The New Normal

Life just keeps moving right along doesn't it?  Talked with our contractor last night, and it doesn't look like we will be in the house before Christmas. He said we can totally move in after the floors are finished and he will finish up flooring and painting and a few other things while we are in, but I said we will stay put.  No need to move all our stuff in, just to have him have to move it all around to paint! That's just more work and more time! It's fine with me.  Of course we would love to be in ASAP, but I am also getting SO SO SO SO SO excited about the stuff happening over there! This really is going to be my "Right now" dream house!
    The sitting room (think home teaching-visiting teaching-only space in the house that belongs to mom and kids aren't allowed in) won't have furniture for a while...probably a year or two.. WHO CARES?  If I can find a smokin' deal on a piano on Craigslist, it will be empty but for a piano. sweet! 
     The playroom/loft...well, I don't quite know what to do with that space yet.  If I had a bazillion dollars (or 7-10 thousand dollars) I would furnish it will all this super cool indoor play/gymastic equiptment.  Jaxon would die of happiness, but I would die of bankruptsy.... so...not going to happen.     
      The guest room will stay empty for a while, but HAVE NO FEAR POTENTIAL GUESTS!!  We will blow up a sweet air matress for you in there, and you will have your own room. SCORE!
   Cooper seems to be developing a tiny bit of a schedule, which makes me a tiny bit less crazy!  As soon as you even say schedule out loud around that kid, or think it for that matter, he changes, so I'm not holding my breath, but I think- I THINK- he is transitioning from 4 naps to 3.  Yesterday and today I have been able to stretch his awake time from 1 hour to about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  With this snoozer, this is progress!  Yesterday we had to stop at home depot to look at some stuff and I knew he was getting tired because we were coming up on his one hour awake. (No seriously, YOU try running all the errands you need to do in a day in one hour incriments- BUT WAIT! You don't actually get one hour. You get about 35-40 minutes because that awake time has to include changing a diaper and feeding a bottle!) Anyway, sure enough at one hour ON THE DOT, he "Cried"ish for about 30 seconds and immediately fell asleep. At least he's consistant with that!
  I never quite know what his schedule will be, because it ALL depends when he first wakes up in the morning. I can't at this point just say "First nap is at 8:30" because if he wakes up at 7...it's just not going to work! Also, his daytime naps have been getting slightly better,...with A LOT of work on my part.  It includes-
1. Trying to top him off with formula just before he goes down (A no-no with babywise, but a necessity if I want him to sleep longer than 45 minutes)
2.  Understanding the noises that I invariably hear at about 45-55 minutes napping.  If it's a real-ish cry out of the blue- he's hungry. Usually I can go down in the dark, rock him while feeding him a few ounces, and get him to go back to sleep for anywhere from a half hour to 2 hours longer.  If it's just little moans and wimpers, it means he is at the end of his 45 minute sleep cycle and if I can sneak in before he wakes up too much, I can pop his pacifier back in, and again buy between half hour, and 2 hours.
  I can tell if a short nap is really all it's going to be if when I tip-toe in to assess the situation, he just coos and grins at me from ear to ear!
  His nap times also determine whether it's a 4 nap day or a 3 nap day.  If he wakes from his third nap before 3, then that means his naps have been crappy and short, and he will need a 4th nap. That usually means he goes down around 4, and I have to wake him up around 5:30, otherwise he would think he was down for the night, but he  up SUUUUUUPER early the next morning- no thank you!
  3 nap or 4, either way, between 4 and 5pm is witching hour around her.  Everyone is tired and winding down, including me, and we all get a bit cranky.  With it being busy season it's not just the thought of "15-30 minutes until Dave gets home" that can keep me going, so I get the boys together and we go on a family walk.  Once I get Jaxon out of the house, he perks right up and we have great chats.  Cooper doesn't cry or wimper a bit when we are outside, he just loves to look around. These last two days I have also wrapped a blanket around him because it has been so chilly! (LOVING IT!)
  More later, I all of a sudden got too tired to keep my eyes open!

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