About sleep and other topics

I'm home all by myself in peace and quiet today. I've been fighting allergies and/or a cold (not sure which) for going on 3 weeks now. I should have taken a day off a long time ago, but here I am. I feel better today than I did all last week. Better late than never. I've got comfy clothes on, a Caribou Hot Apple Blast by my side, TV, and a few projects I'd like to get started on. And a nap. There will be napping.

If the boys weren't such early birds I could get more sleep! Ben nurses at about 7:20 and is passed out and in bed by 7:45 every night. He wakes up, pretty reliably, at 5:00 on the dot every morning. He's finally sleeping through the night. I decided once he turned 10 months that I needed to be done nursing him in the middle of the night when he woke up. I loved that quiet time with him in the dark, but it was more for selfish reasons that I allowed it. A good sleeping habit is more important than midnight nursing (good Lord, have we learned that!). We had about a week of really rough nights. We timed it pretty poorly and sleep training ended up coinciding with teething. After a few nights of Ibuprofen and after his teeth cut through, something clicked and he's been sleeping much better since. Sometimes after I nurse him when he wakes up in the morning he falls back asleep and lets me snuggle him up.

Now if we could pass that sleep through the night dust to Colin that would be great. I don't think he'll ever sleep all night consistently. He has blanket issues. He's pretty helpless in the middle of the night and needs help covering himself up at some point almost every night. And now he's switched his preference in HOW to cover him up. He use to want to be snug as a bug in a rug, but now he wants it "smooth like the bike path." ::sigh:: 3 year olds. As soon as he hears that someone in the house is awake, he's awake too. He doesn't want to miss anything.

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Not about sleep...

I worked on Colin's Halloween costume yesterday and finished it. He's going on a "field trip" to the child development class at the high school, and they were supposed to wear their costume so I had to rush and finish it. I haven't seen him wear it yet, so I hope it's cute. I can't tell you what it is yet. Ben's going to be adorable too.

We have officially paid off our first credit card and now our snowball is rolling and growing very quickly! Our second credit card should be paid off in December! This feels SO good. I also just enrolled two new kids for piano lessons and there are quite a few more interested. The money from all of these new students is going straight to the credit cards.

I have an iPhone now. Kevin gave me his hand-me-down. That is part of the reason for the lack of pictures and the lack of updates. It will be nice to have it for piano lessons--scheduling, recording, etc.

10 months old on 10/10!

Happy Golden Monthday, Ben!

(picture up soon)

Benny is a busy boy! He's learning things left and right, which is so fun to witness, even the second time around.

Ben can sign "more" while he's eating (and "more" and "more" and "more".....). He might also be signing milk. The sign for it is squeezing your hand like you're milking a cow. When I say milk and if he wants some, he waves his hand up and down. He eats pretty much everything except peanut butter. Sandy gave him strawberries this week, which I secretly raised an eyebrow to, but he didn't seem to have a reaction towards them. We're loving the Baby Lead Weaning Method, and so does he. He loves to feed himself, and goes to town on things like chicken, hamburger, broccoli, sweet potato fries, green beans, waffles/pancakes, scrambled eggs, etc. etc. etc. He even likes green peppers!

His repetitive babble is becoming more meaningful. I swear he said "ni ni da da" (night night Dadda) the other night. He also says "dadadada," "mamamama" and "non non non," which may mean either milk or night time because I feel like he only says it when we're sitting in the chair getting ready to rock and nurse.

Ben has mastered cruising around furniture. How he's walking either on his knees or feet pushing objects or toys around. He can even stand on his own for a few seconds. I'd love it if he'd hold off on the walking for another month :)

His first top tooth cut through today. He's been doing okay with teething, even though his gums are so swollen and sore looking. His teething necklace seems to do a pretty good job of keeping him in a good mood. Aside from being a little more clingy at times, he's tolerating it well.

We're working on getting Ben to sleep through the night. I haven't nursed him in the middle of the night for a week now. Oh, except for last night when he had already been awake for an hour and a half and his teeth were bothering him, he had already been re-medicated with ibuprofen and got a swipe of Orajel. What he really needed was good old fashioned Mama comfort. It was poor timing to do start the crying-it-out right now, but we didn't know his teeth were on the move when we started. Hopefully when they're through he'll start sleeping all night long.

I better start thinking about his 1st birthday! Holy smokes, I can't believe it's just around the corner.

Busy Busy Busy

These next 2 weeks can be over, like, now. Here's a rundown of the events to come:

Tuesday: A student observer from UWRF is coming to my classroom, and make up piano lessons in the evening.
Wednesday: standardized test for my 1st graders, meeting after school, Ben's 10 monthday
Thursday: Parent-Teacher conferences until 7:30 pm
Friday: Vault Denim Party at a co-workers house
Saturday: Cleaning marathon in preparation for an introductory session for some prospective piano students

Sunday: Playing piano in church. yikes! Especially considering look at how much time I have to practice!
Monday: Nothing!!
Tuesday: Student observer, make up piano lessons
Wednesday: make up piano lessons
Thursday: Parent-Teacher conferences until 7:30 (although my last conference is at 6:00 so I can just hang out for the last hour and get stuff done!)

In the past, we've had conferences on Tuesday and Thursday in one week. This time around it's two Thursdays, which is just not fun. By the time I get home it will be 7:45. Hopefully Ben will still be awake for me to put him to sleep. He's usually sleeping by then :(

Pass me the wine. Or ice cream. Or masseuse. Or esthetician who gives great facials.

^See that right there?

My header? Yeah...I realize it's 2 YEARS old. Ben wasn't even a thought when those pictures were taken. I just hate making headers. I'm not good at it, and it takes so much time. So if making headers is something you're good at, you let me know and I'll let you do it for me. No? ::sigh::

EDIT: I got pseudo halfway there by changing the background. Still working on the header :)

EDIT: New header! Although I'm still not happy with it (hello white background!). Stay tuned.