Sleep issues

I think almost every parent facing the issue of getting their child to fall asleep on their own at one point or another. With our first, S, it wasn't until after his first birthday we tried and eventually figured out what would work for him.
So what did we try...a pacifier to calm him, no luck. Talking to him or patty him and not picking him up, yeah right!!! (that never calmed him down) Crying, letting him cry 5 minutes then checking on him making sure he's ok, then adding 5 minutes to the time, so now 10 minutes, then another 5 after the next time you go in so 15, etc. etc. (that worked short term). What ended up working...laying him in bed, sitting in the room, but not interacting with him or looking at him and let him cry it out until he feel asleep.
Now with number 2, B, we are discussing it much earlier. She's teething and even harder to get to go to bed. It's not until at least 2 AM she's is down for good (except for a feeding here and there) until morning. Before that she'll be in a bed for an hour and then wake up screaming, that is if she doesn't wake up when we lay her down and start screaming immediately. Having it not be the first child also makes it tough because we worry about her crying/screaming waking up S and the last thing we want is to deal with 2 kids that aren't sleeping. After all how do you explain to a 3 year old why the baby gets to be up and watch TV with dad and not him.
So Wednesday I decided to start the process. How did it go? Nap one at 9:30 or I should say she was put in bed at that time. Less than 30 minutes later, asleep for 30 minutes (long enough for me to take a shower and get ready. Nap two put down at about 12:30ish, and yet again less than 30 minutes later asleep for at least 2 hours. And the crying was happening when S was trying to go down, nice to know that didn't affect him. Now bed time...another story. I've been in her room on the computer for at least 45 minutes and she's still going. This time she has learned to pull her self up so she is on her knees, so I have to keep on putting her down so she doesn't hurt herself by falling asleep like that or getting too tired if that were to happen. I'm on the verge of a headache, which my new glasses prescription isn't helping. There are moments of where I think she is going to calm down, but no not yet. I'm going to pull my hair out!!!
Yesterday she cried for less than 30 minutes for nap number one at 10:30, but only slept about 30 minutes and woke up, and of course as soon as I picked her up she was asleep again!!! So this time I hold her until I can lay her down. We went over to a friend's house and played games with several couples so we got home at about 10:30 WAY past the kids bed time, so we didn't try the whole falling asleep on your own. Last night I think was one of the toughest nights.
I know eventually it's going to pay off and I'll be able to lay my little angel down for bed awake and that is that, and she'll do the rest on her own with no crying. It's just a real struggle while you are in the process.
Wish me luck! Who knows how long this is going to take.

Uncultured Swine

Well let me start off by saying the title is joke, I in now way feel this way about the people I'm about to blog about.
For the last several months we have been having a recipe exchange, where we get together and bring a dish that goes with the theme for the month and bring the recipe along with it. As the people in "charge", we send out the invites, set the day and time, get the recipes together and type them up and have copies ready at the next get together. It's been fun, but haven't had the turn out I would like. Each time we have had 4-5 families show up, when at least 10 invites were handed out. I guess the good side of it is that is more intimate and we are able to sit at one table, the adults meaning, and mingle.
Our last get together was this past Saturday, the theme...."International". This meant main dish, appetizers, salad, dessert, basically anything goes. Needless to say I was rather disappointed, but I should have none better. In our area, besides good old American food the next most popular is Mexican. You can find Mexican restaurants everywhere. Everyone has had Mexican food. So I was hoping for it be more cultural and things most people haven't tried. It turned out to be...Mexican night for the most part. Enchiladas, empinadas, fruit salsa (forgive me on spelling) blah blah blah blah blah.
We did our part to add to the diversity. We made some sushi, with egg, cucumber, and carrot in the middle. I have my parents to thank for my know of this one. (Side note I was born and Japan and my parents lived there for close to 5 years, so we grew up on some traditional Japanese food, which I'm glad to be passing along to my little ones.) I didn't expect everyone to like it, but was surprised no one really did, except the hubby and me. There were several people who didn't like seafood, so that was there excuse, but heck I don't either. Besides I don't blame them, living in Utah and most of them growing up in Utah, it's not really the best place to get fresh seafood, which makes a world of difference.
A month or so ago we had a Japanese night with a couple of the people that came to the recipe exchange. We made Katsudon (I'm not going to try to explain, but I feel it's a rather "normal" Japanese dish) and Miso Soup (which isn't). Yet again most people didn't like the soup, it's an aquired taste, and for the most part they didn't hate the main dish. I happen to love Japanese food and one of our favorite restaurant is a quaint little Japanese place, that is always slow but never full, but has the best Japanese food and prices around.
I don't know why this surprised me that people didn't like my cooking, at least they tried it. As a parent I want to try to expose my children to different types of food so they are more diverse in what they like.
Sorry for the scattered thoughts but I dind't feel like organizing this and just wrote it as it came. English wasn't/isn't my best or favorite subjects. I'm sure one my friends is just rolling over in her grave every time she read my blog.

Cravings

So a friend and fellow blogger, blogged about cravings the other day, which made me think about pregnancy cravings. NO, I'm not pregnant!!!! But when I was, I NEVER had any weird cravings, like peanut butter and pickles, nothing I wouldn't eat normally when I wasn't pregnant. Now I've asked a few of my mother friends about this, and they haven't either. Are these unimaginable combination cravings a thing of the movies, just put in for laughs? Do they really exist in "normal" people? I say "normal", because the hubby's sister-in-law's little sister is pregnant and about "2 seconds" after she got pregnant she started having these weird cravings. Now let me tell you a little bit about her. Both the sister-in-law and sister grew up in a disfunctional family and in foster care, so everything for them is about drama and getting attention (not saying all turn out this way, but these girls did). So only know for a few weeks that she was pregnant she already started having these cravings, which for her, I think they are more imagined, because that is what pregnant women do is have weird craving, and so should I. So I want to know do they really exist. I know I don't have many readers, but maybe the ones who do read and have been pregnant can either go along with my conclusion that they don't exist, or prove me other wise (and make me happy that so far with 2 pregnancy I haven't had any), and have your other pregnant or have been pregnant friends leaves posts too, so we can find out. I'm curious, are you? So lets her your weird pregnancy cravings.

Days

Do you ever just have one of those days? I don't even know what to say about it, it's not like there is anything in particular that happened, but you are just in one of those moods, enough said. So when things happen on one of those days, it's just harder to handle. Like the TV breaking, or should I say the picutre only being about 2 inches tall right in the middle. So I can't even watch the dumb thing so I don't have to think about what ever it is that is making me feel this way. And then finding out that a good friend is moving and even though it's just 5 or so minutes away, and we say lets still get together and do things, I know that probably won't be the case, just like every one. And then the hubby is too busy at work geting an important project done that has be to finished by today. Why is it that that always happens, when you need to talk they aren't available and when you don't they of course aren't. I'm not blaming him, because he needs to work and I know that. I don't know even know why I'm blogging about this, no one is going to read it, no one is going to care, right now I'd just rather type about it than cry.

Big flirt

Well this past week has been pretty crazy. Last Wednesday my parents and older brother arrived in town and stayed at our house for several days. My younger brother got married almost a week ago, which left us running around from one place to another every day that my family was in town. Needless to say it's nice to have naptime at the appointed scheduled time (for me and the kids). And nice not to be in the car or at some activity every waking moment of the day. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my family and were glad that they could come. But since we don't see each as often as we would like, our schedules become more packed than normal.
So back to the topic of this email. Friday night was the reception for the newly weds. The new sister-in-law teaches piano lesson, and she had some of her younger students of the female gender help with clearing the tables and what not. Well they were pretty cute, dressed in the colors of the wedding and wearing little aprons that were filled with flower petals. I think S has gotten a trait that runs in my family, at least for some of the boys, being a flirt, a ladies man, comfortable around the opposite sex and knows how to make them smile. He's at least the 3rd generation of this type, and sadly or proudly (I don't know which), I have to admit it comes from my side of the family. My little brother, the one who just got married was that way, I'm sure it's calmed down a bit since the girl came around, and then my mother's father (so my grandpa) is that way too. So back to the story...We were trying to keep our almost 3 year old under control and not running around out of control, so the first thing we did after pictures and as the reception was starting we took advantage of the treats being served. So we sat down, and people started to show up, and that meant the piano students. While S was playing with the fancy chocolate covered strawberries, he noticed the group of little girls (probably ranging from 9-11 years old). He then told his dad "I want to go talk to the ladies!" So dad gave him permission and S asked him to come with him. Well the two of them walked over to the group of girls talking amongst themsevles, and dad told him to say "excuse me" to get their attention which did, but they didn't hear him, so dad told him to say it louder, which he did. Dad ended up clearing his throat to get their attention and S then said excuse me, and the girls turned and said oh sorry, because they thought they were in his way. And dad then said oh he just wanted to say hi. So S says hi, and gets them all to smile.
Needless to say I'm a little concerned if this behavior is starting at such a young age, and I'll let you know that this isn't the first of this kind of behavior. I think it started as an infant where he knew he could get ladies to smile. So hopefully he is like his uncle and not let it be his demise, just a way to get dates, and he is polite and respect about it.