Room Service!

Picture post - deleted.

Dear blogger.com. I spent the last 2 hours uploading pictures to share on my blog here (because uploading is THAT slow)- then you "lost connection to the server"and all that work disappeared ... I hate you. You just wasted 2 hours of my life.

Project 940 - New Blog

I invite any readers of this blog to join me over at my new project.

http://project940.wordpress.com/

This is the "About" wording as it is right now:

This blog was born out of a Facebook posting I saw roll across my newsfeed one day.

You have 940 Saturdays from the birth of your children until they graduate - Make them count.

While not every Saturday is filled with new adventures and general awesomeness, there is often joy to be found in the mundane as well. Everyday life may not always be "blog-able," but when I look back at the 940 weeks I got to spend raising my children, I still want to be able to look back and remember all of it. The blog worthy trips, the days spent exploring the backyard for the millionth time, the days where we never get out of our pajamas and stay inside.

This blog is mainly about our Saturdays. The good, the fun, the boring.

However.

If something happens during the week that is especially "blog-able," I certainly won't pass up the chance to post.

We live in Oregon on two acres in a modest 3 bedroom 2 bath house that we have been working on remodeling since we bought it in 2008. My husband, two boys, dog Trooper and my father-in-law call this home and while for many, our living situation would be considered "non-traditional," it works for us and we wouldn't want to have things any other way.

We love to travel and be outside. You will see frequent Saturdays spent in Idaho at our second home. While the drive is a long 9 hours away, we are conditioning our kids early to enjoy the adventure of a road trip. We also own an airstream trailer which you will also see pop up in posts as we travel and tour around.

While having two boys a mere 19 months apart is Crazy with a capital C, we are doing our best to not let it slow us down but rather introduce them to our passions and let them guide us towards new ones.

I am not a writer.

I am not a photographer.

I am not creative.

I am a mother who wants to document our Saturdays - all of them - from Birth to Graduation.

Welcome to our journey.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we will.

I plan to continue updating this blog from time to time as I have done previously.

This blog will remain more "personal" and much more word filled. Because there is so much history in this blog, it would be a tragedy to abandon it. I enjoy looking back at all of the stuff in this blog, which I do more than I thought I would. I will continue with our lives and updates here - Project 940 is meant to follow Saturdays - because there are 940 Saturdays from Birth to Graduation and all of them should count. 

I hope you join me over there, and stick around here. I am really excited about starting this project - in addition - it requires 1x weekly posts, which is very sustainable with two kids as close together as mine. 

Sleep

I want to write this post for several reasons. 

Sleep in this house is not an easy thing. 

Ever since Barrett joined our family, sleep has been ... difficult. 

But like all hard things in our lives, they pass, and soon - we forget. We forget the things that caused us frustration. The very present sigh of relief when Barrett finally rolls his eyes back and his eyelids stay shut fades from memory. 

Someday, our sleep problems will be funny. We will laugh about them. We do laugh, sometimes. Because really, it is pretty ridiculous. 

Nap time is a time of battle. I march into the bedroom to wage war on my tired toddler. 

Getting a busy toddler to sleep is a feat. Doing it with a 6 week old that demands to be held is a miracle. 

Until about 2 months before Gentry was born, Barrett slept in the infant car seat for naps. Or in the stroller. Or in the car. In anticipation for G's arrival, we had to stop with the infant car seat so that G could use it. Plus, Barrett was quite a bit too big for it. 

So we were down to the stroller and the car. With an infant, I didn't always want to be going for a walk or a drive. Plus, Barrett was sleeping at night in our bed - and it was getting cramped - in addition, he had stopped sleeping all that well. 

So we set the crib up again. 

To get him to sleep in the crib, we had to deploy several tactics. 

Hold his hand through the slats. 

If he was particularly wiley, we would have to hold him down (nicely, of course) so that he could calm down. 

Now both of these tactics worked great / work great when there is a 1:1 ratio of kids to parents. When it is a 2:1 ratio of kids to parents, the system ... fails. 

Time to play imagination:

Nap time - Gentry will inevitably get hungry. After he eats, he will get gas, or be lonely, or take a huge poo. This will all happen right after I have changed Barrett, given him a pouch, put in in his crib for a nap. 

There I am, sitting on the bedroom floor, trying to hold Barrett's hand through the slats, trying to feed/calm/rock with one hand and legs Gentry. 

Barrett has different ways of going to sleep. 

Sometimes he is tired, cuddles up and after 20 minutes of hand holding, he is in dreamland. 

Sometimes he needs a good cry to get some extra energy out - I sit on the bed away from him and coldly ignore him, while likely holding Gentry, who is likely having an epic screaming meltdown. Because I am not holding Barrett's hand, he is screaming too. It's harmonious...future Hanson brothers. After about 10 minutes of this, I can go to holding Barretts hand, and hopefully rocking G into sleepiness and voila, 30-40 minutes pass and Barrett is sleeping. 

Yesterday was a new kind of special. Barrett was extra wild, ran and rolled and jumped around his crib like a wild animal for an hour. I am pretty sure we were in need of an exorcism - we needed to find an old priest and a young priest - or a new priest and an old priest - or however that goes...I'm too tired to remember things like that. Then he got tired. (meanwhile, G cried, loudly, with gas). Then B pooped. So we had to pause sleep and change that. Then he got wild again, then angry, then cried. I won. But it took 1 hour and 43 minutes to win. 

Sigh. 

So today-we went back to the tried and true...I went for a walk. Barrett in the Bob and G in the front pack. Worked like a charm. Barrett is sleeping nicely. 

But wait. Sleep always has to be complicated for us. So for today's complexity...G is 6 weeks old today, so I can go to the gym and put them in gym daycare. But, if you have a child under 1, you have to make a reservation so they have the correct staff to child ratio. So I reserved at 1pm because they are most dead from 1-2/3. If you miss your reservation, you are charged $6. So this means we have to leave home by 12:30. It is 12:19 and Barrett is sleeping still. I may have to ***gasp*** wake him up. Cue me crying. Sob. 

Someday. 

Someday this will be funny. 

Gentry (Newborn photos)

Mr. "I rolled over at 5 weeks 1 day old" from tummy to back. 

Barrett at 20.5 Months

Barrett, you are 20.5 months old and a ball of energy. I find you very hard to describe. Where some kids you can describe as quiet and pensive and others you can describe as loud and busy, I find it difficult to place you in a box that way.

You wake up in the middle of the night and cry out from your crib in our room (yes, in our room). Sometimes you are hungry and after eating a pouch, you go right back to sleep. Sometimes you are something else - scared? lonely? and when your dad comes over and lays you back down, sits on the floor and holds your hand, you calm down and go back to sleep - but sometimes you don't - and you end up in our bed - a little ball of cuddles with your head on your dads arm and your hand on his chest. You like to be close - at times - you will pat our arms, your dads chest cuddled up with your paci.

You reach up whenever we arrive at steps going up or going down. You seem to know we are there because you rarely look over at us, you just reach up to hold a hand to steady you when you climb the stairs - even though you are perfectly capable of climbing or descending on your own. You are so careful sometimes, and yet, you are so rough and fearless at others.

You run through the yard without a care, often tripping and falling and getting up without a tear. You walk with your eyes cast forward and rarely worry about what you might trip over or run into. Your legs are full of bruises, your face covered in scrapes, goose eggs and scabs that make you cry only briefly before you are ready to face the next minute.

You are so loving towards your brother sometimes. You kiss him with an exaggerated "MUAH!" you pat him, you pet him, you hug him and try to hold him. Then, in the same moment you slap him and lay on top of him, hug him too hard. When he cries, you look at us and say "uh-oh" and point toward him. You always want to help carry little brothers car seat out to the car. You proudly loop your arm around the handle.

You love tractors and mowers and machinery. When Gpa mows the yard, you always want to join in. You are so excited and so careful to hold your ear protectors against your head for the entire time you mow. You are so still when your ride on the mini with your dad or gpa. You quietly observe and learn as you watch them expertly run the machines.

You can screw and unscrew caps, open doors, place shaped objects in the right hole, put things away, follow complex directions and click in buckles (like for car seats). You are learning colors and can point to the correct colors most of the time. You can say more (mo), Uh-oh, Uh-hu, No, yea. You rarely say mama or dada. You jabber sometimes but we have no idea what you are saying.

You are thoughtful and caring - you worry. Gpa fell off a chair and it made you nervous, or scared you - and you cried.

You are determined and bull headed. You don't get deterred from an idea easily. You learned to take ice out of a cup at a restaurant and now you want to thrust your little hands into our cups and pull the ice out. When you are done eating, you start dropping food and then dump all the food and the plate and silverware on the floor. You are impossible to put to sleep. Impossible. Did I say impossible? You won't let yourself just go to sleep. You can be exhausted and you won't sleep. You are not the kid who falls asleep in your toys. No. You need to be walked in your bob stroller. We have gone so many miles with that bob putting you to sleep. You need to be in your car seat in the car. We have driven many unnecessary miles while you sleep, afraid that if the car stops, you will wake. When you fall asleep in your crib, we hold your hand - or if you are particularly wiley that day, we have to hold you down, wait for you to calm down. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes. Sometimes it takes an hour and a half. You can hold out forever. It's exhausting.

You want to be outside and won't let us forget until you are let outside. You believe that to be outside you need a sweatshirt and shoes - therefore you refuse to take off your sweatshirt even when it is hot - I think you think that you will have to go inside if you take it off. You play in the dirt, eat it, get filthy and need a bath almost every night.

You love to watch baby einstein movies which we let you do once little brother arrived because we learned it calmed you down before bedtime. You prop a pillow up, put the boppy pillow in front of it and grab a fuzzy blanket and cuddle up. When the caterpillar comes on, you say "ooooohhhhh" and snuggle in excited. You are very focused.

You dance sometimes, sway to music - but only sometimes - when the mood strikes. You try to jump and get no lift off but put so much effort in that half the time you end up on your rear. When you or anyone else toots, you say "oh!" and point - quite the habit...potentially embarrassing. Sometimes you even laugh. You laugh hysterically when you are tickled. You fake laugh sometimes, I don't know where you developed it.

You know grammy's house and will get very excited when we go there. You know where your toys are, where your high chair is. You sway to the music when Steve plays the guitar. You hug grammy and play rough - she lets you do things we don't, like rough "hugs." You always get your fill of fruit and love to check out Kona's kennel and the vacuum, climb the stairs and play golf.

When you are taken away from something you like or we take something away that you wanted, you get mad. You cry, hard. You cry harder when this stuff happens than when you get hurt. You are tough.

Recently, you have developed new boy traits that must be ingrained in being a boy - You tackled Hudson (age 3) and I have no idea where you learned to do it. You are very rough sometimes. You come flying at us like a flying squirrel and we have to try and stop you, especially if we are holding little brother. If you have something you shouldn't and we come for it, you run away and when we catch you, you throw it. You laugh and think it's pretty funny.

Some of the things you do are so hard not to laugh at  - and yet, as parents we have to hold our laughter in until you aren't around. One such incident - your dad was peeing and you closed the lid to the toilet (making a mess) - funny, but not appropriate.

You love to read (or rather, be read to) and cuddle up. You will go to the book shelf and get book after book. Your favorite seems to be the superhero book. You jabber about it like we are supposed to understand (we don't) and point to things. If we try to not read a book you want to read (because we don't like all your books), you grab it again and insist. Sigh. So we read it.

Sometimes you get wild for no reason. Right now, you are sitting on the floor, bouncing up and down, getting on all fours, bouncing like a wild. For no reason.

You are so much fun to watch - you are so frustrating sometimes. You are so loving and cuddly and yet, you are so rough. You understand so much and yet, you pretend not to sometimes. You are active and busy and never seem to tire or run out of energy. You are shy and reserved but so open and sweet with your "people." You are always moving. You never stop or lay still. You make my heart melt.

Gentry 3 weeks / Barrett 20 months

I feel so bad that I have barely written on my blog and haven't done any of the weeklies for Gentry. I also feel terrible that I haven't added pictures. I will get there - I'm sure of it. Someday, I will venture out of the house, solo with both kids. I will post pictures. I will update on the kids. I will. Someday.

Gentry 3 Weeks

• Brown hair, blue eyes, olive/white skin, short almost non existent eyelashes
• Sleeps in the infant napper of the pack n play, swaddled for about 1.5-2 hours at a time at night. Wakes to nurse. Eats and back to sleep. Only eats off one side per session, day and night. Barrett was the same. 
• Cries loudly when he cries, which isn't often, but can make a lot of noise when he needs to. 
• Sleeps well just about everywhere - car, swing, our bed, on us, infant napper, etc. 
• Wearing newborn (not much) and 3 month clothes (too big)
• Very content
• Somewhat gassy which is fixed by holding him so he is on his tummy. He loves tummy time I think because it helps with gas. 
• Likes his paci but will act like you are trying to kill him when you try to put it in. Then he gets very content and just sucks on it. 
• Still in disposables which we got from my showers, will maybe try to transition in the next few days but I think he may be too small for the cloth still. 
• Likes to hold your hand, his hands, blankets, shirts, cloths
• No spitting up...yet. 
• Has started to kind of "connect" with you when you hold him, will look at you, look around, look at the light, etc. 
• At his 2 week appointment he was at or near 50% in everything. 21.75 inches long, 9lb 3oz
• Loves baths, just like big brother Barrett

Barrett 20 months

• Wears 12 month and 18 month clothes. Blond Hair, hazel eyes, tan skin, lots of bruises, long eyelashes
• Determined
• Loves to carry around silverware, forks, spoons, toothbrushes, flashlights. Went thru a phase where he would wake up, scoot off the bed, run into the kitchen and open the silverware drawer and whine about getting his flatware. 
• Doesn't talk. Still. I think he says more. Maybe. And he may or may not have said Vacuum. Other people claim he talks. My mom said he says shark and another shark. His grammy (Nick's mom) says he said Costco, and says a whole host of other things. Either he doesn't talk for us but talks for other people or I am the worst mom ever and don't know how to "listen" to my child. 
• Loves all things boy. Trucks (big trucks), mowers, excavators, dump trucks, the Indy500 (boring!), cars, motorcycles, etc. 
• Takes riding on the mower and excavator very seriously. Usually will sit nicely while either Nick or Gpaw run the equipment and on the mower will sit and hold the ear protectors on the whole time. Loves to watch himself on videos riding the mower or being on the mini excavator. 
• Likes to play with his blocks and sticky blocks. Enjoys playing with his vacuum and pulls it out when I get the real vacuum. Loves to read. Likes baby einstein videos. 
• Sleeping part of the night in his crib (hurray!!!). Slept 10 hours straight the other day after not really taking a nap and going to gymnastics indoor play park and running around for an hour straight. We need more things like this...but I can't seem to find them. To sleep in his crib, it has to be dark, he has a noise machine on waves, and you have to have your hand on him or hold his hand until he falls asleep - which can take 20 minutes to and hour. Oh sleep + Barrett...how I don't love thee. 
• Sleeps really well in the car. Which rocks when you are going on a road trip. It doesn't rock when you are just out and about and either have to hang out in the car and drive or hang out in the driveway. We need to get a part of the garage cleaned out so I can park in there and leave him to sleep. 
• Still won't just fall asleep. He will play and play and get more and more tired (and more and more destructive) but will not just sack out. Has a complete inability to just fall asleep on his own. 
• Is very determined. Yes, I already said that. If he wants to do something, it is almost impossible to change his mind. 
• Already negotiates. If he has something he shouldn't, you have to "trade" with him to get it back. 
• When he is done eating, he has a bad habit of just throwing the food off his tray. We are working on this...
• Loves baths and playing with all his bath toys
• Loves to help in the yard. Waters plants, plants things (ish), digs in the garden, eats the strawberries (spits out the green ones), loves to play in the water and get muddy. 
• Has adjusted...sorta...to having a brother. Is interested in him and will come and pet his hair, give him kisses, he wants to hold him and hug him. Also gets rough with him, shakes the swing, steals his paci's (all the time), has hit him, thrown a flashlight at Gentry which caused hard crying from both (Barrett got put in time out)...we say "gentile" a lot. It's a work in progress. I am sure there are a lot of bumps and bruises and fights and hugs and kisses to come. Boys are definitely not girls. Ha ha!
• Is very sweet. Holds your hand, helps take Gentry's infant car seat to the car, waves at everyone, cuddles.