Thanksgiving was the usual motley crew down in Coos Bay. Lots of cousins and kids and dogs. The weather did it's usual windy and rainy thing, but also gave us plenty of breaks for all the usual outings. No crabbing in a one-oared dingy in driving rains or scrambling for muscles down cliffs at low tide in the dark, but we had some nice beach walks, cliff walks, dune walks and took Cam to the Christmas light display which he loved.
Christmas was spent up in Gig Harbor. We spent a good, long week there, and Cam got some nice bonding time with both uncles on the Bauer side. The time up there was relaxing, with a little bit of everything. Eating, biking, walking, movie watching and Keith and I got away for a whole day and did an amazing snow shoe walk up on Mt Rainier.
Like Uncles, Like Nephew
During that visit up north, our son seems to have lost his ability to sleep. He used to be the easiest kid in the world to put to bed. Toss in crib, cover with blankets, kiss, turn off light, and in 5 minutes he would be sound asleep. The combination of the ever-lovin' "stuffy nose!", sleeping on the floor and being in a new and exciting place, putting him to bed at my parents' house turned into a nightly 2 hour marathon of screaming, horsing around, and reminding us that he had a stuffy nose and "I want a tissue, no I don't, I need a tissue!!! no, no no!".
We had some good laughs in all that time spent trying to put him to sleep as his little brain would get so wound up and confused, you just couldn't help chuckling. The best one went something like this:
After about an hour of on again, off again crying. Getting a tissue, not getting a tissue. Trying to reason, and ignoring, we finally both said to him, "Mama and Daddy are asleep now and we can't talk to you anymore". Camden promptly stood up, walked out of the room and announced to my brothers while standing at the top of the stairs, "Mama and Dada asleep." We were in hysterics. We finally came out and saw my brother Carl's distressed face as he really thought we were asleep and was trying to figure out what to do with this two year old at 10:00 at night. Ah well, I guess you had to be there.
When we got home, we had one night of normal sleep, then the fight started again, ending with Cam climbing/falling out of the crib. Since then, he has graduated to a big boy bed, but we also have entered a whole new phase of sleep struggles. In a nutshell, he can no longer fall asleep without someone there by his side (or at least within sight) at night and for naps, because if you don't sit there, he just climbs on out. If you play the 'put him back in bed a million times game' he just laughs harder each time you do it, which then makes me laugh, which gets us nowhere. On top of that, he has now been waking up in the middle of the night usually just once, but sometimes twice and immediately climbs out of bed and is at the side of my bed asking to "sleep with me". Usually I am so out of it or so lacking for sleep that I give in and either climb in bed with him or yard him in bed with me. We usually sleep OK for the rest of the night, but man have we set a bad precedence and created some bad habits.
On the one hand I fear we are setting him up for a lifetime of dysfunctional sleeping, on the other hand I love the snuggle time and know it won't last forever. This too shall pass. I hope.
Meanwhile the new year has brought many changes for us. Keith has accepted a new job as an operations manager with a local manufacturing company. It is really great news in that we were just getting by on my salary and his small construction jobs - we were able to maintain, but not improve this house at all. Now we will have the money to do more work on this house, but Keith now has no time to do it. Life is funny that way, isn't it? Time and money - very few of us can have both at our disposal. I suppose we can at least start hiring some work out. Keith is enjoying his job so far, but is working long hours which has been an adjustment for all of us. He is up at 5:30 and thus in bed about the time Cam goes to bed which is before I get home from work. So when I have a busy week, days will go by before I see Keith in the daylight and have a real conversation with him.
I suppose I shouldn't just complain about Camden. He continues to bring us joy on a daily basis. He is thoroughly enjoying his tumbling class - balance beams and jumping off of anything are his favorites. He memorizes books faster and faster. His latest favorites are 'One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish' (he can practically recite the whole thing) and anything by Eric Carle. Recently, we had our first major snow here at this house and Cam "helped" build his first snowman.
Also, he has developed this weird tic in his right leg. For one short section of Mumford and Son's 'The Cave', he does this:
1 comment:
Very cute, as usual.
Mom
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