rent

I've been in a bit of a time warp lately and April has gone incredibly fast. Both Ben and I have a bit of a cold, and since I don't get sick often I forget how out of sorts being sick makes you. I'm not sure what caused it although he was chewing on some communal toys at the museum this weekend. He's also getting one of his top front teeth which could have something to do with it. Poor baby, I hate to see him suffering while a giant tooth slowly makes its way out.

In case you didn't know, I have a bit of an Etsy obsession and although I usually just browse, occasionally I'll find something I really like. Recently I bought a necklace with two small hammered disks, one with a B and one with a Z. I also just bought today this vintage crewel embroidery wall hanging. I've been looking for something just like this but had something specific in mind, and this pretty much covers everything I was looking for. It's just my taste, and I know it will brighten up white walls of our somewhat charmless apartment.

Speaking of apartments, I feel a bit stuck where we're at right now. Our place is decent but there are a lot of things about it I don't like. It seems that it just keeps getting smaller and smaller. There's not a good spot for the cat litter. The apartment complex itself has it's own list of issues. I certainly don't hate it here, but I'm getting that itch again that's telling me it's getting time to move on. The problem is that we've agreed that we don't want to move unless it's to a place that's significantly better than where we're at. Eventually we'd like to buy a house but since the market is terrible right now for buyers we would at least like to rent a house. It sounds so simple - we'll just find a nice house to rent in a nice neighborhood and that will be that. Unfortunately there's hardly anything available in the areas we like, and when one does pop up it's either prohibitively expensive (like the one I found today that would be perfect but was $4000 a month) or it's snapped up immediately (like the one we were interested in this weekend that was rented within an hour of the ad being posted).

I just want Ben to have a somewhat normal growing up experience and for me, the place you live is a big part of that. Neighbors. A yard to play in. Sidewalks to ride your bike. I know it will happen eventually but for the time being I feel like we've hit a wall and are stuck in rental purgatory.

prison break

As I've mentioned, the car was the preferred place of napping for the Little Mister. Did you hear (read?) that - I said was. Victorious! I was really beginning to feel like a naptime prisoner to a tiny little czar-like dictator so I decided to do something about it. And it worked. We started Monday, and it's now Friday and I'm happy to say that naps are much better. He naps peacefully in his crib and I can get things done. Very important things like writing this post. It feels so amazing to have made progress with this and it gives me hope that the next issue that creeps up can be resolved with a little resolve. It would have been easy to give in but that wouldn't have helped anybody in the long run.

If you have kids and figured out the nap thing early - bravo! If you have babies that aren't on a good routine it's possible to start one but do it now - don't wait. If you don't have kids and think that you knew all this already and I should have known too - sorry, people without children are not allowed to give people with children advice about child rearing. If you want to have kids someday, I can't stress enough how important naps are and I wish I would have done this long ago.  And I consider myself pretty prepared. I read the books, I took the classes and yet I don't remember anyone ever telling me how very important a good nap schedule is. So now, I'm just sitting back, enjoying the silence, getting ready for a nice relaxing shower and looking forward to a good day with a newly happy rested babe.

the battle rages on

The nap battle that is. The whole "baby will only nap in the car" thing is still going on, but now it's getting old. And very expensive. The amount of gas is takes per week to drive around, or idle in a parking lot, just for the sake of keeping Benjamin asleep has reached the ridiculous status. We fill up the car every six days in an average week and more often if we went somewhere over the weekend. This is not only a huge waste of money, but a terrible ecofail.

Besides that, I just can't get anything done. I can't clean the house, grocery shop, eat a proper lunch or do anything else besides read from the car while he's napping. It's time this ends because feeling like every minute of your day is being dictated by a very tiny person is not fun. So mommy is cracking the nap whip. I'm not quite sure what all that will entail, but it's time. Night time involves a routine which seems to be working well, so I'll probably start with a shorter modified version of that. And I'm prepared for the crying, because there will be some (or a lot) I'm sure. I wish it didn't have to be this way. For everyone who has kids that blissfully drift off to dreamland without a protest, count yourself lucky and try not to judge me because I hate Ferberization just as much as you do.

Desperate times and all that.

legal shmegal

Remember in my first post, when I said that I would keep the ranting to a minimum but wouldn't cut it out completely? Well I need to rant for just a minute so bear with me.

Benjamin wears a mix of cloth and disposable diapers but it's been mostly disposable the last few days because I haven't had the time to wash the cloth ones. Disposables (or 'sposies as some call them - there's a whole lexicon waiting to be discovered if you dare) work amazingly well at soaking up any and everything thanks to a laundry list of chemicals, most importantly polymer gels that can hold many times their own weight in liquid. Ben stays in one overnight, so about 10 hours, just fine. That said, at night he's sleeping, not rolling around and can't really feel uncomfortable thanks to his unconsciousness.

During the day is another story. I don't like to let him go for more than a couple of hours because I don't really think letting my child live with a sewer strapped to his body is pleasant or appropriate.  Here comes the rant: Public establishments should be required by law to provide baby changing facilities in their restrooms. The reason? Babies are helpless. Helpless people are usually classified as disabled. The disabled have rights, one being the right to access of certain facilities. It wouldn't be OK if these establishments decided to have a bathroom that wasn't handicap accessible - in fact it would be downright illegal. So, in conclusion babies are disabled and therefore need to have a place where they can be changed so they don't have to sit in their own waste like barnyard animals. Man, I should have been a lawyer!

Ok, so maybe the Mom-n-Pop store on the corner gets a buy. Maybe. Large national chains, sorry. I'm looking at you Safeway on Shoreline Blvd.

And, end rant.