Ready.gov

Have you seen those family emergency plan commercials? I can see the value of them, especially when the kids won't be with one of us 24/7. However, for the life we currently lead, instead of a family emergency plan, we use the hunting emergency plan. Haven't heard of it? It looks something like this:

Hunter: Justin Cline
Accompanied by: no one
Date of departure: 11/8/09
Date of return (unless success or emergency dictates earlier return): 11/11/09
Mode of transportation: Jeep, then bike and trailer, then foot
Address: Rattlesnake Wilderness Area, east fork of Rattlesnake Creek
Cell phone: coverage not available
Gear: bike, trailer, backpack, rifle
Potential health problems: bears, mountain lions, wolves, and crazed moose
Emergency contacts: Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Search and Rescue
Day/time at which emergency contact should be contacted: 7pm, 11/11/09

Simultaneously sobering and entertaining. We'll find out Wednesday if things go according to plan!

Change in the air

This was a very challenging week for us. As you already know, our kids have been off their regular sleeping routines. I continued to get less than 6 hours of sleep a night between the two of them waking up and needing to be soothed back to sleep.

Madeleine seems to be at a huge transition. From what we know/what I've read, the transition from 2 to 3 can be very overwhelming for toddlers, sometimes causing them to regress in behavior to feel "safe" as they enter this new stage of independence. For Madeleine, I believe that explains why she began sucking on her fingers regularly (reminiscent of the comfort babies receive from nursing) and wanting to be held/rocked to sleep. She continues to not nap, although she still yawns and rubs her eyes all afternoon, but that's been tolerable. She at least now has initiated her old bedtime routine and falls asleep without any resistance while getting back tickles...a HUGE improvement! And she even slept through the night last night which improved her disposition for the entirety of today. One problem I have is remember she's only 2.5! Because she wears 4T tops (I know!), 3T pants, and is 35 pounds, it's easy to not want to pick her up because she's huge and expect more of her because she's as tall as many 4 year olds. That's definitely my issue, not hers.

Parker continues to fight falling asleep at night. Fortunately it only takes about 10 minutes of crying for him to crash but it doesn't last for long. I still think he's jazzed up about walking and has a hard time slowing down in spite of our bedtime routine. And he's so much fun to watch that it's hard to force him to stop even when we know there's an exhausted baby under all of that walking and babbling. Again...my issue.

Justin's out hunting today through Wednesday (fortunately his cold dissipated this week) so I'm flying solo but it will be worth it come Friday when we go out to celebrate my birthday! If you have any karaoke suggestions, send them my way :)

Sleepless in Missoula

I believe that out of the last 36 hours, I've been alone (i.e., without a child within a foot of me) for 6 hours. What the heck is happening?!? Madeleine is fighting sleep so I'm not making her nap in the afternoons and instead attempting to put her down for bed early. I've had to rock her to sleep the last two nights but at least she's falling asleep without screaming. As for Mr. P...we have no idea what his problem is. He is starting to walk and that may be the reason for his hyperactive state when he wakes up at night. Oh yeah...he's walking. I was really excited about it until he started not falling asleep easily. That was the one thing we've had going for us over the last 2.5 years: Madeleine is a great sleeper once she's asleep, Parker is great at putting himself to sleep until this past weekend. All positive thoughts and prayers sent our way would be appreciated :)

We did manage to fit in some fun today on what's maybe the first sunny day we've had in over a week. We walked over the the playground and played in the sand, on the swings and went down the slide. Parker had lots of fun learning from Madeleine how to fill a bucket with sand. He enjoyed it so much that he preferred doing that while Madeleine went down the slide. I tried to show some of the fun we had, along with a picture of Parker sucking down his smoothie this evening!

* By the way, the OD on candy apparently worked because I haven't yet caught the cold that the kids and Justin still have. Yeah for Reeses and Butterfingers!

Bright spots

Some photos to make up for my whining...

Parker's birthday "party." We skyped with my parents and they watched the kids eat cake. Bedtime that night proved to be as difficult as hogtying an octopus. Sugar does a doozy on our kids! The rest of the pics are random from the last month...Oreo's antics, Madeleine's pirate face, Parker getting stuck in random places, Madeleine painting, and the kids sporting Messiah gear I picked up while visiting PA.

Little Miss Muffet

I hate it when things blindside you and turn life on it's head. After the last two weeks I'm way more compassionate towards little Ms. Muffet. That stinkin' spider! The nerve. Our spider has been in the form of a wicked cold that has turned our kids into stewing pots of germs. Madeleine's had it for a week, preventing her from attending the free H1N1 clinic last Friday that Justin took Parker to only to stand in the cold and rain for 4 hours waiting to be seen. No surprise his nose started running the next day. He can't sleep for longer than 3.5 hours at a time without waking up and that usually doesn't happen until after 3am. Before then he's constantly waking up crying. This has not helped Justin's and my attempts to stay healthy. One's body can only fight so hard when sleep comes in 45 minute chunks.

With the rivers of snot come mountains of laundry. I hate feeling coated in grossness at the end of the day so I'm constantly running a load of something that has just been slimed. Nasty.

Since a few weeks ago, Madeleine's been on a screaming kick whenever she finds something upsetting. Lately the upsetting item has been "loud" noises. I put that in quotes because I think she must either have a hearing problem or is just hyper-sensitive these days. She's also fighting sleep; she'd prefer to whine incessantly. Maybe this will move us more quickly towards the toddler bed. For now I'm thinking of investing in earplugs.

Then the jeep's clutch and heater core broke. Mildly inconvenient to our schedule; majorly inconvenient to our pocketbook.

Maggie's been chewing her leg raw so we bandaged it only to find her gnawing up higher above the wrap. Grrrr....

Did I mention we had almost an inch of snow on the ground this morning too?

Not my type of October. November has to be better, even though Justin ruined the surprise birthday party he was planning for me. No biggie...we had already planned on going to a redneck karaoke bar but nevertheless, he spilled the beans about the others who were going to be waiting for me there to yell "surprise." With that being said, I'm tempted to keep the porch light off this Saturday and stuff myself full of reeses, m&ms and skittles. Maybe it will help coat my sore throat...

A busy week

This past week was full of fun events which prevented us from celebrating Parker's birthday until Friday. First there was my final soccer game; I had a bunch of shots on goal and even got one in the net! I managed to play both the first and last games of the season...2 out of 5 isn't great but I still had a lot of fun. My quads held up pretty well although I'm spending the winter conditioning and strengthening them so I can play every game in the spring. We didn't get any action shots because it was really cold, dark and foggy but here I am after the game (first picture courtesy of Madeleine).

That was Wednesday night. Thursday night Madeleine and I had haircut appointments. This was Madeleine's first official haircut. I had trimmed her bangs a few times over the last 2.5 years but this was the real deal with Justin's and my hairdresser (I love saying that!) Katt. The fact that her name is Katt and she plays on my soccer team helped this go over really, really well. Unfortunately Madeleine lost it when Katt was using the blow dryer to help process my highlights because it was pretty loud, not to mention it was almost 7pm! So I got my hair colored but had to reschedule my cut for this coming week.

Before we left

In the big chair with her crazy locks.

Trimmed and pretty

I don't have any post-coloring pictures of me yet...just ones Madeleine took in the process so here is one more flattering picture of me :)

Happy birthday little monkey!

10 things I've learned over the last 12 months...

1. I know nothing about children

2. Just because your first kid sleeps through the night at 8 weeks doesn't mean your second will ever do so

3. Dog food, toilet paper, cat fur, hair ties, etc. can't hurt Parker's digestive system

4. Life does go on without ice cream and cheese

5. Chasing a half naked baby mid-way through changing their diaper can be the most frustrating and funny thing in the world

6. A sister is usually funnier than momma or daddy

7. We don't own enough toy cars or balls

8. Some babies will never, ever use a bottle

9. Weaning a baby is bittersweet

10. I never want another infant, although I'd go through it all over again with Parker

Happy birthday little monkey. We love you so much, even when you refuse to take your afternoon nap :)