Sleep Deprivation

My plan was to go to bed at nine o'clock tonight, but just as I was getting ready to swaddle Coen, I realized that his Miracle Blanket was in the washer.

And for Coen, the Miracle Blanket is really miraculous. So we'll be staying up until it's dry, because this kid can get out of any other swaddle on the face of the earth, and I'm a master swaddler. There aren't a lot of things I claim to have mastered, but swaddling is one of them. And Coen is my swaddling nemesis. he can get his arms up and out of anything and that leads to a miserable night for both of us. And when you're single-parenting this gig, (yes, I just made single parent a verb. I know.) and there's no one to trade off with, a miserable night leads to a very miserable day for me and all five of the kiddos. So I will obviously be tracking down a back up blanket for Coen very soon. I was going to say the washing machine had thwarted my plans for getting to bed early, but I actually thwarted myself since I'm the one who failed to move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I thought about doing it while I was outside with Seth trying to teach him to pedal his trike, but I have apparently not yet mastered the art of telekinetic laundry switching.

Bummer.

So I'd like to get back in the habit of writing here more often again. I miss writing and my memory seems to be getting worse with each child I have, so if I don't keep better track of what's going on with us here I might forget it completely. So my goal is to post something here every day. I can't promise it'll be anything good...it could be a few sentences or a picture or who knows what. But I'm hoping if I can get on here and post something I can be back in the habit by the time I go back to school at the end of this month and I will keep going.

So if you're a regular reader and you're bored, feel free to keep me accountable to this. =)

I want to take some pictures of the new place to show everyone...for an apartment it's pretty nice and roomy. But this is the first time in quite a while I haven't been able to paint to make the rooms my own, and I'm at a bit of a loss to figure out how to decorate around here so things don'e look quite so generic. Maybe if I get some ideas I'll post before and after pictures. It's been really cool how well our furniture has fit so nicely...I was worried we'd have too many things, but it turns out the square footage here is pretty similar to what our house was, so things have been pretty seamless.

Except we have carpet here, so I don't get a chance to use my beloved steam mop. Which is a tragedy.

I think our upstairs neighbors are nocturnal. And descendants of Big Foot.

Seth's new non-napping schedule has been going great for bedtime. He'll be attending school from noon to three starting next month, so I think we'll be in good shape for nights as long as I can keep him awake between school pick up and dinner time. That's one issue down, many more to tackle. Seth got used to sleeping with me after we moved because he had become a crib climber and is completely untrustworthy. I'm not even kidding. One night he got up at 2 AM, let the dog out of her crate, and chased her around the house screaming "Lola! LOLA!" until she had a complete nervous breakdown. So he slept with me and every night I stacked boxes in front of the door so I would hear and wake up if he tried to escape.

It was an interesting few months.

So now we've moved and have a great chain lock on the door so he can't leave and there is a bed for him in every bedroom...a twin in Evany's room and a trundle in the older kids' room. But he sleeps on my bed, usually curled up at the foot of it like a puppy. Unfortunately he just doesn't mesh with the bedtime routine anywhere...Evany is an incredibly light sleeper and without fail wakes up and uses her bed as a trampoline at least once a night. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to sleep in her room has regretted it. Plus Seth and Vivi are currently obsessed with one another so I don't think they'd ever go to bed if they were together. Ava and Jace tend to read and chat before bed, and Seth needs peace and a complete lack of activity around him to fall asleep.

So in other words, I have two roommates who never let me sleep. It's like I'm in college all over again.

Oh, wait. I am in college all over again.

At least I'm getting the complete experience.

And with that, I'm going to check on Coen's magic blanket.