Clash of the Circadian Rhythms

You know how some people are night people and others are morning people? Well, I'm a day person. I have never been good at staying up really late or getting up really early. Or both, for that matter. I tend to do most of my productive work starting at 8:30pm and do best going to bed at 11pm and getting up around 7am.

Well, my boys are not day people. Johnny is most definitely a night person, I mean, as much of a night person as a two-and-a-half year old can be. He's much happier going to bed around 8:30pm or 9pm and getting up around 6:30am (though on those rare days he wakes up at 7:30am he's REALLY happy).

And Hank? Yep, you guessed it. He's a morning person. He likes to go to bed at 6pm and wakes up at 5am like clockwork. Obviously, he doesn't sleep all of those hours yet, but this is just a general overview.

So that means that with Johnny going to bed at 9pm and Hank getting up at 5am, John and I get squeezed in the middle. After Johnny goes to bed and we spend a few precious minutes talking about our days while cleaning up the house/getting sippy cups filled for tomorrow/doing laundry and then try to go to bed at a decent hour.

I can only hope that Hank will eventually decide nighttime is awesome and start to go to bed a little later so that we can put Johnny and Hank down around the same time in the evening and they'll get up later in the morning.

I'm not even sure how this works with three kids' (or more) circadian rhythms to work around. It must be hell.

But the two I have sure look adorable when they sleep.

Hank is 13 months old!

I'm 13 months old today!

 This month has been packed full of development for me. The biggest thing is that I'm starting to say words. I mean, not words that just anyone can understand, but Mommy is definitely noticing a few noises here and there that are my versions of certain words. 

Word list:

• yes
• cheese
• ew
• whoa
• ball
• basketball
• Mama
• Dada
• car
• bird
• woof
• bubble
• balloon

I can also say "uh oh" clear as day. I usually say it when I've dropped something and Mommy thinks it's adorable. I'm even signing a little bit to make my communication even clearer. "More" and "night night" are the ones I do most often, but occasionally I will do "cheese". I like cheese. Obviously.

I am SO steady on my feet now. I am slowly working toward running, but my head usually goes a lot faster than my feet so I end up landing on my face. I can jump pretty well, though, and have gotten really good at it using our trampoline.

I'm throwing balls and sippy cups and all kinds of objects just to see what happens. The funny thing is I throw them with my LEFT. I also reach for things with my left and am better at feeding myself with my left hand. It's still early, but I may be left-handed!

My naps are about two a day for about 45 minutes each and nighttime sleep is still fragmented. I go to bed around 5:30pm, wake up about 9:30pm, 1:30am, 3:20am and then am up for the day at 5am. I'm like an alarm clock; I wake up at 5:00 on the dot every single morning. It's kind of nice because I get to spend some time with Daddy before he goes to work. Even though my napping and nighttime sleep is less-than-ideal, Mommy doesn't mind because it's pretty predictable, which is nice.

Likes: cheese, Goldfish crackers, strawberries, blackberries, Daddy's cereal, yogurt pretzels, raisins, remote controls, stuffed animals, Mommy's singing, being held, throwing things that make loud noises, pulling Mommy's hair, soy milk, homemade smoothies, PB&J, balls
Dislikes: leafy greens, nuts, Mommy leaving the room, the car seat, stroller, Johnny taking toys from me, being left in a room by myself, getting my diaper changed

31 months!

I'm now 31 months old! Check out how cool I am now that I'm 31 months:

And I probably don't have to write the rest of this post because everyone just died from laughter awesome.

But I will. The show must go on, yes?

I'm still into numbers (I can count to 250 now, before I get tired of it) and letters, but have made a pretty big leap into spelling. These are the words that I can spell so far:

• dog
• cat
• cow
• duck
• frog
• pig
• cake
• Chobani
• quiz
• car
• bat
• stop
• Vons
• Sprouts
• menu
• plan
• one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten ("eight" is a little hard for me)
• toy
• story 
• green
• blue
• yellow
• orange
• red

Yeah, it's a pretty long list and I think Mommy may have forgotten some. I have a pretty good memory, so whenever a see a word and spell it out a few times, I can remember it relatively easily. I'm sure my spelling skills will only increase as the next month grinds on.

The biggest news from this past month was going to the ER for a 104.2 fever. Normally, Mommy would have just watched it carefully, but this was a 104.2 that jumped up about 1.5 hours after a dose of Tylenol. After a lovely stay in the ER at Children's Hospital that included a little napping with Mommy and a chest X-Ray, I was diagnosed with a bad cold.

However, a few days later I was with Mommy and Hank at the pediatrician's office for Hank's follow-up appointment (he ended up getting pneumonia, but only mildly), the doctor expressed concern over my fever and congestion that weren't going away. Turns out I had a sinus infection. And I needed antibiotics. Just because I *need* antibiotics doesn't mean I *want* them, which means Mommy and Daddy have to put up an epic fight to get me to take my medicine twice a day. Though recently they stopped trying... which, now that I think about it, coincides with them giving me chocolate milk for the first time ever... Hmmmm.

Anyway. The good things from this month have included swimming with Daddy in our pool, the SFP summer party and staying up later than usual since it's summer and the sun is out so late. Yay summer!

The big 3-oh

 Dear John,

Happy 30th birthday, love! I thought I'd write you a quick (and public) letter to commemorate your 30th birthday. And to also let you know how much I love you. So bookmark this for those days when I snap at you at 4:30 in the morning after being up all night.

You are the best parenting partner I could ask for. When I'm having a rough day, you let me call you, say lots of angry things about life and then hang up. While I know I feel better afterward, I know it is probably uncomfortable for you, and yet you always pick up my calls. When I'm over analyzing parenting decisions, I know that I can turn to you and you will join me in my over-analyzation. Or you'll calm me down by telling me that just because I let Johnny watch Toy Story 3 for an hour doesn't mean he will turn into a serial killer later in life.

You are an incredibly thoughtful husband. You are constantly putting me first and thinking about how the things you do and say will affect me, even though that's not something I usually do for you. You bring me flowers for no reason. You won't hesitate to order pizza or pick up food on the way home when you know I'm stressed out or just too exhausted to even think about making food. And you never complain about it.

You give me more credit than I am due. Yes, this stay at home mom gig is tough, but you always tell me how much you appreciate me doing it and constantly talk about what a great job I'm doing. In a job that doesn't have evaluations or report cards to tell you how you are doing, that feedback helps more than you know.

You are my best friend, without a doubt. I can tell you anything and everything and never have to think twice about whether I should tell you or not.

With all of the things you do for me, I wish I was better about doing some things for you.

• I wish I told you more often what a phenomenal provider you are, in all things. Not only working for a living, but providing love and attention for our boys, putting forth the effort to keep up our house and prioritizing those obnoxious little things I want you to do even if you just want to sit down and relax for a second.
• I wish I was better about doing things for you without you having to ask. 
• I wish I was better about leaving our kids with someone else so we can have more one-on-one time. I know we'll have more time together as the kids get older, but it's pretty brutal right now having only a few minutes in the evening to recap our days and reconnect.

I love you, John! I'm looking forward to hanging out with you for the next 30 years. :) Happy 30th birthday!

Love,
Your wife