Week 10
Spencer slept 9-5 one night, followed by two nights of a 4 hour stretch and then every 2 hours. He then surprised me again w/ a 10-6. I have learned not to get overly excited about long stretches of sleep because it is usually followed up by a few nights of short stretches of sleep.
Week 12 he is learning to put himself back down after a brief wake in the sleep cycle. Have also been placing him in the crib to learn to for some alone time prior to (hopefully) a nap while Ian watches a few PBS programs and I get things ready for errands to run. I really don't like Ian watching TV, but if I have no choice PBS has good programs.
Ian has been spelling for quite some time. He knows the alphabet well, however he is not "reading," ie everything he spells reads as "union". Today, 9/21, he was assisting another little boy throw his lunch trash away. When he was done, Ian stood at the trash bin and spelled "Y-O-U - K-N-A-H-T, garbage, garbage!" As he climbed into his seat, he spelled "R-E-C-A-R-O, car seat!"
9/21 tonight during bedtime routine, I sang our usual song, "Goodnight, My Love" accompanied by Ian for the first time. Then he recited "Now I lay me down to sleep..." and "The Lord's Prayer," then closed w/ the sign of the cross. It was one of the most precious moments alone with him, it brought tears to my eyes as I thought of how I would have loved to see my mom be tickled pink by his performance.
I've been forcing myself to get up, get out, get going everyday. It is sooo difficult when the energy is being sucked out of me (literally). I don't think I am doing a good job at letting Matt know how tired I really am as he keeps suggesting activities for me to do with the boys. The days he is free of work and school obligations, he wants to spend w/ the family. I love that. However, honestly, I would love to have those days to myself simply to sleep and recoup from the lack of sleep the previous week and for the lack of sleep for the upcoming week. That will never happen since I am Spencer's food source. On the weekends Matt helps by running a few errands for me. However, he usually prefers to go alone as it will make it faster for him to get back home. Ummm... Yes, it is faster for him, but the problem is I am with both boys alone yet again. No break for me on his days away from work or school. When I run errands, it will easily take 10-15 minutes to get back into the car.
This is how a typical grocery run ends:
1 park the shopping cart behind the van, open hatch
2 start the a/c, open windows to let hot air out
3 place Spencer in the car for safety
4 check/change Ian's diaper/pull-ups on the van bed
5 strap Ian into his seat (this goes quickly if he is not having a temper tantrum from being hungry, tired, over stimulated, or the heat)
6 walk back to Spencer's side to check his diaper (which usually needs to be changed)
7 take Spencer out of his seat to change his diaper on the van bed (hoping he's not too dirty to need a new onsie)
8 strap Spencer back into his seat
9 unload the groceries into the back of the van
10 close the hatch, walk to the driver's side stop the car, take the key
11 QUICKLY walk the shopping cart back to the cart return, run back to the van
Now, one may wonder why I choose to change the boys at the van rather than in the restrooms. The number one reason... Ian. Curious Ian runs a muck, when I change Spencer in the restroom. While at the car, he is either in the shopping cart, or I am changing him, or strapped into his seat. Sometimes I go out of my way to run errands in which I know the stores have covered parking.
Twice this week I've looked into the rear view mirror and realized Ian was not strapped in. The first time we were just about to pull out of our neighborhood, the second time I just pulled onto the freeway. Needless to say, I pulled over immediately to correct my error.
9/17 Monkey Joe's. Our first time back since last summer. Ian had a large time. He explored all the big kid bouncers. He worked up a good sweat.
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| Seriously. I did not do this. Just letters Ian put in random order. |
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