Sleep!

Last night, I had my best night of sleep since October. Noel slept through the night and didn't wake up until 6:10 am. That came out of nowhere, considering he's been waking up pretty consistently around 3:45 for a while. Dominick slept very well, too, and didn't get up until 7:20, which is quite unusual for him. Then Noel took a 2 1/2-hour nap this morning! So far he's refused an afternoon nap, but I can't complain too much about that.

Not much else to report here. Just wanted to share my good news. I'm being cautiously optimistic about tonight. There's nothing to say either boy won't wake up about four times.

A scare

Well, this is weird. It's 2:45, and both boys are asleep! I hardly know what to do with myself. I could be cleaning or something, but you know. The only reason Dominick is asleep is that he didn't do much sleeping last night. It was bound to catch up with him, and it did just after noon as we were returning from Home Depot. (More on that below.) I let him sleep in the car for an hour and a half (don't worry--Noel and I were in the front yard), then moved him inside and put him on the couch. He'll be starving when he wakes up.

When we arrived at Home Depot, I put Noel in the sling and then got Dominick settled in one of those shopping carts that's shaped like a car. He was sitting at the right steering wheel. We headed toward the store and were just passing behind a large, parked SUV when it suddenly started backing out. It broadsided the shopping cart but kept moving, and I was screaming "STOP! STOP!" as the cart began to tip over. Once it was hit, I couldn't move it, and those things are impossible to maneuver even without a large vehicle pushing against the side. Finally, the driver heard me and stopped, getting out of the car to apologize and make sure we were okay. In the instant that he got out, I saw a cell phone in his hand, so I yelled at him to get off the phone. (If I were a bumper-sticker kind of person, I'd have one that says "Hang up and drive!" It's one of my pet peeves.) He said he wasn't on the phone. If not, he was about to make a call. He was a nice enough guy, said something about having a little girl. I was shaken, but Dominick seemed okay until we got inside the store. Twice he said something about the SUV pushing the cart, then his mouth turned down, and he started to cry. No wonder he fell asleep later. He was tired and traumatized on top of it.

As bad as it was that we were hit at all, I can't help thinking how much worse it could have been if I had, instead of slinging Noel, set his carseat on the shopping cart basket and had Dominick walking alongside me. Or if we'd been a couple of feet farther, the SUV would have hit me and Noel, too, not just the cart. I shudder to think of it, so I'll stop now.

It's 3:00 now, so I should rouse Dominick if I want him to have any chance of sleeping tonight.

Noel hit his first big milestone today. He finally rolled over! Of course, I was out of the room and didn't see it happen. Noel was on the couch with Mike and may have had a bit of help from the slope of the seat cushion, but we're counting it.

Dom's officially started working on a major milestone of his own: toilet training. Over the past three or four days, I've gotten him to sit on the toilet while we read stories, or sometimes even without. He is showing real interest in getting up there now. Yesterday, he even came to me and told me he'd peed in the toilet. Great!... except he has yet to sit on it with his diaper off. He's not loving that idea. All in time.

We got a lot done this weekend, and I am worn out. Yesterday, I bought two new shrubs and transplanted three, meaning that I had to dig five holes. Fortunately, the ground was very workable after the recent rain. I've got one more viburnum to plant but just couldn't muster the energy to do it today. The transplanted shrubs are going out by the playhouse, which has been crying out for landscaping. Cross your fingers that the shrubs survive the move. Mike cleaned the leaves out of the beds in the backyard. To my surprise, Dominick didn't mind the leaf blower. Here he is playing as the leaves blew around him:

Back inside the house, Mike installed the first batch of new shoe moulding in the entryway and living room after I painted the baseboards. It looks so nice! I shouldn't get so excited about base trim, but if you had noticed how shabby it was before--and I hope you didn't--you'd understand why. Only five rooms to go...

Hooray for spring! I was unsure whether it was officially spring yet because the "Oh Yes It's Springtime" episode of Little Einsteins was not aired (or at least not TiVoed--how do you spell that in past tense?) as promised. Yes, I'm that out of touch. Don't ask me when Easter is.

Fortunately, it is spring, and you could tell today. We spent a decent portion of the day outside and made the season's first trip to a garden center. How heartening to know I can manage that with both boys! I love my Moby wrap. This weekend, interior work will be put on hold somewhat while we pay attention to the yard. We will attempt to get grass to grow in our front yard, which, aside from the planting beds, is nothing but a patch of dirt and weeds. I'm also looking for an ornamental tree to take up some additional space in the front yard, and I'm planning to replace some shrubs that have done absolutely nothing in the five years since I planted them. We have lots of raking to do, too. I can't wait until the boys are old enough to do that! Right now Dominick is more interested in spreading the leaves around, so he's not much help. Not only that, he's dangerous with garden tools. This afternoon, he whacked my thigh quite hard with the metal garden rake. He didn't mean to, but it was incredibly painful nonetheless.

We came home on Sunday to our newly refinished floors and have been busy ever since putting things back into place. It was a lot of work getting ready for this project, so I'm glad it's behind us now. The house seems so much brighter and cleaner. Alas, the latter was only an illusion, considering that every surface except for the floors was covered with dust from the sanding. It even went upstairs, downstairs and inside some of the kitchen cabinets. The bathroom sink was brown, too. One thing we have to get used to is that the floors are a bit on the slippery side now that they have an actual finish on them. Dom has fallen down several times. Also, there are still some residual fumes, though not nearly as bad today as on Sunday.

Today was our playgroup, and Dominick behaved very well. I realized that, instead of crying and saying "fall down" when another child cries, he now simply says "Somebody's upset." That's so much better!

We are in southeast Missouri now, visiting Mike's mom for the second half of this week. Our floors should be finished now. I can't wait to see how they turned out. We did peek in the windows on Wednesday morning when we met at our house, and the floors looked really good, having just received the first coat of polyurethane. The difference compared to the old floors was amazing.

Since Wednesday, we've just been hanging out down here. Last night we went to my nephew's wrestling match. If we'd realized just how loud it would be, we probably wouldn't have. The crowd, the loudspeaker and the whistles were too much for Dominick, especially when the man sitting next to us started yelling. We took the boys back out of the stands and watched from above as Seth handily beat his opponent. Dom has had a great time playing with Seth, who is 11, during our stay. Seth is really giving him a workout. I wish I had that kind of energy.

We'll be heading home early Sunday morning to start putting our house back together. Once we're settled, it will be time to start Dominick on toilet training. I'm ready for him to graduate from diapers. I hope he is, too. Wish us luck!

Oh, I've just signed up for the new photo-hosting service offered through Blogger, so I'll work on uploading some pictures when I get home. At least I'll try to. We'll be pretty busy for the foreseeable future. The floor project won't truly be complete until baseboards are painted, kitchen cabinets touched up and shoe moulding stained, coated with polyurethane and installed.

Greetings from Days Inn! Our stay got off to a bad start after we were first given two rooms (my parents are here with us for two days) that had not been cleaned and then, after we were moved, found that our room bore an overpowering cigarette odor, despite its being labeled non-smoking. My mom had difficulties making the reservations to begin with, so we're not too happy with this establishment. But that is not why I am posting tonight.

We met our floor guys at our house this morning at eight. Matt wanted us to let them start sanding and then have us look at some stain samples. When I came back just before ten, I was surprised how much sanding had been done. The floors looked so much better already. The stain will be applied tomorrow, followed over the next three days by three coats of polyurethane. We should be safe to move back in on Sunday.

Unsanded vs. sanded flooring

Dining room, sanding finished

My parents and the boys came with me to the house, and afterward we went out to lunch and then headed to Laumeier Sculpture Park. The weather was amazing, yet the park wasn't very crowded. After just a few minutes, Dominick started asking to go to a different park. I guess he was expecting slides and swings, not landscape-sized sculpture installations. Eventually, though, he came to enjoy the place. Here are some pictures from our day:

A restaging of a photo taken in the same location with Dominick when he was 6 months old

We made it through our double checkup this morning. What an ordeal! Dominick did not want me to take his clothes off so he could be weighed, so I gave up and left his shirt on. Then getting him onto the scale was another big struggle. He eventually submitted to weighing but wouldn't allow us to measure his height. Later, after he'd wandered off and gotten a sucker from the other doctor, I told him I'd open it for him if he got back on the scale. Bribery works wonders. Noel cried much of the time while I was trying to deal with Dominick. After Noel received four shots and was not too happy, I fed him to calm him down, but Dom ran off again, so I had to chase him while still nursing the baby. Talk about multitasking. Dominick had one shot today and did such a great job! I was very proud of him. The shot was far easier than the weighing, honestly.

Anyway, both boys are doing well. To my relief, the doctor wasn't worried that Noel has not rolled over yet. Last night, he started to hold his head up while on his belly for the first time, and tonight he did it again. Dom did both of those things by two months, but he was so much bigger, too. Here are their measurements:

Dominick: 40 pounds (95-97th percentile) and 38 1/2 inches tall

Noel: 12 pounds, 14 ounces (25th percentile, a bit of a drop from last time) and 25 inches long (50th percentile). For comparison, Dominick was almost 16 1/2 pounds at the same age.

Noel is four months old today. Here is his latest photo. We couldn't get him to smile on the chair, but when I took a few more pictures, he did, so I'm including one of those. He and Dominick are having their respective checkups on Thursday, so I'll post Noel's stats then. I really hope they don't both have shots, or I will be in for a fun day!

Only six days until the big floor refinishing job starts. Have I mentioned how excited I am? We are saying goodbye to the dull hardwood with its darkened, discolored areas; gashes and paint spots left by the previous owner; white ring burned out of the floor by a leaky container of deck cleaner (that was us, I have to admit, three weeks after we moved in); water spots from wet shoes and spilled drinks; tricycle marks; and small stains where the deli turkey Dominick was choking on landed after I administered back blows. And no more ghastly faux stone carpet in the entryway. It will be pulled this weekend. Last night, we finished removing all the old flooring in the kitchen down to the hardwood beneath. We discovered that there was a layer of original linoleum (1936) under the cheap vinyl (c. 2000). The linoleum was pretty cool, actually. The architectural conservator/historian in me made sure to keep a small section for documentation. We still have a lot of packing to do, so after we watch Idol tonight (please let it be Antonella's last week!), it's back to work.