We All Need Support

Our Mr. Blue Eyes

Ayden had the best night of sleep that he's had in a while last night and boy did we welcome it! He only woke two times, both of which were quietly to eat and fall right back to sleep. A-mazing! It is interesting how every single time he goes through some sort of phase I always assume that it's a new " thing." When it finally passes I tell myself, "Next time just remind yourself that it's only a phase..." only to worry all over again the next time. It's just that the phases rarely look the same and if said phase revolves around lack of sleep, exhaustion takes over and makes the big, long term picture kind of fuzzy.

We have somehow shifted to a 9pm-9am night sleep, though which is not ideal. It takes 2 hours out of my day before David gets home which makes it hard to get everything in order so that I'm not "working" when we should be spending time together. Waking at 9am is better for tomorrow's story time, since the 11am story time falls when he'd usually like to nap, so I've decide to let him sleep in tomorrow; but perhaps wake him at 7:30 on Friday in hopes to reset his internal clock.

Dinner worked out perfectly for us tonight! I made a huge batch of home made spaghetti sauce (we like to double the recipe and freeze it to use later) in the crockpot and stuffed peppers and put them in the fridge. When I called David to let him know we were on our way home, all he had to do was heat the oven, ladle some of the sauce over the stuffed peppers and bake them. It worked so well that I think this will be our new Wednesday dinner system.

It was dance night! The evening went well and Ayden was awesome! He crawled around with his cousin and spent some time in the studio frame bouncer:

And took a 45 minute nap in the Ergo. He was a little champ! As far as my flex girls completing my challenge, they all said that they tried but that it was harder than they thought and didn't make it. Not a single one... I'm not surprised but it just reminds me of how disappointed I am that our society sets an expectation of flawlessness yet promotes such unhealthy eating and skewed ideas of how to be healthy. I asked if there would be any interest in my starting a Facebook page where I could post a little something daily, whether it be a clean meal/snack idea or a motivational quote and they were really excited about that idea. They even asked if their friends from school could join too. The desire is there, they just need support to follow through. It seems as though this situation mirrors that of a breastfeeding mother...

Ayden's bath time has become something that I look forward to every night. He stands and holds onto the side of the tub and watches it fill (we have a raised, baby tub inside the actual bath tub). Once he's in he likes to take a wash cloth and suck on it and splash with it. He also loves his tiny rubber duck that his Great Aunt Sharon gave him at one of my baby showers, as well as a Winnie The Pooh water temperature gauge. Pooh is floating on a raft with his own rubber duck and Ayden looks at that tiny little duck like he'd like to take it off and suck on its head like he does his others.

Looks like us in the lazy river on vacation :)

After the bath we turn his soother music on while we give him a lavender lotion massage, put on his night time diaper and I nurse him to sleep. Some days we get the timing just right and it is a seamless routine. Other days he's not tired enough and others he's over tired and cranky. It is still a consistent routine that gives him all the cues so I know as he gets older it work better and better.

He's all snuggled in now and we are hoping for another awesome night!

Pictures are up for our "No Sun Fun Day" from our vacation!  Be sure to go back and check them out! Only one more day to edit and all of our vacation posts will be complete with photos.

~ Sarah