Lately

It's funny how Valentine's Day was such a big day when I was younger. Now, I could care less about the day. Not that I don't love my guy, cause I do. I'm just a tight wad and don't like to spend money on things that die after a few days...like roses! Also, if I'm going to get flowers I would rather be totally surprised. And it's hard to be surprised on the biggest flower-giving holiday of the year. So, for the past couple of years Carl and I have given eachother a joint gift for Valentines. This year it was a DVD player. Oooohh, romantic huh? Well, we've needed a DVD player for our living room for awhile now. And since we're starting to do P90X again and need a large space to work out, we decided to bite the bullet and get one. Carl and I did get to go on a Valentine's lunch date today though and that was good enough for me. After Valentine's life gets a little easier, and cheaper, for awhile. Starting in December my niece has a birthday, then Christmas, then Cale's birthday, then Carl's mom's birthday, then Keaton's birthday, then my mom's birthday, then Carl's birthday, then Valentine's...then...SWEET relief! Isn't that crazy? December-February is rough for us!

Well, we've finally started taking Keaton out. I feel like a normal person again, instead of the hermit I've been for the past 4 weeks. In fact, Keaton had his first, of MANY I'm sure, trips to Wal-Mart this morning. Yes, germy, yucky, Wal-Mart. He slept the whole time, which was what I was hoping for. On Friday night, we took the boys to eat Pizza. Keaton didn't make a peep, but Cale on the other hand was quite...uh...high-spirited. He wouldn't sit down, kept bouncing on the seat as if it was a bump-n-jump and almost busted his chin, and was loud...very loud. Right at a moment Carl was about to get onto him for something, Cale leaned in so close his face was touching Carl's and said, "Do you hear me?!" We couldn't help but crack up.

In the car on Saturday, Cale rolled the back window down...somehow he broke himself free enough from his car seat that he was able to reach the button. When Carl rolled it back up, Cale looked at him, pointed and shook his finger and said, "Dad, don't you EVER put my window up...do you hear me?" See what we have to deal with?

On a positive note, Cale's discipline "boot camp" seems to be working. We haven't had to use the spatula anymore and really haven't had to give many spankings. A simple: 1...2...(At this point Cale's usually giving us a sly smile as if to say...whatever) But then, right before we say "3" most times he gives in and does what we're asking. Another thing we're starting to try is taking things away from Cale...if the situation presents itself. For example, on Thursday night we ate at Cracker Barrel. Because Cale insists on standing in his chair and he still spills a lot of what he's eating, he got jelly on his shoes. On the way home, we look back to see him licking the bottom of his shoe. Mortified, I freak out and tell him not to do that...it's gross, there are germs...blah, blah, blah (all of the things that Cale could absolutely care less about). Well, he wouldn't stop licking. So, I took his shoes, which shouldn't have been any big deal. But, it WAS. He cried so much you would've thought I took his best toy. But, hey,he hasn't licked his shoes since. At least not that we know of.

On another positive note, Cale has finally been staying in his bed and sleeping all night. It took us two years to get here, but I think we finally are here to stay! Suddenly he doesn't even care if he has his sippy cup of milk when going to sleep. He's even been telling us he needs to go to the bathroom. Now, don't get me wrong...he only tells us about twice a day, but it's progress. It's like he's growing up on us all of a sudden!

Keaton has also been sleeping better. He seems to be working himself into somewhat of a schedule. Since he's starting to wake up a little, we're able to actually have "naps" instead of the pretty much ALL-day sleep he was getting. He naps for about 2 hours or so and then wakes up and stays awake for almost 2 hours...which is CRAZY because Cale wasn't able to stay up for more than an hour at a time until he was at least 3 months old! Keaton's night sleep is getting better too. Part of that is because we've changed our strategy a little. Instead of putting him to bed early at the same time as Cale, we keep him "up" (when I say up, I just mean he snoozes in the same room as us, not in his crib) until 10:30 or so. Then, we feed him and put him in his crib. He has been waking only once in the night between 3:00 and 4:00 since we've been doing that. By feeding him and putting him in his crib so late, we've possibly (I don't want to get too ahead of myself) eliminated one of his night wakings that usually happened around 12:00 or so. I just hope and pray it lasts!

I'm just glad that Keaton still seems to be able to sleep through all kinds of noise. I don't know what I'll do when noise starts to effect him. Yesterday, Keaton was in his room napping. For some reason I decided to lock his door...I guess I just had a feeling Cale might try to go in to "see" him. Well, I was just getting out of the shower when I heard Cale over the baby monitor, crying and banging on a door...Keaton's door. He was screaming, "Let me in!" Dripping wet and in my towel, I ran in to stop him, afraid of a mother's worst nightmare: that he would wake the sleeping baby. When I found him at Keaton's door, he was crying, holding a set of drum sticks, and wearing his drum that he got for Christmas. I guess he was planning on seranading Keaton with a drum solo while he slept. Good gosh. Thankfully, Keaton slept like a dream through the whole thing.

What will I do in a few months, when things like that wake him up?