Quoth Drew

Quoth Drew earlier this week in response to my request that he try to go back to sleep for a bit, him having woken up an hour or two earlier than usual in the morning: "My body has all the rest it can handle. If I get any more of the rest called sleep, it will spill out of me!"

Outcome: After much reluctance, he agreed to try and did in fact get more rest called sleep, with no spilling to be seen (thank goodness.)

Breakneck Speed, Part Two: The Boys

Back with part two...

While we're in the middle of and looking ahead to many projects around the house, we're also moving at breakneck speed to keep up with Drew and Garrett. We recently mentioned that we made the decision to cut out naps in favor of an earlier and hopefully smoother bedtime after Garrett, then Drew decided to stop going to sleep without hours long battles. Going on a month later, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but overall we seem to be falling into a routine that works better than what we had, and that is good. It's quite a change for me during the days not having that break, but the earlier bedtimes and the extra time it gives Jim & I in the evenings is most welcome, so I suppose it evens out.

This year is going to be full of changes and milestones for the boys. In just a couple weeks they will turn 3! Such big boys. For their birthday we are planning to repaint their room and make the switch to toddler beds. We've been extremely lucky that they never have made any attempts to escape their cribs, so why disrupt a good thing... But now that they are turning three, and we have these matching race car beds just killing time in the basement... I suppose it's time. It will be a big change, not one we're sure we're quite ready for, but so it goes.

Also just around the corner, at least for Drew, is going to be potty training. Drew seems to be just about ready, though Garrett is not so much. Hopefully seeing Drew figure it out will spur him on. Now if we can just figure out how to go about getting Drew started....

The other big milestone coming up for the boys this year is preschool. Should all go well, they will be attending a Waldorf school in the Fall for three mornings a week. We're in the middle of signing them up now, having found and visited the school just in the past month. If you've never heard of a Waldorf school and are interested, click here to learn a bit more. We're very excited to have found the school - it seems like a great fit for us and how we live, how we want to raise the boys. There aren't too many around - the only other one in Ohio is down around Cincinnati, and if we hadn't moved to this new house, we would likely have been too far away as well. Sometimes things work out. In any case, it will be a big change, a big milestone for us. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet that - should all go well and they get out of those diapers - they will be going to school in just about half a year from now. A bittersweet thing.

It's shaping up to be quite a year. Stay tuned!

Better Late than Never

At long last here is our holiday update! We had a nice Christmas this year, despite the inevitable moments of stress and exhaustion. It was a particularly precious year with the boys, as they had all the excitement without the wish lists. That's not to say they weren't excited about presents, or didn't have their moments of asking for more... But there wasn't that expectation that they should get certain things in order to have a good Christmas. They just loved reading stories about Christmas, and seeing Santa and all manner of decorations everywhere we went (including, our favorite, giant donuts with lights). They "helped" cut down our Christmas tree from our yard and decorate it. Getting the mail each day was a cause for excitement in hopes of new Christmas cards to open. We had lots of chances to see family and friends, all of which were nice as well.

It was interesting seeing the Christmas schedule from their perspective. It always seems busy, traveling here and there and fitting in all the preparations. But seen through the perspective of two little guys who are so excited about each toy unwrapped and don't understand why they can't open it right then... Made me think about how little time we give ourselves to fully enjoy and be present to our celebrations. Don't get me wrong, I love the excitement and in some ways the busyness and the chance to go to so many celebrations. But maybe next year we'll find a way to work in a little more space to play with our toys as we open them...

For more pictures of the festivities, just look to the right.

Since then, life has been full speed ahead, with major routine changes leaving us spinning. Sometime in the midst of the holidays, Garrett, our champion sleeper, abruptly stopped going to sleep, dragging Drew (who had just gotten the hang of sleeping!) with him. In a last ditch effort, after several nights stretching until midnight, we decided to cut out naps and move up bedtime. That was this past weekend, so needless to say we are all still reeling a bit (or a lot, as the case may be) to this unexpected change to our days. Bedtime seems to be going better, on average, so we're continuing along this path, hoping that the days will sort themselves out. Time will tell.

We hope that all is well with you as we start this new year. It is sure to be an eventful one here, with hopefully more frequent updates as we go. So stay tuned, and keep in touch when you can!

In Search of Sleep...

Among the many things Annie and I now count in the "Formerly Taken for Granted" category, sleep is probably at the very top. In fact, it's probably two of the top three items on the list. And we are getting tired of being so tired.

Let me first recognize that Garrett is a champion sleeper. He takes long naps and will almost always sleep entirely through the night. I do not want to under emphasize the importance of this blessing, so I've created the World's Best Sleeper virtual award, and I proudly bestow it upon our little Garrett. His sleepiness is divine.

Drew, however, has laid all the groundwork for earning the World's Most Improved Sleeper award. He just has the "improvement" part left to go.

So we've recently decided to try to help him along in his improvement. Annie read a book by Dr. Marc Weissbluth called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and we've been trying to use his methods to acheive some peace and rest. The idea is that none of us is happy about Drew's lack of rest. Not me, not Annie, not Garrett, and especially not Drew. Drew has never really learned how to sleep through the night. This is partly because Annie and I have been in survival mode and have rushed into his room to comfort him every time he would fuss. We did this because things would get much crazier if Garrett woke up frightened by Drew's crying (learned through experience). But now, at 11 months, Drew still wakes up every hour or two with some fussing or crying, and knows we'll come to the rescue. In order to help him learn to sleep, something we all need him to learn ASAP, we need to start a new routine which does not include the instant parental rescue feature. This has lead to a lot of crying, but not a lot of improvement. Drew will now go down for a nap or for the night without much protest (an improvement), but every night around 1 am he starts crying loud enough that we can't sleep, and if he does drift off again, he is up within another half hour (which is definately worse). We're losing sleep, and we're losing heart.

We have a few more ideas to try where we offer some comfort without having to go all the way to rocking him to sleep every time he wakes up, but it's getting tough. I hope we'll soon be bestowing that improvement award to our little Drew. And if you think to, send some good sleepy vibes our way!