Suckered

Keeton:

Keeton is into not sleeping...and he is really good at it.  Every night Keeton goes to bed like a little angel, but I know better and he does too.  We have this conversation every night:

Me: Night, night sweetheart.  Now, you go to sleep and stay in your bed ALL night (and yes, I do this in a loving tone).

Keeton: Smiles and blows me a kiss...says nothing.

Me: Okay, I'll see you in the morning (aka 12 a.m.).

Keeton: Nothing, no promises on his part.

We both know that after about five peaceful hours, and just after I've entered REM, he will start screaching and shaking the rails of his crib.  Seriously, for anyone that sleeps through an alarm clock...I've got to copyright this sound.  I (or Jeff) will, as if on auto-pilot, drag ourselves from our warm bed to get him, put him in bed with us and then try to go back to sleep amidst Keeton's wild sleep patterns. 

Alarm goes off at five, and the first word on my brain is "sucker".  That would be for me, because once again I have failed in "just letting him cry" and go back to sleep.  And frankly, I don't avoid him crying it out  because it breaks my heart or makes me feel like less of a mom; I do it because I NEED SLEEP!  So every morning I vow to not fall prey to the nightly bedtime visitor.  I promise myself to stay strong, to just say no, to teach my son patience and self-soothing.  And then...it is midnight, and I am SOOO tired...

Thundersnow and Wintery Mixes

Okay...I really have no excuse for why I have so slacked off on this blog, but I am jumping back in the game (much unlike my commitment to do the same with going to the gym...I make that one every Sunday night and promptly break it by 5 a.m. Monday morning).  Anyway, this post isn't so much about the kids as it is about how much  I really, passionately, fiercely HATE Illinois weather!  I can probably count on my fingers the VERY few times I've said aloud, "Wow, today is a nice day!" Notice I didn't even say "great" or "fabulous"..."nice" seems to be the best anyone can hope for here in good ol' IL.  Sunday started off frigid (which was my excuse for not following through on the gym thing...) and ended with thundersnow.  Yeah, THUNDER and SNOW...TOGETHER.  Only in Illinois.  Monday is was fog like something out of one of those B class horror movies. Tuesday was torrential downpours (no thunder though, go figure). Today we had sleet/snow/wintery mix.  Wintery mix is apparently another word invented for Illinois weather because not even the meteorologists know what to predict around here..."today we will have some sleet, or maybe rain,  or thundersnow...let's just call it a wintery mix."