Brother:  What does “suffer” mean?

Me:  Well, if someone was going to “make you suffer” then they would make you hurt or maybe regret a decision.  Like if they held your arm behind your back until you couldn’t feel your fingers then you would be suffering.”

Brother:  Ok

***

Overheard moments later:

Sister:  So, what does it mean?

Brother: It’s when you can’t feel your fingers.

You know how babies will sometimes just go and go and go and then, suddenly drop off to sleep without warning.  That pretty much sums up bedtime tonight.  Dora hasn’t been sleeping all that well and basically, that means that I’ve not been sleeping all that well.  At first I thought she was teething (and maybe she was).  Then I was sure she wasn’t getting enough to eat during the day (toddlers often don’t) and that she was compensating at night (and maybe she was).  Now I am camping on a completely different theory:  she’s lonely.  Even though her crib is in the same room with Will and I, this highly social creature wakes up and in her groggy, disoriented state perceives the dark around her as vast and empty.  And really who could go back to sleep with that thought in her head?  She is only just now one year old and thinking back to when Brother was that age I realize that I did not expect him to sleep alone.  In fact, we had a rather large family bed until he was almost 3.  I’ve only been trying to push her toward crib sleep because of the new baby’s impending arrival.  But it’s not right.  She’s not ready and I know only too well the sleep problems that arise from pushing a child too soon.

So, all of that leads to tonight.  We are fortunate to have a master bedroom with a rather large sitting area to one side.  This sitting area has been functioning as the “nursery”  But tonight we rearranged the our bedroom furniture from a very cute and ordered “master bedroom with a nursery” to a messy hodgepodge of “sleeping space and everything else”.  First Will removed the up/down side of the crib, then we jammed it up against the side of our bed.  Everything else was rearranged around that.  It may not be traditional but it’s necessary and I know in the long run we will all be better sleepers because of it.  All this change got Dora pretty wound up so even though she was extremely tired  it took a good 45 minutes for her to get to sleep but she did it eventually (and suddenly) and I think it is a good beginning.

*Side Note #1:  If you think that at one year old Dora should be sleeping all the way through the night every night then you either A) don’t have children B) got darn lucky with your own children or C) are lying to yourself about what your little one is doing at night all alone in that room way down the hall.

Side Note #2:  Some people buy those co-sleeper contraptions that fit on the side of a bed but unless space is an issue I suggest saving your money because first of all those little beds cost an arm and a leg and second they are so little that past 9 or 10 months they are completely unusable.  A regular crib works fine and lasts much longer.   In our case, the crib we have converts to toddler bed so it was easy to take the side off but with Brother we used a regular crib and fastened it to the frame of our bed and it worked well too.

So not only is there a name for this haphazard way of learning we have around here; we are not the only ones doing things this way.  See?

Forevermore (at least in our home) known as Chicken Flakes.

Me to the kids:  After you guys get dressed, come back downstairs: we are going to make cookies.

Sister: Okay. What are we making cookies for?

Me: Because I feel like a cookie.

Sister: Really?  What does a cookie feel like?

Me: Round and slightly chunky, I suppose.

Sister: I bet you do feel that way.

*As a side note, these are the cookies we made.  Delicious!

You will remember from this post that we had these.

Well thanks to this industrious pair we now have blackberry jam.

Lots of jam from the Sure-Jell freezer recipe inside the box.

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Two thoughts to share from Cousin E’s 4 year celebration this past weekend. 

First, isn’t this the cutest wrapping paper ever?

My little sis made it using sheets from one of those monster size coloring books.  Love this idea. 

Second, if you’re ever stumped for a birthday party activity try letting the kiddos decorate the cake.  I have yet to find an age that doesn’t enjoy expressing themselves with frosting.

The only caveat, of course, is that you must let go of your ideas about beauty.  Kids look at cake decorating from an entirely different perspective. (Namely, how much frosting can we get on here before the grownups make us stop.)

Let me help you out.

From the time the kids are able to put on their own clothes I tend to let them pick out their own clothes (unless we are attending some super special event like a wedding or some such).  Letting kids be autonomous means that sometimes you get shoes that don’t match, stripes with polka dots or sweatshirts in 90 degree weather.  And while I occasionally catch the sympathetic “tsk, tsk” from some well meaning stranger I just smile and shrug because I like having children who think for themselves.

Do you suppose he thought they were real flowers?  Maybe Dora is just too sweet to resist (Certainly, we all think so.)  Whatever the reason, this little butterfly hung out for about ten minutes and in all that time Dora never even noticed he was there.

P.S. About the stain ~ greasy chocolate ~ finally, got it out with this.  Good stuff.

From 9-3 everyday this past week Sister’s been at horse camp.

The instructors were great. 

The facility was top notch.

The horses had the best dispositions. 

She had a blast.

Throughout the week the campers not only had a chance to ride but they also learned about all sorts of “horse-y” things (parts of horse, types of bits, names of equipment, how to groom a horse, etc.)

Today the girls put on a little show for the parents.  Besides being the youngest, Sister was the only one who hadn’t taken any lessons before camp started.  I was really proud of how hard she worked to catch up.

( I’m not that great with the video setting on my camera but you get the idea.)