Happy 40th Birthday!

Tuesday was C's 40th birthday! Happy Birthday Honey!

We celebrated with about 30 family and friends on Saturday. It was a surprise (mostly) party that I had been planning for months. I was hiding and storing stuff at our friends' house and secretly meeting a caterer. I even had a secret email account to send out invitations and receive secret birthday messages.

We had a great time, wonderful weather, great food and fun with family and friends. We "roasted" C and there were lots of gag gifts for Craig to open.

On Tuesday, the actual birthday, we had a quiet day together. It started with coffee in bed with the delivery of birthday presents from N and myself. We topped the day off with a wonderful dinner (cooked by me) and ice cream cake from DQ...C's favourite.

After N was in bed, we broke out our fire pit and had a small fire, cigar and a few glasses of port. It was a great day.

Oh, by the way, C is off this week so a late Tuesday night is OK.

A new cousin!

We have a new family member! A baby girl, IG, was born yesterday at 4:08 AM, 6 lbs 11 oz and 16 in. long to my brother and his girlfriend. Everyone is so happy.

My brother is the proud Papa and says she's so beautiful. I'm sure she is! I can't wait to meet her. I think a few of us will be heading their way on Sunday to meet the new bundle of joy.

She is the third grandchild on my side of the family and the first for my brother's girlfriend's family. At only 16 inches long, she will be a squirt compared to N (now 26 inches long at 4 months) and cousin E who is also a very tall 2-yr old. I know they will love her and be good to her.

So congrats for out to M&J on the birth of I. I can't wait to meet her and spoil her.

Insects & Cowboys

I think you'll agree that sleep is very important for an infant. We are struggling a bit with sleeping through the night still, but our daytime routine is (somewhat) set. Our little guy is too young to "Ferberize", so we still console him to put him to sleep for naps and at night. I have been reading up on this Ferber method and am a bit sceptical. If we do it, we will likely modify it to suit our comfort zone...particularily the "letting your child cry until he barfs is OK" part...NOT!

I'll admit we do some no-no's like picking him up out of bed when he's upset to rock him back to sleep instead of consoling him while he's in his bed, letting him fall asleep on us and sometimes take a short nap there instead of his bed. At times, when he won't go back into his bad (typically in the middle of the night) we have brought him into our bed, so we can get some sleep. These are all things we shouldn't be doing...especially the co-bedding, but we're new, he's new and we're working on it!

We have both found things that will either relax or calm him or put him to sleep. C started singing the song "Burning Ring of Fire" to N one night out of the blue during a screaming fit after bath and he calmed down. Now, that song works everytime. I was even singing it, but decided that I needed my own song. A couple of weeks ago I started singing a bunch of random kid songs trying to put N to sleep and have found that, without fail, "The Ants Go Marching In" works like a charm.

It's funny what works, but it's so important to find that for your child and also for your own sanity. One song about love and another about bugs...for our LOVE BUG!

Morning Glory Turned Night Hawk

BF (Before Kids...or kid in out case), I was always in bed before 10 PM. Usually, it was more like 9 PM and by "in bed", I mean asleep on the couch in front of the TV snoring to my little heart's content, drowning out whatever show my husband was attempting to enjoy.

My husband on the other hand is a night hawk. He loves (loved) to stay up late watching wacky stuff on the space channel or TLC...no thanks. He is a "sleeper inner"...so I guess opposites do attract.

Believe me, I wanted to stay up later, especially on weekends because I could sleep in the next day...or dream about sleeping in because I've never really been able to do that. I attribute that to my parents never allowing us to sleep past 9 AM as teenagers. When all my other friends we sleeping until noon, I was up and doing housework by 9 AM. I'm sure I'm a better person for it...not a better housekeeper...hence the housekeeping fairies I have.

I have this uncanny ability to sleep anywhere, during a party (even if I don't drink), in the car, in front of the TV. I once fell asleep while my father and husband drilled holes for wiring through 2x6's in our rec room ceiling. I woke up with wood shavings all over me...they thought it was hilarious. Of course, my father can't sleep in and can fall asleep anywhere as well, so maybe that's where I get it.

Now that N has arrived, the sleeping habits have completely flipped. As I am staying at home, it only makes sense that I do the late night top-up (in an attempt to encourage sleeping through the night...NOT working), get up for the wake-ups in the night and get up with N in the morning...at least during the work week.

I am staying up and watching TV, while C is falling asleep on the couch and crawling into bed far earlier than I have ever known him too. On the weekend, when Craig takes over some of these duties, I SLEEP IN.

Yeah I know, wierd eh?