Tuesday, January 27, 2009
ICE!
The weatherman predicted an ice storm for last night/this morning. And this is what we woke up to:
Friday, January 23, 2009
It’s Been One Of Those Days (Or Weeks)…
Have you ever had ‘one of those days,’ where from the moment you wake up nothing seems to be going your way and you want to press the fast forward button on your life to get the day over with? It’s been like that ALL week! The whole week wasn’t a total write-off, though. I had a great time with two girlfriends the other day at the Olive Garden for lunch (all of us were kid-free!) and I am still thinking about their chicken and gnocchi soup – YUM! I was also able to get two workouts in at the gym. Other than that…I am sure I will look back on this week and laugh, but I’m not sure when.
In the background of everything else going on Jacques has been working on a fairly stressful home remodel; it seems that every time he turns around he encounters another unexpected problem so the job is running behind and he just wants to be done with it. And for one reason or another we haven’t been getting to bed before midnight (normally we are in bed around 9:30 pm), Nathan has reverted back and is waking up every 2-3 hours again and Jadon is waking up at least once because he hears Nathan waking up, so we are that much more tired the next day. So, onto the highlights of the week, told only in Dawn-style, which means this will be very long:
Monday: All of us came down with colds and were out of sorts.
Tuesday: I threw off the morning routine with the kids because I was so tired and that set the tone for the rest of the day. Nothing too big happened but a lot of little things just added up to one big headache. Jadon knows not to get into my purse or play with my sunglasses, but he did – and I take most of the blame because I didn’t put my purse out of his reach like I normally do. BUT, he got into my purse when I wasn’t looking, pulled out my sunglasses and snapped off part of the frame –I was livid! They aren’t the most expensive sunglasses in the world, but they were $200 and now I have to take care of that. Jadon had a meltdown at dinner and I just gave up at that point. I gave him a bubble bath and fed him dinner while was in the tub.
Wednesday: My mom watched Jadon at her house while I worked so that he could have a change of scenery. I kept Nathan with me because I am still nursing and figured that since he slept all day, it would be a piece of cake – HA! In a state of total irony, the child that normally sleeps all day only slept for 1 ½ hours and Jadon, the child who only naps for an hour, slept 3 hours at my mom’s. It made trying to get work done a little more challenging since Nathan wasn’t napping but I was able to get all my work done. Just after 6:00 pm. I strapped Nathan in his car seat and headed out the door to pick up Jadon at my mom’s. I had been driving down Warfield and made a left turn at the green light onto Rossview. On the corner is a Shell gas station and I had almost passed the entrance to the station when headlights appeared suddenly in the front windshield and before I had time to break, the car crashed into me. Nathan screamed, my glasses were thrown off my face and my car was slightly pushed into the small ditch by the gas station.
I hadn’t been in an accident before so this was all new to me – and I couldn’t have picked a better place to have had an accident since no one loves a good crash like the people of Clarksville. Drivers had stopped and were poking their heads out of their windows asking if we were alright and the people at the gas station came running over to see if we were okay. I was fine but my first concern was Nathan. I got out of the car and several people asked if I was okay. I said, “I think so but I have a baby in the back I need to check on.” I went around the car, climbed the small ditch and opened the rear passenger door to pull Nathan’s car seat out. He seemed fine so I un-strapped him and wrapped a warm blanket around him – it was in the 20’s so it was freezing. Thank God all of us were okay! A man shouted that he had already called 911. A crowd of people started to gather around and a woman ran up to me and said, “I’m a nurse, I can help.” Another man said that he saw the whole thing amd told me the other driver cut me off and then he handed me his card since he was a witness. I said I needed to call my husband and turned around to find my purse and cell phone. The front passenger door wouldn’t open more than an inch so I was going to try and climb in through the back door when the man who was the witness handed me his cell phone to use and told me to get the baby and myself warm in his car – his wife and daughter were in the car and the heater was on. So his wife and daughter come running over to hold the baby (nothing moves people like a baby) and I called Jacques to tell him I was in an accident, I was okay but I needed him to come to where we were.
Then I called my parents since they knew I was on my way to pick Jadon up. My dad answered the phone and I told him I had been in an accident and needed him to come – he didn’t ask how I was and I didn’t tell him anything about the accident - he heard the word ‘accident’ and was already on his way out the door and since I hadn’t said anything about being hurt he figured I was okay. I was still in shock from having been in an accident and never thought to tell him what had happened. Plus, I hadn’t looked at car this point so I wasn’t sure how bad the damage was but I figured I wouldn’t be driving the car home and since Jacques’ truck can’t fit the car seats we would have to get the kids home in my parent’s van.
The other driver was hurting on his side but by the end of the whole ordeal he said he was feeling better. The police arrived and asked us what had happened and then said they wanted our license, registration and proof of insurance so I was rifling around in my car trying to find everything and at the same time another office wanted my keys, I was told that a tow truck was coming so I needed to clean out the car and the paramedics wanted to look over everyone. I wasn’t sure what to do first! We were in the ambulance when Jacques arrived and he stayed in the ambulance with us while Nathan and I were examined. My parents arrived a few minutes after Jacques. My mom had guessed, based on the conversation I had with my dad, that I was in a fender-bender so when they approached the gas station and saw 3 police cars, 2 fire trucks and an ambulance all with their lights one, she realized it was no fender-bender. Then they were told that we were in the ambulance so my dad came over to check on us and when he found we were okay he headed back to tell my mom, who was keeping an eye on Jadon. The other driver was also in the ambulance with us and the paramedics were telling me to keep an eye on him in case he felt woozy or thought he was going to faint. I was thinking, “okay… Nathan is getting hungry, I have another son I need to check on and I have to get 2 car seats to out of the car along with anything else I might need so I really don’t have time to hang around this guy but I could occasionally glance over to see if he has fainted.” Then they said that once he got home I was to keep an eye on him and that was when I realized that they thought we were together. So I told them that he was the driver of the other car and the man holding Nathan was my husband.
Knowing the pain car seats were to un-install I was hoping the tow truck wouldn’t arrive for at least 3 hours… but we got everything out, minus my garage door opener which I forgot to grab. It was sad to see my Camry on the tow truck, which surprised me because I am usually not a sentimental person. But I had my car for nearly 8 years and I kept thinking, “this car is paid for, we took road trips in this car, drove to Tennessee in this car, I brought both my kids home from the hospital in this car…” and now to see it wrecked like this on a tow truck and being told by a police officer it might not be worth fixing given of the amount of damage and the age of the car, was very depressing. I was also anxious because I had never been in an accident before and had no clue what to do next. Between dealing with the police, the other driver and going back and forth to check on the kids in my parent’s van, time flew by pretty quickly – and I was getting very cold and my neck was starting to hurt. The police gave the other driver a ticket, handed my papers back to me, said it was not my fault and told me what to do next. Then I got in the van with my kids, Jacques got into his truck and we headed back to my parent’s house since all of the Jadon’s stuff was still there.
Once we were at my parent’s house I called the insurance company, packed up the kids and then my parents drove us home. Nathan refused to sleep by himself but I figured as much. Mom radar picked up that needed to know mom was close by and he was safe, so he slept with us. Between my cold and trying to sleep with a baby in our bed I probably got three hours of sleep.
Thursday: Another fun day! I spent most of the day talking to the insurance companies, picked up my rental car, drove back to the towing company to get the garage door opener from my car, I had to get my glasses fixed since they were bent and a nose pad had broken off from the accident, I had a doctor appointment to make sure I was okay and on the list went. My mom helped the first half of the day and I was going to drop the kids off with Jacques’ mom while I went to the doctor’s and took care of a few other things but nap schedules said otherwise. Jadon fell asleep about an hour before my doctor appointment and I wasn’t sure if he would wake up before I had to leave – I certainly wasn’t going to wake him up to get him out the door. Ann couldn’t come to out house because she didn’t have a car that day so I called my friend, Amy, to see if she could come watch Jadon while I was gone. Thank goodness for Amy! She kept an eye on Jadon while I was gone – I was given a clean bill of health – and then I packed up the kids and headed off to Ann’s so that I get a few more things done before everything closed.
I made it back just before 5:30 pm and could tell my kids were in desperate need of ‘mommy time’. Jadon was also starting to act grumpy and just not himself so we came home. I tried cuddling with him but he wanting to do with that – or with dinner – so I gave him a bath and dressed him bed. Within an hour he came down with a fever – poor baby. He was crying and miserable and other than giving him motrin, I couldn’t do anything. Nathan was crying – he has an hour of the ‘fussies’ before bed so for an hour I had Nathan in one arm and Jadon in the other on my bed listening to then cry non-stop. Parenting is a lesson in patience, and even when you feel like you can’t take it any more, you find the strength deep down - sometimes you have to dig deep, deep, deep, deep, deep down to find it as was the case that night. I called Jacques – it was about 8:00 pm and he was just about ready to head home from work so I asked him to stop by the store and pick up more motrin and juice for Jadon. He still hadn’t said ‘please’ for juice but I am a softie when my kids are sick! Since Jadon cried every time I left him I spent the night in his bed with Nathan next to us in the bouncer. It was a long night…
Friday: It just keeps getting better… I made a ‘bed’ on the couch for Jadon. He has spent the day crying, sleeping, watching movies, taking motrin and getting unlimited juice refills. Nathan has been sleeping in his swing and I have been taking advantage of this warm weather (mid 50’s) to open our windows and soak up the sunshine. Next week HAS GOT to be better! 
In the background of everything else going on Jacques has been working on a fairly stressful home remodel; it seems that every time he turns around he encounters another unexpected problem so the job is running behind and he just wants to be done with it. And for one reason or another we haven’t been getting to bed before midnight (normally we are in bed around 9:30 pm), Nathan has reverted back and is waking up every 2-3 hours again and Jadon is waking up at least once because he hears Nathan waking up, so we are that much more tired the next day. So, onto the highlights of the week, told only in Dawn-style, which means this will be very long:
Monday: All of us came down with colds and were out of sorts.
Tuesday: I threw off the morning routine with the kids because I was so tired and that set the tone for the rest of the day. Nothing too big happened but a lot of little things just added up to one big headache. Jadon knows not to get into my purse or play with my sunglasses, but he did – and I take most of the blame because I didn’t put my purse out of his reach like I normally do. BUT, he got into my purse when I wasn’t looking, pulled out my sunglasses and snapped off part of the frame –I was livid! They aren’t the most expensive sunglasses in the world, but they were $200 and now I have to take care of that. Jadon had a meltdown at dinner and I just gave up at that point. I gave him a bubble bath and fed him dinner while was in the tub.
Wednesday: My mom watched Jadon at her house while I worked so that he could have a change of scenery. I kept Nathan with me because I am still nursing and figured that since he slept all day, it would be a piece of cake – HA! In a state of total irony, the child that normally sleeps all day only slept for 1 ½ hours and Jadon, the child who only naps for an hour, slept 3 hours at my mom’s. It made trying to get work done a little more challenging since Nathan wasn’t napping but I was able to get all my work done. Just after 6:00 pm. I strapped Nathan in his car seat and headed out the door to pick up Jadon at my mom’s. I had been driving down Warfield and made a left turn at the green light onto Rossview. On the corner is a Shell gas station and I had almost passed the entrance to the station when headlights appeared suddenly in the front windshield and before I had time to break, the car crashed into me. Nathan screamed, my glasses were thrown off my face and my car was slightly pushed into the small ditch by the gas station.
I hadn’t been in an accident before so this was all new to me – and I couldn’t have picked a better place to have had an accident since no one loves a good crash like the people of Clarksville. Drivers had stopped and were poking their heads out of their windows asking if we were alright and the people at the gas station came running over to see if we were okay. I was fine but my first concern was Nathan. I got out of the car and several people asked if I was okay. I said, “I think so but I have a baby in the back I need to check on.” I went around the car, climbed the small ditch and opened the rear passenger door to pull Nathan’s car seat out. He seemed fine so I un-strapped him and wrapped a warm blanket around him – it was in the 20’s so it was freezing. Thank God all of us were okay! A man shouted that he had already called 911. A crowd of people started to gather around and a woman ran up to me and said, “I’m a nurse, I can help.” Another man said that he saw the whole thing amd told me the other driver cut me off and then he handed me his card since he was a witness. I said I needed to call my husband and turned around to find my purse and cell phone. The front passenger door wouldn’t open more than an inch so I was going to try and climb in through the back door when the man who was the witness handed me his cell phone to use and told me to get the baby and myself warm in his car – his wife and daughter were in the car and the heater was on. So his wife and daughter come running over to hold the baby (nothing moves people like a baby) and I called Jacques to tell him I was in an accident, I was okay but I needed him to come to where we were.
Then I called my parents since they knew I was on my way to pick Jadon up. My dad answered the phone and I told him I had been in an accident and needed him to come – he didn’t ask how I was and I didn’t tell him anything about the accident - he heard the word ‘accident’ and was already on his way out the door and since I hadn’t said anything about being hurt he figured I was okay. I was still in shock from having been in an accident and never thought to tell him what had happened. Plus, I hadn’t looked at car this point so I wasn’t sure how bad the damage was but I figured I wouldn’t be driving the car home and since Jacques’ truck can’t fit the car seats we would have to get the kids home in my parent’s van.
The other driver was hurting on his side but by the end of the whole ordeal he said he was feeling better. The police arrived and asked us what had happened and then said they wanted our license, registration and proof of insurance so I was rifling around in my car trying to find everything and at the same time another office wanted my keys, I was told that a tow truck was coming so I needed to clean out the car and the paramedics wanted to look over everyone. I wasn’t sure what to do first! We were in the ambulance when Jacques arrived and he stayed in the ambulance with us while Nathan and I were examined. My parents arrived a few minutes after Jacques. My mom had guessed, based on the conversation I had with my dad, that I was in a fender-bender so when they approached the gas station and saw 3 police cars, 2 fire trucks and an ambulance all with their lights one, she realized it was no fender-bender. Then they were told that we were in the ambulance so my dad came over to check on us and when he found we were okay he headed back to tell my mom, who was keeping an eye on Jadon. The other driver was also in the ambulance with us and the paramedics were telling me to keep an eye on him in case he felt woozy or thought he was going to faint. I was thinking, “okay… Nathan is getting hungry, I have another son I need to check on and I have to get 2 car seats to out of the car along with anything else I might need so I really don’t have time to hang around this guy but I could occasionally glance over to see if he has fainted.” Then they said that once he got home I was to keep an eye on him and that was when I realized that they thought we were together. So I told them that he was the driver of the other car and the man holding Nathan was my husband.
Knowing the pain car seats were to un-install I was hoping the tow truck wouldn’t arrive for at least 3 hours… but we got everything out, minus my garage door opener which I forgot to grab. It was sad to see my Camry on the tow truck, which surprised me because I am usually not a sentimental person. But I had my car for nearly 8 years and I kept thinking, “this car is paid for, we took road trips in this car, drove to Tennessee in this car, I brought both my kids home from the hospital in this car…” and now to see it wrecked like this on a tow truck and being told by a police officer it might not be worth fixing given of the amount of damage and the age of the car, was very depressing. I was also anxious because I had never been in an accident before and had no clue what to do next. Between dealing with the police, the other driver and going back and forth to check on the kids in my parent’s van, time flew by pretty quickly – and I was getting very cold and my neck was starting to hurt. The police gave the other driver a ticket, handed my papers back to me, said it was not my fault and told me what to do next. Then I got in the van with my kids, Jacques got into his truck and we headed back to my parent’s house since all of the Jadon’s stuff was still there.
Once we were at my parent’s house I called the insurance company, packed up the kids and then my parents drove us home. Nathan refused to sleep by himself but I figured as much. Mom radar picked up that needed to know mom was close by and he was safe, so he slept with us. Between my cold and trying to sleep with a baby in our bed I probably got three hours of sleep.
Thursday: Another fun day! I spent most of the day talking to the insurance companies, picked up my rental car, drove back to the towing company to get the garage door opener from my car, I had to get my glasses fixed since they were bent and a nose pad had broken off from the accident, I had a doctor appointment to make sure I was okay and on the list went. My mom helped the first half of the day and I was going to drop the kids off with Jacques’ mom while I went to the doctor’s and took care of a few other things but nap schedules said otherwise. Jadon fell asleep about an hour before my doctor appointment and I wasn’t sure if he would wake up before I had to leave – I certainly wasn’t going to wake him up to get him out the door. Ann couldn’t come to out house because she didn’t have a car that day so I called my friend, Amy, to see if she could come watch Jadon while I was gone. Thank goodness for Amy! She kept an eye on Jadon while I was gone – I was given a clean bill of health – and then I packed up the kids and headed off to Ann’s so that I get a few more things done before everything closed.
I made it back just before 5:30 pm and could tell my kids were in desperate need of ‘mommy time’. Jadon was also starting to act grumpy and just not himself so we came home. I tried cuddling with him but he wanting to do with that – or with dinner – so I gave him a bath and dressed him bed. Within an hour he came down with a fever – poor baby. He was crying and miserable and other than giving him motrin, I couldn’t do anything. Nathan was crying – he has an hour of the ‘fussies’ before bed so for an hour I had Nathan in one arm and Jadon in the other on my bed listening to then cry non-stop. Parenting is a lesson in patience, and even when you feel like you can’t take it any more, you find the strength deep down - sometimes you have to dig deep, deep, deep, deep, deep down to find it as was the case that night. I called Jacques – it was about 8:00 pm and he was just about ready to head home from work so I asked him to stop by the store and pick up more motrin and juice for Jadon. He still hadn’t said ‘please’ for juice but I am a softie when my kids are sick! Since Jadon cried every time I left him I spent the night in his bed with Nathan next to us in the bouncer. It was a long night…
Friday: It just keeps getting better… I made a ‘bed’ on the couch for Jadon. He has spent the day crying, sleeping, watching movies, taking motrin and getting unlimited juice refills. Nathan has been sleeping in his swing and I have been taking advantage of this warm weather (mid 50’s) to open our windows and soak up the sunshine. Next week HAS GOT to be better!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Let It Snow
Cold, colder, freezing! This has been such a cold winter – the highs have been in the teens and twenties and the lows have been in the single digits. We have the heater, portable heaters and fireplace running nearly 24/7, and no surprise, our electric bill was a joke… but with 2 little ones in the house we don’t want it too cold. So while the rest of the country is blanketed in snow, let be known that the great state of Tennessee is not without our fair share of flurries. The other morning we received our first snowfall – and had just enough snow to accumulate around the edge of the lawn for 10 minutes before melting. Who is up for some serious sledding?
Family Traditions
I have heard and read about (and seen in the movies) ‘the traditional Sunday dinners’ where the entire family gets together for an evening of fun - call me sentimental if you will, but I like that idea. We are fortunate to have both sets of parents (and one brother who is currently in Afghanistan but will be home soon!) living within 20 minutes of us so I think it is important for us to spend time together, especially now that grandkids are here. I have started a ‘new’ tradition (new tradition – talk about an oxymoron) of family dinners. I am one of those people that say “let’s get together” but the busyness of life just takes over and those well-meaning intentions never come to fruition. So I made a point of marking these on the calendar and we now have dinner with Jacques’ mom and step-dad the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month and dinner with my family the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month. Two of those dinners are at our house and the other dinners will be at Jacques’ mom’s house and my mom’s house – this is nice in that we each get a break from cooking J We started this tradition last week with my mom and dad coming over for a make-your-own-pizza night. Jadon really enjoys seeing his grandparents and it’s nice to just spend time together as a family. To borrow from Martha Stewart, “it’s a good thing”.
He's Got The Moves
My little Tazmanian Devil really needs to burn off some energy - only since he can’t run around outside in 20 degree weather, he tears apart my house instead… good times. Anyway, I have found that the play tent, ‘wheelbarrow walking’ and dancing really help. My mom bought some of Disney’s Greatest Hits cd’s for Jadon when he was a few months old but up until recently he hasn’t been too interested in them. Now I just need to turn one on and he dances away… the only downside is having “Under the Sea” running through my head during the day! Would anyone care to join me? “Up on the shore they work all day, out in the sun they slave away, while we devoting full time to floating under the sea…”
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Starting Off The New Year
It has been one week since my last entry – and what a week it has been! Not so much from the standpoint of the number of activities we have done (or in our case, have not done) but rather surviving the nights well enough to make it through the next day. This week also marked my return to work after a month-long maternity leave. I work from home so it is not like it was a huge ordeal of trying to get two kids and myself out the door, but it was back to work nonetheless. I have cut back my hours to part time and hired my mom to watch the boys while I work on Monday, Tuesday and half day Wednesday. It is kind of nice being back to work, - and for a short time I have a life beyond Baby Land. I am enjoying my first non-work day of the week today but setting up my work schedule like this has me thinking today is Saturday.
Jacques and I also joined a gym. This is new to me – and rather humbling. The winters here are too cold and the summers too hot humid to exercise in the great outdoors. Since the weather in Southern California was always so nice I could exercise outside and didn’t need to go to a gym; I was never into the treadmill thing since you run and run but don’t go anywhere. I thought I would never join a gym and here I am having swallowed my pride and am now the proud member of the Clarksville Athletic Club. To make a long story short, we joined the National Fitness Center in Clarksville on Monday but canceled our membership today, which was within the 3-day risk free cancellation time frame, for several reasons. I went to work out last night at 8:30 pm and they had already closed so Jacques and I were disappointed that the gym didn’t have longer hours. And the gym was pretty small, didn’t offer a whole lot and was kind of expensive. My parents used the Clarksville Athletic Club last year and loved it so we looked into it. It is offers an indoor and outdoor pool, kid’s classes (where Jadon can burn all his energy in the tumbling class), a cinema workout room (basically a movie theater with treadmills) and whole lot more. It’s cheaper, has longer hours, and childcare is provided. So we have switched to this gym and I can’t wait to work out. I bought some new running shoes the other night – and I am going to go down a rabbit trail on this. Saucony is my favorite brand of running shoes. I have worn them since my high school track & field and cross country days. I have strayed only twice into Nike and Adidas but never liked either of them. The only place I know in Clarksville that carries Saucony is The Finish Line at the mall – and wouldn’t you know it, they only had one pair left and it was in my size. Granted, I prefer white shoes with blue trim but now was not the time to be picky. It was either wear the gray shoes with pink trim or venture into the Nike realm again, so gray and pink it was. I also got a few new workout clothes so now I am ready for a fashionable gym workout, which I am hoping is tonight or tomorrow. Jacques and I used to have a ‘workout date night’ when we were dating and I am hoping we can repeat that. Granted, I was training for a marathon during those date nights so it won’t be as intense now as it was then, but it is always fun to workout together. Jacques is my favorite workout partner!
Now, onto the reason why this week has been so hard… my kids have conspired against us! Jacques had to get up at 4:00 am Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get to Nashville for a job. Jadon gets up when he hears Jacques getting ready for work and no matter what time that is, Jadon doesn’t go back to bed. Nathan, well, he is a piece of work. The bouncer no longer works, the swing no longer works, snuggling him in the boppy no longer works, the co-sleeper no longer works... NOTHING works! This kid only sleeps at night when you hold him. He sleeps fine in the boppy, bouncer and swing during the day so go figure… So either we hear him cry and fuss for hours on end and get no sleep or he goes into bed with us and we kind of get some sleep, though not much. We don’t sleep well when he is bed with us for fear of rolling over him or having the sheets/pillows suffocate him. Not to mention he wakes up every two to three hours to eat so that doesn’t help at all. Around 7:30 am – 8:00 am he decides he can sleep in the swing, boppy or bouncer and would be well with the world EXCEPT Jadon normally wakes up 7:00 am. I can’t go back to sleep when Nathan does because Jadon either cries if I put him in his room with the baby gate up or he destroys the house if he is out of his room while I try to sleep. Now that Jacques is getting up at 4:00 am, Jadon gets up at 4:00 am, and I have lost even more sleep. The other morning Jadon woke up at 2:00 am and wanted to play… I have a headache from all this!
And in an update form my earlier post, Jadon still refuses to say ‘please’ for juice so we are going 7 days without juice. Man, does this kid have a strong will! Until next time...
Jacques and I also joined a gym. This is new to me – and rather humbling. The winters here are too cold and the summers too hot humid to exercise in the great outdoors. Since the weather in Southern California was always so nice I could exercise outside and didn’t need to go to a gym; I was never into the treadmill thing since you run and run but don’t go anywhere. I thought I would never join a gym and here I am having swallowed my pride and am now the proud member of the Clarksville Athletic Club. To make a long story short, we joined the National Fitness Center in Clarksville on Monday but canceled our membership today, which was within the 3-day risk free cancellation time frame, for several reasons. I went to work out last night at 8:30 pm and they had already closed so Jacques and I were disappointed that the gym didn’t have longer hours. And the gym was pretty small, didn’t offer a whole lot and was kind of expensive. My parents used the Clarksville Athletic Club last year and loved it so we looked into it. It is offers an indoor and outdoor pool, kid’s classes (where Jadon can burn all his energy in the tumbling class), a cinema workout room (basically a movie theater with treadmills) and whole lot more. It’s cheaper, has longer hours, and childcare is provided. So we have switched to this gym and I can’t wait to work out. I bought some new running shoes the other night – and I am going to go down a rabbit trail on this. Saucony is my favorite brand of running shoes. I have worn them since my high school track & field and cross country days. I have strayed only twice into Nike and Adidas but never liked either of them. The only place I know in Clarksville that carries Saucony is The Finish Line at the mall – and wouldn’t you know it, they only had one pair left and it was in my size. Granted, I prefer white shoes with blue trim but now was not the time to be picky. It was either wear the gray shoes with pink trim or venture into the Nike realm again, so gray and pink it was. I also got a few new workout clothes so now I am ready for a fashionable gym workout, which I am hoping is tonight or tomorrow. Jacques and I used to have a ‘workout date night’ when we were dating and I am hoping we can repeat that. Granted, I was training for a marathon during those date nights so it won’t be as intense now as it was then, but it is always fun to workout together. Jacques is my favorite workout partner!
Now, onto the reason why this week has been so hard… my kids have conspired against us! Jacques had to get up at 4:00 am Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to get to Nashville for a job. Jadon gets up when he hears Jacques getting ready for work and no matter what time that is, Jadon doesn’t go back to bed. Nathan, well, he is a piece of work. The bouncer no longer works, the swing no longer works, snuggling him in the boppy no longer works, the co-sleeper no longer works... NOTHING works! This kid only sleeps at night when you hold him. He sleeps fine in the boppy, bouncer and swing during the day so go figure… So either we hear him cry and fuss for hours on end and get no sleep or he goes into bed with us and we kind of get some sleep, though not much. We don’t sleep well when he is bed with us for fear of rolling over him or having the sheets/pillows suffocate him. Not to mention he wakes up every two to three hours to eat so that doesn’t help at all. Around 7:30 am – 8:00 am he decides he can sleep in the swing, boppy or bouncer and would be well with the world EXCEPT Jadon normally wakes up 7:00 am. I can’t go back to sleep when Nathan does because Jadon either cries if I put him in his room with the baby gate up or he destroys the house if he is out of his room while I try to sleep. Now that Jacques is getting up at 4:00 am, Jadon gets up at 4:00 am, and I have lost even more sleep. The other morning Jadon woke up at 2:00 am and wanted to play… I have a headache from all this!
And in an update form my earlier post, Jadon still refuses to say ‘please’ for juice so we are going 7 days without juice. Man, does this kid have a strong will! Until next time...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Battle Of The Wills; Parents - 3, Jadon – 0
It has been a tough season and Jadon has put on a strong defense. Mom’s offense has been pretty weak and her defense even weaker. Employing the common strategies of a 2-year old, Jadon has managed to break through the parental line in one scrimmage after another. So mom and dad called a time out, huddled up and devised a new game plan: Consistency. So far it seems to be working - Jadon has now suffered three major hits in 2 days and is at a complete loss how to combat these new tactics. Mom and Dad are doing their little victory dance with the occasional high five.
Game 1:
Mom was cleaning Jadon’s room and making his bed. He kept jumping on the bed, interfering with mom’s bed making techniques despite repeated attempts of asking him not to. It was time for mom to get tough. Jadon loves pacifiers and prefers to carry 5 around with him at all times - today was no exception. So mom told Jadon that if he threw things in anger, hit something or disobeyed, the pacifiers would be taken away one at a time. In a move that surprised mom Jadon lost all his pacifiers in less than a minute. Once the pacifiers ran out she knew it was going to get ugly but she was determined to meet him head on. He cried for his pacifiers and when he didn’t get them back he threw toys. He got a time out in the only room of the house he couldn’t get out of or destroy – the bathroom. He screamed and screamed – the nerve of mom giving him time out in a room without toys! After a few minutes he was allowed back in his room. He asked for his pacifiers and mom said he could have one if he said please. After all was said and done (this included throwing things, hitting things, disobeying mom and many, many, many, many, many, many time outs) it took 6 hours to break his will. He finally stopped throwing, hitting and disobeying and said ‘please’ for a pacifier.
Game 2:
After finishing a sippee of juice this morning Jadon said, “more juice”. Mom told hime he had to say please. He shook his head and said ‘no’ to which mom replied, “Until you say please you won’t get juice”. It is now after lunch and he is still refusing to say please so he hasn’t gotten any juice.
Game 3:
Mom was cleaning up the Christmas decorations and told Jaodn he would lose his pacifier if he got into them. Not surprisingly he decided to test that threat and started rummaging around the bag of decorations mom had just packed. So he lost his pacifier. Then mom told him he would get a time out in his room (now clean, and with the exception of his bedding, destroy-proof) if he continued to get into the Christmas decorations. Within 30 seconds he was in time-out. Later in the day it was time for his nap so mom and dad put him in his room and closed the baby gate. He threw himself against the gate and cried for a pacifier. He was told he could have one if he said please. He said no. After an hour of crying and begging – but refusing to say please – he fell asleep without his pacifier.
How long can Jadon keep this up? Mom and Dad don’t know, but they are determined to stick to their game plan. They don’t want to break his spirit but rather his will and until he learns obedience and self-control they will continue to meet him head-on.
Game 1:
Mom was cleaning Jadon’s room and making his bed. He kept jumping on the bed, interfering with mom’s bed making techniques despite repeated attempts of asking him not to. It was time for mom to get tough. Jadon loves pacifiers and prefers to carry 5 around with him at all times - today was no exception. So mom told Jadon that if he threw things in anger, hit something or disobeyed, the pacifiers would be taken away one at a time. In a move that surprised mom Jadon lost all his pacifiers in less than a minute. Once the pacifiers ran out she knew it was going to get ugly but she was determined to meet him head on. He cried for his pacifiers and when he didn’t get them back he threw toys. He got a time out in the only room of the house he couldn’t get out of or destroy – the bathroom. He screamed and screamed – the nerve of mom giving him time out in a room without toys! After a few minutes he was allowed back in his room. He asked for his pacifiers and mom said he could have one if he said please. After all was said and done (this included throwing things, hitting things, disobeying mom and many, many, many, many, many, many time outs) it took 6 hours to break his will. He finally stopped throwing, hitting and disobeying and said ‘please’ for a pacifier.
Game 2:
After finishing a sippee of juice this morning Jadon said, “more juice”. Mom told hime he had to say please. He shook his head and said ‘no’ to which mom replied, “Until you say please you won’t get juice”. It is now after lunch and he is still refusing to say please so he hasn’t gotten any juice.
Game 3:
Mom was cleaning up the Christmas decorations and told Jaodn he would lose his pacifier if he got into them. Not surprisingly he decided to test that threat and started rummaging around the bag of decorations mom had just packed. So he lost his pacifier. Then mom told him he would get a time out in his room (now clean, and with the exception of his bedding, destroy-proof) if he continued to get into the Christmas decorations. Within 30 seconds he was in time-out. Later in the day it was time for his nap so mom and dad put him in his room and closed the baby gate. He threw himself against the gate and cried for a pacifier. He was told he could have one if he said please. He said no. After an hour of crying and begging – but refusing to say please – he fell asleep without his pacifier.
How long can Jadon keep this up? Mom and Dad don’t know, but they are determined to stick to their game plan. They don’t want to break his spirit but rather his will and until he learns obedience and self-control they will continue to meet him head-on.
We’re Gonna Rock (and Bounce) Around The Clock Tonight…
Nathan doesn’t enjoy lying on his back. I have put him on his play mat, the couch and even our bed but he cries after a few minutes. He is a little better about falling asleep in his co-sleeper at night but not by much, which affects my sleep at night. During the day he is either being held or rocking in his swing so at night he prefers the same. Dragging the swing around is a pain since it is rather large and I inevitably hit the door frames going from one room to the next. I never got a bouncer for Jadon since he was happy either in the swing or on his back…but desperate time call for desperate measures so I decided to invest in a bouncer seat. I got the Fisher Price Newborn to Toddler Rocker since it goes from a reclining seat to a rocking chair for a toddler. Jadon likes ‘his’ rocking chair, Nathan likes his new bed (which bounces and rocks) and I like how portable it is. Don’t you love these win-win situations?
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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