Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Let the green grow

Spring really has sprung around here. The smell of orange blossoms, jasmine and lantana is positively intoxicating. I'm doing my part by making more and more terrariums. I've made one for each room more or less - I went with all succulents so I don't have to water them (much). I need to remake the bathroom one, though, since I put in too much water and all the dirt floated up and covered the plants and white decorative rocks. So I need to take everything out and start over. But after that I got in a groove. I love houseplants but can't be buggered to water them. Hopefully I can have a bit of green around that is extremely low maintenance. And I'm excited to be on the lookout for vintage miniatures to put in them - I love collecting things! My current collections are (not counting vintage clothes which to me are just "clothes"): class rings from the 30s and 40s, and British royalty commemorative cups (coronations, silver jubilees, etc).

B is on track with the sleeping program. It's amazing how consistency and schedule have such an effect - after tinkering with the timing a bit, I've settled on 8 pm as bedtime. I just pick him up, change his diaper, put on his jammies, sing to him for about two minutes, and put him down in the crib. He goes to sleep without so much as a peep! It's amazing.

What's not so great, however, is the fact that he seems to have settled into a 6 am wake up time. Which does not work for me, not one bit. I have been in the habit of immediately taking him up to the playroom so I can at least lie down a little longer, with mixed results. Most of the time he just wants up onto the bed so he can horse around and smash his skull into my nose. Today he thankfully went back to sleep for over an hour. But mostly these 6 am wake ups are killing me. I've put it out to one of my Facebook mom groups for advice; I do have blackout curtains but they won't be installed until next week. I don't want to risk pushing his bedtime later again, since he's already tired and rubbing his eyes by 7 pm. Maybe when he wakes so early I should try to coax him back to sleep...but I don't know. Or I could just accept that this is now wake up time. I feel like I at least need to try to get him to sleep a little later, though - even one hour would make such a difference!

I got what I *think* is a precursor to a bill for B's emergency room visit in Feb. It looks like total costs were $2000, for which I will be responsible $400. Or as best as I could glean from the bill's hieroglyphics. I guess that's not so terrible. Better than $2000, huh? One of our fellow musicians was in a car accident this week badly injuring his right arm and is now stuck with $43,000 in bills (no insurance). Our band is thinking of doing a fundraiser for him. So it could be a lot worse, huh?



4 comments:

  1. Nice terrariums! I would totally get some tiny electric-train-style miniature people/animals in those. I hope the plants last -- I've had some succulents that will probably outlive me and other that were so sensitive (but I don't live in a great climate for them).

    I'm glad to hear that B's bedtime is going so well. I hope you can figure out something with mornings that suits you both. I'm a natural early riser (and early to bed, too), which makes me horrible at hanging out with friends late at night -- but maybe motherhood will finally be the thing it's suited towards!

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  2. I like the terrariums, I just purchased a few succulents last week myself. I'm very jealous of your description of spring in California...we are expecting snow tonight even though last year we were in short sleeves in early March.

    Glad to hear things are going well with the new sleep techniques!

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  3. Spring has sprung around here too. I would love to have more green plants in the house. I can never keep them alive. I either over or under water them. Those terrariums look great maybe I should try something like that.

    I know it sounds counter productive but try inching Bumpus's bedtime forward.

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  4. How did you get B to just go to sleep so easily without a peep?!? So jealous. :)

    And I love the terrariums. I should try to figure out how to make those, because I'm really good at killing houseplants by forgetting that they get thirsty...

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