I love my Phil and Teds!

A bit of explanation--we are on vacation in Washington DC, so I have a bit more time on my hands. I'm trying to organize my pictures, and will be writing some things from weeks past, as well as this week.

I saw my first Phil and Ted's single/double stroller in London at Hampton Court when I was pregant with Sam. It seemed like the perfect option for a family because it can hold a baby laying down or a toddler sitting up or a baby laying down and a toddler sitting up or two kids sitting up. What a great invention! When I got home, finding one was rather tricky because they are made in New Zealand, and just entering the market. I thought that in addition to being super functional, mine would be a novelty.

I used the single stroller with Sam all the time, and even walked to the grocery store and used the second seat for the groceries. But this is the first time that I'm really really getting to use it with both boys. Three years later, they aren't such a novelty any more (they are all over DC, and I even saw the Vibe, which I'm salivating over--too bad I don't have an extra $800 lying around.) But they are very cool. Generally, we have it in the two-toddler configuration (see bottom picture). But yesterday, we spent a little too much time at the Air and Space museum, and in about 30 seconds, I was able to change it to what you see in the other three pictures--Eric got an hour nap, and Sam and I could keep playing. :) I'm also using it for Eric's morning nap, hoping that he'll sleep longer than he does, and that we'll leave the hotel before he wakes up. So far, it hasn't happened, but I do push him around the room, and the rocking gets him to sleep :)

Oh, and one more bonus feature--Sam has discovered it as his newest "hiding" spot--Hiding is one of his favorite games.

Picasa, Part 2

This is Eric, on the floor at the Louvre, when he was about as old as Sam in my last post. His ears stick out more and his hair is darker, but other than that, I think they look a lot alike!

Playing with Picasa

Well, I just down loaded Picasa, which is Google's free picture organizer. And I'm just playing around with it to see if I like it. I haven't found a good picture organizer, and we just got a new computer at home. Picasa has a button that says, "Blog This" so I clicked it. And this post is the result. I can't belive how easy it is! Now I can start adding pictures to my posts and posts won't seem so overwhelming! Now if I can only catch up. By the way, this picture is of Sam when he was 6 weeks old. It's amazing how much Sam and Eric look like each other. I'll have to add a picture of Eric too.

Life and More Sleepless Nights

As you can probably tell from my posts, my number one obsession is getting a good night's sleep--which hasn't happened for a very long time.

A few weeks ago, Sam caught a virus, had a fever, etc. He woke up from a nap and refused to talk to Ivan's mother. He just looked at her. She got scared and called 911. They took him to the emergency room and called it a seizure. Was it a seizure? We'll never know. His best buddy who he had played with for a few days in a row did the same thing to his mom, but we didn't find this out until later. Anyway, that was on a Wednesday. They kept him in the hospital overnight and did all sorts of tests. He was annoyed with everyone poking him, sticking him, etc., but he thinks that the fact that he got to ride in an ambulance is really cool. Even cooler, to him, was his IV (or IB, since he can't say his 'v's.) He still has the tape on and absolutely refuses to take it off. I'm thinking about sneaking in one night and loosening it so it falls off when he wakes up in the morning. I was really glad that Ivan's parents could take care of Eric and that Ivan was home to stay the night with Sam in the hospital.

The next Sunday, Ivan left for Spain for 3 weeks. So we resumed our painting projects. A friend of ours has been painting our house and it's so exciting, even though we feel pretty displaced. One night last week, I put the kids to bed and then began practicing the piano accompaniment for our choir for branch conference last Sunday. I said a prayer and made a deal with God ... "since I'm staying up late (for me) to practice this, please help my kids to sleep soundly so that I can get a good night's sleep." (Especially when Ivan is gone, it's hard because I can't ask him to get up with the kids.) I think God has a sense of humor, because this is how my night went:

10:30-I went to bed
12:30 - 12:50 - Fed Eric
1:15 - Sam woke up, crying that he wanted his music on (this is unusual, as he's been a pretty good sleeper lately). I turned on the music and went back to bed.
2:00 - Sam woke up saying that he was "bery" hungry, so I got him some yogurt.
2:15 - Sam slowly eats his yogurt and then starts choking, because he has been sick, so I get him some chicken and a corn muffin.
2:15 - 3:00 - Sam nibbles on his corn muffin while I get more and more impatient.
3:00 - Sam starts yelling and Eric wakes up.
3:10 - I feed Eric
3:30 - I go back and put Sam to bed. He cries that he's hungry. I feel like a bad mom, but then realize that if he was really hungry, he wouldn't be taking tiny bites.
4:00 - Sam is still crying in his crib, so I get out of bed to write emails, since I can't sleep anyway.
4:30 - Sam is asleep, I'm done with my emails, and I go back to bed
6:15 - 6:30 - Eric wakes up to eat. I feed him and take him up to Ivan's parents.
7:00 - Ivan's alarm clock goes off because I forgot to turn it off.
7:45 - Sam wakes up. I take him upstairs and then go back to bed.
9:30 - I wake up for the day. Thank goodness for Ivan's parents!

I was actually able to make it through the next day, so I learned that even if things don't work the way I want them to, I can make it through the day anyway. :)

Eric is still really funny. He loves to talk, but his talking sounds more like yelling. And so does his laughing. It's really loud and sort of stacotto-y. And I think he's pretty punchy because right before he gets so tired that he's grouchy, he gets really giggly and thinks that everything I do is hilarious. Or maybe his laughs are really polite crys? I don't know, but it makes me laugh. There's nothing better than a baby giggling. Eric loves to chew on things. He's in the mouthy stage. He sucks his thumb, sucks my thumb, sucks anything he can get his hands on.

Going on a Trip

So Sam has the travel bug too. Ever since the weather has been nice, he loves to go outside and play. He loves to drive his little car. He always says, "I'm going to go on a trip to Mexico to find Papi." (Ivan works in Mexico and Spain about half of the year.)

Sam is also into his alphabet lately. He likes singing his ABCs. I started singing them when I started brushing his teeth--once on the bottom teeth and once on the top teeth. This is just so I know how long to brush them. But now he likes to sing them too. And yesterday when he was taking a bath, he was playing with bath crayons. He said, "M Mama" and drew several "M"s on the wall.

Eric used to be content to sleep and eat. But now he's a lot more social. He wants to be in the same room with everyone else, and would prefer to be held, tickled, and laughed at at all times. He's very social. Sometimes, he often picks strangers that he likes out of crowds and smiles at them until they notice him. There's nothing more fun than a smiling, giggling baby.

It's a Small World After All

Well, I've been back from Paris for a month now. Wow. How time flies. Maybe I'll get more than one a month as I get rolling.

The sleep thing has been going pretty well. Sam now goes to sleep on his own. About a week after the "I need some love" incident, one night as we were singing and rocking, he actually said, "Put me in my crib, Mama. I want to sleep." So things improved. But those first five days or so were rough.

Paris was ... well, Paris. I love Paris. I could go there year after year and never tire of it. There is always somewhere to go. This year we did a chocolate tour, which I highly recommend. Our guide, Iris, was incredible. We got to taste lots of chocolate and hear stories about chocolate and see some places of Paris that I'd never seen. (Actually, it was right outside the Louvre, but I've always stayed inside the Louvre.) Amazing chocolate.

Eric did really well. I'm going to try to post a few pictures of him in his Baby Bjorn. He slept the entire flight over. Then he slept most of the time in the Baby Bjorn in the morning while I took the group to where they needed to be. Then I would head back to the hotel and enjoy the afternoon reading while he slept. I read the Mr. Darcy trilogy. I have to thank my friend, Dona Griffin, for sending me this thin little baby blanket. It was so soft and thin and it worked out perfectly. I could lay it over his head to block the sights, sounds, and wind, and not worry about him suffocating.

So before I left, I was emailing my friend, Anne, whose husband is a traveling opera star, and she goes with him. In January, they spent a month in Paris. She met some people in Paris, who have the cutest little girl with blond curls. She took some photos and posted them on her blog (http://www.stuckihouse.blogspot.com/) My first night in Paris, we were coming home from dinner and I saw this little girl in the metro. I thought, "It must be the jetlag." I rubbed my eyes, and we were going in the same direction. I said to them, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" They said, "Yes." "Do you know Anne Stucki?" They looked at me like I was strange, but said, "Yes." I couldn't believe it. What are the chances? Of the 11 million people in Paris, what are the chances that we would both be in the Rambuteau station at the same time?

This is Eric and I in front of Notre Dame ...

"I Need Some Love!"

It shouldn't be this hard ... to do more than one post a month. Hopefully, I'll get better at this as I go along. February was pretty much a blur, getting ready to go to Paris (more about that later).

After I went back to work, Sam missed me, so he did what he did last year after we went to Boston in June--demanded that I sing to him and rock him to sleep, which could often take an hour to an hour and a half each night. Mostly, he just wants me to sing "Love at Home," so I've sung that song about 10,000 times in the last year. But every once in a while, "Kumbaya" or "Jesus Came to John the Baptist" is acceptable. Around August, I finally told him that I was only singing "Love at Home" five times each night (you have to set boundaries, right) and the whole rocking to sleep took care of itself. After I went back to work, it started up again. Aaagh. But this time, I had another child to take care of and I was already exhausted. I decided to try what I have always managed to avoid: Cry It Out. The first night he was tired enough to fall asleep after the first ten minutes or so. The second night, he was ready for a fight. After about 20 minutes of crying, he started yelling, "I need some love, mama! Mommmmmyyyyy, I need some love." (Of course it sounded more like, "I need some yuv.") I called my sister and we talked for fifteen minutes about all the benefits of healthy sleep for kids (and, needless to say, their parents.) Who know that the childhood bone breaking rate goes from 17% to 42% for kids who don't sleep well? By the time we finished, he had fallen asleep. Thank goodness for sisters who also have kids!