Sweet Baby Nene

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Better days

We've been on a one-wake-up streak for the last two nights. This is much better than three or four times a night, but there is still room for improvement! Tonight James will be sleeping with a new penguin humidifier in his room. I don't know if this will help him, but I'm anxious to get one for MY room!

We went to Tia ChaCha and Tio Rich's for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate Bucka's birthday. 33 never looked so good!

Bucka gives James a Banana phone to call Tia Kiki.

The Boys (minus Rich) watch football playoffs. James is still clutching his banana phone.

Today, Jim wanted to do something fun. We were going to Bacon and Eggs to play, but decided an outside adventure would be more fun. Dada had new boots and snowpants to try out too! James bundled up in his snowsuit from last year and looked so darn cute! He loved the outside! His little cheeks were bright pink but he had so much fun.

James tries to escape at least once a day. Of course I caught him before he made it too close to the street.

Oops, he hit a patch of ice. He laughed.

Ooooh, what's Dada up to?!

What's that?

A sled!

James gets ready to jump on.

The snow is pretty deep.

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James watches Dada go down solo.

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Dada can fly!

Mama, its cold but I like it!

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Jim noticed this the other day. I took a picture of this page because Dora's mom looks like Bucka and Dora's dad looks like Grandpa Frank! And then Diego looks like James :)

Friday, January 9, 2009

Crafty Toddler

I haven't blogged for a while, too tired. James is giving us some problems at night. We are revisiting Cry It Out because he has been waking up multiple times at night, crying and begging for attention or his dropped blankie. So usually he is able to go right back to sleep, but sometimes its only for an hour or so before the next wake-up. This is unacceptable. Jim started his new job this week, this Mama is exhausted, and its just not good for James in the long run to be getting into this habit. So last night, especially, I let James cry it out. I swear I did not sleep myself until 2am.

His first wake-up was soon after his bedtime! At 8ish we heard him crying and we did go to him and hand him back his blankie. Well, not even half an hour later it was another crying session. I let him cry for 10 minutes before I went up. I think that was it until 10:30. The details are all fuzzy after this point because I can't remember if we let him cry each time or if out of our own sleepiness/frustration we did give in and hand him back his blankie. Well, anyway, I got up three more times later that night. I let him cry for 15+ minutes the first two times and I finally TOLD him, if you drop Blankie again, Mama is NOT coming in right away. So that last time I let him cry for 30+ minutes. It was the hardest night. I think from 10:30 on, I slept horribly if at all. Finally at 2am, the last time I went to his room, I went in because he was jumping on the mattress. He hadn't dropped his Blankie but it was hidden underneath his other blanket. So he was reunited with Blankie and slept until Jim got him up for the morning at 6:40.

Again, all of these details are fuzzy because I feel a little out of my mind. I am tired, stressed, and am trying hard to not let this affect Jim as he started his new job. I just hope that this weekend we can "train" him with the Cry It Out to NOT drop the Blankie and expect us to come each time he cries. I know I just need to be strong and think of what's best for him in the long run.

On a positive note, James and I attended our first art class last night. I was a bit disappointed with it but at least we got out of the house and away from the "TC" (TV). I was disappointed because James was the only child for the first 10 minutes (of the 30min) class, and when I asked about how many kids were registered, the instructor said two. So finally another family arrives, but with two kids. They were cute but they sat far from us, and then the instructor gave James and I a "craft kit" and let us fend for ourselves. She spent most of her time with the other family, probably because of the two kids. I did the best I could with the craft, but really it wasn't age appropriate. The class description said 2-6 years old, so I guess we were on the low end of the range, but still. I don't think we'll go back to that class. We have another class next week that I'm anxious to try. Its the MESSY art class :)

James waits on Mama to go to the art class. All bundled up.

I attached the glue dots to the snowflakes and James attached them to the blue heart.

The next craft kit was way too hard so James just played with the pieces.

Dada gets home later now so James was VERY excited to see him once we got home. Actually, during the car ride home, James kept asking "Dada! Where are you?" but it sounded more like- "Dada! Whirrr arrr you?" It was very cute. James very excitedly read books with Dada.

So wish us luck with sleeping this weekend!
Happy Birthday to Bucka Rosie this last Wednesday! We'll see her on Saturday :)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

All About Balls weekend

Sadly, I cannot share the pictures (my laptop is out of commission) from our playdate with Katy (my friend), her daughter Esme, and her son Owen. We met at the Eagle's Nest indoor playground in New Brighton. James loved it there! There is a great older kids' area but also a toddler play area. James loved the ball pit. I tried not to think of germs as he played in there.

Jim had a long weekend off since he finished up his job on Wednesday. He starts his new job on Monday! So we decided that we would do something special, something that we knew James would really, really love. The Children's Museum has an exhibit called "Ball-o-Rama" so we knew we had to take James. We started the day with breakfast at Carol's. James was in heaven with his bowl of bananas. I mean, the kid eats bananas often but it was in a big boy bowl and there was so much for him!

On to the Children's Museum. Here was our first ball stop. James liked to roll the balls down the spiral.

Fun! James discovered the mini golf.

Ooops, looks like he's going to smack Dada upside the head.

Another ball ramp.

Wonder what that guy is laughing at?

Touchdown! (Wrong sport, James!)

In the ball cage-

Dada watched from outside but James still included him in the fun.

James rolled this huge ball through a tunnel/maze.

Oh wow, a bigger ball!

Here's a video summary of Ball-o-rama. The strange man in the video is a reporter from Channel 9 who was filming a segment for the Saturday morning news. We watched the next morning and sure enough, there was James in the background playing with a ball! We did save the show on our DVR but really, it was a quick second that you can see James.

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We left the ball exhibit and headed to the Habitot. I don't know why all the kids thought that the carpet slide was soooo much fun. It looked like it would burn.