Yeah, I haven’t blogged in like a month or something. But that’s because it has been crazy around here. School started and life ensued and I have not had a spare moment, even to shower. seriously. I usually wait until Daniel gets home from work. And yes. That means I spend a good majority of my time interacting with humans at the store, or at Liam’s preschool … in my pajamas. whatever. That is absolutely the least of my worries.
Remember when I said Ray was a good baby. I take it back. It’s not necessarily that he’s a bad baby …. just that he’s not an easy baby …. so Ray is a hard baby. About a month ago we enetered the naptime dilemma. Ray is about 3 1/2 months old now and he started showing signs of nap regularity about a month ago. At about two weeks ago, all hell broke loose. He was not napping at ALL in the afternoon, but he was super tired, but couldn’t go to sleep and stay asleep, so he was miserable and therefore I have been miserable. I have to count my blessings. Ray sleeps through the night just fine. Goes down around 9 pm (ish) and gets up like clockwork around 7:30 am. So thank heaven for that. But the rest of the hours of the day are a mess. He’ll sleep for 40 minutes and then be awake for 2-3 hours, then sleep for 10 minutes and then wake up when I lay him in his bed, then he’ll pass out in the swing for like 30 minutes and be awake and screaming after that. Like I said – it’s a mess. And don’t even ask about what I’m doing. I’ve done it all.
I am religious about naptimes. With Noah, I lived and died by naptimes – I skipped church meetings if he was napping. But I can NOT get a handle on Ray. I got a swing and a noise maker for his room that pleasantly plays ocean waves and makes white noise too because I thought Noah and Liam were waking him up. I’ve read “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby” and I’m starting furiously in on “Baby Wise”. I’ve swaddled him. I’ve rocked him to sleep, nursed him to sleep, walked him to sleep. I’ve let him cry it out. I’ve put him to sleep awake but tired. I have kept a record of his wakeful hours vs. sleep hours (really more like sleep “minutes”). I went off of dairy because I thought it was affecting his tummy and keeping him up. I just started a gluten free diet today to see if that makes a difference. I’ve driven him around in the car to sleep.
As Liam would say “It’s not wuh-king!” Anyway, so there’s that. It is affecting everything else. The laundry doesn’t get done, the house is slightly messy kind of all the time (which makes me crazy), dinners are hit and miss and forget about excersizing the 34 extra pounds that have taken up residence on my middle, bum and thighs. Whatever. I will figure it out. eventually. But until then, it is day in and day out insanity. Right now I should be making dinner. Daniel will be home in an hour. But Noah and Liam are playing their Lego Star Wars game downstairs and Ray fell asleep in his carseat, so I am taking a moment to write down what’s been going on.
Liam started preschool for the first time this year. He will only have one year of preschool before he starts kindergarten, unlike Noah who had 2 years, but I think this is better for Liam. After the second day of preschool, Liam’s teacher, Mrs. Yessler, came up to me and said, “We were a bit weepy today”. She said this with the sweetest smile on her face and nodding reassuringly at the same time. It was cute. I asked her why and when and she told him it was at circle time. So when I got home I asked Liam about it and he didn’t have a lot to say (very typical Liam – to not have much to say. I blame Daniel). I didn’t think much of it, maybe it was just new and second day of preschool jitters. Then I took Liam to his third day (he only goes MWF) and as we drove into the parking lot of preschool Liam said, “I don’t want to go to my class. I don’t like their rules”. I parked and said it was OK, he’d get used to their rules and it was time to go in. Liam burst into tears. It was so super sad to see his fat face crying about preschool.
I asked him why he was crying and he tearfully exclaimed, “I don’t know where to sit at suh-cle (circle) time! Mrs. Yes-wer (Yessler) said to we-member where we sat and to sit down and I don’t we-member where to sit!” So cute and sad at the same time. He had fears about circle time! And was worried he’d sit in the wrong place, so instead of asking “where do we sit?” Mrs. Yessler had told me the day before, that Liam had stood by the circle and cried. We’ve been working on “using your words” to express your needs and wants, but Liam still expects people to read his mind …. or at least read his very obvious and telling eyes 
We went in and talked to Mrs. Yessler together and she said she’d help Liam find a place to sit. When I went to pick him up, she said that Liam had been her “little buddy” all day. My little Liam. He’s such a beautiful, squishy, sensitive soul.
Noah, on the flip side, is LOVING school. He could not be happier. He is in his element. He makes friends and knows their first and last names. wha? seriously, what 6 year old knows their friends’ first and last names?? … Noah. That’s who. He is also starting piano lessons this week. He seems like such a big boy now.
After the first two days of first grade for Noah, I decided to skip out on the ridiculous mayhem that was the front of the school pick-up situation. So, I told Noah and showed him where I would wait for him at the back of the school. So, the next day, I sat there in my car waiting to see Noah. And he showed up. He waited for the crossing guard lady to tell him it was OK to cross the street and then he did and then he looked for me and saw our car and came running for us, backpack on and lunch bag in his hand swinging. I almost had tears in my eyes. Weird huh? But he has his little life all figured out. He goes to recess, has friends he sits with at lunch, friends he plays football with at recess and now he walks to the back of the school and finds our car. I don’t know, I guess it doesn’t sound like much, but it seems like such a huge jump in responsibility from last year. I had to get out of my car and walk up to the front of the school everyday to pick him up, he only went for half days, he only brought a snack to school and there was no recess. Ah, my Noah seems so grown up.
Well, times up. Now Daniel will be home in a half hour, no dinner is made, I haven’t showered and there’s laundry half folded all over my bed. Plus, who knows how many more minutes I have before Ray wakes up – it’s all guesswork these days.
That’s what is up.