7 Quick Takes (vol. 28)

--- 1 ---

So... the sun's not up yet, so it's still Friday, right?  We'll go with that.

Aaaand, I'm awake and blogging at 5:30 on a Saturday morning because... well, I've been asking myself that question for the last two hours and I haven't figured it out yet.  Seriously.  Is there anything worse than not being able to sleep even though both babies are peacefully sleeping through the night?!

Sleepless ramblings without any pictures.  You've been warned.

--- 2 ---

Okay, yes, of course there are countless things that are actually worse.  Kind of like diphtheria is way worse than a cranky, mildly feverish baby with legs that are obviously sore from multiple needle pricks.

I'm not sure where I was going with that analogy either.  But Liam did have his 6 month doctor visit this week and he did get shots and he was clingy and feverish for a day or two afterwards.  Which has nothing to do with me not sleeping.

--- 3 ---

At least we are only a few days away from officially being on summer vacation. !!! Alex has some meetings Tuesday morning and a faculty luncheon, and then we are kicking off our summer by immediately heading for my tree house.  Yesterday (okay, not really; Thursday) was my last day of classes for the Biblical School.  I'm not sure which is more exciting--I survived my first year of teaching and want to do it again, or my students survived my first year of teaching and want to come back next year.  Either way, it has been an incredible experience to get to walk through the Old Testament with those classes.

--- 4 ---

How is this only number 4?  How do I not have more to say after an unspeakably (unwritably? um, no) long blogging hiatus?

--- 5 ---

I can't give up--I'm more than halfway through.  And I can't start this day off by failing to think of 7 short, unimportant things to throw out into the magical world of the internet.  I don't think I could handle that kind of failure, and before 6am, too.

--- 6 ---

I got an iPhone yesterday (the real yesterday, not the feels-like-yesterday).  I feel so current and trendy... but really, it was kind of necessary (no, not really necessary at all) if Alex ever wanted to be able to use his iPad from work ever again.  Now I can Facetime with my parents and play Bejeweled Blitz any time I want to.

No, not really any time I want to--as soon as M sees it (I managed to hide it from him all yesterday evening) and doesn't get it there will probably be tears.  "Mine? Mitenal have it? Please? Mama? Please? Have it? Show?"  Etc.

--- 7 ---

And on a completely different and much more important note--I'm trying to be much more intentional about remembering and praying for all our fallen servicemen and women this Memorial Day, especially the friends my brothers-in-law have lost.

Go see Jen and the rest for more, better, timelier Quick Takes!  
Happy Friday/Saturday :)

Sleep, glorious sleep!

Saturday night/Sunday early morning were not particularly impressive in the sleep department for either boy.  I'll confess that I started my Mother's Day feeling just the tiniest bit grumpy.  And a little headachey.  And just plain exhausted.  So kind of a normal day.

But we had an absolutely lovely day yesterday.  The boys were very well-behaved at Mass, we had a relaxed breakfast out, Daddy and the boys spoiled me with a necklace, some earrings, and a new scarf (although I'm pretty sure that Liam believes the necklace is intended solely for his own use and resides around my neck merely to provide him with convenient access to it).  The weather was gorgeous and we spent most of the afternoon and evening outside enjoying it (after a brief--okay, almost two hour--date with my computer to finish getting course pages ready for the summer semester to start today).

So all in all it was a wonderful day.  And then.  AND THEN!

The best Mother's Day present of all: sleep.

Liam went down a bit later than usual, conking sometime around 8:30.  Michael was in bed by 9 (sporting an impressive goose egg on his forehead from running straight into a tree shortly before bedtime).  Alex and I have the hardest time getting to be early on Sunday nights because we are just not ready for the weekend to be over--I think we fell asleep about 11.

And then I woke up to Alex's alarm at 5:15.  And of course I had to get  up and go check on Liam to make sure he was still breathing, and of course he was, and of course I almost couldn't go back to sleep because I was so excited that he slept through the night!!!  (And of course I had to immediately plan out facebook and blog announcements for incredible news!)

He must have sensed that there was a vacancy in the bed though, because he woke up just as Alex was leaving for work.  As usual he seemed more ready (readier? apparently--Chrome spell check says yes...) for the day than I was, but I didn't even mind because he slept through the night!!!  I also didn't mind when M woke up 15 minutes later (a whole hour earlier than he usually does), and then wonder of wonders! Liam fell back to sleep while I went to get M out of his crib and slept for another hour and a half.

Oh please oh please oh please let this be the start of a new and glorious age for our family.  We shall call it The Age of Sleep.  And it shall be wonderful.  And ... okay, I'm getting ahead of myself just a bit... you can look forward to a grumpy, whiny blog post sometime in the near future after we go back to our usual 2-4 hour stretches.

And just to keep the wonderfulness going, Michael alternately snuggled with me and danced to Pavarotti at breakfast.

Now, if the house we're going to see this afternoon (!!!) isn't covered in black mold or falling down or infested with ... I don't know, anything ... we'll call it not just a good day but The Standard of Good Days Forever and Ever AMEN.

My Tree House(s)

A mother is never late, nor is she early; she blogs precisely when she means to.

Or something like that.  <<insert link here to post I haven't written yet about why I don't blog nearly as much as I want to>>

So I'm a day couple days late joining Dad and Dene' in blogging about my tree house.  No, I don't have a real tree house, although I've always wanted one.  In fact, in elementary school I wanted to build a tree house in our tree in the back yard.  The only problem was the "tree" was actually just a large lilac bush and so I had to just be content with climbing the three feet to where the trunk divided and sitting there--nothing higher would hold me.  But I digress.

Your tree house is somewhere peaceful and relaxing, maybe somewhere with good memories or somewhere you're looking forward to going in the future.  In other words, it's your "happy place" (but "tree house" sounds way more fun).  It makes for a great relaxation exercise, especially if your mind just won't slow down and let you fall asleep (I hate that).

These are a few of my favorite things...

This boy.

This boy is 6 months old today.  Can you believe it?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the (usual) already/only 6 months paradox.  What a crazy ride.

A crazy sleepless ride, as of late (like, the last month or so).  I'm thinking (hoping?) teething, and when that little bugger pops through we're going to go straight to 6 hour stretches at night (do I dream big or what? but that is seriously my idea of an awesome night).

We're working on solids... sort of.  Liam is not a fan.  Actually he doesn't seem to mind the bananas and sweet potatoes so very much, but he is decidedly not a fan of the spoon unless he gets to hold it.  Perversely he wants nothing to do with one of my favorite inventions ever, the mesh teether.  He's still nursing like a champ and obviously not wanting for lack of nourishment (um, did you see those cheeks in the first picture?) so we're not particularly concerned about his lack of interest in big people food.  M loved pretty much all food from the first taste of bananas at 5 months, but with L I'm thinking we may take a much more laid-back, baby-led weaning approach.

He's been a bit fussier than usual today (again, blaming the still invisible tooth), but generally he is just the happiest little guy.  Like this:

In addition to being tickled, Liam's other favorites include his jumper, the changing table, chewing on anything other than food, and his brother.  Here's his diaper dance:

And this boy.

As discussed before, nap time is always a favorite.  Well, always a favorite for me.  Overall Michael is a great napper, but every now and then (and for really rough weeks sometimes a couple days in a row) he will flat out refuse to nap.  But last week I had a ton I needed to get done for work, and even though I knew it was going to be a napless day (after over an hour of listening to M sing and play in his crib, despite multiple attempts on my part to settle him down and get him to close his eyes and give the nap a chance) I just left him in his crib so I could get my work done.  Liam was sleeping, and Michael was more or less happy, and I needed nap time.  After a while I realized I wasn't hearing any noises from M's room any more, so I stuck my head in to make sure he wasn't up to any mischief, and the above picture is what I found.  He had thrown everything except his pillow out of his crib, and eventually fell asleep under his pillow.  What a lovely surprise.

This week Michael has decided he has had enough of a Mama who tries to finish the sentence (or two, I'll admit) she is reading before responding to whatever incredibly important thing he is saying.  Michael's newest way to get my attention: Mama!  MAMA!  OOO-HOOO!   And now he'll do it forever because I've thoroughly positively reinforced the behavior by laughing my head off the first time he did it.

Puzzles are another current favorite with the big boy.  Michael + puzzles = so much fun.  He has thoroughly mastered his two Thomas puzzles, so we broke out some new ones this week.  Here's a video of him putting one of them together pretty much all by himself.  The whole thing takes a little over ten minutes, but the first minute or so will give you the general idea (find it? fit? fit? no... find it!)

Love my boys so much... even with all of the ooh-hoos! and non-sleeping.  Thank you Lord for these little boys! :)