Sleepless night...

I have been up and wide awake since 4am. Good thing it is Christmas break, but bad thing that the next several days are say busy that I will not have time to even think about resting during the day. I got up to pee at 4 (I dread when this happens for many reasons!). Once I laid back down, I could not go back to sleep. I realized I was hungry, and then my mind began to race of all sorts of things (some stupid and pointless, while others quite crucial):
*why didn't I wrap the Christmas presents last night? Now I have to stress about getting that done with E running around and wanting to help!
*is it really gonna snow on Christmas and the day after? This could be dangerous yet interesting...
*what am I going to dress Ethan in over the next few days? Sure, it does not matter, but I want him to be somewhat festive!
*what am I going to wear???
*what are we going to do about the new baby's room/Ethan's room? Gotta get thinking on this one!
*a new bed for Ethan? another dresser/changing table?
*double stroller? van?? These really make me feel old and like a soccer mom in the making!
*what in the world will I be doing with my students when we return in Jan? Yes, I always think about school, lesson plans, and my students!
*what needs to get done in my classroom before I go on maternity leave? I have some organizing that I want to do, I need to be thinking about lesson plans (which really stresses me out cause I NEVER plan that much in advance!)
*when will our garage look normal again? Normal meaning all the random junk is gone.
*will I be able to stay home the rest of the school year? This question will be answered very soon once I go to the county meeting about my leave.
*what will we do next year with 2 little boys as far as childcare/school etc?
*why is it that as soon as I straighten/clean the house, you cannot even tell?? I know I should just get used to this with 2 little boys, 2 dogs, and a husband!
*how can I better organize the toys? I will surely wait until after Christmas for this one!


At the beginning of this pregnancy, I had a terrible time sleeping. It got better, but then over the past few days (maybe a bit more), I have not slept well. It is not the big belly. I just cannot get comfy, wind down, and get my mind settled enough to rest peacefully. I know that before long this will be my normal routine with a newborn baby, butI would really enjoy a good night's sleep! Napping during the day is imposssible; I try to sleep during Ethan's nap, but I never can fall asleep right away, and before I know it, we are up and at it again! I know I should go to bed earlier, but I am never tired enough, and that is the only time that Matt and I get alone. I was not like this before break. I suppose it is because I am so tired from being so busy getting stuff done and playing with Ethan, or it is simple because I am getting further along in the pregnancy.

I absolutely love being at home with Ethan and Matt, and I know they both love it as well! :) Me being here definitely messes up the routine; today, the only time Ethan napped was in the car. It was that way the day before too. With Matt, he is asleep at a certain time. Because of the nature of the beast, I have errands to run and things to do, and Ethan must go with me. Needless to say, being bundled up in a warm, moving car soothes him to sleep. It would me too if I was not driving!

I am so looking forward to the next few days of celebrating Christmas! Ethan actually knows what to do with a present, and it melts my heart to hear his precious voice squeal with excitement and saying, "Look!" (Ethan's trademark for sure!) Next year will be even more fun for him (and us too), and then of course there will be little brother crawling (maybe) all over the place. Our years of making special holiday memories and traditions are here, and it makes me so excited!

Well, I have been up for 2 hours now! I think I might go play a yahoo word game that Matt and I have recently gotten adicted too. I really wish all the presents were out and available for me to wrap, and that Ethan's room was not right down the hall! Before long, E will be up, and momma will be exceptionally tired! Hopefully Ethan will be so worn out from going to my mom's house for Christmas that he will go to bed even earlier than usual! I might actually have to join him as well!

Momma's little helper...so he thinks!

Ethan, as well as any young child, tries so hard to do everything just like a grown person. We love watching him do things as if he were so much older. But considering he is only 18 months old, he is doing pretty well! Here are some ways that he has "tried" to be my little helper:

*Ethan loves to sweep...always has. Since we have 2 big dogs, a toddler, and wood floors, there is a lot of sweeping going on! When I grab a broom, Ethan grabs one too and becomes a shadow of me. I use a small broom and dustpan to collect it all at the end, and Ethan has always enjoyed this task as well. He will often times walk around holding the small broom and dustpan, and he will even open the trash can to drop in his dirt/trash--which is nothing. Well, a while ago, the small broom went missing. We looked everywhere, and then gave up. We came to the conclusion that E most likely threw it away.

*Just the other day we were all upstairs watching TV, and Ethan of course grabbed to remote. We have duds of remotes for him to play with, but somehow he knows they do not work. All of the sudden, the TV had subtitles on the screen, and we did not know how to get them off. Matt was beyond frustrated, and I was looking on-line to find any help/hints. Ethan was only doing what he sees us do; hold the remote pointed at the TV and press buttons.

*I was in Ethan's room putting away his clean clothes when he begins to open random drawers and take stuff out. He then proceeded to throw and entire drawer of clean socks into his dirty clothes hamper. After all, this is exactly what he sees me do every day. Either I did not get all of the socks or Ethan did this again, because when I was doing his laundry, there were several pair of clean socks in the mix.

*I went to switch Ethan's clothes from the washer to the dryer, and as I was grabbing to damp clothes, I noticed a strange residue on many of the items. I then stumbled across a diaper that was hloding so much water that I was quite impressed with Luvs even more! Apparently my precious son had now tossed a diaper (don't worry, it was unused and clean!) into the hamper. Why he did this, who knows? In his little mind it made sense. The clear, sticky residue on the clothes was the inside of the diaper. I then had to re-do the laundry, and Matt and I still laugh about it!

*As I was cleaning the bathrooms yesterday morning, Ethan was so intrigued. He watched every step I made, and he loved sloshing the brush in the toilet. He did that for at least 20 minutes while I finished up the weekend chores. It was so cute!

What fun memories watching him mature!