Ending the day on a high note

The last few days have been full of ups and downs. This morning things were looking pretty grim in the sleep department, but right now it is evening and the house is all quiet. Both of my kids went down without a peep! I think we made it through the worst of it. Micah's first two nights without the soothers went OK. It took about 30-45 minutes to get him settled down each night but then he slept right through. Then last night when Erik tried to put him down, he freaked out. He screamed so hard that we thought he was going to throw up. It took awhile to settle him and Erik had to lay with him until he was fast asleep. Then he woke up crying again at about 1 am and Erik ended up spending the night in his bed which didn't make for a very restful sleep... Why is it that toddlers always have to sleep sideways as soon as they're sharing the bed??

Then after getting up with him at 5:20 this morning we were ALL exhausted. To make matters worse I had a very bad mommy moment shortly after Erik left for work. I had propped Keziah up on the couch which is something I often do. She had some blankets kind of holding her up. I went into the kitchen for a couple of minutes to put some things away and next thing I know she's screaming. I run out and find her on the floor! What an awful feeling!! I don't know how she managed to get from her nice cozy position to the floor, but she did. Needless to say she was quite worked up from the whole ordeal. I tried to comfort her while checking for broken bones and blood. She checked out fine, and I ended up nursing her to calm her down. I felt so terrible and I think I've been cuddling her extra close today to make up for it. We won't be leaving her on the couch again, that's for sure!

But the day got better from there. For one thing, it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL sunny day here. You know you live on the west coast when you walk outside and your toddler says with surprise, "It's not raining!" The other thing that was great about today was that Micah had his first real nap since Friday. He kind of whimpered and cried for about 10 minutes when I put him down but he stayed in his bed and then slept for almost 2 hours. Hallelujah! And now I just put him to bed by myself (Erik's playing hockey - again) and he didn't cry - not once! When I left his room he was looking through a book and 5 minutes later he was in dreamland. I can't even express how proud I am of him right now! There were points this weekend when I thought we wouldn't get through it, but I think the worst has passed.

Here's a picture I snapped of Micah's 10-minute nap on Saturday. He refused his nap for a long time but in the end The Backyardigans lulled him to sleep. Right after I took this photo I attempted to transfer him from the couch to his bed - FATAL mistake! He promptly woke up and didn't go back to sleep for the rest of the day.

Micah and Keziah enjoying some "tummy time" together on Sunday afternoon...


In other news, we are starting some home projects around here. Erik's parents own the suite we live in and they've agreed to let us lay laminate floors and do some painting. We started by painting our fireplace mantel. Here's the before shot:


And this is after:

Micah was lucky enough to get to do some of his own artwork. We just stripped him down and let him make a mess. We didn't even have to worry about the carpet since it's getting ripped right out.

We're planning to paint the walls "granite grey" and put down the antique finish laminate from IKEA. I'm very excited about the finished product and I'll be sure to post some pics when it's all done!