All the Sun For You

A mom, two boys, a husband, and a whole lot of adventure!

Category Archives: Sleep


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Lazy Day

We didn’t do much today.  It was one of those days with zero expectations so it ended up being awesome!

We started the day by taking Matthew to gymnastics and that was super fun, followed by breakfast.  It took us FOREVER to find a breakfast place that was either not packed or was open.  Since when do places serving brunch not open until 11:00?  We ended up going to a place that B suggested after our first 2 failed attempts, and I said no because I thought it could be too expensive given what they may or may not have on the buffet (we went once and it was not good, and then we went again and it was terrific… so we were batting 50/50).  After our third failed attempt at finding a place to dine, I agreed to give B’s place another try and it was awesome!  For me being the one not wanting to spend too much money on breakfast, I sure was quick to say YES!” to the unlimited mimosa and bloody mary bar add-on.   I made that worth the money by having 3  🙂  They give you the choice of champagnes (dry, sweet, or peach flavored) and then you add your OJ and a flavor shot if you want.  I got peach champagne and added a shot of strawberry to my mimosas and holy hell were they good!

Matthew ate smoked salmon (this place has the best smoked salmon I’ve ever had), capers, ham, sweet potatoes, fruit, carrots, chicken parmesan, and green beans.  Success for him.  At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters – is that he’s happy with his food and that he has a variety.  If he can try something new (like capers), then it’s an added bonus.  Everyone of us left fat and happy  🙂

Matthew did not nap so well today – only 2 hours after being up for 5.5 hours but he did great the rest of the day.  B put Matthew’s wagon together while Matthew and  I napped and it was super fun taking him in that after his nap.  He LOVED it!  We visited with the neighbor and then decided that we really needed to go look at cars for me.  UGH.  We were met with more vehicles that don’t meet our difficult criteria (LATCH in all three seats in the second row so that we can put two car seats side-by-side) so we are back to our just two vehicles to consider.  Matthew was a trooper as we took him in and out of the car, from place to place.  This kid never ceases to amaze me with his happiness!  I had packed some food for Matthew before we left just in case he needed a snack so we had everything he needed for a dinner out on the town.  We went to one of our favorite local spots and had a nice family dinner.  More salmon for Matthew but he didn’t complain!

We then came home and decided to go for another wagon ride and were hoping to chat with our new neighbors who have done amazing things to their backyard.  Mission accomplished and they had a huge golden doodle that Matthew could not get enough of!  Max, the dog, took off with Matthew’s stuffed monkey and he thought that way hysterical!  We let him out to play with the Max and I don’t think he’s ever been happier.  If B wasn’t so adamant on not having a dog, I would be writing right now about how we’re going to go dog shopping tomorrow… but alas, we are not.  B keeps us dog-free and that’s a good thing because A) we have 3 cats and B) dogs are a lot of work.  AND – I believe they belong in the house with the family and B does not – so we will never find a middle ground on this and it’s for the best.  Truly.  Sorry, Matthew  😉

Matthew just went down without being rocked for very long.  He’s now “asking” me to put him in his crib at bed time – he’s just happier settling himself down and that’s great!  We sing and rock for about 5 minutes before he gives me his, “leave me alone” cue and it works out just great.  No fussing or crying – just reaches for his crib and settles down.  Unreal.

So that was our day (as if you care!).  I was supposed to go consignment shopping but my friends couldn’t go – so I’m going tomorrow.  I’m seriously jumping out of my skin with excitement!

Here are some more wagon photos.  B gave Matthew the wagon for his birthday.  Great present, Daddy  😉

The boys and their toys!

Best buddies!


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Where We’ve Been

I haven’t posted forever – and it’s not because things are moving slowly.  Things are crazy busy right now, but great!  Matthew is growing up so much each day and I can’t believe it.  He’s napping only once a day now for 2.5-3 hours so he’s getting 13-14 hours of sleep each day/night which is right on target.  And he’s very, very happy!

We’re looking at new cars for me (we buy used vehicles) because a dealership is offering us too much money for the one I have now and we do need something bigger.  We want to get rid of the current car before it becomes a problem for us.  It’s an Acu.ra, so there really shouldn’t be problems, but given how hard I’ve been on it, it’s time to move onto something else.

I am very optimistic about our upcoming cycle – not so much that it will work (and hey – it may), but with the timing of it.  I am just so very happy with the timing of it.  A huge weight was lifted when the nurse told me last week that we’d start next cycle, or the cycle after that.  I have relaxed so much since hearing that.

My sister and I are working on the business stuff, and I got our products into my favorite children’s boutique a month ago so we’re working on samples for the store.  We’re also doing the main store sign which is super exciting – great exposure!  Linds is super busy with Et.sy orders and we don’t know what will come in from the boutique, but it could be insane so we’re ramping up for that.  We may even hire someone to help us!  We re-branded the company, got it setup as an LLC (thanks, Dad!), got all of the taxation stuff sorted out (thanks again, Dad!), got wholesale pricing from a ton of vendors which cuts our costs almost in half (thanks, Linds!), re-named it (I came up with the idea which I’m proud of), and got the logo done (thanks, cousin Sarah!).  Now – we just need to expand.  We have lots of ideas but we need to go slowly because we’re just not sure how much there could be to do.  It’s exciting, yet daunting at the same time.

Our neighbor found a stray kitty today so of course I asked B if we could feed her – and of course – he said yes  😉  We are both softies when it comes to the animals (example – we wanted to use the hot tub tonight but found a bird nest with babies in it right above the hot tub so our relaxation will have to wait until the birdies have left the nest!).  We haven’t seen her since we put food out but she’s a really friendly girl who would make a nice pet for someone, so my goal is to coax her into the garage and then take her to a no-kill shelter.  I’ve done this in the past (it’s how we got our sweet, sweet Janie) and it took 2 weeks from start to finish – but this kitty is going to be easy to catch if she would just come back.  She let us pet her and probably would have been happy to be picked up.  I won’t do that without long sleeves and a box close by to put her in – so that will have to wait.  I am now worried sick about her.  She’s skinny and needs food, so we’ll keep feeding and watering her (and probably the entire neighborhood’s population of raccoons – ha!) until we can get her to a safe place.  I have promised B that I won’t ask to keep her.  We have 3 kitties – there’s no room in the inn  😉

Other good things are going on but I won’t bore anyone with them.

Photos?  I haven’t posted any photos in a while (aside from Wordless Wednesday and MMM).  Here is our week in review.  Before you see the one photo, let me just say that I had my worst parenting experience of all time this past week.  I was switching the car seat from one trial vehicle to the other when Matthew fell out of the back seat onto the pavement – head first.  It was awful.  AWFUL.  I will never forget it.  He’s just fine and already looks way better today than he did two days ago when it happened, but it seriously looked like he had been in a fight or something (and lost).  I was devastated.  Ugh.  My poor baby.

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Beggars And Choosers

B is out of town… for a week.  Yikes!  Honestly, it won’t be that bad aside from just needing a break here and there.  We have a packed calendar for the week to keep us busy, so that’s good.  It’s hotter than hell here – it was 103* yesterday and will be 105* today – so we need to keep busy indoors.  That’s hard to do, but we’ll make it work.  We’re definitely hitting the pool tomorrow though!

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  My late period (still nothing), lack of a BFP, and sore breasts are entirely to blame for it.  I have never been more than 2-3 days late in my life, so of course I figured that maybe, just maybe, we had a surprise BFP like “everyone else” out there.  I mean – when most people are a week late, that means they’re pregnant.  I should not have let my mind even go there – but I did.  Lesson learned.  The only good thing about AF taking her sweet time is that we may be able to start treatments sooner.  If AF came before 2 weeks post-nursing, then they wanted me to wait another cycle because my hormones would still be out of whack.  If AF waits until after Friday, then we may be able to start right away when she decides to show up.  Watch – I’ll get it on Thursday 😉  Beggars can’t shouldn’t be choosers, so I just need to let AF show up when she does (not that I have a choice) and just be happy that we get to start again shortly thereafter.

Matthew is consistently sleeping until 7:00 AM now – without a little wake-up in the 6:00 hour.  This whole thing worked brilliantly and I’m proud of us – we truly shaped his sleep times into what we wanted.  Of course this morning, though, when he woke up at 7:03, I let him fuss to see if he would go back to sleep.  He did not.  What is it about never being happy – or never having enough sleep?  The poor kid sleeps until 7:00 like I shaped and planned, and now I’m trying to get him to sleep longer?  Why would I want him to sleep longer – all that does is mess up his nap schedule!?  Beggars and choosers… beggars and choosers…  The bottom line is that I stayed up entirely too late and wanted to sleep in myself.  I always stay up too late when B is out of town.

Nothing is really new to report – except that Matthew now hisses like a cat.  We do believe he learned that from Lily, our grumpy, diabetic girl.  We used to think that she truly loved Matthew, but right now, she’s just tolerating him.  He gets too close, and she gets grumpy, and sometimes she hisses.  He now walks around hissing at things – not when he’s angry or anything – just whenever he feels like it.  It is adorable!

In case B reads my blog while he’s away, here are some recent photos of them together.  We miss you, Baby!

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My New View

When I was weaning Matthew, I never thought that there would be things that would come from it that would make me thankful that he’s weaned. I thought that I would just miss everything about nursing and that that certain closeness would be gone.

But something entirely new, and spectacular, has emerged. Matthew, who would only cuddle while nursing, now does this:

And this:

And this:

I have a snuggler!

I am typing this on my phone as he naps on my chest. And this is what I’m looking at:

When he is drifting off to sleep now in the rocker, he’ll randomly pop up to kiss me. LOVE!!!! I can bury my nose into his hair and smell his fresh baby scent. And I can flutter his eyelashes with my nose as I sing softly into his ear, helping him drift to sleep. Right now, he just stirred and grabbed me tightly before coo-ing himself back to sleep. We couldn’t/didn’t do any of these things while we were nursing.

I’m in heaven!


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First World Problem

Something terrifying happened today – Matthew refused to take his morning nap.  I think he may be trying to get down to one nap a day.  This is not a welcome change in our my routine  😉  Here I was, all ready to get some birthday prep done while he napped, get his lunch ready, then wake him up and get him dressed for the pool, meet our friends for lunch, and then spend the afternoon at the pool.  Instead, I put a hat on (blah), played with him, made his lunch, met our friends for lunch, and then raced home to put him down for a nap that only lasted 1 hour.  ONE HOUR! 

In his defense, the hour long nap is my fault.  I didn’t realize it, but he had a dirty diaper and wanted that changed.  Instead, I put him in my lap and nursed him while he rested – before I finally realized the stench was him and not the diaper pail.  Poor little guy!  He was so, so tired!  By the time I realized what the problem was, he was pretty wide awake and the opportunity for more sleep was gone… oh well!

We did go get some birthday prep stuff done after his nap, but we totally missed out on the pool which makes me sad because he loves it so much.  But, as B would say, this is a “first world problem,” so I’m over it.

Tomorrow calls for rain.  We may be going to the Y then!

“See that hat on Mom’s head? That’s because I refused to nap while she was trying to do her hair. She’s lucky I let her get a shower in today!”