For the first time in about 10 years, I’ve sent out all my Christmas cards. Well, not all, but there’s a couple that I need to get addresses for.
As I said before, I had a ton of cards to do, mostly family since I wanted them to have an updated picture of Ben. I made up about 70 cards this year, luckily my carpal tunnel didn’t come back!
For those that I didn’t have a chance to send out a card for, I’ll be sending out my e-cards before Christmas…
I made a pledge to myself that I wouldn’t go to the mall the week before Christmas, but I was working in Oakbrook today and my coworkers wanted to have dinner there. So I headed out there, and traffic was horrible on the streets around the mall. The restaurant we were meeting at was at the far side of the mall, so instead of turning at the last entrance, I turned at the first entrance hoping to get out of the rush hour traffic jam.
Bad move!
The traffic jam was much worse in the parking lot! Cars were weaving in and out looking or spots, waiting in long lines at stop signs, ugh, it was horrible! It took me about 10 minutes to get to the other side of the mall. Then I started looking for parking, which was pretty much nonexistent. I was going to head out to the far parking lot when God took pity on me and had a car back out of its spot right in front of the restaurant we were meeting at. I arrived and my coworkers had already eaten most of the bread.
But it was a good meal. It’s always nice to meet up with coworkers since I work from home now. It’s nice to actually talk to faces rather than on the phone or email!
Melanie has a cute set of pictures she took last weekend when we were at Trully’s watching the Bear’s game. As I’ve said, Ben is pretty chill and serious when we’re out in public so it’s hard to get him to smile or show any emotion. But after a little bit of coaxing, she got some cute smiles on her camera.
You can also see his spiffy new haircut!
…from So-Niele
Five items in my freezer
- ice cream sandwiches
- ravioli
- pierogies
- catfish
- pizza
Five items in the closet (hall closet)
- coats
- shoes/slippers
- unused picture frames
- halloween candy
- comic books
Five items in the car
- water bottles
- stroller
- jackets
- portable CD player that has no batteries
- hummus and chips
Five items in my purse
- camera
- batteries
- several types of lipgloss
- cell phone
- permanent marker
Five people I tag
- Melanie
- Kathy
- Suki
- Mike
- and YOU.
Still working on Ferberizing Benjamin. Since he’s a little older, it’s harder to get him to sleep, especially since he really hasn’t been sleeping at all in his crib since he was about 4, 5 months old.
Day 2 was actually not too bad, but that’s because we went to a Christmas party and didn’t get home until around 10. Ben was exhausted so as soon as I put him in his crib, he protested a little bit but then fell asleep soon. He woke up about an hour later, and we went through the routine for about 40 minutes, but then he fell back asleep and didn’t wake until 9am the next morning.
We also tried putting him in his crib during his nap, which he wasn’t happy about. What usually happens is he cries and then just falls asleep when he gets exhausted. He looks like a little rag doll when he finally gives in!
Yesterday he took about an hour and a half to fall asleep, but once again, slept through the whole night.
Tonight will be Day 4…we’ll see what happens, but I hope it doesn’t take as long because I’ve got to actually go to a client tomorrow!
[update below]
So I’ve finally come to the point where I have found the need to have Ben sleep in his own bed. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I don’t really mind sleeping with Ben, even though he wakes up a couple times a night. Since I’m still breastfeeding, I just feed him while I’m lying down so I hardly even wake up.
However, he’s gotten quite spoiled and the times that I’ve tried to have him just cry it out, he gets pretty cranky and I end up just giving in. But that was ok, I didn’t mind.
The problem happens when I’m gone traveling for work. When it’s just Dave sleeping with him, or Dave’s parents when Dave is at the hospital on call, Ben will still wake up, expecting that nocturnal snack. When he doesn’t get it, or when someone isn’t making that bottle fast enough, he will let the whole house know he isn’t happy. No one sleeps if Ben doesn’t sleep! Everyone suffers his wrath!
I know that babies after 6 months of age are quite capable of soothing themselves to sleep, and no longer need to eat every several hours. I mean, Ben was sleeping throughout the night at 3 months and a couple months after that. It was only after we decided to all sleep together that he started to take advantage of our sleeping arrangement. (I used to sleep in Ben’s nursery and Dave would sleep in our bed…Dave was lonely so we decided to consolidate)
So since Dave is on vacation this week and lives aren’t on the line if he only catches a couple hours of sleep, I decided this is the time we try some Ferber techniques. For those of you who don’t know, the Ferber method allows the baby to learn how to eventually soothe himself to sleep. It’s pretty controversial because it involves letting your baby cry it out a bit. Hmm, make that A LOT. But the end result is that the baby realizes that crying isn’t going to get him rocked back to bed or a midnight meal so he might was well just go to sleep and wait til morning.
The toughest thing about this method is having to sit around and listen to your baby cry. You go into the room at different intervals to let the baby know you haven’t abandoned him and that you still love him, but those intervals increase with time. It usually takes several days, but eventually, the babies learn.
So it’s day one. And here’s the times, so if Ben ever grows up and reads this thing, I can point to this and say, “Hey punk, on December 15th, 2006, I stayed up ALL FRIGGIN’ NIGHT trying to get you to sleep on your own. I better get a nice ass mother’s day present!”
(ohh, as I type this last sentence, I hear blissful silence. Spoke too soon…damn clickety clacking keyboard!)
Check in times
Phase 1: Putting Ben to Sleep
So phase 1 is done, though he hasn’t technically put him to sleep. Next time I plan on not making him lie down and let him figure out for himself that standing is not a comfortable sleeping position - he’ll have to lie down himself.
Phase II: Expecting His Late Night Meal
Of course, now I’m not sleepy anymore. I’m at that point where I’ve had some sleep, but I’ve been awake for so long that I could go for the rest of the day with no sleep. If I go back to sleep now, my body won’t want to wake up until 10 or so, and since I have to work tomorrow, that’s a bad thing. Luckily, thanks to my many pre-Ben late nights on the internet, I’m used to this crazy kind of sleep pattern…
*yawn* Maybe I’ll go back to bed…I’m still a bit tired!
[update] Before I went to sleep I checked on Ben to see in what position he was sleeping. Poor thing must have been standing or sitting in the corner of his bed and just passed out because I found him in a sitting position with his face down on the bed, snoring. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture or video…maybe I’ll do that tonight!
So it occured to me that Christmas is a little more than 11 days away. Several weeks ago I made a serious dent in my Christmas to-buy list after I bought a bunch of presents. I prided myself that this year, I wouldn’t be scrambling to buy presents at the last minute. The day after Thanksgiving, I started my online shopping, but never paid for everything in my cart because I wanted to submit the order when I had enough for the Super Cool Free Shipping. But now, that time has passed and I can’t even guarantee that I’ll get the shipment before Christmas.
Damn my procrastinating ass!
So tonight I will venture out to my happy place, Best Buy, and pray that the lines aren’t TOO painfully long and that I won’t get into any fights with anyone for a parking spot. Because of any place I know, Best Buy is the place where you can get something for everyone!
LOS ANGELES -
Peter Boyle, the tall, prematurely bald actor who was the tap-dancing monster in “Young Frankenstein” and the curmudgeonly father in the long-running sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has died. He was 71.
Article: Actor Peter Boyle dead at 71
I’ll miss Peter Boyle…he was one of the best actors of his generation. I also have a soft spot for him in my heart because he was the main character in one of my favorite X-Files episodes (I’m an X-Files freak, ya know) - “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”, for which he won an Emmy. He played a man who could see how people would die, and did it so effortlessly - making such a sad, tragic character so charming and lovable. He uttered one of the best lines of the whole series - when Scully finally relented to his question, “Don’t you want to know how you’re going to die?” he tells her, “You don’t.”
Of course, most of you may know him from “Everybody Loves Raymond”, where he played Ray’s father in law. Or maybe “Young Frankenstein”, where he danced.
So goodbye, Peter, you’ll forever be Clyde to me…
Since I miss my little man, I’ll make another post about him…
We went to a party at Chuck E. Cheese several weeks ago and Ben had a ball on the rides. He’s still pretty serious when we’re out of the house, but I could tell he liked it because he was so intent on grabbing the steering wheel and moving it around. He’s still a little too small for the rides, but fortunately most of them have safety belts. For some of the rides he couldn’t even reach the steering wheel, making him a little frustrated. So we stuck with the rides he could fit in and he didn’t mind riding them over and over.
He’s growing so fast! *cries*
I used to like Jessica Simpson, but now I just lump her with all the rest of the attention starved starlets out there. I really don’t think she deserves all the money she gets for being a spokesperson for companies.
I say that because every time I watch this ad, it makes me want to scream, “Stop moving around your head!”
