When it's sleepytime up North...

Last night I attempted to put The Boy in his crib while he was still awake. He protested. And I let him. For WAY longer than either Musical Daddy or I would normally tolerate.

It just wasn't worth it and he still ended up in our bed last night from bedtime to wake time.

Tonight I decided that I'd actually do it right and do bedtime-things, in keeping with the whole concept of a bedtime routine. 8:00 was a bath and teeth-brushing, followed by a book and a long nursing in the living room. Then we read a short book and a few poems out of a poetry book. I put on his favorite album and put him in the crib. Again, he protested.

A lot.

But I was prepared--I brought the computer in (can't exactly read a book in the dark) and sat with him, occasionally holding his hand. He didn't scream the whole time--sometimes he just sulked, and other times he pressed the button on his aquarium soother which, unfortunately, is rather low on batteries. But it did start the music and the fish display, which transfixed him for awhile.

All told, it took close to forty-five minutes to get him from the initial crib entry to asleep. And at the end I picked him up, put him down on his back, and he was holding my arm for awhile. He actually fell asleep without his thumb in his mouth either.

Hopefully we can make this 8:30 in bed thing a habit for The Boy. Preferably without all the screaming because I just can't take it. But, here are Musical Daddy's posts from June when we initially got The Boy back into the crib. You know, before the whole cancer thing. It's so strange, and it seems like ages ago, that our biggest concern in life was getting our son to sleep in his own crib and then sleep through the night reasonably. Not to mention rather haunting, because after the first night was when we discovered the tumor.

Day 1
Day 2

I don't think that either Musical Daddy or I do such a great job with our own sleep habits. Sometimes it can't be helped--if my stomach bothers me, which it used to do a lot more often than it does now, I can't sleep. More specifically, I can't lie down, so the easy chair is really the spot for me. Sometimes we just do dumb stuff like staying up too late. Sometimes we really have too much stuff to do and can't go to bed until it's done. I'm hoping that with The Boy having some sort of bedtime routine, I'll be able to a better job for myself of calming down before bed and, more importantly, going to bed earlier because I'll have to get up earlier in order to get The Boy ready to leave with Musical Daddy. Last schoolyear, all I had to do was get myself ready and the boys would usually go right back to sleep!

Anyhow, since I forgot to hit the "post" button, I can now say that it's been 45 minutes, the iPod is almost done with the Max Q albums, and The Boy is still sleeping.

Coming up on Week 6

Any treatment week that is a multiple of 3 is one in which The Boy receives 2 medications and will receive a Zofran IV as a precursor. So this week it's week 6. Not a red diaper week, at least. We'll be there a little longer; if The Boy starts to get sleepy, he and I might go into the quiet room and snuggle up for a nap.

I love naps with The Boy.

I failed to nap today, as per usual, although I usually nap post-treatment with The Boy and Musical Daddy. Something about the whole process makes me all sleepy.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but looking at The Boy's calendar, after week 10 he will only receive actual chemo meds on the "multiple of 3" weeks. That means that recovery from Diaper Doom is a lot easier.

Today was a dull day. I didn't leave the property (I left the house only to get something out of the car and to take diapers off the line) because it was just that kind of day. Tomorrow I'll exercise first thing in the morning and make breakfast for The Boy and Musical Daddy.

I did get an "exciting" email thanking me for my recent blood donation and informing me that my cholesterol was 153. Seeing as how it was 203 in 2004 (no, I don't know why), that's pretty darned good.

The Best Resters

Since I am awake and it's only just after 7:00, while The Boy and Musical Daddy are still sleeping, it's clear that I do not win the "best rester" award.

The Golden Pillow...the mattress trophy...The Bronze Blankie...none of that for me. Not for lack of trying--I wanted to nap with The Boy yesterday but it just wasn't happening.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with some other moms from an online group. We all live close to each other (relatively speaking) and we get together occasionally for park playdates or museum visits, and occasional house visits as well. The leader of the group (appointed so because she takes most of the initiative in arranging events and also does the online group maintenance) has a son who just turned 5 and a son who is 8 months or so. The Boy will likely be friends with the younger son once they are old enough to have friends.

We had Indian food which, to me, is fantastic. I know that it's an acquired taste...but somehow I think that The Boy would enjoy it. It's a lunch buffet during the day, so I'd imagine that at his age he would just be expected to eat from our plates. Which he does (sometimes literally, by swiping food from us). One of these days we'll go as a family. Preferably on a day where we anticipate that The Boy will actually have an appetite.

So far he seems better than last weekend. The Boy and I went to services last night which is not nearly as difficult as one might imagine. For much of the service, he has no problem just sitting on my lap. Once he gets antsy, it isn't a problem to let him get down and do some crawling. When we first entered and I had to get him out of the sling, he actually stood for a good five-ish seconds! Long enough to realize that he was standing. Then he fell on his bum.

It's been helpful, we think, that he's in cloth dipes because there's so much more padding there and he isn't afraid to just plop right down on his behind. Another friend told us that their little girl would sometimes get a bruised behind just from plopping down on the ground so much. But then, she was walking at 9 or 10 months so she must have gotten over it enough to practice!

At any rate, I need to go hang up the diapers so that enough of them will be dry; otherwise, The Boy will have none.

They just don't make 'em like they used to...

I was noticing today, while washing the frying pan in which I cook eggs, that my frying pan really looks crappy. We've really only had this frying pan since we moved into this house, and that was less than four years ago. How many of you can remember pieces of equipment that have just lasted for decades? From the big stuff to the small stuff, nothing is really built to last.

Like our dishwasher, which threw a hissy fit only a few weeks after the warranty ran out. The dishwasher that had been in the kitchen when we moved in was probably older than I am.

Many of the toys look cheaper too. Just looking at some of the plastic parts, they just don't seem sturdy like some of the toys that we had. Or maybe that's my perspective having changed, since everything looks big when you're small and everything looks small when you're big.

I've had a sore back all day, so I've been trying to take it easy. Except, of course, for going to the grocery store. I saved 35¢ by using my own shopping bags instead of the plastic ones. It used to be that you'd get 2¢; now you get 5 for each bag! Good deal. New Jersey is phasing out plastic shopping bags entirely, under new legislation, so I'd imagine that encouraging consumers to use their own or at least reuse the ones that they have (still gets you that 2¢) is a good idea.

Fortunately, The Boy had mercy on me and we napped together for about 2 hours this afternoon, and I did feel somewhat better. We went to the bank and then to get Musical Daddy's glasses fixed. I was considering a trip to the playground but neither The Boy nor I were in any mood to spend more time in the heat.