Bathtime

Tonight in the bath, Nicholas lined up all his Little People on the side of the tub. Then he took them down, said to me "Pushin' me. Kids. Time out." and put them facedown on the other side of the tub. Hmm. Maybe the discipline is starting to sink in. (Though, for the record, I don't put him facedown when he has a time out. I presume that was the Little-People-in-a-tub version of sitting on a chair.)

I've Got Nothin'

My mind is a blank! But I said I'd post every day for a month to get back in the habit, and I don't have time to write anything big . . .

Oh! So I took the kids for flu shots yesterday. I took them to a different HMO location than we usually go to (which is also different from our usual NaPro family doctor, who's out of network). It was nuts! I got one, too, and it was kind of hilarious. I went first, and it freaked Sarah out to see me get a shot. Then Nick got the flu mist, which he thought was really weird, and he protested quite a bit and then seemed really surprised and confused once it was done. Sarah went last, and the poor little thing tensed her leg before the shot, and the nurse kept going on about how strong her legs were.

I always get really sore from the shot--my arm seems to hurt forever! But today I also have body aches like the actual flu. I looked up side effects online, and that seems to be a common one (I had to look it up online because they actually didn't give me the literature on it, and I'm one of those people who reads every word of the warnings. I only realized it as I was walking out the door with the kids, and there was no way I was going back in to get it. So, anyway, I'll blame my lack of brainpower today on that and call it a night!

She Did It!

Hallelujah! Tonight was Night 13 of sleep training, the first night of tucking Sarah in and leaving the room. She did great! For the first time in the whole 13 nights, she was asleep before 8:00--and for the first time ever, we put her to bed and she fell asleep in her crib, by herself! Hooray!

Sleepy Post

I had spiritual formation class tonight. Man, it rocks! I finally feel like I understand what people say when they talk about having a personal relationship with God. So, I'm working on it . . . slowly, but (with the help of the Holy Spirit, of course) I'm working on it.

At our class last week, we received copies of the personal revelations to Catalina Rivas about the mass (you can find it here if you click the "View PDF" link under The Holy Mass). I've started reading it, but haven't finished yet. It's pretty amazing so far, though.

OK, that's it for tonight!

Just in case . . .

Today was Sarah's 18-month check-up. She did really well. She's still in about the 80th percentile for height, which clearly comes from Mr. X, because I'm 5'2". The assistant took her temperature, and when she (the assistant) said "thermometer," Sarah repeated it--not very clearly, but we all understood her. Apparently, she told everyone in the office, because when the PA came in, he had the following conversation with Sarah:

PA: So, I heard you said thermometer!
Sarah: Yeah.
PA: Did you say thermometer?
Sarah: Yeah.
PA: Can you say thermometer?
Sarah: Yeah.
PA: Can you say thermometer again now?
Sarah: Yeah.

And that was all she would say about that.

Tonight, I read Nicholas one of his favorite books, Goodnight Goon, as a bedtime story. It's a parody of Goodnight Moon (we actually sent him that book, along with video and audio recordings of us reading it, in a care package while we were waiting for the adoption to go through) with monsters. Our friends sent Goodnight Goon for Halloween, and it became an instant favorite. And just in case I'm ever feeling vain, I can just pull that book out, because both kids almost always point to Frankenstein's monster and say "Mommy!"

The Couch is Getting Old

The sleep training is going well, thank God! But I want my bed back! Today, I was folding laundry on the bed (since we're not sleeping in the bed while we do Sarah's sleep training, the bed was actually made for a change!) and first Sarah wanted to sit on my lap and nurse, then Nick wanted to climb up and play, and then Mr. X came in and joined us, so we all lay on the bed for a few minutes. The couch is getting old! I have actually been sleeping on the guest bed the last two nights, because Mr. X has taken the night wakings for the weekend.

But even though I'm a little bit sad about not having Sarah cuddling with me at night, it will be really nice to have our bedroom back again! The plan right now it so finish up the sleep training (right now, whichever of us is putting her to sleep--usually me at naptime and Mr. X at bedtime) is sitting right outside the door, with the door open so she can see us, until she falls asleep. After two more nights of that, we'll start tucking her in and then leaving the room and checking on her every 5 or 10 minutes until she falls asleep. And if that goes well, then after three nights we'll move her crib into Nick's room and reclaim our bedroom! I can't wait!

Company

We had friends over for dinner tonight. It was the typical scenario. We woke up, figured out shopping lists, got ourselves all stressed out, and spent the morning running all the errands. I got the kids down for their naps, at which point Mr. X got back from his half of the errands. We started in on the cooking, got the kids up from naps and let them watch the new Thomas the Tank Engine DVD we got from the library this morning while we did the panicked cleaning. By the time our friends arrived, the house was not totally embarrassing, the dinner was just about ready, and we were exhausted!

I'm glad we did it, though. It's so nice to get to spend some time with friends. We had a nice time, we've got lots of leftovers in the fridge, and the house will be in much better shape for relaxing tomorrow. Now I'm going to go collapse!