7 Late Quick Takes

22 June 2013

- 1 -
One of the hardest things about leaving LA will be saying goodbye to my favorite coffee shop. Oh Balconi you have been so good to us!! They do siphon coffee and have arguably the best latte on the westside.


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So any of you readers that hail from Houston need to send me your coffee shop recommendations.

- 2 -
Before we even got out of bed on Tuesday, Jacob and I got in a spat over changing the first and ripest diaper of the day. Long story short: let's just say I lost the rock paper scissors game and lit into him as I carried our smellybutt offspring to the changing table. Jacob then made breakfast, converted Jake's crib to a toddler bed, and went to the DMV. Afterwards he brought me home a cup of Balconi. 

I said: "You realize this makes me the worst wife in the world." 
He said: "Why do you think I did it?"

- 3 -
My banjo broke recently. A tiny piece of plastic that holds a string in place popped off. Handyman Huz was SURE he could fix it. I wasn't so keen on him (i. e. almost forbid him from) taking a drill to the old girl but he was adamant about not paying someone else to do it. And a few youtube videos and one call to the manufacturer later and we've got this:

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That's my banjo neck with a flat head screw in it. It's very cool. I know. And it seems to be holding tune.

Not pictured: gloating husband.


- 4 -
UPDATE: Big boy bed - Good News
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So far nighttime has gone pretty swimmingly (knock on wood). I was worried about early wake ups and him crawling into our bed, but yesterday morning he got up at 5:30, walked over to our bed, and watched us sleep for 30 seconds before crawling back to his bed and sleeping till almost 7. I was lying in bed completely still, feeling like I'd just witnessed a small miracle.


- 4b -
UPDATE: Big boy bed - Bad News

NAPS. 

How do/did you teach your toddler to put himself down for naps in a bed?  Right now the process is taking an average of 2 hours. I'm not a nazi about it, but I do like me a little bit of a sleep schedule...And this new transition has turned our beautiful summer afternoons into nightmarish nap debacles.

Yesterday, I tried the don't engage and keep putting him back in bed method which quickly became the best game ever. He just started laughing and running back to the bed by himself whenever I came into the room. So I stopped that game after half an hour.

Then I tried the fine just play in the room until you fall asleep wherever you end up falling asleep method. But he just played for an hour. Once I checked on him after a suspiciously quiet five minutes and found him having somehow retrieved my sewing box from a super high shelf and set himself up on the floor poking his fingers with needles.

So yeah. Desperate McDesperate over here.


- 5 -
After the hell of naptime though we have teatime which is kind of the greatest. I'm not big into letting Jake snack. Mostly because we don't keep snack foods around and so snacks always require some effort on my part, but also because I like Jake to be good and hungry at mealtimes. But recently we've been having a snack with tea in the afternoon. The kid needs a little something to get him from lunch to dinner and I need a little something to get me from naps to night night so tea time it is. 

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We sit and I ask him questions and he tells me stories about falling down in the ocean. 
- 6 -
Pregnancy. Want to know something fun about my pregnancies? It's not gross at all. (Actually that's a lie.) 

I get these lovely little things called cherry angiomas, and I always have. They're genetic or something and plenty of people get them. Just little collections of capillaries under your skin like red dots and sometimes they get a little raised. Well, you know how the pregger's blood volume like doubles or whatever? When I was pregnant with Jake, I was blessed with about FIFTY new angiomas. It wasn't cool at all, but the WORST part was that two of them morphed into pyogenic granulomas: a pea-sized collection of blood vessels that balloons up out of your skin, grows and grows, and bleeds whenever you touch it (here's a pic for the strong-stomached). Fun, I know. 

When I went to have it removed at the dermatologist's office, he walked in, took one look at my head, and lit up like I'd handed him a Christmas present. He told me he'd only ever seen one on another pregnant woman in his 25 years of practice. I felt special. And by that I mean I felt like a freak.


- 7 -
Also. This is the smile-face Jake dons whenever he notices that someone is taking his picture.

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You can offer condolences in the combox.

Happy Saturday!

10 comments :

  1. Prayers for your cherry angiomas (I looked and they do not look fun, rather painful and annoying)- I hope they clear up!

    The story about the diaper changing is too funny- we haven't been blessed with children yet, but we paper rock scissors other duties around the house and I HATE losing. But when hubby makes up for it it's all worth it ;)

    Enjoy your Saturday and drink up those lattes while you can!

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  2. Love the sleeping boy booty in the air! My cute toddler does that. My best pregnant mama with a toddler naptime advice is to lie on the couch with him and listen to a story cd. I did that with my oldest after he had gone through a nap strike of several months, and he miraculously fell asleep and started taking regular naps again. Even on times when he didn't fall asleep, I still got a good little snooze in!

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  3. I have cherry angiomas to! Just never had a clue what they were called. So thanks :-)

    And, my toddler totally plays in his room for a minimum of an hr when I put him down for his nap (he has a mattress on the floor). Sometimes, he is in his room for 5 hrs for naptime (2 playing, 3 sleeping), and I feel like a rockstar mom. But he loves the alone time, and he NEEDS his nap. We all need his nap. So, I just basically give up on the afternoons and call it good.

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  4. Disclaimer haven't lived in Houston for 11 yrs but there was a great brunch place near Rice Village called Le Peep.

    Good luck with taming the nap monster!

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  5. I have a cherry angioma right at my hairline, never knew what it was... But it doesn't react to pregnancy and as far as I know I only have one. All my moles get darker though, and then afterwards they shed the extra pigment in little black specks. Yuck!

    My daughter only naps in her pram. She'll nap in a stroller if we're traveling but NOT in a bed. So if she's sick, and it's too cold outside, we have to carry the pram all the way up the stairs to our apartment and into our bedroom for her nap.

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  6. I was strong stomached until I looked at those pictures. Oy vey. Also, yay for tea time! Given your success with bed time and tea time, I'm sure nap time success is just around the corner! You can't have all your creativity happen all at once, you know. :)

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  7. I feel your pain! Our son had the same issues, and the silently return him to his bed thing was a game in his mind too. One thing that has helped us a lot is a reward chart. He has to stay in bed if he wants to get a "sleeping star," and I was amazed at how motivational that was for him. He often likes to read in bed, but if he starts bouncing around and getting himself all riled up I put a stop to that. I'll try to write a post about this soon, but if you need more info in the meantime, just let me know. Good luck!

    Jennifer @ Little Silly Goose

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  8. So completely impressed he is even trying to sleep in the bed. Ours has slept in the toddler bed 1x - only because he fell asleep in the car and we were able to move him. Not again. We are hoping he just doesnt like his current room....

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  9. I totally looked at those pictures. I think that kind of stuff is cool.... weird, I know..! On the napping (4 boys in, so I can be your consultant!), I had one that I had to lie down with every day, but he would fall asleep in about 15 minutes if I did that - only until he was old enough to really "get" staying in the bed. I was going to suggest the same as Jennifer - a reward chart for staying in the bed. I would also suggest some sort of timer. Set it for an hour and tell him he has to stay on his bed until the timer goes off. If he's still awake then you let him get up, but if he's asleep, he stays asleep. Eventually, the newness wears off and he'll just take a nap. I would also suggest letting him take a stack of books into the bed to "read" - that always helped mine stay put. He'll get it.

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  10. Don't worry! There are many, many coffee shops! When I used to be cool, I could remember all the names, but alas I am no longer cool. Rice village a few little shops and the Montrose area (close to West U) definiitely has a some of my faves :) I'll look them up and email you...

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