*yawn*

Earlier in the month, I explained my love/hate relationship with co-sleeping with Liam. Well, in the last few weeks, he has upped the ante. It went from being somewhat uncomfortable, though tolerable, to not working at all in a few weeks time.

Basically, he has gotten more restless and more kicky and I just can't sleep with him anymore. Even when Joe sleeps on the couch, he finds me in the big queen bed, sleeps with his head digging in my back and kicks me. Not cool.

This combined with the fact that a) my belly is only going to get bigger and more cumbersome b) it is really hard to get comfortable in bed when I am largely pregnant anyways, sans the kicking toddler and c) the newborn that will be in our bed in a few months, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and try out something different that respected his need for companionship and everyone's need for a good night's sleep.

The Solution: The Sibling Bed(room)
As you can see from our picture, we moved Issy and Isaac into a room with Liam (his is the bed in the middle, he wouldn't turn around and pose for the picture) in hopes that he would feel comfortable enough to stay in his room, since he would have them in there. And that then he would not feel the need to sleep in our bed and harass me all night.

It is really nice in theory, isn't it? But as with many things with 2-year-olds (well, at least Liam) there is a large gap between the theory and the practice. As of last night, it was a total bust, but that only means that there is no where to go but up, right? (RIGHT?!) At this point, we are just going to have to stick to it and hope it catches on quickly because the alternative wasn't working either. And I want him to get used to it well before the baby comes so it is not perceived as a "baby usurping my position" thing. Honestly, I would be more than willing to let him sleep in our bed indefinitely if it was working. But it Just. Is. Not. Here is him this morning after being awake from 1:00 to 6:30 a.m. Trust me, you don't want a picture of me or Joe this morning :P
A final reflection: Honestly, I had no idea that parenting would be this hard. Seemingly simple things liking sleeping and eating with ease and unhasseled are a distant memory. Know what, though? It is totally worth it. I remember in college, I would nap for hours and hours a day even though I had a full nights sleep. But I didn't appreciate it. Now, every hour of uninterrupted sleep is hard fought and I see it for the gift it is. It helps to know that there is an end to all this too. I trust that it will not always be like this. When Liam is 16 the problem will most likely be how to get him *out* of bed and I won't have to hold his hand while he falls asleep.

Sweet dreams to all my readers :)

A Marney Family Christmas

At 4:22 a.m. Issy came in to tell us that Santa had come and it was time to get up. We assured her that even though Santa had come, it was definitely not time to get up yet. We put her on the little bed on the floor of our room. About an hour later (and I am pretty sure she was awake during that time) she told us it was time to get up and again, we told her not yet. Apparently, she fell back asleep, because Isaac came in shortly after seven and we got up.

Liam has decided to would like to go live with his godparents, Mary and Tim, so he was attempting to package himself up.

Mmmmm, chocolate before breakfast.

Isaac and Joe plotting putting together Isaac's United States floor puzzle.

We got them all skis, which they insisted on trying out in the living room.

Yum, snow!

Trying out the new skis. They were actually really good at it! They have kind of creepy clowns on them, but they were a good deal and the kids seemed pleased. They just strap on to their boots!

Issy and her much wanted American Girl Doll.

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

We enjoyed an Apple cake for Jesus' birthday, it was delicious!

Preparing for Christmas

This is our Learning Shelf, that houses our books, puzzles, crayons and other educational toys for when we do our schooling. This year, we decided to decorate it for advent. We have our Jesse tree, which we have been decorating with symbols of salvation history that lead up to the birth of Christ. We have our advent wreath, that has candles for the four Sundays of Advent, in which we nestled the baby Jesus. And we have our Nativity set, minus Jesus, who will get to move over there on Christmas morning. The kids have really enjoyed our advent activities and the focus has been on Christ's birth at Christmas.

We are very excited to get to spend our Christmas here as a family. We are definitely going to miss all our family and friends in Kansas, but are looking forward to relaxing and making some of our own traditions here. And I am thankful not to be traveling since I has been snowing for the better part of the last week and a half.

Have a merry and blessed Christmas and know we miss you all!

A sweater for ME!

Yay, my beautiful purple sweater is done! I started it the day that I found out I was pregnant in early October. And I finished it right in time... the baby belly popped this week :)

The way the sweater is laying in the picture makes me look bigger than I actually am. See those beautiful ribbons? As the baby gets bigger, I can make them looser to accommodate the belly. I am very pleased with my first venture into sweaterhood :)

Ode to Ewok

They make a big show of annoying each other while they are in the house, but when they are outside, Ewok goes up to Clementine and gives her love.

See, ya'll hung in there with me when I didn't update for a while, and now things are paying off for you, eh?

Karen has inspired me to take more pictures of my cute, sweet kitty Ewok. We got Ewok when she was just a little kitten, about a year before we were married and she lived in my Dad's basement for six months. She had a brief stint living with some friends when we first moved up here and then she came to live with us last December. She is a sweet, sweet, patient, loving girl. I mean patient. She was actually purring in these last two pictures, even though there was excessive hugging.

This last summer, at the ripe age of 7, she decided she wanted to be an outdoor kitty. Would show up every couple of nights to eat. And now that there is lots of snow on the ground, she has decided she would like to be an indoor cat again. Spoiled kitty.

My cozy corner of the world

I have had the opportunity to spend my Saturdays at the yarn store for the last few months. I have no complaints. I get the chance to unwind, to sit and knit in front of the cozy stove, to talk to people about yarn and all the beautiful things they can make with it. It is nice to have some down time, away from the kiddos for a few hours (because who doesn't need a break from all that cuteness ;) And these days, I don't get much knitting time at home, since Liam is always on the move and, frankly, by the time he is in bed, I am just too darn tired. Because of my Saturday time, I have been able to nearly complete a sweater for myself (just need to finish a sleeve). I should be done and modeling by Sunday :)

O Tannenbaum

Everyone who knows else well knows our love of large (sometimes called obnoxiously large) Christmas trees. We had quite an adventure last year getting our tree by cutting it down in the forest. It was not exactly what we were looking for, but when you are trudging through the snow with three children, sometimes you have to alter your standards a bit. I liked it. I had character. And it was $5.

This year, we decided to support our local businesses by going to the nursery here (it is a seriously awesome nursery!) and getting a tree, since they had fresh cut trees there, and it was more manageable with the children. And we had a variety of "perfect" Christmas trees to choose from that we didn't have to walk through the snow to get. Maybe we will try that again when the kids are older.

And I will have you know, by Marney standards, it is a positively modest tree. It is only 7 feet tall and not horribly wide. It is gorgeous.

Liam has been driving me fairly crazy with it (although this should really come as no shock, since Liam often drives me crazy, in general, with seemingly benign things). He was really good with the tree last year and really didn't mess with it, so I assumed (HA!) now that he was a bit older that it would be smooth sailing. But he really really likes to touch the ornaments and, frankly, to pull the glass ones off of their hooks, which is annoying and dangerous. Alas, any that I put within Liam reach have been pulled off (by him) and put higher (by me).

Then there is the issue of straightness. This has always been our flaw in the saga of our tall, gorgeous trees. We only sometimes manage to get them straight on the first try. Sometimes we try again with better luck. Sometimes, we try again, and it isn't much better than the first time.

This one was crooked, but steady. We just weren't satisfied, so yesterday we tried again. We made it more crooked. And unfortunately, it got more crooked as today progressed. So much so, in fact, that it fell over an hour ago. We are going to have to start from square one tonight. With children in bed. And we will get it right this time.

Edited Tuesday Morning: When Joe got home and we put the kids to bed, we started fresh. Used our big, good-for-large-trees base. Perfect. Stable. We redecorated the tree, making sure all the breakable ones were near the top. Then we sat and enjoyed it :)

I love/hate co-sleeping

Ahhhhh, the little one. Beautiful, isn't he?

The story of Liam sleeping with us, Part I: Pre-Liam
It would be difficult to understand where we are without understanding where we have come from. It all begins with Issy, ridiculously easy, mellow, laid-back infant that she was. I mean it too, this is no exaggeration. I mean, she was a little tricky the first month (two?) and she had the fussy in the evening, but then she was magical. If I just laid her down, she fell asleep on her own. No fussing- just cooing, then sleep. We had nursing issues at first and I couldn't nurse laying down because it made my guts feel like they were going to fall out because of the c-section. When she was almost three months old, she started doing these huge nursings in the evening (hours and hours) and in the morning, but she was sleeping through the night. She slept in a little pack and play by our bed, but boy, did she sleep.

Then Isaac came along. Nursing was much easier and he liked to nurse a lot at night, so I pushed through the "guts feeling like they are going to fall out" part and learned to nurse laying down. And it was fine until about 5 or 6 months, when he started being restless. So co-sleeping was no longer working, and we tried to get him to sleep in his own crib. There was a lot of rocking and patting and shushing and nursing. Then when he turned a year, things got easier and he was a little more persuadable. And he too, started sleeping in his own space.

Part II: Liam arrives
He liked to nurse at night and I wasn't recovering from a c-section, so nighttime was much easier. He nursed and I would put him in a bassinet beside our bed (or not). At 5 or 6 months, he hit the "restless" phase and we side-carred a crib (basically, you shove a crib with one side off up against your bed) so he could have his own sleeping space. This worked awesome for a while.

Part III: The Ear Infection Phase
From about 11 months- 16 months, he had as many ear infections as not, so he would nurse and flail and nurse and flail and cry all night long. It was rather torturous for all involved.

Part IV: The End of the Ear Infection Phase and Nightweaning
So, during the ear infection phase be became accustomed to nursing all night long, which was fine for that time period when he really needed it, notsomuch for when he was all better. So we nightweaned him and it was glorious. He slept in his room until 3 or 4 or 5 a.m. then came to join us.

Part V:Liam Turns Two
I should have expected this, but I didn't. It happened with Issy, it happened with Isaac. When both of them turned two, they realized they could get out of bed at night and come to Mom and Dad's room. And they preferred it there. No biggie with them, we set up a little bed on the floor so they could slip in relatively undisturbed. Well, Liam started it too. Going to bed at 7:30 or 8 and then waking up at 10:30 and coming down to our room. But being the stubborn little fella he is, he wanted nothing to do with a bed on the floor, he wanted in bed where all the warm snuggling was.

Part VI: The Present
Which brings us to this point in time. And the love/hate relationship with co-sleeping. I love it when he walks into the room all sleepy, hair rumpled, puts his arms out, waiting to be loved and snuggled. Very sweet. He usually asks for a drink of water, then yawns and rubs his eyes. I love to watch him relax near immediately as he lays down in his Daddy's arms. And his little limbs get all limp and he closes his eyes and falls back into his little sleepy world.

Then I decide to go to sleep. And sometimes the night is ok and there is minimal encroachment upon my space. And then there are night like last night, where his little feet find me near continuously all night and he plants (seemingly) strategically placed kicks on me just to interrupt my sleep. And I keep shoving him over near his Papa and he finds me again. And again.

Sigh. I think I need a king-sized bed.

And yet, I have this feeling that he would still find me and kick me.

The rest of the Halloween pictures

So, apparently, there is a sort of on/off switch on my memory card. Joe turned it on. Honestly, whenever I think I am starting to the hang of this whole technology thing, I get thrown for a loop. Ahhhh, well, just means I need to keep the good old hubby around for trouble-shooting.

So yeah, he was actually grimacing in this picture, although I think it could pass as a smile. He really wanted Daddy to put him down so he could run into the street. Being the good parents we are, we didn't allow that.

He really liked the Jack O'Lantern

Here is my beauty.

Well, no pictures....

... but not because of a lack of trying. I have tried to upload my pictures on two computers in a couple of different ways the last couple of days, but to no avail. Joe said he would look at it for me, so I must wait patiently.

Life is life here. I am starting to have a good, normal-feeling day here and there, which is nice. I am hoping to get more of those, the first trimester blehs are getting old. I am truly thankful, though, when I consider how much better I have it than some women. In all of my pregnancies, I have had varying degrees of nausea/tiredness during the first trimester, but I never actually get *sick* which is awesome. So I will not complain :)

I am really looking forward to this Advent/Christmas season. The kids and I have started our Jesse tree, which they thought was very cool. We also got out our Advent wreath and I am hoping to make a paper chain of things we do that are kind for each day of Advent. We are staying here for Christmas, since traveling last year was such a nightmare. I am going to miss our family and friends, but it is also going to be nice to start some of our own family traditions. Issy and I were actually just talking today about what kind of cake to make Jesus for his birthday. We might have to take a vote.

So something nerdy I am really excited about. I got one of my Christmas presents early: cross- country skis! I am so excited, I want it to start snowing more (there is snow on the mountains but nothing substantial has stuck around in the Valley yet). I can't wait to get started! This is going to be a good way to stay in shape during this pregnancy :) I actually dream about my skis often.

My housekeeping has suffered the last couple of months, with the lack of motivation. The spirit is willing and all that stuff...

I am off for now (to do the dishes, actually) but will post when I have the pics!