4 A.M.

Sleep in our house with children has been a long struggle.  Otto took about a year to start sleeping though the night, though he is now a super champ!!  Mette still can be known to have bouts of crying in the night though she is getting much better.  You would think my body after four years would be craving long hours of straight through sleep, but here I am, at 4 A.M. writing to you because I am WIDE awake and have been for hours.  And, while I am wide awake, everyone else is snoozing away.  Including my baby brother tucked in a crib at the end of the hall outside the guest room :)

It may be the medicine I am taking.  I had a strange allergic reaction to something not yet determined and broke out in strange hives that would not go away.   Not wanting to look like a freak at Ben and Shannon's wedding in a few short weeks I reluctantly am taking a round of steroids.  For those of you who know me well enough to remember my last experience with this drug you should know I am as scared as you.  Last time I gained 15 pounds in two months and was MEAN and CRAZY.  I heard circus music in my head non-stop all day and yelled at the slightest thing. That time I had to take a higher dose and for much longer but still,  I warned all close to me I was taking this drug and told them to be sure to put me in my place if I start acting weird again.  I also explained this to my dr. when she suggested the meds.  She put me on a much lower dose and said if the hives went away (they did within hours!!) and I started feeling strange she would help me taper off them faster.  So far I don't feel crazy, and I am trying really hard to stick to a celery only diet!!  Ok, that may be a bit extreme but I am going to up my weekly dose of yoga, pilates and walking for sure.   I am however not really sleeping.

I am going to say that this is just a phase, like teething, or yelling "don't look at me" every time someone as much as glances at you (Mette) but in the back of my head I can't help thinking that medicine aside, I am not the first person in my family to experience this.  The flip side, maybe I can get more blogging and reading done.  That would be a nice bonus.  Now that the kids are sleeping better I have been able to read books again which is really lovely.  I could get used to this.

Speaking of the kids, they are doing great.  Grandpa Chris and Nona Jen are here this weekend with baby Harry and we are having a blast.  In the dark and being quiet I couldn't find the camera and cable but I will get some great photos up tomorrow.  Eric is also working on some more videos.

Otto continues his complete love of all things Lego and Star Wars.  We have also been watching the CARS 2 movie trailer A LOT these days.  He can't wait to see it.  This is going to be his first time going to the theatre and he is really excited.  It has also meant that he has been playing with his CARS movie cars more these days.  I have to say, it really warms my heart to see them get action again.  For so long they were such an important part of his day, seeing them sit all day in the drawer was a bit sad.  There were so many naps and bedtimes that he feel asleep clutching The King, or Boost or someone else, it makes me smile to hear their names again.  In a stroke of marketing genius this time around they are making Lego Cars 2 toys.  Yeah, we are going to need some of those.   Some amazing Canadian company even make a version of the trailer out of legos in stop motion.  It is awesome, watch it here, it has been high on our rotation for sure.

Speaking of watching things, Mette has fallen in love with the Little Mermaid.  Eric brought it home from work for her to watch this week and she has seen it at least 7 times since then.  She LOVES it.  It is the first movie that she wants to watch over and over again.  I remember going to the theatre with my brother Racer when he was two and it had just come out and him loving it as well.  We had it on VHS the  moment it was released.  I forgot how well I knew the movie until I watched the first scene again and the whole thing came flooding back to me.  We have been singing "Under the Sea" a lot here.  She is also still in love with My Little Pony.  I am starting to wonder if my jeans are going to have pony leg marks on the back pockets since she often want me to carry one around as well.

We have starting just putting her in her crib at nap time despite her screams of protests, and I mean SCREAMS.  The screaming last for about 5 -10 minutes and then she is dead to the world.  She wakes up for the most part in such a better mood that it is totally worth it.  I may have let her sleep too long yesterday and paid the price with a MOODY little girl, but for the most part it has been getting better.

She also now insists on wearing  a dress everyday.  She also has to pick them out herself.  It is really cute.  She likes them as full and "party like" as possible.  I have been working on sewing her some more because when you change your outfit three to four times a day on a whim but manage to get each outfit a little dirty you better have  a stocked closet to choose from.  For the last three nights she has also been sleeping in a nightgown.  This is huge to her because it is a dress you can sleep in.  She had been in the habit of taking off her diaper at night if you did't have her in a straight jacket but she has been convinced that if she keeps her diaper on, she can sleep in a night gown and it has worked.  We didn't really have any nightgowns for her so I have made a few from old t-shirts with ruffles and flowers.  She loves them and they look super soft and comfy.  I am going to try and dye a few a light shade of pink to make them that much better.  For the first two nights she woke up totally dry.  She has been getting close to this for a while, tonight we are trying sleeping in underwear for the first time.  So far, so good.  I went in and checked a while ago.  We will see how this goes.  It is sounding like the kids will be getting new bunk beds soon and it seemed like a good time to make the plunge to diaper free sleeping.

I am super excited about the bunk beds, Grandpa is custom making them for the kids and they are going to be so great.  I got an old dresser from a friend which I am going to clean up and paint and I am going to make some floor cloths for their room as well.  With Otto's allergies I don't dare any rugs in his room but they have to much empty floor that this will be a great way to add some color and still have it easy to clean.

We are in high allergy season for Otto with trees and grass but we just changed his medicine and are handling it better now.  He is on Allegra twice a day and now has added a once daily nose spray.  He is fine with me doing it and it has made a HUGE difference.  Let's hope this continues to work for a while.

Well, this has been and epic post as eric would say and I didn't even have any pictures to break it up.  Thanks for hanging with me, if you did, I will try to get soem good eye candy up soon!  Now I am going to try reading....

Ok, I lied, I did have a few winners I recently transfered from my phone.

Here is Otto and Mette enjoying muffins at hot chocolates at our local coffee shop.  A popular outing around here!  Muffins are best eaten with a knife and whipped cream with a crazy tiny straw for those who were wondering.

The kids and I planted window boxes for Rachel as a welcome home gift from her Mom.  She sent the boxes to us and we filled them with flowers and took them over.  It was a fun little project.

 I don't know why, but I love this shot too!