So here I sit in my car in the parking lot at work while Miles takes a much needed snooze in his carseat. Why am I sitting in my car in the parking lot at work while Miles takes a much needed snooze in his carseat? Because these days I will do anything, ANYTHING to get that kid some much needed sleep.
We traveled to my in laws’ house for Thanksgiving where we had a wonderful time. The only issue that we had was in getting Miles to sleep past 4 AM and trying to find time for him to get some good naps. Because my in laws live in the central time zone and we live in the eastern time zone I decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle to convert Miles’ internal clock from eastern to central time and then back again in four days. We had just recovered from daylight savings and I did not want to go through that again. I tried to be understanding when Miles woke up at 3:50 AM but even when I converted the time to eastern time (4:50 AM) it was still not an acceptable hour to be up. Miles didn’t care. At 5:00 AM we finally emerged from the bedroom, Miles victorious and me battle scarred, and had breakfast. He did take a nap later but only for about an hour. Each morning he slept a little later but the damage was done.
Back on the daycare front we have another sleep issue going on. They have switched from a two nap per day schedule to only one. Miles’ classmates (”friends” as the daycare likes to call them) are all within about 4 months of age of one another but Miles is the youngest. Some of the friends were ready to switch to one nap per day and some weren’t. Miles is one of the unlucky ones who was not ready. The poor kid is exhausted when I pick him up. I am very thankful that he is only there three days a week so the other four he is able to catch up on his sleep.
This morning Miles woke up at 4:50 and would not go back to sleep. I almost had him asleep a couple of times but he never gave in and settled down. I could tell that he needed more sleep because while I was trying to get ready for work Miles was very clingy and whiny, not his usual chipper self. As soon as I strapped him in the car seat his eyes rolled back in his head and he was out. How could I let him sleep for the ten minute ride to daycare/work and then make him get up for another four hours? I just couldn’t do it. So I pulled into work, parked the car, and fired up my laptop. Miles is still sleeping and I have had to run the extension cord out to my car because my laptop battery died. It is starting to get a little chilly too (don’t worry, Miles has a warm blanket over him) but I’ll be damned if I am going to wake that kid up.
This morning I could hear the wind howling and sleet hitting our windows as I lay snug and warm in bed from 4:30 until 5:30. Why was I awake enough to hear such noises? Because the dog was shaking in fear and letting out sad little whines every few minutes (he hates the wind) and Miles kept dropping his pacifier as he tried to go back to sleep post pajama change. Yesterday the news predicted a wintry mix of weather for today but I didn’t believe them. I love snow and so I try not to get too excited when they predict it because nine times out of ten we get nothing. When I finally got out of bed (at 7!) and looked outside, this is what I saw:
A winter wonderland! This is perfect for getting into the mood for the upcoming holidays.
Our new web store went live yesterday! Check it out. We have some very cool products perfect for making the holiday travel easier. I am going to put some to the test on Thursday when we fly to the in laws. I will let you know how it goes (the products and travel that is, the in laws are always wonderful).
Happy Thanksgiving!
Haha, want a good laugh? Watch me stutter my way through this video. Note - it was filmed at the end of a 4 day show and I was tired and ready to go home. And it was before I got to the airport for a 12 AM flight that did not leave until 4 AM. Want to know why? Because they were one flight attendant short. Seriously. I thought I was going to lose my mind. My first time away from Miles and I was stuck in an airport at an ungodly hour.
Enjoy! (and if you actually can view the video then I am a genius at this - shhhhh, just let me enjoy feeling internet savvy for a minute or two)…
Okay, we’re still working on this. So for now, just click here
It finally happened. I am no longer pumping on the job. When I first started this blog I was hiding away in a spare office pumping three times a day. That is a lot of pumping. I never thought that I would see the day when I no longer had to lug that awful black bag in with me every day. Yes, it was the right thing to do and I am very proud of myself for sticking with it. But the freedom now is incredible! I no longer have to schedule meetings around my milk schedule or worry that I am going to leak through my shirt. The downside is that the girls are shrinking.
So my question is, do I have to rename this blog now? I am kind of attached to the name and since it might ring true again some day can’t I just keep it? We joke in the office now that it signifies the pumping of all of the AirCribs but that should come to an end soon too. Maybe I can bring some weights in and pump iron.
We finally received our much anticipated shipment of AirCribs last week. We can finally start filling all of the orders that have been piling in since our launch at the ABC Kids Expo in September.
The shipment arrived last Wednesday late in the day so I walked in on Thursday morning whistling away as I envisioned shipping package upon package and seeing the backorder report whittle down to nothing. My bubble was blown to pieces when my coworker, Nathan, so meanly informed me that he planned to test every single crib before I could ship it. Every. Single. Crib. Can you hear me sobbing? Because I am. Still.
Testing each product is not a simple task. It means opening a case, getting out the box, pulling the AirCrib out of the box and stuff sack, and inflating it. But the testing does not stop there. Then we have to let them sit, inflated, for 48 hours to ensure that there are no problems. This means that every AirCrib that leaves our warehouse has been tested in the factory and tested again by us personally.
Why do we do this? Because we are out-of-our-minds-control-freaks that is why. It means tons of time invested on our part to ensure that you, the consumer, have a top notch product that we are very proud of. Can this go on forever? No way. My plan is for it to end with the next shipment!
Happy Halloween! In the spirit of the day I dressed poor Miles like a little dork and sent him off to daycare. His pants are too short which are highlighted by the fact that they are black and his socks are white. I need to do some laundry. And my mother found a fleece shirt two sizes too large with jack-o-lanterns all over it so I had to put it on Miles today. When else will he be able to wear it other than next year at this time when it will fit like his pants do?
I did send his adorable dragon costume along for the costume parade later today. I am so proud of his costume because I sewed it. Myself. With a sewing machine. I’m not sure why I decided to take this project on. My mother made some of our clothes and costumes when I was little so maybe I felt that buying a costume was the easy way out. Now that I have made a costume I will probably be buying all future costumes in our house.
The dragon idea came from Miles’ favorite book, That’s Not My Dragon. He was very into it for a couple of weeks, was being the key word here. As soon as I started working on the costume the dragon book was cast aside for a new obsession.
I thought that making clothes was supposed to save money but I could have bought at least two dragon costumes plus shipping for the amount of money I spent on the materials. And, as usual, I way overbought so now I have tons of bright green and purple fleece. What am I going to do with it all? Maybe I will figure out how to make pajamas and outfit Miles in green and purple pj’s for the next three years. Or maybe I can make some fleece pants for my husband that he will never ever wear because the color is so horrendous. But if he runs out of clean pajama pants then he will have to wear them, and I will get a hysterical laugh good chuckle out of the whole thing. Hmmm…
I am having a problem with the flow of our daily routine at home. Actually, I am not having the problem, Miles is. His timing on poopy diapers is completely throwing me off. The instances of nonconformance happen first thing in the morning and then again in the evening.
Every morning after I scoop Miles out of his crib I promptly change his very wet and heavy diaper. Then we go downstairs and he happily plays while I make coffee and prepare his breakfast. The plan is that after breakfast I take Miles back upstairs and get him dressed for the day. However, being the excellent multitasker that he is, Miles doesn’t just happily play while I prepare his breakfast. He now plays AND fills his diaper with some lovely smelling goodies. So the dilemma is, do I make him sit in crap and eat his breakfast or do I take him upstairs first and change him? I do need to explain that changing him is now the equivilant of catching a wild animal. I chase him all over the changing table trying desperately to clean him up before he sits his dirty bum down on something clean or stick his foot in the dirty diaper. I really dread it. And I don’t want to put his clean clothes on before breakfast because they will instantly be dirty. Bibs really don’t work well in our house.
The same things happens at the end of the day. Miles eats his dinner (not sitting in crap) and then gets to play until bath time. Well, lately he has taken to filling his diaper about 20 minutes before bath time. Do I let him play in a dirty diaper until bath time? I could just put a clean diaper on him until bath time but then do I put that diaper back on him after the bath (it just feels wrong) or do I throw a perfectly good diaper away?
As soon as I figure out a plan that works Miles will change his schedule and none of this will matter. So my plan is to wait him out - but do I do it with him in a poopy diaper or not?
There is something in the air in the office this week. It’s called sales fever and boy oh boy do people have it bad. The entire office is in a hyper frenzy trying to sell the heck out of our products. And it’s working.
They are buying ad words left and right and setting up old fashioned mail campaigns. The ad word world is an amazing one to me. Little did I know that all of these companies are working like mad behind the scenes to get the perfect placement on my screen when I search for something like “infant dragon costume”. Did you know all of the work that goes into those little boxes on the right side of the screen? And, even better, did you know that every time you click on a link in one of those boxes that company is charged? When I first learned that (several years ago and in an entirely different industry) I found a company that I didn’t like and I clicked the crap out of their pay per click link. It probably didn’t do much damage though because each click doesn’t cost that much and I didn’t have the patience to do it for very long.
All of the press kits that I sweated over are starting to pay off. Editors have requested samples and we should start to see some very nice publicity. I will be certain to mention (over and over and over again) the publications that even hint at the AirCrib for your added reading pleasure.
I don’t think that I have used the alarm clock since Miles was born. He wakes us up in plenty of time to get ready for work, in fact lately it has been so painfully early that I feel like half the day is gone by the time I stroll into work.
This week everything changed. I overslept two days in a row. Two days. Which means that I was late to work two days in a row. Not a huge deal around these parts since everyone at the office is so cool. But it is a huge deal in our house. A very joyous huge deal. That means that Miles is not only back to sleeping through the night (except for the 4 AM feeding that he still insists on) but he is sleeping past the 5 o’clock mark! My husband has been out of town all week so he has not had the pleasure of this new milestone. On second thought, the getting up early thing didn’t really bother him to begin with because he didn’t get up early. I did.
So tonight I will be setting my alarm clock just like old times. I sure do hope that I remember how to do it.
Miles has discovered the art of repetition. This weekend I read the book Tails at least a million times. I have to admit that it is really cute to see him so interested. He shuffles through the other books (actually he throws them on the floor) until he finds his beloved book. Then he has me read it over and over and over again. Being the boy genius that he is, he no longer takes the time to feel the soft, fluffy tails or touch the scaly ones. He is now obsessed with pulling and pushing the tabs to make the tails wag.
Last night we had dinner at my parents’ house because my husband was out of town. While I sat and ate my father, in such great Grandpa-like fashion, read Tails to Miles. What he thought would be a quick reading session turned into the entire meal. Granted I have learned to eat ridiculously fast but this time I took my time, chewed my food, and listened to Tails. Again. And again. And again.
