Sleep! Sleep! Glorious Sleep!

There's not too much going on here, but I thought I'd update with a few fun things anyway. If for no other reason than I need the help remembering later. 

I've watched a LOT of television the past two days. My BIG shows that I watch (the ones I care about and DVR) all happen on Sunday and Monday nights. Because I was worried about DVR overflow {ours holds next-to-nothing because we haven't upgraded it since before James was born and we (Eddie) watch everything in HD} I was watching like a crazy person last night. Anyone watching Downton Abbey? Once Upon a Time? Revenge? Biggest Loser? Bachelor? See what I mean? Ha! And aside from Dateline and Trisha Yearwood, that's all my television. Don't get me wrong, that's a LOT of television, but all of these shows haven't ever recorded simultaneously like that before. I've never watched Downton Abbey on PBS - just online - so that's new. I gave up Biggest Loser when Jillian left, but she's back, so I'm back. And I'm only watching Bachelor because I loooove Sean. And I love his sister's blog! Okay, television talk over!

Will is cutting his top two teeth. And y'all, I never did a ten month post for him. I'm like the biggest mom failure EVER. I did WRITE one, so maybe I'll post it back where it belongs, but I didn't ever take pictures or anything. I actually almost did the other day and then realized he's eleven months THIS WEEK so maybe it didn't matter. I don't know. Maybe it did? Oh well. Poor kid. Anyway, he's cutting his top two teeth. With the bottom two, they popped through and then he was fine. Will's top two have popped through and he is still a whiny, snotty, hurting, diaper-rashing mess. So maybe a few more are trying to come in? By 10 months James had seven and Will only had two so maybe we're trying to get a bunch at once? Two nights ago (Sunday night) he was up at 10:45, 1:45, 4:45, and 5:30 and then I had to wake him up for the day at 9:45. SO. Not sure what the deal is. Last week he slept through the night and had to be woken up and then last night he was up at 1:45 and for good at 8 this morning. Who knows what the deal is. I'm going to worry more about his sleeping after I wean him in a month. And yes, we're proponents of cry-it-out, but if you've never heard Will cry you won't be able to know why we can't really do this. Will doesn't cry. He screams like someone is murdering him. I have never heard a baby cry like this. James was loud, but he wasn't this loud. And he at least whimpered sometimes. Will does a full-on scream.

Anna asked what was going on with his toupee. It just needed some adjusting.

When you're cutting teeth, this is the best way to fall asleep. This was Sunday night but last night they were BOTH asleep like this. And we didn't even watch that football game that was on. They slept, I watched Downton Abbey and The Bachelor! Glorious!

Yesterday Cacky came to visit us. She said it was to bring us some clothes that Mrs. Lori brought us (see the picture of just HALF of them below! I'll never have to shop again!), but really it was because she needed a "fix." She hadn't seen the boys since Christmas day. I didn't tell James she was coming and made him wait at the door for his surprise. He came running into Will's room and asked if Cacky was his surprise. :) He thought it was a good one.

He invited her to sit with him by the fire! Ha! I thought this was the cutest, funniest picture!

James decided not to nap while Cacky was here (a decision that we later regretted), and they put together his new alphabet puzzle instead.

We did go to storytime yesterday morning as well. James asked daily last week if it was time to go and it finally was. The theme was bath toys and bathrobes so he took his bathtub Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He was so excited to stand up at the front of the room and tell what he'd brought. 

We've been telling James for months that when he sleeps in his bed all night he'll be allowed to have chocolate milk for breakfast. We don't do chocolate milk on a regular basis and we are not above bribery over here. So the last time that he "earned" chocolate milk (he had it when his elf came and on Christmas morning) was in October. Maybe early November. Maybe. For weeks we've been talking about staying in bed all night and how important it is to do that but it just seemed to be getting worse. Not only was he getting in our bed at night, he's been having a REALLY hard falling asleep. Our doctor suggested we not lay down with him anymore because that may be causing our problems. SO. He's tried all the tricks in the book for stalling. A few weeks ago I upped the ante and told him that he couldn't use my iPad again until he stayed in bed all night. He hasn't had that since the week of Christmas. And then I added to it again this week and said if he stayed in bed all night he could have chocolate milk for breakfast, play the iPad, AND have dinosaur shaped cheese toast. Seriously, this was a pretty big deal to him. Finally, FINALLY last night he achieved his goal. Hallelujah and amen. I didn't see him from 9pm-8am. He was VERY proud. Eddie told him we could also go and get a cool nightlight from Target like Anne Margaret has in her room. We aren't setting ourselves up for disappointment, but if he DOES sleep through the night again we'll have a little celebration in the morning. If not, he won't get to play the iPad and the new nightlight will be ours until he stays in bed all night again. *Sigh* James has been the most challenging sleeper. And he's been given to two people who RARELY have trouble sleeping. I've seen Eddie sleep almost everywhere. Including Sanford Stadium during a football game. Fo real.

While we're on the subject of struggles with James, it seems a good time to mention that we've been encountering our first little bit of sibling rivalry lately. You know how babies do things and we all oooh and ahhh over how cute it was? Well, James has taken it upon himself to do whatever it was that Will was doing that prompted the ooohs and ahhhs from the group. Did Will sneeze? James sneezes. Will faked a cough? James fakes a cough. We've tried to also laugh at things that are appropriate to laugh at for him and give him a little extra attention, but apparently it hasn't been enough. We went to the Trains' house over the weekend and Anne Margaret had a teeny accident while we were there. She's a whole year younger than James and has just really started wearing undies all the time. On our way home? You guessed it! James had an accident. He asked if he had on underwear or a pull-up and then when we said underwear, he said he'd already wet them. We seriously live less than ten minutes from them. And then on the way to Publix yesterday he did it again! We live less than a MILE from Publix! I just buckled him back up and we went home to change before we went back. GRRRR. I know I'm not supposed to fuss and we've really tried not to harp on it and give attention to something negative, but it's more than a little aggravating. He hasn't had an accident in MONTHS and has had four in the past month. So we're assuming that maybe it's just a little of a "look at me!" move on his part. Any suggestions for that?

He looks so big to me here!

I do recognize that each speed bump we hit in life (teeth, sleep, and potty problems) are just momentary and then we'll learn something new and be off for our next bump. We do seem to begin to coast and then bump again. And obviously nothing is a BIG bump like lots of people are facing. I don't want to seem like I'm complaining as much as I'm just recording what's going on here. With each challenge there are ten times as many blessings in our home!