It's About Time!

Daddy and Mommy have been trying to get Delenn to sleep better for
months and months now. During the first half the night, Daddy has been
in the room with her trying to settle her and get her back to sleep.
Every night, there came a point where Delenn just wouldn't go back
down.. Daddy would let her cry a 1/2 hour, an hour or sometimes more.
But she clued in that eventually Mommy would come with that
oh-so-desired milk. Getting Delenn to sleep through the night with the
system we had going clearly wasn't going to work. So, this weekend it
was time for a change. Both Mommy and Daddy felt like zombies and
couldn't continue being so sleep deprived with Delenn's long crying bout
every night. She was up twice a night, sometimes three times. At
sixteen months, she needs to learn to sleep through and go without a
good feed..

We threw everything we'd ever read out the window and tried a new
tactic. When she woke up and wanted a feed, Mommy was there in the room
and talked to her. She told her that "Mommy's milk had gone night
night." Mommy held her, rocked her, comforted her, but did not let
Delenn have a feed. Mommy kept talking to her -- about how she must
feel sad, asking her if she wanted milk in a cup or a banana or a
cracker. After about an hour maybe more (on Friday night) she signed
that she wanted milk (ie cow's milk) and a cracker. She ate a bite, had
some (cow's) milk and water and finally after another half hour or more
went back to bed. Mommy had to do that again later that night (twice I
think). Again Mommy held her, nestled Delenn to her and talked to her.
Everything we had read said not to talk to your babies at night -- but
this new tactic really seemed to work.

Saturday night was better (though she was up three times). She seemed
to understand that Mommy's milk truly wasn't available. Though she cried
quite a bit, it wasn't as long or as confusing for Delenn.

Last night (Sunday night) - Mommy didn't even need to pick her up
(though she did talk to her to tell her that Mommy's milk went night
night and to say night night to Delenn). Mommy also had to pick up the
teddy bears Delenn had thrown (in frustration), but once Mommy handed
them back to her, Delenn plopped down into bed and went back to sleep.

We are SO hopeful that she'll now clue in that she needs to go back to
sleep on her own. Perhaps it was feasible to do this because she's so
much older and really understands what we say -- but it sure went
against our previous notion about not talking to the kids at night.

Silence is Golden?

Just a little while ago Mommy went out back to compliment Logan and
Delenn on how well they were playing together. It had been quiet for a
while with neither making a fuss. She found Delenn's face SMEARED with
red paint and Logan in the process of dumping an entire bottle of glue
into the water table. Hmmm... so does that count as cooperation?

Logan and Delenn enjoyed this week's activity--the Rainbow Store. On
Sunday night, Mommy hid a number of toys outside for a treasure hunt.
The next morning, Logan could hardly wait to get started. Mommy had to
convince him to eat breakfast before heading out front. Outside there
were two toys of each color -- red, orange, yellow, etc.-- hidden around
the driveway area. After Logan and Delenn found all the items they
brought them back to the "store." Each color had a set price and Logan
could buy the toys he wanted. He practiced counting out $10s and $1s
with fake money Mommy had made. Delenn happily carried the money and
toys around while looking for ants and bugs. Both kids seemed to enjoy
the activity (and they lasted much longer "buying" things than Mommy
expected). And this afternoon, Logan asked to play the store game again
(and promptly ran out the door to hide some of the toys). We had a good
time -- especially with the cooler weather.

Earlier today we went to Squiggles -- the cafe playhouse. We'll be
going a couple more times in the next week because we found out that it
will be closing down for good next Friday. :(

Torture comes to an end...

For eight years we have lived with a torturous air conditioning system.
It has always blown like a wind tunnel (think of a huge hair dryer aimed
right at you). Logan, Delenn and Daddy were often woken up by the air
conditioner as it switched on at night (but we couldn't leave it to run
continuously because it blew SO hard. We covered each vent with
material to try to stem the flow of air, but it was always horrendously
noisy (and was still blowing strong despite our best efforts). On
Monday morning the maintenance man was around to service the air
conditioner. As always, Mommy mentioned how powerfully it blows (in
answer to his questions about the unsightly material hanging from our
ceiling vents. He was up in the attic for quite some time and then came
down and said the vents had never been properly set (and were wide open
in "cleaning" mode). He adjusted every vent (with Mommy confirming that
the air flow was good) -- and suddenly the wind has died down AND it is
SO SO SO SO much quieter in here! It is a miracle!

For the past month, Mommy has been setting up a preschool activity on
Monday mornings (more about that below). When Logan woke up on Monday
morning, he excitedly asked Mommy "What are we doing today?!" Mommy
felt like she had let him down when she had to admit that she hadn't set
anything up. (Luckily the maintenance man provide the morning's
entertainment as Logan escorted him around with his pretend power
drill.) We did an activity in the afternoon, but the next morning, Logan
again asked excitedly, "Did you set something up today?" Mommy hadn't
(it had been a busy week in the evenings for Mommy), but she talked
about it with Logan and he said he'd like to do some activities about
castles and knights next.

Yesterday we went to the science museum (across the street from us).
Delenn was quite scared of the giant skeleton of the bird, but once she
got past that she enjoyed looking at the (preserved) animals. Logan
particularly likes the spiders. He's always careful to point out
spider's webs and was quite concerned when we found a HUGE red back
spider in our garden.

Today (Thursday), Logan did not go to three-year-old kindy (he has
stopped going). Instead we went on a long walk (with the kids in the
pram), culminating in a hike (for everyone) up a steep hill for some
gorgeous views. (We went up boy scout hall hill for those of you who
know the area.) What a terrific morning! The flies were pretty bad,
but other than that we all had a good time! After a brief respite at
home, we then headed out to Squiggles (playhouse/cafe). Logan had a
terrific time with his friend, Alex, who also goes to Nana Kath's with
him on Tuesday. Mom had a really nice chat with her friend, Kim -- when
not escorting Delenn through the climbing equipment!

An interesting tidbit about central Australia. Today they started
selling "opal unleaded" fuel (no other alternatives for unleaded) to try
to help curb the petrol sniffing problem in Alice and in remote
communities around town. I had to buy petrol today and it seems like
the car is running just fine with the switch.