Tired, but Happy

We are having a wonderful time with our new puppy.

However, it's not all fun and games.

Puppies can make you tired.

Arkhon is a great pup, but at this early stage I have to be paying attention to him all the time, or we end up with accidents. The crate-training will hopefully help, but it is a process, not an instant solution.

Like babies, puppies need near-constant care. If you don't pay attention for two seconds, you look back to find the puppy chewing up your son's pants, chewing on the couch, or urinating on the floor. It happens. It doesn't mean you're a terrible owner or you have a bad dog, it just means you have a puppy.

Toddlers are similar. Kevin can be playing nicely and suddenly, it gets quiet. When you are a mom, you know it isn't the noise you have to worry about, it's the silence.

You run and check to find that your son has discovered a book and is delightedly ripping the pages out. (This doesn't really happen anymore, Kevin's gotten past the point of destroying books. Now he just likes to read them.)

Regardless, always having to have your mind and attention on a couple young people can be tiring. The mental fatigue can make you want to run and go grocery shopping as soon as your husband gets home so you can relax for a moment.

Don't let this discourage you from having children or puppies, though.

It is also very rewarding.

I get to see those minute improvements that Grig doesn't get to see. I get to see the pup start responding to "Drop it," and feel thrilled when I have a whole day without an accident.

I get to see my little boy affectionately rest his head against his puppy's side while he calls it his "Baby," over and over.

I get to see my old, grumpy dog sneak a quick, tender lick on the puppy's head that she doesn't think I see, and I get to see her move protectively in front of him when another energetic dog is getting too close.

I see my son learning to be kind to both dogs and learning to reward them for good behavior.

We get more exercise as a family as we try to keep the energy levels in our home down.

We are so blessed. I am so grateful for my family, including the canine part of it. They aren't people, and they never will be treated the same as our son, but they do enrich our lives by being part of it.

Kevin has learned a lot about how to be gentle by owning dogs. I hope he can apply that to other children as well.

I am so grateful for a hard-working husband who earns enough for us to support ourselves. Sometimes there isn't a lot extra, but there is always enough.

So, yes, we've lost a little sleep by having run a puppy outside in the middle of the night, but we are happy.

Currently, both dogs and Kevin are asleep. I finally get some quiet time to do whatever I want!


I might take a nap.

It Was the Best of Nights, It Was the Worst of Nights

Sunday night, after a long day, Kevin was ready to go to sleep.

He crashed at 7:30 p.m., which is a little earlier than usual, but after a long weekend trip to visit family, he was tired. He hadn't slept very well Saturday night, so we were hoping he would be tired enough to sleep.

What do you do with a sleepless baby?

He seemed to be doing fine. At 9:30 p.m., we went to bed, and he was sleeping in his own bed. We quickly drifted off to sleep, feeling pretty good about the way the night was going.

What felt like a long time later, I began to have restless dreams. In my dreams, I was nursing Kevin, but he wouldn't go to sleep. I dreamed that if I fed him with the correct combination, he would stay asleep, but I kept getting the wrong order. Frustrated, I finally woke up fully to realize that it wasn't a dream, and Kevin was wide awake. He would nurse for a few minutes, and then cry. I didn't know what was wrong, but after a few more minutes of this, I was feeling tired and a bit grumpy.

At that point, Grig woke up and volunteered to take the baby for a while. Fearing that he was in pain from teething, he said he was also going to give him some Tylenol. I agreed, and I dozed off again. An hour or so later, he returned with the baby, and I tried to help Kevin fall asleep. However, now the dog was up and panting, so Grig couldn't sleep either. Finally, at 1:30 a.m., he decided he might as well take the baby out.

At that point, I finally stopped being selfish. "No," I told him. "You have to get up at 4:00 a.m., but I can sleep in. I'll take the baby and the dog so you can go to sleep."

So, Kevin, Dakota, and I went out into the living room.

It was a long night. I turned on Kevin's videos, and he sat quite happily on my lap, but he just didn't want to sleep. As tiring as it was, we enjoyed our time together, and it really wasn't that hard to stay awake with him. I had a pretty good time.

At 3:50 a.m., Kevin finally gave up the fight and fell asleep. Wearily, we went back into the bedroom, and I laid Kevin on our bed and tried to go to sleep. However, by that point, though I felt exhausted, i couldn't sleep anymore. It wasn't until Grig left for work that I finally managed to go back to sleep.

We slept pretty good at that point, and then at 9:30 a.m. I was awoken to Kevin pounding on our bedroom door, ready to go out and play.

I don't know why he had such a hard time sleeping those two nights, but last night he slept much better. We all did, in fact.

Kevin's spoiled us. He's always been a good sleeper, so we haven't had too many of these sleepless nights. Strangely, he sleeps worse now than he did as a baby. I'm about ready the wean the boy. At 17 months, he doesn't need to be waking up every four hours or so.

It's going to be a hard transition for him, but we know he can do it.

He's a pretty cool kid. Even after frustrating nights like this, we wouldn't give him up for anything.

That's what being a parent's all about.

Almost Back to Normal

Someone reminded me that it is April Fool's Day. Just thought I'd mention it. It has nothing to do with this blog post, but I just wanted you to know in case someone tries to pull something on you.

Yesterday, Grig and Kevin were pretty sick. For Kevin, it started about 10:00 p.m. Sunday night. For Grig, it didn't begin until 2:00 a.m. Monday morning. Kevin vomited all night while Grig got the other end of the deal. However, by 2:00 p.m., Kevin was running around the house while Grig was up and moving. It seems to be a fairly quick virus, which is a relief.

Grig was able to go to work this morning, and he says that he's been feeling pretty good all day.

Kevin is also nearly recovered. He's had some loose bowels occasionally, but for the most part he's been acting like normal. In fact, he's been super sweet today. He woke up with lots of kisses and hugs for me.

I, on the other hand, seem to have caught the sickness finally. I woke up at 2:00 a.m. feeling pretty good, but that didn't last very long. I was on the toilet for a couple hours, and finally I was able to fall asleep around 4.

Kevin woke up at 6:00 looking for his dad, and I did NOT want to wake up then. After a few minutes, I convinced him to go back to sleep. We officially woke up at about 9:00. I've been feeling better since then, and I am grateful that I seem to have the stomach flu less severe than my husband and son. However, I'm more grateful that everyone is recovering okay.

I'm tired and so this blog post is very late today. Being sleepy and sick is very demotivating. In case anyone was wondering.

Have a wonderful April 1st. Try to avoid getting pranked.

I don't have the energy to do anything myself.

Ciao.

LIfe Without a Microwave

I've had a microwave my whole life.  My parents always had one, and when I went to college the apartments were already furnished with one.  I've never really thought about not having one.

On my wedding night, my new husband and I came home to our new apartment with the leftover fried chicken, tired and hungry after a long day only to find that our new apartment didn't come with a microwave.  We ate some chicken cold and that was that.  The next morning, that was the first purchase we made as a newly married couple.  We bought a microwave.

When my husband was hired at his new job, we came and looked at the apartment.  Both my husband and I were relieved to have a larger microwave there, and I thought I saw it hanging over the sink.  So, we decided to give our microwave away to my brother and his fiance as a wedding present.  We wouldn't be needing it anymore. 

However, to our surprise when we moved in, there was no microwave there!  Both Grig and I could have sworn that there was one, but we decided not to worry about it.  We would start a microwave fund and buy one again when we had the money.  Things were pretty tight for a while though, and two weeks later, we still didn't have money for it. 

Have you ever lived life without a microwave?  It's kind of hard, but as my Grandfather reminded me, they didn't used to have microwaves at all.  I learned to reheat everything on the oven.  I had twice as many dishes because I'd remove the Tupperware from the fridge and then I'd have to put the food in a pan to reheat it.  I used to just be able to put the Tupperware in the microwave and be ready to go.  For a couple weeks, it was a pain and then I began to get used to it.  We probably could have gone on indefinitely without a microwave, except for one thing.

Microwave popcorn.

I love microwave popcorn.  I eat it quite frequently.  When I was pregnant I ate it even more frequently, but it still is one of my favorite snacks.  I could figure out how to cook anything without a microwave except my popcorn.  Its loss made me sad.  But I could endure, no matter how hard it was. 

But don't worry, the story has a happy ending.

A couple weeks after we moved, I received a call from my cousin.  They were in the process of moving, and the apartment we were moving into already had a microwave (for realsies).  She asked if we wanted her.  I am pretty sure that the Spirit told her to call us, because there was no reason why she would think we didn't have a microwave.  We told her we would love one, and a couple weeks later, we were able to go and pick it up!

I'm grateful to my cousin and to the Lord for providing us with a microwave when we didn't have the means to get one ourselves.  It just makes life a lot easier.  I don't regret the skills that I learned in those four weeks though.  I now can cook without a microwave, and we found out that fried quesadillas as so much better than microwaved quesadillas. 

Guess what the first thing I made with the microwave was when we finally got it home?

You guessed it. 

Microwave popcorn.