OK, I purchased the battery for my camera and it is charging right now. Hopefully 1:45 minutes is enough time. So hopefully, you can expect some new pictures tomorrow. I see others blogs and look at mine and ya know – it just looks better with pictures. The descriptions of what he does just seem more “real” with a picture. Breaks up all the text and well, I can be a bit verbose.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know.

Good music in the mornings really helps get you going. The morning it was BareNaked Ladies and “Feels like the First Time” from their album Maroon. Not much to report really. Tyler has been pretty fussy in the afternoons lately. I am trying to figure out if it is just end of the day tiredness, he’s hungry, his teeth hurt, he’s ticked he can’t walk, he is mad because mama doesn’t understand what he wants or mama knows what he wants but won’t let him have it. Ah, the possibilities seem endless some days.

We are going to go to a playgroup and see how that goes today. Tyler hasn’t bitten anyone is a week or so. He has also stopped biting me – THANK GOD!!! Can I just say OUCH! He has never been to this person’s house, so it may be a nice change. We will see.

Still working on the battery for my camera. Wanted to download pictures I took, but of course, the camera has to be on to do that…and we are back to the battery problem! :-p The camera is about 5 years old, so I am hoping I can find one.

Driving into work this morning, “Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies came on. Oh my god – I turned the radio up! This is one of the most amazing songs that came out while I was in college. I love music. All at once I feel wild, crazy, and alluring.

Chris and I got to see the Toadies twice in Austin including their “farewell” concert. I just remember the whole crowd just singing the “Do you wanna die!” part at the top of their lungs. The energy was amazing – it gives me chills just thinking about it. Good memories all around.

While the lyrics and suggestions in this song are probably not quite appropriate for a young child, I am so looking forward to exposing Tyler to all the great music we love. He already begins to dance whenever music of any kind comes on and always points out the radio to me at daycare, so I know we are off to a good start!

Our little angel boy got some good sleep last night so he was in a fabulous mood this morning. Always nice to wake up to a happy boy! I am learning that I really need to bundle him up in this cold weather and make sure he wears a hat. He is does not like being cold and was very clear about that at the park yesterday. We aborted the park mission in favor of playing at the house where it was warm and not windy.

Duece Appt
Oh, and all is well with Deuce. Heartbeat good and heard some movement on the doppler. Haven’t really felt the movement yet, but with Tyler to run after Duece is going to have to kick me good to get my attention! :-p

Getting to Bed Update
So Tyler now goes down by 7:45pm every night. On a tired night like last night, it was 7:15pm and if we are little wired it might be 8 or 8:15pm. While we are still waking up at night, this alone has improved our moods. Tyler did give me a 5 hours stretch last night, so I can’t complain too much. Yeah, routines for the 10,000th time. As I always joke, we are just slow on the take as parents! :-p

More pictures
I am hoping to buy a new battery for our digital camera so I can take more than two pictures of Tyler before the thing dies. I would love to post a shot every couple of days. So, pictures should be back soon!

From the band Arcade Fire and their song “Rebellion (Lies)”. Kind of song that will have you up and jumping before the middle of it. Got a 4.5 hour stretch of sleep last night, so feel so much better today. God, how weierd it is to say that when I netted probably 6.5 hours total? So, I am still sleep deprived, but that one good stretch can make me coherent and able to function? Not to be big headed, but we Moms are amazing! (and anyone else who survives on that little sleep for extended periods of time)

Was home with some wierd stomach thing yesterday, but feeling much better today AND hungry! I have so much news from the weekend that I haven’t shared yet. My two previous posts were dreamed up in the middle of the night Sunday while putting Ty back to sleep. So here is the news:

Moved Bedrooms
I talked about this – I can’t believe we actually did it! We talked about it for so long. Now there is TONS of furniture to be sold and I hope to have that done by March. There is a room to paint and a playroom to create. There are curtains to sew and decorations to put up. Ah – nothing like a project!!

Saw a nutritionist
In an attempt to alter our eating with out new more sedentary lifestyle and help Chris lose a little weight,we saw a nutritionist. Got some great information and ideas for him and I and Tyler too. Chris wants to lose 15 pounds and I think will have that done by the time Duece is born.

Walkin’, Walkin’ Everywhere!
Tyler loves walking with his walker and now will let Chris and I hold his hands and help him walk. He is a maniac with that walker. If we steer him in a different direction from where he is heading and he wanted to go that way, he will very intently steer that walker where he wants it. He loves to offroad with it – he doesn’t care about nice little paved paths.

It blows my mind, he stood on his own for the first time December 21st. In the New Year we introduced the walker. Within a week he was off and running with that thing. I feel like any day he is just going to let go of the push toys and start running around. He LOVES walking – his face looks absolutely exuberent!

Freedom!
Well, I am seeing that the park is the best place to be from 3:30 to 5pm. I had a dr. appt at 3:30 yesterday, so my MIL came with my to help with Tyler. He was uber clingy yesterday and kind of fussy. We got home, got out the walker and let him play in the front yard and he was happy as a clam for the most part.

I think that once I am home most of our “playtime” hours will be spend playing in parks or doing nature walks. It just seems to keep him happy and allows him to expend all that energy he has. I can’t wait until the summer when the pools re-open. Of course, I am dreading the icky mosquitos.

That is the news for now. Having a good day and hoping to get a lot done here and at home. It is only Tuesday. By hey – we are only 17 days away from finding out if we have a boy or a girl on the way – very exciting!

The last three or four nights, Tyler has woken up about 40 minutes to an hour after I go to bed. It is so hard to jostle myself awake when I have just gone into a deep sleep. And lately, laying in bed with Mommy nursing isn’t what he wants anymore. It isn’t doing the trick. So what do you do when you are so tired, your baby is rolling around in bed upset, and what used to work doesn’t anymore? You cry. And after a minute or two of crying, I thought of my Mom. And heard her say, try something new Alyssa.

So I picked up Tyler and went to the nursery which now is conveniently located right across the hall. I nursed and rocked him – Tyler has always been a motion baby. And he went back to sleep back in his crib. He slept for 3 hours and was up at 2:30am. I gave him some ibuprofen and again rocked and nursed him in the nursery and put him back in his crib after he was asleep.

At his 5am waking I did bring him to bed and he did fall asleep nursing. We are starting to think that the reason he wakes up at this time and can be up for an hour ot more is that he is hungry. I don’t produce the milk I used to, so if he was up for more than a half hour, I was going to give him a bottle of milk. Luckily last night I didn’t need to.

And end to Cosleeping?
It might be. If you read my whole blog you will see that our nighttime sleeping arragements have changed to meet the needs of the family at that time. Tyler and Chris do not sleep well in bed together and I am starting to think that Tyler sleeps better in his crib where he has more room to move. I am going to continue to rock him and put him back in his crib and see how that goes. What was working really isn’t anymore, so I need to try something different. Maybe it used to be the milk he liked and now that there is less of that, he needs more motion.

We will see what happens after those pesky molars cut through.

Well, we transitioned the bedrooms this weekend. Our master bedroom is now in the guest room downstairs and the guest bedroom is now upstairs. This is Phase I of the transition. We still need to paint our “new” master bedroom and add some touches to make it ours. The guest bedroom furniture will be sold soon hopefully, and the upstairs will become Tyler and Duece’s Rec Room.

For now I sleep downstairs in our “new” room across from the nursery and Chris sleeps upstairs.

Separate Beds
Before I had kids I thought the separate beds thing was CRAZY!! But now that I have Tyler – that is what works for now. Chris gets up at 6AM to go to gym and if he was waking up with me and the baby – that would not be possible. And I LOVE him going to the gym in the morning because the whole nighttime stress of when was he going to get to gym is gone and I can get my break.

It won’t be like this forever, in fact, as you will read in the next post, Tyler may be making his move back to the crib.

It isn’t bad at all – Tyler still goes to sleep in his crib first-thing, so there is plenty of opportunity for “couple time” if we have the energy for it! :-p I think what Elizabeth Pantley and Dr. Sears says makes a lot of sense – if it works for your family and no one has a problem then keep on keeping on. It is when you are resenting the situation that you need to make a change.

For now this is what works and soon there will be another baby in the house. We have to do what gets everyone the best sleep possible. And the answer to that changes every few months and we change with it.

The transition will take a little getting used to, but I know in the years to come sleeping so close to our kids will be good for us and great for them. I am thinking that when Tyler is 5 (that is when my parents moved their room to the back of our house) we will probably go back upstairs. Chris is thinking/wanting sooner, but I know these young years are formative years and I think our being nearby is important.

Should I not sound so excited? If it lasts longer than three weeks, I will probably be saying “for the love of god, break through!!!”. Molars are supposedly the worst part of teething for babies being quite painful. For our child it has meant some difficult nights and diarrhea which has led to a not so fun diaper rash. Here are a few reasons why I am a bit excited about it anyway:

• Easier time eating food like apples because he can mush them up with those molars.
  
• We are getting near the end of our teething, just canines and one last set of molars to go.
  
• I am hoping that we might be getting a lot more sleep VERY soon. (I am on my knees begging the sleeping Gods here :-p)
  

So far he has been okay. A bit more fussy in the evening, dealing with that nastly diaper rash, and some restless nights. The ibuprofen in helping for the most part.

Camera
Well, I got our little digital camera up and running and as Chris said, I snapped two shots and the camera died! Ug, technology! So I will get another battery this weekend. I did get two shots of Tyler using his walker and will get those uploaded soon.

Life is Good
Still feeling good and having fun in 2006. I got TONS done yesterday evening as Tyler crashed at 7:30pm. Felt good – my house is slowing getting back into shape. I am pacing myself though – one zone at a time. The last thing I need to carve out time for is working out. I will get it figured out at some point. My folks are in town all weekend, so we are going to play cards with friends Friday night after the babies crash and Chris and I are going to dinner Saturday night. Should be a good weekend!

I wish you all a great weekend!!

P.S.
I’m on Rhapsody listening to one of my playlists. Some jazzy holiday music just started playing. I know the holidays are over, but man, the music is so great!!!