Family Alive

First, some Josiah adventures …

Analise is still in the middle of potty training. Honestly, it’s like 2 steps forward, one step back, ‘cept we’ve gone back a couple steps in the last week for some reason. Some days are completely accident free in big girl underwear, others are full of accidents, cleaning-up and pull-ups. I’m getting frustrated, but it sure is nice to have half the diapers! Today was a Good day – only one "miss" at school in her pull-up diaper. Tomorrow could be better!

Josiah’s sleeping still isn’t great, but it’s so much better than on our trip Up North. While we were gone, it was so bad. We were all in the same room most of the time, and with all his fussy sleeping, I nursed him practically all night to keep him from waking Analise. Or I’d end up on a couch, letting him sleep on my chest. Not good sleeping for 16 days straight. But now that we’re back home, he’ll start in his bed, wake up after about 5 hours and come to bed with me to nurse for 30 minutes to an hour, then he’s so restless I’ll put him in his swing, where he stays until the early morning. Not ideal, but I’m getting some rest, finally, so I guess it’ll work for a while. He has been putting himself to sleep for his naps, though, which is a nice relief, and he’s napping a little more regularly. He’s crawling backwards all over the place, and I think since he’s figured out how to navigate in revers, he may not ever go forwards! He just loves his big sister… it’s the sweetest thing, and it just melts my heart to see him stare at her and light up with a big smile when she talks to him or plays with her. But then there are the moments when he reaches out to her tantalizingly beautiful hair and gets a handful…

Funny story… The alarm clock next to our bed was fast about a week ago. We thought at first that Brian was changing the time when he was changing his alarm in the middle of the night/early morning. But then he realized he wasn’t doing it, and we thought Analise might be messing with it. But after resetting it before going to bed, and waking up to find it more than an hour and a half fast, we were thoroughly stumped. Even unplugging it and resetting it didn’t work, so it’s consistently fast… and not just fast, but getting faster. So in our interrupted sleep state, we kind of feel like we’re in a time warp. I’ll ask Brian what time he came to bed, or try to remember what time I fed Josiah, and we try to figure it out based on the other clocks we might have glimpsed. For a while, though, those other clocks were all off due to a brief power outage. We were a mess. On the to-get list THIS WEEK… a new alarm clock. This is driving me crazy!

We’ve been on a mission to get our basement cleaned up and organized. We’ve got a nice little area set up for my scrapbooking and other work, and an area cleaned up to be a play area. Brian’s working on his office area. It feels so good to have another space in the house for the kids to do things while we get things done downstairs! We’ve gotten our bedroom completely back to pre-baby, which is so WONDERFUL. No more co-sleeper next to the bed, no more changing table, no more diapers overflowing off the bookshelf, no more Josiah clothes taking over my dresser. I even have my quiet time corner back with it’s comfy chair and candles. AND I’ve even had a couple quiet times there. Feels good! Josiah’s room is looking great, and I think he’s getting more comfortable in it every day. He’s even happy to go play in his crib while I do a few things.

Analise on our way home last night: "I want a coffee macchiato, too, Daddy."
"No, sweetheart, you’re too little for coffee. I’ll make you a hot chocolate at home."
"Ok, I’m going to like hot chocolate. Go get it now."
"No, I’ll make it when we get home, ok?"
"No, from the coffee store, please."
(We didn’t go back to Starbucks to feed her expensive tastes. I made her a tepid chocolate – bc she thinks things that are too hot are "spicy" – at home. She sat in her little chair holding onto her mug with both hands, slurping it up and enjoying the marshmallows. It was so cute. Until she had a wet-pants accident. Then it wasn’t so cute.)