Hush Little Baby, Don't Say a Word...I'm serious, NOT ONE WORD!

Emerson has always been a sleeper. He started sleeping through the night (~7 hour stretch) at 10 weeks old. A few factors that I think contributed to this...he was a big boy, with a big belly, and also started on formula around that time. As a new Mom, I kind of felt like a rock star. I have this awesome baby, who is an awesome sleeper. So, by default, I must be an awesome Mom.

This continued for years, literally. For the longest time, Emerson was a 7pm-7am sleeper. And still took a healthy 2-3 hour nap midday. Gradually, his bedtimes got a little later. After turning 3, he started going to bed between closer to 8pm. This was still an amazing advantage when it came to things like training for the half marathon. After working all day, family time in the evening, cleaning up after dinner, and getting Em to bed, an hour on the treadmill was a form of therapy.

A few months ago, Emerson started telling us "but, I'm so hungry" after laying down for the night. So we started incorporating a banana into our bedtime routine. Then he started getting "so scared" of the "bad guys and ghosts." Then he wanted us to "please lay with me for one minute." This didn't always impact sleep time, if we were able to quickly put the kibosh on whatever excuse he was coming up with. There were some nights though, that he realized we weren't coming back in to get his blue race car, that he "needed" and he would lay there and sing to himself or talk to himself for a couple of hours! There is a book I came across, and immediately knew I needed to buy.

This book is a perfect reminder that this is what toddlers do. They try your patience, they push the limits, and they laugh all the way through it. Jason and I approach these challenges, once we get past the absurdity of getting mad about Emerson requesting 17 cars for bedtime, with humor. It would be ridiculous to not laugh! And seriously, they wrote this book for a reason.

Big picture, we know we're lucky that Emerson waited until he was 3 years old to challenge bedtime, and all that goes with it. And I feel like we've quickly rounded the corner, and had some really successful bedtimes lately. In bed, teeth brushed, books read and prayers said by 8:15. And when that doesn't work, we read the book to ourselves, and then head back down the hall.



A return of the classics

It's true that Emerson knew how to use my iPhone before Jason did. And he has mastered Angry Birds and other games on Jason's Kindle Fire. This little boy of ours will likely never use a phone with a cord, won't ever have to use a pencil to reload the ribbon of a cassette tape, and won't appreciate having to wait for a roll of film to be developed before having any idea how your photos turned out.

But, there's an appreciation for the classics that every child has. Here's just a couple we've come to love lately.

Coming this summer...

Photo at 12+ weeks. Lovin' that profile.

August was such a nice time to have a baby, we thought we’d do it again. Based on the flip turns we saw this morning, we have a swimmer on our hands. And if Emerson gets his way with the name, you may be getting your first glance at “Dinosaur T-Rex Zielinski”, due August 2!

Video at 12+ weeks. Brief, but active!

Family Circus

I love working. It imposes some mommy-guilt, but I can’t lie. I love my job, the company for which I work, the people I am surrounded with on a daily basis, and the feeling of professional accomplishment. Financial freedom also happens to be really great. There are definite challenges in having both parents work full time outside the home, though. Today, it was getting out of the house, catastrophe free.

Most mornings go ok, but there are some days that we should be employed by Barnum & Bailey’s. Emerson is our obvious circus seal with the ball on his nose. You know he knows what he's supposed to do. After all, he's done it successfully so many times before. Compliant most of the time, but sometimes, he’s just not going to do it. No matter what. Jason is probably the lion tamer. A critical part of the act, and keeping the beasts in check. The reality, though, is things could get wild at any time. I think I would be the ringmaster, standing quietly, head in my hands after the elephants knocked over the big top.

Last night, I went to bed early and woke up rather alert at 5:45am. After checking in on emails, Facebook, Pinterest, and Words with Friends (all of the important things), I even got in a quick workout. Dutiful wife that I am, I also made and brought coffee to my dear husband before hopping in the shower.

This is where it starts to go downhill. Emerson always complicates the mornings by being picky about his shirts. I let him pick his shirt every day now, and often times, before he goes to bed to save a few minutes in the morning. He picked a short-sleeve shirt, to which I added a shirt underneath. All going ok. Then he nearly had a conniption because I made him wear jeans. I really didn’t think the red OSU sweats would go with his blue and green tie-dye shirt. I’m flexible, but Emerson can only look like a Bobo so many days out of the week before I lose it.

Once we’re all ready, we head downstairs to start to assemble bags, breakfasts, take care of the animals, etc. While getting Emerson’s breakfast together, and putting on his shoes, Jason headed to the basement to feed Kramer, only to find that Kramer knocked over his bin of cat food, now all over the basement floor. No wonder he wasn’t meowing us to death for food this morning. There will surely be a vomit pile when we get home from our Jason’s bulimic cat.

Let’s move on, and get out the door, people. Jason was good enough to start the cars, so my seat was going to be nice and toasty for my commute, just the way I like it! While Jason was getting Emerson into his car, he tells him “Watch out for that dog poop, don’t step in it.” Guess what happened. Emerson stepped in it. Krikey. So, I rush back inside, turn off the alarm, and rinse the dog poo off Emerson’s shoe, while he’s crying in the car about not wanting poop on his shoe, and Jason is buckling him in. Rainy morning, super hot water, this seemed like an easy clean up. Until I turned on the garbage disposal. Not working. Likely due to the carrot peels from last night’s post-dinner snack. So, I left the house, turned on the alarm. Sometimes, you just have to leave poop water in the sink.

So, it’s a circus. But it’s my circus. And I love it.

Weirder every day

It's a fact. Emerson is weird. Really, goofy, off-the-wall weird. He does what he wants, and is hilarious most of the time. Jason and I both have an "odd" element to us, so it's no wonder that our offspring has a tendency to be a little off kilter.

This video is a few weeks old, and if you could wear a video out, this would be. I must have watched this dozens of times. It cracks me up! I can't tell you what he's doing in this video, because I don't know. But man alive, is he committed to whatever he's doing! And what makes it all the funnier to me, is no matter how many times I ask him, he doesn't say a word about it. Just does his thing.