Interview

Wendy at Adoption & Fire has asked to interview those who follow her blog (and she follows ours, too!). I figured I was game...so here's her question for me:

You are celebrating your 11th anniversary being married. What advice would you give a young couple about to be married? How have you grown as a person since you were first married? And has having a child changed your marriage?

You may have noticed I said Megan gave us an anniversary present of walking by herself on our anniversary. If not, we celebrated 11 years of marriage on October 4th. So, to the question...

Advice for young married couples: never say something without thinking how the other person will respond to what you have to say. Always think before you speak. Always. You absolutely cannot take words back, and as much as you apologize for something you said without thinking, they truly can never be forgotten.

Now to the area I'm truly "best" at: advice to newly married (or soon-to-be married) women. There are several things I like to share, but it all pretty much can be summed up in one area. No matter how much you cannot believe it (and don't want to accept it), you are the manager of the household. That does NOT mean that you do it all, it simply means you "manage" the household chores to ensure they get done. The approach you use to work with your husband to complete the household chores is key; it must be teamwork. It doesn't get messy by one person, it shouldn't be cleaned up by one person. That's my philosophy, anyways. And, he truly does NOT see what needs to be done. Honest. He doesn't. Watch the tone in how you ask if he'd be willing to do this particular chore--or better yet list the things that need to be done and discuss who's willing to complete which ones.

How have I grown as a person...well, I'm far more patient, accepting and willing to give the benefit of the doubt than before I got married. I also think that I ask more questions before reacting now, but that could be more to having more education than before, I don't know.

Has Megan changed our marriage. Um, ABSOLUTELY. It took us quite a while to find time to talk about our day with a kid who would only sleep when touching one of us (preferably me). Since she goes to bed so early (back then it was 5:30!), it meant whoever put her to sleep holding her (and thus not talking) until we were ready for bed--um, that means all evening. And since she was awake every 90 minutes or so all night long, whoever was "on duty" (me when DH worked) slept in the extra bedroom with Megan so at least one of us would get some sleep. There was not much time for each other. Period. But, now she's sleeping by herself. She's sleeping more through the night. So that means once she's in bed (around 7pm), we have time to catch up, discuss different household problems, Megan problems/excitements, make decisions, etc. Things are so much better, but for 10 of those 11 years we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Now, we have to do everything around Megan's eating and sleeping schedule. It's definitely different, but I think we are enjoying our new life.

How the heck...

...do I get little Miss Megan to sleep past 4 am???? I cannot figure it out. Maybe I'm over educated? (haha) Really. Any ideas? It's been since DH was in the hospital that she slept past 4am. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining that she sleeps pretty much without interruption from 7pm (maybe a bit earlier) to 4am. BUT COME ON!!!! I've tried pushing breakfast back to closer to 6am. Didn't seem to matter (but she's frequently not a big breakfast eater). I've tried keeping her room cooler...warmer...with music...without music. I've tried scooping her up and rocking her right away hoping she'll go back to sleep. I've tried leaving her in there. Nothing seems to work. And yet, I know she's still sleepy. The other day I was changing her nighttime diaper and she signed "bath", meaning, I want to take a bath, watch my movie and go back to sleep. I thought it was funny, to be quite honest!

I do have to say that naps are getting better. We can almost guarantee she'll sleep at least an hour, then will likely go back to sleep in our arms for anywhere from 15-30 minutes. This morning she slept for over 90 minutes almost all in her bed! So, even putting her down for morning nap at 8am, she's still wakes up when she used to go down for her nap at 8:30...typically between 9:30-10am. She stays right on schedule!

According to the reading I'm doing on sleep, she should be getting between 13-14 hours of sleep...we're getting around 12. Yes, that is more than it's EVER been...but if she'd just sleep until AT LEAST 5:30...I'd be so much happier (and so would she)! The ideas the book offers are really for older kids--reasoning with them why it's not morning time. Other ideas are that it's too bright (not), too noisy (she's the only one up!)...nope not applicable.

I'm fine if she is a natural morning person (I am too), but 4 AM?! I saw someone note their daughter was getting up at "the butt crack of dawn"...um, yeah. Except that she's up before dawn EVERY CONSIDERS cracking. Heck, she's up to wake the roosters to wake everyone else up.

Please...advice needed BADLY!!!!

(I know, no photos, I'll find some later.)

Just stuff

Calculator as Phone

Busy watching Signing Time probably Vol. 2

Megan has started putting everything up to her ear like a phone. She doesn't say anything, but she tilts her head like she's talking on it, then hands it to me to talk on it too. If she can grab my cell phone, she loves to use that. But one day it was her rings (of course), another day it was the magnets to the LeapFrog Farm Animal toy on the frig. And in this photo, it's a calculator. She wouldn't, of course, hold it there long enough for me to snap the actual photo, but you get the idea.

She loves to watching "her movie" (aka Signing Time). I think it's her favorite part of the day when in the morning after bath she gets to watch her movie while I get ready. I thought Vol. 2 was a little advanced for her (at least conceptually) with signs like "share", "your turn", "my turn", "clean", "dirty", but she has learned so many of the signs already. I started a list so I can ask her to sign different things when she's wiggly on the changing table (it makes her straighten right up and anxiously await what sign I'm going to ask her next!). She can sign over 30 signs. That's a LOT of signs! She knows when the movie is about done, and that we then have milk and take a nap. It's part of the routine, I guess. I've considered making Vol. 1 part of the lunchtime/afternoon nap routine. She goes to sleep so much easier when she knows what comes next. I feel like I kind of "spring" afternoon nap on her. I mean she has lunch, then plays a little, then we have milk and take a nap. But, she has such a hard time winding down between playing, milk and sleeping. I tried the movie one day and it seemed to work really well, then (honestly) I've been lazy since then. I have to decide if I want to give it to her in our room (like the 1st one) or the living room (where's there are lots of toys & distractions). Then it impacts my ability to eat lunch, besides it's 30 minutes. But, I need to just buck it up and pay attention to time so she can try it. And I think in our room is the best. I can shut the door so she's stuck in there with me...and she can crawl around our room, but mostly just pay attention to the movie. I think I'll do it again today and see what happens.

Megan continues to work on her walking abilities...and is improving every day! I'm so anxious for her to chose walking over crawling.

NanaLin noted that almost every picture Megan has her rings either in her hands or somewhere near. I guess I'm so used to seeing them with her all the time, I hadn't really noticed. But when I look back at her walking video, she has them in her hands. How funny.

Dissertation update: with DH in the hospital and recovering all these days, my plans went a rye for a few weeks. But, I'm back at it. After talking to my chairperson, I've moved to actually doing some research while she's napping (and/or when Grandma V comes to play). Some asked about my topic...so here is it (in a nutshell)...I'm looking at students who participated in community service while attending their institution (college or university) and if they were satisfied with their education at that institution. Additionally, I'm looking at whether if they could start over, they would return to that institution. I may look at historical data..I may look at one lone institution...I may look at national data...but it's all based on an annual survey conducted at many institutions. I'm not sure on that part. I may throw in some demographic data, I'm not sure. At this point, I'm simply looking for other research out there--and coming up with my justification on whether this is "study worthy" or not. So far, I'm finding reason to research it simply because there seems to be nothing that looks at these 2 things together. There's the update.

I think that's enough for now...back to grading papers.

She's Walking

She decided today to really begin standing more on her own...and actually walking! YEAH, Megan! Today's our 11th Wedding Anniversary...what an excellent "present"!!!

New Abilities

Newest Family photo
(taken on Tuesday)

Today has been quite the day for little Miss Megan! For the first time, she took about 5 steps by herself! YEAH, Megan. We've been really working hard to encourage her to walk by herself...our goal for her is that she would walk on her own before DH goes back to work in about 2 weeks. I think we can do it. She's so close. We're having her walk to each other several times a day. I'm anxious for her to walk. She's so difficult to keep under "wraps" in stores. All she wants to do is get down and crawl around. I'm not about to let her do that...hence the reason she needs to get walking! Yes, I'll have to chase her, but you wouldn't believe how fast she can crawl. Really. And she'll be down so she won't be wiggling in my arms.

The other thing she did today...which was amazing and hilarious at the same time. It was about 4:45pm and she was hungry. I figured she was hungry because she was SSSOOOOOOO crabby and it was about dinner time. She did her usual "look at me--I want something" scream. I replied in my usual way "well, my goodness!" as I turned and looked her. What did she do???? She signed "more" then "eat" then "please". Her first sentence. There are so many amazing things about that, but the most amazing thing is that I have ONLY EVER had her sign "please" when she is walking with her walker and she's bumped up against something and needs me to turn it around for her. The fact that she put it with her desparate desire to eat is absolutely amazing.

So, there you have it...the latest news at our house!

Video

Megan has started saying more words...she LOVES dogs. I don't mean loves, I mean can spot them anywhere and everywhere we go LOVES! Not only does she frantically sign "dog" when she sees them, but now she has advanced to her version of "ruff-ruff". But, her new favorite word is "Irish". Poor Dakota is out in the cold, but I honestly don't think she cares. So, here she is with her version of "Irish". We were just getting ready to put pjs on for bed, hence the "naked" baby look.

And a special surprise from my Secret Blog Pal arrived yesterday!

Chocolate & Relaxing music, I agree, what more could I ask for?

Thanks so much! Neither I nor DH could keep our hands off the chocolate. In fact, I'm sort of surprised there was any left this morning!

6 Month Anniversary

April 1, 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008


September 2008

October 2008

She has changed so much over these 6 months...it's amazing!

Congrats....and Welcome

Congrats to Megan's uncle (Mom's brother), Collin, and his recent engagement to Gina. Welcome to the wild and crazy family, Gina! I know the in-laws are looking forward to having new member in the "club".

Megan sends kisses (she always does).

Random Stuff

A few random things I thought of this morning while sitting in the rocking chair rocking a sleeping Megan...

• She's sleeping so much better. She'll still fuss a few times (and/or lose her paci), but for the past week--minus a few nights--she's slept from 7pm to 5am(ish, this morning it was almost 6am).
• She can eat more than me...literally. She loves eggs and can eat almost 2 eggs, and that doesn't include the peas, carrots and 4 (or more) ounces of diluted juice she drinks.
  
• She crawls so fast...and moves pretty darn fast with her walker too. We're still right on the verge of walking, hopefully soon!
• She has gone from sitting to standing several times without using anything to help pull herself up.
• She loves to read books by herself...it's so cute to see her "reading" some of her favorites...then making the same sounds she does when we're reading it to her (aka at the end of 2 books she makes this cute little hum...she does the same when she's reading her books)
• She will "disappear" to her room to play with her favorite ball toy (it gives her position away--it plays music when she plays with it)
• She plays by herself quite a bit. Her favorite toys are still her rings, books, and phones. Speaking of phones, she's started putting her phones next to her ear as though she is talking on it. Then she hands it to Mom for Mom to talk on it, too.
• She loves to sign "thank you". She'll even sign it if I say it to her (as in, thank you, Megan for handing me something you are not supposed to have). It's so cute!
• Speaking of signs...she now signs "please" and "potty" too. The other morning Irish came into her room when I was rocking her. She looked at him, looked at me, and signed "potty". I said, "yes, I think Irish needs to go potty." Too cute.

I've been reading the book The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers and have learned all sorts of things.

1. If I push back breakfast until about the time I desire her to wake up, she'll learn to wait until then to wake up. I've been doing this, and it seems to be helping. At least for the past few days, it has.
2. If after a few minutes of being awake she's crabby, she wasn't ready to wake up. If she wakes up cheerful, she's well rested and got enough sleep.
3. Kids her age need 13-14 hours of sleep (between naps and nighttime), and bedtime should be right when she seems tired and we put her to bed (between 6:30 and 7:30pm). The last 2 days she's gotten about 12 hrs, and things are much better.
4. Behavior of kids who are over tired include: temper tantrums, uncooperative behavior/overly stubborn, crabbiness, hyperactive, doesn't seem as happy as she should be, falls asleep everywhere (we don't have that problem!), hard time falling asleep. These are all problems we've seen. It's nice to know that it's not just her spicy-ness that makes her stubborn (although that could play a part) and her age doesn't necessarily mean we have to have temper tantrums as frequently as we have seen.
   
5. No changes to the bedtime/sleep routine will have an immediate impact. She says it could take up to 5-6 months. I think we've noticed this...if I think back to when we first got her, yes, we've been working on better sleep patterns the entire time. We've slowly gotten to where we are. There are few adjustments we're making, but are happy that we've been doing pretty much what the book suggests (I guess you could argue, it's the reason we've had success!).
6. What you feed your child for supper/bedtime snack impact their ability to sleep. I've not noticed this so much for Megan, but then we've only been watching for about a week.
   

Our talents...

Here's new video...for Cousin Ashley who loves Megan videos! She's signing several of the ASL signs she knows (of course they are the Megan version!). She's learned them a Baby Einstein Signing Video, but her favorites are the Signing Time ones. We just got Volume 2, which has some signs with pretty complex concepts (share, your turn, my turn, friends), but she's still learning from it! She learned go, stop and book. I forgot to have her sign baby on the video. And it's one of the cutest ones she does! Sorry!

We're back to not sleeping well, again. The last 2 nights have been pretty bad, although Tuesday night was worse (she was wake from 1-4am). Last night she fussed (aka typically lost her paci) almost every hour. At the advise of Debbie, I've started a new book The No-Cry Sleep Solution for toddlers and preschoolers, I've actually gotten a bit read (surprisingly). It seems pretty good, thus far, but I'm still in the information gathering stage on Megan's sleep patterns.

Another Secret Blog Pal Surprise!

Modeling her new "head gear"!

Yum...

Yesterday...I get the mail...to find a "most excellent" surprise! And believe it or not, I didn't break into the yummy chocolate until...THIS MORNING! Is it bad to have chocolate for breakfast? Or rather...pre-breakfast? I didn't think so...

He's Home!

Just a quick post...

Hubby is home....moving slow, but home. He enjoyed a short nap in his own, comfortable bed. Megan's so glad to have him home!!! You should have seen her face when she woke up from her nap and Dad was home! It was precious.

More tomorrow (hopefully).

Hubby's Health

Thank goodness the good Doctor Cole is back today! Hubby remained on the clear liquid diet all weekend. The doctor on call was concerned his white blood cell count was rising which caused them to be concerned about infection. So this morning Hubby had 2 CT scans to see if they could see a pocket of infection in his abdomen. They came back fine, but did show some possible pneumonia in his lungs. He has to walk more (therefore causing him to take deeper breaths) and they changed his antibiotic this afternoon. He was also able to eat a sandwich (which he was pretty darn excited about!) after we gave him a shower. If his white blood cell counts go down tomorrow morning and continue going down on Wednesday, he will come home on Wednesday.

As far as Megan sleeping...I'm happy to report that she essentially slept all night. Literally. She was asleep from a little before 7pm until a little after 4am! She woke up for the first time at midnight, but fell back to sleep about 30 minutes after I gave her tynelol. She then fell back to sleep in my arms in the rocker and slept about an hour more. I felt so good today (even though I was awake at 4am)! I pray tonight is a repeat!

Update

Hubby is making progress. Our prayers are working! He's moving around more (and better) and completed "the list" yesterday, but unfortunately, they kept him on clear liquids yesterday anyways. So, that means today will be full liquids. Hopefully tomorrow will be solids then Tuesday home. That's a guess at this point, but I'm thinking that's likely what will happen. So, that means at least 2 more nights. ugh. Megan is missing Dad terribly, too.

I am absolutely exhausted at this point. Last night was okay. Megan woke up quite a bit, like probably every 90 minutes or so. I did sleep when she did, but I'm still really tired. This morning Megan is crabby--I think her teeth are bothering her. She's got swollen gums on both sides of the top as well as seems to be working on at least one tooth on the bottom. At midnight, I could hear her chewing on her paci, so I got up and gave her some tynelol which seemed to help her sleep better.

So, that's the update.

Quick Update

A new favorite game!

Dad is still in the hospital. We had hoped he would be coming home tomorrow, but there's a list of things he has to do before he can even eat solid foods. He hasn't completed the list yet (who knew farting was so important!!!). The doctor said this morning that he'll be in the hospital through Sunday at least. That is so crappy. When I got the news this morning, I tried not to have a meltdown...and at this point, I'm just trying to not think about it. He's tired of being in the hospital bed and really ready for a real shower! If you are the praying kind, we could use it. Pray that his body "wakes up" so he's able to eat solid food. He hasn't eaten since last Friday night. That's a long time. He's had clear liquids, but that's it. Pray that I have strength to be with Megan 24/7. There's many hard parts, but I think the hardest is not having an adult to talk to all day. One year olds have a pretty limited vocabulary and understanding and regular temper tantrums get tiresome! I am very grateful that Grandma V has come over the past few days to take care of Megan so I can run to the hospital for a few hours without her.

On a good news front...Megan slept from 11pm to 4am last night! I could not believe it! It's the first time she's slept 5 consecutive hours! Can you say progress?? Of course from 10-11pm she was pretty much up the entire hour. But, I was so grateful...I desperately needed that much sleep! Pray that tonight and subsequent nights will be as good!

I'll keep you posted...as time (and energy) permits!

16 Months Old

My little book worm

A few things of note:

• 2 new teeth have finally popped through on the top. She now has 6 teeth! She's working on a few on the bottom, too.
  
• She loves to sign different things while she's falling asleep. There's nothing funnier than her signing "fish" or "ball" or "car" while trying to fall asleep!
• She is desperately missing her Daddy who is in the hospital! (And so is Mommy!)
• She loves books. When she finds the book bin, she has to empty it, but not before flipping threw several of her favorites.
• She loves to eat. This child can put it away like you cannot imagine...especially peas. She LOVES peas. She's gotten very good finger control with her left hand, the right hand isn't nearly as effective.
  
• She can softly/gently/carefully pet the dogs now. She used to pull on their fur after giving them "nice pets" (aka pats), but now she just gives the nice pets (much to the dogs delight!).
• She loves to play the "dada/mama" game. Its the game where she says "dada" (which is all the time) and I say "no, mama". We can go back and forth for quite a while. I do switch it up by saying "nana" (to which she promptly kisses) or "n-te" (for auntie--there's too many to get her name them). It's now gotten to where we have also "signing wars"--I sign "mama" and she signs "dada". Pretty funny, actually.
• She loves it when I'm changing her diaper and I ask her "what's the sign for..." I really need to make a list of the ones she knows because I often can't remember which ones to ask her anymore!
• She loves to look at her photo book of different people in her life. She loves to point at diffent ones. This is another diversion when changing the diaper

That's all I can think of right now...funny how I can think of all sorts of things when I'm not at the computer!

Happy 16th month Birthday, Megan. We love you so much!

Is it Waist or Waste? Hmmm

First the "waist" part...Dad's been sick for several days. I mean sicker than he's ever been in the 13 years we've been together. Finally, Monday evening after 3 days of serious sickness, I made him to go CareNow. They promptly told him he had appendicitis and he needed to go to the hospital (it was 10pm at that point). So, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa, he made it to the hospital. Waited. Had a CT Scan. Waited. Found out his appendix had ruptured. Waited. Had surgery this morning at about 6am. Megan & I made it to the hospital about 15 minutes after surgery started. It took longer than they expected because they could not do it orthoscopically. He now has about a 4 inch scar.

Now, the "waste" part...well, since I couldn't go to the hospital with Dad, I hardly slept. I was awake until after 12:30am thinking, wondering what was happening, thinking about how I needed to be asleep, thinking. Megan did fuss a bit during this time, but then she settled down. Since both grandparents were at the hospital, I KNEW I had to sleep. There was no back up plan! So, I slept from about 1 to 3:45ish when Megan realized she had lost her paci. Then I laid there wondering why they hadn't called. I mean I was sleeping with my cell phone IN MY HAND to ensure I would catch the call, but no call came. I tried calling, but Dad's cell phone was off, so I had to wait until he called me. He did finally call about 4:30 with the CT Scan results/surgery plan. I knew Megan was still asleep and would likely sleep for a bit longer, so I jumped in the shower to be that much closer to leaving for the hospital. She slept until 5am for first time in at least a week. Hence, the waste...a wasted opportunity to sleep past 4am! darn it. Hopefully she'll sleep that late tomorrow too! I certainly need the sleep.

In fact, I'm heading to bed now.

Fellow Frappuccino Lovers

I receive a daily email from Everyday Cheapskate from Mary Hunt (one of my favorite frugal inspirations). The original email contained other excellent icy drinks, you can see it HERE. You can sign up for it and see other issues by clicking HERE. I, personally, use French Vanilla coffee, which gives it a delightful vanilla flavor. I've not braved into other flavors, but others would likely be great too. The great thing is that I can buy fresh grounds at the grocery store for $7 a pound!

Almost Starbucks Frappuccino

3 ounces hot espresso*
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups milk (low-fat is okay)
1 tablespoon dry pectin** (Starbucks' secret ingredient)
1 cup ice
whipped cream (optional)

Stir the sugar into the hot espresso. Allow to cool. Stir the milk and pectin into the espresso mixture until dissolved. Fill a glass with ice and pour the mixture over, or pour the ingredients plus ice into the blender and process on "frappe" for 30 to 45 seconds. Pour into glasses and top with whipped cream. Yield: four 6-ounce servings.

*If you do not have an espresso maker, brew double-strength coffee by doubling the amount of grinds. Starbucks uses Italian Roast.
**Look for pectin (used in home canning to thicken jams and jellies) in the grocery store's baking (or canning) aisle.

I don't get 4 servings (imagine that!), only 2. I make it every other day, save the extra one for the next morning! It's just as yummy on day 2!

Photos

playing with her rings, her favorite toy

this is the I want to play "where's Megan?" pose

Megan consistently "pauses" when she's crawling and makes this pose.
I've been trying to get it on photo for a while.

Last night Megan was wired. I think having just a small amount of grape jelly on some toast was enough to make her completely crazy--in a cute way, of course! She was being so silly. Got some good photos. Enjoy!

A Public Commitment

I've not written much on here about the dissertation I'm supposed to be working...simply because I want this to be mostly about Megan (and she's the reason for my not working on it! Well, maybe not entirely, but mostly.) But, I decided this morning...this is it. I need to jump in and really work on it hard. What's tough about it for me is that Megan does need so much of my time when she's awake. Besides who can form many intelligent sentences when you have a 16 month old in the background you have your eye on and your ear listening to? Well, maybe there are some talents folks out there that can, but I can't.

So, in sitting down to write this morning while she was napping, I decided I'm making a commitment--and then I decided I needed to blog the said commitment so I'm not the only one who knows I've made it (well, besides DH)! Can we say accountability? Yep, unfortunately. Back to my commitment...I'm going to write (aka journaling at this point) every morning when Megan naps. It's not much time, but then today I've gotten an hour, so one never knows! I'm not giving up her afternoon naps for writing (although I probably should, and will at some point in the future) as I need to rest during these times since nights are typically not that great. My body and brain need the rest.

Now it's out there...in fact, I wonder if every once in a while I need to post my progress. As in...I'm still just journaling about this and that, or I'm now onto writing my thoughts about my topic, or I'm actually now researching my topic, etc. I probably will. I don't know how often I will, but if you think of it, ask me the status. That will definitely keep me writing. It has to. If I'm going to get done by December 2009, I have about 16 months to get this done in. That's not much time. And as fast as the last 5.5 have gone since Megan came home, it's going to come fast.