If you've noticed I've been absent from my blog for a while, I can sweetly blame it on my little boy.
Somewhere along the line, he developed a habit of needing mommy to lay on the floor beside his crib and hold his hand. Then, when we went on vacation and he would have no part of sleeping in a playpen, he had to sleep in his own queen size bed. Unsure that he would fall alseep, Mommy AND Daddy started laying down with him each night AND each afternoon until he fell asleep.
See where this is going? Yes, we did it to ourselves, but it needed to be undone.
When we got back from vacation, Matthew would have no part of sleeping in his crib. So, we hauled our guest bed into his room and he has been sleeping on it ever since. We are in the process of trying to find him his own bed, but there are just sooo many choices out there! Hopefully, we'll agree on one soon.
Anyhow, the night time routine quickly developed into "Mama" and "Dada" "Bed" before he would even attempt to lay down. For the last few weeks he has not wanted to go to bed and has started to use every excuse a 1 year old can think of as to why he should not lay down. Our evenings were including lots of questions, lots of talking, lots of crying and FINALLY, after about 2 hours, he would fall asleep.
By that time, I was exhausted and would walk straight out of his bed and into mine. So, that was my evenings... eat, bath, books, and try to get him to go to sleep for 2 hours. It was draining on all of us and had to stop.
There were lots of people, including Daddy who said "you just have to let him cry"... but I just couldn't do it.. I felt like it was my fault for starting the whole lying down thing, so how could I just abandon him?
So, tonight, we read our book, drank our milk, brushed our teeth and tonight we brought his crib mobile (projects images on the ceiling) into bed for him and told him that Mommy would stay in the room but that I wasn't going to lay in bed with him.
He protested at first, and then thought it was kind of fun that Mommy was sitting on the other side of the room, so why shouldn't he come visit? I gently reminded him that if he didn't get back into bed, Mommy was not going to stay in the room. And so he did. I sat for 10 minutes and then moved myself just outside the door of his room... he asked for me several times and I kept telling him i was right here and that it was time to go to bed.
And you know what? Only 1/2 an hour later, he was fast asleep (upside down in the bed, but oh well, you take what you can get)....
So, I know this had to of been too easy and I'm expecting some of the future nights to not be as easy, but like the song I heard on the way to work this morning reminded me... "It won't be like this for long"... so as we read his books together and cuddle in bed, I'll savour those moments and hopefully still enjoy a moment or two to myself as well.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
My Vacation .... Part 2
(pssst... I blogged about part 1 yesterday.. just in case you missed it... see below....)
Don't you love my artwork? Pretty good for a 1 3/4 year old! I loved to play in the sand... I'll have lots of fun at our beach this summer!
Since we were eating meals at home, I got to help Mommy make breakfast most mornings... each time she asked me what I wanted, I told yer "pa pay" or pancakes for the rest of you!
One day, we went down to Laguna Beach and played in the sand and in the playground there. As we were walking to the playground, we saw a man with some colorful birds. We asked him if we could see his birds and he started to tell us all kinds of neat stories about them... I can't remember the little one's name, but I remember he was "green" and he sat on my arm!
I wasn't so sure about him at first, but when he sat on my HEAD, I thought it was pretty funny!!
Daddy even got in on the action!
This was supposed to be our valentine's picture, but the computer didn't want to cooperate the morning Mommy tried to send it out....
I became a natural tour guide along the way... Here I am showing off our resort!
One day, our hotel keys decided to stop working... we thought we would drive over to the building but Mommy thought Daddy took the car keys and Daddy thought Mommy took the car keys... oops! Good thing there was a security phone right outside our door.. we had to get the security guard to let us in! Here we are waiting for him.. notice my cool hat! Mommy bought it for 97 cents at Old Navy.. It was a substitute toque for when it got cold :O)
Hmm.... where should we go today??
On our last day in California, we took an adventure into Los Angeles... I was going to have to miss my nap in my bed, so Mommy was thankful that I fell asleep in the car on the drive in!
Guess where we went?! To my very first NHL game! We got to see the Edmonton Oilers play the LA Kings... Daddy was sure to bring my Jersey... but you should have seen the Edmonton Jersey's there! Either Mommy says half of Canada was there, or there are a lot of left over Gretzky fans in L.A. I think there were almost as many Oiler cheers as L.A. Cheers! It made for a fun game!
I was very excited to see REAL hockey in front of my eyes when the game first started! I always ask to watch hockey on TV and this was pretty exciting! But, I wanted to walk around half way through the first period, so Mommy and I took a walk and got to meet Wilshire the fire dog! He was the ceremonial puck dropper at the game... I got my picture with him outside (Mommy will have to scan it and show you later) and then he came and sat in the chair next to Mommy for a few minutes when Daddy and I were walking around!
See! Here he is next to Mommy... too bad I had decided to go for a walk at that time!
It was a pretty close game... the Oilers were leading until the last few seconds when the Kings scored and we went into...
And then even into a shootout! Oh, the suspense was killing me!!
Luckily, in the end, our Oilers won! Here I am telling the guy behind me that our team won!
It was lots of fun for Daddy and I to go to our first NHL game together and a fun way to end our trip!
Don't you love my artwork? Pretty good for a 1 3/4 year old! I loved to play in the sand... I'll have lots of fun at our beach this summer!
Since we were eating meals at home, I got to help Mommy make breakfast most mornings... each time she asked me what I wanted, I told yer "pa pay" or pancakes for the rest of you!
One day, we went down to Laguna Beach and played in the sand and in the playground there. As we were walking to the playground, we saw a man with some colorful birds. We asked him if we could see his birds and he started to tell us all kinds of neat stories about them... I can't remember the little one's name, but I remember he was "green" and he sat on my arm!
I wasn't so sure about him at first, but when he sat on my HEAD, I thought it was pretty funny!!
Daddy even got in on the action!
This was supposed to be our valentine's picture, but the computer didn't want to cooperate the morning Mommy tried to send it out....
I became a natural tour guide along the way... Here I am showing off our resort!
One day, our hotel keys decided to stop working... we thought we would drive over to the building but Mommy thought Daddy took the car keys and Daddy thought Mommy took the car keys... oops! Good thing there was a security phone right outside our door.. we had to get the security guard to let us in! Here we are waiting for him.. notice my cool hat! Mommy bought it for 97 cents at Old Navy.. It was a substitute toque for when it got cold :O)
Hmm.... where should we go today??
On our last day in California, we took an adventure into Los Angeles... I was going to have to miss my nap in my bed, so Mommy was thankful that I fell asleep in the car on the drive in!
Guess where we went?! To my very first NHL game! We got to see the Edmonton Oilers play the LA Kings... Daddy was sure to bring my Jersey... but you should have seen the Edmonton Jersey's there! Either Mommy says half of Canada was there, or there are a lot of left over Gretzky fans in L.A. I think there were almost as many Oiler cheers as L.A. Cheers! It made for a fun game!
I was very excited to see REAL hockey in front of my eyes when the game first started! I always ask to watch hockey on TV and this was pretty exciting! But, I wanted to walk around half way through the first period, so Mommy and I took a walk and got to meet Wilshire the fire dog! He was the ceremonial puck dropper at the game... I got my picture with him outside (Mommy will have to scan it and show you later) and then he came and sat in the chair next to Mommy for a few minutes when Daddy and I were walking around!
See! Here he is next to Mommy... too bad I had decided to go for a walk at that time!
It was a pretty close game... the Oilers were leading until the last few seconds when the Kings scored and we went into...
And then even into a shootout! Oh, the suspense was killing me!!
Luckily, in the end, our Oilers won! Here I am telling the guy behind me that our team won!
It was lots of fun for Daddy and I to go to our first NHL game together and a fun way to end our trip!
Friday, February 20, 2009
My Trip to California
Hi everyone, it's me, Matthew, blogging today! Sorry it's taken so long for my mommy to get pictures of our trip up. She was really busy at work when we got back and then we all got sick. But, we're better now, so I thought I'd share some of them with you...
This is me waiting for the pilots to get our plane ready to go... I was sure excited to go on the airplane! I kept telling Mommy and Daddy how the plane was going to go "up, up, up!"
On the first day of our vacation it rained... blah... but Mommy said it was such a nice rain in California and even the rain still felt warm! We did some shopping for groceries on Monday because we had our own apartment and Mommy cooked all of our breakfasts, lunches and dinners for us! We went shopping to Costco! Mommy found me some really great books (30 in total!) that we have been reading every night since we got back!
Here I am getting ready to go out on an adventure... don't I look like such a big boy!
On Tuesday, we checked out our resort.. it had a really fun playground and a putting green! Notice my wet pants? I managed to find a puddle within 5 minutes of going to the playground... oh well! It was fun to chase the golf balls around!
We spent a lot of time at the beach on our trip because it was only 5 minutes away from our place. We went out at low tide each day so that I could explore all of the tide pools! I wanted to run into the ocean sooo bad, but Mommy and Daddy wouldn't let me, boy, if I could have just run a little faster, I would have made it to the water before they caught me!
There were so many neat things to see at the ocean! But really, I loved the water the most, I could have played in it all day!
One one of our adventures, Mommy and I even found a starfish! Way Cool!!!
The next day, we explored Balboa Island... each time we went out, I asked Mommy and Daddy if I could "walk, walk, walk"... but I didn't always want to hold Mommy and Dadd's hand, so sometimes I had to wear my monkey on my back... You wouldn't believe the number of times people said to me... "hey, you've got a Monkey on your back!" Yeah, the joke got old fast....
I enjoyed most of my breakfasts and lunches on the deck each day... ahhh. the sun felt so warm! (even though the highest temperature we saw was 18C, it still felt so nice!)
I enjoyed a few merry-go-round rides each time we went to the shopping malls!
And as long as I found a pond or a fountain at the shopping mall, I was happy!
Come on Ma Ma... to the water, to the water!
One day, we built a sand turtle... (I think it was supposed to be a sand castle at first, but Mommy forgot how to build them and it turned into a turtle!)
Hey, how come I'm in the sand?!?!
Did I mention before, that I loved to play in the front seat of the car and pretend I was driving? In fact, Mommy resorted to bribing me with M&M's after a while because I did not want to get into my carseat!
Well... that's it for now, Mommy says I have to go to bed.. I'll try show you the rest of my pictures very soon!
Love,
Matthew
This is me waiting for the pilots to get our plane ready to go... I was sure excited to go on the airplane! I kept telling Mommy and Daddy how the plane was going to go "up, up, up!"
On the first day of our vacation it rained... blah... but Mommy said it was such a nice rain in California and even the rain still felt warm! We did some shopping for groceries on Monday because we had our own apartment and Mommy cooked all of our breakfasts, lunches and dinners for us! We went shopping to Costco! Mommy found me some really great books (30 in total!) that we have been reading every night since we got back!
Here I am getting ready to go out on an adventure... don't I look like such a big boy!
On Tuesday, we checked out our resort.. it had a really fun playground and a putting green! Notice my wet pants? I managed to find a puddle within 5 minutes of going to the playground... oh well! It was fun to chase the golf balls around!
We spent a lot of time at the beach on our trip because it was only 5 minutes away from our place. We went out at low tide each day so that I could explore all of the tide pools! I wanted to run into the ocean sooo bad, but Mommy and Daddy wouldn't let me, boy, if I could have just run a little faster, I would have made it to the water before they caught me!
There were so many neat things to see at the ocean! But really, I loved the water the most, I could have played in it all day!
One one of our adventures, Mommy and I even found a starfish! Way Cool!!!
The next day, we explored Balboa Island... each time we went out, I asked Mommy and Daddy if I could "walk, walk, walk"... but I didn't always want to hold Mommy and Dadd's hand, so sometimes I had to wear my monkey on my back... You wouldn't believe the number of times people said to me... "hey, you've got a Monkey on your back!" Yeah, the joke got old fast....
I enjoyed most of my breakfasts and lunches on the deck each day... ahhh. the sun felt so warm! (even though the highest temperature we saw was 18C, it still felt so nice!)
I enjoyed a few merry-go-round rides each time we went to the shopping malls!
And as long as I found a pond or a fountain at the shopping mall, I was happy!
Come on Ma Ma... to the water, to the water!
One day, we built a sand turtle... (I think it was supposed to be a sand castle at first, but Mommy forgot how to build them and it turned into a turtle!)
Hey, how come I'm in the sand?!?!
Did I mention before, that I loved to play in the front seat of the car and pretend I was driving? In fact, Mommy resorted to bribing me with M&M's after a while because I did not want to get into my carseat!
Well... that's it for now, Mommy says I have to go to bed.. I'll try show you the rest of my pictures very soon!
Love,
Matthew
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Vacation Pictures
Matthew has decided that a photo opportunity is now a time to play peek-a-boo with the camer....every time... I just haven't managed to catch the peeking part with the point and shoot yet...
showing us how much he loves blankie....
eating lunch with Daddy... (I made him take off his white shirt to eat pasta and he refused to put on another, hence the shirtless pose... and again, the peek-a-boo pose)
showing us how much he loves blankie....
eating lunch with Daddy... (I made him take off his white shirt to eat pasta and he refused to put on another, hence the shirtless pose... and again, the peek-a-boo pose)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Checkin 'in
Wow, I hadn't realized it had been almost a month since I blogged... yikes! Sorry about that.. sometimes I get too wrapped up in life and just don't feel like blogging or don't have the time...
none the less, we are all fine and enjoying our selves in sunny...er... freezing California right now! The day started out ok and although it was only 15C outside, I was determined I was wearing shorts.. and it didn't seem all that cold out. But by 5pm tonight... yikes! You could have worn mitts! We actually had to go to Old Navy and buy Matthew another bunny-hug (hoodie for those of you not from SK) and a fuzzy hat because it was so freaking cold out!
Everywhere we go... they all say... Oh, you just hit some weird weather... it was 80 last week! Well, thank-you very much.. we'll enjoy 50!
But we're having a blast despite the weather. We had a long day getting here yesterday (I'm not sure I'd do airmiles again with a young kid), but Matthew was a complete angel the entire way! We are staying in an amazing resort that we didn't even really know what we were getting when we booked. Our 2 bedroom condo is 1200sf and has a full kitchen. We tried to get Matthew to sleep in the playpen last night, but he would have no part of it, so he is now sleeping in a "big boy" bed.. with 6 chairs on either side of the bed facing out, and 2 barstools at the foot to make sure that he can't fall out. But truthfully, he's stayed mostly in one spot and on his pillow the entire time. He had a good 3 hour nap this afternoon in his bed and is enjoying the fact that Mommy and Daddy lay down with him each time he goes to sleep (hmm.. are we creating a bad habit here?!!?)
We have a great ocean view and are just enjoying the fact that we can relax and not worry about cleaning or work or hockey or piano lessons or any of the other things that keep us so busy at home!
none the less, we are all fine and enjoying our selves in sunny...er... freezing California right now! The day started out ok and although it was only 15C outside, I was determined I was wearing shorts.. and it didn't seem all that cold out. But by 5pm tonight... yikes! You could have worn mitts! We actually had to go to Old Navy and buy Matthew another bunny-hug (hoodie for those of you not from SK) and a fuzzy hat because it was so freaking cold out!
Everywhere we go... they all say... Oh, you just hit some weird weather... it was 80 last week! Well, thank-you very much.. we'll enjoy 50!
But we're having a blast despite the weather. We had a long day getting here yesterday (I'm not sure I'd do airmiles again with a young kid), but Matthew was a complete angel the entire way! We are staying in an amazing resort that we didn't even really know what we were getting when we booked. Our 2 bedroom condo is 1200sf and has a full kitchen. We tried to get Matthew to sleep in the playpen last night, but he would have no part of it, so he is now sleeping in a "big boy" bed.. with 6 chairs on either side of the bed facing out, and 2 barstools at the foot to make sure that he can't fall out. But truthfully, he's stayed mostly in one spot and on his pillow the entire time. He had a good 3 hour nap this afternoon in his bed and is enjoying the fact that Mommy and Daddy lay down with him each time he goes to sleep (hmm.. are we creating a bad habit here?!!?)
We have a great ocean view and are just enjoying the fact that we can relax and not worry about cleaning or work or hockey or piano lessons or any of the other things that keep us so busy at home!
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