Freedom

Cinderella has been suffering from a lack of freedom lately. We are grateful for my family members who have opened their doors to us, and are letting us stay with them right now. But it is always hard to not really have any space that is your own.

Cinderella and Guy are sleeping in my sisters room, which has a twin bed for Cinderella, a trundle for Guy, and a crib in it, which is where my mom puts my nephew down for a nap when she is watching him during the week.

So sleeping arrangements work out OK, but the downside, is that the room belongs to a girl who is almost 14 years old, so it has some things in it that are very exciting for a 4 year old that a 4 year old shouldn't touch. My sister does a pretty good job of trying to keep those kinds of things out of reach, but unfortunately my children are proving to be skilled climbers, and keep coming up with things they shouldn't have.

Yesterday Cinderella found my sisters lip gloss. She put it all over her hands, then proceeded to rub it down the rungs of the crib, and the end of the crib. She also said she put some in the carpet, but I haven't found that yet, and she also rubbed it allover a bag of pull ups. It would still be frustrating, but I would have an easier time with it, if it were my stuff she was getting into and not my sisters.

She seems to find trouble no matter where she goes if she goes alone. Part of the problem is this house isn't really set up for young children to live in. Go figure, the youngest that normally lives here is the one who is almost 14.

There is a playroom downstairs, but unfortunately right now the set up of the basement is such, that if the kids go down to play they usually not only make a really big mess of the toys but they also usually get into trouble in places other than the playroom. Because of this, they can't go downstairs without someone with them.

There is a backyard with a playground. But the yard isn't fenced all the way, and so they can't go outside to play, without someone with them.

The TV is in a bonus room, that also stores the games. If the kids go up alone, they pull out all of the games, or pull the movies off the shelves. The games are in the process of being made a little more inaccessible, but because of the movies and such, you guessed it, they can't go up there without someone going with them.

The computer is almost always in use, and even if it isn't, they aren't old enough to play it by themselves without someone helping them.

Notice a pattern here. There is no place for them to go, and nothing for them to do, without someone going with them. So it makes it hard for them and me.

Cinderella tries to sneak off on her own, and find something to do. But usually when this happens she ends up getting into trouble. Like the lip gloss yesterday. Another day, she emptied a tube of toothpaste into a bathroom sink. She has smeared another lip gloss all over a bathroom, as well as her face. She has taken a roll of toilet paper and dumped the whole thing into the toilet.

I know a big part of this is the age she is at. But the problem is accentuated by the current circumstances.

Any ideas of things to keep her occupied would be welcome.

Sleep

So ever since Guy was born we had him share a room with Cinderella. There were times that it was a little inconvenient, and one would wake the other up in the night. But for the most part they adjusted and we had little problem. Until now.

We have moved out of our apartment, and are staying with my parents. Cinderella is on a twin size bed, that is against the wall. And Guy is on a trundle bed, on it's lowest setting, right next to the twin. So part of the problem is probably proximity.

Every night since we got here, I have had to put the kids to bed at different times from each other, because if I don't Guy won't let Cinderella go to sleep. The first night we were here, Cinderella came out to tell me that Guy was crying to keep her awake, and then he would grab her arm and pull her from her bed, to his, to the floor. So that night I started keeping Guy up until Cinderella was asleep. Then I would put him to bed, and she would just sleep through his crying. Well I kept doing this every night, because when ever I tried to put them both down at the same time, they wouldn't go to sleep.

The down side is that Guy isn't getting enough sleep. He is striking on naps. Plus my nephew needs that room to take his naps, so I don't feel right putting Guy down when he probably won't sleep, and keeping my nephew, who would most likely sleep, up. He stays up late, and is up early in the morning. So tonight I am trying a different approach. I put Guy to bed, and put Cinderella in my bed. After Guy settles down, I'll try and get Cinderella moved to her bed. Hopefully this will get them both down at a decent time. I just hope that it works and that I can get Cinderella moved.

Only time will tell.

So here is my question. We haven't found a house yet. But I want to get a house that has at least 2 other bedrooms on the same floor as the master. Who shares a room with who? If you were me would you put Cinderella and Guy together and leave Sleeping Beauty on her own? Or put the girls together, and leave Guy by himself? Or put Guy and Sleeping Beauty together and let Cinderella have her own room?

My little monkey

So Guy is a climber. He really enjoys climbing. He looks for anything to climb on and does. I am constantly telling him to get off the table, or off a chair, off Cinderella's bed, off a toy, etc.

Lately, he has really enjoyed that because I was packing up, he had many more things to climb on. We moved all of the toys out of our "playroom" so that we could stack boxes in that room. Most of the toys were then put in the living room. We had taken our bookcase that was in that room, and emptied it of books. It also looked like it had mold growing behind it, so we took the wall anchor out, and moved it away from the wall to verify, and to see if it had mold on it too. Yes, there was mold on the wall, but thankfully not on the bookcase. My husband cleaned up the mold, and then we turned the bookcase on it's side. I didn't want it to fall over on anyone. When it was standing up it was over 6 feet high. On it's side it was about 3 feet high. We then stacked the toys on the side of the bookcase. Later the kids were playing too much with the table in their room, instead of going to bed, so it was moved to the living room as well.

So what did my monkey do? He would constantly climb onto one of the sitting stools that goes with the table, then move to the table, and reach on top of the bookcase, and pull what ever box of toys he wanted to play with. Most of the time they would fall to the floor, but occasionally they would end up on the table, and he would then sit on the table and play with toys. Then there were the few times that he would actually climb over on top of the bookcase. It made me very glad we had turned it on its side.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him on top of the refrigerator some day, but I hope that day never comes.

Back in the saddle again.

So the kids and I have now moved. We are staying with my parents until we have a house. My husband is working for one more week, and doing all of the wrap up packing, and cleaning. We tried to get as much done before I left so that he doesn't have too much to do. I am really grateful to not have to worry about it anymore.

But now I get the fun job of house hunting. I am excited, but praying it doesn't wear me out. And hoping that I can find something before too long. I like being with my family, but am looking forward to being on our own again.

Meal ideas anyone?

OK we are getting down to the wire of when I will be leaving. I leave a week from tomorrow. My husband leaves a week and day after me. My goal is to have as much as possible packed before I leave. And I don't want to have to put off packing too much. So right now I'm trying to think about what we are going to eat.

I want meals that don't require too many pans and bowls to make. Breakfast isn't too hard. If we have cereal with juice every morning the only prep dish we need is a pitcher for the juice.

Lunch, could be PB and J. If I buy pre-made bread, all I need to make it is a knife and spoon (which can be plastic).

Dinners however are a bit more complicated. I am trying to come up with as many meals as I can that you can make with 1 frying pan, 1 sauce pan, and maybe a colander, cutting board and set of sharp knives. Or less. Also I want them to be meals that take as little prep as possible, because I am going to be busy all day, and not have a lot of energy for cooking at the end of the day. I might be asking for too much, but if you don't ask, you never learn right?

So if anyone has any meal suggestions, I would appreciate the input. And if you could give me basic instructions on making it (if it isn't something simple like to make spaghetti: you boil the noodles, and heat up the sauce), I would appreciate it.

So I need dinner ideas for this Saturday through next Thursday suitable for my whole family, and then meals for the next Friday through the Friday after that for my husband.

Thanks.

Sleepless nights

So as I mentioned in a previous post Guy has been sick lately, and it has been disrupting sleep. Pretty much all of the members of our family have had their sleep interrupted. But last night was the worst. Hopefully it gets better soon.

We woke up to Guy screaming and coughing about 12:00 or so. Actually I think I woke up, I don't think Daddy was awake, because he said something about ice cream, so I think he was still dreaming. :)

I went and got Guy, as has become my nightly routine. I picked him up, got his pacifier and blanket, and took him to the rocking chair. We sat down and he kept screaming, he started thrashing around on my lap, and didn't want sit down. I tried standing up. He didn't want to stand. I tried walking with him. He didn't want to walk. He just kept screaming and kicking. Finally I was just so frustrated I was crying. I went and woke Daddy up, and told him I couldn't calm Guy down, it was his turn.

He took Guy in his arms, and rocked him there on the bed. I just stood there and watched. I wasn't sure I wanted to get back on the bed, because then I felt like I would be pushing all the responsibility off onto him, but also I didn't want to rock the bed at all and stir Guy again. I was sobbing, feeling so bad that my son was suffering so much, but wouldn't do what he could to calm down. It was so frustrating. I wanted him to calm down, but I couldn't make him. Finally Daddy got him to calm down, and got him back in bed.

About an hour later, I woke up to the same thing. I felt completely useless, so I sent Daddy in there to begin with. This time Daddy couldn't get him to settle down either. So I tried again. I couldn't get him to settle down. I was so frustrated, I couldn't figure out what to do. So I put him in the middle of our bed and tried to ignore him. He continued to scream and thrash around. The whole while I had been praying, and finally I had an idea. This night was the first night we hadn't given him Tylenol before he went to bed, because he didn't have a fever. I thought, maybe he is hurting somehow, and if we give him some Tylenol he will be able to settle down. So I suggested it, and we gave him some. He instantaneously settled down. So I don't know if he was hurting, and knew the Tylenol would help him feel better so he calmed down. Or if he just decided he felt better because he got some meds.

Anyway, I hope he does better tonight. Currently he is sitting on my lap trying to type on the keyboard, instead of going to bed. But he and Cinderella were keeping each other up, so I'm keeping him up till she goes to sleep, and then we will see what happens. I'm definitely ready to get more sleep.

Packing

Have you ever tried packing with toddlers? It is an adventure let me tell you. As soon as I get a box out, Guy is all over it. Climbing, trying to use it as a slide, stomping on it, etc. I'm sure you get the picture.

Then comes the part of trying to put things in the box. If I can distract them long enough for me to get something in the box, it doesn't take long before they have removed it from the box.

Also, unfortunately, Mama can't play with them as much when she is needing to pack, as she can normally. This is hard for my munchkins. And so consequently, when I try to pack, they are trying to get me to play with them. So I can put down my packing and play, or I can try to get them doing something else and pack, or I can play "Mama puts it in the box, and kids take it out."

Or I can send them to someones house while I pack. This works wonderfully, when I do it. The downside, is my kids have been sick most of this winter, and right now is no exception. So I can ask someone to take my kids, but doing so is not only giving them sick kids, who are whiny and coughing all over the place to deal with, but also asking them to take the risk of their kids getting sick. Also I feel like I am being unfair to ask the same person to watch my kids every day of the week so I can pack. Does this mean I don't do these things? No. I still do them, because I know I have to pack, and I have limited time. I just them feel extremely guilty for doing so.

One day, this will all be over. My kids will be healthy again, and my packing will all be done. Then I can move on to the next challenge that life has to offer.