Binky Inception

After three days of hard-fought afternoon binky battles involving an overtired three year old, 

After seven separate wake up calls for binky rescues the night before last,

After watching a certain Leonardo DiCaprio film,

Chad and I were chatting about our current binky situation.  Both girls LOVE their binkies.  A perpetual habit which I must accept blame for ... at least I've been very firm about only allowing the binky in bed/crib.  My girls don't walk around with a binky in their mouth.  But they do depend (heavily) on that piece of rubber to put themselves to sleep.

Natalie has been a good sleeper since the age of about 10-months - and was putting herself to sleep starting at about 3 or 4 months.  She typically sleeps 12+ hours a night. Until about three weeks ago, she took a three hour nap, too.  In my mind, getting tough about that binky means losing my good sleeper.

And I said I wouldn't make this same mistake with our second, but here I am again.  Charlotte was born 4 weeks early and needed practice with sucking.  There is also some research that supports the use of a pacifier at bedtime reduces your baby's risk of SIDS.  All of which seemed to justify giving Charlotte a binky when she was an infant.  Now that she's 14-months old (today!) and very attached to that darn thing and (finally) teething, I just don't know what to do!

When it occurred to us ... perhaps the answer is to make it their idea to give up the binky.  We need to plant the seed and wait for it to grow within their own subconscious.  Yes, folks, we need ourselves a Binky Inception!  Brilliant, right?!

10:30 am

It's 10:30 am, and I am just now rolling out of bed.

Sounds so decadent, right?  Like something reserved for high schoolers and college kids.  At the very least it seems like something done on an occasional Saturday ... before starting a family.

Well, I am feeling somewhat rested, but it's not nearly as luxurious as it sounds.

At 7:30 am, I was feeding a "starving" newborn ... and then holding her upright while those two ounces of breastmilk digested.

At 8:30 am, I was eating a yummy scrambled egg and toast breakfast prepared by my awesome husband.

At just before 9:00 am, I was waving good-bye to my husband and two-year old as they left for a visit to the local kid's museum.

Back in bed just after 9:00 am and managed to sleep until the next "scheduled" feeding time ... 10:30 am.

I am living life in 3-hour chunks.  If half that time is spent sleeping (can that small amount of time even be called sleeping?), then, hey, life is good!

Spelling for Dummies

It's started already, Chad and I are communicating via the alphabet rather than with words.

Why? Because some words evoke certain reactions for our beloved two-year-old. And sometimes we just don't want to deal with those reactions, at least not prematurely. We want to check with each other before we start making announcements about our plans for the day or menu for the next meal or whatever.

So we say things like ...

• Should we go to the p-o-o-l?
• Seems like a nice day to walk to the p-a-r-k.
• What'll you bet she'll actually eat her b-r-o-c-c-o-l-i tonight?
• Let's have c-u-p-c-a-k-e-s after Natalie goes to b-e-d.

Delightful, right? Yeah, well, my husband is not a quick speller, and we're both visual learners, which means when someone spells aloud to us we have to focus really hard to put all the letters together and make a word. Bottom line, it's a strain on our brain.

Never ones to give up, we devised a new way of "spelling" around Natalie, and it seems to be working ... for now. Instead of spelling out the entire word, one letter at a time, we say the first letter and then the rest of the word. So pool is P-OOL. And park is P-ARK.

It's hilarious, and I can only imagine what the innocent passer-by must think of our attempt at spelling ... what a bunch of dummies!