Christmas Card 2010

Snowflake Band Black Christmas

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I've written anything on here. It seems that life just goes so fast sometimes that I don't have time to take a breath, and when I do, I prefer to do it in my sleep!

I've been struggling with getting good sleep lately, somewhere along the line I became a very light sleeper. I think I've been a light sleeper for quite a while, but was always able to find the time to get good sleep somehow. I remember waking up every morning to the sound of people leaving through the garage in New Mexico. Even times when the cars weren't in the garage. I understand the convenience, not having to manually lock a door. And my lesson from that was to never have the bedroom which shares a wall with the garage! But Erin and her parents travelled quite a bit, there were quite a few weekends when they were out of town and the whole house was quiet, and they left regularly for the day or evening, then again I was studying a lot of the time too. Maybe the difference was that I was already so sleep deprived that the sleep I got was good.

Here we live about 3 blocks from the interstate, which in reality has a bit of a soothing sound as there are cars going on it regularly, however when you're trying to fall asleep the whizzing noise isn't too helpful. Then there are the train tracks about 1/4 mile away, and Emporia has not learned the smart system of Kearney, you can hear the trains over a mile away. Not to mention they have TONS of crossings, so the whistle goes on for about 2 minutes before you stop hearing it. Add on top of that a baby that wakes up a couple times a night, a 3 year old who wakes up about half of the nights a week either needing to pee, or crying (for no particular reason), a cat that meows at the door, and the normal sounds of a neighborhood and house. But even with all of those things the two main causes to my lack of sleep are 1. not being able to fall asleep quickly, even when exhausted 2. knowing that I can't truly fall asleep deeply because I need to wake up to the crying etc.

It seems that I picked the wrong day to stay up and do things. Every day this week I've tried to take a nap when Matthew and Ian are sleeping. Never have they both been asleep for more than 30 minutes at the same time. But I got a nap yesterday when everyone was in Burlington, and an OK night of sleep last night, so today I decided to do some laundry, cleaning, checking email, etc, and TODAY is going to be the day that they both get good naps and I could have slept :) That's how it goes I guess :)

Baby Mush

With the promise of snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning, we headed out yesterday to prepare to be snowed in. For me this meant buying a bunch of fruit and vegetables. The lady in the checkout line was pretty confused when I came through with squash, peas, carrots, beans, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, pears.... and a gallon of chocolate milk. If you knew Matthew you would understand the chocolate milk. He is addicted. It's kiddy cocaine. However, when things are going less than smoothly, chocolate milk can be the ultimate fix. When he is screaming because he doesn't want to leave the library, chocolate milk will get him out calmly. When he gets in trouble for pinching, screaming, hitting, or many of the other things he does, and is really upset... chocolate milk helps his ego.

So with our supplied to last through the snow, today was veggie mashing day. The amount one needs to cook or steam veggies to make them babyfood is a lot more than I expected. It takes a lot of time, and I'm glad I set aside a day to do it. Now we can get a store of fresh babyfood for a couple weeks. So far I've made mashed peas, carrots, green beans, and sweet potatoes. I've done a lot of reading over the past few weeks. Because there is actually more to babyfood than cooking and mashing it. First it requires all the right materials.

Steamer: to steam the veggies, for cooking them, boiling them, microwaving them etc will make them loose a lot of their vitamins.
Food Processor: Something to cut and puree the baby food til it is nice and smooth. We are fortunate to have both a food processor and a magic bullet. The magic bullet seems to work better to get the really smooth texture, but the food processor does ok for things that are kind of naturally smooth like sweet potatoes.

Food Mill: This isn't something a lot of people had, and you can argue whether it is necessary or not. There is the option to throw the steamed peas right in the food processor, and in the end you will end up with mashed peas. However a food mill will give you all the goodness of the peas without the skins. There are a lot of things young babies can not digest, and skins of many vegetables is one of them. A food mill will also keep seeds and other course parts from not entering in the babyfood. It takes some work, but makes you feel good in the end that you are making the best baby food possible :)

I was sad to find out that no matter what you do, green beans are just not quite as creamy as you would hope for a first baby food. So we will save them for a little later.

So far today my baby food making experience has been a good one. Now if only we can get Ian to eat the food a little better :) His worst habit lately is that he will stick his hand in his mouth, and then rub his eyes. That usually is about the end of the baby food for that day, for a crying, screaming baby is not an easy one to feed. Let me know if you have any suggestions to keep his hands out of his mouth!

It's late

Parenting, nannying, dealing with kids in general changes the way our lives work. I realized the "late" difference this evening as I turned to Sarah at about 9:45 and said "You're up late." :) I can remember times in our friendship when at around 5am we would debate about whether it was worth going to sleep at all. Or stay up till the wee hours and plan to sleep til noon the next day.

Don't get me wrong, Matthew and Ian are wonderful sleepers. Which is part of the reason I was saying this to Sarah and not including myself. While she gets up at 4:30 plus a wake up call from Ian sometime between his 8pm bedtime and when she gets up... I am usually up a little later. Matthew will go to bed around 8pm and if it is dark and realively quiet, sleep until 8 or even 9am. Ian usually calls me from bed via the baby monitor sometime around 5-6am for a 4-5oz drink, and back to sleep til 7 or 8. Add in Ian's good 1+ hour nap in the morning and both of them sleeping around 2 hours in the afternoon... they sleep pretty well.

But there is something different about uninterupted sleep and getting 10 hours of sleep but getting up a few times. It just isn't quite the same. Maybe I am still being broken in and people get used to it eventually. But from the tired look on Sarah's face some mornings, I'm going to guess that sleep just evades us all. There are simply not enough hours in the day.

Small Steps

Sometimes in the midst of watching kids everyday it's hard to notice the small things. We've made leaps and bounds with potty training, from diapers all the time, to only diapers at night. And those things are easy to see when you look back in time. However sometimes the little things go past unnoticed. Today Matthew woke up with a dry diaper and went straight for the bathroom. Maybe a small step, but still a great achievement.

We've seen a lot of small steps lately. Ian no longer needs to be rocked to sleep, you can now lay him in his crib when he is tired, and within 5 min he will put himself to sleep. He is jumping around in the jumper much more, grabbing things and has some more preferences that he didn't have as a tiny baby. He prefers certain toys, his lion, the little dear on his gym, and his alligator. He loves his soft blue blanket and doesn't like being held like a baby anymore unless he is eating.

Now if only we could make some small steps with the cat, like not drinking out of the toilet, or walking on the counters :)

Forts

Remember how much fun it was to build a fort and play in it? Erin and I used to build massive forts that took up the whole living room. Her forts had different rooms for sleeping, playing, watching tv, etc. Using all the tables, chairs and blankets in the house the forts would become things that often stayed up for days and she was always disappointed when it was time to take them down.

Matthew is a 3 year old boy... he should love forts right? Well... sorta ;) Let me start at the beginning with a semi related story. There is about a foot gap between the couch and the recliner. Over the holidays Matthew would put a blanket over the gap and call it a bridge. He would then cross the bridge from the couch to the recliner. This worked ok because Dad was usually sitting in the recliner to catch him, and in reality he was just stepping over the gap. He tried it with me a few times, and mean nanny that I am, I let him fall through the gap ;) It was really a lesson in physics.... blankets make bad bridges. Ok... it was really because I was not a fan of him jumping from the couch to my lap.

So, the fort building was in progress, Matthew was excited. I am not sure if he understood what exactly we were doing. But getting all the chairs and blankets seemed like great fun. I had only built part of the fort I planned, when Matthew showed me what he was thinking. To him I was making large "bridges" He stood on a chair which had a blanket draped over the back of it. He proceeded to toss himself over the 4 foot chair onto the "bridge" (blanket) which of course brought him falling to the ground with blankets and chairs following him. Now to a child who will start crying when you look at him the wrong way I was expecting waterfalls. Instead he pushes his way out of the blankets, informs me that the bridge broke and wants me to build it again. I explained that he needs to stay on the ground, and not to climb on the chair, but I build the fort again. One would think that he would have learned, but no, he threw himself over the chair again, though I caught him this time. Then I started folding blankets and putting chairs away. My fort building days were over for a while.

And then the crying came :)

Has he been like this all day?

No, he has not been like this all day. It's a question all Nannies get, and kind of side step every time they answer it. If your kid is screaming and whining when you get home, it's not because he has been like that all day. It's not because he's tired, or cranky, or in a bad mood. It's because he knows he can :) After many many years, I have learned this fact. For whatever reason, parents seem to "give in" to the whining much faster than nannies. One parent told me it was because they love their children more than the nanny and can't stand to listen to them cry. I would say no... it's because kids have their parents wrapped around their finger more than the nanny.

When Matthew screams for something, I don't give it to him, no matter what. I don't want him to think that screaming for what he wants will give him the reward of getting it. Granted there are exceptions to this, children who can not talk for instance, can not tell you what they need or want. But a 3 year old who is perfectly capable of telling you he would like down from the high chair, should not be let down because he screams and cries.

One would think that after a year or so that a nanny would start giving into the screaming just like the parents. With nannies I know this is not the case. Maybe this is part of our personalities, and maybe there are nannies who give in, but in general I think parents are worse. I worked for one family for 6 years, even after all that time, the little girl could get what she wanted out of her parents by whining, but knew by then it would not work on me. I make it a point to not let whining work. My mother used to tell me to "pick my battles." I understand this point of view, sometimes you let things slide to deal with the more important stuff. But I think everyone struggles with the whining. Some deal with it by giving the child juice, or snacks, or food right before dinner, or the toy, or whatever they want. I deal with it by making it a point to never give into the whining. In the end I think it dramatically decreases the amount of whining I deal with during the day.

So the answer is, no, he hasn't been like this all day, and won't be tomorrow either.

Night Light, good idea or not?

Some days you get worse sleep than others. One would hardly believe that my lack of sleep is all due to a little train shaped night light, but that is the cause for my sleepless night. The purchase of the night light and the return of daddy coincided, making mom and dad think that Matthew was waking up because he was excited to have daddy home. It took me over a week to determine that the waking up had to do with the night light.

Matthew doesn't sleep soundly by any means. He tosses and turns, moves, and wiggles all night long. When I first shared a bed with him I was surprised he got any sleep at all. It didn't take me long to learn the trick many parents have learned... DARK curtains. I put up a blanket over the window and all of a sudden the 45 minute naps became 2 hours. And waking up in the middle of the night crying and screaming stopped.

My theory for this is that Matthew wakes up during the night or nap. If it is dark he just rolls over and falls back to sleep. If it is light out, he thinks it's time to get up.

So... what about the night light? It's cute, it's shaped like a train, you'd think it would give him comfort during the night. Over the past few weeks, I wake up multiple times during the night. (my room is next to his) Sometimes I get him water, give him a hug, assure him that there are no monsters, but then there was a streak that I put him to bed a few nights in a row. Amazingly he slept through the night without waking up. Granted my story reading and song singing is amazing ;) but it wasn't until one night of waking up every hour and finally out of frustration I unplugged the night light, and he slept the rest of the night that I figured this out. After that I would try to remember to go into his room and unplug the nightlight before I went to bed. But there are nights, like last night when I forget. Waking up hour after hour I was too asleep to remember the night light. Finally around 4am I went into a screaming Matthew and unplugged the nightlight.

For whatever reason his crying that usually only wakes up me, woke up mommy this time. She came in, and when I followed and told her that he was crying because he wanted the night light back.... SHE PLUGGED IT BACK IN! Even after explaining that he would wake up and scream again until I went in later and unplugged it. BUT mommy went off to sleep, and I woke up 20 minutes later to Matthew screaming again. The nightlight is now unplugged and hidden, at least until Matthew's mommy reads the blog or asks about it and I give it back. But I hope I get a few good nights of sleep in between now and then. I personally, am now AGAINST night lights!

Introducing the Nanny Kids

Talk to any nanny you know, and there are bound to be stories. Not just stories reminiscent of the "Nanny Diaries" dealing with nightmare parents, children, and situations, but daily trials, tribulations and overall humor from the encounters with the children they watch. After working for 3 different families I have many stories, and many more come everyday.

I've never kept up with a blog, but sometimes the things that happen on a normal day are just too fun to keep to myself. So we'll see how this goes, maybe my day will bring a smile to yours.

First meet the kids I take care of:
Matthew - Two years old, turning three in a few days. He loves trains, running, cars, screaming, trucks, running, jumping, screaming, books, running, machines, screaming, Thomas, running, Polar Express, screaming, Lightning McQueen, oh and did I mention running and screaming? ;)
He is a bundle of energy, of which could wear you out in a matter of minutes. We are in the middle of "potty training" and the transition between screaming and asking for what you want.





Ian - 4 months old
Opposite his brother Ian is a calm, happy, relaxed baby. He is just starting to play with more toys, roll over, eat cereal, and have stinkier diapers. His personality is starting to emerge, and while crying used to indicate sleepy or hungry, it now means all kinds of things like "play with me!", "i want to move!", and other less obvious things.









Today:
I may have waited a little too long to start writing about our day, it is the time of day when I am tired, should probably be going to bed, but this is my quiet time. When everyone is in bed, I have full control of the tv remote, and there are no screaming children. Unfortunately it is also the time of day when I look around the room and sigh... dirty dishes and bottles, toys scattered around the room, Kleenex's from my recent cold, Christmas presents that still need put away... and I debate between cleaning, and just leaving it for tomorrow. Usually I find some happy medium, or get tired enough to not care.

Every Monday the goal is to return to the "schedule." The weekends are usually a mess, from naps in the car, to toys left about, to sugar highs, or other unusual activities. As many people, not only nannies will tell you... the "schedule" is sometimes what keeps you alive. If the kids get fed when they are supposed to, and played with enough, you can attain the scheduled naps! For me this means, if Ian gets up and fed at the right time, he will take a guaranteed 1.5 hour morning nap. For Matthew it means 1.5 hours of my undivided attention, without a baby to entertain, feed, etc. He usually has a better day with this because he isn't getting pushed into second place by his more demanding little brother. Without this time though... Matthew is crankier, Ian is crankier... I am CRANKIER. If the schedule continues as planned, the afternoon nap is the best! Matthew will sleep over 2 hours, and Ian just about 2 hours. Imagine! TWO full hours of quiet, this means time to catch up on things like cleaning, laundry, reading, bills, or even better... a NAP! You can see why not having the schedule causes more stress for all of us.

Now because of the late hour, I will end this post for now.

BUT! Stay tuned for adventures with Matthew and Ian, as tomorrow we are heading to the library!