Teaching your toddler to fall asleep on his own…

My son is lousy at falling asleep.  Since the ripe old age of 6 months we’ve been jiggling and rocking this child to sleep.  In his crib he slept through the night, mostly, and always after 20 minutes of leg numbing jiggling and rocking.

Just keep swimming…

Some days motherhood sucks. 

Why doesn’t anyone ever say that?  They should have a chapter in every baby book titled “parenting can suck too”.  When you bring that sweet new baby home you never think that you’ll be horribly embarrassed when he chucks his sippy cup clear across the restaurant at lunch, that you’ll have to wrestle him to get him into a diaper while he kicks and screams like you’re killing him, or that you’ll want to put him in a box and ship him to Grandma when he won’t go down for a nap.  

Expect the unexpected…and the difficult.

When I left the house this morning I expected chaos.  I expected difficulty checking in for our flight, getting through security, keeping my son quiet on the plane, renting a car, and checking into our hotel.  As is life, I got what I expected and a few things I didn’t. 

Thanks to teething we were all awake at 3:30 AM this morning, mommy and daddy only having gone to bed a few hours earlier and we were all pooped before we even left the house. 

Miraculously we arrived at the airport on time, checked in and went through security with ease (seriously the baby needs to remove his shoes???).  My son was a dream on the plane due in part to my preparation, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Chibby and I took the window seat with my husband beside us.  My son watched out the window admiring the trucks and other planes and even the scenery as we took off which actually calmed my nerves. He slept through the layover and spent the second flight watching Cars for the 1,000th time.  No screaming – no fits- no way!?

To go with our unexpected baby ease was a good dose of difficult served up by Alamo.  Lines, stupid check-in procedures, the wrong car seats, and a trainee in the exit booth who took 30 minutes to fix a paperwork error (Alamo’s fault)  helped us get our Orlando vacation off to a peachy start.  A special thanks to the a-hole a few cars back who shouted “just give the car back” for adding a little bit of magic to the day!

Being the savvy travel I am I printed directions to the hotel ahead of time via Google maps (who got it completely wrong!) so getting to the hotel was fun.  When we finally made it the hotel did not disappoint (the restaurant is another story). 

So before I slip into what will hopefully be a full night of sleep here are a few of my toddler tested travel trips from today:

• Pack Cheez-its, or some favorite snack…snacks are perfect for those confine and wait periods like waiting to takeoff or waiting to rent a car.  Plus they get Dad of his low-blood sugar funk.
• Compare maps and print them out ahead of time.  Cross check Google and mapquest to make sure directions are accurate.  Get your bearings before you leave the airport.  Am I supposed to go right or north?
• No neglecting naps…seek out sleep spots, on the plane, maybe in the car, or a quiet corner at the airport to get your little on to sleep.  Try to keep as much of their going-to-sleep routine as possible.  We always read a story before a nap or bedtime so I brought along the story we’ve been reading at home.
• Movies for when you’re not moving.  We brought along a Disney fav and played it on my laptop.
• Put the diaper bag under the seat in front of you on the plane so you can access those snacks, activities and drinks with ease.
• Pack a many little things to do.  I had a few touch and feel books which are interactive for my hyperactive kiddo, a pocket-sized sticker book, and a play cell phone which kept my son happy throughout the flight.
• Choose well balanced flying times.  Don’t pick a 1 hour flight with a connecting flight that is 4 hours if you can help it.  Try to get an even split.
• If you’re taking electronics pack them all in one carry-on and let dad go through security with that bag while you take the kiddos through.  Electronics all have to be unpacked and placed in trays and removing shoes, juggling a baby, and a stroller is enough for one person.  Let the other person take all the have-to-be unpacked items through security.
• Dress everyone in slide on shoes it makes getting through security slick and easy.
• Finally, get good sleep before you leave, keep hydrated, and kiss your spouse.  All of which will make you feel better, even if you rented a car from Alamo.   

Toddler Boredom Buster

So occasionally Chibby comes to me butt stuck out, shoulders slumped, starring up at me like “mom i’m bored”.  So because I love to hear him laugh histarically, we play a little game I call go go blankie (it’s not poetry but he knows what it means).

• place a throw on the floor
• place toddler or baby in the middle of the blanket
• grab the blanket by the front two edges and pull
• zoom around the room, curving around furniture, whipping around corner
• shout out “yahooooo!”
• watch baby laugh histarically

 Once you do this they’ll want you to do it again and again but it’s good for you.  I’ve never tried this on carpet as I have wood floors…if it works on carpet post a comment and let us know.  Of course always be sure not to do this near open stairs and be careful etc.  At some point they almost always fall over from the Gs! 

Toddler Travel

In February Techie, Chibby, and I are heading to Florida for a long weekend.  Techie will attend a conference while me and the little guy see the sights.  While I’m looking foward to a break from artic weather I’m definately not looking forward to our first flight with a toddler.   My worst fear is that I’ll be booted from the plane mid-runway because a hostile flight attendant thinks my kid is being too disruptive (which is why i’m not flying Continental). 

I spent all day searching the web for ways to keep toddlers happy during a flight and I’m 80% sure that there will still be some sort of feet kicking, back arching, screaming meltdown at some point.   Though most of the advice was fairly useless (and some even harmful i.e. drug your baby) I did find a few gems in the bunch. 

The OCD fetus and her crap

I have a porch full of CRAP. It’s been here a week and I already like it less than my in-laws.  It’s making me angry and giving me a blinding headache.  I can’t sleep and I can’t concentrate because no matter where I am in the house I can see the peaks of the mountains of CRAP on my porch.  It’s making me want to kill my husband and pull out all my hair. 

I know—I need a prescription.  Though I can’t remember exactly I’m pretty sure that I probably spent most of my time as a fetus tidying up the womb and since my birth I’ve only perfected my OCD. 

My son…the Monkey-Bird

The Monkey-Bird 

Species: monkeybusiness birdious

Habitat: Suburbs, backyards,

Traits:  

• Strong desire to climb

• Clever use of  tools and opposable thumbs

• Engages frequently in monkey business

• Enjoying picking things off floor, other monkeys, and furniture and ingesting them or forcing them into the mouths of mother monkeys

It’s my uterus and I’ll try if I want to.

Two years ago for Christmas Techie gave me an iPod with the phrase “This is the year we start our family” engraved on the back.  Some 20 days earlier we’d completed our home study and after three years of trying to get pregnant and one miscarriage we were hopeful about adoption.  7 months and one week later L gave birth to our beautiful son and we became parents. 

While having things injected or inserted on a regular basis or enduring the adoption wait doesn’t sound particularly appealing we’re ready to try for #2 and it seems almost everyone has an opinion on the subject.  We’ve heard it all from friends, family, coworkers, and even perfect strangers.