Mission: Impossible

I remember when I was in college I had an economics professor who...how can I say it....was very very....granola.  We got the day off of class for Earth Day (which I wasn't complaining about, don't get me wrong).  He used okra as the product in a lot of his supply/demand examples.  He wore the same pair of khaki pants every day.  All a little odd, but whatever.  Then came the day he told us about how he and his wife just had their second baby and he was having a really hard time getting any sleep because at his house they had a a "family bed."  What the heck is that? we all wondered.  He explained:  He and his wife and his two kids all slept together in the same bed every night.    

On purpose.

Until then, I had thought he was a little strange.  But after the "family bed" revelation, I decided that the poor guy had apparently lost his grip on reality. Only someone who was COMPLETELY unhinged would want little kids in their bed every night.  Nutso.

Of course, I had no kids, so I knew it all.  Now that I have my own kids, have my views on the "family bed" changed?  

Nope.  I may have changed a LOT of my pre-kid perceptions, but that one remains firmly in place.  

If anything, I think he is crazier than ever.  I find it impossible to sleep with any little people snuggled into my armpit, and so it is my mission in life to NOT have any kids in my bed. Lately, it seems like Mission: Impossible.  

Arden and Dax are both great sleepers.  They have an off night here and there, but I can always convince them to go back to their own beds, and with the help of some lullabies, some blankies and some snugly toys, they are back to sleep (and consequently, so am I).  My night time problem is Cora.  

For the past few weeks-going-on-months she wakes up sometime between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. nearly EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.  She wanders into our room, and tries to sneak into bed between me and Preston.  The only problem with this little arrangement is that the bed quickly ends up looking like this:

Cora starts out sleeping normally, but within what seems like five minutes, she has somehow turned herself completely horizontally across the middle of the bed.  Her head is burrowed into my guts and her feet are kicking Preston relentlessly, while both of us teeter on the very edge of our respective sides of the bed. After a couple of nights of that nonsense, we knew it couldn't go on.  We looked at each other through our bleary eyes and made the decision that co-sleeping with Cora was NOT an option.  

The next night, Cora (of course) tried to sneak into our bed again.  I heaved a sigh and told her that she had to sleep in her own bed.  She disagreed.  I picked her up and headed down the hall to her room.  Cora started screaming about how she was scared (of what, she wasn't--and still isn't--quite sure) and screamed and screamed and screamed.  This went on for a few nights.  Inevitably, screaming is contagious (have you noticed?) and before long Preston or I would join in. You know, something awesome like "STOP SCREEEAMING!!  YOU ARE GOING TO WAKE EVERYONE UUUP!" All-night par-tay at the Zaugg house!

Fun times.

Some more background:  Sometimes my Preston snores.  Kinda loudly. When this happens, I go and sleep on our nice comfy couch in the snore-free living room.  One night I had retreated to the couch before Cora started her night-time ritual.  She had tried to get in bed with Preston and was promptly booted out.  She came in search of me and found me on the couch.  She then tried to get on the couch with me, but it is even smaller than my bed and NO WAY was that going to work for me.  However, in my sleepy stupor, I pointed at the nearby love seat and told her she could sleep there if she promised to be QUIET.  She happily settled down, and we slept peacefully until morning.

Now Cora plans ahead.  She brings her pillow and blanket with her when she tries to sneak into our bed. When she is told that she can't sleep there, she now helpfully says, "Okay, mom.  Let's go sleep downstairs.  You sleep on the big couch and I will sleep on the little couch.  Okay?  Come on."  She grabs my pillow and runs down the stairs.  She puts my pillow on the couch and plops herself down on the love seat and snuggles in.  I wander down the stairs with every intention of taking her back to her own bed in her own room...

Have I mentioned the stubborn streak that runs through my Corbiecakes?  It is deeeeep and wiiiide.  I can battle wills with her during the day and come out victorious (exhausted, but victorious), but at 3 a.m. she knows she has me beat.  At 3 a.m. I don't care about winning.  I don't care about long-term consequences. I don't care about much of anything.  All I care about at 3 a.m. is getting back to sleep as soon as possible. So...

When I see my pillow on the couch, all ready for my sleepy head, I usually grab a blanket and fall like a redwood tree down on that comfy couch and head off to dreamland on the express train.

I know, I am horrible.  But guess what happens when I DO get up the strength to put her back into her own bed?  This is what I find when I go to check on her:  An empty bed in Cora's room.  And in Arden's room?  This:

Poor Arden.  She complains in the morning that Cora kicks her all night, and Arden is a little tired and grouchy all day.  I feel ya, Arden.  Been there, done that.

So.  Experienced mommas out there:  HELP.  Is this just a phase that she will hopefully grow out of (soon)?  Please tell me you have a secret trick to fix it that doesn't involve hours of screaming in the wee hours of the morning.  

Cuz if my options are (1) hours of screaming in the wee hours vs. (2) sleeping peacefully on the couch for the rest of my days....

Couch wins.

Skating!

A couple of months back, I was signing up for a race at the rec center, and had Dax and Cora with me.  While I was waiting in line, they wandered over and looked at the skating rink.  There were a couple of REALLY good skaters on the ice, and Cora was transfixed.  "I wanna do that, Mom!" she said.  I am by NO MEANS an ice skater, so I told her I would sign her up for some lessons.  Dax never likes to be left behind, so he quickly expressed his interest in joining Corbie on her little ice skating adventures.  

The lessons finally started last week (after a few thousand "Do I get to go ice skating today?" questions from Cora).  I was a little worried that my sweet little girl might have her expectations a little bit high when on the drive over, she asked me "What if I start dancing when I get on the ice?"  I reminded her that she had never been on ice skates before, and she should probably try standing before she tries dancing.  She smiled at me.  But it was one of those "Dear mother, you have no idea what you are talking about, bless your heart" kind of smiles.  I reminded her that the most important thing she could do at the lesson was to get up each time she feel and keep trying.  

Here they are, skates on and ready to go!

Cora was giggling as she walked in her skates across the floor to the rink.  Once she got out to the ice, her smile disappeared as she realized, that hey, this ice is really, really REALLY slippery!  

They both had a helper to themselves for a bit.  Cora walked slowly along on her skates, but Dax's mouth was moving much faster than his feet.  He was talking and talking to the cute young woman who was helping him.  "Hi there, what's your name?"

 "You want me to do what?  How about YOU come over here...closer to ME."

"Ah, that's better."

While Dax was enjoying his one-on-one attention (he was smiling HUGELY the entire time), Cora was over with the other little girls, skating along.  She fell quite a few times, but every time she got back up again and kept trying!

Dax was still concentrating more on his coach than anything else.  That's my boy.

 After a lot of negotiating, she finally got him to let go of her hands.  He of course was more than willing to chase her around the rink:

Dax actually is pretty good, and can skate faster than Cora.  Who sees hockey in his future?

They have now had three lessons so far, and the falls are getting fewer and farther between.  Dax is still a lot faster than Cora, and tries to "help" her by pulling her along (and making her fall), but she giggles every time.

I am so proud of how my little skaters both keep getting up and trying again each time they fall down.

If they can just keep that up in everything they do, I can't ask for anything more out of life, can I?

Christmas 2013 to New Years 2014

Okay, so I didn't quite get all the way through Christmas before New Years, did I?  Oh well.  It seems like I am always playing catch up on this blog, but here is another catch-up post.  Someday I have plans to get on top of things and come up with some witty posts full of deep insights and clever observations, but for today here is another quick, picture-heavy post. 

Christmas Eve...here is Dax fast asleep, sugarplums dancing in his head.  He is so beautiful when he sleeps, I can hardly stop myself from kissing his whole face and waking him up.  

Christmas morning came VERY early.  Cora was up around 4 a.m., but she luckily crawled into our bed and went back to sleep.  Unluckily, Cora snuggles very close and rubs her feet on me while she sleeps.  This makes it very hard for me to catch any zzzs, so I soon gave up and retreated to her bed.  Arden woke up around 5 and started heading downstairs, but I heard her little footsteps and told her she wasn't allowed out of her room until the first number on the clock was a 6.  So, at 6:00:01 I heard her and Daxton pounding down the stairs, headed for the stockings that had been filled with care.

Cora slept for a while longer, but soon joined in the fun.  Santa brought her a cute little stuffed puppy!

Santa brought Dax his very own scooter!  Wahoo!

Arden got a Furby Boom.  I thought it would be annoying, but it is actually kind of cute.  Especially since I know that I can put it to sleep by pulling on its tail for 5 seconds.

Around 9 a.m. Grandma, Grandpa, Val, Josh, Manda, Matt and BJ came over to open presents.  Dax gave Arden a "Frozen" shirt.  Arden LOVES Frozen, and has talked me into taking her to it twice.  She is trying for a third.  Needless to say, she liked it.

Dax got some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys this year, and was a very happy boy!

Grandpa liked the plates that the kids drew for him and Grandma.

After a breakfast of French Toast, we played for a while and then headed to Grandma Wilson's, where I neglected to take a single picture.  Again, to Grandma Zauggs (who got me some very cute booties!), where my camera again stayed in my purse for some weird reason.  I know, I am a huge slacker.  We had a great Christmas, and were all pretty tired out by the time we got home. 

No rest for the weary though, on Boxing Day we got up, packed up, and headed out of town to the cabin.  It was so nice to have no schedule for the week between Christmas and New Years.  We stayed in our jammies until late mornings most days, playing games (Uno Attack and "Headbandz" were new Christmas games that we broke in...the kids cheat horribly) and watching movies (we borrowed "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" from the library, and the kids LOVED it.  Whoda thunk?)

It was foggy one morning, and then when the sun came out, the trees all looked like this:

 Beautiful!  The side roads up by the cabin were all snow packed and perfect for sledding!

Even Grandma and Grandpa had a few runs.  Here is Grandpa, going FAST:

 The kids were super spoiled, and got pulled up the hill most of the time.  Here is Arden, milking it for all it is worth:

It was so sunny most days that we had to take off our coats or we would get too hot.  Arden and I had become so good at sledding, we decided to expand our sliding skills.  We have been meaning to get Arden skiing lessons so that she wouldn't end up like me...a non-skier living in Utah.  I decided to get brave and take a lesson with her!  We headed to Beaver Mountain which is less than half an hour from the cabin.  Here is Arden at the bottom of the bunny hill:

Arden had a little bit of a rough start and fell down quite a few times, but after about an hour or so she was really getting the hang of it!  After our lesson and a few more practice runs down the bunny hill and up the magic carpet, we got brave and headed to the real live ski lift!

I hadn't fallen at all on the bunny hill, but I wiped out 3 or 4 times on the real slope.  Arden showed me up big time!   I need some practice for sure.

Arden also spent a lot of time on the Rainbow Loom I got her for Christmas.  She has made bracelets for everyone!

 Than it was New Years Eve!  Break out the Sparkling Cider!

 Cheers!

 We had our New Years Eve celebration a little early.  We did a big countdown for the kids around 9:45 (seemed pretty late to us!) and ran around crazy yelling HAPPY NEW YEARs just like it was midnight.

The next morning was our last before we had to go home.  2014 was off to a beautiful start!

We had one last sledding trip

 The kids found some ice chunks and made a couple of snow men.  Cora was feeling a little tired from all of the partying :

Cora has a very nice big brother who was willing to pull her back up the hill to the cabin.  

After that, we packed up and headed home.  Back to the real world where the air wasn't so sparkling, and where we have to get up in the morning and get off to school, and where laundry seems never ending.

Oh well...Only 353 days until next Christmas!