Go to bed already!

I have discovered something about myself. If I am up working on the computer at night, I have a hard time stopping. I end up being up very late and at the end I find I am not doing anything productive, just killing time doing things like checking random blogs instead of crawling into bed. I don’t understand this. This very minute I am writing a blog post instead of going to bed.

Knowing this about myself, I decided to shift my computer time to earlier in the day so that I don’t get caught online late at night. However, I find that late at night I have the most uninterrupted time. I feel like I actually have Jenny time. So once again I am back in the silly habit of staying up and do nothing once I am done with my day.

You think I would learn from my mistakes. Goodnight!

School Days

Juliette started preschool this week. She is in heaven because she is finally in the four year old class and has the same teachers that Jacob had last year - Mrs. Osborn and Ms. Miller.


I was worried that four days a week might be too much for her. But today she asked me why she couldn't go on Fridays too. I think she enjoys having someone to play with other than mom.

I have been noticing quite a few changes with Juliette lately. She is becoming much more independent and starting to do more things by herself. I can't decide if I like the changes or not. She's growing up and in some ways it's so refreshing to have a child that doesn't require as much assistance. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time giving up some of the control. I'm suddenly seeing flashes of waving good-bye to her from the door while she takes off driving by herself, heading to who knows where with who knows who!


She also has be getting a little too sassy lately. One particularly rough day we called Jeff for a daddy daughter talk. He told her to go to her room and change her pants. Juliette wanted to know why. He then explained that she had her sassy pants on and she needed to change them.

Here is to hoping that school will be the positive influence and change that we need right now.

Summer Hiking

For most of the country, hiking is a great activity to do in the summer. But in Arizona, walking up a mountain in 100+ weather is a little crazy. This summer, we decided to be a lot crazy, and took up hiking as a family activity.





This was our first hike together with Josh. After enduring our first short and sweaty nature walk we got a little smarter and decided to drive up to Pine and hike in the cooler weather. Little did we know that a cold front was moving in that day and the temperature would drop into the fiftys.

Obviously,the weather is never something that stops this family. And luckily the sun eventually came out and it made for a beautiful day.



Juliette found a walking stick to help her keep her balance while crossing the small stream we hiked along.



We even put Juliette to work as our photographer.



We had a great time - especially Juliette. Luckily we remembered to bring a change of clothes for the ride home.



We have enjoyed a few other hikes closer to home since then. And hopefully we can start to get out and enjoy nature a little more without either freezing or getting heat stroke. One of these days we might get it figured out.

Lucky Boys

Juliette: Dad I wish I was a boy so I could pee standing up.

Jeff: Oh really?

Juliette: Yeah, I tried it once and it didn't work too well.

Boys are sure lucky!

Sweet Feet

I am halfway through my couch to 5k running program. Here are my shoes of choice.



They are called five fingers, but Juliette calles them my toe shoes and the cousins in Utah call them my Gorilla toes. Jeff got me started on barefoot running. It really is amazing the difference these shoes make. My running form has improved greatly.

Here are the other shoes that I run in.



Since I have been doing most of my running in the evening, I thought these might help light my way home or at least make me noticable to the cars on the road. Juliette loves that they have sparkles on the sides. I have to admit that I quite like the sparkles too.

The running has been going pretty good, except for when I have to haul these two along for the ride.



I guess what doesn't kill me will only make me stronger.

Ferberizing

Tonight is the night. We started Josh's sleep training. I know - he's only four months old! But I have to keep reminding myself that it is worth it.



With Juliette I kept putting it off. I don't think I ferberized her until she was almost a year old. I know it is not fun listening to your baby cry. A mother's instinct is to always comfort her baby. But you have to look at it as helping your baby get the sleep he needs (and that you also desperately need). The first couple nights are always hard. I remember feeling like I wanted to cry along with my baby. But that is all it takes. Once it's done, it's done, and then they are great sleepers.

Good sleep habits are so important. Children need their sleep in order to be happy and healthy. And mom's need their sleep in order to survive the day with those happy, healthy children!

With Josh I decided to go cold turkey and get rid of the beanie bed, the swaddle and the boob all at once. I knew I didn't want to have to go through this again. I thought it might be easier this time because I had done it before and had success. But it is never fun to hear your little one cry as you are watching a clock. I prepared myself for the worst. Luckily, he seemed to catch on quickly and only cried for about a half hour before falling asleep. Give me a few more days and hopefully we will all have our good night's sleep and live happily ever after.