And *that* is how Mama puts her foot down.

Dare I do it?  Dare I announce publically that The Bear has been offically ousted from our bed?!  OH I DARE.  I joyfully fling my arms in the air, spirit fingers and all and say THE BEAR HAS LEFT MY BED!!!!!

Now, before you get all "geez this lady really does NOT love her kid" on me, let me say that yes, I do miss him.  In fact, the first night that this all went down (last Thursday night), neither David or I got good sleep.  Both just scared stiff that we wouldn't hear Christopher on the monitor or that the worst would happen, we didn't get much sleep to speak of. 

It's very much still in the beginning stages...like so:
Night 1 (5/26/10): It's a travel-night, so I'm up at 4am to get ready for work. (Yes, gag me with a spoon being up at that hour...always!)  So, having left Christopher in his crib all night, I grab him and deposit him with his father while I get ready for work.  I gotta change his diaper before I leave anyway, and his crib is not diaper-changing-friendly. 

Night 2:  I am exhausted by the end of the day, given little sleep the night before and my 13million hour day, I called it a night before David did.  He comes to bed about 30 minutes or an hour after I do....bear-in-arms.  He says "Christopher spit up in his crib...he needs to sleep with us".  Whatever.  Fine.  Whatever.

Night 3:  Back in the crib for an all-nighter!  This was somewhat on accident in that we were "supposed" to be driving to Norman that night, but David's work likes to keep him all hours, so we opted for a Saturday venture.

Nights 4, 5: In Norman, we get the king-sized community bed.  NOBODY's complaining here!! :)  Bear slept with mama and daddy and much snuggling was done.  I'm prettty sure I heard David singing his praises to the good lord above in his sleep as well.  But that's just between us.

Night 6:  BACK in the crib for an all-nighter he went!  He sleeps in there like a champ.  I got up around 4ish to check on him because he was grunty...pop of a binky in his mouth, tuck of a blanket around his body, and pat of a hand on his bottom and he was good to go.  It was as if I worked magic.  I'm all powerful, you know.

SO....like I say, very much a process, but we're headed in the right direction.  In the mornings, one of us goes to get him around 7 or 7:30 and we have some cuddle/waller time in the bed before getting up for the day.  If we ever cave and put a t.v. in our room, I imagine many a'cartoon will be watched in the family bed in the mornings before school.  But we're not to that bridge yet.

The Bedtime Monologues

There is absolutely nothing sweeter than a baby's voluntary kiss. ...which is of course, in Boo's case, still an open-mouth-that-sometimes-comes-with-tongue.  Love it!

Let's just recap how last night's bedtime routine went as the three of us climbed under covers, exhausted from the day.

Mama/Boo: Crawl under covers
Daddy: Hops in on top of covers, because he's still got chores to do! (I run a tight ship, what can I say?)
Boo: Starts kicking off covers and grunting...
Daddy: starts whispering "Hush Little Baby" lullaby...personally it drives me bonkers, but it's really sweet, and Boo usually listens intently, so I just block it out as best I can.
Boo: more grunting, kicking, flipping, flopping.

Now is where it gets kinda cute, so let's just speed things along, shall we?  It all went down like this:

Shhh...shhhhh.
grunt-kick-BUBBA?...
where's your Bubba?...here it is...
<> shhhhhh
Didi??...
Yes, that's mama's nose...shhhh
DiDIII?...
Yes...mama's eye...
Di?
Mama's other eyyyyyyye...shhhh.....shhhhh

SMACK! (this would be Boo's little palm smacking)...Mama's forrrrehead...shhhshhh...
*pop* Out goes the binky.....
Christopher then proceeds to lean toward me and open his mouth big and wide...**MWAH!!**
in goes the binky
Thank you!  Sweet boy....shhhhhh
*pop* Out goes the binky again....
grunt-shuffle-grunt Boo is now up on his knees and OOOOOph, heaving himself on to Mama....
And I get big ole wet smoochie #2!!  ...no lie, we sat there lip-locked for a good 5 seconds.  I'm giggling...David's trying not to be put out that I'm getting lovins and he's not.  Whatev.
Boo settles down and he and I drift off to SleepyTown.

This morning, David called TOTAL B.S. on the whole deal.  I could only smile; no use in trying to hide the fact that I am completely in love with that little bundle, and how it makes my heart soar to know that he loves me too.  I just think it's unbelievable how awesome that kid thinks I am.  I mean, really.
I read a saying somewhere "My husband won my heart, but my Son stole it".  Truer words may never have been spoken, or written, or whatever.

.....Thwarted!!...

Just as soon as I decide "this is IT, we're working on sleep training!!!", what does Boo do?  He starts cutting molars...ARG.  Poor little thing has been running fever, his nose is dripping like a leaky faucet, and he's so fussy. I can't kick the poor dear out of my bed right nowwwwwww....can I?  No.  No, no, I cannot.  Bad, mama, baaaad.

The past two...three?...nights Christopher has been wallering all over as he hits pains overnight, along with being h-o-t-t from the fever, and poor David just absolutely cannot sleep while Boo does that song and dance.  Me, oh I could sleep through anything, but not David.  Anyway, last night David finally threw in the towel and camped on the couch.  I felt bad for him, and bad for me that I didn't have any better reason to send him there other than "you'll get some sleep"...but that's just me. ;)  Sooo, there's that.  Hope my Boo feels better soon.

On a related but not really related note, let me share with you the KYOOTEST thing I've witnessed in a long time, won't you?  Monday night, David is giving Christopher a bath when he yells for me.  He says "sit here with him for a minute? I'll be right back..."..um, okay.  Anyway, he returns a couple of minutes later in his swim trunks.  Promptly hops in the tub with our boy and Christopher just squealed with delight!  Then David brings some water up to his face and scrubs and makes all kinds of racket, and again with the delightful squeals.  THENNNNNNNNNNN Christopher, through his giggles, brings his wittle hands up out of the water and covers his wittle eyes with them just like his daddy did.  Ugh, I could've just punched both of them, it was soooooo adorable.  We all just laughed and laughed....why do I not have the camera with me?!  Sigh...who knows?  But next time, I'll be sure to be prepared, because that was a Kodak moment if I ever saw one...

Insert "The Eye of the Tiger" song in your head here.

I never had any intentions of being a co-sleeping family.  Never, ever.  Nope, not me.  No way, no how.  I didn’t eeeeeeven want to go there. Then when Christopher was around 7 or 8 weeks old, he got a horrible head cold, and propping him up on my arm to sleep was just the best way for any of us to get any rest….aaaaaaaaaaand now a year later, he’s still in mama and daddy’s bed.

I’ve been threatening to oust him for months now…and every time I bring it up, David glares at me as though I’m suggesting that we tar and feather the poor boy and leave him on display for all the neighbors.  Who knew that in preparing to start sleep-training Christopher, that I would first have to sleep-train his father?! 

Yesterday, I decided to try something new at naptime.  I *gasp* laid Christopher down in his crib while before he was actually asleep.  Yes, it took about an HOUR before he was actually asleep, but I felt so accomplished.  He cried, he walked around the crib, he laughed, he talked, he laid down for about 5 second spurts, then he was up again…until finally I just picked him up and rocked him.  It took all of 30 seconds for him to close his eyes, and as soon as he did, back down to the crib he went!  He protested for a few seconds, then it was lights out!  Whew.

I recapped this story for David and his response, through squinted eyes and pursed lips?  “HE’S JUST A BA-BY!” haha Oh heavens, this is going to be interesting.  Wish us, er ME, luck on reclaiming my bed.  Hell, I may just set up a cot for David in Christopher’s room and be done with the whole thing.  Easy peasy, right?  Either way, my knuckles are cracked, my sweat-bands are on, and I'm bustin out the leg-warmers, Olivia Newton-John style.  Let the sleep-training begin!

Shame on me...shame on you?

It occurs to me from time to time that I actually *have* a blog, but obviously, the fleeting thought of "I should really update that" is about as far as this lady gets in the process. Sooooo shame on me. But if this blog is the only way that you keep up with the fam, then shame on YOUUUUU...but I'll fill you in anyhow. So here's what's gone down with my little Boo bear since ahem, last June.

• He now has 10 teeth!
• He walks...not only forward but backward!
• He climbs!
• He says mama, da-da, Bubba (this is his binky), doggie, kitty cat (ki-ka), ball...and maybe some others that I'm not thinking of right now?
• He knows where his nose and eyes and bee-bite (belly-button) are.
• He loves to swing and slide and spin....this little man will be a roller-coaster junkie...I can feel it in my bones!
• He's had his first allergic reaction (I believe that a Bounce dryer-bar was the culprit) that landed us in the ER twice within a 12 hour period. Ugh.
• He has developed and maintained a fondness for Mickey Mouse...he tries to say Mickey but it sounds like 'di-di' right now. It's cuuuuuuuuuute though!
• Aaaaaand he turned ONE!

Here's what's gone down with me:

I finally graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaduated!!!! I got my Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from OU in December. I'm SO glad to be done with it. What do I plan to do with it, you ask? Probably nothing. At least not for now. I've got such a good thing going with work at the college that I can't bring myself to leave. So maybe someday I will sign on with DHS to do some good work, but for now, I'm staying put!

And David?

Not much has been going on with him. He is still working and loving what he does. He's putting away bad guys and getting drugs off the street--so he does good things.

And "US"?

Well, we've taken on the project of remodeling our kitchen this year! We're expanding the kitchen into the existing den (which is a converted garage) formerly known as the Man Cave. We've already made quite a bit of progress on it--we've moved the washer and dryer out further into the den, and put the refrigerator where the w/d once were. The next step is to pour concrete to level out the floor behind the existing kitchen wall...and then DEMOLITION BEGINS!!!! I cannot even tell you how excited I am to have that wall knocked out of the kitchen and to truly feel how big it is going to be. Hoping that will be all finished by the end of the summer....so that we can start working on a baby brother or sister for Christopher. Gasp! Yeah, I said it....TTC plans are in the lineup for some time after August. We'll just have to see how it goes...stay tuned for more on that front.