Sleep - it does a family good

"Yesterday was plain awful!
You can say that again.
Yesterday was plain awful!
But that's not now, that's then."

I have been singing that line from Annie most of the day today. Bennett and I had a horrible day yesterday. There's no need to re-hash it in detail, it was just bad. Lots of tears, lots of yelling, lots of frustration. He was hungry, he wasn't hungry, he was tired, he wasn't tired. I was exhausted.

He started to get droopy around 5:30, but I worked all of my magic to keep him awake until he had a chance to eat dinner, and until it was a reasonable hour to go to sleep. We lasted until 7:30, just long enough to see Brian for a few minutes after he got home from work. We read one super hero comic and the littlest super hero was down for the count.

He woke up this morning at 8:15, when I woke him up to go to school.

Today, he's been generally peaceful, playful and cheerful. He's remembering his manners. Quiet time happened without much fuss, except here near the end when he told me he was wet from the humidifier. I went to check on things and not only had he turned the humidifier over on our wood floor, he'd dismantled one of my necklaces and unbent an earring that were on my night stand. I knew it was too quiet up there!

Here's hoping for another good night's sleep and happy boy tomorrow.

I can't believe it

But we are one minute away from having our first ever fully successful QUIET TIME! Nearly two full hours of Bennett playing upstairs by himself while I laid on the couch trying to pick a photo for our Christmas card, updated our blog (just a little), read a chapter in my book and drank a cup of coffee. HUZZAH! He only asked me every thirty minutes if quiet time was over. Usually, he's asking every two minutes. Gotta go let him know he survived!

Week in review

I realized the other day that I've not been very diligent about posting lately. My apologies. Funny and sweet things are happening all the time - I just forget to jot them down, and then I forget to write about them!

The biggest news is that we got a new dishwasher!! I am so excited about not having to hand wash every single dish. My dry hands are thanking us as well. It was delivered yesterday and the men who made the delivery and handled the install were very sweet and let Bennett help them! He was so very excited to see them show up. The second they walked in the door, he nearly screamed, "Hi guys! Lemme go get my TOOLS!" and then he scampered downstairs and returned moments later with his toolbox ready to go to work. Thank goodness one of the guys was a grandfather. He showed Bennett what needed to be done and even invited Bennett to use the official screwdriver!

Bennett was so proud of himself and how he helped!

Over the weekend, Oma and Grandpa brought over a temporary rink they had bought for Bennett to use in our backyard. Bennett helped set it up on our deck. We are anxiously awaiting the weather to remain cold enough to maintain a frozen surface!

On Saturday evening, Brian had a departmental holiday party to attend, so Bennett and I had a Mama Date. We went downtown to see the lighting display in Victoria Park and then had dinner at Campus Hi-Fi Diner. It was super chilly, so we were absolutely in the Holiday Spirit!

Running around the live tree on the bandstand

Creepy four year old looking Baby Jesus in the nativity

I believe this is as close to Santa's lap as we're getting this year!

Merry Christmas! We'll have to go back and redo this shot with Brian included.

No more diapers!

It seems our little baby is growing up! For the last couple of weeks, he's been begging us to sleep without a diaper. We've been hesitant because he wakes up with a very full diaper each morning, since he sleeps like a log from 9:30 to about 6:30/7:00 each night. Last night, he took off his diaper at 9:00, fell asleep, and stayed that way until 7:00 this morning, when he hopped out of bed, scampered to the potty, peed and came back to snuggle with me for a few more minutes. DRY AS A BONE!!!

Hallelujah - let's hope this keeps up. I'd love to be done contributing those things to the landfills.