Meanest Mom

Someday, when my children are teenagers, they may suggest I'm the meanest Mom. This picture may be used as evidence:Here's my defense: I haven't had a full night's sleep in months. I'm tired. Mostly, I'm tired of getting up every two hours with a baby who shouldn't be getting up that often and certainly shouldn't need to eat that often. So I'm imposing the tough love/cry it out approach to sleeping. I've had very little success so far, but my desire for sleep keeps me trying. Tonight, I put a very tired Miriam in her crib. She'd been recently fed, diapered, and swaddled. She'd only slept one hour all day (her choice, not mine) so she was probably over tired. Once I left her, she cried which is normal. She got pretty upset at one point, but I was dealing with a Hannah and Emma wrestling match downstairs at the time, so I didn't go check on Miriam. By the time I'd separated Hannah and Emma and cleaned up the Halloween candy that they'd thrown all over the family room like it was confetti, I noticed Miriam was quiet. Good. Once I'd started Hannah and Emma on getting ready for bed, I peeked into Miriam's room to check on her. The picture above is what I saw. Apparently, Miriam's more urgent cries started when she realized her arm was stuck in the crib's bars. Hmmm... I guess it wasn't that uncomfortable because she ended up falling asleep that way. Right? Right. And, after I took the picture, I did move her back to her normal sleeping position. This, of course woke her up and more crying ensued. Fortunately, she fell asleep more quickly this time. Hopefully, all her limbs are in the crib this time.

Trunk or Treat

Our ward's Trunk or Treat and Halloween party got off with a bang... or a siren, I suppose. The Young Men (leaders?) were in charge of the Spook Alley and their smoke machine set off the church's fire alarm. This brought out the local fire truck and Ryan had to explain what had happened. Never a dull moment around here! It was actually kind of convenient that we were already at the building for this fire department call since we usually get late night phone calls to inform Ryan of fire alarms or other building emergencies.

Since all the partygoers were already out in the parking lot, we had our Trunk or Treat before the inside party.

Here's Miriam as the Great Pumpkin. Though she's incredibly cute, she did not love her costume. Once in it she proceeded to spit up and chew on the green collar for most of the night. Spit up, chew on it, spit up, chew on it.

After the fire "drill" and Trunk or Treating, Hannah and Emma were frozen so we wrapped them in some blankets.

Hannah was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Emma was a cat, and Ryan was the "Candy Inspector." (Not pictured: Ryan's "candy inspector gadget" also known as a wall stud finder.) Here they're participating in the cupcake walk. Hannah got a white cupcake.

Emma chose a chocolate cupcake. She, of course, ate the frosting and then was done.

Here's the Halloween family.

And here's Miriam in her Jumperoo because she loves it and she's just cute.

Preschool Pics

Miriam and I attended Emma's preschool class last week. I'm doing the preschool scrapbook pages for this month, so I got to go take some pictures of the kids. It was fun to be a "fly on the wall" (as much as that's possible with a 5 month old baby hanging in a sling off the front of me) and see what Emma does at preschool.

Here she's playing on the playground.

And eating her Teddy Bear Biscuit that she made earlier in the day. They've been "studying" teddy bears for the past few weeks. Now, they're on to studying farm animals which will include a visit to a local farm. She is very excited about this excursion. In other news...

Hannah and Miriam are sick with colds, sore throats, etc. Hannah was home from school Friday and will probably be tomorrow too. Needless to say, sickness has not helped Miriam's sleeping habits. Not only is she up during the night, but it's almost impossible to get her to sleep at night. She's up for hours just crying no matter what we do to try to help her. This is tiring for Ryan and I and is compounded by the fact that neither Ryan nor I were getting much sleep before Miriam got sick. Ryan's been working at night into the wee hours of the mornings trying to get a big project done for work. This project was stressful for him and became even more so recently when Washington Mutual, the company he works as a contractor for, was bought out by JP Morgan Chase. We are waiting to see how all the dust settles as the two companies merge and as they figure out how Ryan's company, CB Richard Ellis, will fit into the mix.

AND, I've not been sleeping well because I got the cold/cough bug that Hannah brought home from school in early September. I had it for weeks when, last week, I started having bad chest pains. As crazy as it sounds, the pains were bad enough that one night I thought I was having a heart attack. I went to the doctor the next morning and was diagnosed with costochondritis. Essentially, I have inflamed cartilage in my chest. Not totally sure what caused it, but I think it has to do with weeks of coughing to the point where my ribs said, "ENOUGH!" Anyhoo, the doctor says "it will get a little bit better every day." Hmmm... that's helpful.

So, Ryan and I kind of feel like the walking wounded/exhausted. It was nice to have General Conference this weekend and just take it easy. We all took naps this afternoon which we haven't been able to do in a long time.

Hannah and Emma put an umbrella over Miriam in her bouncy seat. All three of them loved it. Hannah and Emma were so excited they couldn't even sit still for this picture. Miriam continues to be unimpressed with her solid foods. Here she is tonight, eating some applesauce. Yum? Boy, if she doesn't like applesauce, we're in trouble. Maybe we'll just feed her coupons.

P.S. Jenni, notice the flower clippy in Miriam's hair? Thanks for the inspiration!