Postcards from the Edges

We took four days to celebrate Eds and my birthday. We took off for Yellowstone and hit Grand Teton National Park before coming home.

Long story short. We had an amazing time. Here are some of my favorite photos.

I promise to write more soon. I have a job interview tomorrow and Ed is bogarting the good computer so it takes FOREVER to upload photos.

The baby no, little boy, was sleeping so we snuck out for a photo shoot.

It was pretty chilly and little man doesn't have any mittens, so we had to put socks on his hands to keep them warm.

Old Faithful. Or as Jr. calls it "HOT!"

It is hard to catch Jr. running unless he is RUNNING STRAIGHT TOWARD YOU! Look out!

Yellowstone fire. We luckily got through it to see a new corner of the park and get to the Tetons.

Our family in front of some hot pots. "Hot!"
You can't see it from this photo, but the Tetons were on fire too. Everywhere we went - fire.
This might be my most favorite photo of all time. He is everything to us. Everything.

Happy Uncle Day!

Last Bite of Summer

It has been in the mid to high 90s the last few days and you know what that calls for? Dairy Queen. Ed Jr. got his very own ice cream cone for the first time. Needless to say he loved it, I mean seriously loved it. He sat still for so long and burried his whole face in it.

Chatty Guy

I forgot to mention how the Eds did without me last weekend. Well, they did just fine.

Ed is a great daddy, he took Jr. on tons of adventures, got him to nap and even got him to sleep without tears. The only rough patch was on Sunday morning at 6AM when Jr. woke up to look for his momma. He apparently searched the whole house for me. His spirits were good and when I got home and picked him up from his grandma's house, he was pretty happy.

In some unrelated news, he is such a great talker. Enjoy some videos.

Mamma's Boy

Ed Jr. is a bonafide momma's boy. Momma is his #1 primary word and I am his #1 primary person. Which, I am not going to lie to you is so charming and so irritating at the same time.

He won't even entertain his father in the vicinity of his bedroom at bed time. Mamma and baby sanctuary.

So this leads me to the story of my first night away from my baby EVER! My friend from WAY back was getting married in Billings. At first my mom was going to go with us so Ed could attend the wedding with me, but was unable to go, so Ed volunteered to stay home with his baby for one night. And I was outta here.

Well, I took Cissie with me. I think she needed a little vacation too. We stopped in Bozeman and ate sushi (yum). I made Cissie eat raw fish for the first time. She did not love it, but was brave non-the-less. Then we busted ass to Billings to hit my favorite store before the wedding. Marcasa another word for awesome clothes and a killer sales rack. Then it was time for the wedding. I released Cissie into the wild that is Billings with the car while I attended Aaron's wedding. The ceremony and reception were in the old Billings Depot - so cool. Cissie joined in the fun later and we did our best to tear up the dance floor.

Thank goodness the Rainbow bar wouldn't let Cissie in, so I could turn in at a somewhat decent hour. And just as all of my childed friends predicted, I barely slept. No, it wasn't because I was away from my baby, I think it was a hot noisy hotel room and a talking in her sleep roommate. . . and maybe I missed my family just a little bit. I did have to wake up at 6 AM and pump. Ouch.

After two delicious lattes and everything bagels, we were done with Billings and on our way home. It was a spectacular drive home and we again stopped in Bozeman to eat and hit the old navy for Jr. clothes. I was SO SO SO TIRED by the time I got home, but Jr. was so excited to see me he just couldn't bring himself to nap. I had to close the door to his bedroom and lay on the floor while he trashed his room. Let me say this, a hangover is bad, but a hangover and an active baby is hell on earth. Here he is emptying veggie booty all over the floor. I had to stop taking photos and spring into action when he started stomping it into the carpet. EEEERRRRR.

Early to bed for the both of us, and Monday it was back to normal, except for the surprise and way too short visit from Nanny. He was happy to see her, but he was NOT going to let me out of his sight, you never know, I could sneak off again.

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FIL - I know you won't see this until for a few days, but welcome home. We love you and are SO glad you are doing well. XOXOXO

CHEERS!

For the first time in over 16 months Jr. slept through the night - for reals. The more I have thought and read about babies and sleep, I have determined that there are just some kids who sleep and some who don't. We had one that didn't.

Ed thought that with the long weekend we could take the opportunity to do some sleep training. We did it our own style, nothing out of a book. Our plan was simple. Jr. woke up every night between 11:30 - 12:30 and we would bring him to bed with us. He would then wake up every two hours or so to nurse. We were going to send Ed in to comfort and put him back to sleep in an attempt to eliminate the first night waking. We would deal with the second, third night waking at a later date. Much to our surprise, after Ed got him back to sleep the first time, there was no second or third night waking. He would sleep until 5 - 6 AM, at which time he was welcome to come to bed with us to go back to sleep until 7:30 - 8.

Oh, it wasn't all sunshine and roses. Friday night, he cried/screamed/called out Mommy Daddy for over an hour. Saturday night it was about 40 minutes. Sunday night was less than 20 minutes. Monday night was barely 5. Last night he cried at 1 and again at 3, but neither time Ed went in there and he cried for only about 2 minutes and put him self back to sleep. He got up at 6:20 AM and I brought him to bed with me and he slept until 8:20 AM!

I am still anti-Ferber. I really should have recorded him crying/screaming so that I can have anyone who recommends letting them cry it out listen to the sounds of a truly heartbroken baby. Ferberizing our kid was a total last resort. We have tried many gentle ways to get him to sleep, and we were back sliding. Plus it seems that around 18 months kids start sleeping better, so we were ready for the next step even though it was ugly. When I say that I am anti Ferber, I am not judging others' parenting values, I am talking about us.

I owe my great night sleep last night to Ed. He is a tremendous father who would go in to rock his very angry baby back to sleep even though he was exhausted. Thanks Ed.

I HOPE the trend continues. I hope Ed Jr. starts sleeping consistently through the night for his sake as well as ours.

He is currently smiling at me and throwing his cheerios across the room.

Things I Love

While there are millions of things I love, I thought I would just pop in with a short list.

Jr. reaching up to hold my hand.

Jr. running to give me a big hug around the knees and he looks up and smiles at me.

Jr. leaning into his dad to get his goodnight kiss.

Jr. saying "Hi!" to Moe.

Jr. learning and saying new words. This morning he said EDWARD!

And even though it scares the crap out of me, I kind of love it when he climbs up on something and then stands on it balancing. He looks over to me and shows off how big he is. I get him down and he does it again. Last night he was standing on his trike seat.

I love waking up with him in the morning and not having to rush out of bed. He plays around on the bed while I SLOWLY wake up.

How much he LOVES books. I think BOOK is his favorite word. If you are ever tired, just sit on the floor of his room and read. . .

Sometimes when this whole mom thing seems so overwhelming, I just have to think about how it feels when he sits quietly in my lap snuggling me while we read or the feeling of his little hand in mine.