Sleeping, Waking, Crying, Screaming, then Having a Full-On Tantrum

Oh my sweet Connor is trying my patience lately...really trying my patience. He has been waking up during the night a lot for the last few months. Mind you, he used to sleep through the night nearly every night for at least 12 hours since he was two months old.

Anyway, when the night awakenings started they really were not too bad. I found that if I just gave him a sippy cup of milk he would go back to bed and do pretty well for the rest of the night. Soon he started waking up more and throwing his cup of milk out of his bed and then screaming for me or Marcus to come back in and give it to him (he has a toddler bed, by the way, which he can very easily get in and out of himself). This became one annoying game that soon escalated to happening up to six times a night. SO IRRITATING! Also, because Connor was having so much to drink throughout the night started wetting his bed nearly every night. ALSO, I know that I am not supposed to be letting him have milk (especially chocolate milk) to fall asleep as it causes "baby bottle rot" in their little teeth.

Point of this post: I decided to take my mommy power back and stop feeding into his ridiculous night manipulation routine. Starting Sunday night Connor got put to bed with a small sippy cup of water and was not indulged in the middle of the night with milk or mine and Marcus' attention (getting the cup he purposely threw and can easily get himself). When he first wakes up crying I go in and give him a love and make sure he's ok. After that he's on his own. Sunday night was horrible...he was up several times SCREAMING and throwing temper-tantrums. Last night was better (but still not ideal). He woke up once at 4am for a two-hour fit. Hopefully tonight will be better.

Aren't you glad you're not my downstairs neighbor right now?

A Fun Weekend and A Broken Tooth!

We had a nice weekend (well...I guess the weekend is not over yet...but Friday and today were fun). Yesterday afternoon we met my mom in Nephi and she took Connor for the night. He had a blast going to McDonalds and Walmart (two of his favorite places) with his grandma and Uncle Tommy. He spent a lot of time running through her house and soaking up all the attention he possibly could.

Marcus and I went to dinner at Tepanyaki with my cousin Christy and her husband Jay. We were celebrating Christy's big 26th birthday. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with them. We haven't seen them nearly as much as we would have liked to since they moved to SLC last Spring. The only down fall of the night was that ONE OF MY TEETH CHIPPED! I have never had a broken tooth in my life and it totally freaked me out! A little piece of one of my molars just chipped off. I do not even know how it happened...it just did. SO GROSS! I can't wait to go to the dentist because it is driving me nuts. (The truth is it's such a small chip they may do nothing, but it is just bugging me so much).

Anyway, we went and picked Connor up in Nephi this afternoon. It was nice to SLEEP IN this morning...ahhh. I went to an Enrichment group and made five freezer meals, believe it or not, it was actually fun.

Connor is excited to go to his nursery class tomorrow to have "Nack and Duice and play toys". After church we're having the Nam Fam over for dinner and we're looking forward to spending some time with them.

I almost forgot. My favorite part of the weekend was that today was actually SUNNY with a BLUE SKY! Oh my goodness...it was so great...I opened my windows a crack and our apt. is full of nice fresh air now. I just can't wait for the nice weather to come back sometime.

Congrats to My Hubby

I am so happy for Marcus (and of course Steve, our friend and Marcus research partner) who were just chosen to present their undergraduate research at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research in Baltimore, Maryland this spring. They did their research on the correlation between physical activity and academic performance among college students. They were both given grants by the University last summer to continue this research they had started the previous semester. A lot of people were confident they would be a shoe-in for NCUR and we are happy they were right! Congratulations boys!

Tagged

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:11
2. What do you usually have for breakfast? Cereal
3. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Celine Dion's Taking Chances
4. What kind of car do you drive? 2007 Dodge Calibur
5. Favorite sandwich? Kneaders BLT
6. Favorite item of clothing? Gap Body PJ's
7. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? There's a lot of places I'd love to go, but Marcus and I just love to go to Lowe's Hotel at Lake Las Vegas...ahhhh.
8. What color is your bathroom? Tan
9. Where would you retire? I have no idea...Somewhere sunny and green.
10. Most memorable birthday? The birthday I had right before having Connor. Marcus bought me a coldstone creamery strawberry shortcake cake...delicious.
11. Favorite sport to watch? Golf and Hockey when they fight.
12. Are you a morning person or a night person? Afternoon person.
13. What is your shoe size? 6 1/2 to 7
14. Pets? Bevo, Hemi, and Mr. Fish
15. What did you want to be when you were little? a cashier at a grocery store...you can't imagine how happy i was when the self-checkout lanes were created so I could fulfill my dream without actually having to work as a casheir somewhere.
16. What are you today? Wife, Mother, Full-time Student
17. What is your favorite candy? Probably Twix and Ghiradelli Cholate with Caramel. Oh and also Snickers with Almonds.
18. Your favorite flower? Pretty colored tulips and roses.
19. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? April 25...Graduation
20. What are you listening to right now? A guy arguing with his wife on Dr. Phil and Bevo purring SO LOUD on my chest.
21. What is the last thing you ate? Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich.
22. Do you wish on stars? Yes I do.
23. What faith are you? LDS
24. Who was the last person you spoke with on the phone? Marcus
25. Hair Color? Dark Brown
26. Name of your favorite school teacher? Mrs. Peterson.
27. Chocolate or vanilla? Depends. Vanilla for Icecream, Chocolate for everythig else.
28. When was the last time you cried? The end of last semster when I was SO sick of going to school.
29. What is under your bed? Memories...high school stuff, Connors baby box, other keepsake stuff, fire safety boxes...and probably Hemi right now.
30. What did you do last night? Ate at Outback Steak House and watched American Idol.
31. Favorite smell? Rain, fresh cut grass, sprinklers, pinapple, coconut.
32. What are you afraid of? Marcus dying, car accidents, fire.
33. How many towns have you lived in? 5
34. Do you make friends easily? If I put forth effort. Sometimes I'm lazy.

O.K. If you actually read this post then TAG...YOU'RE IT! (Except Laney because she's the one that tagged me).

Time Out

This morning has possibly been one of the most funny mornings of my life. Connor woke up with some attitude this morning, so he has gone to time out a few times today. Connor has always responded really well to time out. He goes in his room for just 30 seconds (which seems like forever to hime I'm sure) and then comes out well behaved. Well, this morning when he came out he cried and said "Oh Momma. Ohnner a baby. He nice." He has said it twice and it has absolutely cracked me up. I love watching him try so hard to be on his best behavior after time out. He's so funny.

Here's a little picture of what he looks like just before having to go to Time Out.

FYI: This Post Contains 2 Year Old Potty Talk

Connor loves to learn his numbers and letters. He likes to play a game where I say a letter or number and then he says a different one then I say another one and so on. He likes to repeat his numbers from one to ten with me. Another thing he likes to do is repeat the letters of the alphabet after I say them. This afternoon we were showing Connor's Daddy all of the letters he had learned. I said "A" then he said "A", I said "B" then he said "B" (you get the point). Well, today when I said "P" he said "and Poo Poo". Marcus and I just died laughing.

If Snow Isn't Bad Enough

I always like to watch the news when I first get up in the morning. Well, this morning the weather guy was reporting that because of the fog in the valley the snow that was falling out of the sky was actually pollutant snow. As if snow isn't bad enough we now have to have pollutant snow?! Disgusting! Truthfully not much fell, but the thought is just so gross to me. I really like the snow and cold weather around the holidays, but come mid-January I am more than ready to kiss the snow goodbye and say hello to spring. I am not a fan of how dirty the snow becomes all along the roads and in the parking lots. I am just counting the days down until Marcus and I head off to Lake LasVegas for our anniversary (in-lou of our hawaii trip due to PCS not giving Marcus the time off he was up for...darn it) and then head off to Florida for a week in March. By then returning to Utah shouldn't be too bad...hopefully!

By the way, Marcus and I have been so excited to take Connor to Disney World ESPECIALLY to take him to Disney's Animal Kingdom. We just found out yesterday that the Coronado Springs Resort that we're staying at is acutally in the Animal Kingdom. You can't imagine how happy this makes me. Wahoo!

Would you rather see this?


Or this? (Where we're staying in February)


Or this? (Where we're staying in March)

Sleep Experiment

Connor has never, and I mean NEVER, slept with Marcus and I in our bed...not even when he was a teeny tiny baby. He has always screamed when we have tried to make him sleep with us. Lately he has been watching DVD's in our bedroom while laying in our bed. He will let us lay by him to watch the movies so we thought maybe, just maybe, he would fall asleep watching a movie in our bed and end up sleeping with us.

First of all, I'm sure many of you think we're crazy, as I know a lot of parents struggle getting their kids to sleep away from them. We do not seriously want Connor to start sleeping with us all the time, we just think it is so funny that he refuses to.

Anway, we got bored enough tonight that we decided to conduct a little experiment. Connor did not have a nap today because of church and has been really sleepy. We took him into our bedroom, put on a Goodnight Sesame DVD, turned all the lights and everything off in the apartment, and laid down by him and pretended to fall asleep. He stayed there and watched the DVD, but as soon as it was over he jumped off the bed and went in the living room to turn the TV on out there. Oh yeah, all this after he screamed his head off about being in our bed (we pretended to be asleep the whole time). He is such an independent little guy.

Thanks For the Recipes

Thank you to the many of you who sent me some good dinner recipes. It's been so nice to try some new things (as well as some old favorites). Everything we've had has been really simple to make and SUPER GOOD! My mother-in-law just posted a cool recipe for English Muffin Bread on our MyFamily website and it sounds so yummy. Can't wait to try it out with my new Kitchen Aid. This brings me to my next moment of begging.

After buying a Kitchen Aid I realized I didn't really have anything to mix in it beside from the box cakes and breads. So...now I am asking for any good bread, dessert, cinnamon roll, rolls, etc. (pretty much anything I can mix and bake) recipes. And Momma Julie (that's you Juliette R. Poole) I would like your dinner roll recipe and cinnamon roll recipe. Yum!

How Can We Possibly Have So Much Laundry?

Today is my laundry day,and like every other laundry day I have ever had I am wondering how on earth we ever accumulated so many articles of clothing! I swear, we must of been millionaire's for one day and blew all the money on clothes...I just don't remember that happening...hmmm. And how is it that I never feel like I have anything to wear? Maybe the clothes just look like double what is really there when they're wadded up in a dirty clothes pile than when they're folded in drawers and hanging in closets.

Just for the record, I am one serious de-junker and we donate clothes we do not wear anymore to D.I. at the the end of every season...and we usually don't buy much to replace what was given away. We are not clothes hogs...that's what makes this huge pile of laundry so mysterious to me. Maybe someone is sneaking they're dirty laundry in with mine.

So Excited for the Happiest Place On Earth

We are going to Disney World in March for the Children's Miracle Network Telethon and WE ARE SO EXCITED!

We just found out this morning that we can go anytime between March 11 and March 16. We are wanting to go the whole time, so if Marcus can just get the time off of work we'll be set (if not he just might be sick for those three days of work he'll miss).

We are so excited that Connor will get to celebrate his second birthday there. I have never been to Disney World (although I have been to Disney Land). Marcus has been before a few times and loves it. It's going to be a blast!

1:00 Church and Nursery

When I first realized we were going to be having church at 1:00 this year I was a little concerned. Connor takes his naps some time between 1:00 and 4:00 every day. I thought moving to 1:00 church was going to be miserable.

Well...Surprise! Connor does better at 1:00 then he did at 11:00. He does not have a nap on Sundays now, but he has quiet time in his room from 11:00 until church. That seems to do the trick.

ALSO, his nursery leaders are SO good! Connor has no problem going and staying in nursery now. He loves it and doesn't even want to leave when we come and pick him up. He had no problem going when he first started nursery, but then they switched his class and we traveled a lot and he started needing one of us to stay with him the whole time. Our ward has 5 nursery classes (that's right 5!), and Connor is in the one that will be getting all the new kids this year, so he is currently just one of three kids in his class. In his last class he was one of 14.

I am one happy momma.

A Bus

My little Connor is totally and absolutely obsessed (and I mean OBSESSED) with busses. As a matter of fact, as I was typing that first sentence he came up to me yelling "a bus, a bus!" The guy stands at his window in his bedroom (which faces out to old state street in Provo/Springville) and just watches for busses to drive by. Every time we go out he cries and begs to ride on the bus. Too bad Marcus and I don't enjoy public transportation more. (He's now asking me if I will put "Ohnners shoes on then bus?")

The whole obsession started when we went to Chicago to the Oprah show and got to ride on a big bus there lots of times. His grandma bought him a little people toy bus (which he loves) but that hasn't satisfied his bus obsession. As cute as I think it is, it may very well drive me crazy. BUS BUS BUS BUS BUS!

Don't be Fooled by too Much Good Behavior

Connor has been a really well behaved little boy lately. Since getting home from our Christmas break he has spent a lot of time entertaining himself with his new toys, coloring at his new little table, and (of course) watching Sesame Street in his new Elmo chair (thanks Grandma Julie and Boppa). Anyway, this streak of good behavior lead me to believe he could be more trusted, and I thought I didn't need to run off and check on him every time it got quiet (because he has spent most of his time playing quietly lately).

What was I thinking trusting a nearly two year old!?!

This is where I found Connor the other day...



Not only did he make a huge mess in the bathroom, but he also misplaced his daddy's wedding ring. We checked the pipes under the sink and found other valuables he dropped down there, but no ring. We are hopeful it is under the washer and dryer or something like that...we have yet to search there.

Point of this post, I learned never to be fooled by too much good behavior.

In Search of Dinner Recipes that are Actually Good

I'm sure if you ask Marcus he might tell you that my cooking has not been the highlight of our marriage. Now, I believe that it is not because I am a bad cook (I hope) but because it's hard to find recipes that are actually good...seriously good. There are a handful of dinners that we both like and I make well, but let's just be honest, we are sick of eating the same old four dinners over and over again!

Now, here's the point of this post. I have a zillion and four cookbooks that I have bought because they looked like they were full of great recipes. Let me just say, many of them were decieving. Anyway, I am BEGGING any of you blog readers out there to share a really good dinner recipe with me. (I know you have some Kristine Lynn...I especially want the chicken a'la king one with the rice pilaf, the monterrey chicken one, your dad's chili recipe, and the meatball recipe, oh yeah, and the hot wing recipe...I know you gave them all to me before, but they were lost when my little recipe notebook went for a ride in the garbage disposal while the water was running).

Anyway, PLEASE, anyone, HELP ME! Let me know what you make for dinner that is good. It doesn't have to be anything fancy (in fact I prefer simple). My poor little family is getting sick of McDonalds and Mac and Cheese.

P.S. Laney, we would love the recipe for the teriyaki chicken you and Steve made that one time. We've been craving it!

Back to Normal

With Marcus returning to work last Monday life seems to be getting back to normal...which has it's ups and downs I guess. The plus side is that life is again predictable and we have schedules and stuff like that. The down side is, I again remember all the things I need to do and should do and could do but don't want to do.

When I went to bed last night I had a few ideas of things that I really should do when I got up this morning. I thought it would be good to exercise, take care of some errands, clean up my living room and finish putting my Christmas things away, etc. Guess what? I have so far done NONE of it. But I will...I think.

Anyway. That's what's going on in my life.

Oh, I forgot. We went to the Bee Movie yesterday with some of our friends. It was 2 for Tuesday at the dollar theater so it only cost us $1.00 for Marcus, Connor, and I to get in. Amazing! Can't beat that. Anyway, it was the first movie that Connor has seen at the theater (besides when he was just a teeny-tiny who had no idea what was going on). He had such a blast! It made the movie a lot more fun for me to see Connor enjoying himself so much.

A Happy New Year!

Marcus had to return to work last night so we rang in the new year a little early. We watched the ball drop live in New York City and considered it 2008 here as well (even though it was really just 10:00...no biggie right?).

Anyway, while we were celebrating our early New Year we were talking about all the great things that lay ahead of us this year. We will both be graduating from UVSC in April and will then be moving on to Texas to hopefully buy a house, start a career (Marcus), and enjoy a new lifestyle...one where we should actually be able to have a normal schedule! Wahoo!

We are looking forward to an anniversary trip to Hawaii in February, an Osmond family trip to Disney World in March (which is where we'll be for Connor's 2nd birthday), a possible trip to Maryland in April where Marcus might have the opportunity to present his research at a National convention...and who knows what else.

I have about a million and two resolutions...maybe with that many I can actually accomplish atleast one of them. We'll see!

Happy New Year Everyone!