Monday, March 17, 2008

o sleep, where art thou?

these days, sleep eludes me. i try to catch it, but it is very good at figuring out a way to avoid me.

rhys is teething, and he's also still nursing at night. bad combination for letting mom sleep. plus, i'm terrible at the "cry-it-out" method. i finally got desperate enough with the first two, but in my head i keep thinking, "this is our last one," which promptly makes me rescue him in the crib at the slightest peep. look what he's been up to lately when i lay him down for a nap:

he's been pulling the bumper down to peek out, and then getting these huge toothy grins. adorable. and also, i fear, time to lower the crib mattress already...

so while rhys is cutting both his top teeth, gillian is busy losing hers. i know i already posted a picture of her, but since last week's post, she lost the OTHER top tooth:

i love how this picture shows off the huge gap up top! so because her top teeth are officially on their way in, i am getting super serious about helping her stop sucking her thumb. she has a conditioned response to suck her thumb when she holds her favorite stuffed animal, moosey, whose name is also abe (after a guy in our church in boston who gillian must have liked when she was 18 months old and decided to christen moosey after him!). so we had a big talk on saturday night when the tooth came out, and we decided that moosey should stay on her dresser instead of in bed with her, in hopes that she can finally stop putting that thumb in her mouth. so after the conversation, there were many tears shed:

even moosey looks sad, doesn't he? i've always thought that one reason she is so attached to him (besides being joined with him since birth) is that he has a human-like quality to his face, if a stuffed animal can have that. plus he's really floppy and boy can he dance!

so the teething and giving up favorite animals have been the sources of my sleepless nights, along with the usual worries in our life that seem to creep into my brain as soon as i (finally) lie down at night.

in other news, the other day gillian and aedan were playing, and i heard gillian say, "i'll dress you like a girl first, and then you can dress me like a boy." things like this used to worry me but now i usually ignore them. well, i came around the corner, and gillian had put a barrette in aedan's hair so perfectly that they could have been sisters. (he does have a pretty face anyway, but still!) so that very night, he got a haircut, even if it is (to my husband's dismay) a mom-will-do-it-herself cut:

yesterday we also went to pick up veggies (mostly various kinds of lettuce) at the farm i posted about a while back. there were all sorts of flowers in bloom, but these caught my eye; i've never seen anything like them:

can you see how they have pink, orange, and yellow in them? and the shape of each petal is so unusual too.

so while sleep does not seem to be visiting my doorstep these days, there are some good things happening during this holiest of weeks; i'll keep trying to look for those little nuggets and see what i find.

speaking of which, i was overwhelmed by the kindness and encouragement you offered in the comments for the previous post. i still feel very new to the blogging world, and after looking at so many other more "interesting" blogs, i usually feel like people will read mine and think it's too boring, too much about family, too uninspiring, too whatever. this stems from a nagging personality trait i can't seem to shake: i care what other people think about me.

may this holy week be full of insight and grace.

6 comments:

Kellie said...

Awww....I remember Moosey. I also remember a time when you bought back-up Moosey's and Gillian found out & was carrying around 2 Moosey's until you snagged one back :)

And lower that mattress while you are thinking about it. I waited and then during one nap time heard Preston just laughing away. I went in to see my baby standing up for the first time - belly button to top crib rail. Nap time was cut short as I ran to get the screw driver & pliers right then & there!

Karin said...

Don't they look so cute when you go back in the room after a crying spell? I found Eric ripping the letters off a poster above his crib when he started standing up and I couldn't help but smile (and grab my camera). I can't believe Gillian is such a grown up little girl! Sitting here with my thumb sucker (presently sucking his thumb) I will be interested to hear how the separation from moosey and attempt to stop thumb sucking goes. AND, I LOVE Aedan's hair so much!! What a cool cut! It looks like Kathleen cut it for $60!!!

Amy said...

i love aedan's hair cut. and did you know that larkin has a moosey, too? he had to have one after gillian brought hers that easter. i hope you get some sleep soon.

Asti said...

She has such a lovely toothy(toothless) grin. Lily lost hers really early and now has her (due at 12yrs) last back teeth at age 10!

Annie B said...

hello fellow ... lover! thanks for popping overto my place

you take such lovely photos...I couldn't not comment

Amelia Plum said...

Sorry to hear that sleep is eluding you, but it's hard not to give a sleepy smile to that perfectly cute little baby peeking through the crib bumpers. Gillian is so adorable! I love the big gummy smile with the watermelon. And I would agree that Moosey has a very emotive face. Aedan's haircut is great, it doesn't look like a home cut at all.