double edged sword

As I write this I'm in a daze.  I'm in a hazy fog of days blurred together by Ryan and I crossing paths for a few minutes each morning, handing off duties, and him rushing out the door for work.

You can see from the huge gap between posts that I'm finding it difficult to write.  We're smack dab in the middle of baby sleep hell.  Point being, Leo's initial 'good sleep' habits have gone down hill drastically.  I'de say we went from pretty good in the beginning, to bad, to terrible and now we're at an all time low.  I won't go into details but... "seriously Leo?"

I will forgive him the past 10 days as he's had a runny nose and congestion which I'm sure is causing his hourly wakings, but the previous two months is purely his inability to get himself back to sleep after waking up with gas or whatever.  According to all the sleep experts, we've done the forbidden and now Leo relies on a soother to find peace in slumber.

I still stand by my belief that a soother isn't all that bad, if used for soothing.  What I realize now is that 'soothing' is quite different from 'putting your kid to sleep'.  It's a double edged sword.  But, desperate times call for desperate measures..... so we stuck the sword in again and again.... hoping for a few more hours of sleep......

.... we're still looking for that sleep..... and hopefully we'll find it soon.

On a more positive note, there have been a lot of good times around here too.  Check it out:

Leo's first meal.  

Ruby got in on the action too. 

He's learning to read!  

So, despite the lack of blogs, the lack of sleep and the lack of fresh air..... the Grants are still having fun.  There's no lack of love.  :)

manners and negotiations, please

For the past several weeks, we've been working on Ruby's manners.  She had (still has I'm sure) a very bold way of expressing what she wanted.  Simply put, she'd say, "I want _____ ".  "I want more milk!",  "I want some oranges!", "I want to read a story!", "I want more stories!".  With every demand came a  "how do you ask for that nicely?".  

This morning at breakfast she looked at me and said sweetly, "can I have some yogurt please mommy?".  It was magical.  

This is a conversation from later on during that same meal:

Ruby:    "I wanna watch Olivia!"

Me:        "How do you ask for that nicely?" 

Ruby:     "Can I watch Olivia please mommy?"

Me:        "No honey, we're going to get dressed and go to the Superstore."

Ruby:     "How about just one Olivia, mommy?"

And....... this is breaking news.  I just got back from her bedroom after putting her down about 15 minutes ago.  Before I left she wanted more stories, oatmeal, cheerios...... all the tricks to get out of going to bed.  Then I hear her whining up there so after a few minutes I go up.  She gets up on her knees and says to me:  "How about one more story please mommy?"  

I guess all our hard work is paying off.  She's becoming quite a polite little negotiator.  

Maybe she'll be a lawyer.

Good night Ruby!  

Nice try but I'm not going back up there..... 

Love Mommy.

oxox

This was taken a few weeks ago.  

Watching TV.  

halloween

I'm a few days late with the Halloween pictures, but life is a little hectic these days.  Sometimes I honestly think I'm crazy for going along with the tedious job of selling our house.  It's been on the market now for three whole months.  I think we've had about 20 viewings which means we've cleaned the house that many times, loaded up the van with all of the lose ends, packed up the kids and headed out with our hearts on a string......  It's a pain in the butt, BUT we're still going for it.  This will be the last month and if nothing happens we're ready to throw in the towel and be content where we are.  Fingers crossed.  

As we drive away before a viewing I always say, 'Good luck house".  Ruby echoes the sentiment and has even started wishing the house good luck randomly on her own sometimes.  It's pretty cute.  

So... back to Halloween.... 

Hurricane Sandy blew by early in the day on Halloween leaving us with a pretty mild afternoon and perfect evening for Trick or Treating.  We actually went trick or treating this year and Ruby had fun.  It was so nice to see her discovering what Halloween is all about.  When we got home she helped Ryan hand out treats to the big kids while I got Leo to sleep.  

Look how old Leo looks!  He's 4 months old.  I can't believe how fast time is flying.  It seems to be going faster this time around.  Possibly because I'm super busy with two kids and possibly because I'm super tired.  I couldn't remember how to spell the word "pretty" the other day.  I had to use a thesaurus to search for a synonym of 'beautiful'.    My brain is mush.  But, this too shall end.   Before too long it'll all be a blur. I'll be enjoying 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep again.... someday.... 

Until then, these cuties keep me going.  :)