Sleep Baby Sleep

I've cut off his curls since this picture was taken : (

He looks so grown up now. He had suddenly decided since he has this new grown up look that he is too big for his crib. He simply won't sleep there. I let him scream for two hours the other night. I KNOW he was exhausted. And that was before the two hours! I tried again at naptime yesterday and I found that he had reached the door handle to open it and climbed up out of the crib to where he was just balancing on the rails. I was letting him cry to see if he'd nap, but luckily I walked by to see him teetering like that! Time for a big boy bed.

We got him a mattress today (thanks Granny and Papa) for the bottom bunk of the bed we already had. I wondered how he'd do with it being so easy to get out of, but you know what? He went right to sleep! Can't believe it. I know it probably won't last, but I'm sure enjoying it while it does! I'm so excited to have our bed to ourselves tonight and maybe I'll actually get some sleep.

My Challenge

Look at that adorable face. That is the face I saw today in a completely different way that I saw it yesterday. Yesterday he had to have three asthma treatments and the medicine I have to give him seems like I've given him speed or something. He can't focus on anything and I couldn't do anything but discipline the entire day. He did NOTHING but provoke me the whole day. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for how well I contained myself. I didn't let him get to me. He did wear me out, that's for sure, but I never caved to the mischievous grin with anger. I had to hold him to keep him in control several times and I don't like doing that at all, but it was the only way to gain a tiny bit of control so that he could regain his composure. He bit my arms and I had to hold his head too. His time outs are in his bunk bed and I found him hanging from the top of the closet door... the ONLY thing left in the room that he could reach (he'd already thrown everything else down from there). Part of me knows that it's his way of dealing with not feeling well. It's like he can't figure out how to tell me what's wrong, but he knows he needs my attention. I would try to do things with him in positive ways to distract him from being destructive, but he couldn't focus on anything, not even things that he always loves to do.

Well, today I had my sweet boy back and I just wanted to hug and love on him. He is so funny and creative and cheerful. He was actually sick today too, but with a stomach bug. Both of the kids were throwing up and it was a GREAT day, compared to yesterday. He listened and did what I asked and was even helpful. He wanted to play the games that he wouldn't do yesterday. Mostly I'm recording these two days to remind myself in the future that if I have days like yesterday they WILL pass and there will be days like today... nothing special, even a sick day, but with the real deal of a kid.

Ticks and Sicks

We have quite the infestation of ticks around here and we have been finding at least one a day on someone in the family... in ALL KINDS of places. I'm sort of obsessed with looking for them and constantly thinking about them when we're outside. You can't keep the kids in just because of tiny bugs that attach themselves to you and suck your blood can you? I'm always feeling around in my head because I'm just sure there is at least one in my hair somewhere that I haven't found yet.

The boys are sick right now. I thought Jackson was just getting teeth, but then he lost his dinner, so maybe it's something else. I think Lincoln is having a bad allergy attack which has caused asthma problems, but it could be something else on top of that too if Jackson is sick as well. Either way, Lincoln tends to get about 10 times as crazy when he gets like this. Most kids lie around when they are sick, right? He throws things and bites and hits.

I'm worn out. I'm running out of patience and ideas. I think I'll get him allergy tested soon so that we can do some prevention work.