The Small Family   

The title of this post stems from the fact that sleep has both eluded us and been our friend with regard to Mr. Theo this week. Let’s start with the good: Theo got TWO two-hour naps on Saturday (because we were on a day trip with a long drive), and he was like a different kid...just unbelievably cheery and sweet and not bursting into tears over everything. It was bliss!! And it makes me wish we could get him to nap more regularly. It was just a real reminder to us how important sleep is for babies...and yet, it’s something we are often unable to do with him.

For those of you who haven’t met Theo and are thinking to yourself, “Why don’t they just watch for him to get sleepy around a scheduled time, put him down, and make him take a nap?”...ah, such a good idea in theory! We’ve been trying that for the past eight months, and our success is sporadic at best. Sometimes he will take a morning nap—but rarely for longer than half an hour. Occasionally he will also take an afternoon nap...but also rarely for more than half an hour. And he is down to only sleeping eight hours or so at night, so he gets a total of maybe nine or ten hours in every 24-hour block. Given that most babies of his age are supposed to get about 12 to 14 hours in every 24-hour block, you can see that he’s coming up short. Anyway, ask any of his grandparents, and they will all tell you, “That kid fights sleep like you wouldn’t believe!” I think all three of Theo’s living grandparents at first thought, “Well, they must be doing something wrong if they can’t get him to nap. All babies nap.” And now they’ve spent enough time with Theo to realize how hard it really is...which, in a way, makes Chris and I feel a bit better, because at least we’re not crazy! J Grandma Diane babysits Theo every Monday for about three hours while I’m in class this spring, and I think every week she thinks, “Maybe I can get him a nice, long nap for Cathy and Chris!” Nope, no such luck. She has quickly figured out that half an hour is the best she’ll get. Ah, Theo...I think he’s afraid to miss anything!

But, the one saving grace we had (notice the use of the word had) was that he slept well at night. Alas, that is not so much the truth anymore. He slept through the night from age 3 months to 7 months, then slept horribly for about two months, then started sleeping better (but generally not through the night) again...and lately he’s been worse again. The last two nights, he has fussed every half hour all night long. Which doesn’t always wake him up, but it does always wake us up! Even if we don’t have to tend to Theo because he’s just fussing in his sleep, we’re still woken up by his fussing. So, needless to say, Chris and I are absolutely exhausted and hoping this phase passes soon. I really don’t know what to think it is. He doesn’t particularly seem to be teething this week—he’s not drooling much, and he’s not chewing obsessively on his fingers and everything else in sight. So, we have no idea what the problem is. But boy, is it tiring!

Anyway, let’s move on to the happy stuff. The week was a quiet one...just the usual work and tending to Theo. But, we did have a grand adventure on Saturday, which was a lot of fun! We woke up early on Saturday (thanks to Mr. Theo!), so we ventured out to Placerville (about an hour southeast of here) for a book sale. The book sale was okay...but the weather was just gorgeous, and we could see a ton of snow in the Sierras. So, we decided to keep on driving to Lake Tahoe, thinking that Theo could undoubtedly use a nap, since he had been fussing all night long, which probably meant his sleep wasn’t tip-top either. And indeed he slept...he finally woke up just as we were pulling into South Lake Tahoe, our destination. Theo hadn’t officially ever been to Nevada, so we walked across the state line to add his fifth state to his list of places visited/lived in (California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and now Nevada!). We stopped at Baja Fresh and got lunch, then wandered around town a bit. Theo was hilarious! After his very long nap in the car, he was extremely hyper. So we buckled him in the stroller and walked around, and he bounced in his stroller and roared and chattered the entire time! He can sort of stand in the stroller (while buckled in), so he stood and rode along, waving his hands in the air and making people laugh as we walked by.

A lot of people bring their dogs to Tahoe, so he got to see lots of “dits,” too. (He calls dogs and pretty much all animals “dit.”) And, he got to try his first tiny taste of cookie. (We stopped at the Nestle Café to have these delicious peanut-butter-chocolate cookies we love, and I bought a snickerdoodle to give a tiny bite to Theo, since he can’t have a bite of peanut-butter cookie.) I put a tiny crumb on his tongue, and he looked disgusted, but kept it in and swallowed it. Gave him a second, and the same response. The third crumb he spit out, so we called that good enough. After that, we headed home, and Theo slept for almost the entire 2 ½-hour ride home...and was a cheery little prince once we got home. The only time he fussed was when I closed the dishwasher (which he wanted to get into), which is pretty much cruel and unusual punishment to him. He burst into tears over that one, but that’s par for the course. (He also bursts into tears when the refrigerator door is closed or when I close the pantry door. Oooh, the boy has a temper...)

Speaking of food, Theo tried two new ones this week—one last Sunday, and one on the following Saturday. You’ll see pictures of both in this week’s album. Last Sunday was sugar snap peas, which, predictably, he hated. He hates all green veggies, unfortunately. Yesterday we tried yellow beets, which, also predictably, he hated. We have found a way to get him to eat some veggies, but it’s somewhat underhanded. We give him a bite of veggie, and he holds it on his tongue as if it’s poison and then attempts to spit it out, upon which we quickly shove in a bite of apple (or plumple—apples and plums!). Apple/plumple is the key to everything. He likes them, and he will swallow other things if one shoves apple/plumple in quickly enough after the detested bite of veggie. Getting him to eat healthy foods may be a challenge once he’s older, I suspect. We shall have to get very clever about hiding healthy foods in things he likes, perhaps. It’s very odd to me that he’s such a finicky eater because neither Chris nor I is particularly picky, and we both like a wide range of different foods. Ah well, who knows where he got it from?

Sunday we were worn down from another cruddy night of sleep, so we decided another fun day was in order, rather than sitting around all day thinking about how darn tired we were. We went to brunch at Tower Café (site of our first date and home of the best French toast ever!), and then we headed over to the zoo. I think Theo is starting to see the animals a bit more, though he’s still mostly excited by just being out and about and seeing all the people. I swear, we could take the boy to the garbage dump and he’d be happy—I think he just really, really likes to get out and about. Theo spent much of his zoo time practicing his new word, “Barrrrrrrrrrrrrba!” He says this in a growl/roar, so he sounds just like a little pirate! (Try it if you don’t believe me—growl “Barrrrrrrrrrba,” and you, too, can sound like a pirate! Who doesn’t want to sound like a pirate?!)

Anyway, I’m tired and punchy, so I’ll sign off for the week. Next week you’ll see lots of San Francisco pictures, as I have my Cityscapes workshop field trip to San Francisco on Saturday. I’m torn between being excited about it and kind of melancholy—it’ll be the first time I haven’t been home to put Theo to bed! I’ll be gone from 8:30am to 10:30pm, and I’ve never been away from the boy for anywhere near that long. Methinks I’ll be quite missing him when I get home...but hopefully I’ll have some good pictures to show for it. (When I signed up for the workshop, I assumed it was just a day of shooting cityscapes of Sacramento. But no—it’s a field trip to San Francisco, which is 100 miles from here and thus makes for a long day. It’ll be a lot of fun, but just a much longer day than I expected when I signed up for the class. Poor Chris may be quite frazzled by the time I get home, after a full day in Theo-land!)