eat your foot, people

Today at lunch and dinner, the kids were being extra silly and Nicholas and Sophia were especially giggly.  And Naomi always does something that makes us all giggle because she's just cute and funny.  At lunch, as she started to put a big forkful of pasta in her mouth, Nicholas and Sophia started to laugh, so Naomi said to them, "no laugh at me."  But of course, they laughed harder.  After telling them to not laugh at her a few times, Naomi yells, "EAT YOUR FOOD, PEOPLE!" 

Sadly for Naomi, her siblings did not stop laughing but laughed so hard they almost choked on their food.  See, when Naomi said "eat your food" it actually sounded more like "EAT YOUR FOOT, PEOPLE!"

life is good

It's the middle of winter and we spent the afternoon watching the sunset at the beach.  Some of us couldn't help ourselves from going in the water. 

monkeys are still juicy

On our way to church a few weeks ago.  Have been bad about taking pictures since we came back from vacation.  Way too many things going on...work conference in San Diego, sinus infection (me), stomach bug (Nicholas, Naomi, and Greg last week; lucky me this week; maybe Sophia will remain unscathed), back to back trials for me, there's the whole packing and moving thing coming up, and oh yeah, that little thing called a dissertation that Greg has been cranking out.  But Auntie and Emma are coming for a short visit in a couple of weeks and at some point, the weather has got to give around here and cut us a break.  But then again, we'll have 70 degrees plus and mostly sunny almost everyday for the next two years while I take a little leave of absence from work (but keep my job).  Sort of like an extended adventure to a really beautiful place.  We can all handle that.

quick update

I know, it's been forever.  In fact, it's been almost 8 months since my last post.  It's hard to believe that we're almost into March of this year.  Sheesh.  I have much to post, including our recent trip to Disneyworld, complete with princesses, Darth Vader, snow, lost Bear, and week-long vomiting.  But the other big development in our lives is our upcoming move to San Diego.  Yes, California.  Greg has been offered a 2-year post-doc at UCSD and we're on our way - onward, upward, and westward - this summer.  Very exciting, but very overwhelming to think about moving to the other side of the country.  And already sad about leaving Chicago.

amnesia

While cleaning out the hard drive on our old computer yesterday, we found a sleep log that we kept for Nicholas during the worst week of his sleep. Ever. It was us against Nicholas, with a very dog-eared copy of Weissbluth's book. We had neither happy sleep or a happy baby. It's a wonder we had more kids. A few excerpts from those sleep-deprived days:

11/13/05
7:30 pm - fell asleep with dad sitting next to him. He was in his bed with the big light off and the bright bulb on the night light on.
11:30pm - woke up asking for new water (was correct that his water was not new)
2:45 am - woke up and had peed in his bed. He said that he was calling for us (we’re sleeping in room next door with sound machine for Sophia, and no monitor, and considering how tired we were, it is unlikely that we would have been able to hear him with his door closed).
3:30 am - woke up (still awake?) and went into mom and dad’s room and dad went back with him and sat by his bedside while he fell asleep. Dad fell asleep in chair and left at 4:25 am, and went to the study to sleep. Nicholas came to study at 4:35 am and dad went back with Nicholas and sat in chair until 4:50 and then left when Nicholas was asleep.
5:30 am - Nicholas came into room with mom and Sophia looking for dad (who was sleeping in the study) and climbed in bed with mom and Sophia.
7:15 am - woke up

11/16/05
Napped from 1:00-2:15 pm (fell asleep with dad in the room)
8:30 pm - N finally fell asleep, dad stopped singing at 7:30 pm and waited an hour for N to fall asleep
10:30 pm - N woke up, mom put him back to sleep
11:30 pm - N woke up, mom put him back to sleep
1:30 am - N woke up and got dad, dad went in and sat on floor away from bed
2:40 am - N woke up and got dad again, dad went in and sat on floor away from bed (and feel asleep and left at 3:30)
4:40 am - N woke up and had peed in his underwear. Dad changed him and cleaned him up and sent him back to bed while dad sat on the floor away from the bed. N fell asleep and dad went back to bed.
7:15 am - N woke up

11/17/05
No nap
Tonight was the first night of trying the sleep poster. It says 1. Stay in bed 2. Pee in the potty 3. Close eyes 4. Go to sleep 5. ??
7:15 pm - N fell asleep while dad held him
10:00 pm - N moaned and mom and dad left him
10:30 pm - N moaned and mom and dad left him
11:00 pm - N called out for dad repeatedly and mom and dad ignored him until it seemed that he was really waking up. Dad went in and walked him to the bathroom and he peed and dad walked him back to bed and left the door open
11:30 pm - N woke up and dad went in and sat on the floor until N fell asleep
12:00 am - N woke up again and dad went in and sat on the floor until N fell asleep
1:30 am - N woke up again and dad went in and sat on the floor until N fell asleep
3:30 am - N woke up and dad went in and sat on the floor until N fell asleep
5:00 am - N woke up and dad gave up and went in and fell asleep on the floor.
7:00 am - N woke up for the morning

happy birthday, naomi!

somersaults and god

While kneeling on our bedroom floor on the verge of a time-out after being repeatedly told to settle down and go to sleep, Nicholas recounts the events that led to him and Sophia crying.

"I kind of hit Sophia by accident and told her I was sorry, and she kept touching me and then she did a somersault and landed on my eye."

"Sophia, is that true?"

"Yes."

Trying extremely hard not to bust out laughing, to no avail, I giggle out, "Are you supposed to be doing somersaults in bed?"

"No." She giggles.

"Ok, you guys need to go back in and I don't want to hear another sound from you and I don't want to come back upstairs again. If I do, you'll both get a time-out and be in trouble. Understand?"

"Yes." Says Nicholas with a semi-straight face.

"Yes." She giggles again.

"I'm serious, Sophia. If I have to come up here again, you're going to start losing stuff. What do you love?"

"God." (huh?)

"What?"

"God." (and here I was thinking she would say purple fairy wings, princess dresses, etc.)

"Well, don't you love your new flower girl dress? Your purple fairy wings that Kathy and John gave you that light up? Your flower girl basket?"

"Yes. And God."

"Ok, well, if I come up again, you'll lose the other stuff."

Clearly, that didn't go over as well as I had hoped. I should have known. Earlier when we came home from church, she said to me, "You know, Mom, when God is angry with me, he still loves me." Go figure.