The Sleeping Conundrum

If you've read my blog or talked with me over the past few months, then you know the saga that has been playing out at our house. In case you missed it or can't remember, here's the rundown.

• Elise (now 13 months) has been sleeping in my bed since birth.
• I was still wrapping her up (yes, like a burrito), and singing her to sleep
• Shoot-self-in-foot ----yes I know.
• In the past couple of weeks, it's been harder and harder to get Elise to sleep and I'm the ONLY one that can put her to sleep. (Love my kid, but after over a year - I'm so done with it!)
• Why in the world was she still in my bed?
• Ava still sleeps in her crib.
• Ava can climb INTO her crib but has never climbed out of it (until today actually) and has been doing great in her crib so why change anything?
• We didn't want to buy another crib and didn't have a lot of luck borrowing one without having to buy extra stuff for it.
• We bought a "toddler" bed for Ava at IKEA. Didn't want to switch her yet because we were afraid of the transition, thinking she'd have a hard time staying in bed.
• Love IKEA, but beware, their "kid" or what we thought was a "toddler" bed, is a NON-STANDARD size. We bought the bed (without the mattress) last July in MN, thinking we could just use her crib mattress.
• Nope. Crib mattress too short (most if not all toddler beds just use a crib-sized mattress), must buy longer mattress only sold at IKEA. The nearest IKEA is at least 8 hours away. We swear there were no signs or notes on any packaging or even on the website stating it needed a non-standard sized mattress.
• ARGH!!!!!!!
• SKIP: (all the ideas and shopping trips and possible solutions and hair pulling)
• Solution: (for now) - Ava, tonight, is sleeping on our old queen mattress we've been storing for the day we have a true guest room. We put it right on the floor where her crib used to be and it takes up a lot of her room.
• She went right to sleep and is still sleeping.
• We're planning to go to Dallas in late June where there is an IKEA. So, we're waiting until then to pick up the mattress and special sheets for Ava's IKEA bed. (It'll work out okay in the long to have the non-standard but longer IKEA mattress, since Ava is a tall girl)
• Put Ava's old crib in my bedroom for Elise to sleep in.
• If you know Elise, you know she is a super-duper wiggly kid who lets her wishes known and wants mommy when she wants mommy (she's also very sweet and lots of other good things)
• I was deathly afraid and almost positive she'd be one to have to cry, cry, cry it out. All my fault of course because I never let her learn to fall asleep on her own.
• Nope.
• Guess what?
• She's asleep! I did my best to keep her feeling safe and loved, but left the room a few times. She cried some but not nearly what I thought...only a minute or less at a time.
• So, both kids are sleeping soundly.
• Crossing my fingers (okay, praying like the dickens) for the same good luck tomorrow and the next day and the next...

Sorry to bore with all of the minute details - but this has been such a huge issue in mine and Chris' life for many months now - when to make the switch, where are they going to sleep, what if this? What if that?....kind of mental, I know....making such a big deal about it.

Life can go on now. Our big goal is to put both girls in the same room, Ava sleeping in her "non-standard toddler" bed and Elise in her crib. Then, oh then, I will have my room back.

Spring is Here...??

It seems we've had a really late spring this year. Ava loves to go and smell her flowers just about anytime we go anywhere. So before church a couple of Sundays ago, I grabbed the camera to take a few quick shots.

Ava also loves to pick flowers. More than once she came to my side holding some very short stemmed daffodils.

My favorite flower - tulips.

Elise and I at the pond. (This really goes with the next group of photos but I can't figure out how to post more than 4 pictures using Picasa? Help, anyone?)

At the Pond

One nice evening, we headed out to a nearby pond in hopes to find some ducks to feed. Instead we found a lone goose. We started feeding the goose some bread (ok, so now I know you're probably not supposed to feed geese or ducks bread), and out of nowhere came another goose. We later learned, from a frequent visitor, that a pair of geese live there and they have several goslings too, that he thought the mama had probably left in the nest for a bit while she came down to eat. She sure acted hungry.

Don't Run Away Yet!

Okay, so I hope I haven't scared everyone away from checking our blog. It was good to get an idea of who was looking - mainly just to make sure that we didn't have any weird activity or anything.

Blogging is such a great tool for connecting to family and friends. I enjoy being able to post various things that we're up to. It's also great to read what many of you are doing and know that I'm within the spectrum of "normal", granted it's a broad spectrum. It's also a great tool for our family to keep a record for the future. I've already enjoyed looking back say a year ago and seeing how much my kids have grown (or how much messier our house gets now), etc.

So, keep reading, keep posting, keep blogging!

Got me thinking

This blog post by a friend has got me thinking. Actually, I've been thinking about some of these issues for a while now. How safe is blogging, really? What do you think? How cautious should you be with names, locations, pictures, your opinions, etc.?

The tracker on the right won't be there forever, just a wee bit longer. I'd like to get an idea of who is accessing my blog. Hopefully all friends and no foes.

I'm tempted to even take a roll call and ask everything who checks this blog to leave a comment, just this once, so I know who you are. Roll call anyone?

Sleep Issues

More than once over the last few weeks, we've found our little Ava passed out in various soft places: her Dora couch, the leather recliner, her carseat, the couch... Mind you this is late afternoon or around dinner time.

Our dirty secret: my 2 1/2 year old (3 in June) still L-O-V-E-S her binky.

24-HR JAYHAWK WHIRLWIND!

2008 National Champions!
I know some of you may be sick of all of the Jayhawk talk - but we have to add our own story of this great whirlwind of a time.
We're so excited that our KANSAS JAYHAWKS won the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Chris and I are both KU Grads and have been waiting for this moment, especially Chris.
All day Monday, we were on pins and needles, awaiting the championship game against Memphis. Chris hardly ate all day long.

The game was awesome - a nail biter for sure. We definitely thought we had given the game away when we were down by 9 with 2 minutes to go. Needless to say, we were thrilled when we won. We let Ava get up and watch the end of the game.

Chris was the most excited, running out into the street yelling at the top of his lungs in celebration for his team. We've had so many great seasons with disappointing post-seasons. FINALLY - this one is ours!

Celebrating after the big win

We had to go out and celebrate - so we woke Elise up, bundled both our kids, and headed out. We drove to campus, Chris waving our Jayhawk flag out the window. Chris got lots of people honking and hollering when we drove by waving our flag - lots of people wanted to give him high-fives too - kind of funny - but hey - everyone was just so excited. Chris got out and walked down MASS St. for some extra celebrating while I drove around with the kids. We're so glad we got to experience the Hawks winning while we're still so close.
On Tuesday, we headed to Memorial Stadium to celebrate the team's return to town. Here we are doing the Park and Ride to the Stadium (which proved to be a great idea on the way there - but took a long time to get back after the celebration - oh well - we stayed positive).
At the stadium. We made sure to bring our earplugs and candy and marshmallows to keep the kids happy while we waited. Elise cried and cried when everyone cheered - but eventually fell asleep on my chest.
It's estimated that over 25,000 fans welcomed the Jayhawks home.
Walking into the stadium, a reporter spotted Chris & Ava and asked to interview Chris. So, if you caught the 4 o'clock Channel 5 news, you saw them on TV!!! My brother recorded it - so we look forward to watching it.

Another awesome thing was that we saw one of our all-time favorite players, Wayne Simeon, First-Team All American. Although he wasn't part of this championship team, we enjoyed watching him during his years at KU. Ava had a fun playing around with the flag and our friends, the Arnolds, while waiting for the "Jayhawk bus".

What an exciting 24 hours! We're slowing coming down off our high - but have made some great memories to cherish for a lifetime!