Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Masses Have Spoken

Glitter it is! I have placed the order and we should receive them soon. I’ll deal with the glitter all over the house…that’s why we have a maid right? The practical side of me did take over and I ordered a size bigger so that she could have them for awhile. Unfortunately this means that she may not be able to wear them right away. Oh well. You can’t win them all. Thank you all for your participation and comments. I don't think we've had that many comments on a post since Ella was a baby! That is very exciting for us (and when I say "us" I really mean "me" because honestly, Joe and Ella really don't have a lot to do with the blog).

Ok, so I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again…Ella is funny. The best part is that she doesn’t even know how funny she is because she’s just being herself…her cute, funny, 2 year old self. The other night Joe was putting her in her pajamas. Ella hates changing clothes. No, it’s not EB related…it’s 2 year old stubbornness related. She just doesn’t want to have to stop doing whatever she’s doing long enough to have her clothes changed. And she knows that if she has to take off her clothes and put on her pajamas then she’ll soon be headed for bed. So last night while Joe was putting her in her pajamas, Ella started crying that she had a boo boo. After a thorough look we didn’t see any sign of injury, so Joe proceeded. Suddenly the tears about her “boo boo” stopped and Ella said, “Can the Wonder Pets fix it?”

Saturday we spent the day at home. It was pouring rain outside and I had things at home that I needed to get accomplished. So we spent most of the day playing the basement…Ella’s toyland. At one point she started running around the couch as fast as her 2 year old legs would take her, and as she was running she was chanting, “Go Ella! Go Ella! Go Ella!” We both burst into laughter and Joe said, "Where did she learn that?" Since neither of us say it, there's only one place she could have learned it...Metti...or TV.

Ella is also learning how to make jokes. She’ll look at me and say, "Hi daddy" or, "Hi Boppie" (that’s what she calls Metti) and then start laughing because she knows it’s funny that she's calling me the wrong name. Or she’ll have a necklace and call it a bracelet, and start laughing because she’s so funny. I of course completely play it up and say things like, “Hold it! I’m not daddy…I’m your mommy!” and then I tickle her belly. Her laugh is the BEST!!!

And now, for my shameless plea…we need sleep prayers. For the past several weeks (months) Ella has been waking up at least 5 times a night, and at least once during the night she wakes up and stays awake for 2 hours while we take turns trying to get her back to sleep. Joe and I both work full-time, so this does not make a good combination. We are both at our wits end. We can count on one hand…ONE HAND, the number of times we’ve had a full nights sleep in the past 2 ½ years. When she just gets up once I can deal with it (I don’t like it, but I can deal with it), but this whole waking up multiple times thing and not going back to sleep is completely ridiculous. So ridiculous in fact, that today I’m going to buy a PARENTING BOOK (Gasp!). Anyone who knows me knows I’m not the parenting book kind. I have nothing against people who are, but Joe and I tend to parents with our gut…if it feels right, then it is. This is why 99.8% of the time I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. Sometimes this works out…sometimes it doesn’t, and with Ella’s sleeping it has definitely NOT worked out. So I’m going to Barnes and Noble today to see what I can find. Since Ella’s older we can’t really do the whole “cry it out” method (we didn’t do it when she was a baby because we didn’t want her to tear her skin up while she was crying), and we’ve tried music and all she does is sing along, even if it’s instrumental (this girl definitely got her Paw Paw’s musical gene). We’ve also tried white noise and it doesn’t work either. She has a humidifier in her room and I use saline spray in her nose thinking that might help...nope. I feel like we’ve tried everything, which is why I’m going to my last resort. Maybe a book will give us some new ideas. Like I said, both Joe and I are at our wits end. We can’t keep functioning like this. I don’t get mad at God about Ella having EB (I don’t like it, but I’m not mad), but I DO get mad about her not sleeping through the night (should I admit that?). I feel like that is one area where He could hook us up, you know. Throw us a little bone and let Ella sleep through the night. Not one night, not two nights, but every night. Ok, now I’m just sounding bitter. Anyway, please pray that Ella starts sleeping through the night. Thanks!

Ok, that’s it on our end. Thanks again for all of your comments and votes on the shoes. I know Ella will love her glitter shoes, and I’ll just deal with the glitter being all over the house (although I did go to Target this weekend and rubbed their glitter shoes as hard as I could and not one speck of glitter came off on my hand…lets hope these shoes are the same way). I’ll be sure and post pictures when they arrive.

3 comments:

Paige said...

Praying for your sleep! James is just now coming out of his 2 1/2 year no sleeping phase...sounds exactly like what Ella is doing. It lasted (sorry to say) weeks of him getting up 10 times a night. Ugh! Now he is down to 1 waking a night. We tried everything and nothing worked, and suddenly one day he started sleeping better. Hang in there!

ValerieO said...

If that particular book doesn't help I would recommend one of Jo Frost's, the Supernannay, books. I love her show and do get some of parenting advice from her. Her sleep method for older kids seems to work - on the show anyway. Other than that - I don't have any other advice. We do the fan, music and sound machines - which, Connor picks birds to listen to so I hear birds all night - but I'm used to it. I will definitely add the sleep issues while praying for y'all. Hope to hear some good news soon!

Beth said...

Katie, when Wyatt refuses to sleep at night I sit in his room next to his bed and just stare at him. When he sits up I tell him to lay down but that is ALL I say. Other than that I ompletely ignore him. It took a while but he eventuslly realized nothing fun is happening at night and now only wakes up for a few minutes once or twice a week and is usually able to settle himself back down. It was exhausting on the front end but totally worth it.