Lost my marbles

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I find lately I'm too exhausted to consider writing. That seems really terrible because, really, how hard is it to write. It seems really hard these days.

M has not been sleeping well. We've been thinking he's having nightmares but I've realized it's likely because there have been so many changes in his little life these last few weeks. These have not been big changes but he tends to be very sensitive to anything different and if it's not routine it really throws him off.

A couple of weeks ago, a boy he has gone to daycare with from the beginning stopped coming. Everyone wondered where he was and near the end of the week we found out his dad had passed and he was in the care of social services. He was M's friend, his little playtime buddy and although they don't really play much together at 2 they still form bonds. M's little world had changed with no warning.

Then we had our niece and nephew stay with us for a few days. M loves them. He cried for them when they left. He still looks out the window every once in a while and asks for them.

Now we have a puppy. I truly must have lost my mind somewhere along the way. M was not sleeping well before the puppy. Now he's really not sleeping because the puppy howls. All night. I think she stopped for about 3 hours the first night. It didn't matter, since in the time she stopped M woke up and started screaming instead. Sleep exists only in my imagination.

This morning I woke up at 6:30. An hour before I had to. I realized this was actually a good thing. This would give me a whole hour to drink coffee in relative quiet. I'm so deluded. I let the dogs out, came back up with them, went to pour my coffee and heard " Mommeeee" So much for peace and quiet with my coffee.

We watched the morning news for a little while and then I popped a little Sesame Street on so I could get ready for work. M was dressed, the puppy was in her crate, lunches were packed and we were ready to go. Until M let the puppy out of the crate. 4 times. Chase the puppy, catch the puppy, put the puppy in the crate, convince M to leave the house. Repeat. I finally gave up, went out the door, put the stuff in the car, came back and found M hanging out at the top of the steps with the older dog. He didn't see the need to leave the house. It took almost 30 minutes from the time we were ready to go until the time we actually made it into the car. There was a lot of kicking and screaming.

Tomorrow morning we start puppy classes. After I drop M at daycare. If someone finds me parked in the driveway, sleeping behind the wheel, you now know why.

Travel

We had an adventure last week. Well, M had an adventure. I had stress.

I thought it was a great idea to head to Whitehorse for a little over a week with M and without the support of my other half. We were off to visit family, do a little work and have a lot of fun at the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous festival. What could be better than that? I didn't think forward to the point A to point B portion of the trip.

First we had a ferry ride to Vancouver. This was spent chasing after M, putting him on his halter, dragging my bags after him as he ran from the playroom giggling loudly and screaming and kicking when I forced him to sit down for a minute. This was followed by a lovely overnight visit with some great friends. Then it was off to the airport.

What can I say about the airport... I used the halter. I was frazzled. I was that parent that we are all guilty of watching. The exhausted, frustrated, at her wits end mom. I chased, cajoled, bribed and pleaded for over an hour. Finally, about half an hour before the flight, I broke out the Gravol. I went from crazed looking to calm in about 15 minutes. Now I was the mom who drugs her kid. I didn't feel quite so badly about that when we got on the plane and he slept the entire two and a half hours. Granted it was his nap time so it might not have just been the Gravol. I'm sure all the other passengers were happy with my decision. I later learned that every mom I knew and talked to did the same thing with their darling little ones when they were simply too young to sit still.

The visit was wonderful. I got to spend time with some really special friends and relaxed with my family. M got to see his first parade which he loved because they gave out candy. We took him to the airshow where he hollered "No,No,No" when we tried to get him to look at the inside of the plane. He was really excited about the fire truck. So we spent our time at the airshow checking out the firetruck and M had a great conversation with the fireman on the truck. We had lots of chilled out time with his Grandma and Grandad and he had a blast chasing puppies and playing with magnets on their fridge. There were friends I didn't get to see and friends I wish I could have spent more time with but all in all it was a really good trip.

Then we boarded the plane to go home. I opted for the Gravol method again. It failed me. He slept for the first 45 minutes and then he woke up. He was not a happy camper. He was stuck in his seat and no matter how many Dora movies I put on or how many books I pulled out he was not about to quiet down. It was a long hour and a half. His favorite part of the plane ride was the landing when we sped down the runway and he stared out the window at everything going by.

The ferry ride was a reverse of the previous one. We had a lovely lunch. Well, I had a lovely lunch while M watched Dora. Then we headed off to the play area. M spent the rest of the ferry ride going up and down the slide. He was happy as could be. I was happy to sit down. I was even happier when we arrived home later that day.

Life has gone back to normal. We had a couple of sleepless nights but last night was normal so maybe we are back on track.