Everythings rockin' - me - I'm just tryin' to roll...

We had grand plans to get down to the Cape this Saturday to see my sister-in-law sing. If you're ever in the area, check her out - The Somers-Frost Band rocks!

Unfortunately this ended with two parents on the, um, ill side of the street. (Ack! Not the flu! NO!). Ever try to drive hours back home with a 2.5 year old and two feeling pretty punk parents? There was a moment of serious contemplation of paying for an extra hotel room night. It's a good thing we crawled our way home, as the saga ain't over yet. And I've officially lost track of being under the weather this season, which is extremely exasperating. Both H and I hope to get further than two feet from the bathroom soon. Here's hoping you have all managed to stay that way. Because this, is miserable.

The Prince of Carbs

Sigh. I know that it is typical of toddlerhood to be incredibly picky about what you eat, but c'mon Daniel! At the moment you seem to be thriving on bananas and whole wheat ritz.

Seriously. This kid ate more variety as a baby. I could put most kinds of baby food in front of him (or shovel it in...) and he would at least try it - and ate most of it. The one exception was the spinach, which earned me the first all-over-body-shudder from the little guy. (I couldn't really blame him!)

I made the online acquaintance of Amy at Ice Cream is not for Breakfast recently, and have found some solidarity in reading some other Moms' struggles with this issue. I have even gotten a cookbook that talks of ways to hide the "good stuff" in food that your kids will actually eat. I've tried a pizza bagel that contained carrot, sweet potato and white beans in the sauce that actually went over fairly well. I do believe that this should be in conjunction with trying to get them to eat "non-hidden" good stuff too, but I do like the idea of taking some of the battle out of kids meals.

Now I just need to conquer my personal battle of being a "non-chef" in the kitchen. I love good food, but have a tendency to look for the four-ingredients-or-less, toss-in-a-pot, no-fuss sorts of dishes to make. Any good recommendations?

Sleep Experiment, Part Deux

Confession time. We have a bed of blankets and pillows for Mama and/or Dada in the little guy's room. A HUGE no-no, I know... When we were in that early fog of caring for a newborn, we tried every sleep trick we could think of: swings, bouncy seats, sleeping on one of us. The crib would result in crying howls of protest that did not stop. After listening to hours of it, we would pick the boy up and go back to one of the old methods. I ditched most of the "sleep manuals," as all they ever really did for me was point out that every single thing I tried doing was wrong, sending my sleep-deprived self into an even greater funk.

We stumbled our way into co-sleeping for awhile. With many tears on both our parts I eventually managed to drag Daniel into sleeping in his own room, and in his own crib. The thing that helped him with that was being able to peer out, and see that Mama or Dada were right there as he was drifting off. This has been difficult to break. I think we've sort of looked at it as a trade-off to avoid the nightly sobbing stress-fest. As the pediatrician said to me at one point: Sometimes you just do what you gotta do, so that everyone can get some sleep.

Flash-forward to our recent sleep developments of converting the crib to a toddler bed. It's been rather anti-climactic as, in reality, Daniel hasn't spent very many nights actually in the bed. He thinks that the little nest of blankets on the floor look pretty comfy-cozy for the night. At this rate, I may forgo the bed altogether and pitch a tent. But I can't complain.

He's still in his room.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blogging...

Ugh. There's never a good time for it really. Computer problems. You never realize what you depend on the machine for, until it ain't there. We seem to be operational again, and so I hope to be back in the swing of things shortly.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

I've been musing (and being amused) by thoughts recently of those things that once you have a kid you start to wonder: How in the world did I learn this? Like, oh, blowing your nose... or spitting the toothpaste out instead of swallowing it when you brush.

The latest in that list came recently when I took the front panel off of Daniel's convertible crib. It's kinda cute - makes it look like a daybed. But - How do you learn how to not roll out of bed? Last night was the first night of the experiment.

Awhile into the evening I heard a tiny thud but no other noise, and so decided to peek at him. He had his front half on the mattress, clutching his blankie of course... and his feet on the floor. I stepped in the room and swung his feet back up - while he stayed sound asleep. Awhile later I decided to peek again. The mattress was completely empty - and Daniel was on the floor across the pillows and blankets I had laid there, perpendicular to the mattress, on his back with one hand absently twirling his hair. Still asleep. How in the world he got there, I have no idea. Did he somersault out of bed? Sleepwalk and think - Hey, this looks like a pretty good spot? If I scoop him back into bed enough times will he just suddenly get the idea? Do I start hunting around for a bed rail?

It was quite amusing, but didn't make for a very restful night's sleep for Mama.