For those of you who are curious....yes, we survived the entire two weeks sans Dan. Then Dan came home for a day, and then he left again for a day (this time only to San Fransisco--those day trips to India are kinda crazy!) . But we are all back under one roof.

I have to say that the last little part was really hard. Last Thursday and Friday were parent-teacher conferences. I have not had any problems with parents since I've been teaching. I am good at explaining things, being empathetic and negotiating, offering different solutions, etc. So I don't fear them because of bad past experiences or whatever, but conferences just make me nervous. Maybe this won't be the case after another 10 years, but they're big business to me now!

Then, Dan came home on Sunday and flew out again at 1 on Monday. I had my formal observation on Tuesday. Of course, this was a tough bed-time night for Alex and so he and I were up until about 10, and I was not very happy when I had to get up. I dressed up a little nicer, actually blow-dried my hair all the way, instead of just enough to not look a total mess :-)
It went all right. The kids were great until I had them try to put something together involving tape and two steps. Then it was all over. They had all been sitting, participating, doing a great job, and suddenly the room was full of "Missss Waaaaateeeerssssss...I can't doooooo iiiiiiiit." If this had happened without an observation, I might have had them all stack their things up and I would have done it while they were away, just so we could move on, but I didn't want to forfeit the activity, so we chugged through. We got to the cool second "experiment" --we were studying the brain, so we learned how the skull protects the brain using playdough first in baggies and then in the playdough containers--it was good, they were adequately excited and interested and impressed, but not too rowdy. Of course we didn't get to the "wrap-up" part of the lesson because we had to go to lunch, but whatever.

The end of this story is that later in the day another teacher saw me and said asked if I had my observation that day, or if it was the other first grade teacher. I said actually, we both did, one right after another. She laughed and said that explained it. She had passed the principal earlier in the day and the principal had sighed, shaking her head and said, "Those first grade teachers should be canonized." Yeah, I teach at a Catholic school, so sainthood is the ultimate in compliments :-) Apparently she was not too turned off by all the helplessness.

Dan is trying to put Alex to bed right now. I heard a lot of giggling at first, but then it got serious. Some kicking the wall, and some crying. I guess Daddy disapproved of wall-kicking. My tactic was to move his body so he couldn't kick. This could go on and on, a hundred times. I would try rolling him over, laying him close to me, singing a song, talking about our day, blah, blah, blah. If he got tired first, YEAH. If I got tired first, we'd go the the big bed and try it out there. He didn't kick, although he would stand up and open the window (they open with a little crank thing) and look out at stuff. He would usually fall asleep fairly (FAIRLY is such a subjective word!) quickly in our bed, but I didn't like that precedent. Plus, it felt like "giving in." He USED to go to sleep alone every night. If I just hold on a little longer, I know he'll do it again...right?

It's gotta happen eventually. There are very few 10 year olds who are have to sleep in their parents' bed.

But overall, things are good. Glad to have Dan back. I made some little healthy-yummy lunches for the rest of the week (there is a teacher's menu of stuff to order, but it is all stuff that is less than healthy--sandwiches all on white bread, chicken katsu--this amazing fried-chickenish food that actually seems WORSE for you than KFC...you get the drift...it's just better to bring my own, but if I don't make an effort to do it ahead of time, there's just no way I do it in the morning.

It's bedtime now. I hope that Dan can fix the computer soon so that I can start adding pictures to the blog again!

Sanity Has Returned!

Yes, it's only 8:30 and guess who's asleep? Ahhhhh....and it only took about 20 minutes. I guess it was only a matter of getting used to the newness and the routine.

So, since I'm in such a good mood, it's time to brag :-)

Alex loves to help. I think all kids at this age like to be useful and competent and to be involved in the goings-on of life and chores and activities. Plus, it's a fun way for me to test and add to his vocabulary. (Ex: he can "bring me the book" but yesterday I tried "bring me the bowl" and he looked in earnest for a good 10 seconds before he brought me a shoe. It was long enough that I knew he didn't actually think it was a "bowl" but he just wanted to help so much. Good try, kiddo.)

So, when you say "It's time for a new diaper, Alex runs to the hanging thing that holds the diapers and wipes. It's up pretty high right now, but I'll probably move it soon because he just likes to help and it's kind of sad to see him reaching for these things that are about 2 feet above his head.

Tonight, I asked him to "take the wipes back." He took them back then reached up. I picked him up to put them away. He did. I set him down, and he started to stomp and fuss. I began walking out of the room, and it got worse. I tried taking his hand, he sat down, still reaching up toward the wipes. I thought, "He just wants to pull out all the wipes (a good guess, as he does this every time I leave an unattended package around...hmmm...maybe I'll rethink lowering the hanging thing!)" But, I thought, what the heck and I picked him up. He took the wipes container in his two little hands and turned it a quarter turn. Then let go and looked at me. His eyes said "All done. We can go now." It's a rectangular-shaped baggie package thing. It was on its side. Now it is positioned "correctly."

If I could only get him to think that toys on the floor needed to be positioned correctly somewhere other than the floor, this could be really useful!

Good Morning

Alex woke up at the usual 5:00, although he was puke free :-)

He snuggled in bed with me and slept until 7:30. This is becoming the routine now. And that's fine. As long as I can sleep past 5 on a Sunday, I think I'll keep him.

Do you hear that?

No, you don't. You hear NOTHING. That's because Alex is asleep. Granted it's 9:30, so that's much later than he went to sleep a week ago, but we were only in the falling-asleep mode for about 20 minutes, not the hour or more that it has been all week.

Maybe that's because we started so late and he was just too tired to be playful and wild. Maybe it's because he's finally getting it and knows that he's going to have to go to sleep eventually, so why fight so long. I don't know and I don't care. I'm going to bed early, too :-)

Crazy Mom, Sick Baby

Alex has continued to get up too early every day--before 5. Thursday he went back to sleep OK, but Friday he was UP. So, I put him in his room with the baby gate. This worked pretty well...but there was a catch I'll discuss later...

Thursday evening we went to Stroller Strides. That was nice exercise for Mom and some fun baby interaction for Alex.

Friday afternoon we met Dylan and his mom for some park time. The boys ran around chasing each other and birds, and making sure that everyone knew when an airplane flew by...those boys are so helpful!

Friday evening, Alex and I were playing in his room. I've been trying to make it a normal place to be, because so far he just gets giddy excited when we go in there, and starts jumping on the bed. He'll be rubbing his eyes and acting clearly fussy-tired, but as soon as we go in there for the "calming bedtime ritual" of a couple of books and to lay down, he has all the bed-jumping energy in the world!

Well, Alex decided that he needed to close the door. But it wouldn't close. It was off somehow. Apparently, when I put the gate in the door on Friday morning, I just put it right in the middle of the doorway. (As opposed to making sure the door would close, like I've been doing at night.) Alex tried to close the door when the gate was there, hard enough to pull the little door hinge plate thing out of the wall a little ways.

So, although the plate is on with screws, this did not seem like something I wanted to painstakingly use a screwdriver on, while simultaneously moving a nosy, grabby toddler away. I went for the hammer. Couldn't find it. I could find a pretty hefty wrench, though, so I banged and banged that door hinge plate thing back into place. The door now closes, thank you very much. I am a totally capable handywoman :-)

Saturday started with a bang. Not just a 5am wake up, but a 4am wake up accompanied by VOMIT. Yeah, Alex was screaming from his room and I went get him. His usual tactic is just to yell "Maaaaamaaaaa" so this was strange. He had gotten out of bed and was in the middle of the room, puking. So, I got him undressed and washed off, then redressed and in my bed. He fell back asleep until a respectable 7:30. Thank you, Alex. He's doing all right now. A little droopy, but OK overall.

Seriously, Dan, what did you promise Alex in return for pulling out all this baby "fun" while you were away?!?

It gets better!

So, after yesterday's post, things have gotten more interesting....

I woke up and glanced at the alarm clock some time last night...there were no numbers on it. The face was glowing, but no numbers. It could be 3 am, it could be 6 am...as in IT'S 6 AM AND YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE LATE FOR WORK!!!! Fortunately, it turned out to be 1:50. I could not fix the clock, so I set my phone alarm and went back to sleep.

Alex was great. Slept the whole night. I found him on the floor, though, as he must have rolled off the mattress at some point. I put a comforter around the edge of the mattress for this occasion, though, so at least it was a pretty soft landing.

We ate breakfast and headed out. We were about 5 minutes from the sitter when Alex made some funny noises...turned out to be puking noises. Great. I have stuff that needs to get done at work...the conference schedule for parents, a project to set up for this week, blah, blah, blah...and Dan with the slightly more flexible schedule who might be able to take Alex while I went to work early, got some things done and prepared for a sub, then raced home and took Alex so he could go to work...well, he's in INDIA. So, I made it to the sitter, took Alex out of the car. He was fine. I guess breakfast didn't sit well with him, but you'd hardly know that. He was running all over the place, like his usual self...only difference is that he smelled a little like pukey breakfast.

So, off to work. It's 1:30 and haven't heard from the sitter yet. So far, so good. But I am setting up for tomorrow as if I might be out, just in case.

Did Dan and Alex plan this?

Dan: OK, while I'm away, you do the following: wake up early, try to climb out of the crib, puke on the way to daycare and break the alarm clock...we'll see how sane Laura is when I get back!!

Alex: Doggy! Doggy? Ma-ma! Da-da! Doggy!


And this is only day 2!

Dan left yesterday morning for two weeks in India, so it's just me and the little guy for a while.

Of course, Alex chooses today to do two remarkable things that require my attention and freak me out.

1- Wake up at 5:00 am. This is bad because I almost always wake him up, about 6:15, just in time to change him, feed him breakfast and get us both out the door by about 6:40. So, for him to wake up at 5:00 when I haven't yet gotten up or gotten myself ready is bad. Really bad. This could mean that I have a wild baby running all over the place while I am trying to shower and get ready. And there's no Dan to hand him over to for safekeeping. So I got him out of his crib and tucked him into bed with me. THANK GOODNESS he went back to sleep and slept soundly until that 6:15 wake up call :-)

2-When I did go get him this morning (at that unreasonable 5 am), he had his arms and chest over the side of the crib, and his feet were working furiously at the horizontal bars so that both of them were off the mattress a couple of inches. This wouldn't have been so bad, except that just last week I saw this little girl with a pretty bad scab the size of a quarter right in the middle of her forehead. It had been even bigger, but it was all pinky with new skin healing around the edges. Guess what had happened? Yeah, she face planted onto the floor after climbing out of her crib. So, I was already freaked out about this happening, and Alex scared me even more.

So, this morning started out rough, and when I got home from work I decided that I was going to do something about this climbing out of the bed thing.

I decided to take the crib and turn it into its toddler bed form. But I didn't like that. At all. I hated the way it looked and also it looked even more dangerous. The mattress was now about a foot off the floor, but there is a big hole where Alex could roll out.

So, it was Operation Major Room Overhaul. I don't know how well this is going to work. Maybe I should save this post for when I know the outcome...I can pretend it never happened if it goes badly!

I took everything out of the room that I thought could be a hazard: the crib itself, the changing table, the rocking chair, all the suitcases and random junk piled in the corner, even his dirty clothes bin, which he has fallen upside down into! Now there is only a mattress on the floor and the shelves I couldn't move, but they are cleared off as far up as he can reach.

The living room looks awful, since everything is currently located there, but if Alex happens to wake up tonight, he will not get hurt. The gate is in his door and I will open the door before I go to bed so I can hear him milling around in there if he does wake up.

The living room will have to wait until tomorrow. I am worn out!