Co-Sleeping

Have you ever heard of the concept of "Co-Sleeping"?  It's basically the idea that you sleep with your child.  Here is a more official definition.

"Cosleeping (sometimes spelled co-sleeping, and also known as bed sharing or "having a family bed") is the practice of having your infant in your bed with you during sleep. Cosleeping promotes breastfeeding and bonding, and it is safer than crib/cot sleeping when practiced correctly. Cosleeping beyond the breastfeeding years is common in many non-Western cultures, and even in the West many families choose to extend cosleeping through toddlerhood and well into middle childhood."

This is actually a pretty hot button issue with a lot of parents and I'm certainly not trying to start any controversy or anything, but holy cow, this is an awful idea!  While on vacation this past week, Julia decided that she did not want to sleep in her own bed.  We could usually eventually get her to sleep in her pack n play, but she would wake up in the middle of the night almost every day!  So when she would wake up, we would just lay her down in bed with us.  This is such an oddity for her, because she is usually an awesome sleeper!  From the very beginning, we would put her down to sleep in her own crib and she would sleep through the night.  I would say that 90% of the time, we can just lay her down and she will go right to sleep without too much of a fuss.  And stay asleep which is even better! 

Unfortunately, this was not the case this past week!  When we would eventually bring her to our bed, not surprisingly, it turned out that she does not share a bed very well.  On those nights when we would bring her to our bed, nobody slept well.  She would just lay there and talk to herself or poke me to see if I was awake.  She would ask for mommy, grandma, ice cream, swimming, bubbles... and on and on it would go until she would eventually fall asleep.  And then the flailing would begin!  Kids flail around... a lot!  Eventually, I would be laying sideways, precariously balancing on the very edge of the bed, with Julia laying nearly sideways across the middle. 

I recently saw a magazine that had an article mentioned on the cover entitled, "Co-sleeping, the most powerful bonding time with your child".  I say "No Thank you!".  I will bond with you in the morning when I am properly rested!

Not being able to rest is one huge issue, but there is a whole other issue that arises when you are sharing your bed with your child.  When you have a toddler in your bed, how are you supposed to have time for other mommy and daddy bedroom activities?  Of course I mean pillow fights and jumping on the bed.  What were you thinking? 

If co-sleeping is your thing, then go for it.  I for one, will not be joining in!  We were so happy to get back home to our own toddler free bed and I'm sure, Julia was happy to have her own bed back as well!

Traveling Woes

On most evenings when we are at home, we have a near perfect child.  Admittedly, I'm a little bias, but it's true.  Mainly this perfection is in relation to her sleeping ability.  95% of the time we simply lay her down around 7:30 and she goes right to sleep without a fuss at all.  8-12 hours later, she wakes up without a peep all night.  She naps great as well.  We just lay her down in the afternoon and she goes right to sleep for 2 or more hours.  It's amazing!

Since we have been on our trip to New Mexico this has not been the case.  Our perfect little sleeper chose to not come along for the trip.  For the first leg of the trip, we drove to Springfield MO. to my mom's house.  We arrived at close to 11 in the evening and we promptly put her to bed.  Unfortunately, this did not stick and Julia thought her short nap in the car was quite sufficient for her evening rest.  She promptly woke back up and was WIRED!!  She was running around like crazy until 2AM!  Finally, after much coaxing, we got her to fall asleep

And this similar story has played out for our entire trip so far.  Nearly every nap has resulted in humongous crying fits.  At one point we were in the room with her (out of her eyesight) and she would cry and cry and cry... stop and say "Daddy?" and then return to her fit.  She is totally playing me!  At one point though, we couldn't help but laugh because she stopped crying long enough to say "Ice cream.... Yummy!".  We had had fried ice cream for lunch and she was apparently remembering the deliciousness.  

And that brings us to this morning.  She woke up first at 4:30.  I got her settled back down but it didn't stick.  At 6:30 she was up again.  It was at this point that I considered it a lost cause.  I resigned myself to the fact that sleeping in was not an option today.  Now I am introducing Julia to "Beauty and the Beast".  She is on the floor watching the movie with her "O's" (Cheerios) and I am on my computer wrapped up in a snuggie. (don't judge me.  It's cold in here). Although I am fast forwarding through all of the scary parts.  I never realized how scary the beast could be.  Julia doesn't seem to mind, but the dad in me feels the need to fast forward.  

Now I know that kids typically have trouble with sleeping while traveling, but I'm really hoping that she can pull it together because she is exhausting me!  It's a good thing she is so darn cute and totally worth all of the trouble.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Today I will be taking part in one of my most favorite activities!  We are decorating our house for Christmas!!! 

Now hold on.  Before you start to throw stones at me and accuse me of not giving Thanksgiving its propor honor, allow me to explain the timing.  On Friday we will be leaving to travel to New Mexico for the Thanksgiving Holiday to spend time with some of Breanne's family.  We will not be getting back until the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Once we get back, I'm sure we will be pretty busy and the time to decorate is just not there.  At least, not as early as we would like it.  So we decided that ideally we would want to come home to a house that was already dressed up in Christmas cheer!  Besides, Christmas only comes once a year and we want to maximize as much of the holiday season as possible!  So we are going to put up our decorations tonight!

We even have a few of our very own christmas traditions that we started a few years ago.  Every year while we are putting up our decorations we watch the movie "Elf".  It is definitely one of my favorite Christmas movies.  Will Ferrill is hysterical!   We also make hot chocolate and continue to play Christmas music once the movie is over.  It takes us a while to decorate.  We have a lot of stuff.

We have our main tree that is designated as the "pretty" tree.  Its the one that is color coordinated with red, silver and black ornaments.  The ornaments are symetrically placed on the tree with great care and there is an enormous amount of lights on it.  We have a secondary tree that is only 3 or 4 feet tall.  This tree is designated as the "everything else" tree.  This is where we put special ornaments from growing up or any other fun ones that we just happen to like, but do not match the "pretty" tree.  We even have a tiny miniature tree for Julia's room and we bought a little pack of Sesame Street character ornaments for it. We also put lighted garland along the top of our cabinets, which also requires me precariously walking across our counter tops trying not to fall.  One of these years, I'm sure I will.  Finally we have a Christmas village, but sadly, I think they will remain in their boxes this year.  Because Julia has taken over portions of our living room with all of her toys, we will have to just have to do without it this year.  However, we will get to bring back Julia's Little People Nativity Set.  She loved it last year so I'm excited to see her play with it more this year.

I'm so excited to just have time with the family tonight and to continue these traditions with Julia.  I'm sure she will be an awesome help at decorating.  She probably won't drive me crazy at all!  Sarcasm intended.  I imagine that a bulk of the decorating will be accomplished after she goes to bed.

The Circus

The other day Breanne sent me a message wanting to know if I wanted to go to the circus because she could get free tickets.  My first thought was, "you are aware that there are clowns at the circus, right?"  (My fear of clowns has been well documented)  However, I didn't want to lead off with this thought.  I needed to sound like an adult and not someone who was petrified of a souce of childrens joy.  So I played it off with such comments as, "we are pretty busy this weekend, lets not add one more thing" and "do you think Julia is old enough to even enjoy the circus?".  Much to my shagrin, I lost and we were heading to the circus. 

My hope was, that maybe if I could stay a good distance away from all of the clowns, then I wouldn't have to worry.  Although, they do have the ability to smell my fear so I was aftaid that they would come and seek me out.  I dropped the girls off at the door and found a place to park.  This left me to navigate my way to our seats all alone!  I simply kept my head down and swiftly made my way through the crowds.  I was pleased to find that we were in the upper mezzanine level in the middle of the row.  This assured that I would not be in close contact with any of satans minions.  (That's right.  Clowns are Satan's minions!  I'm sure it's in revelation somewhere).  Anyway, I tried my best to enjoy the circus and surprisingly there were definitely parts that I did enjoy.  The acrobat people and the jugglers were quite enjoyable!  I especially liked the elephants.  While I can't help but be sad that they are in a travelling circus instead of in the wild, how can you not smile at a baby elephant that skips and stands on its head!  I dare you to not to think its the cutest thing you ever did see.  There were other aspects of the show that I was less impressed with.  I found it completely unncecessary for the dog show lady to be dressed up as Lady GaGa.  It was just plain silly.  Also, the ring master felt the need to sing Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" while the trapese lady did her little act instead of just playing the actual music.  It was just plain weird and it totally made the dude look like a creeper.  It didn't help that he looked oddly like William Shatner, who is probaby also a creeper.

The hardest part of the show to deal with was the shear length of it.  Maybe it was becase we had a 1 1/2 year old with us who was up past her bed time, but we were definitely ready to go by the end.  The problem was that they started 25 mintutes late and extended the intermission.  This was to allow them to make as much money possible from all the parents of kids who wanted to ride the elephants and ponies, and get their picture taken with the giant snake.  You could also take this time to purchase programs, light up wands, cotton candy, popcorn, soda, balloons, and various other things you don't need.  The up side to having a 1 year old is that she doesn't know that she wants these things yet.  So we got off fairly easy on this one!

Overall, the circus was a success.  The greatest success was that I was never less than 50 feet from a clown!!  However, upon declaring this last night on facebook, Breanne corrected me.  There was one point that a clown walked right in front of our section in the mezzanine, but I was too busy updating Twitter on my phone to realize it.  She saw that I was occupied at the moment and didn't point out the proximity of the minion.  How awesome of a wife is she! So, I suppose the night was a success because I was never knowingly, within 50 feet of a clown!  Thats a good day in my book!

Six Years and Still Ticking

At this point in time exactly 6 years ago I was laying on an operating table with  my chest cut open and my heart stopped.  I still get the shivers when I think about it that graphically.  The thought that doctors were inside my heart fiddling with things boggles my mind!

It's around this time of year that I begin to get all reflective and consider how blessed I am.  I pair that with the coming holiday of Thanksgiving and I just get all mushy inside.  I am an incredibly blessed individual.  First of all, I'm alive.  I had a brother who cared enough to force me to go to the doctor when I was way overdue for my annual checkup.  This is what started the whole "I need surgery" process.  I had a good health insurance policy that paid for a majority of my surgery.  Hooray for not being over $100,000 in medical debt!  I am thankful that I am now the healthiest that I have ever been.  I can exercise regularly and am able to compete in competitions like The Warrior Dash.  (I use the word "compete" very loosely, but you get what I mean).

That is just the beginning of how blessed that I am.  I have the most amazing wife that a guy could ever ask for.  She supports me in all things and accepts me for who I am.  Flaws and all.  She is a master in the kitchen and keeps me well fed.  She is way smarter than me too.  (Don't tell her I said so).    Her dedication to everything that she does amazes me.  Nothing is 1/2 way.  I'm continually amazed at how she is a perfect fit for me.  Thank you God for my beautiful and talented wife!  Did I mention that she is an incredible mommy too!  I love watching her play with Julia.

Speaking of Julia... is she not the cutest little thing that you ever did see?  I'm always amazed at how wonderful life is with her in it!  I couldn't imagine what life would be like without her.  The way she dances and smiles always steals my heart.  If you look very closely at her pinky finger you will noticed that I am very tightly wrapped around it.

I have an incredible church family as well.  I even now have the opportunity to work on staff there!  I love that I get to work with such wonderful people!  Even if it is just a part time gig, I am so happy to be doing it.  My day time job people are pretty incredible as well! 

I'm surrounded by love and grace everywhere I turn and for that, I am extremely grateful!  Every tic of my heart reminds me of that.  I pray that I will get to hear that ticking for many, many, many grateful years to come.


P.S.... I told you I get all gushy this time of year. 

Assuming the Worst

What is it about people that causes them to be so pessimistic?  I have encountered a lot of people today that just want to bring me down with their "Debbie Downer" attitudes and it's driving me a little crazy.  Why do we go into some situations and automatically assume the absolute worst?  Are we just assuming the worst so we can be pleasantly surprised when the proverbial you know what doesn't actually hit the fan?

I particularly see this in my insurance job.  Why do people assume that we are going to go above and beyond the call of duty to try and not pay their claim or take care of them?  Why would you assume that we are not doing our best?  For example, a customer today called to make a claim.  From the moment I answered the phone this person was threatening that we should "pay their claim or else!".  Ok... how about you give me your name first and we can actually discuss what happened!  I know people don't like insurance companies but we have better things to do with our time than sit around and piss people off.  While I love being yelled at on the phone and all, I do have other things to get done.  So let's just assume that my first duty is to not purposely try and screw you over!  Example 2.  I have another insured who was in an accident who I am helping file a claim through the other insurance company.  The other company cannot make any payments on the claim until they have first spoken with their insured and taken a statement from them.  Unfortunately, said insured is being difficult and not returning calls to that adjuster.  This is delaying the entire process for my customer.  While this is frustrating, this is just the way it works sometimes.  The other company's claims adjuster assured me that they were calling their customer on a daily basis and they want to get things going just as badly as I do.  My customers response to this was "how do you know they are calling every day?".  Their assumption is that the other company is purposely doing nothing with the claim to avoid paying out any money.  Why would you suddenly assume the worst?  I can guarantee that that adjuster wants to get this claim off of his desk and is not just holding onto it just because.  While I'm sure he also loves getting yelled at by angry people just as much as I do, I'm sure he is doing the best he can.

So back to my initial question.  Why do we go into certain situations assuming the worst will happen?  Believe it or not, everyone is not out to get you!  Give people the benefit of the doubt before you go in with your guns a blazin!  And be nice to your insurance guy.  He does the best he can!

Alright, I'm going to put my rose colored glasses back on and go back to work.  I prefer to be an optimist.