The War at Home

Intellectually I know there will always be some sort of battle going on with my children. With Trey, it was food. The kid was anti food for the first 4.3 years of his life. He's demanded his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (white bread only, crusts cut off) be cut into circles. CIRCLES!! No food may be touching another part of any food. His snacks must be in recognizable packaging. No switcheroonie of brands. It's cheaper this week than the normal brand? Too bad, suck it up because it will go to waste because it's just not acceptable. Just this month he's slowly getting better. Being able to rationalize with him and use m&m's as bribery tends to work pretty well. I figured that my battle with Leah would be the same.

Wrong.

Her battle was sleep. I knew I had it good with Trey but I never realized how good until Leah came along. When Trey was a little guy, I'd put him down for bed at 9 p.m., bottle of water in his pudgy little hands, sound machine on, lights off and he wouldn't make a peep until 9 a.m. If he happened to wake up before then, he'd happily play with the stuffed animals in his crib. He rarely woke up in the middle of the night, usually only if he was ill. Leah? Still nursing herself to sleep. Still wakes up 4-9 times a week. Yes, up to nine. Sometimes she'll wake up an hour after she's put down and then again at 3 or 4 in the morning. She will NOT comfort herself back to sleep. I have to go pick her up, wipe her face clean of her tears (she'll point out the wet spots on her face for me to dry) and lug her back into my room so she can reattach herself to me. This baby is nearly two. I've done research on nursing and yes, we American's are evil nursers. The rest of the world finds it normal to nurse until three years of age. I even found one American who nursed until her child was S.E.V.E.N. Ugh, let's not go there. I just want to be freeeeee and I want to sleeeeeeep and I want to be able to tuck my daughter into bed without holding my breath, tiptoeing and praying that when I set her down she stays asleep.

Halleluja, Praise God it all happened this week. The older child is trying new things. This is a miracle. We've made a huge deal over the fact that the kid ate spaghetti-o's and tried (for the very first time, ever) a dinner roll. HUGE! Huge.
The baby started to fall asleep in my arms. I picked her up and told her I was taking her upstairs to go nigh-night. I talked to her and hugged her. I held her close to me and told her I loved her. She said, "et tu". Shakespeare? Yes, she's a genius. Or, she just said I love you too, in baby speak. I put her into her crib and she just layed there. Still. No ear piercing screams. No gnawed crib railings. No wet carpet from the tears.

I'm a happy momma. Now, I just need to figure out how to freeze them and keep them this way forever.