Thursday, October 11, 2007

For the love of peas...

Night before last, we were having a lovely family dinner of grilled chicken, augrotin potatoes and peas. Cooper has decided that he likes to eat at the table with us, instead of at his high chair. He feels he's a big boy and likes it, so we've been letting him. Recently, he's been sticking his finger up his nose - A LOT. We are constantly telling him to get his finger out of his nose. Even at the dinner table. The other night was no exception. Towards the end of the meal, again, we told Cooper to take his finger out of his nose, here's how the rest went:
Cooper: (whine, pout)
Me: What's the matter?
Cooper: It hurts.
Me: What hurts, your nose?
Cooper: uh huh.
Me: Why?
Cooper: Cus ders a pea in der
Me: WHAT?
So, I grab the flashlight and take a peek and in his right nostril is a pea. Plain as day. We grab the tweezers and I can't get it. So Don takes over. We can't get it with the tweezers. Don tries to sprinkle pepper near him so that he will sneeze and the pea will come flying out - no luck there either. Don finally gets Cooper calmed down a little and then gets a toothpick. He's then able to get the pea out. I was a basket case the whole time. I was even calling the nurse line that is set up with our insurance company.

This may be a sign of things to come!

Friday, October 5, 2007

Monsters

I realize that Cooper's sleeping arrangements are probably a result of my own guilt. Guilt for working away from home. Because of that guilt, I rocked Cooper to sleep for the first two years (or maybe 2 and a half years) of his life. It probably would have been longer, but he grew a little big for my lap. So, we transitioned Cooper to our bed. We lay with him and let him fall asleep. After he is asleep, Don takes him to his room. This worked fine until a little over two weeks ago when we moved into our new house.

Cooper would occasionally wake up in the middle of the night and knock on our door to sleep with us, but it wasn't often at first. Then, it got to be EVERY night. Don and I decided that we needed to put Cooper back to bed. So we started doing just that. The first night in the new house, Cooper slept with us, because we hadn't put his bed back together. The second night, he woke up and Don took him back to his room. By the third night, I thought we were home free. No such luck. I woke in the morning to find him alseep on the couch. I thought it was strange and dismissed it. The next night, same thing - sleeping on the couch.

Cooper says that there are monsters in his room and he wakes up and gets on the couch. This scares me as we have tile floor in the living room and he could fall and hurt himself.

The night before last, I was in the kitchen, Cooper was in our room, ready for bed when he yells out "Mommy, mommy - come quick - there's a monster in your room!". So I run in there to see what he's talking about. I ask him to show me where the monster is and he points to the wall by Don's side of the bed. He points right at the shadow of the lamp on the wall. So, Don and I attempt to explain to him what a shadow is and that they are harmless. Both Don and I thought it was a success.

However, that night, he woke up and was on the couch again! Man! So, we had another talk about shadows and reminded him that God is bigger than everything, and he is always protected, etc.

When I woke up this morning, there was no Cooper on the couch. I thought we had our first success! When I dropped Cooper off at Grandma's house, he was anxious to tell her that he slept in his big boy bed all night, and we both expressed just how proud of him we were. I called Don this morning to share this with him and he informed me that Cooper had gotten on the couch in the middle of the night. Don woke up at some time and went the the bathroom and decided to check to see if he was on the couch or not, and sure enough, there he was. So Don put him back in his bed. But the good news is that he stayed in his bed for a little while?

I just don't know what to do about this. We are going to get "Monster Spray" (kinda like a repellent) and see if that works.

I have no idea if I actually have any readers, however if I do and anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.