Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

But they might put her in a bathroom.

After a few rough nights of a screaming, jet-lagged baby, and a few days of said baby not napping well (seriously, why do my children not like to sleep, even when exhausted?), we decided that maybe if we moved Noel's bed somewhere where it was darker that it might encourage better naps during the day, which would encourage better sleep at night, and so forth.

Well, our apartment isn't really that big. And there weren't that many options available. So...to the back bathroom it was! We haven't really used that bathroom in four or five months, but Shannon had cleaned it while I was gone and begun to use it, so we just moved all the shampoo and stuff back into the other bathroom, moved the pack-n-play in, and viola! Noel has her own room!

Snoozin' away!

Haha, well, not really. BUT. I think it did help. It's quieter back there because it's got an extra wall and an extra door between that room and the rest of the apartment. It's darker because there are no windows. I don't think she hears us when we crawl into bed or roll over anymore. She hasn't slept through the night in a month now, partly due to jet-lag and partly due to growth spurt (and probably partly due to habit now, which we'll work on breaking in three weeks [more on that later] if she's still doing it then), but the night after we moved her into the bathroom she began going right back to sleep after eating in the middle of the night. And her naps improved.

I'm going to call it a win, even if it is a little unorthodox.

Surprise!

You may remember that three years ago I surprised my mom and my brother when I showed up in Alaska with my sister to watch Sean graduate from high school.

Well, three weeks ago today Noel and I set out for the biggest surprise of my other brother, Kyle's, life: we flew to Alaska to watch him graduate from high school.

Not only did Noel and I come, but my sister and my nephew also came from North Carolina. And Kyle didn't know they were coming, either.

Hanging at the restaurant before graduation.

He was shocked, to say the least.

I left Lane with Shannon, all the laundry done, lots of friends lined up to help Shannon out, and 14 meals frozen in the freezer for dinners. I took one suitcase, one backpack, one purse, and one baby in the Ergo and we embarked on the 48-hour trek to Alaska. I have to say that the traveling itself wasn't bad (jet-lag with a baby, on the other hand, stinks). I mean, American Airlines hooked us up with a bulkhead seat with lots of legroom and a bassinet. While Noel didn't sleep in it that much since it was daytime for us, it was so nice to have a place to lay her down and let her play or sleep and give my arms a rest.

Snoozin' in the bassinet.

We had a 20-hour layover in Dallas on the way to Alaska and a 16-hour one on the way home. Normally that wouldn't be so great, but I happen to have lots of friends in Dallas, so I hooked up with my longtime friend Marci. She let us spend the night at her place on the way to Alaska (where we got a little sleep...Noel did a fair amount of screaming from being super exhausted from the long travel day) and hang out and nap on the way back. She let us borrow an infant carseat. She drove me to the mall where I got new blue jeans. She treated me to Chic-fil-a and Mexican food. I got to meet her little boy, William. I treated her to Starbucks for breakfast when she picked me up at 6:00 a.m. on my return journey and Dairy Queen for dessert during a trip to the mall. We schmoozed, chatted, and just enjoyed getting to catch up. All in all, it was great to see her (and it was great to have a real bed to nap on and a shower!).

Me and Noel, Marci and William, at Uncle Julio's.

And my chicken enchiladas. So yummy.

I met up with my sister at the airport (we managed to get on the same flight from DFW to Anchorage...awesome, huh?) where I met my nephew for the first time and got to see my sister for the first time in almost two years.

My nephew, Maddox. Yup, he's a cutie.

We made the flight to Anchorage, collected our bags (yeah...they wouldn't check them all the way through for us), ran (well, walked as fast as we could with baby, toddler, stroller, backpack, carry-on, and two suitcases) to the check-in counter for our flight to Kenai, checked in, and booked it to our gate. We barely made our flight and were very grateful that there's no security check for flights to/from smaller cities in Alaska. And we were shocked when we boarded the plane to find out that it was bigger than usual, carrying 25-30 people instead of the usual 15, even being a large enough plane to have a bathroom. That was the first (and only, as my flight back to Anchorage was on a 15-passenger prop plane) time that flight has ever had a bathroom!

And we got to Kenai, met my mom at the airport, and shocked the pants off my brother an hour or so later. We spent the next few days introducing ourselves to new-in-the-last-two-years family members:

Playing:

Relaxing:

Eating:

(Noel's first tastes of solids: avocado.)

Observing the wildlife:

Attending graduation festivities:

And playing Settlers of Catan:

(Noel liked to help.)

I got to eat steak, yellow squash, good yogurt, flavored coffee creamer, salmon, ice-cream sandwiches, Cherry Pepsi, halibut, Chic-fil-a, and real Mexican food for the first time in two years. I got to go to my church in Alaska. I got to play Angry Birds for the first time. I got to meet my nephew. I just got to be myself with my family, staying up late watching movies, talking, and playing games. I got to watch my brother graduate, hug his neck, and tell him how proud of him I was.

All of us. Except for my brother Sean. And Lane. And my and Rachel's husbands. =)

And I came home to this:

It was a good trip.

Filter Check

In Turkey, the tap water is not safe to drink. Everyone either buys bottled water or uses a high-grade water filter. Since we lived in other peoples' homes for a year, we got to experience both, so when it came time to get our own apartment, we opted for a filter (especially since we bought a used one from someone else leaving the country, so we got a great deal on it).

Having the filter has been great, because it means that we never run out of clean water. We never have to wait on water delivery. I can use filtered water for things like soup or rice (that would be boiled anyways and technically probably ok to drink) without feeling the slightest bit like I was using our clean water unwisely.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to Shannon that I thought our water tasted funny. He didn't think so, so I let it go. Then a few days later, Shannon said that he thought our water tasted funny. So we decided that maybe it was time to change the filters.

Yeah...I think it was time.

See those two clean, white filters? And see the two yucky brown ones in the dish behind the white ones? Yeah...gross.

The one with the blue top is filter number 2 out of a five filter system, and the new one looks about the same as the old one...as far as we can tell. We figured that if numbers 1 and 3 looked as bad as they did, surely number 2 needed to be changed as well!

Our elaborate water filtration system.

The tank on the left is the holding tank for clean water, and it travels through a hose up toward our sink where we can get our clean water out of a spigot. The three filters on the right are the first three filters (the three that you can see in the first photo above), and then there are two smaller filters on top of the three larger filters.

Taking the filter apart...

So Shannon and I spent an hour or so one afternoon with lots of towels, wrenches, our box of new filters, and the instruction manual taking the thing apart and putting it back together, trying not to throw up as we thought about how brown the used filters were.

And you know what? The water tastes normal again.

Maybe Shannon should listen to me the first time when I say stuff like that the water tastes funny!

Packages!

Over the last month we've received a few packages!

Up first: I'm a member of a group on Facebook that's made up of a bunch of mommies. Around Christmastime they had wanted to mail me a package since I live overseas, and try as I did to tell them not to since Shannon was going to the States, they still wanted to send something. It really was so sweet of them to send me something, even though I've never met most of them!

Marshmallows, ponytail holders, markers, coloring books and art supplies, gum, candy, a mini-muffin tin, silicone measuring cup, and spatula.

Lane loves that Minnie Mouse coloring book and markers. It is by FAR her favorite "art" thing these days. Thanks, Healthy Mamas! It's so much fun to get fun packages from America!

Then we received a package from Shannon's mom and stepdad. Sharon said that she was out shopping and found a bunch of stuff on clearance and just couldn't resist, so the girls got some cute new clothes.

Onesies, pants, Hello Kitty shirts, dresses, and jammies. Thanks, Sharon and Milton, for the fun new clothes!

And then we received a package from some friends of our who live in China. She had wanted to give cloth diapering a try when she had her third baby, but a couple months in decided she just had too much going on to keep up with doing diapers too. I had mentioned to her that if she didn't want her diapers that I would love to have them because I thought I'd have two in diapers for longer than I did. Anyhow, they mailed us all their cloth diapers (I'm SO excited to have ones with snaps instead of velcro!) and some other goodies for Noel.

A nursing cover, Econobum cloth diapers and a couple BumGenius 4.0's (not all diapers are pictured...they were in the wash), a bracelet and necklace for Lane, baby pants, socks, and onesies, and a cute top with matching headband. Thanks, David and Christy! I am SO grateful to have more diapers, and the other things were such a fun, unexpected surprise!

And there you have it. I know we've received other packages over the past couple months that I've forgotten to post about, and if they were from you...I'm very sorry that I forgot to brag on you!

28 Months Old

5 Months Old

Dear Noel,

A few days ago (ok, ok, a week ago) you turned five months old. This month hasn't really been a major milestone-achieving month for you, but it's certainly been a fun one! You did learn how to roll from your back to your belly, and you spent the better part of three or four days doing nothing but rolling; even when you were tired of holding your head up you would roll right back onto your belly and start crying for me to roll you back over so you could do it again. Now you've strengthened up your neck muscles and enjoy being on your tummy for 10-15 minutes before you're ready to be flipped over. You're also starting to be able to push yourself around a bit, and I wouldn't be surprised if you start creeping within another month or so.

Sporting your first headband, courtesy of our friends David and Christy.

This month you only gained 240 grams, or about half a pound, putting you up to 13 pounds, 4 ounces, and you grew 3 more centimeters, putting you up to 25 inches long. You're still pretty short and on the lower end of the weight spectrum, but you've got some rolls on your legs so we think you're doing just fine, although the doctor wants us to give you solids this month. We may try some avocado or rice cereal.

You're still such a little peanut, snoozing on the big bed!

You've started to actually like your pacifier, and I think that once you can move around to find it, you'll prefer it over your thumb. Noel, you are such a happy and smiley baby. You just love to be paid attention to, cooed at, and tickled. You're at that stage than another friend dubbed something like, "that happy, smiling, rolling-all-over-the-place stage." It's so much fun to watch you observe everything around you, work on your hand-eye coordination by trying to get things in your mouth, and interact with Lane, whom you love. Every month with you just gets better and better!

Love,

Mommy

Going Insane

I often think that I do a pretty good job of managing life as a SAHM. I like cooking and being with my kids. I don't love cleaning so much, but I've just decided that while my kids are little my house will never be as clean as I want it to be as often as I want it to be that clean. And I'm ok with that; as long as toilets are clean and nobody's eating dead bugs off the floor, we'll all survive. I manage to keep the laundry and diapers washed and folded and meals cooked, and most days Lane doesn't watch more than an hour of television, we get to go to the park, and sometimes I'm even brave and bust out the art supplies.

But then life happens, or Shannon leaves town, and I can barely keep my head above water. Shannon left on business this past Sunday and will return tomorrow. This entire week I've been falling into bed at 11 p.m. or later due to laundry, emails that have to be written, mistakes (not mine) that need to be made right (more on those later), food that needs to be cooked/frozen/prepared, needing to take a shower (which has become an evening ritual while daddy's gone), needing to pump, Skype calls, and so on.

Noel has been waking up at 3 a.m. for the past three nights, completely soaked through her diaper, awake, and not wanting to go back to sleep without nursing. And she learned how to roll from her back to her belly, so for the first three days this week I did almost nothing except roll her back to her back, because of course she wanted to practice rolling, but her muscles weren't strong enough to support her head for very long and she'd start crying the instant she got to her belly. I got nothing done until yesterday when she started to be able to go for 10-15 minutes at a time on her belly.

Lane's been getting a new molar (she only gets them when Shannon's gone, apparently) and cranky. And disobedient. One day this week was so rough that I forgot to put a diaper on her before bedtime. The first words out of her mouth the next morning were, "Mama, wet." to which I responded by looking for her diaper which I'd assumed she took off in the middle of the night, only to find that I never put one on her.

Lane has reached that stage of toddlerhood that just makes you want to pull your hair out because she just talks all. the. time. And I could handle her talking all the time, it's just that she repeats the same things over and over and over and over again. "Look at dis, mama. Look at dis, mama. Look at dis, mama." Over and over and over until I want to scream at her, "I SEE IT!!!!" I love her to death but can't wait until she's capable of thinking about something besides the same exact topic we've been discussing for the past, oh, week!

Who knew that these two cuties could make a mama want to pull her hair out as often as I have this past week!

This week has about done me in. I've been trying to put out a million fires and keep up with all the other normal stuff, like laundry and emails, and just haven't been very successful at it all. I feel like a major failure as a parent this week, even though I've tried to not be a stick-in-the-mud and we have done some fun stuff. I just feel horrible every time I lose my temper or raise my voice because I've told Lane for the thousandth time not to climb the rack in the kitchen (or the couches, or the cabinets, or the washing machine, or the radiators) and she keeps doing it anyways and then I have to spank her. And I'm just frustrated with why doesn't she obey me when she knows what the consequences are going to be?!?!

Anyways, I guess all of this is just a cry of frustration. I'm just tired and tired of the boring, monotonous repetition that is my life these days, some just normal (laundry, cook dinner, go to the park), and some drive-me-insane ("Sit down, Lane!" "Don't climb [insert-anything-here], Lane!" "Don't hit mama, Lane." "Don't throw toys, Lane!"). Someone out there please tell me that toddlers do eventually learn how to behave without their bottoms being spanked a gazillion times...I'm getting desperate over here!