I Am So Over This...Almost.

It started off as nothing really. Just a little sneeze here and there. Then it progressed to a ever so often needing to cough lightly to get rid of the itchy sensation in my throat.

Somehow I went from nothing to a full blown cold mixed in with the wonderful flu.

Seriously. What happened? Better yet HOW????

It's not like I walked around in light summer clothes and sandals. No sir. I know that autumn means cooler weather. And that means it's time to put on a light jacket or sweater.

So for the last two days I've been battling this sickness. It really got the better of me yesterday. I mean it got to the point were I couldn't even sit up without feeling dizzy and on lightheaded. Standing up required a great deal of pep talk. And almost ended up with me stretched out on the floor...twice.

Thank God for Hubby. He took good care of me yesterday. He would have the day before as well but he was working. Though my sweetheart made sure to call and check up on me every couple of hours.

My Hubby even went grocery shopping for me. AND brought home the most delicious honey melon this side of earth. He knows me so well.

So because I've been feeling pretty badly blogging was the last thing on my mind. I still feel horribly sick.  But I've managed to sit up without getting woozy.  So that's progress.

Which is why I went ahead and did two blog posts today. Of course I'm limited in what I can do so blogging was pretty much at the top of the list.

Wall Drawings And Good Sleeping.

Good day and good night to everyone!

It has been an absolutely amazing couple of nights at our house. What can I say besides that I am pretty positive that Toddler J. is finally getting the hang of this sleeping thing.

For the last couple of days and nights I have gotten the opportunity to finally understand what some of the other moms have been talking about. I have to be honest out of my two children zero of them have been "good" sleepers. But Toddler J.  has taken the prize so far sleeping horribly.

Until this week. 

This week something must have finally clicked with him because he has taken wonderful naps throughout the day AND slept through the night. It's true I sleep feed him a bottle of milk every night around 2 a.m. to prevent him from waking up because he's hungry. But that doesn't count against him.

It just means I really want to sleep past 5 a.m. even if only by half an hour.

I've also been keeping my word and have not allowed him to watch any more cartoons. He gets to watch the vlog updates that I like to keep up to date on but that's it. Plus it's only two vlogs that I follow and he loves one of them a lot because they include their sons in them.So the time that he spends watching can range from 18 minutes to 30 minutes tops.

I've also been teaching him different words and phrases. Helping him develop his creative side by providing crayons and white walls for him to color on. The white walls were not intentionally provided but since he has now pretty much covered three separate walls in drawings I see no point in getting into disagreements with him about coloring on them.

At least not until Hubby paints them white again.

I've also made sure he has stacks of paper and notebooks to draw in but he likes to do short doodles in them and then pretend that their reading materials. Not that he doesn't have plenty of those...he does...or did. Baby M. got into the books today and it broke my heart having to trash some of them because they were torn beyond recognition.

Anyways, I just wanted to post a quick and to the point...kinda update on the wonderful sleeping Toddler J. has been doing.  I'm hopeful that Baby M. will follow his lead soon.

And dare I say it? I think I do. I'm hopeful that one day soon I'll get to return to the land of the people that actually sleep the entire night away.

The Everyday Mommy: Update On The Sleeping In This House

The Everyday Mommy: Update On The Sleeping In This House: Here's the latest update on toddler J. and his sleeping. Or well non-sleeping. And the mickey mouse clubhouse detox. Yeah I totally came...

Update On The Sleeping In This House

Here's the latest update on toddler J. and his sleeping. Or well non-sleeping. And the mickey mouse clubhouse detox. Yeah I totally came up with that on my own.

We have just conquered day number 2 of the detox. Let me tell you it was no easy feat.  Toddler J. Is unbelievable determined that he will get you watch his cartoons when he wants and he will also have a great snack to go with them. Unfortunately for him, I am just as determined and quite stubborn in my decision that he will no longer have this privilege.

So it's been a very rough two days.  The first was catastrophic to say in the least. I actually, and see here I'm being completely honest, gave in for about two cartoons length. Which is 30 minutes. The only reason I did that was because he was hanging on to me screaming and I needed to throw up. Apparently something I ate didn't sit well with my stomach.  So while I threw up, cleaned up, and brushed my teeth he was quietly and very happily watching his shows.

The happily part quickly turned to anger and a screaming fit of the year when I came and quite calmly took away my cellphone. But we survived day one.

Day two was much better. He woke up insisting to watch his show. After maybe 10 minutes of pleading and crying he gave up and played with his cars. Around noon he remembered that he wanted to watch his show but that was quickly resolved by taking him to bed for a nap. And he once more remembered that he still wanted but so far hadn't watched his shows at dinner time. Which thank God was also easily derailed from becoming another fight of the wills because his dad rang the doorbell getting the boys all excited that he had come home from work.

So day two ended really well. I made sure to keep him constantly occupied and happy with other things. I have a notebook full of scribbles to show for the two hours that we spent just drawing together.

Now on to the sleeping. The first night went ok until about 3a.m. that was when little M. (previously known as baby VP) woke up screaming and crying. Which resulted in toddler J. waking up as well. Little M. went back to sleep sometime around 4 a.m. for about 30 minutes but toddler J. only managed to fall back asleep around 6:30a.m. and then only for a short time.

Needless to say everyone had a great nap during the later that day.

I don't think that the staying awake the first night had anything to do with being over stimulated. I'm positive though it had everything to do with little M. screaming his lungs out.

Night number two went much better. Little M. woke up again crying for his bottle of milk which resulted in waking up toddler J. He had been sleeping quite peacefully up to that point. Unfortunately it seems little M. also had an upset stomach because not long after drinking his milk he threw it up. I was brave and did clean up duty. Toddler J.  meanwhile ended up having a pee-pee accident. Not fun having to rummage for clean clothes at 2 a.m.

But I took care of that an about an hour later he went back to sleep. Calmly. No crying. No trying to get out of bed. No screaming because he doesn't want to sleep. A definite WIN in my book.

So even though we still stayed up at least 2 hours both nights it wasn't as bad as before. Really it wasn't. And I was very happy to see him do something other than watch mickey mouse clubhouse during the day.

Maybe later in when he is older he will be allowed 30 minutes here and there of cartoons but that's a HUGE MAYBE. I'm really leaning towards a NO on that. I think there are so many great things children can do to occupy their time that cartoons should really be a last resort.

To conclude this long and not so exciting update...we're on doing good so far. The detox is going great. Much better than I expected. And the sleeping is starting to improve.

Dare I say I have hopes of actually getting to sleep through the night before the year is over?! 

No More Midnight Parties

Ah the joys of motherhood.

It's currently 1:30a.m. and my eldest has been  awake since 11p.m. which brings us to a grand total of 2.5 hours. Of course he would choose the couple of hours during which his younger brother is sleeping to stay awake. No point in both of them being awake at the same time.

Plus it's a lot more fun apparently to see me get frustrated at losing several hours of precious sleep. And then falling asleep just as his younger brother wakes up for his night bottle of milk.  This ensures that mom ...meaning me...will lose the maximum hours of sleep possible.

I've been fighting this battle with my eldest for a while now. I'm not sure exactly what makes him stay awake at night. I've read in a couple of articles over stimulation will cause this. Others have said it's a phase or better yet it had something to do with naptime and not getting enough daytime sleep.

Which I can honestly say is not the case for my boy. He usually sleeps anywhere between 1-2 hours for naptime. Today he slept 2 hours. So he definitely got enough daytime sleep. And if this is just a phase that he's going through well it's been a particularly long one. This has been happening ever since the clocks changed in earlier this year.

What I'm thinking is that it has to do with the amount of screen time he gets. Today was a super duper rainy day. Which meant that we were stuck inside all day...we also had no car today. And he was extremely cranky and difficult to deal with. Then only thing that kept him from yelling and crying was letting him watch "mickey mouse clubhouse" on my phone.

Honestly it's not part of our parenting style to allow our children to watch cartoons. We did our research and we made our decision to limit any screen time they get as much as possible.  But then you have days like today when they get bored and cranky ...and you just really cannot deal with another screaming fit from an angry toddler. So you let them watch to their hearts content.

And I'm thinking that the over stimulation came from that. Ahhh...which is so frustrating because this means I've basically ruined both our nights myself.

Since I've been awake for a while now I've managed to do some intense midnight thinking. This intense thinking has also lead me to a difficult decision. I'm going to be a strong mama in the face of my screaming toddlers crying fits and refuse to give in to his demands. No more cartoons for him.

This is not a punishment...don't get me wrong. This is an experiment to see if his sleeping will improve. Because I honestly cannot keep functioning on 2-3 hours of sleep every day . And neither can he.

I'm hoping and praying this will bring about full nights of sleep and rest for the both of us. I'm also praying for lots of strength to stick to my decision.  I have a very stubborn child but what he doesn't realize is that mommy can be twice as stubborn.

So wish me luck!

Good-bye 26 and Hello 27!

It's official!!

I am no longer 26 years old but rather 27. Honestly I can't believe how fast time has flown.

I don't know about anyone else but it seems that up until I turned 18 years old time went by very VERY slowly. Then my 18th birthday came and went and all of a sudden I'm 20, then 24, and now 27.

Time has literally flown by since the moment I turned 18.

26 was a wonderful year.

I managed to get one of my articles published by a fair sized church magazine. We bought a new sofa that I love. And I got to learn what it takes to be a mommy of two. We had our first family road trip in about 4 years and this time it was no longer just Hubby and I.

Yep. 26 was a good and wonderful year. It treated me well and I enjoyed almost every minute.  I did not enjoy the hard spots as much but then again not many people do.

And I am really looking forward to seeing all the great and wonderful things and times that being 27 has in store for me. I know God will do awesome things this year of my life just like He has done every year so far and I am excited to see what He has in store for us as a family.

So with that thought I bring this post to an  end.

It's Good To Be Back...For Good This Time

Well, it has been a few months since I last logged on to do a post.

And boy has time been flying. Seriously, this morning I asked my husband what he would like for me to pack for his lunch today for work. Instead of giving me a straight answer he laughed and told me it was Saturday. No work for him. Poor, confused me thought it was Thursday. I totally missed out on living through Friday.

I have to be completely honest though. It took all my willpower just to open up blogger.com. I love writing about our days and ideas that float through my head and lately I've just been lazy. 

There I've said it. I've been lazy on the writing front.

I do plan to change that though. I've been really diligent in jotting down ideas and writing out thoughts so that when I did get back from my blogging break I would be good to go.

And there are some special announcements involved as well. 

So without further ado, welcome back readers. 

I've missed writing for you.