Time just keeps on rolling on, doesn't it?
Friday Jesana had an appointment in the afternoon and so Mom and Dad agreed to split up the time off work. Dad had from one until three (usually guaranteed nap time, not that I am counting) and I was supposed to be home from three on. Two thirteen I hear my cell ring at work, but I am not fast enough to answer. Missed call. Jay. As I am calling him back, the office phone is ringing. Jay. When are you coming home? Ummmm. By three. Why? I quote, these children are driving me crazy. Allan wouldn't leave Jay and Griff alone. Griff was desperate to sleep, but couldn't. O.Kay. But Miss Edie (speech therapist) is coming at 3 because we knew one of us would be home and figured that nap time would be over. Wrong.
The boys did great for Edie. Griff had a meltdown or two about sharing the therapy ball, but they might very well have happened because he doesn't particularly relish sharing. By the time she left, though, both boys were hot and tired. Griff passed out at 4:30. We had something like this happen last weekend and Jay insisted on waking him up at 5:30 so that he would go to bed at his regular time. (In fairness, I went along willingly.) Griff then spent the next hour and half crying in misery. We all felt terrible. Finally, after about an hour of it, I told Jay, I am NEVER waking him up again. We will simply deal with the consequences of a late night but we are not intentionally making him miserable again. So yesterday we agreed to just let him ride. A little before six, he started stirring and I went to sit beside him on the couch and pat him. Allan crawled over, got up in my lap, stuck his thumb in his mouth, sighed, and passed out. Great. A nap at six. That's perfect. I called Jay and told him that he might as well stay out because there wasn't anything going on at home. I ate pimento cheese and Chinese cole slaw and did laundry and read the New Yorker.
Griff woke about six thirty, but Allan managed to make it until seven or so. He laid around and sucked his thumb, thought better of being up and slept the rest of the night through. Griff got up and was STARVING. Since we really didn't have dinner last night, I just made scrambled eggs and French Toast sticks (gotta love Eggos). He actually went down at a reasonable time and slept through the night.
Jay has been a real hero about the sleeping thing. He has decided that it is time for Griff to learn to comfort himself and go to sleep on his own. Fine. Jay is not wrong, but I told him that there are certain things that are not in me. I never could get Allan's NG tube down correctly. I could not spend the night at the hospital. And I can not listen to my baby cry and not do something about it. Can.Not.Do.It. I understand that he is fine. I understand that plenty of kids "cry it out" without incident. I simply can not do it. I literally hear one of them stir and before I am conscious of it, I am on my way up. God makes the cry of an infant such that it makes you want to respond. My stomach is in knots before I am even awake. I lack the ability to let either of the boys cry it out. Jay has pulled the mattress off of our bed and has slept in the nursery on the floor for the past two nights. We do bath and books and then Jay puts him down. He is in the room, pats Griff, puts him down, but doesn't hold, rock or keep him in bed. Every night the time between put down and sleep has gotten shorter and I am grateful. Not signing up for that duty, but grateful.
We g0t up this morning and all ran to the farmer's market despite the ridiculous heat (over seventy and humid by nine -- ugh). Got back and Allan and I were relieved to be in the A/C again. It is amazing how much better he feels without the heat and humidity -- it is visible. Griff had his lunch and passed out at 12:15. Momma was looking forward to a peaceful and cool afternoon, but Big Al had other plans. Mine you, he was tired. We snuggled and he went straight to sleep. Until I tried to lay him down. At which point he woke refused to hush. So we moved to another room so as not to wake Griff. (Griff, who slept until after three, God love him.) About every thirty minutes or so I would try to put Big Al to sleep. About every thirty minutes he would snuggle down, fake me out and rally. He finally went to sleep shortly before three. Right as his brother woke up. No kidding. I truly felt that they had arranged it. Brats.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Pensive Allan
Photo courtesy of our friend Tiffany. He just looks so wistful. And you can just see that he has a faint dimple in his chin. Less pronounced that Griff's and Dad's but still there.
Cherry tomatoes
Griffith did not care for cherry tomatoes. Until last night. When he decided that they were pretty much all he wanted to eat. He ate an entire PINT by himself. I had to send Jennifer to the store to pick up more for our salad. He kept yelling, "Ma-mooooos!!!"
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Da-dee!!!
Griff has now started putting the second syllable on "daddy" and it is one of sweetest sounds ever. It is somewhere behind "Mom-mahhhhh!" in my opinion. He has also taken to saying "Hellloooo!" He sounds sort of like Scooby-Doo when he does it. I may have already reported that Griff has begun yelling, "Jay!" sometimes when he can't find his father and he doesn't respond to Da-Dee! It sounds just like me when he does it, too. Cracks me up. He came over to the gate at the kitchen the other night and kept saying something over and over. It took about 3 times before I realized that he was saying "poof" which is what he calls the puffy Chee-toos.
Big Al is getting closer and closer to walking on his own everyday. He routinely walks along the furniture, barely touching it, or holds on lightly to your finger. As soon as he realizes that he's doing it, though, he goes all Ghandi/passive resistance on you and flops to the ground. He is trying really hard to figure out how to stand up in the middle of the floor with nothing to hold on to. He manages to get himself in "downward dog" and then doesn't know where to go from there. He just sort of wallows around for a few minutes, sits back down, sighs and crawls on off.
And Jesana reports that yesterday he said, "uh-oh!" -- a very popular and useful phrase around the house.
Big Al is getting closer and closer to walking on his own everyday. He routinely walks along the furniture, barely touching it, or holds on lightly to your finger. As soon as he realizes that he's doing it, though, he goes all Ghandi/passive resistance on you and flops to the ground. He is trying really hard to figure out how to stand up in the middle of the floor with nothing to hold on to. He manages to get himself in "downward dog" and then doesn't know where to go from there. He just sort of wallows around for a few minutes, sits back down, sighs and crawls on off.
And Jesana reports that yesterday he said, "uh-oh!" -- a very popular and useful phrase around the house.
Big Al had (another) hearing test on Friday. He did fine. Don't come back for a year. Done.
On Saturday, Dad had to attend a funeral out of town so the boys and I loaded up the stroller and jogged done to the farmer's market. Every week it gets bigger and more crowded. This weekend, strawberries were the big thing -- they smelled SO GOOD. We got a quart of berries, fresh corn, tomatoes and basil. Then we hit the local bakery and got a baguette and fresh mozzarella. Yum, yum, yum. With those errands concluded, I had no choice but to jog back home -- much harder since it is all UPhill to home. And it was hot and muggy, too. Air-conditioning felt very welcome by the time we rolled on home.
The boys took pity on me and both took long (over 2 hour) naps, pretty much simultaneously. By the time Dad got back we were all refreshed and relaxed and ready for company -- Jim and Montell came over and we grilled out and sat on the back deck, enjoying the weather.
Sunday was a little harder. The boys fell asleep while on a run with Dad and Griff never recovered. He wouldn't eat lunch, wouldn't take a nap, wouldn't be thwarted and would not be consoled. He finally fell asleep at four, but we (Dad) wanted him up again by 5:30 so that he would sleep that night. Griff was NOT ready to be awakened and I will NEVER EVER DO THAT AGAIN. Griff cried and howled and kicked and screamed and whined and cried and howled and kicked and screamed. It was horrible. He was miserable. We were miserable. Ugh. Never again.
On Saturday, Dad had to attend a funeral out of town so the boys and I loaded up the stroller and jogged done to the farmer's market. Every week it gets bigger and more crowded. This weekend, strawberries were the big thing -- they smelled SO GOOD. We got a quart of berries, fresh corn, tomatoes and basil. Then we hit the local bakery and got a baguette and fresh mozzarella. Yum, yum, yum. With those errands concluded, I had no choice but to jog back home -- much harder since it is all UPhill to home. And it was hot and muggy, too. Air-conditioning felt very welcome by the time we rolled on home.
The boys took pity on me and both took long (over 2 hour) naps, pretty much simultaneously. By the time Dad got back we were all refreshed and relaxed and ready for company -- Jim and Montell came over and we grilled out and sat on the back deck, enjoying the weather.
Sunday was a little harder. The boys fell asleep while on a run with Dad and Griff never recovered. He wouldn't eat lunch, wouldn't take a nap, wouldn't be thwarted and would not be consoled. He finally fell asleep at four, but we (Dad) wanted him up again by 5:30 so that he would sleep that night. Griff was NOT ready to be awakened and I will NEVER EVER DO THAT AGAIN. Griff cried and howled and kicked and screamed and whined and cried and howled and kicked and screamed. It was horrible. He was miserable. We were miserable. Ugh. Never again.
Garden gnome Griff
So Griff went out to help Dad water the flowers. By the time I caught on to what was going on, it was too late -- Griff was soaked. "But he's having a GREAT time!"
Thanks, Jay.
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