While Mommy Is Away....

So while Mommy is away, the boys will play....

...or get trapped in a net.

That was Drew at soccer on Saturday morning.  Dave assures me they were playing a game and no children were harmed in the taking of this picture.

And clearly keeping up with Daddy all weekend is tough stuff...

I guess they had an especially busy day (I think they said this was Sunday) and Drew was out cold before I could talk to him that night after work.

While it was nice to get a full night sleep without interruption in a King sized bed I didn't have to share with anyone... it sure was wonderful to come home.  It's so funny how much you notice little changes in your kids even after being gone only 4 days. 

Dining Room Campout

Drew was mighty restless last week, so in a fit of desperation Dave built him a for to help keep him occupied.  It definitely did it's job. 

Then in the middle of the night - I believe on Friday night/Saturday morning Drew woke up upset that he didn't want to sleep in his bed anymore.  I asked him where he wanted to sleep... the fort.  Dave took him out there and got him set-up. 

I proceeded to fall back to sleep and woke up in the morning to find an empty bed.  And Drew's bed was also empty - that is when I remembered the middle of the night discussion about sleeping in the fort.  This is what I went to the dining room to find....

Drew slept awesome - once he finally fell asleep. Dave said he was a little nervous at first seeing various shadows (he asked for lights to be on) and hearing the wind kick things up in the backyard.  Dave said his ribs hurt from sleeping on the ground.   I'm just disappointed I didn't know I had the entire bed to myself until the next morning - I could've really sprawled out!

But it was quite cute to see the two of them in their fort...

Bribes Pay Off

We keep our promises.  I mentioned recently Drew has had issues sleeping and in his own room at that.  Well Dave finally helped get Dave moved back out of our room and into his own room.  Part of that was thanks in part to some bribes rewards.

I told him after a few tough nights how proud we were of him and if he could keep it up we'd take him to Chuck E Cheese.  Well we kept our word and paid up last week.

Drew didn't care about the games that won him tickets.  Instead he wanted to play air hockey.  All. Night. Long.  It's a kid sized table to Dave and I kept taking turns because our backs were hurting from crouching over so long.

He's already plotting what he gets for sleeping in his bed longer.  We haven't broken it to him that it is like when he was potty training... the treats only work for a short time.

We Turned a Corner

Wouldn't  you know it, I leave town for a weekend (well nearly 2 weeks ago now) and Dave manages to get Drew back in his room at night!  That's right, Drew has more-or-less overcome his fears and is now sleeping in his room at night.  WooHoo!

This is the picture Dave texted me my first night in LA.

That's right, he's remained there the better part of the past nearly 2 weeks.  There have been a few nightmares and nights where he wanders into our room and after the 5th or 6th attempt we finally cave and let him finish sleeping in our bed - just because we're so exhausted ourselves from the previous 4-5 times he came in.

So later this week we are going to reward him with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  We're so proud of him and even better yet he's so proud of himself!

Now for a little side story - nothing to do with sleeping, but I have to write this down or else I'll forget.  On our way to school today Drew and I were talking about  how many years of school he has ahead of him - discussing grades K-12 and then college.    We had the following discussion:

Drew: When I am done with high school I will go to college, and I'll become a Daddy when I'm there.
Me: No you can become a Daddy after you finish college and you start working.
Drew: OK my brother Marco will be a Daddy then too after college.  And my sister Violet will be a Mommy after College too.

No this is not an announcement about any upcoming additions to our house.  Drew has an imaginary brother and sister or rather wishful thinking on his part that he will eventually have a brother and a sister, which he has already named Marco and Violet.  And apparently they're going with him to college to become Mommies and Daddies together. 

Nighttime Fears

Some will read this post and judge.  Others may relate and perhaps sympathize.  Some will probably think we're being played.... c'est la vie.

For years Drew has had issues sleeping at night - with night terrors going back to around the age of two (if not earlier).  Now they've mostly progressed to nightmares - but there are still night terrors mixed in.  It's gotten so bad recently he will begin crying at 5:30pm about the fact he has to go to bed in a few hours and he is terrified to close his eyes.

Around Halloween Drew's nightmares reached an all-time high (at the time) and we attributed a lot of the issues to the scary things you saw every time you went to the store or saw any holiday decorations. The dreams and fears started to dissipate as Halloween passed, but then picked up again late in December.  And I mean picked up to a new form of... well torture is all I can think to describe it. 

Late December Drew had what I would call cluster nightmares.  He'd wake up in a terrified scream (you would think someone was attacking him physically.. kind of blood curdling scream) every 20-40 minutes.  We'd go into his room, calm him down, get him to fall asleep to only repeat less than an hour later.  This went on over a couple of weeks.

While with some kids I could see this as a ploy to get their way in the middle of the night, and I know when my child is trying to play us, but you cannot fake that kind of a scream.  We were frustrated, exhausted - which didn't help with the frustration - and we would often get mad at Drew to "just go back to sleep!  Don't scream like that!" (Dave actually fell one night trying to race to Drew thinking he was really hurt - and nearly knocked our tv off it's stand).

We have a blow-up mattress (a Scooby bed) alongside our bed which we said was OK for him to get into in the middle of the night -but he couldn't sleep in our bed.  For those who don't know or have pleasantly forgotten... the only one who sleeps when you have a child in the bed with you, is the child.  They flail, kick, and punch in their sleep.  Most unpleasant.  So we settled for Scooby.  Well for a while there it was enough to lay in Scooby.  Then he started having nightmares in his Scooby bed so I would have to hold his hand so he could fall asleep.

Seems rather sweet right? No it's torture!  Our bed is elevated.  Scooby is on the floor.  I'm only 5'5" and while I think I have monkey arms, they're not that long.  It hurts to reach that far - my shoulder nearly rips out its socket after about 30 seconds.  When I came down with sinus crud, that was the end of hand holding to get him to sleep.  Conveniently Dave was able to sleep through most of these hand holding sessions because Scooby is on my side of the bed - so I was the only sleep deprived one.

While fighting the sinus crud, desperately needing sleep - I convinced Dave that Drew should sleep in our bed.  Drew wasn't sleeping and it was starting to carry over to school as well.  He was so tired that it was making everything worse - going to sleep, the dreams, everyone's frustration level....

Since he started sleeping with us, nightmares are at a minimum and we're easily able to calm him down when he's next to us.  We do move him sometimes to his Scooby bed, and we have dreams of moving him back to his room as soon as possible....

Even in our room he requires nightlights, TVs on (although its not on all night), bathroom lights on, book lights are preferable and if he had his way the entire bedroom light would remain on.  He hates the dark, he hates being "lonely" and he hates to close his eyes. 

Over the weekend he had another rough night - with a nightmare about fire near his feet - that he refused to close his eyes for hours.  I periodically would wake up and find these big brown eyes staring straight at me.  This went on from about 2am - 4:30am. 

Poor kid.  So yes, he's sleeping in our bed.  While it's not ideal, at least we are all getting at least some sleep.

One night earlier this month when he was too afraid to fall asleep in our bed alone, he cuddled with Daddy on his chair.

The Clock Experiment

A few weeks ago I got Drew a clock for several purposes.




1.) We can make the bedtime routine (in his bed) easier.

2.) Try to keep Drew in bed until 6AM.

3.) To teach him how to tell time.

Well today reason number two backfired on me in a big way. Shortly after 5AM Drew announced that he was awake.

Being the follow-through parents that we are we told him he cannot get out of bed until 6.

That's when after the wakeup hour hit he announced he needed to be changed (he wears a pull-up to bed). It seems he woke up early because he had to go #2. That'll teach us.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First Sleep Over

It was "party central" here on Friday night.  Dave was out of town most of last week and through the weekend (in Memphis for work) so I figured what the heck - why not have a few friends over to keep us company.  So Mason and Troy came over for a sleep over - their first as well as Drew's.

It was a great time!  I picked up Troy and their booster seats and then we were off to the preschool to gather Drew and Mason - who were all so excited about the night ahead.

We got to the house and then walked over to the nearby elementary school where there's a few playgrounds and a big grassy area to hit some golf balls.  This mama was thinking if we could get some energy used up the bedtime routine would go a bit more smoothly - ha!

Front L-R: Troy, Mason, Drew headed to the park

L-R Monkeys - Drew, Troy, Mason

After it started to get late, the boys reluctantly left the park with the promise of pizza for dinner.  And while we were eating dinner and waiting to get our PJ's on we watched the "Wizard of Oz" - Troy's pick.

But about 7:30 it was time for lights out and the feature presentation - "James and the Giant Peach".  Well the boys had their pick of that or "Kung Fu Panda" - and the "apple" won. (that's what they called the movie at first).

L- R: Drew, Troy, Mason

About 9:15pm I made the move to try and get them to bed.

Drew fell asleep within about 5 minutes.  Mason and Troy used every ploy in the book to stay up.  They were thirsty - our house rule is water only and in a big cup (no sippies).  They weren't happy with that, but after about 20 minutes of off-and-on negotiations I won.

Then I'd no sooner get 1/2 way down the short hallway from Drew's room to my bedroom and I heard Mason and Troy saying they had nightmares.  We're talking less than 10 seconds since I was last in their room.  So we had a discussion about what their dreams were like - and I finally said you boys weren't even asleep.

I get to my bed and within minutes I can hear the toy box and closet being opened in search of toys.  Back to the room I go to get them to settle down.  Oh we even tried the game "let's see who can be the quietest the longest"... um everyone failed miserably - including my son (this game was played/lost as soon as the boys were put into the room.

After about an hour I moved Drew into his bed so he wouldn't get nailed by things I'm sure were flying across the room - and then put Mason and Troy on the opposite side of the room.  Troy then crashed immediately.  Mason was fighting it for another hour and finally gave up.

Don't mistake that I was mad or anything - tired yes.  Mad no - I fully expected what I got.  I honestly thought Drew would be as much an instigator.

See we all survived the evening - Drew and Mason were up at 6am - Troy an hour later.

Note to self - next sleep over have both parents home to tag team!  It really was a great time.  And days later Drew's still talking about everything the boys did.  He just loves to play with his friends!

Dear Mr. Sandman...

Dear Mr. Sandman,

Would you please bring my nearly 3 year old son a peaceful night sleep?  I mean for the past few weeks, you've been plaguing him with nightmares, night terrors and other restlessness that results in sleep deprivation for this mama.

Can you please giving him a happy dream about "spinners" or baseball.  It's not nice to torment him with dreams of "a big man telling him there are no chicken and french fries".  Or having "Daddy eating all of his waffles".  It's better than the night terrors you send his way and the incessant screaming at the 2am or 4am hours.

But please.  Cut this exhausted mama some slack.  Send happy dreams his way.

Thanks in advance,
Mommy

4th of July Festivities - Part 2

After the annual parade we made our way home so we could shower off all the sweat, change and get things together for part two of our fun day.  We headed to Uncle Matt's house for a BBQ with Rana, Adrina and my parents - Rana's Dad and friends also joined us.

Drew managed to get a few zzz's before we arrived.  I can't believe how much he takes after his Daddy in the snoring department!



Once we arrived at Uncle Matt's sure enough Drew woke up and after a few moments was ready to play with Adrina. The two of them went swimming to escape the heat.

They made it into the pool a few times to keep cool.  Even after Arco (Matt's former K9 Partner) "christened" the pool. Eh the kids didn't seem to mind.  It's not like they were drinking the water or anything.

Another hit to stay cool... eating popsicles!

Yes they had a little dessert before dinner.  Which I have to say was out of this world.  Marinated flank steak (Rana has an awesome "recipe" she used), corn on the cob, watermelon, and potato salad.

Mr. Picky Eater (aka Drew) won't eat steak, but had a hot dog instead.  Funny thing is apparently he had someone willing to feed him instead of doing it himself.

For dessert I made something a little festive.

I must confess, it was as good as it looks!

Once it cooled down and the shade moved into Matt's backyard we moved the party outdoors.  Here Drew is looking at his beloved "purple flowers".  A favorite of his since last year!

Once it was dark it was time for the real fun - fireworks!  OK so I have to admit, fireworks in our county were illegal, however we purchased them in a legal county.  But when your brother is a cop and he okays fireworks, then I think we're safe.

Drew and Adrina were happily playing with the snappers (perfectly legal I may add).

Then it was the real fun - fireworks in the street.  Luckily there was someone else setting off really cool (and illegal) fireworks in the sky.  Matt's city did fireworks the day before - rather than on the 4th.  Drew anxiously waited for all the fun.

The pictures I took of our firework spectacle didn't turn out well... so here's a final picture of Drew doing the "sparklers".  Did you know they don't call them sparklers anymore?  Geesh.

"I Don't Love You"

I thought for sure I had another ten years or so before the "I hate yous" and the "I don't love yous" started.  I mean isn't that classic teenager behavior?  OK I'll even go so far to say as the tween years.  But at two?

Last Thursday, I got my first "I don't love you Mommy".  OUCH!

The offense - leaving Drew to lay by himself in his room at night.  You know the parenting technique of tucking your child in, and then going about your evening?  Apparently that's a big no-no in Drew's book.

A few days go by and bedtimes go fairly smoothly, and then wham on Monday night while Dave's at Softball I get it again: "I don't love you Mommy".

I tried to reason with my toddler (that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one - reasoning with a toddler...) that it's not nice to say you don't love Mommy, that it hurts Mommy's feelings.  I asked him how he would feel if I said "I don't love Drew".  I asked if he liked that - and of course he said "no".  Then proceeded to say again, "I don't love you Mommy".

That's when I gave up and said "Ok, good night."

Sleeping Beauties

After two weeks of being on the road, I came back exhausted!  I suppose the fact I had a few 7am flights mixed in with some late nights didn't help.

So I successfully napped Friday, Saturday and Sunday - I can't remember the last time that happened and I wasn't sick.  I tried taking one with Drew on Friday and Sunday, but we succeeded on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Daddy thought it would be great to capture the moment.  Did I mention that Drew hasn't wanted to leave my side since I've been back?  I think he's afraid I'm going to "disappear" again.

Surgery & Nightmares

For the couple of weeks Drew has gotten rather attached to two babies.  One is no stranger - Dodger Dog, and the other comes out from time-to-time, Baby.

Last week, Drew really started having some night terrors.  He would wake up in the middle of the night crying for Mommy or Daddy.  One night he said he saw a man in his room - of course that was my shift and it freaked me out a bit... I calmly told him only Mommy & Drew were in his room (I admit to peeking outside his window and over toward his closet).  I then laid with him and slept with him for the remainder of the night.

Then when he woke up that morning he proceeded to tell Dave to kids were at the side of his bed.  Could Drew be seeing ghosts?  Or is it an overactive imagination?

And to top it all off, Dodger Dog accidentally went for a swim courtesy Daddy.  See Dodger Dog got lost in Drew's laundry, and when Daddy was helping Dodger Dog got a bath.  Problem was it made Dodger Dog's bark go off randomly for no reason - it used to only go off if you gave his belly a squeeze.  But this pooch had it out for Drew and would only randomly bark at night just as Drew was about to fall asleep.  You can imagine how much that freaks a two-year old out!

Well after a few torturous weeks of this and a few attempts to keep him quiet (the anti-bark collar and the doghouse) I finally put Dodger Dog under the knife.  Yes I ripped him open from the rear and pulled the little contraption out.  After sewing him back up, he was safe in the arms of his master - and slept peacefully.  Everyone is now living happily ever after.

Budda Belly Pillow

Sometimes all you need is a big comfy pillow to fall asleep.  Here Drew finds that on Daddy's belly/shoulder.

Of course Drew passed out on my shoulder yesterday at church.  Dude, this kid is getting heavy!  It's no wonder that my back is killing me lately. All that heavy lifting I do with him.  So why aren't my arms more toned?

Overnight Comedy

First I want to update you on Drew's health. Fever disappeared almost as quickly as it came. While Drew did get sick again last night at dinner - it wasn't due to illness, but because we made him try some rice for dinner. Yup, barfed at the dinner table, before we could even get a bite. That'll teach us for making him try something new. What is it they say about paybacks?!

Since yesterday's blog was so photo heavy, I'll give your eyes a break and tell you about the overnights on our Tahoe trip. I realize now why Drew has his own room. He'd keep us up all night long.

I know I've mentioned this before, Drew talks in his sleep. Well all weekend he was at it. One night Dave and I couldn't stop laughing, that was until he threw up everywhere.

Some of the "discussions" I recall are:

• "Mickey Mouse" and "yeah"
• "Nooooooooooo"
• "But I waaaaannnnnntttttttt it"
• "hehehehehe" (yes he was chuckling in his sleep)
• "Big One"

There were plenty more, but these are the only conversations I remember.

So Peaceful

There's something about watching your children sleep, that really, there are just no words to describe it. They look extra innocent and sweet - making you forget all the naughty things they do throughout the day. It's like a clean slate. I mean how could you still be angry for the hitting or glass breaking they did a few hours earlier.

We could sit and watch Drew sleep for hours. Within the past few weeks he's taken to sleeping with his hands under his head, making him look extra adorable. It's so funny, he'll fight going to bed and falling asleep - asking for something to drink, and extra story, having you lay by him... and then he'll put his hands under his head... and you know the end is near.

It's so precious. One of the great moments of being a parent.

Ran Out of Steam

We got the call yesterday at lunchtime, that Drew was running a fever at day care - 101.6. So I picked him up and brought him home - where he happily played for HOURS.

But he started running out of steam while playing with his cars in his prime spot... One minute I heard the little hot wheels sliding across the kitchen, the next moment I saw this:

You may recall he did something similar when Dave was on nap patrol a few weeks ago.

So I carried him to bed where he took a 2 hour nap. He woke up with a persistent 101+ degree fever. He's also talking like his throat hurts, so we're monitoring him right now. There's a lot of crud going around, not to mention H1N1 fears.... so we'll see.

Overnight his fever reached 102.6 - and I gave him some more motrin and we cuddled until he fell back to sleep about an hour-and-a-half later. He woke up this morning 98.8... so let's hope it stays that way!

Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

Oh the crazy things boys do on their "bachelor weekend". While I was traveling to Baltimore this past weekend for work, it was up to the boys to manage all the daily duties. With a toddler this includes, meals, naps and tantrums of course.

On Saturday, Drew was resisting a nap, and Daddy wanted to get his afternoon fun started while he was down. After laying with him for a while Daddy, "snuck" away to go off and fill some water balloons. However, the little guy wasn't out and kept calling for Daddy.

After only a few moments, Dave went back into check on Drew and saw this:

It seems Drew wanted to keep dibs on Daddy while he was doing his "chores". Good news, he napped, and stayed in his room to do so.

Naptime Battle

So as I hinted at yesterday, there wasn't much sleeping going on for Drew's first nap attempt on Monday with his crib mattress on the ground. After about 30 minutes this is what we were listening to in between the whining and crying.



After about an hour-and-a-half nap time battle, we gave up. It was a no-nap kind of day.

However I confess that after two nights in his own bed (he's at Camp Grammy & GrampC now) he did remarkably well. We started really working on a bedtime routine of a story or two, and then music CD, and lights out. We've had to lay there for a while while he falls asleep, but he stays in there all night!

The first night (Monday/Tuesday), he woke up around 4am for an hour, and Daddy had to lay down with him. He fell back to sleep at around 5:45, and slept until 8:45... I think a new record. (Daddy did move back into our bed around 6am). Then Tuesday/Wednesday, he slept until 5:30 am, and never went back to sleep. I wouldn't either if I wet through my jammies and onto the bed.

Hard Sleeping Conditions

This past weekend while Daddy was in St. Louis, Drew and I stayed at Grammy and GrampC's. I managed to get some scrapping done, and well Drew got to play with GrampC and Mollie (their dog).

On Sunday I ran a few errands with my mom, and came home to see Drew like this! Asleep on their hallway floor. GrampC said he was upset after realizing I disappeared, and just conked out on the floor. (I tried to say good-bye before we left, but he was too busy watching "Johnny" aka - the Wiggles).

When I first walked in the door I though maybe he knocked himself out. In his tantrum throwing, he bangs his head on the floor (or the furniture, or the wall, or the chair....), so I could easily see him knocking himself out cold.

Well this nap only lasted until he tried to turn on his side and realized where he was. Grammy came to his rescue at this point.

Dreaming of Letters

Friday night was kind of a lazy night in the Briseno's household. After a rough week, I didn't feel like cooking so we ran down to Blockbuster to pick out a movie and then out to Chevy's for dinner (where we ran into our Pastor and his family).

After a long wait, we finally got our table and had dinner, but that meant that Drew didn't get to bed at the 7:30 hour he's fallen asleep at since his injury. We got home close to 9pm, and by that point he wanted nothing to do with bed.

Rather he fell asleep on my his body pillow, watching "Johnny", and of course cuddling with his letters. Yes, that would be a "D" he's clinging to in his left hand. Daddy had to pry it out of his hands when he carried him to his crib shortly after this picture.