The Good the Bad and the Ugly

I've wanted to write a post for the last week but every time I sit down to write I get pulled away before I can finish and never seem to make it back. So now that the little man is down for his morning nap I'm determined to whip one out. Don't count on it to be enlightening, inspiring or even well written. I'm in “get it done” mode.

The Good

Since before CJ was born, I knew I wanted him to take swim lessons. I have never been confident in the water and because of that I avoid certain activities like the plague. My poor husband loves the water. As a licensed scuba diver, he would love nothing more than for me to go on a dive with him, but I’m not having it. So my goal has been that if I can’t be his diving buddy hopefully I can give him a diving buddy by raising our little man to be comfortable and confident in the water.

Day 1

So, last week, CJ started swim classes at McCollum Park and we’re convinced we have an Olympic Swimmer in our midst!!!  Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but he's definitely the best in his aqua tots class…he’s also the oldest but that’s beside the point. The first four days were a bit rocky. He had a death grip on Dustin and spent the majority of the time scanning the deck to find his momma, so I was banished to the bench. Thank God for the zoom feature on my camera, otherwise we would have no pics.

Now, Friday and yesterday were different stories. This little man went into the pool with a smile on his face and loved every minute of it. By the end of the day yesterday he had stuck his whole face in the water, jumped into the pool multiple times, was using the wall to push off of, and was kicking his little feet like crazy. He’s officially a water baby and I couldn’t be happier or prouder. 

Day 5

 

The Bad

You probably can't see it, but he's got a
serious bruise on his forehead where he
repeatedly banged his head against his crib
last night because he was so frustrated.
Poor Baby!

Middle of the night wake-ups have returned to our house and this momma is clueless and sleepy. Roughly every other night the last two-three weeks CJ has woken up between 3-5 am and refused to go back to bed without a bottle. There have even been a few nights where we caved and just went right in with a bottle and that didn’t work. Last week, we had a night where he woke-up at 2 and didn’t finally go back to sleep until 4:30. It was so bad that Dustin actually told me to send him to the sitter for the day just so I could sleep because he knew my patience would not hold out with such little rest. (Did I mention, my husband is AMAZING!!!!)

We really have no idea what is causing this and are even more confused as to how we can/should handle it. None of our old strategies seem to work and as we approach the “bye, bye bottle” age I’m horrified our house is going to become a no-sleep zone. Ahhhhh, the joys of parenting! As soon as you get one thing figured out they change the rules on you.

The Ugly

CJ has fallen in love with dirty diapers and his diaper pail. It is beyond disgusting.  Diapers have to be trashed immediately because if not he will literally hug them squeeze them in his hands like sticky little stress balls. He has also taken to playing with his diaper pail. He loves to drop things in there and then try to dig them out. Yesterday, as I was taking out the bag of dirty diapers I discovered two of my favorite pens in the bag and had to fish them out myself, which was probably one of the most disgusting things I've ever had to do. My entire arm smelled retched and the pens were so bad I had to toss them even after a thorough scrubbing with hot water and antibacterial soap. Buhhhh, it’s so gross! So the diaper pail has taken up permanent residence on top of CJ’s changing table because I refuse to stick my hand in a bag of 3 day old dirty diapers ever again!

I had just taken out the bag, thank God, because
 this is all of the clothes he pulled out of his drawers
and stuffed in here.

Diaper Pail's New Home