Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Sleep/Happy Anniversary to my Parents/Happy St. Patrick's Day/And we're almost done w/ speech!!!

Sleep: It's back. Thank goodness. Though I never sleep through the night myself, it is important for Ryan. And generally, we have much better days when the little man gets in his 10 hrs. Friday night we decided that we really had to fix this issue. I thank everyone for all their support, cuz it DOES suck. And as for the sleep therapist we used previously, I didn't call her because I knew what she would say. But, let me tell you if it didn't work I would have been on the phone for a phone consult no matter what Ethan said about the $....cuz it would have been worth every single cent--as it was the last time. Now usually I would not go behind is back on a $ issue, but had I done that the first time when Ryan was about 5 months we would have fixed it right then!!! Anyway, Friday night I decided we would try and fix it right away instead of letting him cry for a while I went outside his door right when he started...3am. I told him it was nite nite time and to lay down and go to sleep. Ofcourse that didn't work--I hope you didn't think it would be that easy. So, for the next hour he alternated between whining and crying and quiet and then reciting "Brown Bear Brown Bear." Ethan and I were cracking up. We almost decided to watch a movie since we were awake. Around 4:15 I had enough and told Ethan to go in his room and use the stearn daddy voice. He went in, told Ryan it was time to lay down and go to sleep and Ryan screamed hysterically. Ethan came back to bed and told me what a fantastic idea that was. 3 min later=sleep. Solid til 6:30. So, we were up for about 2 hrs but we got our point across. Ryan has been sleeping from about 8-6 since then. :) :) :) Davis (the sleep lady) would be proud of me.

Saturday was my parent's 34th wedding anniversary. I know. Its awesome. Except for the fact that it means I'm turning 33 this year. Whatever. They are going to Disneyland for a week in April, and then to Vegas in May. Did I ever mention how they started these vacations after all their kids grew up? One year when I was in college they decided to go to Reno for a weekend. Its about a 2 hr drive. Then they just started going on these short vacations. Then after I moved to San Diego they decided they needed to go to Disneyland on the way. Didn't seem to bother them that they took me when I was 4 yrs old, left my 6 week old sister with my grandma...and then never took us again. The only way we got to go was our aunt took us every summer. Then when my brother got old enough to go I stopped going cuz I was too old and too cool by then. Our vacations consisted of camping...But now they go to Vegas, Monterey, wherever. And, they still go to Disneyland even though I'm not in San Diego anymore...and they stay a full week! My dad is in love with Disneyland which I think is so odd (BTW he is also in love with Tyra Banks). But, because of the great kids they have, we paid for their Disneyland tickets. Oh, did I mention I haven't been to Disneyland since Grad Nite 1993? Please do not tell me to suck it up and take Ryan cuz we are NOT ready for that. I have established the rule that Ryan must be poddy trained and no longer need a nap before we make that trip.

Happy BELATED St. Patrick's Day. We hosted a play group party here. 20 kids. I am insane. But you already knew that. I don't mind in general. Our formal living room is a playroom. We have a big train table that is always a hit, a ball pit and tons of toys. Plus we have a trampoline outside, a sand table, and lots of ride on toys. I don't even mind the prep or clean up. What I mind are the few kids who just don't behave. I'm sure its usually the kids that didn't nap that day or whatever, and lord knows my child has had those days so I'm not judging. I just hate when a mom isn't paying attention to her kid that is hitting MY kid, at MY house. For the most part everything went well and the screaming was a dull roar. I even made green jello shamrocks and we let the kids decorate cookies. I decided yesterday it would be a good time to disinfect all the toys after everyone left. It had been a while and its the cold/flu season...I could have been a nicer person and done that before everyone came...and I did think about it....just didn't get around to it. But now all is clean, but needs to be put away. The playroom looks like a tornado went through it, but its supposed to look like that. If we didn't have dogs that eat things it would look like that all the time.

Ryan had speech today for the first time in 3 weeks. He was sick, the therapist was sick, but finally we are back on track. I got to ask her about his progress and where she thought he would be for pre-school. As in, "are we gonna qualify for free preschool or not?" She told me IF he stayed in the program til he was 3 the school district would test him to see if he was eligible for free preschool or just a therapy session once a week. Her take was that he might not even be in the program when he is 3, and she is going to evaluate him next month since its been 4 months. So, it sounds like we are paying for preschool which is GOOD, and most likely he won't need speech therapy anymore. There is a chance she'll adjust him to once a month instead of weekly, just to keep an eye on him. I do hate that he might have the "stigma" of being speech delayed on his school records, but I can't do anything about that. I already know due to his Nov. birthday they will tell him to wait a year to start kindergarten once they see he was delayed. Thats fine, though its one more year of preschool to pay for. Sometimes I cannot believe that 6m ago he had NO WORDS. Such a transformation.

*Michelle, that is funny you mention Ryan being an only child. There were discussions on that topic recently and the sleep situation put those on hold. Can you believe that? LOL. But I'm sure if Ryan were to have a sister or brother they would be the best sleeper ever, right?

2 comments:

Our Family of Four said...

Seriously... have one more. Maggie is, and always has been, a champion sleeper. Plus, you know what to do now and if you nip it in the bud from day 1 you'll be fine. And we tried the "Daddy stern voice" too and got pretty much the same reaction. They are smarter than we give them credit for!

LOVE the St. P day party. Sounds so fun. What a luck boy Ryan is - you are such a good Mama!

Oh, and don't give the speech stuff a second thought. Really, once he is dismissed from service no one will look at it unless a problem comes up again. And with a NOV birthday won't he have to be almost six anyway? I thought the cut-off was September.

Okay, one more thought... we took the kids to Disney right before we left. I mean when were we gonna live so close again? Anyway, the potty thing was no big deal but unless you stay in a hotel inside the park you are soooo right about the wait 'til naps are done!

Liz said...

YAY for the sleep! Stern Daddy Voice is a sleepy mommy's best friend. =)

That party does sound like a lot of fun, too!

Um..and...our friend Michelle McCoy has managed to have a child who will sleep in a stroller (!) but mine doesn't and we definitely paid for the lack-o-nap + way overstimulation the next day!!!

Besides, if you wait until naps are through, he'll probably remember more. =)