The love of my life...

I never thought I would have love affair with a white, plastic contraption. But the truth is, I'm totally crushing on this little beauty here. It has brought peace and harmony and most importantly, sleep, back into our home!

Ever since little 2 1/2 year old Brooks could climb out of the crib and take it apart, forcing his advancment to a "toddler" bed, at what seems to me as an insanely early age, our life has changed. And things got even worse when he broke the code on the child-proof door knob. He suddently started dictating WHEN he wanted to wake up, WHO he wanted to wake up, and WHERE he would go when he wakes up! (My biggest fear being out the front door!)

Well yesterday, on a glorious Easter morning our happy, sweet little Brooks was transformed (by lack of sleep) into a breakfast-throwing, candy-clenching, fist-pounding, back-arching, kicking-feet-of-fury... MONSTER!

As I sat there in the mother's lounge at church, trying to console him and possibly coax him into a 5 minute power nap, I vowed that I would install the door lock that arrived the day before in the mail. I was also kicking myself for not putting in on immediately the night before! ugggg...

So after the Easter festivities were over... and after I had wrestled a slippery, fresh-out of the tub Brooks into pajamas, I pulled out the drill.

GUESS WHAT? IT WORKED!

Around 6 am this morning, I awoke to the beloved sound of crying in the baby monitor, which could only mean one thing... he was stuck in his room! VICTORY! I staggered down the hallway to find books oozing out from beneath his door, like he was attempting to set them free, despite being still trapped himself. I went in, scooped him up and wrapped him up in his blanket that he loves, and just rocked him for a few minutes. I kept thinking to myself... "This is what a mom should do... soothe a crying baby and put them back to sleep, rather then rolling out of bed to find all three kids bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 3am!"

After about 2 minutes, he pointed to his bed... so I tucked him in and he rolled over and went to sleep. I was able to grab a few more minutes of sleep before getting the other 2 up for school.

And now, after a couple weeks of torture from a sleep-deprived, cranky 2 year old, I look forward to the cries in the baby monitor, which can mean only one simple thing... HE IS CONTAINED... but more importantly, STILL SNOOZING AT 8:24 AM!

Blog title asside... these are the REAL loves of my life!

Feeling thrifty...

This may look like an ordinary toddler bed to you... but don't be deceived... things aren't what they appear!

Join me on my journey of discovery:

1) Brooks figured out how to get out of his crib.

2) He actually learned how to dismantle the crib completely. So I took the crib apart immediately and put his mattress on the floor, as a temporary solution until I could think of something better. But the result was a complete eye sore and constant source of frustration when I had to put his "bed" back together every day.


3) I debated putting Brooks into the double bed which is already in his room, but the mattress was too thick to put a railing on the side, and it felt cruel to just let him fend for himself in there.

4) I thought about moving Josh into the big bed, giving him a room of his own... but that would mean that Brooks and Caleb would then share a room... and I'm NOT ready for that dynamic. Not to mention giving Josh the satisfaction of winning me over to a room of his own. I just don't think it's fair for him at a young age of 9 years old, for him to have a secret, private place of his very own, when I have NEVER, in the history of my 32 years have had a bedroom to myself. But I digress, yet again.

5) So I went on a search for a toddler bed... but I wasn't willing to spend $50 or more to get one (I know, I'm cheap!). So I abandoned the issue, and thought I would have to just deal with the annoyance of him sleeping on the floor.

But then one day, it just came to me like a light bulb switching on... like a ray of sunshine from the heavens... like a gust of wind sweeping into mind... (okay, I'll stop with the metaphors)...

This was my epiphany!
Using my #10 cans of food storage as a base for the bed...

Then using the crib board laid on top of the cans... for a make-shift "boxspring". Then I pinned the crib skirt to fit around and cover up the cans.


And TAH-DAH! It's a win-win! I didn't have to spend a dime or change the sleeping arrangments... and I have a place to hid my food storage!... and now Brooks has a cute little bed of his very own... and he LOVES IT!!!

How did you spend your Sunday?

This was my Sunday...

Sunday mornings are a whirl-wind of button-up shirts, ties, black socks and hair gel. By the time I dried my hair and was packing up the "church bag", I finally got a good look at Caleb. His eyes were a crusty, watery, red mess, and he was squinting from the light. My executive decision to take him to Patient First was based on the fact that he poked his eye with a bookmark 2 days prior, combined with his allergic reaction to pollen resulting in severe irritation.

After an hour in the waiting room, we ran out of things to "I-Spy"... so, luckily we were called back to the exam room, aka 2nd waiting room. The doctor, who I wasn't even sure spoke fluent English and kept tilting her head to the side like she didn't understand me, put these colored drops in his eyes so she could see if there was any "trauma" to his eyes. I had to keep in my laughter as she held up the florescent/black light and revealed his glow-in-the-dark eyeballs that suddenly had a radio-active glow to them. I was certain Caleb would've gotten a kick out of this and wished I had my camera to take a picture.

Her diagnosis was "trauma and irritation to his eyes" and she perscribed a saline irrigation along with drops and ointment. Just to get him to the doctor's office, I had to bribe him with Swedish Fish and promise him that they would probably only put a few drops in his eyes and look at them. So I started sweating at the word "irrigation" and decided to forego telling him what they were going to do until the nurse came back in to carry it out. When she pulled out the enormous bag of water, I tried not to gasp.

He had to lay on the table with his head hanging over the edge, with a pan of water below to catch all the water. Then she got out the tube and told him it would be shocking at first, but he had to keep his eyes open and be brave. I was worried how he would do with eye drops, let alone flushing out his eyes with 250 cc's! As I watched him grip the sidebars of the bed, and stiffen up like a corpse, this "saline irrigation" more accurately resembled water-boarding! Turns out, Caleb is a lot braver then I thought, and would outlast any interrogator... He was a trooper and did great!

So after 2 hours, we were finally on our way out... SIDEBAR: and then we ran into someone we knew. As it turns out, I've decided that Patient First is a weird place to run into people you know. I think it might rank up there with prison, because you can't really ask, "Hey, what are you in for?" without risking serious embarrassment when they answer "hemmroids... or... severe constipation". You just have to say hello, and make a quick exit!

But I'm a "glass full" kind of girl... so what's the bright side? Turns out, Caleb thinks the eye drops are a breeze compared to irrigating! Hope your Sunday was as good as ours!