Dinner and Pictures

Today was another good day. We got off to a bit of a rough start because William woke up at 4:30 a.m. and came into our room. He had peed through his diaper, and because I didn't feel like changing his sheets at 4:30 a.m., I let him sleep in our bed after changing his pajamas. He had woken up with a horrible, croup-sounding cough though, so before getting into bed, I put his jacket on him and we went and sat outside for a few minutes. By the time we got back in bed, he wasn't very interested in going back to sleep. We dozed a little, but by 6:00 a.m., we were up and downstairs, ready to play. (Will he ever sleep in?)

Anyway, his cough didn't end up being bad during the day, so that was good. We played, ate breakfast, went to the grocery store, played some more, ate some lunch, took naps, played outside, played inside some more. And my Valentine's Day present to Ed was a special dinner that turned out excellent. I made a leg of lamb, asparagus, and dinner rolls, with chocolate mousse for dessert. The most amazing part is that William actually ate the lamb and asparagus, and he especially loved the chocolate mousse. Life is good!

I finally got the camera out to take pictures today. I didn't get any great ones of William but got a few of Seth.

First, William wanted me to take a picture of his workman:


He played outside this morning, but refused to look at the camera:


Meanwhile, Seth has become quite taken with Ritz crackers.


He eats them meticulously until there's hardly any left.


Look at that face. He is too cute. Yes, life is good!

Sweet Moments

Happy Valentine's Day! Since I had no expectations for today, it actually turned out to be a really nice day. The boys wanted to show their love for me ASAP, so we were up by 6:00 a.m. Ed had a very nice card for me. Ed's parents agreed to last-minute babysitting so that Ed and I could go out to lunch and then a movie. We saw Slum Dog Millionaire, and it was very good. It would probably be just as good on DVD, but it was nice to be in a real theater. It's been a while!

The boys had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and we didn't get home until after 6:00 p.m. Both boys fell asleep in the car on the way home, so they were a bit wound up once they fully woke up. We let them play for a bit, then fed them dinner late, and then let them take a long bath together. Seth LOVES taking a bath and practically nose-dives into the bathtub. We've always bathed William just about every night, and it looks like Seth will be following the same pattern. Anyway, our usual routine for bath and bedtime is for me to get Seth out first, put on his pjs, and give him his bottle, while Ed takes over the rest of bathtime for William and gets William out and dressed in pjs. Ed usually reads William one or two books, and then after I've put Seth to sleep, I read William two or three books.

On Saturday nights, however, I do the bath and bedtime routine solo. Ed plays clarinet in a jazz band that has a gig every Saturday night in downtown DC. He doesn't get home until 3:30 a.m., so he usually takes a nap after dinner on Saturday nights. When I do the routine solo, I usually get Seth out of the bath first, put his diaper and pjs on him in the bathroom, then get William out and get him dressed. Then I set William up with his nebulizer treatment and a video while I give Seth his bottle and put him to bed. Then I can read to William and put him to bed. Tonight, however, we gave William his nebulizer treatment when we got home since he wanted to watch a video. So I told him he could play with his trains in his room or read books while I put Seth to bed.

As I sat in Seth's room, giving him his bottle, I heard William walk down the hall into our bedroom. I felt bad for Ed, because I know he was trying to sleep, but I didn't hear Ed say anything, so I just decided to wait and see. William started reading Go Dog, Go and it was everything I could do not to laugh out loud. He said, "Dog. Big Dog. Uh oh! Honk! Honk!" (That's the "dog out of a car" page.) "Wanna wear my hat? No I don't. Good-bye." "Dog going up! Dog going down." It was hysterical. He was reading with the same inflection and expressions that I use when I read it to him. When I finally put Seth into his crib and walked into our room, I found the room dark, Ed lying in the bed with the covers over his head, William sitting in the bed propped up on pillows, happily reading away. By the time I got there, he had started reading Goodnight Gorilla, so I lay down beside him and let him finish. It was one of those moments that makes you love parenting. Ed later said that William climbed into our bed all by himself (our bed is on risers so it's high off the ground), got himself situated, opened his book, and just started reading. Ed didn't have the heart to make him go back to his room. Definitely a sweet way to end Valentine's Day.

Switching gears here, I wanted to update on how the "operation Get Tough" is going with William. It should be called "operation not-tough-enough." I've been partially successful. I've been able to say no to the chocolate milk. But not lying down with him is a bit harder. It's an emotional need that's hard to say no to. For a couple of nights, I've gone into his room, spent a few minutes talking to him about how he needs to sleep all by himself, how he has all his "friends" (stuffed animals) around him, how Daddy and me are just down the hall and will come if he needs us, etc etc. And I've gone back to our room. But then less than 10 minutes later, he's either back in our room, or crying. So long story short, it's slow going. We keep trying to entice him with the offer of fruit snacks when he wakes up if he stays in his bed all night. (We've also offered fruit snacks if he'll poop in the potty.) So far, that hasn't been quite persuasive enough. So we'll see what happens.

Got Milk?

We've slipped into a bad habit of getting William a cup of chocolate milk as soon as he wakes up in the morning. This is okay when he wakes up at 6:00 a.m. or later. But sometimes he wakes up around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. and he wants his chocolate milk. He'll go right back to sleep once he's had it, so of course, it's easier just to get it for him. But now we've fed the monster, and he's gotten into the habit of waking up at 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. and he expects his chocolate milk. And he also expects to either get into our bed, or for one of us (Ed or me) to get in bed with him.

So this week, we've been working on slaying the dragon. No chocolate milk until the morning. No getting into bed with William, and no William getting into bed with us. Except for last night, when he peed out of his diaper and ended up with a huge wet spot in his bed. And the night before when I got into bed with him, only to hear him ask every 30 seconds or so, "Can I have some chocolate milk? Can you get me some chocolate milk? I want some chocolate milk! I want some! Can I have some chocolate milk?" I held out until 5:30 a.m. That's pretty good, right? I can't remember why I got into bed with him in the first place, but I'm sure there was a good reason for that, too. (Probably because I forgot that we were laying down the law this week.)

So tonight is the night. I'm really going to say no. And I'm going to let him pitch a fit, even if it wakes up Seth. (Which it will.) And I'm going to remember that we're saying no, too. Even though sleep deprivation drives a person to do what.ever.it.takes to go back to sleep! So wish me luck.

(P.S. Seth is doing better, and went to daycare yesterday and today. Thank goodness! He went to the doctor this morning, and he just has a cold. He's still pretty congested, but definitely improving. I'll just ignore the fact that he had two very loose poops at daycare today.)

(P.S.S. Ed came up with the title for today's post. Pretty clever, huh? He never reads my blog, but just happened to be passing by. I guess he's good for something, huh?)

Too Good to Last

Because I foolishly said "out loud" that the boys were both healthy "going on two weeks," the fates had to show me who is boss. Daycare called Thursday afternoon to inform me that Seth was running a slight fever (100.7) and I needed to come pick him up. They said his mood was fine, and he wasn't acting fussy or cranky. And the lead teacher even said that if he had a good night and his fever didn't come back, I could bring him back Friday. (Usually, a child has to be fever-free for 24 hours before he can return to daycare.) We speculated that he was teething and I crossed my fingers and hoped this was it.

Unfortunately, his fever continued through Thursday night, and he had kind of a rough night, so we stayed home on Friday. His nose started running on Friday, and he was pretty cranky. His fever continued on Friday, and Friday night, and Saturday, and Saturday night. Saturday night he had a crying fit for 30 minutes that freaked me out. I think his teeth were definitely bothering him, on top of being totally congested and just feeling pretty miserable. He started coughing a bit, too, so you can imagine how anxious I've been feeling this weekend.

Today, however, he was much better. He took a power nap this morning (almost 3 hours) and hasn't had a fever since he first woke up. His nose is still very congested, but that seems to be the worst of it. We have a follow-up doctors' appointment on Tuesday, which is also when he's scheduled to get his 9-month shots, so they'll check his ears and teeth and make sure everything is okay. Hopefully he'll have a good day at daycare tomorrow (barring any fever tonight). I feel like we've dodged a bullet, but of course, I shouldn't speak too soon!

Besides nursing Seth back to health, we had a nice weekend. Ed took William ice skating again on Saturday. William fell asleep in the car on the way home, so when he got home, I laid down with him in his bed hoping he would go back to sleep. He barely opened his eyes as he snuggled with me, and when he was almost asleep, he opened his eyes and looked at me and said drowsily, "I had a good time ice skating wif Daddy. It was swippery!" And then he fell asleep. So sweet! Today (Sunday) the weather was gorgeous, so William got to play outside for a good part of the day. We got out his tricycle (kind of a cross between a tricycle and a Big Wheels) and he "rode" around the block. I say "rode" because he refuses to pedal and just pushes the tricycle with his feet. He'll figure it out one day, I guess!

So that's our weekend. I wish it hadn't involved sickness, but that's just par for the course. The beautiful weather did a lot to improve the outlook. I can't wait until spring! I'm hoping that wherever we end up will be part of a community with a pool!

Stopping the Bleeding

You probably thought this was going to be another post about how I injured Seth. Fortunately, Seth is fine. But by now you might have guessed the big news I was alluding to in my previous post. We sold our house! We put our house on the market in October, and after four long months and several low offers and reducing the list price once, we sold for $5,000 under list price. This is pretty good in our neighborhood. Home prices are falling FAST in our neck of the woods, and there's a foreclosure on our street that is listed for $170,000 less than our home. Ouch! Some of the other houses on our street have gone for $30,000 or more below list price. So we're feeling pretty good. Although we lost money--$52,000, to be precise--we feel like we've stopped the bleeding.

Let me back up a bit, and tell you why we decided to sell our house. First of all, while we both like our house a lot, I can't say we really LOVE our house. (Mistake number one when buying a house!) There are definitely things I love about it, and that I will dearly miss. I love the hardwood floors (although they are so beat up after just a year and a half), I love the huge back yard (even though there are many trees that need to be removed and it's too shady to grow grass in more than half the yard), I love having the basement playroom with the full bath, I love the huge laundry room (although it would be nice to have a laundry room upstairs), I love the garage with the work bench, I love our neighbors on one side, and I love how close we are to the elementary school. But there are lots of things I don't love. I like the layout, but the dimensions of all the rooms are a bit too small (except the basement and master bedroom). It's very hard to fit furniture into the rooms. (It's a good thing we don't have any decent furniture!) The kitchen is pretty small, and doesn't have enough drawer space, nor does it have a nice big pantry! The master bathroom is kind of weird, because the area with the sinks is open to the bedroom.

So anyway, when we moved in, we were thinking that we wouldn't be staying there forever. (Mistake number 2! Buy a house that you wouldn't mind staying in forever!) We thought maybe 5 years, 6 or 7 max. Meanwhile, the market tanked and housing prices started spiraling downward. My astute husband could foresee the market bottoming out wayyyyyyy lower than what we paid for our house, and rather than continue to lose equity and get stuck in a house and a neighborhood we don't love, we decided to cut our losses and put the house on the market and see what happens. Since we weren't desperate to sell, we felt like we could wait for a good offer. And worse case scenario, we don't accept any offers and we end up stuck, no worse for the wear. But fortunately, our patience paid off. We've stopped the bleeding! Now we plan to find a place to rent for a few years as we look for our dream house and the dream location.

Which brings me to the silver lining of losing $52,000. Hopefully, we'll be moving to an area much closer to the city, which will significantly reduce our commute. When we first looked at moving out to the suburbs where we ended up, I really struggled with how it would affect our quality of life. We were living in a cramped condo with a tiny kitchen, but it was a great area and only 8 miles from work. So what's more important to quality of life--having a shorter commute and more time at home? Or having a nice house with a big yard and lots of room in a nice area? It would be great to have both, and maybe one day we will. But after doing the long commute for one and a half years, I think I'm ready to tolerate a smaller place with not-so-great amenities in exchange for a shorter commute and more time (and less stress!). The frustrating thing is that when we first moved to the 'burbs, I swear the commute wasn't that bad. We were getting home at 5:15 or 5:30 at the latest. But traffic seems to be getting progressively worse, and now that I'm dropping off/picking up two kids from daycare, that adds time to our day, too.

Anyway, although I've had really mixed feelings about selling our house, I know now it's the right thing to do. When we first put our house on the market, our families gave us a lot of crap. Everyone kept saying that the market will go back up, we just have to ride it out, if we sell now, we'll lose money, this is the worst time to sell, yada yada yada. When it comes to all things money, though, I completely trust my husband. And his research and his instincts told him that the market is going to continue to drop, and will probably bottom out at 2001 prices, and then stay there for a long, long time. So add that to the fact that our daily grind is really wearing me down, and it just makes sense to bail. And I think the current state of the economy and the real estate market is proving Ed right. But even if he turns out to be wrong, I still trust him 100%, and want him to follow his instincts. You don't learn if you don't take risks.

So now we're looking at rentals and locations and whether we want to rent a townhouse or a single family home. Ed would like to not have to deal with yardwork for a while. But I hate the thought of not having a yard for William to play in. We MUST have a place for his sandbox! LOL. Who knows what we will find. We're keeping an open mind, that's for sure. Our closing isn't until April 20, so there's a good bit of time between now and then. And the fat lady hasn't sung yet, so there's always the chance the deal could fall through. Still, the potential for change for the better is exciting! And while I worry about William having a hard time with the move, I know he'll be fine. He just wants to be where we are and will adjust like everyone else.

Time to Blog

I've been having a really hard time lately finding time to blog. Between traffic and me having to stay at work a bit later now (our HR department decided to crack down on the 8.5 hour day--I was working 8 hours and skipping lunch, but can't do that anymore), we've not been getting home until 6:00 p.m. I try to feed the boys dinner at 6:30, but since William usually needs (and deserves) my undivided attention the minute we get home for at least 15-30 minutes, we haven't been eating until closer to 7:00, and our whole schedule has been pushed back by half an hour. So Seth's not going to sleep until 7:45 or 8 and William's not going to sleep until 8:15 or 8:30. I haven't been wrapping up my evening "chores" until about 9:30. And all I want to do by then is crawl into bed. So I haven't been blogging. I really wish we had about two more hours in each day. Too bad time can't evolve like people do!

Despite the drudgery of life right now, things are going well. Seth and William are both healthy, and it's going on two weeks. Seth has not sustained any more serious injuries (other than the bruises and bumps that accompany a cruising, fearless baby). William has been showing more interest in the potty. He's been peeing in the toilet for a while, when prompted (doesn't tell us when he needs to go yet), and he's just this week started sitting on the potty to "try" to poop. This is a big step. In the past, he's always refused to sit on the potty. He hasn't actually pooped yet, but we'll get there. Fortunately, they're working on it at daycare, with the chart and stickers and peer pressure. I'm really not worrying very much about it. They'll tell me when they think he's ready to get serious. Yet another HUGE benefit to daycare.

Seth has started cruising with a vengeance. He's walking behind push toys and trying to keep up with William. He loves drinking out of sippy cups--especially if he can swipe William's! He's sleeping so much better, too. He typically wakes up once, around 4:00 or 4:30 to drink a bottle. He lost over a pound while he was sick, so I'm reluctant to make him give up that nighttime bottle just yet. He's starting to eat table food but still loves his bottles.

So that's our life right now. I shouldn't complain. Really, I have nothing to complain about. We have good jobs, a place to live, families, and our health. Everything else is gravy. And anyway, things might be changing a bit in the not-too-distant future--for the better. But I'll have to save that for another post! (How's that for a cliffhanger?)