a break I am okay with that. There have been a few occasions though where we have literally listened to her play in there for almost three hours all by herself. I was so proud!

The best part? Bedtime is a BREEZE right now and we are starting to get into the routine of an earlier bath (6:45ish) which means earlier tv time and, of course, earlier bedtime. I try and get them both down by 7:45 and its getting to be more of the routine every day. John and I LOVE sitting down on the couch at 8 and being kid free for a couple hours, and bedtime is just so much less stressful when your kids is actually tired. The other nice thing about it is she is sleeping in. Usual wake up time for us is around 8 or quarter after. And for those of you who know me know how much I love sleep in the morning so this is just an added bonus. Tula is usually woken up by Mav's morning cries and she wakes me to tell me he is up. Lots of mornings I get a big "Goodmorning Mommy" and it makes my day.

So, all in all, now that I have written it all out, the sleep situation actually doesn't seem that bad. We are getting less of it, but its coming easier to us so thats the bonus. And once I am sleeping (minus the kicks and accidents) I have the best sleep snuggled up to Tula. Having a toddler that doesn't nap makes for shorter days, and that is sounding more and more fantastic after all.

Hm. How about that? Things are looking up already!

:)

Mav is 17 months big!

Oh my precious boy! Where did my snuggly cuddly little bundly babe go? You are a big boy now! A toddler, barreling full speed around the house...running, climbing, jumping. You almost give me a heart attack at least once a day! You climb the chairs on the patio to get on to the table out there and walk around it, clapping and talking. You get in and out of the trampoline yourself with the chair we put there for your big sister to use. You pull up your chair to the kitchen counter and stand there watching me while I work. Figure out where everything is. Then when I am upstairs you go and get your chair and take it to the drawer you saw me in and what was in there and you go and dig everything out. Even buckled in, you often find a way to stand up in your high chair. You are like a Houdini! You love to run right now, when you do you always have a huge grin on your face and sort of pull your chin in to your neck and look all tense like you are bracing yourself. It looks like you are having the time of your life with that smile when you run. You love to wrestle, you still come give me lovins but lots of the time now if I am sitting on the floor with you guys you will come over and try and shove me and that tells me you want to fight and wrestle. You love it when i push you away from me and then you try and "get" me again, I push you off of me, you come back, and on and on.

When we are trying to build things with Tula, you LOVE to destroy them. Lately Tula likes to play "cups" and we get a bunch of the plastic red drinking cups from the pantry so she can stack them and make a "wall". AS soon as she is two rows high we physically have to hold you back, you cannot resist running over there and kicking them all down to hear a big loud crash. Same with blocks. And anything else stackable for that matter. You love weapons! You throw your toys at my head (in fairness, you are just trying to be funny and have to be taught that these things aren't okay so we are working on that one. You love anything "stickish" (foam baseball bat, plastic golf club, measuring stick) and you walk around the house swinging it.

So have I made you sound "all boy" enough yet, Son? Well wait, the list goes on. And if you read this between the ages of, oh 10 and 20, you are probably going to want to kill your mother for writing this about you, but you LOVE your penis! You are always trying to hold it. Always with your hands in the pants. Watching tv, grabbing yourself when I change diapers. The best is when I give you your bottle and you slip your little hand in there. I don't think you are actually grabbing anything, you like to just let your thumb hang over the top of your diaper and your hand almost rest on your belly. Like the big boys all do. John really doesn't do this so I don't know where it comes from but I am not gonna lie, it's sorta cute.

This month, Maverick got his first real haircut. We took him to a place up by my parents house that had the little car to sit in and play with the steering wheel, look at the tv, etc. Basically, the place that charges and insane amount of money (I think $20 is A LOT to cut a baby's hair). But I will say, it worked perfectly, and I concede, it's a fabulous idea. He sat there the entire time, didn't make a peep, TOTALLY distracted by everything going on around him. I had sworn forever that I wasn't going to cut Mav's curls, but the problem became that his curls were no longer curly, the length of the hair was weighing them down and flattening them and he just had this big flop of hair on the top of his head. The stylist cut it pretty short and although he was already such a "big boy", the new haircut basically took away any of the final resemblances of a baby that were left. Maverick looked like such a little stud with the clean cut look! Of course I fell in love with it right away, although I think I am going to try and grow it a little longer, and just clean it up around the ears myself from time to time. We'll see how that goes.

Right now, Maverick is obsessed with The Wiggles. As soon as their song comes on, he shakes his fingers and dances. Wiggles and Mickey are really the only two shows that the kids watch, and they have certain times of the day that they get to (before nap and bed time) but Mav will point to the tv any time of the day and ask for "Wig-O, Wig-O" and try and do a little finger shake dance.

Mav says "Amen" when we pray at dinner. All serious-like. Big man.

Maverick had decided that "Papa" is is best friend in the whole wide world. My dad cannot be around Maverick without Maverick standing at his feet, arms outstretched, "up,up,up". My dad is really goo with taking Mav around exploring, he doesn't just pick him up and hold him. Lots of times, they go do something or take a look in a tool box or go outside and see the moon. And Mav knows this and he loves exploring with his Papa so he can't be around him without being in his arms. It is so special to me to see him so attached. I happen to think my dad is a great guy to love:)

Maverick still loves to snuggle before bedtime. Loves books. A favorite right now is "Panda Bear, Panda Bear" and "My First Truck Book". We are on day two of no bottle and its actually going pretty well. I guess thats not totally true, I did give him one this morning only because he actually is already saying "bottle, bottle" when i go in to get him in the mornings. And it gets me five more minutes of sleep. But I am going to do my best to try and get rid of that morning one too. I think that he is finally ready and a bottle free house is seemingly right around the corner.

Oh Maverick, how many different ways can I tell you that I am head over heels in love with you. My Son, your laugh and smile and eyes and love take my breath away. You are a treasure to me. Thank you for your perfect love.

Two and a half!

On December 29th Tula Belle turned 2 and a HALF! For the past few months, basically since I have decided not to update her blog monthly, I have been keeping a paper list of things that are new with Tula, cute stuff she says, etc. I am just not in the habit of logging in and updating my blog that frequently, so this is the best I got. Now, as I look at some of these things, it feels almost silly to write them out, as she has been doing some of them for what feels like forever. But if I really think about it, it has only been within the last three months or so since I last wrote about Miss Belle, which means as old as some of this stuff may feel to me, it is still relatively new. So, here goes.

-sleeping with door open.

This was a big one. When Tula first started sleeping in a big girl bed, I took us some time to get her used to staying in it. Once she realized she could get out of not just the bed, but her room, all bets were off and bedtime became a nightmare for all of us. So poor Tula had to get locked in her room for a couple nights, till she learned that leaving it was not an option. After 3 or 4 awful nights like this, we started asking her at bedtime if she wanted the door open or closed. Of course she would say open, and then I would tell her that if she wanted her door open it meant she had to stay in bed, if she got out we would shut the door. It actually worked perfectly and she started going right to bed, always remembering to tell us "You leave my door open" after prayer.

-prayer.

Tula has started praying! She finally understands when we pray before dinner to close her eyes, bow her little head, and she usually interlocks her tiny fingers just like the adults. She also has completely memorized the Lord's Prayer, and almost recite the whole thing when we read through the book she has of it at night. But the most special prayers I have heard from her are at the end of the day, after I pray for her, and then she continues. Usually with "Thank you a (for) Mommy. Thank you a Daddy. Thank you for Sadie and Coca." And just goes on giving thanks for everything she can think of. One time she even said "Thank you for all my family." I know she doesn't totally understand prayer yet, but I love knowing the foundations are being laid for a little girl to know that everything good in her life comes from above.

-her "Girls"

Tula now refers to Sadie and Coca as her girls, and usually won't nap or go to bed at GG and Papa's house without her "girls".

-Mav wants this/that

Tula understands her brother better than anyone, I think. Myself included. More than once throughout the day, usually when Maverick is crying about something, Tula will tell me "Maverick wants this" or "Maverick doesn't like that". And most of the time, she is right. She is such a caring big sister.

-protective big sister.

The other day I had the pleasure of hearing Tula introduce Maverick to some neighborhood friends. She said "This is Maver John. Be VERY gentle." and she had both her hands on his shoulders. So sweet.

-more funny stuff she has said:

"It's not my fault" "No problem!" "Two more minutes" "No kisses, Tula has pretties on" "You're driving me crazy" "Have patience" "Stop, you're making me nervous" "You almost forgot your phone in the car" (Like, such a long sentence, and it was true! She actually reminded me!)

- "all by myself"

Tula has become so independent the last few months. She wants to do everything by herself. Put clothes on, wash her own hair, get on the potty. Any and everything that we used to help her with she wants to at least attempt to do "all by myself".

-playtime with friends.

Tula is now at the stage where she really loves to play with her friends, not just alongside them. Loves to make new friends at the park or wherever we are, she is very social and not shy. Tula also feels very comfortable with old friends we have had since she was little and loves to play with them. Gets VERY excited when I say so-and-so is coming over or that we are going to so-and-so's house.

- pretending to sleep.

This is soooo funny. Sometimes after we put Tula to bed if we end up going downstairs I can hear her little feet running around upstairs and I know she is up to something. If I come upstairs, and stomp loud enough that she hears me coming, she runs as fast as she can to her bed and jumps up on it, closes her eyes, and pretends to be sleeping in whatever position she lands in. Sometimes she will even be sitting straight up. But if I go right up to her face, nose to nose, she doesn't blink or crack a smile, just totally seriously fakes sleeping. Even if we say her name, nothing works. One time, I asked her "Tula....Tula...you sleeping?" and very slowly she nodded her head yes. hahaha

- MICKEY!

Tula has developed a loved for Mickey Mouse that is borderline obsession. She only wants to watch Mickey Mouse on tv. For Christmas, all she wanted was a "Mickey book". When coloring, she only wants to color the Mickey pages (and Donald sometimes). Every and anything Mickey right now. She's pretty much his biggest fan.

There have been so many changes since Tula turned two years old, she is just developing so quickly at this stage and all the things that come out of her mouth continue to amaze us. She knows her alphabet song. She can almost spell her name, she recognizes the letters in it. She knows all sorts of colors and songs. She loves to count, I hear it doing it while playing with toys all the time. I know she can count past ten, but not sure how much. I hear her babbling about numbers lots lately. I am never worried about her developmentally, she seems extremely bright and eager to learn. I might be a little biased though.

Tula has loved having GG and Papa here for the winter and all the time she is getting to spend with them. She goes for lots of sleepovers, and nothing excites her more than when I tell her that we are going to their house, or they are coming to visit us. Of course this year Mav gets to tag along as well and Tula seems fine with that, she gets to sleep with GG and Papa and Mav is still in the crib for now.

Tula is at the wonderful age where she finally comes up with the most thoughtful little things to say. She tells me she loves me "too" when I say I love her. Today, actually, at nap time I laid down with her for a bit and I had just had a shower and brushed my hair back but not blowdried it. She said "You brushed all you hair Mommy. It looks very pretty." hahaha I could get used to that.

Tula likes to play pretend so much more. LOVES to play dressup. We have compiled a box full of dress up clothes and she loves to dress herself and her brother. Sometimes to steal a snuggle she will bring me one of her dolls bottles and say she is a baby and wants me to hold her and give her a bottle. Loves to pretend cook in her kitchen and make me taste her food and for me to tell her how good it tastes.

What can I say? Two and a half years later, baby girl, you still fill my heart to the brim with love.

Love you always,

Mom