The Chris and Amy Show

Happy Birthday Ian!

We had a party to celebrate Ian's first birthday!

Ian had a cake...

There were cupcakes for everyone else.

Our friends and families joined us to celebrate!

Ian had a friend over too.

Thank you everyone who came and helped us celebrate this special day!

June 13th, 2010

A day that I won't soon forget. Likely one of the worst days in Ian Ives' life so far. But, it led to some of the best times after that. The day we started to Cry it Out. (It actually makes me shudder to type it, but it has brought some amazing results, so I can't disprove it entirely.)

If you have read this website or talked to either Chris or myself in any detail, you know our boy was far too active to ever want to sleep like a normal (or what we thought was normal) person. Every night was an endless battle of waking up, nursing, rocking, walking, sleeping with us, sleeping on us. You name it, we tried it. All in an effort to avoid the dreaded Cry it Out method.

Fast forward to June 12th, 2010. We were at a party for a group of 1 year olds. Some were a little older at 14 months or so. And then there was Ian, at 11 months, and likely the tallest and biggest. That's our boy. So we got on the topic of sleeping, and in our case (the lack of it) and one by one, every parent told us that the only way that they were ever able to get their child to sleep through the night was to let them cry. And each of them said something to the effect of  "You'll know when it's time." Of course, I thought to myself  "Yeah, never!" So we left it at that. Chris and I didn't speak about it at all that night. The next day, we were on the way home from Chris' early Father's Day celebration - our first Giants game  - and Chris says "So when do you think we're going to try Crying it Out?" I was quiet for a minute, and then realized, this had to happen. For all of our sakes. So I said "Fine, we'll do it, but I have some conditions. 1) I am not having any part of it. If he cries, I can not go in there  because because he will want to nurse and won't calm down, 2) you must go in on intervals that I specify to remind him that we are still there for him, and 3) I am going to be very sad about this, so you'll need to support me." He agreed to all of my terms. That night was terrible. Crying for 45 minutes to fall asleep, then awake in the middle of the night and screaming for an hour at a time. The next morning, I was sure that he was going to start looking for new parents. But he didn't. Instead, he fell asleep with only 5 minutes of crying. The next nights followed in similar fashion. It was like we had a new boy. 

These days, when he wake up in the morning he seems happier and more refreshed. I know now that he was ready and we made the right choice. But I don't know if I would have been ready at 6 months or before we did it. I think if you ask Chris, he was ready to sleep train 6 months ago, and being the wonderful husband that he is, he didn't push me. Now, we have talked in recent weeks and he thinks that we should be game on to sleep train baby #2 (no, this is not an announcement) far sooner. I'll leave it at we'll see.

And no post would be complete without some parting photos of my sleeping Prince.

Never a dull moment!

Ian has a fondness for technology, the more buttons, the better.  In this instance, he favored the answering machine.  He's also a good problem solver.

Problem:  I can't really see the answering machine

Solution:  I can stand on the train seat for a better view

Problem:  I can't really reach the answering machine

Solution:  I'll stand on the train's steering wheel

Problem:  I don't like having to balance on the steering wheel

Solution:  I'll pull myself on to the night-stand so my feet are free of the steering wheel

 

At that point, we decided to take the action to the kitchen...  Moments later...

 

And when we got home from school...

 

If nothing else, he's resourceful...

Check out our new (-ly resurfaced) pool!

Yes, I did ask Amy if we could fill in the pool a handful of times...  I'm glad she said no.  Through interviewing a few local pool contractors, we found that our pool (and pool plaster) is about 25 years old.  We also found out that pool plaster has two parts-  A smooth cream coat that makes the pool look great and feel smooth.  Under the cream coat is the rough coat.  After 20 years or so, the cream coat wears off, exposing the rough coat.  The rough coat SUCKS every ounce of chemical out of the water, making it nearly impossible (and very expensive) to keep the water clear and blue.

So we found a contractor we liked and had our pool resurfaced.  We can't really swim in the pool for two weeks but we can:

1. Brush the pool at least four times a day, stirring the plaster dust into the water so that it can be captured by the pool filter.  The other day when it was 103 degrees, I was on my pool deck, brushing the walls of my pool.  Ugh!
2. Run the pump 24 hours a day for a week.  Our SMUD bill is going to suck this month!
3. Avoid some of the start-up chemical mystery by hiring a start-up chemical guy.  We hired Dale.  He's a nice guy and taught me some things about pool water.

We took before, during, and after pictures.  They're here.

We also just ordered a new pool filter system and super energy efficient, super ninja-quiet pump.  That should take the sting out of our energy bills!

We should have it all dialed by Ian's birthday party...And if Ian takes to swimming like he took to eating, walking, and mathematics, he'll be Aqua Man in the pool! 

Ian's First 4th of July

 
We went to the Carmichael 4th of July Parade, and little ii was a champ. We decided on the way home that it it will be a new family tradition. We swam and barbecued and our boy was in bed promptly at 7. We thought for sure that the fireworks were going to wake him, but fortunately, only the Grand Finale across the street woke him up. After that, we were smooth sailing. Here are a few pictures from the parade. (Thaks for the outfit Jim and Lara!)

 

 

I want to remember...

How Ian scrunches up his face when he gets really excited about something. (Usually feeding something to Murphy from his highchair.)

How he comes barreling down the hall pushing his train.

How he is in love with flushing the toilet, Chris' iPod, and pushing the button on the garage door opener.

How he squeals in delight when he and Murphy are "wrestling." (He is doing more of the dog piling, Murphy just plays along.)

How much he loves to eat. Almost anything at anytime. He loves it even more if it comes off of one of our plates.

How he gets so excited seeing himself in the mirror.

How he loves splashing in the pool, but does not like to be confined in the raft.

How we walk around my garden every day and look at and touch all of the things that are growing.

How he sounds when he is playing in his room by himself ("Da da da daaaa")

How he lights up at Chris when he talks to him.

That no matter how many times I tell him that he can't go into the laundry room and play with the cat food, that is the FIRST place he tries to go.

How funny he thinks he is when he bangs the cabinets over and over trying to get them to open.

How mad he got when he realized that he couldn't lift up the toilet lid anymore.

How he cracks up when I tickle him and say "I'm gonna get you!"

How he loves to touch my teeth and stick his finger up my nose when I'm nursing him.

How just looking at him makes me want to melt.

I don't want to forget a single thing about how wonderful it is being Ian's mom.

Thank God there's two of us...

In just 5 short weeks, we've gone from this:

 

to this:

 Is it just me or this kid not so tall?? But so devilishly cute, I can't stand it!
 
  

Happy Summer!

We celebrated the first day of summer with a swim.  And when I say we, I mean Mom, Dad, Ian, and Murphy (Murphy's swim was unintentional, he jumped in once we were in, doh!).

Ian did great!  He made this face the whole time!  We raced Murphy as he swam laps...  Sometimes we won, but most of the time Murphy won (he's a fast swimmer).  Considering the way Ian is taking to water, he'll no doubt follow in his mother's footsteps and swim competitively.

A 9 month checkup (at 10 months) and the flu bug that just kept going...

We somehow got a little off track on Ian's doctor appointments, so we actually had his 9 month checkup last Thursday. Everything checked out and our boy is doing great. Ian weighs 24 lbs (90th percentile), is 30 inches long (90th percentile) and I didn't get his head measurement, but it's the 95th percentile (this was not surprising to me considering his father. Hi Honey!) Dr. Wang said that he will not be surprised if Ian is taller than me. Apparently,  if you take their height at 2.5 years and double it, that's an approximation of their full grown height. 

Dr. Wang suggested that we try to let Ian soothe himself and cry it out a little before us putting him all the way to sleep at night. That night we tried it. Ian cried for only about 10 minutes or so and he was out. Ahhh, it might be working we thought. Then around 8:30, he started crying and Chris went in to check on him. Thank God he did. II was covered in puke. I went into to Total Mom Guilt Mode and assumed that I fed him something bad and this was all my fault. I was later advised by Korie (his daycare provider) that there were 3 kids out on the same day with the bug. 

Poor guy has been Sicky McSickerton for days. We have done more laundry and I have changed my clothes more times than when Ian was a newborn. Thankfully, he is still as sweet and funny as ever, he just eats next to nothing and gets to stay home from school. And let's just say that the boy has influence...he has managed to share this little bug with his dad, his Grandma Carole, and his cousin Emily. I am sure that they would all be rather irritated if he wasn't just so darn cute.

Anyway - I think we are on the mend now. Hopefully we'll get back into eating and everyone will be feeling better shortly.

I thought I was prepared...

I was mentally prepared for most things before Ian. I knew it would be hard work, the schedule would change, it would be an adjustment for Chris and I. The 2 things that took me most by surprise were 1) just how much I could possibly adore this little guy (but really that is not what this post is about) and 2) just how hard sleeping would be. For everyone. That is what this will be about.

So we're approaching the 10 month mark of Ian's life. That's 10 months of fun, but also 10 months of no more than 6 hours of consecutive sleep for his dad and I. Now 6 hours you say is not that bad. But to be honest, the norm is more like 4. When we went to Tahoe, I still woke up after 4 hours because I am so used to it. It is not even in my realm of thought that ii could sleep for more than 4 hours without waking up. I think that people who say their kids go down at 7 and wake up at 7 are lying. I have rationalized that it's because ii just doesn't need that much sleep, or maybe he just really likes being around us. But honestly, I know he would benefit from more. And I know that Chris and I would too.

Thinking back, I truly believed that sleep would just happen. I figured that we would create a routine and the rest would just come together. Naivete is bliss. I should have figured something was up early on. But again, I thought that he would get a little older and it would sort itself out. I have read so many books, articles, talked to people, and strategized with Chris. Every night we say "Okay, this is what we're going to do tonight" and every night we have the same result. II wakes up - be it once (which at this point would be bliss) or more like 3-4 times.

We have tried:

• Putting down early - in bed by 6:30.

• Putting down later - in bed by closer to 8.

• Putting to bed drowsy but awake

• Putting down all the way to sleep

• Not feeding in the middle of the night

• Feeding as many times in the middle of the night as he wants

• Rocking in the rocking chair

• Swaying in his room singing songs to him

• Chris being the one to go in to tend to him

• Me being the one to tend to him

• Ian sleeping with us

• Us just letting him cry and cry and cry

(this list is more for me to remember when I look back years from now or when baby #2 is here and I can say, "Wow, we tried all those things?")

I know that this won't last forever, and I know that he will grow out of it. I can't say that seems like it's anywhere in our near future. I would be lying if I said that every night I don't think "Okay, maybe tonight will be the night that he doesn't wake up" and every night, I get the same result.

Chris and I will keep strategizing, and one day, us sleeping only 4 hours at a time will be a distant memory.  In the meantime...