The Lost Week

So a whole week went by between postings. I must have been really busy, or out of it, last week to not have written for that long; so much so that I can hardly remember what I did. Here's what I do remember though: Repeatedly jumping up from the couch, whimpering "Nooo, not again!" and running to the bathroom with my hand over my mouth. It got so much worse after I posted (incase you don't remember). The next morning I pushed through a trip Vermont and back again in order to keep an appointment. I spent a couple days without a voice, and went through all the possible winter ailments in the course of five days. After the stomach thing, I pretty much just had cold symptoms to go along with all the aches and pains that follow a good, hard puke-fest. Then on Saturday I worked a birthday party while coping with wicked sinus infection pain, but that was gone by the next day when I had another birthday party that I worked through with a mild fever. Even though I didn't end up going into work early Monday morning (since we closed due to the ice storm), I had long been awake before I found out, and just as I was getting back into bed, Jacob woke up for the day. Tuesday was the staff-development day (ie, up early again) at work, Wednesday we went to the diner (early) with our moms' group friends, and today was the monthly meeting (early) of the group. So there hasn't been much opportunity to catch up on sleep, thus I'm still only feeling 75%. I'm not complaining; just stating the facts. I'm happy to be alive.

Jacob's been all out of whack this week though. He's been whining a lot. And he's been doing the crying thing again where he won't talk and we get all freaked out. Not so much while he's sleeping like before, but when he wakes up. And before he falls asleep he's having wicked tantrums. Last night Jacob fell asleep in the car after we left Andrea's house (where she and I did the swapping thing again with the kids) at 6pm and I didn't even care because it meant that Zach and I got to watch our first movie in like five months. Little Miss Sunshine was awesome. Go rent it. We got 3 1/2 hours of quiet time, then when I was telling a story, we heard something and both looked up. There was Jacob at the top of the stairs with his legs through the railing, just sitting, watching us. We have no idea how long he was there for, or how much of the story (that I don't want repeated) he heard. Zach and I headed upstairs to Jacob; his face contorted in a grimace and the tears began to flow. It took 20 minutes to calm him down, at which point Zach fell asleep leaving me alone with Jacob, who was up til 2am.

Not having gone to bed until the wee hours of the morning, Jacob was pretty tired when we got home from the meeting today. It took over an hour of trying to convince him that the reason he kept lashing out on me was that he was tired, and then I just gave up and escorted his thrashing body to the bed. From there it was all of three minutes and one book before Jacob was asleep. This kid NEVER wants to go to bed. Not once has he ever admitted that he was tired, or asked to go to bed. Marisa does all the time. Some of my friends report that their kids willingly resign themselves to sleep. My kid fights it to the very end. He is just like me. When he woke up this afternoon it was 45 minutes of wordless whining and crying and then I just decided something needed to be done so I forced Jacob into his snowsuit and ushered him and the dogs outside for some fresh air. We haven't played outside in so long and I know it's what we all need. When there's no other reasonable explanation for Jacob's behavior I know it must be that he just needs some nature energy. The crying continued outside for a few minutes, whereupon I tried to take a picture of Jacob because I had lost all sympathy for him at that point. This is him actually running away from me and screaming, "No, don't take a picture!"


Things eventually got better and Jacob asked me to get his hockey stick and puck when he saw the ice in the backyard.
He obviously didn't get enough of a nap because the rest of the day was on-and-off tantrums. He was taken up to bed against his will and really let it all out before falling asleep like this:

Can you tell how much I like having a digital camera??? Anyway, that's what Jacob calls the 'little boppy'. Boppy as in the Boppy nursing pillows which we have one of. It's the same shape, but a totally different function. It's one of those little neck things you warm in the microwave. I've had it forever but started using it to keep warm after the second heating pad explosion late last year, and now Jacob has claimed ownership of it.

Oh, and I forgot about the visit to the fire house on Saturday. Uncle Bill is a fireman and has been dying to show Jacob around. It was part of his Christmas present and he was finally old enough to enjoy it. Here's some pictures of it, and also pictures of the ice the other day. And one of the Christmas lights at church before they were taken down. Geeze, I guess I do remember more than I thought I did.