A recap

I find sometimes its easier to remember what's going on in our lives with a summary list; so these are some of the things going on.

• Cooper goes in for surgery to put tubes in his ears on Wednesday morning at 6:30 am; we are supposed to be done by 9--I am hoping he comes out of anesthia really easily!
• Cooper has been sleeping much better and we are back to sort of our normal sleeping pattern--back in the crib.  He is going to sleep much better and generally sleeping longer at night.  Some nights he is sleeping all night; others he is up.  I'm taking it as baby steps and its getting better.
• He is acting and playing much better since he has been without an ear infection and is just a super busy boy. 
• Miss Paige is just getting too big and growing up too fast.  I didn't know at the age of 6 we would have BFF necklaces, such playground/friend drama of this person did this. . ., such a desire to sing at the top of her lungs all the time, and such a general grown up awareness of what's going on.  She's all ears and anything that is said, she's going to absorb and question.
• Cowboy has a birthday this week and is old on Thursday! 
• So with a surgery, a birthday, volleyball, girl scouts, homework and just trying to contain the chaos; we will have a busy week. 

Christmas

Christmas is pretty easy to sum up this year. . .a sort of long weekend with lots of family, presents, and a tired family.  Cooper's ears made it a challenge but he tried to have fun.  This is the two of them opening up one of their joint presents--they both loved the panels and chute for the bulls and horses.  It caused squeals from both.  I think its been 10 days since Christmas and we are still recovering as we finally got the tree down, the glitter vacuumed up, and most of the mess put away.  Oh the toys, what fun and what a pain :)

New Year's Resolution. . .to sleep!

So Cooper is finally feeling better and now we have a new problem--to break all the bad sleep habits we developed in the month of December, including. . .sleeping in Mom & Dad's bed.  Those who know me are shocked that I allow this.  Cooper is our second child and only he has spent time in our bed.  With Paige I had the fear that she would never get out if we let her in, so the poor kid knows its okay to climb in during the morning hours and cuddle and watch cartoons, and that's it.  I gave in about week 2 or 3 with Cooper in December and realized I could not sleep in the rocker in his room anymore and brought him in.  We have a king size bed, should be room for one small boy.  WRONG!  It worked well for a day or two and then he started moving and rolling sideways, etc.  I realized we created a monster.  Friday night I decided he could tough it out in his crib as he was feeling better and infection was gone.  He screamed and broke the crib latch on the side that drops down so it won't stay up; and he was going to bail over.  Sigh.  Next day the toddle race car bed came out.  Moderate success with sleeping until 4am, and then a mom cuddle.   A few days later and Ryan or I are sleeping on the floor beside the toddler bed.  Not a solution.  So I had a momentary temper tantrum last night and put his crib mattress back in his crib, tied up the side railing with a dishtowel (it was 3am) and let him cry for 20 minutes and then enjoyed 3.5 hours of sleep.  I just hope it only takes a few days of him screaming to realize this used to be the normal routine and he likes his bed :)