Frustration, Christmas and Giving thanks!

Today is a very frustrating day. It didnt start out that way but it has ended up that way! As I stated in my previous post my son has decided that he doesnt want to sleep anymore. I was about to call it a Christmas miracle when the past two nights he slept through the night! (I am very grateful for that! My body was starting to feel the effects of no sleep!) However, naptimes are a completely different story. He has gone from taking two naps a day to almost zero! His naps have ranged from 15 minutes to the most at 45 minutes this past week. I love my son and i love spending time with him but his naptimes were great because that is when i was able to get things done..ie-cleaning, cooking/baking, or just time for myself. So needless to say i havent been able to do very much this past week. So of course he decides to do this the week before Christmas when i have taken on the task of having my family to our place for Christmas. I do not deal well with disorganization (However you would never know it if you were to see my place right now!) and I was hoping for a day of cleaning and preparing for my family to come! Well that has gone down the tubes, my son has not napped all day and after fighting with him for 2 hours to take a nap i gave up on that ever happening! So my parents come tomorrow, the guest room is not clean, the litterboxes are not clean, the bathrooms are not clean and i cant bring myself mentally to sit down and plan out a food shopping list. I know that my family could care less, but its me that cares and takes pride in the fact that my house was well put together and clean.  I am not a great cook so it was something that made up for that!  Thus it is hard to let go and not get upset over! So lately my husband has been coming home to not only the most unelaborate meals but a messy disorganized house! I am grateful that he could care less, so i dont know why it bothers me so much! I guess cause i would like to put myself on that list of "supermoms" but fail that time and time again! But on the other hand i am grateful! I have come across blogs lately of other moms who's children deal with horrible diseases every day! One of them being EB (dont remember the full word..) But its basically a horrible skin condition that when their skin comes in contact with things it cause blisters and bleeding, rubbing the skin off, in some cases this is fatal! (thats the short of it) These children are in pain everyday but yet they still smile and their parents are still smiling and giving thanks despite their situations! Check out this mom's blog and her son Tripp http://randycourtneytripproth.blogspot.com/ These children and all children have so much to teach us. So screw the house, screw the cooking, screw the naptimes! (sorry if thats harsh!) But i'm grateful that we are healthy (minus a few colds!), I am grateful that we have a roof over our heads, i am grateful that my husband has a job, i am grateful that we have food on the table, i am grateful that we have clothes on our back, and most of all i am grateful that i have a saviour that came to earth only to experience pain and suffering on my part! So i sit here while my very awake son toddles around, destroying everything in his path and i am grateful that he can walk, that he can break things, and that he can scream at me! (although ask me again tomorrow! j/k!) And thus i'm learning to be grateful (and ok) with my not so clean house! Sorry for the crazy babblings but i need to go as my son is currently unwrapping all the gifts under the tree!

                                            Caught Red Handed,,but oh so cute doing it!

                                     "But i dont want coal in my stocking! I promise that i will be good!"

                                                              and then i turned my back!!

Too Cute Tuesday!

                                                            Love him in the mornings!!

                                                            Check out my new slippers!

Guess who needs a diaper change?

                                                 

                                                                                 Ooops i made a mess!

                                                           early child slave labour, doesnt seem to upset by it!

                                                  Little does she know this whole time i've been blowing my nose in it! haha!
                                             (no wonder he was so happy to be wiping everything)

Sleep Training

Today was a long day. I had the joy of resleep training Lucas. One word "FUN"! I had done this previously when he was oh probably around 5-6 months old. And it did work and he did sleep..well mostly anyways. He still woke up for the occasional feed here and there but usually only once a night! I can handle that! Well he decided to throw that out the window a couple weeks/month ago and only recently it has started to get really bad! Now if you were to ask me how all that training dissappeared i wouldnt know what to tell you. I believe it had a little something to do with teething and the fact that he has a larger version of himself  ( i wont name names! lol) wrapped around his little pinky sometimes. And well i confess that i tend to cave as well! One look at the pouty littly monkey face and your done! And throw into the mix that fact that when he is sad he says "Momma" over and over! So instead of letting him calm himself down he used his little monkey charms to get us to rock him! At first it was maybe once every few nights..but lately it has been every night! And into the night as well! Well as you can imagine i am not too fond of having to do this in the middle of the night for any longer than 5 minutes. I am much too cranky of a person at 3:00 am..thus my patience is even thinner than during the daytime! And every since he started walking he would rather be awake and exploring than allowing his parents/mom to recover from the hurricane that ran around the house all day! So needless to say Saturday night was the last straw when he decided that he didnt want to sleep anymore..it would have been fine if it was say..7:00 am..no i lie..8:30am!! Well he must have felt like playing with a growly bear cause he woke up at 3:00 am and stayed up! No amount of rocking, sooshing, cuddling, threats, kisses, bouncing, nursing was going to convince him that bears were really scary and he should go back to sleep! Finally after letting him scream/cry for what seemed like an eternity i was able to return to my nice warm den at 5:30 in the morning to the blissfully ignorant snores of my husband! Last night wasnt much better..this time he decided that 6:00 am was a great time. I might have been able to drag my butt out of bed if it wasnt for the fact that he didnt go to sleep until midnight! So today turned into the day that i was going to change this not so welcoming habit! Truthfully i thought that it was going to go really well! Boy did he prove me wrong! For both naps I caved and rocked him...he slept for a total of 5 mins the first nap and 15 minutes the second. Lets just say that growly bears dont just come out a night!! They turn up as little children as well! So the research began (when i could evade the growls and snaps of a bear at my feet!) And i came up with a sleep plan! The short of it, NO MORE ROCKING..i know it sounds evil but it is necessary for my sanity and thus the sanity of people that come in contact with me! So tonight, we did bedtime routine and put him in his crib and rubbed his head and shushed him for a minute or two and than just stood there like an ominous scarecrow..just willing him to try to stand up and scream..but he didnt..he layed there and was comforted by my presence (i must not have been very ominous! Just wait till daddy stands there!!) He hugged his little zebra and passed out! boo ya! Success! Well that lasted for an hour! And than i got to do it all over again..go in..lay him down, rub his head, shush him and stand there! He layed there and eventually fell asleep again. I have a feeling that i might be standing a lot tonight!! But each night i am hoping and praying that it gets easier and easier for him to put himself back to sleep! And each night i will get further and further away from his crib when i am standing. This is my sleep plan. I will let you know if this works! If you call me and i sound a little gruff on the phone..well its not! :P But i'm too stubborn to give up! Too bad my child is stubborn as well! Oh little monkey...

                                            My view for most the day (hes still so cute when hes upset!)

                           One of the quieter times, he was just sucking his thumb which he never does!