No sleep, mo’ problems

Liam Cook is in a sleep crisis.  It might not be a crisis for him, but it is for me.  His sleep has been horrible for the past few weeks, and when I think it can’t get worse, it does.  This weekend was one of the worst….I stood sobbing, holding Liam as he wailed inconsolably at Andy’s parents house in the middle of the night…Andy stood by repeating, “Stop, both of you stop.”  I ended up sleeping with him Friday and Saturday night…which we’ve never done.  I was so paranoid about it, and he was so restless that I was lucky to get maybe three hours of sleep each night.  As a result, this desperate exhausted feeling has caused some sorta funny things to happen.  So here is a list of sleep desperation stories:

--This morning, I tried to put Ollie in the pack and play.  So I could take Liam out to pee.

--I cannot speak a full sentence.  At least not in proper English.  My speech has gone straight to hillbilly land.

--Yesterday Andy and I listened to some of the worst music of our life because Liam wasn’t screaming during it on the ride home.  That’s true love…and desperation.

--I’m so tired that the Taco Bell taco with the Dorito hard shell sounds good to me.  I’m so ashamed of myself.

--There was a conversation that Andy and I had this morning that made me laugh.  It was the whole reason I started this post.  But I’m so tired I can’t remember it right now.  If it comes to me later, I will edit and add.

Liam at ten months

Liam,

This past month has been wild—you are fast approaching toddler and leaving baby in the dust.  You wear a size four diaper, and 9 month and 12 month clothing.  You have your first tooth.  You crawl everywhere.  You pull up on anything that will support your weight.  And you’re trying to figure out how to stand up on your own.  I can’t even believe the things you have learned this past month.

You are a great eater—you will honestly eat anything we put in front of you.  No food has been turned away.  You like the flavor of curry powder..and you like brown rice and all of your vegetables, and ground beef.  You love Goldfish crackers and veggie sticks.  Gerber crunchers (or the Target/Meijer/WalMart/Kroger version of them) are always a hit.  You like fruit, but I think you like vegetables more.  You were a fan of cornbread, and you liked pancakes.  You are an adventurous little eater, and I’m so excited for that.

You do crawl all over.  I have been doing some serious baby-proofing.  We had a large metal pot on a low shelf in the kitchen—that’s been replaced by tupperware containers that you pull out and play with every day.  You want to play with Ollie’s food and water every chance you get….I am constantly pulling you away from that part of the kitchen.  You pull up any chance you get…but you don’t know how to get down in your crib, so you just scream for a really long time until I come rescue you….which has to stop soon.

You love your Granddad…you know that he does rocket ship with you, and you flap your arms when you see him so he will do rocket ship with you.  You cry when he leaves the room.  You also cry when your daddy leaves the room or your eyesight…you love your daddy so much.  You cried every time your Grandma Cook put you down this weekend.  You wanted her constant attention…but you also really loved playing with your Grandpa.  You love to drum on things….Anything that makes a loud noise is a drum to you.  Luckily, you do have a drum, so we pull it out a lot.  You want remotes and telephones any time you see them.  You like to pretend to drink from a cup, but you don’t really want to do it.  You also don’t really suck on your sippy cups…you just put them in your mouth.

Tornadoes

Our little portion of Indiana was hit hard today by multiple tornadoes.  One hit in Chelsea, a small town just south and west of Hanover.  There are reports of either 3 or 4 fatalities in our county…the three being a four year old and her grandparents.  The news keeps saying that there are whole houses missing in Chelsea.  Henryville and Marysville (both about a half hourish from here) were hit…Marysville is said to be wiped off the map.  The Henryville high school was hit…with students inside.  In Milton, the town in Kentucky right across the river from us, a tornado wiped out one of their fire houses.  There is damage and debris everywhere….There are pieces of sheet metal in our neighborhood….and they are definitely not from our neighborhood.  The local paper put up this video with an interview from a bus driver and some shots of the funnel cloud and damage.

We are fine.  We were blessed abundantly….Liam and Ollie and I took shelter in our hall closet for about forty-five minutes this afternoon, and that was it.  Ollie was scared and sat in my lap shaking, Liam thought it was really funny for the first thirty minutes, and then screamed the last fifteen.   Andy ended up in his boss’s basement…the building he works in is not safe, and he couldn’t get home (the roads were closed in our direction…likely because of the tornadoes). 

We are all fine, but I want to ask you to pray for the families who aren’t fine tonight.  My heart is breaking for these families, and Andy and I have been praying for them….so please, if you think of it, pray for these families and these communities. 

Scattered Thoughts

Liam is refusing to nap today.  He’s lying in his crib yelling at me and I’m ignoring him.  It’s for his own good…and he’s not screaming..he’s talking and randomly shouting, “Ahamama” or “Baa”  We took a two mile walk in the park to try to calm him down, but it didn’t seem to work today.  There is a playground exactly one mile from our house..love that it’s a great turning around point….not so much that it isn’t a super toddler friendly playground….we’ll figure out this summer what Liam can/can’t play on…for now, as a non-walker, he just gets to look at it as we walk by.

Liam is refusing to nap for two reasons (that I’m aware of).  One—he is getting his first tooth.  A bit of white is poking out of his gums today, so there’s that.  And two, he has a cold.  He hasn’t been breathing the best and we’ve been up the last 3 nights.  Andy is also sick, so it’s just not a fun house to be in right now.  And I’m sucking down coffee to stay awake and Emergen-C to stay well.

Andy repainted our bathroom while Liam and I were gone last weekend (not the one that just ended…the one before).  We were at my mom and dad’s for the weekend for Mariah’s bachelorette party, Mariah’s bridal shower, and Theodore’s birthday party—we packed a lot into our little weekend.  There are two trains of thought coming from this—first, the bathroom.  Andy painted it and I love it.  It’s a blue-gray color and it’s so peaceful and bright.  We are going to paint the vanity, replace the mirror, and I have a few minor accessories to switch up, and I’ll post pictures.  It’s about to usurp Liam’s room as my favorite in the house.

Second, the weekend—we had a blast.  Here is a favorite picture of mine that my sister sent….it’s the reality of trying to take a picture with a two year old and a nine month old…and I loved what Shannon said as we were taking it, “We only have two kids right now”…as in, this picture is going to get so much harder in the next few years as our little families expand. (Side note…we totally need a whole group shot at Mariah’s wedding…like with our husbands)

That second one is better.

And lastly….I am finally trying to do something about my baby weight.  It’s disgusting (see above).  So I am kicking my butt into gear…and posting it here for accountability.  Liam and I have been going for walks most days (when it’s warm enough), and I have been doing some exercise videos.  I ordered two new ones last week….one is a post natal workout that is supposed to be excellent for abs…several of the reviews said, “I had my child seventeen (or some other number) years ago, and this workout has helped me to recover a bit of what my abs looked like before”  So I didn’t feel too bad about my nine month old.  Andy and I talked this weekend, and he’s super supportive of anything I want to do….so my goal right now is to eat healthfully, exercise 4-6 times a week, and not be a gluttonous slob.  I created an incentive program for myself….I am breaking my goal down into increments…because the actual number I need to lose is scary big.  Each time I hit an incremental goal, I get to buy a new outfit.  This helps in a few ways…first, I really don’t have many clothes, and I need some new ones…and two, I will stay focused because I want to hit that goal.  I think this may be my first outfit….only now it seems kind of masculine to me, and I may pick something else…or go with a shorter short and a shoe with some heel or something metallic:

Several for the baby book

Liam has been picking up new skills right and left.  Since Sunday, he has waved bye-bye, clapped, and given kisses.  He leaned in and kissed Mariah on Sunday at Theodore’s birthday party (the open mouth on the cheek). He did it like four times in a row before I realized what he was doing…and then he kissed Mariah and Shannon before we left.  Since then, he’s been kissing when you give him your cheek.  Most of the time…not always. 

He started clapping on Tuesday.  He gets excited or angry and he starts clapping.  He won’t clap when I clap, but today, we were at a friend’s house, and he was clapping every time their four-year-old daughter clapped.  She would clap, then he would clap, and she would shout, “Congratulations.”  He also tried to kiss her on the cheek.

The bye-bye wave was today.  I was holding him at the friend’s house, and he just started waving his little hand.  No idea.  I’ve only see him do it that one time.

And he says Mamamama, rarely.  He did it Friday night when he was with my dad and Lauren, and then he did it yesterday.  He also stood unsupported for about five seconds yesterday.  And he started trying to pull up in his pack-n-play today.  I need to tell Andy that, so we can lower the crib.  And he is army crawling everywhere and trying to sit/stand in weird ways.

And the funniest/best/worst of all.  He threw his first temper tantrum today.  The girls had these little Mighty Mini popsicles, and Liam wanted one.  He was screaming and trying to crawl over me to get to his sweet friend’s popsicle.  It’s a good thing she had already asked him to be her prince (oh..yeah…Liam is now Prince Peach Pickles…or Pardner…), because with that kind of behavior, she wouldn’t have afterwards.  Now how does that sweet boy know about popsicles enough to want one?  Oh, you know, his Grandpa Cook shared one with him a few weeks ago in Indy.  He was a fan that day, but I had no idea he would remember them enough to want one today.  But he did.  And he ate pretty much the whole thing.  I sucked on it a few times.  It’s very small…probably not more than an inch long, but still….Liam ate a whole popsicle.  And it was the right brand (Popsicle) and everything…and they were seriously cool!

Green Smoothie

Someone *mysistercough* has asked me a few different times how I make my green smoothies, so I thought I would share here so that she can get finally try it, and finally remember it.  She’s a very busy girl with a lot going on in her brain, so I thought I’d make this a little easier.

First off, there is really no right way to do this….this is just the way I usually end up doing it.

I like to use almond milk for my smoothies….plain or vanilla.  Always unsweetened.  I’ve considered trying chocolate soy milk with banana, but I haven’t done it.  I’d have to remember to buy chocolate soy milk (which I really do love) and that’s not always something that happens.  So my first step is to mix a handful of spinach and almond milk in the blender.  The spinach gets much smoother this way, and you don’t end up with a leaf in your smoothie.

Once I have my green almond milk/spinach concoction, I just add whatever.  Lately I’ve been using the Golden Fruit blend from Schwans…it has pineapple, mango, peach, and strawberry, and it tastes almost tropical.  Sometimes I do just mango and peach.  Or just strawberry and something.  If we have bananas that are about to go bad (which means they are fully yellow in this house….we like our bananas nearly ripe…not fully ripe), I chop them up and freeze them to toss into smoothies. 

You can add lots of other stuff…flax seed, peanut butter, yogurt….but most days I just add a little water to make my smoothie drinkable through a straw.  I would like to try it with peanut butter/banana, but I share my smoothie with Liam (it’s easily one of his favorite foods), so no pb yet. Sometimes if I want it to taste really tropical, I’ll add a squirt of cream of coconut (the mixer you use to make pina coladas).  And that’s it.  If I was smart, I would have taken a picture…but I didn’t.

Be Mine, Valentine

We had a nice, low-key Valentine’s Day.  I have had a bit of a cold all week, so I’m spending a lot of time just resting and trying to keep rawhide/random pieces of paper out of Liam’s mouth.  So for Valentine’s Day this year, I made a batch of brownies in mini-muffin cups and decorated them (I used this recipe…they were the best brownies I have ever eaten in my life) and for lunch, I made some sushi and arranged it in a heart.  I had big plans to make dinner, too, but by mid-afternoon, I wasn’t feeling well, so Andy picked up Chinese takeout.  It ended up being way fun.  We have had Empress twice in the past week, and that makes me way happy.  I really like our little Chinese restaurant.  We hung out with Liam, and he took a bath with Andy.  After that, he went to bed and we watched a documentary on Netflix (I’ll post about it later…it’s a good one).  Then I fell asleep on the couch and the night was over.  So clearly, romance is alive and kicking at our house.  Here are a few pictures from our day (along with the cards that Liam and I had made/sent to Andy using Tiny Prints, which is hands down my new favorite site for cards…I will totally use them for our Christmas card next year—their quality is SO MUCH GREATER than any other I have seen.  I also sent a card to each of Liam’s grandparents…I added those at the bottom for fun.