Thursday, February 28, 2013

Sleep specialist and a 7 year old

I took Big M to a pediatric sleep specialist last week, 3-hours south. Why we have to drive so far, I have no idea. Little M's gastroenterologist is 2.5 hrs away.

I explained to doctor Big M's sleep issue and after a long talk, I didn't really have an aha moment. Daddy didn't have that moment either after I relayed what happened with our visit. Big M takes at least 2 hours to fall asleep, sleeps lightly and wakes up several times a night and sometimes he stays awake for an hot or longer. He has night terrors frequently. As a result he is always tired and it is affecting his behavior, it affects his learning, and his emotional state. We've been trying to cope with a very low dose melatonin, but he is still barely getting enough rest.

The specialist seemed to hone in on his night terror. She said that the night terror could be the culprit and is waking him up and because he isn't getting enough sleep it is making him more prone to even more/worse night terror. That made sense to me even though I don't believe that it is the root cause of his problem.

Ever since Big M was an infant, he is a light sleeper. I have to rock him for him to fall asleep. Then we had to lay with him for him to fall asleep. Daddy and I remember that at 1-2 yrs old we had to be in constant contact with him in bed. We learned to inch away a little at a time so that we could sneak out at night, only for him to extend his arm or leg so that he could keep touching us - when we were pretty sure after 1 hour that he was already sleep. It makes sense now, that he probably wasn't sleep because it took him very long to fall asleep.

We have no answers yet and we don't expect to, not until the actual sleep study. We are going to get called by the sleep lab within the next week or so to set up an appointment . Daddy will be with him , for the over night stay. Hopefully then we would know why Big M has such a hard time sleeping.

Attaching my first label

It's a moment of pride, fright, doubt and amazement. Of course, I haven't really sold a lot, so there really is nothing to be scared off. But having four small children, the order of business is "family first". They are stressful on their own so I don't need more stress on top of that. That said, I have been creating, creating, creating. I haven't listed them on Etsy because I want to list them all at once. That and I have to photograph them. Not having any models, it's pretty hard. But I shall persevere.

Oh yeah, there is still the matter of business paper work. I am going to apply for sole proprietorship, I think I know which form to use, I just haven't done it. Pretty scary, official stuff.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

missing daddy

A couple of weeks ago, Daddy left for business to California for 2 weeks. I knew right away that the biggest challenge for me is all the after school activities: church class, dance, soccer, soccer practice, lip sync, drama class. Some of these activities happen right after the other, so someone will have to miss something.

The first week was a doozy, especially that one of Big M's soccer practice was at 7 o'clock. It was simply way too late for the girls and Little M to tag along. I wanted to skip it, but Big M was due for a little recognition for executing a signature move during a game. So there we were, late at night, the girls were fine playing with their lip pad at first. Half way through the practice they got tired. So I walked them and Little M around the school. Following Little M was a job and a half in itself. It was a tiring night followed by a tiring day the next day.

All that first week, we went to as many things as possible. The only consolation was that the girls' dance was cancelled due to the weather. After week 1, week 2 was a matter of which one we will make instead of which one we will miss.

For Little M, every morning for 3-4 days, he looked for his Daddy. I had to remind him that Daddy was at work far far away that he had to ride the airplane to get there. "Oh, Daddy is at work," he'd say. After about 4 days, he stopped looking for him in the morning, but he would demand that he talk to Daddy via video on the iphone. If I told him no, he cried and screamed. Hearing this was hard on Daddy, too. Couple with the high-blood pressure problem that plagued him the minute he got off the plane in California, he was quite homesick. His blood pressure meds were changed and was not working for him. Stress of being away from family, or he truly has health problems? He was understandably worried, and so was I.

The 2nd week being away from home was extremely hard for him. As day 13 was nearing, the day he was to fly home, the weather was not looking too good. We were due for a massive snow storm in Upstate NY, one that would dump up to 16 inches of snow. He was to fly in on the evening of that storm, and so I suggested that he move his flight. I didn't want him to get stuck in the airport. So he changed his flight, but he couldn't get an earlier one, he got a flight one day later. When you're missing a loved ones, you count down the days when you would get reunited, and when that day gets delayed even just one day it is really hard. The children asked me to write the days down on a calendar so they would know when Daddy would be home too.

When Daddy did finally get home, it was right back into the routine. I was sick and couldn't make Big M's church class, so Daddy was supposed to take him. Only right when they were to leave, Daddy didn't feel good and measured his blood pressure again. It was high. He went to the urgent care instead. Thankfully, he someone that thought his blood pressure meds was nonsense and switched him to a different one. It worked. Daddy was relieved in that he wasn't having heart problems afterall. We were all relieved.

In the end, we agreed that 2 weeks was way too long for him, for me, and for the kids. He would try to arrange business trips to be slightly less than that.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Stubborn Monkeys logo and Crafty Moms R US giveaway!

A couple of evenings ago, I told my husband that we need to come up with a company logo for our business. He drew some things on paper which I really love, the problem was how to get it on the computer. While he was at work, I started researching online and fiddling with photoshop. It was great, I like it, but it was missing monkeys. Last night after an hour or and more fiddling, hubby and I finally got it! So here it is. 


I also made a watermark version, which is necessary for original work. My husband is very artistic and we often collaborate on designs that I want, namely, our Me Monster. This is original artwork and is something I want to keep making.


Incidentally, if you want to win this particular ME MONSTER from Stubborn Monkeys, head over to  Crafty Moms R Us for a VERY BIG GIVEAWAY! and I mean, HUGE! It is running now through Feb 25th.


Friday, February 15, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was also our 16th wedding anniversary. Kudos to me and my best friend. It hasn't been easy for our family, but we always pull through. We are truly partners!!

Hubby worked from home yesterday which allowed us a great lunch date out (with our littlest monkey). We did some shopping and then he bought me charms for my pandora bracelet. I almost shocked him into buying me an expensive watch but my pragmatic self won out so no watch. Apparently, he was thinking o himself that if I made him buy a watch, that there should be an iPad in it for him. Aah the love.

There is no night out in it for us. That's what happens when there are 4 monkeys in the family. Even our milestone 15th anniversary was celebrated with a lunch last year (we stopped by North Carolina enroute to NY from TX). During our anniversary in the future, I want us to go away for the weekend without kids. Someday.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Stubborn Monkeys is on Storenvy!

I have just recently opened up shop at Storenvy! I am listing completely different things there than on Etsy so please visit!

Visit my store on Storenvy


And to keep up to date on sales and promo codes, like us on Facebook!

Friday, February 8, 2013

the super bowl is providing a new obsession

I let Big M watch the Super Bowl. I thought with Daddy being away, it would be just a good family time. It turned out the girls were excited about it too. The whole school did football related activities so they were quite pumped. 

We have never watched football before so it took a little bit of figuring out who to root for, though we decided to root for the Ravens being in the east coast and all. Big M was fascinated. I only let him stay up until the half-time though. He left specific instructions for me to find out the final score.

Early in the morning, he heard on the radio the news about who won. Darn public radio for news! We have our radio set to classical music day in and day out for the kids to go sleep to, but there is that darn news. Big M loudly cheered, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, Raven win!"

Fast forward to days later and we find ourselves in the library with Big M checking out a few football books.

mortality and 5-year olds

Once in a while J is preoccupied with the subject of getting old and dying. She has equated old age to near dying, so she comes up to me and sometimes says, "Mommy, I don't want you to die." She really means to get old and die. I have explained to her that everyone dies, but she doesn't understand that yet and it doesn't help her. So I've gone to saying, "Mommy will live long so I can take care of you." That answer she is happy with.

Today, K same up to me after we were cleaning up our little craft. She looked at the big pack of crafting gems and said, "Mommy, when you die I want to keep these. You have a million of them!"

These girls are identical twins, yet so different from each other. They keep me on my toes.




Monday, February 4, 2013

It's never too cold to take a walk

Little M wanted to take a walk this morning. Never mind that it was 4 degrees out there. For a native Texas he can sure tolerate the cold. Although, with negative windchill a for a straight week 2 weeks ago, we did keep indoors. At -10 all the exposed skin starts tingling within 2 minutes. Thankfully that was just that week an we are now back to above zero. We are going to reach upper 40s next week. That would be quite a heat wave!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

the biggest scare of my life

A week and a half ago, I was home with the girls and Little M. Daddy and Big M attended a family math night at school. It was bed time and I was busy getting the kids dressed and ready to go to bed one at a time. While I was helping one, the other is in their room with Little M playing. When J was done, I told her to go back to her room, and I took K to the bathroom. I saw Little M playing. About 5-10 minutes passed and K was done. When I went back to their room, Little M was no there. I call out, and I didn't hear him. I asked J where he was, she didn't know.

I call out to our room and no Little M. I went back to the kids' bathroom. Nothing. Big M's room is locked because he doesn't want anyone playing with his Legos so I skipped that room. I went downstairs yelling Little M's name. Nothing. I run back upstairs and checked the rooms that were locked, maybe he got in and locked himself. Still nothing. Maybe 5 minutes passed, I was still yelling, still nothing. I went up and down the stairs so many times, I lost count. Once again I ran downstairs and checked the doors. They were locked. If he had gone outside, the doors wouldn't be locked. But I checked outside anyway. Nothing. I opened the basement and garage. No luck. In the meantime I was screaming his name and banging the walls in hope that I would scare him out.

A few more minutes passed by and I began to panic and cry. My girls saw me and started panicking too. I started to imagine that if Little M was somehow hurt or suffocating and couldn't answer, enough time has passed that he would really be in trouble. I picked up my cell phone and decided it's time to call 911. But before I did I dialed Daddy instead. I was panicked and talking loudly, "I lost Little M. I can't find him anywhere!!" At that moment, J yelled out, "I found him!"

"WE FOUND HIM! EVERYTHING IS OK. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME. EVERYTHING IS OK!," I yelled to Daddy and hung up.

J said she heard a noise in her closet and then found Little M. I had looked there before, and didn't find him. He must have really been hiding. I sat on the floor and cried and tried to calm my breathing. I was hyperventilating. I was spent. I asked the girls to go ahead and go to bed. I stayed on the floor crying. Little M looked at me. I looked at him angrily. "You are NOT to hide from Mommy! You have to answer me when I call you! I am angry!"

Little M looked at me, "No. I"m angry! The fireman will get you!"

I was shaking. It took a lot of time to recover in order to put him to bed. T

That was the scariest thing I have ever gone through.