My Two Little Angels

What a difference two days can make! I think that Tuesday's venting session was good for me because after ranting on about my seamingly possessed children, we've all done much better the last couple of days. I'm back to thinking that my babies are perfect little angels. I think my mood is totally dependent on whether Owen takes a nap; and I also think he totally knows that he has this superpower!

Some things that have changed my perspective and made my heart swell:

• I keep remembering this conversation that I had with Owen on Sunday: Owen- "Mommy, why are we going to church?" Me- To worhsip God. Owen- "But how did he get dirty and what are we going to use to wash him?"


• Every time Sutton's crying (usually in the car) I hear Owen say to him, "Oh, it's OK Sutton, Mommy and Owen are here." Awe, tear.


• And last, but definitely not least: EVERY time I look at Sutton he gets the biggest, happiest grin on his face! How could I not smile back!

I've really tried to enjoy my time with the kids lately, especially since I know that at some point here I'm actually going to get a job and have to leave them. So, Owen and I have done a lot of fun things around the house lately. Including lots of painting, bike riding, and cooking. One of our favorites is to set up all his trains on the coffee table and then have Sutton "walk" and knock them all off. I wonder what our neighbors think when they hear us screaming: "Look out... here comes the giant baby monster!" Sutton is so smiley and easy-going during the day that it's really tempting to just put him down and try to get stuff done around the house. But, I'm trying to instead get down on the floor with him and enjoy his world with him. I know he's getting big way too fast and I don't want to miss anything. Those of you who know me know how hard it is for me to ignore stuff like cleaning my house and doing my hair and makeup. HAHA! Ok, so maybe that part is easy.

Anyway... here's an update on our sleeping situation: Tuesday night I told Owen no more food until the sun comes up! He didn't cry for as long as I thought (thanks to Colin for dealing with him), and then last night he slept through the night!! He woke up a little early (6am) because he had to go potty... but that's more than fine with me.
I read in a baby book that 90% of babies sleep through the night by 3 months. 90%! This made me so sick I almost threw up!! I mostly feel disgusted by it because neither of my kids were even close to this... so it must be my fault!! Aagghh! Help, I broke my kids! So, I decided that it was time. Sorry Sutton. I read that if you want your kids to sleep through the night, they have to beable to self-soothe. And if you want them to beable to self-soothe, they have to beable to fall asleep on their own. Wow, sounds so simple... and yet I hadn't done anything to get Sutton to beable to do any of these things! So, last night instead of letting Sutton be the high-maintenance sleeper that he is, we decided to put him down awake and let him cry it out. This was a little complicated by the fact that while trying to keep him awake later so that he would be tired, he totally just conked out in my arms. So, I had to wake him up and feed him so that he would be able to fall asleep on his own. We did the whole thing where you comfort him after 1 minute, then 5, then 10, etc. And comfort him cannot mean picking him up. It took about an hour of this, but then he went to sleep!!! By himself!! I think it was a mini miracle. Anyway, I still did his two feedings in the night because I figure we better just work on one step at a time. But, we did the same thing whenever he woke up and it wasn't time to eat... and he fell asleep without us picking him up everytime!!

So... I think we're on our way to some actual sleep!