A new Etsy shop, by another "Danielle Suzanne.."

My good friend's Etsy Shop! Check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/danielleCrillyArt?ref=seller_info

Sleep

Brice is not a good sleeper. It has not always been like this. He started sleeping through the night at 3 weeks. By 3 months, he was up to 11 hours. As he's gotten older, his sleep has gotten progressively worse. As has his behavior--no big surprise there.

First he was getting up closer to 7, then 6am. Now, we force him to stay in his bed until 6am, because (apparently) he gets up long before then. We have found him watching TV in the basement at 3am. Sometimes he'll get up in the morning and tell us he got up at 3, then 4, then 5. And we believe him. He always has dark circles under his eyes. ALWAYS. And he's just so tired all the time. He yawns, he's irritable, he melts down with the slightest provocation. Some of this is his personality. He's intense and emotional. But we just knew that sleep must play a big part in this.

We've tried everything we could think of--melatonin, Benadryl, warm milk. Putting him to bed early, later, blackout curtains. You name it. We had him tested for allergies. Cut out gluten and dairy. Nothing worked. I was googling "black circles under eyes" and saw a common thread--adenoids. So I made an appt. with his pediatrician. Tonsils and adenoids were fine. DANG!!!  But on a hunch, I made an appt. with a pediatric ENT. We went today. She stuck a long scope up his nose and lo and behold...his adenoids are HUGE. As are his tonsils. How did the pediatrician miss this? I don't know.

But apparently he has 90% blockage in his adenoids. So, when he turns 5 in three weeks (knock me over with a feather--FIVE--how did this happen??) we will do a sleep study where they hook up his head and monitor his sleep to see what's really going on. But this is good news. GREAT NEWS. There is a reason! He might start sleeping well and long. No more black circles! We told him this at our celebratory Starbucks stop and do you know what he said?

"Will this help me be good?"

Oh, Brice. Sweet Brice. It's a start, at least :)

Where we've been...

 The boys discover how to climb on the outside of the staircase.

The boys carve a pumpkin with "papa" in his workroom. Notice my father's steady hand while Harry literally hangs on him. 

 Brice is psyched. Harry has zero interest in wearing his Thomas "costume." We told him, "no costume, no candy." He kept the front piece on, but tossed the hat as soon as he hit the sidewalk.

 We told them, "eat as much as you want."--thinking they would tap out at 5 pieces. They did not. It took us about a week to recover from the 14,000 pieces of candy they ate that night. Live and learn...

 Scully. He's huge. He is already ten pounds over the predicted weight. Good thing he's fluffy.

 Brice wore his costume for 5 days in a row. Harry is in his favorite costume, as well. See how many leaves we had? We have a huge gingko tree in our backyard. Seth insisted on doing it old-school, even though I desperately wanted a leaf blower. 

 This is Brice and Ariella. She is Seth's cousin's daughter. She is so lovely and fun. They came over for Thanksgiving and Brice held her hand the whole weekend (and ate her Cheerios snacks; Harry swiped her babydoll).

 Decorating our tree. This is the first year (in seven!!) we've had a proper Christmas tree (various, boring reasons...). And it's real--also a first for me. The kids LOVED decorating it. Of course, there were about 40 ornaments on the bottom. 

 The boys were beside themselves with joy. Good thing i'm not TypeA, because it was pure chaos. 

Harry brushes his teeth before passing out. Such a big boy. He's even potty training now. He has figured out how to go in small increments, thus maximizing the number of M&Ms he gets. They think they're gaming me; I think they're wonderful.

Fall Cookies!

I wanted to make cookies with the boys. I have never actually made cookies with the kids for good reasons--too stressful with two super high-energy, not all that cooperative children. But my parents were coming into town, so I figured mom could help. I found the recipe for the above cookies. Cute, right? I wasn't excited about using three different dyes, but hey, it's festive! So anyway, the above picture is what they were supposed to look like.

My mom and I went to Target to look for cookie cutters in leaf shapes. Can you believe they didn't have them? So we decided to let the kids make circles, and then Brice could draw veins (you know, leaves!) in them with a toothpick (and I didn't have any, so of course I had to buy 300).

This is the boys in their cookie-making-glory. They look happy, right?

I thought I could get some cute pictures, since they were both actually enjoying the cookie-making. But when I said, "smile Harry!!" this is what I got. Classic. Oh well. And i'm telling you--he's my happy-go-lucky kid.

The cookies were actually delicious.

Maybe not totally accurate...

but I like it.

Home and belonging and beauty

Doesn't this look fabulous??? There is nothing I like more than, well, there are lots of things I like. But design magazines, design and decorating books. Mmm... And being home. And decorating my house. And the whole concept of home. And belonging.

I love beautiful things. I tend to decorate with lots of neutrals. Lots of whites and not too much color. I think color overstimulates me. But I love art. And pictures on my wall. And anywhere else I can fit them. Especially black and white pictures. I don't think i'd have the guts to decorate like this picture. But I love it.

When I graduated from college, I put my French to "great" use by working in an art gallery in Chicago. I helped the owner, who spoke wonderful french but had terrible grammar, translate letters. He would give me his incorrect and somewhat offensive letters. And I would translate them for him. Clean them up. But what I really got from this job was fantastic discounts on art. Really good art. And I made friends with the director of the gallery who also gave me some sweet little finds from the flea markets of Paris. I ate Ramen noodles and hot dogs for years because I spent all my (extremely meager!) salary on art.

Now we are finally in a home. A real home. We have a garage and a basement and a yard. We have been married six years and have rented three places, and bought one condo (what a disaster) and now here. I love our house because it's blue (and doesn't leak). And the previous owners were serial rehabbers and had great taste. But I mostly love it because it's ours. And we have no plans to move. And our boys have their own room. We can mark their years on their doorframes. We can scratch the floors and it's not a reduction in our deposit--it's memories. I'm ridiculously sentimental. Notches on the door frames. Scratches on the floor. I love the whole concept of home, belonging, and the longing for something more permanent, more perfect.

But I digress.

Home. Sigh...

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday, sweet Harry! We love you SO MUCH and are so happy God gave you to us. We love your sweet nature, your dramatic kisses, your indignant tantrums. We love watching you grow (my how you eat!), learn, and delight in the world (except any living creature that comes within 2 feet of you). You are a joy to raise and though someday you will leave us, as you should, we treasure these days we have with you.

Happy THIRD birthday, little man.