I may lose my mind...

The two nights before we went to the mountains to help Bethany with Bryan's kids, Marcus woke up crying in the middle of the night. Both times Mark went in his room and rubbed his back and he fell back to sleep. When I was at my parent's house, Marcus woke up crying and wouldn't go back to sleep. At home I would have let him cry himself back to sleep, but in this situation we had 4 other kids within ear shot so I couldn't. I finally put him in bed with me. The next night he slept with me again. When we came home from the mountains we put Marcus back in his room, he woke up crying multiple times during the night. My mind is so foggy I don't remember how it progressed, but I know we tried letting him cry it out, we had him sleep on a mattress in our room, we tried sleeping in his room, etc. He would not cry it out, the crying never stopped, and when he would fall asleep he always woke up every 2 hours on the dot. He refused to stay in his room, and would come into the hallway screaming. It finally progressed to the point where he had to fall asleep in my arms. All this time he is not getting more than 6-7 hours of sleep at night and refusing to fall asleep during nap time. This is the same child who was used to getting a 2 hour nap and 10-12 hours of sleep at night. Finally we moved Addy into a different room (onto a big girl bed). Also, during this same time, Mark's work picked up like crazy and his average come home time was 11pm, with some nights him staying later. Mark never made me deal with it by myself during the night, but just dealing with cranky Marcus by myself during the day was pushing me over the edge. Everyone in the family was suffering from lack of sleep. The crowning moment was when I decided that he was going to have to be locked in his room and cry it out. I tried to switch the doorknob around on his bedroom door so I could lock it from the outside and somehow broke the whole thing. Mark got home really late that night and we decided to turn on our fan to see if we could sleep through him crying. ***remember we are extremely sleep deprived and desperate at this point*** At the same time I pulled our bathroom door shut and it just happened to be locked...the next morning, after about 4 hours of sleep, Mark tried to take the doorknob off. Long story short we couldn't get the door open. Mark couldn't get ready for work, but had to be in early. Only desperate prayer finally got the bathroom door open. I finally bought some Melatonin, which helped Marcus fall asleep at night, but he was still waking up 3 hours later and then crying the rest of the night. At this point I am imagining all the things that could be wrong with him so I called the doctor. They told me to lock him in his room and let him cry it out that night and bring him in the next day. We tried to let him cry it out, but at 2:30am and 4 1/2 hours of crying I gave up. Everything was normal at the doctor. They had no idea what was going on. They agreed with me that the first waking was maybe night terrors but didn't understand why he was crying the rest of the night. When I told them about my experience with him crying for 4 1/2 hours they told me to just go in every time he cried and calm him down. To try that for a week and check back in. Obviously they were not the ones that had not slept for 2 1/2 weeks. But I committed to try it. That night after sleeping from 7:30-10:30pm Marcus decided to wake up every 30 mins. After just two times of getting up with him, Mark and I both said screw it and moved him into our room on a mattress on the floor. He has slept in our room for the past week. He did sleep, without night terrors even. The first morning he woke up so happy because he hadn't had that much sleep in soooo long. It has been great for him, but not so great for me and Mark because Marcus is a LOUD sleeper and now has a cough so he wakes us up a least a few times a night. BUT... miracle of all miracles, he said he was going to sleep in his room last night by himself, and he did. He woke up a few times, but went back to sleep each time with a pat on his back. Here's to hoping that the nights will soon be filled with uninterrupted sleep. (And that Mark's work will slow down so he can come home and hang out with me.) And P.S. all of this has taught us that neither Mark nor I can handle getting up every few hours at night, so I guess 3 kids is the perfect number!!!

The simple things...

Katie loves flowers. She thinks that all flowers should be in our house and in a vase. And she doesn't understand why they die, and why I eventually have to throw them out. I like flowers. I think they are pretty, but I think that if you have to put them in a vase they are kind of waste of money. Mark agrees (he's cheap), so we never have flowers in the house - other than, the ones that Katie picks outside in our yard, of course.

I was at Traders Joe's the other day. Katie saw some flowers and BEGGED me to buy some. I said OK, she stopped and stared at me in surprise for the longest time. She was still a little dumbfounded when we handed them to the cashier 10 mins later (of course that didn't stop her from hugging and kissing and telling me thank you over and over again). When I put them on our table I felt happier. Katie declared I was the 'best mom in the world'! And I felt like it. (Until they died and I had to explain to Katie why I had to throw them in the trash.)

Operation Save Bethany...

My parents are in Guatemala this winter. Bethany who is on winter break from college is staying at their house so my brother Johnny can finish highschool. Last week, Bethany had to play mom to my brother's (Bryan) kids. She was going crazy with them and Johnny, so I drove up to help her. I don't know how much of a help I was, but the kids sure had lots of fun.

Marcus and Cohen put on their capes and went to the workout/orphanage donation storage room and started playing on Grandpa's elliptical.

They pulled all the cushions off the couches to pose for pictures...

All five kids took a bath in Grandma and Grandpa's big tub, and used Grandma's shampoo and special soaps and bubbles.

Is is bad to put this picture on a blog?

Johnny pretending that Marcus and Addy are his kids.

The night before we were supposed to leave it snowed. I had been wanting to take the kids sledding all winter so the timing was perfect. Friday morning before we packed the car, we all got bundled up and headed outside.

Bethany looking gorgeous with Dad's boots and snowpants on (she later completed the look with Mom's mismatched socks for her hands--oh the childhood memories that brought back!)

I looked equally great in Caleb's boots and coat.

This was Marcus' and Addy's first time sledding. They loved it, except for the time we got air and the other time we hit the flowerbed wall.

The trip wouldn't have been complete without a sickness or an injury...we went with injury. Marcus got his first football injury when Johnny dropped a helmet on his head while they were playing.

There were no tears, just a sad look. And the bandage came off within mins of this picture.

We completed the trip with a very scary drive down their very snowy, very steep mountain. And headed back to 70 degree weather.

I don't know if I really saved her but I sure had a lot of fun hanging out with Bethany and eating her yummy Italian cooking!

Random...

The weather here has been amazing, we have been outside as much as possible soaking up the sunshine. It is amazing the things kids can find to 'play' with.

Addy is picking "beans"

Katie is adding to the meal with who knows what

Marcus is 'on his way to school' (they don't wear shoes at the school he is going to)

Addy's new favorite thing is toilet paper...


We got Addy's hair done last month. She was in love with the beads, she kept shaking her head to make noise.


Katie's chore was unloading the dishwasher. She can't reach where the dishes go, so she left me with the pile (she has a little Sanofsky OCD)...

Her preschool recently had a wedding between the letters Mr Q and Ms U. Katie was a flower girl.


Katie and Beau who she walked down the aisle with

Marcus is getting as much Daddy as possible...