Thaw before reheating.
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That’s right: we have LATCH. Paul (and Will) drilled the holes and installed the front hooks last night. Then put in Will’s new car seat. This morning, Kate sat in Will’s Britax and Will sat in the new seat. And they HELD HANDS on the way to school.
Some things are worth waiting for.
Scene: Our kitchen, this morning.
Me: “Will, today is Aunt Emily and Uncle Skip’s wedding anniversary.”
Will: “Annanursery?”
Me: “Yes, wedding anniversary. Do you remember their wedding?”
Will: (nodding with a face that showed he had no idea what I was talking about) “uh-huh.”
Me: “Can you paint them a picture for their anniversary?”
Will: “What kind of picture?” (thinks) “How ’bout a BEACH picture?” (Will is obsessed with the idea that we are going to the beach with them in August. He announces every morning that TODAY is the day we are going to the beach.)
Me: “A beach picture would be great.”
Minutes later.
Will: “But Mommy, why is anna-anna-anna..”
Me: “Anniversary?”
Will: “Why annanursery at the beach? What is it?”
Me: “It’s a celebration of marriage. You give presents.”
Will: (clearly perked up) “Presents for the beach?”
Me: “Sure. Actually, cotton is the traditional present for second anniversaries. Maybe you could draw something with cotton on the beach… like a beach towel.”
Will: “Ohhh!” (an idea!) “I could SHARE my SPIDERMAN BEACH TOWEL with them at the BEACH for the annanursery!!!”
(Will, looking dapper at Skip and Emily’s dress rehearsal, two years ago.)Will was a week or so shy of 16 months when we started to train him to self-soothe to sleep. I felt guilty about it then but was getting desperate for a good night’s sleep… one free of kicks, punches, and pokes. I’m fine with the family bed and have no problem with a 1-year old sharing it… but either because we’re smooshed in the Queen (note to future parents: forgo the crib, invest in a King mattress) or because my children are maniacs out to destroy me, both children go into attack mode during sleep.
Kate gets herself to sleep at school each day, so I know she is capable of drifting off without me. However, when I am around, she seems to forget this. In fact, when I am around, she makes a point to wake up every 30 minutes or so just to remind me that she needs me to fall back asleep. Even this would be okay, if the 30 minutes in between those awake moments were not filled with Bruce Lee moves directed at my tender parts.
I say all of this to relieve myself of the guilt I feel for starting Kate on sleep training. It actually went well, the getting her to sleep part. With Will, the first night involved him throwing a huge temper-tantrum, rocketing his toys out of the crib one by one and finally, when there was nothing else to throw, taking off his pants and tossing them. I remember that when he was too exhausted to fuss, he started to clap to get my attention. (We did the Supernanny “stay in the room without eye contact” method.) He still joined us in the wee hours of the night until he was almost 2 and when he did make this transition to sleeping in his bed through the night, it was on his own schedule. I figured this will be the same for Kate. We have been talking about needing to do something for awhile and decided to go for it. Paul has little patience for being disrupted in his sleep and I can’t handle it alone every night. I just really need her to sleep a few hours on her own. Maybe just for half the night? Four hours? Is that too much to expect from a 1-year old? She is a few months younger than Will was when we started him down this path, but I know this is something she can do because she does it everyday! Please Kate… just go to sleep for us, on your own! I am so sorry, but I can’t fight with you every night.
So, tonight, I nursed her, cuddled her, sang to her… and put her in her crib. She started out happy, bounced up and pointed towards our bedroom, signaling that she expected to go back. After a few minutes of quiet fussing, she let us know she wasn’t happy. But it didn’t last particularly long (20 minutes?) and finally, Kate went to sleep. It was hard for me to do — mostly because I feel it was completely wrong. Rational parenting makes sense to me. What other species allow their off-spring to cry themselves to sleep? What would it mean for children to decide when they are ready to leave their parents bed? If we stripped away the need to fit our children into convenient places in our lives and removed all the cultural lessons that tell us to use cribs… if we did all of that, would we ever even consider the thought of not sleeping with our babies? I feel sorry, sad, and frustrated to be giving in to these conveniences.
As I write this, Kate is crying. She was asleep for a little over an hour before waking. Paul is trying to help her but she is pretty miserable. If I get her, she’ll be up again in an hour and then again in another half hour to hour for the rest of the night. She’ll kick herself awake, be cranky, pull on me to nurse, nurse, then squirm and kick and be miserable until I fight her to be still enough to sleep… then wake up again in 30 minutes. This has been my life for over a month and I need help changing it. I’m sorry Kate. I have to believe that, in this moment, I am not teaching things that will cause you to loose trust in the world, in me, or in yourself.
According to Will, you can keep celebrating for a few more weeks. Apparently JULY is your BIRTHDAY.
According to me, you’re what, 25? You’ve got to be something around that, right? ‘Cause I’m not a day over 30. Happy Birthday!
Faster than a speeding bullet, but with a soft side for his baby sister, it’s SUPER WILL!
(Click on ’em for Super sizing.)
Later, inside. Superman plays with his sister.
When she struggles getting a ball, I remind him that he is a Superhero. He comes to her rescue.
And then reflects on his Super-ness. 
And this is Kate. Just ’cause.
Despite my bringing along my Scissor Sisters CD (I reasoned grooving to “Take Your Mama” in potential minivans would be a good way to test their appropriateness, why else have all that head space if you’re not going to use it to move?) the opportunity to indulge in trying family vehicles on for size was cut short. The minivan hunt is off.
Paul, while browsing the pictures I posted regarding our sweet little wagon, noticed that we do, in fact, have the LATCH seat attachments he had been sure weren’t in our vehicle. Keep in mind that we have been driving this car with car seats that we have installed and removed and reinstalled again dozens of times for over 3 1/2 years. So this was no ordinary revelation. The only analogy that comes to mind is maybe the thrill a dog gets when he realizes he can lick his own balls… imagine the surprise and joy, mixed with an overwhelming question of how stupid he was not to discover it sooner. And he says that I am turning into an over-intelligent, scatter brained academic.
LATCH and our car have been household obsessions for months. After weeks of talking to the Dealership about installing LATCH, Paul found the service bulletin for the install and decided that it was something he could do. He ordered the bottom latch hooks to install in the seats, but once they came (more than a week ago) felt that having full LATCH in the car was impossible due to how the hooks on the seat backs were built into the seat. Granted, I shouldn’t give him a hard time for not actually checking the seat backs (you know, the ones we see everyday when we load things into the back of the car). The front hooks weren’t there, so I assumed that they weren’t in the back, either. To be fair, I didn’t even know that back hooks were needed until recently. As a general rule, I try to keep my knowledge of car-related details to a minimum. It makes it easier to keep those duties as things that Paul is in charge of maintaining. For that reason, if you ask me what kind of car I drive, I’ll answer: “a white one.”
The bottom line is, the discovery of LATCH gave us the reason we needed to remain inert. I did have the car incredibly detailed (engine, too) so at least something positive happened. And there were two bites of interest in the car. So hopefully when we go to sell it in a few more months it will sell. Because we will be a family with a car that is big enough to hold both luggage AND our double stroller. It’s the American way.
Our baby is up for sale. *sniff* Interested, anyone??
2002 Volkswagen Passat Station Wagon, GLS model
– 55,000 miles (mostly highway)
– 4-Cyl. 1.8L Turbo
– Tiptronic Auto Transmission
– Leather
– Heated Seats
– CD player/ AM/FM
– PhatBox MP3 player (see http://www.phatnoise.com/vw/ for details)
– Power seat
– Moon Roof
– Premium Sound
– “Winter” package with heated windows/seats
– Heavy-duty floor and cargo area mats
– New tires w/ warranty
– Power locks, keyless entry
– ABS (4-wheel)
– Traction Control
– Roof rack
– Serviced exclusively with dealership, full history available.
It’s a well-loved, proven reliable family car for our one-car family… but it’s time for us to switch to a bigger car. Fully loaded for comfort and style, sporty, handles great, very fun to drive. White exterior, beige/tan interior. $11,000 OBO. Email/call for more pictures or information.
This is a more realistic comparison of what we’ve got in mind.
These aren’t exactly comparable (Toyota is $2-3K more and does not have the fancy options of the T&C) but this is the sort of thing we’re considering. We’d (okay, I’d) haggle with dealerships.
There’s also this. Which I’m going to try to see this afternoon.
(We would really like a Sienna… if we can stop dreaming about power doors.)
