sleep and snot and sauce

We have regressed.

I keep thinking the next night has to be better, but no, quite the opposite. In the past week, we have moved from one or two wakes back to the ever-popular every couple hours from 12:30-5:30 a.m. If I went to bed earlier, I could probably handle it, but as it is, I have been catapulting out of bed to go insert a binky or boob and make the crying stop. The result - more crying, and not just mine, either. Must ... get ... control ...

On that same note, Thea has also increased her exhibition of some less-than-charming traits. She has been testing the waters with increasing frequency. Last night at dinner, she asked to be all done (with sign) and so we put her down. She toddled over to the heater (one of the forbidden fruits) and started turning the temp up to 90. I told her uhhhhohhhh, and she toddled away - for a second. Then she eyed me, smiled a little elf-like smile and toddled right back. When her hand touched the heater, she was looking me right in the eye, grinning. I know this is absolutely the wrong thing to do, but I burst out laughing.

Truth be known, it was laugh or play a long game of pick up the little girl and remove her from the scene of the crime only to have her toddle right back seconds later. I have no leverage. There is nothing I can do right now that will sink in. I can't make her sit somewhere long enough for it to matter, and removing her is just a fun game. The dog bowl is her favorite edition of that game, closely followed by the toilet paper roll, the computer, the coffee cup and anything she can get her little hands on. Love and logic said to try putting a pack-n-play in the living room and putting her in there as a time out technique, and that's probably what needs to happen, because right now, I am losing this battle hands down.

Liam is sick - cough and snot and low-grade fever. He's been watching oodles of tv and hanging in there. We did get outside on Saturday, when temps rose to 40 and the sun shone without wind for a change. We toddled down the road, which was mostly ice. Thea fell a thousand times, but just got back up and kept on going. Liam had fun making the crusty snow go whump. We sat for a while in the snow bank as Liam and Thea ate crusty pieces of snow and I sunbathed AK style. Then took several lightening-fast runs down the road before coming in. It was as good as it gets in AK in March.