TOMMY VISITS SANTA

Well it is midnight and I need to head to bed. Tomorrow we are hopefully off to see Santa at the mall and have Tommy's picture taken with him. Tommy is still awake, let's hope he sleeps in his bed again tonight....even everyother night is good!!

Today's World.....

So many times I hear people talk about how the world is now...not like it used to be etc. I grew up in a small town in South Dakota. You would think that is was very friendly, etc...and to some etc it was. But not like the neighborhood I am raising my children in. I think to some extent your neighborhood is what you make of it.

My parents didn't socialize with our neighbors. I don't recall ever recall running to a neighbors to borrow sugar or whatever if we were out. Mom sent one of us kids to the store. We never ate at anyone else's house or got together with the neighbors for any reason.

The world we have made for our children is what I wish I had as a youngster. My hubby is a wonderfully friendly man, everyone's best friend. IN our neighborhood all the kids will come to our house to play. The other day a neighbor boy got lock out of his house after school, and he came to our house for the afternoon. It is so good to know we have so many neighbors who look out for each others children. The little girl across the street, Sammy (age 4) and her friend come to our house weekly. They will bring over their little cart with an assortment of pretend cakes and cookies to have a party at our house. Mind you I have only boys and the girls come over to serve my hubby and I treats........they also love the baby

Many evenings we light a bonfire and as soon as the smoke is in the air friends come to visit. One neighbor may come over with their kids and a pitcher of kool-aid, the other with a huge bowl of popcorn.

If I am making supper and I run out of cornstarch (happened the other day) I can call across the street or a number of other houses to borrow a tablespoon. I love the sense of community that we have....it feels so good in this time and age.

I truly believe these are not feelings that just happen you need to foster and develop them. I know there are people on our street who keep to themselves and don't put forth an effort and I think it is felt.

My neighbor and I are sponsoring a block cookie exchange for the holidays. What better way to continue to have our community grow and get stronger. We also have an amazing block party every summer.

It takes an effort to make your world better, but it is sure worth the effort. So I say, "say hello to your neighbor and smile". It will go a long way!

Quick check-in............

Well I have my room cleaned, dusted and stuff. My bedroom seems to always be the home for lost items. If you don't know where it goes, throw it in Mom's room.............drives me insane...

I am making great strides with the laundry. I have only 3 more loads left and it is ALL DONE!! Then I can finally clean and sweep the laundry room since I will be able to see the floor.

Well time for me to scoot, Tommy is crying. Later!

Just got back from church. We met with Pastor Marlyn about having Tommy baptized. We seem to have it all set up for December 16th. He told us about a program they have a church similiar to ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) in the school system but has a Christian component. The next session starts in January and they have room in the 0-2 classroom. So we will be going to that with Tommy I think.

The best part of this is that it was Paul who said he would like to go as he would like to be more involved in our church. We attend church every Sunday but that is about it. This makes me smile as in my first marriage I couldn't even get my first hubby to go to church or be involved with the kids, etc. Paul and I are so much what I would call live partners. We handle and live our lives together. We attend things with the kids together.........both learning and teaching our children together. I can't think of anyone I would rather share these things with.

Tommy is napping in his crib, I have started another load of laundry and have Erik's socks soaking in bleach. Erik my middle child, age 9 always walks outside in his socks............so they need a good cleaning. Then I think I will finish dusting and sweeping my bedroom and figure out what to have for lunch. I have time until 2:00 to get things done around here, then I have to get Tommy up and keep him up. I have been getting him up at 2:00 since that is the only time I can stomach daytime TV. I will watch the OtherHalf and Rosie O'Donnell that is all I watch during the day besides the news........otherwise I jsut have the radio on as daytime TV to me is a punishment...LOL!! I am not a big soap opera person, though my sister-in-laws are as is my mom.

GOOD MORNING..............

You have to know it is a good morning if I am up and functioning these days by 8:30.  Of course I am not dressed or showered yet, but that is right around the corner.

How was my night of sleep you ask.................well it involved sleep!    Last night when I logged off at 11:45, I headed to bed and of course right on cue, Tommy started crying.  Hubby was making a bottle and I decided to feed Tommy in his nursery.   We got him changed, and sat in the rocking chair and fed him his bottle.   He fell asleep after only a little over 3 ounces.  I decided to be kooky and put him down in his crib.  Ok, I know I try laying him in the crib every night, but you can't just give up.  

I crawl in to bed with hubby and tell him we can snuggle for 10 minutes before Tommy realizes he is in his crib.  10 minutes pass and no screaming Tommy....well gee, I am going to go to sleep.   I might even get a few minutes sleep without my little man sleeping in my arms.   I awake at about 2:00am to realize Tommy hasn't cried yet..............ok, now all the weird thoughts go through my head.  Could he be dead???   He never sleeps in his crib??  Should I go check on him, but his door squeaks so much?   

I crank the baby monitor and I can hear him breathing...ok..he must be ok.   I drift back off to sleep until 3:00 when he awakes to be fed.  OK, this is good, he has slept in his crib.  I am amazed.  So I go in the nursery and feed him again and believe it or not, he lets me lay him down in the crib again!!!

I am soooooo happy and have had the best night sleep in weeks.  TOMMY slept in his crib all night until 6:30 this morning.  Then I brought him into my bed as he wouldn't lay down in his crib.     I hope this is a continual trend!!!    There is hope!    I think it is that Tommy didn't want to let mspolyglot's little boy show him up...............LOL!!!! 

Mspolyglot, sorry to hear your little one cried alot last night....it seems to go in cycles....one night good and the next night terrible.   I shudder to think of what tonight will be like

Well I am off to shower.  We have to be at church at 10:30 to discuss the arrangements to get Tommy baptized next month.  Talk at you later! 

STOP THE PRESSES................

OH MY WORD!!  Yes, it is true, it is currently 11:35pm and my darling, wonderful little baby has been sleeping in *HIS CRIB since 10:30.   I am sooooo excited I hope I don't jinx it!   He was very alert this afternoon.  He must be feeling sorry for me about his staying up till 3:00am last night.   He was very awake and alert from 2:00pm till after supper.  He loves to lay on the living room floor and stare at the Christmas tree lights.  I love the tree

My day has been fairly mundane today.  I did email all of my 13-year old's teachers to see how his grades are so far this quarter.  He tends to not hand in assignments, but of the three teachers I have heard from he has only not completed one assignment.  That is good for Josh.  He has an A+ in one class, a B- and a C.   It is hard to see Josh have a C, but I am ok with it.  He is very smart and was in the gifted program before we moved here.  He is just soooo unmotivated.   Last quarter he got two D's on his report card and that is just not acceptable.  It was mostly due to him not handing in assignments.  So hopefully this quarter will be better, otherwise he is going to kiss his trip to his grandparents good-bye this summer. 

Today we ran to target for a few things, completed 4 loads of laundry...and I am still not totally caught up.  Tonight for supper I sorta invented a meal....LOL!!  Hubby always loves it when I throw things together...NOT!   I had some leftover meatloaf in the fridge so I made a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese and mixed the chopped meatloaf in it and added 3/4 a can of tomato sauce ((the little ones).  I called is cheeseburger macaroni...like hamburger helper kind of thing.  Both Paul and Josh liked it.  Tommy had a bath tonight and for the first time in a few weeks he didn't pee or poop in the water....YEAH TOMMY!!!

Well time for me to make out a to do list for tomorrow and head to bed...............it is now 11:44 and Tommy is STILL sleeping in his bed.  Do you think it could be possible that hubby and I will go to bed without our little one sleeping between us?????????   I'll let you know tomorrow!  Wish us Luck!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY

It is Wednesday isn't it???  I swear since I am home I am constantly losing track of what day it is.  The last two days have been a bit trying with our little guy.   He is right back into having his days and nights mixed up.  ARGH!!!!   How do I change this around already, I have to go back to work on December 6th.  

Monday night wasn't too bad, but I got up at 7:00am with him and was just exhausted so my hubby told me to lay down for a bit and he would watch the baby.  I laid down and napped and woke up to my hubby, Paul, asking me if I wanted to get up.  I asked him what time it was and he said...........are you ready for this 2:30pm.   Wow....I must have been tired!!!

It is a good thing that I had this incredible nap on Tuesday morning as last night was a very little sleep night.   Tommy didn't fall asleep until 3:00am....he was wide awake from like 10:00 to 3:00am.   Finally he fell asleep and slept until 6:30 and then was up again at 9:30.  

He is of course napping again now.  I will have to be mean to him again today and make sure he doesn't get to sleep very much.   The weird thing is that during the day when he sleeps is entirely dead to the world.....you can touch him and he never stirs, at night the slightest jostling and he is wide awake.  This really leads to me thinking he has his nights and days switched.....oh but how to change them............nothing seems to work for long. 

Well I am going to jump into the shower while he is having his morning nap.  Than I am going to get him up and play with him so he stays awake. 

Needless to say I am hardly getting anything done as I am sooo tired during the daytime hours.   I did get to look  through two magazines last night..."Taste of Home and Quick Cooking" and  found some great recipes to try this month.  I love cook!

Later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW - mspolyglot's baby is sleeping in a cradle.....I am soooo jealous!!

Hello......just a quick hello to everyone.  I will update more later on my day.   Since hubby was home today I went back to bed after Tommy's 7:00 am feeding for a little nap...LOL!!  Don't ask me how long I slept........ROFL!!   I just typed up the recipe for the sandwich we had for supper the other night.  It is a keeper and has been added to our family cookbook.

                  ***************************************
                                      SANDWICH FOR 12

     ½ cup old-fashioned oats
     ½ cup boiling water
     2 tablespoons butter or margarine
     1 package (16 ounces) hot roll mix
     ¾ cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
     2 eggs, beaten
     1 tablespoon dried minced onion

Good Morning..................

Hello...I awoke this morning to a lovely dusting of snow on the ground.  It was nice to see as we had just put up the Christmas tree last night and the snow made it seem more Christmasy.  We are suppose to get 6-10 inches today. 

My morning hasn't been as productive as I had hoped, could that have anything to do with me blogging right now you ask??   of course not...LOL!!

I was up and showered, dressed and stuff by 10:00.  Hey that is good for me, lately.   I am so tired getting up with the baby all night.   Of course right on cue my SIL calls and asks if I will watch her youngest two children while she goes to buy boots for her oldest child.   So I couldn't vacuum this morning as my nephew (nick) freaks from the noise.  He has autism and this is a noise that bothers him quite a lot.  

So Nick (age 5) and Kristen (2) watched Sesame Street for the morning.   Have you seen Sesame Street lately??   I haven't seen it in like almost 13 years.  I saw Elmo's World and he checks his email....LOL!!!   The times are a changing.  Kristen loves Elmo.

Well Tommy is sort of down for a nap so I am going to get started on my major project for today.  I need to take all my maternity clothes out of my dresser and closet and find my regular clothes now that I can fit into them!  

I will check in later this afternoon to let ya know how I have done......................:)

Someone asked what Flylady is......well it is a motivational kind of list serv to help you get organized.   Some people will laugh at this......Yes, Exclamation, I need to be MORE organized.  I have my moments when I am terribly sidetracked.  I need to be more efficient in using my time now that there is even less of it!!!