SURVIVOR

While attempting to sleep train Miles using this Dr. Jay methods of re-training http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp
I realized that sleep training is like the game SURVIVOR.

OUT WIT
OUT LAST
OUT PLAY

we are on night 4, and i am not sure who is winning. Right now, Miles is OUT LASTING us.

Will let you know who wins tomorrow. I hope that my reward will be a LARGE cup of coffee!!!

Good Night Moon

After a 2 1/2 hour battle trying to get Miles back on some sort of better sleeping pattern and a lot of crying it out, Justin and I were finally trying to fall back to sleep at 2:00 a.m. Then, from Sophia's bedroom we heard screaming, "Mom, Mom, MOOOMMMMM!" At this point, no one really knew what was going on, i expected that she was just having a bad dream. But when I opened the door, she said,

"Come over here and look, Look at how beautiful the moon is tonight."

The way sophia's new room is set up, she can see right out the window, especially when the blinds are pulled up. She must have woke up in the middle of the night to see the full moon with a cross like highlight around it. It was beautiful.

I have always loved that Sophia has an old soul and loves all things from nature. I am definately amazed that a 4 1/2 y/o little girl can take the time to see trees for the beauty that they hold, can look at the sunrise and take the time to think, "this is so pretty." She loves the outdoors, no matter if it is raining, snowing, or sunny. She looks at everything in such a child-like way that i love to see and hear what she is thinking.

She told me last night before we went to be that,
Sophia: "The night before last night, i saw a running star."
Mom: "Do you mean a shooting star?"
Sophia: "Yes, I wanted to make 2 wishes on it, but it was gone too fast."
Mom: "What did you wish for?"
Sophia: "Mom, it is a wish, you cannot tell anyone if you want it to come true."
and with that conversation we went to bed.

I can only hope that she continues to see the simplicity in life, finds beauty in all that she sees, and continues to wish on shooting stars.

Easter Day

Sophia was all dressed and ready to head to church. Miles still cannot be in large crowds of people, so Miles and mom stayed home while everyone else headed to church. We dressed Miles up a little bit more to try to get some pictures of the 2 of them.

Here are the attempts at getting some "good" pictures. You can decide how well they turned out.

Head Lock:
Sophia holding Miles back.
Lets try to sit in the chair together,
Finally, a pretty good picture, even though Sophia has a fake smile.

And finally, Sophia by herself dressed up in her Easter best.

The Birthday Present

Justin turned 31 on Saturday, March 22. The one thing that he has really been wanting was a lazyboy recliner. You can see him here enjoying his chair and watching basketball with his favorite girl.

Easter egg coloring

Catching up, Part 3.

Justin's parents arrived on Thursday night to visit the grandkids and celebrate Justin's b-day and Easter. On Thursday, Sophia had a little help coloring her Easter eggs with Grandma Linda and Papa.

Everything is ready to go. Look at all those eggs and colors.
Getting started with coloring.
Only a few more left to do,
Look at all those beautiful colors. Sophia's favorite color were the pink ones. She was upset that the red coloring turned out to be pink!!
Final project picture.

Feeling better

catching up, part 2

Miles started feeling better on Thursday morning, so I just had to take some pictures. It was really nice to see him smiling again and making himself laugh.

Thank heavens he started feeling better right before our company arrived.

Upside down man

Catching up, part 1.

With Miles having been sick, it has been hard to keep up with the blogging, however, i wanted to share some picture with everyone.

These pictures were taken before Miles starting teething, again. Miles loves to stand upside down on his head. He thinks this is the best trick. I am just waiting for him to actually flip over by himself one day.

Get ready,
get set
Look mom, no hands,
Really, really, no hands.

High Fevers + Vomiting = Teething

Miles really enjoys putting us through our paces. I have learned that he will NEVER do anything in a small scale, only on a grandiose scale. Such as getting RSV while in the hospital for his open heart reconstruction requiring a month long stay in the ICU at children's hospital, or being admitted to the hospital for low oxygen sat after having ear tubes placed. I mean really, we have the only kid in OH that would be admitted after getting ear tubes!!!

At least we have figured this out early enough in life. I expect that if he ever breaks his arm or leg, it will be a comminuted spiral fracture requiring some type of surgical intervention or long term casting. But, I have prepared myself for this.

So back to doing things up big. When Miles is teething, he likes to spike really high temps (about 103) for a couple of days. (Normal for teething is 99-101). Not sleep, and vomit every morning. This morning was pretty impressive. He covered me, himself, both of his favorite blankets and the floor in master bedroom. Luckily, Justin was still home and could help us get cleaned up.

From our past experiences, we ride out the fevers for a few days, and it hope that he gets better soon. Finally we become so exhausted from vomit, lack of sleep, and constipation from the Tylenol that we go to the doctors and they cannot find anything wrong, "just viral, or teething"

I cannot wait for ALL his teeth to erupt fully. they are all out, but only part of the way, then hopefully this craziness of high fevers will be less!!

In other news, (it must be a full moon) Sophia's teacher had to do the hymlick maneuver on her yesterday at school because she was choking on breakfast. She is fine, but she has a tendency to take too many bites before swallowing.

This all gets better, right???

feel free to post your best/worst experiences with vomiting and such to help us feel better

FUNNY

With a recent weight loss of about 25lbs, i was looking for new bras on the computer. Sophia was sitting next to me and asking me some questions.

Sophia: "What are you doing?"
Mom: "Looking at new bras."
Sophia: "Why"
Mom: "The old ones just don't fit any longer."
Sophia: "they are too small??"
Mom: "No, they are too big."
Sophia: "Don't worry, you'll grow into them!"

OUR LITTLE GIRL IS GROWING UP

I cannot believe it, Sophia is just growing up way too quick. Today, I signed her up to start kindergarten in the fall. How in the world did the time pass so quickly. I cannot believe that soon I will have a school-aged child living at my house and having to do homework, looking forward to summer break, etc. This is too crazy. But, with that said, we have also created a big girl bedroom with real furniture, no more sleeping on the floor on an air mattress. Now, she has really furniture. We used my favorite web-site for classified adds for this vintage, good quality furniture. If you have never used www.craigslist.com, you much check it out. You can buy or sell ANYTHING! Also, the last picture is a hand-made bed skirt made by..... you guessed it, yours truly. Wow, i am really starting to love this sewing machine and Sophia picked out the great material.

Ballet Day

Over the past 6 weeks, Sophia has been going to ballet school. She has really enjoyed her time learning from Ms. Hillary. This past Saturday, March 1st, was the chance for the parents to watch. Here are a few pictures from the 1st, but surely not last, recital. Enjoy.

Sophia is waiting her turn to gracefully jump over the blocks.
The girls continued to look bored, except for Allison who is all dressed up behind Sophia. Allison is posed with her hands on her hip and ready for action.
Here are 2 friends, Sophia and Allison after the recital.
Pose #1.
Pose #2.