Binkie update

Well, I think we may be over the hurdle. I'm not sure what Claire would do if she saw a binkie, but she seems to be okay without it. Day one was the hardest. After taking so long to go to bed, she woke up in the middle of the night wanting it. She made me show her the drawer where they were and looked through it. Then she accepted some milk and went back to sleep. Day two actually went pretty well. She only fussed for a minute for her nap, and Alann said she went down really easy at bed time. I was at a youth dance. She slept all night and didn't wake up at all. Today she didn't fuss before her nap or really her bedtime either. She talked a little bit before bed, but that was it. I've been more lenient about her taking a cup of milk to bed with her, but I figure that hurdle will be easier to jump. I've broken her of that habit several times. Every time she gets sick she goes back to it. But we even went to church today without a binkie and she didn't scream or cry about it at all, even when she saw other kids with them. So I am glad the fight is over. Now on to the next- she has been waking up RIDICULOUSLY early lately. Like 5am-6:45 at the latest. It's making me a little crazy. Even if she just lays in there and talks to herself, I can hear her. I've turned off the monitor once and ignored her back to sleep until a civilized hour. But I think I need to just turn off the monitor every time if she wakes up early in the morning. If she is really crying and serious about getting up, I can hear her cry. Her cries carry down the hall better than they used to in our old bedroom. And now that the heater has been off for several days, I don't have to worry about that drowning her out. That was actually the only thing that would block out her cries. But I'm sorry, I'm 8 months pregnant. I am NOT getting up before 7. I try to get to bed at a decent hour, but even when I do, I am up 3 times a night at least. And morning sleep has always been the most restful sleep to me. I get cranky if I have to get up too early too many mornings in a row. I really don't know what is waking her. It stays fairly dark in there, though the sun is rising earlier. It certainly is never brighter than during her naps. Maybe she is just becoming even more of a toddler and getting up early will be her thing.

In other news, I finished our flower boxes! Yay! Don't ask how long it took me, because honestly I don't know. I know I planned and started them before we had Claire, and possibly before I was even pregnant. It makes me a little mad at myself to think of how long we could have had them looking nice. It honestly only took me a week of concerted effort to finish them- less than an hour each day. Except planting day. That took FOREVER. Claire blessed us with a 3 hour nap on Saturday, so we were able to do it all in one go. But we had to gather soil from several places- bags in the garage, newly purchased bags, the back garden. That took the most time I think. Then I planted the flowers (yellow snapdragons) and mulched it. They look nice I think. The pics are on Facebook. At least selling a house is good motivation to get things done that need to be done. And I think that honestly, Alann and I have learned/ decided that the next house we buy, if there is something we want to do, we will really make the effort to do it. Remodeling the office was tough work, but we got it done (mostly- still haven't found time to finish it) and it didn't really take THAT much time. But it seems so daunting. So our goal is to finish all of our projects when we first buy a house, so we can ENJOY them, instead of waiting until we are going to sell it or move out. We did that with the MO house too. We kept putting off some work that really made the house SO much nicer. And some of it was honestly just painting. The downstairs where we lived was hideous- purple walls, gold walls, greens walls, Burgundy walls. Awful. But we didn't really notice too much. Until we decided we were moving, and the renter wanted them painted. So we painted the whole basement. It took us a weekend, and the house suddenly seemed SO much bigger and less, well, crazy. But we didn't enjoy it very long before we moved out of it. And we've done the same things here- putting it off, and then realizing how nice it would have been. I know it's always a function of time and money- but we just don't find the time like we could. So next time will be different (we hope).

Speaking of Alann, he has actually been home the last few days. It has been very enjoyable having a husband around. I think that both Claire and I needed it. He goes back to a mostly crazy schedule this week, but there are only a few left until he is done for the semester and then we can breathe (a bit, we hope anyway!).