Sleep walking

We have two children that sleep walk: Daniel and Leah.

Leah is our more active of the two. She doesn't talk too much and we can't really understand what she does say.

Daniel can carry on a conversation when he is up, but it's a slow one. He usually has to make a trip to the bathroom and then can go back to bed. He may even wake up after he's taken care of business, but he usually doesn't remember his nighttime walks.

It's now 10 PM and Leah just headed down the hall toward me at a pretty brisk walk. I thought she would stop when she got to me, but she snubbed me and head past me to the laundry room. She walked right up to the washer and shut the door. (I keep it open as much as possible to keep it from stinking.) Then she turned around and came back into the hallway.

At this point, Chad intercepted her and escorted her back to bed. I don't think she uttered a single syllable.

That's a first for me! Who knew Leah had such strong feelings about the washing machine?

Campout

Chad is gone for the night on a scout campout, so we had a little fun tonight.

We watched "Zookeeper," enjoyed some doughnuts, and then got out the Bingo game Daniel got for Christmas. We used conversation hearts for our Bingo markers while eating enough of them to make us sick. After a couple of games of Bingo, we read scriptures and had a song and prayer.

Then the kids got their blankets and settled in for a couple of chapters of Little Town on the Prairie. I turned on some Kenny G for them while I washed dishes and gave them a chance to settle down.

Nathan had been complaining about having to listen to music, but he was asleep first! He didn't even make it through 3 songs. Don't mess with a sexy saxophone! ;)

I had the boys (and everyone else) at the dentist this morning to have some teeth pulled. Nathan had four teeth pulled and Daniel went in for two teeth but ended up losing three. One was loose, so the dentist gave us a "freebie." I don't know how free it really was because it cost the Tooth Fairy an extra 50 cents!

So by now all kids are sleeping, the dish washer is going as well as the laundry. The Tooth Fairy has made her visit and I am heading to bed.

Here is what it looks like in the living room right now. Those blue eyes in the back belong to Cleo, our cat. :)

I remember the days when it was fun to sleep on the floor. Now I only do that when I have no other choice!

Disneyland Vacation - Days Six, Seven & Eight

OK...let's wrap up this marathon on pictures and memories in one last post.

Friday morning found us sleeping in...blessedly sleeping in. Sarah found her way to our bed and went back to sleep. I'm sure it was much more comfortable than the blanket on the floor she was sharing with Joseph.


And since Joseph stole her blanket, what was the reason to stay? But he does look like he's enjoying it.


The girls had a bed to themselves. Rebekah seems to have abandoned her pillow in favor of Leah's rear. Can you see how tired everyone was? They are all still in their yellow shirts and Rebekah still has her flower barrettes in her hair!


Yeah, Nathan wanted to know who the crazy person flashing pictures all over the room was. I am shamelessly guilty.


We took advantage of one last breakfast at the hotel. It felt strange to eat with the kids without their yellow shirts on. Were we a "normal" family again?

We stopped at Downtown Disney on our way out of the area. Daniel still had some money to spend and we found a Lego store to take care of business. The kids were very impressed with the Lego sculptures!




I was grateful for this play table to keep the kids busy while Daniel (guided by his value-conscious mother) shopped the store. Too bad Sarah can't actually see what she's building.



It was here that I learned we'd run out of money. Yikes! They rejected my debit card...how embarrassing. I don't have overdraft on the card on purpose, but I didn't expect it to hit at such a moment (and on my birthday, no less). That prompted a trip to the bank to transfer a little more money over to get us home.

After a trip to our bank, we headed for the beach before starting our journey back to Idaho.

We were the only group on the beach that was crazy enough to go into the water on the last day of September. And Daniel was the only one in our group crazy enough to get completely wet. (But if it was going to be anyone, it was going to be him.)



If Daniel is one to play in the water, Nathan is one to play in the sand. He really got involved with his digging and building here.


Joseph is 100% Idaho boy. Maybe that explains why he doesn't seem to know what to do with all this sand and water. ;)


Rebekah's emotions got the better of her when I wanted to take some pictures before helping her into a bathing suit. But she couldn't wait to get wet. Well, once she was wet, I didn't see any reason to get the bathing suit out. So she threw a tantrum and spent the rest of the time at the beach like this.


Sarah is also 100% Idaho. She got her feet/legs wet a time or two, but the resorted to repeating, "No beach." I think it was one of her first two-word combos!


I tried to create a unique memory photo in the sand while I waited for everyone to get done playing. It's kind of hard to keep your balance in the sand while walking barefoot. So here you go: 20H! What a year it was.


So we finally got done playing at the beach (we were at Huntington Beach) and used another 30 minutes changing into dry clothes and vainly trying to shake sand from wet ones. We climbed into the van and wasted more time trying to find a Verizon store to get some help with my phone. When that didn't work, we decided to head for the interstate and get the heck out of California!

We left the westest (I made up that word) point on the map and started for home at 3 PM MDT. Yeah...that was not a good time to start a long trip. Luckily, we had that map to look at! We drove as far as we could stand (and then a little farther) and ended up in Santa Clara, UT at 11:20 PM. We stayed with my step-dad's parents and were so grateful for their hospitality.

The next morning, we had a very generous breakfast and finally got going again at 10 AM. We found General Conference on the radio and listened as we drove north. Just as the first session ended, we got to Beaver and made an important stop at the cheese factory there for some delicious ice cream cones, then stopped at the grocery store for some lunch. We drove more, while listening to conference and finished it just as we got to my mom's house (4 PM).

Chad went to the Priesthood session by himself and treated me to a belated birthday cake after the meeting. As far as birthdays go, this one ranked near the bottom. Of course, I haven't spent very many birthdays driving for endless hours with 6 tired children (thank goodness). But the days before it were awesome! Besides, it's only "38". That's not a major milestone. ;)

We spent the night with Grandma and got on the road at 10 AM again...more Conference in the car. We arrived home about 1 PM which gave us just enough time to unload the car and prepare for the final session of Conference. We were so glad to be home!

Over a month later, Joseph is still bringing up Disneyland in many of his comments.

Here is the map we used on our trip. Black cars are the trip down and red cars are the trip back. I think we will definitely use this idea again!

Cute and Irritating

This is a post about my oldest and youngest. I'll start with the youngest first. ;)

Sarah is sleeping in a toddler bed...has been for several months. She is pretty good about staying in it. She doesn't get out at bedtime, but she will sit in bed and cry a complaint or two! She does get out in the middle of the night or in the early morning when she thinks it's time to get up. If it's after 6 AM, I'll lift her into the bed and let her snuggle up. Don't think I use "snuggle" casually. This girl will try to become one with you!

If I am about ready to get up anyway, I enjoy the moment. She is my baby, after all! I am soaking up as much of this lovin' as I can get! But I do fear that it will go too far and I will have a screaming child on my hands in the middle of the night. I'm always weighing the decision to let her in the bed.

Last night, she came in just before 2:30 AM. Yeah...that's a little too early for me. I carried her back to bed and covered her up (with 4-6 blankets) and then heard her saying, "Lee-Lee...Beka. Lee-Lee...Beka."

How sweet that she wanted her sisters! Thankfully, she fell back to sleep for another 4 hours. In a year or so, she will love being upstairs with the rest of the kids (and then there really be a party at bedtime)!

And now to my oldest...

I'm going to chalk this all up to the fact that he's eleven. This is mostly because I can't bear the thought that it's a personality flaw.

Anyway, Leah was practicing her spelling words for a spelling bee today and tomorrow. She was stuck on a word and just as she was getting it, Daniel spelled it as he walked out of the room. Grr. I wanted to whack him in the back of the head! I yelled after him, which I'm certain really had a lasting effect.

As the kids were heading out the door and I was encouraging Leah to spell a word on her way out, Daniel did it again! Does he intend to be rude or is it just coming naturally? We seem to be struggling with gaining a level of consideration. Luckily, my foot was too far away from his rear end.

Sleep Walker

We have a sleep walker in our family. Care to guess who?

It's not Daniel. He used to get up and come into our room late at night. We usually just had to steer him to the bathroom, help him use the toilet, and tuck him back into bed. One night we caught him walking down the hallway with his pillow. When we followed him out of curiosity, we found him in the act of unlocking the front door. The last thing we needed was our 4-year-old wandering around the neighborhood after 11 PM!

It's not Sarah. Well, maybe it is, but she can't get out of her crib, so that's all unconfirmed.

It is Leah. She is pretty regular. She'll often come downstairs to us and stand there, rubbing her face. She'll try to talk but won't be able to finish a coherent sentence and will usually hang around long enough to eventually wake up. Then she'll go back to bed.

A lot of times, she wakes up on the living room couch (like this morning) and wonders who carried her downstairs.

She just came down tonight (10:30). She walked past Chad as he did the dishes, went down the hall to the bathroom, got a bath mat from the towel drawer, wet one corner of it, washed her face, went into the little room with the toilet, slid the door closed a little, turned on the light, paused to rub her face, stepped out and slid the door closed a little more, then turned and went back up to bed. I found her curled up next to Rebekah and put her blanket on her. Then I went back downstairs to turn off the light she'd left on.

It was amusing to watch, but I hope her wanderings never lead her to leave the house. We don't live on a busy road, but it is a dangerous one. And I hope she grows out of this soon!

End of Year shirts

We made shirts to wear at the end of the school year. I cut stencils out of freezer paper for the letters and cut fabric for the numbers. The kids helped with the painting. Joseph wasn't about to be left out, so he got a dump truck. :)

Today is the last full day of school, so we put the shirts on. (Tomorrow's school day is 1 1/2 hours. I can't even begin to understand how they justify the bussing cost for that.) Sarah didn't get a shirt and she is innocent enough to not notice.

And now some random pictures.

Chad snapped this one last night. This is Joseph. That is Sarah's crib (you can see her hand sticking out and her right leg.) I'm getting a wicked witch of the east vibe here.

Sarah snapped this one this morning. She accidentally turned the camera on and snapped a picture...all on the run. She has quite a perspective from way down there!

Sweet Sleeper

This kid is so stinkin' cute! I couldn't resist taking a picture of his slumber one afternoon. I had to wake him up to go somewhere and he did not wake up nearly as cute as he looks here.


Seriously, I think everyone should at least get a few moments with sweetness like our Joseph. I'm so lucky to have him for eternity. (Though I am not so naive to think he's never going to be a handful. I'm already surprised his head-banging tantrums have not resulted in at least one concussion!)

It just melts my hard heart. :)

Quote of the Day

By Leah this morning:

I had to go through 5 dreams before I found a good one!

Passed out

There is something so sweet about babies who have just finished nursing and are limp and drooling creamy white milk from the corner of their mouths. It's like they've been fed a sleep tonic. They can't keep their eyes open and their warm bodies fit so perfectly in the bend of your arm, held up against your heart.

It moments like these that I stare endlessly at Sarah and cannot picture her giving me any trouble...EVER. But I'm not so naive. She's number six, after all. So I give her slow, gentle kisses on her cheek, temple and forehead and put her into bed. You don't fool me kid!

School-night bedtimes

On Sunday we started the early bedtime and early rising schedule to prepare the kids for the first day of school next week. The first couple of days were rough on the kids. All 5 of them were rough on me. So I was really looking forward to sleeping in this morning.

By 7:30 our house was operating at full volume. I guess the kids adjusted better than I expected! Well, I did get to sleep in an extra hour. That's something.

I redecorated my blog in honor of the holiday. ;)

Mini Versions

We had some sick kids lately. On Thursday, Daniel and Leah crawled into Chad's and my bed and went back to sleep.

I thought it looked like someone shrunk us! (That big bump in the middle is my body pillow that is left over from pregnancy. I haven't been able to give it up yet.)

Laundry Baskets

Kids often do surprising things. My kids constantly surprise me. Usually, it's not a pleasant surprise. We're working on those situations.

Some of the best moments come from the littlest minds. We passed by Joseph's room one night, not too long ago. He was settling down to sleep. Do you like his choice of bedding material?


What made it even funnier was that we've seen this situation before...about 4 years ago.

Here's Nathan. I guess being a little bit older, he was able to think to put a blanket on top of the basket.

Kids are full of surprises! And often good for a great laugh.

Hidden Picture

Here is a shot of Joseph's room well after bedtime.


Can you find...
...a book?
...a dirty diaper?
...a blue blanket?
...a little boy who should be in bed?

This is SO Joseph. It's not uncommon to find him asleep back there, or sleeping under his bed or Sarah's crib, or in the closet. It is uncommon to find him sleeping in his bed. Usually, he just falls asleep on the floor next to the gate in the doorway.

Hey! Who turned out the lights??

It got REALLY quiet this morning about 4:24 (I looked at my cell phone). The power went out. No noise in the house. No light, either. I got up to turn off the baby monitor that was intermittently beeping and flashing because it had lost its connection and hobbled to the bathroom (heel pain is mentioned in posting previous to this one).

The house was dark. The bathroom was even darker because there are no windows. But hey, blind people use the bathroom on a regular basis, I think I can handle this moment.

And then I was awake enough to start thinking. (This is bad when it's only 4:30 in the morning.) The power going out is rather inconvenient on several levels. For one, I don't know why it's out or how long it will be until it's back on. We have a well. The pump runs on electricity. No power = no water. Second, Sarah's very loud air purifier is now off. Is she going to wake up? Third, we have been incubating 3 dozen chicken eggs since last Monday. They really should stay warm. Fourth, if the power stays out a long time, the kids are going to raise my worry notch one space every time they open the fridge. And they will be awake before me, so I really couldn't warn them. Fifth, will Chad sleep in too late without an alarm? Sixth, today is the start of the Stake Youth Trek. I figured there were people who needed to be getting up and getting ready to meet at the church (I assume they were getting an early start to head out to the wilderness somewhere). I'm pretty sure all those teenage girls were hoping for one last morning of electricity before roughing it three days. I guess their experience just started a little early. And seventh, what about all those folks who need electricity for health reasons? I hope they have a back-up power supply!

I looked out the window and tried to see how far the power outage spread. It could see lights in the distance. I don't know if those were on generators (lights on top of high towers), so I really don't know how far it went.

Obviously, it came back on...I'm on the computer. It came back at 6:30. I heard the whole house come alive. I don't know how cold the eggs got; I hope not too cold. Chad's alarm ended up going off after all. It has a battery in it and that apparently keeps on top of that kind of thing. Who knew? I'll be seeing a lot of friends at the school for free lunch today, so I'll ask around.

Do you see how easily I am upended? I lost some good sleep over this power outage!

Long Night

The kids slept out in the tent with Chad last night. Sarah and I enjoyed the warmth and comfort of a warm house. Because I am the classic "night owl" and I didn't have to feel guilty about keeping anyone else up, I was still awake at midnight when Chad stumbled into the house with Leah.

My first assumption was that she'd thrown up...again. She'd been running around earlier and did in her sleeping bag. The real problem was that she was suffering from an ear ache and was restless - wiggling and crying and keeping Chad awake.

I gave her some cough medicine (because that was an issue, too) and she said her ear didn't hurt, so I thought she'd be going back outside. Chad didn't think that was a good idea. So I let (talked her into) sleep in the bed with me on "Daddy's side." Ugh. Now I know what Chad meant!

We were up at 1:30 putting warm water in her ear and giving her Motrin. (It's been recalled, but we like to live on the edge. Not to mention they didn't offer any compensation for the $40 of medication in my cupboard. We can't serve the stuff for breakfast or pay any bills with it!) Anyway, I hoped that would end the constant crying and whimpering, tossing and turning that I was having to lie next to. She eventually fell asleep and SNORED! I blame that on the plugged nose.

Then at 2:30, Sarah started crying. When Sarah cries in the middle of the night, Chad gets her. I was cursed - no Chad. I changed her diaper and tried to rock her, but she only tried to nurse. So I put her back into bed and let her scream herself to sleep. Eventually she did.

So I got a little more sleep, wracked with strange dreams, until about 5 or so when Leah started up the tortured sleep again. At 6:30 I sent her downstairs to watch TV and then Sarah woke for the 2nd time.

I just fed her and am headed back to bed. It's 7 AM. I guess Leah will be going to the doctor later this morning. And I hope I get a nap today!

Dear Sandman...

How fast can you get here?

I'm asleep...oh, no I'm not...wait - yes, I am...

Sarah is playing a peek-a-boo game of nap time with me.

I nursed her until she was a dead weight. She whimpered as I put her into bed, but found a comfortable position and stayed asleep. She was good for about 35-40 minutes and then it was the beginning of the end.

I'm not sure if she woke Joseph, or if it was the other way around, but she wouldn't settle back to sleep on her own. And I gave her plenty of opportunity. After the pillow muffled the sound of her crying but not the sound of my guilt, I got up and tried putting her in the swing. That didn't work the magic I was hoping for. I found a pacifier.

Sarah is a little delayed in her pacifier addiction. I'm still hoping for one, but it's been slow going. I held the pacifier in her mouth as the swing went back and forth while I rested my sleepy head on her crib railing. Eventually, she kept it in by herself and seemed at peace so I snuck back to bed.

As soon as I pulled the covers up to my shoulders, I heard crying anew. I tried an earplug for the ear not against the pillow. The sound was still loud enough to make it through the pillow to the other ear. I started putting an ear plug in both ears but realized that she was crying enough to ruin my efforts. So I got up and figured I could hold her and work on a scrapbook page.

I made sure I went to the bathroom (while my arms were still free) and went looking for my slippers (because my feet were cold). By the time that was accomplished, she was asleep! Grrr! I felt too awake to go back to bed so I plopped myself down at the computer. Since I've been typing, she's been crying, silent and now crying again. I guess nap time is over. Maybe I was supposed to ask for her permission to nap first. This may be a punishment. I sure feels like one.

Sarah's Plan

Hello, Sarah here. It's well after 1 AM and I'm not tired. I tricked my mommy into feeding me and rocking me for over half an hour and then started to cry when she put me into bed.

She thought my diaper might be part of my problem and changed it for me. I was so pleased with the attention that I flashed my biggest smile all during the activity. When she picked me up and attempted to ease me back to sleep with some gentle swaying, I made sure to remain alert and checked out the whole room around me. I wish she'd turn on a brighter light so I could see a little better. And why aren't her eyes open? She's missing so much!

I finally persuaded her to come to the computer. I really like looking at my hands by the bright glare of the computer screen. And just to make sure I get another trip to her bedroom, I filled my diaper again...this time with something stinky! (ha ha!)

I've got this all planned to keep Mommy out of bed for at least one hour. I'm a little worried about phase 2 of my plan though, because I've started yawning. And I'm thinking that my bed really would be more comfortable; more so than balanced on Mommy's lap while she types. I may get to include Daddy in my plan if I can just hold out a little longer. I did put him under my spell for a little while last night. Eventually I had to give in, but that won't stop me from trying again!

*YAWN* Uh-oh, this is not part of the plan! My eye lids are experiencing longer response times. I think I need a short rest and get back to...planning...a...new...strategy. *zzzzzzzzz*

Alarm Clock

I've heard of alarm clocks that you plug in to the wall, clocks that run on batteries, clocks that wind up, clocks powered by potatoes, lemon juice and even water. What they don't sell in stores or catalogs are alarm clocks powered by mother's milk.

I have one of those. You could even set your watch by her. The first snatch of sleep a night can last up to four hours, but it's every two hours after that. Try waking her up to get her to eat more and lengthen the time between alarms. You really only waste more time that you could spend sleeping. (I suppose I'm thankful that it only takes 15 minutes to get her back to bed?)

We went to bed a bit earlier last night than normal. For most people, this means more sleep. For me, it means more feedings. I melted blissfully into the sheets at 6 AM, haunted by the knowledge that I didn't have much time left. I am tired! I think I need to find a way to adjust my alarm clock. Anyone know a good clock tinker?

How RUDE!!

My kids have a complaint that they use WAY too much: "________ is being rude!"

Usually, it's Daniel's name in there, but I think everyone has had the judgement against them. Even Leah's friends at school have been branded. Heck, Rebekah even says characters in her computer games are rude sometimes. It's something that's a little over used around here.

So last night, it wasn't much of a surprise when Rebekah appeared at the side of our bed claiming that Daniel was being rude. It wasn't real likely, unless Rebekah and Daniel were up together sometime between midnight and 4 AM, but there wasn't any point in telling her she'd been dreaming.

So, to keep the peace (and his warm place in bed), Chad moved over and Rebekah climbed in. I got up at 4 to take care of Sarah and noticed our revised sleeping arrangements. Rebekah had as much room as I did! Now who's being rude?

It was about that time we talked her back into her bed...before she got nudged out of the bed and onto the floor. It would have really been rude to have to listen to her scream when she landed on her head!