"No Puma"

As we continue to not sleeping well around this house (Adam is out of town for a couple days and I was up at midnight and 4am feeding Ainsley, 5:30 soothing her; and 1am and 5:15 soothing elise! WHAT IS GOING ON around here!?!), there are some moments of humor.
Although we don't watch much TV in general, Elise watches "Dora the Explorer" or "Go,Diego,Go" during breakfast most mornings...not to justify this, but the shows really are cute and VERY educational. They've helped her vocabulary immensely and it's fun to watch her interact with the show. We also think she has a CRUSH on Diego. Sometimes when we're playing outside, she'll invite Diego to come and play with us.... something along the lines of, "C'mon Diego, let's go" "Bubbles outside, Diego" etc...
Diego often helps animals get away from a puma (evidently a top predator in South America where he's located). So, when Elise woke up this morning at 5;30 and was crying, I went into her room to calm her down... she said "No Puma, mommy". I almost laughed out loud. Really!? I think it must've been a legitimate nightmare. so cute. I told her the puma wasn't really there and it was just pretend. She acknowledged that with "pretend puma, mommy. night night now" She went right back to sleep and is still snoozing away now at 8:55... so great.

"During" Picture

We're over 1/2 way through our 'replace carpeted stairs with wood' project, but it's been put on hold for a week or so while Adam is out of town...there are 33 pieces of wood (16 steps/17 risers-the "up" part of each step), each was stained 4x, dried/sanded in between, etc... it's been taking up a lot of time around here! But, Adam got 1/2 of them done the other day and it looks GREAT so far! yeah! I'm just excited for something easier to CLEAN than the stinkin' carpet!
YEAH

"Now I lay me down to sleep...."

...but spend most of the night up anyway!!!!! Augh. Last night was a ROUGH night around the Moseley household...Now, I'M NOT COMPLAINING, just sharing. Nights like this are RARE, but painful. So, If I owe you a phone call or email today, don't plan on seeing it. I'm struggling big time right now!

8pm- Elise bedtime (a little later than normal b/c neighborhood Memorial Day cookout)
9:30- Final feeding for Ainsley
10:15-sneak in Elise's room to change her diaper before bed. The cloth diapers can't make it all night, so we give her a fresh one last thing before bed...she doesn't even wake up! it's funny.
10:30- Adam and I go to bed
1 am- Elise wakes up crying. Hard. poor thing. I go in to settle her down and she says, "Owie, Mommy. on elbow...or...on knee" So I go to get a band-aid (she's a faker, but it's 1am). I come back and ask where the owie is..."foot, mommy". hmmm..sure. I put the band-aid on her foot, lay down with her, sing "Twinkle Twinkle" and "You are My Sunshine" about 5x each, then go back to bed'
1:30ish- I fall back asleep
2am-Ainsley wakes up crying. A little early for food, I think. I let her fuss for 15 minutes, but then go in and feed her anyway. She's hungry and eats a 'full meal'. takes 20 minutes.
2:50- Ainsley can't get back to sleep- she's crying again. Knowing she's full, I suspect a poopy diaper, so I send Adam in to soothe and change her
3am-We fall back asleep
3:15-Ainsley crying again...I go in this time. Just takes 2 minutes to soothe her, then she's OUT
3:45- Elise wakes up crying again. Adam goes in this time to soothe her. I lay (lie?) awake listening. Only takes 2 minutes.
5am-Ainsley wakes up again to eat (How is this possible!?). Her diaper leaked, so I have to change her outfit, diaper, sheet, etc...total time- 3o minutes...
6am-Ainsley crying again. Still looking for the elusive 'poopy diaper', Adam goes in to change her. She just has wet diaper, but actually GIGGLES at Adam from the changing table and LAUGHS as he puts her back into the crib. (she's seriously mocking us now!)
6:45- Adam wakes up for work. Ainsley crying again....I KNOW she's not hungry at this point, so I put earplugs in and roll back over. She's fine, I'm sure. Adam goes to work
7:45- I wake up for good...nothing like feeling 'refreshed' after a long weekend!!!!!!!!AUGH. I quickly make coffee and spend a few minutes getting ready for the day....although the coffee will do NOTHING for the bags under my eyes!
8:30 Ainsley wakes up to eat again and the day has officially begun.

I think I'll tweak Ainsley's feedings later today so that ALL of us can nap this afternoon!!!!!!

So, again, I'm not complaining. I love being able to comfort the girls, but there's nothing more frustrating than nights like this when I KNOW I'll need energy for the next day and just wish I could rationalize with a 2 year old and a 3 1/2 month old! Yikes.

Art time...

Something I work hard on as a mother is to be OK with mess and chaos somedays... it can be hard on me as one who would rather have things always neat/clean/organized/etc... I also like to make sure we have FUN around the house. =) We're hoping that by encouraging creativity, being ok with dirt and messiness in a controlled way, that elise will really enjoy just being a KID and not be scared of mud, rain, etc...and not just want to stay inside where it's 'clean and safe'...we want her to be adventurous and independent.
Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, I was thankful to catch up on the phone with a friend that I haven't talked to in several months. Alicia called soon after Elise and I started finger painting in the driveway...and things went downhill as I only paid attention to elise about 80% of they way! After I got off the phone, we had a lot more fun, but the BODY PAINTING had already been done...the final picture was the temper tantrum that ensued when I put the paints away and told her it was time to go in for a bath...she got over it pretty quickly, but I got a great shot of her pitiful face. =)

How do I title this one!?!?....

Last night we watched (I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit this!) on the HISTORY CHANNEL "MonsterQuest: Sasquatch Attack". Maybe it's my lack of sleep with Ainsley still not sleeping through the night or the pitiful TV primetime lineup these days, but we were GLUED to the TV watching the latest research mixed with folklore regarding Bigfoot/Sasquatch/The Yeti, depending where you're from. I was slightly disturbed at how interested we actually were in the whole thing. I really consider myself a logical and scientific person who has NEVER believed in the reality of a large ape-like creature living in the deep woods that has 24 inch feet and weighing it at appx 850 lbs. that walks upright and "shares" some human DNA.....

until last night....


I'm leaning toward being a believer nowadays...


Really.

They had some legitimate (or at least it seems LEGITIMATE and it was on HISTORY CHANNEL-a reliable source) data and historical references to support the existence. The researchers even had set a trap and obtained tissue, blood, and hair samples of the "thing" that had been stalking a few hunters deep in the northern Canadian wilderness. Apparently, that's what Sasquatch do, they hunt and stalk people who come into their territory, but they're a very 'shy' creature.

I'm almost more embarrassed typing this than I thought I would be. But I'm pressing on...

Once it's been analyzed, the hair wasn't a match to ANY KNOWN living creature. The DNA samples are still being studied, but the preliminary results show it to be a CLOSE match to humans and the only deviating DNA were a match to APES...isn't that crazy? I don't think this is conclusive or it would've made bigger headlines, but it's at least something, right? maybe....

Ok, I do sound crazy. I'm just saying that I'm now more willing to give Sasquatch a chance than I used to be....

If you want to check "history.com" for the next time the show is playing, go ahead. I won't laugh at you...and you may change your mind, too!

ps- look to the column on the right and you can VOTE in our poll about Sasquatches!

House Projects...

Since it's been a few months and we've finally started really feeling "settled" in this new house, we figured it's time to start ripping it apart and changing things-it was only a matter of time, really. Our first project is to rip up the carpet on the steps, take out part of the wood that is currently there (Adam understands this, I'm just the "sous chef" around here!). So, we decided on a red oak for the wood, bought it all at Lowe's and are doing it ourselves...that'll save us about $800 we figure! nice! The carpet is about 8 years old, been through a LOT of kids, the last owners had 4 cats, we have a VERY shedding dog in Gus, so you can see the need for a change! The first step is staining/sanding/varnishing all the steps and the riser pieces, so I'm doing a lot of that work during naptimes so we can make the most progress possible. Elise has been 'helping' sometimes using her new hammer and Home Depot apron that Mimi brought her last weekend. She thinks the hammer is the coolest thing since she's just like Daddy now! We'll put up some before and after shots once we really start making progress. Should be fun. Here's a shot of elise with the new 'gear' on. (Mimi's friend who got the stuff from Home Depot also had another friend paint it all and personalize it! So it's not just a hammer, but a hammer with pink paint and "elise" on it. The apron is covered with little animals and cute 'girly' things. We love it!)

Spin Away...

For probably 3 years now, I've ALMOST bought a Salad Spinner at every Pampered Chef party I've been to. (and with husbands deployed so much in Japan, there were LOTS of Pampered Chef parties!!). Every time I looked at, I thought, "that would be cool, but I'm NOT spending $70 or whatever it was to DRY LETTUCE"....Then I saw Martha Stewart on the Today show a month or so ago and she said "A Salad (and fruit) Spinner is in my top 5 favorite kitchen items". Really!?! So, I had some Gift $$ at Linens-n-Things and went out to finally buy one. It's only $30 there and IS THE GREATEST THING! I seriously love it. Enough to take time and write a blog about it during one of the rare afternoons that BOTH girls are napping at the same time. That's big. So, if you're on the fence about this same purchase...hesitate no more.