Nana & PaPa

Well, it's official:  We have saints for parents.  My mom and dad, as well as Debby, have come to Minnesota in December and now Phoenix in July/August.  We are so blessed!

My parents spent 4 quiet days here in Phoenix with us, which was great.  We lounged in our PJ's, swam, played with Nolan and the pups, and enjoyed the coolest weather we had experienced since our move. Then Mikel, who had to work, was kind enough to let Nolan and me return to Texas with them for an additional 5 days.  It was great to spend so much time with family, though we sorely missed Rachel and her crew --- can't wait to see them in a few months.  Lauren and JT will head to Greece in September to embark on their job with Campus Crusade, so it was important to me to see them (and have them spend time with Nolan) before heading off for the next year.

*************************

I really appreciated my parents' help with Nolan while they were here.  A lot of my time was spent running necessary errands (mostly car maintenance/repair related), which were much easier to accomplish with some babysitting help.  Thank you guys!

We did venture out for some delicious sushi.  Always a winner!  (ignore the crummy iPhone pictures... we forgot to bring the camera)

 

Want a taste??  

Some day soon, Buddy.

 Nana's happy place: a pool and a grandbaby.  

Just need a beach (and the rest of the grandbabies!) to complete it!

 Of course, Khaki joined in the swimming fun.

 So did Scarlett - though she doesn't think it's "fun"....

Commercial for Apple?

Pretty day means line-drying some towels.

 My dad snapped these, saying, "Now that's something I've never seen before." 

I'm sorry, but brushing the pups' teeth makes their breath 10X better, so it's worth it -- even if it is ridiculous.

 They love it!  

And that's a Dr. Jason Tony, North Pointe Dental, freebie toothbrush.  Think Deanna would approve??

 Nolan supervised the ordeal.

**************************************

On to Texas.  I really love it at my parents' house.  It's quiet, there is space to fit everyone comfortably, and the Texas landscape was particularly green for the middle of August.  A beautiful sight and a great 5 days.

Prepare for photo overload.  :)

Southwest Airlines offers a super slick 2hr direct flight to Austin.  Awesome!

Nana was a comfy place to take a snooze on the plane.

  

PaPa, Eliza and Nolan

Eliza is hilarious.  She is 22 months old -- exactly 1 year and 1 week older than Nolan -- but WOW what a huge difference a year makes at these ages.  It's incredible!  She runs everywhere she goes - never ever walking - and is constant smiles, chatter and happy energy.  She frequently requests to watch videos of Nolan on someone's iPhone, but when she saw him in person this trip, she was less than convinced.  I told her it's okay --- movie stars hardly ever measure up in real life.  :)

All week long, Eliza was super generous to share with Nolan: her toys, her space, her food... but she drew the line at sharing her PaPa or her daddy.  On this occasion, while posing on PaPa's lap for this pic, Eliza glanced sideways at Nolan, put her hand on his shoulder, then looked up at my dad and said, "Baby -- push, down?"

Too funny.  Their faces about say it all!

One day very soon they are going to be great friends and will have so much fun playing as cousins. Can't wait for that.

(She did come around, and was even willing to dole out a couple of kisses.  Sweet, sweet girl.)

  

My brother DJ is an awesome dad - and quite the baby whisperer.

My Granny and Aunt Mickie were kind enough to make the 6hr trek from Lubbock to see us. Mickie had not yet met Nolan; of course, it was wonderful to spend time with them. Thank you so much, Mickie and Granny, for going out of your way to coordinate your visit with ours!

Nolan really suffered at the hands of all the women folk.

  

  

While we snuggled the babe, Dad washed dishes.  

Who doesn't love a man with dishpan hands??

Love you, Dad :)

Biggest laughs of the week: Thanks to Aunt Lauren!!

Uncle JT.  What a fun uncle!

I like this photo of Nikye and my mom.  It's a lot of work to plan meals and cook for this many people, but these two ladies - plus Dad and DJ manning the grill - make a great team. Definitely didn't go unnoticed.

Nikye really goes out of her way to be sure we're all comfortable -- and I think she does it for me and Nolan most of all.  She thinks of age-appropriate toys for him and is so sweet to drag out / lend anything we might enjoy.  Bath supplies, the exersaucer, an extra high chair, food masher, rattles, puppets, dolls...  She's great.  Thank you, Nikye, for being so thoughtful!

Nikye, Eliza, Nolan and I made a trip to Sprouts - where Eliza even shared her stuffed animals AND her pretty, pink stroller.  Doesn't Nolan look thrilled??

 

Speaking of age-appropriate toys -- look who Lauren re-discovered among Eliza's toys!

Pink Baby has been through a lot. ha!

Part-way through the week, JT injured his back assembling a bed in my parents' game room.

Video games + Vicodin = Still Smiling

Everyone needs some alone time... and Eliza has a pretty awesome set-up.

***************************

An extra sweet highlight of the trip was the opportunity to see my very dear friend Kara Ayaram and her new baby girl, Isabelle - not once, but twice!  Kara and David recently moved to Round Rock, only 20 minutes from my parents' house.  She is truly one of my best friends, and has remained so even after moving away from Rochester 2 years ago.  

Lauren joined us for the first visit - much to Kona's delight.

 

The babes were so cute, I couldn't help snapping a bunch of photos both times.
You know -- for their wedding slideshow.

Bright-eyed Izzy - 11 weeks old.

 

Giving lessons

Love you dearly, Kara.  (Thank you, Lauren, for being our photographer!)

Visit #2 -- It was awesome to spend a few more hours together.  Kara is so hospitable - she even dragged her pack&play to a dark room where Nolan could nap soundly.  I was so happy to put him down there and not have to run off just for a stinking nap!  I loved kicking back in her living room, letting our hair down, and chatting like old times.  It's so refreshingly easy to be with an old friend, isn't it?  What a blessing.

These two.  I mean, really.

Determined to snag the bow.

Thanks so much for opening your home to us, Kara and Izzy.  

Looking forward to many more visits in the future!

***************************

When we got home from Kara's, I was struck by how pretty my parents' property looked against the blue sky.  Have to say again -- I couldn't believe how green it is for this time of year (especially after looking at crispy Phoenix). 

Tucked away behind those huge trees

  

Not a bad view, from any angle.

  

Behind the house, my mom has installed this impressive collection of bird feeders where she can watch them from her favorite chair.  My dad likes to tease her that this is a grandma thing, but truth be told -- it's mesmerizing to sit and watch the birds and squirrels.  With the river just beyond, it's quite the peaceful scene.  Don't listen to him, Mom...  he likes it (and your "date nights" filling the feeders together!).

 

Borrowed the neighbors' chairs for a little river-watching.  Plus, Nolan was getting heavy.

Beautiful place.

*************************************

Before going, I got to have a quick little date to Cianfrani Coffee Co. with my dad.  Of course, had to grab a couple pounds of beans to take home.  yummmm

 Thanks, Dad!

*********************************

FaceTime is a wonderful invention, isn't it?  Mikel had a busy call week, and we were happy to tell him "See you tomorrow!" to his face.

Our last evening in Georgetown, after I put Nolan to bed for the night, my parents were willing to keep an ear out for him while I did a little bit of clothes shopping at some nearby favorite stores.  Apparently just as I arrived at the store, he woke up (a rarity anymore!) - but instead of having me rush home, dear Nikye came to the rescue again and rocked him back to sleep.  What a great aunt (and SIL).  

While Nikye and Nolan were having their date, I had a date with one of these:

Steph Schmitt, you would have loved this!

The next morning, we squeezed everybody goodbye, including this little beauty.  Love her so much! (notice any family resemblance??)

 

And pretty soon, we were at the airport, homeward bound.  Nolan is a pro at airplane rides by now, but I'm still blessing the nonstop option up one side and down the other (no pun intended).

 Got home just in time to get Nolan down for nap --- and I could sit out under these wonderful misters my dad installed.  Ahhhhh

When it comes to family, we are filthy rich.

Thank you, everyone!  And thank you, Mom and Dad, for coming to the desert in the summertime.  

I Survived SBSB

We did it.

We really, actually did it.

Now that we have had over a week of solid, dependable, sweet SAHWEET sleep, I can bring myself to type those words without fear that it will all crumble into a fond but fading memory...

Recently I wrote a very nice, hope-filled post about Nolan sleeping after I had knelt by his crib and prayed for it. And I do not regret this post, for it was that solitary night's rest that kept me from losing my everloving mind one week earlier than I actually did.  That was the only block of its kind that we received in a full month, and last week Monday morning after the umpteenth night of multiple (3,4,5+) wakings and cajolings and feedings and pleadings, I. Was. Finished.

It is a sad and dark place to be as a mom when at 5:30 on a Monday morning in a new city with your husband embarking on his first week of call, you look at your child and realize you are already utterly spent.

Ugh.

That morning, poor Mikel found me bawling in the nursery and then had to leave me bawling in the kitchen.  I suspect he thought he was entrusting his infant son to the likes of an emotionally unstable stranger.  Odd that my reassurances, delivered through hup-hup's and nose blowings, weren't convincing...  Drama aside: It was awful. All I know is that in my sleep deprived state, I felt like I was staring down the barrel of a long, exhausting, lonely, homesick and weary week.  And it felt, at that moment, like a whole lot to handle.

So what does a mama do on such a morning?
She calls her sister: Because she can empathize like no other.
And then her mom: Because she can lend time-tested tricks of the trade.
And then her Steph: Because she tells it like it is.

And the polls were unanimous:  Sleep training begins NOW.
I coined it SBSB - or Sorry Bro Sleep Bootcamp.
Nolan had been drafted, we both had our fatigues (pardon the pun), and it was on like Donkey Kong.

So it began.
Night #1: 1 hour of crying produced a self-soothed boy who slept all night.
Night #2: Only took 15 minutes of crying to self-soothe.  Woke once overnight and put himself right back out after 10 mins of babbling.
Night #3: No crying and no midnight wakings.
And we've been golden ever since.

WHAT THE WHAT WAS I DOING ALL THOSE WEEKS?!?!????!!!!
He was so ready.  Truth be told, I probably would have enforced it far earlier had we not been moving and then had he not gotten sick/constipated, etc.  In the end, the anticipation proved 10 times worse than the execution.  And the not-doing-it was 50 times worse, sooo....

Now, a week and a half later, I am so happy to say that Nolan is an awesome nighttime sleeper -- falling asleep on his own at night without difficulty and sleeping like a rock 7pm-7am.
And the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest."
We are ALL happier!!!



************************************
Several days later, when my dear friend Ashley emailed and asked, I had the opportunity to write down some of what we had actually done.  She was looking for a bit of input on what might help her 8 month old daughter sleep better (Morgan is only 9 days older than Nolan and was doing a lot of the same waking patterns he had been --- though seemed Ashley was coping with it a bit better than I did........).
Obviously I don't actually know anything real about this, having only sleep trained one kid - and a kid who didn't give me too much grief about it, at that...
Still, I thought I would include here some of our convo so that I can look back in the future and be reminded of what seemed to work (at least this time).  This is just purely for my own sentiment/reflection...

Cry It Out.  I have no idea what piece actually worked or if it was a combo, but I can say what we at least did after gleaning wisdom from more experienced family/friends...

A kicker I had to learn: He was waking up and truly eating, so I thought, "Oh, he really needs this food."  Here's what I have realized: No 8 month old needs to eat in the middle of the night -- they just don't need it calorically or nutritionally. At most, they "need" it to top off their bellies as a means of soothing them because they haven't learned to soothe themselves otherwise.  And so that's what they have to learn.  No one keeps a 100% full-to-capacity belly all night (you or I included!), so it's not a realistic goal going forward.  They're not "hungry" - they just know food as comfort, so that's what they reach for.  When I got good and ready to teach him another means of soothing, our whole sleep life changed for the much, much better.

Here was our approach:

Item #1: Blackout shades  :)

Then -- picked a solid bed time and a consistent routine leading up to it (something we pretty much already had in place).  For us, it was 7pm, preceded by bath, lotion, jammies and nursing.  I offer him an extra snack before bath (usually a little baby food pouch or something) to make sure he's good and full.

He gets drowsy in my arms but does not fall fully asleep.  If he does, I rouse him before putting him down.  I put him in the crib drowsy but awake.  Give him his lovey (for us it's this little blanket with a puppy dog head on it -- whatever she likes to snuggle), say softly, "It's bedtime.  Goodnight, I love you" or whatever, and walk out of the room.

Then I just have to let him work out his frustration.  And that's really all that this crying is -- he's working out his frustration over learning something new.  And that's okay!  He's fed, dry, snuggled -- now just tired!  I told myself -- sleeping is a life skill, but do you know what else is a life skill?? Learning new things!  And this just happens to be the first one I get to teach him.  We're building independence and confidence, as well as healthy sleepy practices.  It's a win/win - it just might be noisy for a little while. :)

I identified ahead of time when I would go back into the room. For me, it's been at 20 minute intervals.  Put him down at 7, I'm not going back in until 7:20.  When I do, it's just to roll him back into his sleep position (though I think they say if she's standing up, not to force her back down -- just reassure her where she is), give him back his paci and his lovey, pat his back/maybe hum a minute, and say, "Goodnight, I love you." Then walk out again.  1-2 min tops. I DO NOT PICK HIM UP. Then it's another 20 mins. We've actually had great success -- I've never had to go in more than twice.  I am a new person.

 Side note: Ashley texted this morning and said Morgan is sleeping 8pm-6am.  
What a beautiful thing is the gift of sleep!!!

8 months

... and the fun doesn't stop!

********************************************

Nolan Mikel,

At 8 months old:

- You are in size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes.  You are just over 17 lbs.

- Sitting up is no problem, but you are quick to spin onto your belly. All of a sudden just a couple of weeks ago, you up and decided that rolling all over the place ain't no thang -- and now you are getting closer to crawling!

Look out, Scarlett!

- The other mode of transportation you've assumed is slip-sliding around on your diapered behind -- which our tile floors help with.

You started out on the rug and backward scootched to reach your yucky goal...

My days are numbered!

- You have 6 teeth, and you grin to show them off.  This silly scrunch face comes out a lot lately!  It's usually accompanied by a snort and a laugh not unlike Sheldon's.  

I can't help but laugh along with you!  You bring such joy to our home.

- You graduated from the high chair to a booster seat (thank you, Beth P!).  It fits you so much better, and you often like to hang out there while I clean up the kitchen or start making dinner.

Lots of times I can't get much done, though, because you want to play this game:

- Speaking of dinner -- we continue to explore more and more solid foods.  Green beans, broccoli, yogurt and more...  Most you really devour!

But pureed chicken did not go well.

- You really enjoy venturing to new places; you are such a trooper.

You especially like water, and the Splash Pad is a favorite hang out.  Even if another kid accidentally splashes you in the face (which happens a lot there), you might look bewildered for a second but you take it like a champ.

This day we were celebrating your dad's completion of his boards.  Great job, Mikel!

- Bubbles are serious fun.

The whole fam gets into bubble time...

- You light up like a Christmas Tree when your dad gets home from work.  Sometimes he has to work late and misses seeing you before bedtime, but that's okay.  He is quickly learning the ropes at work, and we appreciate that he works so hard to provide for us.

These shots were taken after he had not seen you very much in few days.  You were both beside yourselves!

I love you guys.

Love to hear you giggle at him - though on this occasion, you sounded more like a pteradactyl...  Still pretty cute!

-You have discovered these teething pods.  I often put frozen peaches in one, and you go to town!

The cold peaches make your lips especially rosy.
This sweet face melts me...

- The mirror has become a great post-bath pastime...

- After just a little bit of work, you are suddenly an AWESOME sleeper.  (another blog post on this coming up)  Praise the Lord in heaven!!

- You're so sweet.

This is one of my favorite shots of you.

Best smile!!

Aunt Nikye and Uncle DJ gave you this owl puppet when you were born, and it has become a favorite item!  

Thank you, Nikye and DJ!

- You developed another little illness recently, so we got to meet your new pediatrician sooner than we'd hoped to...  

Thankfully it ended up just being a virus (he said your ears were "sparkling". ha!) -- and you were back to yourself the next day.  Whew!

- Sorry to include but if we're doing a full update, it's a must:

1) You have discovered your parts...  Any diaper change or bath, you keep a firm grip on them for safe keeping.

and 2) Despite my vigilance in feeding you prunes and pushing the water, you became ultra constipated.  Like, up-in-the-night-pushing-so-hard-you-peed-on-us-both-and-I-helped-you-along-with-lubed-up-Qtips-and-glycerin-suppositories-while-Dad-slept-like-a-rock.  

After that, I made you a magic potion:

warm water, a little sugar, prune juice extract and Miralax

Worked like a charm.  A yucky, stinky, powerful bomb of a charm.

Your face says it all!

- You give lots of "kisses"!

You are precious, Nolan. And we grow in our love for you every day.  Happy 8 months!