Choose Your Own Adventure: Wake-up Call

page 1. 

You have just enjoyed the first chance in a week of a few quiet hours talking with your spouse before bed. Having stayed up late talking, you are enjoying your sleep immensely. Suddenly, a cry erupts from your 13 month-old’s room. You wince as you reach for the clock and see that it is only 6am. Up until a few days ago, she was routinely sleeping until 7:30. You feel robbed. You realize the adventure of Friday has begun.

If you choose to roll over in the hopes you dreamed it, turn to page 2.

If you choose to succumb to her alert state and take her to the living room for breakfast, go to page 10.

page 2

The cries get louder and more frantic.

If you choose to run to her room and hope to quiet the cries before your 3 year old wakes up, turn to page 3.

If you choose to succumb to her alert state and take her to the living room for breakfast, go to page 10.

page 3

Once you rescue that little girl, you attempt to pull her into bed with you in the hopes that she will snuggle up and go back to sleep. While sucking her thumb in a feigned state of rest, she proceeds to lightly pull your hair, stick her finger in your ear, up your nose, and occasionally in your eye.

If you choose to draw her closer, hoping a tighter hold will induce sleep, turn to page 4.

If you choose to succumb to her alert state and take her to the living room for breakfast, go to page 10.

page 4

Now that she is feeling quite constrained, she commences full WWF training. She flops full tilt on your face and stomach. She begins to grunt and point at the door.

If you choose to try reading books to her quietly to re-introduce a sleep routine, turn to page 5.

If you choose to succumb to her alert state and take her to the living room for breakfast, go to page 10.

page 5

She takes an active interest in the books. She flips open the piano looking for Spot, feels the scratchy basket with Curious George inside, and Pats the Bunny. Then she grunts some more and points again at the door.

If you choose to succumb to her alert state and take her to the living room for breakfast, go to page 10.

page 10.

Ah, what a beautiful day. You had planned to wake up early today anyway. Right?

Potty Party

And so it begins. We had a 'big boy' party for Moo on Tuesday. We had tried potty training a few months back and everyone ended up in tears. Thanks to some blog-browsing and this helpful entry, we all took courage to give it another go. So, we talked it up big, blew up balloons, gave all of Moo's diapers away (to little sis), made a potty friends list, got out the jelly bean jar, and started the timer. We ended the first day with a "big boy" cake. Moo was in heaven. We're three days in now. Everyone is exhausted, but Moo is making huge progress. We only had to do one load of laundry today. We have three more days before grandpa comes to visit, so we hope he really rocks it this weekend. We appreciate prayers! We're so proud of our little big boy.

playgrounds

 I'm not sure why I have stressed for a whole year about walking up and down the hill to distant playgrounds. This dream playground has been right under my nose the whole time (literally right across the street from our apartment)! Maybe when Micah turns 3 I'll let him live out the great adventure of playing on wood piles with miscellaneous pipes and who knows what else. Just another way that city life and suburban life have different definitions of play. :)

perspective

I used to think it was really gross when other people's kids drooled or spit up in public.

Yesterday, after doing chores, I realized I was still wearing a shirt with baby poop on it that Lydia had graced me with over an hour earlier. Yuck.